Chapter 7: The Mischief

Buttercup floated around the carnival grounds only find the usual sights, people talking or screaming in delight, bright colorful lights illuminating from the rides and kiosks, and delicious goodies being served to the folks. She then came forward to the closed haunted house attraction and examined it from top to bottom. All was quiet around it, which gave it an eerie mood, except for a constant dark ambient noise surrounding the attraction. Chills ran up Buttercup's spine as she continued to look around at her surroundings. "Ugh!" She shivered. "Bubbles definitely knows the definition of creepy." She made her way to the front staircase leading up to the porch of the house that stood in between two posts of black horse heads with darkened crimson eyes. However, upon closer inspection, she realizes that one of the eyes of the right horse head is missing, but it was like someone had torn the head open to pull the eye out and stick it back the way it was.

Suddenly, Buttercup got the strange feeling that someone was watching her, but doesn't know where it's coming from. "Hello?" Buttercup called out. "Who's there?" Then a familiar face appeared from the shadows. "Buttercup?" The voice called out. "Mitch?" Buttercup replied. Mitch came closer to her.

"What are you doing out here? Are you trying to get a peek inside that spooky mansion?"

"Not exactly. Bubbles for some reason hasn't been herself after this carnival opened. Blossom sent me here to investigate if there's anything out of place. I don't know what's going on, but she says that everything evil is in this house."

"Well, she can be scared easily."

"Heh. That's what I keep thinking, but I still wonder what's in there."

"Hey! Want to peek?"

"Nah, that would ruin the surprise."

"Oh well. But I got something better planned."

Mitch showed a sickening grin as he pulled out a paper bag with something inside. Buttercup at first showed a confused look, but then a foul smell came to Buttercup and realization hit her. Buttercup giggled at Mitch's plan.

"It's not even Mischief Night yet."

"Oh, come on! An early prank never hurts."

Later that night, the two of them went back to Pokey Oaks as Mitch went up to a porch, lit the bag up with a lighter, rang the door and quickly ran into a bush where Buttercup was there hiding as well. They both snickered and waited. "I sure hope this works." Buttercup whispered. "Oh, I can guarantee it." Mitch replied. "I saw someone else do this in a video." Suddenly, an elderly man stepped out onto the porch and looked down at the growing blaze from the bag. Panicking, he stomped on the fire, but then the foul odor filled the air around him. He looked down at his sock to find the brown muck from the bag oozing onto the ground. "DOODEEE!" He screamed as Buttercup dashed off in a flash carrying Mitch both beginning to howl with laughter. Eventually, Buttercup landed near Mitch's house as both were still catching their breath from the laughter.

"Oh man! That was awesome, Mitch!"

"Well, what did I tell you?"

"Oh shoot! I better get home. I'm not supposed to be out this later. I'll talk to you later."

Buttercup waved goodbye to Mitch and dashed off home as he waved back. Then he set off for home. Luckily, he wasn't too far from his house and he chose to take a short cut through a trailer park that lead to the other side of the neighborhood. However, as he began to traverse through the trailer park, he noticed that something was off. It was quiet unlike every other day when it would be loud and rambunctious. "Perhaps everyone's asleep." He thought as he noticed that the lights were off. Suddenly, the wind began to blow heavily causing the trailers behind Mitch to creak. A cold chill ran up his spine as he felt the sharply cold wind on his body.

BANG! BANG!

Mitch became startled and looked up to find the crazy old man, Jonas, up on the trailer dancing like a madman at the full moon. Mitch sighed and dashed off home, but unknowingly a shadow crawling underneath each trailer he passes following him up to his house. It waited until the lights of his house were turned off when it finally came closer to reach its next target.

Meanwhile, Buttercup returned to her room to see that Bubbles was asleep and Blossom was finishing up the costumes for the night. "I was about to wonder where you were." Blossom commented. "Did you find anything interesting?" Buttercup shook her head.

"Nope. I did check the haunted house attraction, and nothing was out of the ordinary. However, do you know about those horse heads at the staircases?"

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Well, for some reason, one of them was missing an eye. It was like someone else wanted to play a little game of vandalism on this ride. I'm not sure why though."

"Usually, there's no reason for vandalism. It could've just have been a prankster."

"A super strong prankster I'd say as it was like he or she must have ripped the horse head open, take the eye out, and then quickly back into place.

"Hmmm. Very interesting."

Blossom began to yawn, and both girls agreed that it was time for bed. They got their pajamas on, brushed their teeth, and finally went to sleep. However, as the other two girls finally dozed off, Bubbles began to tremble and whimper in a cold sweat.