#70: Spooky Season #9 (Lurking in the Shadows)


Prompt: frozen with fear, shaking, trick or treat

Lilynette takes herself trick or treating and quickly finds out that there are big bad wolves hiding in the darkness.


"Okay, I can do this." Lilynette mutters to herself, trying to ignore the shivers racing up and down her spine. "I don't need them. Kids do this all the time."

The young girl is walking by herself down a wooded road with massive trees arcing up over her on both sides and a single-lane road paved with cracked and faded asphalt stretching out behind and in front of her. The sky is dark overhead, with only the faintest threads of light attached to the western sky remaining of the sunset. Stars are clearly visible but the moon is just a sliver overhead and provides little light. As a result, the shadows between the trees are dark and heavy with menace.

With every step, Lilynette questions her decision to leave home alone.

It's not that she didn't want company, but when she asked to go trick or treating and her foster parents freaked out and forbade her from even trying it…

Well. Once they said that, she had to go.

None of the other foster kids wanted to go with her, but they'd been happy enough to create distractions so she wouldn't be seen sneaking out. Now she's wondering if they knew something she didn't and if they really hated her that much.

"Okay, stop it!" She snaps at herself, just to hear a friendly voice. "There's nothing out here! The town is only a couple miles away – I can do that, easy!"

Honestly, she has no idea how far away the town is on foot. It takes about five minutes to get there by car, though, so it can't be that far. Right?

Within half an hour, the sun is completely gone and she can barely see her hand in front of her face. The gap in foliage over the road reveals the sky and that's the only reason she knows she's headed in the right direction. Animals are stirring in the underbrush and she can hear the whispers and rustles of them scurrying around. Nothing too big but they make her jump when they get too close. Her desire to talk is completely gone; now, it feels like she'll put herself in danger if she makes any noise at all.

Her costume – cheap plastic ears perched on top of her head, a faux-fur wolf-tail on a strap fastened around her waist, plastic fangs, and grey sweatpants and shirt with fur glued to the belly – fells silly and she's sweating from walking so far. At least she's wearing sneakers and not going barefoot like she'd almost chosen.

An hour later, she's panting and sorely regretting her decision. Her clothes are soaked through from sweat, she took out the fangs ages ago, and her feet hurt. It must be over two miles now and there's still no sign of the town, not even a glow on the horizon. Did she get turned around somewhere? She can't remember if there are any turns in the road, any way she could have gotten lost.

It's a single road in the middle of nowhere! How could she get lost?!

It's about then that the wolves start howling.

Aaaaaaoooooohhh….

Lilynette freezes mid-step and feels her blood run cold.

Another wolf takes up the howl.

Aaaaooooooooooooooooohhhh…

She didn't know there were wolves out here.

She debates with herself for a few minutes, just standing there. She doesn't really want to go trick or treating anymore, especially not if she'll have to walk all the way back in the dark, but her pride stings at the thought of turning around. If she can even find her way back.

Uneasiness curls in her gut.

Aaaaaaaooooooohhh…

They're getting closer. She shivers, swallows, and decides to swallow her pride. But when she turns around, she doesn't see the road. In the darkness, it's hard to tell, but suddenly she realizes the ground isn't as hard underfoot as it should be and her surroundings are darker than they were before.

Did she wander off the road at some point?

Now well and truly panicked, Lilynette stumble-runs back the way she thinks she came, hoping the road will only be a few steps away, but the forest around her gets darker and the stars more difficult to see, the tree limbs growing closer together, and the howling gets louder.

Should she turn around? If the tree branches are closer together here, does that mean she should be going the other way? But she knows she didn't come from that direction!

Before she knows it, Lilynette is racing pell-mell through the night-time forest, completely turned around and confused.

Aaaaaaaooooooohhhh…

The howl is right on top of her.

Lilynette screeches in terror and lunges forwards accidentally smacking into a low-hanging tree-limb and falling down the embankment on the other side. She tumbles in a ball towards the bottom as twigs and brambles snatch at her hair and clothes and the unforgiving hard ground thumps against her body with every turn.

Finally, when she reaches the bottom, there's silence. No more howling, no more animals, nothing.

Lilynette had squeezed her eyes closed at some point and she squints them open warily. When nothing happens, she opens them fully and, to her surprised relief, there's a little bit of light surrounding her. A glance upwards reveals a gap in the trees, just like the one over the road.

Finally! She found it!

She jumps up, elated, and whirls around…only to stop dead. All of the blood drains from her face.

It's not the road. It's a circular clearing surrounded by trees. At the very center, there's a hill with something made of carved stone sticking out of the ground – it looks a bit like a cross. And all around clearing, ringed around the hill and staring at Lilynette with glowing red eyes, are ghost wolves. She can see the trees through them but their misty blue forms are clearly distinct. On the hill, at the apex, a man is sitting, dressed in fur…but his eyes are reflecting moonlight back at her like a real wolf and when he cocks his head, it's a canine movement, not a human one.

Lilynette swallows, hard. Once, someone told her you should never run from a wolf because then it will think you're prey. She doesn't know if that's true, she can't even remember who said it, but she feels like her feet are stuck in place so she doesn't even try. Suddenly, her wolf costume feels silly and she hopes the guy won't be offended.

After a long moment of staring, the man stands up, never taking his eyes off of hers. The fur moves with him and she's not as shocked as she should be to realize it's a part of him; he's partly transformed into a wolf. And he's still transforming – even as she watches, his teeth grow sharper and his fur grows longer. All of the ghosts turn to look at him as he moves but he doesn't acknowledge them. Instead, he nods at Lilynette.

"Hey, Kid. What are you doing here?"

For once, Lilynette finds herself at a loss for words.


Thanks for all of reviews, everyone! I hope you enjoy the chapter!