It was Halloween night and John was putting out candy for the inevitable arrival of trick or treaters. He filled a couple of bowls with an array of sweet treats and placed them in the hands of a skeleton prop on his front porch. The skeleton had a sign around its neck reading 'take one' so John would not have to answer the door personally. Turning around to take in the spooky sights of the neighbour's houses, John saw skeletons, grave stones and giant cobwebs wrapped around bushes. The street was indeed ready for the most frightening night of the year.
As John turned to head back into his home he noticed the first trick-or-treaters of the night a few houses down. One was dressed as a ghost which was just a bed sheet with eyes cut out. Another was dressed as a witch and the last one was dressed as a wolf man.
As John went into the house for a quiet night alone to watch some scary movies while the skeleton provided the candy, he locked his front door up with its reinforced dead bolts. John was a man who took the security of his home very seriously. After locking up the front door John went into the kitchen, got the trash bag out of the bin and went out the back door to the alley behind the rear garden. John threw the trash in the industrial sized trash bin, as John was closing the bin lid he heard a bottle smash and the screech of a cat.
Giving John a jolt of surprise he spun around to see where the noises came from, but the alleyway was very dark, he could just about see his hands in front of him. A black cat came toward him. It was his cat Jynx. "I've been looking for you all day Jynx, where have you been?" John asked as he picked Jynx up and headed back inside and locked up the back door in the same manner as the front.
John went into the living room and got a couple of scary movies out of his collection, Halloween and Halloween 2. His favourite scary movies. John set up his dvd player and tv in the living room, getting them ready to go, he then went and got into his dressing gown and slippers for more comfortable attire. Finally before he sat down he just had to get some snacks for his movie marathon. John headed into the kitchen and made some popcorn and grabbed some candy that was left over from the candy bags. Then John decided he would also have a sandwich so he grabbed a few slices of bread and some leftover chicken from the fridge and diced it up with the butcher knife.
As John was just finished making his sandwich, he heard a crash up stairs and thought Jynx must have knocked something over. Putting the knife down and heading up the stairs John looked around and called out to Jynx... the cat didn't come. John then proceeded to check each room upstairs he didn't find anything until he went into his bedroom where he found the window smashed and glass all over the floor. John went over to the window and looked out of it thinking someone had thrown something through it. He looked down to the street and there was no one there. Looking around on the floor he found nothing, no stones, no bricks…. Nothing.
Confused, John headed down stairs to the kitchen to get a trash bag to pick up the glass. As he got the bag from a drawer in the kitchen he noticed something moving in the living room out of the corner of his eye. He thought it looked like a person.
"Who's there?" John said, putting the trash bag on the counter top. He reached for the knife he left on the counter earlier while keeping his eye on the door to the living room. Feeling around on the counter he realised the knife was gone.
Seeing the phone on the kitchen wall John made a move for it to call the police. As John inched slowly toward the phone the intruder stepped into view in the living room doorway. It was a man in a boiler suit and mask standing with the missing butcher knife. John shouted at him "Get out of my house!" The man stood there in silence.
John shouted at him again "Get out of my house!" No response. John tried going toward the phone again, the masked man moved forward too. John stopped, the masked man stopped. John moved forward again, the mask man moved forward. John stopped again, the masked man stopped.
Realising he was cornered John did the only thing he could think of. He screamed at the masked man "I'm little John and let me introduce you to big John!" while he threw off his dressing gown and kicked off his slippers.
As John charged at the masked man he stood and tilted his head to the side inquisitively. Then as John got closer the masked man realised what was about to happen and he began to step back. As John was about to be upon him, the masked man turned to run for the front door. As the man reached the door he turned the door handle and struggled with one of the dead bolts; there were too many to open with no time, but the masked man frantically tried regardless.
Before he knew it John was upon him slamming him against the door. With John pinning the man from behind, the masked man was looking out of the door's window and saw some trick or treater coming up to the porch of the house. The man with pure distress starts banging on the glass trying to break it to get help. "That's reinforced glass boy you aren't breaking it like the
window up stairs," John said. John began pulling the masked man back from the door. "you're just a guy in a mask, that's not scary. Let me show you something that's scary." John said while he was looking around on the floor for one of the slippers he kicked off.
As the trick-or-treaters approached the top step of the porch they saw the masked man being pulled away from the window. Thinking it was part of the Halloween pomp, they took their candy and left.
The next morning the front door to the house opened and the masked man came limping out holding his backside. As the masked man struggled down the porch steps John came to the door. "Let that be a lesson to you," John said as he held up a slipper waving it. The masked man glanced back with a slight nod of the head as he limped off.
...
This Story was Written by Mr. Red
to hear us read our stories and more, check out the Some Dudes Shed podcast on youtube.
This story was taken from the Podcast: "Some Dude's Shed: Halloween Special 2021"