THE WISH

Annabelle glimpsed two- no three kids and a bathtub before a bag was thrown over her, and she was being dragged and then thrown into something hard. They started moving and Annabelle could only think that they had shoved her into the bathtub and were somehow traversing to some place. She didn't understand how the bath could be moving, but then again she was in hell, or somewhere close to it, and the bath was probably a human-eating monster.

Lollipops and sticky sweets stuck to her arms and legs as she tumbled around in the bag. She yelled and screamed, trying to kick out a hole or something, but her kidnappers screamed back, their voices shrill and loud, drowning out hers. She stayed quiet in defeat, and tried to get as comfortable as she could, wondering what was going to happen to her now...

"Finally she shut up," Shock said relieved.

"That hurt my ears," winced Barrel.

Lock was quiet but looked back at the tub behind him. He remembered her face, so pale and scared, startling blue eyes that had pierced him. She was so beautiful...

"She what?!" Riks said in disbelief. Her eyes were wide with shock as Valary repeated "Out the window Riks, she jumped out the window."

"Where were you guys? You let her jump out?!"

"Hey, where were you? I landed on a pile of rubbish bins and there was a demon and this fish monster- eww I didn't like her."

"I was stuck with the boogie man! I nearly got eaten!"

"And I landed on a hill and my arm broke off but Sally fixed it up," Valary said quietly making Riks and Siana stop bickering.

"Can we talk about this later 'cos we need to find our friend."

The two were quiet with embarrassment and shame. Valary had ways of making people stop and think without yelling; though sometimes it might be better for her to yell because it makes them feel so bad when she says it quietly.

They stood in silence not knowing what to do. Riks opened her mouth as if to say something but when Siana looked at her she avoided her gaze and stared into the dim flames.

"Well," Siana said to break the silence. "What do we do now?"

Riks glanced out the window to see the sky becoming lighter. The darkness slowly mixed with the orange rays of light, and as the stars one by one disappeared and night faded into morning Riks remembered a very important factor in Halloween.

"One day," she muttered.

"What?"

"One day." Riks looked up to see Valary and Siana watching her closely. "One more day until Halloween."

Siana was fuming. "That's all you can think about isn't it?" she found herself yelling. "Halloween this, Halloween that. Even your birthday is 3 days before Halloween!"

"Wait," Valary said. She saw a connection. The pumpkin picture on the wall, a world of dead people and monsters, Halloween only a day away…"Riks, what happens on Halloween night?"

Riks looked at Valary hard, their eyes meeting, and Valary understood. Riks and Valary had a special connection, almost like twins. They had only known met in year 9, but now a year later it seems as if they had always known each other. Valary knew Riks was going to say something that would make matters worse. And she did.

"Do you remember when I said to you that my…my birthday wish had come true?"

Valary nodded but Siana stared incredulously at her.

"Well," Riks said waving her arms around. "This is my wish."

There was silence.

"Wait, you mean you wished to s-see dead people?" Siana spluttered.

"No," Valary whispered looking straight at Riks, "she wished to see Halloween."

"Well that's just great. So we're in Halloween Land and Annabelle's missing- jeez! You know how Annabelle gets freaked so easily! It's a wonder she hasn't had a heart attack yet!"

Riks felt a stab of guilt from Siana's remark. It was all her fault that they were there and that Annabelle's gone missing (again) and that soon…soon…

She couldn't bring herself to even think it.

Valary watched Riks thinking. She knew what Riks was thinking, probably blaming herself for everything. But her face was panged and her body slumped, as if she was carrying some sort of invisible burden on her shoulders.

"There's something else isn't there." It wasn't a question. Valary knew she was hiding something.

Riks was quiet for a moment. She turned around and stood next to the window, staring out into nothing. When she spoke her voice was low and monotonous, and her words brought horror and shivers into her listening friends.

"Do you want to know what my wish was?" Valary did not want to know, but she didn't have a choice did she? She remained silent as Riks continued to speak.

"I wished for a place to call a home; a real home. I wished to meet my dad; I wished for my fantasies to come true." She took a breath and continued, her voice becoming more emotionless as she spoke.

"I wished to see Halloween in its true essence; not just people dressing up as something else, I wanted the real thing. I wished to visit whenever I liked, I wished to join Halloween."

Riks turned and Valary saw that her eyes were not full of burning evil, but sorrow beyond sorrow. It twisted Valary's heart to see those eyes; they were to be pitied and comforted. The very force of Riks' emotions made Valary look away.

Riks continued to speak, barely a whisper now.

"When Halloween comes tomorrow night I'll become a part of it. And when Halloween goes…"

"What?" Siana implored. "What happens?" Siana knew that she wouldn't want to know what was going to happen, but they had no choice, they had to hear it.

"Tomorrow night a gate will open, and Halloween will visit the real world. Vampires will feast, monsters will scare and chaos is wreaked. This gate that opens up to the real world appears every year on Halloween night. But my wish made a second gate, the one in my room."

Riks chuckled, though it was not her pleasant chuckle. It made Siana step back and gave her thoughts of running down the stairs as far away from her.

"Uncle Thomas thought I had painted it; it scared him. He wouldn't put my clothes on my bed; no, he left them on the table." She chuckled again. "They're still there…"

"The pumpkin," Siana muttered. "That freaky picture! It was a gateway…?"

"So we've got two chances to go home," Valary said thoughtfully.

"For now."

"What?" Siana snapped. "Whaddya mean 'for now'?"

"At a second after midnight the way back home will be closed. Halloween will be over."

Silence filled the air again as they took in this information.

"Wait," Valary said thinking. "We can still get back via the gate in your room-"

"No. It'll disappear after Halloween." Riks looked at Valary. "I wished to join Halloween, so it'll only last until then."

"But you said that a gate opens up on Halloween night, so we can get back then as well," countered Siana.

"The gate only lasts until Halloween is over."

"A second past midnight," muttered Valary.

"We can get Annabelle back way before then," Siana stated confidently.

Riks turned to stare back out the window. Her eyes were closed as Valary heard her whisper, "Let's hope we can."

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RIks is evil! Oo 20 chapters! wooo, never thought i'd write so much! thankyou everyone again for making me write all this!