Jack: Well, I suppose THREE reveiws is better than what I WAS getting per chapter...

Sugary: Calm down, Jack, I'm sure that more people will review at the end of the story. Most people tend to do that.

Jack: But that's so lame!

Sugary: Uhm, audience? Reading this? AS WE SPEAK?

Jack: Oh... right... Reviews.

Phantomage113:

Jack: (discos) Don't worry, more is on the way.

Gothichikie:

Sugary: Thanks. I'm glad you like my idea.

Jack: Don't worry, I'll release Sugary soon... just as soon as the story is over. And, I swear, on my own grave, I will not feed Sugary any more worms. But a spider isn't out of the question. evil grin

Nirex:

Sugary: Again, I'm glad you like my story. Jack WAS supposed to lie low until he needed to do the narration, but SOMEBODY decided to go a little overboard. glares at Jack

Jack: Uh, well, yeah. About that... cough Anyway, Sugary will be fine. I've already promised Gothichikie that I wouldn't feed her any more worms.

Sugary: On your own grave...

Jack: Yes. Way to point out the obvious, Sugary.

Jack: Yes, in this chapter I get to scare the crap out of other people besides Sugary, and yes, it will start soon. Be aware, though, that about one eight of the way through, I'll be switching the story to the victims' perspectives. Hey, don't look at me, it's SUGARY'S story!

Sugary: I just felt that you shouldn't get all the spotlight, Jack. Hehe...

Jack: looks annoyed, starts chapter

-Flashback -

(October 31st, Town Hall, 5:56 PM)

Jack stood on the stage, speaking clearly into his microphone. An eager crowd watched and listened as he planned out his scare route for the year. So far, it included his hometown of Albany, as well as towns in California, Michigan, and Kentucky. He had planned to hit Kentucky first, then go on to California and Michigan, and lastly hit Albany and get someone random there, maybe a couple people, if he had time.

"Now, I should be back a little before 11:30," Jack announced, "for the main celebration and closing ceremony." This last part was the one that excited him the most: he and Emily had practiced their routines all year for this night, and Jack was positive that his would end the night with a bang. He had gotten his idea after seeing how the audience had first reacted to his schtick with the fire; if THAT scared them, then how would they react if he were to set his entire body on fire?

Jack glanced upward at the clock. In a little less than five minutes, he'd have to leave. He left the Mayor to close the ceremony and left to start his route.

"Come on, Will!"

"I'm not going in there!"

"Will!" Tom Coleman stood in front of the graveyard's main gate, an exasparated look in his hazel eyes. The fifteen-year-old impatiently tapped his foot. "We do this every year, and nothing bad has ever happened. What could possibly go wrong?"

Will, a dark-skinned boy of fourteen, inched closer to the gate, although he really didn't want to get any closer. Will might have seemed timid from our point of view, but he was a horror movie afficionado: If it was frightening, he'd probably already seen it twenty times and could tell you the plot by heart. Perhaps this is why he didn't want to enter this cemetary, on Halloween night, no less.

"Tom," he whined in a way that sounded like Taaaah-umm. "The bad guy always goes after the people who are alone at night, and almost always attack in cemetaries!"

Tom sighed and lifted the hockey mask he was wearing as part of his Jason outfit. "Will, this is stupid," he said. "There's nothing to be afraid of. We live in the middle of Nowhere, Kentucky, what's the worst that could happen?"

Will hung his head and looked at the paper claws he had made for his Freddy costume. Perhaps Tom was right.

"Besides, Will," Tom continued as he squeezed between the iron bars of the fence, "We aren't little kids anymore. We've been going trick-or-treating by ourselves for the past four years, and we've always traded our candy in the graveyard."

"We said that we'd be back by nine."

"So? It's six now."

"So? So it get's dark really early in the fall, Tom, especially here! The streetlights are broken down here, you know that!"

"Since when have you been afraid of the dark?"

"Since the streetlights down here were broken and we decided to sneak into a graveyard at night!"

Tom rolled his eyes and unlatched the main gate, then grabbed Will's arm and dragged him inside.

The cemetary was already pretty spooky-looking, filled with oddly-shaped trees and cracked headstones, but it became even more intimidating at night. The two boys wandered towards the far end of the cemetary, eventually finding a secluded area that had a large, flat platform with an angel monument watching over it.

"See?" Tom said, pointing at the angel. "Angels aren't scary, are they? You scared now that we have a big stone angel watching over us?"

Will looked up at the compassionate smile on the angel's stone face. He did feel a little better. Will smiled and sat down on the platform. Tom followed suit, and both boys dumped the cabdy out of their pillow cases.

"What'll you give me for two Caramels?" Tom asked.

"But you love caramels," Will said. "they're your favorite!"

"I know," Tom said morosely. "I do love caramels. But I just got braces last week." He smiled to show Will the shiny brackets and orange and black ties.

"Oh. Well, then give me the caramels and a piece of your gum, and I'll give you two mini butterfingers and tree gobstoppers. I'll raise you a crunch bar if you add in the caramel apple pop, too."

"Deal."

This method continued on for a bit, and eventually the boys ended their candy stock market and got to talking. Will was not feeling any better, however, and now even the stone angel couldn't comfort him. Eventually, he began to feel the unpleasent seneation of feeling watched.

"Tom," he said, causing Tom to stop speaking for the moment, "I'm beginning to feel nervous. What fi someone catches us here?"

"Nobody's going to catch us," Tom dismissed. There's nothing here that can hurt us! The people here are DEAD, Will. D-E-D, DEAD. Dead people can't hurt the living."

An owl hooted loudly above the two teens, startling them.

"But just in case," Tom said, "maybe we SHOULD leave." He stood up and began to walk off, but suddenly tripped over something.

"Stupid tree root!" he yelled, brushing the dirt off of his now bruised knee.

"Tom," Will said nervously.

"Someone oughta clean up the tree roots back here. Someone could trip like I just did!"

"Tom!"

"What?"

"That isn't a root."

"What do you mean it's not a -" Tom started, but as he glanced down, he could see that Will was right. This was no root.

Clasped around his ankle was a skeletal hand.

Tom yelled out in sinister surprise and amazement and tried to break free, only to succeed in pulling what appreared to be an entire human arm out of the ground. Now more than a bit freaked out, he pried it free from his ankle and threw it hard across the graveyard.

"You were right," Tom said in a nervous voice, "Let's get out of here!" The boys scooped up their pails and ran back the way they had come.

About halfway between the gate and the stone angel monument, they were stopped in their tracks by a rather nicely-dressed skeleton.

"Hello, boys," it said, taking a step towards the terrified youngsters. "Nice evening for a stroll, isn't it?"

Both boys screamed and ran the other way - or tried to, at least. They hadn't even gotten halfway to the main gate before they felt something tighten around their arms and chests and drag them backwards. They both glanced down and saw that they were now bound in ropes of chains, with the skeleton holding the other ends.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry," their undead captor said without remorse. "Did I frighten you?" He gave both boys an eerie smile and snapped the ends of the ropes, sending the boys flying towards a nearby tree. The chains wrapped around the trunk and seemed to fuse together, effectively trapping Tom and Will, who immediately tried wriggling in order to free themselves.

"Please don't struggle," the skeleton said as it strode towards its captives. "It only makes things worse for you both."

"What do you want with us?" Tom yelled.

"We're sorry that we were on your grave," Will yelled. "please don't hurt us!"

The skeleton gave both boys a terrible, knowing smile. "That wasn't my grave," it said, sweeping both hands up. Suddenly, several dozen ghosts sprang from the ground and spiraled around the trapped boys.

"It was theirs," the skeleton concluded, snapping his fingers suddenly. The two teens fell to the ground, freed from their bonds. Needless to say, they hightailed it out of the cemetary, not even bothering to lock the main gate on their way out.

"Will?"

"Yes, Tom?"

"You were right. We shouldn't have gone there in the first place."

The boys now trudged down thier darkened street, wishing that they still had their candy. They couldn't go home empty-handed; it'd look too suspicious, and they couldn't just go get more, the neighbors would think that they were just trying to mooch off of them again and again. The two friends sighed and sat on a bench where another man read the newspaper.

"And we lost our pillow cases too. What are our parents going to say about that?" Tom asked. "Hey, maybe we could go get them?"

"What? Are you crazy?" Will yelled. "No, we aren't going back there, Tom."

"Well, then maybe we could tell our parents that we had our candy get stolen or it got lost."

"Or we could say that we ate it all on the way back."

"Or," said the man with the newspaper, "You could tell your parents the truth." The man turned a page.

"I doubt even YOU would beleive our story, sir," Tom said miserably.

The man chuckled. "Don't be so skeptical," he said. "You never know what someone might believe." He folded the newspaper back up and set it next to him.

The boys gasped. There sat the skeleton man from the graveyard.

"I assume you are looking for these?" he held out the two pillow cases of candy. "Take them; I certainly have no use for them."

The teens were both a bit reproachful, but eventually realized that they would not be harmed and each took their pillow cases.

"Thank you," Will said as he checked to make sure that all of his candy was still there.

"You're very welcome." The skeleton stood up and began to walk off.

"Oh, and boys?"

"Yes?"

"Happy Halloween."

With this last comment, the skeleton dissappeared in a swirl of mist.

"Tom?"

"Yeah, Will?"

"I'm thinking we should keep this to ourselves."

"Of course." Tom looked back at where the skeleton had been standing only a moment ago.

"After all," he said, "Who would believe a story like ours?"

- End Flashback -

Jack: Who indeed? (ponders)

Sugary: (ponders)

Jack: See ya next chapter!