Hal-Lolly-Ween

"Wait, where are you going? the good houses are this way."

"Didn't you hear? There's a rumor that Mr. Cravitz is actually doing Halloween this year!"

"Old Man Cravitz? The guy who tries to get the city to ban trick or treating every single year? Yeah, no. That's a hard pass..."

"Come on, I heard he's giving out something real special."

"Are we talking about the same man here? Everyone knows to never disturb him on Halloween, lest you face the wrath of Old Man Cravitz!"

"Maybe he's had a change of heart, like a Halloween Scrooge."

"Oh yeah, Jack Skellington showed him the errors of his ways and he totally gets the true meaning of Halloween... Whatever he's handing out, it's probably poisoned."

"Fine, I'll go get my awesome, speciality treat alone if you're going to be a chicken about it!"

I left Jack behind and strolled down the short side-street that dead-ends at Mr. Cravitz's house. Another kid passed me in the opposite direction. I vaguely recognize him from the year above me in school, Frankie or something? He had a glum look on his face, probably disappointed by the lack of Halloween festivity in the air. None of the houses had their lights on, a bowl of candy on the porch, or even a pumpkin. What a load of killjoys. Despite the lack of decoration, this street always gives me the creeps. And Mr. Cravitz's house is the creepiest of all. It's a shame the guy's such a buzzkill, this would make an awesome haunted house. At least he's warming up to the holiday, if the rumors are true. Though looking around, there aren't many takers. Just a couple of grouchy, middle aged guys giving me an icy glare, I could just feel their loathing of Halloween. Probably friends of Old Man Cravitz...

Flew The Coop

As Luke stepped off his school bus, he immediately picked up on the sound of loud arguing coming from the direction of his house. He rolled his eyes, it was obviously his dad arguing with his girlfriend again. Or rather, his ex girlfriend as of the previous week when he unceremoniously dumped her via text message. Knowing how hot-headed his dad could get when he was upset, Luke hurried to the door in the hopes of maybe cooling the situation a bit. He entered the house, dumped his school bag on the floor, and followed the sounds of discontent to the kitchen.

The back door was open, so Luke peeked his head round to see the two in mid-argument in the back yard. He expected to see his dad screaming right in his ex's face, yet was surprised to instead see him cowering in the corner of the yard. More worryingly, he held his hands out to block his face as the vengeful woman approached him. Her arm was held high, a thin, jagged rod clutched in her hand. Luke thought she was going to strike him. Instead, she pointed it downwards at his dad and yelled something unintelligible. A beam of sparkling light jettisoned out of its tip, striking his dad square in the chest.

Dream Flight

Luck didn't seem to be on Carlos' side as he ran alongside his family through the airport to reach their departure gate. An incident on the highway led to them reaching the airport with barely minutes to spare. Not that he was in much of a rush to reach his destination. He had mixed feelings about his biannual family vacation. He was excited to be out of school and off on an adventure, eager to hit the beaches in the area, disappointed that it was only for a long weekend, and frustrated that he had to spend the entirety of his vacation with his extended family. He was travelling with his parents and his older sister to meet the rest of the family at their vacation home on a quaint island off the coast of North Carolina, and he wasn't thrilled at the prospect of sharing a room with his younger twin cousins. He'd give any opportunity to be alone for once. Although he wouldn't even be able to complain about that if they missed their flight.

Upon finally reaching the gate mere minutes before closing, the attendant looked at their tickets, tapped something into her computer, then apologetically said "I'm so sorry but it appears we're overbooked in the main cabin. However we can offer tickets for the next flight plus $100 compensation each".

The entire family sighed and looked at each other. Carlos' dad shook his head. "No, we can't do that. We need to get a ferry to our vacation home, and we'll miss the last one if we got a later flight. There won't be another until the start of next week. Isn't there any way we could get on this flight?"

New You Resolution 2

Tables Have Turned

Missing The Dance

My friend, Alex, and I were supposed to be going to the end of year dance at school, yet for some reason he was ignoring me. I'd been waiting outside his house for 10 minutes now. I rang the doorbell for a third time. "Come on dude, I can see you standing there, open the door!" I glared through the frosted windows, waiting for the blurry figure in the corridor to move. "The dance started half an hour ago. You've spoken non-stop about it for the past month!" I waited a few more moments until I sighed in faux-disappointment. "Oh well, I guess you left me with no choice but to use the spare key you keep under the-"

"NO!" he shouted, suddenly rushing to the door and slamming his weight into it to prevent me from opening it. "I already told you. I've come down with something, and I don't want you to catch it." He coughed a little before continuing "It's a shame I can't go, but don't worry. Just go without me."

I weighed up my options. He did sound unwell. his voice was rough and gravelly. But he once went to Six Flags with pneumonia, so I know even illness wouldn't keep him away. "I'm not leaving this doorstep until you're by my side bro, you know that."

He sighed and said "I do... But it's hard to explain. I can't leave the house, not like this..."

"What is it, a huge zit on the nose? Horrible haircut? Ugly rental suit?"

"It's difficult to put in words..." There was a moment of silence until he sighed loudly and grumbled "fine. I'll show you. But don't freak out or anything! It's going to be a shock."

Cursed Necklace

Date Night

New You Resolutions