A Halloween Short Story

Her heart pounded. Her breathing was fast. Her eyes were wide.

Sally sat with her body wrapped around a large pillow, her eyes barely peeping over the top of it at the television screen. She winced and shut her eyes tight, hearing the girl scream as the chainsaw revved,

“WHY DO YOU PEOPLE HATE ME?” She yelled in protest, aiming her voice at the other side of the bedroom door. A lot of snickering was heard, then a girl's voice called back; sounding as smug as possible,
“We don't hate you! We just want to make you suffer!”
 
“But that's not fair! It's not my fault I didn-”

“-You didn't do your dare, so now you're paying the price. It's only fair.”


Sally pulled her watering eyes away from the screen only to glare at the door for a moment, hoping it would burn straight through and hit her witch-outfit-wearing friend square in the face. She deserved it.

Tonight was Halloween so to celebrate Sally had invited a few of her friends round for a party. As all good parties end up doing, a game of Truth or Dare had emerged and since Sally had been the party host, she'd gone first. For the first few rounds all had been well – if not a little absurd, but then, after a lot of sugar and a best friend with a mind like an R-rated movie store, Sally had finally said no to a dare. And then came her forfeit. Her friends had grabbed her, gagged her, thrown her into her bedroom, put on a horror, stolen the remote, duck-taped the 'off' switch then locked her inside. Sally didn't like horror-films.

“Let me out!” She cried, trying to be heard over the screaming on the screen, “Please?”

She could hear her friends laughing again but quickly drew her attention back to the screen, then down into the pillow when she saw guts flying everywhere. She couldn't stop the whimper.

*

It was a good hour later when the door was finally unlatched from the other side, revealing a set of curious faces. Curious faces that soon turned to shocked faces. The lights were out. Sally, her body still wrapped tightly around the pillow, creaked her head round as if it were on a ball-point. Her eyes were wide in perpetual shock.

“W-why did you make me watch it?” She tilted her head to the side, but so far that it looked as if it were hanging on by a thread, “I told you I don't like horrors.”

A boy leaned over to whisper in the ear of the witch,

“Do you think we over did it?”

The pair looked back at Sally, and the witch-girl gulped,

“Of course not. It was only a film... right?”

Sally let out a giggle that echoed around the room, making everything else turn still. She hadn't blinked yet. Her grip tightened around the pillow and she slipped her foot out from underneath her, putting it on the wooden floor-boards. The others took an instinctive step back.

“Ha, hey Sally, you okay?”

She giggle again, high-pitched and humourless,

“Of course I'm okay,” an unnatural grin spread out on her lips, “What makes you think otherwise?” Sally slipped her other foot out and put it on the floor then stood up, still with the pillow between her arms. The others took another few steps back and the girl in the witch-outfit was pushed to the front, blocking the others from Sally. She gulped.

“S-Sally? What's up with you? Seriously?” Sally stepped towards her, her bare feet dragging across the floor. “Cut it out!”

She sounded genuinely frightened. Sally stopped advancing and tilted her head to the side again, that same smile on her face,

“Cut what out? I'm not doing anything.” Her head snapped upright alarmingly fast, “You're the one who left me in here with that film after all.”

She started to advance again. The witch-girl tried to back up but the others held her fast, wanting some sort of shield from whatever was possessing Sally's body. Sally giggle again.

“Look at you all.” Her lips curled back as if she were about to growl, “You look so scared.”

The witch girl raised her hands defensively, trying to laugh,

“Okay, okay, we get it. We're sorry for locking you in here with that movie.”

Those behind her muttered under their breaths,

“What does she mean 'we'? It was her idea.”

She whipped her head round, glaring at them with as much venom as she could muster. The phrase 'traitors' ran through her mind. The others didn't see it; they were too busy staring wide-eyed at what was behind her. The girl turned her head. Sally was right in front of her, her eyes large and unblinking, her smile more like a snarl now.

“Boo.” She said softly, not taking her eyes from the witch-girl, “Did I scare you?”

The witch-girl stammered, her throat clogging up in fear. Her breathing turned more and more staggered the longer she looked into Sally's unblinking eyes. It wasn't natural.

That's when Sally's face relaxed, falling back into it's normal state. Her eyelids drooped back into their usually places. She starting laughing – normally; creasing over when she saw her friend's face, dropping the pillow to the floor in the process,

“Ha! You should see your faces!” She giggled, wiping at her eyes, “You lot are so gullible.” She pulled herself upright then wiggling a finger in front of her friend's face, “It was only a movie, you know? It's not like it could possess me or anything. Nothing jumped out of the screen and took over my body.”

The girl in the witch-outfit gave a sigh of relief, the others behind her doing the same; seeing Sally had just been joking about.

“Sheesh, Sally, you really had me going there. I thought you were going to kill me for a second.”

Sally laughed again, the tiniest amount of sympathy slipping in amongst it all,

“Sorry... maybe I took it too far.” She stepped forward, wrapping her arms around her friend, resting her chin on her shoulder to comfort her, “But I think you deserved it for what you did to me.”

Her friend laughed, patting Sally on the back,

“Yeah, yeah, I'm sor-”

“Boo.”

The group of friends that were stood out in the hallway began to scream. They screamed and screamed and didn't stop. They couldn't. Sally's eyes had shot wide again and her smile was contorted. She didn't look human. Her hands took the hold on the witch-girl that they had done on the pillow, then she whispered softly,

“Truth or dare?”

The witch-girl gulped, unable to see Sally's expression, but able to feel the tight grip on her body,

“T-truth?”

Sally let out a high-pitched shriek of a laugh that sent a chill through everyone.

“Truth? The truth is,” Her lips curled back, “This is going to hurt.”

The girl's eyes flew wide,

“D-dare!” She said hastily, feeling Sally's arms tighten around her. Sally laughed again,

“I dare you not to scream.”

The girl clenched her eyes shut, trying to pull away. Those behind her were holding each other, unable to run simply because of fear.

“I forfeit! Please! Oh God, I forfeit!”

Sally's demonic laughter stopped abruptly. Her grip loosened. For a moment nothing happened so the witch-girl let out a sigh of relief and the group behind her relaxed. That's when Sally said in no louder than a whisper,

“Forfeit?” She pulled away from the witch-girl, showing her her face for the first time. The girl's breath caught, “When you forfeit, you have to take the punishment,” Sally's smile grew so wide that the tips touched her cheek-bones, “It's only fair.”

The screams managed to rattle around the whole of the house, but even they could not drown out Sally's shrieks of laughter.

----

I know I'm early, but happy Halloween everyone! Hope you enjoyed~