Halloween Party

By: MJ Whelan, Short Story Editor

Julie pulled on her bright red sweater and made sure her headphones were secure before leaving the house. Her boots softly clopped against the sidewalk as she walked by brown lawns and trees with no leaves. Bare branches extended into the air like claws trying to pull the clouds down.

"Julie!"

She turned around to see Ian running up to her. He huffed as he caught up and stopped next to her. Julie watched him, sliding her headphones to rest around her neck.

"Hey, Ian," she greeted as she stuck her hands in the pockets of her jeans and waited for him to catch his breath.

"Hey," he straightened up, "Are you going to Sparrow's party tonight?"

"Why would I? I don't go to parties, they're loud and there are lots of people."

"That's the thing, Sparrow only invited the DnD group. So anyone there is one of us or knows the others."

"I'll consider it."

Ian walked next to her, idly chatting about school and a variety of other topics.

"Julie? Julie! Wake up!"

Julie started. Jupiter was staring at her worriedly, and his twin Juniper was shaking her and saying her name.

"Huh, were you saying something?"

"I was asking you if you're going to Sparrow's tonight and if you needed a ride," Jupiter informed her, concern etched into his voice.

"No, I can walk if I decide to go."

"No way in-," Juniper started to say, but was interrupted by the PE teacher's whistle to go back inside. The three of them stood up from where they had sheltered under a large maple tree, red leaves crunching under their shoes.

"Julie! You came!"

Julie was squashed in a hug by the enthusiastic Sparrow.

"Yeah, I did."

Sparrow held her hand and dragged her down the stairs into the basement.

"Guys, guess who came!" Sparrow cheered at the gathered group. There was a round of cheers, and Julie looked to see who all had come.

Ian was sitting next to the arm of the "drab" couch, Jupiter perched on the arm next to him. Juniper had curled up in an armchair and was actively sipping a cup of cider as she idly chatted with Cosmo, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor across from a loveseat.

"Sit, sit," Sparrow chirped as she sat Julie down on the loveseat and promptly sat next to her, "Adella, David, and Grey are on their way. And Grey said they were going to bring some other DnDers from the neighboring town."

"Adella said something about bringing the French exchange student who's staying with her family," Cosmo chimed in.

Julie faintly nodded, and conversation resumed among the people present. Sparrow started leaning against her, resting her head on her shoulder. Julie didn't say anything and let her.

"Let's get this party started!" David shouted as he descended the stairs, "Sparrow's mom had to let me in, no welcome for me?"

"The only people who got Sparrow's personal welcome were Ian because he was here first, and Julie because she's Sparrow's favorite," Cosmo chuckled as David sat next to them.

"I don't have favorites," Sparrow rebutted, but her head was still on Julie's shoulder. Cosmo rolled their eyes and smirked.

"Who's ready party!" Adella shouted as she descended the stairs, a newcomer following close behind.

There was a round of cheers, and Adella stood to the side to introduce the boy that she had brought, "This is Jacques, he's from France!"

"Hello," Jacques greeted the room. There was another round of greetings, and the two sat. Adella sat on the couch, on the side opposite Ian, and Jacques sat in a chair Sparrow had probably stolen from her kitchen.

"Grey should be here soon," Sparrow told Adella.

"They better be!"

"The best for last, as they say!"

Julie turned around to see a grinning Grey, followed by two other people.

"These are my new friends; they can introduce themselves." Grey waved their hand and flopped onto the couch next to Adella.

"Um, hi, I'm Max," the taller of the two told the assembled group with a nod of his head.

"And I'm Beron," the other person followed up with their introduction. The two ended up on the floor, with Max next to David, who kindly scooched over to make room, and Beron next to Juniper's armchair.

"Now, when do the scary stories begin? Or the trip to the graveyard?" David asked with a wide smirk.

"Let everyone get a drink and some snacks first, geez, David," Juniper remarked.

"Yes, help yourselves, there's more upstairs in the kitchen," Sparrow chirped. She had stopped leaning on Julie at some point and was curled up on the arm of the loveseat. Julie had leaned back and was messing with the sleeve of her sweater.

"The fact that you haven't managed to unravel that sweater is a miracle," Juniper remarked. Julie's hand stilled, and she stiffened.

"Leave her alone," Sparrow huffed, "She knows what it can take."

"I can't take this anymore!" David exclaimed before Juniper could retort. "We have to do something! It's a Halloween party, let's do something scary."

"We can't go to the graveyard, it's not dark yet," Cosmo retorted. Julie sighed as the two started debating about when was the appropriate time for going to the graveyard.

"I personally think night is better, what about you?" Sparrow whispered to Julie.

"Night definitely is spookier and more Halloween like," Julie whispered back.

Juniper had gotten up and started playing the Halloween music. That seemed to settle David down, he picked up one of the "ghost" pretzel rods and ate it while sideways glaring at Cosmo who smirked back and blew him a kiss.

"Ewwwww," Grey fake gagged at the two. Cosmo stuck their tongue out at them, and David, temporarily forgetting the prior argument, wrapped his arm around Cosmo's shoulders. Grey faked gagged even louder, spurning a round a laughs around the room.

"You shouldn't have said anything, they're going to be obnoxious just to annoy you now," Ian remarked. Jupiter nodded from where he was still sitting on the arm of the couch.

"Are they actually a thing?" Beron whispered to Juniper, who had flipped so her legs were over the back of the armchair and her head was dangling off the seat.

"I don't think so, Cosmo just responds to hostility with slight flirtatiousness to make people mad and David will play along sometimes, or they'll do that to annoy Grey," Juniper responded, catching a piece of popcorn that Julie threw at her in her mouth.

"It'll be dark in a bit, if we leave now, it'll be dark when we get to the graveyard," Adella chirped after a few hours of talking and bad Halloween karaoke.

"Yes!" David exclaimed. almost jumping but being held down by Cosmo.

"Is that what everyone wants to do?" Sparrow asked, looking around. Everyone either nodded or said that they didn't care.

"Let's go!" David managed to escape Cosmo and spring up. Everyone else followed slower, going upstairs. Sparrow stopped to tell her mom where they were going and everyone pulled on their packets before walking out into the ever darkening evening.

"Remember to be respectful while we're here," Jupiter said to the group as they reached the graveyard.

"Yes, we don't want to be disrespectful to the departed," Sparrow agreed from where she shivered next to Julie. Pressing closet for warmth, Julie wrapped an arm around her to help her warm up.

"Yep, let's go!" David cheered and pushed open the creaky gate. Everyone else filed inside and the wind blew through, causing them all to shiver.

"At least the sunset looks cool through all these dead trees," Juniper huffed.

"Definitely," Grey nodded. Jacques took a photo and Adella chuckled.

"Is that what you usually do, Grey?" Beron asked, Max had stolen his arm and was shivering a lot.

"Something like this, last year we did a horror campaign," Grey answered, strolling leisurely with their hands in their pockets.

"We should play tag or hide and seek," Cosmo suggested.

"We're not little kids, dear Cosmo," Adella said, kicking up leaves.

"Yeah, but those games, in the dark, on Halloween?" David grinned widely, "That would be awesome."

"It does sound fun," Ian commented, having stopped to inspect some flowers growing out of the ground.

"So, are we playing?" Cosmo asked, walking backwards to face the group.

"Sure," Julie answered.

Julie crouched behind a rather large tombstone, Sparrow huddled next to her. Julie had their flashlight, but had turned it off. It had gotten darker, the two of them could barely see a few feet ahead of them.

"This fun," Sparrow whispered, huddling close for warmth.

"Yeah."

They settled into a comfortable silence, waiting for the sound of footsteps crunching on leaves to come close and for them to run from their owner. Until they heard it.

There was a shrill shriek from the opposite side of the graveyard. They both stilled.

"That sounded like Adella," Sparrow whispered, shaking instead of shivering. Julie could only muster a nod as she kept listening.

There were a few flashes from flashlights in other areas, there was also the sound of shoes running on the asphalt path through the center. There was a cut off shriek and the silence.

"It's just David and Adella making a joke, right? He found her and they wanted to scare us," Sparrow whispered, a slight wobble to her voice.

"Yeah, that's it," Julie hollowly agreed, listening for more sounds. It was silent.

A few minutes later, there was the sound of footsteps running on the path again, but they could also hear the labored breathing of their owner. Julie grabbed Sparrow's hand and got ready to pull her away and run.

There was muffled mumbling in a language they didn't understand before a flashlight was shined in their faces. Their hands flew up to protect from going blind.

"Thank God, I found other people," Jacques said.

Julie's eyes adjusted and she looked at the exchange student. His chest was rising and falling heavily as he looked at them.

"Where's Adella?" Sparrow asked him.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out, that was her earlier, right?"

"Yeah," Julie stood up, and brushed leaves off of her, not letting go of Sparrow's hand.

The three of them creeped to the approximate area that the last shriek was heard. Careful not to be too loud and attract attention.

"It was around here," Sparrow whispered, her voice barely audible.

"It was-"

Julie cut herself off and hauled Sparrow behind a tombstone at the sound of crunching leaves, it was fast, like the person was running. Jacques wasn't as quick and got tackled by the person.

"Juniper?" Julie whisper shouted.

Juniper's head whipped around to see Julie's head poking around the tombstone.

"Oh thank everything!" Juniper breathed out and got off of Jacques.

"Why were you running?" Sparrow asked, watching Juniper help Jacques up.

"To get away from whatever psycho is here too!"

"Wait, what? Someone is here with us?" Julie asked, her grip on the flashlight changing slightly, more like she was ready to hit someone with it.

"Maybe two, someone's at the gate, so we can't get out. And someone dressed in like some sort of Scream outfit ripoff was chasing Adella earlier."

"It has to be someone playing a prank right? They saw us coming up here and thought it would be funny to scare us?" Sparrow was practically attached to Julie as she said this.

"Or it's real psycho," a new voice whispered. Everyone jumped and whipped around. Max and Beron were standing behind them.

"Max, why would you say that!" Beron scolded the other person. Max only shrugged.

Julie opened her mouth when a twig snapped and everyone's heads whipped around. It was dark, but there was a vague outline of someone in all black standing there. The group started sprinting in different directions. Julie didn't hear leaves crunching behind her and Sparrow as they ran to the other side of the graveyard.

"Found you two again," Beron whispered a few minutes later.

Sparrow waved and Julie nodded. They had found Ian and the twins.

"Okay, we have to do something about these psychos," Juniper whispered.

"What are the chances it's Cosmo and David and not some random psycho?" Ian asked, leaning against Jupiter.

"I'd say it's pretty high," Julie answered.

"Sp what are we going to do?" Beron asked.

"I have an idea," Ian answered.

Julie nodded at Juniper when she got behind the appropriate grave. The two waited for the signal before moving.

There were two flashes from a flashlight deeper in, and the two girls ran out and at the gate guard. There was running behind them before there was thud and a groan, probably as Jupiter tackled them like the plan.

"Hold up, wait!"

Julie didn't listen and tackled the person by the gate.

"Ow! What the -"

"Shut up, Cosmo!" Julie yelled as she hit Cosmo with her jacket, "What was that!"

Julie had taken their mask off and Cosmo huffed underneath her. Julie got up and walked back over to Sparrow who had run down the path to join them. David was huffing on the ground as Beron crouched next to him.

"Looks like you got them," Adella called as she walked over with Jacques.

"Why did you play along?" Sparrow asked.

Adella shrugged, "Sounded fun."

"Okay, can we go back to Sparrow's house and just watch some scary movies or something?" Juniper asked the gathered crew.

"Yeah, let's go," Sparrow agreed.

She grabbed Julie's hand and Ian pushed the gate open as the group walked out of the graveyard. Idle chatting engaging around them as they walked through the cool night air, ready for more Halloween.