Sudden darkness. That is all you experience as your mother turns off the life, you wait until you hear her footsteps slowly fade away and the door creaks close automatically. You finally exhale and continue with your short gasps of breath for a moment or two, letting your eyes adjust to the darkness. Ironically, you might have been able read in this manner, slowly, much slower than you usual pace, and the events that would occur in the future might not have affected you as much as it did. You hold your breath beneath the crushing quilt and stiffen as you struggle to wiggle your hand down to your costume pockets, where you hope to find your flashlight, which, unlike your mental process, should be completely undamaged.
You switch it on and feel at ease, safe. You finger the cover of your book, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and shuddered. Having read the first chapter with your friends, you know what is in store for you. You are about to put the book down and get up when the abrupt ease you had fades and your hands become limp. You open the book automatically, and begin to read chapter two. When you finish the chapter you are mortified, but your hands are used to the process and keep turning the pages. You finish the book in few more minutes, but you keep staring at the back cover, reading words invisible to a 'normal' person. She read a story about a girl who went trick or treating alone for the first time. She kept getting a lot of candy from the houses, but nothing was in her bag when she checked at the end. She had went sadly to the last house on her block, the house everyone, even her parents, believed was haunted. There she rang the doorbell, and she heard a mesmerizing tune. The door creaked open and she went in. The door shut behind her and she saw ghoul eyes and fangs. You wake up with a start, and start reading the book over, and this time you doesn't shudder. You scan the words over and over, oblivious to their actual meaning. The story you just imagined was close to yours, and you kept deciphering what happened next when your flashlight flickers menacingly. Now you come with a start. The covers are on the floor and so are you. You see the same ghoul eyes you saw before, but now you are looking at a mirror. Your tongue is bleeding from your experimenting, and your fangs make your appearance horrifying. Your skin is a sickly green, and your eyes bloodshot. The full moon bears to see you, and it attracts your veins. You feel your tongue alter until it is that of a snake's. There are trick or treaters scattered on the roads in front of you. You inadvertantly lick your lips and you bend your knees, then, with a sudden leap, you smash through the window and onto a bush. Its claw snaps at you instantly, and you realise a black cat on Hallow's Eve means a lot more than bad luck.
