A Halloween Tale

By Austin O Crawley

A Haunted House Tale You Won't Soon Forget!

Five teenagers enter the neighborhood haunted house looking for spooky adventures for Halloween. What they find is more than they bargained for, but now they can't get out!

Tesha has always been a practical girl and tries to stay out of trouble. When best friend Phillip, his brother and two other friends plan to break into the spooky house known as Number 23 Hazelwood Avenue on Halloween to see what all the stories are about, she wants nothing to do with it, but protecting her friends is in her nature.

The history of the house will reveal itself in unexpected ways through a diverse mix of discarnate entities and supernatural phenomena. The harrowing struggle Tesha and her friends face to escape the inherent evil that rules the house and its potentially lethal traps will haunt their nightmares forever... if they survive!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Golbin Publishing
• Release date: Oct 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005918675

Book preview

A Halloween Tale

by

Austin Crawley

First published in Great Britain in 2019

by Provisioners Press

ISBN: 978-100591867-5

Copyright Austin Crawley 2019

Austin Crawley has asserted the right to be identified as the author of this work under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All Rights Reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher and copyright owners.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

A Halloween Tale

Chapter One

Phillip crept up behind the toad with all of his perceived skill of the ninja warriors in the martial arts movies he loved to watch with his brother. Raymond, the elder of the two, rolled his eyes in derision, but he stood absolutely still so he wouldn't spook his brother's prey. Tesha, Phillip's best friend, looked on with disapproval, yet she, too, remained perfectly still.

Suddenly Phillip leapt into the air in a trajectory meant to bring himself down on top of the toad, where he could curl his body and land on knees and elbows to trap the amphibian. However, the movement alerted the creature to danger and it leapt into the safety of the hedge in front of the house they had been passing. Phillip stretched out mid-flight in an attempt to grasp the escaping animal and landed belly first in a puddle, left over from last night's rain. The murky water splashed his pale-skinned face and school clothes with dark brown mud. Tesha thought she saw wetness in Phillip's dark hair as well.

Rather than helping his brother, Raymond doubled over with laughter.

Just as well, Tesha admonished, pushing a lock of her long, black hair behind her ear. Animals are entitled to live in peace. What were you planning to do? Keep it for a pet?

Phillip rolled out of the puddle and sat up, looking sheepish.

I was just gonna take it to Amy's Halloween party tomorrow night. Show it around and scare some girls. He winked, flashing his most charming grin at his childhood friend.

Well I'm glad you didn't catch it. Tesha made no effort to hide her condemnation. Toads need water. That one probably lives in Mrs. Elwin's pond.

Phillip followed Tesha's glance at the house behind the hedge. Despite the privacy afforded by the Hawthorne bushes, everyone knew that Mrs. Elwin kept a pond with Koi fish in her backyard. She was forever complaining about the ravages of neighborhood cats who didn't respect her boundary fences.

Besides, it's an all-night party. First one my mother ever let me go to, thanks to you. Tesha flashed a grin at Phillip.

What do I have to do with it? Phillip asked.

Because I promised her you would be there, and you've always looked out for me like a brother. She trusts you.

What if I get off with someone?

You? Raymond scoffed at his brother. "Since when do you get off with girls? I don't think you even like girls!"

I have a girl for my best friend! Phillip took a combative stance, as if he would fight his brother for the insult.

You know what I mean. Raymond scoffed at his brother, ignoring his defensiveness. You're nearly seventeen and never asked a girl on a date. Are you going to take your best friend to the senior prom next year? Raymond glanced at Tesha, then resumed walking a little faster than they had been strolling down Hazelwood Avenue before Phillip had delayed them by trying to catch the toad.

Tesha scowled, but kept quiet. Raymond had always rubbed her the wrong way and she got the impression that he didn't much like her, either. She and Raymond had long since developed a habit of mostly ignoring each other, even on their regular walk to school. Besides, she didn't want to be late or to see Phillip argue with his brother. Physically they resembled each other closely, especially the odd greenish-hazel colour of their eyes, but they were very different people. Tesha would never mistake Raymond's incessant moody scowls with Phillip's easy smile and bright, flashing eyes.

Phillip and Tesha jogged to catch up, but Phillip stopped them again when they came to a familiar old house, known locally simply as Number 23 Hazelwood Avenue. The address had become like a label for the place. It had been uninhabited for generations, fallen to county ownership, yet no one had attempted to restore the place and put it up for sale within even their parent's lifetimes.

The old, abandoned house reminded Tesha of a photograph she had once seen, where a single house stood in black and white, surrounded by brightly-painted residences with lush garden foliage and beautiful wisteria trees cascading their purple blooms on either side of the colorless dwelling, as if to frame the only ashy-hued residence on the block. The houses on either side of Number 23 at least had well-tended lawns and flowers growing in front of their windows. Tesha wondered how the contrast looked to Raymond, who was completely colorblind.

I don't suppose we could convince Amy to hold the party in there, Phillip speculated. The atmospherics would be wicked!

Tesha mock-punched him in the arm.

That's called trespassing. That's why they post security guards on Halloween every year. For just a moment, a wistful expression in her eyes gave away her real feelings on the matter. I'd love to see the inside, but those kids last Halloween got in real trouble trying to break in.

They were stupid. Raymond twisted his mouth in disdain. A bunch of thirteen-year-olds making a lot of noise and trying to crack a window in the front of the house was guaranteed to get caught by one of the guards. They could've at least gone around to the back.

I hear there's only going to be one guard this year, Phillip mentioned. There's cut-backs on everything these days.

Tesha glanced at the dry, dead rose vines that covered the sides of the house. Everything on the property looked long since dead and withered, except for the only half-dead, overgrown grass of the front lawn and a tall monkey-puzzle tree sprouting from in front of the left side window.

The house was two storeys, like the other houses on the street, and the tree grew high enough that Tesha could almost imagine climbing down from a bedroom window. She remembered Phillip attempting to climb the tree when they were six. They had been playing in the long grass, hiding within the brown, bent blades that rustled loudly when she moved, no matter how hard she tried to stalk her best friend quietly.

Do you think it's really haunted like people say? Phillip asked. Or is that just a story to keep kids and transients out?

Any abandoned house gets a reputation for being haunted, Raymond sneered. We've been walking past that place all our lives and I haven't seen a spook come out yet.

Tesha smirked at Raymond's comment, a hint of a smile gleaming in her dark eyes.

I don't believe in ghosts. The only dangerous thing about that place is that it's condemned and the walls could fall down on your head. I have a Bengali grandma and she's always talking about spirits; ghosts with unfulfilled desires that walk the Earth, but it's all superstition. It's nothing but an old house.

They should bulldoze that place before it falls on someone's head. Everyone turned at the sound of the deep southern drawl of Joseph Despre, Raymond's friend from the senior class. He trotted up to join them, his dark, Afro-Caribbean skin gleaming in the morning sun. The place is an insurance nightmare. Jerry Applegate pulled guard duty this year for Halloween and he says there's no way he's steppin' inside, even if there ain't no ghosts.

I thought he got fired for sleeping on the job? Raymond screwed up his eyebrows into a confused expression.

He got a last warning, Joseph explained. Not that anyone's likely to check up on him.

I say we go in, Raymond proposed.

We could get in serious trouble! Tesha could see her moment of freedom becoming the last time her old world Asian parents trusted her to stay out at night.

We'll be okay, Phillip assured her. If we get spotted, we run off in different directions. I'll make sure you're not the one the guard follows.

Phillip's enthusiastic grin had always been difficult to resist. He had been charming teachers with it for years and might have got them both into trouble many times over the years, if he hadn't been so good at squirming out of a tight situation. Tesha's own infinite practicality had helped save them many times. If her parents had any idea of half the stuff she had got up to without getting caught...

What about you? If you get arrested or something, won't you get grounded?

That's the beauty of it, Phillip boasted. If that happened, you're the one person my parents would let come to see me because you're the good girl who never gets in trouble!

A laugh escaped her lips and Tesha brought her hand up to her mouth, as if to contain her mirth. Many of her adventures with Phillip were not for Raymond's ears, or Joseph's. Secrets had a way of coming out. After all, it was all innocent fun. Getting into places they shouldn't be, slipping out of class after the role had been taken to meet at the library and read more interesting Classic books to each other than their English teacher ever assigned.

None of their jaunts had risked potentially serious punishment. Leaving an all-night party where she had promised to be at in order to trespass in a potentially hazardous old house was pushing higher stakes.

A deep rumbling sound abruptly stopped all conversation. It seemed to come from the street and only lasted a couple of seconds, but everyone was instantly alert, ready to run for safety if they could determine where it could be found. Raymond was the first to break the silence.

Was that an earthquake?

We don't have earthquakes in this state, Phillip contended.

There's been some, Tesha corrected him. Just nothing big enough to notice since 1987.

Says the straight 'A' geology student! Phillip returned.

That just means I know what I'm talking about!

It came from the house! Joseph's booming voice broke into the exchange.

No, man, Raymond cut in. I went on a student trip to California last year and minor earthquakes are like that. They happen all the time out there. Come on, we're going to be late.

Raymond started striding quickly up the street with Joseph one step behind him, their long legs leaving Phillip and Tesha to walk at their own pace.

I tell you something came from that house. I saw lights flashing in the upstairs windows! Joseph's voice trailed as the older boys got further ahead. Tesha and Phillip walked a little faster than before, but Tesha didn't want to catch up with Phillip's brother. They usually had extra time in the morning anyway and if they took their time, they would only miss hanging out with their other friends before home room.

Tesha thought about what Joseph said about flashing lights. Was there a fire hazard in the old house? Surely the electricity would have been turned off long ago. Transients with flashlights maybe? She wondered if they should report it, but Joseph was the only one who had seen anything and she didn't know him well enough to be sending authorities to question him.

Tesha, what do you think Joseph saw? Sometimes Tesha thought Phillip could read her mind.

It could have been a reflection in the window glass. If the earthquake made the glass rattle...

"Did you feel the ground move?" The doubtful expression on Phillip's face made Tesha wonder whether she actually had felt anything, or if her impression of shaking was only from suggestion.

They say you don't really feel the small ones. I did feel... something. Not shaking exactly, but for a minute it was sort of like... being disoriented. Like everything sort of stretched sideways or something. Tesha shuddered. Putting it into words brought up questions in her mind about what could cause her perceptions to go off-kilter, if only for a moment.

We're going to be late if we don't hurry. Phillip started walking faster. Tesha took one quick glance at the house behind them and hurried to keep up. She couldn't help thinking that her friend had changed the subject because whatever they had experienced had spooked him.

Just as well, she thought. We shouldn't even be considering trying to sneak into that old place on Halloween. It was a crazy idea from the start.

Chapter Two

The young priest, wearing a black cassock, looked out of place sitting across the desk in the town mayor's