Harrowing Halloween

I walked Alice to her class and then rushed to the nearest bathroom. Once inside a locked stall I slid the book from out of my pocket. I opened it to the first page. It had 'Property of' printed onto the page, and on the line below it written in elegant cursive was Evelyn's name.

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I rushed to my next class, not wanting to be alone in the restroom. My heart was pounding as I took my seat for my math class. I tried to rationalize a good reason why Mr. Anderson would have Evelyn's book, but couldn't think of one. I wasn't going to avoid the most obvious reason why. I guessed hs age to be about how old Evelyn would be now if she was still alive so he could have known her. I was torn, part of me wanted to ditch class and flee from the school and hand over the book to the police, but I wondered if it might be better to play it cool and don't do anything until the end of the school day. If Mr. Anderson found out I had left school it would instantly mark me as being the person who took the book. As my mind wandered I started to question if the police would even believe me about the journal belonging to Evelyn and finding it in my teachers office. From all of the things I read about the case there was never any mention about a missing journal so it might not be something that they would believe me on.

I spent all of math class going around in circles until I finally decided on a course of action. Last out the whole school day so that I don't draw attention to myself, and then head for the police station right after school. I would make sure to never be alone In the event that Mr. Anderson discovered his missing journal and grew suspicious of me. Worst case scenario I could just scream my head off if anything happens in the school.

Now that I had a plan I thought that I would be able to handle the rest of the day a little better, but having a plan to wait things out did not make it any easier. I made sure to always be surrounded by my classmates, but every door that closed and every footstep that echoed behind me sounded like a giant of a killer teacher stalking me. To say that it was a stressful day would be an understatement.

After school I rushed to the police department. I told the receptionist at the front desk that I needed to speak to officer Robinson if he was available. The receptionist told me to sit down and he would be with me shortly. Shortly ended up taking nearly half an hour until a cop finally called my name from around the corner. I followed him into an empty room that had about a dozen desks. "Sit down kid," detective Robinson. I did. "So what is it that you want to talk to me about?"

"You were the lead detective on the Evelyn case?" I asked him. I knew he was, but I figured asking would be a better way of saying it.

"Yeah I was. Why?" he asked. When I brought up Evelyn's name he seemed to tense up. He looked like he would bite my head of if I said something even remotely displeasing to him.

"While, I was in my teacher's office, I found this old journal and-"

"A small leather bound journal with Evelyn''s name written in it?" He said with a sigh.

"What? Yeah, how did you know?" I asked.

"Because kid, we kept that info out of the news, but somehow it got leaked and some smart ass started to sell fakes to weirdos who wanted to own their own replica of it for some reason. You know how many of these I have had brought to me only for them to be fake?" he said.

"But it didn't say anything about the journal when I looked it up," I said.

"The case wasn't big enough for it to get national attention, just local. Local crime that interested local weirdos. Just because you google something that doesn't mean you will find out everything." I wanted to mention how I had seen the microfilm of the newspaper articles related to it in archives of the town library, but I didn't want him to think that I was one of those local weirdos. "Look kid, When you go back to school on Monday you better bring back your teachers fake Journal and apologize to him for taking it. You're lucky I don't call him up and ask if he wants to press charges." I tired to argue and tell him that maybe he should have it checked to make sure that it really isn't a fake but he interrupted me. "I have a kid to get ready for halloween, so unless you have anything else to talk about then you better get going," he said. I left before he followed through with his threat.

I couldn't believe the detective. Part of me hoped that the journal was a fake and I was overreacting, but at the same time he should have been willing to get the journal looked at. When I got home I had some time to kill before Alice's costume party in the woods so I went upstairs to my room to get a jump start on the usual overload of homework assigned during Halloween time. I threw the journal on my bed and beat myself up over the fact that I had overthought things so much. I just hoped that I could slip the journal back to Mr. Anderson through one of those boxes of books without him noticing.

I wanted to ignore the journal, but I kept on pausing on my school work to glance at it. Finally after twenty minutes my curiosity got the best of me and I picked up the journal and sat back down at my desk. The leather was soft and worn, if it was fake then it was only from Mr. Anderson handling it, but if it was real then would this be the amount of handling the journal would have after two owners? I opened the journal back up to the cover page. I stared at the handwriting and traced it with my finger. The signature was so elegant yet formal, did this precise handwriting really belong to such an outgoing girl?

I turned to the next page. On the left there was a sketch in pen of a rose, and on the right a short poem about a rose who grew with no thorns. I had never really enjoyed reading poetry before, it was always the only assigned reading in school that I would drag my feet in completing, but I liked the rose poem. It was simple, but also felt like the author who wrote it was vulnerable. The poem and handwriting didn't match Mr. Anderson, I had a hard time believing such a big man could write like this, but it would fit Evelyn. I turned to the next page and it was a list of bands with their best songs written under them. They matched the ones that Evelyn had told me she listened to. Some of the music hadn't been for me, but listening to it had helped me try and understand Evelyn more. I kept on turning the pages, reading through the poems and musings in the journal. With each entry I grew more concerned that the journal wasn't a fake after all.

It was close to six pm when I finished reading through the journal. Alice's party started in about an hour. If the book was really Evelyn's, then that meant that Mr. Anderson really did have her journal. He had to be her killer. If he noticed the book was missing then he would suspect me... and Alice. Crap, I had been so focused on myself and what I was going to do if the book turned out to be real that I hadn't even realized that I had put Alice in danger. I sent her a text saying how we needed to talk and paced my room waiting for a response. None came.

I placed the journal back in my pocket and grabbed my jacket as I headed out the door. Even with the jacket on the cold air made me shiver as I walked to Alice's house. Even after all these years I still wasn't used to how cold it could get here. The sky was crowded with thick clouds as the sun set. It looked like it was going to rain, or worse, snow again on Halloween. I tried to call and text Alice the whole walk there, but she never responded. With each unanswered text my anxiety grew.

I made it to Alice's block as the sun dipped below the horizon. Trick-or-treaters were out in force in the richer neighborhoods. I stopped at Alice's house to see if she was home. No one answered. I walked to the end of the block to where a path cut through the woods. The path was lined with pairs of jack-o-lanterns. There were also orange and black streamers tied to the trees.

Cars were parked along the road leading up to the path, congesting the road. There was groups of other party goers clustered around the start of the path, talking and probably waiting for more friends to show up. I scanned the area, hoping to see Alice or one of her friends who might know where she is, but I didn't find them. I started down the path alone. The path curved into the trees so that after about 30 steps I could no longer see the road. The night was quiet as I walked, all I had to keep me company was the jack-o-lanterns, whose flickering light did a poor job to dispel the darkness. I kept on glancing into the trees, afraid that the killer would spring from behind one of them.

As I followed another bend in the path I started to hear the booming base of music. With each step the music grew louder and then I started to see lights ahead through the trees. At the end of the curve the party appeared. I stepped into the large clearing that they had set up the party in. The light music, and swirl of bodies disoriented me after being in the twilight of the paths for so long. I walked along the edges of the party, looking for Alice. It would have helped if I knew what she was going as, but she had kept it a secret from me because she wanted it to be a surprise. She had said this with a wink and at the time I couldn't help but have all kinds of naughty thoughts, but now just wish I knew what costume I was looking for.

I was watching the dance floor since I hadn't been able to find Alice at the outskirts of the party. During the lull when one song was ending and the next was starting up the dancers paused enough in their movements for me to scan the crowd more effectively. In the middle of the dance floor I thought that I saw a petite girl dressed in a red cloak with the hood up. Height wise it looked like little red riding hood could be Alice. The music started up again and I lost Alice as everyone started to dance again and block my sight. I started through the crowd, doing my best to weave through the press of bodies. I made it to the center of the dancers but couldn't see where Alice was. I spun in a circle looking for her, and caught a flash of red through the crowd. I made my way towards the red and saw Alice dancing with a group of her friends, they were all dressed as sexy versions of fairy tale characters.

I struggled to get to through to Alice, I kept my eyes trained on her, afraid that I might lose her again. As I got closer I noticed from behind some guys dressed as 50's greasers with leather jackets and hair gelled up start dancing right up against Alice and her friends. Alice stepped away from the unwanted dance partner, only for the greaser to put his hands on her hips and pull her towards him. She slapped at his hands but the greaser and his buddies just laughed. I was almost to them when he laughed. I knew that laugh. Right as my mind made the connection the greaser with his hands on Alice turned his face slightly, It was Henry.

I froze for a moment, I hadn't had to worry about Henry for months ever since he by some miracle got into college and moved out of town. I didn't get why he was back here on Halloween, probably just to try and find some poor girl who would be wowed by him being in college. I wasn't prepared for this terror from the past to resurface. Alice struggled to get out of his grasp. "Let go of me," She said. Others on the dance floor were starting to become aware of the situation. Since she couldn't get free Alice spun and punched Henry in the face. Henry's head snapped back from the solid hit but he managed to hang onto her.

"You bitch," Henry said and started to raise his fist to hit Alice. I made it just in time to catch his fist in my hand. For a second I felt like a badass, but catching that punch had hurt a lot more than I was expecting it to. Henry turned to see who interfered. When he saw it was me he started to say "You-" but I didn't let him finish. Years of pent up rage and shame finally found an outlet as I confronted the fear of my bully and punched him square in the nose. I was dealing with a potential killer at the moment, what was the threat of Henry compared to that? I felt his nose crunch under my fist in a way that was both satisfying and sickening. "Fucker, you broke my nose."

I had put so much into that first punch, I didn't stop to think what would happen afterwards and I wasn't ready for Henry's rebuttal. I didn't even see the punch until it was too late. A burst of pain erupted around my eye as his punch hit me right in the eye. While the red burst blotted out my vision Henry followed up with two more punches. The first was right in my mouth, smashing my lips into my teeth. I tasted blood. The third punch was right in my gut and knocked the air out of me. I doubled over and gasped for air. "Why are you even fighting? You know how it always turns out," Henry said as he wrapped his hand into my hair and painfully yanked my head back so that I had to look at him. I spit blood into his face and blinded him for a second. He let go of my hair and I charged forward, tackling him to the ground.

I landed on top of Henry and started to rain down punches on him. I'm doing it, I'm finally winning was what I thought right before I was hit on the side of the head and knocked off of Henry. I landed on the ground and was dazed. Henry couldn't have hit me. I was kicked in the side and it caused my whole body to react to the blow, and then I was kicked in the small of the back. As the kicks kept on coming I berated myself. It was never just me versus Henry. Henry had his lackies to help him and I forgot about them in my rage to get my revenge on Henry. A kick connected on my forehead and snapped my head back.I think I heard Alice scream my name, but it was hard to hear anything over the music, and then oddly, I couldn't hear anything at all.

I came to a couple minutes later. I was laying on something soft and there was something cold pressed against my head. I started to stir. "Chris." Alice said and held me tighter. My head was in her lap. "Are you ok? When you got knocked out I was so worried," Alice said and held me tighter.

"I'm ok, it only hurts when I breath," I said. I hoped I came off as cool and she didn't hear the pain in my voice. In reality I was in pain all over, and one of my eyes was partially swollen shut. I didn't feel like anything was broken, but I wondered if I might suffer a concussion from the kick to the head. I looked around to see some of the biggest members of the football team dragging Henry and his goons out of the party. They came back a minute later and some people applauded them for throwing out the party crashers.

"Rest for now, when you feel up to it we can leave," Alice said.

"But what about the party?" I asked her.

"As long as we spend it together I don't mind what we do," Alice said.

"I like your outfit by the way," I told her.

"I see you're not wearing one," Alice said.

"Yeah I didn't have time to get ready," I said. My head was killing me and I couldn't remember why I had shown up without my halloween costume on. I strained to remember. I didn't want to worry Alice, but I started to think it might be best if we spent Halloween in the hospital. The beer can started to lose its coldness.

"I will be right back, I'm going to go and get you another beer to help with the swelling," Alice said. She pulled her red hood off and bundled it up on the ground to pillow my head. I must have nodded off because I woke with a start as my phone started to vibrate in my pocket. I tried to sit up to answer it, but my whole body felt like it was one giant bruise in the making. With a lot more grunting and curses then I would like to admit I was finally able to free my phone from my pocket. I saw on the lock screen that it was a text from Alice. Wasn't she just with me? I unlocked my phone and opened up the message. It was a picture. I stared at it, unable to believe what was in it. Alice was blindfolded, gagged, and was tied to some sort of gate. I hoped that this was just a result of having a concussion, that I was just hallucinating, but the image did not go away.

The three dots popped up in the conversation showing that whoever had Alice's phone was typing something. When my phone vibrated in my hand when the message sent I jumped. "You have something that belongs to me. Bring it to the cemetery where Evelyn is buried or Alice gets hurt. Trade the book for her life." There was a pause and then another picture came through. It was a hunting knife with blood dripping down it, and then a follow up picture of a close up on Alice's face. There was now a red line cut across Alice's check with blood and tears dripping down her cheeks. "Come alone. Don't tell anyone of this or she dies. Got it?"

My fingers felt numb as I texted a response. "Understood, I'm on my way," I managed to type with the help of autocorrect. With a groan of pain I managed to climb up to my feet with the assistance of a nearby tree. I couldn't believe I had gotten Alice into this situation. Part of me wanted to try going for help, but I couldn't risk him hurting Alice. I Found it odd that he had blindfolded her, If he meant to kill her anyways then why would he blindfold her? Maybe if I cooperated then he would let her go. It was a small chance, but it was the only hope I had at the moment.

I walked out of the clearing full of partiers who were oblivious to what was going on. I wasn't steady on my feet and made slow progress as I went tree to tree for support. Even with my slow movement it didn't take me too long to end up deep enough into the woods to not be able to hear or see the party anymore. I found a thick branch on the ground that was sturdy and dry enough to work as a cane to help steady me. Even though it was dark I knew the direction towards the cemetery from here. I had walked throughout these woods nearly everyday for four years and knew them like the spins of the books in my book case.

As I approached what I believed would be certain death for me i started to try and work on different plans to get Alice out alive. I was all beat up from my fight with Henry and I doubted I would be able to put up much of a fight, but that seemed like that was my only option once I got to Alice if I couldn't sneak her away. I wondered how Evelyn was handling herself right now in the cemetery. She had told me that others had shown up before on Halloween but that they hadn't been able to see her, so I wondered if that would be the case with Alice and Mr. Anderson. I hoped that maybe Evelyn could help me in some way to free Alice, but I didn't know how much help I would be able to get from her.

I was just a couple of minutes away from the cemetery when I heard a branch snap behind me. I whirled around and struck with my stick at whoever was behind me. Hardwood connected with soft flesh and the person behind me cried out in pain. It was Henry. Why is he following me I thought. Henry dropped something to the floor, the full moon reflected off of metal. It was was a knife on the ground. "You fucker," Henry said and saw me look down at the knife. We both froze and then he lunged for it. He was closer to it so he would get to it faster, but I wasn't going to go for the knife. As soon as he was bent down for it I kicked him in the face as hard as I could. The kick connected right with his temple and he crumpled down to the ground. I was about to run away when I paused and turned back to face Henry. I reached down and scooped up the pocket knife. I folded it closed into its polished wooden handle and took off towards the cemetery as fast as my beaten body would carry me.

I found the path that connected the cemetery to the town a little down it and just out of sight of the cemetery gates. I was about to continue down the path when I stopped. Mr. Anderson was waiting for me, so It wouldn't be the best idea to just walk through the main gate. I wanted to hope that if I cooperated Mr. Anderson would let us both go free, but I knew how stupid a hope that was. If I was going to rescue Alice then I had to try and outsmart Mr. Anderson.