But, if they had been a little more careful, and had not been feeling so proud for successfully trick or treating all by themselves, they might not have chosen that particular house, the one next door. For starters, it wasn’t much of a house, but more of a shack.  A broken-down shack. Secondly, it wasn’t very well lit.  And, on top of all that, there were so many trees and bushes that they couldn’t see the house very well from the road.

They were not paying attention, but were just thinking about getting more candy.

“Let’s not quit till we get a whole bag full of candy,” said Johnny, as they trekked through the grass towards the house.

“Yeah, I hope we get lots of different kinds,” Timmy agreed, both unaware of their surroundings.

Johnny stopped suddenly.  “What’s that noise?” he said.  Timmy stopped and listened.  There was a screeching sound.

“Oh, I think that’s just a screech owl,” he said.

“What?” said Johnny.  “What’s a screech owl? It sounds really scary!”

“Remember when we went camping out in the woods?” said Timmy.  “And we heard that same sound in the night? Dad explained to us that it was just a screech owl.”

“Are you sure it’s just an owl?” asked Johnny.

“Yeah. I think so,” he added, as he began to wonder if it really was just an owl.

They went a little more slowly after that.

“We’ve come a long way from the road,” Johnny said.  “Where is this house anyway? Maybe we should go back…”

“Do you want candy or not?” Timmy asked.

“Yeah, I do, but…”

“Ok then,” Timmy said.  “Just keep going.”

But as they rounded a curve and the house came into view, they both had the fright of their lives! In front of the house was a tree, and peering out from behind the tree was a person with a scary-looking face, like the one they had seen in the window! And there was a hook where his hand should be!

Both boys screamed at once and they couldn’t get out of there fast enough! They were tripping over roots and each other as they fled from the scary thing, and ran back to the road.  And they didn’t stop there–they just kept on running till they got to their house.

Huffing and puffing, they busted through their front door.  They’d never been so glad to see their Mom and Dad!

“Well, hi boys. Did you have a good time?” their Mom asked.

Trying to act normal, Timmy answered “Uh, yeah, of course.”

“Let me see your loot.  Did you get a lot?” she asked, looking in Johnny’s bag.

“Only one package of M&M’s? What happened to all the rest of your candy?” she asked.

“Uh, we ate it,” Timmy mumbled.

“You ate all that candy?” she questioned, looking at them both.

“Uh, no,” said Johnny.  “We didn’t get any candy.  We saw Hookman.”

WHAT?” their mom exclaimed.

“Yeah,” said Timmy.  “After we saw him, we just ran home.”

“Where did you see him?” she asked.

“In front of a house, behind a tree,” Timmy said.  “He had a hook for a hand! It was awful!”

“Maybe it wasn’t really Hookman,” their Mom suggested.  “Maybe it was just someone dressed up like Hookman for Halloween.”

“Oh, yeah,” the boys agreed.  “We didn’t think of that,” Timmy said.  “But still, he looked so real…”

“Sounds like it was a really good costume,” their Mom said.

“I don’t know…” Johnny said.

“Well, off to bed,” their Mom said then.  “And pleasant dreams.”

“Thanks, Mom,” they replied, knowing that visions of Hookman would be haunting them all night, making their dreams anything but pleasant.

As they crawled into their beds and pulled the covers safely over their heads, the boys heard their mother call ‘good night’ to them.  “And Happy Halloween!” she added.

“Timmy,” Johnny whispered. “Is that a face in the window?”