Orange, red, and yellow autumn leaves were scattered amongst the green grass
as Augla the Chia stepped outside. He felt the brisk, cool air of late October,
and slightly shivered in the cold. Echoes of "trick-or-treat" could be heard
this Halloween, and Augla was practically jumping up and down in excitement.
Halloween was his favourite holiday, since he would get tons of delicious candies
to munch on.
“Augla, are you ready yet?” called his best friend Missy the Aisha.
“I’m coming, Missy!” replied Augla.
Hurriedly, Augla raced down to the sidewalk to join Missy. Missy was dressed
as a witch this year. A tall, pointy black hat sat upon her head, and she carried
an old, brown broom to accentuate the costume. Augla, on the other hand, wore
a pirate’s patch and carried a sword, since he was going as a pirate this year.
“Wow, your costume is awesome, Augla. It’s much better than last year’s when
you were a crayon,” Missy said with a hint of sarcasm.
Augla sighed slightly and replied, “Don’t remind me about that costume. My
grandma still treats me like a little kid, and having to be a crayon of all
things last year was the worst. Sometimes I just wish that I could go do more
adventurous things. Then maybe she wouldn’t treat me like that.”
Missy’s eyes lit up with mischief, and smiled deviously.
“Well, Augla, we could go up to the Old Witch’s Mansion this year, and trick-or-treat
there.”
Augla’s eyes grew wide with horror, and sputtered out a reply.
“No way, Missy, I’ll never ever go up to that place. It’s haunted.”
Missy sighed and pulled Augla by his arm to the front gate of the Mansion.
The rickety, iron-gate stood tall and somber, and set off an eerie view of the
Mansion, which stood high up on Hallows Eve Hill. A twisting, turning driveway
curled its way up to the Mansion, which had a stream of smoke coming from the
chimney.
Augla stared at the Mansion from the bottom of the driveway and shuddered.
“Missy, we should really go back now. We’re going to miss out on all the candy.”
“Come on, Augla, we have to go. You said that you wanted to prove to your grandma
that you weren’t a little kid anymore. What better way to do that then to go
up to the Old Witch’s Mansion? You aren’t scared, are you?” Missy asked.
Augla shook his head, and tried to put on a brave face.
“I’m not scared or anything. It’s just that...that...”
Missy pulled him by the arm again, and started up the long, winding driveway.
“Well then if you’re not scared, you won’t have a problem with stopping by
for a few minutes to get some candy.”
Augla gave up. There was no way he could get out of this, not when Missy was
so set on going up to that Haunted Mansion. Three trick-or-treaters, named Daerik,
Gelert, and Kavaru, had long ago visited the Mansion. Those three innocent children
had bravely made the journey up the witch’s driveway as a large crowd of onlookers
stood at the front gate. Once they got to the massive front door, the crowd
watched them walk in. Suddenly, screams were heard, and those three trick-or-treaters
never came back.
Seemingly hours later, Missy and Augla reached the front door to the tall,
creepy, gray Mansion. Augla attempted to run back down, but Missy held him back.
She reached forward to knock on the door, and slowly...it opened by itself.
“M-M-Missy...I think we should go back now,” Augla stuttered.
“Come on, Augla, the door’s open. We’ll go in, and if no one’s home then we
can go back down.”
Augla sighed and walked in slowly, as he gripped Missy’s coat so tightly that
his knuckles turned white. Missy brushed him back, and they stepped into the
large, eerily silent home. Missy laughed, and smiled.
“See, Augla? No one’s home, it figures that we come all this way and....”
Suddenly, a witch’s cackle could be heard and they screamed so loudly that
everyone within a mile could hear them. They raced for the door, but stopped
at the sound of person calmly laughing.
“Oh...come back here kids there’s nothing to be scared of. That’s just my husband
and his little tricks that he likes to play on the trick-or-treaters,” spoke
a voice from behind them.
Both Augla and Missy turned around to see a sweet, grandmotherly woman standing
before them. She was carrying two huge buckets of candy, and a grin was on her
face.
“What...what do you mean?” asked Augla.
The woman replied, “Ah, it’s just Edward, he gets his kicks frightening the
poor kids that do come all the way up here to trick-or-treat. Isn’t that right,
Edward?”
In walked a man who looked just as sweet and kind as this woman, and he apologised
to them.
“I’m sorry, kids. I probably shouldn’t do that anymore. Last time I did that
three kids just like yourselves came racing out of here like there was no tomorrow.”
Augla and Missy sighed, and finally understood. This house wasn’t haunted it
was just all a false story.
The woman came up to them and gave them each a bucket of candy. Augla and Missy
smiled and thanked them.
“Yes, I do believe that you’ll be the only ones visiting us for Halloween this
year. We get about 2 or 3 trick-or-treaters a year, probably because of this
long driveway we have to up here. So you two lucky kids get all the candy. Now
you two should probably be on your way, and remember to come see us next year,”
said the old woman.
Augla and Missy smiled, and said good-bye to the old woman and her husband.
They began the walk down to the street again, but this time they had much more
candy, and couldn’t wait to tell their friends about the truth of the Mansion.
The End | 
