In this story, I was somewhere around 11. It took place on Halloween night. The sky was an ominous shade of dark grey, and the moon was barely visible. Every year, I would go trick-or-treating with my two good friends, and we would walk around one of their neighborhoods with pillow cases asking strangers for candy. In this story, let’s call my friends Ashley and Emily. Ashley lived in a gated community, so my parents felt I was very safe to be trick-or-treating there. Besides, the parents would stay close to us whichever house we went to.

We went from house to house, asking for candy, and just had a great time.
It was getting late, but we were determined to go to as many houses we could before the parents decided to head back to Ashley’s house, where everyone would meet up. A few of my friend’s younger siblings began to complain, saying that they were tired and that they wanted to go back home, which was ironic, seeing that younger kids usually have the best time during Halloween.

The parents were about to turn back to head back to Ashley’s house, but my friends and I begged them to let us trick-or-treat at a few more houses. They were skeptical about this, because Emily’s parents were pretty overprotective, but they decided we were finally old enough to walk a few blocks back to Ashley’s house by ourselves. We thought this was going to be the best night of our lives. No parents to boss us around, just us and bags of candy. Boy, were we wrong.

We went to a few more houses, our pillow cases growing heavier and heavier, until it felt like we were lugging around a bag of rocks.

“God, I’m so tired of this. Why don’t we just head back? We have enough candy in here to last us for months.” Ashley declared, dropping her pillowcase and sitting down on the cold sidewalk.

“C’mon Ash, Halloween only comes once a year! One more house, and then we’ll go back to your house.” Emily coaxed, picked up her bag of candy and plopping it on her lap.

“Ugh, fine, but ONE more house!” She groaned. We walked a little while looking for any houses to walk up to and ask for candy. But I guess it was super late, because not one house had their lights on.

We finally decided to head back the Ashley’s house, before our parents started worrying. As we walked back, we began to notice a dark SUV slowly following behind us. At first we thought they were just looking for their kids, who might have gotten lost, which isn’t very uncommon on Halloween. But as we walked for what seemed like 20 minutes, the car still wouldn’t stop following us. When we stopped, it stopped. When we walked slowly, it trailed behind us even slower. We were about to make the turn to Ashley’s street when the SUV sped up right beside us.

A disgusting, old man poked his head out an smiled a wide, toothy grin. His eyes were so pale, he looked like he was blind.

“You girls look nice tonight.” The man said, in a croaky voice. He looked us up and down, and I felt like I was gonna throw up.

“Thank you,” I heard Emily say, but her voice conspicuously trembled with fear.

“Wanna hop in? I can ride you kids to wherever you’re going.” He suggested, his hand motioning to the backseat of his SUV.

Terrified now, me and my friends sprinted towards Ashley’s house. We could see it, and a rush of adrenaline pumped through us, giving us speed we would have never been able to achieve after eating so many Hershey’s chocolate bars.

I could hear the black SUV speeding up after us, but I didn’t dare look back. We got in the house and began to cry hysterically. The parents were sitting on the couch, placidly drinking wine until we barged in.

We explained everything, and Ashley’s mother immediately called the police. The police said they would scan the neighborhood, looking for a black SUV.

The awful part of this story is that the man was never found. I hope one day, he will pay for the countless other kids he probably attempted to abduct. Stay safe on Halloween. It’s a fun night, but it can be so dangerous.