Spook Season Stories

Story 7 of 7

It’s a warm Halloween evening but the local children are dressed and ready to go from house to house to collect their sweet goodies. The neighboring town frowns upon all festivities to do with Halloween, so a few of the local businesses have decided to stay open and hand out candy to all who may come by.

Josh, a twenty-two-year-old resident of the town that doesn’t celebrate Halloween, takes care of his little brother since their parents passed away a few years ago.

“Josh, I’m ready,” Jeremy ran out of his bedroom wearing an Ironman costume.

Even though Joshes parents asked him to never celebrate Halloween, Josh promised to take his little brother trick or treating this year in the nearby town ten minutes away.

“Okay, let’s get in the car,” Josh said.

Josh drove down their street and headed out of town. He felt that Halloween is just another holiday that should be celebrated by all children.

“Why don’t we have Halloween in our town?” Jeremy asked from the backseat.

“You know, it’s because of those people who were killed on Halloween,” Josh said.

“Oh yeah… But the town that we are going to, don’t people die there too?” Jeremy asked.

Josh looked in the rearview mirror, “yeah, but I guess they aren’t as superstitious as our town.”

“Oh. Well, I’m glad that they aren’t stuper-sticious, otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to get free candy,” Jeremy smiled.

Once they got close to town, Josh turned down the first lit-up street that he saw and parked. Jeremy saw some of the local kids in their costumes walking down the sidewalk. Josh helped his little brother out of the car and walked up to the first house that they saw. It was a two-story house that had a lot of spooky carved and lit pumpkins sitting all around the front porch. In the windows on the second floor were glowing white ghosts dancing around. Jeremy stopped and looked at the house before Josh spoke up and told him it was okay.

Jeremy took each step one by one until he got to the top of the porch. He looked back at his brother Josh waiting on the sidewalk, and then slowly walked up to the front door. Jeremy knocked on the door and watched as it slowly opened. A grey-haired old lady dressed all in white answered the door with a smile.

“Trick or treat,” Jeremy held open his bag.

“Oh look at you. Are you a superhero?”

“Yes ma’am, I am Ironman,” Jeremy smiled.

“Well, you make sure that you stop in town too. My son is handing out candy at the parlor,” the old lady dropped some candy into Jeremy’s bag.

“Thank you, ma’am,” Jeremy turned and hopped down the steps.

Josh and Jeremy walked along and stopped at all the houses on that block and got candy. They also ran into a few kids from their town who said that they were headed to Hanson’s Funeral Home. Jeremy spoke up and told his brother that the old grey-haired lady said her son is there handing out candy.

“I suppose you want to go there?” Josh looked at Jeremy.

Jeremy grinned and shook his head yes. So the two of them made their way back to the car and climbed inside. Josh knew approximately where Hansons was and drove into town. By this time it was almost ten o’clock, and the majority of the businesses were closed. The streets were quiet but lit with multiple street lights. Josh drove around the corner of Milwaukee avenue and onto Main street. There he saw the large red-brick building with the Hanson’s Funeral Home sign all lit up. Two local kids had just walked out of the front door and skipped down the street.

Josh pulled up into a space in front of the building and parked. Jeremy leaned and looked out the passenger window at the building when he saw the signs light shut off.

“Josh, we have to hurry, they just shut the sign light off,” Jeremy opened his door.

Josh rushed around to the passenger side of the car while Jeremy got out and onto the sidewalk. Josh closed the door and stood there looking at the spooky red-bricked building. Jeremy looked at Josh and then proceeded to the front door of the funeral home. Jeremy knocked on the door but no one answered. Josh walked up next to his brother and knocked on the door. The door squeaked as it slowly opened slightly. Jeremy looked up at Josh as he pushed the door open.

“Hello… Is there anyone still here?” Josh called out.

Jeremy grabbed onto his brother's hand as the two of them walked into the dimly lit hallway. At the end of the hall and above a room with double doors, they saw a flickering white sign that read parlor. Josh and Jeremy walked down the hall to the doors and looked at each other. Just as Josh pushed one of the doors open, organ music started to play. Jeremy gripped onto Joshes hand tighter as they walked into the room. Red velvet drapes hung along the far walls, while dim recessed lighting shined down throughout the room. They noticed two gold-colored caskets off to the one side that lay open.

“Hello… Trick or treat,” Josh called out.

As they slowly looked around, Jeremy saw a large gold bowl sitting on a table next to the organ. He let go of his brother's hand and ran over to it.

“Look Josh,” Jeremy started to pick out some candy from the bowl.

“Only take a few,” Josh said as he looked into one of the coffins.

Josh went to touch the gold-colored satin lining inside of the coffin when all the lights went out and the organ went quiet.

“Ahhh!” Jeremy screamed.

“Jeremy?” Josh called out.

Josh felt a slight breeze blow across his face, “Jeremy, where are you?”

Jeremy never answered but Josh carefully walked around in the darkness still calling out for his little brother. He even stumbled over the bowl on the floor where Jeremy once stood picking out candy, but didn’t find him. Feeling scared, Josh managed to find his way back to the double doors and went out of them. He followed the hallway wall with his hands until he got to the front door. He could barely see the light shining through the door until he opened it.

Out onto the sidewalk, Josh stumbled.

He turned around and looked at the funeral home “what am I going to do? I promised I would take care of my little brother.”

Josh called the police and within minutes they arrived at the funeral home. One of the officers called Mr. Hanson on the phone and asked him to come downstairs and unlock the front door.

“The door is unlocked,” Josh said to the officers.

One of the officers tugged on the door but couldn’t get in.

“I swear, I was just in there,” Josh cried.

Mr. Hanson unlocked the door from the inside and opened it, “good evening officers.”

Stunned, Josh waited with one officer out on the sidewalk while the other officer went inside to look around with Mr. Hanson. The officer explained to Mr. Hanson that the young man outside swears that his little brother went missing in the parlor a short time ago. Mr. Hanson turned the lights on and walked into the parlor.

“See, nobody in here,” Mr. Hanson said.

The officer looked around and didn’t see anything out of place or disrupted. Mr. Hanson took the officer throughout the entire funeral home and found no one.

“Did you take part in trick or treat this year Mr. Hanson?” The officer asked.

“Yes, I did until ten o’clock, and then shut the lights off. But I don’t recall seeing that young man,” Mr. Hanson walked the officer to the front door.

“Okay, thank you. Sorry for disturbing you sir,” the officer walked out onto the sidewalk.

Mr. Hanson closed and locked the funeral home door.

His disfigured son peeked out through a secret panel and asked, “can I play with my new little brother now daddy?”

I hope that you enjoyed my Spook Season Stories series. If you feel that I did a great job with these and would like to read more, please let me know below. I had a lot of fun writing them.