18-Sept-2020

18-Sept-2020

Welcome to my Spooky Flash Fiction Friday!

From now until Halloween there will be haunting 🙂

Busted by a Kid in a Turtle Costume

Today’s Flash Fiction Friday is brought to you by:
Someone Standing on Your Front Porch
A Jack-O-Lantern
and
A Haunted House

“Is that lady letting her toddler come to the door by himself?” Henry asked.

“Looks like it,” Jacob said. “No, wait, he’s got an older sister.”

Henry brightened. “Have I mentioned how much I love Halloween?”

“You’re on porch duty,” Jacob reminded Henry.

“I’m on it.” Henry sunk through the wood floor, floated through the basement and into the small space under the front porch. Falling dust accompanied the clumping of the children’s steps as they climbed toward the front door.

Henry reached up to the top step and pulled at the essence of the board. It squealed as the older sister stepped on it.

She let out a gasp and jumped to the porch.

The little boy giggled.

Younger children were often more amused by the ghosts antics than frightened. However, the girl was a prime target.

Henry put his head through the wood to get a look at the duo. He kept himself invisible. The little boy wore some sort of walking turtle outfit with rubber swords strapped to his shell, and the girl wore a police officer’s uniform.

Strange that she wanted to be in law enforcement but was afraid of a few noises. She reached out a trembling hand and hit the doorbell.

The best part about haunting this particular house was that the older man who lived there had literal loads of money, and loved Halloween. Not only did he give out what he called full-sized candy bars, but he often had a bucket of small toys for the children to choose from.

Oh, and he thought it was funny that Henry and Jacob liked to haunt him.

A sliver of humanity could see ghosts. Charles was one of them. He’d actually befriended Henry and Jacob when he’d moved in. In all of Henry’s limited wanderings, he’d never met a human like Charles.

In order to give the ghosts more time to give the kids a bit of a fright, Charles always took a long time to answer the door.

Jacob, who was better at manipulating the elements than Henry, sent a blast of wind at the kids.

The girl screamed.

The boy giggled again.

Charles finally got to the door, and it opened with a screech—augmented by Henry scraping claws on the hinges.

The old man was dressed as a zombie, which also made the girl scream.

The little boy held out his jack-o-lantern and said, “Trick or treat!”

The girl swallowed and followed suit in a small voice.

“Well, well, well, what have we here?” Charles leaned down to examine the costumes. He held the candy bowl in one hand and the toy bowl in the other.

“I’m a ninja turtle,” the boy said with no small amount of pride. His face beamed. He puffed out his chest.

His sister tried to look brave, but was probably having a hard time considering Jacob was whistling softly in her ear.

“You’re mean,” Henry said to Jacob.

Jacob grinned.

“A ninja turtle?” Charles straightened and searched his toy bowl. “You might need some ninja stars to go with your swords.”

The little boy jumped up and down when Charles dropped the plastic stars into his jack-o-lantern.

The girl bit her lip as Charles looked for her offering. “Hmm. Let’s see. Ah, here it is.”

Jacob blew on the girl’s neck, and she shivered.

Charles dropped a pop gun in her pillow sack. “Now pick a candy bar.”

They both did so quickly.

“Thank you!” the little boy practically yelled.

The girl nodded.

Just as they turned around, Henry grabbed the door and slammed it against the side of the house.

The girl jumped and ran down to the road as fast as she could.

The boy laughed, and pointed at Henry. “Funny ghost.”

Henry froze.

Jacob cocked his head to the side.

Charles’ eyes went wide. “You can see them?”

The boy pointed at Jacob. “Funny.” Then he turned around and toddled down the stairs.

Henry and Jacob floated over to Charles.

“I’ve never met anyone else with my ability,” Charles said. “We should keep an eye on that one.”

Jacob nodded.

Henry spotted the next group of kids. “Teenage boys.”

Charles chuckled. “Do you thing you two.”