Page 61 of Who The Hell Are You?

Making it to the front garden gate, I scan down the street, seeing nothing, not even a passing car. Sighing, I push it open and head down my front path, only to stop when I see something laid on the doorstep. I put out a Halloween mat yesterday ready for trick-or-treaters. On top is what looks like a teddy–a plushie like what Cass bought me, and as I get closer, I see it’s the ghost from my room, the one which says ‘boo’. The one that was in my boo basket and definitely was on my bed, with my other plushies the last time I saw it. It’s shredded to bits, stuffing ripped out of the chest and spilling all over the pumpkin themed door mat.

My tongue feels thick in my mouth as I crouch to finger at the tuffs of white cotton, before snapping up, looking all around me. No one's here. Cass’s form isn't going to appear out of the bush like Michael Myers. Gathering up the mess off the floor, I use my key to get into the house and rush in like I'm under attack. Micah is sitting in the living room, applying glitter to his blonde curls and he's adorning elf ears. He already looks like a tiny cherub, so the entire thing is giving Elven. He jumps at how loudly I collapse into the house, slamming my backpack onto the table and discarding the ruined gift into the bin.

“Miles, are you alright? You scared me.” He calls outs and after I catch my breath, I fake a smile, pretending like I am not shitting my pants. “I'm fine, just fell a little coming in, sorry. Have you seen Cass at all? Has he been here today?”

“No, no. I’ve been at the studio this morning, but I haven’t seen him.” He replies quickly, resuming an intense focus on painting glitter into his hair.

Narrowing my eyes, I watch him for a few more minutes, my intensity growing.

“Hey, why don’t you come out with us tonight? Or do you have plans?”

My heart dips, because I’m starting to realise this silent treatment might mean it’s truly over. “I don’t anymore…Sure.” I sigh, now annoyed I need to pull some sort of costume out of thin air.

A little topic sensitive, but I went with the ghostface mask and a plain black hoodie. My cargo trousers have lots of loops and hanging belts attached, but feeling the part is far from my priorities. I could be wearing a bin bag for all I cared. We’re at a party with all of Micah’s dance friends and they’ve gone all out to decorate their space as a haunted house. It’s amazing, a massive A for effort, but the moment I think I see a tattooed hand snake out of the shadows, I flinch back and frantically look around for Cass again. Rushing towards the draped fabric covering one wall, next to the table with all the drinks and food, I pull it back but no one is there. Snapping my head around, I rip the damned ghostface mask over my head and try to get a better look into each darkened corner.

He’s not here, I’m just going insane with the absence of him. Rubbing my fingers into my eyes, I squeeze them shut and try to get my shit together.

“You don’t look well Miles, maybe you should go home?” Micah appears in front of me, wearing an open black shirt and tight horse riding pants. He’s covered in golden glitter, looking like some gothic elf and it suits him well.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. You’ll be ok on your own?”

His laugh comes out like a waterfall, his mood a lot lighter than it has been in weeks. “I’m a big boy and these are my friends! I’ll be fine. Have a good night.”

I frown, wondering how I’m going to have a good night miserably alone, but I still dump out the drink I never touched and leave the party.

The burning stench of Grace's uni digs still lingers on my street as I fling open my front gate, the wind blowing a gust of the smell with it. Remembering my blow up earlier with her just adds to my foul mood, on my favourite day of all days. Well, it’s no longer going to be my favourite! I’ll pick a more obscene, unique day that I’ll never let a guy ruin for me. Like national pizza day, or international bat appreciation day. That's like in April–no one celebrates anything else in April, it’ll totally be my own thing.

Hitting my front door, I aggressively dig into my trouser pocket for my keys, but stinging dread has me stopping, because the front door is already ajar. I can see a sliver of light through the door, meaning the lamp is on in the hallway, something neither me nor Micah left on. Teddy never came home after our last class because he was invited to an exclusive club with the agency he works with, so I know for definite that the lamp was not on.

Exhaling out a long breath, I kick the door open further with my boot. It creeks, sending my pulse rocketing because could it be any creeper? I’m freaking the fuck out, especially when I see red soft petals scattered all the way to the staircase infront of me.

Hell fucking no.

This is some Valentine horror movie shit. I am not playing along. Worse–same actor–it's like that scene out of Buffy where Jiles follows the petals upstairs to find his girlfriend brutally murdered by a vampire. That’s not going to be me, I’m firmly staying downstairs and never using my bedroom again. I’ll camp out down here. If I’m going to get murdered, they’ll have to come to me.

Throwing down the mask onto the little dining table in our kitchen, I unzip and kick out of these ridiculous trousers. The clatter of the belts every time I walk is sending me into an overwhelmed sensory nightmare.

Chest heaving, I turn on the kitchen lights and just stand there in my oversized hoodie and boxers. My socks are the ones Cass gave me, so I take them off and throw them haphazardly against the bin. They just sit there on the floor looking up at me, judging my pathetic ass.

Grumbling, I turn my back on the socks, looking at the bag of popcorn kernels I had planned to make, but I also refuse to be a horror movie stereotype. Not on Halloween!! A vibration booms in the silence that has me jumping almost into the air.

“Fucking Christ!” I slap my heart. It's about to beat right out of my chest if I don’t calm down. The noise is coming from my discarded trousers on the floor, clearly my phone, so I lean down to grab it and stand rod straight when I see it’s an unknown private caller. I’m sad for a second that it’s not Cass, but then the heightened fear that's been ramping up all day sets in, and I slowly swipe and place the phone to my ear.

I can’t hear anything. I swallow. “Hello?” My voice is rough.

A deep exhale makes me jump, before a distorted voice makes me feel paralysed with fear. “Hello Miles.” It’s the distorted ghostface voice. My head snaps to the dining table where I left my mask and it’s gone. “Turn on the lights outside.”

Closing my eyes, I take in a deep breath and swallow back bile. My entire body is in a cold sweat, my heart hurting with how quick it's beating. “W-Why?”

Whoever is calling me chuckles and I could throw up. They're in my house.

Slowly I walk to the kitchen's double doors that would take me out to the back garden. Teddy is usually the one that's better at making sure that all the blinds are closed and lights are off, so currently the curtains aren't drawn thank god. I don’t think I could handle the suspense of pulling them back to find someone there.

I can’t see a thing outside, it’s that dark, only my own reflection in the glass. I look terrified, visibly shaking as I reach for the light switch for the back garden and click it on. No one is outside, but there’s a matte black box on the patio.

“What is it?” I ask, but when no one replies I see that they’ve ended the call. Fucking shit, are they outside now? Did I lock the door? Shit, shit, shit.

Unlocking the door, I slide it open just enough to crouch down and grab the box. It’s heavy and things jingle inside. There’s thin words printed on the outside that read Boo! Is this another boo basket?