Mia sighed as she stared up at the ceiling of her bedroom, the cool October breeze wafting in through the open window. She lay sprawled across her floral comforter, absentmindedly twirling a strand of hair around her finger. With Halloween only a few days away, she knew she should be excitedly planning her costume. But instead, all she felt was tired apathy.
Most years, kids looked forward to All Hallows night with bubbly enthusiasm. They loved the crisp autumn air, seeing all the other neighborhood kids dressed up in costumes, and of course eating piles of candy. But like every other year, 15-year old celden, mia, lacked interest, the holiday spirit just wasn’t there.
Maybe it was the gloomy weather that had put her in a funk, or stress from school that had dampened her mood. But the inspiration for a creative costume just wasn’t striking her.
With a groan, Mia rolled over and snatched a thick catalog of costumes off her nightstand. She lazily flipped through page after page of pre-made costumes - sexy nurses, pirates, superheroes - but nothing grabbed her interest. Even the spookier costumes like vampires and witches seemed unappealingly basic and generic.
Mia tossed the catalog aside and stared up at the glow-in-the-dark plastic stars arranged on her ceiling. She wished coming up with a costume idea could be as easy as when she was little and her mom would whip up cute outfits for her to wear like a princess or bumble bee.
As she reminisced about Halloweens past, Mia's gaze drifted over the tack board above her desk crowded with photos of her friends. A small smile curved her lips as she thought about her close-knit friend group she loved like sisters. There was Selena, the stylish fashionista who was never seen without perfectly applied makeup. Spunky Nina was the artsy, eccentric one who dyed the tips of her hair a different neon color every month. And sweet-natured Tina was the shy animal lover of the group who volunteered at the local shelter.
Mia cherished the bonds she shared with the three girls. Even when life got stressful, she could always count on them to cheer her up with laughter over late night junk food and movie binges.
Her reminiscing was interrupted by a knock at the bedroom door.
"Come in!" Mia called, sitting up on the bed.
The door opened and Nina bounded in, eyes sparkling with excitement. Her violet-tipped hair was swept up in two buns that made her look like an anime character.
"Happy almost Halloween!" Nina sang. "I've already decided my costume for this year and started putting it together. Want to see?"
Before Mia could respond, Nina spun in a circle to show off the knee-length pleated skirt and matching vest over a button-down shirt she was wearing. The outfit was accessorized with knee socks, shiny Mary Janes, and gold-rimmed glasses.
Mia chuckled. "Let me guess, a school girl?"
"Not just any school girl - a zombie school girl!" Nina said. She hunched her shoulders and contorted her face into an exaggerated zombie grimace, eliciting a laugh from Mia.
"I'm going to mess up my hair and do some creepy makeup to make it look more undead," Nina continued. She flopped down on the bed beside Mia. "So what are you thinking of being for Halloween this year?"
Mia shrugged. "I have no idea. Nothing is really inspiring me." She gestured to the costume catalog. "I'll probably just throw something basic together at the last minute like always."
"Oh come on, Halloween only comes once a year, you have to do something fun!" Nina said. She snatched up the catalog and eagerly flipped through it. "Oooh, you could pull off a really pretty fairy costume. Or be a cute but creepy doll, I bet Tina could help make your makeup look porcelain and cracked. Or oh! What about a vampire, we could really make it gory and badass."
Mia smiled at her friend's enthusiasm as she suggested costume idea after idea. Though Nina's creativity and passion for the holiday was contagious, Mia still couldn't muster much excitement.
"Those all sound cool, but I think I just want to keep it simple this year," Mia said.
Nina pouted, clearly disappointed. "Come on Mia, you're not even trying! Where's your Halloween spirit?"
When Mia just shrugged again, Nina's eyes flashed with an idea. She leaned in closer, an impish grin spreading across her face.
"What if," Nina said slowly, "you did something totally out there and unexpected? Like go as something really scary and creepy that no one would expect from someone as sweet and shy as you!"
Mia pondered this idea. She had to admit, the thought of normally reserved, wholesome Mia showing up to the Halloween party looking like a horrifying monster did sound fun. She imagined everyone's stunned reactions to mild-mannered Mia transformed into something twisted and deranged for the night.
"You know what, o could just do it this once " Mia said, warming up to the idea. "I bet I could get some good scares out of people. Oooh, maybe I'll sneak up on the football guys and watch them freak out!"
"Yesss, that's the spirit! We'll make you look so creepy no one will even recognize you," Nina said gleefully. "This is going to be epic, just wait until I tell Selena and Tina about our genius plan!"
Nina leapt up and dashed out of the room to share the scheme with their other friends. Mia smiled and shook her head at her friend's limitless enthusiasm. She had to admit, Nina's passion for Halloween was starting to rub off on her. For the first time this week, she actually felt eager excitement stirring within her for the spooky holiday.
Over the next couple days leading up to Halloween, Mia and her friends discussed costume ideas during school and late night phone calls. After much debate, they finally decided the scariest option would be to make Mia a creepy scarecrow with tattered, makeshift clothes and disturbing stitched burlap mask.
Mia usually preferred cute over creepy when it came to dressing up. But the more her friends described their vision to transform her into something nightmarish, the more intrigued she became. She could already envision the shocked expressions when people saw sweet, innocent Mia replaced by the sinister scarecrow for the night. Maybe she did have an untapped darker side just waiting to be brought out by Halloween.
The monday before Halloween, Mia's friends all came over to work on assembling the costume. Her cozy bedroom soon overflowed with craft supplies and half-finished costume pieces.
"Okay, I hit up the thrift store and found the perfect creepy clothes for your outfit," Selena said, holding up a pile of tattered overalls and a worn flannel shirt dotted with holes. "I figured we could rough them up even more and make them look covered in dirt and hay since you'll be a scarecrow."
"Oooh, nice finds!" Nina said. She rummaged in an oversized tote bag and pulled out a morbid looking mask. It was made out of burlap with disturbing stitched on features and matted yarn hair.
"Check out the mask I made! Pretty freaky, right? I can't wait to get started on your makeup too. I'm thinking bloody gashes and missing teeth since you'll be an undead scarecrow."
Mia's eyes widened at the eerie mask. "Woah, you really went all out Nina. That looks awesome!" She took the mask and pressed it to her face, eliciting squeals from her friends.
"Okay, now you're really starting to creep me out," Selena said with a laugh.
"Here are the old potato sacks I picked up for us," Tina chimed in, holding up several torn burlap sacks. "We can cut them up and wrap them around you so you look even more scarecrow-like."
Mia smiled, sincerely touched that her friends were so eager to help make her costume vision a reality, even though creepy scarecrows were far from their usual style.
"You guys are the best," she said. "Let's get started!"
Over the next couple hours, the four friends worked diligently to piece together Mia's disguise for Halloween night. They turned up the pop punk music Mia loved and laughed over snacks as they transformed the costume from idea to reality.
Selena got to work fashioning the tattered thrift store clothes, using scissors to add extra rips and fraying. She then rubbed handfuls of dirt from Mia's potted plants all over the outfit to give it a worn, dusty look befitting a scarecrow freshly dragged from the fields.
Meanwhile, Nina focused on creating the makeup look, mixing white, black, and red face paints to mimic stitches, gashes, and bloody claw marks across Mia's face. She used black eyeliner to make Mia's eyes look hollow and sunken for an extra creepy effect.
Tina took charge of cutting up the potato sacks and strategically wrapping them around Mia's arms and legs, securing them in place with pieces of jute twine. The burlap made her limbs look misshapen and lumpy, adding to the scarecrow illusion.
As the costume came together, Mia couldn't stop grinning beneath the unsettling stitched mask. Finally slipping into the full outfit and makeup, she turned to examine herself in the mirror, gasping at her reflection.
The dirty, tattered clothing paired with the disturbing mask and gory makeup transformed her completely. She looked like she belonged in a horror movie instead of walking the halls of her high school. Mia barely even recognized herself beneath all the creepy details her friends had brought to life.
"Oh my god, you guys are miracle workers!" Mia exclaimed, still in awe over her transformation. "I look terrifying, there's no way anyone is going to know it's me under all this makeup and burlap."
"Our sweet little Mia is all grown up into a horrifying creature of the night!" Nina pretended to wipe away a tear.
The four friends spent the rest of the night eating candy apples, watching scary movies, and putting the finishing touches on Mia's costume. With the big night almost here, they could hardly contain their excitement imagining everyone's shocked reactions to mild-mannered Mia's disturbing scarecrow disguise.
Finally, October 31st arrived. Inside Mia's room, the girls held a final meeting to review the plan before heading over to Devon's Halloween party that night.
"Okay, so we'll get to the party right at 8 when things are just getting started," Selena said. "We'll pretend we haven't seen you yet, Mia. Then once you make your big entrance in the scarecrow getup, we'll act totally shocked."
Mia nodded, fiddling with the fraying edge of the burlap mask. "I still almost can't believe I'm going through with this costume idea. Just watch, the second I walk into that party in this creepy disguise, I'm going to chicken out."
"No backing out now!" Nina said. "Here, I brought some finishing touches."
She pulled out a pillowcase filled with straw and antique looking pieces of rope and twine. "I figured we could stuff some of this straw under your clothes so you look even more misshapen."
"Oooh, I like that idea!" Tina carefully began stuffing handfuls of the straw under Mia's shirt and overalls, padding out her silhouette until she resembled a lumpy, makeshift scarecrow.
They tied some of the extra rope and twine around her wrists and ankles as added accessories. Stepping back to survey their work, the friends shared proud smiles. The look was complete.
"What do you think?" Selena asked Mia. "Are you ready for your big horror movie debut?"
Mia turned slowly, examining her freakish straw-stuffed silhouette and eerie burlap face in the mirror. She hardly recognized the nightmarish creature staring back at her.
A sly grin spread across her face beneath the mask. "I'm ready."
The girls spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and listening to Halloween-themed playlists until it was time to head to the party. As 8pm drew near, butterflies fluttered in Mia's stomach knowing she was about to unveil her disturbing disguise to an unsuspecting crowd.
"You sure you don't want us to pick you up?" Nina asked as they got ready to leave.
Mia shook her head, straw crinkling softly inside her clothes. "Nah, I'm going to walk over like this and make a subtle but creepy entrance. Don't worry, I'll wander over fashionably late."
Her friends giggled and offered words of encouragement before dashing out the door in their own costumes. Alone in her room, Mia turned back to the mirror to give herself one final pep talk.
"You got this," she whispered to her eerie burlap reflection. "Time to let this creepy new persona take over for the night."
Drawing herself up with newfound confidence, Mia headed out into the night.
The air held a late October chill that matched the mood of her outfit perfectly. All around the neighborhood, plastic jack-o-lanterns glowed and wispy cobwebs drifted from trees. As Mia made her way down the sidewalk, she earned bewildered double-takes from other groups of trick-or-treaters.
She had to hold back laughter imagining what the little kids saw when they looked her way - a sinister scarecrow wandering alone in the darkness on Halloween night.
Before she knew it, Mia was approaching Devon's house. His raucous Halloween bash was already in full swing, music and laughter spilling from the windows along with flickering strobe lights. Mia watched costumed teenagers heading up to the front door for a moment, gathering her nerves. Then, with a deep breath that made the straw in her clothes rustle softly, she joined the crowd making their way inside.
Immediately upon stepping through the front door, Mia's bizarre costume drew stunned reactions from Devon's other guests. A pair of vampires and a werewolf who had been chatting in the entryway went silent and stared, mouths agape at her arrival. Farther inside, a ghost was double-taking while a mad scientist promptly dropped the vial he was holding with a crash.
As she made her way through the main party area looking for her friends, Mia was met with gasps, horrified screams, and whispered exclamations of "what is that thing?" She kept her head down, staying in character as the creepy creature who had staggered in from the cornfields.
Finally, Mia spotted Selena, Nina and Tina clustered near the snack table. She slowly shambled up to them, raspy breaths escaping her burlap mask. The girls' eyes went wide, staring at Mia's straw-stuffed silhouette and disfigured mask.
"Um, can we help you?" Nina asked, playing her part convincingly.
Mia said nothing, continuing her labored, unnatural breathing as she edged closer. The girls took a step back, real fear flickering across their faces for a moment at the nightmarish figure that seemed to have stumbled out of a horror story.
Unable to keep a straight face any longer, Mia broke character and doubled over laughing. "It's me!" she wheezed out, lifting the mask.
"Mia!" her friends cried in unison, realization dawning on their faces. They dissolved into relieved laughter.
"Oh my god, you totally freaked us out for a second!" Selena said, smacking Mia's arm playfully.
"Epic costume, you look absolutely freaky!" Nina said admiringly.
Mia grinned, replacing the burlap mask. "This is so perfect. I've been getting the most insane reactions all night!"
Giggling and whispering excitedly, the four friends moved through the party to maximize the impact of Mia's disguise. Each room they entered elicited new shrieks and stunned faces as people spotted the nightmarish scarecrow in their midst.
Soon, Mia was posing for selfies with impressed party-goers wanting to memorialize the most unsettling costume any of them had ever seen. As the night went on, the terrifying persona she had embodied was becoming almost comfortable.
Near midnight, Mia was perched on a couch in the living room letting a Buzz Lightyear and cowboy fawn over her disturbing costume. She found herself wishing the night didn't have to end. Because come tomorrow, she would go back to being plain old Mia.
But tonight, she was something new and unexpected. And that exciting, dark side unleashed by Halloween was not ready to be buried away just yet.
Here's a continuation of the story with a spooky mystery:
The night after Halloween, Mia and her friends gathered in her living room, still giddy as they rehashed the party's events.
"I can't believe how well your costume went over," Selena said, nibbling on leftover candy corn. "You totally won scariest costume."
Mia smiled proudly. "It felt so awesome pretending to be that freaky scarecrow creature for a night. I almost didn't want the party to end."
"We need to start planning next year's costumes now if we want to top this," Nina said. She paused, glancing around. "Hey, where's Tina? She said she'd be here by now."
The girls checked their phones, but there were no messages from their friend. After calling and texting several times with no response, they began to worry.
"That's not like her to just disappear without telling us," Mia said, chewing her lip. "You don't think something happened, do you?"
"I'm sure she's fine," Selena said uncertainly. "Maybe she got busy with family stuff?"
Still, Mia couldn't ignore the uneasy knot tightening in her stomach. Impulsively, she leaped up from the couch. "I'm going to go check on her."
"We'll come too," Nina said, exchanging a concerned look with Selena.
The three girls hurried from the house into the crisp night. A full moon hung low and heavy in the inky sky, bathing their neighborhood in ghostly light. The wind had picked up, sending dry leaves skittering across lawns and porch steps.
As Mia led the way to Tina's, she couldn't shake the feeling they were being watched. The surrounding houses with their dark windows seemed oddly sinister.
Tina's front porch was decorated with leftover Halloween ornaments - a grinning plastic jack-o-lantern and fake cobwebs dotted with plastic spiders. But the usual warmth and light spilling from inside was absent.
The girls hesitated at the bottom of the steps, a shadow passing over the moon.
"Maybe we should come back tomorrow," Selena whispered. But Mia was already ringing the bell.
As they waited, a scraping sound came from the side of the house. The girls froze, huddling close together. The noise came again - a steady scritch-scritch-scritch, like sharp nails clawing wood.
Mia's heart hammered against her ribs. She glanced back at her friends' frightened faces, then steeled her nerve and crept around the side of the house towards the chilling sounds.
Peering into the darkness, Mia gasped. There, scratched deep into the wooden siding in spindly letters were the words:
STAY AWAY
The girls shrieked in unison, clinging to each other. The scribbling looked angry and fresh, white scratches marring the brown wood.
"W-we need to call the police," Nina whispered through chattering teeth.
But before Mia could respond, Tina's front door creaked open. The girls spun around to find Tina silhouetted in the doorway, looking tired but unharmed.
"Tina!" they cried, rushing forward to hug their friend in relief.
"We were so scared, you didn't answer your phone and then we found that creepy writing..." Mia's voice trailed off.
Tina's brow furrowed. "What writing?"
Confused, the girls led Tina around to the side of the house. But the wall was blank - no eerie scrawled warning to be found.
The friends exchanged uneasy looks. "It was right here," Mia insisted, running her hands along the unmarked wood panels. "The scratches spelled out 'Stay Away.'"
"You guys have really wild imaginations," Tina said with an uncomfortable laugh. She ushered them back inside, explaining she'd simply lost track of time finishing a school project.
But Mia couldn't shake the chilling sensation that something sinister was lurking in their town. As they left Tina's house and hurried home, Mia peered into the shadows feeling unseen eyes tracking their every move.
Maybe Halloween has awaken some unspoken evil.
THE END
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