A Halloween Tale

Tom was supposed to protect his little sister. It was an unusual way that he did.

Contest Prompt

WC 882. Write your story or poem about someone who follows a trail of candy corn into the woods ... who left the trail and where does it lead?)".

“I got a secret.” Mandy pulled off her Halloween witch’s hat and sailed it onto a chair. Her plastic pumpkin wasn’t even half filled with candy. She didn’t mind. “Want to know what it is?”

Her big brother Tom stopped playing his video game and stretched. “Lay it on me.” He was supposed to have gone Trick-or treating with Mandy to keep her safe but figured she could take care of herself.

“My friend Sarah Sanders says there’s a real witch. She lives in the forest behind her house.”

“Yeah, right. And Santa Claus is real.” Tom went back to his game.

Mandy kept talking. “There’s proof. Come on. Let's find out.”

Tom was tired of playing anyway. Going with his little sister would earn him parent points. “O.K. you’re on.” He got a flashlight from the kitchen drawer and met Mandy at the front door. She had her witch's hat on again.

The Sanders home was a block away. There was a faint animal trail beginning at their broken down fence. A black cat hissed at them and took off following it. It had made Tom jump. “Only on Halloween.”

“There. I told you so.” Tom looked at Mandy’s finger pointing to the ground. “It’s magical.”

Tom didn’t need the flashlight. A glowing piece of candy corn pulsed where it lay, pointing its tip at another one not much distance away. “Weird,” Tom said, rubbing his neck. This was real, not some game.

“Let’s go see where the witch lives,” Mandy said in a whisper.

“That would be stupid.”

“Not.”

As Mandy reached down to pick up the treat, the candy corn shot up into her hand. To Tom, it looked like his sister got yanked forward towards the next piece glowing suddenly brighter. “This is not good.” He stepped forward and reached out to yank Mandy back. The next piece of corn shot up to land firmly in his open palm. He, too, was yanked forward with Mandy.

Both of them struggled to take steps back only to be pulled further along the trail. “I want to go home,” Mandy cried out.

Tom dug in his feet against a rock buried in the path and held tight to Mandy’s waist. The next yank pulled them both into the air, floating faster along the trail, with more and more light pulsing candy corn floating around them as they sped up.

It became dizzying speed. They twisted and turned around dips and curves. Branches swished against them. Tom tried holding on to them without success. In no time at all, they stopped flying and floated before a moss laden log cabin half buried in ancient old trees.

“I’m scared,” Mandy whimpered. Tom wasn’t too happy, himself. There was no way his parents would believe him even if he got away and could tell.

“There you are.” The cabin door flung open to reveal a bent over old hag sucking on her lips. She beckoned. Mandy, Tom, and the lit up candy corn floated inside.

“I’m Sheila the Witch.” She shook open a black bag. One after another candy corn shot into it and rustled with the others before turning their lights off to rest quietly together.

“What are you going to do to us?” Tom wanted to know. Mandy was too scared to ask.

“One goes free. One stays with me,” Sheila cackled evilly. “Come here Midnight, my pet.”

The black cat Tom had seen before slid out from under a bench, sat and began licking its paws. “You’ve fulfilled your contract as my Familiar. Now it is time to choose a new one.”

“I think you will make a fine Tomcat, young man, and your sister will go free under my protection for as long as you serve me.” The threat to Mandy if he didn’t agree went unsaid.

“I’ll do it.” The witch would have to sleep sometime, then Tom could make his move. He just needed time to figure out what that move might be.

“Fine. Midnight?” Sheila motioned to the cat with a gnarled looking stick of wood.

The cat jumped up at Tom. He felt it land and press against his chest. “Oof.” Out came the air and Tom’s spirit with it. He blinked, looked down at himself and saw he’d been transformed into a yellow Tomcat.

Tom hissed and prepared to leap at the witch but he was caught by two hands from the stranger standing where Tom had been. “Good luck. You’ll need it,” the stranger said before petting Tom and depositing him down into a cat cage.

“You can go with him, little darling girl,” Sheila was at the opening door to her cabin.

“What will I tell my parents?” Mandy asked.

"Midnight will take care of that. He’ll sprinkle a little pixie dust at them when you invite him in to explain where Tom is. They’ll forget it was ever born. You’ll pack up his things and store them safely away.”

Sheila opened her corn bag. The candy corn pulsed into action, surrounding the stranger and Mandy, floating them back along the trail.