HALLOWEEN HUNT Read online

  “What happened?” Gary gasped, rushing toward him.

  “Get… me… down,” Hank murmured.

  Linda set the stool upright. Trembling, she climbed onto it. She reached up and began to saw through the rope near Hank’s ear while Gary clutched the limp body around its waist.

  “What happened to his legs?” Walt asked.

  The rope parted. Hank dropped from beside her. Gary, holding onto him, stumbled backward under the weight. Walt helped him. Together, they lowered Hank to the floor. He moaned softly and tried to sit up.

  Linda crouched over them.

  “Hold the light,” Gary said.

  She took it from him and shined it down as Gary spread apart a torn leg of Hank’s jeans.

  “What’s going on?” Dave asked, stepping beside her. “Geez…”

  Linda gazed at Hank’s badly scratched shin and calf.

  “It looks like…,” Walt started.

  “Something bit him,” Dave said.

  “It… it came… I knocked the stool… away… It…”

  “What, a dog?” Walt asked. “Where?”

  “Here,” Hank said.

  And a growl from across the attic sent ice up Linda’s spine. Her hand jerked up. The light beam found the creature.

  It was not a dog.

  It was a white man-beast with a human head, but with the teeth and nose of an animal. It thumped toward her on hands and knees—and growled loudly.

  Walt screamed with fright and ran.

  Dave tugged Linda’s arm. “Come on!” She struggled against him. “Come on! It’s real!”

  She swung the flashlight at his face, and missed. Letting go of her, Dave ran.

  Gary, already up, swept the sheet off his body. He rushed toward the thing. Holding the sheet in both hands like a net, he leapt onto it. His weight knocked the creature over. He clung to the thing. They rolled across the floor, the beast fighting him through the sheet. The sheet ripped open.

  The creature flung Gary onto his back. On top of him, it snarled and growled. Gary threw his arms up to block its blows. A sleeve was ripped open.

  Yelling, Linda raced forward and plunged the knife into its back. The thing shrieked. The beast dropped away, the back of its head striking the attic floor with a heavy thud.

  Linda held the flashlight, showing the way as Gary carried Hank piggyback down the attic steps. They moved along the hallway, down the staircase to the first floor, and finally out of the Winslow house.

  Walt and Dave climbed from the car and came toward them.

  “At least they didn’t drive off,” Gary muttered.

  “What happened?” Dave asked.

  “It’s dead,” Linda said.

  “She killed it,” Gary added.

  “You?” Dave said.

  “Yeah, me. You ran. You both did. What was supposed to happen to Hank?”

  Dave and Walt looked at each other. They didn’t answer. They followed Gary and Linda through the weed-thick yard. As they neared the fence, Dave asked, “What was it?”

  “Go up and see for yourself,” Linda said.

  “Are you crazy? What was it?”

  “We don’t know,” Gary told him.

  “Well, did you get a good look at it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So what was it?”

  “I already told you,” Gary said.

  “It had to be something,” Dave said.

  “It… it looked something like old man Winslow,” Walt said in a shaky voice. “Except for the teeth and nose.”

  “What?” Dave said. “Old man Winslow? Are you crazy? That… that thing was no ghost.”

  “I’m telling you, it looked like him to me. I used to see him outside the house sometimes when I’d walk by here on the way home from school.”

  “But that thing wasn’t human,” Dave said.

  “Listen, forget about all this for now,” Gary said. “Let’s get Hank to the hospital. Maybe the cops will be able to figure out what the thing was.”

  “The cops?” Walt said. “We don’t want to bring cops into this.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Linda said.

  “Look, you guys can split the three hundred bucks I promised. Everybody wins.”

  “Thanks,” Linda said. “We can use it to pay some of Hank’s hospital bills.”

  “But no cops, right?”

  “Wrong,” Linda said.

  “I tell you,” said officer Decker, “it’s some kind of Halloween gag.”

  “We’ll soon find out,” his partner, Parker, said.

  They entered the attic of the Winslow house. Their strong flashlights pushed tunnels of brightness ahead of them as they crossed the floor.

  “Okay,” Decker said. “So I was wrong.”

  “Is it dead?”

  “Sure looks dead to me,” Decker said.

  “What is it?” Parker asked.

  “I give up, what is it?”

  “Whatever it is,” Parker said, “I sure hope it’s dead.”

  “Yeah.” Just then the creature moved, and a low pained growl came from its mouth. Both officers drew their guns and stepped back.

  “It’s alive,” Parker said.

  “It may be alive, but it’s sure not human,” Decker replied.

  “What do you want to do?” Parker asked.

  “Well, I don’t want to give it first aid,” Decker said. He aimed his gun at the still growling creature—and pulled the trigger.