Mckenzie Martin – “See! It just moved!”
Noah rolled his eyes at his younger brother Luke. The skeleton sat on their neighbour’s porch, its arm resting on the railing, hand swaying slightly in the cool November air. It had been sitting there since the week of Halloween, and it hadn’t moved one inch.
“It just did it again, I swear!”
“It’s the wind, dummy, it’s just a stupid decoration. Let’s go now, before we get in trouble!” Noah yelled and raced a scared Luke home.
Ever since they went trick-or-treating at that house, Luke had tried to avoid that decoration when walking home from school, either running away or averting his gaze.
Noah didn’t see the big deal. He was way beyond those childish fears now. It was a piece of plastic, and it was going to get destroyed if the neighbours didn’t take it inside before the first snow hit.
The next day, Noah went out with a friend. When they walked by that house, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. The skeleton’s head was tilted ever so slightly towards the road and its mouth was open a little wider than usual. It was probably just the wind again.
However, the day after, the wind had died down, and the skeleton’s head was turned just the tiniest bit more.
Another week passed, and Noah was starting to go crazy. Luke’s overactive imagination was worming its way into his head.
He couldn’t pass that house without cautiously checking the skeleton’s position. Its head was fully facing the road now, its jaw hung loosely making it look like it was smiling.
Noah shivered. Halloween was over, his neighbours needed to put that thing away. Come to think of it though, he hadn’t seen his neighbours since he brought Luke to ask for candy.
“What? You’re scared of a silly decoration?” Noah’s friend mocked him when he mentioned it at lunch. They mocked him like he had mocked his brother.
“No! I’m not scared, it’s just odd.” He protested.
“They’re probably just playing a prank on your brother and now you.” That was the only logical answer, but he couldn’t shake the weird feeling.
That night on his walk home, Noah decided he had enough. He approached the neighbour’s front door and knocked as hard as he could. He needed them to quit it.
The skeleton’s face was turned to him now. When no one answered, Noah moved closer to it. Hesitantly he reached out, to prove it was just plastic, but a bony hand wrapped around his wrist first. The skeleton’s eye sockets were dark, but he knew the thing was looking into his soul.
Noah screamed and thrashed his arm until it slipped out of the skeleton’s grip. He turned to run, but the skeleton grabbed at his backpack.
He screamed again and finally broke away, hearing something tear. Noah sprinted home and didn’t look back.
The next day the skeleton was gone, but the hole in his backpack was still there, and he remembered how real the bones had felt.
Photo contribution: Mckenzie Martin
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