You don't expect it, but it's there. You are weak and powerless. It feeds on people like you.
******
Finn pulled on a solid black t-shirt and jeans. He grabbed a gray hoodie from a coat rack on his way out of the room. In the hall, his sister was dressed as a Slytherin student from Harry Potter. Two of her friends were there, one another girl in a cowgirl costume and the other a boy dressed as Luke Skywalker. Finn smiled at them and waved before running down the stairs.
His dad was laying on the couch, watching some cartoon. He looked tired. It made sense, he worked extremely long hours at the hospital as a nurse. He looked away from the TV as Finn opened the front door.
"Where are you going? Aren't you a little old for trick or treating?"
"I'm just going out with some friends."
Finn knew his dad didn't like them. He'd threatened to make him completely stop hanging out with them after they had ditched school a few weeks back. He knew they were a bad influence, but he'd given his son one more chance.
He frowned. "Be back by 9:00."
Finn nodded and closed the door as he walked out. Nine. Way too early. The others would want to stay out until midnight.
Or longer. It depended on what the surprise was.
Apparently, Eddie and Allison had been planning something for weeks. Something special. Something that they had worked so hard not to tell the other three about. Something memorable, just for Halloween. They'd all meet at Allison's house, then get going. Finn had been excited and nervous about it at the same time. The way they talked about it, it was a really big deal. Something that could easily get them all in big trouble.
So Finn didn't really know what to do. He'd gone along with it up until this point. Skipped classes to hang out with them, things like that, just so he wouldn't lose the only friends he had. I mean, sure, he'd have occasional conversations with other unpopular people, but he loved actually having real friends, a group, to hang out with all the time.
But now, with his dad's little threat, it seemed like he could lose them no matter what he did. But he supposed he'd just go- what was there to lose?
Allison lived in the same neighborhood as him, just a few streets away. As he walked closer to the house, he noticed Eddie and Allison in the driveway, along with Travis and Elaine. Travis, being his usual animated self, seemed to be telling a story with vivid hand motions. Elaine was wearing a shirt with characters from some horror movie on it.
She was the first one to notice Finn, and waved him on. He broke into a jog, finally joining them.
Eddie smiled from ear to ear. "Oh, this is gonna be great." He seemed to be studying each one of them, excitedly.
Elaine twirled her golden blonde hair around her finger. "Yeah. You've been saying that for weeks. Will you please tell us what it is?"
"Get in," Allison pointed to a beat up ford, her car. It was like her house: old and small.
"Your parents are cool about this?" Finn knew it was a stupid question. Even if they weren't, Allison would still go.
"Yeah. They're fine with it." She rolled her eyes. It was a completed honest answer. Her parents- exactly the opposite of role models- wouldn't care if she was smoking weed in a dark city alleyway.
The group of five crowded together in the vehicle. Finn, Allison, and Elaine in the back, Travis in the passenger seat, and Eddie at the wheel.
They pulled out of the driveway, out of the neighborhood, onto the highway.
Onto old back roads. Far from their houses.
No matter how much they asked-neither Allison nor Eddie said a thing. The few houses around them became even more discrete. Forests began taking over. The only buildings around were extremely old and decaying. Building that had been deserted for years.
Finn pulled out his phone to check the time. 6:00 already.
"Ok. Who wants to know where we're going?" Eddie asked, trying to sound ominous.
The others cheered.
"Have any of you heard of.... the store," Allison put a weird twist on the last two words.
Finn gulped. He should have guessed. They all should have guessed. Of course he'd heard of it. Everyone in town had. One of the oldest buildings in the area, where strange things happened. People reported odd things at the store- people staring at them from it's rotting windows. Feeling like they were being watched or followed as they drove by. Things like that.
"Ha!" Elaine shrieked. "I knew it, I knew it."
Finn felt the fear already seeping into his body. Allison and Eddie were right. This was perfect for Halloween.
*********
"I think it's called Bridgeport General. I think this is it..."
The store didn't seem like much. Just a simple, old building. There was absolutely no proof that someone had been there in the past fifty years.
"Are we the only ones who have ever been here?" Travis's facial expression clearly showed his excitement.
"Not recently, I bet. People are too scared. And I see why..." Elaine frowned deeply as she spoke, but Finn could tell she was excited as well by her voice.
Allison opened the door and climbed out. The others weren't far behind. As the store got closer, it got more and more ominous.
It was just as you would expect it to be inside. Eddie whipped out a flashlight, and lit up the room. There were really old looking refrigerators, probably from about the 60's. The shelves were wooden, some pushed over on their side, others still with items. A checkout desk was near the right wall of the room.
They walked further in. Finn felt like someone- anyone, anything- could suddenly jump out at them from the shadows.
"Just think," Travis whispered, eyes gleaming like they always did. "This place used to operate. Normal people like us shopped here- now just look at it."
A decaying memory.
It was creepy, but beautiful in a way.
They looked around for about twenty more minutes. There were several rats, some dead and some still scurrying about the place. In the corners of the room were small doors, just barely large enough for Finn to fit through. Finn stepped back as the others tried to rip them open and pick their locks with little luck. He felt as if they could all just burst open at any point, and someone would just pull them all through. He wasn't really even that curious about what was in them, he just kind of felt like they didn't need to be messed with.
The others reluctantly gave up and started looking around at other places. There was duct tape randomly placed on some parts of the floor, but Finn wasn't sure he wanted to know why.
In the corner by one of the doors, Allison found a small locket, attached to a silver chain. She pried it opened- and inside was a picture of a teenage girl.
Except it wasn't a normal girl. Her eyes had abnormally large shadows around them, and her skin was unhealthily pale. She smiled like the Cheshire cat.
Allison dropped the lockets, her eyes wide. Elaine joined her.
"That's the type of shit that makes people think this place isn't right..."
Travis rolled his eyes. "Someone probably put it here as a joke."
The others didn't look convinced, and neither was Finn. He agreed with Elaine, something about this place wasn't right. He felt as if it was that girl in one of the doors, staring at them as they opened a personal object they had no business even looking at.
Other than that, they didn't find anything they wouldn't expect. Just normal things for a normal rundown store. No ghosts, no witches, no secret cults. But what they did find- especially the locket- was enough for Finn to never want to go back. He felt like he was being watched by someone hidden in the depths of the store as they filed out the rusting door.
He was the last in line.
He tried to get the others to move faster. He wanted to get away from the store. It was interesting, but he wanted to be far from it.
*******
"So... that was cool."
It was already 8:30 and they were only halfway home.
"Yeah. But it would have been cooler if he rumors were true. You know, if there was real creepy stuff," Elaine said.
Allison raised an eyebrow. "You didn't think that girl picture was 'creepy stuff '?"
"You know what I mean. If there were actually ghosts or whoever people say stare at them out the window."
"You never know," Travis said. "Maybe we just came at the wrong time. I bet we could come in a week and find more stuff."
Finn sighed. It wasn't that he hadn't enjoyed the experience, it had been awesome, but he didn't want to go back. He never wanted to go back. Something about that place just wasn't right.
Even worse: he still felt like he was being watched, miles away from Bridgeport General Store.