Morning all. I hope you are having a great week. We finally got our jack’o lanterns out. Mostly because it has now cooled down enough that they can stay for a few days without becoming mold covered slumping messes. So woo hoo, got them on the porch before Halloween! It feels like more of an accomplishment than it is. Still they are there. But today is a new day and it is time for the morning writing prompt. Timers set and off we go.
Ohhh, this feels like someone is going to be asked about missing persons soon. Kind of a spooky tale, or the start of one. I guess I have halloween on the brain.
Thursday, October 23rd: He was starting to get a bad feeling about this.
He was starting to get a bad feeling about this. It seemed so clear cut when they discussed it back in Steve’s basement. It was just a little harmless Halloween fun. Go and take a late night tour of the haunted house.
Somehow in his head he pictured a planned haunted house set up. People taking money for tickets at the door. Actors dressed in costumes and jumping out at people. Buckets of fake blood. Somehow before they left the basement his mind turned it into one of those ghost rides involving a mechanized cart taking him through the designated haunted house space.
That was something he could work with.
It wasn’t what they meant.
At all.
The car bumped over a road that had needed new gravel for several years. He followed the others because he suspected he would want to leave before they did. It had nothing to do with fear or fright. He often found himself wanting to leave before the others.
He chalked it up to having a job that started earlier than they bothered to get out of bed. ‘And drinking less.’
He couldn’t talk them out of driving, but he made sure they had a designated driver before they left so they wouldn’t hurt anyone. Although in all honesty they went out brought booze back to Steve’s basement and usually ended up sleeping it off there. They would be hungover by the time they left and stumbled to their cars in the early morning light.
Still, it was habit to drive alone and everyone expected it by this point. They pulled up into the dark lot and he could see the outline of the house. It was across a small field. It had no lights on. No man waiting to take money for tickets, no mechanized anything.
They parked and got out. The others were still full of laughter and fun. He knew they viewed this as an adventure. He looked at the house. Thought of rotten floorboards. Thought of having to be at work at five am the next morning. He looked at his watch. It took longer to get here than he thought it would.
“You coming?” Simone called.
“No actually,” he found himself saying. “It is too late, Work in the morning.”
There were boos and comments about work tossed his way but they were halfhearted. The others ignored him and went forward.
“We should really stop inviting him,” Someone said. He thought it was Steve. There was a chorus of agreements. Sadly, he too agreed with Steve.
He got back into his car, turned it around and headed back down the half-forgotten road to where it met the main road. He turned on it and headed back home. ‘I need to get some new friends,’ he decided.
It wasn’t the first time making the decision. The problem was meeting people was hard. ‘Especially when I am always working.’
Still hanging with them when he did get time off was becoming tedious. He would hang out in Steve’s basement and about the time he was ready to call it a night, they were ready to go out and start the evening’s fun. ‘Definitely need a new arrangement,’ he decided.
Ten til Midnight 