BOO!!!!!!!!!
Did I make you jump?
No? Damn it.
The fang-tastic A.L.Michael has ventured into the Haunted House this Halloween; but, luckily for us, she has come out with more than cobwebs on her! Especially for us here at TWG, the ghoulish ladies from the #HouseOnCamdenSquare series (Goodbye Ruby Tuesday, Nice Day For A White Wedding & Be My Baby) have gotten into the Halloween spirit and author A.L.Michael has written all down in a short story. Hold onto your fancy dress costumes ladies and gentlemen because things are about to get….SPPPPPOOOOOOKKKKKKYYYYYYYY!
Halloween on Camden Square written for TWG
Copyright A.L.Michael (2016)
‘Babe, I’m getting old here,’ Chelsea rolled her eyes, adjusting her short white skirt.
Mollie looked at herself in the mirror, her long blonde curls tied back into two pigtails, a basket with a stuffed ‘Toto’ sitting at her feet. ‘Bet she’s been ready for ten minutes, she just wants to make an entrance.’
‘Hey! I heard that!’ Ruby called through the bathroom door, ‘Perfection takes time!’
‘The party will be over by the time we get there!’ Evie sighed, adding to her eyeliner.
‘You know, dressing up like a goth on Halloween when you already are one is really lacking in imagination,’ Chelsea said, sticking out her tongue.
‘And dressing up as a slutty nurse is….?’
‘In the spirit of the season, obviously.’Mollie laughed at the two of them, shaking her head. ‘Ruby, you might want to come out before the witch and the nurse get into it.’
‘Okay, prepare yourselves girls…’
Ruby threw the door open and posed, her red curls hidden under slick black dye, the wedding dress she wore covered in fake blood spatter, ripped and cut to show off her legs. Her eyes were red, and her throat looked slashed.
‘So, perfect right?’ She winked, disarming in the face of her costume.
‘Grotesque and wonderful,’ Mollie agreed, putting some delicate freckles on her skin.
‘So can we go and get bloody well pissed now?’
***
‘What is it with you and pirates?’ Mollie laughed as Killian walked in, plastic parrot sitting on his shoulder. She was stringing up pumpkin style halloween lanterns.
‘I should have lived at sea, argh,’ he made a face, flicking up his eye patch. ‘And what the bloody hell are you meant to be? A creature from the deep?’
Mollie look down from the ladder at her green top and leggings. ‘Oh, right.’ She reached over for her hat, green spikes coming from the top of her head. ‘I’m the scariest of all vegetables…I’m broccoli!’ She held out her hands in front of her, ‘Zombie broccoli! Made in a….laaaaaab!’
‘You wanna put a “please buy organic” sign on your back, just to get your point across?’ Evie laughed as she walked into the studio.
Killian and Mollie laughed as she walked up. Evie was wearing a smart two piece fitted suit, a white shirt, high heels and a pair of square framed glasses. Her huge wild curls were slicked back into a overly neat bun.
‘What the hell are you meant to be?’
‘Corporate consumer bollocks,’ Evie shrugged, grabbing a handful of popcorn from the side, ‘Duh.’
‘So the most scary thing you can think of on Halloween is working a normal job in an office?’
‘It’s like you don’t even know me,’ Evie laughed and kissed Killian. ‘How are we getting along ahead of the party?’
‘All systems go!’ Mollie nodded, ‘Ez is out with Jamie, finalising her excellent costume, apparently. When’s Chels getting here?’
‘She has stopped to buy booze,’ Evie said, ‘I said if she brought something posh, I was chucking her out.’
‘You think she’s still going to do a Chelsea special?’ Mollie grinned.
‘What’s that?’ Killian asked.
‘Chelsea always really enjoyed the part of Halloween where you could show off as much skin as possible, and no one could say shit about it,’ Evie said.
‘That’s hard to imagine.’
Evie laughed, ‘you don’t have to imagine, I have ALL the pictures from our teen halloweens, and I’ve had them blown up and placed around the studio!’
Chelsea arrived not long after, bursting through the door, holding up a box of blue WKDs. The others stood there in silence. It wasn’t every day a woman dressed in a unicorn onesie, complete with sparkly horn, burst into the room, holding bright blue booze and yelled, ‘It’s party time bitches!’
***
‘It’s party time bitches!’ Chelsea howled as they entered the party, hobbling along in her heels.
‘Aren’t you getting frostbite on your arse?’ Evie rolled her eyes, nudging her friend.
‘Drink more, keeps you warm,’ Chelsea replied, opening the door.
And once again, the most exciting party in Badgeley was a bunch of losers sitting on the floor in Nigel’s empty house. They looked up in shock, as if they’d never seen women before.
‘Is this not…the party?’ Mollie sighed, wincing with the embarrassment of it.
The poor boys’ eyes almost bulged out of their heads, and like zombies, they stumbled to their feet.
‘It is, it is the party!’ one said.
‘Stay, we’ve got beer!’
Nigel rolled his eyes and nudged Evie, ‘Everyone’s late – some of the Henley boys were setting off fireworks on the estate, and everyone went to watch when they got arrested. They’ll be here. Drink?’
Evie snorted and followed him through to the kitchen.
‘You don’t have to stay, I know it’s Night of the Living Geeks in here,’ Nigel grinned, handing her a beer.
‘Were you playing dungeons and dragons?’ She stuck out her tongue.
‘No, we were telling ghost stories.’
They went back into the living room, where the girls had since collapsed onto the floor, sitting in a circle. Ruby was lighting candles around them, and talking in a creepy voice.
‘We’re going to do a seance!’
Chelsea rolled her eyes and huffed. ‘One more thing the magical Ruby Montgomery can do! Hey, feel free to ask my nana where she hid that necklace she meant to give me.’
Ruby closed her eyes, rocked side to side, holding a finger to her temple, ‘Your mum sold it before she died.’
Chelsea shrugged, ‘Sounds about right.’
‘What is this bollocks, Rubes? Seriously.’
‘We used to do it in my foster home all the time,’ she shrugged, one shoulder jauntily raising as she grinned, fake blood running down her pale arms. ‘I’m gifted.’
A chill ran through the room, and the candles flickered.
‘See? The dead are on my side,’ Ruby whispered, grinning.
***
‘My god, look at that one! Do you remember that year?’ Chelsea pointed at the picture, her with a blue tongue, tiny white nurse’s outfit askew.
‘The year of the dud party!’ Evie grinned, ‘poor Nigel and his D and D mates.’
‘Come on, some of them saw more of a woman that night with your outfit than they would for the next five years.’
‘Yes, okay, I was working through some stuff,’ Chelsea laughed, ‘And to be fair, I will never have a flat stomach like that ever again.’
‘Is that why….the full body fluffy suit? Or are you hiding a future baby unicorn in there?’ Evie wiggled her eyebrows.
‘Nice, Eves. Great way to ask if I’m pregnant. And no,’ Chelsea made a face, ‘It’s just really comfy and I’m done with having to make an effort this year!’
‘Anyway, I thought that halloween was nice!’ Mollie interjected, smiling at the photo, ‘that was the last one before Ruby left.’
‘And she freaked us out with her ghost stories and fake seance!’ Evie added, then paused, grinning. ‘I have an idea.’
‘What idea?’ A little voice came from across the room, where Esme was dressed as a giant felt pumpkin. When Mollie looked at her, she saw the long sleeves actually looked like hammers.
‘What’s that?’
Esme grinned, and banged on her costume with the palms of her hands.
‘I’m the smashing pumpkins!’ She waited, grinning, ‘They’re a band!’
‘Yes,’ Killian raised an eyebrow, ‘we know they’re a band…how do you know they’re a band?’
‘I’m an old soul,’ the little girl said simply, grinning up at her father. ‘Do you like Dad’s one? Evelyn helped us make them. He’s a rocky.’
‘Just Rocky, baby,’ Mollie grinned at how uncomfortable Jamie looked, wearing his shiny red silk boxing shorts, a plastic champions belt around his waist, and red gloves. And not much else.
‘Think we could turn the heating up?’ He said awkwardly, ‘I tried to put a towel around my neck, but apparently that spoiled the illusion.’ He looked at Esme. ‘Not that madam knows who Rocky is.’
‘He’s a man who gets beaten up a lot and wins stuff. Like you,’ Esme nodded seriously, ‘Now, what’s the idea?’
‘It’s a spooky test!’ Evie said, ‘A homage to Ruby.’
‘Don’t you think there’s enough homages to Ruby?’ Mollie sighed, ‘I mean, I love her, but if I have to see one more little girl dressed up as the undead version of our dead friend, I might scream.’
‘An honouring, then. You remember what she said?’ Evie smiled, lighting tealights around the room, and turning off the lights. They stood in silence for a moment, watching each other by flickering candlelight, unsure what would come next.
‘The dead are on her side, remember?’ Evie grinned, ‘Ruby? Babe, you always loved a big entrance, right? Wanna impress us from the other side?’
They waited for the briefest second, until a breeze picked up, and every single candle in the room went out.
Mollie screamed, Chelsea gasped, and by the time Jamie had hit the lights, Esme was grinning. ‘Awesome!’
The adults stood around, shaken.
‘I’d only been messing around…’ Evie whispered, looking paler than ever.
‘Guys,’ Chelsea walked across to the box of booze she’d dropped when she first arrived, ‘the tops have been taken off everyone of these WKDs…and one’s missing.’
She turned and grinned at them, ‘Bloody hell.’
‘Here’s to Ruby, the classiest ghost around,’ Evie laughed, holding up one of the bottles so they could cheers, the glass clinking so that it sounded, ever so faintly, like laughter.
How fantastic was that! Thank you to the lovely A.L.Michael for writing the short story especially for my blog! Truly honoured. Unfortunately folks, you won’t be able to get your hands on that as it isn’t a book -growls-. Fear not though, A.L.Michael will be bringing the third and final #HouseOnCamdenSquare instalment to a Kindle near you, on the 7th November. I will just have to keep pestering her for more tales from Camden Square!
The Writing Garnet 