Last Trip down Memrie Lane

Chapter 2
Chapter 2

2

“Trick or treat!” they said loudly as the door opened and not for the last time that night did the people from within cock an eyebrow at the three of them. They all held out their pumpkin-shaped candy buckets out with both hands and tried to look at sweet and endearing as possible.

They received their candy, and once more they gave a loud and childish “thank you!” just before the door closed behind them.

It was going rather well. The three of them had already amassed a good portion of candy between them and the night was still young. Harley, of course, had acquired perhaps a bit more, as she was passing more believably as a child than her two friends.

Tania readjusted the top hem of her costume and let out a long sigh and a slight shiver. “Not a lot left to do. And we only have a half hour until we have to get to the party.” The cold was starting to get to all three of them, and short skirts made of thin material did not do well on a cool autumn night regardless of the occasion.

Harley gave a small murmur of agreement. “Well what do you want to do between now and then?”

“The strip mall?” Tania suggested.

Laura shook her head. “Closed for renovations remember?”

“Oh yeah,” said Harley, “Applevine road?”

Tania groaned, “No. Too far away and I’m cold enough as it is.”

“How about a stroll down Memrie Lane?” suggested Laura.

The two girls looked at her and for a split second, there was nothing but dead air between them, broken only by the sounds of their high heels clacking along the road. Then Tania laughed.

“Memrie Lane? Seriously?” she said with a grin. “Come on, I really don’t want to get raped tonight.”

Laura chuckled, “Oh what’s the matter, little girl? Afraid the big spooky house is gonna get you?” and she put on a mock-baby voice and pinched Tania’s cheek like a mother coddling a child.

Tania shrugged Laura’s hand away. “Hey you’ve lived here just as long as I have. You know the poem by heart as much as any of us.”

“Oh come on, those are just ghost stories. None of that garbage ever happened and you know it.”

“Still,” protested Tania, “I’ve never liked the look of that road.”

Laura rolled her eyes. “Wow. Not even a little peek? I’ve always wanted to see what it looks like on Halloween. How about you Harley?”

Harley tore her gaze away from the path ahead of them and looked up. She had never liked the stories about the house but then again she never believed any of them. They always seemed like the sort of thing s which had been invented to keep kids from vandalizing the place. “Uh… I don’t know. I guess.”

Laura grinned. “Cool. Come on Tania, don’t be a chicken. Just one peek and we can get to the party.”

Tania looked apprehensive but eventually bit her cheek and said, “Ok. Just one peek and then we leave. I’m freezing as it is.”

It didn’t take them long to reach the entrance to Memrie Lane, and the road was not long, only a five minute walk down the road until they were standing at the iron and rust-stained front gate of Memrie Manor.