“Let’s play a trick on Tommy.”
It was Halloween and Mike had planned on hanging out with his two best friends. His parents had other ideas though. They insisted that he take his little brother trick or treating. At seven, Tommy was five years younger than they were and a big crybaby, so when Steve and Chad came by the house Mike was ready with his plan.
“What do you have in mind?” Steve asked.
“Let’s play a game of hide and seek in the old cemetery with him.” Mike grinned as both Steve and Chad looked askance. No one went into the place at night. Its rundown appearance gave rise to tales of haunting and general mayhem. No one had been buried there for over fifty years.
“When he walks by, we’ll grab his legs and scare the crap out of him.”
When told about the hide and seek game, Tommy started blubbering but finally agreed, since it was the price to go out with the older boys. They all slipped past the loose chain on the gate and snuck onto the grounds. The full moon made the old headstones shimmy and dance as if alive when the tree branches swayed in the wind, throwing shadows at odd moments.
While Tommy counted to one hundred the others hid, each waiting for the chance to scare the big baby. Tommy yelled, “Here I come” and started walking.
He soon let out a blood-curdling yell as something grabbed his leg. Steve and Chad both popped out of their hiding places in fits of laughter. Their laughter died as they realized that Mike was nowhere to be found.
“Something reached out of the ground and grabbed me,” Tommy said. He started crying again. “Where’s Mike?”
Another scream split the air, farther into the graveyard. The older boys smiled. Mike was still up to his tricks. They headed in that direction, dragging a reluctant Tommy with them.
After searching, the boys couldn’t find Mike anywhere. They stumbled upon a fresh mound of dirt over one of the graves. Scared now, they ran back to Mike’s house, telling his parents about the fresh grave and the fact that Mike was now missing.
The police arrived, delivering Mike, whom they’d caught exiting the graveyard. He confessed to his practical joke, finding no one particularly amused by it and earning months of restriction for his troubles.
“I still have one question,” Tommy said, after the police had left. “If Mike was at the back of the graveyard, who grabbed my leg?”
