The Enormous Being of the Dark House

As a kid, Halloween was definitely my favorite night. I loved dressing up, hanging out with friends and trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.

Once I had put on a vampire costume, with a black cape, some fake fangs and some artificial blood in my mouth. I was very proud of my appearance, and I was sure I was going to get a lot of candy.

Together with my friends Lucas and Homer, I went through several streets ringing doorbells and shouting "Trick or treat!".

Most of the houses were decorated with lights, pumpkins and spider webs, and the owners gave us treats of all kinds: chocolates, gumdrops, cookies. We filled the bags with joy. I didn't pay attention to what they gave me.

When we reached the end of the street, something caught my attention. It was an old, dark house, with a neglected garden and broken windows.

It had no Halloween decorations, not even a lit candle. It looked abandoned, but I saw that there was a sign that said "Welcome".

I told my friends that we should go to that house, but they told me that they were suspicious. I insisted, telling them not to be cowards, that they would surely give us lots of candy. But fear got the better of them.

I went to the door and rang the bell. I waited and there was no answer. I rang again and that's when I heard slow footsteps approaching. The door opened with a creaking sound from beyond the grave and a huge person appeared with a very unfriendly face.

He was an older man, with gray, uncombed hair, a long, dirty beard, and sunken eyes. He was wearing a black guayabera, perhaps because it was dirty, and torn slippers.

He looked at me with an expression that I was bothering him and asked me in a thunderous voice what I wanted.

I with an innocent smile asked him: trick or treat?

The man frowned and reached into a bag next to the door. He pulled something out and dropped it in my bag. Then with his powerful voice he told me to get the hell out immediately.

I didn't see what he put in the bag, but I knew it was something heavy. I said thank you and ran away.

A few meters away I met up with my friends and they asked me how I had done. I replied that I wasn't sure as I looked inside the bag to see what was inside.

What I saw made me freeze. Among all the candy there were also spiders, things that looked like toads, but hairy, bats and worms in industrial quantities. All these creatures moved and writhed as if they were dead but alive.

Some escaped from the bag and fell to the ground and then came back to me as if to possess me like zombies fresh out of a movie.

I screamed in terror and dropped the bag. My friends also screamed and backed away. The creatures kept attacking me and made me fall to the ground. I wanted to shake them off and I couldn't do it.

I asked my friends for help, but they were paralyzed with horror. It seemed that nothing could stop those horrible things.

Then I remembered something. At the bottom of my bag was a coffee flavored chocolate bar that my grandmother had given me before I left. It was my favorite candy and I had saved it to eat at the end of the night. I don't know the reason, but in my mind was screwed the idea that I should eat it, that this was the source of energy to get rid of the darkness bugs.

With a superhuman effort I reached into the bag that had fallen not far away and pulled out the coffee and chocolate bar.

I opened it and bit into it hard. The sweet taste of chocolate and intense coffee filled my mouth and gave me a sense of calm and confidence.

Suddenly, the creatures attacking me stopped and moved away. I stood up and looked at them defiantly. The creatures made high-pitched sounds and left.

My friends asked what that was all about and I replied that the coffee flavored bar my grandmother had given me was magic and that was what saved me. We all hugged each other with relief.

Meanwhile, in the old, dark house, the man with the face of few friends looked out the window with a malicious smile.

He had another bag full of spiders, toads, bats and worms waiting for his next victim.