Alicia Osborne

Ninth grader

Tonganoxie Junior High School

Gotcha!

My cousin Terry was driving us home from Maya’s Halloween party when I heard our front tire blow out. We pulled over on a lonely stretch of road and got out to examine the wheel.

“Man, isn’t this exciting?” Terry said as we got out of the car to change the tire.

We worked in silence trying to change the tire. We’d only seen it done once in driver’s education, I’m glad we paid attention. After about an hour, I heard a loud clunk coming from the driver’s side of the car. As I jumped up, I asked in a terrified voice, “What the heck was that?”

“It was probably just an animal, but I’ll go check and see, while you work on the tire,” Terry said.

“OK, just be careful,” I said a quiver in my voice. I didn’t like being out in the middle of nowhere, in the dark, and on Halloween.

“I think it was just a deer, because I saw some prints in the ground over there.”

“Oh, all right,” I said. “I think I have this tire done now. So let’s get going.”

“Alrighty then.” Terry said in a relieved voice.

We got into the car and put on our seat belts. Terry put the key into the ignition and tried to start the car, but the engine failed.

“What the heck’s going on?” Terry yelled.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Do you think the tire blow out could have affected the engine?”

“I seriously doubt that. This is crazy. I’ll get out and see if I can fix it. This is the worst day ever to have this happen. It’s Halloween and we’re out here all alone. Who knows what could happen,” Terry said stepping out of the car.

I have to say, that comment made me feel just a little uneasy. I mean, first one of our tires blows out, then I hear a strange noise and now the car won’t start. To top it off today is Halloween so there are all types of crazy people out. Man, I’m scared.

After about five minutes of me sitting alone in the silence of the car, I hear Terry scream.

“Terry, what’s wrong?” I asked as I opened the door and walked around to the front of the car where Terry had been working.

Once I got to the front of the car I saw that Terry was gone and all that was there was her letter jacket and a strange cane that I’d never seen before. I picked up the cane and ran to the car, jumped in, locking all of the doors. I pulled out my phone to call 911, but there was no service. Suddenly, I realized how bad my situation really was. I had no phone, my car was broken, and my cousin had just been kidnapped. All I wanted to do was cry, but I stayed strong and began to try to figure a way to save Terry.

I lost it when out of the corner of my eye I saw someone or something running towards me. As it approached, at a fast rate, I noticed that it was Terry. Her face and clothes were covered with blood. When she got half way to the car she was knocked down by a dark shadowy person, which came from nowhere. I waited for Terry to get up, but she didn’t move at all. I suddenly didn’t care about my own life as I opened the door and ran towards Terry planning to save her from the shadowy person. My heart was pounding as I ran towards her still body. As I approached the body I saw the shadowy person bend down to choke Terry to death. This made me scream louder than I ever had in my life. I began to run at a dead sprint when suddenly Terry sat up and the shadowy person took off his mask then the two looked toward me and shouted:

“Happy Halloween!!”

My brother and Terry played a huge a prank on me that night. I think I’ll remember it for the rest of my life. Man, they got me good.

Leslie Rickey

Ninth grader

Tonganoxie Junior High School

My cousin Terry was driving us home from Maya’s Halloween party when I heard our front tire blow out. We pulled over on a lonely stretch of road and got out to examine the wheel. While Terry got out to look at the tire, I opened the trunk to see if we had a spare tire. Of course with my luck, she didn’t.

“Terry, you’ll never guess what you don’t have,” I said. “A spare.”

“Are you kidding,” she said. “Of course with our luck, I should have known I wouldn’t have one. “And you’ll never guess what I left at Maya’s party, my cell phone. But I think I saw a house about a mile back, they have a phone we could use.”

“It’s a good thing you have a flashlight in here,” I said. “Or you would have walked by yourself.” As I got the flashlight, Terry got her keys and we both started walking to the house.

“Look, the lights are on, someone’s got to be home for sure,” Terry said. As we walked down the driveway, I felt like were being watched. Then as we walked up the front porch stairs, I noticed a man sitting in a rocking chair.

“Oh, my gosh, I didn’t see you there,” Terry screamed.

The old man said, “Sorry Miss, didn’t mean to startle you.”

“That’s OK, do you have a phone that we can use?” Terry asked. “Our tire blew out about a mile north. We really need to get a hold of someone to pick us up.”

“Sorry, don’t have one, but I would be more than happy to give you ladies a ride to the nearest gas station,” he said.

Before Terry could say anything, I said, “That’s OK we can walk to the next house and see if they have a phone we can use.”

“The next gas station is about two miles north, it’s not really that far,” the old man said. “I can take you, it would be no problem at all.”

“Yes, you can take us,” Terry said, giving me a look that was telling me just to go along with it. The old man got up and went inside to get his keys.

“Come on,” he said.

We both walked to the passenger door and got in the truck.

At first the truck wouldn’t start, which I was happy about. But as soon as I was going to say something, of course, the truck started. As we were going down the road, we passed our car.

As we got closer, the old man turned his blinker on to turn the opposite direction of the gas station. I asked,” What are you doing? The gas station’s that way. Turn around.”

I really started to panic, Terry just sat there in fear. The old man just ignored me.

“Hello, can you hear me? I’m talking to you, you old fart. Would you please, answer me?”

“Sit down and shut up,” the old man screamed at me.

I was so scared that I did exactly what he said.

Terry turned her head and whispered, “When I count to three, open the door and we’ll jump out.”

I nodded my head yes, then I looked at the old man and back at Terry.

Terry whispered, 1-2-3.

I opened up my door and we both dove out, the old man slammed on his brakes, and put the truck in reverse.

Terry and I hid in the ditch until he left. When the old man drove off, we both ran and didn’t stop until we got to the gas station.

To our surprise the old man’s truck wasn’t there. When we walked through the door, we asked for the phone. The lady said that they didn’t have one and her shift was almost over, and she could give us a ride to a man’s house who lives about two miles away. She said he would surely have one to use.

Terry and I both looked at each other and screamed!