>>19633
Here we go.

[Edward Hyde]
TRICK OR TREAT Pt1

“Wow! Everyone round here really seems to go all out for Halloween, huh?” Jenny enthused.

“Looks like it!” her brother Jerry agreed. “Makes our pumpkins look a little lame!”

“Yeah but at least we know for next year!” Jenny shrugged. “Come on, let’s see what we can go collect! If they put this much effort into the decorations, I bet they give out some pretty good candy too!”

The twins had moved into the cul-de-sac with their parents when their dad’s job got moved early in the summer. So far it had not been too much of a challenge, although setting into a new school and making new friends always took a bit of time. They had worried that, a thirteen, their neighbours might judge them a little old for trick-or-treating but they had been assured that this was a street that loved Halloween and they’d be more than welcome to join in the festivities.

Not long after they got home from school, they had noticed the top of the road being blocked off with barricades like the Police our council put out when a marathon or parade is going to pass through the middle of the city. They had asked their parents to keep the curtains closed while the neighbours set out their lawn decorations so they could take it all in as a surprise and that was certainly what they got! Emerging onto the street, Jenny dressed as a wicked witch complete with hooked nose and green facepaint and Jerry as a vampire, they had found themselves in the middle of something more like a street party or village fair! Not every house had decorations or displays on the lawn, of course, as some families were helping out others but even the houses that stood empty had a bowl of sweets on the porch for Trick-or-Treaters on the honour system.

There were many children of various ages, all in costumes that had obviously had a lot of thought put into them, running from house to house excitedly filling their bags and buckets. The twins were pleased to note that they were not the oldest to be joining in – they recognised a couple of the neighbours they knew to be at least two years older than them. With a wave to their parents who had stayed home to hand out sweets, at least for the first hour or so, they set off.

The first couple of houses just had unattended bowls so they took a couple of pieces each for their bags and continued on their way. On the next lawn, something far more interesting was going on! A guillotine had been set up and man that they recognised as Mr Jenkins, a colleague of their dad’s, was stood beside it dressed as a French Revolutionary, complete with red hat! Beside the guillotine was a cart on which a headless body, dressed as a noble, lay. What caught their attention far more, however, was the row of spikes beside it, five in total, one of which sported the obviously very real head of Emily Jenkins, his middle daughter.

“It was her idea so she volunteered to go first!” Mr Jenkins laughed, seeing their surprise. “She thought she might last a little bit longer than she did ‘though!” There was a giggle from the guillotine and the twins looked down to see another girl, around their own age, also dressed as a French aristocrat, with her head locked into it.

“Hi!” the girl grinned up at them, “Do you want to have a go?” Behind the guillotine stood three more similarly-dressed girls, all around the same age and all looking very excited to be there. Their hands were tied with rope but it looked pretty loose and was obviously more for effect than any real need for restraint. “It’s pretty fun!”

“A go?” Jerry asked, “What do you mean?”

“At the game!” the girl grinned. “It’s the ultimate Extreme Trick or Treat!”

“Maybe I’d better explain!” Mr Jenkins stepped forward again. “See here?” He pointed down the side of the guillotine where roughly twenty lollipops were sticking out of the wood. “Each time we raise the blade, the trigger moves to a random hole, even I don’t know which one, and it’s never the same one twice in a row. You each pull out a lollipop and if you happen to select the right one, the blade comes down and off comes Mandy’s head!”

“Wow that sounds cool!” Jenny gasped, “But isn’t it kinda scary for you?” she asked the girl who’s head was at risk.

“Nah it’s exciting!” she grinned. “Plus to make it fair, we’ve agreed that we’ll each stay in here for ten goes at a time, that way everyone gets a chance. Wouldn’t be much fun for the others if one of us was just in here all evening! Mind you, poor Emily went out with the second pick so she barely got to enjoy herself!”

“How many are you on right now?” asked Jerry.

“Seven.” Mandy replied after thinking for a moment, “You’d be seven and eight. So you going to try it?”

“Too right!” Jerry grinned. He stepped forward, looked carefully at the lollipops for a moment as if he may be able to tell something about them by looking, then selected one and quickly pulled it out. Nothing happened. There was an audible groan from the waiting girls.

Next, Jenny stepped up to take her turn. Figuring that the trigger would most likely be somewhere in the middle to make it harder to guess, she selected the lollipop in the top left-hand corner of the grid. As soon as she did so there was a click, then a whooshing sound. She leapt back in alarm and before she knew it, the blade had cut through the young girl’s neck, dropping her head into the waiting basket. The blood splashed onto the grass and Jenny’s shoes as Mr Jenkins hoisted the blade back up into position.

“Well done!” He congratulated Jenny, picking up the head out of the basket and ramming onto the spike next to his daughter’s before lifting the limp, decapitated body onto the cart. Jenny couldn’t help feeling a little guilty but absolutely nobody, including the beheaded girl, looked remotely upset! In fact her face was locked into a broad grin which she would not wear until her flesh rotted away, assuming the heads were to be left on the spikes. “As the one who triggered the blade,” Mr Jenkins explained, “you get to pick the next girl!” This was an honour Jenny was not entirely sure she wanted but the remaining three girls were all looking at her pleadingly, bouncing up and down in their enthusiasm to be picked.

“Umm… You!” Jenny pointed to a tall redhead with very pretty green eyes.

“Yes!” exclaimed the chosen girl as the rest sighed. Mr Jenkins untied the rope around her wrists and re-tried them behind her back then led her to the freshly-vacated guillotine, blood still dripping from the blade, and locked her in place.

“Umm… good luck?” Jenny wished her a little nervously, dropping the fatal lollipop into her sack and following her brother onto the next attraction. After a few more help-yourself houses they came to a lawn where a group of three teenage girls, all dressed as witches like Jenny, although having gone for a more glamorous interpretation, were stood around a large iron cauldron over a real fire. In the cauldron, which the “witches” were taking it in turn to stir, were three younger girls, aged between six and nine, all apparently naked and giggling as they squirmed around among the floating root-vegetables, trying to avoid the large spoon.

“Hi!” Jenny smiled at them. “Awesome costumes!”

“Thanks!” a dark-haired girl with purple eye-shadow that matched her striped stockings replied warmly. “You look great too! You going in for the trial later?”

“What trial?” Jenny asked, intrigued.

“The witch trial!” the brunette grinned. “Don’t you know about it?”

“Oh it’s SO much fun!” a blonde with bright orange lipstick and a very low-cut dress that Jerry couldn’t help noticing enthused, “Everyone who wants to go in for it has to be dressed as a witch and the witchfinders do all sorts of tests like they used to do in the olden-days to find witches, and decide which of us is the chief witch and the winner gets to be star of the show!”

“Wow that does sound kinda cool!” Jenny grinned. “I might just do that! Do I have to sign up somewhere?”

“No, just come when they make the announcement. I’ve done it three years in a row, hopefully it’s my turn this time!”

“Well good luck!” Jenny grinned, thinking it would be fun to get involved in local traditions and happy that her new neighbours were so willing to include her. “So what are you doing here?”

“Making Little Sister Stew!” a girl with light-brown hair, green makeup and fishnet stockings explained with a grin. “It should be ready in about an hour if you want some, just in time to enjoy a mug before the trial!”

“So you’re really cooking them?” Jerry asked, watching the happy little girls splashing around and giggling, “They do know, right?”

“Well duh!” The brunette in purple laughed, “It was basically their idea!”

“Hey, there’s some caramel apples here for trick-or-treaters if you fancy one to keep you going until the stew is ready?” The blonde handed the spoon to her friend and picked up a tray, offering it to the twins.

“They’re not poisoned or anything are they?” Jerry asked, laughing a little nervously.

“Nah, not this yeah!” The girl replied with a wink. He took one and bit into it with some trepidation but it was nothing but a normal, delicious caramel apple. Jenny took one too and began to munch happily as they waved to the witches and the girls in the pot before continuing on their way.

TRICK OR TREAT Pt2

“What do you think’s going on here?” Jerry asked, peering with intrigue at a sign that said “Danger! Scientist at work” and an arrow pointing towards a garage beside one of the houses. The garage door was open and hanging from it was a heavy plastic curtain such as you might see in a hospital or abattoir. As they approached, a group of five small children ran out giggling. There was dramatic music coming from inside the garage and some theatrical smoke leaked out under the curtain. Otherwise there was nothing to indicate what was happening inside.

“Guess there’s only one way to find out!” Jenny grinned and led the way through the curtain, her brother following close behind. Inside, they were greeted by a boy and girl slightly older than the twins, wearing artificially stained white lab coats, thick goggles and grey, “mad scientist” wigs.

The inside of the garage was set up to look like a science lab with elaborate equipment, glass tubes filled with coloured liquids and Tesla coils arching and sparking. In the middle, however, was the main attraction – a wooden bench angled at forty-five degrees so trick-or-treaters could see what was on it. On the bench lay a naked girl of around fifteen, her body painted a mottled light green with her nipples a darker shade, the same as her lipstick and eye-shadow. At various points on her body were clearly superficial but very real cuts with big black stitches through them, making it look as if she was sewn together from various different bodies – clearly meant to represent Frankenstein’s monster.

She had a heavy metal collar around her throat and was strapped down by her wrists and ankles. Sharp metal probes had been inserted under her skin in various different places over her body with wires trailing from them. As the twins looked in awe, and not a small amount of arousal in Jerry’s case, she growled and thrashed around on the table, clearly very much enjoying playing her part and really getting into it.

“Wow! This is really cool!” Jenny exclaimed, then she recognised the girl on the table. It was not somebody she knew well but she recognised her from school. The girl was two years above her and was known to be one of the stars of the science club.

“Isn’t it just?” The boy scientist grinned, “She designed it all herself. We helped her build it ‘though, with a bit of help from my mum and her dad!” The monster girl continued to growl and made a show of struggling against her restraints.

“So what happens here?” asked Jenny.

“You have to pull the switch here.” The girl scientist indicated a large, sprung lever switch of the kind that might reasonable be expected in Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory or close to an Electric Chair in a prison. “Candy comes out underneath.” She explained, pointing to a small metal trough of the kind found at the bottom of slot machines. “As you pull the switch,” she continued, “a disc spins inside with different resistors. Wherever it stops, that’s the amount of electricity she gets. Could be anything from a mild tingle to a fatal shock. Wanna try it?”

“Sure!” Jenny grinned but her brother pushed in front of her.

“Sorry,” he said, “but with your track record, I want to go first! Otherwise you might finish her off before I get a chance.” The girl strapped to the table roared and snarled as he approached the switch but all very much in character. Jerry took hold of it with both hands and pulled it down. There was a whirring sound then what looked like quite a sizeable jolt of electricity was passed through the girl’s naked body. Her scream sounded very genuine and for a second Jerry was worried he had actually killed her which would be quite a shame so early in the evening but a few seconds later she began to thrash and growl once more.

Jerry collected his small handful of sweets from the trough and stepped back to let his sister take her turn. The switch had automatically sprung back up once he had released it and Jenny took hold of it, finding it stiffer than she expected and realising the smaller children must have had help, and pulled it down. The whirring sound came again and again the girl stiffened as the current was passed through her but there was no scream this time and she resumed her in-character protests almost immediately.

“So what happens if she survives the evening?” Jenny asked, retrieving her reward.

“Then I guess she has to get some proper stitches done at the hospital,” laughed the boy-scientist, “and she doesn’t have to come up with anything new for next year! Personally,” he chuckled, “I don’t think she will make it too late into the night. There’s only six possible outcomes every time the lever is pulled and we’re expecting a lot more people yet. It’s not just people who live here that come to see what we’ve laid on,” he explained, “this street is pretty famous all around the county and people come from miles away to check out our displays and games each year!”

“So what happens when she snuffs it?” Jerry asked, a little indelicately. “You just keep shocking her corpse?”

“She suggested dissection,” the girl scientist replied, “if she dies too early in the evening. You know, cut her head open and take out her brain, that sort of thing? Then, if there’s time we can stitch her back together and try to shock her back to life.” She laughed. “Otherwise we can put bits of her in pickling jars and use them as decorations next year!”

“Sounds like fun!” Jenny grinned. “Good luck!” She waved at the monster-girl who broke character for just a second to waggle her restrained hand in the closest approximation she could manage of a wave before very quickly returning to her in-character roaring and thrashing.

“Wow, that was pretty intense!” Jerry chuckled as they made their way back up the driveway to the street. “What do you think we’re going to find next?”

TRICK OR TREAT Pt3

The next four houses all had honour bowls outside but the lawn display of the fifth one caught the twin’s eye. Two sets of gallows had been set up with a little girl hanging from each, one looked to be around ten years old and the other maybe eight. The older girl had her hair in twin braids while the younger’s was in a simple pony-tail. Both were naked except for long white socks. A pair of stools were placed just behind the gallows and the girls had clearly not been hanging for long as they were still giggling as they twisted around and fought for breath. What made the scene especially amusing were the signs specifying the terrible crimes for which they were being executed – the older girl was guilty of having terrible taste in music and the younger was condemned for her stinky feet! The twins were pretty sure the girls themselves had been the ones to specify each other’s crimes.

“Break time!” A mature woman, presumably their mother, who the twins had not noticed before, stepped forward and nudged the stools forward a little so the girls could stand on tip-toes and get a little respite. The girls, still giggling, made sighs of relief as they enjoyed the minute or so of recovery time they were allowed before their next dangle. “Here you go!” The woman picked up a large bowl of candy and offered it to the twins who took the fancy-looking wrapped chocolates gratefully.

“So they’re not actually going to die tonight?” Jenny asked, looking up at the sweaty little girls, their flat chests heaving and their hands tied behind their backs.

“Oh, sure they are!” the woman replied, setting down the candy bowl and checking her watch to see how long was left before she needed to take the stools away again. “Just not too quickly. They want to put on a good show for as many people as possible.”

“Ah, good for them!” Jerry finished up his caramel apple and looked around for somewhere to put the bare stick.

“I’ll take that, if you like?” The woman held out her hand and Jerry gave her the stick. “Right!” She checked her watch again. “If you’ll excuse me, it’s time for these two little reprobates to face justice for their crimes once more!” The girls gave little yelps, as much of excitement as fear, as the stools were taken out from under them and they found themselves twisting in the air once more.

The next lawn looked very appealing indeed to Jerry! A boy in his mid-teens, dressed in full theatrical costume and makeup as a vampire was sat on a kind of throne while either side of him, a naked girl was chained to a post with a thick metal slave-collar around her neck and her hands cuffed behind her back. Both were beautiful with long, black hair. One looked to be around twelve or thirteen while the other was around sixteen. It would be a fair guess that they were the older and younger sisters of the vampire boy. While the older girl obviously has the larger breasts, the younger girl was no late bloomer and seemed well on her way to a decent rack too. Both had trim figures with flat stomachs, shapely legs and nice round butts. Both were completely shaved from the neck downwards and their pale skin practically glowed in the warm orange of the street-lights, contrasting sharply with their black hair. At various points over their bodies were twin puncture wounds, some of which still had a little blood dribbling from them.

“Velcome, honoured guests!” The boy stood and greeted them with in an over-the-top Romanian accent, sounding more like the Count from Sesame Street than any character from a horror movie, “Velcome to my dark feast. You vill see zat ve have no candy to give you but I offer you somezing far sveeter. He stepped across to the older girl and opened his mouth wide, showing the high-quality fake fangs he was wearing. He bit into the flesh at the top of her arm, causing her to wince in pain but otherwise she made no complaint. He made a show of languidly sucking the blood that welled up around the wound.

“But please, you are my honoured guests!” He produced two small tools from beneath his cape. They were specially adapted garden tools – two-pronged forks sharpened to a fearsome point and with wide rubber corks pressed down onto the prongs to prevent the sharpened tips being pushed in any deeper than a little less than a centimetre. “Take, please!” He held them out, “Feast!”

“Umm, okay?” Jenny took the vicious-looking implement a little hesitantly.

“Can we drink from anywhere?” Jerry asked, his eyes practically glowing with excitement.

“Anyver below ze neck!” the vampire boy explained. “Their heads and necks belong to me!” He gave a classic, over-the-top vampire laugh.

Jerry approached the older girl, licking his lips and he looked at her surprisingly so-far unpunctured chest. Seeing that her brother had very quickly chosen which girl he wanted, Jenny went to the younger of the two and walked around her looking for somewhere to “bite” that would be quite easy and probably wouldn’t cause the victim too much distress. It was not as if she was not used to the idea of girls being killed and eaten or even used for entertainment, in fact she had indirectly killed one girl already that very evening and risked killing another but this was the first time she was being asked to inflict a wound directly, by her own hand, and she found herself feeling just a little squeamish.

She settled on the girl’s pleasingly round bottom, which already sported three sets of “bite marks”. She touched the metal points to the skin and tried to push.

“You have to do it with a bit of speed.” The bound young girl explained, “Kind of ram it in! Don’t worry,” She giggled, noticing Jenny’s shocked face, “we’ve both had quite a lot of alcohol before we started tonight, I can barely feel anything!”

“How does that work?” Jenny asked. “Wouldn’t pain-killers have been more effective?”

“Maybe but they might have messed up the taste of our blood.” The girl explained. “The drink, if it does anything at all to the flavour, should actually make it taste better! It also thins the blood so it doesn’t clot so quickly and you get a bit more from each hole you make so please, go ahead!”

“Well, okay?” Jenny looked at the tool in her hand then at the smooth, pale flesh of the girl’s right buttock. With a quick movement, she brought the tips of the tool down hard, piercing the skin and sinking in as deep as the corks would allow. With a slightly awkward yank, she pulled the spikes out and knelt down to suck the blood from the wound.

She had never tasted any blood other than her own before and was surprised how pleasant it was. Certainly there was the strange metallic edge to it but it was salty too with an almost fruity undertone, perhaps the result of the alcohol in the girl’s blood. Despite her protestations of numbness, the preteen had given a slight gasp of pain when the spikes went in but, from the sound of things, enjoyed the feeling of Jenny sucking the blood from the fresh wound.

Standing up and wiping her mouth, checking that the bleeding had more or less stopped, Jenny looked over at her brother who was greedily sucking the blood from the teenager’s left breast while cupping and fondling her right.

“Come on!” She laughed, “Leave some for the next people, eh?” Reluctantly, Jerry released the girl and stepped back, practically tripping over two small children who had just come onto the lawn to see what this game might be. He quickly apologised and Jenny knelt down to speak to them.

They were a girl and a boy, maybe two years apart in age and presumably brother and sister. The boy, who looked about five years old, was dressed in a chef’s uniform with an apron stained with obviously fake blood. He was gleefully wielding a plastic meat-cleaver. The roughly seven year old girl was stark naked despite the slightly chilly evening and covered in markings made with a felt-tip pen – dotted lines showing the various cuts of meat and words labelling them.

“Wow, you two look great!” Jenny grinned at the youngsters.

“Thanks!” The little boy grinned, proudly showing his cleaver to her, “I’m a butcher!”

“I can see that!” Jenny laughed. “And what about you?” she asked the girl with a cheeky smile, “Are you one of his customers?”

“No!” The girl giggled, “I’m his meat girl!”

“Oh of course!” Jenny chuckled as if this was a new revelation and she was very silly to have not noticed, “I should have realised. Well, you certainly look very tasty! Can I have your leg for my dinner when he chops you up?”

“No, silly!” The girl giggled even harder, “It’s just pretend!”

“Yeah! Look!” The little boy swung the plastic cleaver against his sister’s arm. “Chop! Chop!” he exclaimed as he did so. “See? It’s pretend!”

“Aww that’s a pity!” Jenny smiled. “Perhaps I can find someone else to eat later?”

“Probably!” The girl smiled. “Have a nice evening.”

“You too!” Jenny stood and ruffled the girl’s hair.

“Come on!” Jerry pointed excitedly to the garage of the next house which appeared to be decorated like a medieval dungeon. “Let’s go see what’s going on in there!”

TRICK OR TREAT Pt4

The inside of the garage was straight out of a gothic horror movie. There were gibbet cages, an iron maiden, various chains and spiked implements hanging from the walls and the whole area was lit only with candle-light. Some of the candles were mounted on the walls while others were melted to the top of very real-looking skulls. Jenny couldn’t help wondering if they belonged to girls who had given their all to entertain in previous years and now got to be part of the festivities for ever more. It was quite a nice thought, in a way.

A low safety-fence made from spiked chain-link was set up to prevent visitors from walking too far into the garage and it was almost immediately apparent why! A huge iron pendulum, sharpened like an axe, hung from the ceiling, swinging back and forth. It was swinging not from front to back or side to side but rather corner to corner, making a deep, almost throaty swishing sound as it scythed through the air. Beneath it, strapped to what looked like some kind of altar, covered in red velvet, was a girl of maybe eleven or twelve with doll-like prettiness and a mane of curly golden-blonde hair. She was dressed in a kind of night-gown which was white but so sheer she may as well have been naked. He small breasts pointed up towards the ceiling like white-chocolate Toblerone segments as her chest heaved in a mixture of fear, arousal and anticipation.

“Behold the fate of the hapless maiden!” A sonorous voice intoned and a black-cloaked and hooded figure stepped out of the shadows. The hood was pulled so far forward that, in the dim light cast by the candles, the twins could only make out the vague outline of a chin. “See how she is condemned by the greed of others!” The ghoulish figure continued.

From the ceiling, on the public side of the chain fence, hung a fairly small cast-iron cauldron. The cloaked man put his hand on it and pushed down. As he did so, the twins saw the swinging blade raise a few inches away from the girl.

“With each treat that is taken,” the black-clad figure explained, “the blade sinks a little lower. When it falls low enough, the maiden shall be no more! Sliced in two like a common earth-worm beneath the gardener’s shovel. Will yours be the treat that spells her doom?” He removed his hand from the cauldron allowing it to rise back up a little and the swinging blade to lower. It was, however, still a clear foot from the girl’s taught belly and the twins were fairly sure the few sweets they took out would not be enough to make it fall so far. After all, they reasoned, the entertainment was supposed to carry on for a few hours yet and the family who had set up this macabre scene would not want their part of the entertainment to be over too quickly. Unless, of course, like Mr Jenkins the revolutionary, they had other girls lined up to take the place of the blonde should she be bisected too quickly! With a glance at each other, they decided it was worth the risk.

Reaching into the cauldron, they each took a small handful of sweets. The blade dropped by no more than half a centimetre. A fair few more visitors would be able to help themselves before the girl would be in any real danger. The spectacle was very intriguing, ‘though, and Jerry especially decided he wanted to come back later and see if he could catch the moment the blade dropped low enough to slice the girl in half. With hurried thanks to the black-cloaked ghoul, they turned and left, passing a small pack of werewolves on their way in as they did so.

The next house with a front garden display had taken a rather different approach. Instead of being based around a classic monster or Victorian chiller, they had taken inspiration from the movies from the couple of decades either side of the turn of the Millenium, when eating people of any kind had been illegal and families of cannibals living in remote areas were still something to base a horror movie around.

“Welcome, one and all!” a man dressed as a hillbilly exclaimed in an exaggerated deep-south accent as they approached. “Step right this way for the best barbecue and chilli this side of the Mississippi!” A stand was set up on the lawn like a wooden market stall. “Papa Sawyer’s Award-Winning BBQ’N’Chilli Hut” was written in big red letters across the top.

On the stall was a big pot of bubbling chilli and a hot-plate keeping warm some pieces of meat that had clearly once been part of a teenage girl. Very little effort had been made to disguise the meat, in fact one piece was clearly a hand and another very obviously a breast, but the twins supposed that was all part of the fun. A few bones could be seen bobbing around in the chilli pot and other bloody remains were scattered in a heap next to the stand.

Behind the stand, however, was what the twins found far more fascinating. Chained by their wrists and hanging from a metal rail which was probably a specially adapted clothes rail were two teenage girls, naked and smeared with what looked like blood but, judging by the slightly sweet, tangy smell, was far more likely to be barbecue sauce. They screamed and protested at theatrical volume, begging to be let go. For a second Jenny wondered if they really were as unwilling as they seemed but then one, horse from the yelling, began to cough causing the other to break character and start laughing.

“Sorry about that!” the girl who had coughed turned to the twins with a grin. “Don’t let that put you off, I’m quite healthy I promise! Just all the screaming, you know?” Jenny laughed while Jerry admired the lithe, naked and, essentially, basted bodies, particularly enjoying the way the girls’ perky tits jiggled as they writhed and pretended to struggle against their restraints.

“Why! Quite a noisy little one, aren’t you?” A woman in a tatty blonde wig and pink chiffon dressing gown, affecting the same red-neck accent as the man, pretended to chastise the girl who had broken character and talked to the twins. “Bubba? Where’s my baby boy, huh?”

Lumbering out from the porch of the house where he had been hiding came a large man with a big belly wearing a blood-stained checked shirt that was several sizes too small for him but most striking was his face which was covered with a mask made from sewn-together scraps of what looked like human skin – possibly from the girl who was currently providing the stock for the food stand?

Instead of the chainsaw which the twins had rather expected, he was carrying a rechargeable electric carving knife. Jenny couldn’t help but giggle when she saw this.

“So how’s about a bowl full of my famous chilli?” The first man suggested.

“It does smell really good!” Jerry admitted, “And I’m pretty hungry!”

“Me too!” Jenny apprached the stand with her brother.

“Well this oughta fill you up!” The man grinned, showing artificially blackened teeth, “Put some meat on your bones!” He ladelled two helpings of chilli into paper bowls, added a biodegradable plastic fork to each and handed them over. The twins took them gratefully and began to scoop the reddish-brown substance into their mouths. It tasted every bit as good as it smelled.

“Wow that was really good!” Jerry enthused, handing the empty bowl back to the man who dropped it into the bin hidden under the counter. “Old family recipe?”

“You know it, little buddy!” The man winked, clearly enjoying playing his character, “With one special, secret ingredient. Hey, Bubba!” He shouted over his shoulder, “Pots getting kinda low. Can you find me some more of that special meat we keep out back?”

“This is it!” Jenny heard the girl who had laughed whisper to the girl with the cough. Clearly neither of them were especially good at keeping in character but somehow that just made the whole display more charming. “Wonder which of us he’s going to choose?”

“Bubba” lumbered mutely over to the hanging girls and seemed to inspect them for a few moments, then he stretched out his free hand and squeezed the buttock of the laughing girl, a brunette of sixteen or seventeen. Apparently satisfied, he activated the knife and carved off a big chunk of meat. He scream was clearly genuine – however willing a girl might be to be cut up and eaten, having a lump of flesh carved off is always a painful experience. After pausing a moment as the girl gasped and tried to catch her breath, he turned to the other girl, a blonde around a year younger than the other, and carved off her right breast. Happy that he had enough meat, he lumbered over to the cook, presumably Papa Sawyer, who took a big knife and chopped the meat into small pieces before scooping them up and dropping them into the chilli.

“Be sure to tell your friends!” He called after the twins as they made they turned to leave with renewed energy thanks to the delicious chilli, “Best barbecue and chilli in town!”

“That was really funny!” Jenny observed to her brother as they collected candy from a few more unattended bowls. “It seems so weird they used to make horror movies about cannibals!” She laughed. “It’s just another kind of meat!”

“Yeah but people didn’t used to know that.” Jerry reminded her. “I hear there’s still some people who think it’s wrong to eat women and girls.”

“Well they don’t think we should start eating boys do they?” She made a show of retching and sticking her fingers down her throat. “That would just be gross!”

“Nah, they think it’s wrong to eat people at all!”

“Weirdos!” The young teen laughed again. “After all, if we’re not supposed to be eaten, why are we made of meat?”

“Very good point!” Her brother laughed. “But aren’t boys made of meat too?”

“Gross, chewy meat!” Jenny stuck her tongue out at him. “Might be okay for pet-food I suppose! Girls are made from tender, delicious meat!”

“Speaking of delicious meat,” Jerry interjected, “why don’t we go back and see how the witches’ stew is coming along?”

“You hungry again already? You just had chilli!” laughed Jenny. “Why don’t we check a couple more gardens first?

“I guess.” Jerry grumbled. “Hey, what’s that?” He pointed to a large shape neither of them had paid particular attention to before, so distracted had they been with all the displays, games and entertainments. It was a tall, conical structure, around ten feet high and covered in a huge sheet. If it had been a little later in the year, they might have assumed it was a Christmas tree.

“Probably something to do with the witch trial later.” Jenny suggested. “Look,” she pointed to the small stage and big wooden pool set up next to the covered object, a chair with some kind of mechanism beneath on the edge. “I’m sure I saw something like that in a movie about witch hunters once.”

“Ah right, that makes sense!” Jerry agreed. “So are you going to go in for that?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Jenny nodded. “Sounds like fun and we did say we wanted to get more involved in the local community if we’re going to be staying here a while.” They passed through a group of seven or eight teenagers dressed as zombies, all shambling along with their arms outstretched and groaning. It was a surreal and slightly unnerving experience, even after everything they had already seen that evening.

“Oh wow!” Jerry exclaimed as they entered the next garden. “What on Earth is going on here?”

TRICK OR TREAT Pt5

“Wow!” Jenny exclaimed as they walked away, “Nobody would ever believe that if we described it to them!”

“I know, right?” Jerry was still reeling from the experience. “I never knew something could be so gruesome but so sexy at the same time.”

“I thought you were going to be sick at one point.” Jenny teased.

“I almost was!” admitted Jerry, a little sheepishly, “And I’m pretty sure I, you know,” he blushed, “in my pants.” Whatever else happened that evening, it was going to have to go a very long way to top the show in that garden. Whoever had come up with the mix of torture, sensual delight, blood and chocolate surely had an imagination wasted on neighbourhood street-parties and should have been working for some big entertainment company. Mind you, it was quite possible that they did. After all, industry professionals have to live somewhere and would surely welcome a chance to share their talents with friends and neighbours.

“I don’t even know how I would describe it if I tried!” Jenny mused as they wandered up the road, back towards the garden with the witches making Little Sister Stew. “I’m pretty sure reading about it would be almost as mind-blowing as watching.

“Part of me doesn’t even want to think about it as it was so disgusting,” Jerry thought out loud, “but an even bigger part of me wants to go and watch it all over again!”

“I’m not sure I could handle it a second time.” Jenny admitted, “But I’m pretty sure I’ll be thinking about it a whole lot next time I’m in the bath with the door locked!” She winked at her brother who blushed again.

From the screams and growls they heard as they passed the garage with the mad scientist lab inside, the monster-girl was still very much alive. Both twins had the same thought although they did not tell the other – they wondered if the girl strapped to the table was actually hoping to survive the evening or whether each time someone pulled the lever, she hoped it would deliver the fatal shock. Jenny couldn’t help but imagine herself in her place, naked and vulnerable, utterly at the mercy of the public and random chance. It was a far more exciting thought than she really wanted to admit.