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Ruby couldn’t believe it. Max finally had the perfect opportunity to dress up as a scary monster for Halloween. And, yet, he was dressed up as… “A lumberjack?”
“Chainsaw!”
She sighed and shook her head. “No, Max. We’ve got to rehearse for tonight’s performance.”
Her little brother raised the toy. “Chainsaw!” And like every other time he tried to play with it, the handle detached from the bright red casing. The rest landed in front of his feet without so much as a roar. No matter how many times he pressed the equally bright red button.
“You know that toy’s broken, Max.” Ruby examined his costume. “And lumberjacks wear checkered red shirts, not blue ones.”
“Chainsaw!”
“I’ll fix your toy tomorrow. Go upstairs and change. Louise and Valerie will be here any minute to rehearse.” Ruby clapped her cheeks and gasped. “Oh, no! I’ve got to get dressed!” She rushed upstairs without another word.
Max stared glumly at the busted chainsaw toy. But if he waited around too long, Ruby would scold him some more. He carefully picked up the pieces and went to his room. Thankfully, Ruby was too busy getting her costume together to notice when he tripped across the threshold. He spotted the old bedsheet Ruby draped over the edge of his bed. Looked like the “ghost” was still asleep. Oh, well. What might he use to fix the chainsaw?
The doorbell rang. “Max, could you answer that, please? It must be Louise and Valerie.”
Duct tape? No, he tried that once. The handle simply tore the tape off with it.
The doorbell rang again. “Max, could you please answer the door?”
Glue? Nah, that might gunk up the toy’s insides.
Once more. “I’ll get the door. You get dressed.”
Max looked up. Past his remote-controlled rocket and the box of wind-up toys, he noticed a bag of gummy worms. Perhaps he… No way! Even if it could stick his toy back together, he would never waste candy like that. Max glanced at the hole in the casing. It looked like there was another button that could make the toy roar. Maybe if he reached in there… Wait, did Ruby say something?
Downstairs, Ruby answered the door, dressed in her cloak and her best witch’s hat – with the finest emerald green ribbon she could find. Louise and Valerie greeted her, decked out in their own dark dresses and black wigs. “Louise! Valerie! I’m so glad you could make it. Are you ready for our rehearsal?”
“I’m ready!” Louise affirmed.
Valerie adjusted a dark blue bag hanging off her right shoulder. “Where’s Max?”
“He’s getting dressed. He’ll be a perfectly scary ghost.” Ruby beckoned her friends towards the living room. “Shall we prepare our Halloween cauldron?”
Her friends agreed and followed. In the center of the living room rested a large, old, black-gray pot Grandma let them borrow for the occasion. Food dye green bubble bath mix pooled near the top. A stuffed black cat with bright yellow eyes curled around the base. And an old tape recorder was hidden on the other side, so they could add cackling witches and crackling thunder to their performance.
“It looks great, Ruby!” Louise clapped. “Just like a real witch’s cauldron!”
“Thank you. Did you bring our spellbook, Valerie?”
“I’ve got it right here.” Valerie opened her book bag. And then she frowned. “This isn’t our spellbook.”
Ruby and Louise inspected the book clutched between Valerie’s fingers. Instead of the black leather journal adorned with the sticker of a silhouetted witch flying across the moon, a creepy face with shrunken, hollow eyes and a huge mouth stared back at them. The cover itself looked like it had been molded out of some strange sort of horribly dried clay or mud. And the longer Ruby looked at it, the more it felt like it was watching her.
“I packed our spellbook. I don’t know what happened,” Valerie insisted.
“Can I see it?” Louise accepted the strange book. “This isn’t one of Max’s tricks, is it?”
Ruby considered the idea. There was that one time Max sculpted a scary face out of green clay, which broke in two when he tried to startle her with it. But this looked…grosser than any prank Max could come up with. “I suppose it could be, but it doesn’t seem like something he’d do.”
Valerie held out her hands and examined the book. “Maybe it’s only a weird new cover. It probably still has our spells in it.” She flipped to a random page. “That’s funny. I don’t remember all these drawings of…”
Thunder boomed. Ruby and Louise jumped. The tape recorder turned on, playing garbled voices that spoke far too quickly for them to understand. Valerie’s head twitched. Her eyes turned solid black. She chanted some unrecognizable spell in a deeper, darker voice. The book drifted from her fingers. Its clay-sculpted face smiled widely at Louise. Her head also twitched, knocking her messy black wig to the floor.
“Louise, are you okay? Valerie, stop reading!” Ruby pleaded.
Valerie continued chanting. Louise faced Ruby with solid black eyes. “I’m more than okay, Ruby. Why don’t you join us? It’ll be so much fun,” she giggled in a raspy voice.
Ruby kicked the stuffed cat aside and stumbled backwards over the tape recorder. It laughed while she tried to get back onto her feet. The evil spellbook hovered closer to her. Ruby shielded her face with her hands. The book landed a couple feet away. Louise and Valerie shared another terrible giggle and approached.
“This isn’t funny! This is too scary!” Ruby protested.
They kept laughing. Ruby dropped her witch’s hat in their path. The green ribbon caught Valerie’s foot and caused her to trip. Ruby almost apologized, when the evil spellbook finally sprung. She screamed…and chuckled. “You’re right. This is so much fun.”
Valerie stood up and looked around. “What sort of preschool nightmare is this place? Bunnies and cutesy colors?” She bleched. “What kind of fun could we have here?”
“Yeah,” Louise agreed, equally disgusted. “How can we wreak havoc in a saccharine place like this? Is it even possible to dissect someone here?”
Ruby got to her feet. “Don’t fret. Even if we can’t have our usual kind of fun, we can still make mischief. Besides, the chainsaw hero isn’t around to stop us. We may even claim some souls by the end of the night. Speaking of…” She led her possessed friends in another round of evil laughter.
Upstairs, Max debated other possible options for fixing the chainsaw toy. Ruby and her friends’ shrill laughter grew. It reminded him of the ghost costume that fell asleep atop his bed. He smirked. No one said he couldn’t be a ghost lumberjack, did they? All he had to do was throw the sheet over his lumberjack costume and surprise them. And if he could get the chainsaw to work? Ghost chainsaw! What a brilliant plan!
“Max, where are you, Max?” Ruby sounded like a wicked witch who really needed a glass of water. “We’re waiting for you.”
Still smirking, Max threw the sheet over his lumberjack costume. It would be a little too awkward to carry the busted toy while he pretended to be a ghost. Better idea: lure them up here and surprise them in his room. Then he’d give Ruby and her friends a real scare with his ghost chainsaw! It was such a brilliant plan! And, thankfully, Ruby had actually managed to cut out some eyeholes, this time. He departed, prepared to spook them into running.
Ruby and her friends were still in the living room, laughing around the pot Grandma was letting his sister use as a cauldron. Max paused near the threshold. A strange book grinned towards the ceiling. Looked a lot like the Monster Face he tried to make last Halloween. Wonder who made it, and with what? He’d figure that out later. Right now, he had three wicked witches to scare. All he had to do was sneak up behind Valerie and–
She whirled onto him, with eyes that were pitch black! “There you are! Come to join the party, Max? We’re having so much fun!”
“Awwww,” Louise gargled. “Your ghost costume is so adorable. Let me help make it better!” She peeled a chunk of her wig and threw it.
Max ducked, just as Ruby spotted him. “Come on, Max. That’s not a scary costume. We’ll show you something that’s really scary!” She raised her arms and giggled maniacally. The strange book suddenly leapt into the air behind her, its grin widening into a cackling maw. Max turned and ran, almost tripping over the corners of the bedsheet – and the torn wig that now ensnared his right foot.
“Sure, Max. Let’s play hide and seek. If I win, I get your soul!” Ruby waved at her possessed friends to chase after him. “This won’t take long.”
The three ran upstairs, accompanied by the floating spellbook that laughed and cheered them on. Not Ruby pretended to miss the bedroom door that had slammed shut. “I wonder where he could be. Oh, where could he be?”
“I don’t know,” Not Louise rasped. “Maybe he’s hiding in the bathroom?”
“Or under the sink?” Not Valerie croaked. “That’s what I would do.”
“Good ideas but I think I know where he went.” Not Ruby pointed at Max’s bedroom door. “Come out wherever you are, Max. We’re gonna find you.” She grabbed the doorknob.
The door flung open. And out come something with…claws?! Not Ruby retreated from the snapping abomination that shambled towards her. Not Louise and Not Valerie screamed. The beast clacked its claws far too close to Not Ruby’s heels. When she tried to lead it to crash into the nearby wall, the abomination scaled the tacky wallpaper and dropped in front of them. Its reign of terror persisted, until Not Valerie kicked it onto its back.
“It’s a toy!” Not Ruby snarled.
“An ugly toy,” Not Valerie noted. “What kid has a lobster that climbs walls?”
The evil spellbook rushed the open door. But before it could cross the threshold, something slammed it into the wall. The possessed bunnies dropped to the floor. The soaring rocket whizzed above their ears, looped over the top of the stairs, and sent Not Valerie screaming as she leapt to dodge it. The evil spellbook recovered, waited for the right moment, and tackled the rocket off-course.
“More toys?!” Not Ruby shrieked. “Enough! We’re coming in, Max!” She rushed inside, no longer caring what other scary toys their intended target might throw at them.
Max dropped the controller, grabbed the busted chainsaw, and hid under the ghost costume. The handle still wouldn’t stay on, but maybe he could push the button inside the toy and make it roar? Would that be enough to scare Not Ruby off? The casing caught his wrist. Max tried to shake it off. The fake blade snagged the sheet, then the wig and tossed it into his face. Max sneezed.
“Aha! Found you, Max!” Not Ruby flung the ghost costume aside. “Your soul is – NO!”
Max blinked. The torn wig settled between his ears. The chainsaw roared to life. He raised the toy over his head. “Chainsaw!”
Not Ruby gasped. “No, you’re not supposed to be here!”
He grinned. It was working! “Chainsaw!”
Not Ruby fled the room. Not Louise and Not Valerie spotted Max and his roaring chainsaw toy. All three shuddered with fear. The evil spellbook’s eyes grew. Three spirits leapt towards the book, clinging to it for dear life. It spun and hurled itself downstairs, barely holding back a scream of its own. The front door swung open, giving them the perfect escape route away from the dreaded chainsaw hero.
Ruby, Louise, and Valerie slowly stood up. They were woozy, but their eyes were back to normal. Valerie adjusted her glasses. “What happened, Ruby?”
“I don’t know, Valerie. I don’t feel so good.”
Louise rubbed her head. “Neither do I. Are we still going to rehearse?”
Valerie checked her book bag. “Hey, where did that weird spellbook go?”
Ruby noticed Max pointing downstairs with the chainsaw toy stuck to his wrist. “Oh, Max, you got your hand stuck in there. I’ll get that off for you.”
Max shook his head. The doorbell rang. He charged downstairs, the chainsaw raised and roaring above his head. Grandma opened the front door. Her eyes, now solid black, shot open. “They were right! He is here!” A spirit jumped out, screaming and flailing its frightened hands. Behind her, more spirits yelled and dove towards the floating spellbook. It glanced at the chainsaw fastened to his wrist and wasted no time flying away.
With another triumphant cry of “Chainsaw!” and his toy held up high, Max pursued them into the night.