It was an ordinary Halloween night in a tiny European country, a place where that night had no particular meaning. But, to mimic the United States' films and TV series, the youngsters liked to celebrate it along with sweets and unusual costumes. It was no different for Ariadne Cadieux and her friends.
Ariadne invited them to her house to watch horror films and eat spooky snacks. She was not the best cook, but she was artistic enough to make good looking snacks. About the taste... I am not so sure. Well, the teeth sandwiches, the mummy sausages, the cheesy brooms, the chocolate spiders, the banana ghosts and the cemetery cake did look outstanding. To everyone's delight, the cake was not baked by Ariadne alone. Sophie Riviere and Marion Lianne Picard were the ones to put the hands in the dough, literally. Ariadne only decorated the rectangular cake, putting biscuits that looked like gravestones and sweets all over it.
The Cadieux family was visiting their relatives but, due to Ariadne having planned everything with her friends before they decided to go, they left the girls in the house all alone. It was always like that. Ariadne's family was never at home on Halloween. 'The perfect scenery for a horror film', as they used to say.
"What should we watch?" asked Sophie Ozanna, leaning on the couch.
"Let's not watch something too scary. We still have to sleep at night and tomorrow we must wake up early to study physics. It isn't school break yet," said Lethia Sartre, the most responsible among them.
"I totally forgot about the physics test!" Ariadne hit her forehead, concerned.
As soon as she did that, a door creaking noise echoed through the house. The girls stared at Ariadne, expecting to know where that was from or at least for her to crack a joke to release the tension, but nothing happened; she just stayed there with an empty face.
No one was saying anything; they just kept staring at each other for some seconds. Mariette Sartre, Lethia's twin sister, opened her mouth, ready to talk about what was happening. However, she was not allowed to continue. Ariadne placed a finger in front of Mariette's mouth while drawing the word 'silence' with her lips without letting out any sound. She lightly started to move away from the group, taking off her night slippers so as not to make a sound. They wanted to follow her, but Ariadne shook her head, not allowing them to.
The noise was coming from the backyard; she was sure of it. Ariadne bent down before entering the kitchen, the most immediate access to the garden. The kitchen door was not completely opaque: it had a blurry window where you could see shadowy silhouettes, so she wanted to stay hidden before she could reach it. Ariadne thanked the Gods for being night and for having the lights off. It was impossible to see her.
When she reached the door, she rotated the key, almost letting a sigh out. She had to try to open the door to confirm it was well closed, and for her joy, it was. With her heart almost coming out of her chest, Ariadne crawled back to the living room, where her friends were waiting.
"Don't freak out. There might be someone on the outside of the house. We have to verify if all the doors are locked and windows closed," Ariadne whispered. "I already closed the kitchen door."
"It's better if we split up into groups," said Lethia. "Lianne and I will close the front door, Mariette and Maya can verify all the windows on this floor, and you, Juliette, Ozanna and Riviere do it upstairs."
"Be careful," said Juliette Kobayashi, looking at the girls who would stay on that floor.
"You, too," replied Maya Monet, disappearing through the hallway with Mariette, Lethia and Marion Lianne.
"Get down," whispered Ariadne when they got to the kitchen, the only room with the staircase. "We must crawl until we get to the stairs."
As she ordered them to, the ladies crawled until they reached the first step, minding their surroundings, especially the door and the window, which was closed even before she entered the kitchen by herself.
Since it was supposed to be two separate houses, there were stairs in the backyard leading to the upper floor. Thanks to that, Ariadne had to check if that door was properly locked as soon as she reached the end of the internal staircase.
Ariadne and Sophie Riviere, the ones in charge of the door, found it wide open. Dumbfounded, they squeezed each other's hands even more, which they did not remember holding.
"What do we do now?" whispered Sophie.
"Lock it before we're fucked. I bet the keys are on the table," she said while searching. "Got them!"
She closed it and locked it, praying it was not too late. Maybe that someone was not the one who opened it, but she knew that was almost impossible. No one uses that door.
Not letting go of each other's hands, they went searching for the others, closing any open window they saw on their path.
***
Juliette and Sophie Ozanna were in Ariadne's parents' bedroom, closing the window when Ozanna saw a man outside looking at her. He had a good-looking face, but a terrifying smile was stamped all over it, ruining its beauty. She stepped back, frightened, swallowing her urge to scream.
"I saw something," she fell on her knees, covering her face with her hands while washing herself in tears. "I saw something, Ju."
Juliette was by her side but did not see an out-of-the-ordinary thing as Ozanna did. She thought her friend was just trying to scare her in a not-so-funny way, but that was not it.
"A man... a b-blonde-haired man. He s-smiled at me..."
Ozanna was not known for her bravery, but Juliette never saw her friend sobbing like that, so she could not bring herself to accuse her of lying.
"What happened?" asked Sophie Riviere, entering the bedroom and running to hug Ozanna.
"She said she saw someone outside," explained Juliette with disbelieve, still sceptical about whether or not Ozanna was having hallucinations. "A blonde man smiling."
Ariadne, who was at the door watching the situation from a distance, looked at the window in the hall. It was as big as the wall and covered by white curtains, which were slightly transparent. At first, she did not see anything, almost as disbelieved as Juliette, but a shadow of a man appeared out of nowhere under a streetlight. She could only see his shadow, but it was enough to panic her, covering her mouth so as not to scream.
A chill went down her spine when she felt someone breathing loudly on her nape. None of her friends would do something like that in the circumstances they were in; she was sure of it. Ariadne kept looking outside of the window while some unknown hands slowly touched her hair, too afraid to look back. The contact might have lasted less than five seconds, but it seemed an eternity for the brown-haired girl.
Soon after, something wet brushed against her neck, making her entire body shiver. She was almost sure it was a tongue, playing with her skin, although her hypothesis was corroborated only two minutes later. That was when she felt sharp teeth rubbing that place, warming it so they could take a bite.
That thing put its hands around Ariadne's waist, forcing her to stay in that position, and finally sank its teeth into her smooth skin. All she wanted to do was shout, but before she could do that, something covered her mouth. It seemed like a man's hand, one extremely pale and veiny, with black nails. She saw it because the man had his thumb over her nose, almost making it impossible for her to breathe.
Not bearing any longer, Ariadne turned back abruptly, but the echo of a manly and seductive laugh was all that was left.
"What was that?" Sophie Riviere jumped to Ariadne's side after hearing the disturbing laugh.
The girl was terrified, as much as Ozanna was a while ago, shaking and whimpering. Sophie took her hand and guided her to the bed — fearing Ariadne's legs would fail her —, where she sat, next to Ozanna. The blonde girl leaned her head in Ariadne's shoulder, taking her hand and intertwining their fingers to feel safe.
"Stay with them here," Riviere said to Juliette, who was still staring at the window, dumbfounded because of the laugh they all heard. "I will go get the others."
Glancing at the terrified girls one last time before searching for the others, Sophie noticed the bite mark on Ariadne's neck and felt a weight in her chest. How was she attacked when they were all there? And why did she stay silent while being hurt?
"Go to the bathroom to take care of that," Sophie pointed at Ariadne's neck and left.