Halloween 2007
It’s just another cold and dark Halloween night in Wilmore. The year is 2007 but things haven’t changed much over the years. People still go out trick or treating (even when its freezing and raining), pretending to be someone they’re not, just to get candy that will most likely be eaten all in one night or be in a Walmart bag in their closet until next year.
Sarah Mills is just like any other sixteen year old girl. She is joined at the hip with her best friend Emily Jacobs (who is also sixteen). They do everything together. Sarah has a five year old brother named Max that Emily and she basically share due to the fact that Emily’s parents got divorced before trying to have another child. She loves Max and all but he acts like Emily is his biological sister and Sarah doesn’t think he connects as much with her as he does with Emily.
Sarah is planning on being a cat this Halloween. It was the costume she could easily put together before taking Max trick or treating. She began getting ready, and started searching for the warmest all black clothes she could find. She was not planning on catching a cold like last year.
She found her solid black sweatshirt and her wool leggings and put some cat ears on. She couldn’t find her black cat makeup to make whiskers, so she decided to just forget about it. She put on her black boots and slung open her bedroom door, expecting to see her little brother attempting to scare her. And of course, there he was, so small and cute, dressed like a ghost, using an old bed sheet with two eye holes cut out. He screamed “BOO!” and she flung her arms back as if he had scared her to death. The sheet was way to long for his tiny body, so she saw that he had what looked like a hair tie bunching up the bottom of the sheet (she assumed that this was her mother’s doing so they didn’t have to plan on any “booboos” this Halloween).
“Maxy! You scared me!” He let out a little giggle and Sarah scooped him up in her arms and twirled him around and then put him back on the ground. “You ready to go get some candy?”
“Yeah!” Max shouted excitedly.
Sarah’s Mom and Dad were waiting by the door to take their picture before they left like they do every year. Sarah thought that she was getting a bit too old for all this Halloween kiddie stuff, but her parents always say “At least do it for Little Max”. She always agrees to it, but she wished that her parents would actually consider what she might want to do one of these days.
After they got their picture taken, Sarah and Max headed down Cherry Street; where all the good candy is. After they hit Cherry St, they decided to go down Orchard Avenue where Emily lived. Emily’s mom was never home so Emily had candy duty until eight thirty, when her mom would be home from work. So, after hitting Cherry Street and Orchard Avenue and quite a bit of Orange Street, Sarah glanced down at Max’s candy bucket. It was starting to overflow, so she decided that they would head back to Emily’s so she wouldn’t have to be home alone until after dark.
On their way to Emily’s house, they ran into Jake Richardson; Sarah’s crush since childhood. He walked up to Max and Sarah and said “Hey, Max! Hey, Sarah, I like your costume.” He grinned and she suddenly felt ridiculous for choosing a cat as her costume.
She started to giggle, “Thanks, Jake.” she said shyly feeling herself begin to blush just from saying his name.
Jake was three years older than Sarah. Emily didn’t like him. She said he just seemed kind of off, like he may do something crazy one of these days. She didn’t know what Emily meant by that, but she would soon enough.
She said good bye to Jake and he said “talk to you soon.” This was not what Sarah expected in response. She was expecting a simple “see you around,” but he said so she suddenly felt uncomfortable and uneasy by his response of “talk to you soon.” Normally she would be ecstatic from hearing those words but hearing that this night made her feel nauseous.
They got back to Emily’s and sat for a while until about 8 o’clock. Emily’s mom should be home in about a half an hour; Emily will be fine for a little while. Sarah started back toward her house to drop off Max. Max had already ate a fourth of his candy even though he knows not to eat it until his mom and dad check it. He had chocolate all over his face and was starting to go into a sugar coma. He would probably feel sick tonight and tomorrow, but Sarah remembered being his age. He has to learn somehow.
Once they got home, their parents were in the living room watching a movie and she just decided to go on and get Max ready and in the bed without disturbing them. Max was trying to eat another piece of candy that he had snuck into his pocket prior to Sarah taking his bucket. She took the candy from him.
“Now, Max, you know you’re going to be sick if you eat any more candy. Why don’t you give me that candy and you can have some more candy tomorrow?” Max handed her the twizzler and she tucked him in and checked for monsters under his bed like he always asks her and her parents to check every night. She had only told him that he would get candy tomorrow, because she knew that he wouldn’t end up remembering her saying that tomorrow. He would only regret eating all of that candy when he wakes up.
Sarah heard her phones text alert so she hurried to her room, hoping that it was Jake. But, when she flipped her phone open, she saw that it was only Emily.  This text was really short. It read: “That jerk Jake just came by my house asking for you but I told him that you weren’t interested.”
Sarah texted back “Yeah, totally not interested at all.” She began to feel her blood pressure rising as tears started to stream down her face. She knew that Emily didn’t like Jake, but she didn’t think that Emily could be that cold. Sarah began to let her emotions get the best of her and stormed out her front door. She headed towards Emily’s house. Her mom still wasn’t home. The candy bowl was still sitting by the chair on her porch, but Emily was nowhere in sight. Where did she go? Sarah thought. She began to call Emily’s phone over and over until on the other end, she heard someone answer. They weren’t saying anything at first; all she could hear was the breathing from-what seemed to be-a male. She heard Emily’s voice in the background saying “Sarah will find out. She’ll know that I couldn’t be that cold and she’ll come looking for me.” Then the phone hung up. Sarah began to call over and over. All of a sudden on the 13th call, a low and raspy voice answered the phone, “calling over and over isn’t saving your friend… Sarah.”
Sarah knew that she had heard that voice before. The way that the person said her name just implied that she had met him and knew him. She knew a lot of guys. She didn’t know how to single it down to one guy. She had heard the voice recently.
She began to think, “Let’s see… my dad?…No, he acts as if Emily is his second daughter… max?… no he doesn’t even know how to use a phone… Jake? No… No, it couldn’t be Jake… what if it is Jake? It does kind of sound like him, but he wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
Then she remembered what he had said earlier; “talk to you soon.” Earlier, she didn’t know why it made her so uneasy, but now she believed what Emily had said about Jake all these years about how “one of these days, he’s gonna end up doing something crazy.” Everything that she had said over the years was finally starting to make sense. There really was something wrong with him, and she believed that now.
Suddenly, she found herself searching for Jake Richardson in her contacts. She found his number and called it. She called it over and over until her thumbs were hurting from dialing it so many times. He didn’t answer. It kept going to voicemail. She didn’t know what to do, so she called the police. Her phone kept disconnecting automatically like her phone wasn’t in service. So, she decided to go looking for Emily on her own. She tried to think if I were trying to hide someone, where would I go? Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of the woods behind Emily’s house. That’s where I’d go. So she began to run towards the woods, hoping to find Emily.
It was so dark that night. The only thing that Sarah could hear were her thoughts, what if I am too late? What if I am looking in the wrong spot? Every type of what if question you could possibly ask, Sarah was asking herself. Her heart began to race faster and faster with every inch further into the woods that she went. She began to call Emily’s name, “EMILY! EMILY!” No response. “EMILY! Make a noise, Emily… At least let me know that you’re okay.”
There was a rustling in front of Sarah. She felt her stomach drop as Emily came running towards her with little scratches all over her, her hands were covered in blood. “I got away! Run!” Emily ran back towards her house, almost knocking Sarah down on her way. Sarah could see the fear on Emily’s face and followed after her.
They were running out of breath by the time they reached Emily’s house. They ran into Emily’s house, where Sarah locked the doors and Emily called 911.
“Hello. 911. What’s your emergency?” the dispatcher asked.
“Hi my name is Emily Jacobs and I was just kidnapped from my house and dragged off into the woods. I just got away, and my friend Sarah Mills…she just rescued me. I’m okay, but the guy that took me is Jake Richardson. I’m really scared. We aren’t safe here! Can you send an ambulance to my house? I am bleeding like crazy. My mom won’t be here for a long time. Please! Send the police! Hurry! The doors are locked, but please hurry. PLEASE!”
“What happened back there?!” asked Sarah.
“I’ve been trying to tell you! Jake is crazy! He said he was going to take me so that he could ‘get to you,’ whatever that’s supposed to mean. I’m scared, Sarah. He’s still out there. He’s not going to just stop that easily. He said he would get to you no matter what!”
Emily shuddered as the tears began to well up in her eyes. The flicker of distant colored lights grew brighter as the police cruiser screeched to a stop in front of the house. Each of the girls recognized the familiar face of Officer Reynolds as he rushed to the front door and knelt down in front of Emily. The ambulance followed close behind him. The blaring of the sirens was so loud that it only seemed to add to the confusion.
Officer Reynolds stood aside as the paramedic drew close. “Good news, girls. One of the Deputy Sheriffs spotted Jake Richardson and was in close pursuit. I’m sure they have him now and are placing him in custody as we speak. He won’t be bothering you girls for a very long time. You’re safe now.”
The paramedic checked over Emily’s wounds and placed gauze bandages around her forearms. After determining that some of the cuts would require stitches, she advised Emily to call her mom so that she could meet her at the ER. The phone conversation was very quick, but Emily did her best to explain some of what had happened. The paramedic insisted that they had to go quickly so Emily handed the phone over to Officer Reynolds so he could explain more of the details of what had happened to her mom.
Emily did her best to shield her eyes from the flickering lights, and Sarah got into the ambulance alongside her.
“That’s a relief, huh?” Emily asked Sarah. Even though she wanted it to come out as relief, Sarah could still hear Emily’s voice shaking in fear. They knew that tomorrow would be different.
“Yeah. We’re finally safe.” Sarah said. She leaned across the gurney and gave Emily a hug and Emily squeezed her back. Sarah sits back down on the seat beside where Emily was lying. They smiled at each other as the back door of the ambulance closed. Sarah leaned back against the ambulance wall and let out a sigh of relief. Two quick knocks on the back of the ambulance meant they were on their way to the hospital.
As the ambulance made a final turn away from their neighborhood, the cab door of the ambulance slid open and the man at the wheel looked back at them with a smile. Sheer terror came over the girls faces as they recognized those eyes through the flickering of the red lights. 
In a raspy voice, and with a slight chuckle, the driver had only one thing to say to his new passengers...“Now I have you both.”