Grinning

"I don't know about this..."

"Look, it's Halloween, and the only other scary thing there is to watch, is Marble Hornets. I told you, all my scary movies are in storage right now."

"But if we get caught with this?"

"It's a fake, alright? They brought out the actors afterwards to prove it in court. At least, I think so..."

First night in the haunted castle. Howler and Nickany, better known to the rest of the world as Angie and Tiffany, were staying in a haunted castle for a couple of nights while the castle Nickany was having built was in completion. It should only take a few days, but all the hotels nearby were booked up and the only place available to stay in was... well, here.

On Halloween. In the dark. While it rained. With thunder and lightning. And the wind howled. And they watched a scary film.

Howler (self-nicknamed for her wolf-howling and another reason she wouldn't reveal) had pale-ish skin and long brown hair mixed with blue. She wore a T-shirt sporting images of dinosaurs and green sweatpants under a blue snuggy, and glasses with a phone charm hanging off the right arm. Nickany was fairly pale and had her hair in a black downhawk with a single red streak, with two eyebrow rings on the right and a lip ring on the left, with dark pyjamas, who sat curled up in a big comfy armchair in front of a warm, golden-glowing fire in the library while Howler tried to talk her into watching a snuff movie.

"What's a snuff movie, anyway?" she asked. A clap of thunder sounded.

"They were a big deal in Britain a couple of decades back," Howler explained. She was British and knew all about these, having a morbid fascination with the strange, scary and unusual. Nickany had just moves over from America. "They were called video nasties. People get killed in them, but they're not acting. They really die. Just watch it, Nick!" she added, pleading. "I paid loads for this. It was really hard to get."

"Alright," Nickany muttered, reluctantly getting up and leaving the warmth and comfort of the library.

xxx

"I thought this was supposed to be scary, or have death or gore or something?" Nickany questioned, about an hour later. Howler shook her head as a flash of lightning lit up the darkened room.

"Not yet," she said. "They have to lure the victims into a false sense of security. Actually the death is usually right at the --"

Another flash of lightning lit up the room and Howler shrieked as the screen went static-y. Nickany felt something grab her arm and realised it was Howler. That girl had jumped BADLY.

"What?"

"I saw something by the TV. I swear I did." Howler was shaking. Like a scared dog on Bonfire Night, probably because her mentality (when she felt comfortable to be herself) was something like a cross between a wolf and a dinosaur, Howler was pressed right against Nickany in the chair and shook so hard Nickany shook, too. Something had spooked her badly, it must have, because Howler loved the idea of ghosts and werewolves and things like that. She wasn't even that scared of Slenderman, which didn't make a lot of sense.

"Maybe it was nothing..." Nickany said quietly. Hopefully.

"No way was it nothing," Howler whispered. "It looked like the kid outta that movie!"

In the movie there was a twelve-year-old boy. He was deathly pale and skinny, with dark eyes and a spooky smile.

In the static glow of the telly, Howler gazed to the spot she'd claimed to see the kid as if she was hypnotised.

"He wants to play a game," she said in a quiet, entranced voice. Howler had explained before moving there, that sometimes ghosts - spirits was the correct term, she said - came to her, talked to her. But she'd never had this happen. At least not out of all the incidents she'd told Nickany about.

"What game?" Nickany asked. She battled to keep her now-quiet voice steady. It shook under the fear, under the strain of practically being sat on by someone at least two years older than her.

"Red-light green-light," was the answer. The strange quality remained in Howler's voice. "He wants to see."

"See what?"

Howler shut her eyes tight. Screwed up her face. Concentrated. A cold sweat broke out on her forehead. "I don't know." Her voice was back to normal. "He just wants to... see..."

A flash of lightning. Nickany saw the kid now, too. In front of the television. His expression was cold. He gave the girls an icy stare.

"He wants to see," Howler repeated. "He can't see."

"He's looking straight at us!" Nickany squeaked, frightened and frustrated.

Another lightning flash. The boy was between them and and the TV.

"Not that," Howler said. "He sees us. There's something else he wants to see..."

Rain pounded the windows. Wind howled like Howler's wolf impression. Howler shivered with sudden cold. Nickany shivered, too. More lightning.

The boy's face was directly in front of theirs. Grinning. Two screams pierced the sound of the storm. Howler collapsed to the floor, spasmic convulsions taking over her body as though she was having a fit. She made no sound but her mouth was wide open as though she was screaming. The boy stood over her. Grinning.

After five minuted Howler fell still. Her breathing was shallow. The boy's gaze tore from Howler to Nickany. Grinning.

Nickany was rooted to the spot with fear, but the boy just stood there. Grinning.

She is alive. Nickany wasn't sure if she heard it, felt it or simply understood it. I just wanted to see.

And the boy disappeared. Grinning.

Howler sat up immediately. She looked pale and dizzy. "Lights," she muttered, and collapsed.

Nickany hurried to get the lights on and wake Howler up.

"Shoulda picked a different film," Howler muttered. She sounded delirious.

xxx

"What did that boy want to see?" Nickany pressed after a sleepless night in the library. Howler had a haunted look about her.

"I don't know." Howler was pale; shaking. She was crouching on a chair with her knees pressed to her chest, shaking and rocking. "I don't know," she whispered again. "But we have to get outta here."

xxx

They found a Bed and Breakfast later that day, with one room spare.

"Do you feel safe now?" asked Nickany, as they sat down to dinner.

Howler didn't answer. She just stared at her untouched meal, a vacant look upon her face. Apparently unseen by anyone, a twelve-year-old boy stood in the corner of the room.

Watching her.

Grinning.