TW: death, small mention of cancer “Only one more, then we have to go, okay?” I clutch Sadie’s warm, pudgy hand as we walk. She squeezes my hand tight, her silky white dress shoes clicking against the sidewalk. “Okay, Maddie.” The house with the eerie Halloween music and the jack-o-lanterns catches Sadie’s eye. She points. “I wanna go to that one!” “Okay.” I laugh and we hop up the stairs, me doing most of the work and her practically floating as I pull her. Sadie lets go of my hand to knock on the door. Her other hand is grasping a plastic pink pumpkin bucket filled three quarters of the way with Halloween candy. “Trick or treat!” she shouts. High-pitched yapping echoes out from behind the door. I hear locks working, and an elderly lady opens the door halfway, one foot shielding a scruffy white puppy from escaping. “Oh, hello, dearies. Happy Halloween! You must be a witch, and your sister a fairy?” “Yup!” I nod and watch as she scoops handfuls of a nearly-full candy bowl into the bucket of a very gleeful Sadie. “It’s so nice of you to take your sister out trick-or-treating like this,” the elderly lady says as she drops a king-size chocolate bar into my pillowcase. “Oh, yeah, heh. It’s been my duty every year since I turned twelve.” I wasn’t about to tell her that I turned twelve two days ago. Mom said I was old enough to go trick-or-treating on my own and watch Sadie, too. I scrunch the top of the pillowcase into my hand and wave. “Happy Halloween!” “You too, dearie.” The lady smiles as she closes the door. “Now, Sadie—” I begin, turning around. There’s no sight of her. “Sadie?” I panic, my candy-filled pillowcase thumping against my leg as I tear across the sidewalks. I catch sight of a slightly chubby figure with fairy wings and a poofy skirt toddling along in the faint gleam of the flickering street lights. “Sadie, there you are. You can’t run off like that, okay?” Only, Sadie continues to ignore me and leaves the sidewalk, onto the hard pavement of the street. “Sadie, wait!” I start to run again, but my shoes snag onto the hem of my long witch skirt and I trip, landing hard on the sidewalk. “Sadie!” I make an attempt to pull myself back onto my feet, only to fall down again. Two spotlights shine through the mist on the street, getting brighter and closer. “SADIE!” I scream. I watch in horror as the lights come closer and a clunky truck, the kind you’d see delivering goods on the highway, breaks through the Halloween night fog. “No, no, no.” I crawl fast towards the crosswalk, but it’s too late. The truck’s horn blares, and she’s gone.
You may recognize this from my "finish the story" project. Well, I finished the story (and added a bit to it, too)!
