The horror of the great pumpkin

I once knew a young boy named Noah. He tended to be very mischievous. He often broke rules and made everyone around him dread their day-to-day life. His favorite thing to do was steal things from his teachers and make it seem like somebody else did it. Most people know about it, but they could never punish him for it because they had no proof. 

His parents didn’t care what he did, but his aunt Shannon did. She often scolded him for his misbehavior. As it got closer to Halloween, Shannon began warning him “if you don’t change your behavior, on the night before Halloween the Great Pumpkin will steal you from your bed and you will never be seen again.” He didn’t believe her of course–who would? All I knew about the Great Pumpkin was what I learned from Charlie Brown.  

Noah continued his behavior, however he progressively got worse. He started stealing from more than just his teachers. He stole anything he could get his hands on. He even stole something from me, he stole from my family, my friends. I ended up talking to his parents when I found out about him stealing from me. That’s when I knew they didn’t care at all about what he did. I stormed out of their house so angry about what I had just witnessed. 

That’s when I heard Shannon berating Noah for his actions. I heard her warn him about the Great Pumpkin yet again. I couldn’t help but chuckle. I continued laughing about the absurd threat I had just heard. That day is when I decided to begin setting up for Halloween. Just to further the hilarity of what I had heard Shannon say earlier, I decided to watch the Charlie Brown Halloween special. A few weeks had gone by, and I had forgotten about Noah until I ran into him. He was walking home from school as I was leaving for the store. I made a joke to him about the Great Pumpkin and how it was going to get him tonight, to which we both chuckled. Little did I know everything was about to change. 

That night while watching the original Halloween and eating some pizza I had just picked up, I heard the weirdest sound. It was almost like a laugh but strange, almost demonic. I decided to go check it out. When I went outside, I saw a shadow of a boy and what looked like a pumpkin, however the shadow of the boy was slowly disappearing. When I shined my flashlight at where the shadows were coming from, I saw a giant pumpkin leaking blood from its mouth and the face of young Noah, his screams being muffled by the pumpkin guts that were shoved in his mouth, almost like a gag. I ran to him, but as I got closer the giant pumpkin just disappeared, all that was left was a small bracelet that Noah often wore. I called the police, but they of course didn’t believe me. So I left the bracelet on the porch of Noah’s parents. 

I couldn’t sleep. It’s been almost a year, and things are starting to happen again. I will explain the things that are happening in my next story.