Creating The Nightmare

T rick or treating used to be second nature, remember?

Each year, as Halloween approached, we would prepare costumes, select the right containers to haul home a body-jolting sugar booty and hope to look just a little bit scarier, funnier, or cuter than our friends.

But then most of us hit an age--it varies for everyone--when a question darker than a vampire pops up: Am I too old for this? Too old to impersonate a bag of caramel corn and ask strangers--worse yet, friends--for Tootsie Rolls? Do I have enough antacid to get me through the candy?

Age does this. We still dress up--for plenty of “adult” parties, surely, and even more so, in suits and ties--but for most the masks get tamer and the ape in the mirror less hairy.

Truth is, Halloween, a wacky, fun tradition dating back to the Druids, sadly can pale with maturity. Smartly carved pumpkins stand in for terror: their flickering lights subbing for fright, their sweet autumnal theme blunting bristly, dark horrors.

Frankly, we want it back. So, for a refresher course, we took it to the experts: kids. As you might guess, they couldn’t wait to flog schoolwork to commence a tutorial in fantasy, horror, the ridiculous, the macabre. We asked students at Balboa Middle School in Ventura and Christa McAuliffe (elementary) School in Oxnard to write down some of their thoughts. Oh, we’d forgotten so much, and had much still to learn.

Now we know, for instance, that older children get a big kick out of scaring younger children and snatching their booty bags. We learn that blood--lots of it--is a handy dramatic device. And we know that the old “trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat” line is still in vogue.

We also are reminded that there’s reason to be on alert this Halloween--these kids have vivid, sometimes gory imaginations. At least we assume it is their imaginations.

Halloween’s Deliverance Kris Walsh Balboa Middle School, 8th grade

On Halloween day in 1978, my mom and I went to see my sister in her kindergarten costume parade. There many costumes--from princess to devils--but I remember the noise the most. But why is my mom leaving so fast, why don’t we stay for the party?

She goes home to take a quick shower. Then, we’re on the move again, but she won’t say where we’re going, wherever it is, and she isn’t putting any makeup on or doing anything with her hair. Why not? Wherever we are going we’re driving fast. We skip lunch! What is this weird building? We rush to get here and nobody is doing anything. Now we are in a room all by ourselves and my mom is just sitting.

Every once in a while silly people come in and I wonder: Why?

Mom is uneasy, I’m getting scared. Dad’s here too, but it seems like everyone is nervous.

Now everyone is running with my mom on a bed to a different room. They shut the door, and I wonder: Why? Is this some kind of Halloween joke?

Whoa! screamed my mom. Now everybody is crowding around my mom.

Finally, people pay attention to me, but I’m naked!

Everybody keeps telling my mom and dad, “Congratulations, you have a new baby boy.”

That’s me.

Veggie Hell Cynthia Chacon McAuliffe School, 6th grade

On Halloween night I went trick or treating. Then I heard my mom yell. I ran as fast as I can. I was so scared. Then finally I made it to my house. My mom wasn’t yelling. She was calling me to eat my spinach.

This is my scariest Halloween.

Uncertain Footing Tatiana Nusser McAuliffe School, 6th grade

On a Halloween night I was walking alone.

Then all of a sudden I stepped on a bone.

I heard a loud groan followed by a moan.

But all I saw was a broken phone

so I left . . .

then I saw a black cat.

It was sitting on a door mat.

I looked around and saw a screaming bat.

I saw a bloody hat in the street.

I looked down and I had no feet.

Then a vulture came down to eat.

He saw me and said, “Ha Ha, I found some meat.”

As he nibbled on my feet, laying on the street.

Lethal Kiddies Darrell Juanero McAuliffe School, 6th grade

I was walking on a street. There were no kids trick or treating. I turned down another street. There were a lot of dead kids, with a lot of blood. Then I heard screaming from behind. I turned and saw a bunch of monsters, so I started to run, but there were monsters in front of me so I was trapped. I ran to a fence and then ran on the fence to my house.

I called my friend to come over. We got my dad’s gun. Then we ran to the monsters, and we slaughtered the monsters.

There was a monster leader. My friend and I butchered him. It was very fun. There was a foot of blood in the street.

We ran back to my house. And we slept with the guns in our hands. We woke up. We went back to the scene. There was a lot of blood. But we did not care. My friend and I lived happily ever after.

Spaced, Slimed and Normal Terry Sasaki McAuliffe School, 5th grade

I’m going on a special mission to collect every candy on the planet Earth. I am helping Mars. Candy is its life. If they don’t have candy on Mars they will not live.

I brought five candies there one day, and the alien from Mars turned me into a goblin. I thought I would never be human again.

So I went to UCLA to study scientific stuff. I tried to make a slime that I can pour on Mars. Then, one day, aliens from Saturn and Pluto came and told me how to make the stuff. I gave each alien 10 million gallons of candy. And they helped me make slime.

It took six months. I got a spaceship ride from them to Mars. I went to the leader of Mars, and I happened to talk weird language. I was speaking Marsish. The leader turned me back to human.

Then I poured the slime, and the alien started to suffer.

The alien from Saturn took me back to Earth. But when I got back, the aliens from Mars were here.

I screamed. I woke up.

And then everything was normal again. I went trick or treating.

Lonely and Scared Kasey MacNair Balboa Middle School, 8th grade

One Halloween night all the kids were dressed up and rowdy, but for one girl named Melissa.

All of Melissa’s friends started running up the street, but Melissa was left behind--scared, frightened, alone and cold. All Melissa could do was cry, for there were no other kids left on the street but Melissa.

“Should I still trick or treat?” Melissa wondered.

Melissa started walking up the street, when all of a sudden a hand grabbed her by the neck. Melissa almost fainted.

As she turned around, she saw him: her big brother, Jake.

“Jake,” Melissa cried, “why did you do that? You could of killed me!”

“Sorry, Melissa, I was only playing around,” Jake replied.

“Where are all of your friends, Melissa?” Jake asked.

“Well, they were here a minute ago,” Melissa replied, “but then I guess they just left.”

“Well, it’s time to go anyway, it’s getting late.”

Both Melissa and Jake headed home.

Liz Taylor on Prom Night Michelle Hernandez Balboa Middle School, 8th grade

It was Prom Night. Everyone was all dressed up--the girls in gowns and the guys in suits. Everyone was trying to get to Prom Night. David Knight was at work. At 10:01 he had finished and was on the way home.

He saw something from faraway. As he came closer, he saw a girl in a nice dress.

She told him to stop, and so he did. He picked her up.

He asked her, “What’s your name?” She said, “Liz Taylor.”

Liz had on a dress that had blood on it and was torn in pieces. David took Liz home.

The next day David went to work. He told his friends at work what had happened.

One of David’s friends said, “What do you mean Liz Taylor? That could not have been because she died last year on Prom Night.”

David never forgot that night. Who really was Liz?

No one really knows. We’ll have to wait until next Prom Night.