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Don Greenwood
NO ORDINARY TRICK OR TREAT!
Samantha carefully picked her way through the witch’s costumes in the small costume shop near her
home. True, it was close to Halloween, but she had more interesting plans. Her long time interest in the occult
and mysticism had brought her one-day to spot an article in the Dispatch about a secret witches coven meeting in
the old section of the city.
Along with being a mother of two young children and married to Edgar for ten years, she had long
desired to be a writer of mystery stories. Now, as she held one costume after another up for inspection, she also
recalled how much she enjoyed trick and treating as a child and teenager.
Samantha thought herself lucky to have overheard two neighbors in her apartment building quietly
talking about the coven. From what she heard, she felt pretty certain she knew the street where the meeting took
place. Her husband Edgar worked just a couple of blocks south. He had mentioned driving down Quincy Street,
and what an eyesore the old, deserted buildings had become.
The Dispatch had reported the coven usually met on the last Saturday night each month. It happened to
be the month of October, and the last Saturday night was the 31st. This would work out just fine, because she
could take her two daughters Trick or Treating on the designated night of Friday, get some practice feeling
comfortable in her costume, and then the next night try to find the coven’s meeting. She could even try out her
new little tape recorder. She felt goose bumps, just thinking about it.
Edgar had his monthly card game with his buddies on the same Saturday night, so her sister Clara could
stay with the six and three year old. Edgar didn’t usually get home from his evening with the boys until after
midnight, so that would give Sam the time she need to get back home, leaving her costume in her car’s trunk.
She prided herself in having it all carefully planned out.
Friday night she and her girls had he best time ever in the annual tradition, which parents and children
so enjoy. Patricia and Sarah especially loved their Mother’s witch’s costume, and laughed when she scared some
of their school friends. Edgar didn’t come this time, because he felt he was coming down with a bug. When the
three of them got home tired and silly, he had already gone to bed.
The next night was Samantha’s big night, and she was filled with excitement, as she waited for her
husband to leave at his usual 7:30 pm time. After her sister arrived she said goodbye, climbed into her car and
headed for the corner gas station. Once in the ladies room she changed into her costume and quickly ducked
back into the car.
When she arrived at Quincy Street she slowly drove up and down several times, to see if she could find a
building with the lights on. There were just two, so she parked her car discretely around the corner, took off her
witches hat, and quietly knocked on the door of the first building.
An old man finally came to the door and asked what she wanted. “I, I………am, am looking for a
meeting, a special kind of meeting.” “Oh, you mean those crazies, those spooky freaks. They meet over there on
the second floor of the old Amsted Building. You’d better be careful lady, it could be dangerous.” Samantha
thanked the kind old gentleman and headed across the street, wondering now if this was such a good idea after
all.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the old glass door and slowly made her way up some old creaky stairs
to the second level. At the top was a woman wrapped in a large coat that stopped and asked what she wanted. “I
am interested in visiting the witches coven mentioned in the Dispatch article. I…I’ve been interested in these
kind of things since I was a girl.” The woman was silent as she eyed her carefully. She told Sam to wait outside
the door until she got the approval of the High Master.
The “mystery woman,” Samantha now realized, looked a lot like one of her neighbors. After what
seemed like forever she returned and ushered her inside. “You wouldn’t need that silly costume in here, my
dear. We don’t wear Halloween costumes!” “But I don’t have anything but my bra and panties on underneath.”
Another woman approached and body searched Sam, taking the tape recorder from out of the costume, which now
lay on the floor.
“Come this way and we might allow you to sit in the outer circle, but first you must meet our High
Master. He is our Lord, and he is the one who must give final approval to all that takes place amongst us.”
“She was then led to another doorway in the back of the large room, and to a man in a strange outfit,
sitting in an old wooden chair. “Come in Samantha, we have been waiting for you.” As she drew close to him she
suddenly saw it was Edgar! “You have always been too curious a person, dear wife. Tonight you will discover
what happens when anyone becomes too curious about our sacred and secret coven of witches.”
Samantha’s heart was wildly beating, she felt short of breath and numb, as she felt faint and fell to the
cold floor. “Prepare her for the supreme sacrifice, ordered the High Master. I have already been given the story
we will use. A housewife with the double life as a prostitute is brutally murdered by a transient.”
The last words she was able to utter were, “But how about our daughters?” “They will no longer by your
daughters, but instead Daughters of Eve, exclaimed Edgar, whose evil laughter was the last sound she ever heard.
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