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The sound of shouting across the street has Will Maldonado launching to his feet, abandoning his comic book to his bed. A few years ago, he scrounged up all the money he could get to buy a telescope with the sole purpose of spying on the house across the street: the Creel House, belonging to Henry Creel, a middle aged man who does nothing but terrorize the children of Hawkins. No one takes Will’s complaints about him seriously, much to his dismay, which is why he has a journal next to the telescope. Hopper, their chief of police, will have to take him seriously if he brings him all of this, and Will is always very careful about keeping the dates and times accurate.
Across the street, Holly Wheeler is Creel’s newest victim. She was riding her bike only for it to get stuck in a patch of grass on his lawn, although she quickly runs away screaming when Creel threatens to eat her. She stops halfway down the sidewalk, turning and watching as Creel picks up her bike, yanking one of the wheels off and snarling at her. She sobs, turning and running again, while Creel shouts after her.
“Stay away from my house!”
He hobbles away, holding the broken bike and the wheel, and Will scowls as he writes down the date and time. Holly Wheeler: broken bike. Then he picks up his camera, the one Jonathan left behind when he went to NYU, memorializing the moment. Just as the shutter clicks, Creel turns around on his porch, looking directly at Will.
He jerks back, his heart racing. There’s no way he was seen… right? He’s got the blinds pulled shut over his window, his telescope the only thing peeking through. No, Henry Creel is just a creepy old man who feels the need to snarl at the house across the street just because he knows that Will lives there.
“Will!” His mother, Joyce Maldonado , shouts from the driveway. She tilts her head back, looking up towards his window, rightfully assuming that it’ll be open. “Will, come down!”
“We’re gonna be late!” His stepdad, Bob, adds. They’re going away for the weekend and Will has been looking forward to it. Lucas is going to come over and they’re going to spend the weekend watching horror movies and hanging out without parents around: Will has been counting down the days. “Come on, don’t you want your pizza money?”
“I’m coming!” He shouts back, dropping his pen and rushing down the stairs. Outside, he can’t help himself. “Mom, he did it again. He took another bike.”
“Honey, we’ve talked about this.” Joyce cups his face in her hands. “I know he scares you ever since you got lost in the woods behind his house, but you can’t stay in your room all day, staring at an old man through a telescope.”
Will flushes at the reminder of him getting lost when he was ten, back when he was still friends with Michael Wheeler. He’d been so relieved when he’d broken through the treeline to find familiar landmarks only to be chased by Creel, the man screaming at him and even hitting him, all because Will accidentally ripped some of the grass out with his bike. Ever since then, Will has been watching closely to see what Creel is up to, worried about everyone in the neighborhood.
“Mom, there’s something wrong with that house!” Will says, begging her to believe him. He follows her as she walks over to the car, over the conversation. She’s never listened to him about Henry Creel, insisting that he’s just a cranky old man. “I’m serious!”
“What was that?” Joyce whips around with wide eyes as Will turns bright red at the sound of his voice cracking. It’s been happening off and on for days now, always at the most inopportune times.
He clears his throat, relieved when his voice comes out normal this time. “I’m serious.”
Joyce turns to Bob, her eyes wide. “His voice sounds funny!”
“Someone is hitting puberty,” Bob laughs, walking over from where he was loading their bags into the trunk of the car. He mimics Will’s voice, waving his arms around. “‘What’s happening to my body?’ Right, buddy?”
Will is in hell.
“Maybe you should come with us,” Joyce worries as she walks over to the passenger side of the car, frowning.
“Oh, the boy’s too busy. He’s got his spying to do.” Bob winks at Will, handing him a few bills from his wallet. “He’ll be okay, and besides, Lucas will be with him.”
They adore Lucas Sinclair, a feeling that Will very much understands. It had been his biggest worry when he’d decided that he was no longer going to be friends with Michael: would Lucas stop being his friend? But no, Lucas had yelled at Michael for him, defending him, and he’d never once made Will feel bad for essentially ruining his relationship with Michael, even though they’re neighbors. Sometimes Will considers talking to Michael, for Lucas’s sake, but then he remembers that night: the rain pouring outside, his heart racing, Michael’s voice echoing in his ears: it’s not my fault you don’t like girls!
If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s Lucas’s, but Will will never say that to him.
The crush has been there for as long as Will can remember. A lot of people assumed that he and Michael would end up together: he heard the whispers, the adults cooing about how sweet they were, how protective Michael was, oh how cute. Take a picture for their wedding! They’d laughed when Will wrinkled his nose or protested, insisting that he’d see it himself one day. But Will had never understood that sentiment: why would he want to marry Michael Wheeler if he could marry Lucas Sinclair? Lucas is sweet and funny and protective and genuine. He apologizes when he’s wrong and communicates. He’s the love of Will’s life, but he’ll never act on those feelings, too scared of losing another best friend in the same way.
“Steve will be here soon!” Joyce tells him, and Will groans. It’s embarrassing that she’s still hiring a babysitter for him even though he’s twelve now. When his older brother was twelve, he was watching Will all by himself, but Joyce is overprotective of him for some reason. Even worse, Steve is a year older than Jonathan, and Will is pretty sure Lucas adores him. He helped teach Lucas a ton about basketball the last time he watched them for a weekend, so Lucas thinks he’s really cool. “If anything happens, call the police and hide in your closet!”
“He knows how to do that,” Bob winks at him while Will groans loudly at the joke. Ever since he came out to them, he’s heard a million jokes about it. “Have fun!”
A pained shout comes from behind the car, Lucas rolling to avoid getting hurt any worse: he’s got a Darth Vader mask on, so he didn’t notice them pulling out of the driveway, and they were too busy talking to Will to notice him walking up behind their car. Everyone screams as Lucas assures them that he’s okay, pulling himself up using the side window.
“Hey, Lucas.” Will smiles at him as Bob and Joyce finally leave, bickering over nearly killing Lucas. “Are you okay?”
“We’re about to spend an entire weekend by ourselves with no parents around.” Lucas grins, pulling the mask off. “I’m great, promise. Oh! Check it out. I got a new ball.” He starts dribbling his new basketball, turning to the hoop at the end of the driveway. Will had begged for weeks for one to be put in – not for himself, but to give Lucas another reason to come over. It’s worked out in his favor. “Wanna play horse?”
“Sure.” Will smiles helplessly, grabbing the ball from his friend. He steps back, calling out his play and smiling when he makes it. He’s had a lot of practice, being best friends with Lucas. It’s more fun than he’d ever thought it would be, but only when his friend is around to play with him. “You’re up.”
They have fun with it, calling out increasingly dumb plays that neither of them can make, giggling when they quickly end up at the letter S. It happens then: Lucas calls out “over your shoulder” and tries to jump around him and throw it, laughing the whole time, just to lose his grip. Will swears it happens in slow motion, both of them watching the ball roll down the driveway and across the street into the Creel House’s lawn. They run over, faltering at the edge of the driveway. There’s a wooden sign with the word BEWARE on it sticking out of the perfectly trimmed grass, the basketball taunting them behind it, close to the porch. How did it roll that far into the yard?
Will is just about to turn around – he’s not risking his life for a basketball – when he sees the dejected look on Lucas’s face. He’d do anything to make him feel better, so he takes a deep breath, pushing his shoulders back. He’s old, he can’t move that quickly. Just be quick about it and he won’t even notice.
“Will, wait!” Lucas panics as soon as Will steps onto the grass, trying to pull him back.
Will ducks out of his reach, turning and smirking at him, determined now. He’s going to show Lucas that he can be brave. He waves for him to be quiet, turning back to the house and holding his breath for a second. He’s taking the fact that Creel hasn’t come out yet to be a good sign: maybe he’s sleeping, or maybe scaring Holly earlier wore him out. Either way, Will is going to take advantage of the opportunity.
He takes off in a run, flinching when the front door creaks open right before he reaches the ball. Creel steps out, his face split into a terrifying snarl, his eyes looking a second away from popping out of his skull. Will freezes in place, his muscles locking up, watching with wide eyes as Creel moves down his steps with surprising speed.
“Will, run!”
At the last second, Will ducks, dropping to the ground before Creel can wrap his hands around him – he was going for his neck, the psychopath! He staggers up, both of them watching as he rips a chunk of dirt out in his haste, the action somehow causing Creel to be more outraged. His entire face darkens as he slowly looks up at Will.
“Run! Forget the ball, Will, come on!”
“I’m so sorry!” Will breathes, holding his hands up. He’s been watching this man for two years now, he knows that he hates anything damaging his yard. He walks the perimeter sometimes, never leaving, making sure that everything is up to his standards. It’s something that greatly confuses Will, considering the state of the house itself: rotting and falling apart while its owner keeps the yard cut perfectly and makes sure not to leave a leaf out of place. “I didn’t mean to!”
“You are dead!” Creel snarls, lunging for him again. Will turns, running for the street, but Creel snatches him before he makes it there. He’s lifted up in the air, screaming while Lucas shouts for help behind him. “You think you can just terrorize my lawn!?”
“We didn’t mean to!” Will shouts back, gasping for air. Creel’s eyes are startlingly blue, bugging out as he shakes Will, somehow possessing the strength to terrorize him even though Will has seen the way he limps around. “Please, we’re sorry!”
“This is my house!” He shouts, jostling Will. “Why can’t you respect that!? Why can’t you just stay away from–?”
He grunts, no longer shaking Will in the air, all of his strength failing him at once. Will swears he sees blood vessels pop in his eyes before he’s crumpling, falling to the ground and bringing Will down with him. Will rolls off of him, panicking, just as Lucas reaches the two of them and helps pull him away. Creel doesn’t move at all, his eyes wide open. Will wouldn’t say that there was ever a light in them – he’s not sure Creel has ever felt emotions like happiness before – but now, they’re cold.
Lifeless.
Will Maldonado is a murderer.
“No, you’re not.” Lucas says, and just as Will starts to feel a little better: “When it’s an accident, they call it manslaughter.”
Will scowls. “Thank you, Lucas.”
“Anytime,” He pats his shoulder, wrapping an arm around him a moment later. Will sinks into his hold, shutting his eyes. The ambulance hadn’t used their sirens, and he thinks that’s a bad sign. He killed creepy old Henry Creel. Lucas starts to lead him across the street just as a familiar beamer drives towards them, Tears for Fears blasting from the radio.
Steve has always had the worst timing.
Lucas grimaces at him. “I’ll come back in a little bit with my bag. Just… Don't beat yourself up, man. It could’ve happened to anyone.”
“But why’d it have to happen to me?” Will sighs, waving sadly as Lucas takes off down the road.
Steve is sitting in his car when Will walks up the driveway, drumming his fingers on his steering wheel. “Will! Hey, Will, I just saw an ambulance. Did I miss anything interesting? Byers!”
“It’s Maldonado,” Will snaps back, scowling as Steve follows him into the house. “It’s been Maldonado.”
“Whatever. Easy mistake, dude.” Steve shrugs. “Alright, you know the deal. I don’t care what you do as long as you don’t do it in front of me. Be inside by nine so that I don’t have to deal with your mom calling and freaking out that you aren’t here. The stereo and the phone are all mine. Is Sinclair coming over? What about Henderson?”
“Dustin moved, remember? His mom got promoted.” Will sighs. “And yes, Lucas is coming over. He’s grabbing a bag now.”
“Cool. Keep your nerd shit to a minimum, ‘cause Eddie’s gonna come over and I don’t need you roping him into it.”
“Eddie Munson is a bigger nerd than me and Lucas.” Will complains, irritated. Eddie Munson is a super super senior who Will is convinced hasn’t bothered to graduate just so he can continue playing dungeons & dragons with high schoolers. He has a weird dynamic with Steve: they hate each other until they’re too high for emotions, and then Steve goes to his shows. Eddie’s in a heavy metal band.
“Yeah, so keep that shit upstairs so I don’t have to see it!”
“Whatever.” Will huffs, turning and storming up the stairs. In his room, he pulls out the key he’d stolen: it’d fallen out of Creel’s pocket and onto his lawn while he was wheeled away by the paramedics. He’d tried giving it to them but they hadn’t paid him any attention, so now he has the key to the creepiest house in the neighborhood – hell, the creepiest house in the world.
Deciding that he’s done worrying about it, Will moves the telescope away from the window, firmly closing the blinds. He pulls out the sleeping bag that Lucas has claimed for himself for sleepovers, laying it out on the floor and grabbing extra blankets. They don’t talk when Lucas joins him, the events of the day catching up to them. Will curls up into a ball with his day clothes still on, keeping still so as not to wake Lucas who is snoring below him. He jerks up some time later as a shadow enters his room, gaping at the image of a giant hand converging on him, and he only realizes that he’d been dreaming when he’s sitting upright on his bed and seeing how dark it’s become.
He pulls his stuffed bunny closer to his chest, frowning when he sees that it’s past eleven at night, and gasps when the phone rings loudly. He has one on his bedside table at his mom’s insistence (what if something happened and he couldn’t get up to call for help?) and he blindly reaches out to answer it before it wakes Lucas up.
“Hello?”
Eerie groaning sounds over the line.
Will hangs up, frowning when it immediately rings again.
“Hello?” He’s met with the same noise, scowling as he dials the number back. “Let’s see how you like it.” They don’t answer, and Will rolls his eyes until he realizes that he can hear the phone ringing – across the street. Slowly, Will walks over to the window to look at the Creel House, his blood freezing cold. Creel is dead: Will saw his body. So… who is on the other line? “It’s just a dream. I’m just dreaming. Wake up, wake up, wake–”
Hands grab him by the shoulder, pulling him into his room as a man cackles in his ear. Will panics, falling backwards into Lucas, who groans loudly as he’s forced awake. Steve flips the lightswitch, revealing who Will assumes to be Eddie Munson, although his face is covered by Lucas’s Darth Vader mask.
“Nice one, Munson.” Steve snorts, rolling his eyes.
“Look at his face. I got you good, Byers.”
“It’s Maldonado!” Will snaps, tired of explaining the last name change to people when the change happened years ago. He doesn’t want to be associated with Lonnie in any capacity, especially not when he’s already feeling so high-strung. The phone isn’t ringing anymore, but Will knows the call came from inside of that house. “And it isn’t funny! What are you even doing here?”
“He’s hanging out here before his show tomorrow.” Steve shrugs. “Alright, we’re gonna go–”
“No, wait!” Will surges forward, grabbing Steve. “Listen to this. Lucas, you too.”
“What’s going on?” Lucas mumbles from the floor, blinking up at him blearily. Will calls the number again, pointing across the street. Steve raises his eyebrows, leaning out of the windowsill as the ringing sounds again.
“Wow, you called the neighbors. Why do I care?” Steve scoffs, pulling the window shut and handing him the phone.
“No, I used *69! He called me first!” Will explains, hearing Lucas gasp from the floor.
“Who called you?” Steve asks, sounding bored.
“Creel. He died today.”
“Liar,” Eddie scoffs.
“I’m serious! He died right before Steve got in – you saw the ambulance! – and now I’m getting phone calls from inside his house! I’m being stalked.”
“Hmm…” Eddie seems to actually consider his words. “A phone call… from beyond the grave.” He turns to Steve, who raises his eyebrows, before he suddenly lunges at Will who falls back, tripping over Lucas’s legs and ending up scrawled out on the floor. “Ooooh!”
Steve thankfully pushes Eddie out of the room, although he’s laughing the entire time, not taking him seriously. Will glowers after them, a blush lighting up his face as he turns to Lucas, glad that he looks upset on his behalf. Will has been trying so hard to seem more cool in Lucas’s presence, worried that he’ll wake up one day and decide that he’d rather be friends with the jocks on his new basketball team – or, even worse, with Michael.
“He really called you?” Lucas asks sleepily.
Will nods, standing up and staring out of his window again. For a second, nothing happens, but just as he’s about to shut his curtains, there’s movement from across the street. The blinds of the upstairs window get yanked, but there’s no one standing there – not that he can see, at least.
Has Henry Creel returned as a ghost?
And if he has, what does that mean for Will, his killer?
Will and Lucas manage to sneak out to the Danger Zone: an abandoned construction site right next to the quarry. They snuck out here for the first time years ago on a dare from Dustin, and they gained a ton of inspiration for their dungeons & dragons campaigns afterwards. It’s still a common meeting place for him and Lucas, although they’ve never run into Dustin or Michael there. He’s still friends with Dustin, but these days he’s closer to Michael, and Will tries really hard not to take that personally.
“Why did we have to come out here?” Lucas whispers after they’ve crawled into an old excavator, abandoned here years before. “I was–”
“Do you really trust Steve and Eddie not to mess with us again?” Will asks, smirking when Lucas immediately concedes the point. “I was serious about the phone call, and someone pulled his blinds afterwards! Creel is haunting me!”
While Will talks, Lucas has snatched up a key and inserted it. He turns to Will, leaning back, and they both scream when he accidentally pushes down on a lever and turns the excavator on. It takes a minute for them to get it to stop, and Will is panting as he stares out of the window down at the dried up quarry, fearing for his life.
An hour later, they find themselves ducking behind a tree at the Creel house. The tree looks like it’s decaying, and Will frowns, peering around it and worrying about who could be inside. Lucas sits with him for a minute before he groans loudly.
“Okay, I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, but dude. It’s just a house.”
“It’s a haunted house!”
“We’ll see.” Lucas smirks. “If it is haunted, surely the ghost won’t appreciate me playing Ding Dong Ditch–”
“Lucas, don’t!” Will panics, gasping as Lucas pulls away from him and makes his way up the driveway. “Stop, please! Please, Lucas!”
Lucas ignores him, walking up the porch now. He turns to face Will, still hiding behind the tree, laughing loudly as he mimics old Henry Creel. “Get off my lawn!”
“Lucas, seriously, this isn’t funny!”
Lucas turns around again, ringing the doorbell. Will swears the sound echoes out of the house, and a moment later it turns eerie. Lucas stares at the house as the two upstairs windows have their blinds abruptly pulled, showing that the lights of both rooms are on. Will gapes at it, having the sudden thought that the house looks like a face. The porch is the mouth and the windows are the eyes – he sees us. He’s going to get revenge.
Suddenly, pieces of siding fly off of the side of the house, landing at Lucas’s feet as the front door opens. Then, floorboards fly up in the doorway, giving the house teeth. Will whimpers, remembering the way Creel had asked Holly if she wanted to be eaten, messing around with his house. He wasn’t joking, and they’re going to be his next victims.
Lucas screams, turning and sprinting off of the porch as a giant red carpet flies out of the house, trying to pull him back in. That’s the tongue, Will thinks as he finally finds himself capable of moving, running to meet Lucas in the yard. They luck out: the rug isn’t long enough to reach him once he makes it to the end of the lawn, crashing into Will’s arms and sending them falling into the street. They’re frozen for one second before the house snarls at them, sending them sprinting across the street and into Will’s house.
“Don’t look back!”
“I looked back!” Lucas screams shrilly, slamming the door shut behind himself after the house growls at him. “You were right! Creel is haunting us!”
“No shit!” Will snaps, yanking him up the stairs with him.
Neither of them sleep that night.
“Eight am,” Lucas yawns, standing at the telescope. Will is perched at his desk, writing down his observations. “No detectable movement.”
They both jolt when Steve enters the room. “Hey, Will, I brought you some chocolate.”
“Shh!”
Steve flips the light on, and they both leap up, rushing to turn it back off. Will whips around to Lucas, “Cover blown!?”
Lucas rushes to look through the telescope again, letting out a deep sigh. “No detectable movement.”
“Oh, nothing – the house across the street just tried to eat us!” Lucas blurts out, immediately abandoning the lie. “We’ve been up all night watching it! Did you seriously not hear us screaming last night?”
“I have better things to do than listen for you nerds all night,” Steve rolls his eyes, unimpressed.
“You’re literally getting paid to watch us.” Will deadpans. “We’re serious! We even considered peeing in bottles so we wouldn’t have to leave the room in case we miss anything.”
Disgust curls Steve’s lips. “Whatever disease you guys have, I’m sure it’s got letters, and that they make pills for it.”
Will shares a look with Lucas, knowing that they’re thinking the same thing: they should remember that one to use against their bullies later.
“Steve, we’re telling the truth.” Will insists, not sure why he wants the older boy to believe him so badly. He barely even counts as an adult, and it’s not like he’s particularly smart or strong: Jonathan has won in a fight against them, and as much as Will adores his brother, he knows that he’s not the best fighter.
“I’m really happy for you,” Steve sighs, tossing them chocolate bars. His eyes land on the telescope, and he furrows his eyebrows, looking conflicted. “Did you guys happen to see Munson during your spying? He left last night…”
“We were a little busy running away from a murderous house.” Will points out, ripping open his chocolate bar. “Relax. Eddie always comes running back.” They’ve got a really weird dynamic, always toeing the line with each other, but Eddie never stays gone for long.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought, but… he didn’t.” Steve groans, running a hand through his hair. “Wheeler is never going to let me hear the end of it if he disappears – he needs him for that nerd game of yours.”
The reminder that Michael joined a different party after they stopped being friends curdles in his stomach.
“Steve, I don’t know how to tell you this–” Will starts, only for Lucas to interrupt him.
“Your boyfriend has most likely been eaten alive.”
“He’s not my – whatever. I gotta go. Happy Halloween, losers.” Steve leaves them alone, not willing to hear the truth.
Adults.
Would it kill them to listen to a kid for once?
Silently, they go back to their stations: Lucas as lookout while Will keeps track of the hour and any movement, organizing the pictures he’s taken of Creel over the years. Hopper will be impressed, he thinks. They’ve done their due diligence.
“Oh, hello.” Lucas says suddenly, using a tone that Will has never heard before.
“What?” Will jumps to his feet, grabbing the telescope and ducking down to see a girl walking across the street. She’s pretty, her red hair tied in two braids, wearing a green shirt, brown jacket, and patchwork jeans. Will can tell that they’re patchwork out of necessity, patterns sewn in to replace wear and tear, and he smiles as he wonders how many times she’s fallen off of her skateboard to cause that many rips in her jeans. She looks cool. “How is she skating and pulling a wagon?” Will asks, impressed. She’s pulling a red wagon full of candy boxes behind her as she walks up to – his heart drops, his blood freezing – the Creel House. “Oh no! No, no, no! Turn around!”
She kicks off of her skateboard, tucking it under her arm as she walks down the path, the BEWARE sign sinking into the earth before she notices it.
“What is it?” Lucas asks, worried.
“She’s walking up to the Creel House!” Will shouts, and the two of them scramble out of his room, shoving past Steve on the steps, and start shouting as soon as they open the front door. “Wait! Stop! Stop!”
“Will, that’s your phone!” Steve shouts after them, irritated by the sound of it ringing. The call had started just as they went to leave the room – to protect this girl from Creel – and Will doesn’t think that’s a coincidence.
“Hey, stop!” Lucas bellows, frowning when she doesn’t turn around even once. “Jesus, is she deaf?”
“Stop it!” Will screams, relieved when she turns around with an eye roll just as they make it across the street. They both freeze with their feet right on the edge of the sidewalk, too scared to step onto the property. “Don’t go any further!”
“Come here!” Lucas shouts, waving frantically. “Over here! Quickly!”
“And why would I do that?” She asks with an unimpressed scoff. Behind her, unbeknownst to her, the front door creaks open. No, no, no! “I don’t know you guys, and I have a job to do. See ya, stalkers.”
“Detectable movement!” Lucas hits Will’s arm, the two of them gaping as the house comes alive again. The redhead turns around, screaming as she finally sees what they’ve been trying to protect her from. She screams, falling backwards into her wagon, just as the slab of gravel underneath her breaks free from the ground, sending her flying up with it. She slides forward just as another slab catches her, bringing her closer to the house.
“What do we do? What do we do?” Will panics, looking around them.
Lucas grabs his arm, yanking him forward even though they haven’t come up with a plan. The decision miraculously works out for them, with them being able to grab her arms just as the rug tries to steal her. Snarling, the rug is yanked back into the house, the wood panels snapping together like teeth as the three of them go flying, sprawling out on the lawn. Will splutters, spitting out a mouthful of dirt and grass as Lucas stands up, shaking off his arms. The girl rolls over so that she’s no longer laying on top of Will, who is thankful for the opportunity to properly breathe, panting and unable to believe their luck.
“Hello?” Steve hollers from across the street, starting to open the front door. At the presence of an adult, the house immediately rights itself while the three of them gape at it in disbelief. “Hey, there’s an angry dad on the phone looking for the one called Lucas!”
“You literally helped me get on the basketball team, you know my name!” Lucas groans, helping Will and then the girl back to their feet.
“Hello? Losers, I’m talking to you!”
The house creaks ominously as they walk away from it, and Will is startled when the girl presses herself closer to his side, all but attaching herself to him as she crosses her arms over her chest. Steve shakes his head at them, rolling his eyes and shoving the phone at Lucas as soon as they reach the street.
“He’s worried about you.”
“He should be!” Lucas scowls, snatching the phone up. He shoots Will a worried look before making his way into the house to talk to his parents. Will is surprised that he didn’t tell them that he was going to be spending the night, but he’s pleased that they knew to call him. It’s nice to know that other people see how close they are.
“Start explaining.” Steve orders Will, looking surprised when the redhead wraps her arm around his, leaning even closer to him. She keeps shooting terrified looks back at the house as if the rug will suddenly scoop her up, and Will doesn’t blame her for feeling that way. It’s the only reason he hasn’t shoved her off of him: he doesn’t even know her name, and he doesn’t like it when people he’s not close to touch him, but he’s willing to look the other way considering they nearly died together. He’s pretty sure that makes them friends.
“The house tried to eat–!”
“Alright, stop explaining.” Steve groans, fed up. “You’re not going to give this up, are you? Fine.”
“Woah, where are you going?” Will leaps in front of Steve, trying to stop him from marching onto the Creel property.
“I’m going to see what’s happening with that stupid house of yours!”
“No, no, don’t!” Will shouts, groaning when Steve rips free from his grip. “Oh my god, my babysitter’s going to die! Steve! Steve, stop! Steve, I’ll – If you go, I’ll tell my mom that you’re the one who broke her crockpot last time!” It had been passed down in the family for years, and they’d blamed it on Chester, their old dog. Joyce had been heartbroken to find it broken.
That gets Steve to stop in his tracks, slowly turning to face Will.
“You wouldn’t.”
“I will.” Will promises, meaning it. “She’ll bring you back to life just to murder you herself.”
“Fine. But leave me out of it from now on!” Steve snaps, storming over to his car. “I’m going to find Eddie. If I have to stay here another night, there’s no reason I should be sober for it too.”
As soon as Steve pulls out of the driveway, the girl pulls back to glower at Will, no longer shaking in fear. Will doesn’t understand why he’s being glared at as if he’s in control of Henry Creel and his haunted house, but he’s already sick of it. “What the hell just happened!?”
Will sighs, softening when he sees the fear in her eyes. “Look, it’s a long story… I’m Will. Will Maldonado.”
“Max Mayfield.” She shakes his hand. “Well, considering that the candy I was selling just got eaten by a house, I think I have time for that story.”
She’s funny. Will really wants to be her friend.
“Good point. Um, do you want to come inside? Lucas can help me explain.” He offers, relieved when she agrees, following him into his house. Lucas is just finishing up on the phone when he pushes the door open. “So, this is our observation post… otherwise known as my bedroom. Um, here, you can have the desk.” He pushes the desk chair to her, watching as she leans her skateboard against the wall and takes a seat. He follows her gaze across his room, flushing when she shows a particular interest in the paintings and drawings taped to his walls. “I draw sometimes, I know they’re not the best–”
“They’re really cool.” Max interrupts him, grinning at one of Lucas in his Ranger costume, a bow held up in combat. “I wish I could draw, but I’ll stick to theater.”
“Will’s the best artist I know,” Lucas smiles, hanging up after promising his parents that he’ll come home after Halloween. “You act?”
“Yeah. Well, I used to, back home.” Max’s face falls slightly and Will rushes to change the subject, not wanting her to feel upset.
“This is Lucas, he’s my best friend. Lucas, meet Max Mayfield, our newest best friend.” Please don’t say no, Will hopes, not wanting her to turn down the title. Surprisingly, she looks almost pleased, grinning at him as she nods her head. The last time someone agreed to be friends with them was when Dustin moved here, and that was years ago. It’s a genuine shock that someone as cool as Max would agree, and Will hopes they don’t ruin it.
She walks over to the window, peering at the Creel House through the blinds before turning back around and crossing her arms. “Alright, let’s hear it.”
Lucas sighs, sitting down on Will’s bed. Will joins him, the two of them sitting across from Max when she reclaims the desk chair, looking between the two of them, waiting for the story. Just as Will starts to explain – “So, there’s this old man named Henry Creel–” barking from outside grabs their attention. They all rush to the window and watch as a stray dog does its business on the Creel lawn, Max cooing until the rug suddenly comes out, snatching him up in a split second.
The three of them gape at each other.
“Oh my god.” Will breathes out, horrified. “Is that what happened to Chester!?”
His dog had gone missing about a year ago, and Will has still been holding onto hope that he’ll come home. That hope feels impossible now, and Lucas grimaces, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him away from the window.
“Okay, I think it’s time to call the police,” Max decides.
“Do you realize what’s going to happen tonight?” Max asks a short while later, the three of them standing in the street in front of the Creel House.
“Hundreds of kids, walking right up to that house.” Will nods. He’s been worried about Halloween, not wanting children to get terrorized by Creel, but now? Now, he’s worried about children dying.
“Hold on, we might be overreacting. Only a total moron would walk up to old man Creel’s house.” Lucas starts, flushing and stuttering when Max whips around to glare at him at the accidental insult. “I–I mean, um, I–”
“You just moved here, you don’t count.” Will tells her, frowning. “He has a point… but are we willing to risk it?”
The front door creaks open, Lucas’s basketball bouncing down the porch steps, beckoning him forward. Will only just manages to grab the back of his shirt and pull him back before he can run into the yard. The ball bounces to a stop, showing that there’s been a creepy black smiley face carved into it: one uncannily familiar to the face of the house when it comes alive.
“It’s gonna be a bloodbath.” Lucas breathes out, releasing how easy it’ll be for Creel to lure children in with the promise of their favorite toys.
A siren sounds behind them, Hopper finally arriving. He’s got his partner with him, Officer Callahan, and Will already knows this is going to go poorly. Neither of them ever take him seriously, and Will is certain that Callahan stopped using his brain back in elementary school. Behind them, the house takes the basketball back, getting rid of any evidence.
“Oh, this better be good,” Hopper tells them warningly as they walk up to his car. “Byers, Sinclair… New girl.”
“It’s Maldonado.” Will releases a long-suffering sigh. “And this is Max Mayfield, she’s from California. Hey, isn’t that your job to know, being chief and all?”
“Being chief means that I don’t have time for your prank calls.” Hopper sighs. “What is it now? Did Creel steal another bike?”
Yes.
Suddenly, Callahan uses the radio connected to the car’s megaphone, and they all flinch as his voice echoes around them. “All three of you, step to the car now!” They groan in pain, putting their hands over their ears as Hopper groans.
“They’re at the car.”
“Officer, we have reason to believe that there’s a dangerous creature inside of that house.” Max takes over the conversation, pointing to the house behind them.
“He might’ve killed a man.”
“And a dog!” Will adds, sighing. “Multiple dogs – my dog.”
“Doggy down?” Callahan yelps, flailing for his radio. “We’ve got a situation! We’ve–”
“Woah, woah!” Hopper grabs his arm, stopping him from radioing in for backup. “What are you doing?”
“Calling for backup. Didn’t you hear what the kid said? There’s a dangerous creature inside that house.”
“We don’t have backup! It’s just Flo at the station. And this is no situation. This group has a history: they play some nerd roleplay game, eat too many Pixy Stix, and make it my problem every damn time!”
“I bet you the dead dog would beg to differ,” Callahan mumbles, slumping back in his seat.
Hopper ignores him, a vein ticking in his forehead before he turns back to them. “Time’s up, peewees. It’s Halloween, and believe it or not, we got things to do.”
“We do?”
“Yes.”
“Wait, you can’t!” Will begs, taking a step back as Hopper sighs explosively. “Look, the house has a mouth! It grabs things with the rug – it turns into a tongue – and pulls them in and eats them!”
Max stops Lucas from joining in on the explanation, grimacing. “The thing is, we’re trying to make this sound more real than it normally would. We know we sound insane–”
“Mm-hmm. We’ll see you later.”
“No!” Will shouts, taking another step back, and then another. “Alright, fine. I’ll prove it. If things get out of hand…”
“We’ll aim for Big Foot.” Hopper laughs as Will steps onto the lawn, instinctively tensing up. Callahan laughs along, pulling his gun out and aiming it mindlessly. Hopper lunges, his eyes wide. “That’s loaded!”
“Will, don’t!” Lucas begs, but Will ignores him, jumping up and down twice only for nothing to happen. He narrows his eyes, digging his shoe into the ground, pulling out grass – nothing. He jumps again, desperate this time, turning bright red as Hopper laughs loudly from the car.
“He’s hoppin’!”
“Smart house.” Max shakes her head.
Lucas bends down, grabbing a rock from the ground and loading it into his wrist rocket. He lands a solid hit on the door just as Hopper shouts at them, taking it seriously now.
“Hey! You – all of you. Come here. Bring it to the car.” They do as instructed, holding their hands up. “I’m gonna forget about you throwing that rock ‘cause that dance was pretty funny. But the next time any of you mess with this guy’s house, all three of you are going in the hole, you got it? Now, I’ll give you 10 seconds to march.”
“But we need your help!”
“Come on, it’s your job!”
“We’re telling the truth!”
“Two… three…”
Scowling, Will leads the way, glowering when Hopper starts his engine just as they try to cross in front of his car. Callahan continues the countdown over the speaker while Will huffs, throwing his arms up when Hopper starts driving, not letting them pass, instead forcing them to walk further down the road while the officers laugh at them from the car.
“I live across the street!”
“Keep it moving!”
“So much for relying on the government.” Max sighs loudly. “I’ll never do that again. What was I thinking?”
“It’s not your fault.” Will tells her, not wanting her to feel guilty. “We’ll just have to do this ourselves.”
They’re taking down Creel before Halloween if it’s the last thing they do.
Hopper forces them down the block before he gets bored and swerves around them, reminding them to leave the house alone as they speed off. They stand there for a second, waiting for him to disappear around the corner, before they turn and rush straight back to Will’s house to come up with a plan. They end up scattered around his room: Max sitting on his desk, Lucas sprawled out on the floor, and Will sitting on his bed and staring out of his window, waiting for signs of life.
“Hold on.” Max grabs one of the older pictures of Creel, frowning down at it before turning to Will. “You’ve been stalking him for two years, right?”
“I wouldn’t call it… yeah.” Will grimaces, giving up on excusing himself when she simply holds up a pile of the pictures. That does look stalkerish. Maybe it’s a good thing Hopper didn’t want to get involved: he would’ve taken one look at his journal and the pictures and arrested him. Can I get arrested even though I’m twelve? He starts to think that the answer is no but then he remembers that their chief is Hopper, so it’s more than likely a yes. He wouldn’t care that he’s not even a teenager yet.
“Does it matter?” Lucas asks her, and she sighs loudly, looking almost disappointed in them.
“Okay, let me get this straight. Yesterday, you gave Henry Creel, the nasty old man who is way too concerned with the state of his grass and not concerned enough about, I don’t know, the rotting trees and decaying house sitting on said grass, a heart attack. He died. That night, the house started haunting you.” She stares at them, waiting for them to get it. When they don’t react, she groans. “Henry Creel is possessing his house!”
Lucas gasps dramatically while Will just blinks at her. “Well… yeah.”
“You knew?” Lucas asks him, frowning.
“Dude, I told you that Creel called me that night, and I had a nightmare about the house growing a hand and–!”
“Oh, yeah, you did.” Lucas grimaces. “I guess I just didn’t stop and put it all together. My bad.”
“Okay, moving on.” Max waves her hand, an amused smile on her lips as she looks at Lucas. Will looks away, reminding himself that this was going to happen at some point: Lucas wasn’t going to stay with him forever, content to simply have a best friend and nothing else. At least Max is cool: Will thinks he wouldn’t mind third-wheeling them, even if it’ll break his heart to watch Lucas be in love with someone else. “We’ve established that the house is Creel… and how do you kill someone?” She leans in, the two boys instinctively doing the same, the tension rising. “You stop their heart.”
“Oh, well, Will is good at that.” Lucas giggles, not fighting when Will kicks him in the side, irritated by the reminder. “We just send him in, and bam, Creel will have his second heart attack!”
“Lucas, it’s not funny!” Will whines, trying to hide his amusement. He does have a point. Max snorts, setting all three of them off, laughing hysterically over everything that’s happened today. Poor Max, thinking she would go make money off of people unprepared for Trick or Treaters, only to end up nearly eaten by a house and befriending two random boys in the process. Thankfully, she’s taking it all in stride.
When they sober up, they stare at each other, trying to think.
“Where does a house even keep its heart?” Lucas asks, sighing when none of them can answer that.
Will bites his lip, staring out the window in silence before he tilts his head, looking at the chimney. “Guys! Ever since Creel died, there’s been smoke coming out of the chimney. It was never used before.”
He scrambles up, stealing his desk chair and starting to draw while Max looks over his shoulder, intrigued. On one side of the street he draws his house, not adding any details even though it makes him cringe to make something so plain. Then, the street, lines dotting it. Finally, the Creel House, taking the time to show the teeth and the eyes and the chimney, using charcoal for the smoke.
“If we wanna put out the fire, we’re gonna have to go inside.” Max realizes.
“Without getting chewed to pieces.” Lucas points out, joining them and jabbing his finger at the teeth. He grabs a marker, drawing a dummy on the street, and Will’s eyes widen.
“That’s genius!”
“You think it’ll work?” Lucas asks, smiling at him.
“What will work?” Max asks them, looking confused.
“Okay, so, we’ve learned that Creel only wants to eat children. Which is super freaky, but whatever. Obviously, none of us want to get eaten so we need a decoy.” Lucas explains, grinning when Max seems to get it, her eyes lighting up.
“Lucas, what if we fill the dummy with a few gallons of cold medicine? I mean, it’s Creel, so that would knock him out, right? We feed it to the house, Creel eats the medicine, and the house goes to sleep.” Will suggests, drawing bottles attached to the dummy.
“We get in there, douse the fire.” Max agrees.
“How are we going to get gallons of cold medicine?” Lucas points out one flaw.
“We steal them.”
“Are you nuts?” Lucas asks, his eyes widening. “I got caught last time!”
“So, don’t get caught this time.”
“Oh, easy–!”
“I say it’s worth a shot.” Max interrupts, and immediately, Lucas changes his tune.
“Yes, I agree. Let’s do it.”
Max rolls her eyes, hopping down from Will’s desk and grabbing her skateboard. Will turns to Lucas, rolling his eyes fondly, “Whipped.”
“Shut up!” Lucas hisses, turning bright red.
“You guys coming or not?” Max shouts from downstairs, sending the two of them scrambling to follow her. “I thought we had a monster to kill!”
Lucas steals the cold medicine and they end up right back at Will’s house, creating their dummy. The ‘body’ is made from their vacuum cleaner, and Will has no idea how he’ll explain its absence to his mom when she gets back tomorrow. They steal Steve’s letterman jacket to go over it, stuffing it with the bottles of cold medicine. Then come the weapons: water blasters that they’ve accumulated over the years. Will and Lucas have TRC-214’s – back when they were a party of four, they’d all bought walkie talkies to communicate with each other, although Will and Lucas use a different channel now so that Michael doesn’t overhear them – and Will has to dig around in Jonathan’s room until he finds a third one for Max to use.
To avoid being seen, they cut the bottom of three garbage cans out, reminding themselves that this is for the good of the entire neighborhood. Max volunteers to push the dummy over, so they hide it in the third bin and he crouches behind it, pushing it as Lucas and Will walk themselves across the street, trying to pretend that they aren’t hiding inside of a metal garbage can. Will is going to need to take a hundred showers when this is over.
Will carefully lifts the lid of his bin up, giving himself a chance to look at the house. It hasn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary, still sleeping, and he nods to Max. Carefully, she lifts the lid hiding the dummy before she pulls it out of the can, carrying it to the edge of Creel’s property.
She runs back to them, holding the cord and getting ready to plug it into the extension cord connected to Will’s house once they give her the signal. Max nods to Will once she’s ready, and Will knocks on the top of Lucas’s lid three times, giving him the signal. He pulls himself up, holding up his wrist rocket slingshot, a rock already loaded into it. He aims, and Will fights down a cheer when he makes the shot, the doorbell ringing as the rock falls back onto the porch.
“Yes!” Will and Max both whisper, sharing excited smiles.
“Trick or treat!” Lucas shouts in a high-pitched voice. Afterwards, he turns to Max. “Plug it in!”
She plugs the vacuum into the extension cord, and Will holds his breath until it surges to life. She feeds it more of the extension cord and Will smiles, giddy as he watches their handiwork. They put a broomstick in for the arms, and the handle side is holding the pumpkin bucket he’d planned to use for trick or treating tonight. Lucas’s Darth Vader mask is covering the vacuum handle. Halfway there, the front door swings open, the teeth popping out of the doorframe as the rug rolls out to greet it.
Five feet, four feet…
Police sirens sound from behind them, and at once, the rug is back inside and the house is back to looking normal, the presence of adults scaring it. Will curses violently, surprising even himself: they were so close! Hopper runs over the extension cord, freezing the vacuum cleaner in its tracks, and then parks right next to them.
“Littering, loitering, vandalism, vagrancy–” He starts listing off their crimes as he steps out of the car, Callahan following him.
“And treason!”
“No, not treason.” Hopper sighs. “Alright, kids, out of the trash cans. Let’s go.”
Will winces, glad when Lucas helps both of them out of their cans. He’s got his water blaster strapped to his side, same as the others, and he watches Hopper’s lips twitch at the sight.
“Come on! You heard the big guy!” Callahan orders them, aiming his flashlight at them and making Will flinch back, blinking spots from his eyes. “You see the light! Walk towards it. Come on, keep it moving. Now, drop your weapons. Uh-huh, all of the weapons, come on! Pass ‘em to me!”
They toss them at his feet and he squeals, leaping back to avoid getting splashed.
“I will shoot you!”
“Well, lookie what we got here.” Hopper ignores his partner threatening them, looking over at the vacuum cleaner dummy in pure confusion. “Stay here, I’m checking this out.”
“I am on it!” Callahan promises him, aiming his flashlight back into Will’s eyes. They can’t help but grin a little when Hopper hesitantly approaches the dummy, clearly worried about something jumping out at him. Callahan doesn’t like that, stepping closer to them. “Y’all think something’s funny? You testin’ me? Huh, Tough Girl? You disrespecting the badge? You don’t want none of this!”
Max rolls her eyes at him, not dignifying him with a response.
“That is it!” Hopper shouts, turning and making his way back down the driveway. “That’s it, we’re taking ‘em in!”
“That’s what I’m talkin’ about!” Callahan grins, excited. “Where we takin’ ‘em?”
“To jail.”
All three of them gasp, sharing horrified looks.
“What!?”
“We didn’t do anything!”
“Yeah, come on–!”
“You guys are going to jail.” Callahan informs them, grabbing Will and Max by the arms and pushing them into the backseat of the police car. Hopper pushes Lucas in after, neither of them listening to their explanations, all of their voices overlapping as they try to explain about Henry Creel and his haunted house. “You’ve got the right to shut up.”
“It’s the right to remain silent, and you haven’t read us any of our other rights.” Max snaps, glowering at him as she pushes herself up from where she’d fallen into Will as she was shoved into the car. “I swear to God, if that monster house doesn’t eat us, I will prosecute!”
“And to think I believed you!” Callahan huffs, turning away from them and shutting the door. “We’re supercops!”
“Yeah, that’s why I live in a cabin in the woods that’s falling apart worse than this nightmare of a house.” Hopper scoffs, gesturing to the Creel House. He tosses their water blasters in after them, snorting as they scramble for them.
Callahan laughs. “Yeah, didn’t your roof cave in last winter?”
“Shut the fuck up about my goddamn–”
Behind them, the house growls, and Callahan perks up.
“You hear that?”
“Yep, that’s my stomach. I’m starvin’.”
“No, no. That sounds like the dangerous creature. I’m gonna go check it out!”
Hopper groans, turning to his partner. “It’s like trying to wrangle a puppy. I’ll be back, don’t fuck with my car or I’ll keep you in the hole for a week.” He ignores their muffled shouts, warning them to not go near the house, never taking them seriously. The House leaves them alone as they walk up the driveway and Will groans loudly when they end up standing at either end of the doorway, Callahan still waving his gun around.
They’re so dead.
Will groans loudly when Callahan suddenly jumps off of the porch, rolling onto the lawn, not listening to their shouts to stop, although Will wonders if he can even hear them from over there. Hopper steps off of the porch as his partner stands up, waving his flashlight and gun around the yard. A moment later, Lucas squeals when a tree branch steals Callahan’s gun, sending the man running.
“You can’t do that! That is illeg – ahh!”
The branches swoop around him, swinging him high in the air as Hopper runs over to him, everyone screaming. Deciding that there’s nothing he can do, Hopper shouts that he’s going for backup – “I thought there was no backup!” “I’m getting Flo!” – when suddenly the front door swings open, the rug wrapping around him and yanking him to the ground. He tears chunks of grass out in his desperation as he’s dragged backwards, the door slamming shut once he’s inside. The tree swings Callahan around, the mouth opening one more time for him, his screams abruptly cutting off.
Stuck in the police car, the three of them panic.
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!”
“I think I’m having a stroke!”
“I’m having a heart attack!”
“Just – Just try to stay calm, okay?” Max tells them, trying to be comforting even through her own panic. “We’ll be alright if we just stay calm!”
“How do we get out of here?” Will panics, knowing that the doors won’t open from the inside but trying them anyway. They’re locked, and his panic grows steadily: he doesn’t like feeling trapped, it just reminds him of when Lonnie still lived with him. “Oh my god, we’re gonna die in a police car! That’s such a bad look! My mom is going to freak out!”
“Stay calm!” Max screams at him, her voice breaking.
A second later, all three of them scream at the top of their lungs when the tree lunges for them, breaking the car windows as the branches wrap around the tree, lifting it up.
“We’re going to die!” Max screams, giving up on any pretense of being calm and collected. The three of them are wrapped around each other and her nails are digging into Will’s arm. The car is turned around, giving them a view of the House as it comes to life, Creel growling at them. Slowly, they’re passed from tree to tree until they’re being fed to the House, and Will squeezes his eyes shut, thinking that the last thing he’s going to hear is Lucas’s bloodcurdling scream.
He finds himself holding both Max and Lucas’s hands as they watch the teeth clamp down on the front of the car, destroying it. He looks at Lucas and thinks now or never. He doesn’t want to die holding onto this secret.
“Lucas, I’ve always loved you!”
“What?”
“Everyone thought that I loved Michael but how could I love anyone else when you’re right – oh my god, we’re not dead!” Will shouts, relieved and also horrified when they’re shoved into the House, the teeth not cutting through them. “Holy shit, I thought we were going to – um. Pretend I didn’t say anything, please? It was the panic. Yeah, yeah, that’s all it was. Um… Oh shit, I celebrated way too early!”
“Will, please shut up!” Lucas begs between his sobs, clamping his eyes shut as the tongue whips out to grab the car, leading them to a giant hole in the floor: is that the throat? Oh my god, Creel is going to eat us! “I love you too, but please shut up!”
“You love me?”
“Oh my god!” Max screams, hitting both of them in the arm. “We’re about to die, can you not do this right now!?”
“Sorry!” They both shout right before they’re pushed down into the hole. They scream at the top of their lungs, all three of them holding onto each other as gravity tips, before Will looks behind them and has an idea. He yanks on their hands, shouting for them to follow him as he climbs out of the back window, the three of them jumping off of the car just as it’s swallowed up. The front door slams shut before they reach it, darkness pressing down on them. Will presses himself even closer to Max and Lucas, his heart racing as wood creaks around them, the House resetting itself.
“Lucas, flashlight!” He whispers, relieved when Lucas fumbles for the one in his pocket before he turns it on, lighting up the room around them. The tongue goes back to laying out on the floor as the floorboards close around the hole as if it was never there.
“We’re dead.” Lucas whimpers. “We’re never leaving this place!”
“Shh!” Will hisses, hitting his shoulder. “I don’t think the House knows that we’re in here.” He grabs his own flashlight, aiming it around. “We were in the car and it just ate that.”
“Listen.” Max whispers, nudging Lucas who falls sideways into Will. The House rumbles. “It’s sleeping.”
Lucas nods, agreeing. “You know what this means? Our only way out of here is to find the heart and put out the fire. Oh!” He gestures to the far wall, his eyes lighting up. “Fireworks!”
Carefully, Will pushes a pair of binoculars into the wall, his heart racing. Is that how Creel sees? How long has he been watching the house across the street? “He was watching me. Oh my god, I’m going to throw up.”
He jumps when a hand lands on his shoulder, although relief crashes into him when he sees that it’s just Lucas, pulling him into a hug. He sinks into it, hiding his face in his friend’s neck for a second before he pulls away, smiling shyly. “Um… about before…”
“We’ll talk more after we get out of here.” Lucas promises, hesitating for a second as his eyes flicker over to Max before he suddenly straightens up. “No, you know what? Will, you were brave, so I’m going to be too. I love you: I meant it when I said it before. But… even though we’ve only known her for, like, a day and that’s not really enough time to develop proper feelings and my sister would make fun of me for all of eternity if she knew I felt this way… Um, what I’m saying is that I also like Max. A lot. I like both of you, and I wouldn’t be saying anything if we weren’t standing inside of a house that keeps trying to eat us, and… Yeah. That’s all I wanted to say. Um, let’s go find this heart!”
He tries to push past them but neither of them let him. Will studies Max, finding that he isn’t upset the way he’d thought he’d be. He likes Max a lot, and he can’t blame Lucas for also liking her: if he wasn’t purely into boys, he’d probably have a thing for her too. She’s a badass, and she’s pretty, and Will would love to spend all of his time with her and Lucas.
“I’m okay with that,” He answers, shocking a smile out of Max.
She nods, biting her lip. “I like you both – Will, relax, not like that. You don’t give me funny feelings in my stomach like Lucas does, no offense–”
“None taken!” Will rushes out, relief hitting him again. Thank god. “I’m… not into girls. Sorry.”
She laughs at him, looking so fond. “Please don’t apologize for that. Okay. How about this? We focus on our mission for now, but when we’re out of here, we try it. All three of us can go on a date, even though Lucas is our common denominator. We can go to an arcade or something.”
“Sounds perfect.” Will and Lucas answer at the same time, sharing a wide smile.
“Okay.” Max smiles to herself, looking excited. “Then let’s go find the heart.”
Dangling from the ceiling is a strange net filled with glowing orange… balls? Lanterns? Whatever they are, they get doused with the medicine they’d filled their water blasters with. Will swears that the House coughs before suddenly the hole in the middle starts opening again, floorboards splitting apart to reveal a red underground world. They leap backwards, watching in shock as water rises up towards them. Then, the front door slams shut again – when did that open? – as a bright light shines down on the floor, starting to search for something to eat – for them. They stand pressed against the wall, their chests heaving, as the light passes right in front of them. It’s coming from the windows, and it can only reach so far, keeping them hidden so long as they don’t make any sudden movements.
Max turns to Lucas, who was the first one to shoot at the net, looking supremely unimpressed.
“What? I thought if I shot the heart–!”
“That’s not the heart,” Max hisses back.
“Then what is it!?”
“Well… if those are the teeth,” She points to the floorboards. “And that’s the tongue,” She points to the rug before she points to the net in the air. “Then that must be the uvula.”
“Oh,” Lucas breathes out. “So it’s a girl house.”
Will actually face palms, fighting back his laughter. He knew Lucas didn’t pay attention during their human anatomy lessons, but this is just sad. How does he know more about the female body as a gay man than his best friend who’s still interested in girls?
“What? No.” Max groans, shaking her head. “It stimulates the gag reflex. Everyone has a uvula.”
“Not me,” Lucas shakes his head while Will sighs loudly, sharing a look with Max. The wood creaks and they all fall silent, worried about being caught. Thankfully, it’s the opposite, and the House is putting itself back together again. The light leaves then, the blinds slamming shut over the windows, and Will glowers over at the useless binoculars. He can’t believe that creep was spying on him for who knows how long! Carefully, fueled by his anger, he takes a step forward, swinging the flashlight that he’s connected to his water blaster up. The upstairs landing is clear, and he waves Max and Lucas forward before something else happens to wake up the House.
“Don’t touch anything,” He whispers to them as they slowly walk forward, aiming their guns and flashlights around. Will, for the first time in his life, wishes that Lonnie was still around so that he could have a real gun on him. He’d forced him to learn how to shoot it when he was nine years old, and Will will never forget that memory. His mom had unknowingly taken him to see Bambi in theaters the week after and he’d sobbed for hours to her horror. He’d never explained why, but Jonathan had taken one look at him and understood. “We have to be quiet. I don’t want him waking up.”
“And we stay together–” Lucas starts, immediately interrupted by Will falling through a rotten floorboard, screaming on his way down. “Will!”
“Will!” Max screams for him, sounding just as worried as Lucas. “Hold on, we’re coming!”
Whatever plan she was trying to come up with is proven unnecessary when the two of them fall through the floor next, landing on top of Will, who groans weakly. Something is digging into his back and he shifts, pushing Lucas off of him as Max rolls herself away, groaning as she hits something. When they stand up, Will gasps loudly, looking around the room.
“So this is where all of the toys went!”
But… why? If the house wasn’t eating them, why did Creel bother taking all of them?
“Guys.” Max waves them over to a bedroom, shining her light on the placard on the door. It’s peeling at the edges and yellow from age, but they can still read the name written in cursive, flowers dotting the edges. Alice. He shares a disbelieving look with Lucas, and Max turns to them with a frown. “Who’s Alice?”
“Henry’s sister,” Will answers, carefully pushing the door open as Lucas explains the story to Max. They’d done research a year ago, finding out that the Creel House once belonged to Victor and Virginia Creel, housing their children Alice and Henry before an accident rocked the town. The rumor is that Henry murdered his parents and his sister, keeping the property for himself and constantly being on the lookout for new victims. Victims like Will, who was being stalked this entire time.
Unlike the rest of the House, Alice’s bedroom has remained untouched by time and decay. The walls are pink, as were her bedsheets. She’s got a white vanity with a handful of books and a White Rabbit statue that Will is transfixed by, remembering all of the dungeons & dragons miniatures he has in his own bedroom. There’s a jewelry box with a spinning ballerina inside and a stuffed bunny sitting on her bed. Feeling sick at the reminder that a young girl was murdered in this house, Will shoves himself out of the room, slamming the door shut a little too loudly. Looking at the toys, he wonders if they’re meant to be offerings: does Creel feel guilty for murdering his older sister? Is that why he terrorizes the neighborhood children to steal their toys?
He turns, his chest heaving as he stumbles past rows and rows of toys, ignoring Max and Lucas as they rush after him. They’re asking him questions about the room and he doesn’t know how to explain that he didn’t see anything creepy, that it’s just the realization that Creel was stalking him and likely planning on offering him up as some sort of sacrifice that’s freaking him out. He only makes it halfway down the hall before he steps on something that crunches under his feet, and one glimpse at the skull he stepped on has him dry heaving, dropping to the ground as the House wakes up.
“It’s awake! Run!” Max shouts, both her and Lucas stopping to help pull Will to his feet before they take off. They’re all holding hands again as they run, Lucas in the middle, and Will feels like he’s going to die. They make it back to the main room just as the floorboards above them start to separate, the light shining through, looking for them. “Hide!”
There’s nowhere to go, so all three of them drop down into the pile of toys, hoping that they’ll be glanced over. It works, the light continuing on past them, studying the pile but not finding anything out of the ordinary. The House must think that they’re dolls or something… although, Will would think that Creel would have his face memorized with how much time he spends staring into his window!
If Creel wasn’t dead, he’d be getting a restraining order.
“Hey.” Lucas perks up. “I know that sound!”
Will surges forward, unable to stop him as Lucas abandons his spot in order to grab his basketball. As soon as he’s grabbed it, slinkies come down from the ceiling, pulling him up as he shouts. Max is next, getting cornered by the pipes that are suddenly moving, one of them sucking her up through it. For some reason, Will is left alone, despite the fact that he’s standing in clear view in the middle of the room.
He runs for the stairs, determined to find Lucas and Max before anything can happen to them. The wood creaks under his feet and he only makes it up two stairs before the wood gives out, sending him falling forward into more breaking steps. He’s not sure how he manages to make it all the way up despite the stairs trying to capture him, screaming when he breaks through the door and nearly falls straight into the massive hole in the entrance. The stomach. Across from him, the same thing nearly happens to Max as she’s ejected from the pipe.
“Max!”
Screaming alerts them to Lucas’s presence – he’s been transferred over to the rug at some point, and it pushes him all the way to the entrance, his water blaster falling into the stomach as he desperately holds onto a floorboard. Will moves faster than he’s ever moved in his life, all but throwing himself over the edge in his rush to grab Lucas’s other hand.
“I got – ahh!” Will screams as he’s yanked back by the rug, throwing him through the air for a minute before he’s shoved down into the hole, only just managing to grab a hold of Lucas before he’s eaten. Poor Lucas is straining as he keeps his hold on the floorboards, holding Will’s weight now too.
“The uvula!” Max suddenly screams. They watch as she makes a run for it, jumping on top of the rug and leaping for the net hanging above them. She’s only able to hold on for a second before she’s falling, grabbing onto Will before she’s gone for good. The net flies up, hitting the ceiling which begins to crack. Max’s next scream is muffled, and Will looks down to find her submerged in rapidly rising water. “Will! Lucas!”
Will clamps his mouth shut as the water rises over his head, thinking that they’re going to be eaten, only for the House to eject them. Literally, it spits them out onto the lawn outside, where they sprawl out and gasp for air.
“Oh, gross.” Will and Max both complain, grimacing down at themselves. They’re covered in dirt, and the water feels thick, like… stomach acid. They’re covered in Henry Creel’s stomach acid!
“Did we just get upchucked?” Lucas asks, gagging.
“The uvula,” Max smirks. “Nature’s emergency exit.”
Will can’t help but throw himself on her, pulling her into the most disgusting hug he’s ever experienced. She stopped them from being eaten alive, she’s a genius. Lucas joins the hug, the three of them hugging each other tightly as the House rumbles behind them, looking almost like it’s crying as water floods out of the windows.
They let Max take the first shower once they get back to Will’s house. He orders a pizza delivery while raiding his cupboards and making microwavable mac n cheese for the meantime, knowing that all of them are starving. He can’t stop shooting little looks at Lucas, pleased to find him looking back a few times.
“So… are you, like, bisexual?” He finally asks, biting his lip.
“Yeah. I think.” He shrugs, scooping out another bite of mac n cheese before he smiles cheekily at Will. “I’ve never liked anyone other than you before Max, so… yeah. I think I definitely like both.”
“Cool.” Will smiles to himself, turning when Max enters the room. “Alright, Lucas can shower next. Max, we made mac n cheese and ordered pizza.”
Max actually sags in relief, rushing over to grab a fork and start eating, stealing Lucas’s spot on the counter. She’d taken it upon herself to borrow some of Will’s clothes from his room, but he doesn’t mind at all, smiling to himself at the sight of her in one of his flannels and a pair of cargo pants, his boxers peeking out from the top. She looks comfortable, at home, and he likes that.
Lucas has a drawer in Will’s room, so Will doesn’t get to see him in his clothes, but he knows that’s for the better. Lucas is taller than him, anyway, so he’d be uncomfortable. The pizza arrives by the time he gets out of the shower, and they settle in the living room, eating and pointedly not mentioning everything that just happened.
Will’s the one to break the peace after the last slice is gone.
“It’s 3:27… assuming that people start trick or treating around 5:30, that only gives us two hours to kill Henry Creel, once and for all.”
He can see the reluctance on Lucas and Max’s faces: none of them want to go back and risk their lives again, when they only just got out. But… can they live with the responsibility of innocent children walking up to that house in just two hours? Lucas has a little sister, and Will sees the exact moment that he thinks of her, something hardening in his gaze as he nods his head. Max follows, sighing as she wraps her arms around her knees, looking resolved.
“What’s the plan?”
In the end, the House acts before they can: just as they’re gathering all of their materials, it comes alive from across the street. They rush outside and find that it can now move – and it has its gaze set on them. Will is fascinated, gaping for a second at the way it’s taken the trees in as legs, before Max shoves him and sends him rushing to run after Lucas.
“The House is alive!”
“Yeah, we noticed!” Max shrieks at Lucas, her voice breaking. “Fuck, this plan of yours better work!”
“It will!” He promises, all three of them running for their lives. Will looks around, wondering how no one is hearing this: they’re running past houses, getting chased by a moving house, and yet none of his neighbors are stepping outside or looking out of their windows. It’s insane, and Will is never going to let his mom bake any of them another casserole ever again since they aren’t helping him now. Lucas leads them down an alleywall, taking the shortcut to the Danger Zone, and Will tells himself that he’s going to start working out and taking his health seriously if they survive this, gasping for air as his lungs protest the frequent movement from the day.
They make it there faster, being more mobile than an entire house, and quickly get to work. They end up in the excavator, ramming into the side of the House. Lucas screams as he lifts the digging bucket, using that to do even more damage to the House as it growls at them, lifting one of its tree-arms. Lucas drives them backward before it can swipe at them, and then pushes Max into his spot, shouting for them to take over.
“We don’t know how to use this!” Will shouts.
“Figure it out!” Lucas shouts back, pulling something out of his pocket while Will and Max start jamming their fingers at buttons and pulling levers, squealing when they surge forward. “Closer! Get me closer!”
“For what!?” Will screams, only to see what Lucas is holding: a clump of fireworks, the high-powered ones from inside the House, practically dynamite if Will is going off of the long label on the box. “When did you even take those!?”
“I figured they’d come in handy!” Lucas shouts, sounding smug as Max finally gets in control of the excavator, bringing them closer. “Where should I aim–?”
“Chimney!” Will remembers. “The chimney leads to the heart!”
Lucas nods solemnly. Before they can act, a harsh step forward from the House rocks the ground, sending Max flying out of the excavator and into the quarry. They both scream her name, terrified, but there isn’t time to find her: the House is angry, and when Will tries to move the excavator, he ends up sending Lucas flying through the same spot.
“Lucas!” He shrieks, scrambling for his walkie talkie. “Lucas, Max, do you copy!?”
No response.
Will swallows down his fear and panic, instead continuing to fight the House until – finally – Lucas’s voice echoes out from his walkie talkie.
“Will, I need you to get the house down under that crane! Think you could do that?”
For Lucas and Max? He’d do anything.
Holding down the lever to pull backwards with one hand, he fumbles for his walkie with the other. “I’ll make it happen! Lucas, are you and Max okay? Over.”
“We’re okay! We’ll be better if you help us! Over.”
They’re okay. They’re okay, and they’re going to stay that way: whatever Lucas is planning, it’s going to work. We’re going to kill Henry Creel.
He jams the bucket into the side of the House one last time, angering it before he goes flying back over the hill, desperately holding onto the side of his seat so as not to fly out of the excavator. The House follows him, its mouth set in a snarl, but halfway down the hill, it falls apart: floorboards and bricks flying off of it, cascading down and hitting the top of the excavator, the trees falling away, the House rotting.
Dying.
Will gasps for air in the aftermath, choking on dust, as Lucas’s voice echoes out from his walkie. “Will, come in, Will! Will!”
Slowly, Will pulls himself upright, a wide smile forming as he looks at the destruction around him. There’s a dust cloud in the air, and it’s hard to breathe, but he doesn’t care about any of that. What’s important is that Creel is dead, no longer able to haunt him through his stupid house. He lifts his walkie up to his lips, beaming.
“Hey, guys! We won!”
“Woo!” Max screams into her walkie, her excitement clear. “Finally!”
“Now I get to take you guys on a date!” Lucas cheers, and in the distance, Will can see him pulling Max into a hug. “Let’s go!”
“Lucas–” Will cuts himself off with a gasp when he hears wood clacking behind him. He’s slow to turn around, his stomach dropping when he sees the chimney still lit, the House slowly piecing itself back together while he gapes at it, unable to move. “Um… guys? Oh, this isn’t fair!”
“Will, move!” Lucas and Max both scream, their voices overlapping as the House looms over him, visible to them now. That at least gets his legs to start working and he throws himself back into the excavator, going back to their original plan: meeting Lucas and Max at the crane. He slowly reverses, leading the House backwards as Lucas encourages him through their walkie talkies. “That’s it, Will! Just a little bit more! Keep him coming!”
“You better be ready!” Will screams despite knowing that Lucas won’t be able to hear him. He refuses to take a hand off of the lever and wheel to use his walkie. “If you’re not ready when I lead him to you, I’ll kill you myself! Lucas, I swear – oh no!”
The House has gotten tired of their cat and mouse game, instead lunging forward and clamping its teeth down on the front of the excavator, tossing the bucket before it lifts the vehicle in the air, sending Will flying out of the side. He clings to a bar underneath it, whimpering when he makes the mistake of looking down and seeing how high he is. Thankfully, the House is too busy eating through the vehicle to notice him, and it lowers him down as it chomps until he feels safe enough to let himself drop down. He hits the ground with a yelp, rolling and groaning at the new pain in his arm and back, and just manages to roll out of the way when giant glass pieces come flying down at him.
Of course, that’s when the House notices him, sending him running again. Lucas better thank him later for taking the time to change their direction so that he’s leading the House to the crane as he runs, his heart flying to his throat every time the House growls at him or barely misses him, its teeth landing in the dirt right behind him. Above him, Lucas and Max are slowly crawling across the crane, both of them blushing fiercely: to motivate him to get over his fear of heights, Max had kissed him for the first time, and they’re both giddy about it.
Will is too busy looking up to notice a big rock in front of him, sending him flying to the ground with a pained shout. He rolls over, his blood freezing when the House stops above him, opening its mouth and showing him rows and rows of sharpened floorboards, a sharp smile before it eats him. Above him, a wire snaps, and Lucas comes flying down, screaming as he swings by Will.
Somehow, Max times her throw perfectly, and Lucas catches the firework from her as he goes back down. The House is distracted by him, abandoning Will who lays on the ground, certain that he’s going to pass out any moment now.
He can only watch as Lucas swings above the House, a lit-up firework in his hand, before he finally throws it into the chimney. This is how we die, Will thinks, squeezing his eyes shut: a moment later, he screams hysterically when he’s yanked into the air, Lucas having swung back around for him. He slowly opens his eyes, feeling Lucas’s tight grip on his waist as the other holds the wire, and he has so many questions (how has the wire not broken yet? How is Lucas controlling where it goes? How are we not dead yet?) but none of them matter when the House explodes behind them, fire surging outward and missing them by mere inches.
Will tucks his face into Lucas’s neck and tries not to pass out.
Max meets them at the top of the quarry, holding a hand out to help them over it. They’d dropped into it when the wire had finally been broken by the fire, thankfully hitting the side and rolling the rest of the way down. Will is pretty sure that his wrist is broken, and Lucas is limping as they help each other up the hill, relieved to see Max waiting for them.
They stare at each other for a long moment, exhausted and hurt, before they crash into a group hug. With Lucas’s arm around his shoulders and Max’s hair tickling his face, he knows that everything is going to be okay: they won, and now they get to be happy together.
It’s more than Will could’ve dreamed of.
They pull apart a few moments later, and Will doesn’t even get a second to steady himself before Lucas is tugging him back in, his hands on his cheeks, and oh. They’re exhausted and Lucas’s lips are chapped and Will’s are bitten raw and there’s dirt and dust everywhere, covering them more by the second, but Lucas is kissing him while Max watches them with a small, pleased smile, and it’s perfect.
When Lucas pulls away, he beams at him for a second before Max throws herself at them, pulling them into another hug. Will laughs into her shoulder, and then they’re all laughing, bending over and starting to cry even as they continue laughing, everything catching up to them all at once. They end up sprawled out on the floor, staring up at the foggy air – aftereffects of exploding a house – and catching their breath, Lucas in the middle, holding both of their hands.
They don’t move for a long time.
Trick or treating is underway when they walk back, and Will doesn’t remember who’s idea it is – he thinks it was an unspoken idea, a glance that spoke more than works – but, instead of walking across the street to Will’s house, they end up at the Creel House. Well, what remains of the property: there’s a crater in the ground halfway up the yard, and they climb into it, throwing toys up into the yard.
Soon, there’s a line of kids eagerly waiting to be given their toys. Will finds that he doesn’t need the list in his bedroom: he remembers which toys Creel stole from each kid, and the older toys – stolen from children so long ago that they’re now adults – are handed out at random.
“Happy Halloween!” He shouts after a group of kids dressed as Power Rangers, his smile growing when he finds Holly Wheeler walking up to him. He recognizes her costume immediately: before the end of their friendship, Michael had asked Will to help create her a dungeons & dragons miniature, for ‘when she becomes cool in the future.’ She’s got on a blue dress underneath a gold cape, and Will smiles as he remembers painting the outfit for Holly the Heroic. “Hey, Holly. Remember me?”
It takes a second, but then her face lights up. “Will!”
“Yeah, it’s me.” He answers, waving at Mrs. Wheeler down at the end of the sidewalk. She’s wearing a sad smile as she watches them interact, and Will feels bad, knowing that she’d always liked him being friends with Michael. He misses her sometimes, when he lets himself think of those days, but he finds that the ache of missing his earliest friend isn’t so bad anymore. Besides, he’s got Lucas and Max, and what else could he need? “Hey, I have two gifts for you!”
He pulls out an easel and her bike, laughing when she squeals loudly, immediately running to jump on it. “My bike!”
“I can keep the easel at my house and drop it off to her another day.” Will tells Mrs. Wheeler when she steps closer to help Holly. It’s bulky and Will doesn’t want to make her carry it around until her daughter gets tired enough to go home.
“I’ll come pick it up,” She tells him, a wistful expression on her face as she looks from him to Lucas. Lucas is helping Max organize the leftover toys: it’s getting late, so whatever remains after the next hour will likely be donated. “It’s really great to see you, Will. You’re welcome any time, you know that, right?”
He isn’t, but he thinks he’s okay with that now.
“Sure.” He agrees softly, giving her the easy out. They both know she lied, even if Mrs. Wheeler was likely hoping that it would turn out to be true. Maybe it would, but Will isn’t going to try, smiling to himself at the sound of Max playfully arguing with Lucas behind him. “Happy Halloween.”
“Happy Halloween.” She smiles, walking down the sidewalk, assuming that her daughter will follow.
Holly hesitates, looking behind Will. “What happened to Mr. Creel’s house?”
“It turned into a monster, so my friends and I blew it up.” Will answers honestly.
Holly considers that for a second before nodding. “Cool. Bye, Will!”
“Bye, Holly.” He waves at her for a second, rolling his eyes when the kid behind her gets impatient. “Relax, Derek, you’re next. We’re gonna need a Gameboy!”
“Trick or treat,” Derek scoffs when his mother nudges him, rolling his eyes, just as Max passes him the Gameboy. He’d lost it a few months back, and while he doesn’t thank them for getting it back for him, he looks thrilled as he rushes back down the yard to let the next kid through.
After a while of this, Will turns to Max and Lucas, hesitating for a second before he asks: “Do you guys want to go trick or treating?”
Unlike Michael, neither Lucas or Max are in any hurry to grow up and ‘be cool.’ Instead, both of them smile widely, agreeing instantly. They don’t have time to make costumes: Lucas’s Darth Vader mask was destroyed with the vacuum cleaner dummy, and Will thinks it’d be rude to still be a Storm Trooper, so they simply go as they are.
They argue about what to be next year, and Will is pleased to know that Max seems determined to still be in their group by then. He thinks that, even if their arcade date goes terribly wrong, it won’t matter in the long run: their friendship is too strong to be destroyed. After all, they beat a monster house together, killing a man in the process.
They’re bonded for life.