It was raining heavily for All Hallows’ Eve. Chloe was sitting in her room and talking to her friend on the internet. Hannah, her friend, had a high fever which meant they couldn’t go out to celebrate. They have been best friends for about 10 years, since kindergarten. Ever since they have been inseparable, they do everything together, talk about everything together…they have even sat together in class for 8 years in a row. But this evening, Chloe noticed something weird about Hannah. Something just wasn’t right. Chloe was watching her very precisely the whole time. They were on a video call. Hannah was acting weird like she never had been before. After talking for hours, Chloe finally noticed that her best friend wasn’t wearing that necklace that matches with Chloe’s one. That was Hannah’s birthday present from Chloe. They promised each other to never take it off. ”That isn’t Hannah!”, said Chloe to herself. ”I gotta go, sorry!”, she made up an excuse. Hannah didn’t say anything, but she seemed very angry at her for no reason. She wasn’t even talking for the whole time! She said a word, maybe two, but that wasn’t usual. “Maybe something’s happening at her home”, Chloe was curious. ”It’s probably nothing, she’s just acting like that to scare me on a Halloween night”. It’s was 11 pm at the time and Chloe decided to go to bed. But she was starving so she went downstairs to get some food. The house was very silent. ”Mom, dad?” No one answered. Chloe’s heartbeat was beating faster. She grabbed some snacks and ran to her room as fast as she could, in fear. She was exhausted so she fell asleep in a minute. When she woke up it was around half past three in the morning. She stood up and looked through the window. She saw some people just walking around her house. A lot of people. Their clothes were black and it looked like they were looking for something or someone. They were standing next to her house, near the woods. Chloe couldn’t recognise any of them, because she couldn’t see their faces. Hold on! She saw Hannah there. That was very unusual. She rushed outside to talk to her. When she was already outside, she first saw Hannah, then two of them, then three, four,…ten…They all looked identical. The creepy group of Hannahs began to attack Chloe. ”WHY’D YOU DO THAT TO US?” said one. ”THIS IS UNFORGIVABLE”. ”YOU ARE ONE OF US NOW”. Chloe was scared to death. ”Hannah? W-what’s happening, what are you talking about?” Hundreds of Hannahs were in circles around Chloe, holding hands and singing in a foreign language and dancing the same. The made huge circles. As Chloe felt dizzy, she fell on the floor and a second before passing out she saw the real Hannah. She recognized her necklace. ”Don’t worry,” she came to her as others were still singing and dancing, ”I’m going to save you from these pe-” and she passed out. They had poisoned her somehow. After some time, Chloe woke up in her bed. Her alarm clock woke her up, it was time for school. She checked the date, curiously. It was October 31st. ”What?”, she said confused. She checked the time and had only 15 minutes left to get ready so she hurried. The bus was already there. She hopped on a bus full of kids from school and looked for a free seat. Chloe saw Hannah sitting alone listening to music and looking through the window. Chloe sat next to her. ”Morning!” Hannah took her headphones off and wished Chloe a good morning too. ”So, w-where were you last night?” Hannah looked at her with a weird face: ”At home, why?” Chloe noticed that Hannah wasn’t wearing her necklace. ”Where’s your necklace?” Hannah looked down to check and was surprised to see that she wasn’t wearing it. ”Oh, I guess I forgot to put it on. Sorry.” She put her hand in the bag and pulled out a golden necklace with half heart at the bottom. Chloe had the other part of the heart. ”Can you put it on for me, please?” Yes, she immediately did it. Soon, Chloe forgot about what happened as they arrived to school. Well sometimes she heard some voices. That evening Chloe, Hannah and their classmate Evelyn went out in costumes to celebrate Halloween. Chloe still didn’t tell anyone about it. ”It felt so real but now it’s like nothing happened.”
Anja Bosanac, 8. razred
