“The man she buried is back and knocking?” the operator asked sounding confused.

Caley found hard to explain as after all if she hadn’t been with Susan when the incident happened she would probably scoff.

“Yes my friend Caley Johnson buried her late husband this time last year!” Susan was starting to raise the pitch of her voice feeling hysterical.

“Are you aware that this happens to be Halloween and I have better things to do than take bogus calls” the voice on the other end of the line said in an irate manner.

Trying to keep her composure Susan tried to explain once more but the line had already been cut, there was a horrific storm blazing over the house and she had no intention of leaving her best friend alone with a living corpse. Walking back into the living room she saw Susan staring across the room looking at the ghost of the man she once knew. His features were gaunt but that was to be expected of a corpse that had been lying under the ground for a year. As the lightening illuminated the room once more Caley tried to get the man to speak. The whole situation felt bizarre and even as she sat down next to her friend she couldn’t understand what had happened.

“What did the police say?” Susan asked not taking her eyes off the man.

“She thought I was some whacko who was trying to wind her up” Caley opined glumly.

They had been sitting like this for the last couple of minutes after she let him in, even she couldn’t understand what had made her allow him back in especially on Halloween. It might have been the shock of him turning up looking like nothing had happened that had spooked her but it brought all of the horrific memories flooding back. Izsak Johnson had not been a nice man and had committed several murders before his untimely death, he had boasted about the killings privately to Caley so many times when they were alone that she finally snapped. He had lunged at her whilst they were out in the garden and she had protected herself by hitting him with a shovel, the only problem was she had used so much brute force that he had died on the spot.

Phoning her best friend Susan Penning who was aware of what had been happening they decided to bury him in a particularly fertile spot at the bottom of the garden. Nobody had noticed that her husband had gone missing as her closest friend did her best to cover their tracks.

Izsak to the best of her knowledge didn’t have any relatives or if he did had never mentioned them so it was easy to just go about her daily business.

Caley was sickened by what she had done but even more sickened by the heinous crimes her husband had committed, she knew that if she had gone to the police he would either deny it or somehow try to include her as his accomplice.

Sitting opposite them now was a stranger who might look like Izsak but behaved like nothing had happened between them.

“Why have you come back to haunt me?” she screamed at him.

Another loud sound of thunder shook the room and the glass windows seemed to vibrate with the sound. The man tried to speak but an awkward gargling sound came out, he tried to gesticulate with his arms getting up of the chair and walking towards the woman.

“Get away from us Izsak!” She screamed.

Susan went running into the kitchen to find a sharp knife to protect them with, the drawer lit up by the lightening and she prized it open. She could see children wandering around in fancy dress with their pumpkins and glowing lanterns. It was nice to see the celebrations taking place but it made the situation taking place in her friend’s house more bizarre.

Finding a suitably serrated knife she ran back into the living room where the man who had once been her husband was now looming over Caley looking particularly threatening.

“Get away from her!” Susan ordered.

The man seemed to be paying no attention to her and was continuing to lunge towards her friend; she heard Caley scream and stuck the knife into the man’s back. She could feel it connect with tissue and bone and realized to her horror that this had very much been a living person. Blood gushed out of the wound as he slumped back onto the floor.

“Do you think that he is dead?” Susan asked with tears in her eyes.

Caley lent down beside him trying to check for a pulse, even being this close to the serial killer made her want to vomit.

“Yes I do believe that he is” she said almost in a trance.

Susan dropped the knife from her trembling hands and ran back into the kitchen towards the sink where she was sick, how this could have happened to them again! She rinsed her face and tried to regain her composure drying her face on a kitchen towel.

Wandering back into the living room she saw Caley holding a wallet and staring at the wall in disbelief.

“What is it?” she nervously asked.

“That isn’t Izsak!” She screamed.

“Who is it then?” Susan asked looking horrified.

She passed her friend the wallet which she opened with trembling hands, inside was a letter which she started to read immediately wishing that she hadn’t. It turned out that Izsak had a twin brother called Patrick who they had never met. He was unable to both speak and hear which explained why he had ignored Susan’s request to stand back. It was dated around Christmas time when he had decided to try and track his long lost brother down. Susan suddenly felt dizzy and had sit to sit down; she had just killed an innocent man and didn’t know what to do.

A knock at the door suddenly made both women jump and look at each other deciding what to do next. Caley decided that it was only right she went and opened the door expecting to see the police.

“Trick or treat” said a small group of children in unison.

Without thinking Caley ran back into the kitchen and found a bag of sweets placing them into the pumpkin holder, the children all grinned and thanked her leaving them in peace.

 

It had taken until the next day when the rain had stopped and the sun come out to play for them to dig another grave, that particular part of the garden was doing extremely well for growing vegetables and as they dragged the heavy body to a separate grave Susan felt relief. She had kept Caley’s secret about her husband being a murderer and now in return she had to do the same thing.