2: The Figure

THE SMALL town of Cape Cod in Chatham, Massachusetts, was in preparation for Saturday-the one Saturday before Halloween which would mark exactly seven days to Halloween and Jake and his pals passed by the place where the event would be held in less than two days from then.

"Man, I cannot wait for Pumpkin People in the Park!" Gabriel was saying as they watched pumpkins get unloaded from trucks and into warehouses.

The popular multiday event would have contestants come up with creative pumpkin displays which they could pose before they met the judges on the main 'Oktoberfest' event.

"Still not into it, huh?" Matt spoke after noticing Jake's head shake a little in disapproval.

"I donno about you, man," Gabriel added, referring to Jake, "but I know this year's Halloween will be super awesome!"

Jake's mind drifted off for a moment as his Halloween-bedazzled friends went on chattering about the event and that's when he noticed a hooded figure brush past him.

The weird thing was that Jake felt an eerie feeling the same moment that figure moved past. Stopping, Jake turned instinctively.

The hooded figure also stopped, giving Jake some time to notice the long ragged robes that the figure was wearing. The face was concealed by some sort of cloak.

For what seemed like a pretty intense moment, Jake found himself frozen, unable to move as the figure's head began to rise. Slowly.

Jake felt his heart pound as everything else had fallen silent. He could not even hear his friends anymore. It was like he had been flushed away from the world or the other way around.

Any moment now and he would see who was underneath the cloak...

"Jake!"

He unfroze and found himself being yanked back by two arms as a huge truck drove past, blowing dust as it disappeared down the road from the warehouse.

"What's wrong with you?" Matt asked.

"You didn't see that truck coming?" Gabriel chimed in, "you could've been roadkill!"

"I...I'm fine, just a little..." Jake replied, passing a hand through his short dark hair before turning to the direction where the strange figure stood, "...tired."

There was no one there. The figure was gone.

"I think I'm gonna head home, now."

"Probably," Gabriel responded, fishing out his phone which was buzzing.

"It's not even dark out yet, mom!" he spoke.

"No, sorry, I won't talk back to you again!"

This went on for a while as Jake and Matt stood there awkwardly waiting for their counterpart to end the seemingly endless phone conversation with his mother.

Until he did.

"Sorry, guys, " Gabriel said after hanging up, "she does that everytime!"

"Your mom knows you're in highschool, right?" Matt asked with sarcasm.

"I'm pretty sure she'll be packing my lunch when I go to college," Gabriel replied with annoyance.

Jake walked into his place several minutes after parting with his friends who lived a few blocks away where he was met by a kid wearing a weird mask that freaked him out, causing him to almost hit the back of his head on the door behind him.

"Jesus, Ryan!"

"Gotcha! You pussy!"

"Woah, you better watch your tone, young man," came Jake's dad from the kitchen.

"What? It's not my fault Jake's such a wuss!"

Ryan Fowler. Of all things the universe did to Jake. He just had to have that psychotic excuse for a brother-sorry to say.

Five years younger than Jake, Ryan had always managed to ruin his life in everything that he did. Hell! One time he even stole his assignments and shredded them, claiming it was an accident and of course, mom and dad believed him.

Who the fuck does that?

Okay, maybe Halloween was just the next bad thing after Ryan and not the other way around.

Jake thought as he turned to go to his room.

Having had dinner with the family, with Jake's mom coming home just before the meal from her journalism job in the town which to Jake seemed like a lot of work, considering how much story one could get from Cape Cod and that's why she was the best reporter there could be. He had told her that several times and Elizabeth Fowler could not have been more proud to have a son like Jake...and Ryan, the latter confusing Jake all the while as he thought:

I think I serve very well as two brothers! You just had to have him too!

Jake's surprise of how his parents put up with his brother never seemed to end, though at times he knew he could detect that they'd wanted to have a girl after him.

Jake lay on his bed, staring at the blank ceiling and for a moment, he almost thought about Nicole Parsons. He wasn't sure whether it was a crush because he reacted like that to every other girl in school but it kinda felt different towards...

There was a sudden breaking of glass as his bedroom window shattered, interrupting his thoughts and making him quickly spring out of bed.

The impact was not that great with only a little jagged opening from the window through which Jake caught the disappearing figure of a boy.

Wondering what had hit the window, Jake's answer came immediately after he saw what appeared to be a bird strewn on the floor with shards of glass from the window.

He almost jumped, realising who had done this and just a minute later, heard the sound of his brother's door close shut.

'What an idiot!'

A bird? Are you kidding me?

Yap, that was the level of crazy his brother was.