The Halloween Babysitter

This was for a Maskingwriter Halloween challenge a decade or so ago. 

With a couple of glaring corrections, and a spellcheck I've left it pretty much exactly as it was originally written. 

Halloween Babysitter

Lynn Miller was flustered and rushed trying to get ready. She was already twenty minutes behind time and she still couldn't find her second earring.  Jenna stood by politely smiling.  She'd voluntarily skipped a whole pile of Halloween parties to babysit the miller boys so Mrs. miller could go out and she was already on the clock.  It was a little disappointing to miss such a big party event of course, but she was starting college in the spring and there would be plenty of time for parties then.  In the meantime Mrs Miller paid better than anyone else.  Jenna would have abandoned babysitting as an option years ago had it not been for the generous tips Lynn miller provided.  Ever since she'd thrown Mr Miller out of the house Lynn had overcompensated by trying to ensure that her children were protected at all times.  Some considered the smothering behaviour, unhealthy, but for $25 an hour plus fridge privileges Jenna was the most open minded person in the world.

Lynn had finally found the earring and was now pre-occupied trying to select an appropriate pair of black opera pumps from her over crowded hall closet. Jenna shook her head and promised herself that she would never be so disorganised when she got older.

Now perched in her 6 inch suede stilettos, Lynn paused for a second together her thoughts.

"Right. so.  The party will probably go until 3am.  Chad is out somewhere getting himself into mischief, but I expect him to be home at 11 or so.  Jake is upstairs in our rumpus room playing on his Xbox,  I told him he could have friends over to play with him to make up for not taking him trick or treating tonight. I know you usually have to look after Rhianna too but she's away at a college party this weekend.   The light in the basement has gone, so you should probably avoid going down there if you can avoid it.  Umm.  I think that's all.  I have to go.  Don't let them drink caffeine after 10 and don't let Jake watch the scary movies. Last year the babysitter...well just don't let him ok?"

And with that she whirled out the door.  Jenna shrugged. It was easy money.  The kids practically took care of themselves, and tonight she wasn't even likely to have to deal with Chad for most of the night. Just to be sure she bolted and deadlocked all doors except the front door. 

She wandered into the kitchen and grabbed herself a can of Pepsi.  Refrigerator privileges at work when the phone rang. Jenna grabbed it off the hook.

"Hello?  Hello? Hellooooooo? anyone there?"

There was silence, but not clearly someone was there.  A very faint rasping sound echoed through the phone line and, somewhere in the distance she heard the clanking of chains. It was all very Halloween cliché and she grinned to herself.

"Who is this?  guys is that you?"

A rasping voice.  indistinct in gender, barely more than a whisper said:

"Watch............The..........children........"

and then the line went dead.  Jenna shrugged.  She watched scary movies and she knew urban myths.  Halloween pranks were par for the course when you babysat Halloween.

She lifted the can of Pepsi and went upstairs to see how Jake was doing.

The X-Box was loaded with a car racing game and Jake was engrossed in it.  Jenna was a little disappointed.  It was Halloween, she was hoping that Jake had at least got a little into the spirit and chosen resident evil or batman or even buffy the vampire slayer.  He didn't even acknowledge her as she entered the room.

"Hey tyke.  Not feeling halloweeny?"

He grunted.

"level seven.  checkpoint 2."

A second female voice spoke to her.

"He is no fun at all is he? I volunteered to make him a monster mask but he wasn't interested."

A skinny girl smiled at her from the doorway.  She was wearing cut-off denim jeans that hugged her hips and a torn T-shirt with the scream mask painted on it.

"Hi! I'm Larissa."

Jenna must have frowned because Larissa's smile started to wane.

"Chad's girlfriend? From his drama class?  I was here to help him make a killer monster costume to scare kids.  He didn't mention me?"

Jake still showed no sign that anyone was in the room.  Jenna shook her head.

Larissa pouted.

Its just typical you know? he pretends to be my boyfriend, but I don't even get invited when him and his stupid friends go out on Halloween. I just have to sit around back here with his little brother while he's out having a good time.  Its not like I couldn't find anything better to do.  I have friends you know?"

Jenna nodded.  The girl was about her age and had shoulder length auburn hair.  she was vaguely attractive in a mousy sort of way.  Jenna was vaguely aware of having seen her around school.  She figured her to be the year behind her, just like Chad.

The sound of a car crashing broke them both from their private dialogue and Jake looked up from his "game over screen to see them both for the first time.

"hey Larissa.  Did Dorko go with the lizard or the wolf?"

Larissa smiled again.

"The lizard.  he liked the green scales, plus he said it meant he could throw slime at people.

Jake rolled his eyes.

"What a dork.  The wolf was SOOO much cooler" he turned to Jenna.

"If I was going out I'da worn the wolf.  and then.  even better,  If I could grow a beard I would be a werewolf.  and then on the full moon I could jump out at people and tear their throats out with my teeth."

Larissa looked at him with an odd look

"You watch way too many movies tyke."

Jake was defensive.

"do not!"

Jenna grinned in female solidarity.

"That's funny, cos your mom told me that you last Halloween you had trouble with movies."

Jakes eyes darked to the floor and his face went a bright red.

"'s different.  wasn't a proper movie.  Was old. It didn't have REAL monsters in it."

"Werewolves are real monsters huh?"

"YEAH! course. Everyone knows that. They grow biggerer on the full moon. And they have teeth and....."

Jenna but in.

"so where is this wolf mask? maybe the three of us can have our own little party."

Larissa led them through into the bathroom to find a makeshift makeup studio filled with cosmetics and craft supplies. On a Styrofoam wig head sitting on the basin was the most scarily lifelike latex head she had ever seen.  it was a wolf, but frighteningly anthropomorphised. each hair glistened and she could almost imagine drool pouring from the mouth.

Jake jumped up and down excitedly.

"isn't it cool? huh?! huh?!"

Jenna stared at it transfixed. it was incredible.

Larissa moved over to it and stroked the hair glued to its scalp.

"Mrs. Coopler gave me an A for the sculpting in art. I think the wolf is better as a mask though."

Jenna nodded.  It was amazing.

It almost seemed sacrilegious to let Jake's grubby little fingers touch it.  he was barely 2 years younger than her so it wasn't like he was a child he just seemed so........childish.  Larissa was happy to help him put on the mask though.  Jenna had no experience of masks before so the sound of Velcro came as a shock when the wolf face distorted and Larissa lifted it up.

It fascinated her to watch as Jake's head disappeared into the latex sculpture.  part of her imagine the small boy being eaten alive by the monster, the wolf side emerging from within him to devour his soul.  It was an image reinforced when the Velcro closed and the wolf jaws opened to let out long guttural roar.

Jake giggled from under the mask.

"was that cool or what?!  Can I see it? Can I look? huh?"

Larissa smirked.

"it doesn't effect your eyes stupid.  just go over to the mirror."

Jenna's momentary spell was now well and truly broken.  She could see him as he truly was: an immature kid in a rubber mask, yet for a minute....

Jake turned his hirsute face away from the mirror to them.

"Are you guys gonna join in too?"

Jenna shook her head.

"Can't.  Only one mask and you've got it on kid."  Larissa looked a little guilty.

"That's not true." she mumbled.  Jenna raised an eyebrow in question, and Larissa took the cue, rummaging into one of her bags.

"I made it because I was hoping I could convince Chad to let me go with him tonight. I could probably make a third..."

The mask she produced was, if anything, even more spectacular than the first one. It was smaller than the first, though only subtly.  The jawbone was slightly smaller, the snout a little pointier and the hair on the top slightly lighter and longer.  Overall the features hinted at femininity, but in an indefinable way.  It was still very wolf like, but in the way so common on internet cartoons the features had been anthromorphised enough to suggest an attractive female face.  Larissa let the rubber of the mask flop over her fingers as she fidgeted with it.

"The thing is....I didn't have time to put Velcro onto this one, so I would need you to.....help....."

She looked rather embarrassed and wasn't prepared to meet Jenna's gaze.  Jenna carefully lifted the delicate latex and hair from the other girl's fingers.  There was a gap along the back exactly like the other mask, but this was uneven, with hair weaving exposed along the edges.

"Help how?" Larissa looked up, her face was red for reasons Jenna could only imagine.

"When it's on, I need you to seal it together....Its not that hard...."

She led Jenna over to the mirror and took the mask back out of her hands. For the second time that night Jenna stared on as a human face was squeezed into the head of a wolf.  With one hand Larissa pushed her short cropped hair up under the edges of the mask, and then with a snap, rubber bounced into it's correct place behind Larissa's head.  In the mirror Jenna could see only the wolf face.  The reflection snarled at her.  A personality unto itself.

"You need to grab the two flaps and pull them across each other as tight as you can."  The voice was still Larissa's and it was disconcerting to hear it coming from the wolf's mouth.  The lip movement synched correctly, but whether it was that she was looking at the reflection, or just the incorrectness of the voice, Jenna couldn't bring herself to associate the sound to the face.  Still. she did as she was told, grasping the rubber flaps tightly and pulling them over each other, gently holding them in place with the finger of her left hand.

"Good.  Now you just have to grab the latex brush from in the latex bottle and paint it along the edges.  Try not to get the hair caught in it, but put a good thick layer on.  It needs to bond with the latex."

Jenna did as she was told.  The latex stank as she took the cap off.  It was almost overwhelming and she felt slightly feint, but she slathered the latex into place none the less, and waited while it set.  It surprised her as the slightly pink, opaque substance that clung and clogged on the brush became completely transparent as it dried.

Before long she was able to lift her finger and the mask remained in place.  Jenna stared into the reflection of the beautiful wolf girl.  A tiny voice inside her begged to look like that.  The spell was broken when Larissa's muffled voice came from the jaws of the wolf.

"Now it's your turn.  I don't have time to model a new face, so we'll have to make it from the same model as this one.  we'll be twins!  Now you just need to....."

Jenna didn't understand much at all of what came next, but it happened in a whir of movement.  Strange chemicals with funny consistencies that were applied to her head in various ways for Larissa to take casts and measurements.  Before she knew it she had been ushered out into the hallway so that the wolf girl could "Perform her magic"

Jake had disappeared back to videogame world and Jenna, now dazed by the events of the past half hour, headed back to the living room.  She felt like she was marking time until the mask was done, so she sat on the couch and watched a bad 70s horror "classic" movie between answering the door to trick or treaters.

She didn't really track the time, but she guessed it was perhaps 45minutes later that the door opened of its own accord and Chad walked in.  He grunted at Jenna, and she assumed he was in a bad mood. 

"Larissa's upstairs."  She said, in a cheerful voice, hoping to grab his attention.  He paused for less than a second before stalking off upstairs muttering to himself.

Jenna shook her head and put it down to teenaged hormones until seconds later she heard raised voices upstairs.  Chad's voice yelling, but muffled enough that she couldn't make out anything, followed by Larissa's voice, also muffled.

Jenna sighed.  This was one of those things that the babysitter would have to deal with.

She started up the stairs just in time to hear Chad's voice yell "YOU'RE TOTALLY USELESS!" and then the sound of a door slamming.  By the time Jenna arrived Larissa was standing in the doorway to the bathroom on the verge of tears.  she smiled at Jenna's approach and ushered her into the bathroom as though nothing had happened. inside, sitting on the countertop sat another perfect wolf girl mask.  It stared at her as though challenging her. Larissa was all business, preparing her to put the mask in place.  It happened like before, but this time seemed all the more magical to Jenna because it was her who was being covered.  The mask stretched wide and pulled tight on her face.  It seemed almost painfully tight, suppressing everything unique about her face and pressing it forceful into the wolf's features.  she could only stare at the grinning wolf's face in the mirror, waiting for the latex to dry and the time to be over.  She wished she had a watch on to know how long it was taking, but at some point Jake re-appeared behind them excitedly in his wolf mask demanding they be ready.  Larissa allowed her to stand and she had to force her body to tear itself from the perfect wolf girl reflection.

She looked at Jake the wolf and knew from his stunned silence that she was his equal. they were both ready. Larissa pushed them both out of the small room to put back on her own mask.

"I couldn't see well enough with it on and the hair on the mask was fiddly.  you two go and play videogames or something."

The two wolves stood outside the door and shrugged at one another.

"Come and play Killthruster 2000" Jake growled, and she allowed herself to be led to the other room and sat next to the TV.  The mask seemed to make her feel like she should be more subservient.  he was the leader of the pack and she was just one of his many followers.  they played the game together for a while, but Jenna wasn't particularly good, and the mask certainly wasn't improving her performance any by clouding her vision.  Just when she was starting to improve Jake announced that he wanted something to drink. She suspected what he really wanted to was to peak at the progress Larissa was making.  She really wanted to do the same (she felt the other girl should be well and truly ready) but she had more patience than Jake and so remained seated at TV screen and committed to the game.  She surprised herself with her improved speed and skill on the controller once she had adjusted to the game, and before she knew it she had mastered another 4 levels.  It was quite a shock to realise that yet another hour had gone by without any word from Larissa.  She finally decided to go and check on things.

The hallway to the bathroom led past Chad's room.  The door was still closed but as she got close she could hear faintly a rhythmic thudding and grunting from within.  A thousand possibilities passed through her mind, all of them dirty.  She couldn't resist opening the door a crack.  She rationalised it as being the responsible babysitter's duty, but she knew it was really an excuse for voyeurism.  The room was shadowy, but she could clearly see the figures on the bed, the girl bent over with hands and knees pressed into the mattress while the male figure entered her from the rear.  She was shocked.  She'd bargained on catching Chad in the act of self gratification, not on finding a second figure, though it explained Larissa's long absence.  Quickly her Babysitter's instinct overcame her shock.  She pushed the door wide open and strode into it, the light from the open door creating a spotlight effect on the two figures wrapped in passion.

"Now Listen here you two! what do you think you're doing?  Imagine if Jake had caught you both......" Her loud voice was only slightly muffled by the rubber mask, but Chad seemed to ignore her for a moment.  His eyes were squeezed tightly shut in pleasured concentration.  Struggling, he forced them open and looked at her.

"Fuck off Larissa.  We're too busy for your shit right now.  Ahhhhhhh!"  He Jerked with passion and his eyes closed again.

The girl lifted her head and peered up from beneath a dishevelled mop of blonde hair.

"Yeah LARISSA. Your boyfriend has chosen a real girlfriend.  those dumb monster masks just don't impress him."  The girl grinned evilly, while Jenna could only gape.  A shiver ran down her spine and back up again.  The face was her own.  While she had been busy playing videogames, Larissa had been carefully preparing a mask of Jenna's own face, and using her newly perfected impersonation to take the girl's identity. An itching sensation made her start to wonder just how temporary the werewolf mask she was now stupidly wearing really was.  She was so petrified she barely noticed Chad reach his explosive climax and roll off her satisfied doppelganger until he pushed roughly past her on his way to the bathroom.  The two girls remained silently in the room for what seemed like hours as "Jenna" merely smiled to herself, pretending to ignore the real Jenna in the doorway.  Her polished Jenna voice talked to itself in what was almost a stage whisper.

"Chad is such a stud.  I can't believe that I ignored him as though I was just his babysitter when I could have had THAT the whole time." 

Finally the Jenna wolf responded.  her voice was calmer than she expected it would be after the affrontery of having an imposter steal her identity, speak with her voice and fuck someone in front of her eyes.

"I hope you're happy.  You may have just singlehandedly ruined my reputation.  I'll never be able to face Chad or anyone else ever again.  I'm going to ring Mrs Miller as soon as I have this stupid mask off and then I'm sure you and Chad are both going to be in SO much shit."

The wolf girl turned to the hallway.  She had barely made it 3 steps when the panicked girl was chasing her.

"Wait! Please! stop! don't ring!"  It was Larissa's voice slipping from Jenna's lips now.

"The glue on the mask will wear off soon I swear.  just let me be you for a little while.  I don't want to steal your identity really!  I just wanted to see what it was like.  Chad......"

But Jenna, beneath her wolf mask was becoming angry.  she shook her head and the wild wolf girl's hair flicked in front of her eyes.

"Its too late for that.  This nonsense has to stop.  I'm going to ring Mrs Miller right now."  She charged off down the stairs, leaving her twin behind her in the hall.

Lynn Miller's phone rang 4 times before she answered.  The sounds of a party were in the distance behind her which made it even harder for Jenna's muffled hearing to understand her, so she endeavoured to do the talking.

"Mrs Miller, this is Jenna, your babysitter.  I'm sorry to interrupt your evening, but I felt I needed to tell you right away.  Tonight I caught your son Chad in an act of.........indecency with his girlfriend while Jake was in the house and...."

Mrs Miller's interjection sounded far away.

"Which girlfriend?  Chad doesn't have a girlfriend."

"Not his Girlfriend really, but a Girl who thinks she's his girlfriend I guess.  Her name is Larissa."

Jenna could hear the voice of Lynn Miller become tense.

"Oh dear.  Jenna, please.  trust me.  Get out of the house right now.  the boys will be fine.  Just leave.  run away.  Larissa was our babysitter last year.  Nobody has heard from her since.  Please Jenna Just....."

The phone went click and then there was only the silence of a dead phone.

Jenna looked up to see herself holding a knife and the severed ends of a phone line.  The imposter grinned maliciously and spoke with Jenna's voice.

"Dear oh Dear.  Halloween is such a scary time.  I do hope someone fixes the phone soon.  I'd hate to be stuck babysitting in a house with no phones and a mad lunatic running loose."  Jenna didn't wait to hear the diatribe end.  Years of Horror movies had conditioned her to run in situations just like this. She bolted away from the imposter, through the kitchen to the back door, which she found to be bolted and deadlocked.   She cursed her own efficiency.  The only way out was the front door, which was back past her evil doppelganger.  As if in response to her thoughts Jenna's own voice called out from the other room.

"Yooo Hooo! wolfie! Come back! It doesn't do to have wild animals running loose you know....."

Jenna had a brainstorm.  The basement! There would be an outside access, if she could risk the dark she would be fine.  The door connected to the hall just next to the stairwell. If she moved quickly.....

Jenna bolted across and out into the exposed hall, leaving the Fresh faced babysitting clone somewhat surprised by her speed.  In a single movement she thrust the basement door open and bounded down the wooden stairs.

It was beyond dark through her wolf eyes, and she could only guess at where each step was.  for the first three guesses she was right, but on the fourth, her foot struck unevenly on the edge and she rolled her ankle, twisting over herself and stumbling face first down the rest of the stairs to plant herself face first into the concrete basement floor.  She tried to rise but the ankle cried out in pain.  Panic forced her to move though, so she half crawled, half dragged herself along the floor.  she had no idea where to go, nor which direction she was actually moving, but blind and crippled, pushed on in the hopes she would arrive in the right place.  her finger brushed against a steel barrier at some point so she changed direction and pushed on.  she could only hear the sound of her own panicked breathing echoing back off the mask into her own ears.

A loud metal crash behind her made her flip around in shock, and then suddenly a glaringly bright light flashed on.  she backed up against a concrete wall in panic and looked into a reflection of her own perfect face, which shone radiantly at her from the other side of a steel cage barrier.

"Well done Wolfie. Good girlie, climbed back into her cage all on her own." the Jenna imposter flipped around a fake gold sign which read:

The Lycanthrope:

"Jenna"

Jenna was shocked.  She tugged at the wolf mask which still held tightly, and then defiantly yelled through the walls of the cage.

"Mrs Miller knows about you Larissa, did you know that?  I told her! she'll be home any minute and she'll know you aren't me!"

The evil Jenna smiled.

"But I *am* you!  I talk like Jenna, and I walk like Jenna, and I fuck like Jenna.  I'm sure everyone who sees me will agree that I am the perfect Jenna.  I can't be Larissa anyway can I? Not when she's right here beside me."

And with that introduction Larissa walked up beside her, smiling the same proud and satisfied grin.

"Of course I am Jenna.  I can't believe these stupid animals think they could ever get away with pretending to be human.  Especially not a human as perfect as you are." she leant in to Jenna and the two girls kissed with such passion that Jenna was sure she would have been able to sell the video for considerable money.  when they finally came up for air, "Jenna" turned her attention back to the wolf.

"I'm not sure why you think anyone is going to notice a single missing girl.  After all, Nobody noticed last year."  both girls looked over toward the side of the basement.  In a cell almost identical to her current one, Jenna's blurry mask covered eyes could just make out another figure, about her height but with a mask that made her look like a Cow with large horns.  the Sign on the front read:

The Minotaur:

"Larissa"

The Larissa in front of her giggled.

"For that matter, no-one has ever asked about our Mermaid.  Not even Mommykins."

The third cell in their basement was angled in such a way that Jenna could barely see the figure within.  the sign Proudly read:

The Mermaid:

"Rhianna"

The figure she could see appeared to be bound up tightly in hobbling green latex, and was smiling brightly, though Jenna could imagine the tightly constricting rubber mask that gave her that appearance.

the Jenna clone opened her mouth in shock.

"Speaking of Mommykins dearest, we should go upstairs and get ready.  She might be home any minute.  Ta Ta Wolfie.  We'll be back to feed you later."  The two girls took each other hand in hand and began an exaggeratingly seductive skip up the staircase.  Jenna understood now.  Larissa hadn't ever existed.  she lay in the cell across from where she was.  bound and kept as an exhibit in the ghastly bestiary just as she had been for 12 months.  The Larissa she had met had been a figment of the imagination of two perverted boys.  Boys with a mastery of design and disguise that had very carefully kept her misdirected at just the right times while the carefully exchanged costumes and identities.  stepping into and out of masks and disguises as though they were their own skins.  As the light turned out she understood how far she had been duped, offering herself willingly to be cast so that they had a perfect mold to make a copy of her features from, and then willingly gluing herself into this prison mask as the wolf.  There was no consolation in knowing that she was not the first to fall for such a trick and as the cellar door closed her crying dissolved into a steady howl.

Lynn Miller charged into her living room to find her two sons sitting innocently on the living room couch.  The TV was tuned to "A Nightmare on Elm Street 14" and Jake seemed to be trembling just a little.  She looked carefully around the room for any telltale signs of a struggle.  She lifted the phone receiver to check for a dial tone and found everything was fine.

"Where is Jenna?"  She asked, perplexed, her voice having just a hint of suspicion.  Chad looked up from the movie.

"Jenna?"

Lynn sighed.

"the Babysitter?"

Chad nodded.

"Oh.........Right right.  No idea."  He took a sip from the can he had, conversation to his mind now solved.  Jake stepped in before his mother got angry.

"I think she went home. she left earlier.  ran away.  no idea why.  guess she didn't like us."

Chad smiled. 

"You should hire better babysitters."

Lynn's eyes narrowed.

"and you're both sure that's what happened?  You didn't do anything?"

The two boys looked up at her with complete innocence in their eyes.  Lynn sighed again.

"alright.  fine.  both of you to bed now."  She followed them up to bed just to be sure, and after they were both in bed with the lights out, headed up the stairs to the attic.  Behind a concealed door she opened up a small lock with a key hidden on a cord between her breasts.  behind the locked door was a small steel cell.  This one bore no fancy gold inscriptions, nor any witty costumes.  Instead it held only a dishevelled woman, bound in incredible bondage.  Lynn smiled at the woman.

"Hello Lynn dearest, how was your Halloween night?"

The bound figure on the floor made some vain attempts to struggle against the leather restraints, but knew from experience the futility of her actions.

A phone rang and for a moment Lynn seemed perplexed.  after a few moments searching she found a phone hidden beneath the dog food bowl that served as a feeding tray for her prisoner. 

"well well well.  Looks like my dear little girlie needs a tighter gag.  someone has been very naughty."

She answered the phone and her perfect lips released the sound of a deep baritone.

"Hello?  No I'm sorry, Lynn Miller isn't home, this is her husband Karl.  Jenna?  No I'm afraid there's been some mistake.  Lynn certainly didn't hire a babysitter for tonight.  I've been home all night looking after the children.  I don't know why your daughter would have lied to you either.  Perhaps she went to a college party?  No.  It was no problem.  Please call us back as soon as you know, I'd hate to think the girl had got lost somewhere.  goodnight"