Hallo-weird

Chapter 6

They all stood in the basement, staring at one another with wide eyes. No one was sure what to do in this moment.

"Well whoever it is, they're coming for us," Amymarie whispered, as the door to the hatch tugged open.

And then the Kids looked over at the clown costumes.

The Yellow Kid stepped into one of the clown costumes and proceeded to make a silly face, the rest of the Kids cracking up.

"Is now really the time?" Amymarie whispered.

The rest of the Kids dove into the clown costumes, Yellow wiggling out of the costume and joining the rest of the Kids.

"I guess we're hiding," Kenny whispered.

He and Amymarie joined the Kids, the six of them peeking out to see who was coming down the hatch.

"Is that the guy from the street earlier?" Amymarie whispered. "Jake?"

The Kids nudged her, signaling for her to stay quiet.

But Kenny nodded, sure that it was the guy they'd talked to earlier, the one that claimed to have information on Red's whereabouts.

"Yeah, I'm sure," said another voice. "And the rug was moved away from the door. They have to be here."

"It's so dark down here," Jake said, and he flipped on his flashlight, searching around the small area. "And these clown costumes are so creepy."

"Tell that to Red," the other guy muttered.

The Kid's eyes widened at the mention of their friend's name.

"Well you said they were down here," he continued, sounding a bit frustrated. "Where are they, then?"

Jake was glancing, a frown on his face. "I don't know, man. Maybe I was wrong?"

"I'd say there's a pretty high chance of that," said his friend. "Now we're going to have to go and look for them."

The Kids exchanged glances before jumping out of the clown costumes.

"No!" Amymarie whispered.

Jake turned around to see the commotion and was taken by surprise to see the Kids in front of him.

Amymarie and Kenny both let out sighs, stepping out of the clown costumes as well.

"What are you guys doing?" Jake asked, looking around at their group.

"We were hiding, looking for information on Red," Amymarie informed Jake.

"Why?" Jake asked, with a laugh.

Kenny reached over and flipped on the lights in the basement.

The Kids looked up at Kenny in surprise.

"Surprise!" a group of voices chorused.

Amymarie helped Jake push back the clown costumes to reveal a group of their friends, Red in the middle of them.

The Kids ran to Red, enveloping their friend in a group hug before glancing back at Amymarie, Kenny and Jake in confusion.

"Surprise!" the three of them chorused together.

"Red set the whole thing up," Amymarie informed the Kids, with a shrug. "We just went along with it."

"Red wanted to throw you a surprise Halloween party," Kenny added. "To give you a Halloween adventure."

"The ultimate prank," Jake added, with a smile.

The Kids shook their heads, laughing.

Red had managed to pull off the ultimate prank, and had given them the best Halloween adventure in the process.

"I have to say, the ransom video was a nice touch," Kenny added.

The Kids shook their heads, clearly disagreeing with Kenny.

"Definitely creepy," Amymarie said, reaching over and turning up the music. "But what a sweet ending to what started out as a pretty sour Halloween! Now let's party!"