I dared to peer over my shoulder as I raced ahead. Goblins, ghosts, vampires, witches, gaining on me, even though I was running my fastest. I uttered a small scream… and woke up, gasping for breath.
     “A dream,” I told myself later, “it was only a dream.” But no matter how many times I reminded myself, I still had a strange feeling that there was something eerie going on. I had had that dream before, and each time I woke up, I had a spooky sensation, an awareness that something bad was about to happen. I never really paid much attention to that feeling because nothing bad really ever did happen until Halloween, the most frightening one of my life.
     It was slightly chilly, and I had trick-or-treated until dusk. I suddenly realized that I forgot my flashlight, even though my mom had reminded me at least a thousand times. Oh well, I thought to myself, I know this neighborhood perfectly well from walking through it all the time.
     As I trudged down the well-known path to my home, night came, enclosing the world in eerie darkness. Not able to see anything except the lights from houses along the road, I broke into a run.
     I was about three blocks from my home, when all the power went out. I glanced around for a second, seeing nothing but blackness. I started off again, accidentally passing up my house as I couldn’t see it.
     I finally realized something wasn’t right when I entered a deep, dense forest about a mile from my house. I bumped headfirst into a towering oak tree. Rubbing my head and wondering where I was, I decided to settle down to sleep and figure out how to get home in the morning.
     When I awoke and looked around, I suddenly learned that I was in the most impenetrable part of the eerie forest that there was. ’Odd, it definitely couldn’t have been this thick when I sprinted through it, otherwise I would have bumped into a tree earlier. Those trees couldn’t have sprung up overnight, either. The only logical solution is that someone or something must have moved me.
     I gulped, suddenly recalling something. That dream, that eerie nightmare, I had had it again last night. It wasn’t usual though, it left me with a freaky case of the shivers.
     Still shuddering, I walked uncertainly to the right, not knowing which way to go.
     After what seemed like miles, I came upon a clearing in which a small town was situated. As I walked up, I admired the clean white gates surrounding the houses, glinting in the sunlight. That is, until I took a few steps closer.
     I held in a shriek and jumped back. Those glistening white gates were bones. Just animal bones, I told myself, and walked up to the closest one. After examining the bones, I happened to glance at my leg. I gasped, they were the same shape, but then I realized, It’s the day after Halloween, people are bound to still have decorations up.
     I rapped one with my knuckles and it sure seemed real but before I had any more time to think about it, the door flew open and a lady in a witch costume came out.
     Suddenly, the whole world went still. The birds stopped chirping, the squirrels stopped scampering. Everything was still, except for the witch lady and I.
     “Do come in, it must be very cold out there,” she said, her scratchy voice breaking through the unearthly silence.
     Nervously, I stepped into her dark, unwelcoming house.
     “Don’t be afraid,” she said with a cackle.
     I edged forward a few more inches… and felt the floor drop away from me!
     I screamed and felt for a handhold as I hurtled down what must have been fifty feet. I could hear that witch lady’s cackle all the way down.
     I finally landed on a hard little cot that seemed to be set there to break a person’s fall. I landed on my stomach and rolled over, dizzily.
     When I came to my senses and looked around, I realized that I was in a dungeon. It was dirty, musty, and almost pitch black. There was a grimy lantern in the corner, illuminating only a few dusty cobwebs.
     I strained my ears, hoping to hear what the witch lady was doing. I could hear a faint mumble, and realized that there must be another person in the house.
     I could distinguish only bits and pieces of their conversation, but I knew in an instant that these people were real witches.
     “Mumble, mumble, stop time, mumble, take over the world, mumble, mumble, witches mumble rule,” I heard a voice saying.
     “I have to get out of here!” I exclaimed, to no one in particular, throwing myself back on the cot.
     As though it had heard me, a small black cat appeared from under the bed.
     “What are you doing under there?” I asked, scratching under its chin. It purred, and slunk back under the bed. I figured even the littlest bit of company was good, so I dropped to the floor and stuck my head under the cot.
     The cat padded over to me, then back to where it was, before. I raised my eyebrows at it, and it repeated the process, as though telling me to come under the bed with it.
     I squeezed under the bed, and the cat slunk still further. It tapped its paw on a space about five feet from me. I inched over to the cat. It tapped its paw again, like it was telling me something. I rapped the spot with my knuckles, and a hollow sound echoed through the dungeon. I ran my fingers over that place. The stone felt perfectly smooth, except for one rusty nail. My heart thumped violently as I gave the nail a strong yank. A section of floor slid aside to reveal a fairly large hole. The cat slipped into the space and, though it was a tight squeeze, I followed. There was a long tubular hallway in front of me, made entirely out of stone. I nervously edged down it, expecting one of the witches to pop out at any second and drag me back into the dungeon. Ahead of me, the path swooped upwards, and a faint glimmer of light shone down.
     I held in a whoop and sprinted forwards. The black cat was waiting for me when I popped into the fresh air from a hole in the ground.
     My relief lasted only a few seconds, for I recalled what the witches had said. Time was stopped, and now they would rule the world, eventually the universe.
     I cautiously went back into the little hut. The witches were still deep in their conversation. Not knowing exactly what I was looking for, I slipped, unnoticed past them. In what must have been the kitchen, there was a large black cauldron filled with a bubbling green liquid. I shuddered, and switched my eyes to the kitchen table.
     There was a small remote control in the center of it.
     I crept carefully up to the remote control, expecting a bomb or something.
     The first thing I thought was This is nothing but a normal remote control, but it wasn’t. When I examined the small print on the side of it, I immediately learned that this device was much more deadly than a bomb.
     This was what the witches were using to stop time.
     When I picked it up, it felt warm in my hands, almost alive in a way.
     The cat yowled, and I heard on of the witches grumble “What’s that darn cat up to now?”
     I could hear her footsteps as she stomped toward the kitchen. I froze. Just in time, the cat’s meowing jolted me back to life. It jumped out of the window and with a struggle, I followed.
     “There’s no cat in here.” She muttered, apparently annoyed.
     I stayed by the window to hear what would happen next.
     “Go check on the girl while you’re up.” The other witch said.
     I almost laughed when I heard her say
     “There’s no girl here either!”
     “I knew she was trouble the moment I carried her through that forest!”
     So it was her who moved me! I took off at a run, straight into the forest, knowing I would reach my house sometime.
     Actually, “sometime” was sooner than I thought. I arrived in my neighborhood after only a half hour. I dragged myself tiredly up on my front porch, and switched back time. Immediately the world became pitch black and all the power went out. I opened the door and found my mom reading her favorite book.
     “Hello,” she said vaguely, “thanks for coming back when the power went out.”
     “You’re welcome.”
     “Oh, by the way,” she added. What’s that alley cat doing here?”
     I glanced behind me. The black cat shot me a guilty look, Almost human, I thought.
     “That’s…” I paused, thinking, “That’s Hero, I found him.”
     “Well, my mom said, “I suppose you can keep him, if you want. That is, unless he has a collar.”
     I glanced down at the black cat’s neck and there was no collar.
     “I want to keep him!” I exclaimed, heading upstairs to my room.
     “Okay.” I head my mom say.
     Hero nuzzled my leg as I climbed into bed.
     “You really live up to your name, don’t you, Hero? I bet we never see those witches again” and we never did. That is, until the next Halloween.