Twilight was setting in the sky. A cool autumn breeze blew outside the purple house that had a few trees with bare branches scattered around it. The garden in front of the house was covered with grass and thorny little bushes. Clouds and fog cast a mysterious shadow on the house. From the portion of the house that could be seen in the mist, yellow lights flickered on and off from behind the windows on the first floor. Above the house, a white moon shone in the sky. A broken fence stood near the entrance.

Onir and his two friends, Mandy and Sandy, had wandered too far from his house. They were dressed in spooky Halloween costumes. Baskets slinging from their shoulders were half-filled with candies and treats they had received from neighbours as part of trick-n-treat. Onir’s mother had warned him not to go to the other side of the hill as it was dark there. But when they arrived at the purple house, they were surprised. Unlike what Onir’s mother said, the house was lit up. The lamp posts were all working, despite some of them being broken.

The three boys tiptoed towards the main door to receive candies from the owner. Onir was going to perform a dance step while Mandy and his brother Sandy would sing a Halloween song. But when they knocked on the door, they were surprised. Standing in front of them was a boy of their age, with a box of candies in his hands.

They introduced themselves. The boy replied, ‘My name is Sanju. Will you come inside and play with me? My parents are not at home. I am celebrating Halloween alone.’ 

The boys looked at each other, puzzled. After thinking for a minute about it, they said, ‘Okay!’

Sanju called them inside the house, which looked larger than any house the boys had ever seen. ‘Come this way,’ Sanju said. They followed, nervously. 

Unlike what they thought they would see in the creepy-looking house, it was brilliantly lit up with candles, bulbs and lamps. Luxurious carpets were rolled out on the floor, and expensive silver cutlery was laid on the dining table. 

‘How could this boy do all this decoration alone,’ Onir wondered, but then brushed it off thinking that his parents might have done it before they left. 

They followed the boy into a large hall with shelves containing valuable antiques. From the hall, they walked into a narrow corridor. The boy signalled them to walk to the room at the end of the corridor. 

‘You go on, I’ll bring some snacks from the kitchen,’ Sanju told them.

The boys went to the room, excited to have snacks. The room had no windows, and its walls were covered with paintings and posters, some of which looked creepy. They sat on the bed. On one side of the bed was a cupboard, and on the other side was a desk containing stacks of papers, pens and heaps of crayons. 

They waited, but when nearly ten minutes had passed, and Sanju still hadn’t returned with the snacks, they started looking at the things in the room and playing with each other. At that moment, Mandy opened a desk drawer and took out a diary. As he was flipping through the pages, suddenly a newspaper cutting and a photograph fell out of the diary. 

Casually, Mandy unfolded the newspaper cutting and started reading it. His eyes widened in terror, his skin became sweaty, and he started shivering in fear. In this cutting, there was a photograph of Sanju, the boy they had just met. The date of his death was from five years ago, and the cutting was an announcement by his parents who had organized his funeral. 

Below his photo was a small description narrating the story of his death. It said that one day, Sanju’s parents had gone out of the house and locked the house to keep him safe inside. But when they returned, Sanju was nowhere to be found. 

Trembling with fear, Mandy told everything to Sandy and Onir. Just when they were thinking how to get out of the house, the door of the room shut and strange crying noises filled the room.

‘I want to go to my parents! I will make a hole in the cupboard and go outside! I want to …’ the ghostly voice screamed. 

Instinctively, the boys walked to the cupboard, removed some clothes and found a large hole carved into the back panel. They quickly took all the clothes out of the cupboard and discarded their candy baskets. Suddenly, they felt something hovering behind them.

Turning around, they saw Sanju hovering near the ceiling, mocking them with a twisted smile. Shivers ran down their spine. Despite being scared, they turned their backs to the ghost and focused on their mission. They had to jump out of the hole before the ghost could reach them and eat them up. 

One by one, they squeezed themselves through the hole and jumped out. They found themselves in the backyard of the house, from where they ran like the wind. 

The festive night had turned into a frightening adventure, but they decided not to tell anything to their parents, as they would get scolded for their mischief even after having been warned not to go to the other side of the hill. They reached their homes and instantly went to bed. 

The next evening, as they were sitting on the porch of Onir’s house, eating toast, a neighbour, Mr John, passed by. He stopped to greet the boys. ‘Happy Halloween, kids,’ he exclaimed and tossed handfuls of toffees in their laps. 

‘Didn’t you go for trick-n-treat today?’ he asked.

‘No, uncle. We went yesterday. Today we will play another game,’ Sandy said.

‘Oh, by the way, if you want to save your time, don’t ever go to the purple house on the other side of the hill. Nobody lives there, so you will be disappointed,’ Mr John said with a smile and waved goodbye.

The three boys looked at each other and then stared at Mr John walking down the street till he disappeared in the heavy mist.