The Goo by Alleida Martinez of Fresno, California

 The Goo

by Alleida Martinez 

Fresno, California

It was halloween night and everyone was dressed up in their costumes ready to enjoy the night. I really wanted to dress up my dog Cookie to take her trick or treating, so I dressed her up as a pumpkin. The night was getting dark fast and people were beginning to start the scare. I was meeting my friends at the corner of Elm street. As we walked we saw many kids dressed up as their favorite superheroes and princesses. We saw adults with bloody knives and masks, which really grossed out my friend Jas. Cookie was loving the attention she was getting from strangers. We collected a lot of candy. Our bags were getting quite heavy, so we decided to walk home and drop off the candy so we could collect more. 

My friends wanted to go into a haunted house but I was nervous because I had heard stories about people never coming out of certain houses. I  wanted to take Cookie with me because she would have protected me but the owner said that no pets are allowed in the house. My friend Jas did not want to go into the house, she was afraid and would not change her mind for anything. So Cookie and Jas waited outside for my friend Jacob and I to come out of the haunted house. Jacob seemed excited and not scared at all, which made me calm down. I kept reminding myself that the monsters in the haunted house are not real which really helped me get through it. In the haunted house were ghosts who really did not scare me. Michael Myers was also in the haunted house and had a bloody knife, he began to follow us and made me panic. I wanted to run but Jacob was holding me back and walking very slow. I did not want to look scared so I walked nervously behind him holding on to his costume and constantly looking back at Michael Myers. At the end there was a witch who gave us more than enough candy for the night. I wanted to go into more haunted houses because the amount of candy they handed us was greater than the fear I had in the haunted house. 

The haunted house was scary but also manageable and when I thought about it, it was actually fun purposely getting scared. It was like being in a scary movie. We decided to go into another haunted house and this time I was excited and ready. Cookie and Jas waited outside again. In this haunted house there were green creatures who actually grabbed us, I did not hesitate to run. I ran fast and somehow ended up outside, I looked for Jas and Cookie but they were gone. I waited for Jacob to come out of the house so we could call and look for Jas. When Jacob came out I called Jas and she did not answer, Jacob then called her and she said that Cookie had run away. We told Jas to come back to the haunted house so we could look for Cookie together. 

It was now past midnight and things were beginning to look very strange. We walked by a strange house that we had never seen. It had lots of pumpkins in the yard and we found Cookie in between them, she blended in well with her pumpkin costume but I was happy to find her. I yelled her name but she did not come, it was weird because she always comes when I call her name. I went onto the yard and grabbed her, she was being really creepy and looked sick. As we walked home Cookie kept looking back at the house, as if something were calling her. Cookie pulled me with her leash as she ran back to the creepy house. Cookie went inside the house but I waited for Jas and Jacob to catch up. “I don’t think we should go in there,” said Jas. “I need to get my dog,” I said. The steps to the house were wobbly and felt like they were about to break, the house was very old. I opened the creaking door and no one seemed to be home. The house was dark so I used my phone flashlight to try and find Cookie. I searched the whole house and could not find her, I began to worry. When all of a sudden Jacob yelled “I found her, she is in the basement.” As we began to walk down the basement, we began hearing weird noises. I panicked down the stairs to get to Cookie. When I got to Cookie I noticed a sticky black goo on her neck. I tried to pull it off of her but it seemed to be attached to her fur. We decided to take her home and this time she did not look back at the house but she was still not acting like herself. 

When we got home we put her in the bathtub to wash the goo off. When the water began to hit her fur she began going wild, barking and scratching. I noticed that the goo did not like water. Cookie’s eyes turned blood red and the goo started to come off and crawl onto Jas and Jacob. Their eyes turned red and they became aggressive. Cookie seemed to be normal but continued to bark at my friends because they were going wild. My friends were moving closer to Cookie and I so I panicked and ran into the backyard where I had a pool. I hid behind a tree to see where Jas and Jacob would go. When they were near the pool I rushed to push them in hoping that the goo would leave their body. The water caused the goo to leave their bodies and die, there was no more black goo. Jas and Jacob seemed normal but did not know what was going on. I was happy to have my friends and dog back. It was a crazy halloween night but I would do it over again for someone I care about.