Sally and her band of friends were bored. They were all aged between sixteen and eighteen. Sally was eighteen on Halloween. There was nothing to do in that part of town at all. The buses stopped early, so they could not even go to see a film. They usually hung around quite bored. Which upset the neighbours as the complete gang of thirty youths was quite intimidating to them. But in reality, Sally and the group meant no harm at all! They just wanted somewhere to meet!

Eventually over the course of the year, the group dwindled.  They were reduced to about a dozen in the group which wasn't so bad, but by now they had been tarnished with being a crowd of yobs.

Halloween came and they decided to go trick or treating and use the money to donate to a local charity. Jack had got the idea from a poster in the charity shop window requesting people to find ways of raising some money. "We could also pay a visit to the old house up the top of Bell Hill!" one of the group said, but the others refused saying it was not a nice place. The old man who lived there was mysterious. They considered him weird and no one visited him. "He probably eats visitors!" One of the girls said with a laugh!

But Jack had to go one step further on this Halloween. He suggested the trick or treat idea and the group readily agreed. Anne came up with the idea about fancy dress. They had two weeks to come up with something.  Anybody not having an original idea should get a forfeit. The ideas for outfits must be shown the day before Halloween. They all put a pound into the kitty to hand to the winner of the best outfit, which would be decided by a show of hands.

Sally sat and thought. Ann would be going as a witch. She knew that as Ann always did at every fancy dress party! Sarah would go as a skeleton as usual. Roy would be the pirate. He was last year, but she still could not work out the connection between pirates and Halloween personally. John would go as a ghost. He told Sally he would be doing that. The only reason he did was because it was an easy outfit to make. One old white sheet and a couple of holes cut in it and you have it! Peter would be wearing his Frankenstein's monster mask!  Sally had to do something unusual. She had been to the event as all of these before over her younger years, but she wanted something special for this her last Halloween.

Looking through the magazines for ideas, she thought of a scarecrow, a mummy and a dog costume and go as the hound of the Baskervilles or a wolf. But she thought she would probably be more like Scooby Doo than something horrific.

The time went by and the day before Halloween, Sally had not made her mind up. The entire group assembled and told them what they were going as. Sally decided it was too childish and told the group she would be going as she was. That is what Sally thought at least.

The group said they would have to meet at the local park at five in the evening to get ready. They all agreed to meet readily dressed for the occasion. Everyone turned up in fancy dress except Sally. "There are no excuses whatsoever, you must do the forfeit!" Peter told her and everyone agree with him. "You could have come as Dracula!" Anne said.

Sally noticed the polished coffin on the trolley that John was pulling round. Well, you could not really be off seeing it. Whoever had made it certainly knew their woodwork! It looked just like a real coffin.  John told her that his dad was a carpenter and he made it over the past few weeks. It had all the brass furniture on it as well. "The only difference is that there are breathing holes in it. I wanted to be pulled round and rise out of the coffin when the doors were answered!" he said laughingly, "That would scare them!" He showed her how it looks like a normal coffin, but the lid was hinged so it threw off to one side. The thumbscrews on the hinged side were fake ones that did nothing except be ornamental.

Sally thought it was childish and said so. But that was the key to what happened next.  Peter opened the coffin and Sally saw a black plastic bag full of bandages. She was grabbed and while the boys held her, the girls stripped her naked. She had some tape put over her mouth and her head was bandaged up. Soon she was a mass of bandages with nothing of her to see except her eyes. Her legs had been bandaged together and she was lifted up by the group while one of them held the lid of the coffin open.

Sally was laid in it on the well padded bottom, and to her horror, the lid, which was also well padded, was closed down on her and she could hear the thumbscrews being tightened. She was cushioned between the two layers of padding! Panic struck her for a second, but she overcame this when she thought it would not last long. 

One of the girls put her clothes in the plastic bag that originally contained the bandages. She took the bag and hid it in the bushes. Now Sally had to go with them. She felt the trolley being towed along by the others. Door after door was knocked at. Sally started to wonder if they were ever going to let her out of the coffin by now. She started to murmur and wriggle about. This went on for some time. But for some reason no one who answered the door wanted to see inside the coffin. She thought that maybe they were not taking the coffin right to the doorways for people to see inside, and the people did not want to walk out and see her.

John was cursing because he kept tripping over his sheet. He had never done it other years, but he had used a new sheet and realised it must be slightly bigger than the old one he had used before. He wished he had cut the length.

Sally felt the trolley bump along and realised the only place the pavement was like this was Bell Hill. The puffing and blowing of her group trying to get the trolley up the hill confirmed her suspicions. There is only one large old house at the top of the hill. Everyone ignored it! No one wanted to go there, so why were these idiots going there? Sally screamed through the tape and started to try to rock about again, but they ignored her and carried on pushing and pulling.

The group turned into the overgrown driveway of the house. The gnarled old trees were blocking out any light that was available to them and they thanked the pumpkin lanterns they had for giving them a little light to see by. The trees creaked and groaned in the wind, sending shivers down the spines of the group. "I knew we should not have come here!" said Sarah with a little more than just nervousness showing in her voice!

Soon the trolley stopped. "They must be there!" Sally thought, "I wonder what they are up to now!" The little group pulled the trolley up to the door of the house, Peter rang the doorbell. "This will give them a fright!" he said. But there was a long loud groan from the house and the door swung open. An eerie light shone down the far end of the passageway. One of the group screamed, panic set in and they scampered along the long driveway and fled down Bell Hill as fast as they could., throwing their pumpkin lanterns away as they ran!

It was not until they reached the bottom that they realised they had left Sally back at the house!  "We will get her tomorrow" said John.

"No, she is our responsibility. We did it to her, and now we must go back and get her!" The others argued it would be silly in the pitch black darkness of the driveway.

But Peter was determined to get her back safely. He stormed off into the darkness towards Bell Hill again and the house. The others followed him at a very slow pace.  When they got to the driveway, all they could hear was the hooting of an owl. Getting to the   house would be another matter. The trees were really creaking now. Ann said she thought she heard the trees talking, but the others convinced her it was her imagination.

When they got to the house, there was no sign of the trolley or the coffin. "He must have taken them indoors!" John said with a gulp. Anne said they should go, but no one listened to her. Peter approached the front door again and rang the doorbell. The door slowly creaked open and the eerie light was still there at the far end of the passageway. The group crept forwards as quietly as they could. Finally they reached the eerie light. It was just a green luminous sign that is used to guide the way in a fire.  

Peter pushed the door at the side of it. The room was all in darkness and he cursed for not having a lantern or torch to see by. Trying hard to get accustomed to the darkness, Peter and the rest of the group edged forwards.  As they did, they heard the door slam behind them. Anne rushed back to where she thought the door was and found there was no handle on that side of the door. She thought she was wrong and the handle must be elsewhere on the door, but even though she was aware it was the door indeed, there was no handle.

The girls started to scream. The boys panicked, but the lights came on. There in front of them was a sumptuous feast. Another door opened and in walked sally with the man. She explained she had been watching them with a low light camera and motor set up, She had nearly wet herself watching their antics.

The man explained, "I never get any visitors, I suppose it is my fault, but I have become so lonely and withdrawn. When I saw your coffin you left outside, I decided to investigate. I opened it and saw this poor girl all wrapped up in bandages. She made an excellent mummy! I was going to leave her wrapped up and make her sit and talk to me, but I had a change of heart and undid her head bandages. I undid the body bandages, but when she told me she was naked beneath them, I left the room. She told me you were collecting for the hospice along the way, so I lent her some old clothes which she is now wearing and prepared the supper for you. I have a lot of food in store. I always have treats for trick or treaters, but no one has ever knocked before. I feel so lonely and sad!"

The group looked at Sally in this beautiful Victorian silk gown. She looked stunning. Her hair had been made up and she really looked a real lady! The girls were envious. The boys were falling over her!

 The group tucked into the supper and they all spoke about what they were going to do. The man made a donation to their charity appeal. Rather a good donation, but he made them promise not to tell anyone.  He finished up asking them if they would lie to follow it up with a Christmas appeal. He explained he had a lot of Victorian clothes that should fit all of them. He went on to explain he used to run a theatre company and he used to be the music director and coached the players in their singing.

The group said they would love to take part, as long as he joined them. He agreed and said that if they liked, he would coach them into a choir and they could sing Christmas carols. Everyone agreed that would be lovely.

Supper over, the group said their goodbyes and promised to revisit him and take up his offer of being taught how to sing in key instead of the cacophony they usually screech out singing the latest pop songs.

John opened the coffin and found it was full of apples. "Wow, now he has played the trick on us! We should take these to the old peoples' home and share them out!" Everyone agreed.    Sally walked down Bell Hill like a lady. Everyone who saw her stopped and stared in amazement. It took them ages to recognise her. Gone was the scruffy tomboy. Now she was indeed a lady. It was the best Halloween she had ever had. Everyone agreed with her. She picked up her clothes in the park and eventually went home in the dress. Her parents were amazed at the transformation. They had been trying for years to get her to become more feminine. But here she was, transformed from an ugly duckling to a beautiful swan.

Her mother asked "What happened, did you see a ghost and it shocked you into this?" Sally told them they would not believe it if they were told the truth. She went to sleep that night with a smile on her face. She was dreaming of the Christmas carol singing. It would give her a chance to wear that dress once again! She thought of the comparison between her and a caterpillar. She was cocooned and came out a beautiful butterfly.