I looked out the window at my neighbours Halloween decorations, they were mostly skeletons but there was something... off about them. They seemed too real not like the obviously plastic ones you get in stores. I tried to shrug it off and forget about it but I couldn't, I needed to get out there and have a look for myself when they left for work.

An hour later I was in their front yard looking at the skeletons up close, they were definitely real, I've seen too many bones in my lifetime to not be able to distinguish between the two. The only questions now were how and why did they have them, I needed to investigate further I was a police officer after all, it was my duty to look into these things.

I went back into my house to call a good friend of mine who also happened to be a detective at the local station.

"Hey Kel, you don't usually call on your day off, what's up?"

"Charlie, I need you to do something for me off the books."

"Yeah sure, what is it?"

"There's something weird going on at my neighbours place I need you to run their names."

"I can do that just send their names over, wanna tell me what you're thinking?"

"Not yet, I'm hoping I'm wrong and completely over thinking this."

"Alright then I'll let you know what I find."

"Thank you, I really appreciate it."

"It's no problem, speak to you later Kel."

Before I could answer the line went silent and I was left with my own thoughts of what could be happening next door. It only took a couple of hours to get the answer I had been dreading in the form of a text message. 'No record of either of them until about 2 years ago when they moved into that house.'

Shit.

Before I could reply a piece of fabric was put over my nose and mouth and I blacked out, when I woke up I was in an unfamiliar room, there was a sickly-sweet smell of rotting flesh in the air, I tried to speak but there was something covering my mouth. I tried to lift my hands to feel it but they were tied behind my back, where the hell was I and more importantly how do I get out? 

There was a crack of light somewhere to my left but to get there i needed to get my hands free, feeling around on what little ground I could I felt for any kind of sharp object and to my surprise I found something that felt like a blade of some kind. I started sawing at the rope tying my hands together, eventually I felt the rope loosen and I managed to pull my hands apart. Feeling around my ankles I found more rope but this time I was able to untie it properly and pull myself up to my feet, standing upright didn't last long whatever id been drugged with was still in my system and made me fall to my knees. I landed on something soft and the smell got worse, it only took a few seconds to realise what I had landed on was not a cushion like I'd initially thought, but the remains of a person minus their skeleton. I had to get out of there, trying to supress a gag I rose to my feet once again and stumbled over to the crack of light. Feeling around I eventually found a doorknob and twisted, it was unlocked, I opened the door and ran.

It didn't take long to get to the closest bar which just so happened to be one street over from my own house, convincing someone to let me use their phone took a little longer but eventually they let me, I dialled Charlie's number and waited for an answer.

"Hello?"

"Charlie thank god you answered, I need you to send backup to my house immediately my feeling was right"

"Kel what happened?"

"They broke in and grabbed me, I woke up in their cellar and managed to get out but I need backup its worse than I thought."

"Alright we'll be there in 5"

I hung up the phone and walked back to mine, by the time I got there, backup was waiting. I filled them in on what had happened, they'd come prepared with an emergency warrant so that we could arrest them. An hour later the neighbours were in custody and were being booked for at least 6 murders, all the skeletons in their front yard were real just like I'd thought and their cellar was full of the remains having been essentially peeled off the bones.

It's been months and I still can't get the smell of decay out of my nose, it's all I can smell. I had to move out of the house I'd thought I would live in for the rest of my life just to get away from the paranoia and journalists, especially since I was the only surviving victim.

I'm never going to look at Halloween the same way but at least I survived it.

Or did I?

My neighbors must really like Halloween Their skeleton was so realistic that I had to scream It was the perfect shade of the bones Like the color you’d find on off white stones With the perfect shape Perfect like Superman with his cape But why position them so suspiciously They feel so eerily Something this real is probably so hard to aquire It’s starting to look like the corps in last weeks fire It looks too realistic I might even go ballistic I’m getting a very bad feeling My head is spinning and reeling It all looks so wrong And this feeling is so strong I just HAVE to run from this abomination My Neighbors Halloween Decoration

Joe has his regular Halloween decorations up. I always love his lights, the way they shine off his little pond. He added a new feature this year which is kind of cool, a whole slew of skeletons, all dressed up differently. It is so creative. I know he’s visiting his sister, I bet he wouldn’t mind if I took a little tour.

I walk through his garden gate, through all the kid-friendly stuff, Mickey Mouse dressed up as a pumpkin and the sort. The good stuff was always over past the pond. I walked gingerly and started to get a weird feeling. The closer I got to the skeletons I realized they were just the skulls on sticks. Closer and closer, weirder and weirder.

I got to the start of the skeleton displays and noticed how realistic the clothes were. They didn’t look like the odd plastic-y clothes you get at the Halloween stores, they were real. I can’t put my finger on it but I think these are real people’s clothes.

I tripped and fell on my way to the sixth skeleton and the skull fell off the stick. Suddenly its eyes opened. The damned thing had eyes! I noticed a shadow behind me, reflecting from the light displays. It was Joe and he had an axe above his head, swinging it at me…

I’ve never really seen the point in Halloween, but my new neighbours however, they go all out for it.

The put up decorations all over the house, but the skeletons, well, they’re really something. I asked them where they got those skeletons.

“A magician never reveals they’re secrets.” They had said and as they turned away I heard them say something else under their breath. “And neither do murderers.”

Noice decorating bruh

Oh dis real, my man

hUh?

/I’m jus kidding imma actually write something here eventually/ 🤪🤪🤪

The house next to mine has skeletons in the front yard.

Don’t worry their not real, at least not until dusk.

At night I see them moving, dancing and I hear them singing songs.

They keep me up at all hours of the night.

I’ve tried to tell my neighbor but he just calls me crazy.

The first time I saw it I thought I was crazy too.

They play poker around a table and throw big party’s all throughout the night.

There’s one playing on a guitar and one with a cigarette clutched between his teeth.

It’s the most bizarre thing you’ve ever seen.

When the sun comes up they all return to the position they were in before they awoke, like nothing ever took place and nobody can see them move but me.

This has always been a quiet suburb. The kind of place people flee to if they aspire to a Brady Bunch existence. Cul de sacs are laid out in an incomprehensible pattern designed to deter anyone without a deed or a specific invitation from entering the area.

It’s big news here if the garbage doesn’t get picked up on time, or if someone’s cat gets out. Last month one of our neighbors decided their Amazon package had been stolen off their porch. She was sure of it because these kinds of things are all over the news! Given the drama that followed you might have thought someone had boosted the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. The crime of the century was quickly solved when it turned out another neighbor had taken the package inside for safe keeping.

Given this, it did not go unnoticed when people started disappearing. When Mrs. Sutton’s papers stacked up on her front porch, we initially assumed she forgot to tell us she went on vacation. But no, she was just gone. Then the lights didn’t come on at night at the Delgado’s, and their poor cat seemed to be wasting away in the window. Finally, Mr. Proust didn’t exit his garage at 7 am for the office; a pattern that had gone unbroken for years. In fact, it didn’t appear anyone had come or gone from the Proust house in some time.

Those of us left on the cul de sac compared notes and wondered, but there was not a lot we could do beyond call the police. The police had come and taken our reports, but there was no visible evidence of foul play and Sgt. Mertz said there was not much more they could do.

Until, that is, the day Mr. Langdon, from up the block, staked seven very life-like human skeletons in his front lawn for Halloween. They were so life-like and somehow familiar…I realized what I was looking at and dug Sgt. Mertz’s card out of the kitchen drawer.

The candlelight ignites a golden aura around the dark living room. I’m currently sitting on the warmth of my armchair, the television crackling In front of me as the rain poured down outside. My cat was curled on my lap, purring softly.

I look up as I hear a scream, and then silence. My head starts throbbing, telling me something is wrong. Even my cats fur has spiked up. She is hissing at the window, arching her back at something outside in a protective manner. I stand up, squinting to look out of my shutters at the dark row of houses. My neighbour, Nina, is digging something into the ground.

Nina has always done a lot of decoration for Halloween. But as I look out at the window, I start to realise how realistic the skeletons look. There is lanterns placed on their heads, some wearing clothing that looks… used.

She is whistling loudly, oblivious to the thunder that sounds above. A frown forms on my forehead as I watch her. My cat is hissing loudly now, alarming me. I squint more to see better, and my eyes widen when I see her putting a skeleton outside. I catch a glimpse of a torn limb, most likely a leg. It doesn’t look synthetic.

There is blood splattered over her patio with cobwebs hanging from the Jack O’ lanterns. The leg is piked into the ground. I watch in fear as she covers it with soil, hanging some clothing on the skeleton.

I cover my mouth as if I need to keep silent as I watch her. She walks back into her house as if nothing had ever happened.

I look out at the skeleton, dread filling me. A wave of nausea hits as I look away, feeling as if I’m going to puke.

But when I look away, I catch a glimpse of the skeletons arm moving.

My head snap back to the window, my eyes wide. It’s hand is twitching and pointing at me.

Typically, I don’t like to consider myself someone who is too quick to judge and make assumptions without getting to know a person first. Ever since me and my partner moved in, somethings always bothered me about our neighbour next door.

She’s a sweet older lady in her early seventies, a true Halloween fanatic. She goes all out. The first Halloween we spent here she informed us she tries to do something grander, more wild each year for Halloween regarding how she decorates. Last year, her whole front lawn along with the entirety of her porch was coated in fake spider webs and adorned with pumpkins and what looked like a few fake body parts that were bloodied and bruised strewn across the front garden.

She put us to shame, with our single carved pumpkin and Halloween themed doormat by our front door. Dorothy-the neighbour had also amassed a great following and admiration from those around the town from her love for Halloween. The trick or treat goers were definitely up there with her biggest fans.

Unsurprisingly many rumours and theories were spread around that she was the reason behind the rapidly increasing amount of missing persons in the neighbourhood. Which of course is just teenagers and adults trying to spook young children with an overactive imagination.

This year, me and my partner have put some more effort into our decorating for Halloween after investing in some new decorations. After setting one of our carved pumpkins on the porch, a peculiar smell catches my nose. It’s a nauseating metallic stench. Looking to my right, I find my German shepherd sniffing at what appears to be Dorothy’s new decorations for this year, multiple skeletons of various sizes in different positions across her garden. Some standing, some sat in chairs, some partially clothed.

“Hey, Barney,” I whisper-shout not wanting to disturb anyone this late, it’s past ten now. “Come here boy. Come on, leave it alone.”

Barney simply growls at one of the skeletons, ignoring me joyfully as he begins encircling it, sniffing intently.

“Barney, come here.”

“Someone likes my new decorations then.”

Barney finally comes to sit by my feet as Dorothy smiles at us from her doorway.

“Yes,” I laugh. “He certainly does, you’ve outdone us all again this year. Like always.”

“Yes, yes I have.” Dorothy says, her eyes seem to harden or well I’m not quite sure but something strange appears in the look on her face, something sinister perhaps. Maybe it’s just my imagination.

The next morning I awoke to find only Barney in the house, my partner James was nowhere to be seen. He was supposed to have been back late last night from overtime at work. Maybe something happened and he stayed over somewhere? I hope so.

After a painfully long twelve hours and still no sight of James I manage to convince the police this is serious and James is reported as missing.

Barney whines and snuggles into me as I hear sounds of commotion next door.

“It’s okay boy.” I say quietly, giving him a gentle pat before getting up to look out the window.

Nausea seeps through me as the sight before me unfolds, it’s Dorothy and she’s setting up a new skeleton on her front garden, except this one’s different it’s dripping with something and it’s wearing my boyfriends jacket.

About a month and a half before Halloween we got a new neighbor. The woman is straight out of the 50’s housewife shows and the man is strange and his jokes are only funny to him. They have no children and no pets, well except for the raccoon that is always coming from their yard to get our garbage.

Halloween is a big thing in our town. There is a decorating competition and the winner gets gift cards to all the good hardware and craft stores. My other neighbor Mr. Vlad he is from Germany and moved here to get away from the hate and violence in the 70’s and 80’s. He always wins the decorating competition and he usually shares his winnings with everyone on the street.

Vlad will start decorating on September 1st always adding until the big reveal on Halloween. Every year he bases it on the latest horror movie that is all the rage. I love living so close to his house on Halloween because he hands out the best candy and there is always a line to get to his house. This year the decorating hasn’t begun and it is already the 5th of September. Come to think of it I hadn’t seen Vlad since August, the same month the for sale sign in the neighbors yard was changed to sold. We are not close like that that I could just stop by and check in on him so I haven’t been by to check on him.

My mom said he had a daughter in Florida or California and maybe he was visiting her for the winter who knows. The new neighbors finally moved in about a week ago and already they are decorating the outside with decorations for Halloween. When I noticed the first decorations and still none in Vlad’s yard I got really worried. Vlad would not let this go unanswered would he? In the new neighbors yard was two corpses hanging from the tree a man and a woman but they had masks on over grain sacks on their heads. They appeared seemingly over night. There were tombstones with all the neighbors names in the yard and now there were more skeletons but you could tell they weren’t really, but the two people hanging you could not tell. The blood looked all too real as well.

It is now October 1st and still no Vlad and no decorations. Our mail lady had also taken a sudden leave of absence from work and was said to be in Texas with her son. There was a funny foul smell coming from the neighbors tree, it was like rotten garbage but more than that. There was a funny black tar like goo coming out of the bodies hanging in the tree. The neighbors had invited the whole block to help them burn the two bodies and make s’mores after Halloween because they came from England and on Guy Fawkes night you burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes and light off fireworks and have a bonfire. All of us kids were excited another night to have s’mores and fireworks we were all in, but I was sad that Vlad would miss this.

November 5th arrived and the neighbors had a huge bonfire already going when the sun went down, there were tons of marshmallows and chocolate you could make hundreds of s’mores. We were all there the whole neighborhood, the neighbors, who we now know as Margie and Ryan Ton, brought the two bodies from the tree and we all cheered as they threw them on the bonfire. As the man’s body burned I was caught by surprise as I glimpsed the face. It was Vlad. I had to tell someone but no one would believe me so what was I to do? I need to tell someone. The sheriff he’s here I’ll go tell him.

Well that was a waste of time he just laughed and told me I was imaging things and to go make some s’mores. Those s’mores were poison to me now, I will expose this couple for who and what they are for Vlad.