On Halloween night, nine year olds Gnar and Merry were out trick or treating in the neighborhood down the street from the Fall Fish Fry Festival. The screams from the carnival rides and haunted mazes whispered on the wind as they walked away from another house. It was the house that gives out rejected jelly beans every year. Gnar and Merry were already ripping into their share of jelly beans.

“Ooohh green apple,” Merry said. “What’d you get Gnar?”

“Bleghk! I think I got popcorn.”

“You don’t want it? Give it to me,” Merry said, sticking out her hand. “Those are my favorites.”

“But it’s already in my mouth.”

“Spit it out. It’s still good up until it’s been swallowed.”

Gnar laughed as he swallowed his jelly bean. “I’ll give you the next one, I promise.”

As they made their way down the street, Merry noticed the creepy old victorian mansion at the end of the road.

“Hey Gnar, check out that big house over there," she said, pointing at the mansion. "It’s the cheese maker’s mansion. He was a strange dude when he was alive. They say he was murdered in there and that he still haunts the place.”

Gnar’s eyes widened in excitement. "Do you want to go check it out?" he asked.

Merry was less enthused, “Eh, I’ve already been. It’s not much to look at inside. Just an empty house.”

"C’mon, let's ditch our trick or treat route and go explore the mansion!"

Merry frowned looking down at her costume. It was a cardboard version of the house that killed the wicked Witch of the West. She wore it upside down so that she could get more than double the amount of candy this year. She turned to Gnar, “But I haven’t even filled up my first candy bag.”

“It’ll be quick I promise! We’ll be back to treating in no time!” Merry hesitated, “I don’t know.”

“I’ll give you my bag of candy in exchange,” Gnar pleaded.

Merry grinned and the two set off towards the mansion. As they wrapped around the building, Gnar could feel his heart racing with excitement and fear. Merry showed him the secret milk man door she had used before. “Newbies first,” Merry snickered. Gnar took a deep breath and pushed open the door, stepping inside. Merry followed.

The mansion was dark and musty, and even though Merry had been here before, she felt the presence of something dark. It made her stomach churn. Gnar was jumping with excitement and started pulling Merry through the house.

They explored room after room, each one more creepy than the last. As they made their way through the mansion, Merry became increasingly uneasy. The faint smell of rotten eggs wasn’t making it any better. Merry was about to tell Gnar they should get going when they heard a faint sound coming from the other end of the dark hall. They both froze.

Gnar whispered to Merry, “Hey do you think that was- “ But before he could finish his sentence, pounding footsteps came running toward them at full speed through the dark, growing louder and louder. They screamed and ran for their lives.

Thinking on her feet, Merry pulled Gnar into a random room and shut the door. They panted as they leaned on the door. The footsteps thudded in the hallway and grew quiet. They pressed their ears to the door to make sure the bodiless footsteps were gone for good.

Suddenly there was a pounding on the door. It grew more and more violent as Merry and Gnar screamed. The door started shaking in the door frame and was in danger of being ripped off its hinges. Merry and Gnar backed further away from the door until they bumped into something.

They jumped and turned around. Looming over them was a frightening figure dressed in a floor length black coat tied at the waist with a black turtle neck that covered up the bottom half of its face. Its bulging milky white eyes popped against lidless eye sockets and its nose was nothing more than two drooping holes ripped out of its pale, leathery face.

Cautiously, Gnar and Merry backed away from the glaring figure. Gnar's heart skipped a beat as the skeleton turned its head nearly sideways. But as it spoke, a pungent smell of rotten eggs filled the room, making them both gag. They quickly realized it was the cheese maker.

“Going so soon? You just got here." the cheese maker asked in a gravelly voice.

Nauseous and stunned, Gnar and Merry pleaded that they were just curious and hadn't meant to disturb the mansion's resident ghost. The cheese maker seemed to understand and, after a moment of contemplation, gestured for them to follow him.

As they walked through the mansion, Merry and Gnar held onto each other. The skeleton told them the story of how he had become trapped in the mansion, unable to leave the place he had called home for so many years. Gnar and Merry listened in stunned silence as they learned about the cheese maker's eccentric life and untimely death.

By the time they reached the front door, the skeleton figure had finished his story. He opened the door for Merry and Gnar and they cautiously started to leave. “One last thing before you two go.” Merry and Gnar looked up the cheese maker’s face. He stared blankly at the two kids for what seemed like an eternity before shouting, “DON”T EVER COME BACK!”