The phone lay there on the bed, vibrating. Ravi entered the room, completely oblivious to the fact that his phone was in vibration mode and that someone was making constant attempts to reach him. After two minutes of continuous ringing, the phone disconnected, but it wasn't till half an hour after this that Ravi got to his phone. He saw many missed calls from the same number, which belonged to his new friend Sam. A month ago, Ravi met Sam, on his first day of college, but both of them immediately connected on various things and their friendship grew deeper fast. Ravi immediately dialed Sam's number, and as soon as Sam picked up the call, Ravi said, “I am so sorry Sam. My phone was on silent and I was getting ready for the party. I know I am late, but I will reach your house in another thirty minutes." To this, Sam responded, "It's okay. The thing is that you are the main guest at this party, and all of us are getting impatient now. Just arrive as soon as possible." Ravi told him that he would and hung the phone up. He couldn't help but think that there was something weird about Sam's voice today. Shaking it off as nothing, Ravi booked a cab. As the cab arrived and the trip started, the driver asked for the location for confirmation. As Ravi told him the address, the cab driver immediately stopped the vehicle on the side of the road. He turned around to look Ravi right in the eyes, and said, "Sir, are you sure that is the address? The app says that the address is different. The thing is that if that is the location you are going to, then I am not sure if I should take you there." Ravi was confused. He didn't understand a single word of what the driver was trying to say. He immediately said, "What are you talking about? My friend lives there and he has invited me to his house. Please drive and get me there as fast as you can. I have my booking, and it shows the correct location." The driver looked at him for a few moments, and then said, "I am not sure about what is wrong with that place, but there is something. I tried to warn you, but if you really want to go, then I will take you there." As soon as the driver said this, he turned back to face the road and started driving. Ravi could not understand why everyone was acting so weird today. He thought that they were trying to scare him since it was Halloween. Ravi was and always will be excited for Halloween as it was the scariest day of the year, plus he could scare people without getting into any trouble. He decided to ignore all this and was flooded with excitement to get to his friend's house. This was the first time Ravi was going to Sam's house. 

As they made their way through the city traffic and entered the area where Sam's house was, the entire atmosphere changed. Everything felt abandoned and old for some reason. All the buildings in the area were two floors high, with paint peeling off the walls in different places. It looked as if the entire place had existed for hundreds of years, and no one had ever made even the slightest attempt to renovate it. As Ravi was getting out of the car once they reached the exact location, the driver said, "Sir, I will be here for the next hour, just in case……just in case you need me." Ravi ignored this remark and made his way out of the vehicle and towards the staircase leading to the house of his friend. Upon his arrival, Sam opened the door, greeted Ravi with an eerie smile, and said, " Finally, you made it! We have been eagerly waiting for you. Come on in! Let me introduce you to everyone." He told me to follow him inside, and as we did, I could feel that something wasn't right. The house was dark, with light coming from only one room at the end of a narrow passageway. Sam looked at Ravi, gave an unusual smile, and then made a gesture for Ravi to enter the only room in the house with lights on in it. Ravi slowly moved forward, and as he reached the room, he could not comprehend what he saw. The room was packed with people, who he guessed were all Sam's family members, sitting around a mattress, with many sharp knives surrounding the mattress. These were no ordinary knives. They were butcher's knives. As soon as Ravi entered the room, all of them looked up at him, smiled, and started chanting- FEAST, FEAST, FEAST, FEAST, FEAST, FEAST, FEAST, FEAST, FEAST, FEAST, FEAST. 

The only thoughts running through Ravi's mind were that this was a well-themed Halloween party. What happened next was something he didn't expect. Sam, who was standing behind him said, "Everyone, today's Halloween meal is a little special. The menu for today includes all types of meats, and the specialty item is Ravi."  As soon as Sam said this,  Ravi immediately turned around, to find Sam holding a hammer.  Ravi didn't know what to do, which is why he pushed Sam backward, who fell back onto the floor.  Ravi decided to make a run for it and as he ran down the dark hallway, he could hear people screaming behind him. He got to the main door of the house and tried opening it, but it didn't budge. Since it was a small apartment, he didn't know where to go or hide. After trying his best to open the door, he turned around only to find the entire family standing behind him. Sam stared at him, with a frown on his face. He said, "You know Ravi, it's not fun to work too much on a special day like this. Let us have some fun and feast. Please don't make this hard." As soon as Sam said this,  Ravi knew that he couldn't do anything anymore. He knew that there was no escape for him. As he was thinking about this, "An old lady standing at the end of the entire crowd behind Sam screamed, “I will take your eyes. I like the way they pop in my mouth." As she said this, everyone started laughing, and Sam immediately hit Ravi on the head with the hammer that he was holding.

 Ravi woke up after some time, and heard whispers, “Can we please do this fast before he wakes up? I really don't like to hear them scream." His vision was blurry at first, but slowly and surely, everything around him became crystal clear. He found himself tied up on a long table, thick rope wrapped around his wrists and ankles cutting straight into his skin. His head hurt as he tried to move a little, desperately making attempts to free himself. It was a small room where he was tied up, where Sam and a girl were preparing what looked like various types of knives. He knew what was about to happen to him. He was about to become Sam and his family's Halloween meal! He did not know what to do as even after many attempts, he wasn't able to free himself from the table. By this time, Sam and the girl had noticed that he was awake. Sam looked at him and said, “Well, look who came back to life. Welcome back, Ravi. We were getting ready for our feast. It was nice knowing you. Goodbye." As soon as Sam said this, he immediately picked up the largest knife Ravi had ever seen and was about to swing that blade right at him when there was a loud crash from the other end of the house, which startled everyone in the room. “WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP ON INTERRUPTING US? This is supposed to be a special day. Let’s go and see what it is now.” Sam and the girl left the room to check where that sound came from. Five minutes went by and no one returned to the room. The only thought running through Ravi’s head was that he would be stuck there forever now. After about five minutes of accepting his fate,  Ravi heard a loud crashing sound, followed by Sam and the girl stumbling into the room he was tied up in. Sam had a long and sharp blade in his hand, which he was pointing towards the doorway. All three of them present in the room looked right at the entrance of the room, to see a man standing there. Ravi immediately recognized him as the driver of the cab in which he had arrived at Sam's house.

The driver just stood there, looking at both Sam and the girl. All of a sudden, Sam attacked the driver, who dodged it and punched Sam right in the face, knocking him unconscious. The girl charged at him next, which is when he moved out of the way and the girl slipped and hit her head on a cabinet kept right outside the doorway. As both were now unconscious, the driver approached  Ravi. He took out a pocket knife and started cutting the ropes that tied Ravi down to the table. Once Ravi was free, he said, "Thank you! Thank you so much! You saved my life." The driver looked at him and said, "Let's get out of here fast. The rest of this family is in the other room and if they figure out what happened here, both of us will be dead."  

Ravi and the driver made their way to the main door, which was completely broken off from the hinges, with a big dent in the center.  Ravi didn't think much of it as all he could think about was survival, and both of them exited the house. Throughout the entire car ride, both of them didn't say a single word, until the driver missed the turn towards  Ravi's house. Ravi was confused about this, and said, "You missed the turn toward my house. Please take a U-turn now." The man turned to face him and said, “We are going the right way. I am sorry that this had to happen like this. I got a call from my house some time ago and we don’t have one for this year's Halloween, which is why you are coming with me.”  Ravi asked, fear reflecting in his voice “One what?” The driver smiled, looked at  Ravi, and said, “Well, you know, one body for the Halloween feast!”

THE END