Scariest Halloween Ever

I was in elementary school, first or second grade. We were trick-or-treating on my aunt's street. Night had not yet fallen...it was that creepy hour before sunset on a blustery October day. We were having fun.

But that fun was about to end. Horribly.

As we approached the middle house on the opposite side of my aunt's street, we got a bad feeling. I can't explain it. It was palpable.

Evil lived in this house. Pure, unadulterated evil.

My big sister knocked on the door.

It swung open. All. by. itself.

RRAAARRRGH!!!!!!!

A towering gorilla leapt out from behind the door. I screamed. My sisters screamed. We dropped candy.

We fled, running as fast as our little stubby elementary school kid legs would carry us all the way down the street. We never looked back, because the ape would get us if we did.

I can still hear his awful laughter, the sinister imitation of a middle-aged man in a monkey suit, in my sleep. Every Halloween, I think of that wild beast. And I want to run away.