Spooky Sweet … Megan Luebberman

by Megan Luebberman The three of us stared, wide-eyed, with our mouths hanging open, at the yellow lollipop that had made its way on top of our microwave. It sat silent and still. One harmless little candy held all of our attention. “I swear, I didn’t move it,” I stated, eyes still on the lollipop. “I haven’t been back in the dorm since this morning.” “Neither have I,” my roommate, Serena, said. “I haven’t, either,” my second roommate, Veronica, declared. “It was on my desk in that pen holder when I left. I’m sure of it.” “Well… if none of us moved it, then…” “I knew it was haunted!” shouted Veronica. “We should have never taken anything from the Haunted House. It’s cursed!” A few days ago, our University had hosted a Harvest Party, complete with a dance floor, a table for decorating Halloween cookies, and a daunting, inflatable haunted maze. We had waited in line patiently, listening to the shouts and screams inside the maze. Small groups of students were ushered in one end, and, after several minutes, came running out the other end with flushed, flustered faces. When it was finally our turn to enter, we glanced at each other nervously. The student worker at the entrance ushered us on eagerly with a hand gesture. It appeared nearly pitch dark inside. Both my roommates lightly pushed me in front of them. “Oh no– no way.” I slipped behind them and insisted

that one of them lead instead. Eventually, Veronica took the lead. We finally entered as one huddled entity. Almost instantly we were confronted with a jumpscare that made us almost fall over one another in surprise. However, we soon grew accustomed to them.

The maze contained a menagerie of masked monsters, a dizzying display of dead-ends, and a silly amount of confused students. Every time we thought we had found the exit, it turned out to be another trick. The maze had been designed in a way that misled those inside. We ended up walking the same way multiple times, running into other students who had yet to escape. Everyone screamed upon colliding with the others, and there was a mix-up as to who was who. Veronica got separated from us for a while, until finding her way back to the group.

In one of the false exits that we reached, towards the end of our journey in the maze, we met Frankenstein and his bride (two deftly dressed students) who had a candy bowl. It seemed like this was the end of the maze, and the candy was a reward for finding the exit, but they told us to return the way we had come. However, Veronica reached out and grabbed a yellow lollipop before we continued on and found the exit. Once we broke out of the maze and rejoined the lively party, it felt significantly better. However, we all applauded the creativity of the students who created the maze and Veronica brought her prize of the small lollipop back to the dorm. That is how the fiasco began. Veronica absentmindedly placed the lollipop in her pen holder cup before we went to sleep that night. Then,

Creative Works… 137 the next day, we all went about our business, until at some point, the lollipop was found on the ground. “That’s strange,” Veronica commented. “How did it jump from the penholder to the ground way over here?” “Gravity?” I shrugged, “It could’ve fallen out and rolled over there. Though you’re right–that is kind of far.” Veronica placed the lollipop back in the cup holder, and we thought no more about it. Yet, the lollipop continued to find its way, several more times, onto the floor by itself. Gradually, this led both my roommates to call it haunted. While the possibility of ghosts was exciting to me, I didn’t think much of it, either. Still, their theories did give me an idea. The next time the lollipop was placed into the pen holder, I made the plan to move it myself. Instead of it lying on the floor, I placed it across the room on top of the microwave while my roommates had class. It would have been impossible for it to have moved there without help. Then, I left the room and waited for someone to notice. A few hours later, Veronica texted me in all caps and sent a picture of the lollipop in its new location. Serena and I texted our astonishment, and I told her not to touch it until we got there. Then, we all stared at it in disbelief. I denied having any hand in the matter, and surprisingly, they both believed my lie and the existence of a supernatural lollipop stealer. “That’s it,” Veronica stated, “we’re getting rid of this

thing.”

All three of us walked, Veronica gingerly holding the lollipop by the stick, to the floor’s communal trash can. She

unceremoniously threw it in. “That should do it.” I smirked slightly. I planned to come back and fish the candy out of the trash to continually torment my roommates. They likely would have believed the ruse for a while longer. Unfortunately, the floor’s trash was picked up that day, and I didn’t have the chance to do so.

To this day, the three of us remember the ‘haunted lollipop.’ They were never the wiser that I had animated the candy, but I never threw it on the floor to begin with. Maybe it really was haunted.