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A story for my writing class. Enjoy.

"All Hallows Eve"

I glanced up at the clock anxiously. It was 1:38, and we had only two minutes to go before school got out for the All Hallows Eve weekend. However, being a cheetah, things were never fast enough for me.

Unlike most cheetahs, I’m anthro, or humanoid for those who don’t know what “anthro” means. Also, instead of being yellowish, I’ve got crimson fur. Other than that, the only difference is that I always like to wear a tank top and shorts. That, along with keeping my dark blue hair back in a long braid, keeps me cool when I’m running.

I flipped my braid and drummed my fingers impatiently. Three…two…one… RIIING!

Yes! Sweet freedom at last! Naturally, I was the first one out of the room, and I nearly mowed down a little freshman as he exited his room.

“Sorry!” I shouted back. I looked around and scanned the faces. Raoul had to be around here somewhere…

“Savannah! Over here!” called a male voice behind me. I turned to face the voice. Well, speak of the devil.

Pushing his way past freshmen, sophomores, and basically anything else that got in his way, an anthro vampire bat made his way toward me. Though his fur was snowy white, everything else about him was dark. He had long bangs that hung over his emerald eyes. He had dyed the bangs red, but the rest of his thick, somewhat spiky hair was a shining ebony that caught and reflected the light as well as his long, pearly fangs.

As he came closer, Raoul adjusted his dark blue hoodie, and I saw the trademark flame and two crossed swords on the chest. I heard the chain on his baggy jeans clink softly, and watched as his over-sized bat ears twitched with every sound.

“Hey, Raoul. How’s it going?” I asked cheerfully.

“It’ll be going better once we get out of here,” replied the bat, pushing up the black-rimmed sunglasses with red lenses that sat on his nose. “All these screaming kids are driving me and my ears batty.”

“Good thing you’re already a bat then, huh?” I said jokingly. Raoul smirked, flashing his fangs even more. “Come on, I bet Shad’s outside waiting for us.”

The two of us made our way out back, heading toward the marching band’s practice field where our friend Shadzuri always met up with us.

“So, no football game to go to tonight?” asked Raoul. I looked over at him and noticed that his hand was in his hoodie pocket. That pyromaniac must’ve been itching to play with his lighter.

“Nope. Mr. Sparrow let the band go home today for All Hallows Eve.”

“Wow,” said Raoul in an astonished tone. “He almost never lets you guys out of anything. He’s probably gonna make you guys do some eight-hour practice on Iohdaek or something.”

“Yeah, or maybe Haedos is freezing over,” I said mockingly. We exited the school building, passed the band room, and stepped onto the parking lot, a.k.a. the band practice field. On the fence behind the parking lot stood two anthro white tigers, one at about ten years old, and the other at nineteen.

The older tiger, Shadzuri, had red stripes and red hair that was pulled back into a shoulder-length ponytail. He wore baggy blue jeans and a brown leather belt, along with a very, very neon orange shirt. His icy blue eyes locked on Raoul and I, and he waved excitedly, which almost caused him to fall off the fence.

The younger tiger, Maru, waved at us as well, but unlike his older brother, he kept his balance well. Also unlike Shadzuri, Maru had sky blue stripes and hair, but he shared the blue eyes. Maru was wearing his favorite outfit today: a green T-shirt with a red and white mushroom from “Super Mario Brothers” on the front and jeans with a loop on the right leg.

As we approached, I saw the rebellious strand of hair that stuck up over Maru’s forehead as well as the identical one on Shad’s head.

“Hi, Savannah! Hi, Raoul!” Maru piped cheerfully. I waved to him.

“Hey, sweetie. How are you?” I said, smiling up at Maru. Gosh, I loved that kid. He was absolutely adorable, like the little brother I’d always wanted.

“Pretty good,” he said, spreading his arms and raising one leg so he was only standing on the fence with one paw.

“Hey Vannah, hey Satellite,” said Shadzuri in his smooth, cool voice. I waved, but Raoul tossed him an annoyed expression.

“Don’t call me Satellite,” he said irritably. “Just because I can pick up just about any sound doesn’t mean I’m a satellite. I don’t orbit around anything.”

“I dunno,” said Shadzuri. “You sure do seem to orbit around Savannah a lot.” Raoul’s cheeks turned a soft shade of pink. I shrugged.

“What can I say? The world revolves around me,” I said casually, feeling a bit warmer in my own face. “I should quit band and join color guard.” Shad smirked at us. Raoul suddenly looked surprised and pointed behind the tiger.

“Look, a distraction!” he yelled. Not being the sharpest cookie in the tool shed, Shad turned to try to look at what it was Raoul was pointing at. The bat took the opportunity to kick the fence and knock Shadzuri off balance.

Maru, being smarter than the average bear, jumped up before Raoul’s foot impacted the fence. Shad, however, waved his arms to try to get back on balance, but I’ll tell you right now that he was one cat who didn’t always land on his feet. He slipped off the fence, each of his feet going off a different side of the fence. Well, let’s just say that we got to hear just how high Shad could sing at that point.

“It’s a miracle that you graduated school,” Raoul snickered at the twisted expression on Shadzuri’s face. He stopped when I cocked an eyebrow at him, but the smile on his face didn’t fade.

“What are you doing anyway?” I asked Maru, since Shad was a little incapacitated at the moment.

“Trying to be a ninja,” replied the little tiger, who had landed back on a single paw. “I want to be one for All Hallows Eve, but Shad said I couldn’t do it.”

“I think it’s Shad who can’t do it,” said Raoul, still grinning as the older tiger climbed awkwardly to our side of the fence.

“Yeah, yeah,” growled Shadzuri, his voice still oddly squeaky. “So, what are we doing for All Hallows Eve, anyway?”

“I wanna go Trick-or-Treating!” piped Maru. “I have my costume all made and everything!” he said excitedly.

“I dunno…” murmured Raoul. “I was hoping we could do something more exciting this year. We’re getting a little old for Trick-or-Treating, if you haven’t noticed.” Maru looked a little downcast, but tried not to show it.

“Like what?” I asked. “We didn’t get invited to any parties, and we don’t have enough time to get one started by tomorrow night.” Raoul looked thoughtful for a moment before answering carefully and slowly.

“Well, there’s always the cave,” the bat said. We looked amongst each other. The cave was a place not too far from our homes, and we had stared up at it for years. We’d never been brave enough to go up there before, because most people who went up there came back telling stories of a giant monster, or sometimes didn’t even come back at all. Shad voiced my opinion for me.

“Are you crazy?” he asked as if talking to a stupid person. “We can’t go up there! Mom would kill me if I brought Maru up there!” Raoul shrugged.

“You don’t have to come. Savannah and I will go up there ourselves. Right, Savannah?” I thought over this tidbit for a moment. In all honesty, I wasn’t too fond of the idea myself. I’d much rather take Maru Trick-or-Treating. But then again, I was a little curious about what was up there. Besides, if there really was a monster, I could outrun any living creature, and Raoul could fly. I ended up nodding confirmation.

“No, Savannah! You can’t go up there!” pleaded Maru. “I don’t want you to get hurt. Who else will play with me and buy my ramen noodles every time I run out?” Darn it. I’d made the mistake of looking into his big, adorable, mind-controlling eyes. I sighed.

“Okay, we’ll go up to the cave tomorrow and be quick about it, and if it’s not too late, we’ll take Maru Trick-or-Treating,” I said, knowing deep down it was a bad idea. Raoul smiled.

“Good, it’s settled then. We meet at five o’clock tomorrow.”

* * *

“Raoul, if we all die, I’m gonna sue you,” Shadzuri growled as his pants tangled in some vines for the gazillionth time. We were trekking through the woods, packs on our backs, heading toward the granite cliff outside the city.

“Yeah, yeah, I heard you,” said Raoul. “Now hush.” The bat closed his eyes and uttered a high-pitched screech. The rest of us winced at the high-frequency noise, but didn’t make a sound. Raoul’s ears twitched, and he nodded curtly to himself. “Okay, we’re almost there.” He parted some bushes, and in front of us rose a rock wall, the beginning of the Dragonback Range. About one hundred feet up the rock was a dark hole with a ledge in front of it: the cave.

The ground around the dark stone was littered with bones, old and new, all of many different species of creatures, from small mammals to--we all gulped--humanoid skeletons.

“Maybe this isn’t--whoa!” Raoul took hold of my wrist and started flying us up just as I was starting to protest our decision. He reached the ledge and set me down, and repeated the process with Maru and Shad.

“Okay, let’s go,” he said, leading the way into the cool air of the cave. I looked at Shad.

“Well, either we follow, or we jump off the edge of this cliff. Neither sound too good, but I’d rather not break my legs if I have the choice,” he said. I nodded and took Maru’s hand. The poor thing was shaking like a leaf. We followed Raoul into the cave cautiously.

The cave was extremely dark, but being two tigers, a cheetah, and a vampire bat, we all found our way through the cave easily. Still, it didn’t keep it from being any less creepy. There were even more skeletons scattered up here than down at the bottom. As we ventured deeper into the cave, I saw that long, silky threads started to cover the walls, ceiling, and floor.

“Eww, it’s all sticky.” Shadzuri stepped on one of the threads and sent a vibration up it. Raoul and I looked at each other, the fear obvious on our faces. There was no way--

Shad cried out as a strong vibration came back down the silken threads. We all froze as eight ruby orbs turned to face us. Oh, no… Eight long, spindly, hairy legs moved toward us, as well as the longest set of huge, onyx fangs I’d ever seen, dripping with acid green liquid.

Maru clung to me and buried his face in my shirt, as if not seeing it would make the elephant-sized spider disappear.

“Everyone, run!” I yelled. No one needed to be told twice. I picked up Maru and dashed as fast as possible toward the exit, and Raoul was right behind us by air. We’d nearly reached the exit when I realized we were short one person. I looked back and was horrified to see that Shadzuri was still stuck in the spider’s web, trying with his every living fiber to wrench himself free of the sticky threads.

“Shad!” I was about to run back for him when Maru leapt from my arms and raced toward the monstrous spider.

“Get away from my brother!” he yelled. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a real ninja throwing star (how long had he had those?!) and hurled it at the spider. He got a direct hit on one of the arachnid’s eyes, and it screeched in pain. It flailed its legs wildly, and one of them hit Maru, slamming him against the wall. He fell limply onto the ground.

No, no, no, not Maru! Anyone but him…

“Savannah, get Shadzuri! We’re blowing this place!” Raoul shouted, tearing toward the spider. He swooped down and grabbed Maru, and pulled out his lighter. As I severed the web holding Shad with my claws, Raoul clicked on the lighter and a flame appeared. He tossed it into a thick part of the web near where the spider was, and it instantly began to roar up in flame. The spider roared and began to curl up as the flames reached it.

“GO!” Raoul screamed, flying toward the mouth of the cave. I grabbed Shad’s hand and tore for the mouth, practically dragging him behind me. I leapt off the edge of the cliff and dropped about twenty feet before Raoul swooped down and grabbed us. I could feel his muscles straining to carry us all.

We landed inside the woods just as a final scream and an explosion came from the cave. I heard a faint whir as something shiny flew out and stuck into a tree nearby: Maru’s throwing star. I plucked it from the tree and stared at it for a moment before facing the boys.

We gathered around the little tiger laying still on the ground. I felt hot tears well up in my eyes.

“Maru, please, say something, anything…” I pleaded, praying to God he was alive.

“Savannah…” he said, hardly audible. I instantly had a new wave of hope. “That…was…awesome!” Maru slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position. “A giant spider, an explosion! That beats Trick-or-Treating any day!” If it were anyone else, I would’ve slapped them, but his bright smile wouldn’t allow me to do so. I hugged him tightly, and the other boys patted him on the back and shoulders.

“Come on, ninja-boy,” I said, wiping tears away and handing him his ninja star. “Let’s go Trick-or-Treating.”

“Yeah, you’ve earned it,” Raoul said, ruffling the kid’s hair.

I’d never seen a more joyful grin.