I know I'm not a regular here, but the challenge intrigued me. This is based on something that happened to me when I was kid. Jack Going Home The three boys raced gleefully away from the machine gun rattle of exploding fire-crackers that echoed against the concrete sides of the empty silt pond. Even in the dark, sure-footed familiarity led them quickly to where the high dividing wall separated the empty half of the pond from the side filled with overflow from the river. With hardly a pause Graham stepped onto the top of the wall, followed by Woody. Peter hesitated; watching the other two, their arms outstretched like aircrafts wings as they wobbled towards the other side. He stepped onto the inches wide concrete and stood there, swaying. Its easy, he told himself. Its just like in the daytime, you wont fall off. He took a few steps. The Halloween moon glinted eerily on the black water. The others had almost reached the other side. Once across, they would turn around and laugh at his faltering, unsteady progress. He went faster, trusting to his ability to put one foot in front of the other the same way he had done for most of his eleven years. It didnt work. He felt himself tottering and just had time to decide to fall into the water, rather than onto the bone breaking concrete ten feet below. The freezing water closed over his head and, with sudden anguish, he remembered that his pockets were full of fireworks, now wasted. Gasping, Peter broke the surface and clung to the wall. He looked desperately around for his friends to come and help him but they werent there. They had run off and left him! For a while Peters tight-lipped anger at being deserted overcame his discomfort and he scrabbled his way to the bank. He hauled himself out and hugged his sodden parka around him. Almost crying now from fright, anger and the cold, he squelched off in the direction of home. Fortunately it wasnt far, but it was only when Peter opened the door to his yard that the thought of parental displeasure occurred to him. He sighed as he entered the dark kitchen, but it would be worth whatever punishment he would get to just to be warm again. He was just about to open the living room door and face his parents when he heard the voice of a strange man in the living room. People say, said the voice in a mysterious whisper. That on Halloween you can still see the ghost of little Peter Dewey coming home from the pond. Then Peter heard the tremulous voice of a child. And this used to be his house, didnt it? Peter opened the door and took a step into the light. Sitting on the sofa were a strange man and woman. On the mans knee sat a little boy of about seven, wearing striped pyjamas. They looked at him, startled, and then they started screaming at the sight of the thing in the parka, bloated and rotting, that stood in the kitchen doorway.