(A continuation from The Haunted Halloween)

As Jack and Jane’s mother listened to their trick-or-treating tale in the kitchen, she noticed something staring at them through the window.

It had bloody eyes and sharp knives for teeth.

“Let’s go … get … some … Boba, shall we?” the mother said.

“This is crazy!” Jane said. “You never let us have Boba, or any other sweets.”

“I let you go trick-or-treating, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, and look what good that did us,” Jack said. “We had to escape for our lives from a haunted house.”

“Even so, the night is young, so there’s no reason why we need to be trapped inside here,” the mother said, as she stared at the creature in the window.

She hurried them out the door and into the car.

They drove away.

*

Half an hour later, Jack and Jane and their mother returned home, sipping their Boba. Lucky for them, no sign of the ghost.

“Phew,” the mother whispered to herself as she checked on the kids, in a sugary daze playing on their phones, sipping their drinks on the couch.

Meanwhile, as the mother’s Boba sat by itself on the kitchen counter, waiting to be enjoyed, the ghost crept out of the trash can and inside it.

When the mother returned, she took a big slurp.

“Ewwww, what happened to this?” she said.

Her Boba tasted rotten, so she poured it down the drain, but it was too late. The ghost slipped inside her mouth!

*

Jack was busy playing ‘Zombie Slackers’ on his phone in the living room when he accidentally spilled his Boba on the coffee table.

“Hey, Mom, I had an accident, can you bring me a napkin, please?” he said.

Her first impulse was anger.

“How about you get up and get it yourself, young man?!”

“Sorry, Mom, no can do,” Jack said. “I’ve got too many points in this game to stop right now …”

Suddenly, the mother seemed to be possessed by her anger, or maybe something else. She grabbed a knife and approached her son from behind as he lounged on the couch.

She noticed the puddle of Boba on the coffee table, and it disgusted her to see her son sitting idly next to it.

Jack took his eyes off his phone long enough to notice her glaring at him.

“Not a knife, a napkin,” he said. “Gee, whiz, Mom!”

The mother shook out of her daze.

“Oh, right,” she said. “Silly me!”

She returned to the kitchen. Instead of getting a napkin, however, this time she grabbed a larger knife.

She returned to where her son was seated on the couch. She raised the knife high, ready to strike.

Jane glanced away from her game of ‘Bored Unicorns’ just in time to notice her mother.

“Gosh, Mom, don’t you listen to anything we say?” she said. “Not a knife, a napkin!”

Jack and Jane turned toward her, roused from their stupor.

Perhaps their problem was worse than they thought.

“Is something wrong?” Jack said.

“Wrong? No, not at all!” the mother said, with a strange gleam in her eyes. “I’m just sick and tired of waiting on you two all of the time, and now I’m ready to have this house to myself!”

The mother screamed. She began to chase her children around the house with the knife.

The children laughed, but played along.

Up and down the stairs Jack and Jane went, but the mother was not fast enough to catch them.

Finally, they stood waiting for her at the front door.

“Joke’s not funny anymore, Mom,” Jane said. “Either you stop acting like you’re possessed, or we leave.”

The mother stopped to catch her breath. As she gasped for air, a ghost came out of her mouth.

It had bloody eyes and sharp knives for teeth.

“I’m getting bored chasing you two kids around town,” it said. “I need an easier challenge.”

“So do you, Mom,” Jack said, as he and Jane hugged her tightly. “You work so hard, and I realized while you were running after us with the knife, we haven’t been very grateful or cooperative lately. We’re going to start helping around here more.”

“Yes!” Jane said.

“Thank you, for listening to me,” the mother said. “I’m so lucky to have such great kids.”

“I’m outta here,” said the ghost, floating toward the street. “Sweet talk makes me sick. You people give me the creeps!”

“Happy Halloween to you, too,” Jane said, and she closed the door.