I didn’t rest easy that night, thinking about that letter and what it was trying to say and what it didn’t say. I really wasn’t doing myself a favor and in the morning all I felt was dizzy. There wasn’t much time to take a shower or fix my hair so I just got dressed and left.

Before I knew it I was at school, standing in the hallway. I moved towards the bathroom blindly and I was actually surprised that I managed to find the right one. I washed my face and headed out. The girls were right outside, staring at me when I got out.

“Um, hi?” I said.

“Sunset, are you ... OK?” asked Twilight.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Uh, why are you asking?”

“Because we were right in front of you and you walked past like you didn’t even see us!” Rainbow Dash answered.

“Besides, pardon me for saying so but you look HORRIBLE, darling!”

“Thanks for pointing it out, Rarity! I … it’s nothing serious, I just didn’t slept well and I’m a little dizzy, that’s all!”

“Are you sure you even slept?” Applejack asked.

And to be honest, that was a great question … that I didn’t know the answer to myself!

Fluttershy put her hand on my shoulder. “Sunset, are you sure everything is alright?”

“I’m fine! My head was just a little crowded. That’s all.”

They didn’t seem convinced. It wouldn’t have convinced me either if I’d heard it. “Anyway, we should head to math class, it’s getting late!”

They accepted that and we headed to class.

I wasn’t in any shape to focus on math. I was still wondering about the letter and what it was supposed to mean. It was stuck into my head from last night and I just couldn’t figure it out! It was like it wasn’t even written in symbols or anything; if that had been the case I had more than one person I could ask for help. But no, that was not what we were dealing with. Something just felt off.

After class, I went to talk to Flaming Star. I wanted to see if he had come up with a plan and to talk to him about the letter. Finding him was easy; he was waiting for me so I guessed that he did have a plan.

“Hey! Have you decided to get ready for Nightmare Night already?” he grinned.

“Excuse me?”

“Your face! You look like a person who was staring at the ceiling for the whole night.” Again, I wondered if that was what happened.

“We’ll get to that in a minute. Now tell me if you came up with anything or not.”

“Actually I have!” He started walking and I followed him. “So, once we get inside he’ll start greeting us and, you know, go through the formalities. And we just roll with it.”

“OK, so what’s next?”

“We’ll probably have a little chat and then head to the dinner table. After a while you ask for the bathroom but you don’t go there; instead, you try to search around the house and meanwhile I’ll keep him busy.”

“Um, are you sure that’ll work?”

“Super Mega...kinda.” He shrugged his shoulders.

“Kinda?”

“I mean if things got rough I could start a little fire on the table.”

“Yeah, THAT’LL work!”

“Don’t worry, I can control those. Is it OK now?”

He looked at me as if there was absolutely no problem with his plan and I was nit-picking. But I had to talk to him about the letter so I decided to let him have the point.

“I, uh ... I’ve got something to tell you.”

“What?”

“Last night I read the letter that Prof. Skull Mustache gave to us carefully and something just feels off!”

“Like what?”

“Like, there isn’t anything in it about any kind of dinner!”

“WHAT?”

“Look, I don’t know how to explain it but just think about it! The whole dinner thing is weird by itself, and the way the letter is written, it all points to something else!”

“Listen, whatever it is, he’s giving us an opportunity to sneak around to find that exam paper. Yes, I agree that the letter is written in a super mega crazy way but c’mon, it’s not like he’s gonna trap us there or kidnap us.” He paused for a second, “Although I think he might do a better job than the last two guys.”

“Wouldn’t be difficult. But I guess you’re right.”

“So I’ll see you tonight. Don’t forget to be dressed up properly, although it looks like you got a head start!”

“Dressed?”

“Yeah! It’s Nightmare Night! Did you forget?” He smiled and walked away.

The rest of the day was not much to talk about, except for the night! I decided to dress up as an old-school movie vampire: slinky dress, cheap-looking fangs. Hey, that was what I wanted to be for Nightmare Night this year, anyway. I took some pictures of myself; if I wasn’t going to the party this year I had to at least share my costume with the girls.

The location of Prof. Skull Mustache’s house was on the back of the letter. Just when I looked at it I spotted something strange: his house was outside of the city! I was confused but I decided it’s better to go and see it for myself.

I hopped on my motorcycle and headed there. Although it was outside of the city it was not very far. At first I thought I had gone to the wrong address, but then I saw the road that headed to the woods. There was no other house around so I left my motorcycle there and followed the path on foot. Unlike what I was expecting, the path was very wide and easy to follow. I walked for a while till I saw a sign saying: “Welcome to the Boneyard Mansion”.

That’s when I saw it! It wasn’t just a house, and the name wasn’t an exaggeration. It was a giant mansion, with a menacing and creepy look. It seemed it had multiple floors; the windows suggested that, at least.

I was staring at the mansion for a while, and all of a sudden, a hand touched my shoulder. I jumped and looked to see who it was while letting out a not-very-loud scream. The figure was wearing purple clothes with chain mail armor protecting his upper body, and he was holding a small pumpkin that had a face carved on it. It was not until he walked forward that I realised it was Flaming Star.

“Hey! Did I scare you?” he asked with devilish smile.

“Not scared, just … extremely shocked!”

“Yeah, whatever. So is this the place?”

“Seems like it. Though I’m not sure if it’s decorated to be creepy or if it always looks like this.”

“The same way that I don’t know if your costume kills or if it’s by default.”

I smiled. “Touche.”

“Let’s not get distracted and stick to the plan. By the way, you haven’t forgotten it, have you?”

“Yeah, your master plan! I haven’t forgotten about that!”

“Ok, I get it. Let’s not goof around any longer and see what’s for dinner.”

We walked towards the doors of the mansion. The doorknob was in the shape of a skull, its eyes were closed and it seemed as if the key was supposed to go through the nose. We tried knocking on the door but nothing happened.

“Um, so do we have to ring a bell or something? Does it even have a bell?” Flaming Star said as he put down his pumpkin.

“It doesn’t seem like it, I wonder if anyone is ho-“

*click*

That was the sound of the door opening, the eyes of the skull opened up and a tiny red light shined out of them. The jaws of the skull also opened. It felt as it was awake now!

We pushed the door and headed inside. As soon as I stepped into the mansion a shiver went up from my body and I felt faint for a second, but I held my upper arms and that helped.

“Why is it so dark?” I asked.

“It’s probably a surprise, don’t worr-“

*SLAM* We looked back to see that door behind us had slammed shut. “OK,” Flaming Star said, “the only question now is, what awaits us after the lights come on?”

I was still looking at the door in the darkness, and I could sense something was happening under it, some kind of movement. All of a sudden somethings rose up out of the floor between us and the door. We were both shocked so we rushed towards the door!

“What’s happening?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but I doubt the lights are gonna be turned on. Unless … what are you doing?”

I reached into the evening bag I was carrying and took out my phone. “If our host has forgotten his etiquette and is going to leave us in the dark, time to take the initiative.”

“Great. Who you gonna call?”

I didn’t call anybody and turned on the flashlight app instead.

A cage-like screen had risen up out of the floor to obstruct the door. It was a grid-like construction of what appeared to be bones. I looked at them and retreated in my mind to my biology classes; I started trying to identify which ones were humerus and which were femurs just to keep from screaming.

“What is this?” I managed to ask. “Is it wood?”

Flaming Star reached out to touch the cage. So did I, and it was then that I realized what material it was: bone.