Pumpkin Pie Waffle: Book 5 in The Diner of the Dead Series

by Carolyn Q. Hunter

  “Lean on me, hurry,” Sonja shouted, pulling the girl forward through the curtain into the next room.

  They pushed through multiple rooms, never stopping to look back once. Sonja screamed at all the student actors as she went through, to get out as fast as they could. In the darkness of the haunted house, there was utter chaos as students stampeded to get out.

  Glancing back again, Sonja couldn’t see the masked man any longer.

  When they emerged out of the end of the haunted house and into the daylight of the school’s main entrance hall, Sonja gasped a sigh of relief. She turned to look at the bustle of students all crowding in the hallway.

  “Is everyone accounted for?” she asked.

  The students looked at each other, all of them chatting wildly among themselves, wondering what in fact was going on. Finally, Adonia spoke up. “Marissa, where’s Marissa?”

  Sonja frantically searched all the faces in the room.

  Marissa was nowhere to be found.

  CHAPTER 10

  After calling the sheriff and leaving a message on his voice mail to get down to the school as soon as possible, Sonja walked back into the haunted house, ordering all the kids to get back to the gym as fast as they could.

  “You’d think he’d pick up his phone if he asked me to keep an eye out,” she muttered, pushing into the darkness and hitting the flashlight app on her smartphone.

  A bunch of the kids had been asking questions, obviously confused and scared, as she walked away. If that figure inside the haunted house was, in fact, the Halloween Kidnapper, she only had a limited amount of time before Marissa could possibly be dragged off.

  In some way, she was grateful Frank hadn’t answered since she knew—from experience—that he would have ordered her to not go back into the haunted house until he arrived. She didn’t have the ability to just let this slide. A young girl was potentially in danger, and Sonja had to do everything in her power to help her.

  She knew she should at least try to get help from some of the teachers and administrators, but worried that walking all the way around to the gym again would simply take too long. In her estimation, it was just better to walk back through the haunted house, taking a moment to investigate as she went. She could also potentially herd out any other kids who were still inside.

  As she passed through each darkened room, her flashlight casting strange, long shadows through fake cobwebs, she called out, “Is anyone else in here? This is an emergency situation and we need to move out of the haunted house.”

  A few times, the recording for a room would go off again and the voice of the drama teacher would echo through the hallways, giving Sonja a bit of a scare.

  She tried calling out for Marissa multiple times, hoping that the young girl had simply gotten lost in one of the rooms and that she wasn’t in the clutches of a crazed convict.

  As she moved closer to the mad scientist’s laboratory, she could feel her heart begin to pound in her chest and sweat build up across her forehead.

  “Marissa,” she called out. “Marissa, are you in here? If you can hear me, please say something.”

  Only the sound of rainfall and electrical energy responded—haunted house sound effects. Taking a deep breath, the diner owner pushed through the curtain in the lab, bracing for anything. She almost expected to see the man in the skull mask standing before her, ready to strike her down or push her out of the way.

  Sonja kept pepper spray in her purse, at Frank’s request, but her purse was back at the booth with Belinda.

  However, the lab was empty.

  Swinging her flashlight around, she tried to catch any hint, any glimpse, of Marissa or the masked culprit. “Marissa,” she cried out, desperate for an answer.

  A small glint of something shimmered back at her in the beam of the flashlight. “What’s that?” Sonja whispered to herself, crouching down for a better look.

  Focusing the light on the shiny object, she realized she was staring at a small silver locket—a locket with the letters MH engraved in a strange pentagram shape.

  * * *

  Minutes later, Sonja emerged from the front end of the haunted house, the locket in her hand. A cluster of students, many of them actors from the haunted house, stood in a circle around the entrance.

  “What’s happening?” Mrs. Crawford, the drama teacher, came bustling through the crowd. “Why did we evacuate the haunted house?”

  Sonja knew how sensitive this situation could be if she revealed the truth—a truth she didn’t have hard evidence of yet. It could cause a minor panic among the teachers and students. For now, she had to think and speak tactfully, at least until the sheriff arrived.

  “Did the group of students from the back of the haunted house make it to the gym?”

  “Yes.” Mrs. Farnsworth inserted. “But none of them could tell us what’s going on. Sonja?”

  “I’m not sure yet,” was her answer. “I’ve called the sheriff, and he might be able to answer more of your questions.”

  “The sheriff?” Mrs. Crawford exclaimed, her face turning flush with fear. Sonja wondered for a moment if the skittish woman might pass out. It was a wonder she could even run a haunted house without fainting at every last spider, rat, and cobweb—but she supposed some people preferred scaring rather than being scared.

  “Sonja,” Mrs. Farnsworth said, her face turning stern and grim—just as Sonja always remembered it when she had once been a student at this middle school and Mrs. Farnsworth a slightly younger woman.

  That expression of discipline had always remained the same.

  “We don’t have time for games, young woman. You’ve just caused a ruckus by stopping the haunted house mid-party. Now, you’d better tell us what the devil is going on.”

  Holding out the locket, she asked. “Does anyone recognize this?” It wasn’t an answer to the question but hopefully bought her more time.

  “Miss Reed,” Mrs. Farnsworth demanded of her, “What does that piece of jewelry have to do with the current situation?”

  “What is Marissa’s last name?” she asked, shaking the locket before her, the engraved letters catching the light.

  “Marissa Hamilton,” the elderly teacher responded. “Why?”

  “Sonja,” the shout of a male voice came from behind the crowd. Turning, she was relieved to see Frank approaching from across the gym, the two deputies behind him. Belinda—who had seemingly been oblivious to the situation up until that point, trailed behind him.

  “Oh, thank goodness you’re here,” Sonja exclaimed, running over and hugging the handsome officer. Suddenly realizing what she had done, she broke off the open display of affection and tried to return to a state of professionalism.

  “I got your message,” he replied, a worried look in his eye. “Please tell me you didn’t find another body.”

  Sonja’s face scrunched up in a little irritated scowl, “No, that’s not it at all.”

  Frank looked up at the crowd of people, all standing around looking both worried and confused. He turned his attention back to his girlfriend. “You’d better tell me what happened.”

  “Come here a moment,” she whispered pulling him to the side and away from prying ears. “I didn’t want to cause a panic.”

  He raised one eyebrow, “Well, it looks like you may already have.”

  “I think I saw him.”

  “The Halloween Kidnapper?”

  She nodded. “He was dressed in a cloak and a half skull mask in the haunted house.”

  Sighing, he grabbed Sonja by the shoulders. “In a skull mask? In the haunted house? Did you get a look at his face?”

  “No,” she admitted, but remembering the strange chill—the one she had become so familiar with—somehow she couldn’t help but think it was the Halloween Kidnapper. Before, she had only felt that chill when ghosts were around, but this was clearly a man. Her only guess was that some supernatural force was trying to warn her.

  “Sonja,” Frank whispered sternly,
“If you didn’t see his face, that could have been anybody.”

  “No, most of the actors in the haunted house were kids from the drama club. This was a full grown man. I could see the stubble on his chin.”

  “You’re sure it wasn’t a kid?” he pressed.

  “Yes, even the actors in the room didn’t know who he was, and one of the girls I was chaperoning is missing,” she fretted, twisting the locket’s chain around her fingers.

  “Sheriff,” Mrs. Farnsworth approached, arms folded and stern face plastered on. “Can you tell us what’s going on?”

  Stepping over to the teacher, he placed his hands on his hips in fists—commanding power over the situation. “Mrs. Farnsworth, where is the drama, teacher?”

  “Right here,” she said, pulling the mousy, glasses wearing woman forward.

  “I need to know, from both of you, were there any teachers or other adults performing inside the haunted house.”

  “Why?” the drama teacher blurted, her face only growing paler by the moment.

  “It may be important.”

  “No, I don’t believe so.” Mrs. Farnsworth answered.

  Looking down, Mrs. Crawford also answered, “No.”

  “Are you going to tell us what is going on?” the white haired teacher insisted more than asked.

  “It seems we may have a strange adult male on the school grounds somewhere.”

  “I-Is it the Halloween Kidnapper?” the timid drama teacher squeaked, obviously having heard the announcement on the radio that morning.

  “We don’t have evidence it’s him, but we are taking precautions as if it is until we figure out what is really happening.”

  “I see,” Mrs. Farnsworth responded. “Very well. What do you need from us?”

  “I want you to gather up all the students and keep them here in the gym. Just tell them the haunted house has been shut down and that they need to stick to the activities in this room. No need to alarm them.”

  “There may be other students not in the gym,” Mrs. Farnsworth informed him.

  “Gather them up as well,” he instructed the teachers. He looked both teachers directly in the eye, trying to make sure they understood. “But until we figure this out, no one in the haunted house, no one outside of the gym, period. My deputies will remain in here to make sure things are kept safe. Do what they say. We’ll also be calling in the state police and they’ll be here as soon as possible.”

  Mrs. Crawford nodded, a little too hard, and Mrs. Farnsworth turned to get to work. “Alright students, the haunted house is temporarily shut down. Please enjoy the other activities while we work on reopening it.”

  There were moans and complaints from the crowd, but mostly, everyone just started to go back to the festivities.

  Turning on his heel, Sheriff Thompson faced Sonja. “Alright,” he said. “Show me where you saw him.”

  CHAPTER 11

  “Sonja, so far it seems like nothing out of the ordinary,” Sheriff Thompson observed as they finished going over the mad scientist’s lab in the haunted house. “Are you sure you saw him?”

  “Positive,” she asserted, walking past a cobwebbed skeleton. “He was laying right here.” She pointed at the stretcher. “He sat up, looked me in the eye, and I knew it had to be him.”

  Placing his hands on his hips, the sheriff sighed. “I’m going to double check with Barnes, make sure that he got in contact with the state police.”

  “The state police!” Sonja exclaimed.

  Sheriff Thompson pulled his radio off his belt. “We can’t take any chances, remember. My guess is, if he was here and you saw him, he’s likely gone now. Either way, I’m calling in some backup.”

  “What about Marissa? The missing girl?”

  Leaning against a table, Frank folded his arms. “I hope that she just got lost, maybe snuck off with a boyfriend,” he sighed, “but we’ve got to take every precaution, as if this is the Halloween Kidnapper.”

  Sonja cringed to think that girls Marissa’s age had boyfriends or even dated. She didn’t have her first date until she was sixteen.

  “What if she isn’t with a boyfriend, Frank,” she replied, leaning in and touching his arm. “What if she really was taken?”

  “We’ll know soon enough.”

  He held up his radio and pushed a button. “Barnes?”

  “Yeah, Sheriff. Barnes here,” the voice echoed from the other end.

  “Were you able to get in contact with the state police?”

  “I did, but they got stuck in the upper pass. Some snow is slowing traffic down and there’s been an accident.”

  “Keep in touch with them on their ETA.”

  “Roger,” Barnes replied.

  “After that, you and Greg get things ready to move those kids out of the school and get them safely home.”

  Frank belted his radio.

  “I’m going to keep one of the deputies posted here at the school for the time being, until the state police get here, and have the other one escort the kids home. If the girl doesn’t show up within the next hour, then I’m officially making this a missing person case.”

  Sonja nodded in response.

  “In the meantime, I suggest we get these kids home safely. We’ve caused enough of a panic as it.”

  * * *

  After completing their search of the final rooms, they made their way back to the gym. Stepping out the front door of the haunted house, it appeared that the party had returned to its normal swing. Most of the kids and administration seemed unfazed by the slight hiccup in the schedule—all except Mrs. Crawford who still looked pale.

  Sitting up the woman asked, “Any news? Can we reopen the haunted house?”

  Walking over, the sheriff leaned in. “I’m afraid not, Mrs. Crawford. Where is Mrs. Farnsworth?”

  Almost as if in response to her name, Mrs. Farnsworth stepped into the doorway of the gym and headed their way. She had her hand on a young man’s shoulder, guiding him.

  It was Sam.

  CHAPTER 12

  “Sam,” Sonja exclaimed.

  “I found him hiding out in the back of the haunted house,” she stated matter-of-factly. “Trying to hide from us when we gathered up the other students.”

  “I see. I’m glad you found him.” Sheriff Thompson nodded. “Are there any other students still missing?”

  “Just Marissa,” Mrs. Farnsworth huffed, taking her hand off Sam’s shoulder. “I’ll let you off with a warning this time, but in the future during an emergency situation—you make sure to do as the administrator tells you.”

  “Sorry, Mrs. Farnsworth,” he whispered. “I was just waiting for Marissa to come out.”

  The teacher clicked her tongue shamefully. “You’ve been nothing but a nuisance to that poor girl all day. Next time, when someone asks you to leave them alone, you do so. Now be on your way.”

  “Wait,” Sonja interrupted as Sam turned to leave. “Did you see her come out of the haunted house, Sam?”

  Looking down shamefully, he responded quietly. “No Miss Sonja. She never came out.”

  Sonja glanced at the sheriff knowingly.

  “I hope this is all a mistake and she’s just lost or hiding somewhere in the school,” Frank pointed out. Turning to Mrs. Crawford he asked, “Are there other exits from the haunted house?”

  The timid teacher nodded. “Yes, for emergency purposes.”

  “So she could very well be somewhere here in the school,” he groaned.

  And so could the Halloween Kidnapper, Sonja thought.

  Mrs. Farnsworth narrowed her eyes at Sonja. “It appears the haunted house was shut down without cause then?”

  Sonja’s jaw dropped. All she did was take a precaution to protect the kids, and what she got in return were criticisms and judgments from everyone else. In a way, it made her never want to have children of her own.

  “No, Mrs. Farnsworth,” Frank said in her defense. “Sonja had every cause to shut down the haunted house. In fact,
the reason I called you over was to tell you that I’m officially shutting down the entire party and sending everyone home.”

  “Shutting down the party?” Mrs. Crawford said, her face only growing paler. “It really is the Halloween Kidnapper then?” she whimpered quietly.

  “Oh, Mrs. Crawford. For goodness sake,” Mrs. Farnsworth scolded.

  “We’re just not taking any risks,” Sheriff Thompson responded. “I’ll have my deputies do a full sweep of the school and grounds, and the state police will do the same when they arrive, I’m sure, but only after the kids have all been sent home.” He narrowed his gaze at Mrs. Crawford. “Please take the necessary preparations.” Turning to leave the gym, he whispered in Sonja’s ear. “I want to talk to you outside.”

  “I’ll be there in a minute,” Sonja affirmed, a hint of stress in her voice.

  Frank walked off and the two administrators went about their business, gathering the other teachers and administration in preparation for a full school evacuation.

  Sonja narrowed her gaze at Sam. “You’re sure you didn’t see her?”

  Sam nodded. “Not a sign of her, Miss Sonja.”

  As he walked off, a glint of metal around his neck caught Sonja’s eye.

  * * *

  Heading back toward the refreshment table, Sonja spotted Belinda’s aunt sitting next to her—behind the arrangement of waffles, pies, and treats—dressed in a black dress and a classic witch hat. Sonja was almost surprised the woman didn’t wear a fake wart infested nose to go with the getup.

  “Hi,” Sonja called out as she approached the two women.

  “Hi, Sonja,” Belinda replied. Leaning in, she whispered, “So, was there a malevolent spirit inside the haunted house?”

  “What?” Sonja replied. “No, but it looks like the party is ending early.”

  “It was a ghost,” Belinda interjected a little obliviously. “That’s why you had everyone run out. You had to exorcise the evil spirit in the house.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Sonja noticed Aunt Bella rolling her eyes.

  Shaking her head, she frowned. “Not at all. There was a strange man in the haunted house. The administration is sending all the kids home.”