Short Story: Revenge As Sweet As Jam Tarts

.By:Kanza Sohail
Tom slipped inside his dark hovel and slumped into the furthest corner, sulking and feeling very sorry for himself. Once again the others had excluded him from the fun. It wasn’t fair. Ever since he’d dropped that blasted cat in the well, he had been an outcast from the group. That cat had it coming to her anyway. She was to blame for his little pets, the mice, ending up blind. Cruel beast that she was, she would torture and play with the little creatures, then let them go injured and bleeding so she could do it all over again the next day. Whenever the game was over, she would sit washing her paws, and purring as if butter wouldn’t melt. What was the big deal anyway? Goody two shoes, Tommy Stout had rescued her, no harm done.
But he, Tommy Thin, had been castigated and blamed for all manner of other nursery world crimes too. They said he had pushed Humpty off the wall. What a cock and bull story that was. He never went near Humpty that day. Anyway, what a crazy thing for an egg with a roly poly bottom to try to do. And as for frightening Miss Muffet, and stealing the pig, and tripping up Jack, he was innocent of all of these crimes, but nobody would believe him. Now they were going to have a Halloween party without him. He felt the pangs of anger rumble deep inside.
It had gone on too long and he would stand for it no more. He clenched his teeth, took a deep breath, and began to plan his revenge. He had an idea. He would teach them all a lesson. They would be sorry. His self pity turned to hatred, and he got up, feeling rejuvenated, and left his house. He strutted up the hill towards the castle where his one and only friend lived. He knew the Knave of Hearts would enjoy plotting with him, and he also knew the Knave had the kind of underworld connections he needed.
‘How many apples do we need for the ducking game?’ asked Jack, jumping over the candlestick and rummaging in the bag of apples on the porch.
‘One each, of course, and we’ve got 11 guests coming so there will be 13 of us altogether,’ said Jill. She carefully laid 13 cups and 13 plates on the table.
‘Thirteen?’ said Jack. ‘Isn’t that a bit unlucky? Can’t we invite one more?’
‘There’re no other kids around this week, except that horror Tommy Thin and his pal the Knave. You know what’ll happen if we invite them. The knave will stuff his face with all the cakes, and Tommy’ll play nasty tricks on everyone.’
‘I guess so,’ said Jack.
‘I wonder what everyone will dress up as,’ said Jill. ‘I hope they all come as something scary. The scarier the better for Hallowe’en. I’m going to be an ugly, wicked old witch with a huge wart on my nose. I’ve been practising my witchy voice. Listen Jack.’ Jill began to screech in a high pitched thin trembly voice, ‘Come inside my dears. There’s nothing to be afraid of. Haaaahaaaa, heeee, cackle cackle.’ She turned to Jack, ‘What do you think?’
‘Pretty realistic Jill. You even scared me for a minute. But wait til you see my skeleton’s costume. It’s so cool. I can’t wait to get dressed up.’
‘We’d better get on with stuff for the party first. I’ll do the sandwiches and make the witches brew, if you go up the hill and fetch the water for the apple ducking. And for goodness sake don’t fall down. We haven’t time to mend your head today. Then we’ll hang up the decorations together and light the Jack o’ Lanterns. Everyone’ll be here in a couple of hours, as soon as it gets dark.’
Tom and the Knave huddled together over the Knave’s computer in a corner of the castle library and whispered their plans. ‘It’s easy,’ said the Knave. ‘We just have to announce the party on NurseryNotes.com and all manner of awful creatures’ll turn up and gate crash it. And with everybody in fancy dress nobody’ll know who anybody is, and it’ll cause havoc. We can go dressed up too and see the fun for ourselves.’
‘I knew you’d help,’ said Tom. ‘Isn’t revenge sweet!’
‘As sweet as jam tarts!’ said the Knave.
Jill was lighting the final Jack o’ Lantern when their guests began to arrive. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum were first, arguing as usual which one of them was the best Superhero. ‘Sparkman is way better than Flashguy,’ said Tweedle Dee.
‘Oh yeah? Want to fight me to prove it?’ answered Tweedle Dum.
‘Not tonight, you guys. This is a night for fun not fighting,’ said Jill. ‘Look. Here comes a ghost carrying a spider, and an old hag with a flock of sheep. It must be Miss Muffet and Bo Peep. Come on in everybody,’ said Jill. ‘Leave the door open for the others.’
The night was pitch black, no moon, and no stars. While the friends were having a great time playing In and Out the Haunted Houses and singing at the tops of their voices, strange mounds began to appear all over the hillside. Like boils bursting, one by one they split open and grotesque little men with sharp pointed noses, long spindly limbs, and bulging eyeballs emerged. Although the night was still, the tops of the trees mysteriously began to shake, and it seemed as if the leaves had come to life as black shadowy creatures took to the skies. From a nearby bridge came the sound of water bubbling furiously as if it were boiling, and out of the stream climbed a screeching army of ugly, hairy trolls. The three groups gathered together and began the advance on the children’s cottage; the Bogeymen and Trolls marching, the Vampires flying above them.
Tom and the Knave lurked in the shadows outside the open door, grinning as their wicked plan took shape. ‘Let’s slip inside with the other uninvited guests,’ sneered Tom.
‘No!’ said the Knave. ‘Better not. It’s safer outside. Let’s watch through the window.’
‘But they’re only gate crashing the party. They won’t do any real harm to anybody. I want to go inside,’ said Tom.
‘I said no. We don’t know these underworld creatures. They could be dangerous. We’re safer outside for now.’
Tom and the Knave watched as the intruders grew closer and closer. Tom began to feel anxious. Perhaps they had gone too far. Perhaps they had unleashed an evil force over which they had no control.
Little Boy Blue, dressed as a dragon, and Georgy Porgy as a wizard, stepped onto the porch to carry in the water trough for the apple ducking game. ‘You’ve got more guests coming,’ shouted Georgy. ‘They’ve got really scary costumes on.’
‘We didn’t invite….’began Jill when the evil landed.
The onslaught of the gatecrashers was so fast that it seemed like a tornado swept through the room. Blackness descended, as every Jack o’ Lantern was extinguished. ‘What are they doing?’ whispered Tom, peering through the window. ‘It’s so black I can’t see anything.’
‘Hmmm. This could be more serious than I thought,’ said the Knave.
The children were so traumatised by the intrusion that for a second there was silence. And then the panic started. They screamed, first one and then another, until the room was just one big scream. But no sound came from the Vampires or Bogey Men or Trolls. They did whatever they were doing in silence while
the children’s voices could be heard shrieking.
‘Get off me,’
‘Let me go!’ ‘
‘That hurt.’
‘Please stop.’ ‘
‘What d’you want?’
‘Don’t do that!’
‘What’s going on?’ Tom asked again. ‘I thought they would just eat the food, and take over the games. I thought they were just gatecrashers. What are they doing to the kids?’
‘Maybe we’ve gone too far this time,’ said the Knave. ‘Maybe we should get out of here before they see us.’
‘What d’you mean Knave? We can’t just leave the kids at their mercy. We’d better get help. Who are these creatures? Why did they put out the lights?’
‘That’s the answer. You said it. Come on. I know exactly what to do,’ said the Knave.
‘What did I say? What do you mean?’ asked Tom trembling with fear.
‘The lights! You said why did they put out the lights? I know why they put out the lights, Tom. Follow me. Quick. Before it’s too late.’
The Knave took off for the castle at top speed, with Tommy Thin running along behind trying to keep up. The pair burst through the gate and into the castle. The Knave bounded up the spiral staircase almost knocking over his mother, the Queen of Hearts, with a tray of freshly baked tarts in her hand. She’d just recovered her balance when Tom rushed past her too. ‘What on earth is going on? What’s the great hurry?’ she said.
The boys ignored her and continued racing to the topmost turret of the castle. Standing on the edge of the parapet, the Knave reached up and turned one of the castle’s floodlights so that it pointed exactly at Jack’s house. Without thinking about his own safety he nimbly ran along the wall and turned another one in the same direction. ‘Tommy,’ he yelled, ‘there’s a switch just behind you. Can you reach it?’ Tommy nodded.
‘I’ve just one more lamp to turn….’ said the knave, once again balancing on the top of the wall high above the ground, as he reached out to the last lamp. He couldn’t quite touch it. He stood on the tiptoes of one foot and stretched as far as he could, but as he turned the lamp to face the cottage he lost his balance and ended up hanging by his finger tips.
‘Switch on the lights now Tommy,’ he yelled as he lost his grip and plunged 70 feet towards the ground. His mother, still holding the tray of freshly baked tarts, happened to be looking up in disbelief at her son’s daring when he came crashing down onto the tray of jam tarts.
Meanwhile Tommy watched from the castle ramparts as the evil Bogeymen ran from the cottage and disappeared back into the hillside, the grotesque Trolls rolled down the bank into the bubbling river, and the sinister black Vampires returned to the trees and vanished from sight in an instant. The nursery rhyme characters began to appear on the porch, looking shocked but none the worse for their ordeal. Tom raced down the spiral staircase two steps at a time and out into the courtyard. ‘Are you all right Knave? What did you hurt? Oh my God, look at all that blood. Where’s it coming from?’
The Knave began to laugh. He was shaken and bruised, but the blood was only jam. Luckily the tray had broken his fall and the only real damage was to the tarts. His mother was not amused though…she’d spent all day baking for the children coming to Trick or Treat at the castle. ‘Look what you’ve done now!’ she scolded.
‘Not to worry Mum. I don’t think any of the kids will be coming to the castle tonight.’
He picked up the best of the tarts and put them back on the tray. ‘Come on Tommy, I think I know some kids who’ll be pleased to see us, especially if we come bearing tarts.’
‘But Knave, how did you know that the lights would do the trick?’ asked Tom.
‘As soon as you mentioned that the gatecrashers had put out all the lights, I realised they were all creatures of the dark. I’ve read about them before in one of the books in my library. They can’t survive in the light. That’s why they live where they do, underground, underwater, and deep inside tree trunks.’
‘Do you think Jack and the rest will let us join the party now?’ asked Tom.
‘I think they should be very grateful to us. After all, we saved them from a terrible, unimaginable fate, didn’t we?’ said the Knave.
‘But we’d better not mention it was our announcement on NurseryNotes.com that brought the evil creatures out in the first place,’ said Tom.
‘Mum’s the word,’ said the Knave, winking at the Queen of Hearts, as he and Tommy Thin set off in the direction of the children’s cottage carrying a tray of rather bashed but delicious jam tart.