Finally finding the main bedroom and laying the contents of her suitcase out onto the bed, she heard a knock coming from downstairs. Alice opened the front door, yet the only thing that met her was a river of slushy mud streaming down her driveway. Another knock. Startled, Alice found the knocking grew louder as she approached a seemingly prosaic broom closet door. The door creaked open, and a mangled antique teddy bear sat placidly on the floor, a red thread draping across its limp arms. Alice jumped back, the teddy’s dull, blotchy, red-stained fur flashing through her mind. Rushing up the stairs back to her room, Alice got into bed and fell asleep, attributing the bear simply to her tired mind playing tricks.

The next morning, Alice crept down the stairs, and as she heard another knock, curiosity got the best of her. Once again, the closet door creaked open, and sitting before her, was the bear, tangled in more crimson thread. Alice slammed the door, and flew upstairs to pack her things. Pale faced, she threw all her belongings into her suitcase. Frantically fumbling with her car keys, her eyes locked onto a mirror in her bedroom. To Alice’s horror, her skin looked as if it was spun from red thread, winding endlessly around her face and neck. The loose end hung out of her mouth, and as she began to pull desperately, the endless thread kept streaming out of her mouth. Red thread began to spout from her mouth, choking her final scream, before falling unconscious to the floor in a pool of red, sewn alive.

Johnny, the friend in the zombie costume, spoke next. “That sounds fun! Cmon guys, it’s Halloween for God’s sake, let’s get off of our lazy asses and actually do something fun!”

Rishabh, who finally decided to speak up, gave an idea, “I saw this YouTube short on a game called Monkey’s Paw. Each player takes turns making wishes, and the other players have to say how the wish goes badly. This game kinda suits Halloween, and we’ve got no other ideas to cure our boredom, wanna play?”.

“I call first!” Jonny exclaimed. The trio decided on a random sock that Jimmy had left out as the “monkey’s paw”, but before he could utter his first wish, the sock was snatched out of his hand by Jimmy. “Hey, give that back!” Johnny said as he struggled to wrestle the barely sown sock from his friend. As his fingers slipped, he jabbed jokingly “cmon man, hand me the sock back”. After minutes of pointless struggle, Johnny finally wrenched back the sock, and was sent flying into the wall.

“Phump!”

“FINALLY, we can play this god-forsaken game!” Jonny yelled, frustrated in the meaningless delay.  “I wish for 100 bucks”.

“Hahaha” Jimmy said, “100 bucks appears in the Atlantic Ocean, with your name on it. You lose!”.

“Well I don’t see the money.” Rishabh added. “Perhaps you’ll win the next one.” But Johnny didn’t hear him. His hand went slack, sock falling to the ground. He felt a sharp pain in his chest, as if thousands of sharp, heavy spiders were crawling inside him. He opened his mouth to beg for help, but a singular blood stained penny came out instead. He had already started gagging, and to his horror, Jonny realized it wasn’t spiders inside him.

“Quick, do something, anything, help him!” Rishabh shrieked as he reached for his phone, the dial already on the screen.

“Wha… uhhhhhh” Jimmy was frozen in fear, unable to move. Johnny fell limp to the floor, his body convulsing as small circles stretched his skin. His eyes began to bleed, bulging out of the sockets. His mouth snapped open, pennies flooding out at a rapid pace, as the sound of bones cracking filled the room. The ground was covered in bloody pennies, there must have been a 1,000, no, 10,000 in Johnny. It must have been at least a hundred dollars worth of pennies at the minimum! He had become a corpse, with no resemblance to his once human body, just a pile of flesh and pennies. His friends stared in horror at Jonny’s body, or what remained of him.

“It’s gotta be that accursed sock!” Rishabh yelled and moved over to pick up the sock. However, it began to float. The sock twisted and turned, shaded in an eerie blue light. Fur started to cover the sides and spots of red were imprinted into its pattern. Finally, the “sock” fell to the ground, in its place was a small, hairy object. It was…… a monkeys paw!

“Quick” Jimmy yelled “The paw! The monkey’s paw! It can grant wishes! Let’s wish for Johnny to live again”.

Rishabh quickly shot down the idea “No! That thing is cursed! We need to be sensible, and call 911. Maybe they can save him”.

“How can 911 possibly save a fricking CORPSE! He’s dead Rishabh, he’s dead!” Jimmy shrieked, fear coursing through his veins.

“Sure, but why would using the thing that KILLED Jonny, possibly fix him. If anything, it will only make everything worse. Think Jimmy, think!” Rishabh yelled back, trying to force some sanity into Jimmy’s mind. But Rishabh words were said in vain, as Jimmy had already rushed to the monkeys paw. He held it in his hand, feeling it’s hairy cold touch, and raised it to the air.

“I wish for Johnny to live again!” He yelled. The flesh began to sew back together as Johnny sprang up, but something wasn’t right. Maybe it was his zombie costume, or the spread of pennies covered in blood. No, Johnny’s costume seemed too real. Flesh and blood flaked off him, a deep growling echoed in the room. Johnny turned around, but it wasn’t really Johnny at all. His eyes were still missing, with two blood stained pennies in its place. His body was still contorted, pennies peeling his skin, filling his mouth.

Jimmy said fearingly “hey, Johnny, is that still you in there?”. But he knew the question was in vain.

Rishabh yelled “RUN! NOW!”

Jimmy’s eyes filling with tears, he uttered “No… that has to be Johnny. My best friend can’t die over a stupid game. It’s not real, NONE OF THIS IS REAL! ITS ALL JUST SOME PRANK OR A DREAM. LET ME GO! I’m coming Johnny, I’m coming.” Jimmy wandered to Jimmy, the last bit of sanity gone, as Rishabh sprinted to the monkeys paw.

He picked it up and uttered his final wish. “I wish this day never happened.”