Old Lady Simmons hated Halloween. In fairness, she hated most holidays and the people who celebrated them, but Halloween was by far the worst. The endless cavalcade of noisy children tramping up and down the streets, disturbing the peace of her neighbourhood and getting up to all manner of mischief. The ocean of sugary sweets and candy designed to do nothing but rot young minds and leave them with far more energy than was proper. The veneration of ghosts, ghouls, goblins and all many of disgusting creatures, a clear sign of society’s ongoing moral degradation.
The worst of it all were the costumes. It was bad enough that small children were forced to go out on a cold, dark autumn night, to beg strangers for candy, but the young women! In all her born days, Simmons had never seen such provocative attire, particularly from the female students at the local university. She’d always reckoned that education was wasted on girls, and everything she saw confirmed it, from the wild partying to their shameless outfits to the fact they spent time with young men—and unescorted at that! She saw it all and hated every last bit of it.
So one Halloween, with the sounds of another boisterous party rattling the walls of her old house, she elected to do something about it.
“MMMPGGGHHH!” The first of the night’s haul to awaken was a beautiful Asian girl clad in a close-fitting dress of black silk and thigh-high black leather boots, her screams stifled by the duct tape sealing her lips. Like the rest of the captives, the drug laced into her candy had knocked her out long enough for Simmons to carry her away and leave her bound, gagged and blindfolded in the back of the panel van, stout ropes at her wrists, ankles and beneath her breasts ensuring she wouldn’t break free anytime soon. Dark hair flapped about as she struggled in vain, and Simmons couldn’t help but frown as she took in the low cut of her gown, not to mention the bare skin displayed in the gap between the hem of her dress and the tops of her boots. “MMMMPPGGGHH, MMMPPPPGGGHHH!”
Three other gagged voices took up the cry, each similarly bound and gagged, and like the Asian girl, each dressed in ways no decent woman would ever consider, spurring a fresh wave of anger from the old woman. “That’s enough mischief out of you!” she snapped, forcing herself to keep her eyes on the road. “It’s shameful the way you’ve all been carrying on, utterly shameful! And if that school of yours won’t teach you how to behave like proper ladies, then I will!”
“Mmmmpgghh? MMPPGGGHHH!”
“That’s right, you four are coming to stay with me until you start acting decently. That means no candy, no obscene clothing and certainly no making mischief with boys. I’ve got nice little cells set up for each other, and there you’re going to stay until I see some results.”
“MMMPGGGHHH!” Panic seized the four university students, the air inside the van alive with the creak of ropes and muffled screams.
“What did I say about no more mischief?! Now, be quiet, all of you!” Simmons demanded, tires crunching on gravel as she pulled into her driveway. “Or this will go much harder for you than you’d like…”