The document is a Halloween short story submitted to a fiction forum. It involves two girls, Tirtha and Trixie, receiving creepy phone calls at Trixie's house from a "Viper" who says he is coming. They get increasingly scared as the calls continue and Trixie's father disappears. At midnight, a final call says the Viper has arrived. When Trixie opens the door to confront the Viper, it turns out to be her father playing a prank on them in his "Vindow Viper" costume. He had staged the creepy phone calls to scare the girls.

1. Here is my submission for the Boolprop Halloween Short Story Event 2010. I am only
retelling this – it’s an urban legend/party game popular among teenagers. I first heard of
it when I was twelve, and my mother says that they used to trot it out on Halloween when
she was a teen, so I think it’s fair to say that the plot is public domain. I hope this doesn’t
disqualify me. I did ask…
The characters come from my story Already in Progress, available in the “Fictional
Stories” forum on Boolprop, but you don’t need to know anything about them to enjoy
the story.

2. 6:00 pm
TIRTHA COUDERC: Hi, Mr. Sanders.
ROBI SANDERS: Hello, Tirtha. Happy Halloween! What do you think of my new lawn
decoration? Isn’t it scary?
TRIXIE SANDERS: No, Daddy, it’s cheesy.
ROBI: I like it.
TRIXIE: You like cheesy stuff. We are going to have a real Halloween party. (to Tirtha)
Come on in – I just have to get the movie from upstairs. It’s in my room.

3. (Phone rings)
TRIXIE: Hello?
CREEPY RASPY MALE VOICE ON PHONE: The Viper is coming at midnight.
TRIXIE: Sorry, I think you have the wrong number.

4. 8:00 pm
TV: “I do not drink…wine.”
TIRTHA and TRIXIE: (shrieks of laughter)
TRIXIE: Oh my Esme, how could anybody have ever found this scary?
ROBI (calls as he heads up the stairs in the direction of the bathroom): Girls, I made
seasonal cookies for you! They’re on the table in the kitchen. Don’t let them get cold!
TIRTHA: Cookies!
(Phone rings)
TRIXIE: I’ll get it.

5. CREEPY RASPY MALE VOICE ON PHONE: The Viper is coming in four hours.
TRIXIE: Huh? I think you have the wrong number.

6. TRIXIE: Dad-deeeee! These are Santa cookies!
TIRTHA: I dunno. My Santa has fangs with blood dripping off them. And that one’s got
gray moldy skin. Who was on the phone?
TRIXIE: I think it was a wrong number. They said the Viper was coming in four hours.
TIRTHA: Who’s the Viper?
TRIXIE: I dunno. They called earlier, actually, and said the Viper was coming at
midnight.
TIRTHA: That’s kinda creepy.
TRIXIE: Meh, there’s nothing to worry about. Let’s go finish the movie.

7. 9:00 pm
TIRTHA: You wanna listen in your room?
TRIXIE: Sure.
(Phone rings)
TRIXIE: I’ll get that and be right up. – Hello?
CREEPY RASPY MALE VOICE ON PHONE: The Viper is coming in three hours.
TRIXIE: Listen, why do you keep calling?
PHONE: (click)

8. TIRTHA: Was it another Viper call?
TRIXIE: Yup.
TIRTHA: Gee, that’s kind of scary, you know? What if the caller’s an escaped serial
killer and he’s hiding out in the house and making phone calls from right here?
TRIXIE: That doesn’t happen.
TIRTHA: Sure it does. I heard once about this girl, she was babysitting. And after she put
the kids to bed, she went downstairs to watch TV. And she kept getting these phone calls
where a man asked her “Why haven’t you checked on the children?” And it really
creeped her out, so she called the police and they said they’d look into it. And then the
police called her back and said they’d traced the call and it came from inside the house
and she should get out right away. So she did, and the police came, and guess what they
found?
TRIXIE: What?
TIRTHA: They found that a serial killer had broken into the house and killed the kids and
was waiting upstairs for her with a knife, that’s what!
TRIXIE: Well, that’s not happening here. For one thing, we’re upstairs. And Daddy’s
downstairs. So we’re safe.

9. 10:00 pm
TIRTHA and TRIXIE (sing, loudly and off-key, but with enthusiasm): “’Cause it’s a
Thriller, Thriller night…”
(Phone rings)
TRIXIE: I got it!

10. TRIXIE: Hello?
CREEPY RASPY MALE VOICE ON PHONE: The Viper is coming in two hours.
TRIXIE: Hey, you’re not a serial killer hiding out in the house, are you?
PHONE: (click)
TRIXIE: He hung up on me!

11. TRIXIE: I asked if he was a serial killer hiding in the house. He hung up on me.
TIRTHA: You’re not taking me seriously!
TRIXIE: Sure I am.
TIRTHA: No you aren’t. – You don’t have any clown statues in the house, do you?
TRIXIE: Ugh, no, of course not. Why would we?
TIRTHA: You never know. There was this one girl who was babysitting this one time,
and she wanted to watch a particular show on cable after she put the kids to bed, but the
family only had cable in the parents’ bedroom because the parents didn’t want the kids
watching a bunch of garbage. So she called the parents to ask if she could watch on their
TV, and they said sure and she said as long as she had them on the phone, could she put a
blanket or something over the clown statue in their bedroom, because it was really
creeping her out. And they said they didn’t have any clown statues and she should take
the kids and get out. And it turned out the “clown statue” was really an escaped madman
and they only just missed being killed.
TRIXIE: But we really don’t have any clown statues.
TIRTHA (darkly): That’s when it’s dangerous.

12. 11:00 pm
TRIXIE: Yello?
CREEPY RASPY MALE VOICE ON PHONE: The Viper is coming in one hour.
TRIXIE: Ooooh, the Viper is coming, the Viper is coming! We’re soooo scared! Don’t
you have better things to do with your time?
PHONE: (click)

13. TRIXIE: These stupid Viper calls are really starting to tick me off! I swear, the next time
he calls, I’m going to – to –
TIRTHA: What if it’s the hook-handed killer?
TRIXIE: Oh, come on! Even Daddy knows that’s an urban legend! And the hook-handed
man only attacks people who have parked in a dark corner for some hanky-panky, which
I hate to break it to you, but we are not doing!
TIRTHA: But –
TRIXIE: No! No more!

14. 11:30 pm
TRIXIE: Hello?
CREEPY RASPY MALE VOICE ON PHONE: The Viper is coming in thirty minutes.
TRIXIE: Will you stop calling, already? I don’t know who the Viper is or why he would
come here, but –
PHONE: (click)

15. TIRTHA: The Viper?
TRIXIE: Thirty minutes.
TIRTHA: I’m getting really scared, here, Trixie.
TRIXIE: Well, don’t be. The more scared you are of a thing and the more you talk about
it, the more likely it is to happen. Do you know about Bloody Mary?
TIRTHA: Don’t talk about that! Just don’t! There aren’t any mirrors in here, are there? If
you chant her name in the mirror thirteen times, she appears and claws your face off!
What if it’s the same way with the Viper?
TRIXIE: If it is, should you maybe not say his name as much as you are, then?
TIRTHA: You’re not helping!

16. 11:50 pm
TRIXIE: Hello?
CREEPY RASPY MALE VOICE ON PHONE: The Viper is coming in ten minutes.
TRIXIE: (with vast amounts of fake enthusiasm) Golly gee, really? – Listen, you better
stop calling here or you’ll be sorry!
PHONE: (click)

17. ROBI: Trixie? We blew a fuse downstairs. I just have to go change it. Five minutes,
okay?
TRIXIE: Sure, Daddy.
TIRTHA: Shouldn’t we go with him?
TRIXIE: Why?
TIRTHA: For protection?
TRIXIE: Daddy can take care of himself.
TIRTHA: Our protection, I meant?
TRIXIE: Daddy will be just downstairs. And if anybody tries anything, I’ll clock him
one.
TIRTHA: But what if it’s like that psychic said that was on Oprah?
TRIXIE: What psychic?
TIRTHA: The one Oprah had on yesterday. They said that an escaped maniac was going
to come to town, and that he was going to be dressed up as Little Bo Peep and that he was
going to kill twelve women!
TRIXIE: Well, we’ll just avoid anybody who’s dressed like Little Bo Peep, then.

18. 11:55 pm
CREEPY RASPY MALE VOICE ON PHONE: The Viper is coming in five minutes.
TRIXIE: Wait! Who are you? Why are you doing this? What’s –
PHONE: (click)

19. TIRTHA: Was it – ?
TRIXIE: The Viper again.
TIRTHA: Okay. This is going to be okay. We’re going to go downstairs and get your
dad, and then we’re going to call the police and it will all be okay. Okay?
TRIXIE: Okay. (calls) Hey, Daddy?
TRIXIE (calls again, louder): Daddy?
TRIXIE (louder still, with an edge of hysteria): Daddy? Are you downstairs?
TRIXIE: He’s not answering.

20. TIRTHA: He’s not here. We are screwed.
TRIXIE: No, we’ll be okay. I’ll call the cops, and then we’ll go hide in the cupboard
under the stairs.
TIRTHA: Sounds like a good plan.
(Phone rings)
TIRTHA: Don’t answer it!
TRIXIE: But what if it’s Daddy? What if he had to go outside to change the fuse and he
locked himself out?
TIRTHA: It’s not him! It’s the Viper! I know it’s the Viper!
TRIXIE: It is not.

21. Midnight
TIRTHA: Who was it? Was it the Viper again? What did they say?
TRIXIE: They said “The Viper is here.”
TIRTHA: (shrieks)

22. TIRTHA: Oh my Esme, we have to get out of here!
TRIXIE: And where are we going to go? Running away won’t help. I’m going to take a
knife and I’m going to make the Viper sorry he ever found our phone number!
TIRTHA: Do you know how to use a knife?
TRIXIE: Sure I do. The pointy end goes in the other guy.
TIRTHA: You’re going to get killed!

23. (Trixie flings open the front door)
ROBI: I am the Vindow Viper! I vant to vipe your vindows! BOO!
(Girls scream)
ROBI: Who’s cheesy now, Trixie?
TRIXIE: Dad-deeee! You scared us!
******************
And that is the end of this Halloween story! Happy Halloween, Boolprop!
PS: All the scary things that Tirtha brings up are urban legends – I checked on
Snopes.com.