It was the evening of the big Halloween Dance. Most of the students of Southfield High could hardly wait. Tommy, the school's popular super jock, and his friends, were ready to rock and roll at the costume ball to be held at the school gym.

Tommy and his entourage walked out of his house expecting to get there in his

74 Mustang, a gift left by his late part-time dad, who liked to decorate the Christmas tree with Budweiser cans.

Tommy was disguised as the Joker , and Ethan, his side kick/shadow, the "Scream" masked character. Tommy's gorgeous girlfriend, Sarah, was clad as Cat Woman. They were ready to hop into the vintage Mustang when something else showed up. Hell on Wheels. It was the spookiest thing these teens had ever seen. In the swirling Halloween mist of orange leaves and children's laughter, stood a black stagecoach decorated with white trim. On its back side read: "BEWARE, YOU'RE IN FOR A SCARE!"

The boys thought the whole deal was a big joke maybe dreamed up by a parent or the Industrial Arts Teacher-he was a bit strange. But Sarah's evolving feminine intuition made her uneasy. "Like, I'm not getting into THAT!" she exclaimed.

"Come on!" laughed Tommy. "It'll be a blast. Everybody will drop dead with jealousy when we park outside the front of the gym."

Sarah finally agreed to go along in the stagecoach, which would ultimately bring them to the dance. But the driver, a Hollywood perfect Headless Horseman holding the reins, had different ideas about these innocents' destination.

He had already decided to escort them on a journey they had never taken before.

But this was no parent or teacher. As ridiculous as it sounds, something quite as frightful as the Headless Horseman was their driver. And his intentions were to bring this group of teens, who all shared a criminal secret, to the Underworld.

The galloping steeds finally came to a halt. Everybody was so busy having fun, spooking and goofing on one another that they thought they must be at Southfield High School. But when the doors opened by themselves, the gang had been tricked to a horrible treat. Why, they were precisely 666,000 miles inside the center of the Earth as the sinful soul soars "Abandon yee all hope!" exclaimed the Headless Horseman. "You are in Hell!"

"Yea right!" blasphemed tough Tommy. "Drop the Dante or Milton. This looks like the interior of that bad Adam Sandler comedy or a Bugs Bunny Cartoon. Ok, Headless, let's play," added Tommy confidently. "What's the game. Saw, Hostel, Scream?"

While Tommy was conversing with the Headless Horseman, Sarah was mumbling prayers. That's when Ethan thought he'd get the drop on the guy disguised as a character out of Washington Irving's most popular tale. He snuck silently around the carriage, and leaped next to the horseman to unveil his head, which had to be hidden behind a fake chest. Upon realizing the driver was indeed headless, he fell out of the stagecoach. "This is for real. Tommy!" he blabbered. The Horseman laughed, whipped at the horses, and galloped away.

The trio screamed and scattered, but were herded in by pointy eared imps. "Children, now that I have your attention, meet Blazian!" offered the Horseman. Blazian, an undead warlock, made his grand entrance down a spiraling stone stairway. "Greetings class, my name is indeed Blazian and I am your substitute teacher since Lucifer is busy up on the earth's surface. Runs the place, actually."

"Why did you bring us here?" screamed Sarah. Her Halloween make up was being ruined with tears. "This is insane. You're insane," she cried.

"You know why you have been brought here," answered Blazian, his purple punk hair do and long green robe covering his bones. "Watch this flashback from that little incident you all took part in and covered up. Above their heads, a ghostly

screen of their sin and crime played out.

They watched as an unpopular student named Albert shared with them in school. He had the whole crew on cell phone video cheating with a copy of the teacher's Geometry answer sheet. They had bullied Albert incessantly. So he was blackmailing them for cold cash.

"You little Geek!" hollered Tommy. "No @#$%&* way!"

"Hey, so work at McDonalds like me," laughed Albert. The visual fast forwarded to a desolate spot in the woods. Tommy decided upon this place for a grim purpose.

He got Albert to believe he would receive his first payment here. Tommy secretly grabbed a shovel out of the Mustang's trunk as Ethan and Sarah made believe they were paying him off. Sneaking up behind poor Albert, he used his varsity baseball swing for murder.

Albert's head rolled into the grave they had already dug for him and camouflaged. Sarah vomited as did Ethan, but not Tommy. "Grand slam!" he laughed. He then took out a pint of vodka and refreshed himself. Then the shiny new criminals all helped bury Albert's body and head. Film over.

The imps screeched and jumped up and down in delight. "That was like watching a modern horror film," applauded Blazian. "Well done, my pupils. You know, The greatest trick the devil ever played was to convince the world he doesn't exist. But believe me, you are being watched and judged and influenced."

"So what do you want out of us!" shouted Tommy.

"You just need to answer a riddle from an unusual source.. Behold, the Sphinx, a magnificent member of my menagerie." The mammoth mythological creature appeared. Ten feet tall and sitting on her haunches, it possessed the head of a woman, the body of a lion and fanned herself with feathered wings.

"I do hope all of you took care to remember your Greek Mythology," stated Blazian. "If you know the answer, keep it to yourselves, or you will be disqualified…. killed. Get it?"

None of the killers could remember Mr. Gomez' section on Greek Mythology. Pity. But they had concocted a plan to destroy the Sphinx before it could devour them.

"I know the riddle," exclaimed Sarah. She held the monster's attention by slowly repeating the riddle. "What creature walks an all fours in the day….wait, I mean…"

As the Sphinx and Blazian awaited the answer, Tommy, and Ethan found the wooden spear which Odysseus and his men used on the Cyclops.

They impaled the mythological beast. Blazian was shocked that mortal teens could take down such an exotic and powerful part of his collection.

"Impressive, my children, very impressive."

Suddenly the Headless Horseman's stagecoach returned. Not to be outdone, Blazian said, "I would like to show you even more since you passed that test with an A plus."

The Headless Horseman stepped down from his ride, and something the gang had never seen before appeared. A skull knitted and built itself into a flesh covered head upon the horseman's shoulders. It was Albert, the nerdish blackmailer's head. Back from the dead. "You guys are @#$%^%&*(!" profaned angry Albert. "My undead life is worse than my real life. At least nobody picks on me though."

Tommy and his pals were so shocked that they wanted to drop dead.

But Allen's ghost wanted revenge. Firstly, he chose Tom's girlfriend, Sara. He moved his hands in a weird way, cast a spell and slew her. Just like that. You can imagine how upset Tommy was. NOW he was out for revenge. How he wanted to kill Albert, but he was already dead. "Can't kill me twice, Tommy, Na ne na ne na na!"

Tommy still decided to catch Albert , and if they could ever get out of this place, bring Albert's spirit back to the grave, where he would be powerless.

But how? Well, since Albert was a spirit and certain spirits liked flashing in and out of bottles like genies…maybe, just maybe. Liquor, beer and wine are called spirits for some reason.

Ethan had to distract Albert's ghost as Tommy emptied his vodka bottle. "Albert, I've got something for you." And just like that Tommy captured Albert in his bottle. Blazian was so amused by these kids' evil antics, that he decided to send them back to where they came from. "I can use people like you on Earth," said Blazian.

Tommy and Ethan were right back where they had started from, Albert's burial ground. Tommy threw the bottle onto Albert's grave. After burying it too shallow, Tommy let out a yawn. "Well, I'm glad that's finally over. I can't believe we're alive, back on earth and we got away with it."

"Yea," added Ethan. "I don't think I could have handled prison. Let's go to the dance."

"Dude, my girlfriend is dead," replied Tommy.

"Sorry,' mumbled Ethan.

"Hey, I'll get over it tonight. Just need to replace her, good buddy." They high fived.

But what happened next was a fearful sight. The ghost shook itself free and with a hideous cackle, made Tommy and Ethan vanish forever.

Albert's ghost said "I hate bulles," and floated away.

Nick Gilbert is from Barre and is a student at Maple Hill School in Plainfield. Northfield resident, Peter Fernandez, teaches English at the school and the author is his pupil.