1913

“It looks like we lost ‘em,” Berga said as he scanned the horizon. “Those babies weren’t cut out for this kind of stuff.”

“This was a great idea,” Keith chuckled as he hopped up onto the creaky wooden porch. “I think this is the first time in years we haven’t had the two of them tagging along everywhere we went.”

“Yeah; this is just swell,” Berga laughed as he joined Keith up on the porch. Carefully, they waltzed into the abandoned house with little worry about what await them. The house was sagging and grey, burnt crisp on the one side that caught fire. No cloth covered the pell-mell furniture and there was clear sign of feral animals having broken into the residence.

“I-I-I dunn-n-no ‘bout this place anymore Berga,” Keith shivered, noticing the sun was going down. The light in the house was becoming increasingly dim by the second. The younger brother began rummaging through a drawer for a candle and matches. “Doesn’t look like we have anything to light the place up with.”

“Then maybe we should go back,” Berga agreed, his voice shaking.

Suddenly, there was a creaking sound accompanied by footsteps. Berga and Keith looked behind them, shaking in fear. The footsteps became louder and heavier with each repeat of the gait.

A sharp groaning noise came from the hall. Nearly petrified, the boys peeked in from their spot in the kitchen. A tall white ghost was standing in the doorway, glowing ominously and marching right towards them. With a scream, they ran out the back door and never stopped until they reached the safety of their own home.

“Ha!” Claire laughed as Luck pulled the sheet down. Claire had been sitting on Luck’s shoulders, holding a candle very carefully underneath to look like
a spooky glow. “That was great!”

“Yeah! We sure did fool them!” Luck chuckled.

“Here, hold the candle while I get down.”

“Okay—ouch!”

As Claire handed Luck the candle, the hot wax dripped on the latter’s hand, forcing him to recoil and drop the candle. It landed on the dusty sheet and ignited quickly.

“Uh-oh.”

2008

“We’re back!” Isaac and Miria sing-songed as they burst in the door. The plush-ghost wreath fell down to the ground again upon impact with the wall in protest once again.

“Did you have a good time?” Firo asked. He was sitting on the couch with one arm around Ennis, watching some Halloween special he had seen many years ago.

“Why yes!” Isaac announced. “Bring in the pumpkin, Czes!”

“Yes Czes! The pumpkin!”

In from the hallway, Czeslaw rolled a large pumpkin into the apartment. The vegetable came up to his shoulder and was by far the largest anyone in the room had ever seen.

“Where did you get that?” Ennis asked.

“Not telling,” Czeslaw smiled.

“You three are incorrigible, you know that?” Firo sighed, standing up and stretching. He smirked and raised his eyebrow in an amused fashion. “Well, are we going to carve this thing or what?”

“Yeah!” Czeslaw, Isaac and Miria all cheered.

1939

Ladd sat in a cemetery, his back against a gravestone and a bottle of whiskey in one hand. The crisp autumn wind sent a chill through him. The weather did not care he was drunk and threadbare, or that he had used his last quarter getting there. The wind through the trees howled, the rats skittered about and the man began draining the warming fifth.

“I thought you loved me, Lua,” he grumbled, his words slurring.

“I do love you,” Lua replied. Ladd glanced to his left and saw she was sitting next to him, still in that crème-colored dress he last saw her in. “I love you more than anyone or anything.”

“Then why didn’t you let me kill you?”

Lua sat silently for a time while Ladd finished off the rest of the bottle. He threw it against the headstone in front of him; glass shattered into thousands of little pieces against the rough stone slab. Lua leaned in close to Ladd’s ear as he closed his eyes and whispered.

“…it was because I love you.”

“Bull.” Ladd let his chin slump down to his chest and was alone once more.

1977

“Waugh!” Jacuzzi gasped, jumping back from the small child. Tears began to well up in his eyes at the sight of the cloaked little boy and the green stick he carried. The boy looked at Jacuzzi curiously, contemplating what he possibly could have done.

“What’s the matter, mister?”

“Just ignore him, dear,” Nice said with a smile. She dropped a piece of candy into the boy’s pillowcase, allowing him to run back down to the sidewalk where his elder sister grouchily waited.

“I never did like this holiday,” Jacuzzi said as he sat down on the porch stoop next to Nice. “I’m jumpy as it is.”

“Relax,” Nice sighed. “You’re not as young as you used to be. It’s not like the kids are dressed up like Rail Tracer or anything.”

“Thanks, Nice,” Jacuzzi sniffled. “We were what, seventeen then?”

“You were eighteen, I was nineteen.”

“Right.”

Soon, a sizable gaggle of children headed towards the two, all dressed in similar robes and carrying green sticks. Jacuzzi stared at them while Nice gave them candy. Of course, Jacuzzi understood what motion picture they were all mimicking, yet was rather perplexed at the thought of all these children having seen the same film that nearly made him mess himself in fear at the theatre.

“Nice?”

“Yeah, Jacuzzi?”

“I’ll be right back.”

Nice smiled as she watched Jacuzzi enter their modest suburban home from over her shoulder. It was going to be a long night.

1956

“Wha’dda mean ya never celebrated Halloween?” the boy asked, utterly astounded. The other children around him and the resident new kid gaped in awe.

“I never celebrated Halloween before,” Czeslaw said frankly. “My sister doesn’t understand it, so I don’t bother.”

“Where did you two live before this, under a rock?” the only girl asked. “Everyone celebrates Halloween.”

“We didn’t.” Czeslaw was becoming defensive. Although he did have fun blending in with the children his assumed age, they often grated on his nerves.

“Don’t worry Czes! We’ll teach you all about Halloween, just so that you can tell your sister!” the girl said. She grabbed Czeslaw’s arm and smiled. “Everything’ll be just fine!”

“What should we do first?” asked a boy, one different from the first. The kids looked at one another, not quite sure about how to solve this conundrum, until the first boy spoke up.

“We’re going to the pictures.”