As they stepped outside and into the cool night, Jesse checked the time on his phone and grimaced. The escape room took longer than he had hoped, not to mention the wait to get in. They now only had a few hours left until midnight and still hadn’t found a single item on the list.

  “I don’t mean to cause a panic, but we should probably pick up the pace,” he told the others.

  “Where did you say this Harwood guy was at?” Alicia asked.

  Siobhan pointed down the street. “His house is on Moonset, we remember where it is.” She led the way and the rest of them followed, running as fast as they dared to without drawing too much attention to themselves.

  They had made it about halfway before Noah slowed.

  “What’s wrong?” Jesse asked.

  “Remind me what all the ingredients on the list are?” He was looking at a sign for an attraction that said, ‘Nightmare Hayride.’

  He fished the list out from his pocket. “Uh, eye of newt, primrose petals, bone meal, and… nightmare hair.” He looked back up to see that the horses pulling the hay wagon weren’t regular horses. They had pitch black coats and fiery manes that flickered in the wind.

  “Nice catch,” Siobhan said, thumping Noah on the back.

  “So, hayride or Harwood?” Alicia asked.

  “Maybe… we should split up?” Jesse hated himself for even suggesting it, but time wasn’t a luxury they had.

  Siobhan nodded in agreement. “Alright, we’ll get the hair. You two get the eye of newt.” She and Noah started towards the hayride, but she turned back to add, “And don’t do anything stupid!”

  “I should be telling you that,” he called, before he and Alicia continued running in the opposite direction.

  It was a terrible idea, to split up in the middle of a neighborhood full of monsters, and given the choice, he would have preferred they all stick together. He could only hope that nothing bad would happen to the two. Or themselves, for that matter.

  As they ran, he spotted Alicia smiling out of the corner of his eye.

  “What?”

  “Nothing,” she said, but her smile didn’t disappear. “Just, how long have you known each other?”

  He had to actually think about it for a moment. “We met in second grade, so I guess around five years now.”

  “You act like it. I only knew her through her sister, Adrienne, and don’t take this the wrong way, but she always seemed like a loner, you know?”

  “Is there a right way to take that?”

  “Look, what I’m trying to say is, I’m glad to see she has a good friend.”

  Good friend was an understatement. He met Siobhan during a tumultuous time in his life and they had been nigh inseparable ever since, always spending their lunch and free periods together, not to mention hanging out after school. He never paid much attention to what others thought of him, but now he wondered what he and Siobhan looked like to outsiders.

  He didn’t get to dwell on that train of thought for too long before they arrived at Hank Harwood’s house. The man himself was seated on his lawn, just like before, only now the barrier allowed them to see his true form. The man they saw in the painting at Mr. Pennyshire’s house, Hamish, must have been his ancestor, because Jesse could see the family resemblance; the same thick brown fur growing up his hands and arms, the same long claws, and the same bushy tail that started wagging when he saw them approach.

  “Well, if it isn’t the little vampire, back again,” the werewolf greeted. “Jesse, wasn’t it? Did you enjoy the apples?”

  “Yeah, we did.” Never mind that because of those apples they were now stuck in monsterland.

  “That’s good to hear. It can be real tricky sometimes to make snacks that can be enjoyed by all monsters, especially zombies. Got to put in a little something extra for them.” He winked before turning his attention to Alicia. “And who’s your friend?”

  “My name’s Alicia.”

  “Nice to meetcha.” He smiled warmly. “Ya here for some more pumpkin bowling?”

  “Actually, we were wonder- “

  “Hank!”

  Two monsters called out as they emerged from the crowd, and Jesse’s stomach dropped when he saw that they were the same ones from the haunted house, Ronnie and Donnie. He positioned himself behind Alicia in the hopes they wouldn’t recognize him.

  If Hank noticed, he didn’t mention it. “Aren’t you two supposed to be scaring people right now?”

  “We’re on break,” Ronnie explained. “Don’t worry, Marbles is covering for us.”

  “That doesn’t make me not worry.”

  “But we have a problem,” Donnie said. “Remember how we were keeping the costume contest bouquets in the house for safekeeping? Well one of the actors got a little trigger happy with the pyrotechnics and- “

  “And by one of the actors, you mean you?”

  They mumbled a “sorry” and Hank sighed.

  “This is exactly why I keep my garden well stocked. Go ahead and pick some flowers from the back and we’ll use those.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  As they headed towards his backyard, he added, “And keep them away from fire this time!” He turned back to Jesse and Alicia. “Sorry, kiddos, what were you saying?”

  “We need some-” Alicia tried, and they were interrupted yet again, this time by a couple of little children, a boy and girl, running up and clinging to Hank’s legs.

  “Daddy, she bit me!” the older boy said.

  “It wasn’t that hard, don’t be a baby,” she snarled, revealing sharp canines, and Jesse realized that both she and the boy were werewolves, just like Hank.

  “Leah,” Hank said. “What have I told you about biting your siblings?”

  “But my teeth hurt,” she complained.

  “That’s what your teething toys are for. Besides, a growing wolf needs something harder than skin. Now say sorry to your brother and get back to trick-or-treating.”

  She gave a quick apology and the two ran off into the crowd, as quickly as they had appeared.

  Hank sighed again. “As you can see, I’ve got my hands full running this party. I’ve been so busy these past few months, I didn’t even have time to put together a costume.”

  “You’d make a great lumberjack,” Jesse said.

  “Hey, that’s not a bad idea. Thanks, kid. Now what did you two need?”

  “Do you have any eye of newt?” Alicia asked, getting the question out quickly before anything else could interrupt them.

  “Eye of newt…” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Oh, you know, I do have a whole extra bottle. What do you need it for?”

  Jesse remembered what Mr. Pennyshire said earlier. “We just wanted to cook something with it, but we haven’t been able to find any.”

  Hank nodded. “Makes sense. In my humble opinion, no dish is complete without a pinch of the stuff.”

  If they got through tonight, Jesse vowed he would never make fun of Siobhan’s peanut butter and banana sandwiches ever again.

  “But before I give it to you, there might be something you can do for me.” He held up his hands. “Before you say anything; it’s nothing too major. I just need ya to go around collecting litter.”

  “Litter?”

  “That’s right. Now, I take pride in our little community here. Normally we run a clean ship. But when we host these big events with a lot of out-of-towners… Well, I don’t want to blame anybody. It just gets a little hectic.”

  Alicia shrugged. “Alright, sounds easy enough.”

  “Excellent! Wait right there.” He went inside and when he returned, he handed them two trash bags each. “Just fill these up and I’ll give ya all the eye of newt you want. And you’ll need these.” He gave them pairs of yellow rubber gloves.

  That made Jesse pause. “What are these for?”

  “Ectoplasm, of course. That stuff stings like a mother.” He chuckled.

  Should have known it wouldn’t have been easy.

  “Thanks again,” Hank said as they headed down the street to begin cleaning up.

  The sooner they got these bags filled, the sooner they could move on to the rest of the ingredient list, so they spread out to cover more ground. Hank was right about the place getting hectic; Jesse couldn’t go more than three feet without picking up some kind of trash.

  There was the standard fare: candy wrappers, soda cans, plastic utensils. But there was also a lot of weird stuff that he guessed counted as litter; tufts of wolf hair, scraps of mummy bandages, and of course, glomps of glowing green ectoplasm.

  He was scooping a particularly large pile of the stuff into his trash bag when his fingers brushed against something hard. He swiped some ectoplasm out of the way to get a better look, then started, almost dropping his bag.

  Sticking out from the goo was a thumb.

  “What’s wrong?” Alicia asked, appearing at his side. She looked down. “Oh, yeah, I found one earlier too.”

  She reached down and picked it up, ectoplasm falling away to reveal a decaying arm. “I guess it belonged to a zombie or something.”

  “And they didn’t realize it was missing?”

  “Maybe it doesn’t matter to them. There are a lot just laying around.” She looked at the arm for a moment before seeming to get an idea. Her face brightened. “Hey, want to play a game?”

  “Involving… arms?”

  “And legs. Come on, let’s see how many we can find.”

  “Hmm. Okay, you’re on.” Anything to make this go faster.

  “Nice. Ready? Go!” She dropped the arm she was holding into her bag.

  “Hey, no fair, I found that one!”

  “Yeah, but I grabbed it first.” She skipped out of reach when Jesse swiped at her bag, laughing. “Better hurry up, I’m already two ahead!”

  With his newfound motivation, he was able to get over his initial disgust quickly. A hand here, a leg there, into the bag they went as he made his way through the neighborhood. He didn’t forget about any other litter he found either. He made his way all throughout the neighborhood, picking up all the trash and limbs he could see.

  As he worked, he found himself relaxing as he took in the atmosphere. Soft music played from speakers set up around lampposts that blended in with the chatter of passing partygoers. Monsters laughed and shouted and even danced around, happily enjoying the party. They looked so peaceful, Jesse found it hard to believe they would want to tear him and his friends limb from limb. That is, until he would catch a glimpse of their sharp fangs when they bit into a candied apple, or their razor-like claws wrapped around the hammer of a whack-a-troll game.

  No matter how harmless they looked, they were still monsters and he was still in danger every second he remained in Gravewood.

  He avoided eye contact, hoping most people would just ignore him. Fortunately, they had better things to do than pay attention to a lone kid cleaning up trash. Picking up the pace, he focused only on picking up the litter until both of his bags were stuffed to the brim.

  That’s probably enough, he thought, placing one last paper cup into a bag. As he wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his glove, he looked up to realize he was completely alone. In his quest for trash, he had strayed farther and farther from the party, heading towards the woods that encircled the neighborhood.

  It was eerie, looking at Gravewood from this angle. The backs of the houses were barren, the residents not having bothered to decorate what no one was supposed to see. The soft yellow and orange lights from the party made his shadow huge, stretching towards the tree line of the forest.

  As he was getting ready to head back, he noticed a single soda can lying in the grass. Well, one more couldn’t hurt. As he stooped low to grab it, his hand paused. Reflected on its metal surface was a faint blue light.

  Blue?

  There was movement in of the corner of his eye and he caught a glimpse of something small before it disappeared.

  He blinked, staring at the spot where the blue thing once was. Were his eyes playing tricks on him?

  No, there it is! But it’s farther away now, floating amongst the trees. What is it?

  He squinted. It looked almost like a little flame. If only he could get closer…

  “What are you doing?” A hand on his shoulder made him jump, dropping his bags.

  “Woah, easy there, Jesse,” Alicia said. “It’s just me.”

  Jesse blinked at her before looking around. Somehow, he had wandered all the way to the edge of the forest, one foot halfway into the brush. When did he get here?

  “I came looking for you when I couldn’t see you anywhere, and I find you all the way out here! Jeez, you’re just like my brother.”

  “You didn’t see anything weird just now?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Weirder than anything else we’ve seen tonight? No.”

  He glanced back at the trees, but any sign of the glowing blue flame had completely vanished.

  “Nevermind,” he said, shaking his head. “Let’s get back to Hank.”

  And forget that this night ever happened.