A large stage had been constructed in front of the fountain in the center of the cul-de-sac. Ronnie pulled him around the side to a set of stairs leading up to where a bunch of other monsters were already waiting for them.

  “Took you long enough, Ronnie,” Donnie said as they arrived. He held a microphone in one hand, ready to begin the contest.

  Hank Harwood and Mr. Pennyshire were also there, trying to make sure everything went smoothly.

  “Just in the nick of time,” Mr. Pennyshire said. He took in Jesse’s appearance. “And what an interesting fashion statement.”

  He looked down at his clothes, which were still soaking wet from the dunk tank.

  “The heck happened to you?” Hank asked.

  “Uh, piranhas.”

  Before he could question further, Mr. Pennyshire held up a hand.

  “As interesting as I’m sure that story is, there’s no time for chit-chat. Let me fix you right up.”

  With a wave of his cane, a gust of warm wind enveloped Jesse, and just like that his clothes were magically dried.

  “Best of luck to you up there.”

  “But I-”

  Donnie pushed him on stage, cutting off Jesse’s protests. Just like the entire night so far, he didn’t have a choice. He would have to participate in the competition.

  The other contestants were already on the stage and Jesse had to struggle not to shudder surrounded by so many monsters. One wrong move and everyone would know he was a human.

  “Thank you all for coming out for our little Halloween shindig!” Donnie announced, moving to stand in front of the crowd. “It was a blast having everyone here and we can’t wait to do it all again next year.”

  When the applause died down, he continued, “As the night comes to a close, it’s time to wrap up the party with the traditional costume contest. Our lovely contestants here,” he gestured to everyone on stage, “are ready to show their stuff, but only three of them will be taking home awards. Now, unfortunately, Dr. Rotbart couldn’t be here tonight, but he left us with a gift; the applause-o-matic!”

  He gestured to a strange looking machine to the side of the stage. It had a tube going up through it, almost like a thermometer, except instead of degrees to mark the temperature, there were different levels of smiley faces, ranging from a disinterested looking neutral face to a full-toothed grin.

  “With this device,” Donnie explained. “You all will vote for your favorite costume. Just applaud when the contestant you think should win is called. Now, let’s get started!”

  Jesse's heartbeat pounded in his ears as the first contestant stepped forward. He was on the opposite end of the line as they went down, so he would be the last to go. He couldn’t tell if that was good or bad.

  How did it come to this? He never signed up for any competition. This whole night, he was trying to avoid attention. And now he was on a stage in the middle of monsterland, with hundreds of eyes on him. No matter how much he tried to assure himself that he was fine, that nobody could tell he was a human, he still felt like they could all see straight through his disguise.

  He was so nervous, he couldn’t pay attention to the other contestants. All he could think about was keeping his shaking legs under control. He looked for his friends in the audience. He spotted them near the front, and Siobhan flashed him a reassuring smile and a thumbs up, but he had known her long enough to see that she was scared too. If he was discovered here, it could endanger all of them.

  “And finally, Jesse Grahame!” He started when his name was called, and it took every inch of his willpower to walk forward to the center of the stage. His palms were sweaty and he tried not to make it obvious when he wiped them on his pants.

  The crowd was silent as he stood there, until suddenly a loud “Whoop!” cut through. At first he thought it must have come from his friends, but no, it came from the back of the crowd. A large group of vampires started cheering madly, led by the silver-haired boy from earlier, Damien. Their excitement was infectious, and soon the whole crowd was applauding.

  All at once, his fear melted away, and he couldn’t help the large grin that spread across his face. He grabbed the end of his cape and brought it up to half-hide behind, wiggling his fingers and trying his best to look like a classic vampire.

  “All right, give it up for our fantastic contestants, folks!” Donnie said, as Jesse took his place back in line. “We were keeping a close eye on the applause-o-matic for each competitor and we do believe we have our winners. In third place…” He paused for dramatic effect. “Emily Vanderwebb!”

  Jesse jumped as a spider the size of a corgi squealed and skittered to the center of the stage. A bulbous orange octopus head sat on top of her own and tentacles ran down each of her limbs. As she tapped her feet excitedly, she actually looked kind of cute.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “That’s my daughter!” Cynthia Vanderwebb called from the crowd, pushing forward to take pictures on her phone. “I’m so proud of you!”

  “Congratulations, little lady,” Donnie said, handing her a bouquet of flowers, which she pinched with two front legs. “And in second place, Jesse Grahame!”

  Wait, what? He hadn’t been paying attention to the others, but did they really like his costume that much?

  Apparently they did, as the crowd roared in applause once more, and the monster next to him gave him a friendly shove forward to collect his award.

  “Congratulations, kid,” Donnie said as he stepped forward, then he whispered so only he could hear, “I was rooting for you ever since I saw you in the haunted house.”

  Jesse took the bouquet, a bunch of yellow and orange flowers tied together with a bow, and stood to the side for the final winner.

  “Finally, our first-place winner of the costume contest is… Tyra Harwood!”

  He turned to look at the finalist and his jaw nearly dropped. A glamorous young woman in a green floor length dress stepped forward, strutting with such confidence she could have been on the red carpet. Atop her head was a crown of snakes; actual live, writhing snakes, that hissed as she walked past.

  “Thank you, Donnie,” she said, gracefully accepting the bouquet he handed her.

  “Is it really a surprise that you’re taking first place once again? I think I speak for everyone when I say we always look forward to seeing what amazing costume you cook up every Halloween. Like, I’m almost afraid to even look you in the eye right now!”

  She smiled brightly, flashing long canines at the audience. Once Jesse got past her Medusa costume, he could see the brown fur that almost blended into her dark skin, and her long claws that were painted an emerald green to match her dress.

  “That’s my girl!” Hank howled from off stage.

  “Now before you all go, let’s get a picture of all of the winners together.” Donnie gestured for him and Tyra to kneel down next to Emily.

  Mr. Pennyshire took up position in front of them, holding up a large, old-fashioned camera with a giant light bulb sticking out the top. “Alright everyone, say cheese.”

  Jesse smiled as the light flashed. Mr. Pennyshire held a thumbs up to signal they were all done and Donnie started ushering everyone off the stage.

  As soon as he was back on the ground, his friends surrounded him.

  “Can you believe it?” he said, still grinning. “I didn’t even sign up and I won!”

  “Jesse, the picture.” His smile faded when he noticed the terrified look on Siobhan’s face. “They’re going to realize you’re not a vampire,” she hissed.

  Vampires don’t show up in photos, too late he remembered this fact.

  “What do we do?” Alicia said. She was clutching Ashton’s hand tightly in her own.

  “Mr. Pennyshire!” Jesse pushed through the crowd to reach the skeleton, who was still near the stage, talking with Hank.

  “What can I do for you, my little fanged friend?” he said as he saw him approach.

  Now that he was here, he realized he had no idea what to say. “C-Can I ask what you plan on doing with that photo?”

  “Well, it hasn’t finished developing yet,” Hank said. “But we were just discussing putting it up on the community board for the whole neighborhood to see.”

  “Uh, Is there any way I can convince you to get rid of it? Or better yet, just don’t look at it at all. I’m sorry, but I’m- I’m really shy and- “

  Hank waved a hand dismissively. “You have nothing to worry about, you looked great up there. And it’s not like you’ll even show up in the picture.”

  “But- “

  “Ah, it’s ready,” Mr. Pennyshire said as the camera spit out a photograph. “Smashing quality, wouldn’t you say?”

  He held the picture up for him to see and Jesse was stunned into silence.

  Because in the center of the photo, sandwiched between Emily and Tyra, was his costume, floating by itself as if an invisible person were wearing it. But how…?

  “Yeah,” he managed to get out at last. “It’s great.”

  “See, I told you,” Hank said. “Ol’ Pennyshire here is a wiz with the camera. He could make nightmare dung look good.”

  “It helps when you’ve been around longer than the camera has. I’ve picked up a couple of tricks over the years.” Jesse could have sworn he winked when he said that.

  “By the way, I know this is your first time coming to this thing, so sorry if the award isn’t as fancy as you might expect. We can’t really do medals on account of, you know, silver.” He pointed to himself.

  “No, these are nice.” He was still a little dazed from seeing the photo. “These are- wait, are these-?”

  “Primroses,” Hank said proudly. “Grown from my own garden. We would have had regular roses but, well, you heard what happened.”

  Primroses. Jesse clutched the bouquet tightly, as if it might disappear. With this, they had collected all of the ingredients they needed for the potion.

  “These are perfect,” Jesse said.

  Hank beamed. “Well, I’m glad you took my advice and decided to enter the contest.”

  “I never signed up, though.” With everything that happened, he nearly forgot.

  Hank looked confused. He took out a clipboard and scanned it. “But it says your name right here.” He showed him the clipboard, which listed all the contestants' names and costumes, and pointed to the very bottom where it read, “Jesse Grahame: Vampire.”

  “I didn’t write that.” The flowing cursive handwriting was nothing like his normal illegible scratching.

  “May I see that list, Hank?” Mr. Pennyshire asked, frowning.

  Hank shrugged and handed it over. “Maybe someone tried to play a prank on you. Or they just thought your costume was good, which it is. Either way, you’re still a winner.”

  He laughed, but a look of concern flashed on Mr. Pennyshire’s face as he read the list.

  “Is something wrong?” Jesse asked.

  “No, it’s nothing,” he shook his head, giving the clipboard back to Hank. “Like he said, it’s probably just a joke. You should get back to your friends.” His normal grin returned as he gestured to where the others were waiting near the fountain. “Something tells me, they’re going to be very happy about your reward.”

  A million questions ran through Jesse’s head, but he pushed them all to the side as he ran back to his friends. None of them would matter once they got the feathers and primroses back to Bella’s house.

  They were finally going home.