Selena laughed to herself and walked up to the porch. She rang the doorbell but no one answered.
She dramatically shrugged her shoulders and just as she was about to step down, the lights in the house began flickering. Rolls of toilet paper flew out of all the windows and the tattered shutters opened and closed rapidly. A loud and evil “Muhawhahahaha….Muhawhahahaha” laugh played from a set of speakers.
The front door flew open and the kids screamed. A group of teenagers dressed in creepy masks and black sheets ran out amongst the kids—chasing a few of them, tossing candy into the yard.
They screamed, “Happy Halloween losers!” and “No one can hear you scream!” a few times before running back inside.
The kids were terrified. Frightened.
The four year old Superman in my group wet himself.
The kids ran around the yard shrieking and crying, until they realized there was candy on the ground and began picking it up.
What in the hell just happened?
The next houses were inhabited by normal people: Their lights were on, and all the kids had to do was ring the doorbell and say “Trick or Treat” once the door opened to get a handful of candy placed into their bags.
We stopped by every house in the neighborhood, and the kids seemed to get more energetic as time wore on.
Selena shot me a few “bear with me” glances throughout the night, but we didn’t talk much—not that I minded though. I was actually enjoying myself, wishing that I hadn’t attended boarding school for half my life so I could’ve experienced trick or treating as a kid.
“Hey,” a little Cinderella tugged at my pants. “I don’t feel like walking anymore.”
“Okay…”
She stretched her arms up towards the sky and blinked at me. I hesitantly bent down and offered her my shoulders.
“You’re tall,” she slapped me in the face with her treat bag. “What’s your name?”
“Ethan. Yours?”
“Cinderella, duh!”
I laughed. “It’s an honor to meet you, Cinderella.”
“I know! Is she your girlfriend?” she pointed towards Selena.
“Um…”
“You can tell me! I won’t tell anyone! I promise!”
“Um…I guess you could say that but…We don’t really—”
She gasped. “Put me down! Put me down!”
I stopped and bent down, letting her climb off me. She twisted her treat bag around her wrist and immediately ran towards Selena. She motioned for Selena to bend down and I could see Selena’s face turning bright red as soon as Cinderella broke her promise.
Figures…
Selena blew me a kiss and the kids shouted “Eeeeww!” “Gross!” and “Get a room!”
We trick or treated for another hour; I made sure my kids had as much candy as their bags could hold and carried the sleepy ones for a few minutes at a time.
When we arrived back to Selena’s childhood home, she took away all the treat bags and wrote their names on each one.
“Pick five pieces and put your bag in the hallway box!” she yelled. “If your bag isn’t in the box, you won’t get dinner!”
The kids groaned, but they seemed to follow her instructions.
Cinderella tugged my pants again. “Are you staying for the sleepover too?”
Sleepover?
“Um…I wasn’t aware that this was a—”
“You have to stay! Last year we made spider cookies and Billy actually ate one! I’m going to try one this year! And you have to too!”
I nodded and she ran off towards the kitchen.
I waited for Selena to finish accounting for all the treat bags, waited for her to notice me staring.
“It’s not polite to stare you know,” she smiled.
“Was it polite not to tell me what type of party this was? It’s a sleepover?”
She paled. “I figured you wouldn’t come if I told you that… It’ll be fun, I swear! You and me will still get to hang out since they have to be in their sleeping bags by two... Or did you want to leave now? I can take you back once my mom gets home. I can even call Joan and ask her to—”
“I’d love to stay,” I kissed her forehead and walked away.
I watched as Selena and a few of the neighborhood parents took turns telling ghost stories, making “haunted S’mores,” and playing games with the kids. I helped serve the “eyeball spaghetti” for dinner, and coaxed a few kids into eating slime-green ice cream for dessert.
They bobbed for apples and played hide and go seek in the backyard until Selena’s mom rang the “Sleeping Spell Bell.” They resisted her soft warning at first, but they eventually headed back inside to change into their pajamas.
Selena and I spread out blankets and sleeping bags in the living room, making sure they each had adequate space. We tucked the youngest ones in, and put in a movie to help the rest of them go to sleep.
When she was certain the last resister was asleep, she motioned for me to follow her into the den, where her mother had left two mugs of hot chocolate in front of the fireplace.
I covered us both in a blanket and held her close to me. “Tonight was a lot of fun. Thank you.”
“You liked it?”
“I did…It made me wish my parents hadn’t sent me off to boarding school every year. We never recognized Halloween as a real holiday there.”
“What about college? You didn’t celebrate it there?”