Happy Halloween! The greatest holiday of them all! Hopefully the Great Pumpkin will bring you something grand this dark and spooky evening. Before I get to tonight’s story, I just want to give a huge thank-you to everyone who’s been reading. If you’ve missed a few, there’s a page with links to all the stories. I don’t have quite as grandiose plans for November, but you can count on a lot of new content and a lot of writing, too! This was SO MUCH FUN for me, and the last thing I want to do is put the brakes on. So stay tuned! Until then, I’ve got one more ghost story for you!

Aiden lifted the mask of his Kylo Ren costume and stared.

Olivia noticed Aiden wasn’t with them and turned. “A, what gives? We got a late start – we’re not going to make it to the Brookeville neighborhood if we don’t hurry, and they’ve got the full size candy bars!” She tapped her staff against the ground in irritation.

Jacob likewise turned and raised his white Stormtrooper mask “What’s up, A?”

“Dude, there’s something seriously wrong with that kid,” he said, pointing his red light saber at the short ghost walking opposite the flow of trick-or-treaters.

“What? The kid with the sheet? Other than being retro, what’s the big deal? Let’s go!” Olivia implored.

“No, I’m telling you there’s something… I don’t know… off.”

They watched the figure stop at the alley between two houses, look around to see if it anyone was watching, then darted down the alley.

“Why’s he going down the alley to the junkyard?” Jacob asked.

“I don’t know. Let’s follow him!” And he rushed forward. Jacob looked at Olivia, shrugged, and followed. Olivia blew a stray hair that had come loose from her Rey triple bun with a frustrated breath and charged after the two boys.

She rounded the corner at a run and found the two boys stopped at the end of the alley peering around the corner. “This is a stupid—”

Both boys in unison cut her off with “Shh!”

She rolled her eyes and edged around herself to at least see what they were so captivated with. The boy (or girl) in the sheet with eyes cut out of it hurried along the chain link fence, his pillowcase swaying heavy with candy from his white gloved hand until he reached the chained gate of the junkyard. Once again, he looked back and forth, and seeing no one, squeezed through the gap left by the loosely locked chain.

“Come on!” Aiden started forward.

This time, though, Olivia grabbed his fluttering cape, bringing him to an abrupt, choking stop. “Wait!” She whispered furiously. “Aiden, what the heck is going on? What did you see about that kid that has you stalking him?”

“I don’t know… I can’t explain it…”

“Well, try,” she insisted.

He gave her his bug-eyed “We have to move NOW” look. She defiantly put one hand on her hip and held fast with her other hand to his cape. He sighed heavily, rolling his eyes, but seeing no reaction from Olivia started, “FINE! Did you see the way he moved?”

“Yeah, he moved like a kid under a sheet with eyes cut out,” she responded.

“No, that’s just it! He didn’t. You’d expect him to bob up and down but he just… glided. The sheet is too long to see his feet. And he’s wearing white gloves – who does that? Even if you’re going as a ghost by wearing a sheet why gloves?”

“So, we’re stalking a kid under a sheet with gloves on…”

“Trust me on this one, O.”

She studied him for a long moment and then, “Alright, let’s go.” And they raced to the gate as quietly as they could and one by one squeezed through the chain link fence and hurried deeper into the junkyard.

They didn’t get too far before they could hear a crackling fire. Rounding a corner, they ducked behind several 50-gallon drums as they watched the boy walk towards a small campfire in a clearing of the junkyard. The boy in the ghost-sheet walked purposefully towards a make shift bench by the fire. As he did he reached down with his free gloved hand and pulled the sheet up and over his head. The sheet dropped to the ground and just two white gloves and a bag of candy moved towards the fire – there was no boy there. One by one he then stripped off the gloves and if it weren’t for the pillowcase of candy they wouldn’t have known where he was at all. They tracked the floating bag of candy to the bench. After a moment they could make out the translucent outline of a boy, though they could still see the fire through his transparent figure. He sat there and started rifling through his sack of candy.

Aiden, Olivia, and Jacob strained forward behind the barrels to watch. Jacob put his hand on the top of one of the drums inadvertently knocking an empty oil can over which rolled loudly off the top, and banged the side of a drum as it fell to the ground.

“Who’s there?!” The boy jumped up and spun to face them.

The three squeezed together behind the drums, Aiden swatted Jacob, and they all held their breath.

“Hello? Who’s there?”

Olivia started to stand up, but both Jacob and Aiden tried to grab onto the canvas of her costume to hold her down. She slapped their hands away and took a step out from behind the drums. “M-m-my name is Olivia,” she stammered. “These are my friends,” she pointed to the drums, “Aiden and Jacob.”

There was no movement at first but then a shove and “oww!” and Aiden half fell clear of the cover of the drums. As he awkwardly got to his feet, adjusting the Kylo Ren mask perched on his head he said, “Hey.”

Jacob slowly stood up as well and gave a small wave, “Hey.”

“Who are you? Why did you come here?!” the ghost boy demanded.

“We… we… saw you walking and we…” Olivia stammered.

“You looked lonely,” Aiden finished. “We wanted to see who you were, that’s all.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s all.”

“My name is Stewart,” the boy said. “B-b-but my friends call me Stew.”

“May we call you Stew?”

“Are you friends?”

“We could be,” Jacob said. “Looks like you got a good haul there,” he gestured to the candy sack visible on the ground through Stew.

“Yeah… I did.” He looked at their sacks. “You guys too?”

“We did all right,” Olivia said. “We were going to head over to Brookeville before we came to see you.”

“Oh man, you missed out,” Stew said beaming. “I started over there!”

“Full size candy bars?” Jacob asked enviously.

“Come on over and see!” He gestured to the makeshift benches by the fire. The three walked over to the fire, Jacob, unhesitant, sat down right next to Stew, but Olivia and Aiden sat on a bench a little further around the fire.

The four were deep into discussions about the wonders of nougat and nuts when a voice called out from the shadows. “Hey! Who are these guys?”

“They’re my friends, Eddie,” Stew called back.

“That so?” Eddie replied coming out of the shadows they could see he wore a red velvet cowboy costume, complete with white boots and metal-looking cap guns in holsters. Under his cowboy hat he wore a Lone Ranger-type mask over his eyes and a triangle bandanna tied over his mouth. As he closed in on the group around the fire, he removed his hat, mask, and bandanna revealing nothing underneath. “You sure we can trust them?” the voice came from where Eddie’s mouth should be.

“Don’t mind him,” Stew said, “He’s just old and cranky.”

“Am not old! I’m only a year older than you, Stew.”

“Well you act like an old ghost!”

“We are old ghosts, Stew. What is this? Our fiftieth Halloween?”

“Sixtieth,” Stew mumbled under his breath.

“You’ve been out here trick or treating for sixty years?!” Aiden gaped.

“We have other friends, too!” Stew said.

As if in reply a voice rang out from the darkness, “Who are you losers talking to?”

Eddie and Stew both rolled their eyes. “That’s Duane,” Stew said as a boy dressed in a green plastic shirt with red and black plastic pants. On his face he wore a plastic ape face held in place with an elastic string. On the right chest above a sash with a curved dagger printed on the shirt a logo read, “Planet of the Apes”. Duane walked over to the fire and took his mask off revealing an empty space as he sat down on a bench opposite Oliva and Aiden. As his features became somewhat visible in the firelight, Aiden could see that Duane appeared to be a few years older than Stew and Eddie and themselves. “I don’t know why you losers go trick or treating – you can’t eat the candy!”

“Shut up, Duane,” Stew shot back. “What did you do?”

“Same thing I’ve done for forty years – scared the little baby kids,” he said. “Baby kids like… YOU!” and he leaned forward suddenly, his eyes literally bulging out of his face unnaturally. Aiden and Olivia flinched at the sight. Jacob kept discussing candy hauls with Stew.

“Give it a rest,” Eddie said.

“You gonna make me?” he asked threateningly.

“No, but I might,” a voice came from the darkness behind them.

Stew and Eddie visibly brightened at the sound. From the darkness came lanky dark-skinned boy maybe a year older than Duane wearing a black mohawk wig above a sponge-makeup beard and row upon row of fake gold chains over blue overalls.

“Hey Anthony!” Eddie waved.

“What’s up, Eddie? Stew?” Anthony moved by the fire and nonchalantly sat on the bench closest to Aiden and Olivia. “Hey,” he said to Aiden, “I’m Anthony,” and stuck out his hand to shake.

“I’m Aiden,” and Aiden reached out to shake hands, but his hand close right through Anthony’s.

Anthony laughed, and Stew and Eddie joined in.  “Heh, I’m sorry, man, I couldn’t resist.”

Aiden pulled his hand back and looked at the spot he had just grabbed. “It’s… uh… okay…” he stammered.

“Why can we see you better than them?” Olivia asked.

“Oh, you mean how come you can see that I’m black and these boys are white as the sheet Stewie was wearing?” Anthony smiled at the translucent Stew who awkwardly smiled back. “I don’t know myself, to be honest. I think it’s based on how old a spirit you are. I’m just over thirty, but that ass over there,” he gestured to Duane, “Has ten years of translucence on me. And these boys,” he nodded to Stew and Eddie, “Are like another 15 years more, so you can barely see them at all.”

“Are you guys here all the time?” Jacob asked Stewart.

“No…” he said sadly. “Usually it’s like a week before and after Halloween.”

“’When the veil gets thiiiiIIIIIiiiin’” Duane sing-songed.

“And the rest of the year?” Aiden asked.

“Well,” Anthony started, “We’re still around… sort of. We just can’t interact with y’all at all. That’s why this we love Halloween!”

An electronic song started playing and Aiden fished his cell phone out of his candy bag and looked at the display. “Oh crap,” he started, “It’s my mom. She’s on her way to pick us up over in Brookeville!” Aiden got to his feet and Olivia and Jacob followed.

Stew looked up at Jacob with sad transluscent eyes, “Will you come back tomorrow?”

“Yeah, totally!” Jacob said, then looked at Olivia and Aiden who looked less positive, “I mean, yeah, we’ll try, absolutely.”

“You’d best,” Anthony said, “because we won’t be here much longer. And then another year….”

Aiden looked at Olivia who said, “We’ll be here.”

Stew and Eddie audibly cheered.

“See tomorrow!” Jacob said as all three started off at a run the way they came in.

When they disappeared out of sight, Duane asked, “Think they’ll come back?”

Anthony folded his arms behind his head and leaned back on the log, “I’d say there’s a ghost of a chance.”

The other three groaned and Duane threw a dirt clod at him, while Eddie and Stew threw their hated boxes of raisins at him.