Children of the Candy Corn

The full moon shone brightly in the dark blue sky, bathing the small town in an eerie white glow. The weather was unseasonably warm, freeing costumes from the burden of winter coats. But best of all, since it was the type of small town where no one locks their doors, parents felt comfortable allowing their little monsters, superheroes and Disney princesses to roam the streets unsupervised. No kid could have asked for a better Halloween, except perhaps one. For Jack, or as he was known tonight, Iron Man, only one thing kept it from being perfect. 

“Candy corn!” the small whiny voice in the stroller cried. It belonged to Jack’s sister Sara, or as she was known tonight, Fairy Princess Ballerina. 

“You heard what mom said,” Jack snapped as he scanned the street for his friends through the slits in his mask. “No candy until we get home!”  

“Candy corn!” She cried as she furiously kicked her legs. “Candy corn! Candy corn! Candy coooooorn!” 

“We don’t have any candy corn!” Jack lied. If she was going to ruin his evening, the least he could do was return the favor. He ripped open a bag of veggie chips from the stroller pouch and handed them to her. Much to his relief, it shut her up.  

He pushed the stroller up the walkway of the next house and rang the doorbell. “Trick or treat!” Jack said to the old lady who answered. After she dropped a snickers bar into his bag he added, “can I have one for my sister?” 

“If she wants candy she can ask for it herself,” the old lady answered. She waved a milky way at Sara. “Say trick or treat, dear, and it’s all yours.” 

“Candy corn!” Sara cried, earning a disapproving frown. 

“Sorry, it’s her first time trick or treating,” Jack said, hoping that would satisfy the old lady. It did not. 

“Well, it’s not very hard, is it?” The old lady huffed. “If she’s old enough to dress up and beg for candy, she’d old enough to do it right. And she’s definitely too old for that stroller!” 

“She’s too little to walk all night!” Jack shot back. “Our mom was supposed to come but she’s sick so I’m doing it so we don’t have to miss the best night of the year because everything sucks since Dad left so can she have the candy now please?” 

The old lady peered over her glasses at Jack, trying to decide if he’d offended her or not. Finally, she handed him the candy and closed the door. Jack hurriedly pushed the stroller back down the walkway and on to the sidewalk. He’d never talked to an adult like that before, but once he got started it had all just came tumbling out. For so long it was just him, mom and dad. Then Sara showed up and suddenly they were a family of four. Then the same thing happened with his dad, but in reverse. He was there one day and gone the next, and just like that, they were a family of three again. 

“Candy corn!” Sara cried. Jack sighed. How could any kid be so obsessed over the worst candy ever made? Mom said she was attracted to the pretty colors, but Jack figured she was just a weird kid. Sometimes he couldn’t believe they were related. 

“Jack!” A voice called out. Jack turned to see his friends Peter and Chris, dressed as the Mandalorian and a Skull Trooper, running up the sidewalk.

“Guys!” Jack said happily. The night was starting to look up. 

“You didn’t tell us you were bringing your sister,” Chris said, his mask doing little to hide his annoyance.  

“Relax, she won’t cause any trouble,” Jack replied. “Did you bring toilet paper?” 

“You dare question the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy?” Peter scoffed. He and Chris opened their bags and showed him the rolls. “How about you?”  

Jack showed them the rolls underneath the stroller. “Let’s do this!” 

Minutes later they were crouched behind the privacy hedge at Principal Spencer’s house, ready to make him pay for enforcing the dress code. At that moment, despite Jack’s assurance that she wouldn’t, Sara decided to cause trouble. “Candy corn!” She cried. 

“Sara! Shhhh!” Jack hissed. He grabbed a bag of candy corn from his bag, opened it, and shoved it into her hands. “Here, just be quiet! I’ll be right back!” Crisis averted, the boys armed themselves with toilet paper and crept towards the house. Minutes later Principal Spencer’s rose bushes, trees and car were completely covered, and the boys were running back to the safety of the hedge.

“That was epic!” Peter laughed.

“I wish we could see the look on his face!” Chris crowed.  

“I know right?” Jack grinned. “Hey, maybe we could…” he stopped dead in his tracks when he rounded the hedge to find an overturned stroller. Sara was gone, along with all the candy. “SARA!” He cried in a panic. “SARA WHERE ARE YOU?” 

“Calm down! I’m sure she’s fine!” Peter replied. “She probably just wandered off. We’ll help you look.” 

They took off in opposite directions to comb the neighborhood. Jack’s heart pounded as he raced down the sidewalk calling her name, occasionally stopping other trick-or-treaters to ask if they’d seen a fairy princess ballerina pass them by. The answer was always no.

Then, three blocks down, Jack spotted one of Sara’s ballerina slippers. Then he saw the second one was lying a few feet away. Another block down he found her wand. Then two blocks later, her tutu. Finally, lying under the last streetlight on the last block, he spotted her tiara. The only place left to go in that direction was into the woods. He cautiously approached the edge of the woods, where a trail of candy wrappers leading inside told him he was on the right track. The moonlight was bright enough to illuminate his path but only if he took off his mask, which left him feeling strangely vulnerable. 

Jack took a deep breath. “You can do this,” he told himself. “Tonight you’re not Jack, you’re Iron Man, and Iron Man isn’t scared of anything.” Gathering every last bit of courage, he entered the woods.

Jack kept his fear at bay by focusing on Sara, yelling her name over and over. The trail led him to a small clearing, where he could hear the sounds of noisy slurping and smacking. Peeking into the cleaning from the safety of the bushes, he could see a small figure digging through a plastic Halloween bag, the blue sequins on her princess dress gleaming in the moonlight. 

“Sara!” Jack cried, running over to her. Sara looked up at him, mouth and cheeks smeared with chocolate, and smiled. He smiled back, weak with relief. “Sara, you scared me so bad! Why’d you run off like that?”

Sara’s smile rapidly grew wider, stretching her entire face until it her head split open to reveal a second, hairier head with large red compound eyes underneath. Jack watched in horror as it began to wriggle its way out of his sister’s skin. Suddenly he was grabbed from behind and spun around, and Jack found himself staring into the face of a humanoid insect with red eyes, a shiny green shell, and slime oozing from its mandibles.  

“Harry, stop!” A female voice called out. “That’s one of Sara’s hosts!” 

The creature blinked a few times, then let Jack go. “Sorry,” it said in an eerily human male voice. “I got a bit panicky seeing you hovering over my daughter like that. You can never tell with humans.” 

A second humanoid insect walked up to them, holding a candy bag in one upper hand and a smaller version of itself in the other. The lower arms swung cheerily at her sides. “Take this,” she said, handing Jack the bag. “Sara doesn’t need any more sugar now that she’d completed her metamorphosis.” 

Jack stared at the creature nestled in her arm. “S-Sara?” He croaked. It looked at him, parted its shell, and buzzed its wings.

“So what are we supposed to do with him now?” The male asked, motioning to Jack.

“Honey, didn’t you read the baby book?” The female sighed in exasperation. “Once babies complete the larva stage, they stop secreting pheromones and the hosts forget all about her!”

“Oh, yeah, I knew that,” the male said. He turned back to Jack. “Well, thanks for everything. You can run along now.” But Jack couldn’t move. He couldn’t do anything but stare at them in disbelief.  

“Looks like someone needs a little encouragement,” the female laughed. She spread out her shell and buzzed her wings so loudly the branches on the trees shook. “GET OUT!” She yelled at Jack, mandibles snapping angrily. Jack ran away screaming, tearing through the bush until he was back on the sidewalk, and kept going until he was home, the front door shut and locked behind him. 

“Hi Jack. Did you have fun with your friends tonight?” His mother’s raspy voice called from the living room, followed by light coughing.

“Yes,” Jack called back as he hurried up the stairs. He didn’t want her to see the large rips in his costume, or that he had peed himself. She would demand to know what happened and he wouldn’t know what to say. He didn’t know himself. He vaguely recalled trick or treating with Peter and Chris but little else. In the back of his mind he thought he could see images of pants-wetting terror, but every time he reached for them they moved further and further away until they were nothing more than pinpricks.   

Jack started to relax as he got ready for bed, his thoughts soon shifting to the gleeful anticipation of counting his haul. He dumped the bag on the bed and began sorting. Towards the bottom of the pile he spotted a pack of candy corn and paused, momentarily overcome by strange feelings of sadness and regret. Shrugging it off, he tossed the candy corn aside and reached for the snickers, his favorite.