The costume.

Lighting struck the dark sky. The white light ripped through the air crashing down against the graveyard's dirt as a bellowing roar howled across the night. The air rattled as bones shivered in their once-lifeless coffins. A zombie's hand rose out from the dirt, clawing at the earth around it desperate to grab hold of something living to chew and tear in its repulsive maw.

"These old movies are all so cliché, I don't know why you like them so much," Holly said, her voice cutting through the tension being emitted by the TV.

"I don't know what you expected. They're the classics, they're the ones that invented the clichés," I said, slightly annoyed to Holly who couldn't help but meticulously critique every film we had been watching that evening. She had been aching to go outside to trick or treat with me and this was her way of protesting. 

"Alright, I'm sorry," She said, "But after this one can we please go trick or treating?" She asked. I thought back to when I had asked my friends if they wanted to go trick or treating. I had been walking through the halls of our school and saw my friend group briskly walking down the hall towards me. Jordan who was walking front and center of the group, was the unofficial leader who had only recently become a part of our clique. For some reason, my friends had instantly gravitated towards him while I was less than enthusiastic about his constant negativity and down-talking to me and my friends. He glared at me as he saw me approach; a sly smile stretched its way across his face as he looked at me. 

“Hey, guys,” I said to everyone but Jordan. 

“Hi.” Jordan alone replied. While I tried to hide it I’m sure my face showed a hint of annoyance.

“I was thinking about going trick or treating this Halloween, you guys down?” I asked. 

“What? Like with costumes?” Jordan asked. 

“Yeah of course, what would be the point of going without them?”

Jordan’s eyes fixed on me, pondering what to say as my friends behind him waited for his approval before speaking themselves. 

“Dude, c’mon we’re seventeen. You really wanna be out there with kid's costumes?” He said as loud as possible so everyone in the hall could hear. 

“Yeah dude, we’ve grown out of that by now,” One of my other friends said. I felt soft fingers curl into my hand, pulling me from my trance. 

“Please?” Holly said with an adorable winning tone like a puppy, complemented by her smooth, rosy lips. I tore my vision away from her face for a second and looked at the closet where I was keeping my Micheal Myers costume. I had been so excited to go trick or treating with the boys before Jordan shot it down like he always did. 

“Fine, but no costumes,” I said with a hint of ignominy in my voice. She pressed her lips together in annoyance. 

“But I thought you loved your costume? You said it was the best one you could find.” She asked. I thought back to when I had gotten my costume. I scanned the internet for any good Micheal Myers costumes only to find that all the internet offered low quality cheap costumes. I began to loose hope before stumbling on a small halloween shop. It was strangely dark inside giving it a sharp contrast to the otherwise bright day. Inside I found it, the perfect Micheal Myers costume. 

“How much for it?” I asked, holding up the costume for the clerk to see. The woman behind the counter glared at me with peculiar green eyes.

“Fifteen.” She said. I was slightly shocked at how cheap it was before ultimately shrugging it off. As I left she stopped me. “Hey kid, you ever read the bible?” She asked. I stopped in my tracks, puzzled at her question.

“Um, yeah, why?” I asked. Her gaze narrowed as if she was expecting more from me. 

“You remember Mathew eleven?” She asked. Her question had only served to make me even more puzzled. 

“No.” I said. Quickly leaving after. I snapped out of my trance meeting back with Holly’s disappointed face.

She sighed before agreeing to go without costumes. We sat through the rest of the movie as the orange twilight steadily crept up the walls and ceiling until disappearing completely. 

“Alright, let’s go!” She said, practically cartwheeling off the couch to the door. I smiled and got up to stretch and follow her. Before I left I looked back at the closet, considering the idea one last time before brushing it off. In the corner of my eye, just before leaving I thought I saw the glint of the closet door knob being opened.

The streets were bathed in an orange glow spilling from the street lights and reflecting off of the fallen leaves. Seeing this and the mixture of tiny vampires and princesses strolling up and down the streets put a magical feeling in my stomach.

The early night went by as slowly as possible. Holly elegantly waltzed to every door as I clumsily marched behind her. About an hour and a half went by with Holly growing more annoyed at me before the feeling turned from irritation to concern. She calmly stepped back to be by my side.

“What’s up?” She said gently. I looked at her confused. “This is your favorite holiday and all you want to do is spend it at your house watching movies all night.”

“It’s nothing, don’t worry about it,” I said, trying to sound as comfortable as possible. She glared accusing daggers into my eyes. “I’ll tell you later,” I said shamefully. 

“Fine.” She said back. I looked down the dim orange street noticing among the trick-or-treaters a tall figure awkwardly shuffling its way toward us. They were wearing a Michael Myers costume and walked with an unbalanced gate, flimsily throwing out its limbs forward and backward. The costume looked empty like no one was inside. There wasn’t anything puffing out the costume from the inside, it was a flat fabric surface pressing close to another. 

The kids around it started to shimmy their way to the lawns and street to avoid the unnatural trick-or-treater. Micheal Myers' mask stared ahead blankly, its hollow black eyes fixed on mine. It fumbled on the sidewalk, barely able to keep itself standing for more than a few moments. Holly started nudging me away from the figure shambling towards us. Finally, she broke my trance and I turned back, walking away from the thing. 

After a few minutes of walking and turning corners, we lost sight of it. Just as I started to feel relief I saw Jordan and my friends creeping their way toward us. Jordan looked smugly at me when he saw me without a costume. 

“No costume? Glad to see you’re growing up.” He said. 

“Yeah,” I replied. I wanted to say something else but feared that if I did I would start a fight. Jordan looked over to Holly and smirked in a way that made me want to rip him in half. 

“You know you’re lucky, he’s a good kid at heart,” He said. “He just needs some work is all.” He added, flashing me a contemptuous glare. 

“Oh shut up!” I shouted. “You stole my friends and now you're trying to steal her too?!” I Screamed before realizing he had me exactly where he wanted me. My friends all looked over Jordan’s shoulder with judgmental faces.

“Bro relax, I’m not trying to steal your girlfriend.” He said, mimicking a feeling of surprise and hurt in his tone. My head instinctually rolled down in shame. I peeked one eye over to Holly, too embarrassed to fully turn my head. She was standing defiantly with a raging fire in her eyes. She quickly stepped up and slapped him in the face before snatching up my wrist and storming off with me. She pulled me onto a nearby bench off the main streets of the neighborhood and blanketed by a veil of shimmering orange leaves. I noticed a large thorny bush behind the bench as Holly finally let go of my wrist. 

“So that’s why you were acting like that?” She asked softly. I nodded silently. 

“It’s just, we’re a little too old for this, don’t you think?” I asked. “I mean aren’t you a little worried of what people our age will think of us trick or treating?” I asked. She looked at the sidewalk, examining its little cracks and lines before answering. 

“Yeah, but,” She started to say before stopping. I was confused for a moment but then I heard it too. Leaves brushing against each other and something else. It was right behind us. We grabbed each other’s hand and bolted up and away from the bench. The Rustling grew louder as a familiar Micheal Myers face slowly peaked its way out from the bush. Its fabric body was torn and ripped as it pulled itself from the bush. There was no skin or flesh between the two sides of the fabric; All that separated them was a thin pocket of air. Its head rose to meet with my eyes as Holly screamed in my ears. 

It lunged at me, wrapping its arms around my throat and squeezing hard. Holly punched the thing in the face and its mask fell to the ground revealing nothing where a human head should be. I collected my breath and grabbed Holly, bolting out of there as fast as possible. Outside on the street, there was no one else walking around, just me and Holly running through the streets back to my house. 

When we made it back I quickly slammed the door behind us as Holly was crying to the police on her phone. That’s when I looked behind her and saw the closet door hanging open with my costume nowhere to be found; then it all clicked. 

“Oh no,” I said quietly to myself. I looked at Holly giving the 911 operator our address and focused on the window behind her. Realizing it slipped through them I quickly moved to lock all the windows in the house. I got to every one of them except the one in my bedroom. Moving my way over to the closed door of my room my pass slowed as I heard a soft thud like a thick towel being plopped onto a bed emanate from the other side. I grabbed a nearby chair and pressed it up against the door, I knew it wouldn't get it off as the costume could simply slide through the crack under the door. 

“Do we have any weapons?” Holly asked, running up to me. 

“Nothing that could hurt it,” I said. I rushed through my memories trying to think of something that could kill it. Inexplicably the Bible verse Matthew eleven popped up in my head. I couldn’t remember much about it other than something about fire. Finally, I thought of something. I dashed over to the kitchen counters and pulled out a small lighter. Holly suddenly raced past me as it slithered its way over to us. I held out the lighter in front of me and flicked it on before one of its limbs tightly wrapped around my wrist and squeezed hard. I dropped the lighter as I felt the thread and fabric begin to crush my wrist and finger. 

Its grip loosened. Besides the pain of having my hand being crushed the only other thing I felt was the smell of burning. Forcing my head down I saw the lighter still lit on the ground, I watched the flames steadily creep up the thing's legs and waist engulfing it in a fiery haze. The costume fell to the ground as the embers continued their feast. I kicked at the fire making sure it didn’t spread to the rest of my house and saw the charred remains of the costume lying in my kitchen. I collapsed to the ground as Holly knelt by my side.

“Are you okay?” She asked. 

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” I said through charred smokey breaths. Suddenly a sharp searing pain exploded in my ankle and I looked down and saw it trying to reach my face until it finally collapsed to the ground. I kicked its dead grip off of my leg and rose to my feet. We walked cautiously past it and out the front door. We both crashed to the soft orange lawn beneath us, looking up to the clear sky. 

“What the hell was that?” Holly asked. 

“I think it was my Micheal Myers costume.” I answered. 

“What in the hell?” She replied, rubbing her hands over her face in disbelief. She lifted her hands from her face and looked at the sky. Somehow after all that, she started laughing. “So if you would have just gone trick or treating with me in our costumes like we planned then none of this would’ve happened?” She joked in an attempt to lighten the mood. I laughed with her for a few seconds until I looked shamefully down at myself.

“I’m sorry, for not going. I got all caught up in what Jordan was saying and scared of being made fun of.” I finished. I turned over to see her looking at me with gentle, kind eyes.

“I was a little scared too, but I was more afraid of not enjoying our favorite night of the year together.” She said looking up at me with her rosy lips curled up into a comforting smile. I sighed and smiled at her. 

“Ok.” I conceded. “So you still wanna go trick or treating?” I asked. She chuckled before answering.

“How about we just watch some scary movies instead?”