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“Happy Halloween, everybody!” Yuki says, opening the door, a full bowl of candy in hand. “Wonderful costumes you all have! Come on in.” She steps aside.

“Party’s really starting the bustle,” her assistant says from the living room, “and we’ve got plenty going on here. But you’re just in time for the main event.”

“That’s right.” Yuki nods. “We’re about to have us a special excursion for the occasion. No gloom and doom this time. I know, I know,” she says, sighing and holding up her hands, “but we’re so over-saturated with horror at the moment, so I figured we’d go a little light this evening.”

“Besides,” her assistant adds, “we’ve got plenty of movies and a bonfire out back for scary stories.”

“And on the subject of scary stories, that’s what this excursion is all about: a group of kids getting together to share spooky tales on a perfect day for one. I call this story:

***

“It’s perfect,” Mikey Evans said to himself, peering out his bedroom window.

And it is. His attic room, which was boiling hot in the summers and an ice-cold tomb during the winter months, offered a tremendous view no matter the season. It wasn’t anything that couldn’t be handled with popsicles and fans or blankets and space heaters. When he needed a break from the strange worlds of the books on his shelf or the terrifying encounters outlined in the worn horror comics carefully hidden and respectfully undisturbed beneath the middle of his mattress, he would stare out his rectangular portal and gradually bring himself back to the real world.

The lush greens and flowers framed perfectly the other kids playing hide and seek and the baseball games happening in the vacant lot on the other side of the field behind his yard. Mounds of white powder and bare branches accompanied them on snow days.

But the fall—that was his favorite time of the year.

The scent of fires going in all the nearby houses; the first batches of apple cider; the variety of colors seen around the town and the hills far in the background. And of course, the event it all led to—that every kid was excited for: Halloween.

As Mikey leaned out his open bedroom window, he felt the chilled air wisp across his arms. All the little hairs stood on end; goosebumps formed. Not a square inch of greenery was left. Save for the few patches of brown leaves on the ground and in the trees, everything within view varied in shades of yellow, orange, and red. The sky was clear and the few cirrus cloud certainly wouldn’t be threatening rain.

It was the perfect night for scary stories.

And he needed to get his friends together.

He put on his favorite hat and buttoned up his flannel shirt and bounded down the stairs. The screen door bounced off the wooden frame and closed itself. It didn’t worry him; for all his parents knew, a gust of wind blew it open. They, for sure, wouldn’t wait up for him. He ran across the field, the tall grasses swished and dead leaves crunched under his shoes. Few cars were out and about, Mikey noted as he ran along the street into town. Houses passed by on either side. He veered off to the grass at the second-to-last home on the right and went around the side yard to the back.

As Mikey approached, he heard his friend Joey Hutchins playing, making the sound of explosions and machine gun fire.

“Hey!” Mikey called out. “It’s tonight!”

Joey stopped what he was doing, turned toward the welcome interruption, still holding green and tan army men. He smiled. “I knew it!” He glanced around at the autumn colors and the decorations on his house. “Same place?”

Mikey nodded. “Yep. I’m gonna get the others now.”

“Can I come with?”

“Sure thing.”

Joey casually tossed the plastic figures into the bucket next to the unused sandbox. Even though he was a year younger, Joey was a few inches taller. His lanky arms and legs always gave him an edge whenever they played tag or found some trees to climb out in the woods. They’d also help him get to where they were headed that evening. He brushed his sandy hair from his freckled face as he rushed over to Mikey’s side.

“Where to?” Joey asked.

“Casey first, then Adam, and Melissa,” Mikey answered.

“Cool. Race you to his place!”

“No way.” Mikey shook his head. “I ran all the way here!”

A smug look crossed Joey’s face. “That’s cuz you know I’ll win!”

“Only ‘cause I just ran…”

“Chicken! BAWK BAWK BAWK-AWW!” Joey tucked his fists under his armpits and flapped his arms.

Mikey rolled his eyes and sighed. “Whatever. Let’s go.”

Joey took off in a full sprint and Mikey set off in a half-hearted jog to the next destination.

Casey’s apartment was one street over from the main drag in Hidden Knoll. When the two discovered he wasn’t there, they checked the local hotspots he was drawn to.

The bookstore and the library were both a bust, so they hopped over to the dollar shop on Third Street. Small hay bales and scarecrows were set up in the display windows in between some of their wares.

“He’s sure to be in there,” Joey said with confidence. “Probably looking at all the costumes.”

“Yeah, for sure,” Mikey agreed.

But he wasn’t. Not in the costumes nor the accessories, but they did bump into Adam and Melissa, who were gazing longingly at the heaps of Halloween candy neatly lined on the shelves an aisle over.

“Fancy meeting you here,” Joey greeted them.

“Hey guys,” Melissa said, taking her eyes off the sugary goodness for a second. “What’s up?”

“Just looking for Casey,” Joey replied, “but I guess you’ll do. Have you seen ‘im?”

She nodded. “Yeah, he should still be at the arcade. He was watching some high schoolers play that new Paperboy game. Next to the Skee-Ball machines. We only left, like, five minutes ago.”

Mikey turned to Joey. “Can you go grab him?”

“Sure thing.”

Adam looked over to Mikey. “So what’s going on?”

Mikey smiled. “Tonight’s the night.”

A couple hours later, the sun started to set. The bright blue sky from earlier now looked like the burning embers of a dying fire; the once-blazing trees were the charred remains of kindling. All the friends were gathered at Fox Creek woods. They stood before a rusted chain link fence topped with barbed-wire that had been there for eons. It had weathered the elements—and teenagers—over the years. The KEEP OUT sign was scuffed and dinged. A number of spots at the ground level were warped and frayed—wild animals having dug under with varying levels of success. The kids followed the fencing several yards off the beaten path, and, in the cover of dark and thick vegetation, found the section where the top was snapped, allowing them to enter unscathed.

Mikey hopped over first, then Melissa, Casey, and Joey.

Joey fumbled his landing and dropped to his knees, very nearly faceplanting, which got a laugh from the others. Melissa helped him up to his feet. He brushed off the stray dirt from his corduroys.

“You good?” Mikey asked.

“Never felt more alive,” Joey replied and got another laugh from his friends.

Mikey looked through the chain link to Adam. “Alright, you coming?”

Adam smiled and without a word stepped forward, walking through the fence. “Never understood why you guys don’t do it the easy way.” To which Mikey rolled his eyes.

The walk past the barrier wasn’t far and the group got to the spot just in time. The last moments of burning light settled and showed off the remnants of amusement park rides in stunning silhouette.

Still too early for them to tell scary stories in the dark, but there was still plenty of time for entertainment. They stood and waited in the silence of dusk until the pipes of the calliope whistled from the carousel. And then the lights from the midway popped on one section at a time. The dilapidated rides whirred to life, the rust-covered and broken bodies washing over into their former glory. Further back, the roller coaster cars clacked up the lift hill, fallen timber easing back into place. Soon came the bells and sirens from the games booths, complete with carnies hollering into the night for folks to step on up and try their hands at winning prizes.

The kids turned their heads to the surrounds as a low-hanging fog crept to the outskirts of the forest clearing. Underbrush swished and crackled under the feet of others closing in for a rare night out en masse.

Hundreds of people of all ages, from near and far—both in distance and time—gathered together and chattered away as they crossed the threshold of the entryway.

It sent a warm wave through Mikey’s spirit, seeing all of the departed wandering out of the comfort zones of their homes for a few nights to have some fun, to be able to—so to speak—live their lives to the fullest, to weigh the anchor from familiar streets and be able to do what they wanted without instilling fear and panic.

“Hey, Mikey! C’mon!” Melissa called from ahead.

He snapped out of his thoughts and ran up to his friends for a night of rides and frights, fading into the encompassing fog.

***

“A ghost story about ghosts wanting to get out to tell ghost stories…I like it,” the assistant says with a smile on his face.

“Maybe that’s a perfect segue for us,” Yuki thinks aloud. “Alright, everyone, lets grab our drinks and candy and head out back.” She opens the blinds in front of the sliding glass door. The moon is in view, the nearest clouds drifting away. It’s full dark now. A howling breeze whips up. “A perfect night of our own for telling spooky stories. Let’s do our best to give each other nightmares!”

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