by Joseph Fink
“Guys, guys, focus,” Esther said. She could definitely see land below them. Flashes of green and brown. “I’m not willing to run. Not while our families are trapped in there. Our only option is to fight the queen ourselves.”
“Is it our only option if it’s not an option?” Agustín said. “She literally has magic powers. We are now talking about someone who is actually preventing the movement of time.”
“Esther’s right,” Sasha said.
Esther looked back at Sasha, but Sasha wasn’t meeting her eyes.
“Unexpectedly, I agree,” Mr. Gabler said. “We need to fight her. But to do that we need to come up with some sort of plan.”
“It’s not going to work to just hang around and wait for her to come to us,” Esther said. “We need to surprise her where she is.”
The bottom of the stairs was clearly visible. There were trees again. She saw orange fruit hanging from them, and worried that they had, through some horrible dream logic, ended up back at the jack-o’-lantern tree. But this was a more familiar orange fruit. It was a grove of orange trees. The moment her foot left the final step, the fog started to clear, and she thought she could feel some transfer in herself, a moment where she actually passed between worlds. Then she was in the orange groves in the hills. It was peaceful up here, the lights of the neighborhood below looked like any normal night. Only the bright orange moon, still in the same place in the sky, told the story of what was actually happening here.
She looked back to see a stone staircase, planted incongruously in between the rows of trees, becoming hazy and transparent as it went up, until it disappeared completely about twenty feet in the air. Gradually, each of her companions appeared—first their feet, then the rest of their bodies, at first see-through and blurry, then sharpening and becoming physical, until they stepped off the last step and became grounded once again in their own world. The moment the last of them touched earth, the steps disappeared completely, leaving behind no sign that they had ever existed.
The four gathered to consider the neighborhood beneath them.
“I think I know where she’s staying,” Agustín said. He pointed to a patch of darkness among the neat lines of light. Within that darkness was a faint spot of brightness. Not constant and clear like the streetlights and the house lights. Nor distant and twinkling like the stars. Organic and flickering, like a heartbeat.
“That wild party in the canyon,” Esther said.
“No high schoolers would have a party that visible,” Agustín said. “Or that big. It’s not the high schoolers. It’s her.”
Now with a destination, they hurried down the hillside. All of them, except Mr. Gabler, had snuck into the orange groves regularly growing up, and every kid in the neighborhood knew where the bottom of the fences had been secretly bent back and then replaced, a swinging door not immediately visible to the eyes of the irritated farmers, who invariably chased the kids off the land. Of course, tonight those farmers were in a dream somewhere, and so the groves went unprotected.
They all ducked under the fence, Esther first and then holding it open for the rest.
“I’m not going to ask how you knew where that is,” Mr. Gabler said.
“You can totally get us in trouble, but only if you restart time first,” Sasha said.
Esther laughed, and Sasha smiled at her in return.
There was no sign of movement, human or otherwise, on their trip to the canyon. The streets were empty. All of the houses were quiet.
They reached the edge of the canyon. From here the light was clearly a fire, or more than one, a huge flickering circle. Voices and movement echoed out from the direction of the flames.
“I’d say that’s definitely her,” Mr. Gabler said.
“What next?” Sasha said.
“We need to get a closer look,” Esther said. “Get an idea of what we’re up against.”
Sasha considered that for a moment, and then, without saying anything more, started into the canyon. The others hurried to follow.
Esther had had nightmares her whole life of what it would be like, wandering the trails of the canyon in darkness, but now that she was doing it with Agustín and Mr. Gabler and Sasha at her side, it didn’t seem that scary. It still seemed very scary. But manageable, rather than the absolute panic that she would feel trying to do it on her own.
She linked arms with Agustín, and all of them started down the slope, until the light from the street faded completely.
EVEN A FEW FEET into the canyon felt like another planet, distant from the comfortable suburbia behind her. During the day, the canyon belonged to Esther. But at night it was a dark canvas that her mind filled with everything that scared her.
She was so grateful for her friends walking beside her. There was no way she would be able to step even one foot down here without them. If they vanished, she would be utterly lost on this winding trail. She held on tighter to Agustín. He didn’t seem to mind. He didn’t even acknowledge it, which she was a little bit grateful for and a little bit hurt by.
“Let’s take this slow,” said Mr. Gabler. His limp had faded, but he still winced with every other step. Their feet crunched on the leaves scattered over the trails, making their progress less stealthy than any of them would have liked. The bare trees overhead were skeletons striking strange poses in the moonlight. All of the trails seemed to have a different layout than they had the day before. In the same way that the streets of the town had been changed by this Halloween, the canyon had too.
Sasha inhaled sharply. There were slumped, creeping figures moving on the path ahead.
Esther shushed them all, and drew the group into the brush. They waited, holding their breaths. Three trick-or-treaters—the clown, the dinosaur, and the pirate captain—shambled by. The trick-or-treaters did not talk to each other, only huffed wetly. As their limbs moved, there was a sound like paper rustling.
Once the trick-or-treaters were long past, Esther and the rest made their way carefully out of the brush and back onto the trail.
“I hate those things,” said Agustín.
“They didn’t choose to become what they are,” Esther said. “They’re victims just like us.”
Agustín shrugged. “You’re right. It’s hard to remember that when they’re buzzing and clicking while trying to kill us, though.”
The path continued, winding back on itself. She didn’t try to understand where they were. Their destination waited at the heart of this canyon. If they walked long enough, they would reach it.
Then came a new sound. A deep boom that she heard with her bones more than her ears. They all froze. Another boom, and another, getting louder and louder. This time they hid in the creek bed by the path. The cold stagnant gutter water soaked their clothes, and Esther shivered. The smell of algae filled their nostrils. But none of them complained. None of them moved.
A huge shape took a bite out of the sky. Then another. Every time it moved, entire stretches of stars disappeared from sight. Esther had no idea what she was even looking at. Then the shape moved into the moonlight, and she realized. Now that she knew, she wished that she didn’t. She wanted nothing more than for this knowledge to be taken away from her and put somewhere where she would never come across it again.
It was a giant trick-or-treater, several stories tall. This one was dressed as a scarecrow. Every time it moved, its foot landed with that deep boom, sending dust and leaves whirling into the air. The cloud of dust drifted over the creek, and Agustín sneezed. The giant stopped.
To Esther, it felt as though nothing in the entire expanse of the universe dared to move, except her left hand, which trembled.
The giant leaned down. She could see its hideous plastic scarecrow mask, as big as a house. The eyeholes were the size of doors, and she could see nothing but darkness within them. It wavered back and forth, looking for the source of the noise. Esther closed her eyes. If this was the moment she died, she’d rather not see it. Then another boom shook through her b
ones. She opened her eyes. The giant was walking away.
They crawled out from the creek. It was Mr. Gabler who broke their silence. “Man, I wish I were doing anything but this.”
Esther found herself in the confusing position of having to comfort an adult. “None of us want to be doing this. But maybe that’s why it’s so important that we keep going.”
“Yeah,” he sighed. “Maybe.”
She considered the path they were on. It seemed too dangerous to continue along it when such creatures were guarding the way. But they had to get to the center of the canyon, where the light was. Above the flickering light, she could see a hillside that she recognized. That’s when she realized what they were going to have to do, and with that realization she started laughing.
Agustín and Sasha stared in disbelief. Esther could hardly manage to speak she was laughing so hard. The answer had been in front of her the whole time.
“Gus,” she wheezed. “Gus. The Feats of Strength.”
“What, really?” he said. “Now?” But then he saw what she had seen. The hillside above the source of the flickering light was the ledge above the pond. It was the finish line of their game. And the game completely avoided the monster-filled paths. Esther was right. Their best way through was The Feats of Strength.
“Well,” he said. “The tunnel is probably somewhere over this way.” It took them a bit to find, since the paths didn’t run true, but the tunnel was more or less where it had always been.
“Do we have to climb over?” said Mr. Gabler.
“I don’t think we should skip any steps,” said Esther, and she started to climb. Sighing, Mr. Gabler followed after. He climbed with a graceful ease, even with his ankle, and she remembered how quickly he had scampered up the side of his house.
Then came the crawl through the drainpipe. This one was particularly hard for Mr. Gabler, who was too big to fit in the narrowest point. But he also had a lot of experience getting through narrow spaces like this, and he expertly wriggled his way out.
“Okay, what next?” Mr. Gabler said. He seemed to be having fun.
“Next we go up there.” Agustín pointed. The slope was thick with cacti. Mr. Gabler no longer seemed to be having fun. “Ah, of course,” he said.
The way up was as dicey and painful as always, but then came the victory lap, the easy jog along the backside of the fences. Esther noticed that there were no dogs barking from the yards as they ran. Where had all the dogs gone on this ghastly night? This unease was overrun by the joy of finally moving fast, sprinting along the top of this hillside on this path that she and Agustín had made for themselves over years of hanging out together.
Finally the path ended at the ledge. Below the ledge was the silty pond, the final challenge of The Feats of Strength that neither of them had ever dared to actually leap into.
For once, Esther’s attention was not on the drop or on the water.
The little clearing around the pond had broadened in the unreal darkness. Now it was a wide meadow. All over it were tents and flagpoles, and everywhere the trick-or-treaters crept, in jack-o’-lantern heads and in tattered Superman jumpsuits and in filthy cowboy outfits. Their faces were never visible. They clicked and squished in unnerving ways. Even worse was what they were doing. There were hundreds of little cots, and on the cots were children kidnapped from the town above. The trick-or-treaters were tending to the sleeping children, with a gentle care that was somehow more terrifying than when they had acted aggressively.
“Yes,” said a voice that was rich with authority, and now Esther’s eye was drawn to the center of the camp. There a tall and elaborate throne had been constructed, formed of pumpkin vines and bat wings. On it sat the Queen of Halloween, flanked by Dan, crisp paper hat set perfectly on his head, standing stock straight with his arms behind his back, and by Ed, his hat crumpled in his hands, held awkwardly in front of him as he fidgeted and spit.
“The old man almost beefed it for us,” said the queen. “That tottering fool. But we were wasting our time with those scattered remnants anyway. Who cares if a few of them are still awake? Right?”
“Absolutely, my queen,” soothed Dan. Ed grunted.
“Sure,” she said. “Not a problem. No problems. We’re all fine. The children here are all in the Dream. Time is fully stopped. No more will Halloween wax and wane according to the whims of this world’s calendar. Now it will be Halloween forever. And I can raise these little children in the Dream, where they will learn what it truly means to be a trick-or-treater.”
The trick-or-treaters in the camp cooed and cawed, sharp animal sounds, and Esther had a sickening sense of what they might have once been, before they became these creatures here.
“Sharon is in there somewhere,” Esther said. “I know it. We have to rescue her.”
“Totally,” said Agustín. “This is so creepy. We have to help them.”
“I want to rescue my brother as much as any of you. But how, though?” said Sasha, and she had a point. Esther looked out over the camp, full of monsters, not to mention Dan and Ed and their queen, who apparently had the power to stop time and put everyone into an eternal sleep. It wasn’t quite the odds Esther would have liked out of the situation.
“A distraction?” she offered.
“Would have to be some distraction,” said Sasha. “And even if that happened, how are we going to get all of those kids out of there on our own? And would they even wake up? We don’t know how to wake them up yet.”
Esther hated that Sasha was right about all of the difficulties. “We can’t just give up,” Esther said.
“Before we go in there we need to know how to wake them up,” said Agustín.
“What’s keeping them asleep, exactly?” said Esther.
Sasha pointed at the queen, sitting high on her throne. “I think she is. The Dream of Halloween comes through her. Aileen said that ordinarily the queen shouldn’t have this much power. There must be something special she’s doing. To wake them up, we need to know what it is.”
“Sure, let’s ask her,” muttered Agustín.
Sasha rolled her eyes. “Look at her hands.”
Esther did, and saw what Sasha had already spotted. The queen was cradling a small, shiny black box. Esther remembered that she had been holding that same box in Mr. Nathaniel’s driveway. Whatever was in that box was so valuable that the queen wanted to be in contact with it at all times.
“I bet whatever’s in that box is necessary for her plan,” said Sasha. “Maybe even it’s what she gets her new power from.”
“I’d love to get it away from her,” said Esther. “But that’s impossible.”
“Not impossible,” said Mr. Gabler, who had been sitting out the argument, examining the camp with experienced eyes, checking routes, seeing which areas were more heavily guarded than others. “Very difficult, but not impossible.”
“You think you can do it?” said Esther.
He winked. “I wasn’t always a dentist, you know.”
MR. GABLER BIT HIS LIP. The light from the fires of the camp danced across his features, making him look like a different person from one moment to the next.
“This isn’t that different from some of the houses that Jimmy Bennington asked me to rob for him back in the day. All of those rich collectors have more security than they know what to do with. Which was good for me, because while they were bumping into each other, I could slip right in and grab what I wanted.”
He shook his head. “Sorry. Got a little nostalgic there for a second, but it wasn’t a good time in my life.” He furrowed his brow and half-heartedly wagged a finger at the kids. “Don’t steal.”
“Except now,” said Esther. “Right now we need you to steal.”
“Right. Yeah. I need to steal now. But otherwise.” Moral lesson done, he squatted and considered his plan. “So I think I can definitely get in unseen. But obviously she’s going to notice when the box is no longer in her hands. And I imagine her reaction might get a li
ttle . . . intense.”
“She’s going to kill us,” said Agustín.
“Quite literally, yes,” said Mr. Gabler. “Which is why I need you kids to leave.”
“What? No,” said Sasha. She planted her feet to show how much she wasn’t going to move.
“Yeah, we’re not going anywhere,” said Esther, standing next to Sasha.
“Heck no,” said Agustín. “Just, you know, heck no.”
“I can’t be responsible for putting you kids in this kind of danger,” said Mr. Gabler. “I’m not the person I used to be. I’m an actual adult, and I need to do actual adult things. And that means you all need to go right now. I’m not taking any argument.”
Esther opened her mouth to offer an argument, but Agustín touched her hand, and his gentle touch made a more persuasive case than any objection she could conjure.
“Okay, Mr. Gabler,” he said. “You’re right. We’ll go.”
“We will?” said Esther.
“No we won’t,” said Sasha.
“Yes, we’re going.” Agustín made slow eye contact with both of them, and Esther got it. She looked back at Mr. Gabler with amazement. She had so completely misjudged him as boring and sad. She wondered how much of what she knew about the world was wrong. That thought felt like drowning, but also in some small way it felt wonderful. There was so much still to learn.
“Let’s go, Sasha,” she said.
Sasha stayed where she was while the others retreated up the hill. Her chin trembled a little as she tried to hold in her tears. “I’m sorry, Mr. Gabler. I thought we all were brave.”
“Oh, Sasha, you are brave.” Sasha sobbed a little and hugged Mr. Gabler. He patted her back and said, “You are braver than I’ve been at any age. Now follow the others.” Sasha nodded and jogged after Esther and Agustín, who were waiting for her up the hill.
“Do you trust us?” Esther asked Sasha when she reached them.
Sasha formed her mouth to say no and then realized that wasn’t true anymore. She nodded. Esther grabbed her hand. She thought about all the hurt that had passed between them. Cruelty and mistruths and anger. She squeezed Sasha’s hand. The two of them were caught in something heavy and tangled and vast, and the only way out was for them to escape it together.