by J. D. Oliva
Abi's family moved to Hawk Hallow in the fifth grade. It wasn't easy on the family as Dr. Ahmad worked at a hospital outside Minneapolis. The hour commute every day had become routine for him. But to his wife and daughter, who did the drive once a week to the mosque, it was awful. The Ahmad's were outsiders in the small, conservative town. They were the only Muslim family in either Hawk Hallow or Cartersville, which they told Abi made her special. She was smart enough to know that it made her a target.
"If they don't want to talk to you because of who you are, then you don't need those people in your life," Dr. Ahmad always said.
Abi knew her father was right, but it didn't make things easier. By the time she reached the eighth grade, it just became part of life. She didn't talk to many people at Hawk Hallow and didn't talk to anyone at Carter-Hallow. She was happy just to be a faceless person in the halls. She was finally starting to understand what her father meant. Her grades were perfect, and she had plenty of time to focus on them without any distractions, with the exception of student government. Until Tyler and his goons attacked her.
This year had to be different. This year Abi was playing a huge role in the events of Halloween. This year she had to be out on the town, though she knew better than to tell her parents she was the strategist in an intricate revenge plot.
Abi hadn't decided how she was going to break it to her father. With Halloween on a Saturday, maybe he wouldn't notice. In her garage, Abi stuffed a large duffle bag with contraband. Each piece wrapped in a brown paper bag, which Abi ignorantly thought made them look less conspicuous. Clad head-to-toe in black, she looked like a ninja, which is exactly how she planned on moving tonight.
"Where do you think you're going?" Dr. Ahmad asked.
Caught red-handed.
"Nowhere," Abi said, unable to look in her father's eyes.
"Aabish...."
"I was just gonna go hang out for a while," Abi said.
"Aabish, I've told you before, your mother and I don't want you participating in this barbaric holiday!"
On a normal day, Dr. Ahmad would have had a nice conversation with his daughter about why this was so important to him. But, after finally getting his transfer to Hawk Hallow Area Hospital a few months ago only to have it burn down, he wasn't in the best mood.
"But, Dad, I'm not gonna celebrate anything, I just want to hang out with my friends!"
"So, now you're lying to me?" He asked.
Abi wasn't sure if her father thought she was a liar because she was going to go out and trick or treat --she wasn't-- or if she was a liar because she said she was going out with friends. Like, the idea of her possibly having friends was so unbelievable. That was insulting.
"No, I'm not lying," Abi said in a tone that she'd never spoken to her father with before.
"Can't you see what this demon worshipping tradition is doing to your brain?"
Both of them realized how ridiculous that sounded. Neither of them was willing to address it. Instead, they just stared at each other, neither flinching. It was the first time Abi had challenged her father.
"Go to your room! Immediately!" Dr. Ahmad shouted.
Abi wanted to yell back but couldn't. She just couldn't yell at her father. She just stared, tears welling up in her eyes until she couldn't hold them back anymore. Abi burst out and ran back into their house and up to her room. She threw her door open and crashed onto her bed. She pushed her face into her pillow and tried to muffle the sound of her tears. Why couldn't her father understand how important today was? How important Abi was.
Abi tried to ignore the knock at the door.
"Are you okay, Aabish?" Her mother, Aabidah asked.
"No, Dad's trying to ruin everything!"
Aabidah hated seeing their only child hurt. She also understood that her husband had been worried about their family's culture. She walked through the door and sat on her bed, gently stroking Abi's hair.
"Your father's not trying to ruin anything. Our faith is very important to us," she said. "You don't need Halloween. We just celebrated Eid."
"No! You don't understand!"
If her mother was trying to calm her down, it was failing.
"This isn't about Halloween! We've been living here for four years, and now I finally have real friends. I don't want to change my religion. I just wanna be a normal kid for once," Abi said.
Aabidah got it. Like her husband, she embraced her religion, it wasn't always easy. Often they found themselves looked at as if they weren't real Americans. Her husband was much more confrontational than she was, but they both shared the same feelings. Part of it was the way she felt the family was always excluded. She hated that. She wanted Abi to be a normal kid. And now the only ones stopping her from being normal was them.
"Okay," she said.
"What do you mean okay?" Abi asked.
"Go have fun with your friends. I'll talk to your father."
Abi jumped up and embraced her mother, squeezing her as hard as she could saying, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
She smiled and said, "But I need you to come with me first."
They entered her bedroom, and Abi took a seat on her bed. She wasn't sure what her mother was doing, but she seemed very serious. Aabidah opened up her jewelry box and pulled out a small object.
"This was your grandfather's ring. It's like the one the Prophet wore," she said. Abi grabbed the ring with her thumb and forefinger. It was silver and engraved with a crescent moon and star, a traditional Muslim symbol.
"I can't wear this," she said.
"I know. His father gave it to him before he left for America and he wore it 'til the day he died. I just want to you have it."
Abi had seen rings like this before, but not quite this impressive. Her grandfather had passed away a few years after she was born, and though she didn't like to admit it to her mother, Abi had no memory of him.
"He always said that no matter where he went or what kind of challenges he faced, he always reached out with his hand in faith."
Abi admired the ring for a moment. It reminded her of the Green Lantern ring. She placed it on her index finger like him and gave it another look. She still had no idea what she was going to do with it, but if all she had to do to get her way was take the ring, that was an easy choice. She placed the ring in her front pocket and ran out of her room. It was a very sweet gesture from her mother and the ring itself was cool. She'd do a little more digging on the ring later. Abi had far more important things to do today.
XXIV
The Haunted Hallow was ready for business. Though they'd been open for more than a week, the zombie crew-- a nickname the works gave themselves years earlier-- saw those nights like dress rehearsal. Today was the big day. Today was Halloween. And with Halloween being on a Saturday, they were sure to be busy all day long and well into the night.
"Gather round, gather round," a voice bellowed out.
The band of twenty-three workers, dressed in blood-splattered gear gathered in the Holding. The Holding was where the customers would wait in line before entering the less-than-scary Texas Chainsaw Thanksgiving scene, a set-up designed to lower expectations. It always worked. The same slight misdirection that sold Roscoe on the Hallow.
"Let's go, bring it in," Roscoe said again.
While his employees dressed in fairly typical horror attire, Roscoe had finally taken off that grey Confederacy-era coat and replaced it with long, priests' robe and a pair of large, tinted aviator sunglasses. He was also carrying a small container of Kool-Aid. The Jim Jones reference was a little over-the-top, and completely lost on his employees.
"Happy Halloween, y'all!" He said to a loud ovation. "Now, I know we've only been together a short time, and I know the Slaters will never be the Burks. To be sure, I damn well know that we can never replace the genius that was Mike Burk, but on this most sacred night, I want you all to remember something. The Haunted Hallow is a family institution. That's what tonight is all about: family."
&n
bsp; The crowd nodded, hanging on his every word.
"You've taken my family in and made it part of your own. And for that, I am eternally in your debt. So let's remember that tonight is about families having fun. I can promise y'all that my family is going to have a lot of fun."
Bo and Kyra smiled. She was dressed in a long, flowing, white robe that looked ethereal as it hung from her thin frame. Bo wore a green jumpsuit that looked like it came off a garbage collector. Not terribly out of the ordinary, until he pulled the World War I-era gas mask over his head.
"But most importantly, with that fun comes fear. They don't have fun unless they're scared. Our job is to make sure they have fun, so in order to do that, you have to be absolutely terrifying. Trust me, they'll love it. And remember, no matter how much they beg, no matter how much they scream, never, ever break character."
The zombie crew stood there staring at their leader. Their hearts raced. A few bounced in place, gearing themselves up for the best night of the year. This was different than it was under Mike Burk. There was something in the air that made everything feel a little more real, a little more exciting. No matter what happened tonight, things were going to be scary.
"Let’s get in there!" Roscoe said.
Abi's bike pulled up right as the zombie crew let out a roar. As they marched into the Hallow toward their stations, she chained her bike up to the fence on the outskirts of the property.
"Ms. Ah-mad! Ms. Ah-mad!" Roscoe called toward her.
Roscoe always butchered the pronunciation of her name, always hitting the hard “A” sound and following it up with 'mad' instead of saying 'mod.' He could tell she didn't like the way he said her name. Not that he cared in the slightest.
"You're late."
"I'm sorry, my dad was giving me a hard time with--"
"It doesn't matter. Where's Cody and the other one?" Roscoe asked.
"You mean Nick?"
”Yeah, whatever. Where are they?"
"I haven't seen them. They're probably inside," Abi said.
"You better text those boys or whatever you kids do. This is the big day! It's time to unleash!"
"It absolutely is, sir," Abi said with a smirk.
XXV
The trick-or-treaters hit the streets at 1:00pm, as per city ordinance. That was two hours earlier than they would have had on a regular school day. Two more hours to roam the city and fill their bags. It also gave the bag-snatchers two more hours to roam the town searching for easy targets to pick off. Tyler Tomczak was the most prolific bag-snatcher in town. Considering he was almost sixteen, he had five years under is belt.
Any time Cody didn't spend at the halowl, he watched his brother, Connor. Cody tried to figure his exact routine, when he would leave the house, where he'd meet up with his friends, what they would do together. It was like studying apes in the wild. Connor left the house shortly after 11am. Cody kept his distance following behind. Connor and Mike Shonan met up at Tyler's house shortly after 11:30.
Cody pulled out his binoculars and scoped out the Tomczak property. While riding out there, Cody expected to find a rundown shack just outside of town in unincorporated Hawk Hallow with a rusty chain-link fence and car parts scattered on the front lawn. That wasn't what he found at all.
Instead, he hopped a ten-foot iron fence that kept the gated community called Hallowed Hills, separate from the rest of town. Now on foot and running between the trees, Cody watched his brother and Mike Shonan ditch their bikes in front of a four car garage McMansion. Hallowed Hills was an old money part of town where a lot of the doctors from the HHAH worked. This couldn't be the right place. But as Kevin Giantolli and Johnny Parkin walked out of the garage with Tyler himself, Cody made the shocking discovery that Tyler was nothing more than a spoiled, little rich kid. No wonder he got away with so much over the years.
Cody watched them hop on their bikes and head off with Tyler leading the pack. Here were five complete jerks going off to steal candy from unsuspecting eight and nine year-olds. Tyler, whose parents, by the looks of his house, could afford anything he wanted, was going to steal from little kids. What a piece of garbage.
Cody ran back toward the big, iron fence where he stashed his bike. They had a big head start, but that didn't matter. They were heading toward Town Square in downtown Hawk Hallow. It was a collection of small shops, restaurants and condominiums built up along the train station. It was only an hour train ride from Town Square to the Cities. This, according to Abi's research, was where they'd start their menacing. She really was smart, and judging from her suggestions on their torture room, insanely creative. Hanging out with her was more fun than expected. Never mind that, time to focus.
Cody hopped on his bike and rode the twenty minutes from Hallowed Hills to Town Square. He found an unassuming dumpster and hid his bike behind it, just out of sight from Main Street. Cody took off his backpack and unzipped the top pouch. He pulled out a mask called a face tube. Like a tight fitting cowboy's bandana, it covered the bottom part of his face, from the nose down the neck. He pulled the mask down over his head. The skull design looked badass, he thought. He then pulled out a black hat with an orange H in the center and placed it on his head. Dressed in black from head to toe, with the skull mask and hat, Cody looked like an ANTIFA warrior.
He reached into the tote and pulled out a carton of eggs. He zipped up the bag and stashed it under the dumpster. He would come back for it later. After this, he needed to be a fast as possible and the backpack would just weigh him down. The eggs were at least three weeks old and smelled terrible. Cody loaded the front pouch of his hoodie with six eggs and carried two more in each hand. He took a deep breath and walked out on to Main Street.
There they were. Tyler, Connor, and the rest of the goons just standing around watching the endless packs of kids in costume shuffle by. They were whispering to each other, plotting. Their bikes were in the rack outside Doc's Drug Store at least one hundred feet from them. That was good. He was going to need the space. Tyler pointed across Town Square to a single kid. He was a little heavyset and dressed like the Flash. He was by himself at the moment. Whether the Chunky Flash was trick or treating alone or he had just lost his friends, Cody wasn't sure. Connor and Kevin Giantolli broke from the pack and started circling toward him from the back. They were going to get this poor kid who couldn't have been older than nine or ten.
"Bullies," Cody whispered.
Tyler closed in on the trick-or-treater with Shonan and Parkin behind him.
"Hey, fatass, what do you got in the bag?" Tyler said.
The Chunky Flash's eyes grew big as he looked around and realized he was surrounded. He didn't say a word.
Cody took a breath and headed for the inevitable conflict. His heart was racing and his palms were moist. If he wasn't wearing gloves, those eggs would have already hit the pavement.
"I said, what's in the bag, fatass?"
Again, the Chunky Flash didn't say a word. Giantolli snatched the bag form behind.
"Hey, give that back!" The Chunky Flash said.
Cody tightened his arm and got ready to let loose when suddenly, he froze. He wanted to throw that egg. It was all he'd thought about the last month. Every night before bed, he'd lie there awake, fantasizing about this moment, but now it was here and he couldn't move. It was like the blitz against Morrisonville again. He choked. He let his arm drop to his side and watched Tyler dangle the bag over the Chunky Flash's head. Why couldn't he do anything? Why was he content to just watch the same way everyone at the Harvest Dance just watched Tyler kick him in the ribs. The same way he just watched them push Abi off her bike. The same way he watched him torture a girl. Abi was a great person. She was smart and funny and that asshole hurt her. Cody squinted his eyes and without even thinking he threw the first egg.
The egg sailed for only a second before exploding against Tyler's head. He reached up and touched his hair, pulling back and looking at the broken yolk in his fingers. Tyler reached up and stumbled backw
ards, like he had been shot in the head. Another egg flew in the air and hit him in the nose. Tyler dropped to a knee and covered his face.
"Who the fuck is that?" Connor asked.
The warrior in black stood tall in the center of Main Street. The goons sat there waiting for Tyler to get up. He reached into his front pouch and threw the rest of the eggs. Then, the warrior extended his hand up to his face mask and pulled down.
"Burk!" Tyler screamed.
As the freshmen goons broke and headed toward him, Cody's valiant stand broke. His eyes grew large as the reality of what he'd just done set in. This was exactly what he planned, but that didn't make it any less scary. As they closed in, Cody took off back toward the dumpster where his bike was waiting for him. He jumped on and headed off down Gable Point Road.
"Shit, he's gone!" Shonan screamed.
"Get the bikes," Tyler said coldly. "I know exactly where he's going."
XXVI
Cody took the turn hard and almost lost control of his bike as it whipped around the corner. A few quick moves through Town Square gave him some distance as Tyler and his cronies started to catch up. Cody saw the Haunted Hallow just below the hill on Gable Point Road. He knew the line would stretch around the building, and he could use that to help create some more space.
Cody pushed his mountain bike as hard as his thirteen-year-old quads could handle. His thighs burned, but he knew that pain would be a gentle kiss compared to what Tyler Tomczak was going to do to him this time.