by Zoë Fox
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?” Meredith narrowed her eyes, glancing over at her oldest.
“Nope.” Alex lifted the remote and changed the channel on the TV. “He’ll be out here in a minute anyway.”
“Fine. Be that way.” Meredith continued to stare at Alex. Instead of wearing her hair down or pulled into a simple ponytail, she had plaited it into two thick braided pigtails. Alex had lost the thick black eyeliner she usually wore in favor of a subtler brown. Looking over the pink lady’s polo shirt Alex had purchased at the local Goodwill, Meredith realized she couldn’t remember the last time she’d see her daughter in a shirt of any color other than black or crimson. The first time Alex had come down the stairs in what was now her usual attire, Meredith considered protesting.
“You look like you’re going to a funeral,” she’d said.
“Thanks,” Alex had smiled in return. “That’s what I’m going for.”
Meredith shrugged, knowing that fighting with her daughter was pointless. If it was a phase she was going through, she’d outgrown it much faster if her mother ignored it.
Almost five years later, Meredith was finally willing to admit that it just might be Alex’s version of style.
“Okay, what gives?” Meredith asked, nodding pointedly at her daughter’s outfit.
Alex glanced down at her clothes. “It’s Halloween.”
“So, what are you supposed to be?”
“The one thing I’ll never be.” She explained.
“And that would be…?” She explained.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Alex rolled her eyes. “Normal. I’m dressed like a normal high school girl.”
Meredith laughed. “Okay, I’ll give you that. You’ll probably never be normal.”
Alex’s mind had been preoccupied all afternoon with the myriad of ways that night’s events could go wrong. She was about to take her six-year-old brother, her notoriously chicken best friend, and a vampire to the scene of a serial killer’s most recent crime.
“Oh, you have no idea,” She mumbled in response. No, normal was something that Alex could barely understand, let alone be.
Outside the sun had begun to set. Lucas was probably waking up as they spoke. The night before, he’d read Alex’s mind at an inopportune moment, while she was going over her plans to get inside the house without being caught by the cops. She, furious at his intrusion of her privacy, had refused to listen when he tried to talk her out of it.
“That’s it. I forbid it!” Lucas had both literally and figuratively put his foot down when logic, pleading and bribery had failed him.
“You what?” Alex laughed in his face. “How are you going to stop me?”
“I will…I will...” He paused, thinking over his options. “I will inform your mother of your whereabouts.”
She glared at him. “You wouldn’t! First you read my mind without my permission and now you threaten me?”
“I wouldn’t.” He sighed, his entire body crumpling as he took a seat on the couch in his office. If he was still capable of getting grey hairs, he was certain she would have given him several by then.
It had taken him the better part of an hour to convince her that they’d all be safer if he accompanied her.
Looking out at the quickly darkening skies, Alex was glad he’d decided to meet them at the corner of Elm and Holland Street after he found someone to snack on.
“Ready!” Toad called down the hallway. A few seconds later he stepped into the living room doorway, pulling at the red tie he wore.
Meredith stared at her six-year-old. He’d dressed himself in the black suit and white shirt his grandmother had bought him to wear to church with her, an outfit he’d never touched before. In his right hand, he carried a brown briefcase. Alex had found in the attic, an artifact that had been unused since her father’s death.
“I don’t get.” Meredith shifted her gaze to Alex for an explanation.
“Look,” Toad gestured to a laminated badge pinned to his breast pocket. Alex had made it for him at her school’s library. “It says Internal Revenue Service agent.” He paused. “IRS is scary, right?”
Meredith stifled a groan. Now the neighbors we’re going to think she was guilty of tax evasion. Instead, she nodded in agreement. “Very scary.”
“Come on, buddy.” Alex stood and reached for Toad’s little hand. “We’ve got to get Sean from his house.”
Toad rolled his eyes, exactly like he’d seen his sister do countless times. “Do we have to?”
“Yes,” She smiled at him. “Now let’s go get you some candy.”
After Alex reassured her mother for what had to be the twelfth time that she wouldn’t let her brother eat any uninspected candy, they were finally allowed to leave.
“Why would somebody put a razor blade in candy?” Toad asked as they walked down the stairs of the front stoop.
“I don’t know.” She thought for a moment. “Probably something simple, like nobody wanted to go to Prom with them in high school. They’ve got to punish somebody else for their issues. Mostly it’s an urban legend, though.”
Toad nodded solemnly. He was aware of, in ways Alex couldn’t begin to understand, what happened when someone’s internal struggles became too much for them to handle.
They were half way to Sean’s house when he began to get restless.
“Trick-or-Treat now?” He asked.
“In just a few minutes. You don’t want what these people are giving out anyway.”
“Why not?”
“Because,” Alex explained, “the people in our neighborhood don’t have as much money as those in Sean’s.”
“So?” He looked up at her, confused.
“They can’t afford to buy a lot of the good stuff. You always Trick-or-Treat at the nicer houses if you want the best candy.” She brushed a pigtail off her shoulder. They were beginning to get on her nerves. “People around here only have nasty gumdrops and candy corn. Nobody wants that stuff.”
“But Toad likes candy corn,” he sullenly mumbled to himself.
“You’re the only one,” Sean said as he closed his front door behind him. Alex could hear his mother yelling a laundry list of dos and don’ts to her son. “Come on, let’s get out of here before she decides to check you guys for eggs and toilet paper. She’s convinced we’re up to something. I think she’s decided that we’re going to vandalize someone’s house.”
Alex rolled her eyes. “Yeah, imagine the fit she’d throw if she knew we were planning a breaking and entering.”
Sean gulped. “Still haven’t changed your mind?”
She shook her head.
All that was left now was for them to meet up with Lucas and let Toad get a little bit of candy, then they’d be off to check out the crime scene. Sean said a silent prayer, hoping there wouldn’t be much blood. He had a tendency to faint at the sight of the stuff.
Alex and Sean talked as they led Toad to the first of many houses.
“Candy, please.” Toad said when a woman in a witch costume answered the door. He’d opened the briefcase he carried and held it in front of him so that she could drop something in it.
“Oh, aren’t you cute!” She exclaimed. “But you forgot to say Trick-or-Treat.”
“No, I didn’t.” He paused. “Candy, please!” He lifted the briefcase up higher.
“Sweetheart, you’ve got to say ‘Trick-or-Treat’ if you want candy.” She held up a handful of goodies.
“Why? No trick if you don’t give it, but I did say please.” He nodded as he spoke, agreeing with himself.
The witch looked at Alex for help.
Alex sighed. They’d experienced the same problem last year.
“Say ‘Trick-or-Treat’, Toad.” Alex patted him on his back lightly.
“Trick-or-Treat, Toad,” He repeated verbatim. “Candy, now, please?”
“Close enough.” The lady tossed a few pieces in his briefcase, shaking her head. She shut the door hard behind her.
>
“Toad did it wrong again?” He asked after getting a similar reaction at another house. He looked worried.
“You didn’t do anything wrong. You’re just not doing what they expect you to.” She ruffled his head reassuringly. “They want you to say ‘Trick-or-Treat’.”
“Why?” He looked up at her, his brown eyes might as well have been question marks.
Alex didn’t know how to tell him that the night wasn’t about getting candy like he thought. It was about letting adults ‘OH’ and “AH’ over your costume in exchange for a small treat. Basically, children were expected to walk a mile or two in an uncomfortable outfit for the amusement of grownups in order to receive a sugary reward.
“Because it’s tradition,” Sean tried to explain.
“Trick-or-treat is a threat. It says give Toad a treat or he’ll trick you. Why do they want me to threaten them? Candy, please is nicer.”
“Yeah, but they know you won’t really play a trick on them.” Sean responded.
Toad cocked his head to the side in an unspoken question.
“Well, you’re just an innocent kid. You’re not going to do anything to hurt them.”
Toad glared at him. “Toad not innocent. Toad is a person. Peoples aren’t innocent.”
Sean shook his head, feeling stuck. “But a person your age is innocent. They don’t really know right from wrong.”
Alex rolled her eyes.
“Kicking people isn’t nice?” Toad asked.
“No, it’s not.” Sean agreed.
Toad stopped and pulled his right leg back as far as it would go. He then proceeded to kick Sean in the shin as hard as he could.
“What the hell did you do that for?” Sean practically yelled as he hopped on one leg in pain.
“Toad’s not innocent. Toad knows kicking is bad, but he did it anyway.” He pointed at a nearby mailbox. “That’s innocent. It can’t hurt you. Toad can, anytime I want, but I chose not to. I’m not innocent. I’m just good.”
Alex covered her mouth to hide her laughter. As usual, the kid had a point.
“Will they still give me candy if I don’t threaten them?” Toad asked, turning his attention back to his sister.
“Usually.”
“But if they don’t?” He was extremely concerned about the idea of not receiving enough junk food to last till Thanksgiving.
Alex thought for a moment. “Well, then Sean and I’ll egg their house later, okay?”
“Don’t volunteer me!” Sean was still limping. “I’m not doing anything for that little brat after what he just did.”
Toad glanced back at him. “I can only be a brat if I’m not innocent.” He said, driving his point further home.
“If you don’t get enough candy, I’ll buy you more. Okay?” Alex had chosen to ignore Sean, knowing her friend was only upset because a child had outsmarted him.
Toad nodded. “Look, it’s the important guy.” He pointed to the end of the street where Lucas stood waiting.
Alex’s gaze drifted to the street signs proclaiming the corner of Elm and Holland. Her eyes met Lucas’ and he bowed slightly in greeting. She hated the way her insides clenched in reaction to seeing him, despite the fact that she was still mad at him for reading her mind the night before. The last thing she needed was for her body to react against her will.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Do you have enough candy now?” Alex asked her brother as they walked down the driveway of the last house. People, having run out of treats to hand out, were beginning to turn off their porch lights. The moon had moved high into the sky, an ominous eye staring down at her, making her more nervous about what she was about to do. The chilling breeze ruffling the leaves on the tree branches nearby seemed to hiss a warning. She pulled her jacket closer to her skin, trying to protect herself from unseen forces.
Toad shook his briefcase, making sure it was near full, and nodded to her enthusiastically. There was no way he’d run out of candy anytime soon, unless he gorged himself.
“There’s somewhere I want to go before I take you home, okay?” She ruffled his hair playfully, hoping the nervousness she felt hadn’t bled into her voice. The last thing she wanted was to scare him.
Toad slipped his hand into hers and looked up at her. “We’re going to the creepy house, aren’t we?”
From behind them she could hear Sean letting out an exasperated sigh. The vampire beside him had barely said a word for most of the night. At this point, Sean prayed it wasn’t because he was hungry. “Alex, he’s scared. Can’t we just forget about all of this?”
Toad glanced back at him. “Toad not scared. Toad is used to creepy.”
Sean rolled his eyes. “Fine. I’m scared! I’m scared of going to jail or running into some psycho who’s getting his rocks off reliving his last kill. Okay?”
Alex opened her mouth, intending to soothe his fears, yet again, but she was interrupted.
“He’s right,” Lucas said, clearing his throat which was rough from not speaking. He hated to agree with the boy, but he has a point. “What occurred in that house is none of our business.”
Stopping in the middle of the road, Alex glared at the two of them. “Look, I didn’t ask either of you to come in the first place. Toad and I can do this by ourselves. We don’t need either of you. Right, Toad?”
He shook his head. “No. We need them.” He pursed his lips in thought. “They’re necessary.”
Alex’s facial features shifted to mirror the confusion she felt inside. Her little brother had always been a bit weird, but recently he’d been acting strange, even for him. Last night he’d warned her at least three times to be careful. When she’d asked him what there was to be worried about, he’d shrugged.
“Spiders. They’re everywhere,” he’d said cryptically. Like she knew what that was supposed to mean.
“Alex,” Lucas said, pulling her attention away from Toad. “These matters are best left to the proper authorities.”
A vein in her neck pushed against her skin, her pulse rising as she became more frustrated. He couldn’t tear his eyes away and it bothered him. For most of the night, he’d walked quietly behind her, staring at the naked expanse of flesh left exposed by her pigtails. Once he’d almost touched it. He was beginning to feel like a deviant, bothered by his growing fixation with her.
“Oh, yeah, right. Weren’t you the one that told me the whole point of the police was to give the illusion of safety, not to actually make things safer?” She retorted, her eyes on the house at the end of the street.
“I believe that I said—”
“Forget it.” Alex interrupted him. “I’m going with or without you. Come on, Toad.” She pulled at his small hand as she started toward the ranch style home, but he didn’t budge.
“Uh huh. Not going without them. We need three!” He crossed his arms stubbornly across the front of his suit jacket.
“Fine,” she snapped. “Stay here with them then, but I’m going.” She stormed off in the direction of the house she’d been obsessing over for the last few days.
Toad stared up at Lucas. “We have to go with her now.”
The vampire sighed. “Why? Won’t she come back on her own?”
Toad shook his head. “Someone needs me in there.”
Lucas leaned down so he was eye level with the child. “What do you mean?”
He thought for a moment, but quickly began to look frustrated. “We have to go now! It’s important!” Toad insisted. “Sean has to come, too.”
“Tell me what you mean, Toad,” Lucas tried again. At the end of the street he could see Alex prodding the windows at the front of the house.
Toad stomped his loafer clad foot on the payment. “Toad can’t explain. It’s important. Time to go! Now!”
Sean looked at the boy like he’d lost his mind, but having been inside the child’s head, Lucas knew that something had to be about to happen to upset Toad so much. For all he knew Alex was about to get herself in troubl
e. Apprehension caused the tiny hairs on the back of his neck to stand up at the mere thought of it. Sighing, he lifted Toad into his arms and looked over at Sean. “Come on.”
“No way.” He started to argue immediately. “This is as far as I go.”
Lucas glared at him, his brown eyes had gone hard like smooth stone. He didn’t have the energy to waste compelling Sean to follow him nor the time to convince him to come along on his own accord.
“I need him, too.” Toad whispered into Lucas’ ear.
Lucas nodded. “Sean, you’re coming.” He started down the street toward Alex.
“No way!” Sean repeated himself, beginning to panic.
“Follow me now and stop this senseless arguing.”
Alex had disappeared around the side of the house, causing the feeling of urgency inside of him to heighten.
“Or what?” Sean stared at him stubbornly, trying to determine if what might be waiting at the house was worth upsetting a vampire over.
“Or I’ll bite you, that’s what!” The threat sounded empty to Lucas’ own ears, but it was enough to get the young man to start walking again.
“Sissy,” Toad called as he neared the house. “Where are you?”
Alex peaked her head around the side of the building. “I’m fine. See?”
Toad nodded. “Down,” he told Lucas, who placed him safely on the ground.
Having fed earlier, Lucas’ heart was still beating and the rapid pace it had taken on since Alex had first left his sight bothered him. If this was caring for someone, part of him could not decide if it was worth it.
Walking to the front door, Toad leaned down and picked up a small rock from behind the shrubbery that grew on both sides of the entryway. He turned it over in his hand, showing his sister the tiny compartment at its base. He smiled as he opened it and handed her the key.
“How did you know that was there?” She stared at the metal in her hand.
Toad shrugged. “Toad just knows things.”
Not knowing what he meant, she found herself nodding. Somehow that non-answer made sense, though how, she didn’t know.