Will glanced over at Rosemary, who was busy handing out snack-size Snickers and Kit Kats to a group of kids who looked to be around seven or eight, and included a ballerina, a little girl in a long black dress and carrying a test tube who he thought was supposed be Marie Curie, and a pretty convincing werewolf. She grinned and said, “I’m in the dark, too. Since I wasn’t involved in making it, I get to be surprised along with everyone else.”
“You all take Halloween pretty seriously, don’t you?” he asked as he went over to Rosemary so he could grab another bowl of candy and be ready for the next group of children who came along.
The two sisters exchanged a glance. “Well, for anyone who follows the old religion, Samhain is a very important holiday,” Isabel said. “But yes, we’re all big fans of Halloween. Our mother really got into it when we were kids — sewed us some amazing costumes, decorated the house like crazy back before it was as popular as it is now.”
“It was lots of fun,” Rosemary chimed in. “Mom used to dress up as a witch and sit on the porch in a rocking chair, and she’d hold a big bowl of candy in her lap as she sat there and rocked. You had to reach in the bowl and try to get a piece of candy without her grabbing you. She had dry ice fog swirling around and everything.”
Will tried to visualize pretty, cheerful Glynis McGuire dressed up as a scary witch and didn’t succeed very well, but he supposed you had to be there. For a moment, he recalled the Halloweens back in his Massachusetts neighborhood when he was young — the crunch of dead leaves under his feet, the scent of wood smoke that seemed to hang in the air…the sweaters his mother tried to force him to wear with his costumes because it was really too cold to go around without one. Luckily, he always won those battles, but he had a feeling she made the effort every year because otherwise she wouldn’t have felt as though she was doing her motherly duty.
Just good, simple fun from a time when the world didn’t seem quite so frightening and demons were something you used in ghost stories to scare the crap out of your friends. Too bad they’d turned out to be all too real.
Luckily, those dark thoughts were chased away by the arrival of another group of trunk-or-treaters, and for the next twenty minutes or so, Will and Rosemary and Isabel didn’t have much time to chat, since the kids were coming in steady waves now, the volume growing greater and greater as more parents got home from work and started to make the rounds with their children.
And then, just a little after six, Celeste and Kevin showed up with Tyler.
No wonder they’d tried their best to keep the project a secret. Because their son was so young — Will remembered that Rosemary had said Tyler was two — they’d concocted a costume that allowed him to ride around in his wagon while they pulled it. Of course, you had to strain to see the wagon at all, because it was covered in a sort of crazy quilt of metallic gold and silver and copper fabric, stitched to look like a pile of treasure. Sitting in the middle of the quilt was Tyler himself, wearing a dragon costume in shades of dark copper and brown and umber. His little face was just barely visible through the dragon’s mouth, but he looked mightily pleased with himself.
“Holy crap,” Rosemary said as she stared down at her nephew. “That’s amazing.”
“Thanks,” Celeste said, looking justifiably proud of herself. Her hair was braided back in an intricate style, and Will noticed that she wore fake prosthetic points on her ears. Judging by the ears and the elaborate green costume she wore, he guessed she was supposed to be an elf of some sort.
“Smaug, right?” Rosemary asked then, and Tyler grinned from inside the dragon head he wore.
“SMOG!” he shouted.
Right, from The Hobbit. Will hadn’t seen the films, so he didn’t know who Celeste was supposed to be. But Rosemary’s brother-in-law, buried under a long white wig and fake beard and gray robes, was undoubtedly dressed up as Gandalf.
“Well, Smog,” Rosemary said, obviously mispronouncing the name on purpose, “do you want some candy to add to your treasure?”
“Snickers!” Tyler shouted.
Rosemary grinned. “Okay, kiddo, Snickers coming right up.” She dug around in the bowl she held and extracted two of the miniature candy bars, and dropped them into the large plastic pumpkin Kevin was holding.
“What do you say, Tyler?” Celeste prompted.
“Thank oo, Auntie Rosemy,” Tyler responded.
Will couldn’t help smiling a little at the boy’s mispronunciation of his aunt’s name. Then again, “Rosemary” was kind of a mouthful for a two-year-old.
The two-year-old in question was staring up at him now, blue eyes wide even shadowed as they were by the head of the dragon costume he wore. “You’re scary,” he announced, and Rosemary and Isabel both chuckled, even as Celeste looked reprovingly at her son.
“He’s not scary, Tyler,” she said. “He’s a cowboy.”
Apparently, Tyler was having none of it, because he replied, “He doesn’t have a cowboy hat.”
“It’s kind of cowboy hat,” Rosemary put in, obviously seeing the need to defend her companion. “He’s Wyatt Earp, a famous gunslinger.”
But it seemed Tyler had decided to be contrary. “He doesn’t have any guns.”
“No guns on Halloween,” Will said, doing his best to mimic a western drawl. “That’s the law.”
Tyler’s eyes grew even more owlish. “Really?”
“Really.”
At that moment, a large group of trunk-or-treaters began to enter the shop, which was already starting to feel a bit crowded. “We need to keep going and make the rounds,” Celeste said. “But you all are coming to the carnival at Finkbiner tomorrow night, right?”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Isabel replied. “Go on — load up on candy.”
“That’s the plan,” Kevin said, voice a little muffled by the heavy beard he was wearing. “We’ll try to stop by again after we’ve done the circuit.”
“Have fun!” Rosemary called out, and her sister smiled and gave her a thumbs-up as Kevin squeezed Tyler and his wagon out through the door.
After that, they were busy for quite a while and didn’t have a chance to talk much, because the waves of children just kept coming. Will knew that Glendora was bigger than it seemed, but he honestly hadn’t expected there to be quite so many kids, enough that he started to wonder if Isabel and Rosemary had enough candy on hand to feed them all. Yes, he’d seen the bags of fun-size candy bars stashed under the counter, but it still didn’t quite seem enough.
However, he pushed his worries away, figuring that the McGuire sisters had been working this event for years and most likely knew exactly what to expect. And he was actually glad of the crush, just because the constant influx of new faces and new costumes meant he didn’t have much time to think about anything else, including the Project Demon Hunters footage that was now making the rounds on the internet. It was a problem they couldn’t ignore forever, but for now it was enough to hand out candy and to praise the kids’ costumes, and in the few moments where they had a bit of breathing space, to allow himself a glance at Rosemary and admire how beautiful she looked. Of course, she was lovely with no makeup and her hair mussed from sleep, but it was also fun to see how she could change her appearance so drastically when she wanted to.
And fun was something they all needed right then. Halloween was nearly upon them, and he had no idea what to expect, but for now it felt good to live in this moment and enjoy it, to pretend that no shadow hung over them and that they had nothing bigger to worry about than where they planned to go out to eat after the trunk-or-treat officially ended at eight o’clock.
He was also starting to wonder what had happened to Michael and Audrey, since they’d promised to attend the event and it was now almost seven o’clock. But even as worry started to sink its claws into him, the two of them walked through the shop’s entrance, and Rosemary let out a delighted peal of laughter.
“Yay — you did it after all!” she exclaimed.
Because although Will would never
have worn his vestments as a costume, Michael obviously had no such scruples. He’d slicked his over-long hair back as best he could, and wore a black suit with the priest’s collar prominent at his throat and a black fedora covering his head. In one hand, he held a black satchel. Next to him, Audrey was wearing a sparkly red devil costume which, although not as skimpy as some he’d seen, still showed a good deal of leg and cleavage.
“Well, it was kind of a moral imperative,” Michael said.
“I wanted to be a nun,” Audrey put in, sounding a bit aggrieved. “But they were out of my size, so Michael suggested this.”
“I can see why,” Rosemary replied with a grin. “Going to take her home for a bit of exorcising after this, Michael?”
He tried to look stern, but there was a glint in his gold-gray eyes that told Will his friend probably planned to do that very thing. “Hey, she picked it out.”
“Because it was the least offensive devil costume in my size,” Audrey said. “But whatever. We’re here. Have we missed much?”
“Well, you didn’t get to see my nephew,” Rosemary said. “But Celeste and Kevin said they’d swing by before they left, so all is not lost.”
Although Audrey had looked a little worried to hear she might have missed the star of the show, she relaxed slightly when she heard they’d have a second chance to see Tyler. “Oh, good. I know we’ll get to see his costume tomorrow, too, but I was looking forward to that.”
“Fred didn’t come with you?” Isabel asked, trying to sound casual but not doing a very good job of it.
Michael and Audrey exchanged a glance. Then Michael said, “He told me to send his apologies — he’s trying to get a costume together and he sort of ran out of time for tonight. But he said he’d definitely come tomorrow night for the carnival and dinner afterward.”
She relaxed visibly. “Oh, that’s fine. I told him he didn’t need to worry about a costume, but he seemed to think it was important since the rest of us were dressing up.”
“And I wasn’t going to try to dissuade him,” Michael replied. “I know what Fred’s like when he gets the bit between his teeth.”
They all smiled at that remark, but soon after, it was back to handing out candy, since another group of trunk-or-treaters showed up then. Seeing that they were busy, Audrey and Michael excused themselves, saying they were going to roam a bit but would be back in a little while.
“Don’t want to miss Tyler a second time!” Audrey said, and Rosemary gave her a thumbs-up.
Shepherding this latest group of children was a woman who looked to be around Isabel’s age, maybe a little older. After the kids had gotten their candy and were about to move on to the next shop, the woman with them said, “You all look amazing! I know it’s kind of late notice, but we’re having a Halloween party at the Castle tomorrow night, and I’d love it if you could drop by.”
“‘The Castle’?” Will repeated, wondering if he’d heard her correctly.
“Rubel Castle,” Rosemary said. “It’s kind of a landmark.”
The woman smiled. “Yes, we actually got our historic designation a while back, but I know a lot of people have never heard of it.”
“And you’re with the historical society, right?” Rosemary asked. “I think I remember seeing you at the booth at the street fair last spring.”
“Yes, that’s me,” the woman replied. “Lena Margolies. Anyway, come by if you can. Just tell them Lena sent you. But I have to run — I need to keep an eye on the kids. Have a good one!”
She went out, and Will sent a questioning look at Rosemary.
“It should be a lot of fun,” she said. “I did a tour of Rubel Castle a few years ago — it’s this crazy place that this guy named Michael Rubel and a bunch of his friends built over the course of several decades. People still live there, although Michael Rubel himself died some time ago.”
Isabel spoke then. “It does sound like fun. I’d heard that they had Halloween parties there, but it’s sort of an invitation-only kind of thing.”
“Well, it sounds like we have an invitation,” Michael said. “The question is…should we really accept it?”
“Why not?” Rosemary demanded, hands on her hips. A big amethyst glinted from her hand, a ring Will didn’t think he’d seen before.
“Are you forgetting Audrey’s vision? The one that indicated this would all be over by All Saints Day? That seems to imply that something is going down tomorrow night on Halloween.”
“We don’t know what it is, though,” Audrey pointed out. “Honestly, wouldn’t we be safer at a party surrounded by people?”
“Strangers,” he returned, and Rosemary shook her head.
“Not complete strangers. I mean, all right, I didn’t know Lena by name, but I’ve seen her before. I’m sure there will be other familiar faces at the party, because it’s a locals-only sort of thing. And it does sound like fun. You’ll love Rubel Castle — it’s built of stone with all sorts of found objects embedded in the concrete. There’s a caboose and underground rooms and all sorts of crazy stuff. I can’t think of a better place to spend Halloween night.”
For a moment, Michael was silent, obviously pondering what Rosemary had just told him. Then he looked around at the eager faces that surrounded him and appeared to relent. “All right,” he said at last. “But I’m stocking up on holy water, just the same.”
“Well, it goes with the costume,” she said with a grin, and he sent her a pained look.
The discussion was effectively tabled then, since Celeste and Kevin returned with Tyler, and there was much oohing and aahing over his Smaug costume. He’d gotten quite the haul at the trunk-or-treat, and clearly was ready to go home so he could devour his spoils.
“Only two,” Celeste warned him, but he didn’t seem too worried by the restriction.
“Four,” he said, holding up five fingers, and Kevin smiled.
“We’ll see, buddy.”
They made some quick plans for their meet-up at the Halloween carnival the following afternoon, then rolled Tyler away.
There was still almost an hour left until the trunk-or-treat officially ended, but Will could tell it was starting to wind down. They handed out candy — and still had several unopened bags left, which sort of shocked him — and then closed everything down a little after eight. Rosemary suggested heading over to a place called Luca Bella, which was just down the block and around the corner. Everyone agreed this sounded like a good idea, rather than driving somewhere else in all their various cars. Isabel bowed out, saying it had been a long day…although Will got the impression that she simply didn’t want to be the fifth wheel and so excused herself.
But even without her, dinner was a lively affair — the food was good, the wine list decent, and everyone seemed to be doing their best to pretend all was well in the world. Even Michael, who usually tended to be the one to bring people back to reality, apparently had decided to let it go. Maybe he’d decided, much as Will had, that since they had no idea what the Greencastle demons were even up to, they might as well relax and enjoy themselves now while they had the chance.
The next day could be decidedly different.
Chapter 16
Although the internet buzz about the Project Demon Hunters footage didn’t seem to have died down — if anything, it had only intensified — Rosemary still found herself looking forward to Halloween night. She hadn’t experienced any strange premonitions or feelings, and neither, apparently, had Audrey.
“You may all be putting more meaning into that ‘flash’ of mine than you should,” Audrey had said when Rosemary called during her lunch break. “It’s not as if I have some kind of world-class reputation as a clairvoyant or something.”
“No, but your intuition has been pretty good in the past,” Rosemary replied. “Still, I know what you mean. The footage is out there, and the world hasn’t ended.”
Audrey had made a disgusted sound at that comment. “Well, your world hasn’t. Michael’s been on the phone
with his lawyer all morning.”
Uh-oh. “That bad?”
“I don’t know yet. But when you get right down to it, Michael really didn’t have anything to do with what happened to the footage. I know he and Colin had discussed doing something similar, but it’s not a crime to talk about something. So this may end up being a bunch of sound and fury, but we won’t know for a while yet.”
“And here I am, dragging him out to a Halloween party.”
“It’ll do all of us some good,” Audrey said, obviously doing her best to make sure Rosemary wouldn’t feel guilty about playing social director. “And actually, we looked up that Rubel Castle place online after we got home last night, and it seems like an amazing place. Michael’s actually really interested in checking it out, says he wants to see if it’s at all psychically active.”
That sounded like something Michael would want to do. It was too bad Colin Turner was gone; he probably could have shot some interesting footage at the castle. Assuming, of course, that the historical society would have even allowed a camera crew in the place.
“You’ll love it,” Rosemary told her friend. “It’s the kind of crazy spot that you’d never expect to find in sleepy old Glendora. How could I turn down a chance for us to spend Halloween in a place like that?”
“You couldn’t. We’re really looking forward to it — even if Michael is being all doom and gloom about my supposed ‘prediction.’”
“He shouldn’t be. For all any of us knows, it was simply telling us that we were past the worst and there was nothing else to worry about.”
Even as she spoke those words, though, Rosemary couldn’t help feeling that she was being overly sanguine about the situation. It still felt as though she’d missed something vitally important, although she couldn’t say what. And things had been quiet ever since she’d returned from Indiana. Surely if something was going to go down, she should have caught a hint of it. Even her dreams had been calm, placid. Although she couldn’t exactly explain how or why, it was almost as if the stream of impressions she tapped into to get a reading on a place or an object had simply been turned off.
Unbroken Vows Page 21