Saturday, October 31st finally arrived, and Jessa spent all afternoon making up her zombie face into a perfectly gruesome mess of fake bruises, dried blood and flaking skin. She rubbed baby powder into her long hair and brushed out the waves to make a grey frizzy mass that protruded from all over her head. She pulled on an old shirt of her father’s that she’d purposefully dirtied with shoe polish and some strategic rips, and finished the look with a drizzling of fake blood over her chin and down the front of the shirt.

At exactly 5 pm, Flynn arrived at the door.

Jessa stared at his costume. “What are you?”

“Can’t you tell? I’m a ghost!”

“Oh,” she looked closer as Flynn stepped into the light of the house and she realised he was wearing a little makeup to lighten his skin and darken his eyes. “You look a lot like regular Flynn, though.”

“Well yeah, just because I’m a ghost doesn’t mean I’d look different. I’m Ghost Flynn.”

“All right then, Ghost Flynn. Give me your coat. What do you think of my costume?”

“You look quite disgusting.”

Flynn was greeted warmly by Mr and Mrs Baxter, dressed as a pirate and wench respectively, who immediately pulled him to the buffet table and handed him a paper plate. Just a few minutes later, the doorbell rang again. Jessa opened it to Maggie, wearing a hand-sewn cat costume, complete with collar, tail and ears, and a painted face with suitably cat-like eyes and whiskers.

“Meow,” she presented a bottle of cola. “I brought fizzy pop. I know you have plenty, but it’s polite to bring an offering for your host.”

Tonia and Annora ran up the driveway just behind Maggie.

“You guys didn’t dress up?!” Jessa exclaimed.

“Yeah, we did!” Tonia splayed out her arms under a colourful cape.

“We’re each other!” Annora curtseyed in Tonia’s denim skirt.

It wasn’t long before the other guests had arrived, and the entire downstairs of 88 Duke Avenue was buzzing with the sound of friends and family and neighbours, some meeting for the first time, some reuniting after long whiles apart, and some who saw each other regularly but still found reason to celebrate. Even Annora, who Jessa suspected would be too timid to enjoy the party, had a great time and turned out to be a commendable guest, beating all the other players and defeating the hologram Dance King in the FolioMax DanceOff tournament. Everything was going perfectly until Jessa noticed Audrey take off her lab coat and remove the stethoscope from around her neck. Reduced to her regular clothing, Audrey said goodbye to a handful of people and walked toward the front door.

Jessa followed.

“Why are you leaving?” she asked as Audrey’s hand unlatched the front door.

“Sorry Jess, I have plans with Hugo tonight.”

“He can come here! Invite him to the party!”

“I don’t think so. He hasn’t met Mum and Dad yet, and I don’t want to put too much pressure on him.”

“So this is the perfect way for them to meet him. It’s so casual.”

“Yeah, but still no. Not tonight, Jessa. Maybe another time,” she walked up the path towards the front gate. Her zombie sister still followed.

“Audrey, why are you being weird?”

“What do you mean?” she turned around. “I’m not doing anything, I just—”

“Yes you are,” Jessa interrupted. “You’re being weird with me. We met your old boyfriend, why can’t we meet this one?”

Audrey resigned. “Fine, I’ll tell you. I suppose you had to find out eventually.”

“Find out what?”

“You kind of… already know him,” she said quietly.

“What? What are you talking about? I don’t know anyone called Hugo.”

“No,” Audrey paused. “You know him as Mr Fletcher.”