The street lights suddenly turned on and the pavement’s darkness filled with light. A witch was carrying her tiny broom under her armpit and a few yards away a very angry cowboy dragged his feet on the concrete floor trying to collect what was left of his fallen property on the street. A very tightly tied mummy was forcing his bandages to follow him down towards the trees where he placed one arm on the branch and pretended to be impaled through the stomach. A few ballerinas were passing by and seeing the hideous joke they screamed in fear.

On the other side of the street a neatly dressed penguin, a very tall elephant and a sleepy, as it seemed to be, shark crossed by the last house build on that neighborhood.

“Come on, guys. Last stop and then candy all night” yelled the boy in the elephant suit.

“Wait for us Tommy!” the penguin boy was holding the little shark girl by the hand and trying to keep up with the pace of their friend’s. The little girl stumbled on her own pacing and found herself falling down, dragging the penguin along. Tears formed in her eyes and the excessive crying reached the elephant boy in no time. Tommy stopped on his tracks behind an iron gate and turned to see what had happened.

“Come on, Evelyn. Stop crying...it was just your feet...you are fine” he approached and pulled her up with one arm. The young Evelyn, unable to speak yet, rubbed her eyes with the sleeve of her shark costume and took the elephant by the hand awaiting for them to move on. She wasn’t hurt, but just the fall was enough for her eyes to fill with tears.

“Are you coming Kyle?” Tommy kept yelling, as if they were on different streets or on far away buildings. The penguin boy, Kyle, rolled his eyes and got up, dusting his costume.

“She was just crying…” he pouted and straightened his glasses on his nose. “What a fake…” he pouted again, this time with his lip touching his chin.

Tommy hurried towards the iron fence door and opened it. Kyle rubbed his hands together as suddenly the air had gotten chilly. He raised his head to look at the house but his face filled with fear. It’s these things you find in nightmares. The strong smell of rotten weeds in the yard and pumpkins that didn’t get the chance to fully grow, because crows had found their way to deceive the scarecrow. The house was decorated beautifully though; for a scary night! Toilet paper was mushed on the ground mixed with dirt and all the windows were covered with newspaper on the inside. The lights were all turned off but there was one lantern outside hanging from a post wrapped with spiderwebs. It was hard to make out some parts because of the dark of the night but the street lights were giving away some of the details. Like the dirty planks that had softened after a rainy day and the pillars that held the arch in the front of the house which were a bit bent. Kyle paced faster to reach his friends.

Tommy seemed excited. He found the place rather beautiful. He touched one of the pots that had an ugly withered plant in it and then rubbed all the dirt off on his costume. He made a very disgusted expression before turning to look at his friend. “Look Evelyn! Just like the scary books.” He pointed at the door of the house. It was large, wooden with a handle on the front and lots of weeds in the corners. The girl grabbed her older friend’s hand tightly and with the other brought her basket to her chest where she pulled a lollipop. She put it in her mouth and let it soak between her teeth. All three kids gathered in front of the house and with their lust for candy growing inside of them they reached to knock the door. Before they could though, the door creaked opened and a pair of brown eyes with bushy eyebrows welcomed them. Tommy was about to speak but was interrupted by the guy that opened the door.

“Trick...or treat?” the old man spoke, his hoarse voice echoing strongly. He sounded as if he had a cloaked throat and hadn’t spoken for weeks. The man licked his lips but smiled widely, making his shadow tremble under the light of the candle he was holding. Tommy frowned.

“Hey, mister, that is our line.”

The old man’s smile faded fast and the door opened a bit more for him to reveal himself. He was taller that any of them and was wearing a very old blue robe. He had plenty of hair on his legs and his feet were wearing funny slippers, with ribbons on the sides but torn off bits on the front, which showed some part of his toes. A strong old-geezer odor was surrounding him. Kyle raised his head to take a better look. His hair was gray and messed up and he wore glasses similar to his. A bit bigger though and round. His ears were huge and Tommy couldn’t help but notice some wax in there along with hair from his head, tangled together. All three kids took a step back. This was very weird even for them, the brave trio that had managed to treat their way around the neighborhood that night.

“Aw, I know! But in this house...I ask the questions!” The old guy leaned towards the kids, his voice getting deeper.

The three brave ones looked at each other and agreed silently for a ‘treat’. But the man once again interrupted both their thoughts and their words.

“I’ll tell you what! You answer my riddle and you can have lovely sweets.” he rubbed his hands together and then brought from underneath his armpit a cane. He used it to support his weirdly crooked body which would crumble if he stood there for long. Kyle chose to speak up this time and folded his tiny arms on his chest.

“What if we get it wrong?” he fixed his glasses on his nose and waited for an answer. Either way, he knew that they should get out of there and just ignore this man, who clearly seemed delusional and weird. Even so, Tommy was excited and wouldn’t move from his spot. The old man placed a palm on his chin and rubbed some of his beard hair. He then smiled widely again, showing the kids his empty mouth and raised a finger towards the sky.

“I know.” he exclaimed. “If you fail to answer my riddle, you will have to eat the candy that I baked today, right here…right now!” a grin formed that erased his previously good smile. Tommy raised a hand and yelled “YES! We accept” before any of the others could protest or at least think about it.

“Tommy, this is dangerous. I think we should just go home.” Kyle backed away a bit. The yard started looking so huge and the iron entrance was far away.

“Don’t be such a baby. We get candy either way...so let’s just see if we can get this right!!!” he yelped in excitement. The old man giggled weirdly under his breath and then placed the riddle in their heads.

“What disappears as soon as you say its name?”

The candle flickered under the old man’s breath who repeated the riddle once more so the kids could really understand it. Kyle and Tommy looked at each other and little Evelyn stood looking at them while still licking her lollipop. Kyle pressed his glasses on his nose. As the smartest of the three he tried to solve it on his own. Tommy was throwing names in his head but none made sense with the question the old man had asked. Suddenly Evelyn took the lollipop out of her mouth and pressed her lips together. “Silence!” she answered and to the boys surprise of her first ever spoken word, she was right.

“Correct!” the old man said a bit frowned at his loss. He reached for a vase next to the door and grabbed a handful of sweet neatly wrapped nougats. His hand expanded a bit and he dropped the candy inside Evelyn’s basket. The girl hopped happily and turned to walk down the small steps of the arch.

“Wait a minute. What about us?” Tommy said as Kyle turned to follow Evelyn, satisfied just with the fact that they were free. The man looked at the brave dressed elephant and his frown turned into yet another grin. He reached for the same vase again but this time pulled out two green marbles which he offered the boy. Tommy seemed unsatisfied before he smelled the little round balls. They were his favorites. Mint flavored jaw breakers with a strawberry ending.

“One for you and one for your friend!” the man said before closing the door and disappearing in the darkness of his house. Tommy hopped like a bunny towards Kyle and passed him one delicious jaw breaker as he had already placed his own inside his mouth. Evelyn was already going through her nougats.

“That was really dangerous, Tommy. We could have been kidnapped.” Kyle said but trustingly licked the candy before taking it in his mouth to swirl on the inside of his cheek. Suddenly he stopped. The taste was weird. Some of his own saliva mixed with the juices started crawling their way down his throat and making the taste even worst. He was frozen at his spot and trying spitting out that horrible tasteless candy. But the jaw breaker had formed a glue area around his teeth and wouldn’t move around. His throat had started to feel weird and his eyes filled with tears. His head only turned to warn his friend before he could swallow, but Tommy seemed to be in a similar state. Tommy’s throat had expanded like a golf ball was stuck inside it. They both tried to warn Evelyn as their knees gave in and both ended up crawling on the dirt. Evelyn though seemed to happily enjoy her candy.

Kyle stretched his arm to reach the little girl but something pulled him back. Both the boys turned to look behind them, their mouths full of saliva and a mix of green ooze. The old man was there behind them, his robe untied, showing half his body eaten, some of his bones cracked outwards. His chest had a hole where his heart used to be and one of his legs was artificial. He no longer had hair but on his skull were huge pimples oozing green liquid like the one the boy’s had swallowed. He leaned down and grabbed with each of his arms the legs of the boys and dragged them towards the house. Tommy and Kyle tried yelling but with their mouths full and choking, and their eyes puffy and crying, nothing was actually coming out. The man dragged their swollen bodies inside a small warehouse and piled them up on top of a few other kids he had gathered that night. It was a mass of green oozing goo, bones and blood. The boys couldn’t even struggle but gazed at the door of the warehouse for a couple of seconds before their eyes started melting out of their sockets. Evelyn was standing there, licking her previously half eaten lollipop. She raised a shark hand and waved at them before closing the door. The old guy, wearing his previously normal look took her by the hand and escorted her to the exit of the yard.

“Go!” he silently said and turned to walk to his house.

“Bring me some brave ones next year too!” he grinned and shut the wooden door of his empty house.