October 31st

The school day was unbearable. Jimmy swore he saw the clock move backwards at least twice. Sally confirmed this. They weren't the only kids in school who couldn't wait for darkness. The entire student body was already wishing it was sunset and that they were dressed as monsters, aliens, and super-people. This feeling of suspended animation wasn't limited to the students, the teachers couldn't wait to get the heck out of there, either.

Eventually, the clock struck half past two. Bells rung and children screamed with joy and exited the school building like Romans being vomited out of the Coliseum.

Jimmy and Sally rushed home and prepared themselves for the coming evening. When the sun finally began to set and dinner was finished they applied their costumes and met out front.

Both of them were pretty impressed with each other's costumes. Sally really wanted to try on Jimmy's beard and Jimmy was kind of interested in Sally's tights. They had skulls and spiders all over them. Skulls and spiders were his two main spirit animals. They agreed to trade beard for tights after collecting 100 pieces of candy, which was projected to be roughly at the halfway point of the night, according to their itinerary.

The first stop was Mr. Ba's house, located at 3721 21st street, on the corner of a crossroads. Sally rang the bell and both the children waited. Mr. Ba answered the door and smiled.

"I was hoping you would come!" He said.

"Trick-or-Treat!" The children yelled.

"Come in, come in," he said and then went on." I have candy for you…or you can have a mystery treat."

"Mystery treat!!!!" they screamed in unison.

"Very well! Uno no-mo-men-toe!" Mr. Ba said with a chuckle. He disappeared into the kitchen and returned to the doorway holding a broom and a wizard's staff.

He handed the broom to a saucer-eyed Sally and the staff to a wide-eyed Jimmy, neither of them could muster a response due to an overload of excitement.

The children vibrated up and down in place as their tiny hands reached out to accept Mr. Ba's gifts.

"Good luck children! This is no ordinary Halloween," He said as he made the parting gesture of The Society.

Jimmy and Sally returned the gesture and said, "Thank you Mr. Ba." before retreating from the doorway and walking away from the house.

"What do you think he meant by 'This is no ordinary Halloween'?" Jimmy asked.

"I'm not sure, but I think he means things are going to get weird in a little while. My Witch Hat is trying to tell me things but I can't really hear them yet."

"Takes a while to tune in, just like the clouds," Jimmy said while stroking his beard, "Hey, does your broom fly?"

Sally straddled the broom and tried to fly up to the moon. Nothing happened.

"Guess not," she said with a frown.

"Bummer," Jimmy said.

The first part of the evening passed in a typical Halloween sort of way without any trace of unusualness being noticed by either Jimmy or Sally. When the full moon had finished rising, things started to get a little weird. Just a little. Not really noticeable at first. Sally noticed her broom got a little bit lighter, meanwhile, Jimmy's staff was shooting off sparks now and then. Neither child mentioned anything to the other about it.

The trick-or-treating continued unabated. They were carrying nearly half their body weight in candy when out of nowhere a tiny werewolf tackled Sally. Instinctively, Jimmy pointed his staff at it and a lightning bolt shot out, reducing the lilliputian lycanthrope to ashes.

"You didn't get bit, did ya? 'Cause if ya did, I'd have to end you before you turn."

"No," Sally said as she stood up and dusted herself off. "I'm pretty unbit. That was really weird."

"I know…" Jimmy said but before he could finish a tiny mummy hit him on the back of the head and he slumped to the ground. Sally yelled and pointed her magic wand at the monster. Flames spat from the end of it and engulfed the mummy, it screamed and ran away but fell over, smoldering, shortly after.

The old couple's hilltop enchantment had begun to take hold of the town. The trick-or-treaters were turning into their costumes. Dozens of tiny Draculas, mummies, ghosts, aliens, and all kinds of other monsters, creatures, and abominations were roaming the streets destroying everything they could.

The children dressed as heroes and good guys didn't change; there were no packs of little Wonder Women or gangs of Batman kids meting out justice. It seemed only those dressed as monsters or villains were affected.

By ten o'clock, Sally had mastered flying her broom and working her magic wand. A few minutes later Jimmy figured out how to shoot lightning, fire, and ice blasts out of his staff. By midnight, the streets were littered with the bodies of child-sized monsters and monstrosities.

"That was weird," Jimmy said, fishing a pack of candy cigarettes out of his robe and offering one to Sally.

"Thanks. What was weird? Real monsters?"

"No," Jimmy said. "I mean killing more than one thing at a time. Usually, I just kill you and I'm done, but tonight I killed a bunch of stuff."

"I know what you mean," said Sally. "I liked it. I don't care if I ever get to kill you again as long as there's more monsters.

"Me either, killing monsters is way more fun."

The two newly-forged monster slayers wandered the streets, cleansing them of this Hallow's Eve Curse. Monster sitings became less and less as the night went on due to their brutal and efficient methods.

Around two in the morning Jimmy and Sally made their way to Jimmy's Grand Father's house. Jimmy opened the door and held it for Sally, who said "Thank you," as she walked into the living room. Grand Father and Mr. Ba were sitting in big leather chairs, smoking pipes in silence. They all made the sign of greeting towards each other and Jimmy and Sally plopped unceremoniously on the couch.

"What the heck is going on out there?" Jimmy asked whichever adult wanted to answer.

"Exactly what you think happened," Mr. Ba said. "You don't need tall folk telling you that all the kids dressed like monsters turned into real monsters and you fought them to death using your wits and my mystery treats, do you?"

"No. We don't," Sally answered. "But it sure is nice to get some confirmation. It's weird as hell out there now 'bouts."

Mr. Ba and Grand Father exchanged glances.

"You both did excellent, tonight," Grand Father said. "Are you sure you got all the monsters?"

"We haven't had to kill one in like an hour," Jimmy said.

"Good enough," Mr. Ba said.

Jimmy's Grand Father stood up and went into the kitchen. When he returned, he was holding a tray which held a steaming teapot and cupcakes.

"Who would like some hot chocolate and cakes?"

Everyone said, "Me!"

When they were finished Mr. Ba presented Jimmy and Sally with gold star pins.

"These are for bravery in the face of supernatural horror," he said as he affixed a star to the brim of Sally's Witch hat and then one to the sleeve of Jimmy's Wizard robe.

"How do you two like fighting monsters?" Grand Father asked.

Sally and Jimmy looked at each other and nodded. Jimmy turned to his Grand Father and replied, "We really like it."

"It's as much fun as knife fighting and killing each other, but without the weird coming back from the dead stuff," Sally added.

The children sat up late into the night, drinking hot chocolate and talking to their elders about their next mission until they decided they were tired and went to bed.

In the morning the town's people were relieved to find that the monsters from the previous night were gone and horrified to find them replaced with the bodies of normal children strewn about the street like road kill.