"Come back to this house before nine," Mom shouted from the garden gate. "And Art, if I heard you tried anything funny, young man, I'mma whoop your skinny as good."

Yolanda openly giggled, earning a scowl from her brother.

"Bye, Mom," Kalea called, tugging at the oversized witch hat on her head.

"Bye, Mrs K," her friends said, waving cheerily.

The group of six made their way down the street into the next, Art whistling a tuneless music under his breath.

The first house they went to had lighted pumpkins blaring up all the way from the driveway to the porch. They walked up to the front door with Yolanda leading.

An elderly lady opened the door and smiled with her black-glossed lips. "Hey, there."

"Hello. Would you like to see a trick?" Yolanda asked politely.

"Yes, Miss Roach," the woman answered, the smile still on her face. "I've never seen a trick from a roach before."

Yolanda thought for a while and did a split handstand. She flipped to the side and lay supine on the floor. "That's a caught roach," she explained from the ground.

The woman was obviously delighted. She clapped her frail hands together and skipped. "That's really creative," she said.

"Thank you." Yolanda stood up heaving from the short exercise.

"And what would you be showing me, young man?" the woman asked Art.

"Err . . . I can do a card trick."

"A jester with cards? That's creative."

Art smiled and pulled out a deck of cards from his pocket. "Pick one," he said.

The woman closed her eyes—although no one told her to—and picked one.

"What card is it?" he asked.

The woman took a peek at it. "A five of aces."

"Alright," said Art.

A minute later, the happy woman looked towards Kalea and her friends expectantly, like a four year old.

"No, they're our brother and sister. We're just taking them out," Dore quickly explained.

"Yeah." Lacey nodded vigorously.

"Okay." The woman smiled. She went into the house and came out with a plastic tray piled high with treats. Everything in chocolate flavor—even the liquids. "There you go," she said. "You're such sweet kids."

Dore and Lacey and Kalea couldn't think of anything sweet they had done, but they smiled in gratitude and emptied the tray into their bags respectively.

"Thanks," they all chorused and moved on to the next house.

By the time they had cleared the street, their bags were bulging and heavy and wearing them down. Kalea and the kids couldn't remember getting so many treats in so little time. The people of Melashire seemed to be extra generous this year. Or maybe it was just because the population of this street was of elderly people.

They all decided to make a return trip home and dump their treats before continuing. They were going back for their second round when a group of adults in ugly clothes walked by. The kids assumed they had meant for the clothings to be Halloween costumes but it had obviously missed the mark.

They were four in number. Three tall men and one woman. One of the tall men was as fat as he was tall and had a menacing scowl set in his small, squinty eyes and tiny, chapped mouth. He looked rugged. He was the first to stop in front of them and add to the scowl already on his face. The new expression gave his face the look similar to one a big dog with a bumpy bottom had sat on.

The first other man, a pale thing, was taller than the rest and had a long, ugly face with his mouth slightly open and a wide set of nostrils on his thin, triangular nose. Thick, bushy eyebrows were set far apart from his dopey wide eyes that seemed to be only seeing faraway from here. A big frame of glasses sat askew on his stupid looking face. He waved at the kids and smiled. His teeth were surprisingly sparkling in the night light.

The third man had a shocking pink head of ratnest hair that seemed to be trying to defy gravity. It almost looked like a wig, but the kids couldn't be too sure. He had a pretty plain face than the rest of the group, the raised scar wrapping down around his jaw being the only distinct feature on his face. He was holding a cigarette and blew the smoke in Lacey's face who coughed and took a large step back.

The woman in the group looked surprisingly normal, was dressed normal. She could have been anybody the kids could have seen at the restaurant or cafe or bus stop or even next door. She had her dark hair pulled into a neat, tight ponytail towards the back of her head. She was even dressed in normal clothes—a dark gray-ish tank top that showed off the sharp, rectangular shape of her shoulders, a dark, fitted Jean and black combat boots. She had an orange costume of some sort tied around her waist and she was engrossed in her button phone, tapping away at the glowing keys like her life depended on it.

Kalea was the first to speak up. They had been going down a slightly narrow path that cut across to a new lane but now this weird bunch of people were obstructing their way. She slowly felt in the hidden side pocket of the purple cowl and felt relieved when her hand pat the butter knife she had slipped in when nobody was looking. It was just that on their way back home earlier, they had met so many weird and creepy bunch and all that gave her an unsettling feeling, so nobody could blame her for being slightly paranoid.

"Excuse us," she said. "We'd like to pass."

"Oh, sure. Allan look who we got here. Six o' them." Stupid Face grinned wider, his white, white teeth looking so incogrous on his face that it was almost a joke.

"Shu we take 'em?" Pink Hair asked, stretching and wiggling his hands out in a slow motion towards the kids.

The kids yelped and stepped back. But there was nowhere to run to.

"Shut up, will you, Allan?" Dog Face said in a gruff but surprisingly feminine voice.

This made the kids take a second look at him and they discovered that she was, in fact, a woman with her expanding bust the children have first taken for excess body fat and long hair that flew around her slightly feminine face.

"Why should I?" asked Allan the Pink Hair with a petulant scowl on his plain face.

"Because you're just stupid," Stupid Face answered.

Dog Face sighed, hitting her forehead with a palm in the manner of someone frustrated. "Will the both of you shut your ugly mugs? They're too much for each one of us, so we won't them."

"Take who?!" Art demanded. "Who the heck are you guys? Some serial killers?"

Kalea tugged on her brother's hand and shook her head. She didn't know who exactly these people were yet but she had a small plan and hoped it worked. The other weird adults had fanned out around them and Stupid Face was the only one blocking their exits now.

"When I say "run", follow me," she murmured, bending her head so that it was only her friends that heard.

"But we can't let them go. They're not dumb." Ponytail spoke up for the first time. Her phone was still in her hand, glowing, but she had her attention on the group now.

"I didn't say I was going to let them go," Miss Dog Face snapped.

Ponytail shot her a look of hatred but kept quiet, going back to her phone.

Dog Face stared at her for a while, as if hoping she'd speak up so they'd start a proper fight, but then, realizing Ponytail wasn't going to rise to the bait, turned back to the situation at hand. "Allan and Dick, grab the smaller ones. We'll handle the rest."

"What the fuck," Lacey murmured, going into a fighting stance. "Who the fuck are these messed up peeps?"

"They're going to abduct us and kill us!" Art shouted. "Let's call 911." He started to bring out his phone.

"Already on it," Tobie said. She was dressed as Billie Eillish so and had on this heavy, big jacket so she was able to hide underneath and dial without any of the weirdos noticing. Her left hand was currently buried inside the folds, subtly dialling the numbers.

"Good." He turned to the adults, a triumphant smirk on his lips. "We've called the cops."

"What!" Stupid Face shouted and kicked Art's phone out of his hand. The device flew out of his loose grip and projected far away towards Dog Face and landed before skidding to a stop at her conversed foot. An evil grin spread across her face, showing off all of her big, brown and yellow teeth. She raised her foot and high as it could go over the phone and brought it smashing down.

"No!" Art screamed, running towards her.

Dore put a restraining hand on his arm and held him back. He fought against her, screaming.

"Let's see you call your police," the gruff, ugly voice said and her converse came down repeatedly over the phone till what remained on the ground was broken shards of metal and glass.

"What are you simpletons waiting for?" Dog Face said to the others. "The others might have phones, too!"

As the others made for the screaming kids, Kalea Made her precipitous decision. With a cry, she raised the knife and stabbed at Stupid Face obstructing their path. She didn't even know where she had hit, she was just satisfied to hear his cry and see him lumber to the side, clutching somewhere on his upper body, then crash to the ground.

"Run!" she was shouting, even before Stupid Face touched the ground. She grabbed hold of Yolanda's hand and started to sprint like it was the last thing she'd ever do.

She could hear the others running behind her and the shouts and screams of the weirdos. She could even hear the emergency service operator loud and clear somewhere in the folds of Yolanda's jacket but there was no chance yet to stop and answer. With heart beating somewhere near her palates, she dashed along the path, hoping to meet people on the other side who were much enough to deter the weirdos. Art was screaming obscenities as he was running. Obscenities that would make Mom want to seal his mouth shut with a hot iron.

To her relief, they burst into the next street and it was blissfully bright with lights and loud with music and costumed people. They had arrived at downtown.

Flashing neon signs displayed store and shop names and transparent glass windows showed what they had to offer. Some old reggae music breezed out of a disco ball down the street and people milled around the street, some in groups, some alone. All bubbly and lively and enjoying the season's festival.

The kids walked over to the nearest store, glancing back behind them. To their relief, the weirdos were nowhere to be found and had left their tails. They wouldn't dare risk harassing the kids here in the public.

"She broke my phone! Fatguy broke my phone!" Art yelled. Tears were streaming out of his face and his nose looked wet. He continuously jammed his fingers into his curly browngold hair like he wanted to tear it out.

"We just narrowly escaped with our lives and all you can worry about is your phone?" Dore's face was livid with anger.

Lacey put a hand on her arm to calm her down but it got shrugged away. "Would you have preferred we got caught and killed and your phone got saved? Huh, tell me, huh?!"

Kalea winced, glancing around them to see a few eyes regarding them with curiosity. "Dore, don't bring unnecessary attention to us."

Dore turned to Kalea, meaning to say her mind. "I—."

"I had many important stuff not backed up on that phone!" Art moaned, sinking to the ground. "The boys are gonna kill me, oh my God, I'm dead," he murmured.

A frown crossed the group's face and Tobie and Lacey went to squat on either side of him.

"What boys? What are you talking about?" Tobie asked gently.

"What was on that phone?" Kalea came to stand in front of the squatting boy, a suspicious frown marring her smooth forehead.

Art bowed his head for a while and didn't utter a word, but then he slowly raised his head and pushed to his feet, turning away. "Nothing. Nothing," he said, drying his tears with the sleeves of his costume.

Kalea scowled at the back of his head. "You had better tell me now. You're only going to get in trouble with Mom when those so called 'boys' treat your fuck up."

"I said it's nothing," he said firmly and started to walk away.

The others silently followed him, keeping their distance. Kalea decided to let it go . . . for now. After all, they had more pressing matters at hand. They needed to get those weirdo bunch arrested. The thought made her remember something and she halted.

"Tobie, I thought you'd called the police."

Tobie gasped and reached for her phone. "Scratch. They answered. They must have thought it was a prank when I didn't say anything. I'm toast." She sighed heavily.

"Who were those bad people? What did they want?" Yolanda said, her voice tiny and shaky with fear.

Kalea noticed they were still holding hands and she squeezed it lightly. "I don't know, Landa. I think they were tryna kill us."

"They wanted to abduct us at first, but then one of them said we were too much for them . . ." Dore said.

"Which means they're currently on the look out for a lesser group of kids. Or loners," Tobie finished, her eyes widening in fear.

Lacey gasped. "Oh-em-Gee, we should really call the police again."

"They're probably on their way to find me and haul me in," Tobie said dejectedly.

"My phone's dead," Dore said, shrugging.

Lacey groaned and palmed her face. "And I left mine and Kalea's in the extra candy bag in her room."

"What!"

Lacey winced apologetically. "My bad. I didn't realize until we were too far away."

"I was going to tell you later. I didn't know we'd need it anytime soon," she added when an angry Kalea continued to glare mutely at her.

"Way to go," Kalea said, her eyebrows almost meeting. "You just had to."

"My bad," Lacey murmured.

"I got my phone," Yolanda said. "I think," she added. She tucked a hand into her cockroach pocket and came up empty. "Oops. I think I left it in Mom's car."

Tobie said, "Let's just find someone to give us their phone."

"Yeah, who'd believe us?" Lacey said.

"They'd think we were playing a prank," Kalea said. "Or, even if they believed us, they'd think those people had been pulling a pranking on us."

"And the nearest police station is miles away," Dore said, groaning. "I don't wanna trek that far."

"Let's just go home and find the phones." Art shook his head sadly and made for the road.

The others sighed heavily and followed him. Nobody noticed the group of people in menacing costumes closely following them.