Time was passing by slowly. The cold was just as piercing, and the weather as gloomy and moist as always. The school days were long and boring. His friends were doing the same things, every single day. Nothing seemed to change. Not a single sign to make him believe he was a fairy.

Maybe I'm not a fairy, after all. Maybe I'm just a boy who can see fairies... he tried to convince himself.

Still, there was something different since his last visit to Lavender Sky's cottage. He could feel it. It was there, waiting. Like a long-distance threat, yet getting closer with each day that passed.

He decided he shouldn't tell anything to anyone. His mother, his friends, all the people he knew, would have seen him with different eyes. Everything would have changed. He didn't care what people thought. But what about his friends? How would they react? They didn't even believe him when he told them he could see fairies, let alone now? That would have devastated her to know he wasn't her real child. What about May?... May believed in fairies, but would she had felt the same if finding out HE was a fairy? People are afraid of the unknown, he remembered Lavender told him. And all he wanted was everything to remain the way it was.

"What's wrong with you, Ferry?!!" he heard Matilda yelling in his ear, shaking him by the shoulder. "It's the third time I'm telling you!"

"What? What is it?" he asked as if awaken from a deep sleep.

The school was over and now the three of them were heading home.

"I was asking if you could join us for the Halloween night," she said, sniffing. If there was one thing Matilda hated the most that were people not paying attention to her.

"I─ I don't know..." Ferry stuttered. "I never─"

"You mean you never went trick-or-treating?" was Ben's turn to wonder.

"Well..."

"So what do you usually do on Halloween?" Matilda asked.

"My mum and I, we decorate the front garden with pumpkins and dummies made of old clothes, leaves, and branches. And then, my mum bakes the best pumpkin pie in the world."

"Bo-ring!" Matilda cut him short. "How can you spend Halloween without trick-or-treating? This year, you're coming with us," she decided.

" I usually go with my sisters," Ben mumbled.

"Aren't you a bit too old to go with your sisters?" Matilda mocked him.

"Who else is coming?" asked Ferry.

"Well, last year I went with my father. But now that I'm older, I suppose I could go with you," she said.

"I was thinking," dared Ferry, "we could invite May to come along..."

But he didn't even finish his sentence, that Matilda burst into laughter; although anyone could tell it was a burst of nervous laughter.

"When is it going to get into that head of yours that May will never be your friend. It doesn't matter you're doing homework together. Didn't you notice that she barely looks at you at school?"

"I just thought─"

"You thought what? That she'll team-up with the weirds? Please! She's in Cecilia's group. The group of the popular ones, that is," she said, stressing the last words.

"Matt's right, Ferry," Ben interfered. "I don't see any point in asking her."

But Ferry still believed May would have come with them if asked. He just had to wait a little longer before his friends accepted her as part of their group.

"So be it," Ferry said. "We're going together, the three of us."

"Great!" both his friends said at the same time.

They carried on, laughing and frisking.

"Let's stop for a while at the playground," Matilda said. "Winter's coming and we won't be able to play anymore."

"All right, but no more than fifteen minutes," said Ben. "Mum will be worried if I'm going to be late."

The playground was not very far from school. It was an old, small park, actually, and one of the few places that remained from the old village after the town was built. An old, rusty slide, a few swings with attached chains that creaked with every wind blow, and a rocker with a cracked board were the only amusements. But the children loved that place. The old linden trees with their large trunks were the park's biggest attraction. They could easily turn them into shelters when it was raining because the raindrops could barely filter through the rich foliage. And when they blossomed, their sweet fragrance spread even five streets away.

That day, the playground was full of children. Some of them gathered in a large group around somebody, and Matilda was dying to know what was happening. To their not so pleasant surprise, they found Billy Pride surrounded by several children who were watching with their eyes wide open Billy's latest gift from his father—a photo camera. A small one, with a leather case, tied with a string around Billy's neck. It didn't look at all like the camera of the old photographer who took the picture of their class a while ago. That was big and couldn't be held with just one hand, like Billy's. And more, that one needed to be placed on some sort of tree-legs holder. Billy's camera, however, could take pictures of everything easily, at any time. All you had to do was look through that small hole and then press the button. But Billy didn't let anyone touch it. Not even his best friend, Danny Stevens.

"It's the latest, most modern camera in the world," he bragged while taking random pictures. His finger was almost never detaching from the shutter. "My father bought it from the Big City. It cost him a small fortune," he added in front of everyone, gaping at his precious gift.

When Ferry and his friends showed up in front of his camera, Billy stopped taking pictures and a grin appeared on his face.

"Hey, Donovan, step away!" he shouted. "You're going to ruin the picture."

"We don't care about your stupid camera!" Matilda answered back.

Billy didn't mind her. Nevertheless, ever since he got Lavender Sky's magical feathers, Billy kept his word and didn't mock Ben anymore. But that didn't stop him from teasing Ferry every time he had the chance.

"Say, Donovan, are you going trick-or-treating this Halloween? Oh, wait a minute. With that face of yours, you don't even need a costume."

And Billy burst into a laughing right in Ferry's face, accompanied by the other children. Ferry felt his sight turning blurry again. He was about to browbeat over Billy when Matilda stopped him, "Ferry, he's not worth it. Remember what happened last time? You were sent to detention for nothing. Let's go home. I lost my mood for playing, anyway."

"By the way, May is coming trick-or-treating with us," Billy shouted as they were walking away, in the laughter and giggles of Billy's friends.

That made Ferry very sad, although he didn't let anyone see it. Giving Billy Pride the satisfaction was the last thing he wanted.

After a few days, Billy brought to school the pictures taken with his camera. His father had already taken them to develop. The other children in the class gathered around him. Some of them were admiring his talent, calling him a native photographer, others were praising Billy's artistic skills.

Out of curiosity, Ferry cast a glance at the photos. Although clear, the pictures were showing nothing but images randomly taken that day at the playground. Children playing, Danny Stevens doing monkey faces, the trees around and... One of the pictures particularly caught his eye. There were several children at the playground that day, playing on the sliding. Yet there was someone else in the picture. Somewhere in the back, hiding behind a tree, there was a tall silhouette with a fuzzy face. Taller than the tallest man in Goodhart. Like an acrobat on stilts. He seemed to watch the children. Ferry took a closer look. There was something disturbing about that picture. That figure was barely visible and it could just as well have been the shadow of a tree. Yet, Ferry felt it wasn't that. That figure, whatever it was, seemed threatening.

"What is that, Billy?" he asked, pointing at the figure.

Billy snatched the picture from his hand and watched it carefully. From the frown on his face, Ferry could see he also observed something strange about that photo.

"It's just the light falling perpendicularly on the ground, from the shadow of a tree which was photographed against the light," he said with the air of a professional. "But you can't possibly understand that."

"But did you notice anything strange behind the trees that day? Was anyone there?"

"Except for you and your friends, I didn't see anything strange that day," Billy laughed.

Ferry didn't say another word. But he couldn't get that picture out of his head the whole day.

⃰

The town was preparing for Halloween, and that could be easily observed at every corner of a street, in every store's window, and every front yard. Paper garlands in the shape of ghosts were decorating every window. Pumpkins with candles inside were smiling at every fence, lanterns with sinister smiles.

Ferry was happy to see all those wonderful preparations and the commotion that took over the town. He, too, decorated the front yard with the help of his mother. They made monsters out of old clothes his skillful mother sewed with colored threads. The gray strips of the dummies were waving at every wind's blow, giving cold chills to the small children who were passing by their yard.

Ferry prepared his costume, too. Just like most of the children in town, his costume was carefully crafted by his mother. It represented a raven with big, black wings and a long beak, the same color.

His friends, just as enthusiastic as Ferry, were already waiting for him in front of his house. Ben was a green alien (his sisters had a great time painting his face), and Matilda was a ghost. Her costume was pretty simple ─ an old bedsheet with two holes in front of the eyes.

The children set off laughing and poking each other. They started with the neighborhood where everyone welcomed them with joy, a sign even the grown-ups loved Halloween. And the children received every candy and cookie with great enthusiasm.

It was already dark when they arrived at the central square. The lanes were full of little monsters, ghosts, aliens and other creatures of the darkness. Almost all the children had a lantern pumpkin and the frail lights were guiding their way.

Somewhere near the grocery store, they stopped to count the candies, apples, walnuts, and pretzels. That's when Ferry saw May. She was indeed accompanied by Billy and Cecilia, who led with a firm hand a jolly, noisy group of over a dozen children. This time, Billy's group passed them by. Not even Billy could recognize them because of the darkness and the costumes. Billy had a pirate costume, the most impressive of all. Cecilia was a princess while May was a... fairy. The pretties Ferry has ever seen. She had transparent, greenish wings over her winter coat and a wreath of white and pink small roses over her crocheted cap. Ferry couldn't help but stare. And then, their eyes met. May recognized him. She smiled at him and blushed. When the two groups of children passed by each other, she gave him a little wave without anyone noticing. On that magical moment, Ferry felt like the time stood still.

Matilda and Ben couldn't catch their special moment. They were too busy arguing about a chocolate candy, the biggest one of all the candies they've got that evening.

"I think we're done with trick-or-treating," Matilda woke him up from his daydreaming. "We should go home, it's late."

They were on the outskirts of the town, and they could see the dark hills not very far. When about to go back, Ferry stopped. They were in front of a house with only one window lit by a pale light, somewhere on the second floor. It was an old house made of gray stones. What made it different (because in Goodharts all the houses looked the same) was not its old architecture, but the fact it didn't have any Halloween decorations. The front yard was dark, and they could see not one pumpkin.

"Ferry, let's go," Ben whispered. "This is Mrs. Cobbs's house."

Ferry remembered Mrs. Cobbs all too well. It was that old lady, Poppy's mother. The mother of the vanished little girl.

Thank you for reading! If you liked this chapter, please vote and comment. If you really, really liked this chapter, please vote, comment, and share the story with your friends. It would mean the world.