•Tyler•

    October flashes before our eyes like a high-speed camera shutter, and before we know it, Halloween is here. Jenna, Josh, and I finally reached a conclusion for our group costume: Skeletons.
   I stand in front of my bathroom mirror and straighten my bowtie as Josh's footsteps rumble down the stairs. He pops his head into view in the doorway. "I found Maddy and Jay's Halloween buckets in the hall closet." He blows a strand of his recently-dyed black hair off of his face, then steps forward and checks himself in the mirror.
   I nod. "That's good. I'm ready." I flip my light off and follow Josh up the stairs, our dress shoes clattering against the wood like pebbles hitting concrete.
   Maddy and Jay wait by the door with their orange buckets. Maddy is dressed as a fairy and Jay is a racecar driver.
   "Ready to go?" I ask. They both nod, and the four of us walk out the front door and down the street towards Jenna's house, where she's supposed to do our face makeup.
   Mrs. Black answers when we ring the doorbell, a witch hat sitting on her head. "Well aren't you two looking snappy," she chuckles, gesturing to our suits. "Are you sure you guys are going trick-or-treating?"
   "Yes," I reply with a laugh. "This is my friend, Josh. I'm not sure if Jenna has talked about him much." I gesture to my black-haired friend.
  Mrs. Black smiles and extends a hand. "It's nice to meet you, Josh."
   "You as well, ma'am."
   "These are my siblings, Maddy and Jay," I say, directing her attention back to me.
   She grins tenderly. "You guys are cute." She straightens. "Please, come in. Jenna has been expecting you." Mrs. Black ushers us inside and closes the door in our wake.
  Jenna bounds down the stairs, causing me to jump when I see her skeleton facepaint. It looks so realistic. Her hair is black and pulled back in a ballet bun.
   "Jenna!" I screech. "Josh was the one that was supposed to dye his hair!"
  She laughs. "Relax. It's just the spray that washes out in the shower." My face heats up from my overreaction.
  "Now, let's get you guys turned into skeletons." She grabs my hand and drags me upstairs after I make sure to grab Josh's arm.
   "Okay, Tyler first," she says, pushing me into her bedroom.
  "You repainted your walls!?" I exclaim, my jaw dropping at the fresh coat of red paint.
   She nods. "Did it last weekend. Do you like it?"
  "It reminds me of my room," Josh butts in, chuckling. Jenna sits me down on her desk chair and starts outlining my face with a black makeup crayon.
  "Why aren't you in your costume yet?" I look at her blue T-shirt and shorts.
  She grins wildly. "I want to surprise you."
  I shrug. "Suits me."
  "Now stop talking so I can get your makeup done!" We both grin.

    "Jenna, you're awesome at this!" Josh exclaims as he looks at his finished face in the mirror.
   She shrugs. "It's nothing. Now, remember not to touch your faces, or else the paint might smear."
   "That means I can't kiss you," I pout.
   "A good thing, too," Josh says. "I don't want to be third-wheeled here!" The three of us laugh.
   "Well, I'm gonna go change," Jenna says. She walks to her bathroom and shuts the door. I gape at her beautiful figure when she returns. A black ballerina tutu, tights and ballet flats cover most of her body. Not only did she paint her face, but she's painted a skeletal neck and collar bone, too.
   "You look beautiful!" I exclaim.
   "Thank you!" Josh chimes in, flipping his hair. I roll my eyes.
   "Thanks, Ty." Jenna hugs me, carefully making sure her facepaint doesn't touch my suit. She glances at the alarm clock sitting on her nightstand, then at the window. "We should probably get going before it gets too dark." We all nod and march downstairs.
   "Tyler!? Is-is that you?" Jay stutters from the dining room table, his eyes widening in fear.
  I chuckle and nod. "Yeah, it's me. Too scary?"
  My little brother shakes his head puts on a brave face. "Nah." He and Maddy grab their buckets and follow us out the door. Mrs. Black is sure to get a picture of the five of us before we leave.
  "See you later, Mrs. Black!" Josh calls as we exit. We join the other trick-or-treaters on the sidewalk.

   We're at the sixth house on the block by the time the sun starts sinking below the horizon, the fading light making the street lights flicker on.
   "Our trio needs a name," Josh says.
   "We should call ourselves The Skeleton Clique," Jenna suggests as we wait on the sidewalk.
   I consider this for a moment. "That actually sounds pretty catchy," I say.
  "I like it," Josh agrees.
  We continue down the sidewalk to the next house with the kids, this time as The Skeleton Clique.

(A/N: There's a triggering part in Jenna's upcoming point of view. Stay alive, Frens! |-/
     •Jenna•

   We drop Maddy and Jay off at Tyler's house around 7:30. Josh turns to us after Tyler shuts his front door.
   "Guys, the Murphy's rented out an old warehouse and have a haunted house set up there. It's across town. Mark said he'd drive us there. I hear it's really popular."
   Tyler raises an eyebrow. "You up for it?" he asks me.
    I shrug. "Sure."
   We all walk to Josh's house where Mark is supposed to pick us up.

   "Woah, you guys didn't tell me that you were dressing up," Mark says from his place at the drivers seat as we climb into his truck. "Who did the makeup? It's sick!"
   "That was Jenna. She's amazing at it." Tyler puts an arm around me from our place in the back seat, and I can feel myself blushing underneath my coat of face paint.
    Mark drives us across town towards the haunted house. We pull up to an old warehouse with people swarming outside.
  "Is there admission?" Josh asks.
  Mark nods. "I got us covered, though."
  "Thanks bro." The four of us hop out of the truck and stride toward the ticket booth by the front door. We're not the only ones in costume; there are actually a lot of other teenagers dressed up, too. Frankensteins, witches, devils, bleeding screams, etc. There are even some other skeletons that gape at our facepaint. Mark pays our ticket admission and we head inside the dark, fog-machine-filled warehouse. My hand subconsciously reaches for Tyler's.
   "Are you affected by strobe?" he whispers. I shake my head, and we speedwalk to catch up with Josh and Mark, who are joining a group that's starting down the hallway with a guide leading them to the haunted area.
   Eerie noises and laughter echo through the dark hallway as the group of us huddles closer together. A girl in front of us jumps—apparently something brushed her ankle.
   I press closer to Tyler as we go through various rooms filled with chainsaw killers, clowns, and creepy baby dolls. Fear lingers at the back of my mind, and my heartbeat raises a little, but overall I'm not severely scared. That is, until we get to the next room.
    An eerie creaking sound radiates from the next room—a sound that is all too familiar. My breath catches as I see someone hanging from the ceiling by a rope. My heartbeat speeds up, and I start to sweat. Tears prick my eyes as my slimy hand slips from Tyler's.
   "I can't do this," I whisper, running my hands through my sprayed hair.
  Tyler turns to me with a concerned look, and that's when I know I have to leave. I whip around when he reaches out to me and dash through the haunted house, shoving past people as I hurry toward the entrance. I can hear Tyler's faint calls from behind me.
  I suddenly run into someone dressed as a werewolf. "Looks like someone got scared." They smirk, which is a smirk that is all too familiar to me. The black-haired boy.
   "Get away from me!" I shriek. I push past him and keep running until my lungs are breathing fresh air from outside. I run to the edge of the parking lot and sit down on a vacant parking block. A fluorescent streetlight shines down on me, making me feel like a ballerina on stage. I put my head in my hands, which probably smears my makeup, but I don't care at this point.
   I remember the day all too well. Brett lived down the street from me. He was having a hard time at school at the time with bullying, and his parents were gone on a business trip. One night, I decided to stop by to see if he wanted to go to a movie. Instead, I was met with misery.
   The front door was unlocked when I turned the knob, so I had figured he was just upstairs playing videos games and had forgotten to lock it. I called his name. When there was no answer, I just figured he had headphones in and was listening to music like there was a concert in his room while thumbing his controller.
   Despite the pit of unease in my belly and the feeling of something being off, I headed upstairs with a smile on my face. That smile was erased as soon as I pushed open the bedroom door to see my cousin hanging from a rope that was tied to the ceiling fan, visibly dead. I had screamed and pulled it together enough to call 911, then his parents. After that, I passed out in shock. Now the mention of a hanging, the sounds of a creaking rope, or seeing a noose brings back that memory that I've fought so hard to forget.
   Tears stream down my face and land on the pavement in front of me as I try to stop my body from shaking. There's suddenly a hand on my shoulder, then a pair of arms encircle me.
   "Jenna...Babe, what happened?" a concerned Tyler asks gently. He sits down beside me and holds me in his arms.
  "The...the noose...a-and Brett.....I-I just lost it." I hiccup.
   He strokes my coarse hair and rocks me back and forth. "I know. The noose bothered me, too. I can't believe they put that in there. But you know what? Trick-or-treating was better than the haunted house, anyways."
   "Oh my gosh, you're such a little kid!" I exclaim, a chuckle escaping me.
   We look up when we hear footsteps approaching to see Josh running toward us, Mark trailing further behind him.
   "Are you alright, Jenna?" he pants, skidding to a stop.
   I nod and take a deep breath. "I think I am, now. I just saw something that was unexpected and really triggering."
   "We can leave if you want to," Mark suggests.
   "Yeah, it's been a long night," Josh agrees, running a hand through his hair. "I'm good with going home."
   Tyler nods along with them. "We can stop to eat first, if that's what you want, Babe."
   I shrug. "We could go to Dairy Queen."
   "I'm game," Josh says. Everyone else agrees, so we all make our way to Mark's truck and head to the nearest DQ.

   "Dude, the way the drive-thru woman screamed when she saw you guy's faces, though." Mark laughs, then imitates the drive-thru woman.
   The three of us join his laughter, then I take a bite of my peanut butter sundae.
   "At least we weren't like your kids with you or anything," Josh says. "You could've just been like,'Yeah, this is what happens when my kids get on my bad side.'"
   "Honestly, she should've been expecting it since it's Halloween!" Mark replies. "But I would totally say that if I actually had kids and it wasn't Halloween."
   Tyler swallows a bite of his Oreo blizzard. "Y'know," he starts. "If I ever have like a house someday, and I'm supposed to be protecting a family and I hear something downstairs, like maybe someone broke in, from the top of the steps, I'm just gonna be like: 'Scuse me? Could you please leave?'" All four of us laugh hysterically, my peanut butter sundae almost coming out of my nose.
   "Oh my gosh, Ty, that was so random!" I exclaim, still laughing.
  "Hey, we were talking about children and families weren't we?"
  "Let me know how that works out when someone breaks into your house, okay?" I say.
  "Noted." All of us snicker once more.
   "I liked dressing up," Josh says after a stretch of silence.
  "Me too," I agree. "Tyler deserves the credit, though. He was the one that suggested it."
  Tyler grins shyly. "It was nothing." Mark pulls into Josh's driveway, and we all climb out.
   "Thanks bro," Josh says, shutting the passenger side door. He gestures for my empty sundae dish. "I'll throw this away inside," he offers.
  "Thanks," I reply.
  "Hey dude, I think I left my beanie in your room somewhere. I want to get it before the weather gets colder," Tyler says. "I'll be back in a minute, Jenna." He runs through the Dun's front door.
   Josh pauses to look at me before following him inside. "You can come in if you want."
  I shake my head. "I'm fine out here," I say. I watch Mark pull out and drive down the street and out of sight. I lean against Josh's parked car and watch the remaining trick-or-treaters walk up and down the sidewalk. A familiar figure suddenly approaches from down the street and stops in the driveway. The werewolf smirks and waltzes up to me. I look at the house behind me. Maybe I should've went inside.
   "You still scared, sweetheart?" the boy teases.
   "How are you here?" I growl.
   "I just so happened to be in the neighborhood," he replies. He places a hand on the side of my face. "Your makeup is smeared. Have you been crying?"
   I swat his hand away. "It's none of your business what I have or haven't been doing. Now get away from me!"
   He tsks. "Afraid I can't. You're still dating that freak."
   Rage boils over inside me as I lurch forward to punch him. He coolly grabs my wrist before it reaches him and stops me mid-punch. The black-haired boy brings his face down and kisses my hand. I grimace in disgust.
   "You will thank me later for telling you to break up with him. Believe me." And with that, he slips away into the night just as Tyler opens the front door, a red beanie in his hand. 
   "Ready to go?" he asks.
   "Um...yeah," I reply, still in shock. Tyler smiles as we walk arm-in-arm down the street. There's just one thing that remains in my mind:

    Who is that boy and what does he want with me?