That night, when the sun had gone down and a full moon hung in the sky, something dark and sinister tiptoed down the stairs of Lisa Marie and Vernon’s house. It crept across the hall, its long black cape swishing soundlessly behind it.
The figure had almost reached the front door when a voice shouted from the living room.
“Vernon, is that you?”
Vernon groaned. So close. He’d been so close.
“Yeah, it’s me,” he said. With a final longing glance at the front door, he poked his head into the living-room.
Mum was at the coffee table, tipping tasty-looking coloured sweets into a big bowl. Vernon’s stepdad, Steve, was kneeling on the floor in front of Lisa Marie, helping her get dressed up as… Actually, what was she getting dressed up as? With her grey hair and brown suit, she looked more like an old man than some horrifying Halloween monster.
“Forget you were taking Lisa Marie out, did you?” Mum said, smiling in a way that suggested she already knew the answer to that.
“Aw, yeah, I did forget,” Vernon lied, his words coming out slurred because of his plastic vampire teeth. He spat them into his hand. “I’ve arranged to meet up with the guys. Sorry.”
“Well Lisa Marie’s friends are away, so she’s got no one to go with.”
“I’ll be fine on my own,” said Lisa Marie.
“No way,” said Dad, tucking one of her bunches up under her wig. “You’re not going trick or treating on your own.”
“But I said I’d meet the guys!” Vernon protested.
“Well far be it for us to stop you meeting your friends,” said Mum.
Vernon reeled in surprise. “Really? Awesome! Thanks, Mum.”
She smirked. “But you’re taking your sister with you.”
“I am so sick of babysitting you all the time, you know that?”
Lisa Marie trotted along the road, trying to keep up with Vernon’s much longer strides. “I know.”
“I’ve got things to do,” Vernon grumbled. “I shouldn’t be stuck looking after… Looking after…” He stopped and studied his stepsister’s costume. “What exactly are you supposed to be, anyway?”
“Thomas Edison,” beamed Lisa Marie, smoothing down her grey wig. “He invented the light bulb.”
Vernon shook his head and continued walking. “It’s Halloween.” He sighed. “You’re supposed to be something scary.”
“You don’t have to be something scary,” Lisa Marie replied.
“Yes you do! That’s the whole point! Why do you think I’m dressed as Dracula?”
“Um… Because you always go as Dracula?” Lisa Marie guessed.
“Exactly!” Vernon cried. “Because you’re supposed to go as something scary! I’m a vampire. I’m a terrifying, un-killable monster!”
“You can kill a vampire,” Lisa Marie countered.
“What? No you can’t!”
“A stake through the heart kills a vampire. One quick jab in the chest with a sharp piece of wood does the trick. According to Bram Stoker, anyway.”
“Who?”
“Bram Stoker. He wrote Dracula,” Lisa Marie explained. “Some people think fire kills them too, although there’s some debate about it. They think it kills vampires, I mean, not authors.” She considered this. “But probably authors as well.”
Vernon shook his head in despair and looked Lisa Marie up and down. He was dressed as the most evil vampire who had ever lived; she was an old man in a brown suit. She looked ridiculous.
“Anyway, if Edison hadn’t invented the light bulb, then it’d be dark all the time,” said Lisa Marie. She gave a shudder. “Now that would be scary!”
Vernon sighed. “Is he dead? The guy you’re supposed to be?”
“Thomas Edison,” said Lisa Marie. “Yes, he is.”
“Good, you can be his ghost, then. If anyone asks, you’re Thomas Wotsisname’s ghost, OK?”
Lisa Marie shrugged. “OK.”
“Right, then.” Vernon stuck in his plastic fangs and turned up the path of the first house on his carefully planned route. “Let’s go get some sweets!”
Two hours later, their bags filled to bursting with nuts, apples and all kinds of confectionary, Vernon and Lisa Marie headed for home.
“If I drop you off now I can probably still meet up with the guys,” Vernon muttered. “Maybe – just maybe – you won’t have completely ruined my night.”
Lisa Marie nodded, but didn’t reply. They walked on in silence for a few moments. All around them, the sounds of laughter and Halloween high jinks echoed from distant streets.
“Thanks for this,” Lisa Marie said.
“For what?”
“For taking me out. I know you didn’t want to.”
“Oh.” Vernon shrugged. “Whatever.”
“And thanks for letting us get Bearvis too. Mum says Dad will love him. She’s wrapped the box and put it in the living-room cupboard so we can surprise him with it tomorrow.”
Vernon nodded. “Right.”
“I told her you insisted we buy it,” Lisa Marie continued. “And that you didn’t get any change. She was so impressed I think she’s going to give you extra pocket money.”
“Why did you tell her that?” asked Vernon.
“Because you’re my brother.” Lisa Marie shrugged. “And I know you wanted that money.”
“I’m not your…” Vernon began but then stopped when he saw the sad look dart fleetingly across her face. He sighed.
“You know something?” he said. “Sometimes, I suppose you’re actually…”
Lisa Marie waited for him to finish the sentence. “I’m what?” she asked at last.
“Uh, nothing. Shut up,” Vernon said, his voice dropping to a whisper.
“What? Why?”
“All right, Vern?” called a red-faced demon. He was stalking along the street towards them, a pack of zombies and skeletons following close behind.
“Oh, of course.” Lisa Marie sighed. “Better not say anything nice to me in front of your friends. Whatever would they think?”
“All right, Drake?” grinned Vernon, a bit too enthusiastically for it to be natural.
“Not bad, Vern, not bad,” Drake replied. He snatched Lisa Marie’s bag from her and peered inside. “Nice haul,” he said, nodding his approval.
“Hey! Give that back!” Lisa Marie cried.
“No chance,” hissed Drake. “Go home, little girl. This is mine now.” Behind him, his gang giggled like hungry hyenas.
“But I spent all night collecting that!”
“That,” said Drake, unwrapping a sweet and popping it in his mouth, “is your problem, not mine.”
Lisa Marie looked up at her brother. “Vernon, tell him!” she pleaded. “He’s taking my treats!”
Vernon opened his mouth to say something but when he saw the expression on Drake’s face, he felt his mouth go dry. When he spoke, he could barely hide the tremble in his voice. “You heard him, Lisa Marie,” he said. “Go home.”
Lisa Marie stared at Vernon for a few moments, too shocked to move. Around her, the sound of the gang’s laughter seemed impossibly loud.
“Come on, let’s go egg old Grindley’s house,” Drake announced. He turned and began to march off, Lisa Marie already forgotten.
Vernon moved to follow, then stopped. He looked down at his bag of sweets, then back at his sister. Without a word, he thrust the bag at her. Vernon smiled weakly as she took it, then scampered off after Drake and the others.
A few hours later, when everyone was tucked up for the night, Lisa Marie lay curled in her bed, watching the hands of her clock creep round, and listening to the faint hum of her nightlight.
There was only a minute until midnight – one minute left of Halloween – and she still couldn’t get to sleep. She hated not being able to sleep. It usually meant she was cranky all the next day, and she didn’t want to be cranky on Dad’s birthday.
As the final few moments of Halloween drained away, Lisa Marie yawned, shut her eyes tight and cuddled Henrietta, her new bear. Even dressed as a witch, the teddy looked adorable. Not like Vernon’s bear. For a soft toy, it had been terrifying, and Vernon had actually seemed quite proud of it right up until the point he’d tossed it into his bedroom and made Lisa Marie promise never to tell anyone he’d made it.
Henrietta felt oddly warm, like a hot-water bottle, as Lisa Marie snuggled her in close.
And then, with just one second to go until midnight, Lisa Marie finally drifted off to sleep, blissfully unaware of the horrors she was about to encounter.