As the bell rang for the end of the day, Miss Harper walked Year Six to the village green where some of the parents were waiting to supervise some after-school trick-or-treating as they were all already in their costumes. Aunt Kitty waved at Ava and Tom.

‘Now, remember to only knock at the houses that have a pumpkin or Halloween decorations outside. That’s the village rule. No pumpkin – no trick-or-treating. Understood?’

Ava, Tom, Jas, Jack, Bella and Rav nodded. They were going round together and keen to to make a start in case the sweets ran out.

‘Here are your buckets,’ said Aunt Kitty, handing a different spooky-themed bucket to each of them. ‘I’ll be watching from a distance, so no funny business.’

The friends laughed and ran off in the direction of the first house, which proudly displayed a pumpkin with a cat carved into it. It was a good house – they were allowed to take as many sweets as they liked! The next house gave out fancy individual goody bags, and the one after that offered them a chocolate biscuit each from a packet. Ava skipped along the pavement to the next house along. She’d been trick-or-treating a couple of times before, but it seemed the whole village threw themselves into having fun at this time of the year.

Once they’d reached the end of the village, their treat buckets were almost overflowing. Ava and Tom said goodbye to the others and got into the truck with Aunt Kitty to go home. They drove through the village in the early evening darkness and headed up the hill back to the farm. As they approached the track to Mrs Merrington’s cottage, Ava leaned forward.

‘Can we call in here quickly?’ she asked.

Aunt Kitty glanced at her in the rear-view mirror. ‘Sure.’ Ava’s aunt turned into the track and pulled up in front of Mary Merrington’s cottage.

Ava rummaged in her bucket until she found what she was looking for. She got out with Tom, and they ran up the brick path to knock on Mary’s front door. After a few moments, the door opened and Mary appeared wearing vampire teeth and a drop or two of fake blood on her lips. Ava and Tom burst out laughing as Mary said, ‘Trick or treat, young ’uns!’ She held out a basket of home-made biscuits with spiderweb icing piped on the top. Tom and Ava took one each, and Mary wiggled the basket. ‘You’d better take one for your mum and dad too, Tom – I’m sure they’d like one. I don’t get many trick-or-treaters here, so there’s plenty left.’

‘Thanks, Mrs Merrington,’ said Tom, picking up two more biscuits.

‘And these are for you,’ said Ava, holding out the packet she had in her hand.

Mary smiled, revealing more of her pretend vampire teeth.

‘Strawberry laces. My favourite. Thank you, Ava.’

Tom and Ava ran back along the path, pausing to wave at Mary by the gate. Ava looked up at the For Sale sign by the front wall and felt a little jolt of sadness. It no longer said For Sale – it said Sold. Ava turned to see Mary closing the front door and decided that she’d ask Aunt Kitty if they could go for tea and cake at the weekend. She liked the old lady a lot and wanted to visit again before she moved away.

By the time they pulled up in front of the farmhouse, Tom had already eaten his biscuit from Mary, and Ava had had to stop him eating the rest. They carried their buckets of Halloween treats into the kitchen, excited to show Uncle John what they’d collected. Ava glanced across at the pinboard on the wall in the kitchen. The rosettes she’d won at the village show were pinned to it, along with the ones the rest of the family had collected this year too. Ava and Tom tipped their sweets out onto the kitchen table to look through what they’d been given. Ava couldn’t help the huge grin that spread across her face. It had been the best Halloween ever.