Harrowing Halloween

"While, it is Halloween after all. And besides, it's not like you have to worry about getting cavities," I pointed out.

"Good point," she said and reached in to grab a handful. I watched as she unwrapped a mini hershey's bar and tried to delicately take a bite out of it, but once she nibbled off the first piece her eyes went wide and she shoved the rest of it into her mouth. As she sucked on her finger to get the bit of chocolate that had melted on her finger she finally noticed me watching her. "What?" she asked.

"Nothing, I guess you were not kidding about how you would react to eating chocolate," I teased her.

She playfully shoved me. "Shut up and eat your candy," she said. We sat together discussing what we had gone trick-or-treating as and the years we had gotten our best hauls of candy. Apparently, she had a history of dressing up as a witch or vampire. I teased her about dressing as a witch since she had mocked witchcraft last year. "I just like the costume ok," she said as she defended herself. As much as I had other pressing questions, I didn't want to rush her into them and just enjoyed the sound of her voice and how animated she got when talking about those good moments from her past.

Evelyn asked what happened last year after I had wondered back home the day after Halloween. She nodded knowingly as I talked about how upset my parents had been. Evelyn told me about how strict her parents were and how she rebelled all the time against them. "I knew that they were trying to protect me and that they loved me, but at the same time I just needed my space to be my own person. You know?" Evelyn said.

"Yeah I do." The conversation stalled for a moment. "So you said you wanted to be a writer?" I asked.

"Yeah, I used to carry around a notebook in my jacket pocket at all times in case I had a sudden urge to write or saw something I wanted to take a note down for. I used to write the worst most sappy poetry ever," Evelyn said.

"I bet it wasn't that bad," I said.

"Believe me, if I had my notebook on me and showed you then you would definitely not think that after reading just a couple of them." Her smile withered from her face and she tensed up.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"Well, it's weird but, these clothes you see on me, they are what I was wearing when... I went missing, not what I was buried in, and everything I had in my pockets then are still here strangely." She reached into one pocket and pulled out a tube of red lipstick and lip balm. From her other pocket she pulled out her key ring, and from one of the bigger pockets in her denim jacket she pulled out a pen and pencil. "That day, I had my notebook right here in this pocket, but its gone," she said.

"Maybe you dropped it?" I asked her.

"I don't think so," Evelyn said.

A thought bounced around in my mind, and it took me a moment to be able to say it. "Maybe whoever..." I couldn't bring myself to say kidnapped and murdered you, "maybe they took it from you," I said.

Evelyn thought it over for a few minutes before responding. "I guess that could be a possibility, but why would he take that from me?" Her voice cracked as she finished her question, as if after all that her killer had done to her, that was the thing that had been the most indecent.

"Do you have any idea who killed you?" I asked.

"No. Memories are almost like senses for me, most of the time I can't really remember anything, but every now and then a memory will rise up from the darkness of death, only its stronger than just a memory, its like I get to relive it. But anything from that day seems to stay in the darkness."

Now it was my turn to think for a couple of minutes. I wondered how much of it was her not remembering what had happened to her, or how much was it her not wanting to relive that tragic day. I couldn't say that I blamed her for wanting to avoid reliving such a painful experience. I stared at the mist as I thought about what to say next. When I finally looked at Evelyn again I noticed that she was shivering. "Here," I said and started to take off my jacket.

"I'm fine," Evelyn said, but I had already finished taking off my jacket. "I mean it," she said.

I draped my jacket across her front so that it wrapped around her. "Too bad, it's already off so if you don't wear it then we will both freeze for no reason," I said. Evelyn smiled and stopped protesting as I finished draping it across her.

I had already pressed as much as I was willing to about her murder so I changed the subject to the next thing I had been wanting to talk to her about. Books. I had spent the last year trying to read through as many of the books she had spoken foundly off as I could. I spent the next hour talking back and forth about the merits of the different books I had read to connect more with her. After 30 minutes the night's air became even more chilly and I started to regret giving up my jacket. No one ever mentions how cold chivalry could leave a guy. I tried to suppress the chattering of my teeth as Evelyn asked me about what I thought about the ending to The Chronicles of Narnia but she heard them strike against each other as I started to answer. "Take your jacket back, you're the one who is going to freeze," she said.

"Nope can't do it," I said.

"Fine, then come here," Evelyn said. She held out her arm and the jacket. I scooted over and joined her in the warmth of my jacket. Once I was settled she leaned her head down against my shoulder. "This is nice," she said.

"Yeah it is," I agreed. She nestled her head more then exhaled. Her warm breath grazed across my skin, causing me to break out in goosebumps. I sat for a few minutes enjoying her warmth, when I heard her breathing change. She let out a faint snore that I found adorable. I leaned my head down on hers and closed my eyes. The next moment I opened my eyes I realized that I must have fallen asleep while I was sitting with her. I checked my watch and saw that it was close to midnight. My parents had given me a later curfew this year but I should have been home by now. They had gone to a Halloween party so if I was lucky maybe they were still out. After what happened last year I was lucky they had let me go out at all. As much as I wanted to stay here with Evelyn I couldn't chance being out all night again. I knew I would have to rush to get home, but I couldn't bring myself to leave Evelyn just yet. One more minute wouldn't matter. Five minutes later I finally started to pull myself away from Evelyn.

"Where you going?" Evelyn asked as I stood up.

"I have to get home, it's almost midnight," I said.

"Oh, dam. Can't have you getting in trouble again," Evelyn said after a big yawn. She stood up and stretched. It took her a moment to notice the small amount of droll she had that was drying on her chin. She tried to wipe it off without me noticing it. "Here," she said as she tried to hand me back my jacket.

"No it's ok, you can keep it," I said.

"Your going to freeze on your way home," Evelyn said.

"It's not that cold out, and maybe it will motivate me to get home faster. I want you to hold on to it for the rest of the night, that way the only thing you get to feel tonight doesn't have to be freezing. I can get it back from you next year," I said.

"Ok," she said. We started to walk towards the gate. I had told myself going into this night to savor every moment of it because it would be a year before I would get to see her again. I walked with my hands in my pocket, partially because of how cold it was and also because I didn't know what to do with my hands. While, I did. I wanted to try and hold her hand, but I wasn't brave enough to try. We walked closer together then the narrow path called for. Every few strides our arms would touch. I spent the whole walk psyching myself up for trying to make my move and hold her hand. I felt like I was pretty close to doing it when we passed the two hills and mausoleums and made it to the cemetery gate faster then I wished. Maybe if the walk had been longer I would have found the courage to hold her hand, to express the feelings that were confusing and only grew stronger after seeing Evelyn again on that night. "While, here is where I have to leave you," she said in front of the gate.

"I wish I didn't have to go," I said.

"I know, me too," Evelyn said. The next thing I know she had her arms wrapped around me in a tight hug. I was startled for a moment, and then returned the hug. She felt so warm and solid in my arms, so alive. It was like she belonged to be in my arms, even if there was no way we could belong to one another. The hug lingered and I didn't interrupt it. Even with being in a hurry, I wasn't about to be the one to break it. Finally after a couple of minutes Evelyn released her physical hold on me. "See you next year?" Evelyn asked.

"Of course," I said and gave her a quick hug before walking out the gate.

Before I could take a step Evelyn grabbed my hand and placed something in it. "Here," she said.

I opened up my hand and saw that she had given me the black hair band I had seen her tie her hair up with last year. "Thank you," I said in reply as I slipped it down around my wrist. Once I got started down the path on my bike I looked back and saw Evelyn staring at me while holding the gate with her face pressed partially through it. I shouldn't have looked back. It made it even harder to rush home, knowing that I was only putting her further behind me. As I pedaled recklessly down the path I kept on thinking about her looking at me through the gate or up alone sitting by her tree on the hill. Thinking about her left me with too many wishes that were impossible to come true.

I made it home with just enough time to start and fast forward a horror movie half way into it and spread out the candies Evelyn and I had eaten onto the coffee table just as my parents pulled up and walked through the living room. Other than the comment my mom made about the mess I had made they didn't notice anything amiss. I had timed it perfect to get the most time possible with Evelyn while also make it home on time.

I turned off the movie and swept my trash off the table into a trash bag. Once upstairs I slid out the small lock box I keep under my bed and unlocked it. Here was where I kept all of my newspaper clippings and notes related to Evelyn and her unsolved case. I pulled out a small journal that I had started to use to keep track of when I would sense Evelyn while visiting her. I did this to see if there was any patterns to her manifestations so that if anything I did seemed to draw her out more. I also recorded them to hope that maybe my ability to see her was getting stronger. So far I hadn't found a pattern and my sightings of her were just as sporadic as ever. I had something better to write down this time. My meeting with her again in her full manifestation. I started to write In the blank pages I had left after I had written down last year's encounter with her. I filled pages in one long string of writing before I had to pause for a moment to figure out what to write next, I knew what I was doing with investigating her murder and being so obsessed over the details of tonight were odd, but if no one else was going to help her move on then I had to help her. Also if I was only going to get one night a year with her then I planned on making the most out of that night and remembering as much of it as I could. Once I was done I placed the journal and the hair tie into the box. I fell into a deep slumber.

Year 3 after second sighting.

I now had a new focus for my investigations. Evelyn's missing notebook. I thought it would be weird for Evelyn's murderer to have held onto her notebook. I knew that a lot of serial killers liked to keep trophies from their victim, but a lot of investigators were under the impression that this had been more of a crime of passion. One of the key suspects had been one of the more popular boys in her class, Ryan Fuller.. Several classmates when interviewed about him had said that Ryan had been infatuated with Evelyn for years. He would repeatedly ask her out and to every school dance but she always turned him down. One reason often given was that she was too busy on studying to have time for a boy. Many thought that Ryan had been rejected one time too many by Evelyn and had finally snapped. He was the first person I had suspected when I first started to study Evelyn's disappearance. Maybe, If he had seen her always writing in her notebook he could have grown angry with it, so when he had kidnapped her he had gotten rid of it before he had dropped off her body in the woods. If that was the case then I doubted I would be able to find her notebook randomly in the middle of the woods or road.

I needed some fresh air and to go think somewhere. I needed to get out of the town for a while. I rode my bike out of town and down the narrow roads. Traffic was almost nonexistent and there was just enough room at the shoulder of the road when cars drove past me. I followed the road for five miles before I turned down the game trail I sought. Twenty minutes later after hiding my bike in some bushes I was in a small clearing of trees. This was the sight were Evelyn was found by some hikers. I walked around the clearing, recalling crime scene pictures I had scene. This was another detail that had always come up that drew a lot of attention. There wasn't much around here but trees, so this was a weird place for Evelyn to turn up. She had been found placed right in the middle of the clearing; she wasn't even hidden at all. Investigators believed that Evelyn's killer wanted her to be found so they picked an open area. I knew now from Evelyn that this had been one of her favorite places to go. It was just far enough to where she wouldn't be bothered by others, but also close enough to where she could get there in a hurry. She told me this was the best place that she used to do her writing.

After searching around for the notebook and finding nothing I laid in the center of the circle, where the grass was the plushest. I closed my eyes, enjoying the slight warmth from the sun and took a much needed break. I had wanted to be revolted by this place, the scene where Evelyn's body was found, but the beauty of this spot seemed to rally and try to dispel the dark blemish that had been forced onto it. After a cat nap in the sun it was time to return home. It seemed my teachers' trick this Halloween had been to assign us extra homework that I hadn't started on yet. I had a theory that they tried to assign just enough homework to keep us too busy to vandalize their homes, but not so much that students would target them for vandalization do to being assigned too much homework. It must be a fine balancing act if that was what they were going for.

I started pedaling back home, my hands and face quickly became numb by the cold air I cut through. I rounded a blind bend only to see a beat up black truck barreling down the middle of the two lanes. It was Henry's truck. When they saw it was me on the road they started to swerve back and forth across the lanes, but always when they were on the same side of the road as me the truck would linger, as if they meant to run me down. Henry closed the distance, lingering even longer on my side of the road and reving the trucks engine. He swerved away when we were about 20 feet from hitting each other, I thought that was it, Henry had his fun to try and scare me, but then as we were about to pass each other he turned his wheel sharply. I turned my bike to side and threw myself off of the road. As I hit the shoulder of the road and started to roll down it I heard the crunch of metal and the bang of air as my bike's tires popped. Henry and his gang laughed as they drove away. Henry honked the horn as they disappeared down the bend.

I lay at the bottom of the trench in a small pool of stagnant water. Half my body felt like it was on fire, so they cold water helped to sooth the pain of the budding injuries. Luckily nothing seemed to be broken. I was pretty scraped up from hitting sticks and rocks on my way down. I sat up and listened, wondering if they planned to come back. Henry had always been sadistic, but this was a new level of violence, even for him. He could have killed me. Once I had my wits about me I stumbled to my feet. One of my ankles protested when I put too much weight onto it. Hobbling up the slope took a hell of a lot longer than it did for me to roll down it. Once I made it to the top I looked over my crumpled bike. The damage wasn't as bad as it had sounded below, but it wasn't going to be rideable. The back wheel was bent inwards to that it kinda resembled the curves of a fortune cookie. I picked it up and started the five mile trek back home. It was slow going and I didn't get home till nearly 10 pm. By that time I was frozen over and exhausted. I managed to sneak up to my room and clean up without my parents seeing me, and then I fell into my bed and slept.

Christmas eve? Of second year age 15? woul

On the morning of Christmas Eve I set a couple dozen of hibiscus flowers on Evelyn's grave. Winter was hitting hard and even with all the layers of clothes I was wearing I still felt the sharp bite of the snow and wind. As I was leaving I thought I saw a figure standing in the snow off to the side of my vision. Evelyn looked like she was wearing my jacket still. I had thought I would find it by the tree or her grave when I came back to visit, but it had been gone. I turned my head towards Evelyn but like always she disappeared before I could focus on her. "Merry Christmas Evelyn, I will see you next Halloween," I said. I waited around for a response, even through I knew I wouldn't get one.

The rest of the year went by in a blur as the start of the second semester started with several large projects and papers being assigned. Evelyn and the mystery of what had happened to her were always at the back of my mind, but I had to keep those thoughts on the back burner and focus on my school work. When summer finally came around I couldn't have been more ready for it.

I had resolved to spend that summer to solve Evelyn's murder and free her soul, but I hit nothing but dead ends. Now I knew how time consuming doing investigations could be and it made me rethink some of my earlier thoughts about how ineffective the police department had been. The killer really covered his tracks. The only thing that I discovered that even stood out a little bit was on one of the times I visited what I had taken to calling Evelyn's clearing. It was one of my favorite places and I would go there to read or rest when I was getting frustrated with my lack of progress in solving what happened to Evelyn. I was laying in my usual spot in the grass when something caught my eye. I noticed out into the trees there was an odd growth. I got up and walked towards it. Old branches and bushes had been placed here to form a blind that overlooked Evelyn's clearing. I thought for a moment that maybe a hunter might have set it up to watch for game in the clearing, but that made no sense. This spot was too close to the Town and the road, there wouldn't be any game here. New plants had started to sprout out and up from the bottom of the blind. I walked around to the entrance of the blind and crouched down to see inside of it. The opening at the front gave a perfect sightline to where I had just been laying. I got chills at the thought that someone could have been watching me without me knowing it. It was used to watch Evelyn I realized. After that the clearing no longer felt relaxing and I couldn't go there without feeling like I was being watched.

******************

My first three years of highschool went by in a flash as I struggled to make friends, keep up with my school work, and to try and help solve my best friends murder. Sure she died before we became friends, but that didn't make it mean any less. During Halloween of my Junior year I finally worked up the courage to confess my feelings for Evelyn. I thought she felt the same way about be, but instead she just got mad. "Chris, you can't love me, I'm dead. You already spend too much time visiting me and trying to figure out what happened to me. Eventually you are going to have to move on and leave me here," She said. I tried to argue with her about how much I cared about her, but she wasn't having it. We ended up sending the rest of the night in an awkward silence, as any conversation we tried to have just died off. By confessing my feelings for her I had ruined what we had between us. When Evelyn said goodbye that night she said how much she cared about me, but I had to find a real girl to fall in love with. I spent the rest of the school year sulking and coming to terms with what had happened.