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ROSALIND LOVED HALLOWEEN.
There was trick or treating when she was younger, parties as she got older, and fun and clever costumes every year. But this year was different. She would be spending Halloween alone, watching old slasher films and handing out candy to kids who knocked on her apartment door.
It was raining. Rain on Halloween meant that less kids would be outside to scour the city for candy and more would be knocking on apartment doors to stay dry. There weren't that many kids in her apartment building, maybe around 20 scattered around the 15 floors. Rosalind had a big bowl of candy bars ready at the door. She hoped it would last the night.
But it probably wouldn't. She had eaten two of them already and was working on a third as she sat on her couch. The old slasher movie Sleepaway Camp was playing on her tv and even with the darkness from the rainclouds the day was dwindling away to night. Rosalind couldn't help but think that the whole situation was a bit pathetic. Here she was, all dressed up with nowhere to go. Well, she used to have somewhere.
She had been going to go to a party. But as of three weeks ago, she was technically uninvited. Getting dumped right before Halloween by the party host sucked even more when you had a great couples costume planned. But Rosalind had already bought the dress and she sure as hell wasn't going to let it go to waste.
Their couples costume was supposed to be Hades and Persephone. Her flowing pink dress was covered in vines and flowers, with matching ones adorned in her hair. Her matching shoes were kicked up on her coffee table as she smeared her lipstick as she ate the chocolate. Not that it mattered. Everett, her now ex boyfriend, had liked the idea a month ago when she first brought it up.
But within that month, Everett had grown tired of Rosalind's constant need to work. Rosalind was a writer, having published five bestselling books in the last seven years. She did it through lots of hard work. But that hard work included canceling plans, shutting herself inside her apartment for days on end, and forgetting important tasks. Everett had accused her of loving her work more than him.
Now it might as well be spring because this Persephone was alone on Halloween.
Well, not fully alone. Copper, her Bloodhound, was snoozing next to her on the couch. She scratched his ears lovingly as she watched her movie. He had his own costume on, two fake dog heads attached to his collar turned him into Cerberus. It was a great costume, too bad no one would see it besides the few kids who came to her door. Copper snored softly beside her, the two fake heads moving up and down slowly.
Rosalind's phone buzzed with a text message. She recognized it as Rebecca Jackson, her editor.
Becca Happy Halloween! Fun news from up high. They want a sequel to Sliced!
