Neurosistale

Chapter Nine

FADED GOLD

(October 29, 2012) (Cheshvan 13) (Monday)

Chara looked around, face twisted in confusion. Everyone was dressed in costumes: fairies, witches, dinosaurs, wizards, superheroes. Even Kade was wearing a light brown tunic and other desert getup. "What are you wearing?" The girl asked.

"Luke Skywalker! He's from Star Wars."

"I don't know what that is."

"It's a movie. About people in space! And people fighting. In space."

Chara was even more confused.

"Why aren't you dressed up?"

"I want to know why everyone else is."

"Because it's Halloween. Don't you know what that is?"

"No."

"Halloween is a holiday, and at night we walk around to other houses all dressed up and say 'Trick-or-treat' and then we get candy."

"Why?" She couldn't help but notice the orange and purple boards covered in cutouts of candies, spiders, and with hats. "And why are there a bunch of weird decorations."

"I don't know. I was actually wondering if you would. You know a lot."

Chara sighed, "I'll just go to the library after school."

"Ma'am?"

"Hm? Oh, hello, Chara. Why aren't you playing with the other children? We have a lot of activities happening today."

"I'm trying to find a the history of Halloween. Do you have any books like that?"

"Mmmm, let me check." She started clacking away on her computer. Chara waited, looking around at the decorations. Lacy ghosts, sparkly spiders, "creepy" books on display. The librarians were dressed up as witches and wizards from Harry Potter, and the storyteller as Hagrid.

For some reason this place seemed even more kid friendly than school. She wasn't against hiding out here.

"Ah, here we are." She started scribbling the book title, number, and location on a sticky note. "Would you like some candy?"

"No thank you."

"Are you sure? We have lots of chocolate." She looked at the bowl again. Chocolate was something she didn't get often. She always assumed it was a fancy, expensive candy. Why were they handing it out for free?

Needless to say, she took two pieces before going to look for the book.

Chara quietly followed Kade. "It's so creepy," she whispered.

"It's cool, isn't it. Just wait until we get to the activities."

"Activities?"

As they followed Ms.Laura, Kade's mother, tables started appearing. Strange creatures wandered around. Part of her knew they were just teens dressed up, but as the creepy girl, dressed as a bloody ghost in chains, slowly turned to look a her. . . Chara felt her blood run cold.

The flashing lights made her vision swim. The music made her ears want to bleed. The kids around her shoved their faces with candy, pie, and so much artificial garbage. And that wasn't even the worst of it.

It was when her eyes found to table of kids drawing on pumpkins. She started wandering over, curious. The pumpkins' auras were flickering. Not quite dead, but close. She had a strong urge to sing for them.

As she took breath to do so, she caught a kid pick up a knife. She paused. The kid stabbed it. It made a dull, thudding sound. She stared in horror as the halo flipped out like a switch. The other kids were doing the same, using knifes to cut apart the squash and carve it.

She started to run and cry. As she did so, she tripped, falling hard to the pavement. She wanted to stand up, but couldn't as she threw up. Once. Twice. Her throat felt so dry.

She didn't remember much as Ms.Laura carried her home, other than Kade and Austin kept asking if she was okay. She vaguely remembered riding the elevator and arriving home.

She felt warm in her father's arms.

When she woke in the middle of the night, screaming and crying, her father carried her to his own bed where she slept huddled against her father's warm chest.

She hated Halloween.

She hated the city.

And she would find her Bravery flower dead in the morning.