Murder On The Air

So Many Orphans...And A Great Depression

Alastor was celebrating Halloween early on October twenty ninth. His house was decorated with hanging deer skulls, voodoo dolls and an array of black and red candles. This was a time to honor the ancestors and Baron Samedi, Loa of the dead. And that is what Alastor did. He lit candles, consecrated his ritual tools and asked his mother for guidance. Earlier, he had gone to the graves of his mother and grandmother, leaving flowers and offerings. Fet Gede or All Soul's Day occurred on the first and second of November. Voodoo practitioners would go to cemeteries to pray and leave offerings of food and drink to their deceased loved ones.

Alastor was currently munching on candies he had made himself from a red bowl. He didn't like sweets but he wanted to experience the feeling of enjoying a classic treat for the holiday.

Meanwhile, several children dared each other to go up to the Crowley haunted house to knock on the door. Even the house itself had been painted black...walls, roof and all.

There were three different children, a boy dressed like a skeleton, another boy as a zombie, and the girl as a ghost. The skeleton older boy took a breath and pulled on the silver knocker shaped like a deer. The girl stared at the deer skulls, hanging bottles and a radio on the porch. The windows were decorated with red Christmas black wooden door was engraved with voodoo symbols and a pentagram. A small radio tower stuck out from the roof.

"This is a bad idea, man," said the zombie in a low voice. "You do know that this place is actually haunted, right? Even the mail man fears coming here!"

"Oh don't be such a wimp," said the skeleton. "It's Halloween, after all!"

"Halloween is two days away. Why are we doing this early any way?" asked the girl ghost.

"Because, we'll be able to tell all the other kids about what we did!" the skeleton exclaimed. "Besides, all of October is Halloween to me!"

'Agreed," added the zombie. "Though why are we in costumes?"

"It wouldn't be the same without them!" said the skeleton to his friends. "We have to look the part to scare him in case he scares us."

"I don't want him to scare us," said the ghost.

The skeleton rapped on the deer knocker again.

"Maybe he isn't home?" he asked.

Just then, the door creaked open, and brown eyes peered through.

"May I help you?"

The kids looked at each other, then yelled "Early trick or treat!"

Alastor opened the door and chuckled. "Why hello there, kiddos! This is certainly unexpected. Halloween isn't for another two days."

"I know," said the skeleton boy. "But we'll be the brave ones who live to tell the tale of the one in the black house!"

"You all certainly are brave, indeed." He examined their costumes. "A ghost, a skeleton and a zombie...all dead people, very fitting. If you'd like, I can turn you into them."

The kids flinched back.

"I'm kidding!" Alastor laughed, waving a hand. "You won't have to worry about becoming those for a long time."

"What sort of rituals do you do in there?" the zombie asked.

"It's top secret," Alastor replied.

The zombie gasped. "I heard he gathers people in hoods to give victims to the Devil."

"No, that's not it," said the skeleton. "He does some...stuff with those drawn into his service."

"What stuff?" asked the zombie.