Alice into Darkness

Hallewayn

"Come on, Alice!" Eileen cried out, waiting with scarce patience beside the main door of the house- "What are you doing up there? We are losing time here!"

The day had been peaceful at first, but now the street outside was full of kids and teenagers alike wearing all styles of costumes and walking in groups from one house to another... Most of them were carrying lit candles and a few were equipped with incense sticks and torches, not to mention those large paper bags decorated with drawings of pumpkins and moons.

"Oh, look at that costume Eileen!" Cathy said, looking through the window at the Hallewayn madness outside- "That girl must have taken weeks to make her Raven costume, it's really great..."

"I am coming, just a little more!" Alice replied, screaming all the way from her personal room upstairs.

"Here, your incense is ready!" Grace said, showing up all of a sudden and presenting the girls with the traditional sticks- "You have the candy bags, the incense, the sack with plenty of ammunition... Alice shall be carrying the torch! Where is she?"

"Here I am!"

Alice took some time to lit her torch at the living room's fireplace, and after that she joined Cathy and Eileen and she was quick to grab a heavy purple sack from a nearby chair. Cathy checked that the last minute repairs that they had made on Alice's wolf tail were alright, Grace opened the door and finally they were ready to depart.

"Please look after them every moment, Alice" Grace said, looking into Alice's real eyes through the glass parts of her mask- "Hallewayn is not always as fun and friendly as it looks..."

"Yeah, you can trust me!"

Alice ventured outside against the cold and the wind, she was surprised to see so many children with costumes and the torches everywhere looked eerie and mysterious... Cathy and Eileen followed the wolf across the street, the air smelled of sweet incense and soon Alice's costume attracted much more attention than they had imagined it would do.

"That's an unbelievable wolf design, lady!" the Raven girl said, staring at Alice for a moment.

"Thanks, these little Skaellyns made it..."

Eileen dashed towards a nearby house followed by Cathy, they passed under various fake skeletons that were hanging from a snowy tree and the girls were knocking at the entrance together even before Alice could reach them. The door was opened by a friendly-looking old woman just a few seconds later, and Alice saw that she carried a huge wicker basket filled with candies of all types.

"We Trail to keep the Darkness at Distance!" Cathy and Eileen cried out together.

"Thank you!" the woman replied, and then she poured handfuls of candy into the paper bags that both girls carried- "Thank you my darlings, we can never be too safe from darkness and monsters!"

The door was closed as they turned around, Eileen laughed, Cathy offered some candies to Alice and after that they did the same at the following house, and then another, and yet another... Alice finally discovered why Grace needed all of those candies this day, and she finally understood why Eileen and Logan were so crazy about the famous Hallewayn.

"I am starting to get why you love this tradition so much..."

"In the old Pagan days, people would dress as animals and spend all day and night patrolling the streets" Eileen explained, looking up at Alice for a moment- "The candles, incense and torches were supposed to keep magical creatures at distance- This was known as Trailing, because they followed specific trails from one part of town to another..."

"Yeah, and the following day all of the guardians were rewarded with a great feast known as the Treek" Cathy added, happy to provide Alice with this historic information- "We keep Trailing in our days even if it's just for fun, and the Treek is now just candies that we get for free...It does not really scare supernatural monsters, but who cares?"

"I think that not all magical creatures are bad..." Eileen said, and she blinked an eye at Alice when Cathy was not looking.

Alice held the torch with great pride as they continued Trailing down the street, the flame flickered in the freezing wind and then they arrived at the eleventh house of their journey. Alice was surprised to see that the windows were covered by freezing plum juice, there were broken plums everywhere and then a ghastly voice came from inside before the girls could even knock at the entrance:

"We have no candies here, just go away!"

"This happens sometimes" Eileen said, and she kicked some snow as they walked a good distance from that house- "Time for our first Attack! Please open that sack, Alice..."

"Let's see what's inside of this!"

Alice opened the purple sack that she had been carrying all this time, and she was surprised to discover that it was full of very large plums of various sizes and colors... Most of the fruit had been hardened by the intense cold, and just a split second later Cathy was the first to grab a plum and toss it at the unfriendly house with all the strength that she had.

"Take that! Take that, you enemies of Treekers!"

Eileen laughed as she started to throw heavy plums at the windows and walls, the voice cursed at the other side of the door and then Alice decided to join the fun herself: She tossed the plums with such force that some of them virtually exploded on impact, the door was almost covered by juice and then Alice found a plum that was particularly heavy and hard.

The purple projectile flew towards its target with terrible speed, a window was shattered to pieces and the people inside immediately cried out curses and threats...

"Run!" Cathy screamed, and the three of them dashed and turned around a corner laughing out loud.

The other street was already full of Treekers carrying their paper bags and torches, at least twelve teenagers were throwing plums at a nearby house and Alice was sure that this would be one of the best days of her life.