9pm - ?

According to the invitation, 9pm was the official start time of Dave and Sally's annual Halloween party. However, Ben immediately felt foolish for arriving right on time when Dave answered the door wearing plain jeans and a t-shirt. He looked at Ben, confused.

"Oh. Hey, Ben. Wow, I didn't think people would start showing up until around ten or so."

"I guess I'm a little early," Ben muttered. Dave's porch was still dark, but Ben had thought it was a part of the decor. Now he realized that 9pm meant...well, not 9pm. "So, uh. Need any help setting up?"

"Nah, it's cool. Come on in. Sally's still getting ready and I haven't even started." As he led Ben into his living room, Dave could better see Ben's homemade costume, which included a Medieval-looking tunic with red markings. Dave studied it for two seconds before asking, "What are you supposed to be anyway, some sorta Star Wars thing?"

"Nope. Not even close," Ben replied. "I have a prize for whoever guesses it correctly." He patted a leather satchel that was strapped to his belt.

As the couple finished getting ready upstairs, Ben sat in the living room, sipping on pumpkin ale and watching some horror movie scenes that someone had edited together. He didn't know most of the films, but the visuals went well with the spooky ambient music playing over it.

Eventually, other guests started arriving. Dave and Sally's small house and backyard was soon filled with brooding vampires, sexy witches, and movie monsters galore. Sally instructed all zombies to keep their fake dirt and blood off of her furniture. There were also a few guests in pun-related costumes, as well as the expected assortment of cultural references from the year.

"My roommate is Wander Woman, like, as in 'wandering the desert', and I'm Molasses Cat," a fur-clad girl informed Ben as she held up an emptied mason jar that was affixed to her hand. Ben nodded and decided he would need stronger inebriation than pumpkin ale could offer. He excused himself to get some hunch punch, Sally's diabolical specialty, from the back porch. That's where he met Kimberly.

"I know who you are," she said from behind him. Ben turned toward her voice and almost spilled hunch punch on himself. Even through her creepy banshee costume, he could tell that she was the most beautiful girl at the party, maybe any party ever.

"Really?" he said. "That can't be possible. I'd remember you." He was smiling, but completely serious and beyond confused.

"No," Kimberly said, laughing. "I know who you're dressed as. You're Darek Alger from the Signal Dagger series."

Ben was taken aback. "You know the Signal Dagger books?"

"Please. I practically turned my whole dorm onto them back in college."

"That's awesome. And impressive. The only think I turned my dorm onto was the idea to wear shower shoes in the bathroom."

She smiled and Ben took a deep sip of hunch punch. As the night and party progressed, they continued talking and flirting. Ben looked around and saw Dave, now dressed as a hippie, pull his peace symbol sunglasses down to wink at him. He walked by Ben and joked, "Don't worry, buddy. I'm sure you'll find a pretty girl somewhere around here." Ben blushed and smiled at Kimberly, who smiled back.

There were plenty of other guests, but Ben and Kimberly might as well have been alone together. They only wanted to talk to each other and ignored the other guests, except when the conversation would lull a bit and they needed something to joke about.

"What about this guy?" Ben said, gesturing toward a large man in a plaid shirt and wool cap who was double-fisting hunch punch and a beer. He had tucked a plastic chainsaw under one of his arms as he loudly talked to a girl dressed as Snow White about the Denver Broncos. "He gets my vote for drunkest lumberjack I've seen all week."

"Yeah," Kimberly said, giggling as she shot off, "Someone should be around to yell 'timber' when he goes down."

Eventually, the party got quieter as guests began to filter out. Sally had begun blowing out candles and turning on some normal lights. Dave had taken his hippie costume to heart and was smoking a joint with a small group of friends in the backyard. Ben knew that meant Dave would be kicking people out soon so that he could go to bed.

"I guess we've hit 'question mark', huh?" Ben said to Kimberly.

"Question mark?" she asked.

"Like on the invitation."

"Oh, right." Kimberly nodded and looked around Dave and Sally's empty living room. "Wow, I can't remember the last time I stayed up till question mark."

"Well, can I walk you to your car?"

"I actually grabbed a ride here with friends."

"Oh, okay..." Ben said. He looked around.

"They're gone."

"They left you? That sucks."

"Yeah. You know, it kinda does."

"I mean," Ben started with a mock grim expression. "Don't they realize that banshees are legendary for getting revenge?"

"You're right," Kimberly said, a smile spreading across her face. "I guess they decided to risk it."

"Well, I could...you know, give you a lift home," Ben said, hoping to sound more helpful than lecherous.

"That'd be great!" Kimberly said, nearly jumping in excitement.

They left without even thinking to say goodbye to their hosts. The few remaining guests exited soon after Ben and Kimberly had gone.

After ushering out the last of them, Sally turned the porch light off. Dave stood in the living room, visibly high and barely standing. Sally was no more sober than he was, but she handled it better.

"Something about tie-dye and bell bottoms turns you into an idiot every time you wear them," Sally said as she downed the last of her punch and walked toward the kitchen.

"C'mon, I thought all you vampires loved hippies." Dave wrapped his arms around Sally's waist. "We taste like pot and junk food."

"Whatever. You should go as a caveman next year. It's an evolutionary step up from a hippie." She smirked and gave Dave a kiss, then looked around. "God, this place is a mess."

Dave dragged the garbage can into the living room and began tossing in empty cups and bottles. Sally plucked a red scarf that she had draped over a lampshade and switched off the light.

"Hey, what was with your weird friend?" Sally asked.

"Ben? Yeah, I don't know."

"He was just standing off to the side by himself, talking to nobody."

"Maybe it was part of his costume." Dave sat on the couch and turned on the TV. "Game of Thrones?"

"Okay." Still dressed in her red cape and tight black dress, Sally cuddled next to Dave on the couch and put her head on his shoulder. "Well, I think Ben is one creepy guy."

"I know. I hoped he would be more social and maybe meet a girl or something. I really don't get him." He hit play on the HBO Go menu.

Sally yawned. "Okay, just one episode and then bedtime," she said.

A few miles away, Ben drove up to Kimberly's apartment. They had talked and laughed most of the ride to her neighborhood, but had gotten quiet as they neared the end of the ride. Ben was unsure if he should turn off the car or if he was just dropping Kimberly off. He pulled up to her curb and let the car idle. He started to say something, but Kimberly cut him off.

"I'm glad you're not presumptuous," she said. "However, I'm totally going to ask you to come in. I mean, if you want."

"Yeah, yeah," Ben said. "I mean...yeah." He smiled crookedly and shook his head. Kimberly laughed.

Kimberly's apartment was on the second floor. They both giggled as they climbed the stairs, trying - and failing - to be quiet. Kimberly opened her door and let Ben in. Before she could even turn on a light, he leaned in to kiss her. She backed away.

"Hold on," she said. "Let me put some music on or something. Do you want a drink?"

"No, I'm good," he said, his eyes still adjusting to the dark room.

"Okay," she said. And then softly, she leaned in and whispered, "Hey, Ben. Do you want to see my body?"

A rush of heat leaped to his face. "Um, yeah. Sure."

Through the faint light coming in through the windows, Ben could barely see Kimberly. But he could see that she was smiling.

"Give me one minute," she said. She disappeared into a hallway. Nervous excitement flooded over Ben. He heard her voice one more time. "Hey, could you get the light?"

"Sure," Ben called to her. He turned to find the switch and then remembered. "Oh, hey - I almost forgot! I have something for you. A prize for guessing my costume."

Ben reached into the leather satchel on his belt and pulled out a glass key with "S.D." engraved on it, a trinket from the Signal Dagger books. It felt like a piece of it had broken off.

"Oh, c'mon," he muttered to himself.

He grazed his hand across the wall and found the light switch. When he turned and saw the illuminated room, Ben's heart dropped into his stomach and the glass key fell to the floor.

The apartment looked like it had been ransacked. Furniture was overturned. Torn books and broken dishes littered the floor. Kimberly's picture frames had been ripped from the walls and smashed. Her television was lying face down in front of a coffee table, which was littered with cigarette butts and food so rotted that Ben couldn't tell what it had once been.

"Oh, my god," he said. The smell had finally registered, a disgustingly stale odor of ash and decay. "Kimberly? I think somebody broke in."

He waited for a response. Nothing.

"Kimberly? Are you alright?"

Nothing. Then fear arose, hitting him in the gut. Maybe whoever had wrecked the place was still in the apartment.

"Kimberly, we need to get out of here!"

Ben stood there, dumbly. Something was obviously wrong, but he was afraid to go look for her. He looked at the door behind him. Black and dark brown smudges covered it, but Ben didn't really see the filth. He just saw a way out. His feet felt like they were glued to the floor. He couldn't leave. He had to find Kimberly. She was... Well, she was...

Gone. Ben closed his eyes. He knew where Kimberly was. There wasn't an intruder. Whatever had happened in this apartment had happened weeks, maybe months ago. Slowly, he turned toward the dismantled room and walked down the shadowy hallway. From the light in the living room he could only register more filth, more chaos along the walls and on the floor. There was a door at the end of the hallway. He slowly opened it and walked into Kimberly's bedroom.

There she was. His posture slumped, but Ben wasn't surprised to find that he didn't have the energy to yell out or even gasp. Kimberly's dead body was on the bed. Much of the skin on her face had been rotted off to reveal sections of skull underneath. Her clothes looked to be covered in mold, spread there from her decaying body.

Ben wanted to look away, but he couldn't. He saw several pill bottles on the bed next to her and on the nightstand. The story was becoming clearer, but he didn't know why she had come to him. Nothing in the room would answer that. Kimberly's head was tilted toward him, staring with two empty eye sockets. Her cheekbones jutted out from around her distended jaw. To Ben, it looked like she was smiling at him.

"Happy Halloween," he said to her, just before losing consciousness.

Eagle Point

One late summer afternoon, Patrick found out his roommates would be working downtown until past midnight. Patrick was excited to have the place to himself for the first time in what felt like forever. He texted Samantha, asking her to come over and hang out. He added a promise to order food from her favorite restaurant, an excellent Thai place that her family had been going to for years. Once the other guys were gone, Patrick began to clean up the apartment: the kitchen, bathroom, and his bedroom, which was actually the living room.

Samantha replied a little after sundown. Her text said that she'd come by for a bit, but couldn't stay long. Patrick was disappointed, but he reasoned that she had a lot on her mind. Classes at U of D were starting next week and, though Patrick hadn't gone to college himself, he imagined she'd have a lot to do before fall semester started. Still, he hoped that Samantha would stay longer if the food was already delivered by the time she got there. He called the restaurant and ordered her regular dish.

The chicken pumpkin curry arrived just after eight, brought by an older hippie-looking guy that Patrick had seen all over Dubuque. Patrick tipped him a couple of bucks and transferred the meals onto plates. But as he was doing so, Samantha texted again to say that she was running later than she had planned and probably wouldn't have time to drop by.

Patrick stared at the message on his phone for a long time, searching for clues. He did the math and realized he hadn't seen Samantha much during the back half of the summer and his heart began to ache at the thought that she might had moved on without telling him. He searched his memory for the last time they had really spent time alone together and realized it had been well over a month.

They had walked together through Eagle Point Park. At the time, Patrick had been focused on his music again, a reoccurring theme. He told Samantha that he was thinking about regrouping with his old rock band. He'd been writing a lot of new songs on his guitar and reworking some old stuff from when the band was playing a lot of gigs, just after Patrick had dropped out of school during his senior year. But he hadn't spoken to some of those guys in over six years by that point.

It didn't matter in the end. Not very long after that day, Patrick stopped writing new songs and nothing became of his plan.

Standing in his kitchen over a month later, Patrick tried to remember what else he and Samantha had talked about at Eagle Point, if maybe she'd mentioned another guy or something. He couldn't think of anything to that end and it was killing him to not just call her and-

Ames.

Patrick remembered. Back in the park, Samantha had asked him what he thought about the distance to Ames. She wondered how difficult it would be to transfer her college credits to the University of Iowa. To Patrick, she sounded like she was just thinking out loud. Not understanding what she was actually saying, he had told her it didn't matter where she went to school. He thought it was the beginning of a discussion when it was really the end of quiet transition.

Standing in the kitchen during his night to himself, Patrick listened to every hum emitting from every appliance in the empty apartment. He picked up his phone and texted Samantha back. "All OK. Good luck at Iowa next wk." Patrick stared at his sent message for a while, then brought a plate of curry into the living room to find something on TV.