Page 19 of Halloween Haunting
Laughter howled through the living room.
“I mean,” Grace continued, “as much as I might miss having someone around, there’s no way that I would ever go back towatching him clip his toenails in bed, to seeing him pick his nose and then – just wait for it, ladies – and theneat it!”
“Eww!” they shrieked.
As the night carried on, the ladies bonded over their shared failed love stories and embarrassing secrets. Grace listened to them tell their tales and held back her tears at the realization that she had, somehow, stumbled into a family’s open arms. When she left Chuck, she assumed that her entire connection to loved ones would be severed. In a way, that was exactly what happened. The last thing she expected, however, was to be given something so much better. Finally, after so many years, Grace found the people who understood her more than she might ever understand herself.
And to be known was even more important than being loved.
Grace idly sat by while they overnighted a Halloween costume they selected on Anna’s phone. Their giggles and sideway glances in her direction had her more curious than ever, but she let them have their fun.
It was what sisters did. And the girls already kind of felt like that. Like sisters.
Which was a wonderful feeling.
10
The sun was already setting the next evening when Grace finally gathered the energy to tumble out of bed. Everything in the Lantern House was chilly, from the sheets she was buried within to the bare floors. Most of the day was spent drifting in and out of sleep as she nursed the craziest hangover she had in decades. Getting wine drunk was a common occurrence during the divorce, but when was the last time Grace did shots?Vodkashots?
Remembering it brought a shudder down her spine. The taste lingered in the back of her throat, even after brushing her teeth repeatedly. If it were up to her, she would’ve spent the rest of the night in bed too, drowning herself in sappy romantic comedies and eating things that would tear up her stomach the next day. What else was she supposed to do, with the knowledge that the charming town she wandered into was actually a hub for every sort of supernatural creature she could ever imagine?
But her phone was full of messages from Caroline and the rest of the ladies, all of them determined to bring her to the Halloween party they had mentioned the night before. There wasn’t much that Grace could really remember from their crazy night, but she could easily recall the moment when her newfriends ordered a costume for her over the phone. The package arrived right before she would need to get ready, but Grace wasn’t too sure if she really wanted to open it. What if it turned out to be the same costume from her vision? That was the most damning evidence given to her. How could she deny it any longer?
Grace shook her head and grabbed the box cutter. “You’re insane,” she muttered. “There aren’t mermaids in the lakes. There aren’t wolves who turn into…handsome…lumberjack dressing men. And there isno such thingas magical towns!”
The box popped open with a tug and Grace felt the breath get stolen from her throat.
White lights flashed across her gaze as the vision stunted her for a brief moment – the dress had been obscured before but it was entirely clear now. A witch’s characteristic get-up, with the classic pointed hat and stunning amber jewel hanging at her breast. The black dress clung to the curves Grace didn’t know she had, with long sleeves and a skirt that hiked up in the front and dropped low in the back. The neckline plunged farther than anything Grace owned, and clearly showed a little more than she was used to. But she couldn’t deny one thing: she lookeddamngood. She hardly recognized herself in the vision, till she caught a look at her face. There was no doubt that it was her, Grace Baker, dressed in the same costume the girl’s ordered for her.
The vision flickered away and Grace gripped the sides of the box, staring down at what seemed to be her doom. How could she deny what was so clearly in front of her? Shehadseen that dress before. But it wasn’t like she told Caroline or the others what it looked like in the vision. There was no way for any of them to have known what she saw.
Grace shook her head and collected the costume from the box. “What’s the point in fussing?” she questioned as she walked back to her bedroom as if stuck in a daze. “It’s a perfectly gooddress, isn’t it?” In the confines of her room, Grace raised the dress in front of her tall mirror, eyeing the entire outfit with one brow sharply raised. “Even if it seems to be missing a lot of fabric.”
She slipped out of the wrinkled pajamas she had been stuck in all day and hopped into the steaming shower. The warm water calmed her anxieties more than she expected as Grace let it wash over her face for a few long minutes. Grace wasn’t one to go out to parties as she grew older, and it wasn’t like Chuck was ever raging to take her to one. There was excitement lingering below the fear of meeting more new people, of being somewhere she had never been before.
After her cleansing shower, where she scrubbed and washed and shaved and detoxed, Grace eyed herself in the mirror. “You’ll never know what can happen if you don’t even bother to try,” she stated with a strong tone. The sharp edge was like her Mother, and in an instant, the familiar phrase sounded just like how she used to say it. Grace tilted her head as she combed through her long hair, letting the bangs fall neatly against her forehead. “Though I’m not sure how Mom would feel aboutthisbeing what I’m trying.”
Grace wiggled into the skimpy witch’s costume and inched back to the mirror, already feeling the cool breeze slice by her exposed skin. And as she slunk in front of her reflection, a delicately red hue engulfed her cheeks. “Grace Baker,” she murmured to herself, “You are onehotforty three year old. And I amtotallygoing to kill those ladies.”
There was no way to stop the dress’s plunging v-line from exposing the freckled skin along her chest. If she tugged at the waistline to try and cover her thighs more, it only exposed more of her breasts. But if she did it the other way around, Grace had to deal with the entire world getting a good look at her legs. Either way, she was more exposed than she ever had beenbefore, without any other Halloween costume to change into. It was then, as she finished primping and fixing her outfit, that she swore to give her new friends a good talking to when she saw them.
Ding!
Like clockwork, Grace’s phone lit up and vibrated with new messages from Caroline.
Hello, darling! I am heading your way from town.
Hope you’re ready for the time of your life.
There was a beat, the bubble icon glowing as she typed another text:
PS: can’t wait to see that KILLER costume on you, hottie! ;)
Grace rolled her eyes but caught herself grinning in the mirror as she passed it by. She snatched up her handbag beside the door, pausing at the witch’s hat before shrugging and grabbing it too. It sat neatly on the top of her head, angled up to avoid covering her face. She stepped onto the front porch, her laced-up boots clicking against the cobblestone pathway. The moon was almost full as it looked down on her high in the sky. Grace raised her head to it, holding the rim of her witch’s hat as she did.
“I’ll be,” she murmured as she stared up at it. The moon seemed to be far closer in Holiday Hollow than anywhere else Grace had ever been. When she squinted, she could’ve sworn that the valleys and craters were as visible as the shadowy woods in front of her. Grace found herself walking down the front lawn, not at all watching where she was going, her eyes stuck on the pearly white haze that enveloped the Moon.
She took another step and her foot sank into the sloped ditch at the end of her driveway. Grace yelped as her knee started to give out, but before she toppled to the dirty ground before, strong hands slipped beneath her armpits, and hoisted her out from the grimy ditch. Grace’s eyes were wide as she hovered overthe ground, staring down at the costumed man that had come to her rescue.
