"Let's hit the town!" Rupert joined in.
"For the best night of the year!" Emerson followed.
"When frights fill the night," Yllana said.
"And the treats are bountiful!" Bernice cheered.
The four friends set off, having developed a pattern the last few years of how best to navigate the community of Gallows Spire. Each neighborhood didn't disappoint when it came to Halloween displays and the group were joined by a gaggle of other kids all looking for treats. Every house with its lights on had a big display, from inflatable monsters to creepy music, thousands of carved pumpkins and skeletal props and flickering lights.
Twenty minutes in and each friend already supported an impressive haul. There would be time to trade candy latter. Like osmosis, although exchanges would be made from each friend it would be inevitable Rupert would give away most of the things he couldn't eat and Bernice would wind up with the most that the others wouldn't eat.
However, the streets were quite chaotic. Parents were out with little kids, gangs of middle schoolers went in waves, and costumed children were everywhere.
"This is nuts!" Emerson said, having to dodge a trio of monster kids as they walked the brick walled streets of elevated house lots. "Everybody is out here!"
"It's turning into a line for candy!" Bernice complained.
Yllana was walking slowly, trying to make sure the bark and limbs of her wood nymph outfit weren't lost in the jostling.
Although he knew the town by heart, Rupert pulled out his map of Gallows Spire. "It'll be this crowded on the inner ring of houses around the center of town. Everyone starts in the center, where there's the most activity."
"So what do we do?" Bernice asked.
"Let's head out across Rat Creek," Emerson said, "Few start with the neighborhood over there, and the town center will clear out as the night goes on."
"Can you walk that far?" Yllana asked Rupert, concerned.
"I packed my inhaler," Rupert replied. At his heading the four altered their route to follow the streets out of the neighborhood and across the bridge over Rat Creek.
"Good call, my man," Emerson said another twenty minutes later, as they moved to the less popular neighborhoods. Lines at the door were nonexistent at this point, and the friends were getting the first choice of some prime candies.
Rupert took a puff of his medication. "I can go another hour, hour and a half. We'll make a wide tour this year."
Energized by the easier trick or treating pickings, the friends continued onwards to avoid the crowds. Fellow kids out for Halloween became infrequent and sparse. Until the four found themselves out on the edge of town alone as the fog rolled in.
"This is getting pretty thick," Yllana said, as their flashlights did little to help the obscured street lights penetrate the gloom.
"Is there even anybody with candy down this street?" Bernice asked.
"It's worth a shot," Emerson said. "Then we can come back down Twilight Avenue."
It was markably different this far out in town. Gone was the din of screaming kids and Halloween music. It was rather quiet, with only vague lights in the mist to navigate by, and the friends were the only kids around. The only people around, it looked like.
"Eerie," Yllana said.
"You're telling me," Bernice said, huffing as she pushed forward.
"Can't we take a break?" Emerson said, "My feet are starting to get sore and Rupert could use a break too, right?"
"You want to stop in the creepiest part of town?" Bernice exclaimed.
"It's not that creepy," Rupert said, shrugging. "It's only the fog."
Although the mood had become muted among the four friends. It was odd to have not come across anybody else for several minutes.
"Well, not too long," Bernice gave in as she and Yllana joined the boys where they were sitting. "There's candy to be had out there."
After a breather, Rupert was the one to keep them going forward. "We haven't seen porch-lights of anyone else on this road, so everybody must be elsewhere in town. Best to get a move on."
The rest nodded silently, although they weren't going to find another house giving out candy just yet. They found something much more alarming.
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