On a normal afternoon Melashire was rather drab and boring and everybody moved about their businesses with every modicum of normality. But today wasn't every other day. The thirty first of October was a day the young and the old looked forward to with a fervour that sometimes threatened to border on an unhealthy side.

Although it was barely three o'clock in the afternoon and the autumn sun was bright and scorching, having not many blossoming trees to diffuse it's rays to the direct earth crust, lights were lit everywhere in styles of festivities. Jack-o'-lanterns held glowing lighting fixtures in them and decorated individual front lawns and driveways in their yellow incandescence.

Sticks garbed in various colorful and scary costumes accompanied the illumination, creating a comedic atmosphere similar to a horror movie scene in an open theatre.

Except it wasn't really a theatre, and the should-be audience were too caught up in other parts of the festival to bother with them much.

Seven kids cycled wearily down the tarred roads, none of them wearing a look that matched the festival's. Well, except one girl. She took the tail of the group and had her phone balanced on a wedge in her bicycle basket and smiled at a TV show as she munched on a half finished chocolate bar. Her tight, browngold curls bounced as the wheels of the cycle carried her down the road. She looked like a replica of Kalea, except younger.

She had just let out a chuckle when Kalea reached back and snatched the phone from the pedestal.

"Hey! Give that back."

Kalea looked back at the girl and shook her head. "No, Tobie. You're not supposed to be using your phone on the road."

Tobie groaned. "There's nobody on the road, as you can see." She made a sweeping motion around them. "Just give it back already. Geez, you're stricter than Mom."

"Not happening." Kalea pedaled faster and met up with the rest at the front, leaving the girl's shouts of anger to fade in the background.

"Do you think the Giraffe is gonna release Oren soon?" Grace was asking. He led the group on his bigger dirt bike.

Kalea wondered what he needed a mountain bike for in this town anyway. There wasn't even an anthill anywhere nearby. But she and the others had to admit it was cool. It was a deep burnt orange color of rusted metal and had thicker tyres and frame and more speed in it's pedals. It also had a thermos slot at it's spokes and an extra little sit behind.

"I don't know. His mom is going to be so mad." Lacey kissed her teeth as if she could foresee just what kind of trouble Oren would be in at home.

"But, seriously, that prank went too far. I still don't get how nobody noticed the bastards that did it, though." Avery removed a hand from the handle bar and dragged his hair out of his eyes. "And how did they know Lizzie was there."

"Someone must have seen us in the Maths class, after all." Accusation was thick in Dore's words. Her voice went up a notch. "I told you guys to leave the damned lizard be after school, but did anybody listen to me? No!"

"Hey, you don't have to take your anger out on us. It's nobody's fault we fell victims of some sicko Halloween-happy pranksters, okay?" Brandon shouted.

"Of course. I shouldn't have sat with you anyways. Don't you always fall victim of pranksters, huh? Now, you get an idea of whose fault it might be?"

Avery shook his head, exasperated. "Holy crap, Dore, must you pick it with everybody?"

"Did I pick anything with you, Avery?" Dore let out an exaggerated sigh and rolled her eyes skyward. "Oh, why did I get paired up with some annoying nose-poking bunch of boys?"

"Dore," Lacey said, her tone of voice pleading. She could see where this would go if someone didn't nip it in the bud.

Kalea was the only silent one in the group. Although her eyes were focused on Dore, her mind was elsewhere, deep in thought. Dore was normally cheerful and easy going, but since the beginning of the week, she had put her grumpy pants on. Kalea had worried about her but had given her time her space-them being close friends, she would confide in her later on. But that had never happened and the week had come to a close and her friend was getting grumpier by the day. Maybe she'd break that space and ask her what was up. It was troubling to see Dore like this. At first she had thought it was because she had been paired with Oren and the boys for the recent project, but since she seemed to lash out at just about everybody, Kakea was beginning to doubt that.

They had been friends since eight grade, last year and had become a little closer when they got paired as homeroom partners this year.

"What's wrong with her?"

Startled, Kalea almost jumped. But it was only Lacey. Lacey with her thick blond hair in bobbing ringlets and bright ear piercings. "Don't sneak up on me like that," she cautioned.

Lacy turned down the corner of her lips. "Girl, I've been beside you for almost a minute now. You had travelled with your thoughts."

Kalea resisted the urge to sigh. She just remembered again how persistent Lacey could be sometimes. Being next door neighbors for four years, Kalea had almost gotten used to having Lacey following her around and poking her nose everywhere, but not quite.

On a norms, Lacey was a cheerful, kind-hearted girl with a bubbly persona and overcharged energy.

"Sorry," she murmured in reply. "What were you saying?"

Lacey nodded and dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "What do you think is wrong with Dore?"

Kalea shrugged. "Dunno. Tryna figure that out."

Lacey dipped her head closer to Kalea, her voice now dropping ridiculously lower. "Should we ask her?"

"No," Kalea said firmly. "Lacey, don't . . . leave it, okay? I'll do the asking myself.'

Lacey shrugged, feigning offense. "Was just trying to help."

"Thanks."

"By the way, your sister looks livid enough to pull out a gun and mark a bull's eye on your back."

Kalea twisted around to look at Tobie. The said girl had menacing scowl on her face. She glared some more when Kalea's gaze met hers. Kalea sighed and tossed the phone back into her basket.

"Don't blame me if you have an accident."

Tobie completely ignored her as she picked up her phone and unlocked it.

"Why isn't she with her seventh grader friends, anyways?" Lacey asked.

"Mom's orders," Kalea piped. "We're to come home together on Halloween. Mom doesn't trust her to not go off on some Hallo trick and forget to come home." She sighed and said, "Isn't that lovely?" And looked anything but it.

A noise off the street made them look up. They were at the T-intersection that led off to their streets and the house directly opposite the vertical hand of the T was abuzz with activity. The open windows of the house exposed lights blazing within the house. A soft undecipherable music played from somewhere deep in the house. A young kid was scooping treats from a large candy sack onto a big tray at the foot of the covered steps that walked up to the house. He paused when he noticed them watching and waved with the hand full of treats, a cheeky grin exposing a lone tooth in his mouth.

Strange, Kalea thought. He couldn't be younger than eight.

Some of the cyclists waved back with Grace waving the maddest.

"Hurrah, someone finally moved into that house," Brandon said.

"It has been sitting empty since forever," Avery explained to a confused Grace. "Although they must be some magicians to have the place ready in less than a day. There was nobody around yesterday."

"What a nice choice of day to move in," Lacey said, sarcasm reeking in her words.

Kalea agreed with Lacey. "I know, right."

"That kid is creepy," was all Dore said.

Kalea shot one last look at the house over her shoulder. A man figure was watching them from a window upstairs that faced the road. He noticed her gaze and returned it. It really did seem like the man's gaze lingered on her for a long while before the curtains behind the window slowly drew shut. The one-toothed kid was nowhere to be found.

Kalea couldn't help the feeling that overtook her, like a wet beetle creeping up her spine. She shivered.

Weird. She thought.

"Guys, I got to go off here." Grace pedaled to a stop, lowering his feet to the ground. "This is our house." He made a sweeping motion to the house to the right.

Brandon whistled. "Whoa, that's a big house."

Avery took a look at the house and grinned. "I know this house, the Plasters used to live here several years ago. Since then, the place has been spooky empty . . . till today."

Of all the kids, Avery was the one who had lived the oldest in Melashire. His great-great-great-grandmother had been part of the first wave that had washed into the place when it was just a plain, boring piece of land outside of the big city and had transformed it and christened it and put it on the map. So Avery had also been born and bred here and had probably known the Plasters or his parents had told him about them, because since Kalea had been in Melashire, she had never seen a single light in that house.

It was crazy that a suburban town like this would have empty houses at all. There were only a few scattered about in the main residential areas, but Kalea had heard that they were much more on the perimeter of the town. Cold, abandoned houses, begging to be loved.

Art, her six grader kid brother had his mind made up to buy streets after empty streets 'when he was old and rich enough' and convert them into high-end, posh estates and make millions of dollars from selling houses every day.

That was if the lands were going to wait for him. If someone 'already old and rich enough' wouldn't have had the same idea and snagged it before he could grow old enough to rent his own house.

But that just went to show the amount of hope the town had on the empty houses. For an eleven year old boy to be convinced they'd remain like that till he grew up . .

"Yeah," Grace was saying and wheeling his large mountain bike over the curb into the property lawn. A man in a hard hat had his back turned to them and was slamming a pickaxe into a window board.

Grace paused and stood still for a second before turning back to face them. "Would you guys like to come in . . . for tea?"

"Yeah, really. But we really got to go home." Avery spoke for all of them.

Grace looked crestfallen but accepted the refusal anyways. "Oh, okay then. See you next time."

"You can come trick or treating with us," Lacey offered. "Me and Kalea and Dore and our siblings." She looked at the other boys. "Maybe you guys will like to join, too?"

Avery laughed. "No, we cool."

"Suit yourself. Grace?"

Grace looked uncomfortable and fidgeted with a handle bar. "Uh, I'd love to, but my folks aren't really big on trick treating."

Lacey inclined her head and thought for a while, as if trying to decide whether to believe Grace or pester him some more. "Okay," she finally said.

They all waved goodbye to the new boy and continued their journey. Soon they parted with Avery and Brandon-who lived on the same street, but had both stopped at the arcade- and arrived at Kalea and Lacey's houses. Dore's house was still three and a half streets away and sometimes, on a good, cozy afternoon, Lacy and Kalea followed her up to her house before coming back to theirs.

Tobie zipped past Kalea through the garden gate to the side of the house where the shed was.

Kalea hesitated and gave Dore a sideways glance. The girl hadn't opened her mouth since she'd made that passing comment about that kid.

"Will you still be coming over for the costume make up?" she wanted to know.

She and her siblings and Lacey had always done it every year. They'd leave their real planned costumes off and wear the basic get ups to school and then come together at Kalea's house later in the evening to put finishing touches to the costumes. Not being able to wear any to middle school didn't stop them.

But since Dore had been acting all of angry all week, Kalea had reason to doubt she would come.

Dore scowled as though offended that her friend would doubt her attendance. "Of course, I'll come."

"Good." Kalea allowed herself to breathe more freely.

"By the way, aren't we getting too old for this thing? Most of the guys in our grade level don't go trick or treating anymore." Dore scowled some more, staring at the Keats's white garden fence.

"Yeah, I know.

"Okay, then. This will be the last time? Next year we'll be freshmen at highschool and we'll go to the Halloween party instead," Lacey piped in.

Kalea found herself agreeing with the girl.

Dore just shrugged and said, "Cool."

"Be here at six," she added them stepped on her pedal and continued down the road.

Kalea and Lacey watched her go, then Lacey said, "Something is definitely not right with her." and wheeled through the garden gate, into the Keats's house.

Kalea sighed and watched Dore disappear into the corner ahead. Again, she found herself agreeing with Lacey. And she really had to find out what was wrong as soon as possible.

Remembering Lacey, she sighed again as she heard her squealing inside with Yolanda, her youngest sister. Lacey practically lived at the Keats's. In all of the four years Kalea has known Prof. and Dr. Flatts, they were always very busy and always traveling to somewhere in South America and somethere in Africa and Europe and Asia.

And Antarctica.

So, it was not difficult for Kalea to be more stuck with the overbubbly Lacey.

Rejecting the garden path, she cycled round to the driveway.