Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

My reflection was staring at me, dead in the face. Heavily distorted by a screen of gold, my reflection was not moving around independently of myself – I was simply admiring one of the trophies that stood on a shelf in my room. It was of a softball wrapped in a diamond-shaped frame, with my own name engraved on it.

This trophy in particular was one that I had received just last week. My Little League team, the Gryphons, had won our end-of-season softball tournament. I was so proud of myself, along with the rest of my team. For that matter, Lefty and the other Gryphons in his age bracket had also managed to win their tournament. I had a feeling that we'd all win. Save for a few bad days, both of our age brackets managed to win games more often than not.

However, whether our team had won or not, this was my final season with the Gryphons. Next year I would be old enough to partake in Junior League instead. And I would no longer have Coach Gordon coaching me – he had been leading the Gryphons long before I first started. But now, it had come time for me to move on. I was already signed up for a hockey league for the upcoming winter season.

After taking a shower and changing into some fresh clothes, I went downstairs to the kitchen, where both Mom and Dad were walking away from the table, carrying some dirty dishes to the counter.

“Hi, Mom,” I said, as I walked past my parents. “Hi, Dad.”

“Good morning,” Dad said, as he set his dishes down on the counter and proceeded to open the dishwasher.

“We ate already,” Mom said, as she bent down to load some things into the dishwasher. “But there's some scrambled eggs and hash browns sitting on the stove. Help yourself, but save some for Lefty.”

“Thanks,” I said, as Mom and Dad walked out of the kitchen.

I grabbed a plate from the cupboard and brought it over to the stove. From there, I took some scrambled eggs from one skillet and scooped them onto my plate, followed by some diced hash browns.

“Hey, Max,” Lefty said, as he entered the kitchen.

“Hey,” I said, as I walked my plate over to the kitchen table and sat down.

I grabbed the pepper shaker and sprinkled a dash of it atop my scrambled eggs. I then surveyed the breakfast table, hoping to locate a bottle of ketchup somewhere atop it, but was unable to find one. I wanted ketchup for my hash browns, only to recall that Mom and Dad never really had ketchup all that much, and obviously neglected to bring it to the table.

I sighed. “There's no ketchup.”

“I'll get it,” Lefty said, as he went over to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of Heinz Ketchup.

“Thanks,” I said, as Lefty went back to the stove and grabbed his loaded plate with his other hand.

Once Lefty set the bottle down in front of me, I proceeded to open it and poured a dollop of ketchup onto the side of my plate. After I placed the bottle down, Lefty grabbed it and poured ketchup all over his hash browns, running it back and forth several times. Once Lefty had finished, his hash browns were practically drowning in a puddle of ketchup.

“Lefty, nobody needs that much ketchup,” I said, as my brother set the bottle down.

“It's so I don't have to pour more later,” Lefty retorted, as he pierced a few hash browns with his fork and smooshed them around in the ketchup that was already smothering them.

“You do know there's sugar in ketchup, don't you?” I asked, as I took a bite of my eggs.

“Yeah. Mom keeps going on about telling me not to use too much. But it doesn't taste sweet to me.”

“You might want to take it easy,” I said. “Halloween's tomorrow. You're gonna get tons of candy.”

Lefty smirked. “I can't wait. Just one more day! Hey, you know what'd be real fun? If we both went as the invisible man!”

I lowered my brow. “Don't even start with that!”

“Aww, come on,” Lefty said, as he allowed himself to turn invisible. He proceeded to hold up his knife and fork, which made it seem as though they were floating above the table. “It's Halloween, Max! This is the perfect time to make use of our power!”

“Lefty, this is hands-down the dumbest idea that you've had... since... you messed around in my bedroom and got yourself pulled into the mirror!”

“Max, I was just kidding,” Lefty said, as he made himself visible and set his utensils back down upon his plate. He was not smiling. He hated whenever I brought up the story about how he got himself trapped in the mirror.

“Okay,” I said. “But it sounds like something you might actually try.”

“I'm not seriously doing it. You saw my costume. I'm going as a vampire this year.”

“I know. Don't you think it's kind of cliche?”

“It's not cliche. It's a classic! What are you going as?”

“Don't you remember? I told you I'm going as Connor Reed.”

“The Volthead?” Lefty asked, as his face lit up. “Sweet! But... why not go as something a little more... I dunno... scary? The Voltheads are cool. But they're not scary.”

“They could be to people who think they're just punks.” I said. “But that's not the point. I don't care about scaring anyone.”

“What do you mean?”

I sighed. “I'm twelve years old. I'm in grade seven. I'm in middle school. This might be my last year that I can get away with going trick-or-treating. I just want to look cool.”

“Who says you have to stop?” Lefty asked.

I rolled my eyes. “Because you just do at some point. You ever see grown adults walking around on Halloween in costume, going door-to-door and asking for candy?”

“No, but that's kinda unfair. And if that's the case, then I've only got this year plus the next two to go trick-or-treating.”

“It's more than I have to look forward to,” I said. “Be thankful for that.”

Not long after finishing breakfast, Lefty and I had freshened up, and we eventually left for school. We met up with Stella and Caroline, and walked together for a short while. We eventually parted ways with Caroline, followed by Lefty, as they went off to head to their own schools, while Stella and I continued on to our middle school together.

Regrettably, I was not in the same homeroom as Stella, or any of my other close friends. That said, Mrs. Lloyd was a fairly good teacher, but a few of the other students that had the pleasure of being in her class, I could easily do without.

I sat down at my desk, then turned my attention over towards the boy who was seated next to me – Rex Golding.

“Hey, Max,” Rex said, as he and two of his neighboring friends looked over at me. “Guess what I'm going as for Halloween?”

“Oh, I dunno,” I replied. “A dinosaur?”

Mitch and Wyatt both chuckled, while Rex himself just frowned. “Shut up! All of you!”

“So what are you going as?” I asked.

“I asked you to guess. If you didn't guess correctly, I'm not about to tell you.”

“Whatever,” I said. “I don't care.”

“What are you going as?” Rex asked. “Never mind! You don't even need a costume. You're weird enough.”

“Is he really?” Mitch asked, eyeing me fairly intently.

“Tell us about the bat, Max,” Wyatt said.

I groaned. “Stop believing every word that comes out of Rex's mouth,” I said. “I never had a baseball bat with my name in mirrored writing. That's just dumb!”

In actuality, I did own a bat that had my name engraved upon it. Problem was, due to a mishap with the magic mirror, it got swapped with its reflection. Rather than risk trying to get it back, I had to sand off my name and throw it out. It was frustrating, as I got the bat as a present and had taken good care of it otherwise.

Regardless, I knew that I was lying through my teeth to Rex and his friends. But I had to. It was for my own good. I couldn't just tell him about the mirror and everything it had been responsible for. And if I had to go and tell more people about the mirror, Rex wouldn't exactly be at the top of my list.

“You know, I called just about every sports and trophy shop I could think of,” Rex said. “And they all told me that they can't do mirrored engravings, because none of them  have the equipment for it.”

“Yeah,” I said. “All the more reason you're just making this all up."

“I am not making this up!” Rex huffed. “I know what I saw. You two believe me, don't you?”

“I would like to see this bat with my own eyes,” Wyatt said. "If it even exists."

“Rex, you might want to get your eyes looked at,” Mitch said.

Rex groaned, as the school bell suddenly rang. Mrs. Lloyd, who was sitting at her desk, proceeded to take attendance before collecting our homework assignments.

“Now then,” Mrs. Lloyd said. “In the spirit of Halloween, I thought that today, we could talk a bit about ghosts.”

“But... ghosts aren't actually real,” one girl said.

“They have to be!” Mallory exclaimed. “I bumped into somebody I couldn't see once.”

I knew exactly what Mallory had been referring to – myself.

Mrs. Lloyd rolled her eyes. “That sounds a bit extreme, Mallory. Of course, the existence of ghosts is heavily disputed. There is no concrete evidence that can prove if they actually exist. But real or not, they have made quite an impact on human culture, and there is much that we can learn in regard to that.”

I looked over at Rex. He was staring at me intently, so I quickly turned my head away to refrain from making further eye contact with him. After the whole incident in which Lefty had invisibly dumped mashed potatoes on Rex's head, he had strongly concluded that some unseen presence had to have done it.

I ultimately ended up enjoying Mrs. Lloyd's lecture on ghosts, even though everything had seemingly been anecdotal. I wasn't sure just how educational it had actually been, but if nothing else, it had certainly been interesting.

Eventually, the bell rang, signifying that the period had ended.

“Remember, we're having a Halloween party in class tomorrow!” Mrs. Lloyd exclaimed, as I, along with the rest of my classmates, got up from our seats and headed towards the door. “You're welcome to bring refreshments!”

I soon made my way to my next class, which was math. While Mrs. Lloyd had been able to make her class seem more interesting by incorporating horror into her routine, the same could not be said for math class.

My mind gradually began to drift off as Mr. Froll went on and on about converting decimals into fractions, and vice-versa. I wasn't bad at math by any means, but it always seemed to me as though there were way too many micro-subjects that fell under the math umbrella.

Without any warning, I was taken aback when I experienced a weird, tingly feeling suddenly coursing through my body. As it happened, a memory raced through my mind – I could recall experiencing such a feeling back when I had invisibly infiltrated Stella's party that she hosted at the beginning of the school year.

Back then, the feeling, which had also been shared by Erin and April, had some connection to the mirror's energy. But it made sense at the time, as Stella's house was right next door to mine, and my attic had been the mirror's home, so to speak. So why was I experiencing this same feeling again, only at school? Hopefully, I was just imagining things.

The feeling only lasted a few seconds before vanishing just as suddenly as it had manifested within me. Regardless, this wouldn't be the first time this sort of thing had happened while I was far away from the mirror. The mirror's power had given me trouble even while I was away at summer camp. Deep down, I seriously hoped that what had caused this entire sensation to happen had been entirely within my head.

For the remainder of the morning, nothing else that was peculiar seemed to happen to me. The moment the lunch bell rang, I wasted no time making my way to the lunchroom, where I met up with my friends at a table. Once all of them were there, I told them about what I had experienced during second period.

“You've gotta be joking!” Zack exclaimed, fidgeting with the banana he had brought in his hands.

“Not joking!” I retorted. “Did nobody else feel anything earlier?”

Zack, Erin, April and Stella all shook their heads. I let out a sigh of defeat in response.

“What do you suppose caused this?” April asked. “Whatever it was.”

“Look, if I knew, I'd tell you.”

“Maybe retrace your steps a bit,” Erin said. “You said this happened during math class?”

“Yeah,” I said. “First period was fine. It was relevant. It was interesting. But math class? Boring by nature. As far as I'm aware, the novelty of combining math and anything even remotely spooky seems to have reached its peak with the Count on Sesame Street.”

“Max, this shouldn't have just happened because you were bored,” April said. “There's gotta be something deeper here.”

“You think the mirror itself caused this?” Stella asked. “As far as I know, it's been up in your attic ever since we dealt with Xam back in September.”

“It never did go away after all that,” I said. “The mirror's vanished a few times before, but after that time, it stayed for some reason. But nobody's messed around with it. I certainly haven't, and believe me, Lefty already learned his lesson.”

“Hopefully, it was just nothing,” Erin said.

“It didn't feel like nothing,” I replied, as Mallory made her way over to our table, accompanied by two of her friends.

April sighed, looking around at everyone at our table, just as Mallory stopped next to where I was sitting.

“Hey,” I said, not really looking forward to whatever it was that Mallory was likely going to say.

“Hey, Max,” Mallory said, speaking in a rather calm and relaxed tone.

“What do you want?” Zack asked, as Mallory turned her nose at Zack's quip.

“Excuse me! I just wanted to speak to Max for a moment.”

I rolled my eyes, not feeling too keen on hearing about whatever it was that Mallory was about to tell me. “What about?” I asked.

“Did you not hear?” Mallory asked. “I'm having a Halloween party at my house tomorrow night. I'm inviting everyone in my homeroom. So, you're welcome to come.”

My eyes suddenly widened, even though my brain was not entirely sure as to how it should form a response. “Really? Wow. Thanks. But... what about Rex? He keeps trying to convince everyone that I'm weird.”

Mallory blew a raspberry. “I think he just wants attention. I mean, he might be on to something about that whole ghost thing. But that backwards bat of yours? Give me a break.”

“I might be able to come,” I said.

“Great,” Mallory said, looking around at my friends. Look, just so there's no hard feelings, the rest of you are invited as well. Be at my house at eight.”

The rest of my friends thanked Mallory, as she and her own friends walked off.

“Is she for real?” Erin asked.

“I dunno,” Stella said. “She got terrified at my party and single-handedly got it cancelled. Even if she did bump into you, Max.”

“Well, it is nice of her to invite all of us,” April said.

“I might as well go,” I said. “If only to try and get on Mallory's good side. Just as long as we don't do anything weird there. Cuz Rex'll be there. And as long as we act completely normal, there won't be anything about us for him to nitpick."

Stella nodded. “I'll think about it. If we all go, none of us will be alone, at least.”

The remainder of the school day passed by without incident. I never did experience any sort of follow up to the sensation I had felt in math class, and from what I could tell, nor did any of my friends.

I eventually made my way home, where I let myself in through the front door. Feeling a bit tired out, I made my way over to a couch in the living room and plopped myself down into a lying position. Whitey came up to the couch and proceeded to lick my hand, which was drooping over the front end.

Just then, the front door opened up, only to be closed a moment later. Lefty soon poked his head around the doorway that led into the living room from the front hall.

“Hey, Max,” Lefty said, as he walked up towards me. “Long day, huh?”

I sighed. “Something weird happened to me at school today,”

Lefty rolled his eyes. “Weird? What'd you do, exactly?”

“I didn't do anything,” I said, as I sat up and went on to tell Lefty about what had happened.

“Seriously?” Lefty asked.

“None of the others noticed anything either. But I have no idea what it could have been.”

“Do you think we should go up and check the mirror?” Lefty asked. “As long as it's been up there, there's no telling what could've happened.”

I nodded. “I guess it might tell us something. Hopefully it doesn't cause anything worse to happen.”

Lefty and I headed all the way up to the attic. We made our way across the main room of the attic, then stopped in front of the door that led to the hidden room, which had been blocked off by a small makeshift wall consisting of boxes and crates.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Lefty asked, placing his hands against the side of one of the boxes.

“I have to be sure,” I said, as I grasped a different box and carried it over to the nearest side wall.

Once Lefty and I had cleared enough boxes out of the way, we were able to access the door to the hidden room. I advanced towards the door and grasped the handle.

“Careful, Max,” Lefty said, as I pulled the door outwards.

I went ahead and peered into the hidden room. To neither my surprise nor Lefty's, the mirror was still standing in the center of the room.

“Why's it still here?” Lefty asked, as he went ahead and grasped my hand. I clenched it in return,

“I dunno,” I replied, as I slowly walked up to the mirror with my brother by my side. “There's no telling what this mirror can or will do.”

“It's so eerie,” Lefty said, my heart racing as he and I studied our reflections on the other side of the glass. Both of them appeared to be mimicking us to a T.

“Nothing peculiar about the glass,” I said. “At least as far as I can tell. And I'm not sensing anything else unusual about this mirror.”

“So that's it?” Lefty asked.

“Not quite,” I said. “Stand back.”

I moved around to one side of the mirror, while Lefty backed a fair bit away.

“Max, be careful!” Lefty cried, as I reached my hand up towards the chain on the lamp that was affixed to the mirror.

“I have to know,” I said, as I yanked down on the chain. The lamp abruptly switched on, emitting a brilliantly bright flash that would've irritated my eyes had I not known to keep them shut.

“Nothing's happening,” Lefty said, as I looked around at the mirror and the glowing lamp.

“Maybe that's a good thing,” I said, as I went ahead and pulled the chain again, causing the light to shut off.

“Hopefully,” Lefty said, as he and I proceeded to walk out of the hidden room and back into the main part of the attic. “What do you think that strange feeling from earlier even was?”

I looked back through the open door, where I could faintly see my reflection looking back at me from the mirror. “It's possible that we might never truly know.”

A little while later, I was seated at the dinner table, along with the rest of my family. Mom had prepared meatloaf, accompanied with peas.

“Guess what,” I said. “A girl in my class is having a Halloween party tomorrow night, and she invited me. It's at eight o'clock. Can I go?”

Dad glanced at me, then looked over at Mom, before shifting his eyes back in my direction. “Who is this girl? Do we know her?”

“Her name's Mallory. She invited the whole class over.”

“You've never even mentioned this Mallory person before,” Mom said. “She's not your friend, is she?”

“Not... exactly,” I replied, shaking my head. “But can I please go?”

It's at eight, you say?” Dad asked. “I suppose it's okay. But you absolutely need to be home no later than ten. It's still a school night. What do you think, Harriet?”

“I have no objections,” Mom said.

“Thanks,” I said.

“Max, why do you want to go to this party, anyway?” Lefty asked. “You don't even like Mallory.”

“Look, I can't keep trick-or-treating the rest of my life. Older kids don't do that, okay? When it's Halloween, we hang out and go to parties.”

“Parties, shmarties,” Lefty said. “I'd rather go trick-or-treating any day. Even if it only happens once a year.”

“Well, I'm going to do both this year,” I said. “This ought to be interesting.”

After dinner, Lefty and I sat at the kitchen table, where we carved a jack-o-lantern out of a pumpkin that Mom had brought home. Although I had seen jack-o-lanterns that contained a lot of intricate detail, ours wasn't anything too elaborate. Lefty had suggested giving it jagged teeth, while I made sure to include frowning eyes. Some of our neightbors set up numerous jack-o-lanterns, but Mom assured us that one was enough for our house. Neither she nor my Dad typically made a huge fuss over Halloween decorations. 

Once I awoke the following morning, my brain immediately reminded me that today was indeed October 31st. Halloween had finally arrived!

I made my way into the bathroom and proceeded to take a shower. I dried myself off, but made no real effort to comb my hair, as I was about to dress up for Halloween.

I wrapped my towel around my waist and went back to my bedroom. Just as soon as I passed through the doorway, I could see that the shirt drawer to my dresser was open. A shirt suddenly went flying out of the drawer, as if it had done so under its own power, then landed on a small pile of other shirts that had already accumulated on my bed.

“LEFTY!” I huffed, as I stomped over towards my dresser. “What the hell are you doing?”

No more shirts flew out of the dresser, as I tried to feel around for my brother, but was unable to detect him. “Are you trying to get me to beat you up, or something? Cut it out!”

I walked around my room, practically on my tiptoes, just to make sure that I could hear Lefty, even if he was moving around near-silently. But from what I could sense, Lefty did not appear to be anywhere.

“Oh shit!” I gasped, thinking back to when Lefty had gotten pulled into the mirror realm after messing around with my clothes. “LEFTY!”

I threw on a pair of boxers as quickly as I could and darted up to the attic. Horrible thoughts began to race through my mind. Why was Lefty even doing this? Was I too late? I figured that he had to know better, but no other explanation made any sense.

I raced towards the door to the hidden room, cleared a path through the boxes that were stacked in front of it, and opened the door. The lamp was off, and as I approached the mirror itself, I saw that my reflection seemed to be acting normally.

I took in a deep breath. Between the door still being blocked and the lamp being off, it felt fair to assume that Lefty had not been up here. And besides, he knew not to mess around with his powers for too long. Something wasn't quite adding up here.

I made my way out of the hidden room, not even bothering to block off the door again, as I went back down to the second floor. As I headed back to my room, Lefty suddenly emerged from the door to his own room.

“Lefty!” I cried, walking up towards my brother.

“Max, what are you running around for?”

“What were you doing in my room?” I asked, looming down at Lefty with a heavy frown.

Lefty bit down on his lip. “What are you talking about?”

I groaned. “Just a moment ago. My clothes went flying out of my dresser! Why'd you do it?”

“Max, I haven't been in your room at all today! What do you mean your clothes went flying?”

“When I woke up, my shirts were being flung out of my dresser, as though some invisible person was doing it! I'm not joking with you or anything. I'm serious. Care to explain?”

“Max, I didn't do anything,” Lefty said. “No joke!”

“Hold on,” I said, as I reached my hand forward and placed it upon Lefty's chest. His heart was on the left side.

“Max, I'm myself. Calm down!”

“You don't understand,” I said, pulling my hand away. “But someone or something was tossing shirts out of my dresser!"

Lefty let out a deep breath. “Max, you saved my life when things seemed completely hopeless. I would never do anything to upset you ever again. Besides, we agreed – no more bullshit between us.”

“I understand. But I don't understand why my clothes went flying.”

“You are serious, aren't you?”

“Yeah. But if it wasn't you, then what was it? Something's definitely out there.”

“So where's it now?” Lefty asked.

“It seems to have stopped,” I replied, peering into my bedroom, where a pile of shirts still sat upon my bed. “So to answer your question, I have no idea.”

Once Lefty went off, I went ahead and dressed up in my Halloween costume. Connor Reed typically wore a black leather vest, along with jeans that were torn at the hems. He never wore a shirt under his vest, but I was starting to wish that he did, just in case it was cold tonight. Lastly, I put on a wig of long, curly black hair that went down past my shoulders. Looking into my mirror, I certainly didn't look like a perfect replica of Connor Reed, but anyone who was familiar enough with the Voltheads would probably be able to recognize my costume.

I proceeded to go down to the kitchen, where Mom and Dad were both seated at the breakfast table.

“I love that rock star costume, Max,” Mom said, as I sat down in my seat. Although she had a passing knowledge of who the Voltheads were, she likely couldn't tell me any of their names.

“I made avocado toast for you,” Mom said, sliding a plate with two pieces of toast in front of where I was seated. “You're gonna be eating a ton of junk today because of Halloween. You ought to have something healthy to start the day."

“Sure,” I said, as I picked up a slice of toast. However, I nearly dropped my toast when I saw a plate rise off the counter and float in midair.

As my parents sat facing away from the counter, they were unable to see what I could. The plate was hovering around, swaying back and forth.

“Max, what are you looking at?” Dad asked, no doubt having read the stunned expression that was on my face.

“Uhh...” I muttered, just as the plate suddenly returned to its prior position on the counter, right before Mom and Dad turned around to see what I had been looking at.

“I was just... thinking,” I said, watching as Lefty walked through the front hall towards the kitchen. There was no way he could've gotten from the kitchen to the stairs so suddenly.

Lefty, who was dressed up in a vampire costume, complete with a cape, along with his hair slicked back and white face paint, made his way over to the table.

“Good morning!” Lefty said, speaking with a very bad Transylvanian accent, along with a slur to his voice. “ I vant to suck your blood!”

“How about a blood orange instead?” Mom asked, as Lefty sat down.

“Yuck!” Lefty griped in his normal voice, shaking his head. “I hate blood oranges!”

“Have some avocado toast, then,” Dad said. “And don't actually eat with those silly fangs.”

“Okay, okay,” Lefty muttered, as he pulled the fake fangs that he had been wearing out of his mouth and set them down on his side plate. Did he really have to leave his saliva-soaked fangs just sitting at the table?

As Lefty and I ate our toast, Mom and Dad got up and soon left the kitchen.

“Lefty,” I began. “I saw a plate fly around a moment ago! Mom and Dad missed it! But I'm serious!”

“Max, give me a break!” Lefty griped. “Even if you're telling the truth, there's no way-”

Before Lefty could continue, the carton of orange juice that was sitting on the table suddenly rose into the air on its own, along with Lefty's plate of half-eaten toast.

“MAX!” Lefty gasped.

“I told you I wasn't kidding!” I exclaimed, as I grabbed the carton, effortlessly plucking it from whatever force had lifted it up in the first place.

“What is this?” Lefty asked, as he too grabbed his plate in the same fashion.

“Something really weird's going on around here,” I said. “But don't ask what. Do you absolutely swear that you didn't do anything screwy recently?”

Lefty nodded, as he held out his hands, palms facing forward. “I swear. But... what are we supposed to even do about this... whatever it is?”

I sighed. “I don't even know where to begin. And not only that, but we can't even stay here to try and figure things out. We've gotta go to school. And I'd really rather not go, because this thing is loose in our house!”

“I don't want to miss Halloween,” Lefty said. “But do you think we should pretend to be sick to stay home from school?”

“I really don't want us to lie to Mom and Dad. Besides, they saw that we were perfectly healthy just a moment ago. They wouldn't believe us in a million years if we told them we were sick."

“Guess it doesn't matter where we go,” Lefty said. “We don't know the first thing about this... ghost, or whatever it is. What are we even supposed to do with it?”

I was unable to think up a response. Not that it mattered, as Mom made her way into the kitchen from the front hall.

“Boys, you need to get ready for school,” Mom said. “I want you both to finish your breakfast so I can start the dishwasher.”

Saying nothing, I rolled my eyes and made an effort to eat the rest of my breakfast, as did Lefty. Whether we liked it or not, Mom did have a point.

“What do you think happened to the ghost?” Lefty asked, once he and I walked out of the kitchen and into the front hall.

“Right now, I can't say,” I replied. “We've gotta go to school. I just hope that this ghost doesn't trash the house while we're gone.”

Lefty and I managed to get ourselves ready for school, and did not witness any strange happenings of any sort in the process. I made sure to bring a large bag, in addition to my regular backpack,

A few minutes later, the doorbell rang. Lefty and I both went down to the front hall and answered the door.

Standing on the other side of the door were Stella and Caroline. Stella was dressed up as what looked to be a fairy, complete with transparent wings and a lavender mini skirt. Caroline was dressed up in black leather, along with a matching hat and a blonde wig.

“Fellow rock star,” Caroline said, smiling towards me. “Connor Reed, right?”

“You got it,” I said, nodding with a grin.

“What are you supposed to be, Caroline?” Lefty asked. “A punk?"

Stella giggled in response.

“I'm Madonna,” Caroline sighed. “Don't you know anything?”

“I can't remember what she looks like. You might as well go as Elvis. Or Mozart.”

“Lefty, shut up,” I said. “And for the record, both of you have nice costumes. But come on, we've got to get going.”

The four of us proceeded to walk down the street together for the first leg of our journey. It was special getting to see Meadowview Street on the day of Halloween. As the sun was out, you could see all the decorations that people had set up in front of their houses.

As we approached one property in particular, I noticed that there was an inflatable skeleton that had been flailing around on the front lawn. At first, it didn't seem like it was much of a big deal. However, the skeleton, which was about seven feet tall and had been facing out towards the street, suddenly turned the upper half of its body towards our group and raised its arms.

“Whoa!” Stella gasped.

I had been taken aback for a moment. However, had I not seen what I had earlier this morning, this would've come as a greater shock to me.

“How'd it do that?” Caroline cried, studying the skeleton.

“Uh, it must be high-tech,” I replied, trying to come up with a reason on the spot. “Like an animatronic, or something.”

“Neat, Lefty said. “It doesn't even look like there's any fancy machinery inside of it. Just air. Wonder how much it cost?” Lefty asked.

“Oh, who cares?” I asked, grabbing Lefty by his wrist and dragging him away from the skeleton.

“It's the ghost, you idiot,” I muttered through my teeth. “Shut up.”

As the inflatable skeleton returned to its original position, Stella and Caroline followed us down the block, away from the skeleton, and caught up with Lefty and myself.

Soon we had reached the corner where Caroline always split off from the rest of us, leaving me with Lefty and Stella. Now that her sister was gone, Lefty and I immediately relayed our previous encounter with the ghost to Stella.

“You guys can't be serious about all that!” Stella exclaimed, as the three of us continued walking together.

“'fraid so,” I said. “How else do you explain the skeleton moving on its own like that?”

“And you don't know why it's happening, either?”

Lefty and I both shook our heads.

“Wow. And you're the only ones to have noticed this ghost?”

“Far as I can tell.” I replied. “Either he's been following us around from our place, or... there's more than one out there.”

“What about me?” Lefty asked. “Will I be safe once I go off on my own?”

I sighed. “Hard to say.”

Shortly thereafter, we had reached the corner where Lefty would go his separate way from Stella and myself.

“Be careful while you're at school,” I said, as Lefty turned in the direction of his school.

“I'll try,” Lefty replied.

“And please... no shenanigans.”

“What do you mean by shenanigans, Max?” Stella asked.

“Today's Halloween. Lefty, you'd better not use it as an excuse to fool around with your powers at school. Especially with this ghost nonsense that's happening. Things are bad enough.”

Lefty rolled his eyes. “Okay,” he whined. “I won't screw around at school today.”

“I hope you don't,” I said, as Lefty crossed the street and headed off in a different direction than the one that Stella and I took.

“I really hope that Lefty will be okay,” Stella said, as she and I walked down the next street. “You really think it's targeting you two?”

“It'd make sense,” I said. “Whatever this is, there's a good chance that it's a product of the mirror. And the mirror has a special connection to Lefty and myself. Me especially. It even chose to embody itself as Xam at one point, because it feels more connected to me than anyone else.”

“Even Lefty? I mean, he's the one who got stuck in there for three days!”

“Yeah, but the mirror sees me as the closest and most influential of anyone in our group. It must not care that Lefty was trapped in the reflection world.”

“So, the ghost might not even be with Lefty, and in that case really only be interested in you?” Stella asked.

“Could be. While it's good to know that Lefty might be okay, what am I supposed to do?”

Eventually, Stella and I had arrived at school. A considerable number of kids were already there, many of whom were standing around in front of the school, dressed up in an array of Halloween costumes. I was able to make out Superheroes, monsters, princesses and many more throughout the crowd.

“Where do you suppose the others are?” Stella asked, looking around in an attempt to locate any of our friends.

“Beats me,” I replied. “There's too many kids here, and a lot of the costumes are throwing me off.”

“Me too. But we need to find them. This is serious!”

With Stella by my side, the two of us began to weave through the crowd, hoping to locate ether Zack, Erin or April. All three would be great, but even one would've been preferable to nothing.

As Stella and I were marching through the crowd, the bell for first period suddenly rang.

“Not now,” I griped.

“Sorry, Max,” Stella said, as she and I, along with the other students, all turned towards the school and proceeded to walk towards the front doors. “This'll just have to wait.”

“Great...” I sighed. “Just great.”

As I entered the doors of the school, I looked around at all the students who were walking through the hall alongside me. I hadn't noticed the ghost in any way since the inflatable skeleton, but right now, he could potentially be anywhere among this large crowd, just waiting to earn somebody's attention with his antics.

I eventually made my way into homeroom, where a number of my fellow classmates were already seated at their desks. As I approached my own desk, I saw that Rex was dressed up as a devil, complete with a pitchfork accessory. Near him were Mitch and Wyatt, who were wearing costumes of a grim reaper and an executioner in a black mask respectively. Mallory was also nearby, and was dressed up as a pirate. Not a captain or anything, but she sported a blue and white striped shirt, along with a red bandana.

“Hey, Max,” Rex said, as I took my seat. “Nothing against your costume, but what'd you do to make the rest of the Voltheads ditch you?”

Mitch and Wyatt both chuckled in response.

“Hey, looks like you finally found some clothes that really suit you,” I said sitting down at my seat.

“Ha-ha,” Rex muttered sarcastically, as Mrs. Lloyd cleared her throat and proceeded to take attendance. Unlike many of the students, she was not wearing a costume, and was instead in her usual attire.

“Okay then,” Mrs. Lloyd said, as she finished taking attendance. “Now that today is actually Halloween, I'd like to delve into the subject a bit more.”

Mrs. Lloyd proceeded to pick up a book and began to read from it. She went on to tell us about how Halloween used to be known as All Hallows' Eve, and how people believed that ghosts and spirits were closest to them on that night more than on other nights. According to the book, people wore costumes and lit bonfires as a way of warding off ghosts. Over the years, the use of bonfires made a transition to that of lighting jack-o-lanterns.

As Mrs. Lloyd continued to read, I found that my attention span was instead growing more and more focused towards the ghost. Where was it now? If it had followed me out of the house and to the inflatable skeleton, there was a good chance that it was still lingering somewhere close by to me. But where, exactly?

Part of me wanted to see the ghost. I mean, it was invisible, so of course I couldn't see it. But I had to know if it was there or not. However, if the ghost was here, then everyone else would be able to notice its antics as well. And if the ghost wasn't here, it could be anywhere else, where just about anyone could potentially notice it causing havoc. I was worried that at any moment, the ghost might suddenly do something that would earn the attention of everyone in the room.

And was the ghost even a he? Or was it a she? Did it even have a gender? I was feeling more and more anxious with each minute that passed, I found that I was barely even paying attention to what Mrs. Lloyd had been telling us. This didn't even feel fair to me. Had there not been any ghost that had me on edge, I felt as though Mrs. Lloyd's reading would've actually been interesting to me.

Eventually, the bell rang, signifying that it was the end of first period.

“All right,” Mrs. Lloyd said, setting her book back down on her desk. “It's time for our class Halloween party. You're welcome to take a few minutes to go freshen up, get your things together, or use the bathroom.”

As everyone stood up, Rex suddenly lost his balance and fell over, crashing onto the top of his desk.

“Rex, are you okay?” Mallory asked.

“Yeah,” Rex groaned, as he tried to regain his balance. “It feels like something's wrong with my feet!”

I looked down at Rex's feet. His devil costume ended at his ankles, and it was apparent that he was wearing his usual sneakers over his feet. However, what caught my attention was something that I did not expect.

“Dude!” Mitch laughed. “Your shoelaces are tied together!”

“Are you serious?” Wyatt asked, as he and the rest of the class joined in on the laughter, myself included.

Rex groaned, as he reached down and began to untie his shoelaces from one another. Regrettably, hilarious as this all was, I immediately surmised that this was the doing of the ghost. He had to have been up to something during first period. But out of everyone in the classroom, why did he target Rex? Was the ghost even on my side, or not?

Knowing that I wasn't going to get an answer, I proceeded to open the extra bag I had brought and from it pulled out a bag of Ruffles barbecue potato chips. I then joined the other kids who had brought snacks at the front of the classroom, where Mrs. Lloyd was setting up a bunch of empty bowls upon a table in a corner of the room, and poured my chips into one of the bowls.

“You!” Rex huffed, as he made his way to the front of the classroom, shoelaces no longer tied together.

“What?” I asked, as Rex stopped in front of me, frowning intently into my soul.

“You know what! Tying my shoelaces together!”

I smirked. “What are you talking about? I didn't touch your shoes.”

“Oh, come on!” Rex whined. “Obviously it was you! I don't know what it is about you, but you're such a weirdo! Just admit it, already!”

“Rex, please,” Mrs. Lloyd said. “What makes you think Max did it? Nobody got out of their seat the entire time I was reading. Besides, did you even see who tied your shoelaces together?”

“Well... no. But it had to be Max! He sits right next to me.”

“Please stop making up excuses, Rex. If anything, it almost feels like you tied your laces together just to get attention.”

“No, I didn't!” Rex uttered, glaring directly at me.

“Nobody believes you,” Wyatt said.

“Maybe I can't prove anything. But my gut's telling me that Max was involved, somehow.”

Rex grabbed a paper plate from a stack that was on the table, then proceeded to grab a handful of the chips I brought and dumped them onto the plate.

I went ahead and grabbed a lollipop that one of the other students had brought, took off the wrapper and stuck it into my mouth. A sweet lemony flavor, I sucked on the lollipop as I stepped towards a corner of the room. The ghost was indeed here. But what did it want? Why was it following me around? And what could I even do about it?

The first thing I needed to do was to get out of this crowded classroom. I asked Mrs. Lloyd if I could be excused to go to the bathroom, and she approved.

I left the classroom and headed down the hall, where I entered the nearest boys' bathroom. Uncertain as to whether or not anyone else was here, I proceeded to make myself invisible, if only to not attract any unwanted attention.

There did not appear to be anyone else currently in the bathroom. Just to make sure, I bent down and peered under the doors to each of the toilet stalls, but could not see anybody's legs on the other side of them. It felt safe to assume that I was the only person in here.

“Okay... ghost,” I began, not sure as to how I should actually approach the entity. “Show yourself! You've gotta be somewhere around here. I just know it. Give me a sign! Anything!”

I waited around on baited breath for a moment, as I made myself visible again. This was it. This was the ghost's big chance to come forward for me. But what if he wouldn't? What if he couldn't? What if he wasn't even here? Or if he was here, but was unable to hear me? Or he was here, but just didn't want to take orders from anyone? This plan of mine was beginning to feel very amateurish.

I was taken by surprise as the door to the nearest toilet stall abruptly swung open, seemingly on its own. I looked into the open stall, but there did not appear to be anyone on the other side.

Suddenly, the door to the next stall over swung open in a similar fashion to the first. Likewise, the door to the third stall also swung open, soon followed by every consecutive door thereafter until the final one had been opened.

“Whoa!” I gasped. “Who are you? How did you do that?”

I anticipated an oral response, but received none.

“What are you doing here?”

Again, the ghost seemingly made no attempt to answer me.

I looked into the nearest stall, and looked around for something that could be used to get the ghost's attention. I then noticed the toilet paper dispenser that was hung on the wall of the stall, and could see a sheet of paper dangling from it.

“Uh, tear off a piece of toilet paper,” I said. “If you can.”

I watched as the toilet paper that was hanging off to the side was grabbed by an invisible presence, which then proceeded to tear off a small strip of it from the rest of the roll. The piece of toilet paper then floated around for a moment, before it drifted down and landed in the toilet bowl.

“Interesting,” I said, watching as the toilet paper quickly became soggy from the water in the toilet bowl. The ghost was clearly able to understand me, even if it wasn't really capable of properly communicating back to me.

Suddenly, I heard another door opening up. I looked towards the entrance to the bathroom, and watched as Mitch, still dressed as the grim reaper, entered the room.

“Max?” Mitch asked. “What are you doing in here?"

“It's called going to the bathroom,” I said. Technically, my statement had been true, even if I didn't actually make use of the facilities.

“You're just standing around. You're not even taking a piss or using the sink.”

“I was just on my way out,” I said, as I walked past Mitch and made my way out the door.

As I walked back out into the hallway, I secretly hoped that the ghost had followed me, and didn't stay behind to try and get Mitch's attention or anything.

I made my way back to homeroom, even though I would've preferred to try and figure out more to do with this ghost. Except that I couldn't. The classroom was filled with plenty of other kids, meaning that it was no place for me to do any more experimenting. Seeing as there was nothing that I could actually do about the ghost for the moment, I decided to just try and put my mind at ease and enjoy the party.

Although there currently appeared to be no action from the ghost, I was concerned that something would likely happen at any second. I gazed over at the many snacks and goodies that were sitting upon the table, which consisted of an assortment of chips, sweets and chocolates. However, between worrying about the ghost, along with not wanting to spoil my appetite, I didn't really feel all that compelled to helping myself to any of them.

Instead, I opted to just hang out and talk a bit with some of my other classmates, even if the thought of the ghost lurking somewhere nearby was living rent free in my head.

Eventually, I watched as Mallory and a few of her friends came over to Mrs. Lloyd's desk, not far from where I was currently standing.

I watched as the girls proceeded to grab an assortment of snacks and loaded up their plates. As they did so, I noticed that something small and black was floating in front of Mallory in midair.

Upon closer observation, the object appeared to be a cheap rubber spider toy, no bigger than an inch in size. Strangely, I seemed to be the only one who even noticed it. For a moment, I thought that the spider had been suspended from a string by another classmate, but alas, I was pretty confident that this had been the ghost's doing - the spider did not appear to be connected to anything.

Not knowing how I should respond, I watched as the spider went flying up onto Mallory's body, then fell down into her cleavage.

Mallory shrieked, as she felt around her chest area. “What was that?”

“What was what?” one of the other girls asked.

“Are you okay, Mallory?” Mrs. Lloyd asked.

Mallory reached a hand up her shirt, then proceeded to remove the spider, which she held up. “Someone stuck this thing down my shirt! Who was it?”

“I bet it was probably Max,” Rex said, turning to face me.

“Seriously?” I asked. “What am I? Your favorite target, or something?”

“Guys, shut up,” Mallory said. “Nobody saw who did it. It could've been anyone who was near me.”

“It was only a dinky little toy,” Mrs. Lloyd said. “No need to make a mountain out of a molehill. That said, we all need to respect everyone's personal space. Honestly, I expect better from you kids.”

Even though the spider may not have been a big deal, I found myself feeling more and more concerned by the minute. Between this and Rex's shoelaces, there had been two instances already where the ghost had messed around with kids in my class. At this rate, sooner or later, people were going to notice the ghost for what it actually was.

Eventually, the lunch bell had finally rung. Thankfully, there had been no more action from the ghost since the spider incident. However, this had left me wondering whether or not the ghost had gone elsewhere since then.

I made my way to the lunch room, which was gradually filling up with students as I entered. Unable to locate any of my friends, I sat down at a table, and found that I was soon joined by Erin, April, Stella and then Zack. Erin was dressed up as a witch, while April was a princess in a white dress, and Zack was dressed up like the Mad Hatter - you could tell on account of the tag that was attached to his top hat.

Once we were all together, I looked around to make sure that nobody nearby was eavesdropping on us.

“So what was it you wanted to tell all of us?” April asked.

Stella looked at me. Presumably, she had not told the others anything herself.

I went ahead and told Zack, Erin and April about my first experience with the ghost, which had been when my clothes had gone flying out of my dresser.

“You've gotta be joking!” Zack cried, looking around at the rest of our table.

“He's not making this up,” Stella said.

“Are you for real?” Erin asked. “This sounds like something that Lefty might've done.”

“He's innocent,” I said. “There really is some unseen figure that's appeared throughout the morning.”

“Stella, what did you mean when you said that Max isn't making this up?” April asked.

“The ghost appeared to take possession of an inflatable skeleton on the way to school,” Stella replied. “Even Caroline saw it, although the rest of us convinced her that it was just something hi-tech. I hope."

I then told my friends about the other interactions that I had with the ghost throughout the morning.

Zack chuckled. “Well, I guess it is kind of funny that the ghost tied Rex's shoelaces together. And the best part is, nobody got in trouble.”

I nodded. “Still, I'd prefer to get this ghost under control in some way. But I'm not really sure as to how.”

April scratched her eyebrow. “You know, we've all seen some pretty weird stuff ever since we stumbled upon the mirror. But a ghost, and one that just... appeared out of nowhere.... It still feels like a bit of a stretch.”

“You've gotta take our word for it,” Stella said.

“How do we know that the ghost is even here?” Zack asked. “He could be anywhere!”

Suddenly, Zack's lunchbag slowly began to rise up and off the surface of the table.

“Whoa!” Zack gasped, grabbing his lunchbag once it was hovering roughly one foot above the table. “How'd that happen?”

“That's the ghost?” Erin asked.

April rolled her eyes. “Is this for real? Max, this isn't some prank that you and Lefty are tying to play on us, is it?”

“Guys, it's not Lefty! This is the ghost! I'm serious!”

“What do you suppose it wants from us?”

I shook my head. “I really don't have a clue. But it seems to be me that it's interested in, moreso than anyone else.”

The five of us went ahead and ate our lunches. Thankfully, there did not appear to be any more action from the ghost while we ate.

“Max, is there anything else you can tell us about this ghost?” Erin asked, once everyone in the group had finished eating.

“I'm afraid not,” I replied.

“If we want to learn more about the ghost, we may have to try and get into contact with him, somehow,” Stella said.

“I bet so,” I said. “But, let's not do it in this busy lunchroom. Come on.”

Our group then got up, and we made our way out of the lunchroom.

“Where should we go, then?” Erin asked, as we proceeded to walk down the hall.

“We need somewhere where people aren't going to crowd around us,” I replied.

“How 'bout the library?” April asked. “We went there with Lefty back when Chase disappeared.”

I squinted. “I'm not too keen on messing around in there, especially if the ghost causes a ruckus. The librarian might catch on to us.”

“We could just go outside and sit down somewhere,” I said.

“That works,” Zack said.

We then headed out into the schoolyard, where we sat down at a picnic table that seemed to be in an out-of-the-way location. There were a few other kids in the vicinity, some of whom were on the field, while others were hanging out on the bleachers.

“So, how exactly do we get the ghost's attention?” Zack asked.

“It wasn't that hard,” I said. “When I was in the bathroom, I asked for it to give me a sign, and it opened all of the doors to the stalls. I then told it to tear off a piece of toilet paper, and it did just that.”

“I guess it can follow directions,” April said. “Try it now.”

“Okay, uh... are you there, ghost? If you are, pick up my lunchbag, would you?”

As I spoke, I set my lunchbag down upon the table, expecting the ghost to lift it up. However, after waiting around for ten seconds with no response, we figured that nothing was going to happen.

“Why isn't it working?” Zack asked.

“What do you want from this ghost?” Stella asked. “It's probably a human. Not some dog that's trained to respond on command.”

“Does anyone have a better way to communicate with this ghost?” April asked. “Assuming it even followed us out here?”

“If talking doesn't work, then what will?” I asked.

“Oh!” Erin blurted. “I've got it!”

“What?” Zack asked. “What are you talking about?”

“A Ouija board! My cousin's got one. They say you can use a Ouija board to communicate with the unliving."

“Get serious. What makes you think those things actually work?”

“Erin could be on to something,” I said. “We know for a fact that there's an actual ghost around here. At least, I believe there is. And if that's the case, a Ouija board might not be such a bad idea.”

“Yeah, but where are we gonna find a Ouija board around here?” April asked.

“Maybe there's one in the activity room,” Stella said. “But I don't recall ever actually seeing one there.”

“Hold on,” Erin said. “It doesn't have to be an actual Ouija board. I could just make one for us. It's shouldn't be that complicated.”

Erin proceeded to open her bag, from which she removed a notepad and a pencil.

“A Ouija board's mostly just an alphabet, plus a few other commands,” Erin said, as she began to jot down an A, followed by a B. "We just point to the letters and spell out words to communicate with, and hopefully, the ghost will do the same to respond.”

After about a minute, Erin had spelled out the entire alphabet, along with the numbers one through nine, plus zero, and the words “yes”, “no” and “goodbye”.

“That should do it,” Erin said, as she set down her pencil, then took out an eraser in the shape of a bat from her pencil bag. “We can use this to spell things out.”'

“Is this really gonna work?” Zack asked.

“Well, it's not the real thing, but hopefully, it gets the point across,” Erin replied.

“Let me try it,” I said, accepting the eraser from Erin.

“You ready?” Stella asked.

“Here goes nothing,” I said, as I moved the eraser over to the W and stopped for a second. From there, I moved it to the H, followed by the O. Soon I had spelled out W-H-O-A-R-E-Y-O-U and set the eraser down.

“Now what?” April asked.

“Now we wait for the ghost to spell out his response,” Erin said.

“Any minute now,” Zack griped, as the eraser remained perfectly still for a few seconds.

Suddenly, the eraser rose up into the air. I watched on baited breath, anticipating what the ghost was possibly going to spell with it.

I quickly glanced around, remembering that we were still at school, and that there could be other kids nearby who might notice us. Thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case.

I stared at the floating eraser in awe, as did my friends. The eraser danced around in the air before us for a few seconds, before it suddenly dropped down onto the table, bounced off of it and fell onto the ground.

“What was that about?” Stella asked. “Why didn't he spell anything?

“Maybe he doesn't know how to read,” Zack replied. I gave a shrug in response, as did the girls. “What? It's possible.”

“Let me try something else,” I said, as I bent down and picked up the eraser. I then brushed off a bit of dirt that had clung to the eraser from when it had hit the ground.

“What are you trying now?” April asked.

“I'm just going to keep it simple,” I replied, as I went ahead and spelled out H-E-L-L-O. “We don't know what this ghost is capable of understanding.”

We waited around for a short while, but could soon sense that the ghost was not interested in giving us any sort of reply.

“This is getting us nowhere,” Zack moaned.

“Look, we don't know anything about this ghost, or what it's ultimately capable of,” I said.

“You've got a point,” April said. “For all we know, this ghost might not even be on the same plane of existence as us.”

“So, is he just gonna keep showing up now and then and make it look like things are floating around?” Stella asked.

“Far as I can tell... yes,” I replied. “And I've got the pleasure of having this ghost following me around like a bad cold. And how am I supposed to get rid of it, if I can't even communicate with it?”

Eventually, the bell rang, meaning that we all had to gather our things and head on to our next classes. Despite making a few more attempts to contact the ghost, it in turn did not make any more efforts to respond.

“Why don't you hold on to the Ouija board?” Erin said, passing me the piece of paper we had been using.

“Thanks,” I said, as I accepted the paper and slipped it into my bag. “But I don't expect much to come from this. If the ghost didn't want to talk to us now, I don't see it wanting to talk to me any time soon.”

I went off to my next class, no longer surrounded by any of my close friends. Curious, I set the piece of paper down on my desk and glanced at it. However, I figured that if I tried anything with the paper, even if the ghost didn't respond, I would inevitably attract stares from the other students, or worse, the teacher.

Sighing, I slid the paper back into my bag. I was just going to have to get through the rest of the school day without trying to make further efforts to get through to the ghost.

Once the remainder of the school day had come to an end, the final bell had rung. I wasted no time in grabbing my belongings, then made my way out to the front of the school, where I soon met up with my friends.

“So, did any of you notice the ghost, or anything else unusual at any point after lunch?” I asked. “Because I didn't.”

“Everything seemed normal to me,” Stella said, as our group proceeded to walk down the front path towards the sidewalk.

“What about the Ouija paper?” April asked, as we all turned down the sidewalk and continued walking.

“I didn't really get a chance to try it again,” I replied. “Not that I have much faith in the ghost actually doing anything with it.”

“So what should we do?” Erin asked.

“Until it comes back, there's not much we can do,” I said.

“Let's just focus on the present,” Zack said. “I don't want this ghost getting in the way. If he's not bothering us, let's just try to make the best of it. It's Halloween. Tonight's supposed to be fun!”

“Zack's got a point,” Erin said. “I'm just as concerned as the rest of you. But that's no reason to let this ghost spoil our Halloween. As long as we can't do anything about the ghost, we should at least try to enjoy ourselves.”

Stella sighed. “I hope so.”

“Everyone meet up at my house at six o'clock sharp,” I said. “Mallory's party isn't until eight, so we'll have plenty of time to trick-or-treat before then.”

Eventually, I got home and freshened up. Lefty also got home at roughly the same time, and I told him about my experience with the ghost at school when we sat down on the couch in the living room.

“So he's still around?” Lefty asked, shifting his eyes around back and forth.

“Possibly,” I said. "I haven't seen any trace of him since lunch. I want to say that he's gone, but I've got a strong feeling that he's still lurking around somewhere.”

“Well, I didn't see any sign of there being a ghost at my school.”

“It figures. This ghost is attracted to me in particular for some reason.”

“So, what's that reason?” Lefty asked.

“I don't know! I don't even know what I did to get its attention in the first place.”

“You think it's got anything to do with the mirror?"

“We already checked the mirror,” I replied. “But now that you mention it, the mirror did choose Xam as its avatar.”

“You mean, you're saying that there's a connection between the ghost and the mirror?”

“Could be. I just have no idea as to how, or why. Nobody's done anything out of the ordinary lately. Nothing should have triggered it. Even if it is Halloween. It doesn't make sense.”

Just after five-thirty, Mom fed Lefty and I some ramen soup for dinner. Dad had just gotten home, but my brother and I were leaving to go trick or treating, so Mom let us eat a bit earlier than we normally did.

Once Lefty and I had finished our soup, the doorbell rang.

“Who's that?” Dad asked from the table, as I walked through the house towards the front door.

“It's probably one of my friends,” I replied, as I reached my hand towards the handle for the front door. “I told them to meet up here so that we can go trick-or-treating together.”

I opened the door, only to be greeted by several kids wearing costumes. One of them was dressed up as a pumpkin, one as Minnie Mouse, while another was dressed as Spider-Man. They looked to be closer in age to Lefty.

“Trick or treat!” the kids blurted.

“Trick-or-treaters already?” Mom asked, as she joined me at the front door. “I haven't even lit the jack-o-lantern!”

Whitey came running into the front hall and began to bark, which startled the kids, so I shushed him and told him to go wait in the living room.

“Here you go,” Mom said, as she reached for a bowl on a nearby table, grabbed a few fun-sized candies from it, then dropped them into the kids' open bags. I was thankful that my Mom had decided to give out candy. Some dental workers had been known to give out toothbrushes instead.

“Thank you!” the kids said, as they turned around and walked back down the front path towards the sidewalk.

“Wow,” Mom said, as she closed the door. “I wasn't expecting kids to start showing up already.”

“Can I go now?” Lefty asked. “Please! I've gotta get to Sean's house! Those other kids already got a head start!”

Mom nodded. “I suppose if you're all ready, you can go.”

“Yes!” Lefty blurted, just before he ran upstairs. He then returned only seconds later, now carrying with him a plastic pail in the shape of a pumpkin.

“Bye!” Lefty cried, as he reached towards the door with his hand.

“We want you back here by eight,” Dad said, having joined us in the front hall. “It's still a school night.”

“Yeah, I know,” Lefty said, as he slid his vampire fangs into his mouth. “See ya!”

Lefty opened the door and ran outside. He scurried down the front path, then turned in the direction of Sean's house.

In a way, I envied Lefty. Not because he got to get going before I did, but because I had no idea when my own friends would get here.

A few minutes later, the doorbell rang again. By now, Mom had lit the jack-o-lantern that was sitting out on the porch, and turned on the porch light, so we were ready to hand out candy to more trick-or-treaters.

I opened the door and was greeted by my friends, all of whom were in costume and carrying either bags or pails.

“Hey Max,” Stella said, as she turned to look over at my parents. “Hi Mr. and Mrs. Thompson.”

“You ready to go, Max?” Zack asked.

“You bet,” I replied, holding up my own Halloween pail. It was shaped like some generic blue monster, not anything specific. “Bye Mom. Bye Dad! I'll be back later”

“Don't stay out past ten!” Dad called, as I followed my friends out the door and we headed down the front path to the sidewalk.

“Is everybody ready?” I asked.

“Let's go that way!” Zack said, pointing in the opposite direction to that of Stella's house.

We proceeded to go over to and up the front path to the house that was on the opposite side of my house from the Lathams'. The Bessman family lived in this house, and they had a number of small decorations doting their front lawn, including a black cat, several tombstones and a large spider in a cobweb. Comparatively, my house hardly had any decorations.

We went up to the Bessmans' front door and rang the doorbell. Mr. Bessman answered the door. A slightly pudgy man, Mr. Bessman's “costume” consisted of normal clothing, but sported grey face paint, along with a few fake scars.

“Trick or treat!” My friends and I all shouted.

“Hey, there, Max!” Mr. Bessman said. “Hey, Stella! What brings you here?”

“Uhh... candy.” Zack replied. “What are you supposed to be, exactly?”

“Just a zombie. Anyway, can't say I was expecting to see you here tonight, Max.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, as Mr. Bessman began to drop a piece of candy into whatever bag or pail my friends and I were carrying.

“Nothing personal,”Mr. Bessman said. “But... you haven't gotten too old for this sort of thing, have you?”

I was taken aback, then shook my head. “No. Not yet, anyway. Didn't see a sign saying we couldn't.”

“Okay, okay,” Mr. Bessman said, holding up his hands. “You kids have a good evening. Happy Halloween!”

“Happy Halloween!” my friends and I all called, turning around as Mr. Bessman shut the front door behind us.

“What's that guy's problem?” Zack asked, as we walked down the Bessman's front path to the sidewalk.

“Clearly he thinks that kids shouldn't be trick-or-treating after their twelfth birthday” Erin said. “Don't take what he said to heart. It's just a dumb, arbitrary rule.”

My friends and I continued down Meadowview Street, hitting up every house beyond the Bessman residence in succession. Thankfully, none of the other neighbors had been as nosy as Mr. Bessman.

After we had gotten candy from the last house on the block, my friends and I walked down the front path to the sidewalk, close to the corner of the street.

“Which way should we go now?” Stella asked. “Should we cross the street and do the other side, or go somewhere else?”

“I don't care,” Erin said. “What do you think, Max?”

“Max...” a wailing voice called, the sudden presence of which nearly caused me to jump out of my skin.

“Who said that?” I asked, looking around frantically in an effort to find out who had said my name.

“Who said what?” April asked.

“Max, why are you freaking out?” Zack asked.

“Did you guys not just hear that?” I asked.

“Hear what?” Stella asked.

I let out a groan. “Someone just called my name! Did all of you seriously not hear it?”

Zack, Erin, April and Stella all looked at one another, before turning to face me.

“None of us said your name,” Zack said. “Right?”

My four friends all nodded. “Well, I know what I heard. And I know that I'm not crazy.”

“Max, we aren't calling you a liar,” Erin said. “There's been a lot of weird stuff that's happened ever since we found the mirror. But if we heard any strange voice, we'd absolutely tell you.”

I let out a deep breath. “I wouldn't be surprised if it was Rex, trying to play a trick on me in some way.”

“Maybe it was Lefty,” April said.

“It didn't sound like Lefty. I couldn't make out the voice very well. But it sounded a bit too deep to be my brother. Or one of his friends. Still, I don't know why he'd waste his time going after me, when tonight's a free-for-all to collect candy.”

“You don't suppose it was... the ghost?” Stella asked.

I mulled over the thought for a moment. “The ghost never spoke. Even when we tried to communicate with it.”

“Well, what else could it have been?” Zack asked, watching as several other costumed people were walking along the sidewalks and the front paths to several houses. “Besides, if this were the ghost, he'd be grabbing candy, tossing pumpkins and trying to pull off somebody's costume.”

“Sounds like Rex to me,” Erin said, leading to all of us giggling in response.

“Anyway, enough wasting time,” Zack said. “Let's go to the next house, already.”

Our group went around the corner and walked up to the next house that we came across. Almost immediately after Erin rang the doorbell, we could hear a dog barking wildly from inside the house.

“A dog?” April asked. “People should really put their dog away if it's gonna bark like that. Little kids might get scared.”

The barking continued, even after the door opened up. Standing before us was a woman who was dressed kind of like Elvira. Behind her stood a bull terrier who was still barking up a storm.

“Trick or treat!” my friends and I all shouted.

“What lovely costumes!” the woman said, as the dog's barking practically drowned out her own voice.

“Oh, Rufus!” the woman said. “Don't bark at the nice kids!”

“Come on, Rufus,” a man said, as he stepped into the front hall and grabbed the dog by his collar.

“Better put him in the backyard, the woman said, turning back to face us as the man led the barking dog towards the back of the house.

“Now, where were we?” the woman asked, as she held out a bowl of candy. She proceeded to pull out several pieces of candy, then dropped one each into my friends' bags and pails, along with my own. 

“Hey, where's that rock star?” the woman asked, looking around at my friends.

“Good question,” Erin said, as she too looked around.

I looked down at myself. I was invisible! But why? I hadn't done anything to trigger my own power. Alas, I did not dare attempt to make myself reappear in front of a neighbor I barely knew. Whose name I didn't even know. Thankfully, the woman had failed to notice my pail, which was still visible. I was quick to slip it behind Zack, hoping that he would obscure it from the woman's view.

“Maybe he already got his candy and took off?” April asked.

“Well... oh never mind,” the woman said. “Anyway, Happy Halloween.”

"Happy Halloween," my friends all said, as the woman closed the door.

“Max?” Zack asked. “Where'd you go?”

“I'm right here!” I huffed, as I followed my friends down the steps of the porch and allowed myself to become visible again.

“Max, why did you just do that?” April asked. “Were you trying to scare that woman? I know her dog was annoying, but still...”

“I didn't make myself invisible!” I exclaimed, as we reached the sidewalk. “I mean, I was invisible, yes. But I didn't do anything to trigger my power! I swear! I didn't even realize that I was invisible until that woman pointed it out.”

“You just turned invisible out of the blue?” Stella asked. “No rhyme or reason?”

“I don't know what else to say, but... yes, I guess.”

“Man, this day is getting too weird,” Zack said. “First there's the whole ghost situation. Then there's that voice that only Max heard. And then Max turns invisible without even trying.”

“I hate to admit it,” Erin said. “But when Rex says that Max is weird, he's not entirely wrong.”

“You guys aren't helping,” I griped. “Look, I don't like what's happening. But I just want to enjoy trick-or-treating while I still can, okay?”

“Okay,” Stella said. “But you be careful. You're kinda creeping us out. And not in a good way.”

“It's not like I did this on purpose.”

“It's still not good,” April said, as we walked towards the next house. “But, do you guys really think that today being Halloween really has anything to do with all this?”

“But why? I asked. “Superstitions and beliefs aside, Halloween is just a normal day like any other.”

“Should you even keep going, Max?” Stella asked. “I mean, what if you turn invisible again?”

“Hopefully it was just a fluke. That sort of thing doesn't just happen.”

As we walked up to the next house, I was starting to have second thoughts about my decision. A bunch of strange things were indeed happening to me. But there was also a lot of pressure being directed towards me getting too old to go trick-or-treating. As far as I was aware, this could very well end up being my last year. I didn't want to have to stop prematurely!