CHAPTER I - One More House

─── ※ 🎃 𝖧𝖺𝗅𝗅𝗈𝗐𝖾𝖾𝗇 🎃 ※ ── ─ 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc7vOv0g8z8

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By the time Arvin reached the last house on his street, there were two sweets in his pumpkin bucket. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9kfdWzXMqY

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One was a mint. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKcrmFLB5a4

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The other had a wrapper stuck so tightly to it that he couldn't get it off. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeP014io0e5

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He stood on the doorstep while the woman searched a bowl beside her door. She turned it upside down, as though something might have been hiding underneath. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY4QnzWUZKK

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“I'm sorry, sweetheart. They've taken everything.” 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj3yCrvzJju

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“That's okay,” Arvin said. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlQhVfN4BGZ

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He had said it at four houses already. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCOzH8iIA3S

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The woman smiled at his costume. His mother had made it from an old white sheet, with armholes at the sides and a smiling ghost face sewn onto the front. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSXvXempV8C

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She'd shortened it so he wouldn't trip, though it still brushed his knees. Underneath, he wore his warm blue jumper. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa3gRJqYkGv

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“Aren't you a lovely little ghost.” 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPXVFxTu4mZ

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“Thank you.” 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX6MYL2nUIB

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Her door closed. Arvin looked down at his bucket. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBqsek76yct

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He was seven, old enough to know that saying thank you didn't mean you weren't disappointed. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqgI58PslIt

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Mum had planned to take him out before dinner. Then his baby sister had been sick, and the clean washing had fallen off the rack, and by the time they were ready, most of the pumpkins on their street had gone dark. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzKKhMqCQOm

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She was waiting at the house behind him now, talking to a neighbour with the baby against her shoulder. She had told Arvin he could knock at the last door while she watched. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx0QbU12dwH

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Across the road, beyond the little lane beside the bus stop, he saw another orange light. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOATfhiTKsv

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It looked close. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ83fjgPUvcJ

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Arvin glanced back. Mum was patting his sister's back. The neighbour was saying something that made them both look at the baby. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSCGz2LjQ1n

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One more house, he thought. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLYKA6qxoe2

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He crossed the empty road and followed the light.

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─── ※ 🎃 𝖧𝖺𝗅𝗅𝗈𝗐𝖾𝖾𝗇 🎃 ※ ── ─ 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbfPMWWcqY6

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The lane curved between two hedges. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKR4iSGFHY8

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There was another pumpkin around the bend, then another farther on. He kept expecting to reach a front door. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ29NNLu9OhG

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Instead, the hedges opened onto a road lined with trees. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ44ozXLD72W

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Arvin stopped.

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Behind him, he could no longer see the bus stop.

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Ahead, a cheerful tune was playing. A few high notes, a short pause, then it started again.

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He walked towards it, holding his bucket against his chest.

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At the bottom of the road stood two stone posts and a wooden sign.

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GALLOWS HOLLOW.

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Arvin sounded out the first word, decided it was probably somebody's name, and looked past it.

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Every house had its lights on.

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Pumpkins sat along the walls. Paper bats hung across the road. A man in an old brown suit dangled from a tree near the entrance, his shoes hanging well above the ground.

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Arvin had seen one like him in a shop window that afternoon. That one had a plastic skeleton face.

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This one looked much better.

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He hurried beneath it and knocked at the first door.

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