Ardent Acolyte! You didn’t forget me, did you? Still, we’ve no time for reminiscence or to trade unpleasantries. The night begins and the witching hour comes swiftly now. It brings with it a cold wind from the recesses of the city that snakes and whirls, biting at the ankles of Liberty City’s denizens as they traverse the narrow confines of the city.

Tonight, Ardent Acolyte, we follow the wind.

Watch as it builds in the bowels of a graveyard, a swirling eddy that picks up speed as it mixes with a gust from outside the city. Then, sluggishly, it rises above the tombs like a recoiling serpent. For an instant, it teeters at the peak swaying back and forth before crashing back down and scattering upon the rocks of carved granite and marble.

It howls! Whipping with force as it scatters and moves through the headstones before reuniting at the gates. Pushing past the cast iron gate it spins and twists, writhing on the sidewalk of the pavement before curling into the swell of a gust and sweeping down the path. Slowly as it travels, it sheds force and slinks lower to the ground until the last gasp catches a slender pair of ankles.

“Ugh!” Hailey exclaims, dancing lightly on her feet as she feels the bite of wind on her unprotected legs. “It’s cold out,” she whines to her best friend as she pulls her costume tighter around her body. “Where is this house again?”

Missy Anderson cracks a grin and replies, “Get over it! It’s Halloween and you look good, a little cold is nothing.” Slyly, she adds, “Besides, if you’re having so much trouble I can always tell Theo, I’m sure he won’t mind warming you up.”

Rolling her eyes, Hailey answers jokingly, “Relax, you.”

“There it is!” Missy interrupts, cutting her friend off before she can finish. “Trevor’s house is just up there, on the hill.”

“He lives near a graveyard?” Hailey asks, glancing down the street toward the foreboding gate hanging slightly open. Her eyes narrow, “And why is the gate open?”

“Only slightly,” Missy says, glancing in the same direction. “Besides, that’s why he’s hosting the party. Because he lives near the graveyard.” Her voice lowers into a conspiratorial tone as she adds, “I heard he setup a scavenger hunt in there later. Apparently, for one of the items you have to stick your hand into an actual sarcophagus and dig it out!”

“That,” Hailey begins before smiling widely, “is awesome!”

Suddenly, a vampire rises in front of them!

“Vhat,” he asks in a ridiculous accent, “are vou dvoing hvere? Vill I have to dvrink you vlood?”

Missy blinks coquettishly and asks in a sultry voice, “Count Chocula, does this mean you’re planning on leaving little bite marks all down my neck?”

Shifting slightly, and then grinning like an idiot the Count replies, “Vell if vou insvist…”

A playful look in her eyes, Missy leans forward and says, “Better be careful Chocula, this kitty bites back!”

“Dvo vou promise?” the Count shoots back, so excited his plastic fangs fall out.

Missy points up to the cat ears affixed to her headband. Then she says, “Well I’m a cat, aren’t I? So I’m telling the truth about at least one thing.”

Jake pops back up with his plastic fangs in hand. A silly grin plastered across his face he remarks, “Ya know Miss, tha costume’s posed to be Blackula, but I ain’t complanin!”

“Awww,” Missy faux pouts, “what happened to your cute accent?”

Jake whirls around, flaring his cape as he faces away from the giggling girls to put back the fangs. Then he spins back, throwing his arms up as he does to create the impression of a looming monster. Leaning toward his girlfriend he says, “Vhat accent! Vhis is vhow I sveak nvormally!”

“God you are such a lug,” Missy complains as she pulls her boyfriend in for a quick kiss. Pulling away she adds, “Those fangs are going to get annoying, if you don’t take them out I will, just a warning.” Then she grins wickedly and adds, “With my tongue if I have to!”

Jake pauses, his hand halfway to his mouth. Slowly he lowers it and smirks, leaning back down to kiss her again.

“Uhhhhhgggghhh!” Hailey whines, “Where is my dumb boyfriend?”

Jake draws up and says, “Vhe is invide alvredy. Bvt ve is vlooking for vou.”

Before Hailey can enter the house, the door swings open and out steps a man in a mask!

In a gravelly voice, the man asks, “Well, well, well, what have we here?”

Stepping forward, Missy replies, “A cat, a vampire, and a witch!”

Looking her up and down, the man in the mask grins lecherously and adds, “A sexy witch.”

Rolling her eyes, Hailey puts a hand on his chest and pushes him back through the door as she strides forward imperiously.

“Look at me like that and I’ll put a spell on you,” she says.

“Baby,” the masked man replies, “you already have!”

Standing with her back to her friends looking out at the sea of gyrating teens, Hailey’s eyes flash electric blue for a half second before fading back to normal. She whispers a couple of incomprehensible words before flicking her fingers in a complex pattern. Then she says with a witchy smile, “One night only, everything you do is cursed. Next time be careful what you wish for Trev.”

A second later, the man in the mask trips and spills his drink over himself. Cursing, he begins to wander away looking for a towel.

“Bye Trevor!” Missy says sweetly, her voice conveying exactly how irritated she is with him. Then she walks over to Hailey and grouses, “What a jerk!”

Huffing and crossing her arms over her chest, Hailey says, “I should have just gone as Eldritch again.”

“Please, you wore that costume last year.” Wrinkling her nose, Missy adds, “It wasn’t even that good. Just totally unrealistic.”

Hailey rolls her eyes and pulls the hem of her skirt down. “My costume was perfect. And did you have to find the skimpiest witch costume you could? If I bend over in this I’m pretty sure I will be casting a spell, and not a good one!”

“You look nice! And you have nice legs, show them off!” Missy retorts cheerfully.

Grumbling, Hailey glances around and asks, “So where is Theo, and what’s his costume? He told me it was a surprise and refused to tell me.”

“Vit’s a vurprise!”

“Yes, I know that. What I don’t know is why he wouldn’t just come with us.”

“Vit’s a vurprise!”

Huffing, Hailey closes her eyes and shakes her head before wandering off toward the snacks table. Before she arrives, Trevor reappears in a different shirt by the boom box where he quickly turns it off and shouts across the crowd, “Alright! Who’s ready for the scavenger hunt?!”

At his words, the crowd cheers in approval before surging forward toward him.

Stepping back slightly, Trevor laughs and says, “Yeah! So like, you all know I live next to the graveyard right? Well we went in and put some fun stuff for everyone to find in there, some come grab a list and get to hunting! So, rules! Number one, don’t take the items. Just take a photo of your group with them when you find them so everyone can participate. Don’t like, damage the graves or whatever, my parents will put me in one if you guys do anything too crazy. Last rule!” Trevor grins widely, letting the crowd’s anticipation build before he shouts, “Last rule is the first team back with all the right photos wins! Winners get to spend a minute in my parent’s liquor cabinet grabbing anything and everything they can carry!”

Trevor throws his arms high, his mask and black costume looming against the white of his parent’s living room walls. “Now! Let the games begin!” Then he throws his arms down and the horde of kids all race out of the room, groups here and there clutching at pieces of paper and whispering excitedly as they vanish into the graveyard across the way.

Deep in the graveyard, next to a giant fake spider, the wind begins to pick up again.

As you know, Ardent Acolyte, it is on nights like this that the barrier between worlds thins to permeable levels. Last Halloween it gave Belphegor, that riotous devil, the chance to walk among the mortals of Earth, tracing the path of prophecy to a destined encounter with Eldritch. Tonight the devils gave Liberty City a wide berth, however.

Tonight, just before Trevor’s speech, something in the wind crossed over.

It starts next to the spider. Twisting round the legs of the fake spider and bubbling across a teenager’s hand it pauses, as if considering the boy holding vigil in the graveyard before skipping on. Falling off his skin, it slinks through the stones. Winding past a cross it trails up the stone skirt of an angel’s robes and traces the line of her chin in a slow caress before falling forward to the dirt ground and snaking with urgency through the rest of the gothic tombs. It pools in the backyard for a few seconds before a wayward teen opens the door trying to dry his shirt.

Softly, slowly, the otherworldly wind probes the spell lingering on Trevor. Playfully, it gently pushes a few threads here and rushes across another spiraling the spell into a new pattern before chuckling itself out of existence.

Pausing, Trevor groans and gives up on his shirt. Taking it off, he says to the night, “Damn, guess I’ll just have to change before we start the scavenger hunt.”

Unaware of what just transpired, he walks back into the party to a chorus of excited female voices at the sight of him shirtless.

In that same backyard, just a few minutes later, Hailey finds herself dragged along by an insistent Missy who says, “Hey! We can find Theo later, right now we need to focus on the scavenger hunt!”

Knowing she cannot win this fight, Hailey sighs and lets her friend drag her into the sea of graves. After wandering aimlessly for a few seconds, the trio pauses and Missy pulls out the crumpled paper.

“Okay, so we need to take a photo with a tombstone that shares a name with someone in our group, a photo of one of us kissing one of the statues of the Virgin Mary scattered around the graveyard, and one of us with a giant spider hidden somewhere in the tombs.”

Wrinkling her nose, Hailey says testily, “Well I’m not kissing some statue.”

“Avd I’ve fvngs,” laments Jake.

Missy rolls her eyes and replies, “Okay fine, I’ll just have to show you what you’re missing out on, Jake.”

“Mvissing ovut?”

Coyly, she says, “You’ll see. Now come on lazybones, I’ve got a statue to make out with!”

“What about Theo!”

“Ve is vaiting vup avhead,” Jake answers cryptically.

Annoyed, Hailey shakes her head and grumbles, “This better be worth it. Now where are we going?”

“This way!” Missy shouts as she grabs her friend’s hand and starts dragging her forward into the night.

High above them, the wind swirls and howls as it watches over the two girls and one boy making their way deeper into the crypts and catacombs. But our story does not end here, Ardent Acolyte, for as the mists swirl and the shadows lengthen the only certainty is that the night marches on!