“Here, just throw it down,” Destiny says.

“But they’re kids, I can’t throw stuff at kids. Especially from up here.”

“I do it every year, don’t be scared.”

“What if I just drop it?”

“Go ahead and do that, but they like being pelted with it,” she laughs.

I empty the bucket and watch as the contents fall from the sky down to the ground. I expect some kind of rage and mayhem. The first few screams come in and I duck down on the balcony. Destiny grabs me and makes me look down. The screams turn into cheers as the kids realize I just dumped a bunch of candy on them, and none of them are hurt. I always thought anything dropped from up high became a deadly weapon. I guess it has to be something heavy or super high.

“Happy Halloween kids,” Destiny yells as they scramble. “See I told you,” she looks at me.

“I didn’t want to kill a kid by accident,” I shrug at her. “Is this what you do on Halloween?”

“Yeah, every year. What you’d thought I’d spend the night running the streets and biting people?”

“No, not exactly.”

“Then what,” she leans in.

“Like some vampire ritual or something,” I laugh.

“Boy, you wish. I give kids candy showers until like 10 while drinking blood wine, then I watch scary movies that are so bad they’re good.”

“Is Pizza in the plans?”

“Humans, you all need food all the time. You should let me turn you into a vampire.”

“You eat food too, like all the time.”

“But part of it is because I want to. You, actually get hungry. Let me turn you,” she leans in.

Destiny lets me see her fangs and leans in close to my neck. She pushed my head back, I want to fight but I don’t. I trust her too much. I can feel her breath on my neck and my knees go week. She’s never touched me like this, nobody has. My pants get tighter and I realize I’m way more into this than I should be. I don’t know why, pain never excited me before, but this isn’t pain, just the idea of pain. Maybe it’s just her being so close to me, feeling her breath on my neck. One of her fangs scrapes the skin of my neck and sends shivers down my spine, but I don’t move away. I don’t want to be a vampire, but I never gave it much thought before. If she wanted to turn me right now I wouldn’t even fight. I just want to be closer to her.

“Look y’all, they up there kissing,” a kid yells from down below.

I grab a handful of candy and throw it down at him. I’m not sure if I’m mad he broke up the moment or I just want to pelt him with candy. Destiny laughs encouraging my bad behavior while the kids push and shove over the candy.

“You were going to let me turn you,” she asks.

“I trust you.”

“Well you shouldn’t. I’m a bad influence. That’s not how Adze change people anyway. But, I thank you for your misplaced trust.”

“Well I thank you for not biting me,” even if I think I kind of wanted it.

“What’s your favorite horror movie villain?”

“Jimmy Bones,” he isn’t but, I want to mess with her.

“Shut up, you’re stupid. Nobody liked that movie,” she fights through laughter.

“I did, you got the old school remixes. Snoop Dogg remixing James Brown? Then the old school drug dealing scenes. Oh, and he turned into that big ass dog. It was great,” it was kind of good.

“You really liked it? It was so bad, but we can watch it if you love it so much.”

“Oh, and who’s your favorite?”

“I like Candyman.”

“Oh, you’re talking scary for real.”

“Yeah, and if you don’t want to go home tonight, you’ll watch it with me.”

“Why so you can keep me safe,” I laugh at her.

“Exactly, can’t have you out here all beat up. Looks bad on my end.”

“What if I stand in the mirror and say Candyman three times? Will you still protect me,” I joke.

“I could beat up Candyman,” she shrugs.

“No you couldn’t,” I shout. “The man is like Freddy Kruger with a compass and an unlimited supply of bees.”

“Well, let’s go to the bathroom, turn off the lights and say his name. When he comes to get you, I’ll save you. Would you like that?”

“You’re crazy.”

“And you have to be even crazier for liking it.”

I dodge the question, “let’s throw some candy at a few more kids, order a pizza and then you can make sure I don’t get too scared.”

“Sounds good,” she throws a handful of candy into the air and watches it drop.