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Sisyphean Attempts at Self-Improvement #1100554 added October 31, 2025 at 3:39pm
Restrictions: None
This Is Halloween
The town of Millbrook had the best Halloween celebration in the state.
Every October 31st, the entire downtown transformed. Every house participated. Every resident dressed up. The decorations were so elaborate that people drove from three counties over just to walk the streets.
Sarah's family had just moved to Millbrook in September. By mid-October, the transformation had begun. Neighbors hauled out massive decorations. Storefronts became haunted scenes. Even the streetlights were fitted with orange filters.
"It's like they live for Halloween," Sarah told her mother.
"Small towns need traditions," her mother replied, hanging fake cobwebs on their porch to fit in.
But Sarah noticed things her mother didn't. The decorations never quite looked fake. The skeletons in Mr. Peterson's yard were anatomically perfect. The blood on Mrs. Chen's doorstep never dried, even after days in the sun.
October 30th, Sarah couldn't sleep. Outside her window, she heard singing. Children's voices, chanting about Halloween. She peered through the curtains. The street was empty, but the singing continued.
October 31st arrived with unusual fanfare. At exactly midnight, Sarah woke to the sound of every doorbell in the neighborhood ringing simultaneously. Through her window, she saw her neighbors emerging from their homes, fully costumed. Not putting on costumes; already wearing them, as if they'd been waiting.
"Sarah!" her mother called. "Time to get ready!"
Her mother stood in the doorway wearing an elaborate witch costume Sarah had never seen before. Her father was beside her, dressed as a vampire with disturbingly realistic fangs.
"When did you get those costumes?"
"We've always had them," her mother said, though Sarah knew that wasn't true.
Downtown was packed by noon. Everyone in perfect costumes, moving in synchronized celebration. The mayor, dressed as a skeleton, stood on a platform.
"Welcome to Halloween!" he announced. "Tonight, we show our true faces!"
The crowd cheered. Sarah noticed that nobody was taking off their masks or costumes. Even eating and drinking, they kept them on.
As the sun set, the singing started. The same children's voices from the night before, but now Sarah could see the singers. Kids from her school, but their mouths weren't moving. The song came from inside them, like something else was using their voices.
"Sarah," her friend Emma approached, dressed as a ghost. "Aren't you going to show your true face?"
"This is my face."
Emma tilted her head. "But it's Halloween. The one night we can be ourselves."
As Sarah watched, Emma's ghost costume began to move on its own, the sheet rippling and flowing without wind. Beneath it, Sarah glimpsed something that wasn't Emma at all.
All around, the costumes were becoming real. The werewolves sprouted actual fur. The skeletons' skin grew transparent. The vampires' fangs extended.
"Every town needs a Halloween," the mayor's skeleton face said, his human mask discarded. "One night a year, we pretend to be human. The rest of the time..."
Sarah ran, but every street led back to downtown. Every turn brought her to the celebration.
Her parents found her at midnight, their true faces finally showing.
"Welcome home," they said with mouths that were no longer human. "Next year, you won't need a costume either."
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528 words
PROMPT:
Written for "Note:
48-HOUR CHALLENGE : BONUS Media Prompt
..."
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