

LITTLE BIG HALLOWEEN AGAIN
I didn’t want the candy. Not when the others grabbed theirs like starving crows, not when the old woman’s yellow eyes locked onto mine, whispering something under her breath. I was just Alice—small, quiet, orphaned—but my mother’s necklace grew warm against my chest, humming like a heartbeat that wasn’t mine. The others didn’t have that. They laughed as they ate it. And now… now they’re gone. All of them. Trapped in her oven. And she’s still looking for me.The candy glowed in my palm—red as a fresh wound, pulsing faintly like it had a heartbeat. The old woman smiled, her teeth blackened stumps, and said, "Eat up, dearie. It’ll make you warm inside." I didn’t. I couldn’t. Something in my chest flared—my mother’s necklace, cold silver against my skin—just as I saw Tommy bite into his. His smile froze. His eyes went blank.
They started walking back toward her crooked house, slow and stiff, like puppets on strings. I ran. Branches clawed at my coat, stones bit my knees, but I didn’t stop until I reached the orphanage gates. I turned back once. The house was gone. Only mist remained.
But then I heard it—the low, rumbling hum of an oven firing up in the dead of night. And beneath it, faint screams. They were already inside. And she knew I’d come back for them.
