My plans
for Halloween were always the same: to stay locked in my house and away from
the supernatural crazies unleashed for the night. Unfortunately, for the past
few years, Nikki always came by to upset those plans. She would come by dressed
up, and drag me to her Halloween party or some other celebration. And, I had to
admit, I didn’t mind so much with some of her costume choices. The dancing was
fun, too.
So I was a
little perplexed when the time of her party rolled around, and I hadn’t heard
from her. Still, it wasn’t like we made plans, so I loaded up a sci fi movie to
pass the time. My lights were off, like always, which discouraged the trick-or-treaters,
even when the two space fleets began blasting each other. But just before the
climactic battle, I got a knock on the door.
There was
Nikki, but not. She wasn’t dressed as an angel, or Elvira, or in a ball gown,
or as Jessica Rabbit. She wasn’t in one of her normal slinky dresses, either.
Instead, she wore jeans and a t-shirt. She also wore no makeup, and her hair
was in a simple pony tail.
“Hello,
Matthew,” she said with a hint of a smile.
“Hey,
Nikki. I certainly didn’t expect this.”
“Would you
come with me?”
No outfit, no party. At least I don’t think
so.
“Sure.” I
grabbed my jacket and hat, and went with her.
She drove
us out of the city, swinging south, through a logging road in the woods before
getting to the coast. Not far from the beach was a single cabin.
“I trust
you’re not going to murder me out here,” I said, getting out of the car.
She rolled
her eyes at me. “As if I would need to bring you this far for that.”
“I’m
guessing this is one of your safe houses. The ones that you never, ever tell
anyone about. This would make the second one you’ve shown me, though I wouldn’t
be surprised if you had abandoned that first already.”
She didn’t
say anything. She walked the wooden path out to the cabin, then took off her
high-heeled sandals, and left them there. She walked out to the beach, a rare
stretch of sand outside the bays; most places were mud or rock.
I was about
to follow suit, but touched the sand. It was pretty cold, which was not a
surprise this close to November.
Vampires
and their tolerances.
I walked out to her, shoes still
on. I was about to ask what I was doing here, but something about her mood made
me want to stay quiet. And, for once, I listened to the mood. She settled on a
spot where the waves came in. I studied it for a few minutes, too, but then
quickly moved on, taking in the scudding clouds, the stars, and even the moon.
Some of those clouds looked like they would begin to rain, but then that was
almost always the case.
Nikki sat down on the sand, legs
out in front of her, and watched the waves. I sat down cross-legged beside her.
“Nikki?” I left the rest of the question
unspoken.
“I needed a change, Matthew. I
couldn’t stand the artifice of it all. The party was no different than it
always is, and I didn’t feel like being part of it longer than I had to. I
didn’t feel like going to any of the masquerades, either. I just wanted to be
for a change, without any of the tedious demands of others.”
“Well, good, because my demands are
never tedious,” I grinned.
She gave me a sidelong look, then smiled.
“In the days before I wised up and
avoided Halloween because of the bloodsuckers like you—no offense—”
“None taken.”
“My brother Paul and I would play
some pranks, usually on our friends. Like the time we added a bottle of helium
to the air conditioner in Jimmy’s car. For about three days, whenever he got
out of his car, he squeaked like one of the chipmunks. Then there was the time
we got our hands on one of the reels at the drive-in. We actually took the film
off the reel and ran it backwards. The guys running the place took half an hour
to realize what happened, then another twenty to get the film the right way on
the reel.”
She chuckled for a few minutes.
“Any more stories from your misspent youth?”
“Oh yes. Tons. One of my favorites
is about when we were going to build a treehouse. . . .”