Prologue

It was October 31st, the night of Halloween. A group of boys at the age of eight, some of them even nine, walked along the street of their area, knocking on all the houses for trick and treat. They had been quite successful this evening, but now it was nearly midnight, and a cold feeling of something horrible happening began to touch them. Their lively chatter had nearly stopped and they gazed around nervously, but determined to reach even the last house in their area, standing a little far from the other houses. Suddenly they heard steps and the rhythmic knocking of a walking stick on the ground. All of them froze in fear and watched the bent figure of an old woman emerge from the fog, all in dead silence but for the stick in her hand. As the woman walked closer, they screamed, turned away and ran back the way they came from, to the safe area where more people lived. Only one remained where he was. If it was out of bravery, curiosity or just because his feet refused him to run, you can't tell. But he stood there, shaking and eyes widened as if they wanted to pop out, waiting for the old lady to reach him. As she did, she stopped only a few centimetres away from him, letting him feel her breath on his cold skin.

"Son, why didn't you run like your friends?" she asked in a sly and gleeful voice.

"I – I – I", was all he could answer.

"Well, my child, don't you fear the spirit of Halloween?"

His eyes widened even more, if that was possible, and he shrugged, not sure what to answer.

"You don't know? Is it that, yes? I see. But you are here for trick and treat, yes?" a wide, maybe to wide, grin appeared on her face, and since she wore a hood, her lips were all what the boy could see of her face. The boy nodded, lifting his pumpkin-shaped bag a bit.

"Ah, well then, I should give you something, yes?", she lifted her wrinkled hand, reached under her coat and pulled two orange lollies out, with a golden, pumpkin-shaped brand on the wrap.

"These are the worlds best, my son, and you only get them at Halloween, yes?", she said as she handed them over. "And you better believe, yes?"

"T-thanks, madam", the boy muttered, but as he lifted his gaze from the sweets, the woman was gone. He was alone. That was the moment when his feet began to move and he stormed all the way home.

Hallow sat slightly away from the street, hidden by bushes, and enjoyed the feeling the faith of the boy gave her. She chuckled as she recalled it all again, just having transformed from the old lady into her normal self. That's what made her different from others of her kind; if she took a human form, people of all ages saw her. That was quite important when you want to scare people on Halloween. Her normal, usually to people invisible form was indeed different from what people believe to be ordinary. Her eyes were black, but had a gleaming orange circle around her pupil and her lips were coloured with black and orange stripes. The rest of her skin was white like wax, which gave her a quite dead look. Hallows hair was short and spiky, most of it black like ashes with orange strands in it. The right side of her head was covered by a mask that resembled a jack o lantern, so she could pull it over her face if required. Her clothes consisted of a black long shirt, held together by an orange belt with a pumpkin buckle that contained an ordinary but kind of old looking knife, a pair of black gloves, black tights and, guess what, black shoes.

Somewhere a clock tolled midnight. The spirit of Halloween stood up, snapped her fingers, hopped onto the appeared pumpkin and flew into the sky. There was just one night a year for her, and she was quite busy.

Some hours later Hallow sat on roof to watch the sunrise. It had been quite a successful night, for she had scared some teens on their way home from a party some minutes ago. One of her ghosts landed next to her; he was big, nearly two meters tall and maybe one and a half wide. At sunset he had been small like a figure, perfectly fitting in her hands, but now he had grown due all the fear and fun people had on Halloween. She smiled and padded his head, as she felt a chilly breeze and along with it saw snowflakes falling of the sky. That made her laugh.

"Really? Snowfall on November 1st? That's quite clichéd, yes?"

A white-haired boy landed next to her, placing himself on the roof.

"You always find something to criticise, pumpkinhead", he teased

"Pumpkinhead, yes? That's the best nickname you came up with after knowing me for so many decades, snowman?" The boy chuckled.

"Sadly, yes. But I only see you once a year, you know? Besides, I wonder what you are doing the rest of the time"

She gave him a questioning look. "You really want to know that, yes? Well, I return to my Halloween realm and have wild parties with ghosts and skeletons there, plan new mischief and make sweets."

"Sounds like fun"

"If you wish, you can visit me any time, but mind you, I'll scare you at one time or another for it is my realm and my rules." Hallow looked at him with a wide grin. "But it will pay off for sure, since I have the best pumpkin tea in the world. Or pumpkin bread, pumpkin cake, pumpkin…"

"So a lot of pumpkin food?" He laughed.

"As sure as you bring frost, Jack" She looked at the sky as the sun made her way to replace the night. "I'll have to go now"

"Wait, how do I get to this place of yours?"

"My place, yes? Its easy. Turn left to soul street on the crossroads of fear 'n fun, Jack", she teased. The boy looked at her questioning. "Nah, just kidding. The wind will take you there, I'm sure he knows the way. If you are not to busy with your guardian duty or stuff. Congratulations, by the way"

"Ha, thanks. It was more like a coincidence, really. But I don't think I will be too busy. Things are going smoothly since Pitch is locked away again"

"Yeah, I suppose that's it…oh, I nearly forgot your yearly present!", Hallow remarked and gave him one of her lollies.

"Thanks Hal!"

"See you Jack of the Frost" She waved him as she hopped on a pumpkin and disappeared, leaving the frost spirit by himself. Even if she wished to spend more time with Jack, she couldn't bring herself to wander around in sunlight. It...irritated her. She felt much weaker than at night time and besides, she had an important last stop, before she could return to her realm till next Halloween.

The pumpkin stopped at a glade and Hallow jumped off. It was much harder to recognize things in daylight, she thought as she wandered through the wood, but she was pretty sure that this had been the place where the bedstead had been, looking like forgotten bones of a dead animal. There she stopped and plugged a lollipop into the earth.

"Happy Halloween, Pitch"