Lenora caught her breath as she entered the crowd. The song had just finished, and people were chatting happily about how well the practice had gone, and suggested improvements to each other. Lenora ignored most of the talking, and went over to her class. She only got scared twice on her way over.

"...That was really quite horrible!" Miss Sandy was praising the children, "With some more practice we can really nail it in the coffin! Mandy, very spooky howl you've got there, keep it up..." And so on. Lenora mingled so it seemed like she had always been there. "...Lenora," Miss Sandy said, finding her, "there you are; I couldn't quite hear you singing, speak up next time. However, you did a frightening job with your flying part! Just work on that landing some more." Snickering could be heard around her. Lenora was still happy; Miss Sandy thought she was getting scarier! Miss Sandy continued speaking to different students, getting congratulatory remarks from citizens... attention drifted away from Lenora.

"Nice flight." Monty said sarcastically, bumping into Lenora from the side, almost pushing her over.

"Yeah," Warton added in a snideful tone, "aside from the whole flying part of it!" He laughed.

Lenora recognized one of Warton's arms as the one that had frightened her. "Hey..." She began, but didn't want to sound too pathetic, "...You aren't supposed to use knives."

"That was my knife." Monty boasted, "And he didn't use it, he just held it threateningly." Lenora still frowned at him. "Oh, get over it!" He shot back, "The adults get to use them! Besides, if we hadn't scared you, you probably would have really messed up!"

"Would not!" Lenora tried to argue. She wanted to believe that she could be scary on her own, without screaming in terror herself, but…

"Yeah you would!" He countered, "You aren't scary, or creepy, or anything! You're just Chicken Girl, always running scared from everything!"

"Am n-"

Lenora was about to argue again, despite her growing self-doubts, when a loud "GRRR!" from behind scared her. Lenora gave a short yelp and ran away, through the crowds, away from the school group. Helen, who had pounced and growled for the sheer excitement all around, watched her go curiously. "What's her problem?"

Lenora slowed down once her initial fright had worn out. She wanted to try to glare at them, like she had seen other citizens do at times, but when she turned around the other kids were nowhere in sight. There were so many creatures around her; the whole town it seemed was crammed together this night. She looked for a familiar face, something to direct herself, but she hadn't paid attention to where the group was standing for the short time she had been with them, and no faces stood out to her. They were all just citizens, laughing and discussing scare tactics amongst themselves. Why did they have to stand so close? She began to feel like she was going to choke on the air, tight with energy and lingering screams.

Lenora closed her eyes, tried to concentrate. She wasn't scared, she was supposed to be the scary one! She had been scary, right? Suna told her so… But then Warton's words started playing back in her head. She was always the one to run, the first one to give a screech of terror, to try to hide from fear. But she had been trying to get over that! She was making progress! But… was she? She could hold back some of the screams, but they were still there in her mind; she acted frightening, but no one ever really bought it. Even now, the only way she could maybe make a foreboding impression on anyone was to be truly scared herself. She hated it! She squeezed her eyes, trying to hold back a few tears of frustration.

A hand on her shoulder brought her head back to Halloweentown. "Lenora, sweetie, are you ok?" Sally asked worriedly. Lenora opened her eyes and gave a quick gasp; Sally was in a frightfully-lovely dress, and her make-up had startled her.

Lenora coughed before slowly answering. "Yeah… I guess…" She didn't want to ruin Sally's dress by burying her face in it, though she thought about it for a moment.

Sally didn't buy it. She knelt down to Lenora's level. "What's wrong? I thought you did horrendously, though I'm afraid I didn't get to see all of the others' parts."

Lenora sniffed. "It's just… how come all the other kids scare me so easily? Why can't I seem to get it…?" A scream in the background made her jump.

Sally hugged her, getting soot all over her dress but not caring. "Oh, dear, it's not that they scare you easier; well, ok, they do, but, it's just… well, they have more 'scary stuff' than you do."

"Like what?" Lenora asked huffily.

"Well, some have fuzzy faces, some have long claws, some can take off their body parts…" She indicated at one of her hands that was perched on her shoulders.

Lenora sighed. "And I just have these stupid wings…"

Sally frowned. "They are not stupid, they're beautiful; and frightening. You just have to learn how to use them to your advantage. I mean, look at Brodie; he doesn't have much more than wings-"

"Sally?"

They both turned; her name was being called from somewhere near a building to their side. Jack stood up and above the crowd, waving once he saw her.

Sally turned back to Lenora. "Now, we'll talk about this later; Jack looks like he wants some help, but I'll be back. And don't think about it too hard, sweetie; just try to have fun." Sally smiled sweetly; Lenora managed to at least stop frowning. Sally missed the energy Lenora had before the whole thing started. Now, it seemed to have been vanished like the sun in a rainstorm. She wished she could help-

"Sally!"

"Coming, Jack!"

As Sally ran off to help Jack with whatever was amiss, Lenora sighed to herself. Maybe… being scary was something you were born with? If so, she certainly didn't have it. She angrily kicked a stray pebble. It went surprisingly high, and hit a tall sturdy man on the back of his head. She quickly slid behind some citizens, changing position. The man turned around, and she saw one large eye in the middle of his head. The cyclops usually didn't take anything the wrong way, but, just to be safe…

She quickly let herself go through the crowd, not paying attention to where she was going, just away. Was it just her, or did the crowd seem to be getting tighter? No, she could still move about between them… but she felt creatures all around her, closing in. Her wings felt constrained, her breathing quickened. No, Lenora tried to think of a mantra to keep calm; she could beat this, she could be scary, she could-

A heavy stomp to her immediate left cut off all thoughts, made her stumble to the side and quickly look towards it. A red bull's head glowered menacingly from a crouched human torso, breathing heavily with massive horns protruding beside her. He wasn't looking directly at her, but that didn't ebb any of the panic. His eyes were red, redder than his skin, and he bellowed mightily, vibrating through her chest. It was too much; she gulped in air, spreading her wings instinctively to give herself more room, gave a shriek, and took off running.

The minotaur sighed as he stood solemnly, and bowed, smiling as those watching his performance clapped. One citizen commented, "That girl had a marvelously chilling scream! You know, I think she's been practicing."

Lenora ran, like she had always run. She knew she couldn't even glide very well, let alone fly. She knew it would be a disaster if she tried. She had tried to be scary, she really had! But she just couldn't seem to pull it off. Even Suna could do better scaring than her, not that she was there to show it. She felt bodies all around her, heard their hooting and laughing, howling and roaring. They must be teasing her; she couldn't see their faces, but she felt that they were all aimed at her. They scared her as she ran, stimulated by her screams. They didn't notice her tears making dark trails through the soot on her face.

Eventually, she just closed her eyes and ran, tired of shrieking, tired of making her own ears hurt. They were already being deafened by the pressure of her crying. After a while, she stopped sensing bodies around her, stopped feeling anything paved under her feet. She was on plain dirt now, but she didn't care. She just wanted to get away from their jeering, from the anxiety, from her failures. She would never be scary, not ever!

Suddenly, she ran smack into a tree. It stopped her in her tracks, and bounced her to the ground. Lenora had been somewhat sobbing before; after the initial shock of the impact, she now began wailing in earnest. She slowly moved her hands to her head, feeling blood but not really feeling it, just wanting all the pain to stop, to go away. She wanted Sally so bad, it hurt – worse than the injury to her head, than the anxiety, than the scarings. Wasn't that what mom's did, be there when you cried? To hold you and help you feel better? She wanted Sally so bad it wrenched inside her like a hand twisting her gut. She wanted to throw up and yell and clench on to something all at once. However, she couldn't seem to figure out how to do all that, so she just moaned and continued to cry on the cold, hard ground beside the tree, alone and miserable.

Lenora didn't know how long she stayed there. She didn't know when her cries turned into low moans, or when she stopped crying at all. She didn't know when she fell asleep. All that she knew was that she was waking up cold, was having great difficulty breathing through her nose, her legs were sore, and there was sticky stuff on her head and hands. Oh, right; that was her blood…

She looked around to see if anyone had come looking for her. All she found was a large black bird, with four red eyes. Although, it might have been just two – her eyes were blurry from crying and sleeping, and she didn't bother to really count them. She tried sniffing, and ended up coughing. The bird cawed, hopping closer. She rubbed her stiff cheeks and eyes, got some soot in them, and shook her head to try and clear it out. Eventually she cleared them, and now breathed through her mouth. She reached out to the bird, hoping it wasn't another frightful citizen wanting a few scares. It tolerated her petting it a few times, then drew back and ruffled its feathers. She giggled a little; it looked fluffy when it did that. She remembered the blood on her hands, and reasoned that was why it didn't want to be petted. She tried rubbing it off on her dress. The black bird cawed at her, and flew up into a tree a little ways away. Lenora frowned; she wanted to pet it. The empty place inside her was still gaping, but she had found something interesting to divert her attention from it and she was going to take it; anything was better than letting it fester inside with no disruption. The bird cawed again, suggesting it wanted her to follow as it kept looking at her. Lenora slowly got up, her head a bit light for a moment, and followed the bird as it flew from tree to tree.

Lenora followed the raven for a little ways, and then they came to a stream. It was small, but Lenora was grateful for it. She knelt and washed her hands of the blood as best she could, though since it had dried it stained her hands a bit. The raven stayed nearby, but not quite close enough for her to touch. She was just about to clean her forehead when she heard some crying. They were the cries of a woman, in terrible sadness and grief. As Lenora looked up stream, she saw a woman clothed in white with long black hair. She seemed slightly translucent, so Lenora assumed that she was a ghost. When the bird saw the woman, it gave a startled caw and flew off. Lenora remained transfixed by the sight of the woman. As she approached, Lenora could hear her say some words, though she could not understand them.

"¡Mis hijos! ¿Dónde están mis hijos?" The woman wailed wretchedly. The words had a slight resonance to them that held an extra chill for Lenora's bones. She was not sure if she could or wanted to help this woman. Looking closer, Lenora saw her hands turn to claws. Alarmed, Lenora backed away from the water, behind a tree. She didn't want to have to run again… As she watched, the woman's cries turned into howls of agony and frustration, and her hands began pounding into trees at random, leaving deep gouges in the bark. Lenora had a feeling that this was no ordinary citizen out practicing their scares. Despite her great urges to flee, Lenora found herself rooted to the spot. However, when the ghosts' raging eyes turned on her, her terror shook loose the spell and she ran. Again.

She could hear the ghost behind her. Even though there were no footsteps to hear, her shrieks were evidence enough. The trees were too close for her to even attempt to spread her wings, even though she couldn't really fly anyway. So she ran as fast as she could, weaving through trees in the hope to dissuade ghosts' pursuit, though it did not seem to be working. At least the ghost-woman did not seem to be getting any closer. Lenora heard the screams behind her, adrenaline pushing her weak body forward. Her breathing now filled her ears, her heart beat drowned out everything else.

Suddenly, she tripped over something and was catapulted into the air, another body entangled with her. They came to a rolling stopped after one or two moments, and Lenora was immediately set upon by numerous whackings. However, they were not exceptionally severe; simply an automatic response. She heard voices around her, somewhat-familiar.

"Just who do you think you are? Come in all –"

"Take that! And that! You –"

"So you think you can just barge in here, huh? I oughtta –"

Lenora didn't notice one of the voices pause for a moment, realizing what was going on.

"Hey, wait a second." Shock said, holding up her arms. The boys ignored her. "I SAID STOP!" She screeched at them. They listened, and held their masks back from another beating. "It looks like our little bird friend has dropped in."

Lenora opened her eyes and saw the kids who had played with her before. They had their masks in their hands, as if ready for another attack. She could understand that though, some reacted to fear by fighting. She wasn't one of them, but that didn't rule it out. She was still breathless from all the running and excitement, and was just relieved to be someplace relatively safe.

The Boogie Boys looked her up and down, scrutinizing, not quite believing their eyes. This was the same girl who always ran away screaming, who couldn't stand up for herself? Wearing black, covered in dirt, smeared with soot, and dried blood? Lock whistled. "Hey, looks like she finally snapped! So, what happened?"

Lenora looked at him confused. "What?"

Barrel popped up "Did it involve a knife?"

Lenora's eyes widened, remembering the incident. She quickly shook her head, trying to forget it. "N–no!" She stammered, somewhat comprehending their assumptions. "I didn't do anything!"

"Relax," Shock eased, "we aren't accusing you of anything."

"Yeah," Lock reassured, "we just want to know what we missed."

"N–nothing;" Lenora continued, "it wasn't my knife or anything…"

The children's eyes lit up at this new information, and then began talking all at once.

"Really? Who was it?"

"Wow; I didn't think that you had it in you…"

"Did they survive? Was it a big fight? Did –"

Lenora covered her ears, trying to block them out, trying to keep the memory from restricting her breathing. The images of the knife didn't scare her as much as the real thing, but she still hated thinking about it. Her mind was still spinning from ghost woman's chase; she didn't want to overload her already-drained mind. "I was just running away from the ghost lady!" She cried.

The other three fell into silence instantly. They glanced at each other, and then looked at her seriously. "What do you mean… 'ghost lady'?" Shock asked critically.

"S–she was a ghost, I think; she must have been." Lenora answered nervously, "She was c-crying and screaming, and her eyes went red, and her hands–"

"What color was her hair?" Lock interrupted accusingly.

"I –I think it was long and black…" Lenora answered fretfully. She saw the others glance around agitatedly, searching for any sign that the said ghost was around. They all saw nothing, heard nothing, but the mood was noticeably more somber.

"Come on;" Lock muttered, "let's get back to town…" They all began shuffling hurriedly away, pushing Lenora with them. She was confused, but gladly followed.

Geez, Lenora just can't catch a break, can she?

Thank you all so much for still reading this, and I appreciate any and all comments you might have about it. Till next time!