Hollowville University, Ohio

October 31st, 2026

The alarm went off at 6:00 A.M., with Cory fumbling to turn off the phone notification. He always kept the brightness at the lowest lest he get his retinas destroyed from blindness.

He rose up and yawned in his bed. And he STILL couldn't believe that he was once again a freshman. Man, who knew college could be equal parts fun and hard?

He was the only one in the dorm room. He didn't request any roommates. He had too many secrets. One of which was what happened last year.

Just my luck. He thought, looking at the calendar as he got dressed. Monday AGAIN.

Of course…this wasn't just any day. Nope. It was Halloween. Thanks to the secrets he had, it was becoming both his favorite and worst holiday.

No doubt that most of the students would be attending some kind of party (especially the rich kids), where they'd mostly get drunk or make out or even things that STILL made him feel queasy. Meanwhile the teachers and professors would be entertaining (and he used that word loosely) the kids. All that and the assignments for today, and all his opportunities for fun were pretty much nil.

At least, when the sun was still up. At night, there could be all manner of pranks. Kick Me signs, a building getting mummified with toilet paper, students getting bombarded with eggs, explosive fireworks (was that even legal?), stink bombs, itching powder, and even the flaming doo-doo bag trick. Chances were that HE would be one of the unlucky victims. But then again…HE'D be having some fun of his own when night came…

As he left his dorm, Cory looked at his watch. 6:30. His first class was at 7:00. He had time. He only had to worry about Science today. History was tomorrow, Spanish Wednesday, Math for Thursday (thankfully it was online), and Gym for Friday. The weekends he used to finish up any schoolwork or study. If he had nothing to do, well…

Let's just get through today. Cory told himself. Fall semester is only halfway over already…

…

"In today's lecture," Mr. Samuel said. "As a special holiday tradition, we will be examining the classics of horror and comparing them to real-life physics and sciences. First, let's start with the moon. Long ago, we believed that the light it casted down was harmful, causing people to turn into werewolves and allowing vampires to freely move about. Now, would anyone like to point out what's wrong about this superstition and what REALLY happens?"

Cory raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Waldhorn?"

"Believe it or not, that's actually SUNLIGHT getting reflected off the moon's surface." He answered. "It would be IMPOSSIBLE for werewolves to transform, and vampires would still burn up as if in regular sunlight."

He had to be careful. One slip-up and he would be laughed at. Of course, it wasn't too harmful. They still wouldn't believe him.

"Ah, a brilliant correction there! Now, you may remember how Frankenstein's monster was brought to life via massive amounts of lightning. Just what of this part in Mary Shelly's story is purely fiction?"

Another student, Josh, raised his hand.

"Yes?"

"No matter how much voltage runs into a corpse, it CAN'T be brought back to life." He said. "Kinda like how it's impossible for zombies to come back to life."

You have no idea…

"Correct again! And in more recent eras of the silver screen, we were introduced to a NEW kind of terror: Giant monsters. But what part about them makes them…NOT so monstrous?"

This time, a girl raised her hand.

"Isabelle?"

"Math and the square cubes law makes the kaiju's size impossible." She stated. "They would have to eat like a thousand people per day, not to mention that they would EXPLODE upon an impact from a fall. Plus, just one single step could break some bones!"

Cory just stayed silent. He only thought of how there were some things even SCIENCE couldn't explain. After all…how ELSE would they believe the moon was green for a few years?

It went on for a while longer. Many more topics were discussed, such as how dying in your dreams didn't make you die in real life, how Hell couldn't be under the Earth, the deformities of an abnormal mind of an insane psycho killer (and how they would be locked away or executed), how mummy bodies would be too old and ancient and thus turn to dust, the drastic evolutionary change that made man different from both monkey and the first fish to walk upon land, how the Kraken would be unable to sink ships thanks to buoyant force, along with fake evidence of cryptids (A Bigfoot suit and a Loch Ness Monster Submarine) and the possibility that there COULD be aliens.

But you're not here to read about school and all its boredom (Don't you have ENOUGH of that in your life?). You're reading this to be scared. Well…don't worry. You're about to be.

…

Once class ended, Cory did some more research on Halloween on campus. Mostly because he was in the mood and doing it for fun, but he never knew if Professor Stephenson would cover the history of Halloween and monster lore.

Originally known as All Hallows' Eve, Halloween was believed to be the day when the veil between life and death was the thinnest, and the dead would rise for one wild and hideous carnival. People would don costumes and masks to avoid being recognized by evil vengeful spirits, and frightened them away with jack-o'-lanterns. This holliday urged Christians not to forget the end of all earthly things. So what was with the candy? People offering it to monsters so that they don't get eaten themselves?

What can a magical fairy princess do if you don't give her a Kit Kat Bar, turn you into a frog? He thought. Most costumes WERE a bit terrifying, that was true. But others such as pop-culture icons weren't as such a scare. A few people he knew (Maybe a LOT) always LOVED this holiday. Reasons why he couldn't say.

If the ancient civilizations were in fact so terrified as Halloween being a night where monsters and spirits roamed the mortal plane and sought to bring the end of all earthly things…maybe they wouldn't like an ENDLESS Halloween. Nowadays every midnight hour feels exactly like that…

He had grabbed some lunch at the campus center while also studying more monster history. Vlad the Impaler was a bloodthirsty warrior, who inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula. Meanwhile, Mary Shelly came up with Frankenstein while in a horror story competition. And werewolves were believed to be a thing back in the Middle Ages. Mummies were one of many features of Ancient Egypt, and not all zombies were originally seen as dumb flesh and brain-eating ghouls (Too bad salt wouldn't make them remember their time as a living being anymore). The Kraken was originally a Norse monster and not one of Poseidon's beasts, and King Kong even beat Godzilla to the giant monster movie business 21 years earlier! The Roswell Incident was still a deep mystery, and the evil of Hell existed as long as Christianity did.

In short…there was a LOT about the supernatural and paranormal world of monsters. But only Cory knew that all the people knew only scratched the surface.

The campus was littered with decorations. Preparing for when the night would fall.

He headed back to his dorm room once he was finished with all his work for today. But when he opened the door, he found himself letting out a scream!