She used to be a sweet girl, innocent and cheery. A lover of horses with a talented hand for drawing and making little figurines out of clay for her mother, who she loved dearly. Most people called her modest and diffident, but she was still a normal child. That was, until a year ago when her nonreligious mother had no choice but to put her through an exorcism. Her name was Regan McNeil.
Around that time, Regan was living in Washington, D.C. with her mother while the latter was shooting a movie. She remembered finding the strange board that introduced her to "Captain Howdy" and how the bed shook violently at night, but other than that, the girl had no memory of the aggression she showed during her possession, nor the foul-mouthed obscenities that spewed from her mouth, along with the putrid green bile she spat on the two priests during the exorcism to extract the evil demon that made her do bad things.
Afterwards, Regan and her mother moved away to a small town called Warren Valley. Chris McNeil hoped this would be a fresh start for her and her daughter, away from all the bad memories that remind them of the horror and heartache they both went through. The worried mother stayed downstairs during the exorcism, and when the dark-haired priest came down for a moment, she asked the intense-looking man if her child would die that night. He reassured her that would not be the case, and that her little girl would came back soon, then he went back upstairs to continue the ritual. Two minutes later, Chris heard the voice of her daughter calling out to her and ran upstairs to the bedroom, finding the older priest dead on the floor and the now spirit-free Regan hiding in the corner, crying. The two priests died during the process, but kept their word and brought back her child.
No other woman in the world could ever imagine the nightmarish amount of pain that Chris and her daughter had been put through. It had already been a hard enough year for them both, what with the divorce and everything, but no matter what happened next, Chris was going to make sure that nothing would ever harm her daughter or try to take her away from her again. As for Regan, all she wanted was to be a normal kid.
Two weeks after winter break, Regan went back to school. Unlike being possessed by a demon, school was a different kind of torture, one she was all too familiar. Getting back into the swing of learning was nothing new for her, but like any child, Regan didn't care much for school. Not only was it boring, but none of the other kids ever talked to her or sat by her at lunch. Life at school wasn't entirely unkind to Regan, as she made friends with two girls about her age and got decent grades. She got along with most of her teachers, but there was one person at her school that none of her peers got along with, and that was the creepy principal, Mr. Wilkins.
One year later, the autumn leaves began to fall. Carved pumpkins stood guard on people's porches, invading nearly half the houses in the neighborhood. Hanging ghosts and plastic skeletons were displayed out in front of people's yards. It was getting close to that time of year again, a time for harvesting and feasting on sweets. In the old days, people called it Samhain. Today, we call it All Hollow's Eve, more commonly known as Halloween.
While walking home from school that day, Regan stopped by the ice cream shop with her friends for a frozen treat for getting a good grade on their math test. Her two closest friends were Elsa Karloff, a dark-haired, brown-eyed girl who just turned 13, and Gloria Rains, a 14-year-old African American girl. Regan never mentioned the possession to either of them or how she had a demon exorcised from her body, not wanting them to see her as a freak.
The girls sat in a booth and ordered three sundaes, enjoying their ice cream as they talked about their tests, and discussed their plans for the evening and what they were going to wear when they went out trick-or-treating.
"I can't believe Mr. Hooper gave me an C minus", grumbled Elsa. "I studied weeks for that test."
"Don't worry about it", said Gloria. "You got an A plus in Mrs. Cunningham's writing class last week, didn't you?"
"Yeah, but my mom said if I didn't get anything above a C on my math test, I couldn't go out trick-or-treating. It's not fair."
"Girl, just because someone's a teacher, doesn't mean they're right about everything."
"Come on, you guys", said Regan. "It's Halloween, we're supposed to be having fun."
"Yeah, we still need to plan out which houses we're going to this year", Gloria agreed. "By the way, we're skipping the Carpenters. Last year, they gave out jelly beans. Ugh! I hate jelly beans!"
"I hear Dr. Howard is going to hand out toothpaste and dental floss", said Elsa. "What kind of person hands out toothpaste on Halloween?"
"Well, he is a dentist", said Regan.
"So? The least he could have done was hand out some sugar-free gum", Elsa argued.
"Look, forget about him, all right? We still need to figure out what we're going as this year", said Gloria.
"What did you go as last year?" Regan asked her.
"Last year, I went dressed as Diana Ross", said Gloria. "Elsa was a...What were you again?"
"I was a zombie, remember?"
"Oh, yeah, that's right."
"This year, I'm thinking of going as a witch", said Elsa. "What about you, Regan?"
"I'm not telling", said Regan, smiling a little.
"Ah, come on, Regan", Elsa begged. "Give us a hint."
Regan shook her head. "Mm-mmm. I want it to be a surprise."
Elsa pouted her lip and made a whimpering sound like a puppy.
"How about you, Gloria?" Regan asked.
Gloria shrugged. "I don't know", she said. "I might just wear what I have on now and put on a mask or something."
"How original", Elsa remarked, spooning a big bite of ice cream into her mouth.
"Well, I gotta get going", said Regan, standing up and putting her backpack on. "I promised my mother I'd be home by five. See you tonight."
On her way home, Regan witnessed a group of four kids from her school at a bus stop harassing a small boy wearing orange pajamas and a burlap sack mask with two black button eyes.
"Hey, weirdo, where'd you get those rags from, your mother's sewing basket?" A glasses-wearing boy mocked him, laughing.
"A little early for bedtime, isn't it?" Insulted a black-haired boy with dark brown eyes.
"That's the worst costume I've ever seen", quipped a female with red hair and blue eyes.
The leader of these punks, a chubby-faced girl with blonde hair and pale blue eyes wearing a black leather jacket, snatched away what looked like an old pillowcase from the boy and tossed it over to her red-headed friend, who dumped out the contents from the case, which was candy, onto the sidewalk and stomped on all the sweets. The pajama-wearing boy lunged at her, but the blonde, blue-eyed girl pushed him down onto the pavement.
"Eat dog shit, you little freak!" The blonde girl shouted.
"Hey, lay off of him!" Regan called out, marching over to confront the boy's attackers. "Why don't you pick on somebody your own size, Cheryl?"
"Why do you care, McNeil? Cheryl questioned.
"Just leave him alone or else."
"Or else what? You'll tell your mommy on me?"
Cheryl held her hand out to the glasses-wearing boy, who supplied her with an egg, which she then smashed over the girl's head. Regan moaned in disgust, feeling the gooey yolk stick to her hair like glue. The other three laughed, while the pajama-wearing boy watched with fury in his eyes, though nobody could see it due to the mask covering his face. Cheryl pushed Regan down on the ground, then hawked up a loogie and spat on her.
"See you later, losers", said Cheryl, turning around and signaling with her hand for her friends to follow her. The red-haired girl and the boy with glasses started to followed her lead, but the dark-eyed boy stayed behind to unzip his pants and whiz all over the stomped-on candy. Once he was done emptying himself, the dark-eyed boy zipped himself back up and walked away, flipping off Regan and the pajama-wearing boy.
Regan sat up and wiped off as much egg yolk from her hair as she could, then looked at the little boy, who stood up and stared down at the sidewalk, looking around at all the ruined treats stained with urine.
"Are you hurt?" Regan asked him, her voice filled with concern.
The pajama-wearing boy said nothing, but shook his head in response.
Feeling sorry for him and the loss of his candy, Regan slid her backpack off her shoulders and opened the front zipper, reaching inside to look for something. "I'm sorry Cheryl and her friends pushed you and peed on all your candy. Here-" She pulled out a red lollipop, offering it to the boy, who lifted his head to look at her. He spoke not a word and stood still as a statue, eying the treat offered to him before taking it from the kind-hearted girl.
"My name's Regan. What's your name?"
The boy looked at her, but did not respond. He lowered his head and looked to the ground again, as though he were too shy or embarrassed to speak.
"What's the matter? Can't you talk?" Regan asked him.
The boy shook his head.
"That's okay", said Regan. "I like your costume."
The boy's head lifted, his black buttons eyes staring at her with a hint of surprise, if they could express anything at all.
"I bet the reason they were picking on you was because they were jealous of how cool you look", Regan embellished, trying to make the boy feel better. "Did you wear it to school?"
The boy gave a slow nod of his head.
"It's okay if you did", said Regan. "There's nothing wrong with wearing your Halloween costume to school. I think you look cute in it."
The boy tilted his head in a curious fashion. The fact that she gave him a piece of candy purely out of kindness and showed her acceptance of his attire insured a sense of trust from him.
"I've gotta get going now", said Regan, standing up. "See you around, kiddo. Happy Halloween."
The boy stood there, watching her go. He didn't know what was happening, but there was this strange feeling beginning to brew inside his tummy, like a witch's cauldron filled with bubbling potion. This kind-hearted girl was someone special. She treated him not only with candy, but with respect, and that guaranteed her protection from him, sparing her from evoking his wrath and meeting a gruesome death. Nevertheless, he would be watching her, just like he watched all the others on Halloween night.