Aunt Unyce was home, just as Frankie said she would be. Unyce never got much company, so of course she was thrilled beyond excited to see her favorite nephew and his beautiful fiancee. She didn't bother to ask why they had come, especially in the middle of the night. She didn't want to ruin the pleasant surprise of their company.

Unyce was every bit of what Lily had expected her to be. She was a slight woman with thick, iron gray waist length hair which was gathered in one long braid down her back. She had on a white sleeping gown and a pink shawl draped over her shoulders. The wrinkles pressed into her face suggested that she was about sixty years of age.

"More tea dear?" Aunt Unyce smiled at Lily and bent over to refill her tea cup.

Lily placed a hand over her cup and smiled sweetly. "No thank you." All Lily wanted to do was curl up in bed and let her head drift off to dreamland. But Aunt Unyce was wide awake and wanted to talk. Lily let out a sigh. For such a little woman, Aunt Unyce certainly did have a big mouth. With that thought, Lily smiled to herself. Perhaps the same could be said about her as well.

Lily struggled to smother a yawn, and lost the struggle. "I'm sorry." She smiled at Aunt Unyce. "I must be more tired than I thought."

"Well why don't you go lie down," Aunt Unyce told her. "There's a guest room upstairs, second door to the right."

Lily kissed Frankie's cheek and stood up to head for the stairs. On the way over, Lily thought she saw an animate shadow outside the left front window. She froze at the base of the stairs with one hand on the banister.

Frankie sipped his tea with care. After setting it down, he found Aunt Unyce gazing at him. "Is there anything wrong, Frankie?"

A nervous smile masked his face and he put his hand through his sandy blond hair. "Of course not--"

He was interrupted when Lily whispered his name. "What is it, Lily."

Lily's eyes followed the shadow past the door. It stopped at the window directly in front of her. While the rest of her was still with fear, her eyes shifted to Frankie and Unyce. Her breathing obstructed the flow of her words as horror consumed her. The figure was unmistakably human. "There..." She swallowed and tried again. There is s-someone outside the window."

Frankie stood up slowly. Spotting the tall silhouette through the sheer white curtains, he reached for his gun...and panicked when it wasn't there. Then he remembered...




..."What are you doing?" he asked her. Frankie was half out of breath from their wild lip tango. Lily reached down and unholstered his gun while he struggled to undo her brassiere. "It's burrowing into my hip," she said in a voice husky with desire. As they continued to kiss, she tossed the gun onto the back seat.




Aunt Unyce looked confused, but stayed silent.

"Frankie," Lily whispered again. Then she screamed as a gunshot hit the door from the outside. Not a second later, the door was kicked in. "Frankie!" She screamed his name right before a bullet ripped through her body. She looked into the face of her assailant before she dropped to the floor.

"No!" Frankie lunged at the man with blind fury. As Frankie tackled him, another shot entered from outside and struck Frankie in the leg. He yelled out in pain and fell to the floor. He saw Lily sprawled at the base of the stairs. Her eyes were open. But they were soulless.

Fueled with another dose of anger, Frankie pushed off his hands and tried to stand up. He moaned as a leather-clad foot connected with his stomach, then his face.

Aunt Unyce watched, frozen with disbelief. She couldn't move.

Frankie looked up from the floor at the man who killed Lily. His eyes were dark and cold. Those eyes were the last that Frank Benjamin Foster would ever see.




The full moon was eclipsed by a cluster of dark clouds. The wind had picked up considerably since dusk and was putting eerie sounds in the chilled autumn air. The three had already finished their rounds and had surprised Jack Stevens with three bags full of assorted candy. Now they were headed home. With the weird chill in the air, Chloe became slightly unnerved and walked closer to Clark.

Pete dug around in the bag he carried. "That kid is great. I can't believe he actually let us keep a bag for ourselves." He pulled out a tootsie pop and unwrapped it.

Chloe folded her arms to her chest as they walked. "Well just don't eat too much of it or your teeth will rot right out of your head."

Pete shrugged. "Small price to pay for the pleasure of sugary sweet treasure."

Chloe rolled her eyes at him. "Think of that clever little line all by yourself, did you?" She got so close to Clark that she stepped on his boot. She glanced up suddenly. "Sorry Clark."

Clark smiled down at her. "Are you cold or something?" It was the umpteenth time she had bumped into him.

Before Chloe could answer, Pete spoke around the sucker in his mouth. "Maybe she's afraid. What do you say there, Sullivan?" He tapped her shoulder lightly with his elbow. "Letting the ghostly spirit of Halloween get to you?"

She shoved Pete's elbow away. "No. I'm just a little cold."

Clark obligingly took his jacket off and draped it over Chloe's shoulders. He rubbed her arms briskly a few times. "There, that should help."

Chloe was completely taken by the notion. She looked up at Clark with stars in her eyes. "Thanks." Her voice was soft with admiration. Snap out of it, Chloe, she thought to herself. She blinked and lightened her tone. "I mean, you didn't have to do that."

"It really isn't a problem." Clark stared straight ahead as they walked. He tried not to think of that brief sparkle in Chloe's eyes. Furthermore, he tried not to think of the fact that it had vanished so quickly.

Another slip like that and I just might kill myself, Chloe thought. She let her eyes shift to Clark. She nearly sighed, glimpsing his silhouette against the starry night sky. She bit her lip and averted gaze up to the heavens.

"Hey you guys, look." Pete pointed to his left with the naked stick from the tootsie pop. It was an old wooden house shrouded with dozens of trees with creepy gnarled trunks. The limbs of the trees were bare and all around them were huge mounds of dead leaves.

Clark stared at the house. "The Foster manor." He shrugged. "What about it?"

"I'm thinking we should walk faster. Just looking at that place gives me a major case of the willies." Pete shoved another sucker in his mouth.

Chloe smiled. "Who's afraid now, you pansy." She pulled Clark's jacket tighter around her shoulders. "I think we should check it out."

"What?" Clark took a step back from her. "Chloe, there's a reason why we don't see anyone around that house. Some people are too superstitious to even walk past it, especially on Halloween. I vote we don't go."

"That makes two of us," Pete said. "Sorry Chloe, that's majority."

She couldn't believe this. Now both of them were afraid? Chloe threw her hands into the air. "Great! Two pansies."

Clark tilted his head and looked at her incredulously. "Using common sense doesn't exactly confine us to pansy-hood, Chloe." Clark questioned her sudden interest in the old house. They had walked past it many times before and she never so much as uttered a word of interest about it. "Why do you care all of a sudden? This house has been in the same spot ever since you moved to Smallville."

Chloe raised a brow. "Well, I..." She paused.

Clark gave her an impatient look. Annoyed at him, she turned to Pete.

"I'm just curious. I want to know if it's haunted or not." A light flickered in her eyes, the obvious twin of the one going off in her head. "And I think it would make a great story for the Torch."

Clark walked past her and stood next to Pete.

Chloe bit her lip in anticipation. "Come on guys." Quickly she added, "Whether you come with me or not, I'm going. But please don't make me go alone." She continued biting her lip while they decided her fate.

Clark crossed his arms. "You know I'll carry you out of here kicking and screaming don't you?"

Chloe shot him a bothered look.

Pete breathed out as if capitulating. "Well you sure picked one heck of a night to steer your curiosity toward an allegedly haunted house."

Chloe smiled. She had Pete reeled.

Clark looked at Pete like a man betrayed. He had no words for him, though. The look alone was worth a thousand. "Well unlike my 'ever-faithful elf' here," Clark said, "It'll take more than a sugary sweet 'smile n' plea' to sway me." Clark enjoyed how quickly Chloe's smile flatlined.

Damn him, she thought. A sugary sweet 'smile n' plea' was all she had. Chloe narrowed her eyes at Clark. "Fine, then. We don't need you, huh Pete?"

"Um...well..."

"Hey!" Chloe smacked Pete's arm. "Make up your mind!"

"I'm going. You don't have to get so physical," Pete said.

Chloe pulled Pete by the arm. "Let's go then." She stopped after taking a few steps. Then she took off Clark's jacket, balled it up, and threw it at him.

Clark didn't watch as they headed over to the house. Instead he put his jacket back on and leaned against the wooden gate that surrounded the disarrayed yard of the house. He wasn't afraid, no that wasn't it. Then he thought, what's Chloe trying to prove anyway? Was her need for a story for the Torch that dire?

Clark looked at the stars. This wasn't about Chloe. Clark believed in ghosts. And they weren't something any of his powers could stop.

With his hands in his pockets, he stood apart from the gate and sighed. If only they would hurry up...

He turned around at the sound of Chloe's scream and ran with super speed toward the house.