The first night after the attack, Joel woke up to Ellie screaming.
He stormed out of bed, almost crashing into the door as his feet traversed the still-familiar path from his room to Sarah's. Ellie was writhing under the purple duvet as she screamed, her fists clenched like she was trying to hit someone. Joel grabbed her arms and shook her until she woke up. He held her while she cried and spoke soothingly to her until she fell back asleep.
Then the next morning, when Joel asked Ellie about her nightmare last night, she claimed to remember nothing. She didn't meet his eyes when she said it.
Thankfully, the rest of the week improved from there. Ellie woke up screaming every other night, but other than that, Joel thought she was handling everything remarkably well. She had stretches of uncharacteristic silence, but she more often filled the silence with her usual chatter.
Joel, for his part, tried to keep Ellie busy. He indulged every idea for Halloween decorations she had, and they spent hours attaching the black cat decoration on a toy car that Ellie would control, and setting up a motion sensor that would trigger the witch to scream. They ended up carving six pumpkins, three each, since Tommy, Maria, and Bria judged Joel's first pumpkin as the better of the pair and Ellie demanded a rematch. The final score: 2 – 1, Ellie's favor.
Tommy, Maria, Bria, and Dina spent a couple afternoons at Joel's house. When they came over for the first time, the girls ran off so Ellie could show them her new room.
"It's lovely to be here again, Joel." Maria said with a smile. "Thank you for inviting us."
"I don't think I've been over here in years." Tommy commented. His carefree grin dropped when he saw where his daughter went. "Is that… her room?" Joel nodded. Tommy walked over and stared into it for a long time. When he returned to Joel, his eyes were misty. "She was such a good kid, Joel." He mumbled.
Joel's throat felt tight. Somehow, he'd forgotten how much Tommy had loved his niece. "She was." He swallowed and tried to lighten the mood. "So, it seems like you have a second kid now."
Tommy wiped his eyes as his sadness turned to amusement. "It feels like it." He chuckled. "Combination of Bria and Dina being best friends and Dina not having the best home life, I think." His voice lowered on the second half of his sentence. "Though I think Ellie might be stealing Dina."
Joel raised his eyebrows. "How so?"
"We think Dina idolizes Ellie." Maria explained. "I've seen Dina staring at her when she's not looking a few times. And Dina follows Ellie around a lot."
"Interesting." Joel remembered noticing that Ellie seemed to gravitate toward Dina. "I think Ellie enjoys the attention."
"I'm sure." Maria's smile faded into concern. "So… how's she doing?"
Joel hadn't given them details. He'd only told them that there was an incident with Ellie's stepfather that caused both the stepfather and mother to be declared unfit to raise Ellie. Both Tommy and Maria knew an incident that remove a child from the custody of her only remaining parent had to be awful.
"She's doing ok." Joel shrugged. "I'm just trying to keep her busy. Don't want her to dwell on it like I did."
Tommy nodded, then clapped his older brother on the shoulder. "I'm proud of you, Joel."
Joel blinked and looked away. "Thanks." He said gruffly. Tommy hadn't said anything like that in a long time. He hadn't realized how much he'd wanted to hear it.
The morning of Halloween, Ellie practically bounced around the house in excitement. Joel had offered to take Ellie trick-or-treating, but she'd decided to stay home and help Joel hand out candy. She wanted to see the kids' reactions to their decorations. Joel and Ellie had put together something truly incredible. From giant webs and bats on the roof to a witch with a bubbling cauldron on the front lawn, Joel had never seen a more impressive Halloween-themed house.
Bria went trick-or-treating with her parents, but Dina, who did seem to follow Ellie everywhere, came over to help Joel and Ellie hand out candy. The girls spent the afternoon running around the neighborhood putting up posters with Joel's house advertised as the spookiest of them all. Meanwhile, Joel drove to Target and bought several huge bags of Halloween candy. He hadn't answered the door to trick-or-treaters since his daughter died, so he had no idea what to expect.
When he came back, the girls had their costumes on and were playing in the yard. Dina was a knight, which perfectly complemented Ellie's dragon costume. Joel watched them run around outside from the kitchen, where he replied to emails from the startled clients he had canceled on. Joel hadn't taken a week off in decades.
When dinner time came around, he took Ellie and Dina on a quick McDonald's run. Then they went home to wait for the trick-or-treaters.
They came in droves. Joel had cautioned Ellie against expecting too many people after previous Halloweens, but her posters seemed to have done the job. Joel kept refilling the bowl as Ellie and Dina handed out candy to the kids. The kids were all awed by the house. Ellie and Dina giggled beside him as they took turns driving the cat around the yard.
At a break in the trick-or-treaters, Ellie handed the bowl back to Joel. "Hey Dina, let's scare the next kids." Ellie grinned.
"Hey now." Joel interrupted.
Both girls ignored him. "What are you thinking?" Dina asked. "Like, we jump out at them?"
"Nah, too easy." Ellie shook her head. "I'm thinking we pose like we're a decoration, near the walkway, and then suddenly turn to look at them. Like super creepy statues."
Dina's eyes widened. "That's perfect!" Ellie walked toward the sidewalk, Dina following eagerly behind. They took their poses of a dragon slayer and a dragon.
"Take it easy on the real little kids." Joel called after them. Ellie responded only with an irritable twitch of her fingers. Then the next set of trick-or-treaters rounded the corner.
The girls' scare worked perfectly. Even Joel found himself laughing when both Ellie and Dina suddenly turned to look at a kid walking by them, and he stumbled backwards so fast he fell on his butt. Once they sprinted after a group of preteen boys. If Joel had to guess, those boys were probably still running.
The stream of trick-or-treaters finally dried up at 11 PM. Ellie and Dina stumbled inside, laughing hysterically about different scares. "Dude that dinosaur kid-"
"But the clown girl-"
"The goose boy!" Ellie giggled. "Honk honk!" Dina and Ellie collapsed onto the couch, holding their stomachs as they shook with laughter.
Joel shook his head. He had no idea what they were talking about. "Alright. Bedtime." The girls were having a sleepover.
In an instant, Ellie was on her feet and indignant. "Joel, it's Halloween! And it's Friday! C'mon man, let us stay up late."
"'C'mon man.'" Joel scratched his chin.
"Please!" Dina begged. "Just until midnight."
Joel sighed. "Fine, and then right to bed."
Dina and Ellie high-fived, then ran out the back door. Joel smiled. He still held the nostalgia of childhood nights spent with friends in a dark backyard, gazing at the stars. He remembered one night he and his friends had played with glowsticks. Inspired, he searched through Sarah's closet until he found a box of glowsticks tucked forgotten in the corner.
He went to bring the box out to the girls, then hesitated. The meager light spilling outside illuminated Ellie and Dina, both their shoulders shaking as they laughed. They were leaning toward each other, and as Joel watched, Dina reached out and brushed Ellie's hair out of her eyes.
Joel took a few quiet steps back. Then he made a show of thumping across the creaking floorboards before noisily bursting through the door to the backyard. "Thought you girls might like these." He pulled a glowstick from the box and cracked it. It glowed a neon green.
Ellie's eyes lit up. "Glowsticks!" She snatched the box from his hand, and then she and Dina were rummaging through it. "Thanks Joel." Ellie called as Joel went back inside. He couldn't believe how easily he'd fallen into father mode. He knew some part of him had never left; the part that had seen a hungry young girl in his yard and blurted out that he was taking her to McDonald's. That felt so long ago.
The next day, Joel drove Dina home. After the girls said goodbye, Ellie climbed into the front seat. "That was the best Halloween ever." She told him.
Joel remembered Halloweens spent with Sarah. She hadn't gotten very into the costumes, but she loved the candy. He would grudging agree to get candy too so they could trade. "It was a very good one."
"Next year, we're doing a haunted house inside." Ellie declared, her eyes sparkling.
Joel rolled his eyes. "Oh boy."