A/N: I'm aware of the pacing disconnect this has with the old chapters that follow this, but I decided I'm still going to leave them up chapter by chapter since I'm still using them as the rough outline to rewrite, it'll smooth out soon

Thanks for the reviews for all these years! If anyone out there is miraculously from the first run of this story when I was just a kid, I hope you like the rerun

Chapter 2

Normal POV

October 31st, 1963

Mrs. Myers stood at the window, lightly bouncing her baby daughter on her hip while she watched the neighborhood children begin to pass by on sidewalk as they made their way home from the elementary school, smiling to herself as she spotted her six year old son talking animatedly to the little girl she'd seen him walk with daily for the past couple of weeks. Every day since she first spotted the tiny dark haired girl talking to him, Mrs. Myers had noticed Michael would walk with her past their house all the way down to where Lamkin Lane intersected Chesnut Street, bid her farewell on the corner, and watch until she climbed the front steps of her house. He'd double back and make for home afterward, but the smile she'd seen on his way past would always be replaced with a blank expression that dampened her joy of the moment a bit.

She was so glad to see Michael making a new friend, hoping it would remedy whatever had been going on with young Michael. In the past couple of months, the boy had gone from a typical rambunctious little boy to more of a ghost, no longer asking to stay out longer to play, or to go ride bikes with one of the neighborhood boys, instead she'd catch him staring out the upstairs window instead of joining in pickup games of baseball with the local kids. His expression had changed too, his eyes were always so dark and blank. Mrs. Myers had worried something was bothering him, but he'd insist all was fine. His father chalked it up to Michael having a hard time adjusting to the first grade, with more schoolwork and lesson time than he'd had in kindergarten, and not having all of the same kids in his class as last year, it was sure to be an adjustment and by the looks of Michael with his new little friend, he would be back to her sweet boy soon.

"Michael!" She called from the porch before the two children passed by on their new normal route to the intersection, "Your father came home early today, would you like to carve your jack o lantern with your friend? We have some time before we're expected at our party." She watched the little girl's eyes sparkle a moment while her small body fidgeted for a moment before both children were bounding up the front walkway. "Hi there dear!" She exclaimed, watching Lynn nearly shrink into Michael's side, Mrs. Myers was so relieved to see Michael beaming next to her.

"Mom, this is my friend Lynn she's in my class."

"Come in sweetheart, you can carve a pumpkin too, I'm sure Michael's sister won't mind missing out,"

Lynn followed Michael to the kitchen where his father helped them scoop the seeds out of the pumpkins and carve a grinning face in each one. She'd only carved a jack o lantern once before, last year when John was home on school break. Lynn felt herself relax as she watched Michael's parents talk about their days while his mother held his baby sister, while his older sister sat in the living room, twisting the cord around her finger while she talked on the phone. Everything felt so warm and normal, she felt her stomach drop when she glanced at the clock. It was 5:30, and her father would be home soon.

"I should probably go home, my Father will be home from work soon….thank you for the pumpkin!" Lynn blushed and picked her finished, grinning jack o lantern before scurrying out the door, and much to Mrs. Myers' chagrin, the emotion and joy in her son's eyes soon evened out to blankness not long after the front door closed.

Lynn POV

TW- mentions of abuse

I was late, I was so late. He was going to be home any minute, and I was supposed to go straight home after school every day. I could hear the older kids yelling at me while I cut across a couple lawns trying to get home faster.

When I reached my porch, Fathers car wasn't in the driveway. I panted and set my pumpkin down on the corner of the porch and looked under the mat for the key, relaxing.

The key was in the door when I heard the car pull up. My body froze.

"Evelynn..." Father started. Evelynn is my full first name. Nobody ever calls me Evelynn, everyone called me Lynn for as long as I can remember; Father only ever called me Evelynn when I was really in trouble. "Are you just now getting home?" He stood over me.

I stared straight ahead and didn't answer.

Father grabbed my face roughly and forced me to look up at him. "Answer me."

"Yes, sir…" my voice was a tiny squeak.

"School ended two hours ago, why are you just now getting home?" He leaned in closer.

"…I stopped to play with a friend up the street on the way home…" I said, father almost looked like he was laughing.

"So you just suddenly have friends now, so you? And now you expect you can just, what? Waltz on over there and make me look like I expect someone else to watch my damn kid? You are my problem and I'm not going to have the neighborhood thinking I'm just going to shove you off on them to look after you and be their problem." He hissed in my face, his grip tightend on my chin so hard it hurt. I could smell his breath, it smelled sour, like his whiskey. "We're going to finish this conversation inside." He unlocked the door and yanked it open, pushing me inside.

—

He left again a few hours later when his girlfriend came by…a different one than I remembered, maybe? I didn't really pay attention to any of those ladies, they weren't around for long and most of them smelled like cigarettes and weren't very nice anyway.

As soon as his car was gone from the street, I grabbed a candle from the kitchen carried it outside to sit in my jack o lantern, it flowed when I lit it and it made me feel a little better, it was worth getting in trouble for, I decided. I watched kids in costumes go up the sidewalk, laughing. I wanted to go too, to run and laugh and get candy.

I looked up the street again, his car was gone. I could see Michael wearing the clown costume he told me about a little farther up the street, towards the street corner he always walked me to and I decided. I was already in trouble, a lot of trouble. If I got caught, I couldn't get punished that much more, could I? I probably would be anyway. Maybe I should just have fun, if I was going to be punished already anyway.

'What if he doesn't stop this time?' The thought in my head didn't seem like it came from me, but it had to, this other part of me, I only heard it when things got really bad or really scary. 'What if he doesn't stop until you die?'

I looked out the window again, and then before I could feel my feet I was in the laundry room, an old table cloth was tossed in the corner, stained. That was a punishment too, and the stain wasn't washing out. I reached out and touched it. I decided. 'You could die' the voice repeated again.

Maybe I didn't care. I cut the table cloth so I could wear it without tripping and cut some holes for eyes. I grabbed a pillow case from the laundry basket and ran out the door, Michael was nearly at the other end of my street. "Hey! Wait!" I called, and ran to catch up with him. His eyes changed when I grabbed his shoulder to catch myself , he smiled.

"I thought your dad said you weren't allowed to come trick or treating." He said.

"He's not home, and I decided I want to. Let's go!" I took his hand and we went off down the street.