Cops swarmed the house Henry had lived in his wife Emma for not even five years. An ambulance was at the scene taking poor Emma's body away, covered in the very ghost cape she had been found in. The cops questioned Henry in his living room where he was clearly livid.
"She said she was going to put out the jack-o-lanterns, I told her not to do that! About a simple tradition!" he said between his sobs.
"Okay, okay, we realize you're upset. So, when you went inside, didn't you hear any commotion outside that might have had you rush back to make sure your wife was okay?" asked one of the officers. Here, Henry looked ashamed.
"I was watching one of my pornos, and then fell asleep, I didn't hear anything. When I came to, she wasn't in bed so I looked back outside and saw all of our pumpkins still lit, and saw one of our ghosts looked a little red under the sheet, and that's w-w-w-where I found her! Now I'm probably the prime suspect!" he sobbed.
"No, we might have to question you further when daylight breaks, but you're clearly not the guilty party. We'll see what the coroner finds, okay?" said the second cop who patted Henry on the shoulder.
Across the street, another cop, one female officer named Eileen saw a young boy sitting on the front porch with an empty bowl of candy in his lap, it seemed as though he had fallen asleep giving out sweets. She went up to the boy and gently shook him awake.
"Hey little buddy, what's your name?" she asked with a smile.
"Billy Wilkins," he said groggily.
"Well, Billy you should be in your bed at this hour. Are your parents' home?" Eileen asked.
"My mommy died a few years ago, and Daddy said he was going out someplace. He hasn't shown back up," Billy answered. Now Eileen had a concerned look.
"Billy, I think you should come to the station with me. We'll try to find your daddy, because if he's still out while you're home alone at this hour, that can't be good," she said, offering the boy her hand. He looked at it with unease.
"Billy, please, I want you to be safe, I want to help you," pleaded Eileen. But Billy pulled a knife from his back pocket, but Eileen had good reflexes and jumped back and then called for help. Another cop, a bit older rushed over, and was able to pull the knife from Billy's hand and they ushered him into one of the squad cars.
When morning came, the parents of Macy, Chip, Schrader and Sara called each other asking if their kids had spent the night at the other's house. No such luck. They contacted the police station.
"What a Halloween, first we get a dead woman, some grade schooler tries to knife a cop that offered to help him, now we've got four missing kids," said one of the lieutenants, as he assigned a cop to each of the kids' houses so they could talk to the parents and get photos of the missing children.
Cops went from door to door in the neighborhood, asking parents if they had seen those kids. They got lucky when one parent mentioned their daughter Rhonda had gone out with the four kids. So the cop at that house was introduced to the bespectacled girl.
"What do you know about these four kids?" the cop asked her, as he showed her copies of the photographs that had been issued out the city police.
"They weren't very nice," said Rhonda.
"Is there a reason you're using past tense?" the cop asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, they weren't exactly nice to me," said Rhonda suddenly turning pink.
"Look, if you had a problem with them in the past, that's personal, but if you have any idea where they might have gone on to last night, I have to know," said the cop.
"They said they were going to the old quarry to pay respect to the victims of that bus accident, but I felt they were being disrespectful in their plans, so I parted ways with them," said Rhonda who remained stoic.
"Well, at least we have an idea where to look, thank you," said the cop, writing that down, he turned to leave but not before giving Rhonda a suspicious look.
"I think you know more than you're letting on," he thought. As he returned to his vehicle, he saw a wheelbarrow full of pumpkins.
"Cute," he remarked. He then radioed the information he received in. Two cops who happened to be patrolling near the quarry were sent over. Their names were Officer Gaeto a man, and Officer Helens, a woman. They drove as close to the quarry as they could.
"Wasn't there some sort of accident here a few years ago?" asked Gaeto.
"Oh yeah, legend has it a bus full of messed up kids drove off this cliff and everyone save the bus driver died. Guy was never heard from again," replied Helens. There were some fresh footprints in the dirt, mostly leading to the elevator, one pair leading away. They took the elevator down and what they saw at the bottom made them sick.
"Oh my god!" exclaimed Helens. Coroners were once again brought in. The children's partially devoured bodies covered, it was clear that they may have to be identified by their dental records.
"What kind of monster could do this?" exclaimed Gaeto.
"Probably the same monster that killed that woman on her own front lawn!" one of the officers that arrived after the initial discovery said.
Speaking of that front lawn, police were sent over to look into the house Billy was found at and they were horrified to find a decapitated head in the basement. Along with horrible dissection tools and bottles of cyanide. Days later, a court would meet to decide where Billy Wilkins was going to end up, his father was never found. On a whim, they checked the neighbor's house because the front door had clearly not been closed since last night, and they smelled something foul. There, they found the body of an old guy practically torn apart!
"They should outlaw Halloween in this city!" one of them exclaimed covering her face with a handkerchief.
"Wouldn't do any good," her partner replied.