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Chrissy hated Halloween.

It was ironic, because by definition, it should be a holiday she'd love. The one day of the year when she didn't have to uphold the perfect image of the Queen of Hawkins High, when she could eat some chocolates without worrying about the scales later, when she could be anybody she wanted—how could she not love it? But she had never been allowed to enjoy it. When Chrissy had been a little kid, her mom had dictated everything about Halloween. Costumes—she'd had to wear whatever her mom had made. She'd wanted to be a witch? Too bad. She'd had to be Cinderella instead. Or Aurora. Or Tinkerbell. It'd always been princesses or fairies or butterflies. Chrissy still remembered the Halloween when she was in third grade. She'd just seen A New Hope and wanted, more than anything in the world, to be Leia for Halloween. And Leia was a princess—surely, her mom would agree to it. But no. Her mom had declared that a girl who went about shooting people and jumping down trash chutes was no princess, and had even given her dad a hard time for taking Chrissy to see such a movie. So Chrissy had had to dress up as Aurora, again. And chocolates—forget about it. After she'd come back from trick-or-treating, her mom had gone through Chrissy's bag to remove any candies she deemed unhealthy, which were most of them.

It was only when Chrissy started high school had her mom stopped meddling so much with Halloween. But by then, Chrissy had started dating Jason, and he'd quickly stepped into the shoes left vacant by her mom. To be fair, he was never as harsh on her as her mom. But he never let Chrissy do what she wanted either. Every year, she would suggest ideas for couple costumes, only for him to shoot her down. Princess Leia and Han Solo? No, he didn't want to dress up as a smuggler. Andromeda and Perseus from Clash of the Titans? No, he would get cold walking around in sandals and half a toga. Fred and Daphne? No, it wouldn't make sense without Velma and Shaggy. When Chrissy, frustrated and fed up, suggested they wear whatever they wanted and not bother with matching costumes, Jason would insist that he did want to dress up with her, he really did, just not in those crazy, unreasonable outfits, and Chrissy would feel so bad that she went along with his choice anyway.

Which was how, that Halloween night, she ended up sitting next to Jason in his car, dressed as Charlie from Top Gun, and feeling absolutely miserable about it.

It really wasn't fair. Jason got to wear a cool costume as Maverick, with his pilot jacket and aviator sunglasses. The Charlie costume consisted of only a white blouse, a black jacket, and a horribly unflattering black pencil skirt. Chrissy had curled her hair to an approximation of Charlie's perm, but it didn't feel the same.

And she'd had such a good idea for their couple costumes too! One of her favorite films that year was Legend, and in a thrift store, she'd found a bunch of old theater costumes that, with some modifications, could work perfectly for both Princess Lili and Jack. She'd even figured out how to make the fish scale armor for Jack's costume herself, from gold lamé.

Jason, as always, had refused.

"That movie was so boring," he'd said. "I didn't understand a single thing." Chrissy had had to stop herself from pointing out that he might have understood the movie better if he hadn't kept yawning and checking his watch through it. "Besides," Jason had added, "isn't the princess a brunette? Don't tell me you're going to dye your hair." So he'd paid enough attention to remember that at least. Again, Chrissy hadn't pointed out that Tom Cruise-as-Maverick had dark hair as well.

"But I thought you liked Tom Cruise," she'd said. If Jason wanted to dress up as a Tom Cruise character, why not Jack instead of Maverick?

"Not in that movie," Jason had scoffed, and that was that.

Now, as the car made its way toward Jen Knight's house—Jen's parents had graciously made plans to be out of town for the weekend, leaving the house free for a Halloween party—Jason put a hand on Chrissy's leg and gave it a little pat.

"You look great," he said, and she knew he meant "We look great". He smiled at her. "See, this is so much easier than wasting time on those dorky costumes, isn't it?"

But it's not as fun, Chrissy wanted to say, but old habits die hard, so she simply said, "Yes."

The party was in full swing by the time they arrived. Jen's parents clearly weren't big on Halloween decorations—the other houses down the street had skeletons out front, bats and cobwebs hanging from their windows, and jack-o-lanterns twinkling on doorsteps, while the most the Knights had done to show it was Halloween was a few withered pumpkins here and there and the sound of "Thriller" coming from the stereo.

The partygoers didn't seem to mind as they poured into the house, bringing beer and other drinks and snacks. Halloween was for little kids. For them, the upperclassmen of Hawkins High, it was an excuse to party, one of their last chances to let loose before graduation. As Jason led her into the house to join their classmates, Chrissy noticed that only a few of them dressed up, and those who did only had on very basic costumes. She even spotted some members of her cheerleading squad in their cheer uniforms. God, how unimaginative can you get?! Most of the girls didn't even bother and just wore their party dresses.

In a flash, Chrissy realized her friends didn't care about dressing up, at least not as much as she did. Perhaps they thought it was childish, or perhaps they were so comfortable in their skins that they couldn't fathom pretending to be someone else. She didn't know which was more depressing—the fact that she cared so much about dressing up for Halloween, or that her friends didn't care at all.

"There you are!" someone yelled, and Jen squeezed through the crowd and ran up to meet Chrissy and Jason. Trailing behind her were Katie and Kristin, Chrissy's other friends on the squad. At least they were dressed up, thank God, as the Pink Ladies from Grease, complete with matching pink jackets and hair bows.

"Why didn't you guys tell me you were going to be Pink Ladies?" Chrissy asked, a little disappointed. "I want to be a Pink Lady too!"

"Sorry," Katie said with a sheepish grin, fixing the lopsided bow on her dark hair. "We figured you would go for matching costumes with Jason."

"And you did!" Kristin squealed. "As Maverick and—and—uh..." She trailed off, freckled nose scrunched up as she tried to remember the character's name.

"Charlie," Chrissy mumbled.

"That's right! You guys look great!"

Next to Chrissy, Jason's smile was both smug and proprietary. "Thank you, ladies," he said. "You look great, too."

Chrissy tried not to roll her eyes as her friends blushed and giggled at Jason's compliment. She supposed she should feel lucky for being the girlfriend of Jason Carver, the basketball star, the King of Hawkins High, but not when that was the only thing she could be.

Jason put an arm around her waist, pulled her close, and gave her a peck on the lips. "I'll get us some drinks, OK?"

"Oh, yes," Jen said, slipping into hostess mode. "Please do. Drinks are in the kitchen, and candies and snacks are in the living room. Help yourselves!"

While Jason walked down the hallway toward the kitchen, Chrissy went into the living room, where a crowd was dancing to Wang Chung's "Everybody Have Fun Tonight". She saw the candy bowls, but before she could head toward them, Jason came in with two beers.

"You know I hate beer," she said.

"It's either this or fruit punch, and you know how bad sugar is for you."

He handed her the beer. Chrissy took a sip and made a face as the bitterness went down her throat. On the stereo, the band was telling everybody to Wang Chung tonight, whatever that meant. Somehow, Chrissy doubted she would.

"Come on, Chris," Jason said, though he knew she hated it when he called her that. "Don't make that face. This is our last Halloween party before graduation. Let's just enjoy it, OK?" He tugged her toward the floor, and, reluctantly, she let him.

For the next hour or so, Chrissy did what she was supposed to. She drank all the beers Jason gave her without tasting them, danced to all the songs without hearing them, and laughed at all the jokes without understanding them. She felt like when she was cheering at a pep rally or an important game, turning her mind blank so she could focus on making all the correct movements with her body.

At one point, Jason drifted off to talk to his teammates, and Chrissy's feet propelled her, almost of their own volition, toward the candy bowls with their orange Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, red Kit Kats, plastic-looking red and black Twizzlers, and orange-and-yellow candy corn. She picked a Reese's. The moment it hit her mouth, she had to close her eyes to savor the rich, smooth sweetness of chocolate and the slightly salty nuttiness of the peanut butter. How long had it been since she'd last had chocolate? She couldn't remember. 

She was reaching for another one when Jason's hand appeared, plucking it out of her grasp.

"Be careful," he said. "We'll have to go on a run tomorrow morning for you to burn all that off."

If this had been any other time, Chrissy would have dropped the candy in guilt, but the euphoria of the chocolate had lent her some courage, and she scowled and snatched back the piece of candy. "Two peanut butter cups won't kill me," she said. "You told me to enjoy Halloween. So I'm enjoying it."

Jason took the candy out of her hand again. "Yeah, but you're going to feel terrible tomorrow," he said. "You know you will." He put the candy back in the bowl and put the bowl out of her reach.

Something in Chrissy cracked. He actually took the candies away, like she was a child who couldn't control herself! Someone walked past with a tray of tequila shots. She grabbed one and downed it. The alcohol burned her throat, making her eyes water, but she didn't care. She took another.

"Whoa, slow down, Chris," said Jason, gently extracting the shot glass from her hand. "This stuff is no joke."

"Good!" she snapped. "Maybe it'll make me throw up the chocolate, so I won't have to go running tomorrow."

Jason's mouth turned down in disappointment. "What's the matter?" he asked. "I'm just trying to look out for you. Is it because of the costumes? But you look great, everybody said so!"

Chrissy sighed. How could she explain to him that this wasn't just about the costumes or the candies? How could she tell him that she was sick and tired of not being able to decide anything for herself? He wouldn't understand.

"I'm sorry," she said, digging her nail into a run in her stocking. "I'm not feeling great. Maybe I should just go home."

"OK, we'll go home then."

"No, you stay. I'll call a cab."

"Don't be stupid." Jason grabbed his jacket. "I'll drive."

Chrissy sighed again, from guilt this time. Jason really was an attentive boyfriend. She only wished she didn't feel so suffocated by his attention.

Jason took the shortcut on their way home. Instead of driving back through town, he turned toward Cornwallis, which wrapped around the woods and farmland just outside of Hawkins before doubling back and leading to Chrissy's street. Chrissy was thankful for the change. Neither of them had said a word to each other since they left the party, and silence hung between them, heavy and constricted like her costume. She just wanted to get home as soon as possible.

A spotlight in the distance caught her attention. It shone on a homemade sign advertising Wright Farm's Pumpkin Patch, Corn Maze, and Haunted House.

Chrissy sat up a little straighter. Every Halloween, old Merrill Wright set up a pumpkin patch and corn maze on his farm, and every year, as a kid, Chrissy would beg her parents to take her, but her mom had preferred to get their pumpkins—if they did have pumpkins at all—from the grocery store, and her dad had always been too busy. Once she'd gotten her driver's license, Chrissy would offer to take her brother, but he thought it was lame and preferred to stay home in front of the TV. None of her friends was interested either, and she was too embarrassed to go alone. It became another Halloween tradition she never got to experience, like the costumes she didn't get to wear.

This year, it seemed Mr. Wright had gone all out. A haunted house had been added to the barn next to the corn maze. Chrissy looked wistfully at the skeletons and scarecrows flanking the barn's door, the giant creepy crawlies swinging from the fake cobwebs around its roof, and the banner proclaiming Hawkins' Haunted House, open 7-11 PM alongside several grinning skulls.

"Can we check it out?" she asked impulsively.

"It's almost closing time," Jason said. He didn't even bother to look at the sign.

"No, look." She pointed to a smaller sign under the main banner that said Midnight Special on Halloween.

"It'll be just some guy in a mask and an axe. Why would you want to see that?"

"Please, Jason." She put a hand on his arm. "I've always wanted to go to a haunted house. It's Halloween. Please."

Jason rolled his eyes. "Fine. But don't complain to me when you get disappointed."

An old man with a John Deere cap and a doleful expression—Mr. Wright himself, Chrissy presumed—sat behind the ticket booth. He yawned hugely as he took Jason's money.

"You kids got any heart problems, high blood pressure, or epilepsy?" he asked, sounding like he was reading off a script.

"Uh, no," Chrissy said.

"Good. Enjoy." He gave them two tickets.

Heart hammering with excitement, Chrissy took Jason's hand and ran, giggling like a little girl, toward the barn. Finally, finally! Though the place was open late, they were the only ones there. Chrissy didn't mind. In fact, she loved it. It was as if it had been set up especially for her.

The moment they went through the door, they were greeted by flashing light and a cacophony of eerie noises—sinister laughs mixed with high-pitched screams and rumbling, far-away howls. The barn seemed much larger on the inside, its ceiling disappearing into the dark, where ghostly shapes swayed and danced in invisible breezes. A twisting corridor led further into the barn, and on either side of this were different doorways, each covered with a tattered curtain splattered with red.

Jason swept the first curtain aside. The room behind it —more like a cubicle—was set up like a morgue, with a sheet-covered corpse on the operating table and the figure of a doctor standing over it with his scalpel raised. In her delight at finally having a true Halloween experience, Chrissy didn't notice that the doctor was just a repurposed store mannequin, and that the medical instruments on the table looked suspiciously like plastic ones out of a nurse toy set.

Jason, on the other hand, was less than impressed.

"Really?" he sneered. "Five bucks for this? Such a rip-off. I bet there's nothing under here—"

He moved to lift the sheet off the corpse. A hand shot out from under the sheet, seized Jason's wrist, and the corpse jumped up from the table with a roar. Screaming, Jason stumbled back. He collided with Chrissy, who burst out laughing.

"It's not funny!" Jason shouted.

"Sorry," Chrissy said, still chuckling. "You think it's worth five bucks now?"

The corpse settled under the sheet again—it appeared the actors were forbidden from chasing the customers—and the two of them continued down the corridor, checking out other rooms as they went. They saw zombies and vampires, Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers, and a memorable room where there was just a single person standing unnaturally still, the flashing light behind him throwing his shadow against the curtain. When the light flashed again and the shadow was gone, Chrissy decided it was the one room she would be happy to miss.

The deeper they walked into the barn, the darker it got, and Chrissy started to feel a little disoriented. Had they turned left there or right? Had they seen this room or that? It didn't bother her, though. It was just the right amount of creepiness.

But then it got a little quieter as well, and that was when the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, as if stirred by a chill wind. She couldn't shake the feeling that someone, or something, was following them. Stop it, she told herself. Nothing could happen to them here. It was perfectly safe. It was just for fun. Still, she risked a look back at the shadow room. The shadow was gone, though she could have sworn it had been there when she looked a few seconds ago.

At that moment, the power went out.

The plunge into darkness and silence was so complete and abrupt that it left Chrissy dizzy. The silence buzzed in her ears, and the dark pressed against her eyes, making her feel like she'd gone blind. Was this part of the tour?

Next to her, Jason let out an irritated huff. "This can't be right," he muttered. "Must be a power outage or something."

"What do we do?" Chrissy whispered. Without knowing why, she felt she had to whisper or someone—or something—would hear them. Stop it.

"Wait here, I'll go get Mr. Wright," Jason said.

"No, don't leave me—"

"You'll slow me down!"

He pulled his hand out of her grip. The sound of his footsteps was swallowed up by the darkness and the silence, and she was alone.

After a few breathless moments, Chrissy reached out cautiously, terrified that she would touch something she shouldn't. There was nothing around her... Or was there? For a second, she was sure she'd heard breathing. Stop it.

"Jason!" she called. "Come back!"

Her hand found a plywood wall. She pressed her back against it, feeling better for having something solid behind her.

"Hello?" she called again. "Can anyone hear me? This is not funny!"

A red glare came on suddenly, stabbing into her eyes, and was gone again. But in that one brief moment, Chrissy had glimpsed something down the corridor. Something with horns. Huge horns.

"Who's—who's there?" she asked, feeling foolish.

To her shock, a voice replied. A deep, deep voice, whose rumbles she could feel in her chest.

"Do not be afraid," it said.

"I don't know if this is part of the haunted house tour or not, but it's not funny, OK?" Chrissy said, doing her best to keep her own voice steady. "I'll—I'll complain to Mr. Wright and ask for our money back!"

Another flash. This time, Chrissy saw a bare, deep red torso, and something like a pair of furry legs. It looked nothing like any monsters she knew. Fear, real fear, began to creep into her heart, skeletal fingers turning her blood into ice water and her limbs into stone. What was happening? And where was Jason?

"Judge me not so harshly, mistress," the voice continued. "It is merely that I require the solace of the shadows and the dark of the night."

Oddly enough, those words made the cold fear inside her subside, to be replaced by a strange sense of déjà vu. She'd heard them before... somewhere...

"Sunshine is my destroyer!" the voice cried out in agony, and it finally clicked for her.

"Darkness?" she said, slowly stepping away from the wall to face whoever or whatever was standing at the end of the corridor. "You're quoting Lord of Darkness from Legend?"

Silence. Then, from the end of the corridor, the voice came back, sounding a lot less deep and a lot more normal now. "You've seen Legend?" it asked.

Before Chrissy could answer, Jason barreled past her with a scream, ran straight at Darkness—or, rather, the person dressed as Darkness—and body-slammed him into the ground.

Eddie loved Halloween. The one day of the year when he could indulge in his love for all things weird and fantastical, when he could be as loud and wild and outrageous as he'd like without worrying about any sideways glance or contemptuous look, when he could be himself without anyone calling him a freak. He'd loved it even as a little kid. When his mom had been alive, she'd always made Eddie's costumes herself. There was a photo of him in her arms, dressed in a yellow onesie shaped like a duck—he must have been no older than two. According to Wayne, his mom had taken Eddie to the park in that costume, whereupon a bunch of ducks had mistaken him for their leader and chased him until he ran crying back into her arms. Eddie didn't remember it, but it must have been the start of his duck phobia.

His earliest memory of Halloween was the year he'd turned three. He and his mom had watched the moon landing together, and there had been no questioning what his costume would be. He would be an astronaut.

The year after, he had fallen in love with classic horror films, so he'd dressed up as Frankenstein.

The year after that, his mom's health had started to fail, and she could no longer spend long hours working on his costume. Instead, she had slicked back Eddie's curls, painted his face white, and with an old curtain as a cape and a pair of shop-bought fangs, he'd become Dracula.

The year after that, she was gone. No more Halloween, no more costumes, no nothing.

It had been another four years before Eddie could celebrate Halloween again. His dad, Al, never paid attention to any of the holidays—he could barely remember Eddie's birthday and Christmas, let alone Halloween—but Eddie had figured out how to make his own costumes and put together his own celebration. He'd never cared much for trick-or-treating, preferring to curl up on the sofa with a bowl of candy, watching old horror movies on TV. Later, once he'd started playing D&D, he would gather his friends around for a special Halloween mini-campaign, where they battled vampires and werewolves and all sorts of Halloween-appropriate monsters.

This year, Eddie had been ready to celebrate Halloween the same way—he'd prepared a particularly gruesome mini-campaign for the Hellfire Club—when he saw that old Merrill Wright was looking for people to work at his haunted house for the week. Being able to dress up for an entire week and getting paid for it? Eddie hadn't hesitated to apply, and he'd convinced the rest of Corroded Coffin to join him as well. Jeff made a surprisingly good vampire, and Gareth and Doug were adequate zombies. As for himself, Eddie had thought long and hard about his costume, but it hadn't been until he stumbled upon a jar of red body paint in the back of the drama classroom that it'd become clear to him—he was going to be Darkness.

It was an elaborate costume, to be sure. The horns alone took Eddie a week to carve out of Styrofoam and paint, and another week to figure out how to secure them on his head. Then there were the pointy ears (he'd cut out the top half of a Yoda mask and painted it red), the ragged cape (an old raincoat), and the furry legs (some old blankets around his jeans). The hooves he had to forgo altogether, because it would be impossible to walk in them. The result was a little slapdash, but in a dark barn, lit only by flashes and flickers of red light, it looked impressive. Maybe a bit too impressive, because at least four little kids had run off crying when they caught a glimpse of Eddie, and several angry parents had threatened to sue Old Merrill. Eddie supposed he should be flattered by it, but he was annoyed too, because none of the customers seemed to recognize his character. They had all thought he was just a run-of-the-mill Satan. He'd started to think their plan for the Midnight Special was overambitious. Despite a steady stream of visitors since the start of the evening, none of them had wanted to stay until midnight.

And now, to top it all off, the only one that did stay was trying to attack him.

"Stay away from her!" the attacker screamed.

"Jason!" the girl, the one who'd recognized Darkness's quotes, shouted. "What do you think you're doing?"

Jason? Eddie threw the attacker off and flipped on the red light illuminating his section of the barn. Under that baleful glare, he finally saw who it was—Jason Carver, breathing hard and staring daggers at him, and behind Jason was Chrissy Cunningham, looking apologetic.

They didn't seem to recognize him, though. Whether it was due to the red paint and the red light, or the half Yoda mask obscuring the top half of his face and his hair, or a combination of both, Eddie didn't know. All he could think was, Thank God for this costume. The last thing he wanted in the world was for Jason fucking Carver, of all people, to recognize him. Jason and his douchebag cronies had made life miserable enough for all Hellfire members; they didn't need more grist for their torturing mill.

To be fair, Chrissy Cunningham didn't laugh at Eddie and his friends, the only member of the popular crowd who never had. Chrissy, who had been kind to a scrawny, scared boy at the middle school talent show and wished him luck before he took to the stage with his band for the first time, whose blue eyes had brightened with a smile when he complimented her cheerleading skills. Did she remember that? Probably not. Chrissy, who was even now extending a hand to help Eddie to his feet.

"I'm so sorry about that," she said, as Eddie scrambled up and dusted himself off.

"Why are you apologizing to this—this Satanist?" Jason said through gritted teeth.

"He's not a Satanist," Chrissy said. Eddie could practically hear the eye-roll in her voice. "He's dressed as Lord of Darkness from Legend, and you would've remembered that if you hadn't fallen asleep halfway through the movie!"

Eddie stifled a snort.

With a glare, Jason grabbed Chrissy's wrist and pulled her away. "Come on, we're leaving."

"No!" Chrissy shook her head. "I want to stay for the Midnight Special."

"Seriously? It's bad enough that you made me waste ten bucks for this shit show, now you want to stay for their satanic ritual too?"

"Dude, it's not satanic," Eddie chimed in, taking care to disguise his voice a little. "You heard her. I'm just playing a character in a movie."

"Mind your own business!" Jason spat. "You're lucky I don't report you to the town council and have this whole thing shut down." He turned back to Chrissy, pulling at her wrist. "Let's go."

"Jason, that hurts—" Chrissy yelped, trying to free her wrist from Jason's grip. He didn't seem to hear her and kept dragging her toward the door, like dragging a stubborn dog at the end of its leash, not paying attention to how she stumbled.

The sight sent a hot wave of anger through Eddie.

"Hey man," he said, stepping up and putting a hand on Jason's arm, pulling Jason away from Chrissy, "ease up a bit, OK? You're hurting her—"

BAM! The punch came out of nowhere, catching Eddie on the side of his face, knocking his heavy horns askew.

"I said, stay out of it!" Jason snarled.

Eddie wanted more than anything to punch Jason back in his perfect fucking teeth, but black stars were bursting behind his left eye, and the crooked horns kept throwing him off balance. When he finally fixed them and stood up straight, Chrissy was shouting at Jason again.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she said, shoving Jason away. "He didn't do anything!"

"I was only trying to protect you!"

"From what? It's harmless."

"Sure, it seems harmless now," Jason said. "But soon you'd be wearing all black with an upside-down cross and sneaking into the woods for animal sacrifices and God knows what else!"

This time, Eddie didn't even bother to hide his snort. The great Jason Carver was sounding like a suburban mom finding a D&D figurine in her kid's room. What a wet hen.

"Are you serious right now?" From the sound of her voice, it appeared that Chrissy shared Eddie's sentiment.

"I knew it was a mistake letting you come here," Jason said.

Chrissy planted her feet. "Let me come here?" she repeated. The shard of irritation in her voice turned into a blade of anger. "Sure, it's all about what you let me do, isn't it, Jason? The clothes you let me wear, the food you let me eat, the places you let me go..."

"I'm not having this argument here." Jason started walking down the corridor.

"Fine, leave then! I'm done letting you tell me what to do. I'm sick of it, and I'm sick of you! Get away from me!"

Jason didn't look back as he stormed out of the barn.

Chrissy looked back at Eddie. "Sorry about that," she said sheepishly.

"Uh, it's fine." Eddie didn't know what else to say. Had he just witnessed Jason Carver get dumped? And here he thought the evening was going to be a total bust. "Good for you," he added.

Chrissy let out a shaky laugh. "I imagined myself as Princess Lili," she said. "You know, when she talked back to Darkness? I thought she was so brave in that scene."

"She was brave," Eddie said in a daze.

"I suppose the Midnight Special is ruined now, isn't it?" Chrissy asked.

"No. If you still want to see it, we'll be glad to start the show for you."

"Oh, would you?" Chrissy exclaimed, as eager as a little kid. She quickly added, "If it's not too much trouble."

"Not at all." The idea of performing for Chrissy Cunningham both scared and excited him, but honesty forced Eddie to tell her, "It's nothing huge, you know. Just a song."

"I'd love to see it."

Eddie called to his bandmates. "Guys, we're on!"

They shuffled out from their cubicles throughout the barn. Gareth raised an eyebrow at their lone audience member, but the past couple of years playing at the Hideout had taught them the show must go on, no matter what. They raised the curtain behind Eddie, where their equipment had been set up, while Chrissy sat down on an upturned crate to watch. Eddie threw the strap of his beloved Warlock over his shoulder, feeling instantly better to have the familiar shape of the guitar in his hands. Being a scare actor was all well and good, but it was nothing compared to playing music. He turned on the amps.

"Good evening, Hawkins," he said. "We're Corroded Coffin. Welcome to our Halloween Midnight Special! This song is for, uh—" He wondered if he could say Chrissy's name without giving himself away.

Chrissy mistook the reason for his hesitation and said, "I'm Chrissy."

"OK, Chrissy. This is for you."

He nodded at Gareth, who counted off the beats with his drumsticks, and they launched into a cover of Metallica's Master of Puppets. They had been practicing it since the song came out—the solo alone took Eddie weeks to learn—but Eddie thought it was too good to waste it on the drunks at the Hideout, so they had saved it for Halloween. Of course, they had anticipated a much bigger crowd than this, but it was worth it to be able to play for Chrissy, to see her eyes light up, to watch her tap her feet and bob her head to his music.

After the show was over, Eddie accompanied Chrissy to the farmhouse so she could call her friend Katie to come pick her up. He'd offered to give her a ride home, but she'd politely refused. He couldn't blame her. After all, she still didn't know who he was.

"You know, you seem so familiar to me," she said, as they stood by the ticket booth to wait for her ride. "Have we met before?"

It was on Eddie's tongue to remind her of the middle school talent show, but he held back. He didn't know why, but the thought of her recognizing him not as Darkness but as Eddie Munson made him feel a little shy.

"If we had, you wouldn't have remembered," he said.

A car's headlights appeared down the road. "That's Katie," Chrissy said. She sounded almost wistful as she turned to him. "Will I see you again, Lord of Darkness?"

Eddie grinned. "In your dreams, maybe," he said. "After all, dreams are my specialty."

She smiled at the quote, and long after she'd gotten into the car and driven away, Eddie still held on to the memories of that smile and of her blue eyes, shining like two sapphires in the dark.

On Monday morning, Chrissy was at her locker when Jason showed up. He hadn't called her all weekend, and she didn't know if he was going to be apologetic or angry when they met again at school. Regardless of how he was, she was determined not to let him change her mind. The night at the haunted house had taught her that she really needed to stand up for herself. And that she was strong enough to do it.

Her heart beat a little faster when she remembered the haunted house. The guy playing Darkness... there had been something familiar about him. When he and his band played, Chrissy had almost had it, but the memory had then slipped from her mind again, like water through fingers. It kept swirling at the back of her mind, an itch she couldn't scratch. Should she drive back to the farm and ask Mr. Wright about him, or had some questions better be left alone, never to be answered?

"Listen, Chris, I'm really sorry about Halloween," Jason began, cutting off her train of thought. So he had chosen the apologetic route then. "You know I only want what's best for you."

"I can decide that for myself, thank you," Chrissy said coldly. 

"And if what you decide is wrong?"

Always so arrogant. "Then I'm wrong, and I'll live with that," she said. "It has nothing to do with you. I have nothing to do with you. Not anymore. We're over." She didn't know where those words were coming from, but they felt wonderful to say out loud. Wonderful and liberating. And her voice didn't tremble once.

"You're breaking up with me?" Jason said, his lips quivering like he couldn't quite believe it. "Over some stupid Halloween thing?"

For a moment, Chrissy found herself wavering, but she steeled herself and said, "Yes." There was no need for further explanation. He didn't deserve it.    

She gathered the books she needed and turned away, but Jason slammed his palm into the locker, caging her in. His mask slipped.

"You can't do this," he growled.

Chrissy instinctively cowered against her locker. Several heads turned toward them, but no one intervened. The perfect couple of Hawkins High, fighting, breaking up? Impossible.

"I won't let you," Jason continued.

There was that word again. Let. As if she were a puppet for him to jerk around by the strings. But she was no puppet, and Jason certainly wasn't her master.

"Too bad," she said, straightening up. "I already did."

She pushed away from him and walked down the hall, not stopping to see the stunned look on Jason's face or the curious stares of their classmates. The perfect couple of Hawkins High was not so perfect, or indeed a couple, anymore.

"Good for you, Cunningham," said a voice on her right.

Chrissy turned, surprised. Eddie Munson was standing at his locker, his back toward her, so she wasn't even sure that he'd spoken. Why would Eddie talk to her? Like most of her friends, she had always been kind of afraid of him, and he'd always been so hostile to them. Perhaps she'd misheard him.

But he'd said, "Good for you." Something familiar about those words, about his voice... And Corroded Coffin, she knew she'd heard that name before...

Before Chrissy could gather her courage to speak up, Eddie had closed his locker and walked off without looking at her. His long, dark curls were brushed to the side, revealing the back of his neck, rigid and proud, as he walked through the hallway like nothing could ever touch him.

Something on that neck caught Chrissy's eye. She turned back for a closer look. Was it a trace of red paint she saw? Could it be...?

As she watched Eddie disappear around the corner, Chrissy found a small smile dancing around her lips. She knew who Darkness was. He'd said she would see him again in her dreams, only now those dreams were a lot more real than she'd expected. Taking out her notebook and a pen, she scribbled a quick message and slipped it into Eddie's locker.

Let's see how the Lord of Darkness would answer a summons from Princess Lili herself.

THE END