“Trick or treat! Smell my feet! Give me something good to eat!” the children said as they held up their brightly colored pumpkin baskets.

I opened the light, salmon colored curtains slightly and looked at the kids as they received their so-called “treats.” I envied those kids; who would ever trust this dark and dodgy neighborhood in the first place? It’s called TRICK or treat for a reason. . . 

Treat.. Or trick?

“Look mom! I’m a dinosaur! ROAR!” my brother squealed as he held up his hands like cat paws.

“I can see that Peter”  mom replied as she changed my little sister into her sparkly pink fairy costume. 

I always loved Halloween, especially the candy you get afterwards from trick or treating, but I felt as if Halloween was getting a tad too childish for me. 

“Right!” my dad exclaimed as he finished frying the well steak. “Who’s ready to go and get some candy!”

“Me! Me!” my siblings yelped as they jumped around like mad kangaroos. 

“How about you Stellar?” my mom questioned as she put glitter in my sister’s hair. “You used to always be so excited for this day.”

“I don’t know mom. It’s a bit cheesy at this point.”

“Oh come on pipsqueak! Where’s your Halloween Spirit!” my dad shouted as he came running towards me and picked me up.

“Oh come on Dad, I’m 17 years old.” I glared at him.

“Can you at least accompany your siblings with me? You know I won’t be able to watch the two of them.” my mom pleaded. 

I looked at my siblings and rolled my eyes. “Fine.” I knew my mom couldn’t handle two running children anyway.

…

“Alright have fun kiddos!” my dad waved as he finished chopping up some onions. 

“Bye Dad!” my siblings said as they waved and excitedly ran out the door, my mom and I immediately went after them.

We walked through the dark and frigid town, going house to house and receiving candy each time.

My family and I reached a house. There were many Halloween decorations. Huge inflatable ghosts covered the yard, and black and orange fairy lights lit up the roof. Even though it was really festive, it was still a little intimidating. The air suddenly got colder and I felt a little nauseous and worried. 

Suddenly, the feeling went away when I saw my brother running down, smiling happily. 

“Stellar! Look, they had my favorite chocolate bars!” 

“That’s really nice Peter.” I smiled. 

At this point, we were almost done and my mother and I were exhausted. 

We hurriedly finished the rest of the houses and started heading home. I yawned as we started walking back to our house. 

My mom abruptly stopped.

My brother and I looked back in unison time. 

“What’s wrong Mom?” I asked. 

“Where’s Yuna?” 

“What do you mean?”

“Where’s your sister?…”

My heart dropped. “What do you mean she’s..” We were too exhausted to even notice she was gone. 

I looked everywhere for her, but there was no sign. Even if I knew she was gone, I had to keep looking. I was in denial that we lost her. 

“Peter, do you know where she is?”

Peter looked blankly at the floor. I swear he was going to cry.

“I don’t..” Peter said as he started bawling his eyes out, “Last time I saw her was at that one really good house.. You know the one with the ghosts..”

I suddenly got butterflies in my stomach. Time stopped, and the air gave me goosebumps. 

My mom started panicking. “We have to go back! We have to look for her!”

“Mom. Calm down.” I said as I tried to calm myself down. “We’ll find her.”

I immediately called Dad and he went ballistic. 

“What do you mean she’s gone? Call 911! Find her quick!” I could hear the absolute fear in his voice. 

We went back to our house and met up with the cops. We told them everything we knew. 

We waited in our house. Everything was quiet. We didn’t know what to say. We didn’t want to say or do anything at this point. 

Peter couldn’t stop crying. I felt hopeless, powerless even. We all stressed and ate the steak my dad cooked while we were gone. Peter tried giving me a piece of candy, which was really sweet but I wasn’t in the mood for chocolate at the moment. This was the quietest dinner we had ever and I hated it. 

…

We waited for a very very long time. Peter was already tucked into bed, asleep but the rest of us couldn’t do that. We were eagerly waiting for the cops to come back with Yuna. 

We waited for a good 5 hours, which honestly felt like 5 years until we heard anything at our door. When we heard the knock at the door, my mom swiftly arose from her chair and ran towards the door. We all looked in complete relief. There she was. 

The cops were with her, with Yuna. She was bawling her eyes and immediately came to hug us all. Peter woke up from all of the noise and ran at us right away.

The cops said they found her wandering around the streets, crying. 

…

It was 7 in the morning. The fresh smell of tasty eggs and pancakes always lit up my day, but not this time. Everyone fell down from the horrific night. We all sat down at the table and started eating. We were going to wait for Peter, but the food was getting cold.

When we were done eating, Peter was still not out of bed, which was weird of him since he is usually the first one awake.

I took a peak in his room and he was still knocked out on his bed. 

Dad looked over my shoulder, “Yesterday was a rough night, maybe he’s just insanely tired.”

“You’re probably right” I responded as I slowly closed his room door. 

… 

It was noon and I knew something wasn’t right. 

“Mom, Dad, it’s noon and Peter is still asleep.” 

I could tell my parents were worried as well but they didn’t want to believe it.

“I think we should call the doctors.” 

“Okay, I’ll call them right now.” my dad said as he picked up the home phone.

Mom stayed quiet.

The ambulance soon came and we all went to the emergency room. 

…

The wait for Peter was even longer than the wait for Yuna. Everyone was quietly sobbing, worried sick for Peter.

Why him? Why us? Why me?

I fell asleep on the waiting room chair, trying to get my mind off of the whole entire thing. 

I awoke from my sleep once I felt my mom patting my back softly. The doctor called us in. We wondered why Peter wasn’t with him but we just thought he was there, waiting in the room. 

The air was tense as we walked into one of the rooms, but we saw nothing in there, just a table and chairs. 

He sat us down and sighed loudly.

“I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“I’m truly sorry.”