Collection of Stories for Demented Children by John H. Carroll

“Trick or treat,” Opal said
timidly, taking a step back.
    The old woman turned her head to the side
and looked at Opal with only one buggy eye. Then she put a candy
bar in the pillowcase. Before Opal could say thank you, the old
woman grabbed a handful of candy bars and put them in the
pillowcase too. Then she turned her head to look at Opal with the
other buggy eye before slowly closing the door with a long drawn
out creak. It clicked shut and the sound of a latch came from the
other side as it was locked.
    “That went extremely well,” Runyx said
happily. “Let’s go find another house.”
    “I didn’t say thank you though,” Opal
protested.
    “You don’t have to say thank you to anyone
tonight,” Runyx told her. “Be a rebel. If they tell you to say
thank you, stick your tongue out at them.”
    “I can’t do that,” Opal said in horror as
they walked back down the dirt path.
    “Sure you can. They should be thankful for
the opportunity to give such a wonderful young girl candy. Stick
your tongue out at them if they give you any problems about it,”
Runyx insisted. They turned down the sidewalk and headed to the
next house.
    When the girl blinked, Runyx put them in
front of a different house. It was brightly lit with orange and
white lights. There were glowing pumpkins and ghost lights in the
yard and cheerful looking spiders and vampire posters everywhere.
“This is just disgusting,” Abel said in disgust, landing on a happy
mummy poster staked in the yard. “Must everything be commercialized
these days? I’m surprised the vampires don’t sparkle.”
    Opal looked around in amazement as Stryk
walked her up the sidewalk. Runyx stayed behind to keep an eye on
things. Some of the kids looked at her oddly, but they didn’t say
anything. A couple of teenagers came by and smacked her rump. “Hey!
It’s a cow in the street. Let’s tip it over.”
    Runyx’s favorite supernatural ability was
the fact that her tail had bug zapper power in it, fifty times more
powerful than the ones that people used to kill mosquitoes. She
whapped both teens in rapid succession. The zapping sound her tail
made was pleasing to her ears. Even more pleasing was the blue
electricity that knocked them both on the ground where they lay
twitching and glowing.
    A cheerful woman wearing a blue Frankenstein
wig was handing out candy at the door. “Oh my, aren’t you just the
most precious thing ever! Here have lots of candy.” She dumped the
entire bowl of candy bars into Opal’s bag. “Bye, bye now, you
precious little girl.” She smiled and waved enthusiastically as
Opal and Stryk turned around and walked back to Runyx.
    “She gave me all those candy bars! I didn’t
expect that,” Opal exclaimed in awe. “This is really fun.”
    Opal blinked again and they were in front of
another house. “It looks like a lot of fun,” Runyx told her. “Now
go get some more from this house.” They were standing in front of
another well-lit house, though not with so many cheerful
decorations in the yard.
    A minute later, the girl came back with even
more candy bars dumped into her pillowcase. She held it out to show
Runyx, who nodded and waited for her to blink again. When she did,
they were in front of another house.
     
    ***
     
    Fifty houses and fifty minutes later they
were standing in front of yet another house. “This is the last
house we’ll be visiting,” Runyx told Opal.
    The girl was struggling to carry the
overstuffed pillowcase by that point. “I’m so surprised that every
house we visit has had candy bars! And they keep dumping all of
them into my bag!” There was a big grin on her face and her lips
were covered in chocolate from the eight candy bars she had already
eaten. Instead of wearing down under the load, she was extremely
hyper and jumping up and down at each new house they visited.
    “I’ll carry that for you,” Stryk said
helpfully while taking the sack. He led her up to the porch, which
was crowded with