Well, it originally was 640 words and I nearly posted it at that length and admitted defeat, but I'm stubborn. As many times as I rewrote that last paragraph, I couldn't get it to read smoothly. Halloween has always been a favorite day of mine, though I couldn't tell you why exactly. I was too scared to go out trick or treating, but I've had an ongoing affection for ghost stores and horror movies. Thank you for this fun challenge! I hope some other efforts go up soon. I really enjoyed your story...it is hard to get a complex set of characters into 500 words but I think there is some usefulness from the exercise. Teaches us to cut, cut, cut if nothing else. :) Anyway, I had fun with it. Hope some other do too.