Blood Red

The little boy dressed as Spider-Man let out a very sincere shriek. As Kelli looked around for him in the fog, calling out his name—her list told her it was Nicky dressed that way— she realized he wasn’t anything because he wasn’t answering.

“Nicky? Hey, Nicky? Where are you?” she called, and soon her friends were joining in. They kept the kids gathered in a little island between them and called out, waited, called out again.

The fourth time they called out, Rita didn’t add to the cacophony. Kelli got a chill down her spine and when she called out again, she also called for Rita.

Rita didn’t answer, either.

“Okay, this is sooo not funny, guys.” Erika didn’t sound amused. There were parties to be hit and she wanted to be there already. She was only doing this for Kelli’s sake.

“Rita! If you’re joking, you can stop it!”

No answer.

Kelli moved in closer to the kids, quickly doing a head count. There were still sixteen. Only one had vanished.

Only one. And Rita hadn’t answered her.

“Okay guys, let’s all go.”

Several children started protesting at the same time and she waved her flashlight and her hands. “Calm down. We’re just going to move over to my place and then you can all check out what you already have, but Rita and Nicky might be lost and we have to find them.”

“Man, this sucks . . .” Barry Winston was a brat and there was no reason for that to suddenly change. Superman had never looked more pouty. His bottom lip was stuck out like a diving board.

“Barry, it’s just for a few minutes.”

“No it’s not! You’re just trying to ruin Halloween!” Eight years old and he was already a major-league drama queen.

“Barry, we’re going, now.”

Something came out of the heavy fog and grabbed Barry before he could respond. It was big and black and had the boy in its arms before he could even catch a breath to scream with.

They all saw what happened next. Damned near every flashlight in the group turned to Barry as he was grabbed. The dark shape that caught him stood revealed. Bill Lister had looked better before. His skin was loose on his face, and bloated with water. He was deathly pale, save where some kind of black fungus was growing on his features. His eyes shot back a silvery glare into the beams from the flashlights, and his teeth, the teeth she had always thought looked perfect in his handsome face, were bared, made longer by the way his gums had receded.

Bill looked directly into Kelli’s eyes as he leaned over and bit down, his mouth covering the wound he made, but not before she saw Barry’s blood leaking from behind the moldy lips.

Not a single person there thought for even a second that it was a fake-out.

Erika reached for the man and clubbed him over the back of his head with her flashlight. She didn’t recognize Bill; she’d never met him. Bill didn’t recognize her, either, but he attacked her for her efforts. His hand reached out and grabbed Erika’s face. He caught her pretty skin in the grip and it tore as easily as tissue paper. Erika’s scream was cut short by her jaw and nose breaking under the force he applied.

After that, everyone started running. Kelli managed to catch Jayce’s hand and the little boy in the devil outfit’s wrist before she turned and started hauling ass. Neither of the kids had a chance in hell of keeping up with her so she wrestled them both into her arms and ran faster. Jayce wrapped her legs around Kelli’s waist and the little devil did his best to monkey crawl over her back as they moved.

She had no plans, but spent most of her time looking at the ground to make sure her feet didn’t hit the curb and take all three of them down.

“They’re coming, Kelli! They’re coming!” Jayce’s voice was so loud and her speech so fast she could barely make out the words. She nodded instead of answering and pushed herself as fast as she could. She didn’t even have time to wonder what had happened to Bill. She was fixed on the dead look of him and the way his teeth disappeared into Barry’s flesh. Adrenaline kicked into her system at the thought and she groaned.

The little devil boy was pulled from her arm with enough force to strain her muscles. His screams vanished, rising higher into the air until Kelli had to turn and look. She saw him reaching for her, his toddler hand stretched out and his eyes grown frightfully wide. He kept rising, a black, fluttering form going with him until they were both lost in the fog. She kept running, breathing hard and suffering a stitch that started burning in her left side. Jayce’s legs around her waist were cutting off half of her air and she needed to put her down where she would be safe.

Jayce was screaming. So was Kelli. She made herself snap out of it and set the girl down. Somewhere along the way she’d stopped running on the road and wound up in uneven dirt and mulch.

“No! Don’t leave me, don’t leave me!” The girl clung to her with desperate strength.

“Hush, honey, I’m not leaving you.” She pulled off her jacket and wrapped it around Jayce’s shoulders. “You’re going to hide, okay?”