“I mean it, Jake. You keep a close eye on your little brother or you’ll be grounded until next Halloween.” The miniature Wal-Mart Spiderman sitting on the bottom step of the staircase giggled, then clasped both small hands over his mouth as Jake snapped his head around to glare at him, then turned his attention back to his mother.

“I got it, Mom. Take the brat trick-or-treating, make sure he doesn’t get run over, snatched by a pervert or abducted by aliens. I got it already.”

Lila Sinclair shot her seventeen-year-old son a scowl which promised harsh punishment when she returned home. He shrugged his scrawny shoulders and gave her a bland look. He knew her hollow threats were remnants of a time when she didn’t have to work two jobs to support her children. His mother wouldn’t have the time or energy to read him the riot act. She delivered pizzas until after midnight and would only get a few hours sleep before getting up for her full-time job as a receptionist for a bail bondsman. That schedule had been her life for the last four years, and the wear and tear had begun to show in countless small ways, which alarmed Jake when he bothered to think about them. His once lovely and vivacious mother had become a worn out ghost who seemed to relish her aches and pains and revel in her slipshod appearance. Her two sons resembled her, with their chestnut hair, hazel eyes and small, bony frames. Jake could remember when his mother took pride in styling her hair and wearing tastefully applied makeup. To save money, she had recently taken a pair of scissors to her long hair and didn’t seem to care about the coarse strands of gray which threatened to consume her butchered mop.

He could clearly see the fine lines of worry around her mouth and the despair and regret in her eyes. She had lost weight she couldn’t afford to lose, and the baggy discount clothes she wore had obviously been purchased for comfort, with no thought of attracting the opposite sex. Lila’s husband Carl abandoned them when Jake was seven, then showed up a few years later just long enough to sweet talk his way into her bed and knock her up with Monty before he left – this time for good. Carl’s attempt to rob a liquor store didn’t turn out the way he planned. Not that much planning went into it once the crystal meth kicked in. Jake figured a life sentence for capital murder beat the hell out of rehab when it came to staying clean and sober. He didn’t miss his old man any more than he missed the bruises and bloody noses which Carl delivered with the precision and dedication of a middle-weight champion. The marks had faded years ago, but the memories had not. Even if Monty could be a royal pain in the ass, Jake occasionally took the time to be grateful his six-year-old brother had never known their father.

Lila sighed and capitulated in the stare-off with Jake as she knelt before Monty. “Have a good time tonight, Spidey. Don’t go easy on any bad guys out there, okay?”

From behind the shoddy workmanship of the cheap costume eyeholes, Monty gave her a solemn look, nodded and held up his wrists. “Don’t worry, Mom. My webs will keep any bad guys away from you.”

“I know they will, sweetheart. You’re my hero,” she said as she gave him a quick peck on the top of his head, turned and left the house.

“Get your loot depository and let’s get this the hell over with, Spiderbrat,” Jake demanded, the disgust evident in his voice. Nothing could be more humilating than being a babysitter on Halloween, especially when he had planned to hang with his friends.

“I’m Spiderman, not Spiderbrat, and if you don’t quit being mean to me, I’ll sling my webs on you,” Monty whined as he grabbed the handle of a large plastic jack-o’-lantern.

“I’m shaking, Spidertool. Now move it.”

Trick-or-treating remained a tradition in the Sinclair’s small suburban neighborhood. Jake and Monty joined the throngs of superheroes, ballerinas, faeries and trademark horror movie monsters as they all vied for the best treats. Although Jake used to love the ritual when younger, now he just stood in the street, exaggerated boredom issuing from every pore, while Monty approached the front doors, rang the bells and joyously yelled out, “Trick or treat!” After two hours of this routine, Monty’s jack-o’-lantern had begun to overflow with candy.

Jake said, “That’s it, Spiderfool. I’ve done my time and now we’re going to meet my friends. If you tell Mom, I’ll kick your ass.”

“But I’m having fun,” Monty said, as his lower lip began to tremble.

“We’ll both have some fun if you just come with me and keep your mouth shut.”  Jake started walking and didn’t look to see if his brother followed. The little boy in the Spiderman costume had to jog to keep up with his older brother. They cut through yards and alleys on their way to the designated meeting place. A crisp October breeze became the leading partner in a frenzied All Hallow’s Eve dance with the autumn leaves. The Sinclair brothers had traveled several blocks when Monty said,

“Please stop, Jake. You’re walking too fast. I need to rest a minute.”

Monty sat down on a curb and forced Jake to stop. He rolled his eyes, then turned his back on his brother and took the time to look around. The unfamiliar neighborhood seemed shabby and forlorn, as if it could remember much happier times of newlyweds, laughing children, and 4th of July parties celebrated against a backdrop of fireworks magically shaming the stars in the night sky. The two-story houses all appeared to have large front porches and the teen noticed there were no lights on to welcome trick-or- treaters. Even though it was nearly ten o’clock, he found that odd and a bit disturbing. He shook off the feeling and decided the occupants were probably elderly and had quit giving a shit about Halloween years ago.

His thoughts were interrupted by Monty, who asked, “Do you hear that?”

“What?”

“The pretty lady calling me,’ Monty replied, his head cocked to one side. Jake looked around. The street was empty.

“I don’t hear anything. You heard someone calling you by name?”

“Yeah, the pretty lady.”

“Wait a minute. How do you know she’s a pretty lady?”

“I dunno, I just do. I think she’s over there.”  Monty pointed a finger in the direction of a Victorian house with a faded For Sale sign in the front yard. Jake didn’t have much of an imagination, but the broken rails around the porch and the shattered window pane on the second floor made him uneasy. A filmy curtain gently flapped from the hole in the window like a beckoning ghostly arm. He strained to hear a woman’s voice, and heard nothing but a dog howling in the distance. He grabbed Monty’s hand and yanked him up off the curb.

“Let’s get out of here.”

They hurried past the house, but Monty kept looking back. After a few moments, they approached a group of teens in the abandoned building which served as their unofficial hangout. A flashlight placed on the ground illuminated the faces of three boys and one girl. Jake’s heart pinballed in his chest when he saw Freddie. The petite girl, whose short dark hair with its pink highlights shimmered in the dim light, wore what some would assume was a Halloween costume. Jake could have told them that was just how she dressed. Black knee boots and red-and-white striped stockings covered her legs. She wore a shockingly short black mini-skirt and a crimson bustier which exposed most of her fist-sized breasts. Jake yearned for Freddie the way an astronaut yearns to gaze at the Earth from the far reaches of space. He’d loved her since kindergarten, but she had neatly placed him in a subcategory labled ‘The Guy I Confide in About My Boyfriends’ under the larger category labled ‘Big Brother/Best Friend’. Standing in a semi-circle around her were Mick, Greg and Charlie. Her outsider status with the other girls at school had been established since the first day of junior high, when she learned to flirt like a pro. They were all smoking weed as the two boys approached.

Freddie smiled, held out the joint between her fingers to him and said, “Hey, Jake. Did you know you’re being stalked by Spiderman?”

Jake took a huge hit and held it for a moment before he replied. “Yeah, Spiderbutt here has been ruining my night.” The guys laughed a bit too much at the lame joke because they were all high, but Freddie didn’t even giggle.

In a déjà vu moment for Jake, she knelt before Monty, just as his mother had, and said, “You’re my hero, Spiderman.”

Freddie’s kindness and the grateful smile on Monty’s face tugged at Jake’s heart, but he suppressed any warm feelings because he needed to get tough with his little brother. “Monty, you had your fun tonight and now it’s my turn. I swear I’ll break your arm and all of your gay video games if you ever breathe a word to Mom. As far as she’s concerned, I took you trick or treating and that’s all. Sit over there in the corner and eat your candy. Got it?”

Monty’s smile faded as he looked down at his sneakers and muttered, “Whatever.”

Jake forgot his brother as he got high and bullshitted with his friends. Nearly an hour passed before Freddie asked, “Where did Monty go?” He looked around and didn’t see any sign of him.

“Oh, shit. That damn brat is going to get me grounded for life. I better go find him.”

Charlie giggled, “Spidey’s missing. What a buzz kill.”

Freddie glared at him and snarled, “Shut up, you idiot. Monty’s just a little boy and it’s nearly midnight.” She turned to Jake and said, “I’m going with you to look for him. The rest of you split up and call if you find him.” She held out her hand and Jake squeezed it with gratitude. Charlie was right though. Losing his brother was a buzz kill. All the terrible things that could happen began racing around in his brain like chunks of ice being pulverized in a blender.

“Do you think he went home?” Freddie asked, as they slowly jogged down the street.

Jake frowned and replied, “I don’t think he knows how to find his way home. He knows better than to wander around on his own. I can’t understand why he would do something so lame.”

“Maybe he’s pissed off and just wanted to get away from you. You were pretty mean to him.”

“He’s been a lot more pissed off at me and never done anything like this before. Mom has drilled all those rules about strangers into his stupid head. It doesn’t make sense that he would go off by himself.”

Jake abruptly stopped, and Freddie, who jogged a step behind him, ran into his back. “What is it? Do you see him?” she asked as she leaned over to grasp her knees and catch her breath.

“No way,” Jake muttered. “He wouldn’t have gone back.”

“Back where?”

“On our way to meet you guys tonight, we stopped near an empty house. Monty told me he could hear a pretty lady calling his name. He said her voice was coming from the house.”

“So? Maybe it was one of his teachers who lived there or something. Why do you think he would go back to that house?”

“Freddie, I couldn’t hear anything and I don’t think he was making it up. That house wasn’t right. It seriously freaked me out.”

“Why would a house freak you out?”

“I can’t explain it. The house was run down, but so is mine. There was a For Sale sign in the front yard, and it looked like it had been empty for years. It just seemed creepy to me, but it didn’t seem to bother Monty. Maybe that’s what bugged me so much about it. I couldn’t wait to get out of there, but my little brother would have marched right up to the door and shouted, ‘Trick or treat!’ He’s just a little kid and he made me look like a big pussy. What if there was some crazy old lady in the house calling Monty? There’s no telling what could happen to him.”

Then let’s get moving. Do you remember where it is?”

“I think so, but you’re not coming with me. Go find the guys and bring some cops or something. Hell, bring the Marines.”  Jake gave a shaky laugh.

“Don’t even try to pull that chauvinistic shit on me, Jake Sinclair.  Monty is like my own little brother and even if you’re afraid of a house, I’m not. I’m going with you to find him.”  He had never loved her more as she stood before him – a beautiful warrior with her hands on her hips and her chin tilted upward in defiance.

“Great. Come with me. We can get dismembered together. It’ll be romantic.”

The worry never left her dark brown eyes, but she managed a grin. “Are you flirting with me, Jake? After all these years?”

“Uh – I guess so.”

Freddie smiled a woman’s smile and said, “It’s about time. Come on, let’s find Monty and go home.”

She once again took his hand and they began to run. When they arrived, it was like stepping onto the set of a John Carpenter film, right down to the swirling mist and eerie glow cast by the full moon. Freddie gave Jake an odd look and asked, “Does this seem familiar to you? It does to me.”

“Yeah, I’ve rented this horror film dozens of times.”

She pointed at the house. “That has to be it. I see what you meant when you said it’s not right. There’s no way Monty would’ve gone in there. I’m damn close to peeing in my pants just looking at it.”

Jake yelled, “Monty! Monty! Where are you?”

“Shh. Do you hear that?” she asked.

Jake quit calling his brother and listened. A faint voice called his name and it seemed a thousand pounds of dread sloughed off his shoulders as he looked up at the broken window and saw Monty waving them in. Freddie jumped into Jake’s arms, wrapped her legs around his waist and gave him a kiss filled with relief, passion and love. His terror for his brother’s safety forgotten for a moment, Jake returned the kiss with his own, backed up by twelve years of hopeless longing. Reason eventually returned, and he gently disengaged his lips from hers and said, “Let’s go get Monty. It’s midnight and if we hurry, we can still beat my mother home.”

Holding hands, they made their way up the walk. Weeds had forced their hungry way through the crumbling concrete, only to be smothered by past seasons of decaying leaves. Stark rose bushes, a few blackened petals remaining in an obscene parody of their fomer beauty, served as thorny guardians of the house. Jake and Freddie manuevered their way up the dilapidated steps and across the sagging porch, which creaked and groaned like an arthritic old man. Freddie looked at the tarnished brass knocker set in the middle of the the door and asked, “Do you think we should knock?”

Jake shook his head and replied, “No. If there’s anyone in the house besides Monty, I’d rather not talk to them. Let’s go in and get out as fast as we can.”

He took a deep breath, and before he could change his mind, grasped the door knob and opened the door. They stepped into the house and looked around. Moonlight filtered through the dingy window panes, allowing them to see a staircase to the right of the entrance. As they looked up, they saw Monty perched on the top step. He called down to his brother, “Jake. I found the pretty lady. Do you see her?”

A woman stepped into view from a hallway and gave a pat to the top of Monty’s head as she began to drift down the stairs. She appeared to be just a few years older than Jake. Her long silver hair seemed as alive as the ocean as it swirled and eddied about a face so beautiful he imagined a poet would commit suicide after countless vain attempts to describe it. A garment so sheer and wondrous it seemed to be made of faerie dust barely covered her voluptuous body. With each step she took down the stairs, it would alternately expose and then cover her breasts. He shook off Freddie’s hand and took a tentative step forward.

“I see her, Monty. I see your pretty lady.”

“What the hell are you talking about? There’s nobody there,” Freddie said, her voice shaking with fear.

He ignored her and took another step towards the woman, and then another. She met him at the foot of the stairs and whispered, “It’s you, Jake.”  Freddie was forgotten as the woman placed her hand on the back of his head and pulled his face closer to hers. So close he could smell the intoxicating scent of lust and see the promise of deep and unspoken desires in her violet eyes. Her lips parted and she pressed them to his. They were cool and sent a slipstream of ice racing through his blood.

The kiss lasted a millisecond. The kiss lasted an eternity. It revealed to Jake a man who loved the woman with the same intensity as her disdain for him. Countless lovers caressed her body on the same marriage bed where the man’s shattered heart led his hands to her throat. The man spent the rest of his days locked away from the world, but not from the haunting image of her last cruel smile. Somewhere deep in his soul Jake heard Freddie screaming, but her once beloved voice had become as inconsequential to him as the lonely whistle of a train in the distance. His soul and his love for her passed through the woman’s lips. This is where he belonged. The woman tenderly smiled at him and asked, “Do you love?” He numbly nodded. “Show me.”

He turned to Freddie and her trusting eyes widened in disbelief as he grabbed her by the throat. She was so tiny. It only took a moment and he threw her lifeless body to the floor. Jake looked dispassionately at the girl he had loved since he was five years old. Then he raised his eyes to discover the woman had disappeared and Monty stood before him. He looked into his little brother’s eyes. A deeply buried part of him realized the zombie quality in Monty’s eyes would be reflected in his own if he looked in a mirror.

What had once been a little boy in a Spiderman suit looked up at him and said, “I’ll go get Mom now.”

“Yeah, little brother. Go get Mom.”