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I hate Halloween.

As I ride the bus to my favorite aunt's place, I look through the window and see that the town is adorned by various Halloween decorations: pumpkins, fake bats, spider webs, and whatever creative design they can think of.

It's that time of the year when the veil separating the world of the living from the underworld is at its thinnest. Haunting ghosts and other creatures cross the veil and join in the fun of the living. Some just lurk in the shadows while others cause serious mischief.

Gosh, how I hate them.

"You'll be one of them in the future, my sweet," my Aunt Rosie would always say to me as she stroked the red gemstone hanging on my neck.

"That will be light years away," I would always joke, thankful for the pendant of protection I received from her. Now, I'm just eighteen and still as healthy as a horse.

The bus that I'm riding reaches a stop. Though it's not yet nighttime, a group too old for trick or treating but dressed in costumes gets into the bus and sits at the seats in front of me. Are they three? Four? I'm not sure. I can count six but you'll never know how many are human and how many are not.

Suddenly, the one who looks like a sharp-eared goblin moves its head, without moving his greenish neck, to look at me. His head rotates at 180 degrees. And when it stops right in front of me, I notice that he has hollow eyes. He screams a frightening shriek and then hops toward me.

I hold onto my red pendant and watch the creature instantly bounce back, away from me. Thank goodness for Aunt Rosie's enchanted gemstone.

However...

My act catches the attention of the other creatures on the bus. All their eyes are on me -- a mouthless toad, a zombie-looking kid, a scary-looking wererabbit, and a couple more. I am well aware that there is nothing more scrumptious to them than a human who's both a psychic and a pure soul, whatever my Aunt Rosie meant by that. But I've been in this situation before, countless times actually, so I know what to do. I get out of the bus, run, and turn and turn into street corners as I try to lose the creatures who now know about me.

"Never look into their eyes. Never let them know that you can see them. Pretend that you don't." So I do as my Aunt once said. I come across many monsters pretending to be humans and many ghosts lurking here and there.

I notice that they're pretty plenty even for a Halloween.

Covered in sweat and panting hard, I finally reach Aunt Rosie's house. I knock a couple of times but nobody is answering. Grabbing the doorknob, I try turning it. It's not locked. As usual. Aunt Rosie is not afraid of burglars. "If it's your time, it's your time," she believes. As for stealing her things, everybody in town knows better than to touch a witch's things. They're afraid of being cursed.

I walk across Aunt's living room to look for her but she isn't there. Then, I hear a series of crashes upstairs. "Aunt Rosie?" It isn't like her to be a klutz. Hurrying, I climb the stairs and run towards the noise, in her dance room.

There I see my witch auntie, pinned to the wall by an enormous hand of a red-skinned reptilian monster in a jet black hooded cape.

"P-please," is what my Aunt weakly whispers. The white strands of her hair are prominent and her skin is covered in wrinkles. Is she that old already?

"Do not let me do this again." The caped monster says in my direction. "You call it love but you're wrong. It's selfishness!" Then, with all his might, he charges at me.

I hold onto my protective charm but the thread breaks and the gem falls away from my neck. I see my Aunt extending her quivering wrinkly hand toward me. "N-no more--" She tries to say, fighting and exhausted by something I do not know.

"Auntie?"

The red monster advances to my direction. Startled, I cannot move my body and start to accept my fate. But he bounces backward before he can reach me.

Like how other creatures do when they attack me.

But I had Aunt Rosie's enchanted gem then.

"Wha-- How?"

The necklace lays on the floor, now only a useless rock. Then why am I still protected by a barrier? I watch my Aunt seem to try to close her mouth but is unsuccessful. "I-it's n-not the gem," she finally says.

What?

Angered, the caped monster stands up and prepares to charge toward me once more.

Oh no.

I'm so afraid.

What should I do? I don't have the ability to fight it.

I should run or he'll kill me! But as I take a step back, I feel something behind me. My back landed on something soft. Something or someone? Suddenly, my body is wrapped by pale, cold hands. I turn around and see a beautiful boy, also in a jet-black hooded cape, shielding me from the red monster's attack. He raises one of his hands and the other creature bounces back like what happened before. The wind catches the mysterious' boy's hood and displays his face. Half of his face is beautiful and the other half ghoulish--

"Ghoulish!" I shout, remembering the creature. Memories of him flood my mind and almost make me cry.

How can I forget him?

Oh, how I missed him.

He was one of the first beings of the underworld that I saw when I was still a kid. I'd been with him for years. We were inseparable. Then one day, I just didn't see him. That day when I--

Confused, I look at Aunt Rosie. Could it be?

"I did it for us. For you. You don't know him," she says.

I feel hurt and betrayed. So, I'm right. I started not seeing Ghoulish since my fifteenth birthday right after I received the red gem. "You don't know him. He's always been kind and protective and--" I spare a glance at him. "It was you? You've been by my side, protecting me? Even if I can't see you. Always you. Not that gem." He doesn't need to respond because I already know the answer. My heart swells inside my chest like how it always did years ago.

"He's a demon!" My Aunt shouts.

"At least he's not a liar!" How can she lie to me? In all those years?

I've missed Ghoulish. He was one of my first friends, the first to share my joys and pains. He is my first love. My forever love, I just know it.

This time I am the one who hugs him, tightly so my feelings for him can reach his heart. Our lips meet for a short, chaste kiss.

"Stay with me. Promise me that you'll live, no matter what." His voice is as sweet as when I first met him. "I cannot lose you."

My hand cups his cheek. "Okay," I answered.

But as I say those words, I feel something pierce me from behind. A large, glinting scythe is stabbing through my body. My heart starts to ache.

I feel my life slipping away from me.

No...

Not just after I made a promise to Ghoulish.

"NO!" My love howls as he catches my body. "No, no."

"She's already dead. Let her go to heaven. Enough, please. Release this town! Release us!" The red monster sets his scythe on the floor and then walks towards Ghoulish and me.

Ghoulish's red eyes spark. With just a wave of his hand, he's able to cast the red creature toward the end of the room.

I can hear old Aunt Rosie sob. "I'm so tired," she is whispering, "so tired."

Something inside me clicks. The old Aunt Rosie. The town that's like a ghost town. A death reaper asking to be freed...

Oh no.

He wouldn't.

But he did.

Still doing it.

This is how much Ghoulish loves me. He has trapped a whole town in an endless time loop but unable to retain their age. All to wait for a timeline when I will not die.

But, it's wrong.

So with the last bits of my strength, I caress his face. "It's okay. D-don't worry. We'll s-see each other again." My body expires.

"Of course," he says and then he casts a demonic spell again.

Everything goes black.

Then I open my eyes.

I hate Halloween.

As I ride the bus to my favorite aunt's place, I look through the window and see that the town is adorned by various Halloween decorations: pumpkins, fake bats, spider webs, and whatever creative design they can think of...