Amina Bell, landscape architect, has spoken out after becoming the Lake End arsonist's most recent victim. "My firm is relatively new. I bought the building three years ago and have been running my business since then. Now, I'm going to need to meet with all of my clients in coffee shops for the foreseeable future. When will we put a stop to this madness?"

Heidi's most recent article provided coverage of the latest arson attack, and Ellie read it numbly, wondering, yes, when will we put a stop to this madness? At least she felt numb instead of anxious. Anxiety would do her no good. And every time she read about someone else's business getting blazed to the ground, she felt thankful it wasn't her husband's. It was a shitty feeling: to be thankful at the knowledge of someone else's misery. But she had to count her blessings. She had to focus on the now.

But the now felt—well—full of madness. Halloween had arrived, and Ellie picked Avery and Talia up from school, marveling at how clean their costumes had remained throughout the day. She'd gotten them both Wizard of Oz costumes; Avery wore a tin man outfit, while Talia was dressed as the cowardly lion.

Convincing the two of them to be something besides stormtroopers had been no easy feat, especially since Talia was obsessed with Star Wars and had spawned a similar obsession in Avery. But stormtroopers carried guns and enacted violence, and Ellie didn't want to promote that. Besides, in a mass email, Trina had compelled all Lake End parents to dress their children in non-scary costumes, and the tin man and cowardly lion were certainly less scary than stormtroopers.

After Ellie had read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to Talia and Avery, the two of them were much more receptive to the idea of being the cowardly lion and the tin man.

Ellie had asked Dylan and Clay if either of them would be willing to dress up as the scarecrow, and they'd both looked at her like she'd asked them to go streaking, barefoot, through the local ice rink. She'd wanted to be Dorothy, but that couldn't work; it made no sense for the scarecrow to be missing from the trio. She'd finally decided she would be the scarecrow for Halloween, and perhaps it was for the best, because the night would probably be too cold for Dorothy's attire.

Clay arrived home around three-thirty, when the kids were eating kale chips and Ellie was putting the final touches on her scarecrow makeup.

"How was work?" Ellie asked him, even though she didn't care.

"Oh, it was—" Clay started enthusiastically, and all Ellie heard after that was blah blah blah, because learning about the days of the hungry caterpillar or the rainbow fish or the crayons that quit would have been more interesting than hearing about Clay's day.

A mild anxiety loomed over her, because that night, her family would have dinner with Lana's and Melanie's families, before all three of their families went trick-or-treating together. Dylan and Talia had been included in this family affair, too, and Ellie still didn't know how she felt about this. She kept considering giving Dylan and Clay another pep talk on what they needed to say should someone ask a question about their shared past. However, she knew they knew what to say; she just didn't know if Dylan would behave well and say it. He was a wildcard, and it scared her.

Dylan arrived at the house before they were due to leave—Ellie knew he'd asked his boss if he could get off early for Halloween. He seemed extra smiley when he walked in, chasing both Talia and Avery and scooping them up into a monster hug. He looked genuinely happy, and Ellie wished she could feel as happy as he looked.

Dinner was nearing, so the entire family packed into Clay's Lexus to drive to the pizza restaurant, a family-friendly restaurant where they could stash the rowdy kids in a booth near the adult table without getting too many glares from the restaurant staff.

At the restaurant, Ellie felt relieved to see Melanie and Lana had followed through with their promises to dress up; Lana sat dressed as a Día de los Muertos skeleton, while Melanie wore a unicorn bodysuit. Both costumes provided good coverage, as respectable Mountain Springs mothers didn't dress in scanty clothing.

"Ellie," said Lana's husband, Dean. "Even as a scarecrow, you look exquisite."

"Why, thank you," she said.

"You look lovely as always, Melanie."

"Gosh, Dean," Melanie hit him. "Lana, your husband is such a charmer."

Right away, Ellie could tell that Talia fit right in with Lana's son and daughter and with Melanie's two sons. In fact, Talia seemed to be garnering the most attention from the two third graders in the group, who evidently found her hilarious.

Wishing she could join the children at the kid table, Ellie turned back to face the adults, who were still easing themselves into adult conversation.

"So, Dylan," said Lana. "How are you liking Mountain Springs?"

"Well, arson aside, it seems like a cool place."

"What's been your favorite thing so far?"

"The local beer tastes pretty good."

"My kind of guy," Melanie's husband, Chester, said. "You ski?"

"Snowboard," Dylan replied.

"You snowboard?" said Lana. "How college of you."

"Ellie snowboards, too."

Lana looked over at Ellie curiously. "Is that right?"

"That's right," Ellie said, panic rising. Before Dylan got the chance to let slip that the two of them learned to snowboard together in middle school, she changed the subject. "Speaking of skiing, I think my favorite thing about Mountain Springs is looking out the window and seeing the snow-capped mountains."

"You guys do have a great view from your house," Melanie said. "I'm so jealous of it."

"Can you believe they're building that new apartment building so close to your house?" Lana said. "I mean, first Ascension, then Altitude, and now Elevation. I get that Mountain Springs needs affordable housing, but so close to our own neighborhoods? What is it doing to our housing values?"

A sudden tension filled the air. Why did Lana have to say something so bitchy and ignorant? Ellie tried to think of something to say in response, something to rid the air of the tension, but before she could think of anything, Clay said, "Actually, Dylan just moved into the Altitude apartments."

Lana quickly gulped the drink she'd just taken, and completely changed her expression. "That's great! It seems like the perfect place to get back on your feet."

Dylan smiled at her, and maybe she couldn't sense it, but his smile was not a nice smile; it was an oh, you are a bitch smile.

Ellie knew that Dylan probably didn't view his apartment as a temporary, short-lived steppingstone in his journey to get back on his feet; he probably viewed it as a long-term home. Despite growing up in a big house, he seemed to have no desire to save up for a house of his own. She felt sorry that Talia would have to invite her future friends to her dad's small two-bedroom apartment, but she supposed two bedrooms were all they really needed, anyway. If Lana ever mentioned it again, Ellie could just say, Dylan is a minimalist, Lana. We could all learn a thing or two from him.

Even though Ellie didn't like the affordable housing apartments so close to her house, hearing Lana say those thoughts aloud made her realize just how terrible they were. Of course people like Dylan should be given the opportunity to thrive in the Mountain Springs community. Of course the community shouldn't be an exclusively rich community. Of course those apartment buildings should be viewed positively.

Ellie had the sudden worry that Lana would say some other terrible thing, like maybe she would make a comment about Leah and Trigger. Though Dylan had just done an admirable job holding his tongue, she knew he wouldn't hold his tongue if Leah became the topic of conversation.

She ordered a glass of merlot and drank it quickly, which worked wonders on her anxiety but not on her appetite.

"Dean," Clay said, and Ellie turned to him. She'd begged him to try to make friends with Lana's husband, Dean, and now he was finally making an effort. "How is everyone at Limitless Software doing?"

"Well, Clay, not great." It seemed like Dean had been waiting all night for someone to bring up this subject, and Ellie suddenly felt bad for not asking when he'd told her how exquisite she looked. "While the fire insurance is covering most of the damage, Dale Gurney didn't get the best business-interruption insurance coverage, so he's forcing all his employees to work from home, and you know, we're all reeling from this and trying to process it. Dale's a bit of a...shall we say, cheap ass?"

Just like Lana, Dean could make a fire affecting hundreds of employees seem like it was his problem and his problem alone. Maybe Lana and Dean were perfect for each other.

"I gave Dale my card," Chester said. "I even told him he'd get the local discount. Still haven't heard back, though."

"I think you should have given him a better discount, like an arson discount," Melanie said. "Like, five percent? You could make flyers with a little smiling flame on them.

Ellie's red wine nearly went down the wrong way, and she found herself coughing. A smiling flame, Melanie?

Chester nodded. "We could do some great renovations after the fire restorations are completed."

Ellie had thought that, since Lana and Melanie were so close, their husbands must be close, as well, but she couldn't help feeling like Dean was looking at Chester with disgust.

Luckily, the rest of the dinner table topics were light and non-arson related, and the tension seemed to diffuse, and nobody noticed that she barely touched her pizza.

Finally, dinner ended, and Ellie took Avery and Talia to the washroom to wash up, but they had both managed to get pizza sauce all over their Wizard of Oz outfits, and paper towels and hand soap wouldn't be enough to get it out. Their costumes both looked bloody: Talia looked like a lion who had just eaten a living creature, and Avery looked like a tin man who had just hacked a living creature with his ax. This completely defeated Ellie's goal for them to have non-scary costumes, and nothing could be done about it.

After leaving the restaurant, the group walked a couple of blocks from downtown to Second Street, a popular trick-or-treating location where residents went wild with Halloween decorations and supposedly splurged on the best candy, which rumors said the houses gave out in generous handfuls. Perfect, Ellie had thought, knowing she would be throwing out Avery's candy bucket a few days after Halloween. So wasteful.

A picturesque Halloween location, Second Street had sidewalks covered in colorful and decaying aspen and maple leaves. Its houses, all of varying architectural styles, stood disguised by purple lights, fake cobwebs, and posters, the yards covered in fake gravestones, coffins, and machine-generated smoke. None of the residents of this street knew the fear permeating the Lake End district.

The sidewalks were teeming with a hellish parade of superhero children, scantily dressed teen girls, and the impending zombie apocalypse.

As Ellie stood in place gawking at the passersby, she heard Dylan, close to her ear. "Are you thinking about when we used to trick or treat?"

Ellie looked around to make sure the other parents couldn't hear. Noticing her and Dylan had fallen behind the group, she said, "I am, actually. Things are so different now."

"Yeah. You'd never dress like that girl again."

Ellie looked in the direction of his nod, finding a girl dressed in a seashell bra and scaly leggings who was obviously freezing. Ellie wanted to wrap her up in a blanket. She recalled when she'd been a teenager, which hadn't been long before, when she had dressed up for Halloween like that, maybe with less coverage. "That was back when I used to impress people by being free and fun. Now, I impress people by being straight and narrow."

"I miss the free and fun Ellie," said Dylan.

His response surprised her, but before she could say something back, Ellie heard someone say, "Dylan!" and she turned to find Leah and Trigger. Trigger was dressed as a bleeding ghoul.

"I like your costume, Trigger," said Dylan.

"Rawr!" Trigger said. "I eat you!"

That's just great, Ellie thought. Teaching your violent child to be more violent. Teaching him that blood is something we want to see outside of the body.

"I like your costume, Ellie," Leah told her.

"Oh. Thank you," Ellie said back, trying to be polite, to hide her look of disapproval. She felt suddenly self-conscious as a scarecrow, especially since Leah and Dylan both wore regular clothing, and she wondered about the sincerity of Leah's comment.

"Are you two having fun?" Dylan asked.

"We sure are, aren't we, Trigger?"

Trigger ignored Leah, digging around in his candy bucket; she appeared to just be letting him eat his fill without checking the candy first and with no apparent plan for moderating his intake. Ellie had instructed Avery and Talia to not eat any candy until they got back to the house, where she would diligently check each piece, ensuring no wrappers had been tampered with and throwing out the terrible-for-teeth taffy and tootsie rolls. Even then, Ellie would only permit them to have only two to three pieces, and they would enjoy them more because of the limitation. Plus, she wouldn't have to worry about either of them puking from overindulgence. At this rate, Trigger's stomach would definitely be aching by nine o' clock.

"Dylan, I think we should catch up to our group," Ellie told him.

"You go ahead," he told her back, clearly annoyed by her suggestion.

"Okay, then."

"Bye, Ellie," Leah said.

"Bye," Ellie said, once more trying to be polite, but as soon as she turned, she found herself frowning and praying none of the other parents would see Dylan with Leah.

When she rejoined the group, nobody asked where he'd gone, and luckily, he rejoined them five minutes later. Feeling somewhat relieved, Ellie also felt upset at seeing Dylan's smile, now wider after his encounter with Leah.

"Have you been hanging out with her?" she whispered, and it came out more like a hiss, though hissing hadn't been her intention.

He shrugged and smiled even more, and Ellie had the sudden realization that the reason she and Clay had watched Talia the night before was probably so Dylan could hang out with Leah. The realization stung, and for the rest of the trick-or-treating horrorfest, Ellie felt afraid: not of the monsters on the street, and not even so much of the impending possibility that Vanderson Structural would burn, but of Dylan's new relationship.