Jesse quickly realized it wasn’t just Bella’s kitchen that was a mess; her whole house was in disarray. What would have been a lovely home tastefully decorated with antique furniture had its entire effect ruined by all the clutter. He stepped carefully over loose papers, recipes for spells, he noticed, as she led them through the hallway into the living room.

  “Sorry for the mess,” she apologized. “I misplaced a harvest ritual spell and turned the whole house upside down looking for it.”

  “Is that what you were doing in the kitchen?” Siobhan asked. “With the cult circle and the… sacrifice.”

  She cast a confused look at her. “Cult circle? That was just a regular magic rune. As for the sacrifice, I’ve found that a fresh ham from the deli stuffed with fake blood works just as well as any live animal.”

  Jesse let out a sigh of relief. At least they wouldn’t have to worry about her using their blood for a ritual. Hopefully.

  The living room was just as cluttered as the rest of the house, though Bella did make an effort to keep the couches and armchairs clean, which she gestured for them to take a seat on. Jesse sank down onto the couch with Brom, closest to the edge, Siobhan right beside him, and Noah on the other side of her. Alicia took one of the armchairs, Ashton sitting on her lap.

  “Okay, why don’t you start from the beginning?” Bella asked, as they got settled. “How did you all get here?”

  So they explained, taking turns to describe their predicament; from how they found the fliers advertising the party on Moonset, all the way to discovering the barrier that prevented them from leaving.

  Bella was silent for a moment, taking in their story, until she asked, “Do you still have those fliers?”

  Jesse pulled out the crumpled paper he and Siobhan had found while Alicia and Noah produced identical fliers.

  She took them, examining them closely. “No doubt about it; these are the same ones Hank made for the party.”

  “I don’t understand,” Jesse said. “If humans aren’t allowed in Gravewood, why put these out where we could get them?”

  “We didn’t.” At the confused looks on their faces, she elaborated, “I cast a spell that sent the fliers to other monster communities. No human should have gotten their hands on one.”

  “There are other monster neighborhoods?” Alicia asked, color draining from her face.

  “Sort of. Little pockets here and there; nothing like Gravewood. We’re the only community of our kind that’s exclusively for monsters, and that’s mostly thanks to the barrier that surrounds us.”

  “You keep saying ‘we’, as if you aren’t also a human,” Brom spoke up. “You’re not one of us.”

  “You’re not either,” she shot back. “You’re just an animated pumpkin.”

  “Rude.”

  “How exactly does this barrier work?” Siobhan asked, interrupting their glaring match.

  “It’s supposed to act as a sort of protective field. It physically stops humans from entering, but also has magical properties that keep them from getting close in the first place. Illusions, amnesia spells, things like that.”

  “That must be why we didn’t notice anything wrong when we first arrived; the barrier was disguising all the monsters.”

  Protecting them from us, Jesse thought. In a weird way.

  She nodded. “Aside from that, most monsters can pass through with no trouble. Except for zombies, of course.”

  “Why can’t the zombies leave?” Alicia asked.

  “You know that movie Dawn of the Dead?”

  “But we’re not zombies,” Siobhan said. “Shouldn’t the barrier let us out regardless of if we’re humans?”

  “I have a theory,” Bella said, grimacing. “When you were telling your story earlier, you said you had some snacks, right?” Alicia exchanged a glance with Ashton while Noah shifted in his seat. Guess they ate at some of the booths as well. “Well, monster food isn’t really made for human consumption. It’s just… different. Are you familiar with the story of Persephone?”

  “The Greek goddess?” Siobhan said. That sort of thing was right up her alley.

  She nodded again. “The one that ate the pomegranate seeds and became tied to the underworld. Well, that’s sort of like what’s happened to you; you consumed food of the dead, but you’re still living. So in the eyes of the barrier, you’re undead. In other words- “

  “A zombie,” Noah finished.

  “And once you became a ‘zombie’ - once you tasted the monster food, the illusions started to fall away.”

  There was a long pause as nobody spoke, only digesting what Bella told them. Jesse? A zombie? He didn’t feel particularly undead. He didn’t suddenly have a craving for human brains or the urge to start groaning. But apparently that didn’t matter to the barrier. This did explain why all the paranormal stuff started happening only after they ate at the fountain, though.

  “You had Hank’s candied apples, didn’t you?” Brom interrupted his thoughts. “Worth it.”

  Jesse pointed at the jack-o-lantern. “He said you could help us.”

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  “Yes, yes I can!” Bella jumped up from her seat and started browsing the various spell books that lined her bookshelves. “Somewhere in here is a recipe for a potion that can fix this. Now where did I- Aha!”

  She pulled out a thick and ancient looking tome and flicked through its pages.

  “Here it is.” The smile quickly fell from her face. “Shoot…”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m fresh out of most of the ingredients we need. I used a lot of them helping to prepare for the party. Unfortunately, the recipe says it needs to be brewed before midnight so the only way to quickly get more is-” She cut herself off, glancing at them.

  “Is?” Noah prompted.

  “Is for you all to go out into Gravewood and collect them.”

  Her words hung over them ominously and in that moment, Jesse couldn’t help but be extremely aware that he was currently sitting in the middle of a neighborhood full of monsters. The kind of monsters that he only saw in horror movies, killing and eating humans. He swallowed hard. “You want us to go out there?”

  Siobhan shifted in her seat. “That won’t be so bad. We’ve met some of the people around here and they don’t all seem scary.”

  “You didn’t see the vampires,” Noah said.

  “They weren’t so bad because they thought you were one of them.” Bella sighed. “Look, truthfully, I haven’t lived here very long. Some of the residents are the kindest people I’ve ever met, but others…”

  Jesse thought back to Cynthia and how disgusted she looked at the very mention of humans.

  “I’m going to be honest with you kids,” Bella started. “Right now, you all have stumbled into a world that is beautiful and wondrous, but also dangerous. A world that has been hidden away from regular humans, both for their safety and the monsters’. And if you aren’t careful, one wrong move could cost you your lives. But I promise, I will do everything in my power to help you.”

  “Then what are we going to do?” he asked.

  She searched through her clutter before finding a pen and paper. “There’s a lot of prep work I need to do for this potion, so I can’t join you. I’ll make a list of everything you need to get, but before you go out, we need to make sure you won’t get discovered by anyone. That includes touching up your costumes.”

  At the mention of their costumes, Jesse glanced at the others. Alicia and Siobhan’s makeup had started to smudge from all the running around, making it painfully obvious their effects were fake, and Noah didn’t even look remotely like a monster, saved only by the hockey mask that could obscure his face.

  “And what about Ashton?” Alicia asked, squeezing her brother’s hand. “He can’t come with us, it’s too dangerous.”

  “Oh, let me watch over him,” Brom said. “I’m great with kids.”

  “He can stay here,” Bella said. “I’ll keep an eye on him.” She gathered up Brom and left the room to let them prepare, mumbling to herself. “Let’s see, ‘preheat cauldron to 425 degrees’.” After a nod of encouragement from his sister, Ashton followed her.

  Jesse didn’t need much work done, only making sure his fake fangs were glued on tight just to be safe. The girls redid their makeup with the kit that Siobhan brought with her, fixing the damage that had been done from sweat and smoke and whatever. To be honest, he didn’t understand anything about makeup, only that it made his best friend happy, but even he couldn’t argue with the results. Alicia’s wounds looked extra gruesome and the stitches on Siobhan’s skin looked like they were made with real thread.

  All that was left was Noah.

  He sat on the couch while the girls stood in front of him, assessing their canvas.

  “His costume isn’t really giving us much to work with,” Alicia said.

  Siobhan tapped her chin thoughtfully. “How about we turn him into a zombie, like you?”

  “That could work. He does kind of have a deathly pallor already.”

  “And a shambling walk.”

  Noah scowled. “Don’t know how I feel about being you guys’ model.”

  “Maybe you could continue to be my thrall,” Jesse suggested.

  “Fine, turn me into a zombie.”

  Since he wouldn’t be any help, Jesse wandered around the room while the girls got to work. He distracted himself from their upcoming ordeal by studying the weird stuff Bella had, witchy artifacts he guessed she used for her spells and potions. There was a broom meant for flying hung up on the wall next to a regular cleaning broom, and he could only tell which was which because they were labeled. On a table next to them was a small round circle made of black stone, propped up like a picture frame. It was polished so thoroughly, Jesse could see his reflection in it, but for some reason, doing so made him uneasy, so he quickly moved on to the bookshelf.

  Ancient tomes and freshly printed books alike lined the shelves. Titles in a language he couldn’t read sandwiched between Basic Herbology and Voodoo for Dummies. Actually, now that he was looking closer, it seemed like Bella had a lot of beginner level books, all well read and studied until their pages were yellowed and their spines were worn.

  “Could you pass me that angled brush?” After a few expertly placed strokes, Alicia stepped back to admire their work. “Aaaannnndd, done.”

  “Not too shabby,” Siobhan said.

  “Woah.” Jesse couldn’t help but be impressed. While the girls’ own makeup was nothing to scoff at, having a model instead of working on themselves must have made the process smoother, because Noah looked like he stepped straight out of the Walking Dead. His cheeks were gaunt, his eyes sunken, they even did something to his hair to make it look grayed and brittle.

  Siobhan handed him her compact mirror, and as much as he tried to hide it, Jesse could tell Noah liked what he saw.

  “Oooh,” Alicia teased, poking him in the side. “Is that a smile from mister tough guy?”

  He scowled again, standing up. “Come on, we don’t have time to waste.”

  They found Bella in the kitchen, beginning work on the potion. A giant cauldron now sat in the middle of the room, on top of the rune circle from earlier. Ashton sat on the counter next to Brom, reading a book almost as big as he was titled Understanding Astronomy. Bella glanced up from the recipe when she heard them enter, a pot of water she had been levitating briefly pausing.

  “You’re all ready?” She asked, pouring the water into the cauldron with a flick of her finger. “Let me give you just a little finishing touch.”

  From her pocket, she produced a gold necklace with a red gem pendant, giving it to Siobhan.

  “What’s this for?”

  “It’s an animation amulet,” she explained. “Or a fake one, at least. They are made with gems enchanted to bring inanimate objects to life; such as a scarecrow like yourself, albeit one someone put a lot of care into making.”

  “Guess we were lucky nobody questioned you before,” Jesse said, then a thought occurred to him. “Wait, what about Alicia and Noah? They’re clearly not from around here, and didn’t you say zombies aren’t allowed past the barrier?”

  “You aren’t zombies,” Bella said firmly. “If anybody asks, you two are ghouls, got it?”

  Alicia frowned. “What’s the difference?”

  “Advanced motor skills and the gift of speech. But most importantly, ghouls aren’t infectious and can wander freely.”

  Before Jesse could wonder what any of that was supposed to mean, she handed him a piece of paper; the list of ingredients they would need to gather around the neighborhood:

  Eye of newt

  Primrose petals

  Bone meal

  Nightmare hair

  Vulture feathers

  “You’d better get going,” she said, nodding at a clock on the wall. “There’s only five hours left until midnight. Head to Mr. Pennyshire’s house first; he’s running an escape room and one of the prizes he was giving out is eye of newt. But be aware, Mr. Pennyshire is… strange, even for Gravewood. They say he can see the future.”

  Jesse carefully folded the note and slipped it into his pocket. “Thank you for everything, Miss Cardenas.”

  “Please, just Bella. And you can thank me once you’re all safely past the barrier.”

  With the list in hand and their costumes fixed, they were as ready as they could be. After Alicia waved a goodbye to her brother, they all stepped out into the night and into the neighborhood of monsters.