already. She’d only need the details about how he and Victor met. And
the news of their big date. Jace backpedaled mentally. He was probably
—no, absolutely—making a big deal out of nothing. Some guy had
shown up, nearly robbed him, and wandered away afterwards. Not
exactly wedding bells, but he’d take what he could get—even if it was a
hopeless fantasy.
Chapter Four
Jace showed up at work in costume, feeling silly despite the great job
his mother had done. His childhood costumes had mostly been innocent,
never terror-inducing, but this year his mother hadn’t held back. Jace was
a bloody, gory mess. His clothing was shredded, his face marred by fake
wounds, his hair matted with blood. Where one of his arms should have
been was a tangle of real meat and bone—his mother had splurged on
some sort of meat cuts, shaping them into a mutilated limb before
binding it in plastic wrap. All Jace had to do was hold his arm behind his
back to make it look like a werewolf had been munching on his
appendage.
As awesome as his costume was, Jace wasn’t looking forward to Dan
sneering at him even more than usual. Once in the gas station, he
instantly felt relieved. Bernard was there, decked out from head to foot in
Army-type camouflage. His face was covered in green and brown
makeup, an old dinged helmet on his head. A couple of kids were
pestering him for candy, Bernard happily scooping handfuls into their
bags from a plastic witch’s cauldron set in the middle of the store. Jace
had a vague memory of his father getting gas one Halloween and scoring
some candy himself.
When Bernard saw him, he grinned broadly. “Oh, good! You dressed
up!”
“Yeah,” Jace said. “So that’s what they wear in the Navy?”
Bernard grimaced. “I lost a bet and a whole lot more playing poker
with one of my buddies. He was an Army grunt and we’re always ribbing
each other— Well, anyway, this is my punishment.”
Jace glanced over at the counter where Dan was looking even more
annoyed than usual. “Looks like Dan dressed up as a sociopath.”
Bernard chuckled, shaking his belly and looking like a militant Santa
Claus. “Oh, that’s good! I told him to wear a costume, but you know how
some people are. My son always loved Halloween when he was little.
Even more than Christmas or his birthday, which I thought was unusual.”
“Definitely. I’ll take presents over candy any day.” Jace bit his lip.
“Although I wouldn’t mind scoring some free chocolate tonight. Do you
think I can take off early?”
Bernard waved dismissively. “Of course. Have fun!”
“Uh, and do you think I can put my arm in the freezer until then? I’m
not sure how long it’ll keep.”
“Sure, sure.” A tiny witch and a princess had walked in with their
parents, drawing away Bernard’s attention.
Jace headed in the back and stashed his fake arm in a chest freezer,
leaving his backpack on the closed lid to guard it. Then he went to work,
spinning around every time the door chime went off and hoping to see
Victor there. Eventually he started paying more attention to the clock.
When Victor was going to show up became if Victor would show up at
all. Jace was just starting to feel like the biggest idiot in the world when
the door chimed again.
This time when he turned around, Victor was there. When he saw
Jace he smiled—really smiled—like they were old friends. Jace beamed
back at him, before gesturing that Victor should wait. Jace ran to the
back room, grabbed his backpack and reattached his meaty appendage.
“I’m out of here!” he announced, heading straight for the door so Victor
would follow. He wanted to be alone with him, to finally start their night
together.
“Looking good, Jace,” Victor said appreciatively. “What are you
supposed to be? Car wreck victim?”
“No.” Jace dug in his backpack and pulled out the werewolf mask,
handing it to Victor.
“Oh, cool! You remembered my costume.”
“It’s important, because I’m your victim. Or at least the werewolf’s
victim.”
Victor grinned. “Nice!”
Jace nodded. “Especially since that’s what I was supposed to be the
other night. Victor’s victim.”
“Now you’re making me feel guilty!”
“Really?”
Victor shook his head. “Nope.”
Jace laughed and nudged him, delighting in the contact. “So, where
to? You promised me free candy.”
Not far from downtown Warrensburg was a neighborhood of tiny
one-story houses. They walked toward this area together, Victor pulling
on his werewolf mask, which Jace found oddly thrilling, like they were
about to rob a bank together. Victor’s costume wasn’t totally convincing.
He still wore the same Army-surplus jacket, and a pair of jeans torn at
the knees. Those fit the part, he supposed, but Jace wished he’d had his
mom whip up some hairy gloves. At least he’d remembered to bring
pillow cases to hold their loot.
“When’s the last time you did this?” Jace asked.
“Are you kidding?” The werewolf blinked at him. “Every year since
I was a kid. I’ll never stop, even if people are starting to get pissy about
it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Wait and see.”
Everything went fine at the first house. A middle-aged woman gave
them a couple of miniature Snicker’s bars, but at the next house, an old
man answered. After looking them over, he slammed the door.
“What the hell?” Jace asked.
“Ageism,” was Victor’s muddled reply. “He thinks we’re too old to
do this.”
“That sucks,” Jace said, looking down at his pillow case which now
held one pathetic candy bar.
“Who cares?” Victor said, already moving to the next house. “They
won’t all be like that.”
“Yeah, but it kind of ruins the fun.”
The next three houses were fine. At the fourth, an unshaven,
unshowered man stared at them. His heavy gut made him look like he
drank for a living.
“What do you want?” he said.
“Trick-or-treat,” Jace repeated.
The man spat a glob of brown liquid onto the porch. Jace smelled
chewing tobacco on his breath when he said, “Halloween is for kids.”
“Trust me,” Victor said. “We’re very immature.”
“Fuck off. You’re too old.”
“I don’t understand, sir,” Victor said in cordial tones. “Why do you
want me to be more grown up? So I can screw your wife? Can’t get it up
for her and hoping I can help out?”
Veins popped out on the man’s neck. Jace grabbed Victor’s arm and
started pulling him away. The man stepped out onto the porch like he
was aching for a fight, but in the end he shouted something unintelligible
and slammed the door.
Jace’s heart was thudding but Victor howled with laughter as they
returned to the street. “Did you see his face? I thought the douche bag
was about to have a heart attack!”
“Yeah.” Jace forced himself to chuckle, but felt his brow knitting
together. “What an asshole! We’re not that old! Would it have killed him
to give us some stupid candy?”
“Only if we were lucky. Ready for the next one?”
“Seriously?” Jace scowled. “I’m already pissed off enough as it is. I
can’t handle dealing with any more jerks like that.”
The werewolf’s eyes looked disappointed. “I figured you weren’t the
kind of guy who cares what others think. I mean, you’re gay. Stupid
people hate you for no reason.” Victor gestured to the street. “And stupid
people here don’t want us to have fun. There’s no point in getting angry
at people you can’t change. All it does is make you feel like crap. That’s
exactly what they want. We can’t let them win.”
Now Jace’s heart was thumping for another reason. Victor didn’t
have a problem with him being gay. He hadn’t said anything the other
night, but now he had drawn a line in the sand and was standing on the
right side. And Jace loved the sound of that we. “Let’s keep going,” he
said. A group of kids passed them on the sidewalk, giving him an idea.
He nodded in their direction. “We’ll tag along with them. People will
think we’re their older brothers or something. Not that I care what
anyone thinks, but we’ll get more candy this way.”
“Yeah, all right.”
Jace couldn’t be sure, but he felt like there was a smile in that voice.
Feeling proud of himself, he and Victor caught up with the gaggle of
kids, waiting behind them when they rang the doorbell. He even
pretended to be miserable, as if escorting the kids against his will. The
woman at the house smiled at him like he was a good brother as she gave
him candy—way better than being told to go away.
They covered the next couple of blocks in this manner, but then the
kids started backtracking.
“Where are you going?” Victor asked them. “There are plenty of
houses left.”
“We aren’t allowed to go that far,” one of the Ninja Turtles said.
“You can if you stick with us,” Victor said. “We’re adults. Aren’t
we, Jace?”
“Yeah. Just think how much more candy you’ll get.”
The kids locked greedy eyes before agreeing. Now they really were
going from house to house as a group. Victor was good with the kids,
playing different games with them. First he got them to start saying treat-
or-trick, which threw people off, and then he had them take turns saying
it, one after the other like a pint-sized barbershop quartet. One time
Victor had them all stand perfectly still and say nothing, an effect that
was surprisingly creepy. His games had the kids laughing and screaming
as they covered another couple of blocks. Then he and Jace led them
back to their own neighborhood.
“Here,” Victor said, holding out his filled-to-the-brim pillowcase to
the Ninja Turtle. “You guys did so good I’m going to let you have this,
but you have to split it up evenly, okay?”
There was no false modesty with children. They grabbed the offered
prize and raced off into the night.
“Dude, sorry!” Victor said. “I should have asked you about the
pillowcase.”
“It’s okay,” Jace said. “It was old. I don’t think they need any more
candy, though.”
“Nah.” Victor pulled off the werewolf mask, his hair damp with
sweat. His cheeks were flushed and he looked happy. “It’s never enough
at that age. I used to keep going until my sack was full. Then I’d head
home, dump it out, and hit the streets again. One time I went so far that I
got lost. I was about their age at the time and didn’t make it home until
one in the morning.”
“You must have been scared,” Jace said as they began the walk back
to the Stop and Shop.
“No way! I loved it.” Victor wiped the sweat from his brow. “I felt
really grown up being out that late. For the first time I was on my own.
No one was looking out for me or telling me what to do. I just kept
walking and snacking on my candy as more and more houses turned their
lights off. Eventually there wasn’t anyone on the sidewalk or any cars on
the street, and I felt like I owned everything. The whole town was mine.”
Jace glanced sidelong at him. “I kind of know what you mean. I like
driving around late at night and… Never mind, it sounds weird.”
“Go on. Tell me.”
“Uh. Okay. Sometimes I’ll just park outside a random home, staring
at what I can see through the windows. But not in a pervy way, like a
peeping Tom. I just sit there and try to imagine what kind of life goes on
inside. I take the details I can see—decorations and stuff like that, or
occasionally I’ll catch sight of someone—and all of that will add to the
story.”
“So what do you usually imagine?” Victor asked. “I bet there’s a
theme. What comes up the most?”
“A few things. Sometimes I think of that person being alone, and like
you said, that can feel good. You can be yourself when it’s just you, even
more so than with your closest friends or family. And then—” Jace
laughed in embarrassment. “—I usually imagine that person finding
someone, or maybe just sitting there and yearning for the right person to
show up.”
“How romantic.” Victor grinned at him. “And do they find that
person?”
“Occasionally. Other times I get bored and imagine them having an
accident, like falling down the stairs and dying, only for some grief-
crazed relative to bring them back with voodoo.” Jace stuck out his arms
in front of him and moaned like a zombie. “And the sick thing is, the
relative keeps them around as an undead butler, making them vacuum
and do the dishes and stuff.”
Victor stared at him. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
Jace dropped his arms. “Yup. It’s how I get my kicks.”
“Well take me with you next time. It sounds fun.”
“Deal. Where should we go now?”
“I’m hungry.” Victor swiped the pillowcase from Jace’s hands.
“Let’s find somewhere to divvy this up and eat.”
“You can snack on my meat arm.” Jace sniffed. “Actually, I need to
find somewhere to ditch this thing. And I need something real to eat.
Let’s grab a burger.”
“No money,” Victor said, already tearing open a tiny pack of
M&M’s.
“Then it’s on me. Oh! That reminds me…” Jace swung his backpack
off and unzipped the front pocket, taking out a small shrink-wrapped box
that he offered to Victor. “For you.”
“You got me some smokes?” Victor’s eyes shone as he took them.
“Man, thank you! I wish I had known earlier. I would have cut a hole in
my mask. A smoking werewolf! How cool would that have been?”
“You’ll huff and you’ll puff,” Jace said, “but your lungs won’t
manage to blow any houses down.”
“True enough. It’s a terrible habit.” Victor winked, a filter already
trapped between his lips. “Block the wind for me?”
“Oh.”
Jace stepped close, taking in the details of Victor’s face as it was
illuminated by the flame—the dark eyebrows, the mismatched eyes, the
dimple above his mouth. This attention didn’t go unnoticed, but Victor
seemed more amused than anything. When he exhaled, the scent of
chocolate was mixed with the smoke.
Jace grasped for something to say. “Uh, did you drive to the gas
station tonight?”
“Nope. No car, no license. I assume you have both with all the night
driving you do.”
“Yeah.” Jace resumed walking down the sidewalk, suddenly lost for
words. He listened to Victor breathing in and blowing out, the smell
