The houses of Greenwood were always enchanted by spooky season. Each House had carved pumpkins and ghosts and skeletons as decorations. Everywhere you looked, orange and yellow leaves kissed the place. It was scary and beautiful at the same time, but other than that, the neighborhood was relatively quiet. 

The wind was howling this Saturday evening as the Lockmore girls walked down the streets. They looked gloomy and somewhat unhappy. The youngest sister, Lana, was in an oversized yellow coat and, like usual, had two braids. She was stomping her feet on the dry leaves listening to the pleasing sound of the crackling. And the oldest sister, Lauren, wearing a green coat and a bun, had her hands crossed and looked down subdued. 

“Ahh, there you are, my two little sweet rosies,” said their Grandma enthusiastically from a rose bush by a big blue house in the neighborhood, which was her home. Sweet rosies was what she called the girls, for she loved roses. She always says, if you get pricked by the thorns of a rose, that means you have to try to be a better person, but if you’re fortunate to attain a rose without any thorns hurting you, you are an angel of kindness. It’s all a superstition, but it has its spiritual truth.

The Grandma, Helena, stepped away from the garden that she was tending to and ran to the girls with a hug. Approaching them with love, that they refused. Something seemed off about the girls. 

“Here,” she said. “For you.”

She took her snippers and gave roses to each of the girls. 

“Thanks,” said Lana with a small smile and a monotonous voice.  

“You girls seem sad. Do you want some cookies? How about you just come in? It’s getting cold.” 

She took off her muddy gloves and happily took their bags and them by the hands. But they pulled back instantly, which brought Helena thinking, “Why are they acting so weird? They love being here throughout Halloween, visiting their Gram and Gramps. And my hugs and my cookies and my roses they usually adore it all.” 

Inside, the family eats dinner quietly. So quiet, the only thing you can hear is a couple of crickets outside. Devouring their soup, they sit in awkward silence.

“I am so excited for trick or treating! You guys are going to be princesses, right?” Helena asked. 

No reply.

“Well, how cool after dinner lets go have some of that candy and watch The Night Before Christmas; it’s a perfect movie around this time. I bet you’ll love it-” 

From the two little girls, Helena noticed tiny hairs were growing, slowly but surely. Soon the fur sprouted all over their arms. Grandma watched awe-struck at the girls who seemed to be eating as though nothing was happening. The Grandpa, who was reading a newspaper himself, seemed confused and excused himself from the table. Lana, who opened her mouth to let in the spoonful of soup, seemed to have larger, sharper teeth, and Lauren too had ears growing a bit upwards like an animal. 

“Lauren, Lana, my dears,” staggered the Grandma cautiously, coming up from her chair, her hand reaching for the phone. She would call 9-1-1 because the girls started growling under their breath and getting violent with their spoons because the grip wasn’t quite right with little claws growing. 

“Stop. Just eat your food. We will go play outside,” bellowed Lauren in a deep voice as she stared at her Grandma. Her eyes a shade of red, but her sweet little blue eyes still slightly shining. 

“Yes, yes, yes, ok, go play!” she rushed them away as she murmured prayers and clutched her heart. She didn’t even mind asking why they were going to play instead of celebrating Halloween. She just wanted a release from that horror. And there leaning against the kitchen counter, she fainted.

And there Bathilda “the new friendly neighbor” watched maliciously from her porch at what she called a masterpiece. Because for her, the transformation of children into wolves was the beauty of Halloween.

“I like this neighborhood, don’t you, Albert?” she said in her cold sneering voice at her small stout servant. “The full moon is soon; go fetch me some food. I need fuel because tonight will be fun. The more those girls bite, the better, so by the full moon, our inner animals will arise and we will become a colony.” 

She laughed cruelly and evilly into the evening, its echo lingering in the air.  

 It was getting darker; the sky was a mix of purple and pink, and a faded moon was peeking from the clouds. It was only 6 PM, but Halloween’s trick or treating spirit had already started taking its form. The vibes were quite spooky as decorations lit up, and exciting costumes walked the streets. Although they seemed to be limping, Lana and Lauren walked around. They seemed quite different from everyone.

“Nice costume weirdos!” shouted a snotty little boy in an avengers costume with his friends by his side snickering. Lana looked up, and instantly her hairy face and big teeth showed, and bloodshot eyes appeared to be glowing. The boys screamed and ran away. The snotty boy stumbled and fell on Laurens’s foot. She kneeled and bit into his flesh; blood poured down everywhere on the asphalt. It glittered from the moonlight, and there reflected through the blood was the full moon. 

A big roar came from the boy and the two girls as they kneeled on the ground transforming into complete wolves as they roared in agony. Soon on four paws, they stood savagely, staring at everyone in hatred and saliva dripping from their mouths. People everywhere were shouting and screaming for help as the wolves chased them. More and more were bitten and turning into wolves. It was a complete disaster. Sirens could be heard a couple of blocks away, but the screams and growling never ceased until finally, a howl erupted from one of the houses, and everything went still. A grand white wolf with one green and the other blue eye stepped down from the house. The wolf, who was Bathilda, walked like a royal. So elegantly and with so much purpose, the other wolves bowed their heads in honor of her presence. And so she barked something at them, and suddenly they all ran into the near forest by her lead. 

A couple seconds later the cops reached the streets, but it was too late. The neighborhood was gone, and the only thing left was the remains of candy and blood splattered all over the streets. Even Helena and her husband had been bitten as well and sent into the woods. And the moral of the story? Well, let’s trace it back to how Lana and Lauren became wolves: 

The girls were walking from school, and they were in an excellent mood, for they loved being around their Grandma and Grandpa during fall. And around the corner was Bathilda in a U-haul truck parked just by her house filled with bags she was unpacking. She moved here because she lost her wolf colony to poachers back in her hometown, Brazil, and wanted to start a new one here. As long as she bites a couple of humans, they would become wolves and stay that way forever because her blood had an old witch’s enchantment that unabled them to shapeshift back to humans. And all Bathilda wanted was to be a free wolf once again with a family to lead. The girls were instantly a target, something she could latch on to start her colonization tonight, so she crossed the street and went over to the girls. 

“Hello, do you two know where the…tea store is?”

“Umm…no, this is not our neighborhood, but maybe-” Lauren turned, and that split second that she was pointing east, Bathilda bit into her arm. And so she did with Lana when she noticed her sisters bite and stared in fright. Both girls fell in pain and then silent again. They stood up and went about their day, feeling senseless and lost because they had forgotten about everything, another thing the enchantment provided, loss of memory. And moral of the story well don’t let your kids walk alone and be careful; a wolf might be just behind you, ready to attack 😉