A ghost, a zombie and what looked like Tim Burton’s corpse bride—although Zack had seen Sadie Grace this shade of blue before after an incident with an ink pen—pooled at his feet and stared up at him with wide and hungry eyes.

“Daddy said you would take us to the village after we’d visited all the old people.” The ghost sounded oddly creepy.

“And he said you’ll let us eat all the sweets. Why did that woman give us toothbrushes?” Sadie Grace said, her mouth opening to display the fact that she was a toothless corpse bride.

Zack shook his head. “Daddy said the sweets had to last you until Christmas and Mrs Pearson gave you the toothbrushes because she used to work for a dentist and she knows brushing your teeth is important.”

“But I don’t really have any teeth to brush.” Sadie held up the pink toothbrush with a Disney character at its base.

“But when you do have teeth it’ll be really important to keep them clean, as you won’t be getting any more if those fall out,” Zack said, wondering for the fifty-fourth time how the hell he’d been suckered into taking his friend’s kids trick or treating to Sunrise.

The zombie frowned. “But Mr McNeild had other teeth. He chased us with them.”

Zack nodded, debating what on earth he could say. Mr McNeild had indeed chased them with his set of false teeth and made a few odd growling noises before bursting into a maniacal laugh. The two boys had been scared enough to run, but Sadie Grace had simply stood there and stared, her normally huge eyes more enormous than usual thanks to the make-up that the mother of one of their friends had applied.

“Mr McNeild had to have all of his teeth taken out because he ate too many sweets when he was a kid. He has to wear those false ones for eating,” Zack said.

“Would they be sharp enough to eat one of us?” the ghost asked. “He said—”

“He was being silly,” Zack interrupted, not sure that Mr McNeild had actually been being silly. The expression on his face had been pretty serious. “He was playing a Halloween trick on you.”

Sadie Grace looked into her bag of sweets, chocolate and a toothbrush and then eyed him woefully. “It was more fun when we trick or treated last year.”

“Yeah, Sadie’s right. I mean, I like scaring the people here but the old house was way more creepy.” The ghost giggled.

“It was like a proper haunted house.” The zombie’s arms waved around. “Especially when we went in the cellars. Who lives there now, Uncle Zack?”

“A lady who’s turning it into a hotel.” Zack checked that the collar of his cape was still upright. He actually liked dressing up for Halloween, had done since he was a kid and it was him, Alex, Jake and Scott who were trick or treating around Severton. Last year his rather muscular skeleton had managed to entice a busty daemon back to his place. Just a little bit different from when he was a teenager.

“Can we go and scare her then? And the people staying there?” Sadie Grace said, widening her eyes as much as possible to gain maximum persuasion power.

Zack shook his head. “I don’t think there are any guests yet. The hotel’s not ready for them.” This was despite its owner having stolen pretty much all his builders. He was still stumped on what he was going to do for Christmas Day.

Christmas Day had always been a big thing at Sunrise. Even before Zack had taken over as manager, there had always been a huge event on Christmas Day. Some residents would go home with relatives for dinner or even for a couple of days; others would have relatives visit them and they might even have Christmas lunch there. Then there were those who had no one local enough, or even no one at all, and the staff at Sunrise were their family instead.

The old ballroom at the manor would be decorated in Christmas evergreens and decorations, with large firs and presents below the trees. A few days beforehand, there would be a party for the local primary school children which the residents either loved or stayed well away from—Mr McNeild had never been seen near a child through choice. Then on Christmas Eve there would be a meal, encompassing as many traditions as they could from sweets in shoes to the exchanging of books. On Christmas Day there would be organised chaos from opening presents with residents whose brains told them they were still children, to those who started on the eggnog before breakfast.

This year, that central room wasn’t going to be there and short of knocking down a wall between the two function rooms in one of the town pubs and adding an extension, Sunrise’s traditions were going to have to change.

Sadie Grace’s wide eyes shone up at his, her little mouth pouting. Her costume would’ve been a damn sight better as a devil, and then she wouldn’t have needed to conceal the horns and tail her teacher and dad were adamant she had.

“We have to walk,” Zack said. The chances were Sorrell would be in the hotel on her own and although he had no intention of really scaring her in ways he knew he could, the idea of maybe surprising her slightly was appealing. Hell, the idea of completely terrorising her was even better, but without the influence of any alcohol, he did have some sense.

Jake had torn him a new one after their visit to see the builder-thief the week before. Apparently all was fair in business and Zack should’ve had a few more manners and maybe negotiating skills, but Zack wasn’t a business man. He left the procurement side to his finance manager and kept himself busy with actual people, making the lives of his residents more comfortable and happier and ensuring his staff team had the same ethos.

“I can walk, Zacky,” Sadie Grace said and slipped her hand in to his.

Zacky felt sticky fingers grasp his. “We go to the old house, trick or treat the lady and then we’re heading back to the village. You all good with that? No trying to persuade me to stop off anywhere else?”

“Dad said you might stop at the scout hut and pick up Kale and Letty,” the ghost said.

“Did he now?” Zack eyed the boy. He knew that had not been mentioned. Kale and Letty—real name Lettuce but no one but her parents were ever going to call her that—were daemon children even without it being Halloween. Kale was also one of Charlie the ghost’s best friends.

“Well, he said you might think about it…”

“Not happening, Charlie. It was trick or treating here and then home. Mrs Morris is babysitting you while your dad and I go out for some non-children respite.” Charlie, Sadie Grace and Harry had lost their mother after Sadie was born. Grace had been her name and initially their father, Jonny, had wanted to just call his baby girl that. After a few days, he’d opted to stick with Sadie, the name he and his wife had chosen together, and use Grace as her middle name, but the kid had ended up being called both most of the time. Especially when she was in trouble. Which was most of the time.

“I hate Mrs Morris,” Charlie grumbled. “She shouts at us if we get out of bed.”

“Which is what she should do and means she’s a very good babysitter, looking after you heathens.” Zack spotted the night shift manager, a lady called Helen who was one of his best members of staff as long as she just did night shifts. “We’re off. If anything happens, call me.”

“It won’t so I won’t. There’s nothing I haven’t handled before. Including ghosts, skeletons and zombies.” Helen rustled round in her pockets and pulled out three bars of chocolate. “Here’s a treat for the journey back.”

Three eager hands clamoured before her.

“Make sure you brush your teeth twice before you go to bed,” Helen added, ignoring the glares and Sadie Grace’s slight stomp of a foot.

Zack rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Like they need more sugar. Come on, munchkins.”

It took twice as long as it should have to get to the manor. Sadie Grace complained that her feet were hurting and ended up on his back, gripping onto the tails of his cape like he was a horse. He didn’t know how Jonny did it. He knew Jonny didn’t know how he did it either, just that he had to.

“You can get down now, Sadie,” he said, squatting so she could dismount. “Seriously, you need to get down.” He heard Charlie and Harry giggling.

“No,” Sadie said. “I’m tall up here.”

“You’re also heavy. If you don’t get down now, I’m going to share your treats with everyone at the fire station.” Jonny was a firefighter and it had been known before for him to bring the kids’ treats in as a form of punishment.

There was a loud sigh and Sadie Grace inched herself down. “Do you think the hotel lady will have treats for us?”

There was no sign that the ‘hotel lady’ was even in. For all he knew, she was out having a meal with a boyfriend or husband or gigolo. Most houses in Severton were decorated for Halloween. Some had more contemporary decorations, bought from supermarkets or Amazon. Others went more traditional with elaborately carved pumpkins and candles, bowls of milk and ‘treats’ for the fairy folk and the souls of those past that were meant to loom on Halloween.

Charlie knocked, using the heavy iron door knocker, the sound echoing into the still night. It was cold, colder than usual for the end of October and some snow was forecast for the week ahead. There was no wind and any sound carried easily.

An owl hooted and Zack heard the beating of wings and the rustle of a shrub. Charlie knocked again and this time, after a few seconds, the door opened.

Sorrell Slater stood in the doorway looking almost ethereal. Her skin was paler than he remembered and her chestnut hair was darker too. She was slight, more slender than his cousin, Rayah, who Zack always thought could do with eating an extra bar of chocolate or four, and this time she wasn’t covered in the remains of wallpaper.

“Trick or treat!” Sadie Grace yelled at her, thrusting the pumpkin shaped sweets container in front of her. “Where are your decorations?”

Zack prayed for a vampire to take him captive. He had the feeling that Sorrell Slater wasn’t really the type to embrace the whole community spirit and would probably prefer to remain on her mountain, glaring at them from afar.

Jake had spoken to her a couple of times during the week. She wanted to make an arrangement to buy fresh produce from the farm, which was fine—business had to be business and his dad and Jake wouldn’t turn that down. Jake had also seen her in Severton shopping and then at Mo’s restaurant with Keren. Zack wasn’t sure why Jake had needed to give him an overview of Sorrell’s movement. It was the movements of the builders he needed. Or a plan.

The laugh that came from Sorrell surprised him. She squatted down so she was face to face with Sadie Grace and gave her a huge smile. “I only have the really old decorations,” she said. “But I’ve new pumpkins and I’ve baked some apple and cinnamon muffins.”

Sadie Grace’s eyes lit up the darkened porch at the thought of food.

“Are they for trick or treaters?” Charlie said.

Sorrell tipped her head to one side. “Kind of,” she said looking up at him as he was now half a head taller than her. “I wasn’t sure if any trick or treaters would be brave enough to come so far out of town but I made them anyway.”

“What were you going to do with them if we hadn’t come?” Charlie asked.

Sorrell leaned towards him. “Eat them all myself!” she whispered.

Sadie Grace giggled wildly, Charlie smiled and Harry looked hopeful.

“But now I don’t need to if your dad says it’s okay for you to have some?” She looked up at Zack and he saw the concern in her eyes that she’d said something wrong. He hadn’t expected her to be nice to the kids. If anything, he’d expected her to come out with a couple of out of date biscuits she’d found in the cupboards and pack them off with a glare like the witch she was.

“He’s not our daddy,” Sadie Grace was loud enough to wake any of the dead that had decided to sleep through Halloween. “He’s Zacky, our Daddy’s friend. And our Daddy always says it’s okay for us to eat muffins.” Her toothless grin was even wider.

Zack let out a long sigh. More sugar. Children who were more hyper. But he didn’t have to worry about them until bonfire night, or maybe the night before when he was pulling a babysitting duty with Jonny having a night shift.

“Is it okay with Zacky then if you each have an apple and cinnamon muffin?” Sorrell said, looking up at him with eyes that were dancing with amusement.

“Zacky says it’s fine as long as they go straight to bed when they get home. Else Mrs Morris will be using me as the guy on the bonfire next week,” he said, wondering why he was still looking at Sorrell.

She was wearing sweat pants and what looked like an old, over-washed university hoodie. Her hair was slightly tangled and her face looked freshly washed, as if she’d been getting ready to go to bed.

Zack was pissed off with her—she had thrown a huge spanner in the works of his Christmas plans and induced the biggest planning headache he’d had in years, but she was sat at home on her own on one of the most fun and sociable nights of the year in Severton.

“You have bonfires here?” she said, almost wistfully.

He nodded. “We make a huge thing of stuff like Halloween and Bonfire night. Wait until you see what Christmas is like. It could be something out of Disney.”

She laughed and he noticed the music in it. “The whole town is like something out of a book. I saw the decorations for Halloween all week. The scarecrow competition was oddly…” She looked puzzled.

“Disconcerting?” he suggested.

Sorrell nodded. “That’s one word for it. I’ll have to take part next year. Who won, by the way?”

“It was my teacher,” Sadie Grace said. “Miss Maynard. She did a mummery for our playground.”

Sorrell’s lips pursed into a tight ‘O’. Zack’s cousin—Jake’s sister—taught the nursery class. The scarecrow she’d created should’ve been enough to scare children, never mind the crows. Taller than the others, it had painfully elongated limbs with tight bandages wrapped around them. Where one elbow should have been, a break in the bandages saw straw pulled through that had been dyed red. Its eyes looked strangely real; Zack hadn’t asked where she’d got them from.

The kids had loved it.

“Yep,” he said. “That’s Rayah. My cousin and the world’s most inappropriate nursery teacher. You should come down into town. My brother’s band’s playing tonight at his bar, why don’t you come and assess the total madness of this town?” Zack’s words left him before he could really think about it.

Sorrell’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. “I’d love to some other time, but my friend’s staying tomorrow so I’m in the middle of cooking a Halloween feast. You need to come in for some muffins though, before I lose every bit of heat from this monstrosity of a house.”

The three children had started to become restless and were edging into the manor already.

“Muffins!” Sadie Grace yelled. “And I’m cold!”

Her brothers followed after her as she galloped towards the industrial kitchens that Zack had helped fix from time to time, learning quickly that plumbing was part of his job description even if it wasn’t written in it.

The smell was overwhelmingly mouthwatering and he wondered why Sorrell was bothering with a hotel when she should be opening a bakery. “Is it just apple and cinnamon?” he said, looking around the kitchen. Pretty much every part of the oven looked to be on.

“No.” Sorrell pulled a tray of muffins from the warmer. “My friend is staying with me tomorrow for a Samhain dinner. They were meant to be here tonight, but something came up.”

“So what else is cooking?” Zack said. He’d noticed the use of Samhain and figured that maybe she was right for Severton after all, given she was referencing Pagan festivals.

Greedy hands grabbed at the muffins. He took one also and stopped Sadie Grace from taking a second.

“Pumpkin pie, a venison stew. I’ve made some chutneys too so I think you can still smell those. There’s a beef and ale pie that I need to turn off round about now as well…” She started to busy herself around the kitchen, tying back her long hair so it didn’t get in the way.

“Will you and your friend manage to eat all of this?” Zack said. He was more than happy to help her out by trying the stew and the pie. And maybe then trying it again. Her hair caught his eye again as she put a loose tendril round her ear.

“No. But I always cook too much. Are you angling for an invite?” She passed something that looked like giant cookies to the kids.

Zack shifted on his feet. “Not at all,” he said, remembering that she was the reason he had an organisational migraine to deal with. “If you have any left you could share it with the builders. I’m sure they’ll appreciate another perk.”

“Cookie?” She ignored his comment and smiled sweetly.

He looked at the plate: gooey chocolate chip cookies that smelled lush. “No,” he said. “You can save them for your guest.”

“Let me bag some up then,” she said. “The children can share them with their father later.”

“He’s not coming home tonight,” Sadie Grace said with a mouth full of cookie. “He’s a firefighter and he’s on duty.”

“Last year Mrs Ingham’s curtains caught fire when she knocked her pumpkin over,” Harry said.

“That’s why Daddy said she shouldn’t drink in the house,” Charlie nodded. “It could’ve been much worse.”

“My daddy’s a hero,” Sadie Grace announced, her mouth full of cookie once more.

“I’ll make another batch of muffins and drop them off at the fire station in town for him and his friends. What do you think?” Sorrell crouched back down again so she was on the same level as the little girl.

She was then almost on her back as Sadie threw her arms around Sorrell, sticky fingers marking her clothes.

“I’m really sorry,” Zack said, running his fingers through his hair. He wanted to dislike the hotel lady, but when she was like this with Jonny’s kids, he felt bad about it. “She’s a little overwhelming.”

Sorrell shook her head. “I like it,” she said simply. “It’s good seeing people happy.”

Zack nodded, not sure of what else to say. “Come on, creatures of the night. Let’s return you home.”

Sadie let go of Sorrell and started to trot towards the door. Harry and Charlie remained in the kitchen, eyeing the cookies.

“Take another,” Sorrell said. “But no tricks.”

They both grinned, looking far too much like their father when he was younger and planning trouble.

“And you take one too.” Sorrell took the plate and offered it to Zack again.

He looked from the plate to her and back again, then shook his head. “Why don’t you join us in town?”

She smiled and shook her head. “Another time. Enjoy your evening and thanks for stopping by.”

He took the cookie and tried not to make any more eye contact.

They were almost at Jonny’s house, having stopped three more times to either knock on the door of the houses they were passing or talk to other trick or treaters. Zack was grumpy: the whole outing had taken longer than he thought it would and he kept thinking about Sorrell. He didn’t want her to be nice or the sort of person who baked extra cookies and muffins for firefighters. Or the sort of person who liked sticky handed little girls who talked with their mouths full.

He wanted her to be mean and rude. And not look pretty and interesting in sweatpants and a hoodie.

“Zacky,” Sadie Grace said as they finally made it to their front door where he could leave them in the sometimes gentle claws of Mrs Morris and go for a beer. “I’ve done something bad.”

“We agreed you weren’t doing tricks, Sadie,” Zack glared at her, knowing exactly what Sadie Grace was capable of.

She stood close to him, looking up with big eyes, one hand in her pocket. “It wasn’t a trick.” Then her bottom lip started to quiver.

Zack wasn’t going to be fooled. Everyone in Severton knew that Sadie Grace could pretty much buy her way out of any form of trouble with a few crocodile tears and her pool-like eyes. Her mother had been just the same, which was why most people gave into her anyway. “Sadie…” he said, elongating her name.

The bottom lip wobbled like jelly.

“Tell me what’ve you done…” The possibilities were endless. In the past six months, Sadie had let loose the bulls from one of the farm’s fields; been found at the top of the tower in the fire station after pretty much everyone had spent an hour searching for her; coloured Harry’s cheeks bright red when he was asleep with permanent marker; played painters and decorators while wearing Jonny’s best shirt; and locked Zack’s car keys in his car. There was more, but he and the rest of the town had blocked it from memory. She was single-handedly the best contraceptive Severton had ever had, and there was talk off her being used as a way to stop teenage pregnancies by the local high school.

Sadie Grace tried to smile. “I didn’t mean to. But it was so pretty…”

“What was pretty?” he asked. The boys were inside now. He could hear Mrs Morris giving very precise instructions as to what they had to do before bed.

Sadie looked at the floor. “The key thingy.”

“What key thingy? Let me see.” He held out his hand.

“Promise you won’t shout.”

“Do you ever hear me shout?”

Sadie nodded. “I hear you shout at Daddy and Jake and Scott when you play football.”

Shit. This was true. He would usually swear a lot too.

“I promise I won’t shout at you now.”

She pulled her hand out of her pocket and showed him her stolen treasure. A feathery key ring dangled from what he recognised as a car key and the key to the lodge at the manor; in other words, she had Sorrell’s keys.

“I’ll take them back to the hotel lady,” he said, visions of the beer that awaited him fading ever further away. “Then I’m telling Daddy what you’ve done and Alex too.”

Alex was his other brother and a local detective constable. He was a police dog handler, and one of Sadie Grace’s favourite activities was to pretend that the large German Shepherd was a horse—not to ride him, but to tack him up with various ‘saddles’ and ‘reins’ that she’d make. The dog had the patience of a saint.

Zack needed some of that patience right now.

Then the tears started for real. “Is Alex going to put me in prison?” she said. “I don’t want to go to prison.”

Zack shook his head. “That’s where thieves go. I suggest you go inside and start thinking about how to apologise to Sorrell.” He pushed her towards the door, giving Mrs Morris a brief nod.

The older woman shook her head and then raised her brows. “You were just as bad,” she said. “The three of you and Jake. I’ll remind you sometime.”

“You really don’t need to,” Zack said. “I’d best return the magpie’s prize.”

He could hear Mrs Morris’ stern words as she closed the door but it didn’t bring a smile to Zack’s face. Instead he had to make yet another trip to see Sorrell Slater.