Halloween Haunts: From Trick or Treater to being THAT HOUSE for Trick or Treaters, a Horror Author’s Growth Arc
By Brooklyn Ann
Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. Spooky decorations, dressing up as anything you wanted to be, and roaming the streets at night collecting candy and scares, I love it all. And because I’m short and have a babyface, I was able to trick or treat much longer than many. My best friend and I were diehards who’d be out until curfew, patrolled the richest neighborhoods across TWO towns, and came back with pillowcases almost overflowing with candy.
I spent my younger adult years going to Halloween parties, and awesomely, the bar I spent every weekend at went all out for Halloween. They had all patrons like up for “trick or treat walks” several times. We’d all reach into a giant sack full of little paper bags and pick one. There were “tricks” like old socks, dog biscuits, and empty medicine bottles…however, there were often dollar bills hidden in those. And, of course, there were treats. There was a potluck, a costume contest, and a dart tournament. That bar’s Halloween parties were so iconic that I immortalized them in my dark urban fantasy series.
And, because I’d become a parent relatively young, I got to take my son trick or treating. He also had a babyface that would have let him go longer, but when he was 13, he decided he was “too old” and it took a LOT of begging on my part to convince him to go trick or treating with me one last time.
So, the year after that, I was REALLY struggling to figure out what to do. My beloved bar had sold when the owners retired and I’d quit drinking anyway, so Halloween parties were no longer a viable option.
And then, my partner, who already opened his home to my family for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners when my grandma couldn’t host those gatherings anymore, once more extended a golden key: I could decorate his house and give candy to trick or treaters.
And that’s when a memory from my childhood came back. The neighborhood he lived in used to be one of the top favorites for kids in the area to hit. So, it was exciting to join that tradition. The first Halloween there, I got a sad wakeup call. The neighborhood wasn’t trick or treater heaven anymore.
When I was a kid, Fernan Lake Village, Idaho, had the scariest houses, the coolest decorations, and the grownups who answered the door—often in the middle of raging parties—to hand out full size candy bars were always dressed up in extra spooky costumes.
But the first year that I handed out candy from my boyfriend’s house, I was the ONLY one who decorated and one of the only ones who had candy. Still, I quoted Field of Dreams in my head: If I built it, they would come.
My Halloween graveyard grew year after year, my decorations spread further across the property—it was honestly hilarious how long it took for my boyfriend to notice the spread of the graveyard—and my costumes got scarier. Each year I got more and more happy trick or treaters. When I finally moved in, my progress ramped up. The neighbors and their children would greet me while I was decorating and say how they looked forward to stopping by my house. Even better, more people started decorating their houses!
Last year, I’d raised my costume game by learning how to make prosthetics and dressing up as the Cryptkeeper. I ended up scaring more parents than kids in that getup. Nearly half of the houses were decorated, and there was a huge party down the street.
Nature is healing. Halloween is returning to Fernan Lake Village.
This year, I’m upping the game even more. My boyfriend got me a smoke machine for my birthday and also managed to acquire professional-grade lasers to put on a light show on the side of the house. I’m doing my first full-head prosthetic and will be Chatterer from Hellraiser.
Each year, it gets to be a lot more work, but it’s totally worth it. When I open the door and a little kid jumps back in fear, then, when they realize I’m just a middle-aged lady under the costume, they give me the biggest grin as I hand them a full-size Reese’s, my heart and spirit overflow with joy. I remember being a little girl gasping with spooked delight as a scary monster handed me the BIG Reese’s, not the fun size, and I know that I am helping to keep the cycle going.
Formerly an auto-mechanic, Brooklyn Ann writes supernatural horror and contributes to the HWA’s mental health initiative. She is also the author of the Final Couples series, horror romances that follow 80s horror movie plots, but with a Final Couple instead of a Final Girl, as well as urban fantasy and paranormal series under the pen name Brooklyn Ann.
She lives in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho with her family, a few project cars, an extensive book collection, and miscellaneous horror memorabilia.
She can be found online at https://brooklynannauthor.com as well as on most social sites.
Recent and Upcoming Releases:
September 30th: Pretend You Don’t See Her: The Invisible Woman by Kandisha Press. Short Story: “The Waitress.”
October 10th “The Boy From Limbo” a short story originally released in the anthology, Hospital of Haunts
Link for more details: https://www.brooklynannauthor.com/genre/horror/