THE CAT MURDERER

Chapter Six - Too Much to Lose

DOWNTOWN MABLETON - MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2014, 7:09 PM.

The next week, it was my favorite holiday. Every year, Mableton held a Halloween festival in the middle of town. Most of the adults and teens went there while the kids went trick-or-treating around Cherry Grove. Lynne and I had been going together for years, and every year she made me dress up. The year before, we dressed up as "ostrich and person-being-chased-by-ostrich." That year we were dressed up as  "vampire and victim." She ordered some fake fangs online and put red lipstick all around her mouth, and then put some on my neck to make it look like she bit me. A lot of people asked me if it was a hickey, including my mother, which was embarrassing. My week-old cuts and bruises had barely started to heal, which made me look like a pretty convincing vampire victim. 

The downtown streets were crowded with townsfolk dressed as various characters; most little girls running around were dressed as Elsa from Frozen. All the buildings were lit up with decorations and vendors had their stalls set up everywhere, all crying their wares. Many of them were selling beer and food. There were tables where kids could carve pumpkins and get their faces painted and several inflatable rides. There was also the haunted corn maze set up in the Cranfords' field that they did every year.

"Man...big turnout this year," I told Lynne as I looked around.

"Do you wanna go get lost in the corn maze?"

"Oh ye-ah, definitely," I said, my voice cracking.

Lynne laughed. "What was that?"

My voiced had lowered. "I said, 'definetely--'oh my Go-od!"

She nearly doubled over in laughter. "Dude! Say something else!"

"A-ah! Oh, God..."

Lynne was elated. "Oh my God! You're getting your first voice cracks!"

I sighed in annoyance. "Pe-erfect..."

She put her arms around my shoulders from behind, squeezing me too hard. "Aww! Baby's first voice cracks."

I shoved her off of me. "Shut u-up, you're on cra-ack."

Lynne snickered. "I'm so sorry, but I can't take you seriously right now."

Aaron walked over to us, dressed up in a Jason from Friday the 13th with his mask flipped up. "Hey, guys."

Lynne shoved me towards him. "Aaron, listen to him!"

"Do-on't listen to her, she's on dru-ugs." I said sarcastically.

Aaron chuckled. "Hey, man. Your face is looking better."

"Yeah, uh...tha-anks again, by the way."

"Hey, no problem. That dude's got serious issues."

My voice lowered again. "Yeah, he sure does. Oh, it sto-opped--dammit!"

Aaron and Lynne laughed as I cursed my changing voice, but I was glowing with happiness on the inside. I guess everything wasn't all that bad, but it wasn't over yet.

On Thursday afternoon, Lynne and I headed to the diner, but when we walked in, we could tell right away that Hal wasn't his usual self. He stood behind the counter wiping plates with a faraway look in his eyes and didn't even notice when we walked in. Lynne and I sat down and watched him for a moment.

"Hey, Hal? Is everything okay?" Lynne asked him in concern.

He looked up at us with misty eyes. "Oh, kids...I got somethin' to tell ya,"