All Hallows Eve

I spent the entire week sitting in my bedroom reading books and watching movies. The police questioned both Julian and I about the incident at the stadium, but since they had no real proof they had to let us go. Sometimes life does go good. Sometimes.

Ross Morrissey got off with a broken kneecap and a fractured skull. Was I ashamed? A little. What I did doesn't really make me any better than him or any other violent person. I realize that.

As far as I'm concerned, the war between me and Ross is over.

We had Vlad sign the football before we left it in Ross's car. Vlad wrote "Hope you get better, asshole. A friend."

I'm pretty sure that Ross suspects it's me. Most people suspect it's me, which has made me sort of a folk hero amongst the geeks and the downtrodden at our school. Some people have come out point blank and just asked me if I did it, which of course I denied.

Julian spent the entire week with Allison. I barely saw him. He's already whipped. I told him this and was instantly accused of wearing a dog collar myself. Which, of course, is true.

I spent the entire week convincing Sam I'd stay out of trouble. Girls are really paying attention to me now, even the really popular ones. Sam is jealous constantly, which I love. She's very protective of me. Not too many people have cared enough about me to be protective. Julian, Suzanne and Samantha are the only ones that I can think of.

There's also some other good news, Dear Reader.

They have decided not to expel me. About 750 students signed a petition on my behalf saying that the words that I had to say contained an element of truth that needed to be spoken. Julian told me that one student even spray painted "You worship the wrong heroes, motherfuckers!" on a wall outside the school.

On Monday, I will be allowed to enter school again. The powers that be said Alisa's death had pushed me over the edge. After all, my grades were perfect. They are even going to let me make up this week's homework.

Today is one of my favorite holidays: Halloween. It seems appropriate for Vlad that he was released from the hospital today.

We're all going to get dressed up and go to Lake Angel where a party is going to be held. It was unseasonably warm again. It was supposed to be in the sixties tonight. This might actually be fun and I'm looking forward to it.

I'm going as Alex from A Clockwork Orange, a movie that I absolutely love. Julian is going as Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver, fake Mohawk, army jacket, the works. Samantha hasn't told me what she's going to be, it's going to be a surprise.

 "Vlad should be here any second," Julian said. It was almost sunset and we were already dressed in full costume. "He was released from the hospital early this morning."

I was fixing the fake eyelash and adjusting my derby as Julian answered the doorbell.

"Holy shit!" he exclaimed.

I turned to see a total stranger standing in my living room.

After a second, I realized that it was Vlad. He was dressed like a normal teenager, no makeup, blue jeans, and his dark hair straight instead of teased. His face still had some purple bruises on it.

"Scary costume, huh?" Vlad asked, turning around to give us the full view.

"Very," I said, making one more adjustment to the hat. "Samantha and Allison will be here any minute to pick us up."

And just as I predicted, the doorbell rang again. When Sam walked through my front door Julian broke out into laughter.

"Holy Shit, again!" he exclaimed between laughter. "You look just like him!"

Samantha was me. She was wearing all black and had her dark hair teased up into the air just like mine. She had also managed to find a pair of black rimmed glasses just like the ones I owned. The scary thing was that she actually did look like me.

I didn't close my mouth and start laughing until she said, "You worship the wrong heroes, motherfuckers! Fucking boom!"

Julian found it funnier than I did, he was literally rolling on the floor.

"I'm glad you find that so amusing," I said to Julian, pulling Sam to me and planting a kiss on her lips. "Whoa, this is weird, Sam. I've always loved myself but this kind of gives it a whole new meaning, don't you think? I have a fucking double, for Christ's sake. This is some serious science fiction shit."

"I feel strange as you, Harlan," Sam said, imitating the way I constantly push my glasses up on my nose. "I feel like I want to take on the world now."

"Want some help?" I asked, smiling.

Allison walked through the door before Sam could answer. She was dressed up like Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, kinky black leather and all. She looked damn good. I could tell Julian felt the same judging by the way his mouth dropped when she walked through the door.

Julian started barking, not realizing he was showing himself as a perfect whipped dog metaphor. He walked up and started panting at her.

"Pig," Allison said, pushing him down onto the couch. "Hi, Harlan. Hi, Gary, I almost didn't recognize you."

"Call me Vlad," Vlad said from the couch. "I'm starting to get used to it."

His face still looked painful, which was probably the real reason he wasn't wearing any makeup.

We managed to all fit into Sam's jeep and it wasn't easy. Lake Angel just completely sucked. We were there for practically five minutes when the cops showed up and cleared the whole place out. Sure, here we are bothering nobody and they want use to leave so that we actually could go get into trouble. I don't think I will ever understand the adult population—or at least those in control.

"So now where to?" Sam asked, kissing me on the cheek.

"Is it, like, homoerotic to get kissed by yourself?" I asked, wiping it off.

"Ask Vlad," Julian said, really enjoying the fact that Allison was sitting on his lap. "He's the resident homosexual." He had a scholarly expression on his face. "Vlad?"

Vlad smirked. "I don't know. It's definitely homoerotic to get kissed by a man, but by yourself, I don't know. We're heading into science fiction territory here. If this was, like, an episode of Star Trek then I'm sure Captain Kirk would figure something out."

"I think Kirk would definitely say that doing this was homoerotic," I said, holding Sam away from me. "He was a macho guy, he would never make out with himself. Captain Picard maybe, but no way would Kirk do it."

Julian nodded like a scholar. "But Kirk was one horny motherfucker. I bet he would fuck himself if no one else was around. Hell, I bet his ego was big enough that he'd want to fuck himself regardless. Just to say that he did it."

"Um, this is a debate that I'll stay out of, you freaky geeks," Sam said. She grabbed me and began to kiss me passionately, her tongue darting into my mouth.

"You faggot, Harlan!" Julian yelled teasingly. "This is too weird!"

Allison turned around and kissed Julian. Her catlips to his Travis Bickle face.

"Bestiality!" I yelled, pulling away from Sam.

"Man," Vlad said. "I thought I was the sick one. Harlan's making out with his twin. Julian's French kissing a cat. This night is weird. Let's make it weirder. Let's go to the cemetery."

"You know something," I said. "That idea just completely rules. Let's do it. Everybody?"

Everyone agreed that it was a good idea. How appropriate can you get? Halloween at a graveyard.

Sam parked the jeep just down the road from the cemetery and we walked up the hill and entered the land of the dead. Greyson's Cemetery is really cool. Most of the graves near the front of the cemetery are the newer ones, but we headed towards the back where things really get awesome. The back is the older section, complete with massive creepy looking headstones and mausoleums with large columns. Leprous trees dot the grass, giving the cemetery an almost stereotypical look. Red lights, situated around the graves, provide an eerie glow, as if the dead themselves are giving us something so we can see in the dark. Some of them had dimly-lit candles.

A few years ago some kids disappeared in here. I went to middle school with the youngest one. He was a mute with the nickname Silence. I can't remember his real name. Most people think they simply drowned in the lake.

The only person who was a little creeped out by the whole thing was Allison. She held on to Julian like some damsel in a B-grade horror movie. Sam wasn't scared in the slightest, in fact, I think she liked it more than Vlad or I did—she was kind of a gothic chick after all.

The only time that I felt a little weirded out was when we passed Alisa Hanes freshly dug grave. It had no gravestone but we all knew it was hers. It seemed too weird that only a few weeks ago she had smiled at me in the hall and now I was walking over her grave.

We got to the end of the graveyard and sat on the steps of the largest mausoleum. The name Jakep Crowlin was printed over the front of it. He had died in the Victorian era. A large rotting pine tree resided just to the left of the stone structure, its branches threatening to break off in decay.

"Didn't a bunch of kids vanish in here a few years back?" Julian asked.

"They were last seen here," I said. "I don't know if it really happened here, though."

I sat up against the stone wall. Sam sat between my legs and I held her tightly. Julian and Allison went for a walk, but we really knew that "walk" meant "make out". Vlad did his best to look through the dirty window of the mausoleum.

"Do you ever wonder what it's like to die?" Samantha asked, rubbing my knee.

The question took me off guard, even though it shouldn't have. We were in a graveyard amongst the dead after all. When she said that I realized I would probably be buried in this cemetery, if I really did decide to kill myself in May. Probably not too far from where Alisa was buried. It was such a strange and incredibly lonely thought. Eternity in this place?

"Ask Vlad," I finally said, moving into safer territory. "He's the one that once said death is the ultimate high."

Vlad, realizing that he wasn't going to be able get into the crypt, joined us. He grimaced as he sat down, probably from his healing ribs. "I think about it all the time. I wouldn't mind checking out."

I felt Samantha go tense. "You're serious, Gary? You really think your life isn't valuable?"

"I have my moments," Vlad said, staring off into the tombstones. "There are times when I feel that life isn't so bad. And then Ross Morrissey nearly kills me. Sometimes I really would rather be dead."

"You'd just kill yourself?" Sam asked, her voice rising. "You have friends. You have people who care about you. I'm sure your family does."

"My family doesn't give a shit about me," Vlad answered. "Not a day goes by that my father doesn't call me 'faggot'. My Mom pretty much just ignores me. Hell yeah, I'd kill myself. The next life has gotta be better than this one."

"At least it's warm outside tonight," I said in a desperate bid to change the subject. This whole topic was just a bit too close to home to suit my taste.

Sam ignored me. "Do you realize how selfish suicide is? How many people you'll change just by doing it? Everybody who even slightly knew you would feel they might have been able to do something to prevent it. The people around you would have to live with that kind of guilt for the rest of their lives. Could you really do that to the ones who care about you?"

Vlad smiled bitterly. "I didn't say I was going to kill myself anytime soon, Sam. Actually I feel pretty good lately. What Harlan and Julian did for me was cool. I think it was the first time anyone ever did anything for me. I'll tell you what. If I ever decide to shoot myself in the head, I'll talk to Harlan first, okay?" Vlad stood up. "I'm going to check out this place. It's really cool here at night." He walked around the other side of the crypt and Sam and I were alone.

Samantha turned around and wrapped her legs around me. She pulled the fake glasses off of her face. "Hello, you."

I kissed her on the forehead. "Hi. Beautiful night, wouldn't you say, my love?"

Sam pulled the hat off of my head and ran her hands through my hair. "Are you happy, Harlan?"

"Nope," I said jokingly. Only she didn't like the joke at all, judging by the way she flinched and then frowned. I kissed her on the lips. "Of course I'm happy, Sam. I've never been happier. And it's all your fault too."

She hugged me tightly until I could feel her breasts against my chest. "I'm happy too."