Gloria

A worried boyish-sounding voice washed over her.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!”

It hit her an instant later.

Mask.

It was a boy, and he was wearing a mask.

Gloria took a deep breath. The look of pure panic on his pale face was enough to help settle her nerves. Sure, he scared the daylights out of her, but he seemed as if he was even more frightened than she was.

He wasn’t quite a boy, she realized. She put him at seventeen, maybe eighteen. Definitely old enough to know better than to run into the road without stopping—especially since he was wearing a Halloween mask. Freckles spattered across his pale face, green eyes narrowed in obvious worry. A tuft of messy red hair poked out from beneath the hood of his dark sweatshirt as he peered into Gloria’s driver’s side window.

She wasn’t the type to yell or scold. Now that her fright was over, Gloria was more concerned that he was okay. She didn’t hit him or anything, did she? It had all happened so fast.

Rolling her window down so that he could hear her, she said, “Hey? Are you alright?”

“You’re not Natalie,” he blurted out.

“Um. No. Sorry.”

He gulped. “It’s me. I’m the one who’s sorry. It’s my fault. Is your car okay?”

Good question. The car still had power since she was able to roll her window down, but the whine of her engine was noticeably quiet. It wasn’t a new car—she’d had it since Nana helped her buy it seven years ago when she first got her license—and it could be temperamental at times.

Gloria turned the car off. Then, with a flick of her wrist and a prayer whispered beneath her breath, she switched the ignition on again. The engine came back to life.

Thank God.

He let out a noticeable sigh of relief.

“No one’s ever on this road,” he added next, as if trying to explain. “I—

oh, jeez, I was trying to cut across and spook my cousin. Natalie, okay? She lives on the other side of the trees, over that way.”

The teen pointed across the road, toward a thick row of trees that sat on the other side. Gloria turned in her seat to look. She could just about make out houses in the distance.

“She claimed there wasn’t anything to be afraid of on Halloween. I bought this mask down at Jefferson’s to scare her. I guess I wasn’t looking where I was going but, honest, miss, this is like the first car I’ve ever seen on this street during the day. Most of us usually stick to Main.”

He was babbling. That had to be the adrenaline talking, plus the close call from nearly running headfirst into Gloria’s car. He spoke like he thought she should know what the heck he was going on about.

She had no clue.

Gloria didn’t have the heart to say so, though her stomach sank a little at his last comment. Most of us usually stick to Main… yeah, that was a bit of a problem. After she found the hidden exit off the highway, traveled through the narrow path that led into town, bounced over the cobblestone road, and avoided falling into the bottomless pit that sat near the wooden Welcome to Hamlet sign she passed, Gloria thought she made it to Main Street.

Guess not.

Crud.

He took a deep breath, probably to continue in his rambling apology, when Gloria cut him off. “Hey, hey… it’s okay. I’m fine, you’re not hurt, and my car’s still running. No harm, no foul, alright?”

“I— yeah, I guess. It’s just… I’m so sorry if I scared you. You’re not Natalie.”

“Yup. We already established that. Not Natalie. My name is Gloria.”

“Ethan. And, again, I’m so sorry.”

The teen—Ethan—would keep on apologizing for as long as she sat there and let him. She could do that, or she could use the local kid’s information to her advantage.