It was the evening of October 30th. All Hallow’s Eve had the small Georgia town under its spell –all but two citizens. Lisa and Henry were rebels with a cause. They‘d both had an overdose of trickery, delivered by the likes of Frank Eastley and his henchmen. Every Halloween, several unfortunate souls were chosen to be on the receiving end of Frank’s particular brand of victimizing.

Last year, Lisa and two of her girlfriends were appointed that distinction for rejecting Frank, Todd and Jarred’s blatant advances. They were the targets for a revenge plot, masquerading as a harmless Halloween prank. In reality, Frank’s gang didn’t handle rejection well and it was vendetta time for the unlucky girls. The terror trio didn’t count on Henry. In fact, they counted him out completely. Lisa and Henry were best friends since second grade, and she never, ever, counted Henry out of her life when the chips were down.

There’s a fine line that separates a faked terrorism plot from the real thing. On that night, one year ago, the line was invisible. Suffice it to say, the police were called out before the prank could be completely played out, but Frank and his buddies were only given pulpit warnings and a slap on the wrist by Officer Burns. Burns also happened to be Frank's cousin, who was quite comfortable with a permanent position in Frank's pocket.

“I’m glad we agreed to stay in and write. I still get the shakes when I think about last year,” Lisa said while pulling two chairs together in front of her desk. Even though she was comforted by Henry’s undying loyalty, her chestnut eyes echoed terror in place of their usual warmth.

“Never cared much for all the Halloween hype anyway; no biggie. It’s not like I had to R.S.V.P. any parties to be here.” Henry nervously brushed wisps of baby fine brown hair from his generous forehead as he sat next to Lisa, always a nice place to be.

He was slightly embarrassed by the fact that in his entire twenty years, he’d only had three dates, and it was well documented that Lisa was one of them. They went to the Senior Prom together because, as Lisa put it, “It’s great when your best friend can also be your date without risk of being called ‘gay’.” And then there’s the ever-popular, “We’ll have much more fun than if we were with real dates.” Of course, she was right on both counts, but Henry actually had a lifelong crush on Lisa. It was the unspoken truth in their relationship.