Once Upon a Halloween by Richard Laymon

"That's where we need to go. The old Witherspoon house."
        Bret grinned. "Gonna go and see Laura and Shannon?"
        "Well," Jeff said, "I suppose we'll start looking somewhere near there, anyway."
        "Grrrrrr-ate!"
        "Don't get your hopes up, dwarf," Phyllis said. "We won't be ringing their doorbell."
        "We will, too. Won't we, Dad?"
        "We'll see," Jeff told him.
        " 'We'll see,' " Phyllis mimicked. "That's grown-up for 'No way in hell, dickhead.' "
        Weary of Phyllis, Jeff said, "As a matter of fact, since they didn't answer their door when we went there the first time, maybe we should give it another try. No harm in that."
        "We can ask if they've seen Gary and Rosie and Doug," Bret said.
        Naturally, he would remember the names of the missing kids.
        "Who says they'll even come to the door?" Phyllis asked.
        "Didn't last time."
        "Oh, they will. They're my friends. I'm pretty sure they are."
        When Bret said that, Rhonda reached over to him and ruffled his hair. He beamed at her.
        Mandy watched, a strange look on her face as if she didn't know whether to be amused or troubled. A corner of her mouth twitched. Then she turned to Jeff, "Do you know where it is?"
        "Where what is?"
        "Jeez, Dad. The Witherspoon house."
        "Yeah, I think so."
        "You don't know, do you?"
        "I'm sure I can find it," he said. "I mean, we were just there. Not just there, but..."
        "I'll lead the way," Mandy said. "I know exactly where it is." She gestured for her father to move. He stepped aside. She went striding between him and Rhonda, saying, "Follow me."
        Out front, Bret shifted his treat bag to his other hand and took hold of his sister's hand.
        Jeff smiled at Rhonda. "Mandy," he said, "has a thing about being in control."
        "She seems to be very smart," said Rhonda.
        "Oh, she is. She might or might not be as smart as she thinks she is, but she is smart."
        Mandy glanced over her shoulder. "I heard that."
        "Sorry."
        

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
        
        "I'm not gonna trade kids for them," Hunter said.
        "Suit yourself."
        "That'd be sick."
        "Up to you," she said.
        "I'll trade you back to your group, that's all." He stepped away from the upstairs newel post and put on his shoes. "Let's get you something to wear first."
        She smiled. "You don't really wanta do that, do you?" Still standing in the bathroom doorway, leaning sideways with her arms and ankles crossed, she gave her shoulders a little shake. Hunter watched her breasts wobble from side to side.
        "Gotta... Shannon's stuff might fit you."
        "Up to you." Eleanor uncrossed her ankles, nudged the door fame with an elbow, and stood up straight.
        "That way." Hunter pointed down the hallway with the sword. "If s that room there. You go first."
        She started walking. "Just don't let something get me, okay? My ass gets killed in this spook house, I won't make much of a trade-in."
        "I'll take care of you," Hunter followed her down the hallway toward Shannon's bedroom "That door there," he said.
        It was the door he'd stood behind when trying to hide from Laura and Shannon - the door that had concealed him while Shannon wandered around naked, talking to him, trying to tempt him out of hiding though she hadn't realized he was in the same room with her.
        Eleanor stepped through the doorway. Hunter went in behind her. The bedroom's lights were still on.
        A few strides into the room, Eleanor turned around and faced him. Smirking, she said, "What would you like me to wear?"
        "Doesn't matter. You just can't go around like that. We'll be outside. Somebody might see you."
        "Not too likely if we go out the back. Nothing between here and the graveyard. Just trees and darkness. But I guess you know that,