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We did a few blocks, filled his little bucket until he was satisfied, and went home. I smiled when he smiled, took pictures, let him eat more candy than I normally would, and made sure he had a good time… but that was as much as I could give Halloween.

For Kaidence, I could survive costumes and trick-or-treating.

I still couldn’t celebrate the night Caspian disappeared.

When I faced Willow again, her brows were drawn together in genuine confusion.

“That’s actually the weird part about the whole thing.”

I frowned, narrowing my eyes. “What?”

“Lakelyn, I know how you feel about Halloween, so you have to know I wouldn’t have deliberately done this to you. I swear to God. It was like I woke up yesterday morning, and somebody planted the whole idea in my head and convinced me to go through with it."

I pursed my lips. “Imagine that.”

“I know how crazy that sounds… probably as crazy as all this other shit that has been happening around here.”

Touché.

I couldn’t even argue with that without sounding like a hypocrite.

We had groceries that appeared overnight, a large lump sum of money that mysteriously landed in my bank account, lights flickered on command, Kaidence’s entire bedroom transforming while we ate breakfast, and enough strange activity in that mansion to get us our own paranormal investigation show.

At this point, Willow saying somebody had dropped a Halloween party idea into her head probably wasn’t even the craziest thing I had heard all week.

I rubbed my temple. “Okay. Fine. I’ll give you that. But even if I believe somebody put the idea in your head, your ass still picked up the phone and sent out invitations. And don’t even try to blame the ghost for that wording,” I added, holding up the screenshot. “‘If you see a ghost, mind your business. If he’s fine, send him my way’? That was all you.”

Willow’s mouth twisted as she reread the line.

“Okay, that does sound like me… maybe a little too much like me, actually.” She frowned and shook her head. “Seriously, I had the idea floating around in my head, but I swear I don’t even remember physically sitting down at my laptop and sending all those blast invitations out. I remember thinking it would be fun, maybe coming up with a few ideas for the theme, and then the next thing I know, I checked my phone and people were already RSVPing like I had announced Beyoncé was performing in the backyard.”

I eyed her skeptically.

Willow threw her hands up. “I’m serious, Lakelyn! I had people texting me about costumes, asking if they could bring dates, wanting to know if the bar was open, and I’m sitting there thinking, When the hell did I even send this shit? I know how it sounds. Trust me, nobody is more concerned about the possibility that I got spiritually peer-pressured into event planning than me.”

Willow pressed her lips together tightly, trying to hold it in, before she lowered her head and burst into helpless giggles.

I pointed a finger at her nose. “This is not funny, Willow!”

“I’m sorry… kinda. But only because I really didn’t send those invitations… at least I don’t remember!” She took a deep breath, wiping a tear of laughter from her eye. “But you have to admit the flyer design is cute.”

I closed my eyes, praying for patience. “Jesus.”

“Girl, look at the aesthetic!”

“The aesthetic is not the issue!”

Willow sighed, throwing her hands in the air. “Okay, but you expect me to believe you and Caspian had ghost sex in the master bedroom, but you can’t believe I had a sudden supernatural urge to throw a party?”

My head whipped around toward her so fast I heard my neck pop. “We did have sex… and I am sticking to that!”

“Okay!”

“Don’t ‘okay’ me! That is nothing like you going completely behind my back and planning a whole fucking neighborhood event in my house!”

Willow reached for both of my hands before I could pull away, wrapping hers tightly around mine.

The playful energy she usually carried was gone, replaced by something much more serious. She didn’t look like my loud, joking sister anymore; she looked tired and worried, almost as if whatever she was about to say had been sitting on her chest for a long time.