Twelve new horror stories, all set on the one night of the year when everybody's somebody else.

Every story in this collection is told in the first person by someone who was there, years later or that same night. They tell you exactly what happened, plainly, the way you'd tell it across a kitchen table. Some of these stories could have happened. Some of them couldn't. The narrator never finds out which.

Inside:

John Doe. A college student takes a weekend job playing a corpse in a haunted house. Lie still. Keep your eyes closed. Never touch the props.

On Maple. A divorced dad lets his eleven-year-old go trick-or-treating alone for the first time. He can follow the boy's phone on a map. He must never call.

The Night Drop. A woman keeps her late mother's costume shop open one October at a time, and every return comes back through the night drop.

Flag Fourteen. A father takes his daughter, who is afraid of the dark, into a corn maze after dark. If you're lost, raise your flag and stay put.

Bring Whoever. A man throws the first party in his first house. The most helpful guest there is wearing a horse's head.

Leave One. Every Halloween the town's kids leave candy on a little girl's grave. Leave one. Never take one.

The Popcorn Ball. A woman keeps her elderly neighbor's Halloween tradition while he's in the hospital, exactly the way he asked.

Come Down. A mother promises to act normal during her daughter's sleepover, then lies down with her ear to the heating grate.

Seasonal Help. The overnight stocker at a pop-up Halloween store knows every blind spot on the cameras.

Mischief Night. Every year somebody soaps one word on one window in town. This year a nurse sits up in the dark to catch them.

Same Address. On the busiest night of a cab driver's year, he never turns down a fare.

Twice. The rule for the empty house at the end of Larch Street: knock twice, never three times.

No gore and no monsters you can see coming. Just ordinary people, ordinary places, and the one night something went wrong.

Contains death, including the death of a child; disappearances; serious injuries; and harm to an animal.

Narrated with a synthesized (AI-generated) voice.

Halloween

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