I Want to be You
by Alex Ebenstein
(250 words)
At eighteen, Jed was much too old to be trick-or-treating. He knew it, and so did the elderly man whose head poked through the opened front door.
“And what’re you supposed to be?”
Jed, wearing jeans and a black hoodie, carried a plastic grocery bag for candy. “Bored.”
The man cracked a smile. “Sorry, kid, I don’t have candy.”
“What else you got?”
“Cocky little bastard.” He laughed. “Want a drink?”
Jed beamed and nodded. Perhaps too vigorously, but the man didn’t notice or care, and disappeared into his house. What great Halloween fortune? Jed had left his parents’ lame party because they wouldn’t let him drink the punch.
The man returned with two small cups containing reddish-brown liquid. They clinked glasses and Jed tossed the drink back. He gagged but forced the bitterness down.
The man laughed again. “It’s a homebrew. Good, yeah?”
“Mmm,” Jed said quietly. “Good. Thanks.”
“Thank you.”
Jed turned to go. He made it five steps before his legs froze. He fell, limbs paralyzed.
“They say the best part about Halloween is you can be anything.” The man flipped Jed over. “Or anyone.”
He held a knife and dragged the blade down the side of Jed’s face. He followed the jawline with the precision of a surgeon, under the chin, and back up the other side.
Lances of pain radiated from Jed’s head, but he couldn’t move. He couldn’t scream.
The man tugged the skin away. A perfect mask.
“Tonight, I want to be you.”