Night falls over Tacoma on Halloween, 2022. It had been an unusually sunny and clear week, but this spookiest of nights welcomed back the gloom, the rain, and the hauntingly howling wind, all arriving as if on cue. As excited children, partying adults, and all manner of other excited demographics sprawled throughout the city, nefarious forces began to work unseen.

In a stark white laboratory, a woman with a pristine doctors coat jotted furious notes to the tune of an orchestral vinyl.

"Excuse me, White Queen." A professional looking young man in a black suit tapped on the door frame. The white noise of her writing stopped with a suddenness that would send a shiver down mortal spines.

"I have informed you to not disturb me in the first hour of the night." She does not turn around.

"Forgive me, but I have an important update."

She sighs, despite not taking in breath in the first place. "Very well. Make it quick."

"Progress has been made with the designated targets you've been asking for."

While she didn't grace the man with a full turn around, she did turn her head slightly over her shoulder in excitement. "Truly? How many?"

"Four."

"Only four?"

"Four that are marked, confirmed, and able to be apprehended. Others have proven more...evasive."

"Hmm...The solution has passed standard testing ranges..." She pondered a long time, flicking her pen around her fingers. "Proceed to the next step. Bring them in, and make it easy and painless. With only four, we won't have the safety of spares."

"And their destination?"

"Theta station with the other one. It'll draw the least attention."

"Of course, ma'am." With a curt bow, an order was transmitted.

And the White Queen smiled, gleaming grin full of sharp fangs.

The night pressed on for the rest of the world, as in Tacoma the public had no idea about the genuine monsters that were hiding behind masks and costumes tonight. But one person couldn't be bothered to care at all.

The sardonic Layla Mortimer stood in the middle of a crowded house party, barely wearing a costume outside of an ill-fitting witches hat paired with a black hoodie over simple clothes, although with many compliments for her "Jesse Pinkman costume" she was contemplating getting tighter fitting pants.

It wasn't a party she'd usually be at, as she didn't care for loud music, crowds, strangers, or alcohol...at least not the cheap stuff they had here. But her nominal "friends", the few people she interacted positively with in her mostly online class, convinced her. Said friends were now scattered to the wind, either in the bathroom regretting their choices, or in some bedroom also regretting their choices.

After getting bumped into for the tenth time, her neutrality reached a boiling point and she decided to free herself from the room. Even as she exited the house in the otherwise sleepy north-end neighborhood, the music was too loud as Zombie by the Cranberries, a frequent victim of being erroneously treated like a Halloween song, began to blare.

She walked to the nearest street corner, leaning against the oft ignored stop sign, and began to pull out a cigarette to ease her nerves. But she couldn't even get to her lighter before a strange man in a suit came up to her.

"Excuse me ma'am, I'd like you to come with me." He said, shocking Layla as he was entirely silent up until now.

"Look I know I'm on a street corner and everything, but I'm not for hire."

"I think you misunderstand my intentions."

"I don't care. Buzz off and let me smoke in peace."

He grabbed her by the shoulder, turning her around, made easier by the fact that she was whipping around to slap him for the action. But she didn't get the chance to, as she caught the gleam of eerie green eyes first.

"Follow me."

Against her wishes, her body and mind went slack, cigarette falling out of her mouth, as she followed right behind the suited man into the night.

"And don't come crawling back!" The slam of the door only muffled the string of expletives and curses towards the young man nigh literally tossed out onto the streets.

Mackenzie Otieno had been through this song and dance before. Once his aggressive, bullheaded father grew tired of his younger siblings complaints and needs and questions, he’ll make some half-assed apology or some stern demand. And Mackenzie will return, because what else could he do?

But for now, it was a cold, stormy night, and him and his suitcase needed somewhere to go.

”Maybe over to Nan’s? Nah, she’d raise hell and make threats to him about CPS. That’d just make it worse. Maybe over to Jackie’s place? Ehh, her folks are…weird about me staying over. Shit, maybe I’ll just get a hotel room for the night.”

A few seconds and a bank login afterwards, that hope was dashed as well. “Right, gave it to that fucker for gas.” He hung his head back, letting his dreads fall down in the same direction as the rain hitting his face.

Despite the stormy weather, the moon was breaking through in places, giving some measure of light to his dark brown skin, eyes, and hair, although the latter already had bits of grey and white even though he was only 24.

As he wheeled his suitcase away from his south Tacoma neighborhood, he waited patiently for the next bus to come. It was dark, but not too late in the evening for them to stop running.

”Maybe…maybe I’ll finally ditch ‘em altogether. Maybe go up to Seattle or some shit, gotta be better than here.” He would not get to ponder that thought for long, as instead of a bus, an unmarked van pulled up to the bus stop instead.

He always had a good intuition, something he got from his mother according to his grandmother, but even he couldn’t run in time before a simple command was issued, and his body went slack.

The street was left silent and empty, with only that suitcase remaining.

Meanwhile, further north in the downtown of Tacoma, we enter Club Silverstone, a nominally gay bar that was always full of bodies, beats, and booze.

One gal in particular was feeling the rhythm in a sultry tinker bell costume, whose wings have long since been beaten and battered. But, she was three drinks and two unknown pills past caring, and that was a distant threshold from her sober state.

Myeong-Suk Im loved fading out of herself in tune with music, dance, and the rhythm of a crowd, and a spooky themed evening only made that even more fun for her to get lost in, tossing her chestnut brown hair all over the place, obscuring olive eyes and her light tan, freckled face.

After the latest song faded out, and her next proverbial make out partner of the evening was whisked away by another, she began to move back to the bar for another drink.

But before she could decide what to drink next, her attention was suddenly pulled, like a fish caught on the line, towards a raven-haired young man in the back of the crowd. The crowd nearly parted to let her through, as she glided towards him.

”Hey~. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around here!” She said, feeling more than a little loose and wispy.

”Nah, I don’t get out too much. But you seem like a chick who knows her fun, I got some fun stuff with me, if you’d like?” His words carried a viscous coating to them that would normally made Myeong-Suk wary, but she was not fully present currently, drugs and alcohol aside.

”Yeah, that sounds totally awesome~.”

”Follow me then, we can get a little privacy.” With a sly smile, he quietly led her out the back of the bar without a second trace. The crowd, meanwhile, filled in the room behind her, erasing the aura she had left behind.

“So after that, the raccoons around the lot thought twice before trying to take my food away! Thanks for the company, kid.” A swaddled homeless woman said, happily taking pieces out of a chocolate bar.

”Ay, it’s no thing Shanny! I’m glad I got enough candy to make it to you!” Said her young conversational partner. “But I gotta start gettin back ‘fore shelter curfew starts.” The tall, muscular young man stood to his full height, rustling the water out of his sloppily red-dyed undercut, strands of hair going every-which-way.

”Take care of yourself kid, and stay safe! It’s getting crazier each and every night, I tell ya!” Shannon warned.

”Ah, you don’t gotta worry none, girl! Look at this face, never fails me!” He gave a wide smile and a coquettish wink, making the older woman laugh as she bundled closer.

As he left the block, people waved goodbye from various tents and alcoves. Fitri Wibowo was one of the most optimistic and energetic people you could find, especially given that he was just as unfortunate and disadvantaged as these people, being one of the far too many homeless people of Tacoma. 

But, for better or for worse, he never worried about anything for too long. “Ah dang, now I want some candy! Maybe I can do some trick or treatin’ around here? Nah, you don’t got a costume, dummy!” He reasoned to himself, large duffel bag hoisted onto his shoulders.

As he stepped from underneath the cover of trees, he used his bag to block some of the rain from his eyes as he walked closer to a shelter downtown. “Rainin’ this hard, lotsa people probably already checked in.” He let out a sigh.

”Good thing I’m a heater, but yeesh the wind got a bite tonight!” Before he could lament more, he heard a scream down the street. The second scream of “HELP!” Was much clearer, as he raced down the block.

Seeing two guys in black trying to force a girl into a van, Fitri immediately went on the offensive. “HEY! BACK OFF!” With a plant of his feet and a swing of his duffle bag, Fitri knocked the sense out of one of the attempted kidnappers, before ripping the second one off of the girl, who didn’t hesitate to run away.

Recovering his bag and taking a boxing stance, he prepared himself to fight, or even to get shot, but instead saw both of them smile with sharp teeth. “Nice costumes but kidnappin ain’t a nice trick, and girls ain’t the kinda treats you get neither.”

They sniffed the air, and grinned wider. “No, but you’re on the menu too, kid. Looks like our next stop came to us!”

Before he could react, one of them landed a punch to his chest that forced all the air out of him. In a quick motion, Fitri was flipped and tossed into the van himself. Despite being a foot taller and certainly heavier than his opponents, they treated him like he didn’t weigh much more than his bag.

”Should we go after the girl? I think it’s high time we got rough with her.”

”Nah, she was just an option to fill the ledger. He’s one of the ones Queenie really wants.”

Fitri recovered and tried to lunge at them again, but this time he got a punch with the force of a cannon right to his head, making him ricochet against the floor of the van, and summarily knocking him out.

Within the hour, the eerie, sharp-suited man met up with the other three vans, and the cargo was unloaded. From there, it was only a short drive outside the limits of Fife, to the east of Tacoma.

In a windowless warehouse, seemingly abandoned and left with many threatening and unappealing piles of debris, there sat a room full of cages, most of them empty save for the one against the furthest wall.

The young looking man inside was sitting in silence, with an oddly serene smile on his face despite having one arm mangled and shredded, with the other chained against the wall of the cage.

He hears the door open, and begins to think. “Congratulations, you’re getting some roommates.” The eerie man said.

”Ah, wonderful, another successful night of slave work for the amoral bloodhounds. Get a pretty nickel to get a lollipop with?” The prisoner responded with a wry chuckle.

The eerie man did not honor him with a response, and merely snapped for the guards on duty to bring in the four new subjects. As the prisoners vision adjusted, his smile faded.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, they’re kids!” The sound of his shackle straining was heard.

”Actually, they’re all well into adulthood, between 21 and 26.”

”They’re kids! Especially compared to us! Is money really worth it, you disgusting wretch?”

”Hm. Compared to ‘us’ you say. We are the same type of monster, maybe mind your own glass house before you throw stones.” Two of the cages were opened, as Layla and Myeong-Suk were forced into one, with Fitri and Mackenzie being put into another.

”I don’t kidnap, I don’t enslave, I don’t use people like guinea pigs, and I certainly have enough decency to never target kids like them! We are nothing alike.”

”And that’s why you’re in the cage, while I hold the keys. Don’t worry Mr. Ford, you won’t have to see them for long.” The man flipped open his cell phone.

”Ma’am? Yes, they’ve been apprehended. Mostly safe, minor head trauma to one. I shall be there soon, any instructions for the serums?” His voice began to fade as he exited the room with the guards, locking the sequestered room with an echoing click of finality.

”Enough moping,” The prisoner whispered to himself. “You’ll all die for this.”