Treat

"That..." He insisted.

"Yeah?" They said, still not quite following the leader.

"Munching...." He declared.

"Munching Jim?"

"Yeah...like a bunch of mouths...all savoring"

"Yeah?" They said.

"They're favorite"-

"Yeah?" They said.

"Chew toy."

"WATCH OUT JIMMY"

Hordes erupted into the yawning underpass, battle cries shooting from discolored tongues, plastic pitchforks, broadswords, wands, staffs, guns- all brought to the fore, cracking off the skulls of Mark & Carl as they tried charging through our lines with brisk fleshy waaps!

Within seconds we'd encircled the foursome, quickly binding their arms with strands of black string licorice.

Forcing them up against the crumbling wall next, completely subdued, brothers held onto adolescent limbs for dear life, combating years of weight lifting & kiddie hassling-

"You l'il bastards!" Roared Jimmy, lifting a witch & Formula 1 race car driver with both hands & tossing them back onto the roiling masses with little effort, practically china dolls to him as he charged forward with all his pimply, teenaged might.

"Little rotters! You'll pay for this you'll-"

But we'd come from all angles, legions of brightly colored numbers clutching & clawing & biting with every move, piling on top like insects, weighing the group down with nothing but sheer numbers, sheer determination.

"Against the wall" I whispered tersely & even amongst the racket, the victory song, I was obeyed, Jimmy Julie Mark & Carl hauled up against the spray painted neon green pyramid leering down at us, a tremendous serpent sticking out of the superimposed eye balanced at its peak like a giant tongue.

Motioning again, I stepped out of the crowd. No one trailed behind now, sticking to my boots, hovering behind my shoulders & fleeing to cover whenever some challenge was launched their way. Now it was just me.

Me & good 'ole Jimmy boy.

A 2nd wave of my glove & the din quieted, hoots & mocking hollers fading as everyone moved off, taking several steps backward, all except the ones holding Jimmy & his co-horts down:

two vampires with slicked back hair & plastic fangs & long capes, a werewolf donned head to toe in wooly bodysuit that had to be absolutely stifling in the mild autumn air, a hockey masked fiend, except the hockey mask was all wrong, goofy when it should've been ominous, two girls in crusty oatmeal make up caked on in color dyed crimson lumps & torn clothes been some low fi home mad zombie jobs, Italian flower pot variety & a wizard, complete with star encrusted conical cap whom I recognized as Bobby Harris, two seats down from me in math.

They all nodded when I approached, every one of them proving more than a match for their teenage charges, by now ceasing their struggle & instead screaming curses & challenges when I emerged from the crowd:

"You little homo Adolph, let us the hell"-

-"Gonna sharpen my knuckles on yer"-

-"Regret this once were"-

I let them go on for a bit, figuring that like any children chock full of caffeine & milk chocolate & privilege, they'd run themselves dry soon enough.

"Pint sized Pinero!" Carl roared.

And when that didn't bear out, their big mouths in overdrive, I inclined my head.

Two more brothers dressed up as GI Joes separated from the bristling mob, raising their toy rifles. With a swift movement, the plastic butts bashed into two of the captives, one landing squarely in the pit of Julie's stomach, one cracking off the forehead of Carl.

Jule's breath evacuated her lungs in a brisk gasp, Carl's head splitting open & shooting blood.

Both doubled over.

Needless to say, the underpass was now totally quiet, faces behind me -the ones not hidden behind latex & thick make up- pulling into satisfied smirks.

Jimmy though, Jimmy glared daggers at me, clenching his jaw.

"Little shits" he whispered. "When I get free I'm gonna grind every one of those smartass little smirks into the rocks ya hear? Your heads won't just be leaking Paint."

A plastic baton cracked off Jimmy's collarbone- once, twice three times flat; he went sagging in the other's grip, just like his pals.

"Quiet now" I said, smiling. "You're only making this worse on yourselves."

Jimmy spat at my foot.

I reeled back, wiping off the runner of spittle from my boot, grinding the black toe into the dirt over & over again.

The snapshot of salvia, oozing down in a slow rush, was just the sort of repulsive stunt the high schooler numbskulls were famous for, green loogie being merely one in an arsenal of signature outrages.

Harder & harder I ground my foot down, dropping my nightstick & kicking up a cloud of dirt.

Everyone orbiting me leapt back, watching intently.

Jimmy just laughed.

I made myself stop, standing straight again. Another hush fell over the horde, wondering eyes watching with dull expectation. Jimmy kept cackling, even as his girl wept & best friend doubled over with split head dangling, he continued chortling like a Hyena, like he was the only one privy to some spectacular joke.

I caught a glimpse of Geordie, bow tie undone, pushing forward to the front with his narrow expressionless face, swallowing...

...And without thinking, stomped towards the hill of stolen goods, dunking a hand into the bon bon mountain, not bothering to check what I pulled forth, simply tearing off the wrapper grasping the sticky sweets & marching forward towards Jimmy.

He sure stopped braying when the handful of peanut butter cluster filled his yap, packing that endless beak chock full of melted sugary sludge, smack full of goobery orange-ish brown sliding onto his black shirt in a colorful smear.

As I reached for more, helpful hands placed unwrapped goodies in my palm; he had no choice but to swallow, making room for more gobfulls of junk lest he choke on the stuff.

Head honcho gargled like a clogged john, more mouthfuls of slime leaking out in gooey freefall & watching with wide eyes, Julie started to wail, low throaty snarl like a hound whose hind legs just snagged a steel toothed trap, quickly rising into a piercing shriek, rarely pausing to breathe as on & on she went.

More hands appeared, holding piles of dough as my fellows joined the show, cramming Julie's mouth full of sugar just to shut her up, thank god.

Following my lead they all started gathering up loads of plunder, shedding cellophane & lining up for the privilege of force feeding the four, smearing candy shells & chocolate & crumpled potato chips all over their faces when big mouths wouldn't take anymore, all building up like grisly makeup.

We were all smiling again; wide beaming faces & in some cases, personal cell phones, held up in the firelight to snap pictures, freezing this warm memory in time.

By now all four sported thick skins of store bought mucous, brown puddles smeared over dazed faces, unidentifiable bits studding the mud.

Beside me Gavin chuckled.

Kyla bounced up & down.

I turned back to Geordie, hanging back at the throng of the crowd. Without speaking Michelle dropped a handful of Smarties into his hand on her way by.

Like the others she joined in on the fun, by now simply whipping candies at the undulating blobs on the ground & crying out hoarsely,hysterically, as more sugary treats were dumped.

"C'mon Geordie" Michelle called, and then pitched a Lindor chocolate ball straight at Mark's caramel covered face. It bounced off his skull, landing in the vast stew that was building with each new volley. "It's fun."

Some jeered, some remained silent, all pitching handfuls of teeth rotters as hard as they could, trying to let arms & legs absorb as much of the impact so the fun could go on.

All four still wailed like stuck pigs.

More & more cell phone cameras went off as Geordie approached, replacing the fire light with splashes of brilliance on the crumbling wall.

We watched him with hands half drawn, sweet meat poised, not quite sure of this sudden development.

Jules looked up from beneath the curdled soup of fresh Halloween treats, the paste only seeming to magnify her stare.

She spoke out from a mouthful of liquefied Nibs that should've choked a cow, rasping, somewhere between a whisper & a curse:

"Please, please do something."

There was an unspoken cease fire as Geordie walked right up to Jules, leaning down & smearing a Jose Luis all over those big eyes, grinding the pastry cream up her nose, over her cheeks, into her mouth & with one abrupt movement raising a foot and shoving her off her haunches & onto the gravel with her friends.

I unfastened my own phone, peering through the tiny view screen & pushing the shutter button.