Part Fifteen
AN AWESOME HALLOWEEN FEAST

Halloween was approaching, and as it was one of the most important festivals in the United States, she’d told the American Entities they could celebrate. They looked forward to Halloween — though, being predominantly tribal gods and totems, they had no idea what the festival was about. But that didn’t stop their enthusiasm, especially when some skulls appeared above them on Halloween Eve.
“Halloween skulls, come and sit with us,” begged Yei. The others clapped or if without hands, tapped their pillars invitingly. “There’s plenty of space.”
“And read us something creepy. Perhaps ‘A School Story,’ by M. R. James, arguably the greatest ghost-story writer of all time,” offered Rosemary’s Baby, who had a surprisingly erudite literary knowledge for a newborn.
The visiting skulls refused. “Watch our fireworks,” they ordered, telling them to look up as they started the display. A few stars appeared briefly in the dark, and the glowing eyes of the skulls seemed suddenly brighter. The Entities suddenly knew they’d been hypnotized and felt impelled upwards to the visitors’ mouths. The smaller ones, who reached them first, were being munched on before they knew what was happening.
Rosemary’s Baby, though small, was protected by the hood of his pram, said it reminded him of the spell La Belle Dame Sans Merci had cast around the knight-at-arms. “Keats,” he told them and was discoursing on the poet’s obsession with death when Barbara entered.
She told him to shut up and grabbed the Petroglyphs and Totem Pole before the skulls completely swallowed them. They had bits missing but could be repaired; however, all that remained of the stuffed Alligator was the head. She patted it, said it was still a sacred totem, and then told the skulls to go, or she’d get the Rejects Box and lock them inside it with the Poltergeist. They’d all heard of it and vanished as quickly as they had appeared.
She wondered about the skulls. What had caused them to materialize? And the Poltergeist from a few days ago, who had invited him? But the skulls had gone, and right now, what the American entities needed was a lecture on Dangers with Strangers. Some began crying before she’d even reached the frightening part about the cauldron, so she stopped and promised new gold-leaf trees to make up for the fright they’d all had. She couldn’t fulfill the promise, of course, but she saw they needed comforting.
Barbara, like most gods, was good at making promises she had no intention of keeping.