October 31st had snuck up on Stephanie again. She sat alone in her dorm room and ate popcorn, only half paying attention to the running stream of scary movies on the television. She hated Halloween. When she was younger it used to be her favorite time of year, but once she moved away to college it all changed. Now it was a time for young children to have fun, and young adults like her to hand out the candy, rather than receive it.
The smell of the rotting pumpkin her roommate had carved filled the dorm room with a putrid odor, and made Stephanie want to gag. She thought about her roommate, Brenda, and all the fun she must be having at the costume party she was attending that night.
Stephanie, however, sat alone and let her mind wander. She recalled the old days when Halloween used to be fun, and sat there eating the popcorn and the candy that Brenda had set out for the trick-or-treaters. None had come by the dorm room in quite awhile, and it was getting late. She decided to lock the door and call it a night, ending the day and finishing what had turned out to be the worst Halloween yet in her short twenty-two years.
Stephanie blew out the candle in the intricately carved pumpkin her roommate had created, and turned off all the lights as she made her way to bed.
There was a chill in the air, and she opened the one window in the dorm to let the breeze in while she climbed into bed. She undressed, and pulled the covers over her naked body before the cool air had a chance to sweep over her bare flesh.
She lay there in bed, waiting for the sandman to visit and carry her off into the dream world.