Jim Peterson woke up to the incessant buzzing of his doorbell. Today was  Halloween, the one night of the year that he dreaded the most. He tried to avoid it by leaving the lights off outside of his house so it looked like he wasn’t home.

That didn’t stop this year’s trick-or-treaters. After attempting to ignore the doorbell, he gave in and answered. A young boy stood there dressed in a bloody-faced Ghostface costume and shouted out, “Trick or treat!”

“Listen, I don’t have any candy ok?” Jim told him curtly and started closing the door.

“But it’s Halloween,” the kid said, disappointed.

“No. It’s not,” Jim responded, “It’s October 31.”

After he closed the door, he wanted to make sure that Ghostface actually left and had walked back to his mother, who was dressed as a witch. He gestured towards Jim’s house until she ushered him away. 

“Good riddance,” Jim thought to himself and went to bed so he could avoid more trick-or-treaters.

The buzzing doorbell woke him up, but hadn’t he gone to sleep in his bed, not here, on the couch? He stood up, feeling groggy. How did he get here? Jim went to answer his door, confused.

“Trick or treat!” 

Five kids, including Ghostface, said, smiling. Jim stared at them blankly, trying to process what he was seeing. He could have sworn he had gone to sleep, and he didn’t sleepwalk, so what happened?

“I don’t have candy,” Jim said, and they all groaned and walked away. He started to panic, so he told himself he hadn’t actually fallen asleep at all; this was just déjà vu. He was just going to go to bed and fall asleep for real this time.

And then came the doorbell. His heart started to race; this wasn’t possible. He definitely went to bed last night but here he was for the third time. When this group of trick-or-treaters left, he rushed upstairs and locked himself in his bedroom. This time, he was going to stay up all night and make sure that it became November 1st.

But again, the doorbell. He must’ve fallen asleep. Jim started trying everything he could to change his fate as the nights went on. He tried scaring the kids off, leaving the house entirely, and even going to the police. But he always fell asleep, whether he meant to, and he always woke up on the same Halloween night. 

And every night he would see Ghostface in the crowd.

But he realized that he never had candy. If he gave them what they wanted, maybe he would get released. So, Jim sped to the nearest CVS and bought the cheapest bag of candy. When he arrived home, the kids who were at his door when he left had all stayed, waiting for him to return.

He gave them all of the candy and once they were gone, Jim sprinted to bed and threw himself into bed, hoping that this was the last time.

Jim woke up in bed and a sense of relief washed over him. Halloween was finally over.

Later that morning, as Jim made small talk with his barista at a local coffee shop, he told her, “I can’t believe Halloween is over. Time for Christmas shopping, huh?”

The barista furrowed her brow and chuckled lightly, “What do you mean? Today is Halloween.