Gallows Spire was the oddly foreboding name to what was a pleasant, quaint town. It was tucked away from the big cities as a sprawling suburb with a rich history. The town was almost a century old and had gorgeous countryside, once heavily farmed. Autumn was its busiest season, tourists flocked to the colorful fall foliage that surrounded Gallows Spire and stayed for their festivities. Spring was nice, summer was hot, and winter was nearly picturesque, but for the locals the autumn season was their favorite.
Gallows Spire prided itself on having one of the biggest and bestest Halloween celebrations around. From a fully decorated town, to a big parade, to parties the whole month long and the entire community out on All Hallows Eve to go from house to house for treats, Gallows Spire was a fantastic place to go to for Halloween.
For four friends who loved Halloween the most, Gallows Spire was the best place Yllana Moongleam, Bernice Dunn, Emerson Webb and Rupert Fleming could ever ask to live. Each of them were around ten years old and each of them loved Halloween for their own reasons.
Yllana Moongleam loved Halloween for the mystique. She was something of a strange child, willowy thin, snarling blond-brown hair, a pale complexion and brilliant green eyes. Her family lived off the beaten path in an old house. Although she attended public school her family, mainly a matriarchal one, had different beliefs and practices. They would worship nature, look for signs and portents, and had a wealth of occult lore that Yllana found fascinating. They weren't really wiccan but their reputation about town was that the Moongleam family were witches. Nothing was to show for this, and they weren't shunned for it, but the rumors surrounding the family could be off-putting for some, so Yllana had been slow to make friends.
Bernice Dunn loved Halloween for the treats. She had a hearty appetite and every year had ambitions of making her candy haul bigger than last year's. There were so many tasty foods offered in the fall, from pie to cider season and anything that used pumpkins or marshmallows were her favorites. Bernice was rather chubby and burly, with ruddy skin, long black hair and dark eyes. Although rather pudgy for her age she walked the whole town when trick or treating and had the most stamina of her friends. She liked the outdoors in general, she'd been in her scout troop for 3 years now and they always did something big for Halloween, and for the precious outspoken kid she always found a way to have fun one way or another.
Emerson Webb loved Halloween for the costumes. He liked dressing up, or cosplay, thanks to a healthy diet of fantasy and sci-fi stories. Emerson was a black boy with curly hair and chocolate eyes. He had several older sisters who used to use him as a living doll when he was younger, so he inherited some fashion sense suited for his geeky and Halloween interests. As he got older, Emerson began organizing most of his costumes and made them rather elaborate, such as for a comic convention or for D&D, and he went all out for Halloween. Last time he had been a zombie and everyone had thought he was actually dead just by looking at him!
Rupert Fleming loved Halloween for the pranks. You wouldn't think it, given he was a thin, somewhat sickly looking boy with sharp features and muted red hair. Rupert made a show of being brave and tougher than he looked. While he loved Halloween, he had to be careful because of his weak health as he actually had some allergies to some foods that his friends took for granted. This left his mind sharp, as Rupert had a devious intellect. It was a source of pride for him to come up with spectacular pranks and use his wits to their fullest. He liked watching horror, pulp, and spy movies and often had marathons of them in October. He was a curious lad that read up on several conspiracy theories and had a penchant for investigating local mysteries.
Thanks to their shared interests, these adventurous youth found Halloween and Gallows Spire to be their favorite hangout. Even when they found an activity liked by one, soon each of the friends would try to get the others involved. Given that they would be 10 this year, each of them wanted this to be the biggest Halloween yet!
Did you want to focus on one of the kids first? Or follow them all together?