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Epilogue

"The end!" I announced. I clapped for myself.

Everyone just stared at me. I took the last marshmallow from the bag and put it onto my fire skewer.

"So, what did you guys think?" I asked after nobody said anything. AJ was the first to speak up.

"You're a freak," he declared. "We agreed to tell ghost stories, not describe a Backstreet bloodbath!"

"And why the hell was I a Wookie?" Howie asked.

"And where was I?"

I looked to my right. Lauren was staring at me. She didn't look so happy. An unhappy Lauren usually led to an unhappy Nick.

Uh oh.

"I didn't want you killed," I said sweetly.

"No, he didn't want to include you in the house so that he could pop the cherry of his imaginary hottie," AJ said with a grin.

I glared at him.

"No, that's not it. My story had a moral!"

"What in the world could the moral of that story be?" Brian asked. He looked down at his ring.

"My ring isn't that big," he muttered. Leighanne kissed his cheek.

"No it's not Husband," she whispered.

"The moral," I said loudly. "Was that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover."

"You mean a book like the one you had the killer stuff in my mouth?" Leigh asked. Howie wrapped his arm around her.

"At least you weren't decapitated," he said.

I had expected some compliments on my master storytelling. I was hurt. I stuck the marshmallow into the fire and scooted up on the log that Lauren and I were sharing.

"I think that story's going to scar me for life," Rochelle said. I looked over at her.

"It was that scary?" I asked hopefully.

"No, but having to listen to you describing yourself having sex was traumatizing," she said with a grin.

I grunted.

"Jen and Justin will be glad to know you hacked them into little bits," Howie added.

"I still want to know why you slept with that girl even though you mentioned that you were dating me," Lauren said.

"Don't you remember? He was her very own Make-a-Wish Foundation," AJ said.

Everyone laughed.

"Well, I'm glad I brought so much humor into your lives," I said sullenly. I rummaged around for a graham cracker and slid the gooey marshmallow onto it. I released it from the skewer's hold with a second graham cracker. We had devoured the last of the candy bars an hour ago. I took a bite and leaned back.

"Is that going to be your next movie?" Brian asked. I smiled.

"Maybe it will be. But don't think about asking for a part now that you guys all made fun of me," I said.

"George Lopez can play Howie," AJ said.

"Well maybe hobo-looking Joaquin Phoenix can play you," he shot back.

"He's a good actor," AJ said with a nod. Howie threw up his hands.

"It's getting late," Brian said.

"Is it past your bedtime?" Rochelle teased.

"We're flying back to Atlanta in the morning. We want Baylee to be able to trick-or-treat at home."

"Yeah, we should be going too," Howie said. "We'll see if the babysitter was actually able to put James to sleep."

AJ snorted.

"I see how it is. That's fine. The four of us will continue to enjoy the fire," he said with a wave of his hand towards the crackling flames.

Lauren and I stood up and said goodbye to Brian, Leighanne, Howie, and Leigh. They let themselves out of AJ's backyard. Lauren and I returned to our log.

"I shouldn't even share this log with you," she said. I could tell she was trying not to smile. She folded her arms across her chest. I wrapped an arm around her.

"I'm sorry," I said. "Next time I tell a murder story, I'll make sure you're in it."

"And he'll kill you off first!" Rochelle added.

We all laughed. Overhead the full moon cast a bright glow over our happy little party. It actually smelled like fall. Or maybe it was just the fire. Either way, I felt totally relaxed. Lauren leaned over and kissed my cheek.

"What are you going to do when Halloween is over?" she teased. I laughed.

"I'll count the days until it rolls around again," I said. I pressed her close to me.

"And hopefully next year you'll have a better story," AJ goaded.

I rolled my eyes, but I didn't take it personally. All in all, it had been a good evening, and if I do say so myself, it ended with a fantastic story.

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Author's Note: Happy Halloween!