Not willing to risk ghosts and ghouls - at least, not by yourself, you shake your head and point at random, indicating that someone else should go first. As luck should fall out it's your cousin, lanky, bespectacled Alex, who gets selected. With a shrug and a disparaging remark "You're such a pansy," he slips through the gate and heads up toward the old haunted mansion.

A few minutes after you see him go through the front door, there's lights flickering in some of the windows, and your little group settles in for what they expect to be a short wait. An hour later, folk are starting to get restless, and Jeff has already left to scope out the parties. Like as not, nothing else will happen tonight, so you almost might as well just head home, and call this Halloween a wash.