On Halloween Eve, as kids run around in costumes and parents fill the streets, the Grim Reaper gathers all into a huddle, trying to sound like a coach giving a halftime pep talk.
“Okay, everyone, this is the one night we can just walk around and just be – let’s not do anything to jeopardize the other 364 days, or the rest of our existential existence…”
The Coven of Witches chimes in, “Now we finally get to wear our hats properly!”
Grim looks at Glenda and asks, “Did you really put a bicycle seat on your broom?”
“You have no idea how much more comfortable it is now.”
“Ok…As long as you stop waving that twig around and threatening to turn everyone into newts, we should be good.”
The Ghosts glide by, swirling the stolen sheets around them all and drifting ahead of them.
Turning to talk to the clowder of Black Cats, “Kitties, stop chasing all the foil Hershey Kisses wrappers and stay out of the cardboard recycling bins!”
“Vlad, love that you’re drinking the O- inside a Capri Sun cover. Good thinking!”
“Thank you, is the Ferryman not coming again this year?”
“No,” says Grim sarcastically, “he still does his gig at Halloween Horror Nights, he says he likes scaring them all in one place.”
Looking over to the 7-foot-tall Lycan, Lucian, “good thing there isn’t a full moon tonight, someone has to be responsible for the rear.”
Lucian growls in response to the compliment.
Suddenly, a cloud of Bats is flying above them, chasing Draven the Raven.
Grim turns to the murder of Crows hopping about and perched on several of their shoulders, “Seems like your cousin is starting trouble, do you know what he’s doing?”
Several caws are happening all at once, but all heads turn around at the musical voice.
‘Hee, hee – hee, hee,” a Zombie sings behind them.
“MJ, what are you doing here? We were about to go to the park to do the flash mob with everyone?”
He points his bony fingers up to the Raven, who now everyone sees that he has a silver sequined glove in his beak, and the bats are chasing him around.
“Draven, if you don’t get down here with that right now, MJ can’t lead everyone into Thriller, which is the best part of the night.”
Reluctantly, Draven flies down to the ground as the Bats circle lower above the trees, looking down at the crowd of families going door to door getting their Halloween treats. He hops over to MJ and puts the glove down at his feet, looks over at Grim, and bows his head.
“We’re going to have a conversation about this later Draven…”
They all head to the park where the town has gathered to see the fireworks, and the stage is set up for the final performance. There is a big screen playing the original 14-minute-long Thriller music video. MJ turns around to Grim and everyone, slides his glove back on his bony fingers, and salutes them. He moonwalks to the front to cheers from the town and stands with his backup zombies as one of the audio techs cues up the music. Grim and the rest of the Menagerie get in line at the back of the crowd, waiting for the intro.
Grim looks over at Lucian and says, “Hollywood still got that wolf transition wrong; yours is much smoother,” and Lucian huffs in response.
When the cemetery scene ends, and the dancing begins, everyone is watching MJ, and the backup zombies start to dance as everyone follows along. Grim taps his scythe on the ground as the rest of the Menagerie start following along with MJ’s moves on the stage. For a few minutes on this one evening a year, the Menagerie of Misfits is not the scariest beings of the night. Blending in seamlessly with all, they enjoy just being part of the world for some small semblance of time before heading back to their positions of the Night.