How It All Goes Down
Hallow E'en
- Marian had sent Ethan and Lena off with all the papers she had on Genevieve and Ethan Carter, including their old letters.
- Now it's Halloween, and at school, a lot of the kids have dressed up. Ethan and Lena have not. Party poopers.
- The costumes are super creative this year: Link and the rest of the basketball team are dressed up as cheerleaders, and Emily and the cheerleading squad are all dressed as stereotypical witches—pointed hats, black boots, the whole nine yards.
- But here's the kicker: the girls have also drawn giant crescent moons on their cheeks in a gross imitation of Lena's birthmark.
- The cheerleaders toss out a variety of unimaginative insults, but Ethan and Link stand up for Lena.
- This time, Lena manages to control herself—no lightning storms or tornadoes.
- Later, when the girls attempt to wipe the fake birthmarks off their faces, they can't. They all thought they had used an eyeliner pencil, but they had somehow used Sharpie instead.
- Awesome.
- Ethan invites Lena over to his house for Halloween, but she has to go home because it's a High Holiday. Important Caster business, you know.
- Alone, Ethan stays home to watch The Shining and pass out candy. (Note: Shmoop does not recommend watching The Shining by yourself—believe us, we've tried.)
- Oh, and by pass out candy, we mean he dumps it all into a bowl and leaves it outside for trick-or-treaters to take. Very friendly of you, E.
- A knock on the door wakes him up. He's scared (we told you not to watch The Shining by yourself…), so he grabs an old video game console to bludgeon any unwanted intruders over the head. Just in case.
- Weird. Link's mom is at the door. She brought brownies.
- And wait, it gets weirder: Ethan tries to open the door, but every time he unlocks it, it re-bolts by itself. It's like his dad's study door again, except in reverse.
- Mrs. Lincoln starts to tell Ethan how evil Lena is, and she tries to get him to take her brownies.
- She wants to come in, but Ethan won't have any of it. She tries to shove the plate toward him, but it just stops, hitting an invisible wall. It falls to the ground and shatters.
- What the?
- Without a word, Mrs. Lincoln leaves, and Ethan goes back to sleep.
- He wakes up to a snowy TV when Lena's voice screams for help in his head. Yikes.
- Ethan drives the Volvo to Ravenwood and finds its interior changed again—this time it's an ancient castle.
- Oh, and there's some sort of creepy costume party going on inside.
- Ethan pushes his way through the crowd until he sees Boo Radley, the dog. He follows Boo into a strange chamber. It's kind of like an observatory, but with no ceiling. A pitch black storm swirls above them. (In case you didn't catch on, this is probably a sign that something bad is happening…)
- Sure enough, Lena is lying on a stone slab surrounded by her entire family chanting in Latin.
- In between chants, they say things like, "she was supposed to be safe" (10.31.197) and "there's no safe haven for her here" (10.31.198). No, that doesn't sound good at all.
- There's also a mention of someone named Sarafine and how her "powers are growing by the day" (10.31.222).
- Lena writhes around as if she's in pain.
- Somehow Ethan breaks through their circle. He hears a strange howl, and the vortex disappears.
- He starts to lose consciousness again, but before he passes out, he hears Arelia (Macon's mother) whispering a protection Cast into his ear.