Trick Or Treat

Trick Or Treat

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"Tanith wiped the blood off the carving knife and, ignoring the body of the man she had just stabbed to death, went back to carving her jack-o-lantern."

Trick Or Treat
Trick Or Treat
Author	Derek Landy
Cover Artist	Tom Percival
Date Published	Halloween 2011
Date Set In	Halloween 2011
Publisher	HarperCollins
No. of pages	12
ISBN	ISBN-10: 000756211X ISBN-13: 978-0007562114
Publication Order
'Preceded by Kingdom Of The Wicked'	Followed by Get Thee Behind Me, Bubba Moon

Trick Or Treat is a micro-story written on Halloween 2011 on Derek Landy Blogs Under Duress. It features the Remnant-possessed Tanith Low and Billy-Ray Sanguine. The first line of the story was written by Thalia, as part of a contest for what the first line would be. Other submissions Derek highlighted included "Tanith Low found herself running for all she was worth from a crazy pack of sugar-filled screaming, drooling zombie toddlers." and ""I am going to kill you with this fork," said the man in the grey trenchcoat, standing before Tanith, holding a spoon.". It was re-publised in Armageddon Outta Here in July 2014.

Plot

The story is set on Halloween, beginning with Tanith Low carving a pumpkin after murdering someone. Tanith Low looks outside the window, and sees the battered car of Jerry Ordain, a Sensitive.

She texts Sanguine on her mobile and he arrives in a few moments. Together, they sneak up on Jerry, who is eating a sandwich. Jerry sees them, shrieks, and drops his sandwich. Jerry tries to pretend to be a different Jerry to the Jerry that they are looking for, a disguise which Tanith and Sanguine see right through.

Tanith interrogates Jerry about any visions he may have seen of Darquesse, but realises he is just making it up and is a terrible Sensitive. After further interrogation, Jerry reveals that the other Sensitives are planning to search for four weapons scattered across the world to defeat Darquesse, and gives Tanith a list of the possible locations they will be going. Afterwards, she slices his head off with her sword.

Some kids then arrive, and Tanith lets them take everything in the house, including a TV. One kid, dressed up as a rabbit, nudges Jerry's head with his foot, and concludes it to be obviously fake.

Sequel

This story leads into the Novella The Maleficent Seven. It was included in the collection of short stories published in 2014.

Trivia

• This story, like The Button, only existed electronically, until the publication of Armageddon Outta Here. 
• It contains plot strands that merge with: Skulduggery Pleasant: Kingdom of the Wicked & The Maleficent Seven. The God-Killer weapons appear in both.
• It is the first short story to feature Billy-Ray Sanguine.
• It is the second Short Story to feature Tanith Low, the first being The Slightly Ignominious End To The Legend Of Black Annis.
• It is also the second not to feature Skulduggery Pleasant or Valkyrie Cain.
• Jerry Ordain is mentioned in The Maleficent Seven.

External links

• Derek's blog post with the story in it