2.

Z eke had been enchanted for nearly fifty years. He didn't much like it, but he'd long ago given up on finding a way to escape from the prison he was trapped in. He'd been captured by a witch, which was unfortunate.

She'd cursed him.

Also unfortunate.

He also knew that if he didn't find his one true mate to help him break the spell, that tonight would be his last Halloween opportunity. He had to find someone who would love him - truly love him - and he was only freed from his pumpkin prison once a year on Halloween.

He still had to keep the pumpkin head, of course.

The witch wouldn't make things easy on him.

He got to walk around, and he could go to parties, and he could talk, but nobody knew he was really himself. They all thought it was just a costume. This was year 49. After tonight, Zeke would have just one more year to try to fall in love.

Then he'd be spending eternity as Eleanor's pet pumpkin.

Throughout the year, Zeke stayed where he was: a forgotten Halloween decoration in someone's attic and spent the year alone with his thoughts. Sometimes the witch came to visit in the form of a black cat or a spooky bat, but she never said much. Zeke was convinced her visits were designed to provide him with a special form of torture. She wanted him to know that she hadn't forgotten him. She was just waiting for the spell to settle.

Now, on October 30th, she showed up.

Zeke wished she would just go away.

Eleanor slinked into the attic in the form of a black cat with a white patch on its front. He knew right away it was her. She was the only one who would come up into the attic. Zeke had hoped that this year, he'd be left outdoors somewhere, but despite all of his best efforts, he always wound up in someone's living room, their trash can, and sometimes, their garage.

This past year spent in the attic of Ruth and Wylie Thomas had been one of the best of his cursed life. He'd been able to sit in the silence all year long. The Thomas' granddaughter, Kayla, had come upstairs once to look for old photo albums, and her sister, Dina, had braved the attic to locate a set of dishes Ruth had been thinking about.

Both of the young women had stayed upstairs on more than ten minutes, and neither of them had noticed Zeke.

He'd been alone with his thoughts, alone with the understanding that he was truly running out of time. There was nothing he could do about his impending doom, so he might as well just accept what was going to happen.

Eleanor walked over to Zeke and sat down in front of him. He had been placed on a small wooden trunk, and then promptly forgotten. He could see her through the pumpkin eyes of his haunted jack-o'-lantern. He wished he couldn't.

The cat meowed loudly, but Zeke couldn't react. That was one of the things he missed the most about not having a body all year. He missed being able to jump when he was surprised or being able to double over with laughter when something was funny. Thanks to this curse, he was forced to endure, not experience.

A second later, the cat transformed. Eleanor lost all of her clothes when she changed from an animal form back to her human form. She was naked now, standing in the attic before Zeke-the-pumpkin. All of these years, and she hadn't aged. She still looked 2 She still acted like it. Eleanor was immature, but most of all, she was broken. He wouldn't use the word "villain" to think about her. That was too powerful of a word for someone as pathetic as Eleanor.

"Well, Zeke, tomorrow is the night," she said. He couldn't speak. It wasn't Halloween, so he could hear every last thing she said, but no words would come out of his mouth. Still, he tried, straining against the confines of the curse.

Eleanor could tell. She knew he wanted to shit-talk her. More than anything else in the world, he wanted to tell her to fuck off.

He couldn't.

Eleanor laughed instead.

"Who knows, Zekey-boy? This could be the year."

It wouldn't be. Nobody could fall in love in one night. Not with a cursed pumpkin man like him.

"But next year," Eleanor said, lifting up Zeke-the-pumpkin, "next year, you're mine."

Because next year, the curse would be fifty years old. It would be solid. Finished. He'd have to spend the rest of his existence as one of Eleanor's trophies in her weird house. At least, he assumed there were others like him. He'd had plenty of time to think for the last half-century, and he'd decided that Eleanor definitely lived alone because she was so unlikable that nobody would want her as a roommate.

"I wish I could take you now," she sighed. Instantly, he paid attention. Zeke had never understood why Elenaor didn't just hide him away in a box somewhere. She could easily chain him up, and he wouldn't be able to wander around on Halloween, or to look for a lover. If she boxed him up, he wouldn't have a chance to find his saving grace, so why didn't she?

Maybe that was part of the curse. Maybe she had to leave him out in the open or it wouldn't work.

She sighed and started to pet him.

Zeke wished he could flinch, but he couldn't move at all. The only thing he could do was take what Eleanor was doing, and perhaps that was the worst feeling of all. Before she'd entrapped him, he'd been a good person. He'd been happy. He'd been a carpenter who spent his days building shelves and furniture for his father's shop. His mother worked next door in the connecting fabric shop she wanted to buy. They had been happy.

And then Eleanor had waltzed in and stolen everything from him.

He missed working with his hands.

He missed being alive.

Eleanor stayed next to Zeke for a long time. She kept talking, and he did his best to listen for any clues. They only had a year left. Then he could either reclaim his life by falling in love, or he could be Eleanor's toy forever.

A sound came from downstairs, and Eleanor stood.

"The family is waking up," she said. "I had to cast a spell on them." She examined her hands. Zeke was surprised to see that they no longer looked young and fresh.

Wait, was Eleanor's magic running out? Was that the real secret she was harboring?

Maybe her magic was weakening.

Maybe this would be the year Zeke met someone who could change everything.

Maybe.

Then again, Zeke was quite sure that the Halloween clause was not something Eleanor had done to give him a fighting chance. It was just something she'd accidentally slipped into the curse because she'd been forced to.

Magic was complicated, and not all magic could last forever. Spells took time to simmer and grow, which was one of the reasons Zeke believed her curse was taking so long to fully solidify. Fifty years was a long time for a spell to bubble, but there he was.

"Poor Zeke," she said. Eleanor was beautiful. She knew it, too. She'd known it all of those years ago when she'd walked into his father's shop, and she knew it now.

He waited, hoping she would accidentally give him another clue or idea for how he could break free of everything, but she didn't. Instead, Eleanor turned, slipped back into her black cat form, and climbed down the attic stairs.

She was gone, and Zeke was alone.

He tried to wiggle, but the pumpkin didn't even move.

Tomorrow was the night, he knew. Tomorrow, he'd have an entire day to try to fall in love.

Somehow, despite having an entire year left after this, Zeke knew it was his last chance at a happy ending.