Hallow

by Lee Blessing

It's Halloween in the southern mountains, and a recent transplant, Cath, is surprised by more than trick-or-treaters in her isolated home. Her estranged husband Kev arrives unannounced with their grandaughter Hallow, whom Cath hasn't seen since Hallow was an infant. The devout Kev asserts that Hallow is in fact the second coming of Christ—the same assertion that made Cath leave him eighteen years ago. Cath, comfortable in her atheism, grows less so as the evening's events become harder and harder to explain. Things threaten to spin out of control, especially when Cath gets the gun she keeps in the house.