Shadows are universal

Halloween still feels slightly artificial here. Like America exported plastic pumpkins and everyone politely agreed to participate without fully understanding why. Still, tonight felt strange in a good way. The city looked darker earlier because of the rain and cold, and shop windows in M. already carried those orange decorations that always seem cheerful and threatening simultaneously. E. arrived wearing entirely black and announced: “If I disappear mysteriously tonight, tell everyone I died dramatically and looked fantastic.” Reasonable request honestly. We wandered around for hours mostly talking nonsense while groups of younger kids ran around wearing cheap vampire costumes and hyperactive expressions. At one point E. saw two boys dressed as vampires smoking near a tram stop and whispered: “Nothing says immortal darkness like Marlboro Lights.” I almost collapsed laughing. But underneath the jokes the night actually felt beautiful somehow. Wet streets reflecting lights. Fog beginning near the Navigli. Perfume and cold air mixing together. Girls wearing too much eyeliner on purpose.

Halloween here isn’t really about horror.
It’s atmosphere.
The permission to become slightly theatrical for one evening.

And honestly people already are.

By the time I got home… The apartment was quiet except for distant traffic and Mom’s perfume still lingering faintly in the hallway from earlier tonight.

Outside the windows everything looked almost black.

Winter arriving slowly.
Like someone dimming the world by hand.

GOODBYE OCTOBER.
Remember me,
Eclipse