Halloween in New York brought with it a special kind of atmosphere. The city didn't just settle for candy corn and plastic pumpkins; it went all in. Streets filled with people in high-quality cosplays and dollar-store mummies, and there were the famous parades in the Village. Fire escapes were strung with orange lights, jack-o'-lanterns were placed on stoops, and kids in costumes sprinted between brownstones, carrying pillowcases filled with candy. Even the infamously grumpy cab drivers joined in, wearing plastic monster masks not much different from their usual looks.
On the Upper East Side, four kids had wandered a little too far off the beaten path. They had been warned to stay near the main roads, but the temptation of untapped candy markets was too much for the young children.
The four sugar-high kids moved in a pack, laughing and shoving each other as they walked, debating who had gotten the best haul so far. A witch with a floppy hat, a plastic nose, wooden broomstick, and face covered in green paint; a Dracula with plastic fangs and fake blood dripping from the corners of his mouth; a scuffed Batman mask held together by tape complete with a cape that dragged too long and poorly cutout cardboard batarangs; and one in a homemade Spider-Man suit whose faded colors were more purple than red.
They turned onto a block with little to no light; no jack-o'-lanterns burned on stoops, no decorations hung on windows, and only a single streetlamp flickered above them.
"This street's dead." the boy in the Batman mask muttered, glancing around nervously.
"Duh, that's the point." said Dracula, lisping due to the teeth. "Dead equals spooky. Spooky equals nobody around. Nobody around equals better candy for us."
"What if nobody's around because nobody lives here?" asked the Spider-Man, adjusting his mask to align his eyes with the too-small eye holes.
"They do." said the witch, pointing at a faint yellow glow coming from a few windows. "See. We'll hit two houses and then we'll head back."
" ... fine. But just two." agreed the Batman.
They walked further in when suddenly, the witch dropped her candy bag. It spilled across the sidewalk, with some of it bouncing into the gutter.
"Aw, man." she said, crouching to grab them.
She reached toward the gutter, hand trembling as she stretched for the candy.
And the gutter reached back.
A massive, pale gray hand bigger than her whole head erupted from the darkness, flattening the candy beneath its palm. The skin looked like old, petrified wood, and its nails were black and cracked.
The wide-eyed children moved away, their hearts thudding in their chests.
From the shadows of the alley, a towering figure stepped forward, skin pale as chalk, rotten clothes ragged and hanging on its enormous frame by a thread. It reeked of rot, soil, and stagnant water, and its eyes glowed faintly in the shadows like dying coals.
"Born on a Monday ..." the thing spoke, its voice deep and slow.
The witch screamed, jolting the children out of their stupor. They stumbled, trying to run, but their legs refused to carry them. The creature moved forward, each step landing with a heavy thud and with enough force to leave an imprint on the sidewalk. Its lips cracked open, and its breath came out, smelling of death and decay.
"Christened on Tuesday ..."
The Spider-Man clutched his candy bag as if it were armor. Batman whimpered something about wanting to go home. Dracula closed his eyes and wept.
That was when the real Spider-Man swung in, and a web shot out from the rooftops, yanking the monster's wrist aside.
"Maybe the kids egged your door or something, but I think you're supposed to tell their parents or give them bad candy, not scare them to death."
The kids gasped as the actual Spider-Man dropped into view, crouched on the lamppost above.
"Wow, I can't lie to you, your costume is unbelievable. I mean, you must really take Halloween seriously because I can smell you from all the way up here." said Spider-Man, wafting his nose.
The creature tilted its head as its glowing eyes fixated on Spider-Man.
"Married on Wednesday ..."
Spider-Man hung upside down on the lamppost by a web. "Right. Good for you for sticking with the bit. It takes a real comedic mind to continue the whole nursery rhyme and scary zombie shtick, but I think you should leave the kids alone. Go scare some drunk frat guys or something."
The creature ignored Spider-Man and lurched toward the children again. Its massive shoulders brushed against the sides of the alley walls, causing dust to rain down on it.
The kids screamed, clutching onto each other for comfort as Spider-Man shot a line of web at the creature's chest and pulled him sideways into a row of trash cans.
"Kids, go find somewhere with people and lights." Spider-Man said, dropping down from the lamppost, positioning himself between the creature and the kids.
The kids hesitated for a moment before running down the street, bags of candy left forgotten on the ground.
The creature got up, trash spilling from its giant frame as it turned its glowing eyes back on Spider-Man. It swung its giant fist, cratering the sidewalk where Spider-Man had been a second earlier.
"Dude, don't tell me you took Venom all for a costume? Is there a million-dollar cash prize for the best costume at some Halloween party I wasn't invited to?"
Spider-Man flipped, shot a web, and catapulted himself into the creature's chest with both feet. The force behind the blow would've been enough to topple over a truck, but the creature just took a step back.
With Spider-Man being as close as he could be to the creature, he got a good look at its face, and his stomach dropped. The skin wasn't just pale or painted, it was dead. When he made contact with its chest, his feet sank in slightly in a way that wouldn't happen with normal skin. And the stench was nearly overwhelming.
"Wait, you're not just someone who takes Halloween way too seriously, are you? You're a zombie? Like an actual zombie?" Spider-Man said in disbelief, flipping off the creature's chest. "That's not something you see every day."
The creature snarled and swung again. Spider-Man ducked under the swing, webbed its knee, and yanked, trying to topple it. It staggered but didn't fall.
"Took ill on Thursday ..."
"Grew worse on Friday, died on Saturday, buried on Sunday. That was the end of Solomon Grundy. Yeah, yeah, we've all heard the nursery rhyme." said Spider-Man, moving back. "Anyway, I thought zombies weren't supposed to talk outside of growls and saying 'Brains,' so what's the deal with you?"
The creature stopped in its tracks and scratched its head. "Grundy ... deal?"
" ... you can understand me?" asked Spider-Man, again in disbelief.
"Grundy ... understand?" he said again, still scratching his head.
"Is your name Grundy?" Spider-Man asked, curious.
"Grundy ... Grundy." said Grundy, nodding dumbly.
"Okay then, Grundy, what are you doing here? Why are you scaring kids? What's up with that?" Spider-Man asked, switching from fighting the creature to having a conversation with him like they had known each other for years.
"Grundy ... candy." he said, showing Spider-Man the palm of his huge hand, which had a chocolate stain.
Spider-Man froze for a second before blinking himself back. "Candy?" He looked back at the terrified children, huddled near the only working lamppost. "You scared those children because of the candy?"
Grundy tilted his head. "Grundy ... hungry. Candy ... good."
"Of course, a hungry undead giant just wants Halloween candy. Makes perfect sense." He stepped closer to Grundy, still keeping himself between the kids and Grundy. "Okay, I get you're not you when you're hungry, but scaring a bunch of kids half to death is not the best way to get candy."
Grundy looked down, and his massive hand reached for the scattered candy that had fallen from the kids' bags. Spider-Man heard one of the kids say something about their candy, so he shot a web and snagged the candy Grundy was reaching for.
"No, no, no. That's not yours." Spider-Man said. "Tell you what. You leave this candy alone, and I'll help you find some candy. Deal?"
Grundy paused, his expression blank, but then, slowly, he nodded. "Grundy ... deal."
"Alright, first things first, you don't chase or scare anyone. Got it?" Spider-Man asked, feeling relieved he didn't have to fight a super-strong undead creature he didn't know how to defeat.
"Grundy ... no scare." Grundy said, nodding.
"Good. Now, follow me. We're going to get you some candy, and you're going to be happy, and you're not going to traumatize anyone else."
Spider-Man led Grundy down another street where houses were alive with Halloween festivity and adults were greeting children at their doors. Through gawking stares and whispered voices, he carefully coordinated with Grundy, allowing him to grab candy from the bowls awkwardly. One house was so impressed with their supposed costumes, and they asked for a picture, for which the two of them awkwardly posed.
After hitting a few houses, the duo made their way back to the dark street where the group of kids still were, having already gathered up their spilled candy.
"Hey, you kids are still here?" Spider-Man asked, surprised. "I thought you'd be out getting more candy by now."
"We were scared!" The witch said, clutching her bag tighter as she looked at Grundy hungrily eating a chocolate bar Spider-Man had put in his massive hand.
The Batman-masked boy said nothing as his eyes were fixed on Grundy, trembling and clutching the broken wooden broomstick the witch had dropped earlier.
"It's okay. Grundy's not going to hurt anyone now. Look, he's behaving. Right, Grundy?" Spider-Man said as he crouched down to meet the kid's eyes.
Grundy, mouth smudged with chocolate, nodded as he chewed.
Suddenly, a scream ripped through the night. The Batman boy leapt forward using the broomstick as a weapon.
"No!" shouted Spider-Man, diving toward the boy to stop him.
But it was too late. The broken broomstick pierced straight into Grundy's chest, right where his heart was. The zombie froze, mouth open and hand in mid-air as he was about to eat another piece of candy.
"Oh my god!" shouted the witch, covering her face.
Grundy stumbled back and crashed onto the ground, his impact sending dust and debris everywhere. Before Grundy hit the ground, Spider-Man webbed the Batman boy to him and huddled him with the others, shielding them from the debris.
Spider-Man couldn't believe it. He had avoided a fight with Grundy that might've caused more damage than his fight with Killer Frost, and it was all ended by a kid's panic.
"Kid, you didn't have to-" Spider-Man said, turning to the boy in the Batman mask. He cut himself off when he saw that the boy was breathing in quick bursts and was shaking so hard he could barely stand.
Spider-Man let out a slow, heavy breath. He wanted to be angry, wanted to scold the boy, but the boy had been terrified.
"It's okay." he said, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder. "You were scared. Anyone would've been. Even me."
"I-I didn't mean to ... I just ... I thought he was gonna ..." said the boy, sniffling behind his mask.
"I know. I get it. But next time, let me handle the big scary monsters, alright? That's what I'm here for." said Spider-Man, squeezing the boy's shoulder.
"Is he ... is he really dead?" asked the witch in a whimper.
He was about to answer in the affirmative, but he realized that he was talking to kids.
"No, he's just playing pretend." said Spider-Man, keeping his tone light. "He's just a really good actor."
"Are you sure?" asked the Batman boy.
"Yeah, he's silly like that." he said, escorting the kids back toward the lit streets with other trick-or-treaters. "Now go on. Stick to the main streets. And try to forget about this, tonight's supposed to be about candy, not this."
The children ran, though they kept looking back.
He sighed and looked back at where Grundy's body should have been and found nothing; no hulking corpse, no broomstick.
"What the-" he said, crouching to inspect where the body had fallen, and he saw nothing but dust, blown away by a breeze. "Just another day in New York."
~
Peter Parker landed outside his house, opening the door before stepping inside. Compared to the chill of the outside, the warm interior of the house was much more welcoming. In the living room, he could see Teresa sprawled on the couch on her phone, scrounging for candy from a bowl reserved for trick-or-treaters. Zatanna sat next to her, sitting cross-legged, also scrolling through her phone while Dexter rested on her lap.
"Didn't you two get invited to a party?" he asked, closing the door behind him before taking off his coat and hanging it by the door. "What are you doing here?"
Teresa didn't even look up from her phone, popping a mini Snickers into her mouth. "We did. Got boring. Way too many middle school boys awkwardly staring at us and whispering." She looked up from her phone and looked at Zatanna. "But with what Zatanna was wearing, I can't really blame them."
"Teri!" said Zatanna, shooting her a look.
"I'll take your word for it." said Peter casually. "So did either of you hear anything about zombies wandering New York tonight?"
"Zombies? Like Halloween fun or actual 'eat your brains' zombies?" asked Teresa, confused.
"You mean Solomon Grundy?" Zatanna said, a small smile tugging at her lips.
"Oh my god, Peter. Don't tell me you believe those urban myths?" Teresa said, rolling her eyes. "You're like a middle school boy telling horror stories."
"Myth? What myth?" Peter asked, confused as he had never heard anything about Grundy until that day.
"I forgot you didn't have friends until this year." said Teresa. "You explain it to him, Zee."
"Solomon Grundy is this old urban legend." she said with a tone that was far too confident and knowledgeable for someone who was supposedly just reciting internet lore. "Big zombie. People say he crawled out of Slaughter Lake, and he only speaks in nursery rhymes. Born on a Monday, christened on Tuesday, you know the rest."
"Really?" Peter said, surprised.
"You've seriously never heard the story? Kids tell it to scare each other. Some say he haunts graveyards, other says he just wanders the city. He's like a bogeyman." Teresa said, laughing as she tossed a candy wrapper at the bowl and missed.
"Except people swear they've actually seen him. Big guy, pale skin, scary strong. He's basically New York's cryptid." Zatanna added as she scratched Dexter under the chin. "The internet loves him. Forums are full of those posts, especially during Halloween."
"Weird. Guess I need to read more blogs." Peter said, but inwardly his eyes lingered on Zatanna. 'She didn't sound like she read that on a blog. Considering their background, I wouldn't be surprised if Zatara had some run-ins with Grundy, and she knows about them. Interesting.'
~
Hours later, Central Park lay quiet under the moonlight. Trees moved with the wind, shadows stretched across the paths, and the waters of Slaughter Lake lay still and glassy.
Then, ripples.
Bubbles rose from the depths. First a few, then dozens. The water churned restlessly.
The bubbling grew into a thick froth that spread throughout the lake. Then silence, and the surface stilled again.
But carried faintly on the wind came a whisper.
"Born on a Monday ..."
~~~~
AN
I know I said he wouldn't face other villains, but I couldn't do a Halloween interlude without Grundy, especially since I mentioned Slaughter Lake chapters ago. I know Grundy is from Gotham, but I decided to have him in NYC because I wanted to. Anyway, Grundy won't be seen or heard from again until next Halloween because of plot reasons.
I've also already planted the seeds of Peter seeing Zatanna as more than just his sister's friend. I'll try to have a little thing like this in the other interlude (so far, just the Christmas one, but I might have an idea for the Thanksgiving one), so their eventual relationship will seem more natural, but I also might not. We'll see.