It was the day before Halloween. Kevin was picking up manure in front of the town hall. He was thinking about the curse when he heard voices coming from the side of the building. He moved closer to listen. 

The voice was the mayor and her vice mayor. They were talking about the curse. “I think we should start the curse one day earlier this year,” he heard the mayor say. 

“But that might make people think something’s up,” said the vice mayor replied. At that moment, Kevin had figured out who was behind the curse. He wanted to get his friends, but he kept listening. 

“I’ve already gradually added changes by turning up the curse generator slightly,” the mayor said, “there will be ghost trains on the tracks today.” 

“I think you’re playing with fire,” said the vice mayor. 

“But this Halloween, we are gonna have the biggest curse ever, and for the first time we will be cranking the magic generator all the way up, and the townspeople will be forced to leave if they want to live.” 

Kevin was shocked at what he’d just heard. Why would the mayor want to wipe out her own town? Kevin didn’t care that he hadn’t finished his job. He drove over to Jackson’s house and told him what was going on. Then they gathered the rest of the crew. 

Kevin, Jackson, Katie, Grace, and Brad went to Kevin’s backyard since the house was locked. “So is it true?” asked Katie, “It’s the mayor?” 

“Yes, I heard them,” replied Kevin. 

“They’re using a curse generator and they’re going to make the curse even worse this year. You might as well call it ‘The Curse to End All Curses.’ Who knows what’ll happen,” Jackson said, but he was scared so he was kind of making up a story. 

Kevin wanted to check on the train tracks since he heard that the ghost trains would be coming early this year. “Be right back!” He told his friends. He got up and went to the train tracks, but tripped on the rail and fell onto them. “Are you okay, man?” Cried Brad. “Yeah, I’m fine,” Kevin said as he got up. 

Then the group heard a train whistle. They looked down the tracks and saw a bright yellow headlight come around the corner. Kevin’s friends moved away from the train tracks. Kevin tried to run but his shoelace was caught in one of the nails that holds the rails together. 

The train was a few miles down the tracks, but it was approaching very fast. “Guys! I’m stuck!” Kevin exclaimed. Jackson ran back to help him as the others pulled on the locked house door, desperately trying to get indoors. Jackson pulled Kevin’s shoelace. “Take your shoes off,” he told him. Kevin tried, but his shoes were too tight to take off when they were tied. 

Katie, Brad, and Grace ran to the other side of Kevin’s house to get out of the train’s sight-line. Kevin could make out the shape of the front of a diesel engine with train cars behind it as it approached. He knew that the train would see him when it got within eighty feet, and he’d be gone. 

Jackson grabbed scissors from Kevin’s dad’s tool box that was by the train tracks and gave a swift cut to Kevin’s stuck shoelace. The boys ran off the tracks and ducked behind a big tree in Kevin’s yard just as the train passed them. 

“Where are you guys?” Kevin called to his friends. 

“Over here!” They emerged from behind Kevin’s house. 

“So now you believe me?” He asked them, just to make sure. 

They all believed him. The group also believed they had figured out a way to thwart the curse.