For the children of war celebrating Halloween, read this before nightfall:

When the sun disappears, the ruins begin to breathe. The dead whisper beneath the concrete.

If you hear someone calling your name, do not answer immediately.

I. Choose your costume

But do not dress as a ghost, as in this country, ghosts no longer need costumes.

They wear the faces of children covered in dust and carry empty bags. They stand beside doorways that no longer exist, waiting for someone to remember them.

If you opt to wear a mask, choose one that still allows you to breathe.

You will need your breath for running.

II. Prepare your candy bag

Let it be filled with smoke, of broken glass, of pieces of a war-torn house that used to palm a family inside it.

And if something falls from above, do not reach for it.

Some treats explode.

III. Knock on a door

If no one answers, do not knock again. The people inside may be hiding from something far scarier than you and your ghost costume.

IV. Say it

Trick or treat!

Say it only once. And if no one answers, try to knock on the next door, and again, and again. Repeat the process until a voice from the living answers or until you find the luckiest — and trickiest — house still put together after all this catastrophe.

V. Beware of the candies

If the candy tastes like ash, then look around — you’re standing in the middle of rubble.

If it tastes like blood, you’re in the navel of a modern-day grave.

But if it’s sweet, savor it — it’s the last bit there is of this place.

XXXX. Survive until morning

If you reach sunrise, do not remove your costume.

Stand among the ruins with your empty candy bag.

Let its emptiness speak for every child.

The true fashion of horror is not that the dead have returned.

It’s that they might never.