A dear friend asked me to marry her. Not a proposal, an ask to stand up the front and say the words while she married someone else. So I studied, sat assessments, dealt with the Attorney-General's Office, and became a legally registered celebrant, all for one specific woman I love. It started with one yes.

Every year, Halloween slips a little closer to the erotic. What began as a ritual of survival has become a celebration of transformation; a night where fear flirts with desire, masks invite revelation, and the forbidden becomes deliciously permissible. This piece explores how the spooky became sexy and what that says about us.