So, the answer to avoid a multi-chapter halloween fic is to add in a well placed flashback. Seems to do the trick, summarizing the mood (with a nice bonus of not having to add in the minor1 tag).
So, whilst at the lake, my laptop decided its hard drive was gone. Not that it was much of a laptop to begin with, but a braindead laptop is nothing more than a paperweight. Time to buy a nice new hard drive, and grumble a bit about annoyingly inconvenient technology...