#The second was some Halloween short where this boy got lost trick or treating

[searsage]

life lesson #87

If the movie/short depicts a ghost with a silly blanket on, nine times out of ten its artistic langueage for 'im going to emotionally wreak your day'

Run.

[flamingpudding]

Fictober23 Prompt: 31 - "It's not your fault."

Fandom: DPxDC

Rating: T

Warnings: -

A/N: Based on the setting created through Prompt 14 and its Reblogs. Not necessarily to read beforehand but it might give a little context. I tried to go with a more Halloween themed short story hope that worked out.

"Damian this mission has the highest priority any mission or case ever had before." Dick was clutching a glaring Damians shoulders who was now raising an eyebrow like his elder brother had lost his mind.

"Richard, this is ridiculous." He commented, crossing his arms.

"I am serious Dami, we can not fail with this." The elder stressed more. If it were any other situation than this then Damian might have taken Dick more seriously but as it was. His elder brother was pleading with him, dressed in a ridiculous Vampire outfit after having forced Damian into an outfit that was clearly a mockery towards his old league gear. It was a simple ninja costume Dick was making him wear.

"Please Dami! You don't want to get black listed for a month like Bruce or Tim, right? Jason is going to do this if we ruin their first Halloween in Gotham!" The younger's eyes narrowed.

"Do not place me on the same level as Drake. I will not lose any rights towards my nieces and nephews like he did." He huffed as he looked away stubbornly from his elder brother. Damian was not foolish enough to repeat the same mistakes some members of his family have made. He was not going to let his nephews even touch coffee or any caffeinated drink in the first place.

Besides the incident with Jasmine and their father was a whole different matter. It was their fathers own fault for unconsciously challenging his niece and disregarding her talent in analyzing one's mindset, Todd had mentioned once.

"I just want to make sure! Jason has become so protective of the kids and I do not want to lose favorit uncle's privileges!" Damian's eye twitched as he shoved away his elder brother with his hand placed in the other's face. "You must be delusional Richard. I seem to remember that I was the favorite uncle of the twins."

Before Dick could counter Damian the front door opened and the two saw Jason enter the manor with the crime twins on either side of him and the toddler in his arms. The second eldest raised an eyebrow at them before glancing down towards the twins.

"Hey Little Wing, right on time! Where is Jazz?" Dick greeted them cheerfully, bending down a little to wave at Ellie that was blowing a raspberry in his direction. He was probably imaging it but it looked like the little girl was glaring at him.

"Already dropped her off with her school friends, I will pick her up tomorrow afternoon. It's her sibling free day, remember?" Jason only raised an eyebrow also noting the frown the twins were sporting at seeing Dick.

Dick nodded, turning towards the twins. Did he imagine it or did one of the boy's whisper fruitloop to the other. "Ready for your first Trick or Treat in Gotham? We gotta collect all the candy for you two that we can!"

"Sure." Dick was hoping for more enthusiasm from the boy's but maybe that would come once they got their first candies bagged. "You two look interesting, what are you going as?"

"Frankenstein." The two answered simultaneously before glaring at each other and Dick sweatdropped. One of the boy's was dressed like a mad scientist with a white coat and welding goggles strapped to his head as well as some broken medical equipment clearly made visible. The other boy looked more like a monster with ripped clothing, fake bolds glued to his neck and drawn stitches all over his visible skin that was coloured slightly greenish.

"Wow you both did a good job! The monster looks just like in the movies." Dick tried in hopes

"I see. So Daniel is Doctor Frankenstein while Dante is Frankenstein's monster." The twins looked up towards Damian, the glare lost for a moment before they turned on each other again.

"See Uncle Dick said it! When someone says Frankenstein they think of the Monster, twerp!"

"Nuhu! Uncle Damian got it! He knew I was the Doctor and not the monster!"

"And Jazz just got them to stop arguing about that shit." Jason muttered with a glare towards Dick before the twins could devolve any further into their argument Jason stepped towards the side where Alfred had appeared and was heading over the now bubbling little girl that was making grabby hand towards the butler. He then turned towards the boys.

"Okay you two. Remember today's rules." He clapped his hand for more effect and to get the two to look at him. Which sort of worked as they still gave each other side eyed glares but nodded regardless. "Good and remember no crimes today, enjoy your fun and do not stuff yourself with candies."

"Okay Dad." The twins answered in sync before Jason literally pushed them towards Dick and Damian and out the Manors front door. They were the ones taking the twins out for a Trick or Treat run as their first Halloween in Gotham. Jason was going to hang back with Alfred to take care of Ellie.

Dick had volunteered doing this for his brother a couple weeks before Jason had wondered what he was going to do with the kids for Halloween. Dick had also instantly volunteered Damian for it two. Their youngest brother wasn't that much older than the twins yet and they surely would feel more comfortable with two known family members around.

An hour in and Dick was moments away from admitting that he made a grave mistake.

"Dami! Have you seen Danny?!" Jason was going to murder them if they lost one of his kids. So Dick was rightfully slightly panicked. He had taken his eyes of the boy for only a moment to check something on his phone.

"You have lost Daniel?" The youngest Wayne looked miffed at him and had a slight glare before though Dick noticed something else in his eyes too. "Damian, where is Dan?"

The younger clicked his tongue and Dick paled slightly. Okay no big deal, they temporarily lost the crime twin. He had found and followed Danny before, surely he would be able to find the boy in the crowd of disguised children too. Danny went with a mad scientist costume. How many of them were running around? It would be more difficult to find Dan, he had spotted a couple of different Frankensteins already.

"Jason is going to blacklist us, isn't he?" Dick muttered his eyes wandering over every child he could see going from door to door for candies. Damian doing the same even watching other adults and parents in case one of them had the idea to snatch his nephews from them.

"It won't be as bad as Drake and father." Damian commented as a form of consolation to his elder brother but knew it probably would. Jason blacklisted Tim from watching the kids for the caffeine incident for a month and their father was still blacklisted until Jazz felt like talking to the man again, the twins in solidarity to their sister doing the same.

"Should we split up? But what if they are looking for us? Oh good what if one of the rogues snatched them up? Or worse, some leftover guys from that damned organization?" From the corner of his eyes Damian saw how his elder brother was getting worked up and even though he wasn't showing it, he too was worried. This certainly was not how they had hoped the boy's first Halloween with them would go.

In a decorative street tree on the side of the path Dick and Damian were on sat two boy's one munching on a licorice stick while the other was nibbling on chocolate. Both were invisible just in case their uncle decided to look up.

"Fake blood next?" Danny asked as he watched Dick starting to pace.

"Not yet. Did Dad mention anything about the firecrackers?" Dan asked in return as he bite of another piece of his licorice stick.

"Not that I remember, tho Jazz said to go easy on Uncle Dick." Danny hummed tilting his head slightly with a frown. "But he lost that privilege looking like the fruitloop. You got one of Dad's fake guns right?"

"Why? Didn't you say you wanted to 'fake' stab yourself with the broken syringe?" Dan raised an eyebrow as Danny gave him a feral grin. "You recovered your shape shifting power, right?"

Dan returned the feral grin with one of his own understanding what kind of prank Danny was hinting at. "For once, I like the way you're thinking, twerp."

"Would you stop calling me that! We are the same age now!" Danny pouted as he stuffed the last of his chocolate in his mouth and prepared to jump off the tree.

"Never!" Dan quickly answered with a laugh as he took the lead and jumped off the tree and disappeared into the crowds first as he let go of his invisibility. Danny quickly followed doing the same. They had after all a lot more pranks planned to play on their uncles.

The evening ended with Dick and Damian making their way into the Manor through the bat cave entrance so that they could get to the Medbay before Jason saw the twins. Both looked rather disheveled and like they had gotten dragged through mud. What they didn't expect was Jason, being in the cave and looking at them with raised eyebrows. Dick was holding Dan who was literally growling as Dick was pressing a bundle of tissues against the boy's nose. There was a ripped strip of his vampire costume tied around Dan's arm, a line of dried 'blood' going down the arm.

Damian was holding Danny. The boy looked dizzy, holding his head with one hand while he whined about everything being to bright, the goggles of his costume were cracked and the white coat now had red 'blood' strains, the shirt he was wearing also appeared to be soaked in 'blood' and there was a tried spot of blood below Danny's nose like he also had had a nose bleed like his twin.

"What happened?" Jason's tone sounded neutral and Dick laughed nervously.

"It looks worse than it is…" He tried to salvage, maybe they could still save their nephew watching privileges.

"Really?"

"It's Richard's fault. He lost sight of Danny first." Dicks head whipped around towards Damian who just decided to throw him under the bus. A look of betrayal crossed the eldest face at the narrowed stare Damian was giving him. "The situation spiraled from there."

"No wait! Damian lost Dan! It's not just my fault!" He tried to defend himself as Jason's eyes narrowed on him. But before he could come up with any more reasons why it was not just his fault and that they should not lose any of their uncle privileges because of that…

…Jason started laughing, wheezing out a "It's not your fault."

Confused Dick blinked before Dan jumped out of his hands the same time Danny jumped out of Damians. Suddenly the kids appeared like nothing was wrong as they rushed over towards Jason. Hadn't Danny been dizzy until now? And Dan had complained and growled at him about a headache?

He glanced at Damian who was watching the twins with narrowed eyes.

"Well looks like you two had a lot of fun." They watched how Jason patted the twins' heads grinning at them as the boy's sported proud looks, like they were pleased with themselves. "Your Auntie Babs is making a highlight reveal for the entire family later. Till then go wash up and bug one of your other uncles or aunts."

"Can I go bug Uncle Tim! I got an new invention idea when Uncle Dick got chased by the dogs!"

"I want to find Aunt Harper."

"Sure both should be in the Manor by now. Just wash up first." With the boy's sent away it left the two adults and teen in the batcave. One of them gabbing like fish, the other glaring with narrowed eyes and the last of them still chuckling.

"Todd." Damian hissed and Dick knew that tone. Damian was promising revenge on Jason.

"Light up brat. The twins needed an outlet and Jazz suggested they could pull some pranks today, I just told them that with you two they could go all out."

Dick wasn't sure if he should feel relieved or be slightly mad at his brother for that but eventually he decided to go with relief. "So we are not losing uncle privileges, good."

"You two are still getting blacklisted for two weeks."

"WHAT?"

"I demand a reason."

"You tried taking them with you on patrol and you gave them blade training. They are six."

[ms-starflower]

Maribat Rare Pairs — Day 1 Candy (Substitution)

@maribat-october-rarepairs

Second prompt for the day! This one is for the Maribat Rare Pairs, and it’s a Roynette (because there aren't enough of them, and Lian is a cute kid, okay?)

For this one I have context! So: Mari and Roy totally know each other already, but it’s under their hero identities. Roy totally crush on Ladybug (but who doesn’t, tho? you can’t hate her, she is a cutie) and that’s how Lian knows about her. Because, fundamentally, Ladybug is a French heroine and, let’s be honest, American kids won’t care about foreign heroes when they have so much at home already.

I'm sorry it’s so short, tho, but I didn't have any ideas for more.

Anyway, let’s start.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For Marinette’s defence, she really hadn’t anticipated how many kids actually did the trick-or-treat thing here, and it was her first American Halloween. She hadn’t wanted to disappoint children, she didn’t do it on purpose, she had brought candy.

Just, not enough to last her the night. Or, really, an hour.

She was new to Star City, most of her things were still in boxes, and didn’t have friends here that could have told her how much exactly she would need. Worst, she would have run out of candy in half an hour if one of her designers hadn’t talked about it, and how much she brought each years, this morning.

But, really, it wasn't her fault, American were crazy about Halloween!

Back when she still lived in Paris, she would get four, maybe five groups of children knocking at her door. And those were the most busy years! She hadn’t anticipated for children to be at her door asking for candy every five minutes.

And it broke her heart every time she had to tell she didn’t have any left. She gave homemade cookies, made in a rush this afternoon, to the first few ones, but even those had run out.

Now, the children were starting to get more and more spaced out, and Marinette had finally started to let herself relax slightly. Still, spread out didn’t mean inexistant, and she winced when she heard a soft but excited knock at her door. Soft and excited meant that the child was young, and they were the worst to disappoint.

“Hey, I’m sorry but I don’t have any candy left,” she started, only to blink when she saw the little girl on her front step. “Oh mon dieu, you are so cute!”

“Thank you miss!” The little, dressed head to toes in a Ladybug costume, told her with a smile. “I’m dressed as—”

“Ladybug! I know,” she told her with a smile, crouching to be on eye level with her.

“You know her?! The girl in school said that nobody knew her!” The girl told her with widened eyes, looking at her with something like awe in her gaze. Marinette only laughed.

“Well, you see, I’m new in the city, but I grew up in Paris. I actually talked to her a couple of times, you know?”

“You did? How is she really? I think she is awesome!”

“She is cool, I guess. But I think you’re cooler,” Marinette said with a smile.

“No way, she is a superhero! Even dad thinks she is awesome!” The girl exclaimed, making the man with her, her dad, laugh.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” Marinette started, standing up. “I didn’t mean to ignore you! I’m really sorry, that was so rude of me!”

“It’s fine, Lian is pretty cute in her costume,” he told her with a dazzling smile, ruffling his daughter’s hair, despite them being in pigtails. “I’m Roy, by the way.”

“Marinette,” she smiled, finally taking him in. And, oh boy, was he a cute one too. “Are you Lian’s Chat Noir?”

Roy was dressed in a black t-shirt, a black leather jacket, and black jeans. The final touch was the cute little cat ears headband on top of his head. He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck, a cute little blush dusting his cheeks.

“Um, yeah, we couldn’t have a Ladybug without her Chat Noir, right?”

“Yeah,” she said softly, getting lost just a little bit in his eyes. Before suddenly remembering that she didn’t have any candy left. “Oh god, I’m so sorry, but I don’t have any candy left! But…” She added when she got an idea. “If you can wait just a minute, I have something I can give you!”

She turned around before either could say anything, walking toward her living room where she knew the box she was looking for was. It took her a couple of minutes to localize, but she finally got back to the door holding two jewelry boxes, a red one and a black one.

“Here, for the best Ladybug I saw tonight,” she told Lian, giving her the boxes. The girl took them and opened the red one first.

“It’s Ladybug���s earrings!” Lian exclaimed, eyes wide, showing them to her father.

“And Chat Noir’s ring. Not the real ones, of course, but I used to sell them back in Paris and I have some left so… It’s not candy, but I hope it's okay.”

“Thank you! It’s awesome!” The girl squealed before hugging Marinette’s legs. Her father looked down at her with a fond smile.

“Thanks, you didn’t have to,” he told her slowly, looking at her with a smile.

“It’s, um, it’s okay, I wanted to. She makes a fantastic Ladybug,” she said, hoping that her blush wasn’t overly noticeable. Roy laughed softly, and Marinette’s heart decided that it was the perfect moment to dysfunction.

“Well, Lian, it’s time to go. Tell bye to Marinette,” Roy said, after a second and an eternity spent staring at each other.

“Bye Marinette! Can we come back to see you soon?” She asked with an innocent smile, and Marinette would have brought it if it wasn’t the exact same overly innocent smile Adrien often gives her after he messes up.

“Yeah,” she choked out, swallowing the lump in her throat. “Of course you can! Bye Lian! Bye Roy!”

And then, because she hadn’t messed up enough in her conversation with a pretty boy, she slammed the door in their face.

.

Later, when she got ready to sleep, her interaction with Roy and Lian playing again in her mind, Marinette couldn’t bring herself to regret not buying enough candy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I said it in my previous post, but if you didn’t read it: Marinette experience with French Halloween is my personal experience as a French kid that grew up in the region around Paris. The year I had the most kid knock at our door was, like, ten years ago??? And it was like, a group of teenagers not even in costume and my neighbor's kids.

I don’t say it’s the same everywhere and for everyone in France, I’m just saying I would totally forget to buy candy if I ever move to America.

[everybodyscupoftea]

What about pike Jj, Cody and Tyler fighting over who gets to match reader on Halloween and she ends up playing them where they end up matching each other or something like that lol

okay, i had an idea for this today on my drive home from work! so let’s say we kinda combine requests and have some fun. jealous pike jj and group costume and costume contest!

ft. zach, cody, tyler, and brooke 

-

“so are you and zach planning on matching?” cody asked, laid back on the bed next to you.

you hummed, “maybe. i was actually thinking about a group costume.”

“with who?” tyler sat up, sounding curious.

“well, with you guys actually.”

“oooh,” cody started, intrigued, “whatcha got in mind?”

“well i was thinking that you guys kinda look like the guys in teen wolf, thought it would be fun if we did that. everyone loves a good werewolf look.”

“i get to be isaac,” cody raised his hand.

rolling your eyes, you squeezed his shoulder, “sorry bud, but you’re scott.”

you invested in fake teeth, contacts, and beacon hills lacross merch for the boys, fully dedicated to winning the competition. you took the excuse to buy a new outfit for lydia even though you had plenty in your closet already.

“i still think you should’ve been derek,” cody told you as he stood in front of the mirror trying to put the contacts in.

“well, i wanted a new outfit and to match zach.”

“technically, you made out with me too,” he wiggled his eyebrows at you, red contacts in.

you shuddered dramatically, “that was season one, please.”

tyler gently punched his shoulder, “bro, she’d never actually go for you, it was all for jackson.”

cody rolled his eyes, “yeah, whatever. it still happened.”

“i’m not kissing you for...multiple reasons.”

“baby, you could only dream of being so lucky,” he cooed, throwing an arm around your shoulder.

“fuck off,” you complained, straightening the shirt collar he messed up. 

“what’s up boys?” you heard zach call from the hallway before he walked into the room. his hair looked shaggier than usual and he did a little spin to show off his outfit.

“sorry guys,” you told cody and tyler, “he looks much better than you chumps.”

“zach is hot,” tyler nodded, “i can live with that.”

zach winked at tyler, “good, hate for us to have to break up.”

“never, babe,” tyler blew him a kiss.

zach laughed and bent down to press a kiss to your forehead, “looking great tonight. stiles was a lucky man.”

you grinned, “thank you, sir.”

“ready to go, team?” cody asked, pocketing his wallet.

“born ready,” you cheered, bumping your fist with tyler’s outstretched one as the four of you walked toward the door. 

“i’ve got the uber,” zach volunteered, “we’re just going downtown right?”

“yep, thanks man,” cody responded cheerfully.

“no prob, thanks for letting me crash the group costume,” zach responded, locking his phone.

“i think we should be telling you that,” tyler told him, wry smile on his face.

“ty, i’m not sure if anything will ever be better than hermione.”

tyler shrugged, “probably not, but this will do.”

the uber arrived not too long after the four of you made it outside to stand on the sidewalk.

“you know,” you told them as the four of you climbed in the car, “this is maybe my favorite costume so far.”

tyler cooed loudly and pinched your cheek as the driver pulled away from the curb. you slapped his hand away and the driver asked, “what are you guys?”

“teen wolf, bro,” cody, who was in the front seat, told him.

“my sister watched that i think.”

“great show,” zach told him from your right, “i’d recommend.”

“dude, are you zach davis?”

blinking a few times, zach nodded slowly, “yeah.”

“dude, you’re incredible! you gonna try and go mlb next year?”

he laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck, “thanks man, um, i think so, yeah. but for right now, i’m focused on finishing up here.”

“yeah, definitely, i just. wow, my roommate is going to be so jealous.”

“hey, thanks for the support.”

you were trying really hard to stifle your laughter, but tyler was less successful. a few snorts escaped his mouth before he managed to hide his face in his shoulder. nudging him harshly, you tried to avoid making eye contact with the driver in the mirror.

luckily the drive downtown was short and you were able to hold it until he’d pulled away from the curve. as soon as he was gone, you and tyler lost it, bent over with belly laughs while zach stood above the two of you, unamused look on his face.

“fucking hell,” you muttered, wiping your eyes, “zach, i didn’t know you had a fan club.”

“you and me both,” he slung an arm over your shoulder as the four of you started walking toward the bar. the line was short and it didn’t take long to get in. 

holding on to zach’s hand, you let him pull you to the bar, cody and tyler close on your heels. 

“you’re buying right?” you asked tyler.

he sighed, “yeah, i lost fair and square.”

“elite, i’ll start with a vodka cranberry,” you told the bartender, “triple shot please.”

tyler sighed and motioned for the rest of the group to order, “on me.”

“why?” zach whispered in your ear after ordering rum and coke.

“he lost our weekly game night, which means he buys all alcohol on our next outing.”

“i didn’t participate,” zach’s eyebrows wrinkled in confusion.

“yeah, but you’re my plus one. and don’t worry about him going broke, he had a ton of customers for his laptop repair side business last month, he’s good for it.”

zach looked impressed, “okay i do feel a little better now.”

“going to sign our names on the contest sheet,” cody yelled over the music, beer in hand.

“good, thanks!” you yelled back, taking your drink off the bar where he’d slid it.

“dance?” you asked zach when he grabbed his drink. he took your arm with a smile and you held the other one out for tyler, “you too?”

tyler grinned, “fuck yeah!”

the three of you moved toward the dance floor, grabbing cody along the way and started jumping around with everyone else. the costumes you could see were pretty good, but you thought your friends and you had a real shot at winning.

“when’s the judging?” you yelled at cody.

“11,” he told you before throwing an arm over your shoulder, “saw maybank and brooke!”

“in costume?”

“yeah, guess what as?”

“what?”

just as the song slowed down and started to change, he loudly answered, “scarecrow and dorothy from the wizard of oz.”

everyone in the vicinity turned to look at him. cody blushed, stilling, and waved at them all, “hey, a, b conversation.”

“who’s dressed like that?” tyler asked him, looking around.

“maybank and brooke.”

“ew,” you muttered, “whose idea was that?”

“i highly doubt it was jj’s,” zach laughed and the rest of you nodded because, yeah, that had brooke written all over it.

-

by the time judging rolled around, you were sufficiently tipsy and heavily leaning on zach. jj had been avoiding your eye all night whenever you tried to catch it and you were over it, content to just focus on your friends and boyfriend.

“you know,” you slurred at them, “whatever happens here, it’s been an honor and a pleasure, boys.”

zach snorted, arm wrapping around your waist, “aye aye, ma’am.”

tyler saluted sloppily, “yeah, boys, way to go.”

cody was leaning on him, grinning, “we’re gonna win. i bribed the judges.”

“you didn’t,” you shoved him, “don’t even joke.”

“i didn’t. or did i? imagine if we win, you’ll never actually know.”

“this man doesn’t have a dollar to his name,” tyler reassured, trying to pat your shoulder and missing.

“hey!” cody protested, “i have at least five dollars.”

you laughed just as they announced third place, second place, and then, “and for first, we’ve got teen wolf.”

“fuck yeah!” tyler yelled, throwing his hands up.

cody howled, very in character, and you couldn’t stop the grin from creeping on your face at their antics. zach laughed as they chest bumped and dragged you and him to the makeshift stage where they were passing out prizes.

tyler leaned on the table as they handed out the free drink vouchers and t-shirts. as the four of you walked away, he leaned in, “bro.”

you winced at the smell of vodka on his breath, “what?”

“guess how many votes we got?”

“how many?”

“so many.”

your eyebrows shot up, “actually?”

“mhmm,” he grinned cheekily, “guess how many maybank got?”

“less?”

“one.”

“what?!”

he cackled, “a whole one.”

“it’s what he deserves,” cody nodded seriously.

“what’s going on?” zach asked, having missed most of the conversation while he was trying to call another uber.

“maybank getting his just desserts.”

“desserts,” cody interrupted, “should we go trick or treating?”

“literally where?” you asked, “we live in a city.”

“i’m sure we could find somewhere.”

zach shook his head, “no, dude, we’ll just go back to mine, i have oreos.”

“oh fuck,” cody groaned, “i could kiss you right now, bro.”

zach blew him an air kiss playfully and cody caught it, bringing it to his heart. you laughed at their antics, an arm around each of their waists, “love you guys.”

“love you too,” they all chorused back. your boys.

[ecto-stone]

“chuckkle” i don’t know why but i’m just very hellbend on the idea of a reboosted Vlad that is nothing like Original Vlad

-So You have this sickly Vlad who been in hospital for 2 year fighting for his life after the accident, with his friend alway there cheering up for him and then in his final moment ,he die feeling love of his friend < a peaceful death make him free soul and have no grudge over Maddie and Jack>. -Then latter wake up a in tux suit buried in a coffin 6ft under ground with Blue Skin and comepletely bald <which is why he got so savy about his long hair and don’t like tight space>  -Unlike original Vlad, Para Vlad is a kind out going adveturous person < sortal like some one that would make sense for jack to go full idol over>. So when he get his new Power and no longer exist on paper, he just resume doing the thing he love .Become a Nomad Ghost researcher and have a whole Packer cover journal for it. <his journal base mostly on the info he gather from Ghost that he encounter on living realm, the man look like a kid in candies store when he first entered the ghost zone via Fenton Portal> -The journal series originally dedicated to ghost only would soon grow into a huge collection of paranormal stuff when he found out other mythical creature like Vampire, werewolf, gnorm,Fairy, mermaid exist,... and He started to recovered lost Knowlege of the Fenton Clan and Master clan regard Paranormal activity and practice Magic and dark magic < Sometime combine it with science>. +He help Ghost resolve their unfinish bussines.Skulker is one of his close ghost friend <it start off as Vlad getting hunted to be mounted on Skulker abandoned hunter shed Wall but slowly grow into Friendship.Vlad already help him resolve the unfinish bussiness but Skulker just chose to stay around as a ghost caused he enjoy hunting too much> + Like collect shiny artifact and shiny gothic looking thing in general <this is totally caused of Plasmius-the boy been to and raid alots of hidden acient temple as well as vampire castle and fortress> +Have Bad temple <didn’t really show this to outsider, if you are close to him or You frequencely fight him u would know, The Roasted Vampire cult of 2001 know> +Cursed in sweet if there minor around, Cursed like sailor If no children is around. +Consider Resurectioning someone that already pass onto Elsewhereness <Heaven/after life> is Insulting .<He can’t die You can tear him into thousand pieces and he would comeback the next day un-scratched ,which is why He didn’t res Ellie eventhought he know how to do it>. -Got into grudge with Vampire After keep foiling their Plan of resurecting their dark lord Plasmius or messing with their plan of rissing back into power over  other mythical Species  which latter redirected to wanting his blood caused it extremely poten <being a halfa and have second core being a G0 Vampire> to wanting to capture him and make him open the portal to Unworld  +Unworld is where Living Realm, Pugatory <Ghostzone> And Fairy world been banishing evil creature to for thousand of year so there is all sort of inhuman eldritch horror there, and vlad have natural ability to access the place and banish You to this dark realm <Unworld Halfa thing> -At some point he also encounter or know about the existence ofother halfa + Wulf a werewolf halfa <the poor boy die few year after vlad encounter with him but he become a rare kind of ghost that can open gate to Purgatory> +Actual recorded naturally exist halfa in Fenton Cland Grimoire due to naturally open portal. <short lived> +The cult Melty Halfa <imagine the danny clone but created via cultist dark magic method> -vampire and cult attemp to replicated Vlad power didn’t end well +Danielle <Ellie> Master: Lucky survivor of the cult melty halfa, created from Vlad rib and a vampire carrier mother. She lived and travel with Vlad for 9 year before dying to a mysterious illness <what vlad said at least> few month before her tenth birthday.  (Vlad could prob go on for hour when you aks about what Ellie is like when she is alive?) -Vlad: The Cost of Being Missed so deeply is the prices for Being Loved so much.  <don’t ask, losing bone and organs is regular for Vlad when it come to fighting. After he learn of the crime that is CMH and after Ellie death he Become less reckless and more of a long term planner> *Note from Vlad Journal: Halfa genuinly have very short life spawn as their ghost half tend to over power the living half leading to the death of the creature and instant like Me that perfectly dangling between life and death one does not over power the other is unheard of. <Vlad tell Jack and Maddie to spend more time with their chrildren is caused of this. He assume Danny to be a Short lived Halfa-No he not he is the immortal kind like Vlad> ..................................................... After Ellie pass away, Vlad stop with the Paranormal adventure and traveling or using his power as a whole. To just go low Profile and start as new life as a Freelance Wall Painter. Until by the meedling of a certain “Being” that make Vlad and Danny, those two that never cross path in the original timeline, cross Path . And change both of their life forever. -With Danny fidding some one he can talk ,vent to about life and understand his struggle. Someone who is there for him and just bring so much change to his suffercating life just by existing. -With Vlad finding back his purpose in life, reconnecting with old friend, restarting his old chaotic way of life. +He live with the Fenton now, right next to their bed, at the end of the hall is one of vlad magical pocket dimension coat nail to the wall surrounded and magic circle and candle to act as Vlad room> +Few month After the reveal that Vlad is alive, come to Jack accepting that Danny is a half ghost now and winning back maddie afection after she left caused of a bad fall out regarding Danny getting in trouble caused of Ghost Power.Maddie and Jack start back the whole Paranormal investigation/inventor thing up again .They want to see what inside halfa look like for a very long time but too afraid to ask. And After like week of them just nervously staring at Danny and Vlad. The one day Vlad just have enough go Well I can let you dissect me if You like... They do dissect session with Vlad being full concious to get an insider opinion and Info on Halfa Bio on Halloween night caused the kid would be out trick or treating. . <Fright Knight Version of Para>. And Danny and co just comeback into lab right after the Dissect is over and Jack is Patching Vlad up and just go. -um Uncle Vlad we “brorrow” one of your sword and accidently unleash an acient halloween ghost knight into the town and it now threatening to Take over the town  -You Did WHAT? Insert fire/ Pink magical circle and ghost laser here. With Vlad looking like a Bad Vampire mummy halloween costume lying wasted on the street bleeding out surrounded by the Danny gang with the Fright knight barely Escape Vlad "To Unworld You go” Beam fly away sworn revenge  <setting up for event that make Danny Pugatory Avatar Halfa becoming the new ghost King > ........................................................................................................................ To Who ever read this entire mess. I Kudo You for putting up with my bullshit.

[cyberaxolotl]

Tricks Over Treats

two versions woo hee

and then the writing piece to go along with it

“An Alternate Desire”

For an all popular DJ, he had a lot more to know about him than what was known to the public, some of which stayed shrouded in mystery to even his boyfriend and closest friends. One of the things he did make very clear to anyone who saw him around that time of year was that he was a HUGE fan of Halloween. Spooky jack-o-lanterns, sweets, costumes, he still thoroughly enjoyed it, even as an adult. He loved remixing classic Halloween tunes to add a more techno vibe to them, and that wasn’t going to change any time soon. And finally, he loved the scares; he was willing to be a bit sick around that time of year with his jokes, as anything scary was widely accepted and usually expected.

Especially not now, when there’s a Halloween party for all the musicians in Rhythm Heaven to attend, as well as any plus 1’s they might wish to have with them. Hosted by the rap men (obviously) and having as many different types of music as you could think of playing one after the other in the main hall, it was going to be a great party to have a good laugh. And for everyone to see any friends they had made since the Battle Of The Bands.

DJ Yellow, of course, had Blue with him. While his boyfriend wasn’t the biggest fan of that scary time of year, he still enjoyed talking to some of the others and seeing them all happy.

“I need to put my costume on in the car, but I’ll be inside in just a moment!” DJ Yellow said, nudging his partner while they were in the entrance hall.

“…Why didn’t you just put it on while we were at the apartment?” Blue asked, turning around. His costume itself was rather plain, he was just dressed as a vampire with a little bit of fake blood on his chin, but he was perfectly happy with that. It was one of the few times of year when he’d go out with his dreadlocks down, too.

“Cause! I wanted it to be a surprise for you too!” Deej gave a quick finger gun, before slipping out the door. His boyfriend sighed, feeling only mildly inconvenienced that he’d need to be alone at a party for a few minutes, and moreover very anxious. He never was one for direct social interaction.

As he walked into the main hall, he was immediately addressed. “Heeey, Blue!” A happy sounding, higher pitched voice called out to him, and he immediately knew who it was. “Where’s Yellow?” B.B. Rocker asked him, standing shorter than him and only around his chest height.

“Yellow’s in the car putting his costume on. Chances are, he just forgot to put it on at home.” He replied, looking down at his friend. They wore a costume that was… on the stranger side, but not out of character for them. It was an orange-white tabby cat suit with a denim dress put on over it, a pair of matching cat ears sitting in their ginger hair. They looked rather cute, if Blue’s bisexual ass could say so himself.

“Ah, so did J.J. He’s getting changed in the bathroom.” They turned away, looking down another hallway in the back of that room.

Blue sighed. “Oh boy…”

“What?”

“J.J.’s here, Yellow’s gonna be here soon. Chances are sometime in the night that is not going to end well.” He folded his arms, glancing away. There were certainly a lot of people there, like MC Adore and her love posse all in matching costumes, the Pop Singer Yui in a cutesy zombie outfit, and apparently even the rap women had managed to slip in, as Rosebud and Sapphie were happily talking to a trio of ghosts. What stood out to him, though, was the fact that the rap men were nowhere to be seen. If they were hosting that gig, they should’ve either been in the entrance hall greeting people, or in the main hall talking.

“Oh, you’re right. Guess we’ll just have to hope they don’t directly cross paths and say something shitty to each other, huh?” B.B. sighed as well, holding the back of their neck.

“You know it’s more likely for J.J. to say something shitty than for Yellow to. Yellow’s not an asshole, he’s just a…” Blue went quiet as he lost his words.

“…A snarky asshole?”

“That.” He motioned in confirmation to them. He looked back over at the rap women, noticing that the Big Rock Finish ghosts were leaving. “I’m gonna go ask the rap women where their brothers are, if Yellow comes in, tell him I’ll be right back.”

“Alrighty!” With that, he walked away, leaving B.B. by the entrance.

As he got closer to the snack table, he was able to tell what Rosebud and Sapphie were wearing as costumes. They were matching, as expected from the two of them, and had gone for a western theme. Rosebud was dressed as a saloon dancer, a crimson skirt falling to the back of her ankles and a corset tied around her waist. It also seemed that she had taken the opportunity to wear something only a bit more revealing than her usual outfits. Sapphie was dressed as a cowgirl, hiding her eyes in the shadow of a ten gallon hat, and wearing open bottom pants. The two certainly matched, but had their own ways of doing it, the mutual color palette between their costumes tying it together.

“Excuse me, girls?” He asked, and the two turned over to face him.

“Oh, hi Blue.” Sapphie humbly waved at him, smiling. “Do you need something?”

“I don’t, but I want to ask- where are your brothers?” The two ladies' expressions tensed.

“Jasper and Goldie? Uh…” Rosebud’s eyebrows furrowed. “…I don’t know, actually. Sapphire?” She looked up at her girlfriend.

The taller woman shrugged. “I haven’t seen either of them since they left the recording studio, but they’re probably somewhere around here. Sorry, Blue.”

“Hm.” Blue looked skeptical, glancing behind him. “Alright then. I need to go back to B.B., you two have fun.” He turned around, his dreadlocks nearly whipping him in the face.

“Bye-bye!” Rosebud said as he walked away.

When he got back over to his rock student friend, they looked confused. “Is something wrong, B.B?” He asked, and they turned to him.

“No, no, nothing. Just… JJ is taking an awful long while to put his costume on. He went in just before you arrived.” They put a hand behind their head, “We’re supposed to be a cat and a dog, so he might be struggling with the suit or something.”

“Now that you mention it, if Yellow is taking this long to put it on, then he really should’ve put it on at the apartment-“

As if on cue, the door opened, and DJ Yellow slid in overdramatically. Since nobody noticed him except BB and Blue, he got up in one quick motion, turning over to them. “Hey guys!” He said happily, walking over. His costume was made of… really dark colors, something completely out of character for him. It was all black with a dark red cape that made his neck completely covered, looking completely out of place while paired with his unaltered hair and headphones. For reasons neither of them could decipher, he also carried a lit jack-o-lantern.

“Hey Yellow..?” BB raised an eyebrow, giving a short wave.

“…” Blue spent several seconds trying to decipher what his lover was wearing, before sighing. “Yellow, what are you supposed to be?”

The DJ walked over and leaned against his taller counterpart’s arm as though he was trying to lean against his shoulder but was just too short to do so. “A surprise.”

“That’s what you said when you were putting ON the costume.” The sarcastic remark made Yellow chuckle.

“Yes, but what I’m gonna do in this costume is also a surprise.”

“Just tell us what the costume is, Deej!” The rockstar leaned in, and mysterious refusal after cryptic refusal soon descended into laughter and casual conversation. It was rare for Yellow to oblige to interact with BB, but Blue was glad that they could get along on a night like that.

But… he still couldn’t downplay it.

Something was wrong.

Or off.

Yellow didn’t sound like himself, nor did his mouth follow his words. His mouth had a delay compared to his words, as though his head and his voice box were working as two separate parts rather than as the same body. His voice sounded less like his smug and casual self was talking and more like some kind of modulation, as though a robot with his voice was reading from a script and trying to sound like a person.

Blue chalked it up to one of two things. One idea was that the tragedy striking Heaven World had hailed itself down to Earth World and struck the man right before him- they were called Alternates, and they took the places of people, making themselves look completely like them- except they had the ability to do things that were biologically impossible, like rip their head off and live, or be engulfed in flames and come out without a scar. Both of those things were examples that Heaven World had given out across the entire land, as they were things they had tried to do to kill Alternates. So far, though, the only way discovered to kill an Alternate was to stab it in the third eye, which appeared somewhere on the body and was usually a spot like the arm, neck, or leg.

What Alternates did with people was unknown, but all that was figured out was the disappearances of many, many real people, and the replacement and spreading of fake versions.

DJ Yellow was either an alternate… or pulling a sick joke and pretending to be one. It wasn’t far fetched to expect him to pull a downright awful joke like that at a Halloween party, so Blue shrugged it off like nothing, knowing that he was probably the only one at that party who paid attention to news from Heaven World. Considering that the DJ hadn’t started acting weird like that until they HAD reached the party, it seemed more logical than just immediately assuming the person before him was fake.

A few hours passed. Music played, fatty and sweet food was eaten, and musicians and their plus 1’s spoke to one another. Only a few minutes after their conversation had happened, the rap men entered the main hall from the back, dressed in matching costumes that looked like zombies. It depended on the person whether or not watching them question how the fuck their sisters had gotten in was entertaining or not, but the girls weren’t kicked out either way.

Everything seemed to be pulling together finely, until…

JJ and Yellow hadn’t seen each other at all that night, until at one point, the DJ was asked to get an alcoholic drink from the kitchen. The alcohol wasn’t out freely at the snack tables, just to make sure nobody accidentally drank liquor or beer over dyed punch, so people would usually ask their partner to get a drink for them from the back.

JJ was returning from the back hall just as Yellow was descending down it, and it seemed the rockstar couldn’t resist a small remark. “And what are you supposed to be?” He said as the two were about to cross paths.

DJ Yellow stopped in his place, a cocky smirk on his face. “The headless horseman, obviously.” He held up the jack-o-lantern, holding it in front of his head.

“You have a head, DJ.” The other musician glared, raising an eyebrow.

There was a sudden tension in the air as the two realized they were alone in that hallway, and the door to the main hall was completely shut. “You think so?” Yellow turned his head and raised an eyebrow. Before JJ could even say anything-

He thrust the jack-o-lantern backwards.

It slammed into his head and he fell backwards, the lit candle squishing against his face and setting his hair on fire, hot wax falling onto his skin. JJ was stunned silent as he watched DJ Yellow’s body stand up without his head, leaving the smoldering wax and flesh on the floor. “Isn’t this a funny costume, JJ?” All of the remnants of his original voice were replaced by the whispering, fake voice of an alternate person.

“Wh- wha- what the fuck-?!” The rockstar couldn’t scream, he could only let out hushed curses. What he saw didn’t feel real in the slightest. As the other man stood up, he could see that the place where his head and his neck had separated held no arteries or bones, but only one bloodshot yellow eye. Blood leaked down his neck as his head smoldered in flames, melting as though it in itself was made of wax.

DJ Yellow stood back up. He turned around and picked up the pile of wax, human flesh, and pumpkin flesh, shaping it back together with his hands. “The look on your face- I don’t think I’ve ever been more entertained!” He laughed, “You’d never believe how long I’ve been waiting to pull that trick. I love being in the body of someone who finds jokes funny!” With that, he put his head back on his neck, tying his cape carefully so that the blood of his neck was veiled.

He walked right up to the rockstar’s face, leaning close.

“Be lucky this isn’t Heaven World.”

so yeah there’s your “yellow becomes a fucking cryptid” writing piece lmao

[oscars-wifeyyy]

Chapter 4 (The Innocent)

Masterlist

Halloween finally came around and traditional shut in was happening at Ruby’s, like usual, and the crew was there, sans Cesar. Monse, Jamal, and Elizabeth were in costume while Olivia was getting into hers inside her room. Monse was a lifeguard, Jamal was a hospital patient, Elizabeth was Harley Quinn from the Suicide Squad, and Ruby was a vampire.

“Eighty-six the chat and focus,” Ruby interrupted the talking, “this is gonna be our best shut in ever. But we have to follow protocol,”

“Dude, we know the drill,” Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

“This year’s gonna be different. It’s not about our survival. It’s about Olivia. There was magic in our first dance,” Ruby sighed.

“Have you guys been to Brentwood?” Jamal asked from the dining table.

“I haven’t, J,” Elizabeth turned to face him.

“My parents are out so I set up touch control LED lighting,” Ruby turned the lights on, “Bordello Red. Nightmare on Elm Street us gonna get Olivia scared…” Ruby sat on the couch, “a little lappy,”

“You know that’s creepy, right?” Monse asked.

“One step ahead of you,” Ruby grabbed the blanket over the couch, “little cover in case of wood,”

“Speaking of wood, Brentwood sounds kind of fun,” Jamal tried to get his ideas on the table.

Elizabeth looked around at the couches, “where is Cesar sitting?”

“In Oscar’s Impala,” Ruby replied.

“He’s not coming? Why? It’s tradition,” Monse rushed out.

“Who cares?” Ruby shrugged.

The door busted open and Cesar walked into the house, “shut in!”

“B-but I thought you were with Oscar?” Ruby stuttered, looking horrified at the sight of his best friend in the house.

“Good to see you too,” Cesar smiled sarcastically.

“Nice costume, Julius,” Elizabeth chuckled as the two did their own handshake.

“No, it’s fine. It’s just…”Ruby sighed, “take a seat, any seat,” Cesar moved to sit on the loveseat, but Ruby quickly shoved him away, “not the loveseat and don’t block my scented candle,”

Olivia walked out of her room with her costume on, “What do you think?”

Ruby looked stunned and grabbed the blanket, “that looks nice,”

“When are we going out?” the new girl asked the group.

“Never. Trick or treating in Freeridge is a no go,” Ruby said.

“Why?”

“You might wanna sit down. I’ll be brief,” Ruby sat down on the loveseat with Olivia, “In 2012, Prohets rolled up on us. Glocks to our head and snatched our bags. 2013, we were kissing pavement all night. Caught in a drive-by. That night we lost our candy and perhaps out innocence,”

“Can we talk?” Monse asked Cesar.

“I’m good,” Cesar responded.

Elizabeth grabbed both of their arms and pulled them to the hallway, “listen here, estupidos. Y’all are going to talk and chop it up. Bye, I need to piss,”

By the time she got back, she realized that they were going to Brentwood for Halloween, but she wasn’t complaining because they gave out big candy bars. Abuelita came in and ushered the kids inside her car so she could drive them to Brentwood. After the hour drive, they arrived at sun down and the kids were exiting.

“Buena suerte,” Abuelita smiled at the kids.

“We don’t need luck,” Ruby chuckled, “It’s Brentwood. Nothing bad happens here,”

“How about OJ?” Cesar brought up, “no offense, Jamal,”

“Oh, I’m good. We don’t claim him,”

“So, we should be ready around ten,” Ruby leaned in the window.

“Good for you, but I have plans,” Abuelita said, driving off.

The six turned towards the neighborhood, “we are not in Freeride anymore,”

“We have lots of ground to cover, so to maximize candy efficiency, let’s divide and conquer then split our booty,” Jamal faced the crew.

“Great idea. Olivia and I will go this way. Meet back here at 10?” Ruby dragged Olivia in one direction.

“Jamal,” Cesar and Monse said together.

“On second thought, I’ll go with Eli,” Cesar walked to Elizabeth.

The crew split ways and once Elizabeth and Cesar were out of earshot from the crew she started asking Cesar questions, “wassup with you and Monse?”

“The night of homecoming, Monse said that I wasn’t safe,” Cesar sighed, “it sucks because it’s true,”

“Salad, I know it hurt when she said that, but give her time,” Elizabeth wrapped an arm around him, “after all you are a new Santo and she never dated one either,”

“You’re probably right,” Cesar smiled, “What’s up with you and my brother?”

“We are...getting closer,” Elizabeth cheesed really hard, “I told him about my dad and he took me to a pretty special place.

“You told him about tu papa?” Cesar asked, shocked with the fact that she opened up to Oscar that much, “well I hope you guys work,”

“Yeah, but I don’t know how to do these things, like relationships and whatnot,” Elizabeth stressed, “I’ve never done this, but I’m starting it with this big bad gang leader,”

“I would tell you, but obviously mine isn’t going so great,” Cesar laughed.

“Headass,” Elizabeth laughed and caught sight of a familiar boy and girl, “ain’t that Ruby and Olivia?”

Cesar turned and saw the two, “yeah. Let’s go catch up,”

When the two finally caught up, they caught sight of the party across the street.

“You know what would be crazy cool?” Olivia asked Ruby, “if we crash that party,” she pointed at the house across the street.

“I don’t know. They look like the’re at capacity. We don’t wanna create a fire hazard,” Ruby stared at the house.

Elizabeth face palmed, but went to the two, “what’s up, guys! Olivia, if you could excuse us a second? Thank you,” “Compa,” Cesar looked at the short friend, “you need to not be you,”

“Me? What’s wrong with me?” Ruby looked at the two of them confused.

Cesar pointed to Elizabeth who started talking in a weird voice, “‘I don’t know. They look like the’re at capacity. We don’t wanna create a fire hazard,’ dude, be outside Ruben,”

“Take her to the party,” Cesar walked back to Olivia.

Ruby followed, “New plan. Let’s tear that party up!”

Ten minutes later into the party, Ruby was coming back to the group with a plate full of food and an excited expression on his face. He went to the couch where most of the crew was sitting at, “everyone here is so friendly. I told someone I was from Freeridge and got major props. Hood must be trending,” Ruby held out the plate out to Olivia, “here’s some napkins and lemon wedges,”

“You’re so thoughtful and always such a gentleman,” Olivia smiled.

“Gentleman, scholar, and a damn good swimmer too,” Cesar tried to hype Ruby up, but was going above and beyond.

Olivia handed the plate to Cesar, “Excuse me, it’s time for my adventure to find the restroom and wait in a long line,”

“I’ll come with,” Elizabeth smiled at the new girl.

“Awesome! Let’s go,” the two walked to find the restroom, “so, anyone special?”

Elizabeth chuckled, “maybe. I don’t know, we’re kinda just taking it slow,”

“Is it Cesar? You guys seem close,” Olivia looked down.

Elizabeth couldn’t help, but laugh, “definitely not. He’s just a friend, nothing more! However, this person that I’m taking it slow with is close with Cesar,”

The two finally arrived at the bathroom and paused the conversation until after Olivia was done using the restroom. After a few minutes, she emerged from the restroom and the two decided to go find something to drink and arrived in the kitchen, looking through the fridge, while Elizabeth settled with a soda in a bin.

“Is he in the group?” Olivia smiled big.

“Nope,” Elizabeth smirked, “you’re not gonna know, but I feel like you’re gonna end up finding out soon so I guess just wait,”

The two laughed when they made their way back to the boys, but saw a group of white boys talking to them. Elizabeth sat next to Cesar while Olivia stood next to her.

“Hey,” Olivia smiled.

The white boy dressed as a cholo saw the juice in her hand, “Where’d you get that?”

“From the fridge,” 

“That’s my mom’s pressed juice,”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Olivia started.

“She’s on a cleanse,” the white boy stressed, “she knows exactly how many bottles there are,”

“I had no idea. I just wanted a drink and I just assumed…” Olivia got cut off.

“What? That you could just go in and take it? There are drinks everywhere. There’s a whole bin of soda right there. You should have been smart like your… very sexy friend here,” white boy winked at Elizabeth who rolled her eyes, “why were you in the fridge?”

“I was thirsty. It’s just juice. It’s not a big deal,” Olivia shuffled her feet.

“Don’t tell me what’s a big deal, ok? Do people go into your house and take stuff out of your fridge?” The white boy asked the underprivileged kids.

“Yes,” the group said.

“What the hell is wrong with you people?” the white boy chuckled.

“Hold up,” Elizabeth stood up and towards the white boy, “you people?”

“Hey, just let it go,” Cesar held Elizabeth’s arm, but she shook it off.

“No, I’m not letting shit go. This white boy wants to be a little racist shit,” Elizabeth glared at the boy in front of her.

“Don’t you have any respect?” the white boy glared

“Dice que el gringo se viste como un cholo,” Elizabeth stood her ground.

“Excuse me, hoe? Excuse me?” the white boy stepped closer to Elizabeth.

“We don’t want any problems,” Cesar stood and moved to stand next to the hot headed girl.

“Exactly,” Ruby interfered, “I got her. How much is the juice?” Ruby started pulling out his wallet.

“Ok,” the white boy nodded, “fifty two dollars a bottle and twenty dollars each for all the food and drinks you had,”

“We don’t have that kind of money on us,” Olivia said.

“Of course you don’t,” The white boy said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Olivia glared.

“Just stating the obvious,” the white boy sarcastically smiled at Olivia then turned to Elizabeth, “how about you stay and I can show you a real man?”

“Now you’re just being a dick,” Olivia seethed.

“Dude, control your bitch,” white boy said to Ruby.

“You better apologize,” Cesar stood up to the white boy.

“Nah, he doesn’t have to apologize,” Elizabeth winked at Elizabeth.

“Exactly, gorgeous. How are we gonna settle up?” the white boy smirked.

“Like this,” Olivia said, opening the bottle and spilling it all over the floor.

The four soon ran as a person came up to them and handed the white boy and his group eggs. Eggs started being thrown and hit the four people as they ran farther away from the house with the group following. They ran into Jamal and Monse so they quickly told them to run, but it was too late when eggs were thrown at them as well. After a few more minutes of running, the crew stopped running and started trying to figure out how they were gonna get back, but Elizabeth caught sight of Cesar focused on his phone.

“Whatcha doing, compa?” Elizabeth asked Cesar.

“Askin’ your novio to come and handle it,” Cesar turned to the group, “don’t get a Lyft. It’s handled,” everyone except Monse looked confused, “it’s handled,”

Ten minutes later, Cesar and Elizabeth walked up to the house party and towards the white boy cholo. They met at the top step of the lawn and faced off.

“You want some more?” The white boy asked Cesar, but he didn’t respond, “you think you’re hard, ok. As for you, gorgeous, you come back to let me show you a man?”

“No I didn’t, gringo,” Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

“I’m not, but he is,” Cesar looked back as the familiar Impala stopped in front of the house.

Oscar got out of the car and towards them as the music stopped and everyone looked scared. The Santo walked up to Elizabeth and held her chin to inspect her face and looked down to check out her body, “haces daño, bebé? Nice costume, too,”

“Yo estoy muy bien. simplemente hacer lo que tienes que hacer y vamos a ir,” Elizabeth crossed her arm as yolk ran down her cheek.

Oscar kissed Elizabeth’s cheek and wiped off the yolk before walking up to the white boy. He looked at his face before licking his thumb, wiping off the tear tattoo, and copied the action on his own, but his didn’t come off.

“This shit’s real,” Oscar glared.

“What do you want?” The white boy whimpered.

Oscar looked at Cesar who responded, “all of your pressed juices, candy, and an apology to Elizabeth,”

Those words caught Oscar’s attention, “what did you do to my girl, cabron?”

“Nothing, man,” the white boy stuttered, “boys, get what they asked already!”

“Boy, if you don’t stop lying,” Elizabeth glared at the boy, “didn’t you call me a hoe? Don’t back up now when an actual man steps up. You say you could show me a real man, right? Where is he now?”

“I-I-I’m s-sorry,”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, but nodded before throwing her fist at his face and watched as he fell back on his butt with a mouthful of blood. His group walked back out with all the stuff and quickly shoved it into their awaiting arms.

Oscar laughed at the boy silently crying at the punch before leaning down, “so where is the real man? I’m curious to see how you could handle a baddie like her pero we ain’t gonna know,”

The group was now piling into the back of Oscar’s Impala with their own arms full of the things that were given while Cesar sat in the front with Elizabeth in between them.

“Where to, hermanito?” Oscar asked Cesar.

“Ruby’s” Cesar said.

The ride was quiet and after tonight’s events, Elizabeth was tired as she yawned and felt her eyes close when she felt something touch her left thigh, but she didn’t mind, knowing it was Oscar who laid his hand on it. She slowly drifted off as her head lolled to Oscar’s shoulder after a right turn and soft snores filled the air with the music playing softly in the background.

“Aye, anyone of you, grab the flannel that’s there somewhere and give it to Cesar,” the freshmen in the back shuffled fast and quickly handed it to Cesar, “Cesar, lay it on her pero don’t wake her up,”

Half an hour later, they were in front of Ruby’s house and Elizabeth felt the stop so she opened her eyes with a groan. Her eyes caught sight of Ruby’s house and saw the position she was in causing her cheeks to grow ablaze and quickly got out of the car to let the crew out while Oscar smirked at the girl, but saw the red on her knuckles. Monse left shortly after leaving the crew to go inside and Elizabeth was about to make her way inside, but Oscar called out to her.

“Eli! Get back inside. I’m gonna take you home,”

Elizabeth shrugged and went back inside the car. They drove in silence and arrived at Oscar’s house, but Elizabeth was confused.

“What are we doing here?” Elizabeth asked the man.

“I gotta patch you up, mamita,” Oscar grabbed her bruised hand and held it up, “now get your ass inside,”

“Bossy much?” Elizabeth rolled her eyes, but a smile emerged onto her lips.

The two got inside and Oscar led her into the bathroom, lifting her up so she could sit on the counter. He shuffled through the cabinet to get the first aid kit as Elizabeth sat patiently while swinging her legs back and forth. Finally, Oscar got the kit and took her hand after he doused a cotton pad with alcohol to clean her knuckles before wrapping it in gauze to prevent infections. Elizabeth smiled at his gentle touch, but it didn’t get past Oscar when he looked up.

“Que?” Oscar raised an eyebrow.

“Nada,” Elizabeth shrugged, “it’s just Spooky got a soft touch for a gang leader,”

“Callate, pendeja,” Oscar scoffed, “it’s only ‘cause it’s you,”

“Oh my God,” Elizabeth put her uninjured hand on her chest, above her heart, “the Spooky is becoming soft because of me,”

The two just stared before laughing at the impersonation of the hormonal women that were afraid of him, but still swooned over his beauty. After they were done, Cesar walked in looking stressed, but Elizabeth pushed it aside, thinking it was over Monse. Oscar was staring at the girl that was in front of him when her eyes closed due to the events from that night.

“Are your parents gonna be home tonight?” Oscar asked.

Elizabeth shook her head, “my mom picked up double shifts,”

Oscar nodded, picking the small girl up causing her to wrap her legs around him so she didn’t fall on her ass. He walked the two of them into his room and plopped her onto the bed before taking off his tank top before laying down next to her. The two laid next to each other in complete silence until they let their eyes closed and their bodies give way to the sleepy feeling.

@lostgirl219​  @love-me-91393​

[ladybugsfanfics]

Shut Up And Kiss Me [10/?] | Tom Hiddleston x reader

pairing: Tom Hiddleston x reader

style: part 10 of ?

wc: 2.8k

warnings: pining, halloween, bad references, 

summary:  You and Professor Hiddleston have been colleagues for many years now, and through those years the hatred for each other has only grown. Now, as a new school year starts, you’re being told that you have to share a classroom or a class. Neither are happy about the outcome, but knowing you’ll never come to an agreement, you let the class choose for you. Team-teaching is rare in 2019, but it is a lot harder to do when you can’t stand the person you’re doing it with. 

A/N: so I have a part this week, but I think I might stop the weekly updates. A lot of things are going on at once and I’m not sure I can get out a part a week. I think I might be able to get out a story or an update of a story each week but I don’t think much more than that and I have so much other shit Im working on that I want so share with you guys. I let you know of my decicion, and i hope you enjoy the part ^_^

If you want to be tagged, please send an ASK ^_^

Previous | Series Masterlist | Part Eleven

Since Friday, Tom’s mind has been set on the kiss. It has been set on the kiss in the bar. The one in the shadows where no one could see them and his heart pounded in his chest. The one where afterwards, so certain that Y/N just wanted to because she wanted to have some recollection of it, he had stood up and walked away as if it meant nothing. 

Even though it meant everything. 

He can recall every minute of it. Every second of what happened before and after is drilled into his brain after countless reenactments. 

The slight fear in her eyes as Benedict smiled and told Tom what he needed to do to jog her memory. The way she downed two shots in a matter of seconds and then shook her head a little as if it would get the taste away. The burn of his hand as she took his in hers, the touch scorching hot. The nervousness that floated in her beautiful eyes as she told him what was going on. The way his gut hurt when his lips met hers. The way his skin heated under her touch. The fireworks that erupted in every part of him, rooted in his stomach but exploded outwards into his veins. 

He remembers it all. And it felt just as hurtful as the kiss during the play. 

Tom got to kiss her twice, both times with the knowledge that, for her, it wasn’t something with feelings. It was something she had to do, and something she wanted to because she didn’t remember the first time. 

---

As Tom rings the doorbell, he vows to kill Benedict when the night is over. Not only does he have to wear a costume, he said yes to going trick or treating with the kids. Kit and Hal will make fun of him, so will Benedict and Sophie. 

At least, when the door opens and Y/N stands there in a costume, he feels better about it. She’s wearing a wine red, short dress with gears placed neatly around. The corset accentuates her waist, and the fingerless gloves makes her her arms look longer. Tom’s gaze stops at her legs, where she’s wearing kneehigh boots and flashing  a lot of skin. 

Tom’s heart drums in his chest and he has to tell himself not to stare. His gaze travels up again, which is when he notices the tophat. Gear-goggles placed neatly atop it, giving the steampunk vibe Tom supposes she’s going for. 

“Didn’t know you were coming?” she says and lets him in. “Can’t say I’m surprised, though.”

“The same to you,” he replies, “Benedict didn’t mention it.” 

Y/N smiles. “You won’t see much of me though. I’m going trick and treating with the boys.” 

“I thought I was going trick or treating with the boys?” 

Y/N’s brows crease. She doesn’t reply, only closes the door and walks into the living room. Moments later, Tom hears her annoyed tone as he follows after. She’s standing in front of Benedict, voice low but annoyed. “We agreed. We had an agreement.”

The older man shrugs with a smile. “I can’t recall that. When did we make this?” 

Y/N gives Benedict a playful punch in the arm and glares at him. She moves from him, glare still set on Benedict, and sits down by Kit. With one last glance at the kid’s father, a glare Tom is very glad he’s not on the receiving end of, she smiles and turns to Kit. 

“I honestly don’t understand how you can actually enjoy having her hate you,” says Benedict when Tom stops next to him. 

Tom shrugs. “It’s not too bad.” 

His best friend sends him a look.

He sighs. “It wasn’t that bad. Currently I wish things were slightly different.” Tom shakes his head. “When did you ask her to go trick or treating?” 

“Saturday?” 

“So, same time as you asked me?”

Benedict nods. “One adult per kid.”

Tom pats Benedicts back. “I think we’ll handle it.”

 ---

They walk down the street listening to Kit chatter. Tom holds Hal’s hand, the boy keeping himself a little ways from his brother’s constant talking. Y/N holds Kit’s hand, listening intently to the words the four year old says and smiling fondly at him. Something about the way she seems to beam whenever he does and replies to his talking as if the boy was her age, it makes a smile creep into Tom’s features. 

He tries to push down the extra sense of fluttering in his gut, but it’s hard. He can feel the nerves shoot around, telling him that he needs to be alert and that every minute they spend together is a step further. Yet his mind contradicts this, showing every scenario where she doesn’t like him. There are many. 

Yet, seeing her with Kit, he can’t keep his mind from going that way. It shows him pictures of what she would be like with her own kid. It shows him pictures of her smiling and laughing as she holds a baby. It shows him scenarios of dates they go on, or just sitting on the couch cuddling with a movie. 

Tom takes a deep breath and diverts his attention back to the two kids running to ring the doorbell of a house. He stands next to Y/N as they watch the kids, racking his brain for some way to start a conversation. 

“Did you remember to say thank you?” she asks as the two boys return. He lost his chance. 

Kit nods and Hal shakes his head. Y/N smiles and shakes hers, too. “Remember to next house, okay?” 

The boys nod, and Kit goes back to his chatter. 

Most of the night continues like that. Whenever the kids go away and get some more candy, Tom racks his brain for a conversation starter, but whenever he’s close to one or about to ask her something, the boys return and Kit takes up her attention. 

To be honest, Tom doesn’t really know what to do. There’s something he would like to say that he won’t ever say, and there’s something he would like to ignore or have go away as soon as possible. Those are the same things. 

Even worse, during classes both on Tuesday and earlier Today, their students kept diverting the subject. They got to teach something, and then as it bordered territory, the students shot out with the questions they wanted to. 

It is clear that the kiss during the play did nothing to stop the students from ‘shipping’ them. Rather it made the whole thing even worse. And it hasn’t made Tom’s life any easier. 

The clock ticks away, and finally the words come from Y/N. “Okay, last house and then we make our way back, okay?” 

Kit looks a little sad at that, but still nods. Hal nod furiously and decides not to join his brother to get some more candy. Instead he turns to Y/N and holds up his arms, clearly asking for her to carry him. With a sad smile, she does. The two year old lies his head down on her shoulder and, if Tom isn’t mistaken, closes his eyes.

“I bet Kit’s just as tired, he just doesn’t want to show it.” Y/N turns to Tom, the smile on her face turned to something less sad and more soft. 

Tom nods. “Probably.” 

God, he spends so much time trying to come up with a conversation starter and when she does first he can’t even make sure the conversation lasts? He’s an idiot.  

Kit comes back with a smile on his face and hops right back into his chatter. Now he seems to include Tom in it. Though Tom only half listens, nodding at the right places and catching Y/N’s soft laughter whenever it slips. He smiles himself whenever her smile brightens. Her eyes sparkling, her lips parting showing off a set of white teeth, her cheeks a tint of red. 

And as his eyes travels a little further he remembers that she’s barely wearing clothes. He takes in more of the little things. Like the slight red of her nose, the press of her lips together as if to keep her teeth from clattering, the way she shifts a little as she walks. 

He steps around Kit, whos walks between you, and over to your other side. Shifting off his jacket he doesn’t say anything as he moves a sleeping Hal from your shoulder and places him in his own arm, handing you the jacket in the movement. Tom feels the wind on his arms as he’s taken off the warmth, but he also feels it in him that Y/N needs it more. 

She gives him a smile and mouths thanks. 

“I thought you don’t like each other?” 

Kit’s voice startles both of them, and Y/N gives him an amused smile. 

“Well, kiddo, sometimes, even if you don’t really like someone, you try to be a decent human being. And either way, we’re making it to friends now. I’d say we’ve gotten there, right?” 

The smile and look she sends Tom when she turns her head to see him has his heart beat faster. He wants them to be friends, so of course he nods. But he would like them to, maybe at least try, be more. He makes a silent prayer of that happening in the future. 

For now, he takes the friends. “Yes. It’s called making progress.”

 ---

They arrive back at Benedict’s around nine. Neither Sophie nor Benedict comments on the fact that Y/N has Tom’s jacket on, but if they believe he doesn’t see the look they give each other, then they are very wrong. 

During the hours Y/N and Tom went trick or treating with the kids, the two parents have managed to change into costumes themselves. Benedict is dressed as Sherlock Holmes and Sophie as a female version of Watson (at least, that’s what Tom presumes based on the costume contents). 

“Babysitters here?” asks Y/N as the two takes their coats.

“Came half an hour ago,” replies Benedict and hands her a coat as well. Something twists in her face for a second and she shrugs out of Tom’s jacket and hands it back to him, taking the coat Benedict hands her without hesitation. Tom supposes the one she puts on is hers. 

“Then we’re ready to go, right?” 

They nod and walk out into the cold evening air. A taxi waits on the curb and they all get in. Tom in the passenger seat in the front and the three others in the backseats. He finds himself happy with the choice seeing them crammed together. Yet something churns in his gut at the thought of being confined to a crammed space next to Y/N. 

He needs to get out of his head.

The trip to the bar takes little time. It’s being rented by one of their mutual friends (work) that decided it was time for a coworker Halloween party. 

Music floats in the air when they open the door inside. A bartender stands at the bar, or rather leans against the back. Only one person sits by the counter, but he isn’t ordering anything. There are some people on the dance floor, rocking out to Bohemian Rhapsody. 

Tom looks to his friends, notes that Y/N mimes the words to the song and also makes a silent conversation with Benedict about where to go. They find Eddie in the bar, though Tom can’t guess as to who he is. 

“Are you dressed as Newt Scamander?” asks Y/N, and when Eddie proudly nods and beams at her and continues the conversation by talking about Harry Potter and everything that has to do with it, Tom slides into a seat with a deep sigh. 

He wishes he’d dressed easier. Even with the costume being easily recognizable in what era of time, that doesn’t mean anyone will notice he’s dressed as Hamlet. Apparently, Y/N doesn’t. 

“Hey, guys,” says a voice. Tom takes his gaze of the chattering coworkers across from him to look up at the owner of the voice. He meets Emma’s gaze with a smile. Out of their many coworkers, Emma is one of his favorites. They don’t have that much time to talk, but she’s definitely has many ideas and interesting topics to talk about. 

Y/N, seeing the younger girl, gets out of her seat and gives Emma a big hug. “It’s been too long since I saw you. How’s the project going?” 

The sociology professor smiles and nods. “It’s really good. The students are engaged, I’m engaged and we’re making progress. A lot of progress. Wrote an article not long ago about equality that they posted actually.” 

“I’m so happy for you.” Y/N gives her another hug and looks like she just met her number one celebrity. Tom can see why. 

“Thank you.” Emma turns to everyone else. “So, I noticed you come in and I have some information about this ‘party’.” She uses air quotations around party. “The bathroom is up the stairs, the dance floor is where you see some dancing and the bar you’ve probably noticed. Fire escape routes are posted on the walls, but just for safety, it’s the door you came in and you can break through the windows. Also a fire escape on the second floor, so if you’re in the bathroom you can still get out. Other than that, there’s one free drink on me. Nothing over ten pounds. I hope you have fun and I love your costumes.”

Emma smiles at them all. Tom takes a minute to check her costume. A cloak of some sorts which hides a black sweater where small peeks of a white shirt pops out, with a red and yellow tie. She wears a skirt and her hair is curly and huge. Tom can’t pinpoint exactly who she’s being. 

Y/N can, though. “I love yours, too. Hermione, right?” 

“Knew you would get it.” She smiles. “Anyways, I hope you have fun and don’t hesitate to come talk to me through the evening. I brought some other friends and they don’t really know anyone so I’ll probably mostly be with them.”

“Your age, right?” asks Y/N. 

Emma nods. “You wanna meet them? Pretty sure you’d get along.” 

“If that’s what it takes to catch up with you, of course.” And then the two women walk away, making a detour by the bar before sitting down at a table with three other people. 

Neither of the four left at the table say anything, until Sophie breaks the silence by asking anyone if they want to get something to drink. Tom volunteers to join her in getting the drinks. 

“So,” says Sophie as they walk, her voice a little lower than for normal conversation. “What’s the deal with you and Y/N?” 

Tom rolls his eyes. “There is none.”

“Are you sure? Because Benedict told me about the kiss and that she doesn’t remember it, but he said she wants to.”

He swallows the lump in his throat and ignores the feeling that floods his veins. “They both mentioned it, yes. But I don’t think that has anything to do with it.” 

Sophie shrugs. “Seems like there’s more than one reason she wants to if you ask me, but what do I know?” 

Tom nods. He shakes his head. “I don’t know, Sophie, but I can tell you that we are making progress into friends.” 

She smiles at that. “Appreciate it. Especially thinking of Hal and Kit, they love both of you and after that day you babysat Kit asked questions I would rather avoid.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”

“Not your fault.” She waves it away, but Tom still feels a little guilty. He casts a glance Y/N’s way. Her head is thrown back in laughter, a big smile on her face and when she recovers she speaks with glee and enthusiasm. He only notices that when she teaches, mostly other than those times she seems grumpy. 

He tries to ignore the stab to his gut, but it’s not easy. Either way, they’re becoming friends. He wants to be her friend. He’s always wanted to be her friend. Finally, he’s making progress. 

It only took five years, some hate, and a push from their superiors. 

It only took five years to glue the million pieces of his heart together. It’s still not whole, but it’s getting there. 

Finally.

permanent tags:@devilbat @adefectivedetective @gamillian

tom tags: @inlovewith3 @bookgirlunicorn @mindlesschicca @justawriterinprogress @wolfsmom1 @loser-alert @satanskatze @timetravelingsociopathicwalker

tags:  @plooffairy @just-the-hiddles @jennytwoshoes @lokissidehoe @fruitfly123 @princetale @scorpionchild81 @noplacelikehome77 @winterisakiller @lostsoldieronahill @nonsensicalobsessions @cherrygeek86 @louhpstuff @olyamoriarty @sunshinein17 @kthemarsian @kumikowi @secretcupcakekitty @buckygrantbarnes @josis-teacup @runawaygiirl @januarycalendargirl @funny-fangirl @kinghiddlestonanddixon @scorpiomindfuck  @dr-kayleigh-dh @inmyworstlies @twhgirl @maah-chan @florencia93c @i-am-a-mes @o-deya @eyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy @cantaloupewatch @carpediem-spero @createdbyanintensenerd @beananacake @lysawayne @nightrose64 @bradfordbantams @feyre-thehighlady @thundermaximoff @lys-syl @beenthroughalot

[therainroguefanfiction]

🎃 Frightful October Act V, #15 ~ School (Gon F. & Killua Z.)

📑 Table of Contents

Genre: Supernatural, Fluff, Family, Slice of Life, High School AU

Word Count: 3,746

Pairing: Gon, Reader x Killua

World: Hunter x Hunter

───── ⋆⋅🎃⋅⋆ ─────

BANG!

Hearing the loud noise coming from the living room, you shot up from your chair and rushed down the stairs. Your eyes landed on your younger brother. He was on his back on the floor with a vase broken beside him. Killua stood over him, looking guilty. It was obvious to you that they had been wrestling again and it got out of hand.

You kneeled beside your brother, eyes scanning for any injuries. “Are you okay?”

He sat up, rubbing the back of his head as he offered you a sheepish smile. “Yeah, I’m okay!”

You turned your attention to his best friend, whose pale cheeks turned pink at the attention. “And you, Killua? Any injuries?”

He quickly shook his head. “I’m sorry, it was my fault!”

You chuckled, ruffling his white locks. “It’s okay as long as both of you are safe. Go on upstairs, I’ll clean this mess up.”

Gon threw his arms around your neck and kissed your cheek. “Thanks, Y/N!”

You smiled as the two ran out of the room and up the stairs. Being the older sibling wasn’t always easy, but you were happy. Gon is such a sweet kid. He’s the best sibling you could have ever asked for so you were more than happy to look after him. Killua was his best friend and he, too, is a really sweet kid.

Carefully, you picked up the large chunks of the vase and spread them out on the kitchen table. The way it had hit the ground had prevented it from shattering, so it should be easy to patch up. You grabbed the superglue and got to work. It wouldn’t be perfect again, but the cracks just added character to it in your opinion.

After you finished gluing it, you left it to dry, leaving a piece of paper nearby in case someone tried to touch it or pick it up.

‘Now, what should I make for dinner?’ you hummed thoughtfully as you looked through the cabinet. ‘I know, I’ll make some pasta and garlic bread!’ With a smile, you got to work.

When the sauce started to bubble, you reduced the heat so it could simmer. You placed another pot beside it, full of water, and turned the heat on medium-high. The sound of footsteps reached your ears as the two boys descended the stairs. You glanced over your shoulder, seeing the two peeking around the doorway. They quickly pulled back when and you smiled, returning to the task at hand.

The two boys talked in hushed whispers, going back and forth trying to decide who would approach you. They finally decided to use rock-paper-scissors to settle it and Killua lost. With a frown, he slowly stepped into the kitchen while Gon ran back upstairs.

You glanced at him as you stirred the sauce. “Something wrong, Killua?”

“Can I help you?” he asked, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

“If you want, you can put the garlic bread in the oven. Careful not to burn yourself.”

He nodded and approached the freezer, pulling the box out and reading over the instructions. As he put tinfoil over the pan, he glanced at you nervously. You were now sitting at the table, stretching your arms above your head.

“Ne, Y/N?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry about breaking the vase,” he apologized, arranging the bread on the tray. “I hope it wasn’t an antique or something.”

“Don’t worry about it,” you smiled. “Dad brought it home from one of his business trips, but I don’t think it’s special or anything. I fixed it already, anyway, so no worries.”

“That’s good,” he smiled, opening the oven and carefully sliding the tray onto the rack. He hesitated as he turned to look at you, shoving his hands into the pockets of his tan shorts. “Do you have any plans for tomorrow?”

“Janey asked me to come to her movie marathon but there are already five people going, one of which I don’t really see eye to eye with. What about you and Gon? Are you going trick-or-treating with your friends?”

Killua’s nose wrinkled. “We’re not kids anymore, Y/N! We’re in our first year of high school.”

You chuckled at that. “You don’t have to be a kid to enjoy it. Actually, why don’t the three of us go together? I wouldn’t mind bumming some of your candy.”

Blood rushed to his cheeks at the thought and he quickly turned so you wouldn’t see. “Actually, Gon and I already decided what we wanted to do.”

“Ah, I see,” your smile fell a bit, the excitement leaving you like air from a balloon. “Well, just promise me you’ll both be safe and stay out of trouble, okay?”

“Go with us!” he said suddenly, whipping out to meet your eyes. “I-If you want to, I mean…”

You looked at him in surprise, resting your cheek in your palm. “What are you guys planning to do?”

“One of our classmates told us this story about the school. He said that tomorrow is the anniversary of a girl who died in bathroom thirteen years ago on Halloween night,” he took a step forward, eyes shining with excitement as he recalled the tale. “It’s a full moon, too! We’re determined to find the ghost and see if the rumors are true.”

You sweatdropped at his enthusiasm. “Killua, the bread…”

“Shoot!” he whipped around, putting on an oven mitt before pulling the tray out of the oven. You moved to stand behind him, looking over his shoulder at the damage. The bread was darker than it should be, but it wasn’t burnt.

“Not too bad,” you commented, making his body tense at how close you were to him. “If you’re both okay with it, I’d love to join you.”

He nodded. “Gon was hoping you’d come with us. He’s kinda scared.”

You chuckled, wrapping your arms around his shoulders from behind. “Don’t worry, I’ll be there to protect both of you!”

Killua’s heart raced in his chest and he found himself leaning back against you, his hand resting on your arm. He couldn’t stop the smile that lit up his face.

───── ⋆⋅🎃⋅⋆ ─────

The next night, the three of you headed to the school. Killua went to climb the gate but you stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “If we go in the front, someone will probably see us.”

“How do we get inside then?” he frowned.

“Follow me,” you patted his shoulder before following the concrete wall that surrounded the school. You stepped off the sidewalk, following the alley of grass on the right side of the school until you came to a large set of rose bushes near the back wall. Carefully pushing them apart to avoid the thorns, you place your foot on the bottom of the wall and pushed until a small section gave way, falling to the grass on the other side. “Careful of the bushes on the other side.”

“How do you know about that?” Gon asked, curiously.

“Let’s just say, I was a pretty bad student in my first year.”

The two exchanged a look before approaching the hole. Gon went first, followed by Killua. You did your best to hold the bushes apart while going through, but the thorns did get your legs in a few places.

“Okay, what about getting inside the school?” Killua asked.

“That’s easy! The janitor is a smoker, but the principal doesn’t like him to smoke while he’s on school grounds, so he does it at night while he’s cleaning. He always smokes at the same window on the second floor, and leaves it open so the smoke won’t stick around inside the hallway.”

“The second floor?” Gon tilted his head. “How do we get up there?”

“There’s a cherry tree right by the window. We can easily climb it and get inside.”

“Just how much trouble did you get into as a first-year?” Killua raised a brow at you.

You sweatdropped, choosing to ignore his question as you approached the tree. Most of the orange and yellow leaves had fallen from its branches, littering the earth below. The petals, usually a soft pink in the spring, were now a snowy white, reflecting the cold air that hung over the town.

You swung your leg over the thick branch leading toward the window and held your hand out towards the boys. Gon slipping his hand into yours, placing a foot on the trunk of the tree. You gave a quick tug, helping him up onto the branch. He crouched, holding onto your hand as he slowly moved toward the open window. Once he was safely inside, you held out your hand for Killua. He took the same stance that Gon did, hopping into the window.

Once the three of you were safely inside the building, you set your bag onto the floor, pulling out a flashlight for each of you. You also brought some water, snacks, a first aid kit, and a few other small items.

“Woah,” Killua leaned over, peering into the bag. “You really came prepared.”

Gon reached in, pulling out a small rectangular box with a small LCD screen and some buttons. “What is this?”

“That’s a spirit box. It scans the FM and AM bands along with white noise, where spirit voices seemingly are able to form words,” you explained. “It’s been used by some of the top paranormal investigators.”

“I didn’t know you knew so much about all of this stuff,” Gon’s eyes sparkled with admiration and you laughed, ruffling his hair.

“I really don’t. After the two of you fell asleep last night, I stayed up watching a bunch of paranormal videos so I could research the top. Get a feel for what to look for and what to expect. The spirit box belongs to a classmate of mine, Ami. She’s really into the paranormal. She started the Paranormal Research club in her first year! She was bummed that she couldn’t join us tonight.”

“How come?” Gon asked.

“She had to take her baby sister trick-or-treating, then she has to babysit her while her parents are at a business party.”

“That sucks,” Killua folded his hands behind head and started to walk down the hall. You clicked on your flashlight and followed.

“I also researched the story you told me. It’s accurate for the most part,” you commented, shining the flashlight across the hall. “A girl did die here thirteen years ago today, and there have been numerous sightings of a ghostly apparition throughout the years. The strange thing is that no one was able to determine how she died. It was labeled as ‘mysterious circumstances’. A lot of people speculated that it was suicide, while others are convinced that she made contact with a demon that night.”

“D-Demon?” Gon squeaked, holding onto your hand tightly.

‘Oops, guess I shouldn’t have told him that part,’ You smiled down at him. “It’s just a story, Gon, don’t worry. Demons don’t exist.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, looking up at you with watery eyes.

“A hundred percent sure!”

He nodded, but it was obvious that he was still a bit worried.

You frowned, giving his hand a squeeze. ‘Maybe letting them come here was a bad idea. What if they have nightmares?’ “Let’s find a spot to try out the spirit box. Then we can go home and spend the rest of the night watching movies and binging on snacks.”

Killua caught on to what you were doing. “Sounds good to me. I’m kinda getting bored already.”

“Where should we try? The cafeteria?”

“It happened on the third floor, right?” Killua jabbed his thumb in the direction of the stairs. “Let’s just pick a classroom up there.”

The three of you headed up the stairs. As soon as your foot landed on the third floor, you felt like you were being watched. The entire school was dark, naturally, but the end of the hallway seemed impossibly dark like no light could penetrate it. Gon didn’t notice the change in the atmosphere, but you certainly did. You exchanged a worried look with Killua, who gave you a reassuring smile. Even so, you could see the worry in his eyes.

“This one is unlocked!” Gon called, sliding open the door to class 3-C. You followed him inside, the beam of light sweeping over the empty desks. You were so used to seeing the desks full of students that it was eerie to see it empty now.

You set your bag down onto the teacher’s desk, rifling through it for the USB speaker.

“Soo~ how do we use that thing?” Killua asked, hopping up to sit beside the bag as he watched you closely.

“Ami said I just needed to plug it into the speaker and turn it on.” You did as she instructed, jumping at the sudden sound of loud static coming through the speaker. You placed your hand over your heart, feeling it beat against your chest.

“Maybe turn it down a bit…” Killua winced, plugging his ears with his fingers.

“Yeah…” you decreased the volume before setting it down on the desk beside Killua. It started to scan the radio stations at a high speed. “Now we ask questions and see if anything answers back.”

Gon tilted his head to the side, his index finger resting on his chin. “What do we ask?”

You hummed, thoughtfully. “Is anyone with us tonight?”

The three of you looked expectantly at the box.

“Nothing is happening,” Gon whispered, bouncing on his toes.

Killua poked it. “Maybe it’s broken.”

You leaned over the desk, resting your chin in your hand. “Ami said that it takes a lot of energy for spirits to speak with us, so nothing might come through. If anything is here at all, that is.”

Killua scowled, poking the box again. “Come on, say something!”

A feminine voice came through, but it was too distorted to understand the words.

“Did you catch that?” Killua asked, glancing at Gon.

“Nope.”

“It was a feminine voice,” you mused, leaning closer to the box. “Can you say that again, please?”

“H̸̻̓e̷̖͘ĺ̵̼p̵̧̉,” the whispered word sent a chill down all of your spines.

Killua swallowed hard, grasping your arm. “Did it just…”

“I… I think so,” you released a breath, glancing at your baby brother. He was shaking. You cleared your throat and put on a smile, patting him with your free arm. “What is it you need help with? I’m not the brightest crayon in the box, but my grades are average!”

“Didn’t you just fail your algebra test?” Killua deadpanned.

“That’s neither here nor there, Killua!”

He laughed loudly and you scowled.

A tugging on the hem of your shirt made you glanced down at Gon, who was staring at the supply closet with wide eyes. “What is it, Gon?”

“I heard something…” he mumbled, softly, his gaze not leaving the closet.

You pulled your arm free from Killua and stood up straight, picking up the flashlight. As you approached the closet at the back of the room, it felt like your hair was standing on end, goosebumps erupting across your flesh. You lifted your hand toward the handle.

Just as your fingers made contact, a clear voice came through the spirit box. “No!”

“‘No’ what?” Killua’s brow furrowed as he looked down at the box.

The voice made your heart speed up as the feeling of being watched returned. You swallowed. “Do you… not want me to open the closet?”

“D̵̺̽o̴̦̚ṇ̵̚’̵̱̀ţ̵͘,” the voice was distorted again as if it had used all of its energy on saying no.

Something slammed against the closet door and you jumped back, dropping the flashlight. It rolled across the uneven floor, casting eerie shadows on the wall. Unparalleled dread filled your entire body, something deep inside telling you that you needed to get out. Your father had always taught you and Gon to trust your instincts no matter what, and you refused to put the boys in danger.

You speed-walked to the front of the room, where you turned the spirit box off and shoved it into the bag along with the speaker. “Let’s go home, it’s getting late.” Both boys agreed without resistance and all of you left the classroom. You slid the door closed and turned around to head for the stairs.

It happened so fast you almost didn’t register it. A black shadowy vine shot out from the darkness at the end of the hall, wrapping tight around your ankle and tugging hard. With a surprised shriek, you fell to the linoleum floor. The impact left your chin throbbing, blood dripping from the cut on your lip. You felt dazed, like you were in a dream.

The vine started to pull you into the darkness. The boys, who had been previously frozen in shock, rushed forward, each grabbing onto an arm and pulling. When that didn’t work, Killua tried pulling the vine off, but it only tightened around your ankle. You tried to grab your bag, but it was just out of reach.

“Killua, my bag!”

“Forget the bag!”

“It has a pocket knife in it!”

He ran to the bag, turning it upside down, the contents scattering across the floor. The pocket knife landed in front of you and you wasted no time flicking it open and turning over.

“Get off of me!” you screamed, slamming the blade down onto the vine, expecting it to break apart.

“…nothing happened.” Killua sweatdropped.

“I noti~ced!” The vine gave a tug halfway through the word, sending you sliding across the floor toward the darkness. You kicked and struggled to no avail as you got closer to the endless void at the end of the hall. ‘Shit, what do I do?!’

“N̵̲̍o̶̗͊,”

The same icy voice from the spirit box now echoed throughout the hall. A figure materialized in front of you, glowing white from head to toe. It looked like a young girl, around the same age as the boys. You couldn’t see her face because she was standing in front of you, but her black hair fell in gentle waves to her mid-back. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Her body flickered in and out of sight, like a light whose battery was dying.

She turned toward you, an annoyed look on her face. Her mouth did not move, but you heard her voice clear as day in your head. ‘Lend me your energy.’

‘M-My energy?’ you swallowed. ‘Ami said it’s dangerous to allow a spirit to take my energy, but… I have to protect Gon and Killua!’

‘If you want to protect them,’ her voice echoed in your head as she glanced at the two boys behind you, frozen in fear. She reached her hand out to you. ‘Give me your energy.’

‘I have to protect them, no matter what the cost,’ Determined to do just that, you placed your hand in hers.

The glow around her increased until it engulfed the entire hallways. It was so bright that you had to close your eyes. The coldness you felt slowly started to fade as the hallway grew warm. Your head started to spin and the last thing you heard before plunging into darkness was her soft voice in your head, ‘Thank you.’

2 Hours Later

Your eyes fluttered open, squinting at the bright light above you. ‘Where am I?’ you wondered, pushing yourself up into a sitting position.

“Y/N!”

Gon and Killua ran at you, jumping onto the bed and throwing their arms around your body. Tears fell from Gon’s eyes, soaking your neck and the collar of your shirt.

“I was so worried!” he sobbed, his body shaking.

You wrapped your arms around both of them, holding them tightly. “Are you okay, Gon?” He nodded and you turned to Killua. “How about you?”

His pale cheeks darkened and he held back the tears that clung his eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine. Are you okay?”

You nodded, running a hand through his messy hair. “Yeah, sorry to worry you.”

Someone cleared their throat and you looked at the door, feeling your body tense up. The vice-principal, Hisoka, stood at the door with his arms folded and lips pressed into a thin line. He did not look happy. “Would you care to explain why the three of you are inside the school at one in the morning?” He raised a brow.

‘One in the morning? Is it really that late?’ you offered him a sheepish smile. “Um… we were walking by and saw someone inside so we decided to take a look…”

“And you didn’t think it necessary to inform the cops?”

“Uh, well…”

“We thought it was a student!” Killua interjected. “I heard some students talking about the school being haunted, so we figured it was them.”

Something flashed through his eyes so quickly that the boys didn’t notice it, but you did. With a heavy sigh, he glanced at the clock. “Let’s get you all home. I will be calling your parents first thing in the morning.” He turned to the door, glancing over his shoulder. “Hopefully, you will have your story straight by the time school ends tomorrow.”

You glanced at Killua and he sweatdropped, lowering his voice. “Gon told him the truth.”

With a chuckle, you held Gon close and slid off the bed, carrying him since he refused to release his titanium grip. You followed Hisoka out of the school, sliding into the backseat with Gon while Killua sat upfront.

───── ⋆⋅🎃⋅⋆ ─────

After dropping you off at your house, Hisoka returned to the school. He reached the third floor, glancing at the end of the hall. The inky blackness was gone and the hallway felt calm.

The girl materialized behind him.

He didn’t turn around, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “Will you be moving on now?”

‘Yes,’ her chilly voice echoed within his mind. ‘There is nothing to keep me here any longer.’

“I figured you would leave as soon as it was destroyed.” Hisoka finally turned to look at the girl.

‘That was always the plan,’ she smiled, sadly. ‘But I wanted to make sure that girl was okay first. Now, I am free to leave this place that has kept me captive for so long…’ her voice faded away with her body until Hisoka was standing in the hallway alone.

Hisoka bowed, respectfully. “Rest in peace… Misato.”

───── ⋆⋅🎃⋅⋆ ─────

[hailing-stars]

here is my first fic for the 13 nights of halloween prompt list, this one isn’t very halloween-ish, but the next 12 will make up for it, please enjoy anyway!!

read on ao3

slow down, you crazy child 

“In a minute!”

Tony’s eyebrows furrowed, and his fist hung in midair, knuckles still gazing Peter’s closed bedroom door. He frowned. He knocked a second time, louder, and when there was no response, his hand flew down to the doorknob.

“I’m coming in,” said Tony, as he opened the door, and revealed the scariest sight he’d seen that October.

It was Peter Parker.

His eyes were sunken in, with dark purple circles under them, as he stared into the computer screen. He didn’t bother looking away to greet Tony, or to complain, as he normally did, when Tony barged into his room with little notice.

Papers were scattered all around his desk. Papers were scattered all over the floor, and on his bed, as well as opened several opened textbooks, and maybe, the most horrific thing of all, opened bottles of chemicals Tony instantly recognized as the ones Peter used to manufacture his webs.

“What the hell are these doing in here?” asked Tony, as he kicked his way through wadded up pieces of notebook paper and made his way over to the chemicals. He searched through the mess and found the caps, then screwed them back on. After he was finished, he looked back over at Peter, who still had his face in the computer screen, and who had yet to acknowledge Tony’s presence in his bedroom.

Tony frowned again. He took a piece of paper from, stopped a minute to admire a half formed sketched idea for a spidey suit, then threw it at the back of Peter’s head.

“Earth to Parker,” yelled Tony, just as the wad of paper bounced off Pete’s head.

“Hey Mr. Stark,” said Peter, in a drone voice. He still didn’t look away from his computer.

Tony marched over to Peter and kicked the back of his chair, causing the boy to jump and spin it around with his foot. Peter glared at him.

“Mr. Stark,” he said. “Why?”

“I dunno,” said Tony. “You tell me. Why is this shit in your room?”

Peter’s eyes went wide with realization. “Oh, god, Mr. Stark. I’m sorry. I – I must have forgot to put them back down in the lab. Normally I put them back – I swear.”

“So sneaking dangerous chemicals out of my lab and leaving them laying around your bedroom is something you normally do?”

“What? No.”

“That’s what you just said.”

“No it isn’t,” said Peter, blinking. It was one of his tells. For a vigilant, he was a lousy liar. “Did you need something, Mr. Stark?”

“Yes, you in your Halloween costume,” Tony told him. “It’s time to go. Morgan’s dressed and ready, and if we don’t leave soon, she’s going to eat all the candy we bought for the trick or treaters tomorrow.”

“Oh.” Was all Peter said. Just a single word, but it was packed with so much meaning.

Tony had given enough of those same exact ohs in the past. Enough to know what it meant. It was easy to tell, looking around Peter’s bedroom, and looking into his tired eyes.  

“You’re not coming.”

“I just, I have too much work to do.”  

“Kid, it’s a holiday.”

“I don’t have time for holidays,” said Peter. His voice cracked in frustration and broke Tony’s heart. “Look I have an essay for my MIT application and two exams next week I need to cram for and I have to finalize the new design for an upgraded suit –“

He was about to keep going with his to-do list, had his mouth hanging wide open, but was cut out by a high-pitched siren and blinking red lights that displayed a digital spidey head on the ceiling.

Peter dropped his head, and let out a defeated sigh, before slowly standing up from his desk chair. “I gotta go.”

“Uh, why?”

“The spidey signal,” said Peter, as if Tony should automatically know what means.

“The what?”

“It’s connected to the emergency dispatch system,” he explained. “It notifies me when there’s a threat.”

“I see,” said Tony. Half of him was impressed. Peter was capable and he had a good heart, too good. That was the other half of him. The half that just wanted Peter to a normal child and have fun and let the world look after itself. “And what exactly are the determining factors for a Spider-Man worthy threat?”

Peter shrugged. “Once it had KAREN send me to rescue a cat from a tree.”

Tony was caught between amusement and adoration and a sort of melancholy dread. Like seeing a train and knowing the tracks ahead were faulty and that the mess to come was unavoidable. He looked around Peter’s bedroom a second time and saw himself years ago, alone in his workshop, manically trying build a solution to his anxiety. To fix it on his own.

He couldn’t save himself back then. That had been Pepper’s and Rhodey’s and Happy’s job. Just like helping and occasionally saving Peter was his job. Just like now.

“Alright, it’s time for a break, kiddo,” said Tony. “You’re gonna ignore the spidey signal and come to the party with us. You know Morgan will be disappointed if you don’t.”

“Mr. Stark I can’t –“

“Nope, enough of that. You can and you will, because I’m insisting.”

Peter’s eyes went back and forth between the projection on the ceiling and Tony, until he finally relented and gave a second sigh of defeat and, dare Tony even think it, relief.

“I don’t even have a costume.”

“Be creative,” said Tony, turning around and wading across the mess. “I’m sure you can find something in this disaster zone.” He paused, with his hand on the doorframe. “We’re leaving in ten.”

Tony heard muffled complaints about not having enough time, but he zipped out into the hallway so fast they were easy to ignore. He took the elevator down to his lab, put the stolen chemicals back where they belonged, then went back up to wait in the foyer with Pepper and Morgan, who was dressed like Spider-Man.

Ten minutes turned into fifteen, and there was still no sign of Peter in the foyer.

Tony marched back down the hall, towards his room, and when he found it empty, asked Friday, who directed him to his and Pepper’s bedroom.

He found Peter standing in front of the full-length mirror, straightening out the black suit jacket he wore over some, nerdy science t-shirt. He had a pair of glasses that were a bit too big, because, Tony realized, they were not his glasses, but Tony’s.

“How do I look?” asked Peter, turning around.

Tony was too lost with the mental image of himself signing adoption papers to respond.

“Mr. Stark?” Peter shifted around in the suit jacket. “It’s a little bit too big…”

“You’re gonna grow into it,” said Tony, coming back to reality. He walked across the room and pulled Peter into a hug. “Just not so fast.”

Tony let go of him, and looked him up and down, and wondered what it would take to convince May to let him adopt one spider-boy.

“So, dressing up like me was the best you could come up with?”

“It was the only thing I could come up with,” said Peter, his voice evening out. “Besides, I was Iron Man the last year I went trick or treating, so this was the next step.” Peter paused, a solemn expression crossing his face. “You know, Mr. Stark, I’ve always wanted to be like you. That’s why I have to work so hard.”

“Pete,” said Tony. He didn’t know it was possible to feel such conflicting emotions. That was soaring with pride and warmth, but also feeling his heart go into a million different pieces. “You don’t have to work hard. You’re already so much better than I ever was, and you’ll be five times that once you learn to rest.”

Peter frowned and looked like he was at least trying to understand. For a few short seconds, Tony thought maybe Peter might try to argue, to actually make a case against taking a few days off every once in a while, but the seconds passed by and he didn’t say anything. Just nodded his head.

“Party time?”

“Yeah, definitely,” said Peter, with a smile, as Tony slung an arm around his shoulder and directed him out the bedroom and into the hallway. “Who are you supposed to be, anyway?”

“Great minds think alike, Pete. I’m also going as Tony Stark.”  

Peter busted out laughing. “You can’t go as yourself on Halloween.”

“Sure I can,” said Tony. “I’m a celebrity and the savior of the universe. Who wouldn’t want to be me?”

Peter continued to laugh, and Tony continued to worship that laugh, even if the dark circles were still present under his kid’s eyes. He’d deal with that later. He’d make sure Pete slowed down. He’d make sure Pete got a goodnight’s sleep when they got home.

He’d make sure they got some vacation time, at the lake, where Peter couldn’t be bothered by the spidey signal.

Scratch that. Tony would hack into the spidey signal, and program correctly, to only alert Peter when there were serious threats.

At that very second, though, Tony had better things to do. Like harass May Parker until she texted him photos of Peter that Halloween he had dressed up as Iron Man. Like a Halloween party with his children and his wife.

[grace13star]

Better Get Superstitious (Chapter 2)

Logan Dennison is a firm believer in science, and the facts are that no one can come back from the dead. Witches and magic could never exist, he's known this since he was a kid. But after a sudden move to Salem, Massachusetts, suddenly everything he's ever believed is challenged by a talking cat, a cute believer, and a trio of undead witches from the 17th century. What's a skeptic to do?

Character(s): Logan Sanders, Virgil Sanders, Patton Sanders, Roman Sanders, Deceit Sanders, Remus Sanders, Anton (Antagonist, Sanders Shorts), Joan Stokes (mentioned)

Relationship(s): Analogical (Virgil/Logan)

Triggers: Deceit, Remus, graveyards, death mentions, spiders, eating spiders, minor sex joke, electrocution, poison mention, needles mention

AO3  Prologue  Chapter 1  Here  Chapter 3  Chapter 4

“Oh, sweet revenge,” the leader said. This was, presumably, the famous Damien Sanders. “Do you see, brothers? My curse worked perfectly.”

“Damn, I left the cauldron on,” the orange one muttered. Anton Sanders.

The last one, Remus Sanders, grabbed something from the wall. “My lucky rat tail! Right where I left it!”

“But who lit the Black Flame Candle?” Damien mused, mismatched eyes searching the room.

Logan tried his hardest to sink into the floor. This could not be possible. They were just very realistic costumes! And realistic special effects. They were just being pranked. It was trick or treat, right?

Damien spotted the display case with the book and rushed over to it. “Wake up!” He ordered. Then his voice softened. “Oh, how I’ve missed you. Come on, now, we’ve got work to do.”

“Hey, Damien?” Anton said.

Damien whirled around in a swirl of his cloak. “What is it?” He snapped.

“I smell a child.”

Logan tensed up. He could smell children? Was he like a bloodhound or something? A childhound?

He was far enough back that the witches weren’t in his view, but he could practically see the evil look on Damien’s face.

“Sick ‘em.”

There was some sound of moving, and then Anton spoke up again. “It’s a little boy, maybe seven or eight.”

“Come out, dear, we will not harm thee,” Remus crooned.

“We love children,” Anton said, sounding like he very much did not like children.

There was a banging sound, and Patton yelped. Logan was about to stand up to protect his brother, when he started talking.

“I thought thou’d never come, brothers,” he said, voice shaking.

“Greetings, little one,” Damien said.

“Twas I who brought you back,” Patton continued.

“Tell me, child, what year is it?”

“1993.”

“Brothers! We have been gone 300 years!” Damien announced.

Patton came into view as he was pushed into a wooden chair in Logan’s view.

“Well, how time flies,” Anton grumbled.

“When you’re dead!” Remus giggled.

The witches laughed, and Patton joined in hesitantly.

“Well, this has been fun, but I’d better go,” Patton said, making to get up.

“No, stay for supper,” Damien said.

“I’m not hungry,”

“We are,” Remus exclaimed.

Patton got up and tried to run, but the witches caught him and shoved him back in the chair.

Logan mustered up all the courage he had and leapt up.

“Hey!” Everyone turned towards him, the witches letting go of Patton in surprise. “Let go of my brother!”

“Roast him, Damien,” Anton growled.

“No, let me play with him!” Remus laughed.

A bolt of lightning appeared from Damien’s fingers and hit Logan in the chest. The force of it pushed him up a wall.

“Logan!” Patton yelled.

Logan dimly heard Virgil yell, “Hey, Anton!” and then the sound of grown man hitting the ground. Then Patton was yelling, and then Damien was on the ground and Logan was free.

The black cat that had attacked Logan earlier jumped on Damien as he tried to get up.

“Ahh!” He shrieked. “Remus, get this filthy thing off of me!”

“Go, get out!” Logan yelled.

Virgil and Patton ran out the door, but Logan had an idea. He climbed up to the second floor and raised the lighter.

“You messed with the great and powerful Logan,” he announced. “Prepare to face the consequences. I summon the burning rain of death!”

He flicked the lighter open and held it up to the sprinkler near his head.

“He makes fire in his hands,” Remus said wonderingly.

It took a second, but the sprinklers went off, splashing everyone with water. Logan stood in triumph as the witches shrieked and ran for cover.

Logan jumped down and ran for the door, but he slipped on water. He groaned as his head hit the floor.

The black cat jumped on his chest. “Nice going, Logan.”

He stared. “You can talk?”

“Yeah, no kidding. Now move it! Grab the spell book!”

Logan decided to have the existential crisis later. He got up and tore part of his shirt off, then wrapped his hand to smash the glass encasing the book. He grabbed the book and ran, leaving Damien wailing for his precious book.

“Oh, confound it,” Damien cursed. He held out a tentative hand and felt the water.

“Damien!” Anton said, uncharacteristically worried.

“Shut up!” He snapped. “It is but water.”

Remus stuck out his tongue to catch the water. “Tis most refreshing.”

“You idiot,” Damien sighed. “The boy has tricked us, and he stole the book. After them!”

They hurried outside, but were stopped by...something.

“‘Tis a river,” Anton said.

“Maybe it’s not too deep,” Remus said. “Ha, that’s what she said.” He stuck a foot out to test it. Damien and Anton pushed him from behind, causing him to fall onto it. He waited for a second, expecting himself to sink, but nothing happened.

“It is firm!” He announced.

Damien took a step onto it as well. “It is a road. Now, onto my book!”

They were about to continue, but a strange contraption with flashing red and white lights came screaming past. They all screamed and hid in the bushes.

People came out, wearing strange clothes and carrying axes and red containers. They ran into the house.

“Why are they in our house?” Remus asked.

“Shut up!” Damien snapped. “They beest witch hunters! Observe their black robes and axes.”

A few minutes later the witch hunters came back out.

“Teenagers again. Another stupid Halloween prank,” one said.

“Man, this is the worst night of the year,” another one complained.

They got back in the contraption and it turned around towards the village.

“Alright, they’re gone now,” Anton said. “What should we do next?”

“Brothers, listen closely. The magic that brought us back only works this one night. When the sun comes up, we’re dust. Fortunately, that potion will keep us alive and young forever. Unfortunately, the recipe is in my spell book. That little miscreant has it. Therefore, we must find him, take back my spell book, brew the potion and suck the lives out of children by sunrise.”

“Ooh, what a pretty spider,” Remus said. He picked it up and put it in his mouth. All that was left was one leg hanging out.

Damien groaned. “You’re an idiot. Come, we fly!”

So, yeah, the cat could talk. Logan was definitely going crazy.

Nevertheless, he followed the cat, Virgil and Patton trailing behind him. They were led to the gates of graveyard, where they stopped.

“Woah, woah, This is a graveyard.” He said.

“It’s hallowed ground,” the cat replied. “Witches can’t set foot in here.” Then he jumped through the gates.

Logan turned to see Patton looking confused and Virgil even paler than he had been before.

“Uh, yeah the cat can talk,” he said. He pulled on the gate and opened it, letting the other two go first.

“Follow me,” said cat called. Logan could barely follow him in the dim light.

“Who are you? Why are you a cat?” Virgil asked.

“My name is Roman Binks,” the cat said. “I was cursed 300 years ago into this form by the Sanders Brothers.”

“So that’s what happened to you!” Virgil said. He still looked pale, but now he seemed to be calming down a bit.

“Guys,” Logan spoke up. “Um, I wanted to apologize. I don’t believe in any of this stuff, but I was never going to light the candle. I don’t know if you’re going to believe this, but there was like, this force telling me to light it.”

“Maybe the Brothers put a spell on the candle to make sure someone would light it?” Virgil guessed. “Or maybe the spell they cast to make them come back from the dead was more of a prophecy.”

Logan shot him a grateful smile. At least someone believed him.

“I believe you, Lo-Lo,” Patton said, hugging him from behind. “I’ve never seen you like that before. It was like you were a different person.”

“Whatever it was, you still did it,” Roman snapped. “But fine. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.” He stopped in front of a grave. “We’re here.”

“Where is ‘here’ exactly?” Logan asked.

“I wanted to give you an idea of what we’re dealing with.” The cat motioned towards the headstone.

“‘Joan Butcherson, Lost soul.’” Logan read.

“Joan Butcherson was Damien’s lover, but he found them...ah, fooling around with Remus. So, he poisoned them and sewed their mouth shut with a dull needle so they couldn’t tell his secrets, even in death.”

Virgil whistled. “That’s messed up.”

“Indeed,” Roman said. He moved to another headstone nearby. “Because of me, my sister’s life was stolen. I swore to myself that I would never let it happen to another child.”

“I mean, we’re talking about three ancient dudes against the 20th century,” Virgil said. “How hard could it be?”

Logan started to open the book out of curiosity, but Roman interrupted.

“Stay out of there!” he demanded.

“Why?” Patton asked. “I wanna see their spells!”

“Damien cannot be allowed to get that book.”

“Why don’t we burn it, then?” Logan flicked open the lighter again.

“It’s protected by magic,” Roman said. And indeed, the pages seemed to repel the fire whenever Logan brought it close.

Stereotypical evil witch cackles filled the air, and the Sanders Brothers were there on their broomsticks, hovering over the ground.

Damien pointed in different directions and Anton and Remus split off to come behind the group. They were surrounded.

“Hey!” Virgil snapped. He grabbed a tree branch from the ground and swiped at Remus when he got too close. “Take a hike!”

“Book!” Damien called. “Come here, baby.”

The book started rising off the ground towards the witch, but Roman jumped on it before it got too high, sending it back to the ground.

“‘Fraid not,” he snarked.

“Ahh, Roman Binks! You’re still here, are thee?” Damien purred.

“And waiting for you,” Roman growled.

Damien laughed. “Then thou hast waited in vain! Thou shall fail to save thy friends, just as thou failed to save thy sister!”

Roman hissed at her, then called back to Logan. “Grab the book!”

Logan scooped it up, then retreated back to the safety of the group. Virgil and him stood back to back, Virgil brandishing his branch and Logan hugging the book to his chest.

“They can’t touch us here, right?” Logan asked, voice high pitched with fear.

“They can’t,” Roman muttered.

[monitorsscrawlings]

Jonathan’s Hair-Raising Halloween Adventure Ch. 2

Chapter Two: Monster Mash

With this newest Halloween scheme in the works, he was going to need all the help he could get, and with that in mind his next stop was obvious. After all, who better to help coordinate things then the other half of their dear boys bedroom boogey-monster quartet? Slithering back up the stairs, and ever mindful to cleave to the darkness as he moved, he slunk from broom closet, to the underside of a vase-stand and through the various pools of shadow afforded him by the old manors eclectic mix of wall-sconce mage-lights and only moderately more modern frosted glass chandelier lights. Coupled with the twisty architectural pretensions of the old Victorian manor with only slightly more recent Edwardian-style additions, and there were no end of choice locations for an enterprising monster to lurk or hide away.  A monster thrice his size would find no trouble in disguising their movements in the nigh endless series of squeaks, creaks, groans, and thumps the old house produced regularly; while the thick walls and thicker floors muffled the sound of screams and other mischief-making beautifully. This was especially fortunate, as not even he wanted to risk crossing paths with the Sloan families elder matriarch. Now there was a witch with iron in her soul and hoarfrost in her veins! Why, even just the very thought sent a shiver up his spine. And not the fun creepy-crawly, spine-tingling variety either.

With a shake of his shaggy horned head, Grunk briskly brushed aside such thoughts like so many of last years cobwebs, instead returning to the matter at hand as he slipped back inside his humans bedroom. The door softly clicking shut as he eased it closed behind him. Best to focus on more pleasant matters.

Like Halloween, for instance. And spending plenty of extra-special quality time with their human this year. Like all the potential tricks and treats that awaited, the excitement, the scares and surprises…

But before he got too ahead of himself, there was still the matter of getting everyone together and coordinating everything.

Hmmm...the closet was a safe bet, he decided moment later as his eyes scanned the room, noting the lack of any visible signs of anyone else lurking in wait under Jonathan’s bed, hiding inside the child's toy-chest, or clinging to the ceiling. Slinking across the room, careful to avoid stepping on the few stray toys that had been absent-minded left out on the floor, Grunk approached the closet-door with nary a sound, before giving it three firm knocks and easing it open with a twist and pull of his long black claws on the brass doorknob, peering inquisitively in to the gloom.

“Any monsters in here tonight?” Grunk inquired with a droll lilt, before perking his bat-wing-like ears up expectantly, awaiting a reaction from the closets occupants. Total silence was his reply. Not a peep. Not so much as a single poorly smothered giggle, snort, or guffaw from Drool or any of the others. He pushed the door open wider with a slow creak of old hinges, ducking low as he began crawling under the tightly packed curtain of assorted sweaters, jackets, and neatly pressed and assembled school-clothes, diving in to the deep shadowy jungle of assorted forgotten and lost things deeper inside.

“Have you both really fallen asleep in there? Come on you lot, we’re wasting time: I need you all out here on the double!” Grunk called out with a huff, tail lashing impatiently from side to side as his eyes began glowing brighter, bright enough to serve as a pair of ruddy-red spotlights as he swept his head slowly from side to side, trying to spy where Drool and Sly were lurking. Even with night-vision the hidden shadowy depths of Jonathan’s bedroom closet had a murky crowded air to it that made it hard to see very far at all.

Thankfully he didn’t need to search very hard or for very long at all, as his protege burst out from the underbrush of coat-hems to his left, leaping over a small mound of old stuffed-animals, dirty socks, and other miscellaneous trifles, before slowing to a stop by his feet. And there was Drool in all ghoulish glory: A donkey-headed closet-monster with black and white candy-cane stripped hons, four slitted yellow eyes and four long dexterous arms, with his green snake-tail Noose peeking up at him from over their shoulder with a snakey-smile.

“Heheh, sorry! Finished up my scare-exercises early and decided to take a little nap to unwind,” Drool said with an apologetic grin before his ears perked up and he titled his head to the side inquisitively, grin widening with anticipation, “wait, you said you needed us for something?”  

“You’re fine Drool, glad to see you’re awake,” Grunk said indulgently. “And yes, I do and it’s important and will mean a big change of plans for all of us, but first: where’s Sly at today, don’t tell me they fell asleep waiting for Jonathan to get out of school too?” He said teasingly. A sibilant hiss of laughter issued forth from the cluttered darkness right by his left ear, before he felt the tell-tale sensation of Sly wrap loop after loop of scaly muscular coils around first his ankles, before rapidly coiling up around his body, all five heads shifting in to view as they gave him a playful squeeze.

“Sssurprissse!” Two of the heads crowed in triumph, necks coiling around each other, while the third head from the right simply gave him a smug look, forked purple tongue flickering out at the air as they let out a sibilant chuckle. “We finally got the drop on you!” All of Sly’s heads chorused with a cheer in varying degrees of enthusiasm and volume.

Grunk snorted in amusement at that, gracefully accepting the snake-monsters customary head-butts in greeting. “So you have, so you have. Good work there, I didn’t even see you coming until it was too late. Horrifically done,” he added with an approving nod.  

After a moment to clear his throat with a rumbling growl, he gave Sly and Drool a serious look with a toothy frown, arms crossed and head held high. It was time to get down to business. “But enough goofing around you guys, I’ve got important news to share, so I need you both to listen closely, alright?”

Enthusiastic nods all around at that, as Sly slithered off of him to pool in to a loosely coiled heap next to Drool,  who mimed zipping his lips shut and throwing away the key before sitting back on his haunches expectantly, ears perked forward and all four eyes focused on him with interest. Grunk nodded ins satisfaction at that before rolling his shoulders to loosen up and relaxing his posture a hair. “It’s nothing dire, so don’t fret: but Krolli and I were talking earlier, and due to some...events, we’ve decided we’ll be the ones to be taking JonJon out to celebrate Halloween trick and treating this year, along with most of our usual holiday hijinks.”

Grinning, he quickly waved for silence as Sly and Drool both visibly perked up with excitement at that, mouths open to no-doubt bombard him with questions. “Now, we still need to gather everyone together for a meeting and hash out the specifics, which is where you guys come in. I need you both to split up and pass the word along, help us wrangle the others together for a meeting. Tell them to meet us in the sub-basement, behind the red door in approximately—” here Grunk had to peel back a patch of fur on his right arm to peer at his dingy old digital sports-watch before he quickly resumed speaking, “—an hour and forty minutes from now, at one o’clock, sharp. We’ll be starting the meeting regardless of who’s in attendance, so try not to dawdle, alright?”

“Right!” Drool brayed.

“Got it, we’ll do our besssst Grunk!” Sly agreed with a hiss, bobbing several of his heads before raising his rattle-tipped tail inquisitively, giving the rattle a little shake as he said, “but wait: whossss going to tackle which partsss of the manor-houssse?”

Grunk paused, a thoughtful look stealing over his monstrous mug as he took a second to mull it over, rubbing the claws of his right hand over his snout. “That’s a very good question actually,” he admitted with a rueful chuckle after a moments pause, before visibly brightening up, “Hah, thank you for reminding me Sly! So here’s what we’ll do: Krolli said he would be starting in the basement and moving upwards from there, so I’d like you to find and join him, alright? There’s bound to be a lot of ground to cover, so things will go by faster if we divvy things up.” he said before turning his gaze to Drool.

“Drool, you’ll be with me. We’ll start from opposite points of the attic and meet in the middle, before moving downward from there. If we manage to get this done early, let’s all reconvene in the back of the sub-basement where the meeting will take place. Sound good with both of you?”

The enthusiastically hissed and growled chorus of agreements he received in response made him grin from ear to ear. With Sly and Drool in on their plan their quartet was complete once more, and he had a feeling they would all be done gathering everyone together in no time at all, he was sure of it!

“Alright then, you know the plan, let’s get a move on .” He proclaimed happily, letting out a pleased growl as he turned around and promptly slithered and crawled back out of the closet and clawed his way under his humans bed in a trice, Drool following close behind with a slimy chuckle as they both scurried through the Shadow-Ways, taking a quick-short-cut up in to the attic to begin spreading the word. Sly meanwhile snaked their way deeper in to the darkness of the closet, on a mission to find their friend Krolli and begin their own share of the work.  

-----------------------

Just as Grunk had hoped, with both Sly and Drools help the four of them managed to cover every boogey-monster hang-out, nest and hidey-hole throughout the entire manor. Certainly no small feat, as the old Sloan-family abode was a fairly big place, and hosted more than its fair share of monsters.

With only thirty minutes to spare before the impromptu meeting was due to start and Krolli and Grunk would take center-stage to make their pitch together, Little JonJon’s four personal boogey-monsters formed a huddle in a corner at the back of the room and put their heads together. The buzz and chatter of the assorted monsters gathering a dull roar at their backs as Drool and Sly were filled in on the story and the other two’s plans.  

After all, as any Netherworlder could tell you: four heads were more gruesome—and thus better—than two.

“Right! So what happened was, we were in the middle of talking about our plans for Halloween and what we were both working on, when we both overhear the boys parent talking about something over in the living room. They sound all animated about it, so naturally we had ourselves a listen.” Krolli explained as he sat back on his haunches, one arm wrapped around Drool, and the other around Sly as the three monsters formed a close huddle, Grunk hunched down to face them, their heads close together while his long snake tail wound and curled around the group. “It sounded important, and you never know when you might overhear something interesting or juicy~” Krolli added, long wormy tongue giving a wet theatrical slurp before he chuckled, eyes alight.

Grunk snorted in amusement at that. After a moment to collect himself, he gave his hairy horned head a shake, grimacing in distaste as he rolled his eyes in disgust, taking up the thread of the conversation. “They both talked about Halloween, and taking Jonathan trick ‘n treating like it was just another boring chore they had to tick off their lists. Like...like...like they were discussing how best to clean the storm-drains or detail the grouting in the kitchen. Auugh, it was simply horrible! It pained my black heart to hear such a dreadful lack of holiday spirit, and from the boys own parents to boot.”

“It was a bit bleak, listening to them both talk about Halloween and everything like that,” Krolli added in agreement, before he and Grunk exchanged sly looks, of a mind.

“So we figured...”

“...we’d make this year our year. Make it our turn to celebrate Halloween with the kid in style, all of us, together. Make this years season one the people of this town will be talking about for years to come.”

“So here we are! Now we just have to sell the idea to this lot and we’ll be on our way.” Grunk concluded cheerfully. A glance at his watch showed they had only a few more minutes before they would both have to take center stage.

“Well I’m sold! But how are we gonna do that?” Drool excitedly pipped up with a slurp, eyes aglow with monstrous glee as he shifted anxiously from foot to foot, dribbles of the near-ever-present drooling of yellowish-green slime trickling from his jaws and splattering gently against Grunks hide as the closet-monsters head bobbed to and fro.

Grunk affectionately ruffled his proteges mane, a wry smile twisting his muzzle.”We only thought about this a couple of hours ago, so we’re still figuring that part out, but I’m sure if we all pool our resources and put our heads together we’ll pull it off somehow, no trouble. Heh, but it looks like it’s show time, wish us luck you guys~” He added, unwinding his spade-tipped tail from around his friends and straightening up with a scraping of claws.

“What are you gonna do?” Two of Sly’s heads inquired simultaneously.

“Why, we’re gonna do the best we can, of course!” Krolli said with a shrug and a lazy smile, flashing the others a thumbs up. Shifting back upright on to all four taloned feet he leisurely moved to follow after Grunk as they made their way to take up the rooms makeshift stage: a simple circular clearing set towards the back of the room, the stages boundaries denoted by deep acid-burns and claw-marks gouged into the floor to form a rough rectangular shape, a single wooden podium with an old polished brass megaphone screwed in to the top as the only other conceit to complete the set-up. No fancy raised-stage, no microphone, and no other chairs or tables to be found, not here.

They all needed to be able to maintain a certain level of discretion and deniability, especially if anyone became overcome with curiosity and decided to see what was waiting on the other side of the strange, creepy red door in the sub-basement that was always sticking shut, after all.

They had both decided earlier between themselves that he would take the lead here, with Krolli cutting in if things started to become muddled; he just dearly hoped Krolli wouldn’t leave him to do all of the talking. After clearing his throat with a husky growl and stomping his feet to command quiet, the hubbub died down from a dull roar to a more subdued murmur. Grunk graced the assembled horde of horrible monsters and nightmarish spooks with a toothy grin, claws crooked in welcome as he spread his arms wide, tail lashing with nervous energy as he addressed the assembly.

“Thank you all for coming together on such short notice, your cooperation is appreciated!” He boomed, his toothy grin if anything widening further as his gaze slowly swept over the assembly of creepy-crawlie creatures of all shapes and sizes; some standing, some sitting or lying down to take their ease; while many more clung to the ceiling or the forms of the largest of the monsters present.

Aside from a few potential late-comers or absentee monsters, it looked like nearly everyone was here. Good.

“I assume everyone here has at least an inkling of what this meeting is about?” The overall reaction to that was to the affirmative, with more than a few monsters already looking keenly excited, or amused, “I won’t bother wasting any more time with speeches or slithering around the issue, then. I know that we are all already as busy as can be, preparing for Halloween. But this year I’d like to propose a last minute change of plans: we take our human, Jonathan trick-n-treating with us, and make it a joint affair between all of us!”

The assembled monsters visibly stirred at that, excited murmurs and skeptical whispers breaking out at his statement. At a glance most seemed interested, even excited; while there were a few others in the crowd who seemed more reserved, or even openly skeptical. He and Krolli both had a lot of clout, but neither of them had the authority to make any of the other boogey-monsters drop their own holiday plans in favor of this newest scheme, even if they had wanted to. No, instead they would have to draw them in willingly. Persuade them with sweet reason. The more monsters who joined in to collaborate, the better. Eight heads was better than one, and seventy-five heads or more were better than eight, when you got right down to it.

Krolli and Grunk both gestured for silence, Grunk opening his maw wide to continue speaking, when a new voice cut in from the crowd.

“Chaah bros, sounds like a riot; but what about the rest of us, huh? Why should we all join in on what sounds like more work, when the kids mainly you guy’s human more than ours anyways!” A familiar voice drawled loudly from the front of the crowd, standing up tall to command the rooms attention. Bradly.

Grunk resisted the urge to lick his chops at that. What excellent timing; he had a volunteer to play devils advocate that wasn’t Mimi, Torik, or Pellina.  

Bradly was an exceptionally hairy basement-dwelling boogey-monster boasting distinctively bat-hyena-spider-esq traits with a few frog and slug-like qualities thrown in, and a thick, shaggy, messy coat of green-blue fur that was the envy of many a monster. They loomed beautifully thanks to their seven-foot-five height when standing upright, and they regularly moonlighted lurking outside windows at night, since Jonathan or their other few preferred scare-victims rarely had cause to venture down in to creepy basements for a good scare. Five glowing purple eyes mounted on hairy eye-stalks, big triangular leathery ears and an equally big snout that combined elements of hyena and fruit-bat together to create a sniffer that rivaled Krolli’s, with thin black lips and mouth full of triangular red teeth and two pairs of small tusk-like upper and lower fangs peeking out past their lips. They had big elongated hands for grabbing that ended in long spindly fingers like fat spider-legs with clammy grey webbing in between, and a magnificent pair of leathery bat-wings sprouting from their back tipped with a second smaller pair of spidery-hands, while a scaly gargoyle-like tail with a double-arrow-spaded tip snaked a short way behind them. A bit of a slacker and a goof-ball, but otherwise a top-notch boogey-monster.

“We might both be his bedroom monsters and primary scariers, but you’re also one of the kids monsters too Bradly.” Krolli pointed out reasonably, looking more  nonchalant than anything, before he gave the basement-haunter a cheeky smirk, fingers steepled together. “Unless...this is your way of saying you don’t want to be the kids monster anymore?”

“W-what!? Krolli-dude, my amigo-o, n-no-no you got me all wrong-g I—!” Bradly squeaked indignantly as all five of their eyes narrowed at Krolli’s blatant jape, before Grunk cut any further chatter off with a loud thump of his tail smashing against the floor with a thunderous thud, claws scrapping loudly against the podiums already abused and scarred wood, before he snorted in warning, sending steam whistling from his nostrils a second later. The sudden dip in the chatter made him smile faintly, eyes glowing as he let out a low husky chuckle before seizing his chance; pitching his voice to a low sinister, gravelly hissing-growl he hunched down, claws curled, back up, tail crooked and teeth bared, leaning over the podium.

“Just think about about it for a moment here: what could possibly be a better way to spend time with our human and celebrate Halloween than taking the boy trick-n-treating with all of us? Imagine going on a spooking and scaring spree from sunset til sunrise, forming a monster jamboree as we do as we please, terrorize to our hearts content, and guzzle as much candy as we can stomach while we show off to our human and celebrate Halloween with gusto! We could make this a Halloween season the people of this town will be talking about years to come!”

Krolli licked his chops and struck a mock thinking-pose, leering as he chimed in with a low wet growl, “and perhaps even the demons and spirits of the holiday would take notice and confer their favor on to us and the boy too, hmmm? Such an undertaking would no doubt please them greatly.”

The hubbub from their audience redoubled, the air rent with the noise: murmurs of approval, growls of excitement, even a little scattered applause and a few hoots or howls of monstrous cheer drowning everything else out. Including any hope of a follow-up, or whatever Bradly had intended to say to that, judging from the way his mouth was hanging open to speak.

Grunk found himself grinning from ear to ear himself as he gestured for quiet, before a new voice smoothly cut in just as the noise started to die down again. “That all sounds like an absolutely deliciously dreadful idea; but if I may interject?” A familiar figure rose up and out from the section of the crowd they had been lurking in—quite literally, shape-shifting their limbs to lengthen out until they resembled nothing so much as a quartet of furry stilts—to speak, their myriad eyes gleaming with mischief. Naturally it was the one monster he had both expected and dreaded chiming in most: Pellina.

Pellina divided her time between acting in the field, and working behind the desks, gathering information on clientele and helping construct scare-files for use in the field. She was well-known for being unsettlingly insightful and well-informed, aggravatingly smug, secretive and cheekily contrary at the best of times. An excellent scarier, a champion of order and sanity when it came time to update and refile scare-files and other important paperwork; and a respected colleague. But still a gleefully persistent pain in his rump.

She possessed a sinuously muscular and agile build with boxy features and an impressive number of eyes and mouths: twelve mismatched glittering blue and green eyes of varying sizes set in a face like a cross between a tiger and a sphinx, with long tufted ears, a boxy snout with whimsically crooked janky whiskers, and a mouth persistently stretched in to an alarmingly wide and exceedingly toothy smile of gleaming white fangs. A smile that was matched by the equally toothy second maw that split her throat, and the third set in to her stomach. Six bandy legs jutted out from her body and flowed to sink into drooling feline maws set just above her double-jointed knees, which likewise flowed down into twisted articulated mitts with swollen joints and long wickedly sharp black claws. Her fur was short, velvety gray and decorated with stripes that formed whirls and loops of subdued violet and forest green that wove their way from her head all the way down to her two long, luxurious furry tails.

“Of course Pellina, the floor is yours.” Grunk said, resisting the urge to sigh.

“Well, what about Little JonJon’s parent’s? Don’t tell me you’ve somehow managed to finagle their permission for this little Halloween romp through town you’re proposing?” She practically purred, tilting her head to the side inquiringly even as she leaned in, her toothy grin taking on a coyly crooked twist.

Grunk found himself snorting in amusement at the very idea of it, before slowly shaking his head in denial. “No, of course not.”

“No? Then how do you intend to steal the boy away without causing a panic? And how do you even know Little JonJon will even want to go with the likes of all of us anyhow? What happens if you lose him, or his parents figure out something is amiss?” She continued idly, tails twinning and swishing back and forth as she made a show of examining the claws on one hand.

“Well those are actually very good questions, I—“ Grunk acknowledged, considering his response, before Bradly cut him off.

“Oh come off it Pell, I saw you cheering along with everyone else not five seconds ago! I call ‘sour grapes’! You’re just peeved because you didn’t think of it first. Sour grapes dudette, totally called it!” He hooted with a raucous laugh, a call that was taken up by several others in the crowd.

Pellina’s attention whipped around to focus on Bradly, followed by the rest of her as she leaned down towards him with a wide predatory smile. “Care to say that again Brad-dear? You’re such a fuzz-ball I almost mistook you for a cat-toy just then, and it’s oh-so-hard to make you out under all of that adorable fluff!”

“Everyone, settle down, please.” Grunk growled, even as the chatter, jeering, and assorted other noises from the assembled monsters rose in volume, drowning out whatever Bradly had to say in response. Though judging from the basement-haunters cocky grin, it was another call of ‘sour grapes’.

“Everyone—! Please be—! I need every one to—!” Krolli and Grunk both tried to roar out, gesturing furiously for quiet. It was no use, everyone was being too loud, too excitable, they could barely hear themselves over the dreadful clatter.  

Grunk backed away from the podium with a low gravelly growl of annoyance, legs braced, tail stiff, and head jutting out pugnaciously as he took a deep, deep breath; neck and chest swelling as he greedily vacuumed in air, shifting from his standard eight feet height to loom at a respectable fifteen feet with a nasty grin. His blood boiling as his eyes blazed a terrible bloody red, pupils narrowed to slits. He could feel his insides churning, thin trails of noxious-looking green smoke wafting from between his teeth and hissing from his nostrils. After a few seconds the smoke began whistling out from his nostrils and ear-holes with a keen shriek; the only warning anyone was going to get before the fun began. Shoulders squared, back up and tail flexed to jut out behind him, Grunk let loose with a terrible, fearsome roar. A roar to put all previous snarls, growls and roars to shame as he hunched forward, claws hooked and mouth spread open wide in a hideous grinning snarl, a thick jet of purple flames racing out from deep inside him to explode up and out into the air with an unholy shriek as he tilted his head upward at an angle to avoid scorching the crowd. The sound seemed to go on forever, drowning everything else out.

When Grunk’s roar abated a minute later the room was almost completely silent; aside from the faint gurgle and sizzling noises that followed as Grunk proceeded to fountain several well-aimed jets of bubbling green ooze up in to the rafters to deal with the smoldering support-beams and weak tongues of fire chewing through the cobwebs that had been kicked up by his...demonstration. Krolli cautiously removed his hands from his ears, straightening up from where he had been crouched to Grunks left as the stunned silence deepened.

“Hah! Now then, perhaps we could all get back to the matter at hand and wrap this up?” Grunk boomed out inquiringly with a sarcastic smile as he hulked over the podium, idly wiping away a trickle of slime from his muzzle with his left forearm as his eyes swept over the crowd. Hearing no further objections or grumblings from the monsters present, he thumped his tail loudly against floor and allowed himself a pleased grin. “Good. Now then...” he drawled, gesturing towards Pellina, who was looking more amused and expectant than anything, though he still detected a worrying gleam in her eyes. “I’ll admit, you’ve raised some good points, so allow me to answer your questions: we’re still working on it—which is why I would like more monsters to join us in this—though I’m sure a humunculi or a disguised stand-in would suffice.”

He paused, letting out a husky laugh and snorting in amusement as he considered her second and third questions, before he resumed speaking. “I frankly can’t imagine why the boy wouldn’t; we’re his monsters after all! But...we’ll ask him, and if he doesn’t than he doesn't; we can always try for next year. And finally: can you really imagine anywhere he would be safer, better seen to and more protected than with us?”

Grunk allowed that to sink in, clawed mitts folded on top of the podium before he continued, saving the best for last. “And as for the boys parents...well: Krolli and I both overheard them talking earlier today, and they’ve both expressed almost complete disinterest in Halloween, and barely any interest in taking Jonathan out trick-n-treating to celebrate, as far as we could tell,” he said matter-of-factly with a wry ‘well-there-you-have-it’ grin and an elaborate shrug as Krolli nodded and grunted in agreement.

The low hum of chatter and background noise that had been dying down jumped right back up at that, but Pellina’s voice carried clear over it all. “I see, I see. Well in that case, I have nothing further to ask.” She said with a lazy drawl, though their was a certain tautness to her grin as she promptly began to shrink down and retreat back in to the crowd. He thought he heard her sniff in annoyance and grumble something along the lines of ‘well, you could have started by telling us that from the beginning!’  but payed it no mind.  Straightening up with a shake of his head and a lash of his tail Grunk paused to regard the crowd, claws idly scraping against the podiums sides as he spoke, voice booming out to reach everyone. “Once again, we thank you all for coming together on such short notice, but I think that’s more than enough time spent on this matter. Make no mistake, we’ll be going forward with this with or without your support or approval! But...if you want to join us, than meet us tonight in Jonathan’s bedroom. Say around...an hour before midnight tonight. We’ll break the news to the boy then, and discuss things further with any monster participating. We hope to see you all there, and hope that as many of you as possible will join us. Meeting adjourned, as you all were!”

And that as they say, was that. The various creepy-crawly boogey-monsters proceeded to shuffle out the same way they came: slithering, oozing, scuttling, hopping, scampering, fluttering, stomping, creeping and crawling in a hurry, everyone eager to return to what they had been doing before the gathering, and many still visibly excited.

Grunk mimed wiping sweat from his brow with the back of one mitt while letting out a deep huff in mingled relief and exasperation as he stomped off the stage. Krolli meanwhile simply snickered and said nothing as they playfully thumped Grunk on the back, both of them moving to rejoin Sly and Drool at a more sedate pace. The pair still patiently waiting for them in the same spot they had staked prior to the meeting, avoiding the press of the vacating horde of monsters.

“That was so awesome the way you roared like that, that’s got to be the biggest, loudest roar I’ve heard yet! And I didn’t know you could make your flames different colors too! And the way you fired out those streams of slime like that, so wicked, so cool!” Drool cheered, braying with laughter, all four arms wind-milling and pumping as the closet-monster performed a little celebratory jig before scampering up Grunk’s back to crouch low atop his his thick neck and hunched upper-back. Sly promptly joined Drool atop his head, slithering in scaly loops up and along Grunks legs and around his body, until they they were soon making themselves comfortable as well, their tail and lower body hanging in loop after loop around his neck, while Sly’s upper body and heads twined along both his horns and Drool too.

“That went sssurprsingly well don’t you think?” One head hissed lazily.

“Ooh yesss indeed,” another of Sly’s head agreed, before letting ot a sibilant laugh as they draped themselves over Grunks snout, “asss if there wasss any doubt?”

“Sss sss sss, good thing you let loose with that roar when you did, I thought we were gonna have a real rumpusss on our clawsss just then for sssure.” A third head chortled, looking wickedly delighted at the very prospect of a little afternoon mayham.

The second head simply let out a lazy tongue-flicker of amusement,”doubtful, no way anyone would want to get on Grunksss bad ssside, they had it handled.”

Grunk let out a pleased growl at that, the corners of his muzzle turning up into a smile as the praise made his ears flap and his face flush faintly purple. “Glad you all enjoyed the show, but I don’t think I’m in any hurry for an encore. Hrrmm...as for what happens next? We carry on as normal until tonight.”

He paused, before playfully bumping shoulders with Krolli and flashing him a cheeky grin. “Hey Krolli, you wanna hitch a ride too?” He said with a poorly suppressed snicker.  

Krolli made a show of considering it, slowly looking his friend up and down before leaning in conspiratorially to loudly mock-whisper, “Gee-wiz mate, I dunno, I think you’re gonna need to install a side-car up there first.”

They all had a good laugh at that, snickering and huffing with amusement as they ambled out of the room together. They slunk out of the sub-basement and up in to the house in companionable silence; the group splitting up for the time being once they reached the first floor. Krolli went to return to the cupboard under the stairs with Drool in tow in readyment to give their human a jolly welcome-home scare. Grunk was sure the lad would be home soon, and Krolli was eager and ready as ever.

Wishing their friends well, good fun and good scaring, Grunk and Sly were both content to simply slink back upstairs and under the boys bed for some well-earned rest, and to bide their time until night fell. They ha a lot of work ahead of them; but he was sure of one thing: this years Halloween would be one to remember.

Grunk licked his chops and closed his eyes with a deeply contented, bed-shuddering growl, snugly wrapped in Sly’s coils as they lurked in the shadows deep under the bed. He could hardly wait.

--------------------------------------------------

Authors Notes: Rough draft for chapter two. Things are starting to finally move forward, but while I haven’t finished writing this story I don’t think we’re going to be getting in to the real meat of things until chapters four onward. Still thank you for reading! Feel free to drop some C&C in my inbox or in the comments section if you’re in the mood. 

I’m afraid I won’t commence with rewriting and editing (no matter how much I want to) until I’ve completely written up a rough of the story from start to finish, as I don’t want to bleed off too much forward momentum. So thanks for the patience~!

[delcat177]

Tag!

Rules! Tag (numbers) people you want to get to know!

I was tagged by @heliodora97 while between PCs, made a note not to forget that shit, promptly forgot that shit, and just remembered that shit 8,D

This got long (of course)

Name: Del Terance-Theodore Scott

Gender: Trans guy

Star Sign: Scorpio

Height: 4′10″, 147.32cm, a smol, just a real smol boy

Sexuality: 5.9 on the Kinsey scale.  Like, maybe one woman in three hundred piques my interest, and that’s usually because they’re coded masculine.  The entire nonbinary spectrum is a case-by-case deal, although again, I’m more inclined toward masc coding.  Basically, I’m panromantic but with the BIGGEST FUCKING BIAS toward gay and 99.8% gay sexually, and since I’m in a monogamous relationship, identifying as gay is really just easier and more gender euphoric.

Also I wanna fuck the fish

What image do you have as your lock screen: 

This has been my lock screen, header, and PC background for two years now and I do not anticipate it changing, thank you @nooneandeveryone

Have you ever had a crush on a teacher: Two or three notable teachers in college and a little schoolboy crush on my high school teacher because he liked and understood me better than 90% of the kids in Crazy Fundie School (he liked MST3K!!!)

Where do you hope to see yourself in 10 years: Holding a big folder of fanfiction marked “DONE” with a big red rubber stamp

If you could go anywhere else right now where would it be?: France, my fiance is probably on their second cup of morning coffee by now

What was your coolest Halloween costume?: Since Halloween is my birthday and Mom was INCREDIBLY patient and skilled, I had some real bangers.  A few that stand out are Queen of the Butterflies and The Most Extra Grizabella the Glamour Cat Cosplay Ever because I am very very gay, plus a not-too-shabby DIY Pyramid Head costume for my last year ever going out.  I think I’m proudest of the year I decided I wasn’t too old for trick-or-treating at the VERY last second, though--I found a huge picture frame and Mom pinned some fabric to the top as a backdrop and bam, I was a portrait.  I taped a “plaque” made out of a post-it reading “(NAME), AUTHOR, AGE 9″ on the bottom because I had Aspirations.  My arms were killing me from carrying it by the end of the night but folks loved it.

What was your favorite 90’s TV show?: 

First fandom and one of the greatest.

Just don’t talk to me about the remake.  Don’t fukken do it.

Last kiss?: Last August, at the airport...I wanna go drink coffee wah

Favorite book?: 

BUT TO NAME A FEW

My love of Discworld and The Phantom Tollbooth should be very apparent, I adore short horror fiction, but one of my favorite unsung heroes is Bruce Coville.  He was one of my greatest influences growing up, both through his books and through his stubbornness in getting anthologies aimed at kids with REAL stories published.  Seriously, the Bruce Coville’s Book Of... series has To Serve Man, Zero Hour, It’s a Good Life, all these sci-fi classics that were in Real Adult Anthologies and the most fucking surreal shit I have ever read and I am counting my adult experiences.  I read Joe R. Lansdale’s The Fat Man at 9 because Bruce Coville thought I should have that right and bless him, I have never been the same.

When I was 10, Mom found out that Bruce was doing school presentations in Michigan and made some calls (I was still homeschooled at the time) and got me in not just to see the presentation, but meet him in person beforehand and talk to him one-on-one.  It was one of the greatest experiences of my life, but I spent a long time wondering if he’d still accept me if I met him as a trans gay adult, because part of being trans is having your fantasies cut short with “shit what if he misgendered me”.

So I wrote him a long letter about it and it turns out he’s progressive as fuck and totally accepts me and now we’re honest-to-God comment-on-each-other’s-posts Facebook friends.

No seriously.  Sometimes your idols actually turn out to be heroes.  Every time I see him lambast Trump my kokoro doki dokis and boy howdy that’s a lot of dokis.

Have you ever been stood up?: I dated all of two people before falling in love with Crow, so I didn’t really get the chance, which is probably a good thing?

Have you ever been to Las Vegas?: I lost two life’s savings on Neopets in one day when the slot machines came out, I spent everything I had and then sold one of my most expensive items and spent all of the proceeds from that, so I’m just gonna play the occasional quiet game of Poker Night 2 ok

Favorite pair of shoes: I have Achilles’ tendonitis so I can really only wear specific sneakers, but before we knew that, I used to beg Mom to let me buy boots at the Army Surplus store and I would wear them until the sides gave out (yes, the sides, my ankles are fucked up and weird).  Gender euphoria to the NINES.  I miss it augh.

Favorite fruit?: A L L OF T H E M

ok actually I’m not too much into citrus except for pomelos and kiwis are too sour and these things can fuck right off but buddy I avoid putting on stoner weight because I will just sit there slowly eating individual blueberries like a lizard for four hours, or crack open a can of jackfruit, or make myself positively ill on cherries, FRUIT IS AMAZING

I think if I absolutely HAD to choose, it’d be cherries.  Cherries are Michigan’s Thing and we used to pick them ourselves from tourist farms and oh God I am forever spoiled on cherry flavor because that shit does NOT compare.  It’s so good.  It’s so so good.

Casul is a fruit bat for a reason ok

Stupidest thing you have ever done?: 

Boy howdy that’s a long dark road to potentially go down so let’s have three lesser stupids instead of my sincere regrets:

--I got a virus when I was 15 and someone hacked my comp saying that if I didn’t give him my Neopets password he’d delete all my shit and I didn’t disconnect but instead made fun of him in whatever janky chat thing he installed because I didn’t think he could do it (he could) (funny in retrospect except I’m still pissed over losing all of my progress on the RM2K game I was making at the time) --When I was but an amateur stoner I didn’t realize my body would lie to me about how much it could actually eat and I ingested so, so many cashews and then staggered into the bathroom and de-ingested them violently while my dumbass brain went “haha whoops” --In Hawaii I fell on the sidewalk, completely erased the skin on my knee, terrified a family of Asian tourists by trying to patch up my profuse bleeding while the wind blew my hastily-bought medkit down the road, and spent two months nursing the two-inch-square wound it left behind.  I have related this before.  I have not related that the entire reason I tripped was I noticed a small dog on the other side of the street and got so excited I forgot how to walk.

I tag uhhhhh @thegrinningcrow, @qglas, @sugarburger, @machi-tobaye, @melancthe, @squid-ichorous, @panur, @i-like-too-many-boys, and @clumsyshark, but I would happily read responses from absolutely anyone, just tag me back please!

[thedarklightwithinus]

The meet and not quite greet

A/N I’ve been trying something new by writing things in American English as that is where the show is set. I am from England so of course I’m still working on it. E.G instead of ‘Car park’, Americans would say ‘Parking lot’, Etc...

Summary: Y/N talks to Billy for the first time and to say it was a short encounter would be an understatement. Gif is made by me.

Part Two | Part Three

Y/N L/N had always been a respectful girl. She tried to treat everyone how she would like to be treated and though at times it was difficulty, she found comfort in the fact that she had achieved what she had set out to do. She liked to help people in there time of need and help to find a solution.

She was a well-known girl in the small town of Hawkins and though she tried to linger in the shadows, many of the residents simply wouldn't allow her to. Y/N could be walking down the street and someone she had never spoken to would greet her warmly and ask how she was. Though it used to freak her out, she had come to love being the girl who helped and was known for treating everyone kindly. However, there was times in which she couldn't, for the life of her, work out just how she could possibly treat someone like Billy Hargrove nicely.

The pair had first crossed paths in the parking lot of the local convenience store on a Saturday afternoon. The sun was high in the sky, heating up the air while the few clouds that littered the sky passed by calmly. Y/N had been trying to by some candy for Halloween that was only a few days away while Billy was pacing the length of his blue Camaro in the car park. Though Y/N knew of Billy's reputation and just how much of a god he thought himself to be, she knew instantly that something was playing on his mind.

"Are you alright?" She asked, pulling the boy out of his thoughts.

As he turned around to acknowledge her, Y/N got a good look at him. Though she had known of his existence for a good few months, she had never seen him up close before and had only really saw the back of him stomping out of school. He towered above Y/N by a good few inches and thought he tried to look pissed, she could see his true nature deep inside him. His eyes pale baby blue eyes looked down at her with a slight questioning glare. Y/N couldn't help but think of how well his eyes contrasted his curly blonde mullet.

"What does it look like?" He hissed out, eyebrow raised as though Y/N's presence annoyed him.

Billy began to observe the female in front of him, ticking of the points in which he liked. Though he tried not to, he couldn't hep but let a tiny smirk fall upon his face at the look of confusion that littered Y/N's face.

"That you're not okay?" Y/N asked, slowly. A few seconds of silence passed before she raised her own brow. "Was that a trick question because I'm slightly lost?"

"Was that a trick question..." Billy mumbled under his breath, pulling his car door open and getting inside before slamming it shut.

Y/N jumped slightly from the sheer force of the slam before she walked backwards ever so slightly in order to not get ran over by the boy. "I'll take that as a yes?"

"Take it as a whatever the hell you like, Y/L/N" Billy shouted out the open window, turning his radio on and letting the music blast the silence away. "Get going!"

"How do you know my name?" Y/N called, frowning slightly as the Blue Camaro began to reverse out of the parking lot.

"I know a lot of things!" With that said, Billy and his car was gone.

Y/N watched with her eyebrow still raised as the music began to fade, leaving her wondering if what had just happened had actually happened. After a few moments of staring blankly at the spot in which he disappeared, she shook her head and made her way towards the store.

[reddietrashmouth]

Richie loves Halloween

Richie Tozier loves Halloween (but not as much as he loves Eddie Kasprak) p>

October 31st. Halloween. The greatest day of the year - in Richie’s opinion.

I mean, what wasn’t to love about Halloween? People handing out free candy, scary movies on every channel on TV, getting to dress up covered in fake blood. Oh and best of all, the Halloween parties.

Every year Sam Walker, a junior who seemingly was friends with everybody, would throw his infamous halloween party and everyone (even losers like Richie and his friends) was invited.

Last year Richie and his friends had all gone as zombies, they had tore up old clothes and Bev had covered them in makeup to make them look undead. They had looked totally badass, there was no denying it.

Just as they had every other year, everyone was meeting at Bill’s house before they went to Sam’s together; Sam’s house was a five minute walk from Bill’s.

Richie looked at his watch in the dim light that was provided by the streetlight at the bottom of Bill’s drive. It was 6:56, which meant he was four minutes early, but it didn’t matter as it was likely that most of the other loser’s would be there already.

Richie walked up the drive and knocked on the door, having only to wait a few seconds until it was swung open and Richie found himself looking at Stanley Uris.

“Stan the man, what’s happening dude? Gotta say, I’m not surprised that you’re here already, lemme guess, you’ve been here for an hour already?” Richie teased his friend, stepping through the door,

“Ha ha Richie,” Stan replied sarcastically, “if you must know I’ve only been here for twenty minutes”

Bill comes up behind Stan and wraps an arm around his shoulders, “Hey Tozier, stop bullying my boyfriend,” Bill says to Richie, and Richie holds his hands up defensively.

“Sorry man,” Richie says, then looks at their costumes, Bill is wearing a batman suit and Stan is dressed as robin. “Nice matching costumes guys, very cute”

“Hey we’re not the only ones” Bill says, pointing behind him at Ben and Bev.

“Woah ho! Beverly Marsh my dear you look stunning! Oh and you too of course Ben, very nice guys, very nice!” Richie calls out to his friends, taking on a British accent and walking up to where they’re stood in the sitting room. Richie looks them up and down and nods approvingly, Bev is dressed as Sandy from the final scene of Grease, and Ben as Danny.

“Thanks Richie,” Bev replies, greeting him with a hug.

“So who are we waiting for?” Richie asks, looking around the room.

“Just Eddie and Mike, they should be getting here any minute now,” Ben tells him, “I like the costume by the way man, you’re really rocking the whole wolf thing.”

“Oh thanks dude, you know I couldn’t think of anything to be, then Bev suggested this and I thought, yeah that could work,” Richie replied to his friend. Ben nodded, then he and Bev shared a look which Richie didn’t understand, but also didn’t question, because it was at that moment the front door was opened again and Mike and Eddie entered.

Mike was dressed as a mummy, wrapped in bandages from head to foot. He looked impressive, it must have taken him ages to get ready, Richie thought.

Eddie, wow. Eddie looked amazing. He was wearing a red cape with the hood pulled up and he had fake claw marks across his face as if he had been attacked by a wild animal.

Eddie was dressed as little red riding hood, Richie realised.

And Richie was dressed as a wolf.

They were wearing matching costumes.

Richie spun around to look at Bev, who was smirking at him with a smug look on her face.

“Hi Eddie, cool costume,” Richie heard Stan greet Eddie.

“Thanks Stan. It was Bev’s idea, she suggested it and helped me with my makeup and stuff,” Eddie replied.

Of course it was Bev’s idea, Richie thought, rolling his eyes. Bev knew how Richie felt about Eddie, and she was always doing stuff like this, not that Richie cared that much to be honest. He always wants to spend time with Eddie.

“Hey Eds, looking good” Richie called out, catching Eddie’s attention.

“Don’t call me that” Eddie replied, but walked over to where Richie was standing anyway. “Huh, looks like we match?” Eddie asked, looking at Bev accusingly.

“You sure do boys, and you look great,” Bev said, slinging an arm over each of their shoulders, and knocking her head gently against Eddie’s. “Hey Bill! Take a picture of me and my boys!” She shouted at Bill, who was following everybody around, sticking his camera in their faces (Stan was the main victim, but he didn’t mind; he would do anything to keep his boyfriend happy).

Bill pointed the camera at the three of them and they posed while he took several pictures.

“Guys we should start getting ready to leave” Ben’s voice interrupted them, and Bev untangled her arms from around the two boy’s necks to go and find her coat.

“Ready to party Eddie Spaghetti?” Richie asked, looking down at his shorter friend with a smirk.

“Hell yeah.”

–

Twenty minutes later and they finally arrived at Sam’s house for the party, after having been distracted on the way out of Bill’s house by Bill’s little brother Georgie arriving home from trick or treating. They obviously stopped to talk to him (and steal some of his candy), they all loved Georgie just as much as they loved any of the other losers.

Walking into the huge house, Richie grabbed Eddie’s hand so that he wouldn’t get lost in the masses of people who were crammed into the house, and pushed his way through the crowd to get to the kitchen.

When they had finally elbowed their way there they were greeted by a girl named Ellen something, who was one of Sam’s friends and who must be in charge of distributing drinks at the party.

“Hey Richie, Eddie right? What can I get you guys to drink, we’ve got everything, I’d stay away from the punch though because its been spiked by about eight people so far,” Ellen laughed.

“I’ll just have a coke,” Richie told her, then turned to Eddie who nodded.

“I’ll have the same please,” Eddie said quietly. “Help yourselves guys,” Ellen told them, gesturing to the many cans lined up on the kitchen counter. “You guys definitely have the best matching couples costumes I’ve seen so far tonight by the way.”

Richie choked on air. “O-oh we, we um, we’re not, we…"
 “Thank you!” Eddie interrupted him, smiling at Ellen and grabbing their drinks. He pulled Richie out of the kitchen by their still entwined hands.

Eddie pulled Richie to a relatively quiet spot by the wall and handed him a coke. He didn’t say anything about Ellen’s comment, instead he started talking to Richie about how Mike had almost made him late because he was taking forever to wrap bandages around himself.

Richie couldn’t pay attention to a word Eddie was saying however, as he kept thinking about how the girl had called him and Eddie a couple, about how his hand was still warm from where Eddie’s had been grasped in it, about how Eddie’s lips looked so soft, so kissable. About how the feelings he had for the boy in front of him had been more than just friendship for a while now.

“We could be!” Richie shouted, interrupting Eddie’s ramblings, and causing the boy to look up at him, startled.

“What?” Eddie asked him, eyebrows drawn together in confusion.

“I mean… we could be. You know?” Richie replied, looking down at the ground so not to meet Eddie’s gaze.

“Richie I don’t-” 
"She thought we were a couple, right? I’m just saying we could be…“ Richie trailed off, his voice an unsure mumble.

Eddie didn’t say anything, and Richie knew he had messed up. He started to pull his hand out of Eddie’s loose grasp, and turned to walk away.

In a sudden movement, Eddie’s grip on Richie’s hand tightened, and he pulled the taller boy towards him quickly, his other hand reaching up to rest agains Richie’s neck, his thumb brushing agains Richie’s delicate cheekbone. He surged up and pressed his lips against Richie’s. The kiss was short and soft, Eddie pulled away after a few seconds, and rested his forehead against Richie’s.

“Yeah, we could be,” Eddie whispered against Richie’s lips.

–

Yeah, Richie loved Halloween.

[redditnosleep]

Happy Halloween, Witches

by sleepyhollow_101

It might surprise you to know that witches actually hate Halloween.

Witches are generally very quiet, introverted creatures. So the screaming children pounding on our doors and demanding candy… well, that just really isn’t our style.

The little witch costumes are always kind of cute, though. It’s nice to be a role model for just one night.

Vampires, on the other hand, love Halloween. Kids aren’t usually out after dark, except for on this one night, and so the Vampires crawl out of their hovels (or their crummy, downtown flats) to ooh and aah over the little children and their costumes.

I can tell you’re tense already, just thinking about that. Well, don’t worry – our kind have a pact for Halloween. We don’t touch children. Because of the… nature of some of our population, we can’t guarantee that children will always be safe. But on this one night? We make sure the kids can come out and have a good time without fear of losing a limb or worse.

We’re not the monsters you think we are. Well, not always, anyway.

So that Halloween night, I found myself sitting in my living room, studying from the Anatomy of White Magick, drinking some Da Hong Pao black tea, sent to me from my cousin across town.

I was finally totally relaxed after what had amounted to a long, hellish week, and was really enjoying myself… when I heard a scraping at the window.

I saw a shock of blonde hair outside the glass and had to suppress an eye-roll. I absolutely wasn’t in the mood to be toyed with that night. But I rose to my feet and stalked over to the window, throwing it open with a dramatic flick of my wrist. The creature outside my window clapped as though the very sight of me inspired awe.

“Hey, sweetheart, invite me in!” he purred, his voice deep and smooth and hypnotic.

“Don’t call me sweetheart,” I deadpanned, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Geez, fine, you can be such a hardass,” he said, irritation showing in his voice. I could tell it rankled him that his seductive powers had no effect on me. “C’mon, just let me in, I really need to talk to you.”

“Is it about Halloween?” I asked.

“It’s about Halloween. And it’s very important.”

I stared at him with pursed lips for a second. When people think of vampires, they generally think of tall, pale, dark hair, brooding… that kind of thing. Honestly, I blame Dracula. Bram Stoker was such a drama queen. The man before me was none of those things. He had sandy blonde hair and a deep tan, flashing blue eyes and blindingly white teeth. He had a real Beach Boy aesthetic. And they call this guy a creature of the night? I scoffed. Vampires get all the good literature.

I uncrossed my arms and said, “Fine. Come in, Gale.”

He climbed in through the window and landed lightly on his feet, smiling at me. Smirking, more like it.

“I always knew I’d get inside your house one day.”

“Seriously, what do you want? I’m having a perfectly lovely night in and I don’t need you here to ruin it.”

“Ooh, you wound me,” he clutched his heart and threw his other hand over his eyes, as though about to faint.

My lips twitched but I forced back a smile. “Come on, just spill it. You said it was important.”

He sighed, “You’re no fun, you know?” Then he became serious. “We have a problem down on the east side of the city.”

“What do you mean?”

“At least four kids have gone missing. They were trick-or-treating together. I ran into their parents who are pretty frantic with worry. It could be nothing, but I have a feeling that somebody has taken them.”

“Do you have anything to base this feeling on?” I asked.

He shrugged. “No. But it’s a pretty bad feeling. I’m going to go look for them. I’d appreciate if you’d help me out.”

I gazed longingly at my tea and book. I’d really much rather have stayed inside, but Gale was only two hundred years old. He was still finding his feet as a vampire and it would be just like him to run off and do something stupid and get in totally over his head. And then I’d have to deal with the fallout. At least, that’s what I told myself… so I’d have an excuse to say yes.

I heaved a put-upon sigh. “Fine, fine. Let me get my coat. And shut the window, we’re going out through the door, like civilized people.”

I turned to grab my coat, then thought better of it. I ran to the closet near the foyer and pulled out a black cloak, a bag, a pointed black hat, and a broom.

I heard Gale muffling laughter behind his hand. “Wow, are you for real right now?”

“It’s Halloween,” I shrugged. “I might as well look the part.” I didn’t wait to hear any of his other comments before stalking out the door in search of whoever was ruining my night.

It only took me a moment to get us to the other side of town. Witches have a lot of ways of getting around. My favorite method is to manipulate reality, melt the reality we exist in and transfer to a reality where I’m at my target destination, then merge the two reality strands. Sci-fi fans would like you to believe that this is dangerous, but their fears are vastly overstated. There is nothing so mundane and easy to manipulate as time.

Gale, however, was not nearly so used to this sort of magic. He crouched down with his hands clutching his head when we stopped.

“What’s wrong? Feeling a bit queasy, are we?” I asked. I was glad I had chosen a secluded area as my destination, that way nobody would bother us to ask if he was okay.

“How do you do that and not vomit every time? Seriously.” He looked pale as he focused on taking deep breaths.

I waited patiently as he calmed himself down. We were back on the move five minutes later, watching all the children running around, giggling, screaming.

“Look mom, it’s a witch, a real witch!” shrieked a little girl. She had a sparkly purple tutu, a pointed hat, and a very ornate wand that I surmised she had painted herself.

“I see that, sweetie,” said her mother. She winked at me and I laughed.

“Hey, you’re good with kids,” said Gale as we turned down a side street. There were fewer kids the further we moved, even though this part of town was pretty densely populated.

“You sound surprised.” My voice was dry and I was shocked to find myself a little offended.

“I just never knew you liked them, is all. I could get you one, if you want.” He waggled his eyebrows at me and I gave him a look of total disgust. “Not like that! I’d just… swipe one.”

“You’re just making it worse,” I mumbled, pointedly ignoring him.

He grabbed my arm and pointed at the end of the street. There was a group of parents speaking to some police officers. That must be why the trick-or-treaters are staying away from here, I thought.

“Let me get a little closer, I’ll see if I can hear what they’re saying,” said Gale, slinking off down the street, hiding in the shadows of the buildings.

“Don’t get caught!” I hissed. I stood there awkwardly in the dark, wondering if I should have followed him. I was beginning to feel nervous for absolutely no reason at all. I wondered if it was a premonition. No, that can’t be it, I thought. Gale just got his panties in a bunch over nothing. Hell, the cops will probably find the kids before we do. Maybe they just snuck off to the woods or something…

Gale reappeared next to me while I was lost in thought and I just about shrieked.

“Don’t DO that!” I said. He grinned at me.

“I knew I could getcha. I heard the parents say the kids disappeared while they were on Jay Street. The parents took their eyes off of them and when they turned around, the kids were gone.”

“Geez, how can they just let kids out of their sights on Halloween?” I mumbled in irritation. “It’s like they WANT them to get killed. Well, we might as well head down to Jay Street. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll sniff them out,” Gale replied. I shuddered a little at that. It’s true, vampires have very keen senses, and his super hearing or super smelling might turn out to be useful in just such a situation… but it still weirdly grossed me out. Unnatural, that’s what it is.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m one to talk.

As we headed towards Jay Street, Gale asked, “What will the Association do if it’s one of us?”

The Association is… hard to explain. It’s sort of like our version of government. It’s a bit less restrictive, I guess – they don’t have many rules. It’s just that the rules they DO have are very, very important. You reeeeally don’t want to break them, trust me.

“Well, there will be an investigation, I’m sure. And once the Association makes a decision… I’d guess it would be death.”

Gale paled. “You mean like… permanent death?”

“Yup.” I was sort of enjoying watching him squirm. “So you better watch yourself. One misstep and you could have a blessed wooden stake right through your heart.”

He glared at me. “That is NOT funny…”

He stopped short just as we stepped onto Jay Street. He lifted his head and took a long sniff, like some kind of hunting dog. I could just picture him with ears and a tail. It was actually a cute thought…

Oh no. OH no. I shook my head to clear it of that horrifying vision just as he looked at me with excitement.

“I can smell it. They’re here. I know it’s them.”

“What do you smell?”

“Blood.”

Shit. “Is it… a lot of blood?”

“I mean, the smell is pretty strong, so there must be a significant… oh.” His grin faded as he realized the implications of what he was saying. “Well… maybe it isn’t them after all?”

“Can you take me to the source?”

He nodded and started down the street with renewed vigor.

“So, are you gonna tell me your real name?” Gale asked.

“Nope.” Gale frowned at me.

“C’mon, we’re friends!”

“Nothing doing.”

“Surely you don’t want me to call you Ambrosia forever…”

I grimaced. Ambrosia is the name given to me by the Council of Witchcraft. It’s symbolic but also practical – it binds me to the other witches in our community, and if I were to ever break our Code, they could use it to subdue and restrain me. Plus, no witch gives out her real name. Our real names hold unbridled power over us, and to do so could very well mean suicide.

But, still… Ambrosia? That’s got to be the worst name in the history of names. Seriously.

“I’ll think about it,” I answered.

“Hey, if you don’t want to use that name, why don’t you just join a coven instead?”

“NO!” My voice came out much louder than it needed to be, but seriously, I would never dream of disgracing myself by joining a coven. Covens are for witches who are rejected from the Council, and who are stuck in the middle ages. You know those pictures of witches you see, where they’re a bunch of old, haggard women covered in boils and eating children? Yeah, those are the kind of crazies you get when you start a coven. Hard pass.

“Hold on, hold on,” said Gale, holding up his hand. His head tilted to the left and he sniffed the air again. “It’s there.”

He pointed to a rather large house with the lights off. It didn’t look like a super welcoming place – no Halloween decorations, no sign of any life. I wondered why the kids walked up to it. Other than the fact that, you know, kids are dumb and tend to do dumb things.

“Alright, let’s go in.”

We made our way up the pathway and I stooped down in front of the door. After discovering the door was locked, I slipped a bobby pin from my hair and started to jiggle it around the lock.

“C’mon, don’t you have some kind of, like, door-unlocking spell?” asked Gale. He was bouncing on his feet, eager to find the source of all the blood.

“Yeah, I don’t use magic on something that stupid. Picking a lock is easier and, honestly, faster.” I heard a click and tried the handle again. This time it turned. “Okay, let’s go.”

We entered the house, prepared to search it from bottom to top in order to find the source of the blood, but it turns out we didn’t have to.

We found a body slumped against the wall in the foyer, blood smeared on the walls and pooled on the floor. Gale swore as I knelt down by the child and put my finger to his throat. He was definitely dead, as if the sheer amount of blood loss hadn’t already given me my answer.

The child couldn’t have been more than eight. He’d been wearing a superman costume that was now torn in the chest. He had multiple stab wounds in his chest cavity and a few in his legs and arms. His eyes were blue and glassy.

“What do we do?” asked Gale, all traces of his earlier humor gone.

“First, let’s find the others,” I said. I stood up and gave the dead kid a pat on the head, as though it would comfort him. Not that he really needed it anymore.

A few blood drops led us further into the house, past the dining room and into the kitchen, where we found what appeared to be the basement door ajar. As we approached the door, we could see a light and hear the faint sound of somebody crying.

“That must be it,” I said. I turned to Gale. “When we go down there, our primary goal is to get the kids out. Whatever has them, you hold it off while I grab the kids, okay?”

“What do you think it is?” he asked. He was trying not to sound worried.

“Well, it used a knife, so I would guess it’s a rogue witch or wizard. Performing a dark magic ritual. You’ll need to be careful, but we have an advantage. They aren’t expecting a vampire.”

He nodded and I took that as permission to begin my descent. We crept down the stairs as quickly and quietly as we could. The basement slowly came into my field of vision.

There were two children tied and gagged in the far corner of the basement, a spaceman and a pirate. At the other end of the room there stood a man with his back to us. He was holding a young girl against the wall by her left hand. She, too, was gagged, and she was dressed like a witch. I saw the man had a knife in his hand and I realized what was happening the same second that Gale did.

“Holy shit. He’s human, isn’t he?” Gale didn’t bother whispering or concealing his voice. Everyone in the room turned to look at him, me included, and I glared.

“What?” he shrugged. “This’ll be a piece of cake, honestly.”

I looked back at the man and the girl and saw that she was missing a finger on her hand, the man having sliced it off with his knife. My eyes went dark and I saw red.

“Alright, Gale. Kill him.”

Gale’s face went slack and his fangs peeked out from under his lips. He rocked back on his heels and then lunged towards the man.

You’ll notice that I haven’t actually told you what the man looked like. The murderer. And there’s a good reason for that. See, he was just so… ordinary. When I first laid eyes on him, the scene seemed so absurd to me. He looked like a regular, middle-aged, balding salary man. There was nothing sinister about him. Nothing that would indicate that he was fucked up. That he liked murdering children.

And somehow, that scared me more than anything I’ve ever encountered in our world. And it’s something I don’t like to think about.

So I watched Gale lunge at the man with something akin to relief. As Gale slammed the man into the wall, he dropped the child and she sat on the ground, sobbing behind her gag. I ran to her and grabbed her, dragging her back to the corner with her friends.

I sat her down by her friends and started searching the floor frantically. I spotted her finger on the ground and grasped it, bringing it towards her. She was pale and hyperventilating, about to enter into shock. I placed her finger back in its rightful place and reached into my bag, grabbing out a handkerchief and a small blue vial. I wrapped the handkerchief around the hand and finger and breathed over it, mumbling a spell to myself as I did. I poured the blue solution onto her hand and let it soak into the cloth. I waited for a beat or two before removing it.

Her finger was reattached and good as new, with nothing but a small white scar to show that it had ever been injured. She stared at it in wonder, her breathing evening out. I reached up and pulled her gag off.

“Hi, there. My name is Ambrosia. What’s your name?” I asked her. She stared at me uncertainly for a moment. Her eyes shifted behind me and I could hear the slurping, sucking sounds Gale was making. “No, no, don’t look there, look at me.” Her eyes shifted back and she took a deep breath.

“S…samantha,” she said.

I smiled at her. “That’s a beautiful name. Are you a witch, Samantha?”

She nodded, then shook her head. “Well, I’m not a real witch. I’m just pretending.”

“I see. You could have fooled me, you look JUST like a real witch. Samantha, I need you to do me a favor. I need you to face the wall and not turn around. I’m going to untie your friends and then we’re going to go find your parents. How does that sound?”

She nodded and turned towards the wall. I slipped a switchblade out of my pocket and cut the ropes off the other children.

“Alright, guys, let’s get out of here, shall we?”

“What is he doing to that man?” asked the pirate. I had a very good idea of what Gale was doing, but I decided to avoid that particular topic.

“You guys don’t have to worry about that. That man isn’t going to hurt you anymore, and my friend wouldn’t dream of hurting you. We want to help you. That means you have to come upstairs with me, alright?”

The kids nodded, a little hesitant, but still trusting. I couldn’t imagine still trusting someone after what they’d seen, but that’s what’s magical about kids.

I led them upstairs. I kept them distracted while we walked by the body of their friend. As we reached the door, I turned around and knelt down. I whispered a few words in each of their ears and watched as their eyes went blank.

I ushered them out the door. “Your parents are down the street, waiting for you. Go on, now!” They walked away in something of a daze. A quick memory-wipe will do that to a person.

I turned back and looked at the dead child in the foyer. “Now what do I do with you?” I murmured. I stared for a moment, then walked back down to the basement.

Gale was kneeling over the body of the murderer, covered in his gore and blood. The man had been eviscerated, his entrails pulled out and spread around the room in disarray. His fingernails had been pulled out and shoved into his eyes. His teeth were scattered all over the floor. Huh. Dude never had his wisdom teeth taken out, I guess. He was still gurgling and choking on his own blood as I walked over. I could see that Gale had left him alive, at least for the time being.

“Geez, could you take any longer?” I asked. The man’s head jerked towards me, terror written in the lines of his face. I looked away and focused on Gale.

“Well, after what he did to the other kid, I wasn’t going to give him a quick death.” Blood dripped from Gale’s lips and covered his front. His pupils were so large they overtook the color of his eyes. That happens when they feed. I’m not sure why, but I’ve always found it enormously attractive. But I found it even more attractive that he was showing enough self-control to make this son of a bitch suffer.

“Well, we need to pick up the other kid’s body and get out of here, so if you could finish up…”

He nodded and grasped the man’s face in both his hands. Straddling the body, he yanked hard and fast. The sound of his flesh distending and snapping was sickening. His body flailed a moment after the decapitation, but it didn��t last very long. It was a relief when he stopped moving. I didn’t want to think about the world housing that kind of human.

“Help me grab the kid, will you?”

We went upstairs and Gale lifted the child into his arms. He looked at me in confusion. “What do you want him for? Don’t you think maybe we should just… leave him here for the police to find?”

I shook my head. “I can do you one better.”

I grabbed onto Gale and transported us back to my house, my plan already in place.

“Remind me why we’re doing this again?”

Gale was sitting on my back porch as I placed the child in the coffin. It’s a beautiful coffin. It’s made of oak and has intricate carvings all over it. More importantly, it is etched with runes, thousands of them. I shut the lid and caressed it, reading through some of the runes. I smirked a little at Gale’s confusion. He was about to get a first-class show, that’s for sure.

“Are you gonna… I dunno, bury him or something?”

I just laughed and shook my head. “Have you ever heard of necromancy?”

He recoiled a little. “I thought you were a white magic witch, not a… you know…”

“Geez, necromancy isn’t ALL about black magic. I mean, sure, you could do it that way, but it’s a lot harder and it’s pretty disgusting. You have to cook and eat a dog, and abstain from the sight of women… it’s a pain. And the end result is… distorted. But if you do it using white magic, well, if you’re lucky, it just might work. The results aren’t guaranteed, but, hey. It’s better than nothing.” As I spoke, I took off my jacket and rolled up my sleeves. I flexed and stretched my fingers – I didn’t want to pull a muscle in my hand with what I was about to do.

He looked at me like I was insane. “How come I’ve never heard of this?”

I shrugged. “You’re young. There’s lots of things you don’t know.”

“Like your phone number.” He flashed a smile at me and I shook my head in despair.

“There’s no hope for you, seriously.”

With that, I stretched my hands over the coffin. I began to mutter to myself, reciting the runes that graced the lid. My voice fell into an even cadence as I grew louder, the world fading around me in my concentration. On the fifth line, I brought my right hand to my left wrist, feeling for the pulse that beat just below my skin.

On the tenth line, I plunged my fingernail through my skin and into my artery, letting my blood drench the lid of the coffin. It seeped into the rune carvings and disappeared while my chanting continued. I could hear other voices joining me, now, voices from different times and spaces and existences. I finally recited the final, and twentieth, line, my strength failing me. I let myself fall forward on the lid of the coffin, my blood still flowing freely from my wrist as I struggled to breathe. I was losing a lot of blood very quickly – if the ritual was going to work, it had to work now.

I very vaguely became aware of being lifted off the coffin lid. I realized after a moment that Gale was cradling me, my wrist lifted to his mouth. He was licking my wound which, I realized, had closed when it came in contact with his saliva. Vampire saliva has many healing properties. Not that I appreciated it at that exact moment.

“Don’t… interfere, Gale.” It was hard getting enough breath to speak. I had lost a dangerous amount of blood.

“You’re a goddamn idiot, Ambrosia. Are you trying to kill yourself? You know, you could pick better ways to do it than to bleed out in front of a vampire.”

“I have to… the ritual…”

“No ritual is so important that you endanger yourself like that. What the hell were you thinking?!”

A bit of clarity was coming back into my head. I opened my mouth to retort when he and I both heard it.

I tentative knock was coming from inside the coffin.

“He-hello? Is anybody there?”

Gale’s jaw dropped and I struggled out of his arms, wrenching the coffin lid open. The little boy looked at me in terror. His wounds, however, were gone and the blood had vanished from his costume. I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. It was a victory I never expected.

I struggled to help him out of the coffin until Gale took over. I didn’t even mind, I was so elated. It worked. I couldn’t believe it worked! The coffin was a family heirloom, and while I knew of its powers, I’d never tried to access them before. It takes a perfect specimen. The boy was freshly dead and had a pure, innocent soul. With anyone else, who knows if it might have worked. Furthermore, the ritual is incredibly dangerous, and many witches have died trying to complete it. That night, I easily could have been one of them.

We sat the kid down and learned his name, his address. He was confused and didn’t remember anything except for being out and about with his friends. He had no memories of his murder. Which was good. We didn’t have to wipe his memory at all.

We told him he hit his head. That we’d found him on the sidewalk and brought him to my place to see if he was okay. Gale offered to walk him home. It was getting late, now, and surely his parents were worried.

And so, Gale helped me into the house and sat me down on my chair, back with my book and tea. Then he took the boy by his hand and they walked towards the front door. I noticed that Gale had already charmed Charlie and the two were getting along splendidly. Gale was good with kids, too. I noted that and filed it away. You know, for future reference.

“Hey, Ambrosia, you busy next Wednesday?” He asked me, before opening the door and disappearing into the night.

“Hm… I might be, I might not. Why do you ask?”

“You, me, dinner. 8 o’clock. I’ll pick you up at 7:30?”

I thought about it, then gave him a laugh. “We’ll see. But no promises!” He grinned and gave me a little wave as he ushered Charlie out into the darkness. I watched them go, content in the knowledge that Gale would get him safely where he needed to go.

And despite my indifferent response, I was definitely going to dinner with Gale. I groaned a little and put my face in my hand, trying to fight a smile and a blush.

Whoever thought that a vampire would be my type?