(AN) Just a short thing I wrote for a Halloween contest on Amino! Figured I should put it up here too. This is set just one year after Jardiniero's garden is destroyed, Leafos and Storkos are still young, Seedos hasn't left the swamp yet, et etc. Enjoy!

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

Storkos puffed out her chest. "Of course! I'm not going to let that villain scare me away from trick or treating every house in the village!"

Leafos bit her lip as she nervously looked up at the looming, twisted, dead oak tree that belonged to her least favourite neighbour.

It was her and Storkos' second Halloween without either of their brothers around... Storkos was dressed up like a superhero, while Leafos had dressed up as a witch, and they had set about trick or treating for the night!

Last Halloween had been... a little too depressing, as it was their currently missing older brother Stardos' favourite holiday. So Storkos took it upon herself to make this year better by challenging themselves to try and trick or treat at every single house in the entire village! They'd stop at nothing to get the most candy of any of the kids in the village! That determination is what lead them to trying to trick or treat here...

At the tree home belonging to the mysterious villain known as Dastardos.

Despite Storkos' brave words, both of them still hesitated, feeling a creeping sense of dread and terror seep from the tree just like the mist everywhere that seemed to just pass straight through the hollow tree like a ghost. The night was dark and the shadows even darker, and both girls shivered...

"I don't like this... he probably doesn't even have any candy!" Leafos said as she tried to step back, but Storkos grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Don't be a scaredy piñata! Whether he has anything or not we still have to try, what's the point of the challenge if we don't stick to it? And I WON'T let this villain defeat us! I'll keep us safe!" Storkos struck a superhero pose as she said all this, her cape flying in the wind behind her, looking as tough as a 13 year old reasonably could be.

Leafos wasn't impressed. "I'm the one who's supposed to keep YOU safe... I AM the oldest after all!"

"Only by a year! Come oooonn Leafos! We have to at least try!... Stardos wouldn't have been scared..."

That got Leafos. She sighed and said "o-okay, I guess there's no harm in knocking... he doesn't usually hurt people, right?"

Storkos beamed and started dragging Leafos closer to the tree. "Exactly! Let's go!"

But Leafos still looked and felt incredibly nervous, and, secretly, so was Storkos...

-VP-

"...so are you going to knock?"

"Uh... You should knock!"

"What!? But this was your idea, why do I have to!?"

"Like you said, you're the oldest, it should be you!"

"I am NOT knocking! Didn't YOU say you weren't going to let villains scare you!?"

"I'M NOT SCARED!"

...They weren't going away were they?

Dastardos siiiigghhed and looked over at the curtained entrance to his tree.

He hadn't interacted with either of his sisters since before he became... like this... cold and dark and forced to do terrible things and even ENJOY doing terrible things... his sisters couldn't see him like this, he couldn't let them figure it out.

So he'd avoided them as best he could, and had been pretty successful if he did say so himself!... Except now they were outside his tree trying to get his attention for whatever reason... and weren't leaving...

...What if they knew? What if they knew he used to be Stardos?

There was no way they could know, but he had to check...

He poked his head out of the tree entrance very suddenly and they both SCREAMED.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Dastardos blinked, unfazed by the screams but a little startled to see them both in costume...

They scrambled back a little, both trying to use the other as a shield against him, but neither outright ran...

"TRICK... TRICK OR TREAT" "T-trick or treat..." They both stammered out after a few moments, holding out their little pumpkin shaped buckets of candy.

...Halloween?

...He'd completely forgotten that holiday was even coming up...

For a few moments the three just stared at each other, as if frozen in place, before Dastardos finally spoke up.

"I don't have any candy." Which, technically, was a lie. He had plenty of sour sweets and life sweets, but he didn't have any candy the two girls could actually eat...

Leafos tried to take that as an opportunity to drag Storkos away. "Th-that's fine! Um, happy Halloween! Bye!"

But Storkos didn't budge. "What do you mean no candy!? You must have SOME lying around! Aren't you a villain!? I bet you're just being greedy and keeping it all for yourself!" She yelled, as Leafos tried frantically to shush her and pull her away.

Dastardos paused... they were... assuming he was like Pester...

...he HATED Pester and hated being compared to him!

Keeping his face blank, he turned and went back inside his tree, and came back out holding two sour sweets, and dropped one into each of their buckets.

He thought it would be safe to do that, those candies weren't nearly as strong as the one that had made him like this... if they did decide to eat them, which is highly unlikely, his sisters may be gullible and naive but they weren't idiots, but if they DID try then they'd only get sick.

"Happy Halloween!" He said mock cheerfully with an evil, crooked grin as they stared in disgust at the sour candies, and then he pulled his curtains shut and waited for them to leave...

Once they'd ran off he heaved a huge sigh...

The realisation hit him then like a sack of bricks. He really, REALLY missed Halloween...