Trick or Treat.

Author's note: Here's a little story I conjured up for Halloween. It's from an OC point of view where he visits a "haunted house" with his three sisters. Steven is only mentioned; he's not really in this and the gems will only appear in the ending of the story. Find out what happens with the gems when Steven's out trick or treating with Peridot and Lapis.

Disclaimer: Steven Universe belongs to Rebecca Sugar and her Crewniverse. OCs are mine.

Happy Halloween and enjoy!

The name of the game, he was told; was Trick or Treat. And all that he needed to do was to collect as much candy that he could and have fun. Those were the words that his mother had told him right before she pushed him gently out into the streets to go off with his three sisters. Dressed in a beautiful, sparkly black dress and a witch's hat, she'd waved to him with a large, loving smile and he'd turned his head away after giving her a nod of his head.

It was his first year of Halloween trick or treating with his sisters, without either his mom or his dad accompanying them and truth be told, the little boy felt slightly… worried. His dad was still at work- his mother had told him that he had something important holding him up and the little boy was not old enough to understand all the big words she had used to explain to his sisters simultaneously at the time. Mommy needed to stay at home to give away candy to the other kids that might stop by for the occasion, and he simply couldn't blame her up for that.

He was dressed as a superhero from that movie that he'd watched in a movie a while ago-Iron Man- complete with a red helmet-slash-mask and some actual, lighted circles on his centre chest and both his palms. His eldest sister, Haley, wore a pirate costume and he really loved that she carried along with her the sword that they had made together on a belt around her waist, and the large, feather hat she wore was kind of funny, but it made her look good. Haley's long, wavy black hair waved in the wind as they walked, and it was her hand that he held close as they went from door to door, collecting treats.

Hannah was 15 years old, impatient and easily excitable. She was blunt; and his mom and dad often told her that she was rude. But the little boy thought that Hannah was quite hilarious and tremendously brave. She was the one who'd knocked on the door whenever they'd came to a house and was also the only one who'd dared speak her mind out whenever she thought the owner hadn't given them enough candy. For the night, Hannah was dressed as a black cat- she'd sewn on cat ears onto her the hood of her black sweater and drawn whiskers onto her cheeks.

His youngest sister was Heidi, and she was dressed as… well, he doesn't know what her costume is. She claims it to be the main character of the book that was currently her favourite, a skeleton detective wearing a hat that shoots out fireball from the palms of his hands but other than her face painted white to look like a human skull; he supposed she looked nothing like a skeleton. Heidi was quiet but mischievous, and she was the one who'd devised the pranks that they would pull on house-owners who wouldn't answer the door. She'd always gotten Hannah along with her for the pranks while Haley and himself looked on from afar. Haley explained that he was simply too young for these activities, and promised that he could do it when he was older; in to which the little boy wordlessly agreed.

Halfway through the neighbourhood, Hannah had met up with some friends of hers from school that invited her to check-out the house they claimed was haunted at the beach. Not wanting to miss out on the fun, Hannah had begged from Haley to go; but the eldest girl said that she could only go if and only if they'd come along for the ride as well. The little boy watched in slight confusion when Hannah had been angry to that- she'd pouted and whined and pointed and said something about his age, but there was no changing Haley's decision. Besides, they'd promised mom that they would stick together, no matter what. That'd silenced her, and they all took one of Hannah's two friend's car to the location.

Halfway through, Hannah's two friends had teased her for having her older sister together with her- they'd made fun of her costume and called her a scaredy-cat, in to which he had objected to and Hannah's friends had called him cute. Haley gripped on his hand tighter and Heidi had laughed, claiming that she should've brought her video camera along for the trip. They'd arrived not long after and the old car was parked in front of a Big Donut building. They walked onto the dark beach until they reached a side of the huge cliff, the one that faced the ocean and his fear immediately morphed into awe as he laid eyes on the figure; with six arms and long, curly hair to her shoulders, it was obviously female and it was the most mesmerizing sight he had ever seen his whole life.

There were no lights that accompanied their ascent but the brightness of the moon and the blanket of twinkling stars made the night seem as clear as daylight. Hannah and her two friends went first; they were rowdy and loud but Haley had told him that was because they didn't want to be seen as scared. He'd walked between his two sisters; with Heidi holding onto his left hand and Haley onto his right one. Haley's other hand also carried his pumpkin basket of sweets along with hers own. She claims that she'll hold onto it if anything happens and Haley was one of the trust-worthiest people her knows of.

So up they went and Hannah had proceeded to knock onto the wooden door, as always. For the first few moments, nothing happened. The friend that'd invited them along, Stacy if he remembers it correctly, began to complain loudly of how everything was fake and that the stories they'd heard of about the beach house were lies. Then the door creaked open, and everyone froze.

Haley had looked at him and asked whether he wanted to go in too or not. Hannah and her friends were already tip-toeing inside of the building and Heidi was waiting for them in the doorframe with a look of impatience on her face. He didn't actually want to go in- it looked spooky, but he was scared that Haley would leave him alone outside if he didn't.

So he took a deep breath and nodded towards his sister; and Haley had looked surprised when he did so. They were the last to enter and when they finally did, the door slammed close and someone, probably one of Hannah's friends, shrieked aloud in fright, before it was silent again. The little boy tightened his grip onto his sister's hand. Moonlight peeked in from the old faded curtains hanging on the windows, giving the whole place an eerie atmosphere.

They explored the place- there were cobwebs in the corners and on the ceiling, and white, dust like substance on the counters that made it look like it came from another era. There were police tapes wound at the entrance of a set of staircase onto a higher level and an old coffin was laid atop some strange round stage made of… glass? Some portraits of what seemed to be like old-timey people hung on the walls. The boy and his sister stopped to study one of them- a huge portrait of three people: one was a black, tall person with square hair and round glasses wearing a maroon hat and matching coat and trousers. On her right was a slim, slender woman with a large circle on her forehead, wearing a similar-looking light blue long-coat with ruffles. Lastly, to the tall woman's right was the shortest woman in the picture, and strangely enough, her skin was purple.

The boy looked at his sister for permission, and after receiving a simple nod, he went closer to touch it. But that was when everything went wrong.

The smile that the short, purple woman had on in the picture widened and she began to cackle before holding out a sharp-nailed hand to reach him and the boy immediately backed away, his eyes wide and his mouth opened to a silent scream. Haley had gasped and pulled him into her arms before running away, desperate to find escape from this place. He could see that Hannah and her friends were huddled together in a corner, as if trying to hide in the shadows, but then the coffin opened and the a person sat up.

It was the thin woman in the picture! She was dressed in an old, black cloak and her eyes were glowing white. She began to moan and turned to look at the trio in the wall and they all screamed. They ran away towards the little boy and his sister and practically slammed into them. Heidi was currently screaming in the face of something that came down from the stairs and had grabbed onto her wrist- the tall woman with the square hair; but she had three eyes that glowed different colours! The little boy looked up at her sister; Haley was frozen, her face was distorted into a look of extreme fear but he could see that she was trying her best not to break down. Hannah's two friends ran away, bursting out the door screaming bloody murder but Hannah was left behind- she was shaking like a leaf in the wind behind Haley; with her hood down and tears streaming down her face.

The little boy's gaze darted towards her sister Heidi and all that he could think of was that if he didn't save her from the scary lady, she'll die! So he broke out Haley's iron grip and ran towards Heidi, who was still screaming on the spot and proceeded to bite the lady's knee. The lady released Heidi out of shock and he pulled her back to Haley and Hannah.

As reaching the duo, the little boy, feeling braver now but not really, stood in front of three sisters protectively as the three scary ladies advanced towards them. He tried his best to keep on a brave face but there were tears coming out from his eyes.

When all three spooks had reached them, the boy closed his eyes and braced himself for the worst- if they die, then they'd die together! What he had not expected was for the lights to suddenly come on and laughter rang out in the house. He opened his eyes to the purple woman- who'd previously looked like a ghost or an revengeful spirit- rolling on the floor, laughing. The tall woman with the square hair was leaning calmly against the counter with a huge, cool smile on her face and was shaking her head. The thin woman had a hand cupped above her mouth and her head was turned to her side and he could see that she was laughing too.

Their little group must have looked very funny; because the thin woman had come near them with some tissues she brought out of her forehead and offered them to Haley.

"I'm sorry, but we couldn't resist the temptation. You see," she explained. "Our little boy, Steven, had explained to us what the celebration was about and my purple… friend there; Amethyst, had suggested the whole idea to us. My name is Pearl. To be honest at first I thought it to be quite ludicrous, but as you can see now…"

"She lost a battle of will." The tall one cut in and walked over to us with one of her giant hands held out. "I'm Garnet. I was the one who spread the news about our haunted house, but you were the only ones brave enough to show up. Well, and those other two but they ran off."

"Haley," His sister said and met the hand with her own. She had on a small smile now, but he could see that there were still little traces of fear shining in her eyes. "These are my sisters Hannah and Heidi. And our little superhero, Lucas."

"I see." Garnet replied, and ruffled the little boy's hair. "Well he is very brave to come rescue his sister like that. Good job."

"Yeah, little dude. You were great!" Amethyst praised as she wiped off a tear at the corner of her eye. "I thought I'd never see the day that someone would actually bite Garnet's leg like that!" Garnet shrugged it off and crossed her arms. "Eh, it was called for."

Haley's breathing was back to normal now and Hannah quickly pulled her hood back up. Heidi's face was still buried in Haley's shoulders but at least she had stopped screaming. Haley nodded and suddenly, she began laughing.

"You guys did a good job. I hadn't been that frightened since I was like, 13 or something!"

Hannah shook her head in amusement and Heidi had finally looked up from Haley's shoulder with a small smile on her own. "Yeah," Heidi said. "I hadn't felt that scared since… well, I can't remember!"

"That coming from her, you guys really, really did a great job! No one scares Heidi." Hannah praised back. "Maybe we could help out if you want to do it again the next year?"

"We'll think about it." Garnet answered with a smile again and Pearl revealed a huge bag of treats from inside of her coffin and handed it to Lucas.

"Here," she'd said. "A reward. For being such a brave little boy."

He'd taken it with stars in his eyes.

"You need to come visit us again," Pearl continued and Amethyst nodded. "Yeah, we'll introduce you guys to Steven!"

Haley had promptly agreed and after a round of goodbyes, Haley had walked them back home. Hannah and Heidi concluded that it was the most candy they'd gotten in their Halloween since forever. Lucas had left with one of the best nights in his life. He'll certainly get them to visit the house again next year.

Fin