Special thanks to Akiko for giving me the idea to write this fic; Sora G. Silverwind for helping me out with a quote; and Omniflyer for giving me the idea to have Jenna go as a princess. There's not much "story" here more than random events, but it works, I guess. Add me to MSN messenger. Fear the random. Skittles--taste the rainbow.
-Joker
It was Halloween, the holiday Garet Jerra loved so much. It wasn't the adrenaline or candy, or even the fact that he was allowed to stay up late that he loved so much about the holiday. It was that he always beat Aaron--his little brother--at their little competition to see who is the scariest.
"I'm scarier!" shouted Aaron. "This year I'll beat you!" He glared across the dinner table at his older brother, holding himself back from launching across the table and attacking him. It made him angry when his brother acted as if he couldn't do anything.
"Yeah, yeah, sure thing," said Garet calmly, smiling and leaning back in his chair. "You know the rules... If you can scare me more times tonight than I scare you, then you win."
"I know the rules, dummy!" Aaron said while rolling his eyes.
"I know you know. I even said that you knew the rules," Garet responded, more than a little annoyed.
Aaron smirked. "So why'd you say the rules anyway? If we both know the rules then there's no reason to repeat them. Dummy."
Now glaring at his little brother, Garet said, "First of all, I'm not a dummy. Sec--"
"Yes you are," Aaron interrupted. "Just hurry up and eat. I want to hurry up and get my candy so I have time to scare you."
"Ah, yes. The little brother needs his big brother to go with him. Unfortunately, I won't be taking you for too long tonight. Wouldn't want you to get too scared," Garet replied, smiling as an older brother would when he gains power over his younger brother.
"Mom!" Aaron shouted. "Garet said he won't take me around for very long tonight!"
Garet twitched and glared at his little brother.
"Garet, honey, I told you that you'll need to keep Aaron with you all night. Your father and I will be down at the Inn, and Kay will be busy giving out candy," said the boys' mom as she walked into the room.
"Hmph. Fine," Garet said. "Just gives me more chances to scare you." A wicked smile appeared on his face.
-- -- -- -- -- --
An hour later, after the sun had disappeared from the sky and the bright moon took its place, Aaron, dressed up in a Mars Djinni costume his mom had made for him, was standing outside his house. Around him were Garet's friends in various other costumes, waiting for Garet to come out of the house in his costume. Piers, who Aaron thought was much too old to be trick or treating, was dressed up as a pirate, which he had been wrongfully accused of being before Garet had even met him.
"I couldn't pass up this opportunity," said Piers, grinning to his friends. "Ever since I was thrown in jail, I've wanted to try out being a pirate."
Jenna, who looked very much like a Proxian, said, "I remember that."
Nodding, Felix--dressed up as a Proxian as well, added, "Yeah...I only wish we could have got you out sooner."
"No, no, you did great. If it weren't for you, I...I probably would have never made it back to Lemuria," Piers replied. He adjusted his eye patch and his pirate hat after a moment.
Ivan stood up off of the grass and looked between Jenna and Felix. "Why are you both Proxians?"
Sheba, who had been sitting next to him, jumped up and said, "I think they look cute together!"
"Well, to tell you the truth... Felix stole my idea," said Jenna, rolling her eyes and folding her arms.
"No I didn't, Jenna! Mom just gave us both the same suggestion and we didn't know it!" Felix responded angrily. "I've told you that plenty of times!"
"Anyway, why aren't you two dressed up?" asked Jenna, ignoring her older brother. She looked at Ivan and Sheba curiously. "Did you forget?"
Ivan grinned and glanced at Sheba. "Actually, we figured that since our hair is close to being the same, we'd go with simple costumes and go as each other," the blonde boy said. "So, that's why I'm wearing Sheba's clothes."
The other Adepts hadn't noticed the switch of clothing between the two young Jupiter Adepts. Sure enough, Sheba was wearing Ivan's attire and vice versa.
"Ivan's hair is sticking up too much still," said Jenna. "Other than that...I guess it works."
Ivan ran his hands through his hair, trying to smooth it out. The others all turned to look at Isaac, who had just showed up.
"Hey, sorry I'm late," he greeted, breathing heavily. The golden-haired boy knelt down on one knee to catch his breath. "My mom wanted me to run all the candy around to everybody and tell them to skip our house so that she could go to bed early."
The other Adepts smirked and giggled at what Isaac had just told them.
"Oh, sure, laugh. I've still got your candy, you know. I could easily keep it for myself," he said, glaring at Ivan, who had fallen over from laughing so much which resulted in his hair messing up again.
Everyone stopped laughing fairly quickly. Isaac stood up, still wearing an angry expression, and began to pass out the candy he had brought for them. It was obvious he wasn't in a very good mood by the way he thrust the candy into his friends' hands.
"Where's Mia and Garet?" he asked after he had finished giving out the candy.
"Mia's not here yet, and Garet's inside changing," said Aaron. "And...what are you supposed to be?"
Isaac's eyes lit up. "Oh, right! Hang on..." he said. The Venus Adept quickly pulled his scarf off of his neck and covered his mouth and nose with it, and then tied it around the back of his head. "There," he said when he had finished. "I'm a ninja."
Ivan smirked. "You didn't plan that, did you?"
Shaking his head, Isaac replied, "Actually, I was going to be a Proxian, but your mom," he pointed to Jenna and Felix, "told my mom that you two were going as Proxians. My mom didn't tell me until the last minute when she found out what I was going to be."
Jenna rolled her eyes again. "I figured my costume was unique...until somebody stole my idea."
"I didn't steal your idea!" Felix shouted.
Jenna held up a hand, stopping Felix from saying anything else. "Look," she said while spinning around to look at him, "if you really want to be a Proxian that bad, then I'll just change my costume." A moment later she grabbed Felix's cape and wiped her face off on it.
"Jenna, what are you--" Felix started to say.
"There!" said Jenna, pulling her face away. She had wiped off all of her face paint on Felix's cape. "Now I'm a princess!"
"But...you look like you always do," Felix said, raising an eyebrow.
"Exactly!" Jenna replied, grinning from ear-to-ear.
Felix didn't even bother to reply. Instead, he looked back over to Garet's front door and asked Aaron how much longer it would take.
"I don't know," Aaron muttered while playing with his costume's tail. He didn't tell me what he was going to be, so I don't know how long it's gonna take to change."
Fortunately for the impatient ones of the group, Garet opened the front door and stepped out of the house a few minutes later. Everyone gasped in surprised at his costume. Immediately following the moment of surprise, the Adepts began to laugh uncontrollably. Even Felix, who rarely laughed, couldn't control himself.
Garet glared at them all, and then looked at his costume--a large white bunny costume that revealed only his face.
"For your information, I had a dream about killer rabbits last night, and it gave me the idea to go as this," Garet stated, folding his arms angrily.
"What--" Jenna started to say, but ended up falling to the ground holding her stomach.
Sheba was the first to calm down. Wiping a tear from her eye, she asked what Jenna was going to say just moments before. "What's so scary about a bunny?"
"The costume isn't finished yet," said Garet, turning around to hide his embarrassment--or so his friend's thought. He opened the front of his costume and reached in. After reaching his pocket, he pulled an item out of the costume and zipped it back up. Thought it was difficult with his furry mittens, Garet managed to open up the bottle he had pulled out of his costume. He quickly began applying the contents of the bottle to his face.
While Garet was finishing up, the other Adepts had slowly regained control of themselves as they breathed heavily, recovering from laughing so much. When they had all become silent, Garet turned around and showed them his face, which now had a red liquid smeared around his mouth.
"There!" Garet exclaimed, smiling. "I look like I just ate somebody, don't I?"
Isaac held back a laugh, and said, "No offense Garet, but you look like a clown."
Garet glared at his friend, and then replied with, "Well, at least I put thought into my costume! I'm telling you, bunnies ate people in my dream!"
Nobody could complain with that. They just shook their heads, still chuckling lightly to themselves.
"Anyway...are we ready to go?" Garet asked, tugging on his floppy bunny ears for fun.
"Nope... We're still waiting for Mia," Jenna said, yawning and laying down on the cool grass. "She said her costume was hard to put on, so she told me that she might be late."
"Oh, well, in that case, I'll just use this time to think up ways to scare Aaron," Garet said, wearing a wicked grin.
Laughing, Aaron said, "You've already scared me with your costume."
"Ah, good!" Garet said happily. "One point for me, then. I told you it would be scary."
"Garet, I think the two of you are talking about two completely different meanings of 'scary'," Ivan said, cutting into the conversation.
Garet put the bottle of fake blood away in his costume. "Either way, I scared him, so it counts," he murmured, not interested in what Ivan was saying. After he had closed up his bunny suit again, he sat down on the grass and relaxed, waiting patiently for Mia to arrive.
About ten minutes later, Mia joined the group. After a moment of the other Adepts gawking at her masterfully crafted Mercury Lighthouse costume--which consisted of a beautiful dress that looked very much like the blue lighthouse and a crown that resembled the top of the lighthouse--and a little bit more poking fun at Garet's costume, the group was ready to go trick or treating.
"Hey Aaron, let's make a bet," said Garet as they walked to their first stop--Kraden's cottage. The scholar had told them to stop by his place first.
Aaron looked up at his older brother, which caused the hood of his costume to fall over his eyes. "Huh?" he mumbled while fixing his costume.
"Since you're so sure that you can beat me...how about we bet my candy at the end of the night against your candy?" Garet asked, resisting the urge to laugh evilly.
Aaron nodded in agreement. He was sure he would win. "Okay...but I'm going to try to get as much chocolate as I can, and chocolate gives you diarrhea, right?"
Garet's eyes bulged wide open, and he quickly clamped his hand over Aaron's mouth. Laughing nervously while looking to see if anyone had heard about his disturbing secret. Once he was sure nobody had heard, or at least hoped nobody had heard, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Now, now, Aaron," said Garet, trying to drown out his brother's muffled screams. "I take risks too--GAH!" Garet screamed as Aaron's teeth sunk into his hand.
"Hurry up you two! We don't want to have to keep all of the candy for ourselves!" Isaac shouted from up ahead.
"I do," Jenna muttered.
Garet and Aaron glared at each other, and then began to walk quickly to catch up with the group.
"Smelly-hands diarrhea jerk..."
"Feh. Y'know, I'd eat you, but babies give me heartburn."
"Duh! You're not a real killer bunny!"
"Who said anything about that?"
"...Chocolate gives you diarrhea and babies give you heartburn. You're going to die young, Garet. One day you're going to eat an herb and end up having a seizure."
"Hey...you've been listening to Kraden's lectures again, haven't you?"
"No. I'm just smarter than you think."
-- -- -- -- -- --
"Ah, we're here," said Isaac as he broke off of the trail to walk up toward Kraden's cottage. The rest followed, murmuring to themselves. Kraden's entire cottage was pretty much dressed up as a haunted house.
"Geez...and I thought this place was scary before!" said Jenna.
The outside of the cottage was decorated with wall hangings that resembled an old wall. In the trees around the cottage, the Adepts could spot dozens of tiny, red, glowing eyes deep within the dark leaves. An open window revealed that something inside of the cottage was giving off steam as the thick gray mist floated out of the window and disappeared in the dark air outside.
"I'm curious as to why Kraden did this," said Ivan.
Isaac turned his head to look at his friends. "Probably to entertain us. He once told me that he had always wanted to participate in our Halloween festivities. Looks like he finally found the free time to do it," said the Venus Adept. He pulled his ninja-scarf up around his face again and walked up to the door. When he was sure Aaron and Garet had caught up, he knocked on the door loudly.
From inside, the Adepts could clearly hear Kraden shout out, saying, "Oh no, they're here! Where's my underwear?! I'm not ready yet!"
An expression of confusion and disgust spread from one Adept to the next until they all understood what they had just heard. Kraden was naked. The mental images were about as painful as Dullahan.
"Mercury, have mercy on me..." whispered Piers with a shaky voice.
The other Adepts could only nod. Aaron seemed to be the only one who wasn't dumbfounded.
"I sure hope he doesn't give us out candy while naked," the little boy muttered.
A few of the Adepts twitched. "Okay, one point for you," Garet said slowly, fighting the mental images of Kraden out of his brain to find the right words to say.
Aaron grinned brightly just as the front door opened.
"No!" shouted Isaac, pulling his scarf up to cover his eyes. The rest of the group--except for Aaron--did similar things to shield their eyes from what they thought would be a naked--or half-naked--Kraden.
"Um...welcome to my haunted house?" greeted Kraden's voice with a hint of confusion.
"Haunted?!" shouted Garet from behind the floppy bunny ears he was using to cover his face. "You mean ghosts come and steal underwear, right?" he asked sarcastically.
"I'm not sure I follow you..." Kraden said. "Oh well. You can come in if you like. I've prepared a special...treat...for you." He chuckled softly.
The word "treat" brought the naked images back into the Adepts' heads.
"Well, don't cower in fright! It's just a little fun, after all. This place isn't really scary," the scholar said, laughing lightly.
"I beg to differ," said Felix under his breath.
"So, what do you think of my costume?" Kraden inquired. Taking the risk, the Adepts uncovered their eyes and turned their heads one-by-one.
"A box?" asked Isaac. Sure enough, Kraden's entire body--except for his legs and his face--were inside of a large, square box. Holes were cut out of the bottom for his legs, which weren't covered in any clothing, including shoes. Another hole was cut out of the front of the wooden box for him to put his face through. Completing his costume, the man's entire face was painted blue.
He looked like a reject monster with hairy legs.
"Nope! I'm the Wise One!" Kraden replied, grinning.
"Ah, yeah, okay," said Garet. "Took you long to make that, did it?"
"Hmm...not really, now. I spent most of my time making this haunted house," he said, turning around to look inside of his home. Nothing could be seen from within the cottage, since Kraden's costume blocked the way.
Isaac, praying that no more bad images would enter his mind that night, asked Kraden to lead the way inside.
"I'll follow in a moment," said Ivan, wearing an expression of pain and holding his stomach. He quickly ran behind a tree. Moments later, vomiting could be heard.
"Well, come on in. He'll be alright," said Kraden, disappearing inside his cottage. The rest of the Adepts, although hesitant, followed.
-- -- -- -- -- --
Upon entering the completely dark room, the Adepts shivered. What would be in store for them? All of the Adepts were full of suspense. They all jumped when Ivan spoke from behind them.
"Good news. I just threw up. The stench was enough to disgust me even more than the images, so I'm good to go for a little bit," Ivan muttered half-heartedly. He moaned and sat down on the ground.
A moment later, the door slammed such on its own, causing the Adepts to shout in surprise.
The only thing that could be heard were the occasional gasps for breath from the Adepts, indicating that they were holding their breath--waiting for something to happen.
"And now," said an eerie voice. "Prepare to be so scared you'll jump right out of your costumes!" The voice sounded like a twisted version of Kraden's.
"B-But my costume is my regular clothing!" said Jenna.
"Oh, well I wasn't serious. I'm only wearing my underwear under here," said Kraden. Following was the sound of someone tapping on a box.
"I knew it!" shouted Garet. "It's not really dark in here, I'm just blind!"
"Garet," said Mia's soothing voice. "Blindness like that would only occur if you had seen something that traumatized you."
"I saw it in my mind!"
"I'm a little confused," said Kraden using his regular voice. "Oh well... Here goes! Stay away from the walls!"
The sound of a glass jar breaking could clearly be heard, which caused the few Adepts that weren't laying down on the ground in the fetal position to jump in the air. They jumped even higher in the air and shouted out loud when a large green ball of fire erupted at one end of the room. It quickly went out, but not without starting a chain reaction first. Soon, fire balls of multiple colors were bursting all around the walls of the room, creating a strobe effect.
The inside of the cottage flashed brilliantly, allowing the Adepts to finally catch a glimpse of their surroundings.
"Monsters!"
"Ack! Spider webs!"
"Get it away!"
"It's Kraden! Mars save me!"
The entire room was decorated with various frightening sights. Monsters appeared to glide around the room, moving closer with each flashing light. Fog had engulfed the entire floor, creating an eerie atmosphere. Spider-webs clung to Jenna and Mia as they managed to find themselves even deeper in the room. Disrupting the spider-webs caused millions of tiny black spiders to fall from up above, landing all over the girls.
Garet, Aaron, and Isaac were standing in the center of the room. Aaron clung to Garet's side tightly while the two older boys instinctively reached for their weapons, which weren't with them. Garet would occasionally catch glimpses of Kraden standing in the corner, chuckling to himself. The sight of Kraden scared him, as the mental images he had accidentally created earlier had fully embedded themselves into his head. Felix and Sheba were spinning around near the door, eyes wide while they tried to keep their attention focused on one thing but finding it difficult.
Piers had rushed to try to save the girls, only to find himself tumbling over something hidden by the fog and landing into the large spider-web himself. The impact ripped the spider-web off of the ceiling, and the three Adepts fell to the floor, shouting and squirming around wildly.
Only Ivan had managed to stay still. The only reason he stayed still was because he had began to vomit again, right on Kraden's floor.
The last fire ball flashed brightly next to the door, leaving everything in darkness again. All around the room sounds of pain, terror, and vomiting could be heard.
In one of the corners, Kraden struck a match and lit a candle sitting next to him. After lighting a few more candles, the room was illuminated enough for the Adepts to see what had just happened. The entire place was rigged to scare.
"Wow," said Isaac, astonished at how real everything looked. "You really did a great job, Kraden."
"Why thank you," said Kraden, grinning from ear-to-ear and walking over to join his students standing in the center of the room.
"How did you create the fog?" asked Garet, bending over to move his hands through the thick fog, disrupting it until he could see the wooden floor.
"Ah, a simple chemical formula. Simple to make, but difficult to explain. Perhaps another time," said Kraden. "I understand you have other places to visit, so I don't want to keep you much longer. There's a large bowl of candy over by the candles. Take as many as you like... I highly doubt anybody else will be visiting me, and I can't eat it myself." There was a hint of sadness in Kraden's tone. Garet, feeling sorry that his teacher, decided he owed something to Kraden for passing his wisdom on to him, even if he was mentally scarred.
"I'll have my mom bake you a pie or something," he unexpectedly said. "Great horror show and everything, Kraden. C'mon guys, girls, and bratty sibling! More candy awaits us!" And with that said, he rushed toward the door, only to end up slipping on Ivan's vomit, which had been hidden by the fog.
THUD!
"Oops. Sorry Garet," said an embarrassed Ivan.
-- -- -- -- -- --
As they ended their quest for candy, the Adepts slowly grew exhausted. It was late, and they had had enough of people laughing at their group of odd costumes. Even worse was that Garet and Aaron still had their contest going, and they were both tied with one point each. After the final house had been raided of all of its candy, the Adepts went their separate ways, saying goodnight to each other.
"Well, Aaron," said Garet after Isaac and Jenna left. "Just you and me, it seems."
"And the ghosts," added Aaron, smirking. The young boy's words disturbed Garet slightly.
"Excuse me? Ghosts?" Garet exclaimed in disbelief. "You're trying to pull that on me?" The older boy wouldn't admit it, but he certainly was afraid. The earlier events had made him weak, but he wouldn't let it show if he could help it."
"Well, I'm not sure if it was a ghost or not...but last night I remember seeing a large figure that looks like a giant murderous lizard walk by our house," said Aaron, thinking hard to recall the creature he supposedly saw.
Garet rolled his eyes, and said, "That doesn't mean it's a ghost. I bet you're just making it up."
Despite his older brother's accusations, Aaron continued on. "Isn't it about a fourth of the way through the night? That's when the creature showed up last night."
Garet hesitated, but looked behind him. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he turned back around. "Yeah...right. Anyway, let's go inside now. As soon as we go inside, the game's over. I'll just let it be a draw this year," the Mars Adept said. He was desperate to get inside, and it could be seen. For him, that Halloween had been the worst ever. Nothing in his life compared to the trauma of being near a mostly-naked Kraden.
"G-Garet!" shouted Aaron suddenly. His eyes bulged open and his jaw hit the ground. He pointed a very shaky finger behind Garet.
Spinning around, Garet saw the most unexpected sight. A large shadow of a dragon was creeping up on them, and soon, the dragon itself had appeared out of the darkness. However, Garet was already running away toward his house, holding Aaron under one arm and gripping his candy tightly to him in the other.
"Garet!" Aaron yelled, annoyed that his older brother had decided that Aaron couldn't run on his own. "Put me down! You're ruining my costume!"
Garet didn't answer. A moment later, he was in front of his house, flinging the door open and jumping inside dramatically.
"Ow!" exclaimed Aaron. The young boy pulled himself to his feet, examining his candy bag. "You dummy, why'd you do that?"
Unable to believe what his younger brother was saying, Garet slammed the door shut and said, "What?! I just saved you from that dragon!"
Aaron rolled his eyes. "That's not paint you smeared on your face, is it? The fumes must've ruined your head or something."
Garet ran over to the window and picked out, hoping to catch sight of the dragon while at the same time hoping that the dragon wouldn't be there.
"Garet, that dragon was Tiamat, duh!" Aaron said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Confused, Garet turned to look at his younger brother. "What?" he asked.
"I asked your Djinn to help me scare you! They agreed when I told them that it was all for fun, and that you wouldn't mind." the young boy said, smiling brightly
Garet's eye twitched slightly when he realized what had just happened. Aaron had managed to scare Garet one last time before they entered the house. Aaron won the contest.
"My Djinn...will pay..." growled Garet. He didn't want to hurt the little creatures, but he would definitely explain to them who was boss.
"C'mon Garet. Give me your candy," demanded Aaron. It almost sickened Garet that he was being told what to do by his younger brother, especially in the mood he was in.
"Fine. I don't care anyway," said Garet as he tossed his bag of candy near Aaron. Truthfully, he did care, since he really did work hard on his costume, and the candy was a reward in his mind for the hard work.
Garet took one last glance at his candy bag before slowly walking upstairs to go to bed.
"Worst Halloween ever," he muttered as one of his floppy bunny ears fell over into his face.
-- -- -- -- -- --
The next day came way too early for Garet. He opened his eyes and instantly regretted it, remembering what had happened the previous night. He had hoped it was only a dream, but when he sat up and realized he was still in his bunny costume, his face fell.
"Smart little brat," Garet muttered.
After changing into some suitable clothes, Garet ran downstairs to get some food. After he jumped the last three steps and looked at the table, his eyes grew wide.
Sitting at the table was Aaron, and in front of him was all the candy they had collected. For some odd reason, it was separated into two piles.
"Oh, hi Garet," said Aaron, smiling to his older brother. "You can have all the non-chocolate candy if you want. I put it all in this pile," he stated, patting on the larger of the two piles. Chocolate was not common in Vale, so most of the candy they had gathered was made from other ingredients.
"Wait...what? You're giving it to me?" inquired Garet, more than a little surprised. The Mars Adept had never seen his younger brother to give up something like that, especially when giving it up to him.
Aaron nodded and jumped off of the chair. "Even though you're a jerk most of the time, you still wouldn't leave me to die or anything like that. Like last night, when you thought the dragon was evil even though it was just there to scare you, and you picked me up and ran off with me. So, I decided I can give up this candy to you because you do care about me, even though you don't show it much," he explained. "Plus, scaring you was fun in its own way."
Garet smirked, and did the only thing that came to his mind. It wasn't punching his brother, which he did on occasion. It wasn't calling him names, or even belching in his face.
He hugged him.
"Best brother ever," said Garet, even though he knew that the next day he would probably say the exact opposite.