26, October

Lorcan's white grin shone out through the darkness, illuminated by the candles in the room decorated with macabre statuettes of demons and gargoyles, a black rug stained with a red pentagram big enough for someone to lay in. The sunlight clawed its way through the closed curtains. thin slits of light peering through to be snuffed out by the black interior. A dusty mirror hung on the wall gave the littlest trace of what was in the room, seemingly fogged from the other side.

"And now the only thing missing is paul..." The Irish man snickered to himself "This 'Making Sense of:' special episode will be great I can just tell." The light switched on illuminating the room making Lorcan squint slightly. The unused guest bedroom was redecorated in plastic Halloween decorations and tissue paper ghosts from the ceiling. It was the result of a quick trip to a Tesco costing him exactly 37.32 euros. The plan was that Paul would fly down for the week starting tomorrow and on Halloween they would Livestream so-called "Creepypastas". The mood had to be a perfect mix of creepy and goofy to entertain the fans; it was those fans who sent in the stories in and he was not prepared to disappoint.

"Paul should be boarding the plane right now, I better get some rest so I can meet him when he gets here." He said blowing out the candles and leaving the room.

27, October

As paul walked through the airport,dragging his suitcase behind him he heard a call and turn around to see Lorcan in the crowd waving him over.

"Logan! In the flesh after all this time" They hugged and laughed.

"No homo" Paul joked making them laugh again. "Come on. the car's waiting outside." and with that, they walked off to the car. The ride home was filled with catching up, despite being in contact over the internet the whole time it just felt like it had to be done.

Lorcan unpacked when they got home while paul admired the effort put into the recording room. Two sleeping bags were laid out on the floor in front of a wide screen TV that they would use to read the stories. Lorcan brought in the luggage bag filled with pauls clothes .

"Get comfortable, were gonna put out an episode tonight to prepare everyone for the special in a few days. You might wanna pick where you're sleeping in here first though" Lorcan said.

"We're sleeping here?" Paul asked in disbelief.

"Uh, I already have a bedroom for myself. if you don't want to there's always the couch in the living room" Lorcan mentioned setting up the computer as Paul examined the room and mentally decided that the living room was for him but didn't take the time to mention it. They recorded an episode reading Half-life: Full life consequences. despite not really understanding what was happening it was enjoyable. They finished the recording and the night with the reminder of the Halloween stream which was to be live streamed Halloween night and released as a regular podcast on the 1st of November.

"Don't miss it, This is gonna be the biggest event we've ever done!" Pauls low, deep, butterscotch radio voice vibrated through the microphone. The recording ended and the two chatted for a few more minutes before Lorcan wished him a good night and left to bed. Paul remembered he didn't actually mention he would sleep in the living room so he snuck out quickly after to sleep on the couch.

The day after they edited and published the episode before spending the evening at a pub enjoying some drinks.

29, October

"How about this one, mate?" Lorcan asked bringing over an arm full of sweets, the two were at Tesco buying candy for the trick or treaters who probably wouldn't be enough to finish this much candy Paul knew this and knew that your man would be eating it anyway, this didn't phase him however he was looking at his phone at the stories they would tell, Lorcan dumped his haul into the shopping cart regardless.

"The Hollow man" Paul mumbled to himself again reading the text. This wasn't a story like the others, it was more of a 'game'. The file that the anonymous fan sent in was instructions on how to play it, the only requirements to play was a house, a candle, and a pentagram, which Lorcan had already. Paul mumbled the title to himself again.

"What's that, paul?" Lorcan asked with a bag of Reese's peanut butter cups.

"Huh? don't you think this is more than enough candy, Lorlo?" Paul responded, diverting the question "How many kids around here even trick or treat?"

"Who says it's for them?" he smirked and shot him a wink before going back into the candy aisle. Paul returned the smirk but went back to reading 'The Hollow Man' again. He imagined playing the demented 'game', It was a twisted version of tag there where an entity known as 'The Hollow Man' would enter your house through the pentagram after reciting a specific spell and touch whoever spoke the words. The enchanter would then find themselves looking at their own body, moving without their own volition, The hollow man would inhabit their body while the original soul would be required to tag someone else to get back into a body. The game ends at dawn at which point if the hollow man is without a body, he would be banished from the house, however, if he has a body, the person who doesn't would instead be banished in his place.

Paul wasn't a paranoid man, but he was still afraid of this. It was a bad idea he thought but told himself that it would be a waste of everyone's time and would be good content for the show.

"We're ready to go! earth to Paul" Lorcan shouted ad a respectable volume for the public, snapping Paul out of his trance.

30, October

"Paul are you there?" Lorcan said knocking on the door to the recording room again. this time opening the door and entering. he had given paul enough time to get decent if he was even awake, and sure enough, there he was looking at his phone again " Paul, mate! tell me what's wrong you haven't said a word to me all day, are you feeling OK?"

Paul looked up blankly "What do you mean? you've been asleep.

"We have lunch ready by now man, you didn't come when I called for Breaky."

Paul blinked, his eyebrows furrowing "s-sorry..." he said putting away his phone with reluctant effort and left to go eat.

Paul remained relatively quiet over the meal of bangers and mash, before speaking up suddenly "Wanna go over the stories with me? just to weed out the bad ones know? before we start the show proper?"

"Mm, no need I already looked at them all, half of them were hand picked and the rest were listener requests that I looked at as well." He said mashed potatoes being mashed further in his mouth.

"Even... this one?" Paul forced himself to say, sliding his phone over with 'The Hollow Man" open Lorgan read it curiously.

"Hmm... no, where did you find this?" Lorcan asked and continued before getting an answer "This is great stuff we can do it together for the finale."

"Actually, I don't think we should."

"Oooh, what are you scared?" Paul made a mock crying face at him "You don't believe in this shit do you?" but Paul stayed quiet, continuing his meal

To Be Continued...