A gently breeze flew through the dark city, whistling past the ears of whistling children, dancing around in costumes. Ghosts danced around, jumping out into the night, while witches cast their spells, creating the faintest of lights. Stray autumn leaves blew around, their gentle colours lost to the darkness of the Halloween night. It was the one night where the city was quiet – no vehicles passing through, no loud music coming from various clubs, nothing. Almost all the lights in the city centre were out, other than the soft yellow lights, little balls glowing in lines, hovering through the streets like fireflies. One of the only remaining shops with any light was Ethereal, with a faded blue glow strong against the dark night

A small coffee shop at the end of the street, Ethereal was surprisingly popular. Many say that, unlike the standard coffee shops, scattered through towns across the realm, Ethereal used magic in the production of their goods. It was debatable just how true that was, though, since nobody had ever seen evidence of magic; if there was, it was very discrete.

On the late Halloween night, while most of the realm were off celebrating the night dedicated to their existence, one boy, Lance, worked away, closing the shop in which he had worked for a few years. The chocolate haired boy danced around the shop quietly, a gentle song playing in his head. He waved his hands around, and light trailed behind them, a soft low in their wake. The mess left in the shop began to clear itself up, gentle trails of blue light falling behind as used mugs raised from their places onto the table, plates cleaned themselves in the sink, seats returned to their places under the tables. The light faded away once everything was in its place. The boy then left the shop, locking up as he did so.

The boy saw his reflection in the shop window, faded and hard to make out, yet the face was not his. Smiling gently, he reached up to touch the black and white markings covering his soft features. His grin widened as he saw hands made of only bone appear. The spell was still intact.

Heading down the street at a gentle pace, the boy gently watched his surroundings; it had been so long since he had seen the city of Magic so dark, so silent. A few stray lights floated towards him, and when his bony hands touched the soft caramel light, they turned a dark shade of green, almost the colour of the grass, as his magic interacted with them, tainting their colour.

He retracted his hand and quickly headed down the streets, heading out of the city centre, to where faint sounds of music could be heard, the sound dancing with the wind, twirling round in soft pink hues, magic entangling the sounds.

The boy froze in his tracks as soft steps sounded, approaching him quietly. An eerie feeling filled the air, a shiver ran down his spine, and his breath caught in his throat. He could almost feel breath on his neck when –

Ting!

With a single sound, the atmosphere was broken. The shadow he had felt was gone, almost as though it was never there. He was once more alone.

He pulled out his phone to find a test message. 'Lance! Where are you? You're missing the party! You're still coming right?'. It was Hunk, his best friend. He quickly sent a reply, to confirm he was on his way. Picking up the pace, he continued out to the suburbs. A friend of Hunk's, Matt, was holding a party to celebrate Halloween, with dancing and music and costumes of many types. Hunk had insisted that Lance should come, knowing that he loved partying, and being surrounded by people, and since it was in costume, nobody would even recognise him.

Lance had always loved Halloween, ever since he was a kid, though truly one would expect that, since he had a natural talent for illusions, which the holiday was full of. It was an annual celebration, celebrating the magic that filled the air, and the return of Winter. Although he loved Summer, enjoying nothing more than spending his summers with his friends and family, going to beaches and having fun, he had always found something peaceful about Winter, and its silence. So every Halloween, in celebration, he used his illusions to create costumes for himself, which were almost entirely realistic. Of course, they were only illusions, so there were limits, but he loved being able to be someone else, even if just for the day.

Upon finding himself outside the large house, he ground to a stop. Slowly, he took each step one at a time, stepping gently upon the stepping stones that led up to the house. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting, but the house was far beyond his expectations. Lights were hung in little lanterns from the porch, little orbs dancing around. The house itself looked tall and daunting, yet welcoming. The soft orange glow of the lights gave it a soft, opening feel. The door open, faint conversations could be held from indoors.

He took the final step into the house, and found the sound suddenly amplified, and the music was much louder. He was immediately greeted by a short girl, who appeared to be around 16. Short auburn waves rested upon her shoulder, held firm under a simple black witch's hat. A little grey kitten sat upon her shoulder, its green eyes watching Lance disinterestedly. She wore striped tights with black shorts and a striped shirt, with a simple black cloak over the top.

"Hey, I'm Katie, and this is Jade," the girl said, motioning to the kitten, "Cool costume, it looks so real! You're not really a skeleton, right? Are you friends with Matt? I don't think I've met you before, but then again, I can't really tell with that costume."
"I'm a friend of one of his friends… wait, are you Matt's little sister?" Lance replied, curiously, recalling having heard the name somewhere. The girl nodded. "So… your uncle owns Ethereal then?"

"How do you know that?" Katie asked, suspicious, "We don't exactly tell people about that…"

"Coran speaks very highly of you two, says you are geniuses, boasts that you're the smartest kids he knows, and that you're going to do great things. Now I think about it, I'm positive I've seen you around before…" Lance winked, disclosing no more information, before ducking into the crowd, to go find Hunk.

It wasn't difficult for the skeleton boy to find Hunk, after all, Hunk wasn't all that hard to miss. His costume was that of a werewolf, as he had wolf ears and a tail, though Lance thought that he looked less like a scary predator, but rather more like a fluffy lion – like Katie's kitten, Jade, but much larger. Seeing Hunk engaged in conversation with a girl dressed as a spirit, he decided to leave his friend to socialise, and do the same himself.

"Hey cutie, sweet costume."
Lance turned around to find the source of the voice, and saw a girl dressed as a lake nymph. Long blonde hair fell down her front, reaching almost her waist, obscuring the view of her simple blue crop top, enchanted to show gently flowing water. Along with that, she wore a simple pastel blue skirt.

"Name's Lance, nice to meet you," He flirted, with a wink.

"I'm Nyma, wanna get something to drink?"

Lance made an apologetic face. "Sorry, can't. I've gotta babysit my cousins in the morning and I cannot deal with them and a hangover, so I'll have to pass."

Nyma pouted before getting distracted by a guy walking past. Lance looked back around the party after the blonde girl left him alone. It wasn't particularly crowded, but despite that, there were a great many people in the room.

A smirk formed on Lance's face as he noticed a flash of dark skin and snowflake white hair.

"Hey Princess, how you doin'," Lance flirted, winking.

"Lance," Allura sighed, rolling her eyes, her bright blue irises shining in the light. She was dressed up like a fairy, using similar magic to Lance's to create thin wings that sprouted from her back, between her shoulders blades. She wore a sparkly, pastel pink dress, and had small, arrow like markings under her eyes. Her trademark long snow coloured hair fell in curls down her back, glowing with a pink aura provided by the soft colours of her magic. "Your illusion is holding up strong, if it weren't for your tone and introduction, I wouldn't have even recognised you."

He simply laughed at her comment, "You know you love me." He winked again, but he was once more rejected with a roll of the eyes.

"Have you seen Shiro around?" He raised an eyebrow questioningly, not recognising the name. "Taller than you, around my age, black hair with a white streak?"

"Nope, you're the only white-haired beauty I've seen around here."

Allura sighed and bid him farewell, before going in search of the person she had called Shiro.

Rather than going to find someone else to talk to, Lance, finding the indoors to be rather warm, decided to go and try to find some fresh air. He soon stumbled onto a doorway which he hoped led to the garden, or the front door. He had been wondering around for a few minutes, and he was starting to feel lost, when he saw Katie walk through a doorway and felt a gentle breeze coming from that direction. Revelling in the cool air, he hardly noticed Katie walk past him into the house. He slowly made his way outdoors.

The second he crossed the threshold out of the house, he was thrust into a numbed quiet; the loud conversation that had filled his ears for the past half hour of conversing with random people as he tried to find his friends was replaced by a gentle calm. Soft lights danced around in the grass, rustled around with the leaves as the breeze danced around them, gentle and cool. A few stray lights had found their way into the trees, and they shone through the leaves, shy as the nymphs that inhabited the forest that stretched for as far as the eye could see, though it wasn't easy to see far in the fading light.

The skeleton boy threw his head back and stared into the sky, falling gently to the ground, where he lay peacefully, staring up at the stars. Soft light filled the sky from millions of miles away, yes it appeared like it was simply watching over hum, protecting him. The gentle blues and blacks blended together, with droplets of light splattered across the canvas, auras of all colours creating rainbows in the night sky. He let out a shaky breath in awe.

"It's so beautiful…"

"Isn't it?"

Lance half screamed and sat up at lightning speed, looking around for the source of the sound. It took a few seconds but he was able to make out a dark figure sat a few meters away from him, looking in his direction. He couldn't make out any of the figures features, as they appeared to be cloaked, a hood over their head, but from what he could tell by the numbed moonlight, they had purple eyes, that shone like the stars, full of awe and wonder.

"Where did you come from?!" Lance shrieked in a hushed tone, as to not disturb the quiet scene too much.

"I've been here for ages.. You're the one who decided to come and lay next to me," they shrugged, an action which almost went unnoticed in the dark of the night.

"Well I didn't see you there! What are you meant to be, anyway?" Lance asked them pointedly, his tone turning more curious.

"A shadow."

"Oh, how could I have possibly missed someone dressed as a shadow, outdoors, in the middle of the night!"

They rolled their eyes; that was something the boy could see in the dark, as they shone from behind the hood, and the hair that appeared to be slightly obscuring their vision.

"Why are you out here, not inside, anyway?"

They simply sighed and looked away. Lance lay back down.

"Katie forced me to come, she wanted me to socialise but… I prefer it out here. It was nice and quiet," they shot a pointed look at Lance, "but anyway, why'd you leave the party? You even properly dressed up and everything, don't you want to show off or something?"

Lance let out a small laugh. "What, this? Oh, it's not a costume, not really, it's just a little bit of magic. Just something simple that I can do; little kids love it." He lifted his hand and traced over the constellations that he could see, linking them up with little wisps of blue light.

Lance heard a shuffling sound as the figure moved closer, and he saw them look at the blue light in slight awe. He tired to make out the person's features, but he realised that they were wearing a mask under the hood, to darken their appearance, he supposed.

"How… do you do that…" Their voice was pure awe, and Lance had to hold back a blush at how adorable it sounded.

"It-" He cleared his throat, "It's easy!" Lance sat up, facing the shadow, and smiled.

"Just hold out your hand, a little way in front of you." He took their hand and held it to his, biting back a smile as he heard their breath catch slightly at the contact. "Focus your feelings into your fingertips, all that you feel, positive, calm emotions, and just…" he waved his hands in front of their face, slowly, and the blue light trailed slightly, and their indigo irises were tinted by the faint cerulean, the dark hair that fell into their eyes shone a deep blue, their soft lips, painted black, turned midnight blue in the light. Lance looked into their eyes, while they focused on their hand. Lance's light faded out, and a soft red light took over. Their eyes lit up with joy as they lifted their hand to their eyes, before looking into Lance's.

Their breath caught as they realised how close their faces were, and they dropped their hand. Lance's hand fell, landing on their shoulder. They lifted their hand once more, a movement that Lance felt rather than saw, as their hand moved to his cheek. They were only mere millimetres away, and then the distance between them was closed.

What felt like an eternity later, but was likely seconds, they pulled apart. Lance opened his eyes, saw indigo staring back at him, and then they were gone in a flash of red light, and the shadow was nowhere to be seen.

They were gone.