Wirt never really cared about Halloween.
Sure you would get free candy, but he just always has had bad luck on this day.
Whether it would rain so his makeup would run or he would drop all of his candy in the mud; needless to say he was fine when he couldn't trick or treat anymore.
But his bad luck didn't stop with trick-or-treating.
Nine years ago his father left him on Halloween, as well as last year he and his brother took a... trip, to what was called the Unknown.
And they almost died.
Many times.
So when Wirt was told he had to take his brother trick-or-treating, he was less than thrilled.
"Mom, you know I don't like Halloween!" He complained over the phone.
"Wirt, we would take Greg trick-or-treating instead if we could, but work just won't let us go till late tonight."
"Are you sure there is no way you could come home sooner?"
"No honey."
Wirt sighed, "Ok fine, I'll take him."
Wirt could hear his step-father in the background. "Tell them to stay away from the woods!"
"I heard him mom, we'll stay away from the woods..."
"Ok honey, love you."
"Love you too mom, bye." Wirt hung up the phone and sighed, they hadn't planned on going into the woods in the first place but now they just couldn't stop getting warned about it.
Greg came into the kitchen dressed up completely in green, Jason hopping after him. "Wirt! How do you like my frog costume?"
Wirt nodded, at least his brother liked Halloween. "It's nice Greg. So you ready to go? I'm taking you trick-or-treating."
Greg thought for a second "I'm ready, but you're not! You need a costume!"
"I don't need a costume Greg, I'm just taking you around the block."
"But Wirt, it's Halloween! You have to wear a costume! Here you can be a elephant, you are great at elephant noises!" Greg went into the cabinet and pulled out the tea kettle he used for his elephant costume last year and went to hand it to Wirt.
"I am not going be a elephant Greg."
"But you would be a great elephant!" Greg tried to put the kettle on Wirt's head, so Wirt started straightening up and leaning back but after a minute, Wirt stumbled backwards and fell over.
Greg put the kettle onto Wirt's head "Haha, now you have your elephant hat on! Now make a elephant noise!"
Wirt smiled. "Pfvvvt."
"Hm, you need to sound a bit happier."
Wirt took the kettle off. "Well maybe I shouldn't be an elephant then."
"Yeah, you should be a gnome again!"
Wirt looked at Greg for a second. "How about we just go."
...
Frog Greg and Gnome Wirt walked through their suburban neighborhood, stopping at every house with a light on so Greg could get some tasty candy.
At the moment Wirt thought Halloween was okay.
Nothing horrible has happened yet, but he was waiting for it. Enough Halloween's has started out smooth before candy was ruined or knees scraped.
But Greg looked joyful, he was getting lots of candy.
Wirt stood at the end of the driveway watching Greg ring the doorbell when he heard someone call his name.
"Wirt? Is that you?"
Wirt turned to see a familiar blue haired girl dressed as a witch, as well as a spiky haired boy dressed as a zombie.
"Hey Coraline, Norman."
"Hey Wirt." Norman said.
"What are you doing out here?" Coraline asked.
"I am taking my brother trick-or-treating, you?"
Coraline held her bag up. "Trick-or-treating, mind if we joined you?"
"Not at all."
Greg came running back from the house. "Hey Coraline, hey Norman! Do you like my frog costume? I made it myself!"
Norman and Coraline nodded. "It's cool." Norman said with a small smile.
The four of them went house to house getting candy and toothbrushes and whatever (skipping old lady Daniels house of course;) when they came upon a haunted house.
"Can we go in?" Greg asked.
"Of course." Norman said.
"It can't be worse than anything we've seen." Coraline added.
"Can't argue with that." Wirt replied.
The four of them went in, it was nothing compared to the Beldam, Aggie, or the Beast.
Not to say that some people didn't jump a few times.
When they were about halfway through, Greg ran ahead and around a corner.
Guess who wasn't there when the other three turned the corner.
"Greg?" Wirt called. "Greg! Where are you?" Next thing Wirt knew he had a piercing pain in his head and he fell to the ground unconscious.
...
Wirt slowly blinked his eyes open, grimacing at the massive headache.
He was about to rub his head when he noticed that his arms were strapped to a dentist chair, as well as his legs.
He appeared to be in what looked like a run down lab.
There was a table in the middle with medical tools, a long table against the far wall with test tubes and blueprints.
And there were many shelves filled with ...brains ...what?
To his right he saw Norman just now waking up, next to him Coraline was wrestling with her restraints.
To Wirt's left there was Greg who was talking to someone who's back was facing him.
"You see frogs are really smart, they can sing if they want!"
"I see. But I am more interested in your brain child."
"Well my brain is a muscle, my teacher at school said that!"
"I know that child, but that brain of yours needs to be put to good use! Luckily, I have just the solution for you."
"I think my brain does have a good use."
"Ah, I see the rest of you are awake!" The man stepped into Wirt's view.
He was truly a sight, he had a pointy nose and his eyes were two different colors, one orange one green, not to mention the floral shower cap and cybernetic arm!
"You see children I have a proposal for you that you will surely not decline."
"What if I just save you the trouble of explaining it and decline now?" Coraline said.
"I said you will not decline!"
"Well I think we can probably listen to it." Norman said, his eyes were darting around the room seeing things that Wirt couldn't, and probably didn't want to see.
"Well children, you all have something magnificent in common, brains; though your brains could be doing much more than what they are doing now! With this powder I can remove your brains from your head and they can be used for much more important things than what they are restricted to doing now."
"Wait." Wirt started. "Isn't out brains kind of doing important stuff right now? Like, controlling all of our bodies functions to keep us alive?"
"Your bodies will be fine." The crazed man said. "And there are only some very minor side effects."
"Like what?" Coraline asked.
"Well, they don't matter. So who wants to go first?"
Silence followed that question, I mean, who would want to volunteer for their brain to be removed.
After a minute the man spoke up.
"How about you young child? You ready to help with the advancement of science?"
Greg looked at the man. "I uh, kinda like my brain."
"Well don't worry about that, you won't miss it at all!" The man pointed the cybernetic arm at Greg. "This will only hurt till your brains comes out."
Wirt hated Halloween and was sure that Halloween hated him back.
At what point in anyone's lives would they have the slightest chance of being kidnapped in a haunted house and see their brothers brain be sneezed out.
Yes sneezed.
Green powder came out of the cybernetic arm and Greg sneezed his brain out.
Wirt's eyes went wide with horror and he paled, watching the man stick Greg's brain in a jar with liquid.
He heard Coraline next to him thrash against the restraints shouting at the man to give Greg his brain back.
She used some very colorful words.
Norman seemed to be the most level headed one at the moment. "S-sir he is just a kid, his brain shouldn't be fully developed yet. Maybe you should just give it back?"
The man walked to Norman. "But of course his brain shouldn't be fully matured yet, that is what makes his brain special! If I just used fully developed brains then I wouldn't learn the different things between the different brain stages. Now your brain should be next."
He lifted his cybernetic arm, Norman quickly closed his eyes and turned his head away; but the man was interrupted by a voice coming from behind Wirt.
"You're really back to this Loboto? Hold your breath Spiky!"
Norman held his breath as the spray hit his face; and a kid in a green sweater with a brown jacket and red goggles rushed into view.
"Razputin, nice for you to join us!" Loboto said. "I am sure your brain would work perfectly for this experiment!"
"You're not back to those tanks right? Cause' that experiment kinda flopped."
Loboto straightened his arm at Norman who held his breath again, hopefully this chat will be quick.
"Of course not! I am just making brain powered robot minions who can figure out and act upon everyone's worst fears!"
"I am pretty sure that experiment needs to stop. " Raz raised a hand to his head while straightening the other towards Loboto.
"You really shouldn't try to blast me at the moment Raz." Loboto gestured towards Norman and spritzed him again.
He was starting to look a bit purple
Raz kept his hands up and after a moment Loboto's cybernetic arm shot up; Norman took the chance to gasp for air.
Raz then went and kicked Loboto towards the center of the room.
Raz quickly pulled a wrist strap off of Norman and turned his attention back to Loboto who had stood himself back up.
Loboto tried to spray at Raz who rolled out of the way, whenever Raz got close to Loboto, Loboto would actually try to punch him but neither of them landed many blows.
Once Norman got himself undone he quickly went to Coraline and helped her. When she was freed she went to try to help Raz while Norman moved onto Wirt.
"Okay freak, you messed with the wrong kids!" Coraline said.
"Blue girl! Get out of here, I've got this!" Raz flipped out of the way of Loboto.
"You're not getting all the fun goggles!" Coraline held her breath and swung at Loboto's face.
Raz smirked. "It's gogglar."
Immediately after Wirt was out of his restraints he ran over to Greg.
Greg looked pale and his blue eyes were unfocused.
"Greg, thank goodness your alive! Please tell me that you feel ok!?"
"T.V?"
"What? No, well, maybe later, but are you feeling ok?"
"T.V."
Wirt bit his lip, "Greg, can you please say something other than T.V?" Greg just looked past Wirt with unfocused eyes.
Norman who had started on Greg's binds looked towards Wirt with sympathetic eyes. "I don't think he can Wirt. The ghosts, they have been telling me that he is not able to focus on anything besides T.V, and even then saying focus is a stretch. I'm sorry Wirt."
Wirt looked down for a second then undid the rest of Greg's bindings. "At least he is alive;" Wirt said quietly.
Wirt started to lift his brother onto his back when He heard a shout coming from the fight.
"Well at least I can get away with this one brain!" Loboto shouted.
Raz tried to use telekinesis to pull the brain out of Loboto's grip, but to no avail.
"Darn it!" Raz cursed and ran after Loboto, Coraline following. Wirt looked to the table to find that Greg's brain was not there.
"N-Norman?" Wirt said.
"Yeah Wirt?"
"I think the brain Loboto took was Greg's."
...
Halloween is mental and physical torture.
Just... stay far away from it, not that you really can.
It will be like that fly that just won't leave you alone, bugging you, calling for attention until you smush it, but even then you will have fly guts on you until you wash it off.
Norman and Wirt were trying to catch up to Raz and Coraline, but those two were fast!
Apparently they were in a abandoned warehouse fixed up to become a lab.
The room they entered was the big open room in every stereotypical warehouse.
Loboto had climbed up some stairs on the far side of the room that led to a fenced catwalk that stretched across the length of the room and connected to a door on the other end.
In the center of the room was a armored vehicle in a sort of dome shape, it also had what looked like a satellite dish on it.
Coraline and Raz were making there way up the stairs two at a time after Loboto.
"Give up now Loboto! You are running out of building!" Raz shouted once he reached the top.
"Ah but Razputin, you are in my building! So only I truly know how much building is left!"
"How is this even worth arguing about!?" Coraline said, she started running towards Loboto who ran into the room on the end.
The two kids on the catwalk ran into the room.
Wirt and Norman heard shouting and crashing in that room.
The boys looked at each other then at the stairs with intentions to climb them when the big machine started making a whirring noise.
Raz poked his head out of the upstairs room, his eyes wide with concern. "Cover your ears!"
Norman immediately did as he was told.
Wirt shoved his gnome hat over Greg's ears then covered one of his own ears with one hand, his other ear shoved against his shoulder.
The dish on the domed machine turned, releasing a ear splitting screech.
Wirt and Norman pressed against their ears harder, gradually getting closer to the ground.
When Wirt's knees hit the ground he saw darkness. The screech was gone, Greg was gone, everyone, everything, gone.
...
"What? Where, am I?"
Wirt started hearing the sound of wood chopping, he wandered over and saw the Woodsman.
"Woodsman? What are you doing here?"
The Woodsman kept chopping, not noticing the boy.
"Woodsman?" Suddenly Wirt heard a deep, smooth, spine chilling voice behind him.
"He can't hear you Wirt. He is fully my servant now."
Wirt quickly turned around, his eyes wide, he looked up at the tall figure of the Beast.
"Y-you're still here!? I thought the Woodsman would finish you off!?"
The Beast slowly shook his head. "You can't just 'finish me off.' How do you think I have survived so long? My life is connected to more things than just the lantern."
The Beast snapped his fingers and some wooden vines wrapped around Wirt's feet.
"I have grown more powerful Wirt, I can turn you into a edelwood at will."
"H-how!? You should've become weaker once the lantern was out!"
"Who said anything about the lantern being out." The Beast lifted his hand, the lantern dangled from his fingertips.
"But? How?"
The Beast lifted his other hand. "Now I am needing some more oil for this lantern, you should do perfectly."
Vines wrapped around Wirt's arms and they started spreading across his body.
Wirt struggled frantically but there was no give.
It started to hurt to struggle.
Oil started to seep out onto the branches.
Wirt's chest started to feel tension from the branches squeezing in.
The Beast started to sing.
Then he heard the goggled boy.
"Gnomey, don't struggle."
Wirt swung his head around to see Raz on his left, his goggles were on.
"Raz!" Wirt squeaked, he cleared his throat before continuing."You need to get out of here! How did you even get here!?"
Raz looked at the Beast who was barely visible in the lantern light.
His head had branches for antlers while his humanoid body seemed to be made out of contorted wooden faces calling out for help.
"What did you see to be scared of this guy. I mean, that's gross."
"Razputin." The Beast started. "I am the keeper of these woods; you shall join Wirt here in becoming a glorious tree for oil."
Wirt kept struggling against the vines, they almost completely covered his whole body beneath the neck, his feet had become a stump.
"Beast just leave Raz be!" Wirt said frantically. "He would only make a small tree!"
"But Wirt, all trees start small before they grow into the big and mighty ones."
"But you don't need him if you have me!"
"I will need every tree eventually."
Wirt opened his mouth to respond but he just coughed, the vines were getting really tight.
Raz looked at the Beast. "Look I see you have a thing about gardening, I get that, but do you really have to turn Wart here into a tree?"
The Beast looked at Raz and snapped his fingers, vines sprang up around his feet but Raz burned them.
Raz smirked, "it's gonna' be harder than that to restrain me."
The Beast scowled and launched a hand straight up, vines sprang up from the ground around Raz.
Raz sprung his shield up around him; the vines bounced off and before they attempted to constrict again, he burned them.
Raz then shot a psi-blast at the Beast who nimbly dodged.
"Just give into the darkness Razputin."
"Just let go of Wart's mind Beast."
Wirt looked at Raz questionably, 'let go of his mind?'
Raz flipped over the Beast and shot him with fire.
The Beast shouted and dropped the lantern, he frantically swiped, and patted his head, trying to put the fire out.
Raz shoved the Beast over. "You just got roasted!"
When the Beast hit the ground he disappeared into the darkness.
The vines and branches stopped growing and loosened up around Wirt, who's eyes were frantically scanning for the Beast.
Raz started pulling at the branches to get Wirt out; he started falling forward so Raz caught him and guided him down.
Wirt took a shaky breath "he, he's gone right?"
"Yes but, he never really was here."
Wirt wearily looked up at Raz. "What do you mean? You fought him."
"I am in your psyche Wart, you and Spiky were hit with Loboto's fear thing; I am here to get you out of your own mind."
"So none of this was real?"
"Nope." He popped the 'p.'
Wirt sat there a moment, taking it all in. "Wirt, my name is Wirt."
"Wart?"
Wirt's eyebrows lowered slightly. "Wirt."
"Oh sorry!"
Wirt waved it off. "It's fine, and 'Spiky' is Norman."
Raz nodded. "Got it, so, are you ready to come out?"
Wirt nodded. "Do I just, wake up?"
"Yup. I'll give your brain some privacy and enter Sp-Norman's brain."
"Thank you."
Raz smirked and adjusted his goggles. "I am just doing my job. Wow that is cool sounding to say!"
Wirt smiled and stood up while Raz left his mind.
Soon after everything faded.
...
Wirt slowly opened a eye, their was the blurry image of a blue haired girl.
Wirt groaned sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He blinked looking around, 'yup still in the warehouse.'
"Are you feeling okay Wirt?"
Wirt turned his head towards Coraline. "Are you feeling okay?"
"You are not allowed to worry about me, 'till I am done worrying about you!"
Wirt winced. "Can I worry about Greg?"
Coraline rolled her eyes. "Can you stop ignoring the question?"
He gave a small smile. "I feel okay, my ears are kind of ringing though." ' Not to mention the headache' he thought.
Coraline returned the smile. "You are allowed to worry about people again."
"Greg."
"He is over there. Raz said that he can get Greg's brain back into his body shortly. He seemed more worried about you and Norman."
"Why would he be more worried about us?"
"He said something about 'waiting too long could break your psyche.'"
Wirt nodded. "Makes sense, where's Loboto?"
Coraline looked towards the window. "He just barely escaped, the psychonauts are hunting him down though, he should be captured within the hour."
Wirt heard stirring from where Raz was kneeling by Norman.
Raz looked over at Wirt, lifting his goggles up.
"Norman should be waking up in just a moment, I'll get to work on Greg."
Wirt nodded then sat over by Norman.
Norman woke up. "H-hey Wirt." He said while rubbing his eyes.
"Hey Norman, you feeling okay?"
"Yeah."
"You have a headache don't you?"
"Yeah. Where's Loboto?"
Wirt explained to Norman what Coraline explained to him.
"So Wirt, what did you see?"
That question caught Wirt off guard. "I, I saw, the Beast." He winced. "What did you see?"
"I saw Aggie but, she was different, she was back to her, vengeful, self."
Wirt nodded then he heard a young voice across the room. "What happened?"
Wirt stumbled up and ran over to Greg, embracing him.
"Greg! You, you're speaking!"
"Is that weird guy still here, because I don't want him taking my brain?"
Wirt pulled away from Greg and shook his head.
Raz tapped Wirt on the shoulder. "We should get going, I don't think any of you want free healthcare."
...
Halloween, Wirt can take it or leave it.
It has its ups and it's downs, just like any other day.
You can make a friend and go on some adventures that you can talk to the twins about, or you can almost lose your brain.
And there is candy.