Title: Happy Halloween
Disclaimer: I don't own – ain't getting paid.
Summary: Hyde and Jackie have a spooky holiday.
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: J/H (who else?)
Credit: KKCP for the advice that I didn't take. I'm lazy what can I say? This one is for everyone who loves Halloween as much as me.
A/N: I think this is tame enough for you non-fans of the Nightmare Series. I hope to get that finished this week as well. But don't hold me to it. I promise I'm going to get all this weird stuff out of my head soon – and probably write some sappy Christmas fic. As usual tell me if you like.
"Come on it will be fun." Jackie insisted.
Hyde smirked. "No, absolutely not. Under no circumstances am I doing that with you."
"Please." Jackie begged prettily.
"That is not going to work." Hyde insisted, even as he felt it start.
"What?" the raven haired girl asked innocently pulling out all the stops.
"The puppy dog eyes. The lip pout, I know you lick them before you do it to make them more irresistible. I'm not falling for it."
"Why not?" Jackie pouted.
Hyde felt tiny arms circle his waist pulling him towards her intended destination. "God, this is ridiculous. Why me? Why can't you go with Donna, or Fez?"
Jackie rolled her eyes. "Because I want it to be with you."
"Why?" Hyde whined.
"Because you are my boyfriend. You are supposed to do stuff like this with me."
"Where does it say that? In your big book of boyfriend etiquette?"
"Then fine I'll go by myself." Jackie huffed releasing him and crossing her arms across her chest.
Laughing at her temper tantrum, Hyde smiled. He hated to admit it, but he loved these mini-fights. She was so cute when she tried to get her way. "Oh whatever. You won't go by yourself."
"I will. I'll show you." Jackie said with conviction. She took two steps before turning around. "I think you are just scared."
Hyde snorted. "Don't make me laugh."
"Then why won't you go with me?" Jackie asked.
"Because, well because it is stupid." It was a lame excuse but all he really had.
Jackie obviously saw through his limited argument. "Why is it stupid?"
Taking the two steps that were required to circle Jackie's waist he audibly sighed. He had to admit she was pretty cute when she got her way as well. "God Jackie, why do you have to force me into stuff like this?"
Clapping like the cheerleader she was Jackie beamed. "It'll be fun. Come on."
Allowing himself to be drug onto Henry's Haunted Hayride, Hyde tried to remain Zen amongst his fellow passengers.
Jackie had been talking about this for weeks. She loved fall. It was a time of cheerleading, stylish boots and impending holidays. Halloween was just the first in a long line of Hallmark Card events. She had given him a choice. It had been the October Festival, complete with hayrides and candy apples or the Costume ball.
When Jackie proposed they go as Sonny and Cher, he had taken the lesser of two evils.
Sandwiched on sticky horse food, between his bundled up girlfriend and an 8 year old dressed like Little Red Riding Hood he wondered if a few lines of "I got you babe" would have really killed him.
"Ooh it is cold." Jackie stated snuggling into his side.
"Then why don't we go home?"
Burying her face in his corduroy covered arm he heard her mumble. "Shut your pie-hole."
He was a bad influence.
The ride started and the ancient tractor pulled the flat bed around a corner. Soon they were in the woods, the cheesy carnival out of sight. Hyde shifted on the hay and pulled an offending piece off his jacket. The kid beside him looked as white as a sheet and he noticed Jackie was checking out all directions with a nervous eye. When the first college kid dressed in a sheet popped out from behind a cardboard tombstone, they both jumped a mile.
He laughed. "Why did you go on this ride if you were so chicken?" he asked them.
The little girl looked embarrassed and glanced away. She must be shy or her parents had told her not to talk to strangers. Jackie rolled her eyes and crawled further into his lap.
"It is fun to be scared." Jackie offered as an answer and then screamed as another goblin rushed the vehicle.
Women were so weird, he thought. Watching as every other couple on the hayride shared similar conversations. A dad across the way, held his two shivering daughters in his lap. Hyde suddenly realized the girl beside them was the only one there alone. He was about to ask why when a guy with a fake ax ran in front of the tractor chasing a scantily clad female.
Reaching over, Jackie kissed him quickly but soundly. "Don't you look at her Steven Hyde. Or I'll chase you with an axe."
"Wouldn't dream of it." He remarked, stealing his own kiss. It seemed haunted rides could be cooler than he thought. Too bad all these other people were here or they could experience the expression "roll in the hay" first hand.
Suddenly the tractor stopped. The driver, an old man dressed strangely enough like a preacher, stood up and began to talk.
"Ladies and gentlemen. This is the exact spot where 20 years ago tonight; a young girl met an untimely demise. A house use to sit about a mile from this spot. A very poor family lived there. Their names were Eleanor, Mason, and Julie Williams. Julie was an only child and the apple of her mother's eye. She had never thought she could have children and to her, her daughter was a gift from God. Mason didn't agree.
Mason Williams was a hard man. He had wanted a son to carry on the family name. To Julie he was distant. The only time he ever spent with her was on Halloween night. Mason Williams was six foot four, with a face that would freeze the devil's blood. But he loved candy. And his daughter though small and quiet, loved scary stories and dressing up as witches and fairy tale characters. Julie loved Halloween all the more because of her father's attention. Every year they would walk these woods to the nearest town to trick or treat. But one year Mason Williams was sick and could not take her."
The driver dropped his melodramatic voice briefly to whisper "Truth was he had gotten drunk the night before."
"Eleanor Mason wanted to please her daughter by taking her instead. But she had been sickly since Julie's birth and rarely had the strength the leave the house. The young girl was very sad that she would not get to where her new costume, that she had made herself. And when she cried, Mason had bellowed from his bed for her to be quiet and go to her room without supper. Robbed of her one night of fatherly kindness Julie decided to not be robbed of her night of fun. Sneaking out the window of her bedroom, she left in the dead of night.
As you all know bundled up in your winter coats it can get very cold here in October. Especially for a poor girl dressed in a flimsy Halloween costume, lost in the woods. They found Julie's body dead from exposure not three feet from where we sit."
"What happened to her mother?" Jackie asked when the driver seemed to end the story.
"Well little lady, some say she went mad from grief. She would carry around Julie's beloved costume and say she saw the girl's ghost. She spent countless hours walking these woods, clutching the colored cape –waiting for a glimpse of her spirit. They say that on Halloween you can see her as well.
Perhaps she is somewhere looking for a good scare."
Suddenly a big man jumped on the back of the trailer. Screams came from all sides. Even Hyde was startled. The guy was huge and they had been so focused on the driver that no one noticed what was coming from the back. He guessed this guy was supposed to be Mason Williams, dead beat dad. "Well that was lame."
"Steven" Jackie admonished.
"What?" he asked as the ride started back up.
"You so jumped." Jackie laughed snuggling up again.
Hyde stayed silent. He wasn't letting Jackie know that a stupid, made up, carnival ghost story got to him. He would never hear the end of it.
"Steven?"
"Yeah?"
Jackie pointed toward Hyde's right. "Where did that girl go?"
Turning he found the space beside him empty except for a small covered basket. The ride had not stopped but somehow the child was gone. The girl in the red homemade cape, the one who had been all alone on Halloween had vanished as if she were a gh---.
Scratching his head, he suddenly felt a lot more apprehensive about the authenticity of haunted hayrides.
When the ride stopped Hyde grabbed Jackie's hand and pulled her up. Ignoring his girlfriend's perplexed look at the urgency, he insisted "Come on – let's go home - it will be fun."