Welp, what difference does another chapter story on my existing list to update make? I chip at all of them offline anyway. I don't think this one will stretch on for too long, at least.

Already had this written from sometime in the spring too. With some revisions, I thought I might as well post it for this October 31st.

Happy Halloween everyone!

xxx

"You're not afraid of the dark, are you?" The familiar voice lulled softly by his ear, each word accented with a fine edge of sweetness.

Alfred whirled around in the pitch black, searching for the source of the sound. He strained, but there was nothing he could see - not even his own hands out in front of him. He couldn't even be sure he was stepping on ground, he couldn't hear the sound of his own frantic footsteps.

He blinked rapidly, as if it was simply a problem with his eyes, like they had simply failed to work when he opened them. As if his glasses had clouded to a murky black and he needed to squint to make out the world through them. He was frustratingly blind in this nothingness.

He reached to his face, but he couldn't find his glasses. In fact, he wasn't sure he was even touching his face.

A painful streak of panic shot through him, and at least the only thing that told him he was actually there was the loud beating of his heart.

There was a laugh, a haunting sound that tugged at the strings of his memory.

"No, of course not. You can't be scared," the voice continued. There was something new in the tone. "You're a big boy now."

The darkness was suffocating and he found himself running out of breath. His panic escalated when he had a sense of falling through churning depths.

xxx

Alfred woke up in his bed with a scream. Elsewhere in the room, someone yelped. The sound of something shattering immediately brought him to reality.

He sat up quickly, disoriented and blinking rapidly. An anxious feeling was settled into the pit of his stomach, but he welcomed the light that flooded his vision. The darkness was gone, and his room was a hazy brightness from the sunlight streaming through a shiny window.

His glasses were on the end table beside his bed, and once they were settled securely on his nose, an immense relief washed over him. The clarity of his new vision reassured him it had simply been a dream.

He spied the other person in his room. After some confusion, the decorations in his room reminded him of the date, and his temperature rose in fury.

"How could you!" he shouted. The man at the other end of the room, who had half tripped over a chair by the table at the fright, turned a pair of surprised green eyes on him.

"It's barely Halloween! What the hell, man! You've already started scaring me! What the hell!"

"What!" The other squawked indignantly. "What are you talking about!? It's you I should be saying that too! Screaming suddenly from your bed like that! What were you thinking!"

"Shut up!" Alfred shook his head, remembering the voice in the nightmare. He recognized it all too well, he realized. He pointed an accusing finger at the Brit. "I can't believe you would do that to me while I was sleeping! I was completely unprepared! It doesn't count at all! It doesn't count! I hate you, you suck! You know I hate those type of things!"

An expression of confused hurt settled on Arthur's features, but Alfred was too mad to care. "Wake up properly before you start yelling at me!" he protested. "You're still asleep! I have no idea what you're talking about, you ridiculous child!"

"What are you doing in my room anyway!"

"I came to wake you! Or - ahh, that is to say- I was going to wake-"

"Out! Out!" Alfred shouted, making a shooing motion. "Get out of my room! Get out now!"

Arthur hurried to take his leave. It was rare to see Alfred so worked up, after all. He stopped at the door. "Careful with the glass, I dropped something when you decided to imitate a hellbound banshee!" He pointed by a small bureau in the back of the room before closing the door behind him.

Alfred's hands let out a frustrated breath. He cursed angrily, what a way to start the day! He threw off the covers and swung his legs over the side, feeling the cold wooden floor below his feet. He dressed quickly, muttering irately under his breath.

While he normally did enjoy Halloweens with Arthur, there were lines that should not be crossed! Wasn't it common decency to refrain from violating the privacy and sanctity of people's dreaming! The nerve of that guy! He'd been helpless!

Wait, wait, wait a second! He took a deep breath in the middle of pulling a shirt over his head. Whaat?

Why was he blaming someone for deliberately causing him a nightmare? That was.. impossible?

Athough he had an overwhelming assertion it had been him, reason told him he was being silly. Impossibilities aside however, (although he often refused to even admit it) he had been forced to come to terms with the fact that the man had really done some things on past Halloweens that Alfred simply couldn't find a way to explain.

His hand was reaching for the doorknob when he was ready to go downstairs, still debating on whether or not to make the morning difficult for Arthur anyway, when he noticed something glinting to his right. Little bits of glass on the floor, bright from the sunlight.

Consumed curiosity, he stomped over to his table and picked up the object on the floor Arthur must have been looking at. It was a large photo frame.

The rest of his irritation instantly deflated.

It was one of the older black and white ones on his table, probably from a good seventy years back. He didn't usually keep old ones like this in view, it was his preference to avoid thinking about the past and look to the future instead. But he liked remembering the moment this one was taken.

They'd been on the deck of one of Arthur's great dreadnoughts, standing in front of the ship railing. The water in the background swirled dark under wispy clouds. Straight-backed and face impassive, Arthur stood beside Alfred in full naval wear, eyes dark and severe under his cap. It was a rigidness he'd often donned during the latter century.

The Alfred next to him in the photo was in his own naval uniform too, but he was sporting the biggest and goofiest grin he could have mustered, showing the camera his big pearly whites. Later on after the photo had been developed, Arthur complained to him that he'd ruined the photo.

Alfred remembered that they'd been fighting over something silly before the photograph had been taken, and the stark contrast captured between them that moment always made him laugh whenever he looked back at it.

He put the photo back on the table. The glass on the frame had broken and would need to be replaced, but the picture itself was unharmed.

Okay, maybe he did overreact earlier.

It wasn't the first time he'd had strange nightmares like that, and if Arthur had been unassuming enough to have dropped the frame because of his scream, maybe he really wasn't guilty. He knew how Arthur reacted when a prank of his worked, he'd have been laughing his head off as soon as Alfred woke up yelling.

And what the heck, he'd seen a lot of weird things, but what made him think it was even possible to influence people's dreams like that? That was some idea! He really must have been half asleep.

It had just been a bad dream, it was best to forget about it. He let out a long breath, intent on letting all that aggravation from earlier out of his system.

All that magic fairy stuff Arthur always went on about during Halloween, that stuff wasn't real!

xxx

Even from the top of the stairs Alfred could hear yelling from the kitchen. He cringed when he smelled the familiar scent of burnt baked goods in the air.

"Go home, Sealand!" Arthur was saying, "A little brat like you wouldn't-"

"No! I want to participate!" Peter was jumping around him, wearing a monster mask. "I've come up with a whole plan to scare you! I'm going to -"

"You don't tell the person you're planning to scare how you're going to scare them!"

Alfred leaned in the doorway of his kitchen, watching them argue and wondering when they'd both gotten into his house without him noticing. His alarm systems were pretty fortified and Arthur hadn't stayed over the night. It was a reason Alfred was kind of surprised to see him in his room earlier.

For some reason, a thought nagged at the back of his mind again about it having to do with the weird stuff Arthur had done in his basement years ago. He shrugged it off. He was welcome as long as he didn't burn down the house at breakfast...

"England," he called. The man looked to him, and Alfred gestured to the oven, which was smoking. Arthur cursed and hurried over over.

"Haha! Your stupid food burnt up again, jerkland!" Peter taunted.

"Hey, kiddo," Alfred approached and ruffled Peter's hair while Arthur was busy, "What are you doing here?"

"France told me about your scaring game every Halloween! I want to participate this year!"

"He followed me here. I'm calling Finland right away," Arthur said, placing the smoking batch of baked goods on the counter.

"Aw, don't be that way!" Alfred smiled. "He wants to join! It'll be fun! Tino wouldn't mind."

"Maybe, but I'm not holding back for a baby. If he wants to participate, I will not tolerate his crying and whining later."

"I'm not a baby! " Peter protested. "I'm almost fifty! I can take anything scary you throw at me!"

"Ha! That's what Alfred said when we he was young and insisted on playing this game. It seems that one of those times I frightened him so badly that he wet his-"

"HEY!" Alfred cut in, cheeks turning red. It was no time for embarrassing childhood stories this early in the day! He eyed the burnt food on the counter. "Since breakfast is all ruined, how about we go out to eat?"

"Yeah!" Peter adjusted his mask. "Let me finish getting into my costume!"

"I'll take you trick or treating later, little bro," Alfred said. Peter cheered and ran out of the kitchen.

Arthur rubbed his head. "He reminds me of you," he said with a sigh. "He's horribly persistent and never listens to a word I say."

"Yeah, well, what's wrong with letting him have his way once in a while?"

The other man shook his head, deciding it was too much of an effort to list all the things that could actually go wrong. He placed his hands on the countertop behind him and leaned back, turning his attention to Alfred.

"Did you have a nightmare?" he asked.

"Uh..."

"Do you... want to talk about it?"

"Nah, I'm fine. It was just a dream."

Arthur seemed to think about this for a moment, and Alfred felt bad about accusing him earlier when he saw the silent concern on his friend's face.

"Sorry I yelled at you, I just woke up kinda confused. I didn't mean what I said."

"It's alright," Arthur said. "Whatever you dreamt, if it scared you so much that-"

"It didn't scare me!"

"Yes well, whatever you say. Although I do feel the need to remind you that you let out such an unearthly squeal when-"

"I did not squeal!" Alfred cried out indignantly.

Arthur waved the matter away, rolling his eyes. "Don't worry, you big baby, I'll make sure to make you squeal in fright louder than that later. I've something special planned this year, that's why I came early."

"Hahahahaha! As if I'd let you stain my winning streak! I'm on a roll! I'll win this year too!"

"Ha!" Arthur crossed his arms smugly. "You'll have to get to a hundred years' count of wins before I take you seriously! Savor these last two years, because that's all you're ever going to win! Ivan and Kiku's interference won't help you this time!"

xxx

Over in the living room, Peter hid behind a couch. He peeked over to make sure no one was coming before he pulled out his phone. "Ladonia?" he called, suppressing an evil giggle. His friend's face popped up on the screen.

"The mission is a go! Set the plan in action!"

"Roger that!" the other micronation answered back enthusiastically. "Phase one commence!"

"I'll scare that jerk so bad that he'll just have to recognize me!"

xxx

...

I almost have no idea what's going on either! Everything gets paved in as I go, but Winchesters come in next chapter!

I haven't watched most of Supernatural yet though, so if there's anything finicky or out of character about them... make sure to let me know!

Also, this makes references to Himaruya's webcomic Halloween events. Hetaarchives has got translations if you haven't seen them!