Hershey Kiss Her footsteps echoed across the whole Lair. She tried to step softly, but her hard heels didn't want to be silenced.
Roxanne thought Megamind would be back by now, but he wasn't. Knowing him, he was probably still scouring the neighborhood looking for the last bits of candy to stuff into the pillowcase that was already full enough from this past night. Didn't he know that most people stopped giving out candy around ten at night?
And he promised that he would meet Roxanne back at the Lair (formerly Evil Lair) just as soon as he snagged at least one more candy bar.
She didn't think so. What a candy nut he was!
Roxanne kept on working her way through the Lair in hopes that she would hear her boyfriend come through the door soon. It being Halloween, and the fact that it was almost pitch black in the Lair made everything in there feel scarier than it really was. Even though Roxanne had been around Megamind's old evil contraptions a million times before, things were scarier at nighttime.
She tried not to think about how she was almost completely alone as well. Minion was asleep, and all the brainbots had gone out to patrol and Roxanne had no way of knowing when they'd return. The patrol they had been assigned for was very important, it being Halloween and all. Megamind's orders to them were to keep a googly red eye on the very last trick-or-treater. On Halloween, you can never be too safe.
Roxanne swallowed, squeezing her hand tighter around the plastic handle of her treat basket. In comparison to Megamind's pillowcase, Roxanne had a microscopic amount of candy even though the basket was one inch from being full, which was more than enough that some parents allowed their children to have. Roxanne remembered the wistful looks everyone was giving at Megamind's candy that he had gathered. And in half an hour, his pillowcase was already half full. Another hour, full, and another hour, almost overflowing with sweets. Roxanne imagined that it was as heavy as a potato sack of the same mass.
But why was she getting so spooked about everything around her right now? Maybe it was the way the nighttime breeze was whistling through some open windows. Maybe it was the eerie yellow glow that some of the last surviving jack o' lanterns were giving off. Megamind had placed several all across the Lair in the most peculiar places, for some reason.
And the decorations he had bought and built weren't helping much either. Roxanne's heart started to pound when she saw the silhouette of the robotic statue of Chucky which Megamind had rooted by a wall in a corridor. Roxanne decided to find another way around it, since it would start to wave around its chainsaw prop if she walked past it. And the creepy noise it would give off would certainly startle Minion awake.
Okay. All she needed to do was get to the safe side of the Lair and she'd be out of the labyrinth of Bloody Mary manikins and demons hanging from the ceiling. This place was starting to feel like a steampunk version of a haunted house.
She was almost there.
And then a chill surged down her spine.
It was probably her overreacting imagination Halloween had planted inside her, but did she just hear something like…shackle chains being dragged across the floor?
She listened intently. Adrenaline was already making her heart hammer in preparation to run away if…whatever that thing was, was to jump out at her.
She heard the shackle chains again, and this time the chains dragged across the ground and ended with a solid thump. The sound was getting closer to her.
Roxanne took a tentative step back. What was making that sound?
And did her eyes deceive her, or did she see a shadow of something flash across the wall?
The chains rattled and thumped again.
Roxanne tried to run, but got caught in something immediately. It was fuzzy, and kind of scratchy.
Fake spiderweb.
She clawed her way through it, getting pieces of it stuck in her golden hair accessory that belonged to her Wonder Woman costume.
But again, she couldn't make her way through the circle of bloody-faced vampires and mutilated Bride of Frankenstein statues that suddenly surrounded her.
She looked upwards towards the ceiling.
And then she screamed.
But a hand gloved in black clapped across her mouth.
"I am Jacob Marrrley!"
"Megamind! It's you!" Roxanne opened her eyes when Megamind took her hand off of her mouth to see her blue boyfriend hanging down from the ceiling, heavy shackles on his scrawny ankles. So that's what had been hurtling right at her.
Roxanne took into account of what he had said to her as a greeting.
"Hon, you do know that Jacob Marley is from A Christmas Carol, right?"
"Well what's a ghost doing in a story about Christmas? Doesn't make much sense to me. And remember when we saw the movie last year? I was reminded of Halloween when he dragged those shackles across the ground; shackles attached to coffers and chests. It's an essence better suited for Halloween in my opinion."
Roxanne smirked at the ex-villain. "You sure scared me good."
"I figured it would work!" Megamind smiled.
Roxanne looked him up and down in his custom-sized Batman costume. "So…where's your candy that's going to last until next Halloween at the very least?" She asked, placing her hands on her hips.
"In the 'safe' room with absolutely no Halloween anything in it. I presume that was where you were going to escape me?"
"Presumption correct", Roxanne affirmed.
"Then get me out of these shackles so we can swap licorice for Junior Mints. Licorice is vile."
Roxanne did as he told her, and then they were both sitting cross-legged on the cold metal floor in the 'safe' room.
"I don't even want to see the flood of candy that's going to come out of that pillowcase", Roxanne laughed when Megamind lugged his candy as heavy as a sandbag onto his lap.
"Are you sure? I have a superior selection of Almond Joy compared to your supply that wouldn't satisfy a Hungry Hungry Hippo."
Roxanne laughed, and then her mouth was left agape when she saw the flood of candy that came spilling out of Megamind's pillowcase and all over the floor, making sounds of crackling cellophane for at least ten seconds. A proud smile split across his blue lips as he admired all that sugar, and the occasional Pixi Stick that was the length of his leg. Roxanne saw at least six bars of each Hershey's, Reese's, Kit Kat, and Butterfinger all in King Size. There were dozens of lollipops, from Dum-Dum Pops, to ones as big as his palm that had flavors from bubblegum to cotton candy. She suspected that King Size Milky Way bars filled almost half of that pillowcase, it being his favorite candy.
When her sugar-addict boyfriend shook out the last sour Jolly Rancher, he had his arms crossed smugly across his impossibly thin chest.
"Beat that, Temptress!"
Roxanne pouted and overturned her plastic basket. A pile of candy that was at least a twelfth the size of Megamind's fell out and landed on the floor pathetically.
"Ha! It's tiny!"
"I'm not as much of a sugar junkie as you are, Batman!"
"You're just mad because I found a house that gave out candy by the truckload."
"That's waaaaay too much, even for you", Roxanne reasoned, gesturing to the mountain of sweets. He had so much candy, it had already started to smell chocolaty in the room. "And I bet you're only willing to give away licorice to the Candy Buyback that is having at the dentist office tomorrow."
Megamind looked stricken. "Licorice, and that's it."
Roxanne gave him a look. "You don't even have a pound of licorice! And I'd expect Metroci—I mean Metro City's--defender to be willing to help the troops! See, the way you say the name of the city is rubbing off on me."
Megamind ignored that last part. "Fine", He growled exaggeratedly. "I'll give away some almond brittle and fun-sized M&Ms packets too."
Roxanne rolled her eyes. "You love candy too much, Megamind."
They were silent for a moment as they fingered through their own candy piles, taking closer looks at what they had gotten that night.
Then Megamind held up a wad of something encased in orange cellophane.
"Ew! It's the plastic fake candy!"
Roxanne laughed. He hated those.
"Seriously, who makes edible plastic?" Megamind asked himself incredulously. He unwrapped the cheap candy made in Mexico, and bit down on it. His teeth made a solid sound on the fruit-flavored sweet, and he could not bite through it.
"Ick. This candy is junk. I wouldn't mind giving it to the military if I have any more", Megamind muttered, tossing the artificial sugar over his shoulder. It landed smack into a wastebasket in the corner.
"Organize the candy into piles, Megamind", Roxanne suggested. "One for the Candy Buyback, one you'll keep, and one you're willing to trade with me."
"The Candy Buyback pile will be the smallest, I'm sure." When the couple finished organizing their candy, Megamind had proven to be right. The candy he was going to keep ended up being almost as big as his head. The candy for trading was only a little bigger than the one for the Buyback.
To Megamind's disbelief, her Candy Buyback pile was bigger than all the rest of her piles.
"Roxanne!" He tutted with exaggerated disapproval. "You're what I call an anti-sugar-noid."
Roxanne cocked an eyebrow and laughed. "Hon, it's not my fault that I won't stay skinny if I eat twenty Snicker bars every day."
"I only eat two donuts every day for breakfast!" Megamind defended, although he did once eat that many Snickers one day and got a horrible stomachache.
The blue alien dressed as Batman dug through his trading pile and picked out each pack of licorice one by one in disgust.
"Have these. I hate licorice", Megamind said, and he thrust the packets of strawberry-flavored twists at his girlfriend. She eagerly snatched them up, because on the other hand, she loved licorice.
Roxanne went through her pile, and found some Hubba Bubba bubble gum she'd rather give to Megamind. She handed it to him, and then he smirked.
"Hubba Bubba, huh?" He waggled his eyebrows seductively. "Well I say the same. That Wonder Woman costume looked gorgeous on you since we bought it last week."
Megamind slid himself across the floor closer to Roxanne with his 'in love' face turned on full blast. Roxanne playfully inched a bit backwards to provoke him.
"Ah, ah, ah", Roxanne tutted softly. "I'll trade you a few packets of Laffy Taffy for… a few Kisses."
"But I don't have any…" Megamind trailed off, and then he understood. "Ohhh! Yes!" He purred silkily in his most attractive, sultry voice.
"Now you come here, Wonder Woman. Batman's orders", Megamind enticed, crawling closer to Roxanne. She scooted back again, an amused smile on her red lips.
"Don't disobey Batman!"
"I'm not your average comic book heroine", Roxanne crooned back.
Megamind lunged for her, and landed on top of her, both giggling.
"You'd better give me strawberry and lemon Laffy Taffy after this", He joked. Roxanne laughed.
Then Megamind squeezed her adoringly and slowly lowered his head closer to Roxanne.
He pressed his lips against hers.
The kiss was passionate, not much different from how they usually kissed. Sometimes they got so absorbed in each other in the process, they never came up for air long enough to notice anything else.
This was one of those kisses. Megamind holding Roxanne close as his lips pulsed against hers, kissing her incredibly deeply. Roxanne had always loved how he kissed her.
Roxanne snaked her peach arms slowly around Megamind's neck, compelling him to surround her lips completely with his blue ones. Occasionally, they came part only for a second to gaze at each other, and then their lips met again.
Back and forth they pushed each other, as if they were astride a boat on a violent tempest. One on top of the other one moment, the opposite the next, trying to get a better angle on either of their lips. Finally, they settled on kneeling close together, and after a few more seconds, they broke apart, yet they did not stop embracing.
Roxanne's eyes were riveted into Megamind's. The enormous black mask specially made to cover his whole head drew even more attention to his radiant, bright emerald eyes.
He smiled lovingly at her.
"You know what? I don't really need that Laffy Taffy."
End