Reds, browns, and golds exploded like wildfire as Alois jumped into the leaf pile. Unamused, Ciel plucked a stray sugar maple leaf from his blue-black hair.
"One more move like that, and I'm going home," he said flatly.
"But Ciel, it's fun," Alois insisted, kicking up more leaves with the toe of his boot. In the fading golden light, Alois's sky blue eyes and corn silk blond hair seemed to glimmer and gleam—so unlike Ciel, who thrived on moonlight and shadows with his dark cobalt eyes, ivory skin, and coal-colored hair.
"You're an embarrassment."
"I'm marvelous."
Ciel sighed but elected not to argue. "Well, what are you waiting for? You know the way better than I."
"Why so impatient?" Alois asked in the lightly teasing tone that was his default manner of speaking.
"You know damn well why."
Alois blew a long stream of breath-smoke into the chilling air, and started walking. On this tiny dirt path, thick rows of flame-leafed trees eclipsed the yellow harvest moon rising above, the misty clouds that in turn eclipsed the stars.
"Getting dark quickly," Ciel commented, quickening his pace to a clip.
"Scared of the dark?" Alois asked liltingly.
"No," Ciel smirked, "but you are."
Alois turned his face to Ciel's, and even in the gathering twilight Ciel could see him perfectly. "Not when you're here with me."
Ciel frowned and glanced away, much to Alois's disappointment.
"We're close," the dark-haired boy said a moment later. Candles on spidery iron posts now marked the trail at regular intervals.
"Close enough," Alois knelt down, plunging his fingers into a marble bowl set at the base of a candle. He came up with a handful of candy corn. "Want some?"
"I'm fine," Ciel declined.
"Suit yourself," Alois shrugged as he devoured the sugary little spikes, sometimes popping them whole in his mouth, other times nibbling at them from tip to base like a rabbit.
Cocking his head, Ciel frowned. "Is that the music?" He hated sounding unsure, but a light fog had set in, obscuring and muffling sounds as it tangled around his and Alois's ankles.
"There is music," Alois confirmed, just as he brushed his hands together and sent the rest of his candy corn scattering to the ground. When the multi-colored bits hit the dirt, they changed. One instant they were tiny triangular confections, the next writhing white maggots.
Ciel's lip curled as the abominations scattered about, white as polished bone against the inky darkness. Alois giggled while Ciel squashed several under his tall black riding boots.
"We'd best be close," the dark boy growled.
"Close enough," Alois repeated slyly and took one of the lanterns that had been set out by a particularly large light post. With uncharacteristic daintiness, the blond lit the lantern on a candle and closed its miniature door, trapping the dancing gold flame within.
"We are here," Ciel insisted as they passed a mouldering marble mausoleum.
Now Alois beamed. "Here enough."
"Tch," Ciel's noise of displeasure was drowned out by a sharp gust of wind.
An enormous cast iron gate loomed before them, and Alois snatched a delicate, diaphanous something from one of the fence spikes. "This is for me," he proclaimed. Eagerly, the light boy cast off his purple overcoat and slid his arms into the new dressing gown. After tying the sash around his waist and
ascertaining that he wouldn't step on the floor-dragging train, Alois glanced up at his companion through long, sooty ashes. "Do you like it?"
"It suits you," Ciel's eyes lingered on the gown. Composed of tight-bound spiderwebs, Alois's coat shone from hundreds of thousands of gossamer threads, tinted an unnatural gold from the candles. "Shall we?"
Alois blinked at Ciel's extended arm like he didn't know what to do with it. Beyond that fence, music boomed with drumbeat, thrummed with fiddle, soared with flute; through that soft layer of fog, thousands of candles flickered like faerie lights, and just as many strange, wonderful revelers danced the night away among crumbling tombstones and the watchful eyes of marble angels.
But Alois was paralyzed Suddenly, all the blond's confidence, serenity, and mischief vanished; he was unsure. But he hedged. "Look at these!"
Enthusiastically, Alois danced over to a silver platter set out just in front of the gate. Candy apples gleamed atop the polished surface, dripping excess scarlet sugar over the mirror-like surface. Plucking one confection by the stick, Alois laughed playfully and dangled the crimson coated fruit before Ciel's single lazuline eye. "Best get one now. The others you have to bob for."
"The moon's almost all the way up, Alois," Ciel said in his cold, flat voice, "We don't have time to waste at a crossroads."
"Come on. I promise these are safe. All treat, no trick," Alois took a long lick of scarlet sugar, "just have one bite."
"Fine," Ciel said, then arched a brow in challenge, "after we get through the gate."
The blond gritted his teeth; he hated his part. It was like waking up Christmas morning when your father was already dead and your mother was ill—feeling so full of excitement, of possibility, of knowing there are marvelous on the way, but also wondering if this is the last time you'll ever have it. For all Alois knew, tonight was the last Hallowe'en before it all came crashing down.
"Do you promise to come back next year?" The spiderweb-shod boy asked in a voice that was both demanding and vulnerable.
A slow, catlike blink was all that revealed Ciel's shock. "Of course."
"And the year after that?" Alois's eyes flashed up, conveying challenge, accusation, insecurity, pain.
"Yes, obvi—"
"And the year after that, and the year after that, and the year after tha—"
"Alois!" Ciel snapped, then took a moment to compose himself, to step closer, to run his black tipped forefinger along his companion's cheek. "Every Hallowe'en."
Alois's lips twitched in the beginnings of a smile. In a calmer, more confident voice, the blond demanded clarification. "Ever?"
"Oh, Alois," Ciel sighed, like the entire thing was so ridiculous he couldn't stand it. The dark boy's voice was empty of emotion—save perhaps, exasperation—and his face was just as blank, but the sudden crimson flicker in his deep blue eye betrayed his sincerity when he said, "I will always come back."