It had been a long time (what, five minutes?) before the empty curb on the street became, well, occupied. An impish black-haired boy holding a toy gun and wearing a piece of jewelry on his chest (okay, fine, a manly pin!) walked up to the curb and checked his watch. He slumped onto the curve in an obvious silent sigh, and, after a while, pulled a pillow case out of his pocket on the skin-tight suit he was wearing.
Leo Valdez grinned. It was time to go trick-or-treating.
The road was empty except for the occasional pack of third through fifth graders. Leo frowned. He was supposed to meet Percy and Jason, and, well, everybody. He decided to wait a bit. After all, the candy giveaway had only started. The first house gave him a couple of kids holding a bowl filled with Hershey's Kisses. Leo took three and began scanning the road again. No sign of anyone. On the second house he got lucky. Because come on!
There was a bowl. An ENTIRE BOWL full of candy.
It's happened, right?
The "Please take one" sign mysteriously disappeared, and, well, suffice to say, Leo took more than one.
Hello? Entire bowl of candy?
Leo had just finished counting his new stash when a voice jolted him out of his candy-counting heaven.
"Put those back!"
Spinning around, Leo hid his pillowcase behind his back to come nose to nose with...Annabeth. She was holding her dagger and was dressed in full Greek armor. Next to her was Percy. Leo made eye contact with him and immediately looked away in a fit of laughs.
Percy grinned. He was wearing nothing but his camp half-blood t-shirt and jeans, with a huge horse mask that covered his face. "Oh, come on. We both know I look way better in this thing the you." he nodded, and pretended to show his muscles.
"Nuh-uh." Leo shook his head. "TEAM LEO FOR THE WIN!"
Both boys look at Annabeth, who shrugged. "You both look equally stupid. Now come on. We need to find Piper."
As they walked, Percy turned to Leo. "And what are you supposed to be?"
Leo turned away in mock hurt. "Can't you see? Red costume? Pointy ears? Phaser? Communicater? Pointy eyebrows?"
Percy shrugged.
"Aw, come on. I'm Spock. The Vulcan! Vulcan as in Hephaestus? Do you know how long it took me to do these eyebrows?"
Annabeth raised one of her eyebrows. "Doesn't Spock have a blue shirt? Yours is red."
"Re-oh. Great, I'm a red shirt."
Percy smirked through his horse-mask. "I may not know a lot about Star Trek, but I know what happens to the red shirt on an away mission."
Leo sighed. "Don't worry, horse boy. I'm not dying on you anytime soon." He opened his mouth to say more, but Annabeth took off running, having spotted Hazel, Nico, Will, Reyna, Frank, Piper, and Jason.
Leo took a quick inventory. Frank was wearing a green shirt with green face paint and had "The Hulk" on his tee. Jason, (so predictable, that guy!) was Superman, of course. Hazel and Piper were both dressed up as pirates, Nico was a skeleton, Will was a medic from that video game...um...something or other, and Reyna was a simple vampire. The there was, of course, Leo as Spock, Annabeth as a Greek soldier, and Percy as an…
Um…
Percy as an….
They had been walking for about thirty seconds when Hazel interrupted them. "So what exactly are we supposed to do? I mean-"
"Yeah," Reyna added, "Do we just walk up to these monster things and punch their lights out?"
"Uh...not exactly, but-" Jason began, but Leo cut him off with an I got this! look.
"Ladies, ladies. Is this your first Halloween?" he asked, one pointed eyebrow raised when they nodded.
"My mother never let me go out," Hazel muttered, while Reyna, who had also never been able to get her father to let her go out at night, had lived with the Romans her for the past four years, working with Circe in between. Leo grinned devilishly. "Well, you go from house to house, say trick or treat, and the give your friend named Leo all your candy!"
Piper smiled and shook her head. "Don't give him any candy. He's already on a sugar high about 90% of the time."
Nico nodded. "I'll give you all the candy. I only like chocolate." For once the raven-haired son of Hades seemed to be enjoying himself. "Halloween is my favorite holiday."
Hazel scrunched up her face. "Too creepy for me." She walked up to a door and rang the bell. "Like this?"
Annabeth nodded, and turned her head when the door opened and three kids holding a bowl of colored sweetness grinned toothily at them all. They all shouted, "Trick or treat!" except for Hazel and Reyna, who muttered something about tricks and treats and triangulating the position of the opposing team in war games.
They all took two or three pieces of candy. Percy immediately began eating his. Hazel raised an eyebrow. "Is...eating all your candy in one night a normal Halloween tradition?"
Annabeth shook her head. "I have no idea how he does that without being sick."
Leo stuffed a Starburst into his mouth. "Easy!" he shrugged, "You take this," Leo lifted up a Skittle, "and insert it here." He crammed the Skittle into his mouth. "Then you try to make it through the night without barfing."
Reyna looked slightly disgusted, but Will grinned. "I'm in!" and he stuffed a Hershey's kiss into his mouth.
It was only a matter of time before the streets swarmed with kids and the previously twilight sky had turned a deep blue. Will looked slightly troubled. "I'd better get back. My dad doesn't like me out after dark. He likes to keep an eye on me when he can."
Nico seemed a little crestfallen as Will walked away. Leo elbowed him. "Can't stand being away from your boyfriend, huh?"
He blushed, well, about as much as Nico di Angelo could blush while still making even the lightest pink look like salmon.
Piper groaned, and Jason put his arm around her. Leo looked away. Hazel unwrapped a Tootsie Roll and sighed. "Why don't we...um...hit...another neighborhood. We've passed that house with the screaming skeleton girl twice.
There were grumbles, (mostly from Frank and Jason about how it would take such a long time because EVERYONE else had to WALK, and then Hazel reminded them that not everyone had the ability to fly.) and everyone set off.
It was quiet, until Percy took out his phone. Annabeth glared at him. "What in Hades are you doing? Put that thing away, now."
"AWWWWWW," Percy groaned, "But this walk is hatching all my eggs! I-ooooh, look! I got a Sandshrew! 852 cp! Out of a 5k egg! Dang!"
Hazel slapped the phone out of his hands. "Stop!"
Leo laughed. "Dude, you play Pokemon Go too? I'm a level eighteen, and I just got an aerodactyl. I've got a Vaporeon, Dragonite, Snorlax, Arcanine, and-oh, what team? Valor, right?"
Percy scowled. "Mystic. MYSTIC FOR THE WIN!"
Jason shrugged. "I'm an Instinct kind of person."
They all stopped. Leo shook his head disapprovingly. "Instinct, dude? Seriously?"
"What's wrong with Instinct?"
Hazel shrugged. "What's Pokemon, anyways?"
They all stared, except for Nico, who shrugged. "Nothing. Just mythical tiny monsters that people capture and cage in balls that are about ten times smaller than the actual Pokemon, then they train them to fight other Pokemon for a living.
If they lose, the Pokemon is knocked unconscious and has to be taken to a Pokemon Center because they are severely injured. They start the capturing and training when you're about, hmmm, ten. Also the main character has basically NO father at all, and should be sixteen but stays ten after, what, thirty years now?
The Pokemon fight in gyms, one gym per region. Apparently, gym leaders have to stay there their entire life, as far as I can tell. If you beat a gym, you get a badge. Get all the badges, become the best Pokemon master. This is nothing at all like the card game. The card game has coins, and cards. In addition to-."
Leo stared in amazement. "Dude," Frank said, "How do you know so much about Pokemon?"
Nico shrugged again. "Let's just say that I liked other things before Mythomagic. Now, moving on, I suggest we visit a haunted house. I know where we can find a really good one."
Reyna jumped about three feet in the air when the doorbell scream to life and cackled, "Enter, seekers, if you dare!"
Leo turned around, a sinking feeling in his stomach. He had only been to a haunted house a couple of times before, but they were for little kids, with stuff like skeletons and spiders hung from very visible yarn. Nico had dropped many hints that this was the real deal.
They stepped inside, prepared to meet a screaming werewolf or something, but found themselves face to face with a young man of around twenty. "Here for the haunted house?" he asked, and they all nodded.
He handed Leo a piece of paper. "Have fun!"
Leo stared at it. It wasn't a clue, or anything at all. It was an address. Or, more importantly, how to get there. Hazel took it from him. "This is only two houses that way. Come on!"
They raced forwards, only to find a mansion looming over them. Somewhere in the distance, a dog barked. Werewolves, Leo thought giddily. The feeling subsided almost immediately when Piper rang the bell, Reyna looking anxiously at it as if it was going to explode. It did something even worse.
There was a rattling sound, quiet, but getting louder by the second. It rose to a screech, and the door flew open all by itself. Bats shrieked, and everyone (minus Nico) screamed as they came pouring out of the house and flew away into the darkness. The tiny wings and claws raked Leo's head, and he covered his face with his hands.
When he opened his eyes, there was a slip of paper on the ground. Jason picked it up and read the message on it, eyes wide.
Enter seeker, if you dare.
If you proceed, then just beware
Of crawling things that lurk in dark
One of which will leave a mark.
Through a maze of skin and bone
A treasure found beneath the stone.
One will fail and one will die
If they look in ruby's eye
One will run and one will leave
If they attempt to make a thieve
The rest will perish if they stay
So leave now, or be good prey.
He choked on the last word and the paper fluttered to the ground. Even Nico looked slightly impressed. The sinking feeling in Leo's chest stayed. Every instinct told him to run. It's just a haunted house, it's just a haunted house...prey, prey, prey, pray! Dear dad, I pray to you; don't let me get turned into a zombie! Prey, prey prey!
Reyna growled. "I'm no one's prey!" and she marched inside. Annabeth marched right after her, followed by Percy, Jason, Nico, Frank, and Piper. Leo motioned for Hazel to walk in. "Ladies first." he grinned.
Hazel gave a weak smile and stepped inside. Leo followed her. He heard a creaking sound and realized just in time what was going to happen, pulling his foot forward around two milliseconds before the door slammed on it.
A large gong echoed through the hall as it closed. The cackling came next. Like the rattling, it started small, until it rose to such a volume that Leo covered his ears, and saw everyone doing so.
The it stopped
So suddenly.
And everything went dark.
Leo's ears rang with the laughter. It was dark-so dark it hurt, it was pressing on him, collapsing his chest, he could breathe, he needed light-it was all he could do from letting out an audible intake of breath-
From the gasps of Nico, Annabeth, and Percy, he could imagine they were having similar experiences. What was wrong with him? He had never been afraid of the dark…
Not like this.
Never like this.
But then again, he had never been in a dark quite like this before.
There came a strangled cry of help, but from whom he didn't know. He could hear Percy's frantic, trembling whispers to comfort Annabeth, Nico's hyperventilating gasps, and a third voice of which he couldn't make out, probably the same person who had cried out in fear. He heard Percy shout, "NO!" and then light flashed in Leo's eyes.
The torches on the wall suddenly caught fire, and Leo backed up. Something in his chest eased a bit. He could see Nico's face shining with sweat, Percy looking around wildly, and...Reyna, who was slumped against the wall, unconscious.
Jason immediately rushed to help her. The knot in Leo's chest tightened. Instead of kneeling next to her, he looked around, putting one hand on his tool belt, ready to pull out a hammer or breath mints, whichever came out first.
That's when he heard it.
Felt it, more like.
A sharp wind against his face, and a shadow racing by him. But not a person, just a shadow. An element of the same darkness that had enveloped them. He heard Percy yell in rage. He turned to see the green-eyed boy pound his fist against the wall, making dust fall from the ceiling.
He expected Annabeth to come comfort him, ask him what was wrong, before he realized what was wrong himself.
Annabeth was gone.