I couldn't resist writing a Halloween story. It's just too awesome a time of year. :)
"Come on, come on!" Jennifer shouted, hopping in place. The pumpkin-shaped plastic bucket in her right hand swung as she jumped and yelled. Ashley walked out from the hallway, helping Anna fix the crappy handle on her own plastic bucket, which broke at least once every year. Usually it waited until some candy had actually been thrown in before it broke. "Come on, let's go!" Jennifer shouted again, using her most obnoxious whining tone. "Dad, Madeline, hurry up!"
Ashley was about to threaten not to take her trick-or-treating when Shepard and Maddy came hurrying out to the front door. "Alright, jeez," Shepard said. "You better calm, little girl, before your mom gets angry." Jennifer immediately shut her mouth, and Ashley glared at her husband. Way to make her the bad guy.
The five of them headed out the door a few minutes later, their costumes not all the same theme like usual. They had given up on that this year, since it proved incredibly hard to think of a theme for their costumes they had not already done multiple times. Anna, Jennifer, and Maddy were all dressed as pirates, an easy go-to, while Shepard and Ashley wore military uniforms from the twentieth century, all green both light and dark, with some black as well. Their faces were painted in the same colors, and they had hats to match. After finishing the face paint, Ashley had stared at herself in a mirror, shaking her head. She knew her military history, it was hard to grow up an army brat and not learn such history, but it still boggled her mind that such getups were once a standard. Not that camouflage wasn't useful, she couldn't deny it was, but the effort involved was ridiculous.
Kids were already making the rounds, some with parents, some not, most of them running from house to house. As usual, Judy Harrison was sitting outside her front door, a giant plastic bin of candy next to her. Anna and Jennifer immediately ran to the house next door to begin the night, Maddy keeping up with them. She was too old for trick-or-treating herself, but she had grown up with this tradition, and it would be easier to scrounge candy off her sisters later if she had fun with them now.
Halloween had been a Shepard family favorite for years, rivaled only by Thanksgiving and surpassed only by Christmas, of course. Ashley had to admit that she loved Halloween, always had. It was the one time of the year, as serious as she was, where she felt comfortable dressing and acting goofy, because everyone else did, too. Growing up with three sisters, her costumes had typically been girly, because Lynn, Abby, and eventually Sarah would dress up like princesses and ballerinas and pressure her into wearing the same thing. It usually didn't take much pressure though.
They did not have to go to many houses before their buckets began to fill, and they hadn't even left their street before Maddy had to take their buckets and hand them the two spare ones she was holding. Shepard and Ashley were each holding one spare bucket each as well, and once they were all full their night would be done. That probably wouldn't take more than an hour. Their neighbors were very generous, and fair or not gave the Shepard girls a little more candy than they did anyone else. They had always done so with Maddy, and continued to do so with the twins. Ashley liked to think of it as a continued gift for the Reaper Wars, as stupid as that probably sounded. It was an explanation she liked better than thinking they felt pressured to spoil her kids just because of their last name. This line of thinking always made her feel ridiculous. Honestly, did it matter why? She closed her eyes and made herself stop thinking.
Once the buckets had been exchanged between Maddy and the twins, Shepard predictably hurried forward to check what lay inside. He could honestly be a bigger child than any of the girls sometimes. When he reached a hand inside to grab a chocolate bar, Maddy slapped his hand and yanked the bucket out of his reach. "I didn't let you do that with my candy and I'm not going to let you do it with their candy either," their oldest daughter said.
Shepard put on his best stern face. "I'm your father and theirs and if I want that candy bar, I'll take it."
Maddy grinned and her muscles tensed. "Let's see you try," she challenged. The two of them stared at each other, unable to keep up the charade more than a few moments before laughing. "Come on, dad, you can wait. There's no way they will eat all the candy they get."
"Yeah, yeah," Shepard said. "If I don't get one with almonds though, we don't go trick-or-treating next year."
"Honestly, Skipper, you should just grab a bucket and knock on the doors with them, you're more of a baby than any of our daughters have ever been," Ashley said, sighing.
"I'm just saying, I better get one of the chocolate bars with almonds in them."
Maddy watched her little sisters half run, half skip to the front door of the house ahead, smiling at their enthusiasm. It was not that long ago that she had been in their place, running from house to house and trying to get as much candy as she could. When she got home, she would immediately tear into it, and bring as much as her parents allowed to school to eat with lunch. The other kids would stare jealously, but she didn't care. She noticed how the neighbors would give her more candy than the other kids, and she loved it. For most her childhood she thought that was the best part of being Commander Shepard's daughter, the awesome amounts of candy she got on Halloween.
The first time her parents told her about Halloween and trick-or-treating, it had sounded crazy. Over and over she had asked if they were telling the truth, because the idea that strangers gave kids candy when you knocked on the door was a wonderful idea straight out of most kids' dreams. "What kind of candy do they give you?" she asked them.
"Every kind of candy," Dad told her. "Chocolate bars and fruit chews and Tart Tabs, peanut butter cups and hard candies, just about any candy you could want."
"What kind of chocolate bars? Just plain ones?" Maddy had asked. As if it mattered.
"Every kind," Mom had said. "Plain, dark chocolate, white chocolate, with almonds and coconut and nougat. The fruit chews are of all flavors, and there are chocolate chews as well. And I know how much you love peanut butter cups." Maddy had been sold after that.
She had been so nervous when mom and dad brought her to pick a costume, still unbelieving. All the costumes made her feel silly when she wore them. That had been the start of what became a tradition since the first year they went trick-or-treating, where Mom and Dad would dress up with her while they went from house to house. She didn't feel as silly about wearing a costume when they were wearing costumes as well. The first time she went trick-or-treating, she wore an alien costume, which seemed a little inappropriate looking back. It had looked like a salarian to her, with a big head and big eyes, and three fingers on the hand. The lady in the costume shop said it was one of the most popular that year. To match her, Mom had bought the same costume, big enough to fit her. They didn't have one Dad's size, so Grandma had made one. They walked with her, each holding a spare bucket, handing one to her when hers was full. At the end of the night, she had poured it all on the living room carpet, a treasure trove of wonders, a rainbow of treats. She ate as much as her stomach would allow, and a little more, until she was sick enough to puke.
The last time she went trick-or-treating was at the age of thirteen. When the twins went for the first time, all those memories of great Halloweens came rushing back, and when Mom and Dad dressed up for the twins, just like for her, she insisted on doing the same. Watching her younger sisters run from door to door with such glee, the same as she did at their age, it was really hard not to do the same. A couple of times, she did, at Mrs. Harrison's house especially. She always had the best candy in that big plastic bin next to her, and memorized the specific candies that particular kids liked, making sure the largest portion of what she gave them consisted of that candy.
Her pirate costume was beginning to grow extremely uncomfortable after around an hour, the eye patch in particular. She fidgeted with it over and over, but it would just become uncomfortable again after a few minutes. She scoped out the candy in the buckets she was holding, spotting the fruit chews at the top of one. Those were her favorite, and she licked her lips. Resisting the urge to tear those open and chow them down was hard. She looked back to her parents, seeing that they were checking out the candy they held as well, whispering to each other. "You two better not be stashing candy in your pockets or something," she teased.
"Mind your own business and keep an eye on your sisters," Dad said, making Mom laugh. A few minutes before they started back home, he told them, "I'm going to head home a little early. Make sure Rex hasn't torn the house to shreds." Maddy was barely paying attention, discussing her sisters' hauls with the same enthusiasm they were.
Shepard only needed five minutes to put enough distance between them to strip out of the army clothes unseen, where his second costume was already in place. Luckily, the night had been cooler than usual and he hadn't sweated much wearing two sets of clothes. He pulled the mask from his pocket, grinning as he smoothed it out. He put a lot of thought into what exactly he would dress up as to do this, eventually settling on a costume similar to one worn by the killer in one of the most famous horror movies recently. The prank would definitely work best if he was dressed as something the girls would recognize, he figured. He pulled the mask from his pocket, frowning at how stupid it looked. It was a weird humanlike face with much bigger eyes and horrid, jagged teeth. The costume was one of a serial killer from a movie that came out a year earlier, about a deformed human man who went insane after years of insults from everyone that saw him. The mask was uncomfortable, crappy rubber that immediately made him sweat underneath. Besides the mask, he was wearing janitor clothing, since the killer worked as a janitor in the movie. Once Shepard's costume was complete, he took up position in the darkness behind a row of bushes.
Only a few minutes later, Ashley and the kids came into view, the twins smiling from ear to ear while they told Ashley and Maddy about the candy they had. It was late, and they were the only ones on the street, as Shepard had hoped. None of them looked in his direction. Shepard waited until they were about ten feet away, and snapped a twig loudly, making Ashley look back briefly. He waited to make sure she hadn't seen him, grinning when she turned back around and continued walking. He had thought about telling her about his plan, but he didn't trust her to keep it secret or not give away what he was doing. Besides, it was funnier if all of them were genuinely freaked out. Following them at a distance as they walked, every few minutes Shepard would snap a twig, rustle a tree branch or bush, whisper on the edge of their hearing, just trying to make them all tense. Maddy constantly looked around, the twins clutched their buckets of candy tightly, and Ash hurried their pace. After he smashed a bottle on the sidewalk, he allowed a brief glimpse of his mask when Maddy and Jennifer turned around, having to fight not to laugh when their eyes went wide.
He made his move when they reached their house. He maneuvered ahead as they walked, managing to reach the side of the home without anyone seeing him. "…didn't see that?" Maddy was saying as they came close. "It was weird."
"Maddy, be quiet, you're scaring your sisters," Ashley said.
Perfect, Shepard thought with an evil grin. That's exactly the mindset he wanted them in. He turned the corner and jumped into the light, not saying a word. Maddy screamed, Anna as well, hiding behind Ashley. Jennifer ran to the front door and hurried inside. It was Ashley's reaction that surprised him, and not in a good way. She ran at him and threw a hard punch, hitting him right in the nose and putting Shepard on the ground, He began groaning, feeling the first trickles of blood exit his nostrils. "That is not the way this was supposed to go," he said.
"I knew it," Ashley said, gently kicking his leg. "What the hell, Skipper? You're lucky I didn't do worse."
Shepard slowly sat up, taking off the mask. The inside was splattered with blood, already, and he pressed the rubber up to his nose, letting it soak up the blood from his nose. "Damn it, Dad, I was completely freaked out!" Maddy shouted. "That was so mean!"
"Get up, you jerk," Ashley ordered in a harsh tone. "Jennifer ran inside, she's probably hiding under her bed or something. Maddy, Anna, go find your sister." They did so glaring coldly at their father, making Shepard feel even worse. Talk about a prank go wrong, he thought as he watched them step inside. He hurried to his feet before his wife could yell again. When he looked at her, he was surprised to see Ashley smirking at him. "That was pretty funny," she said, trying not to laugh.
Shepard stared at her, mouth agape in surprise. "You knew that was me the entire time, didn't you?"
"Of course, what am I, stupid? You weren't nearly as stealthy as you probably thought you were. The girls probably would have figured it out if I hadn't been hurrying them along so they could never look."
"If you knew what I was doing, you should have helped, or at least not broken my freaking nose," Shepard said, shaking his head.
"Why? Now I'm the good guy. They have no idea that I knew, and all they saw was their mother not hesitate to punch out some freak that jumped out to scare them." Ashley's grin was positively devilish now.
All Shepard could do was shake his head. "That's cruel. Damn it, I need to go stop my nose from bleeding." He walked inside and headed straight for the bathroom.
Anna was very quiet sneaking out of bed that morning. Everyone else was still asleep, and she wanted them to stay that way. Stepping quietly around the toys on the ground and only opening the bedroom door enough to squeeze through, she continued to step quietly on her way to the dining room. Rex was sleeping near the side of the couch, on the blanket they gave him, legs kicking as he dreamt. The candy was still in the pumpkin-shaped buckets, all of them on the dining room table, surrounded by empty wrappers from all the candy eaten the night before. Anna still felt full, maybe a little sick in her stomach, but she wanted to make sure she could eat as much of her favorite candy as she could, before anyone else did. It was funny last night to watch Dad and Maddy eat so much candy, when it all seemed so never-ending, but a lot of it was gone and now Anna wanted to get everything she liked.
Continuing to be as quiet as she could, Anna poured all the candy out of one of the buckets, onto the table. She picked through it all, putting what she wanted in the bucket she had emptied. That mostly consisted of the Tart Tabs, the chews, and the hard candies. She wasn't a fan of chocolate bars, not so much as the other stuff, but she did grab a few chocolate and coconut bars, the ones she did love. After refilling half of the bucket, feeling a little guilty at the lack of variety she was leaving behind, she did one more sweep for anything she might want. While she was looking, she saw the mask Dad had worn the night before when she scared them all, a few bloody smears on it, frowning.
When Dad took off the mask after Mom punched him, she had been very angry at him. As soon as she saw the person jump out from the side of the house, she had screamed and hid behind Maddy, who was also screaming. She recognized the face and the clothes as the same from that one movie that Mom and Dad didn't let them watch, but Maddy did when they were not home one night. When she saw Dad's face, she wanted to go punch him, too. He had spent the rest of the night apologizing to them all, especially Jennifer, who had hidden under her bed after running inside. They had forgiven him quickly, but still spent the rest of the night making him feel bad. Mom had told her and Jennifer to, so she figured it was okay.
With all the candy she was sure she would want in hand, Anna grinned and stood from the chair she had been sitting on while going through the candy. She was smiling as she turned to sneak back to her room, but that smile disappeared quickly when she saw she was being watched. "Oh, hi daddy," she said, holding the plastic bucket behind her back.
Dad smirked at her. "Hi. What are you doing?"
"Nothing, just looking at the candy."
"Really? Just looking, huh?"
There was no point in lying. Anna knew she wasn't good at it. "I'm sorry."
Dad walked over to her, intimidating. He glared down at her, making Anna bit her bottom lip and look anywhere but into her eyes. He reached behind her and took the candy from her, looking inside. His hand went inside, grabbed a handful, and put it into another of the buckets. He reached inside again and took a few fruit chews for his own and one of the chocolate coconut bars as well. "Okay, go ahead," he said, handing the bucket back.
Anna stared up, confused. "Really? I can have the rest?"
Dad shrugged. "I have my share, the rest of that is all yours. The rest of them didn't wake up in time." He smiled at her, and Anna ran past him to hide her candy before Jennifer woke up. "Hide it somewhere Rex can't get into it," Dad shouted when she was past him.
FYI, Tart Tabs are my ME world name for Sweet Tarts.