January 26th 2020

Chapter 26
Their Haunting in Advance

"Wakey, wakey, zombie man," Maya whispered at Lucas' ear, prodding his face until he frowned and flinched and opened his eyes to find her staring down at him with a patient smile.

"Brains…" he yawned, making her laugh.

"You want peanut butter on those? Jam?"

"Yeah, why not, I mean if you're at the point where you're eating brains, toppings won't be the worst thing, right?"

"Alright, then let's go. We have a bunch of stuff to do before we leave." Just as she pulled back and he was able to sit up, they heard a startled shout from beyond their room. As soon as Maya's face lit with giggles, Lucas knew…

"You didn't…"

"What, it's Halloween, day of the spooks," she made claw hands. The door swung open to reveal Sam standing there, in his PJs, bed hair up to eleven, holding out a trio of plastic snakes with accusation. "Oh, so that's where those went…" Maya tipped her head.

With all three of them being either in school or working for most of the day, they had decided it would be best for them to get everything started for that night ahead of time. They had seen to the indoor part the night before. It all had ended up looking great by the time they'd gone to bed, but then nighttime did amp up the creepy factor all on its own. Walking down the stairs in sunlight the next morning, it either looked completely fake all of a sudden, or somehow creepier for some reason.

"Maybe we need to put a sign out here while we're gone today," Maya told the guys as they were all three of them in the process of making the porch look like the place had been raided or condemned thanks to their zombie apocalypse.

"Like, what, 'This isn't real, please don't break in?'" Sam asked.

"Or one of those guard dog warning signs," Maya pointed at him.

"Guard dogs?" Lucas laughed, looking to the open front door, where Trix was lying on her back like a stargazer and Lou curiously prodded a toy they'd just gotten her a few days ago.

"Hey, our girls can play rough," Maya valiantly defended.

"Maybe the invaders will have bacon," Sam provided, and his sister tapped his arm like 'yeah, there you go.' Lucas held up a finger before letting his hammer drop on the ground. At once, the dogs scampered up and ran back into the house, barking wildly.

"I mean, they're very loud," Maya gestured after them before jogging off to find them and calm them down. "Better not have made a hole in the porch," she called after Lucas, who looked down along with Sam. There was a dent.

"Not a hole," Sam declared, and the brothers shared a high five before getting back to work.

Lucas had needed to bow out first, getting in his car to make his way to class. Maya and Sam had carried on a while more before they'd had to go, too. Maya dropped her brother off at his school, and then it was off to the theater. It was going to be hard not to spend most of that day mostly looking forward to it being over so they could get on with their evening. It was Halloween, there were decorations everywhere, and people in costumes, and candy… Maya had her 'day costume' going, as it almost went without saying that the theater would see its people going into character mode. And much as she liked to work her whole muse persona, she couldn't wait to 'zombie up.'

Lucas was the first of them to finish that day, so after picking up the contents of a list he and Maya had been building through back and forth texts all day, he drove off to Sam's school. By this time, he would have finished with class, so Lucas went looking for him at his usual spot in the courtyard. There he found his young roommate sitting on a bench with a girl roughly his age. She had short red hair, the kind of red that could only come out of a bottle, and there was a forearm crutch left leaning against the bench.

From what Sam had been telling him and Maya, this had to be his new friend, Cecilia. They were always sort of what people noticed first when they saw her. She called them 'the change I chose and the one I didn't.' Her mother had died in a car accident, but Cecilia had been in the car, too. She'd survived, but no amount of surgeries – of which there had been several – had been able to fix everything.

As he approached them, Lucas could see that Sam was showing Cecilia one of the comics he had drawn up. He would read the dialogue aloud, in character, which made her laugh.

"Hey," Lucas called, and they both looked up. "I didn't keep you waiting too long, did I?"

"No, we just got here," Sam replied, closing the book and replacing it in a folder sticking out of his backpack. "Lucas, this is my friend, Cecilia. Cecilia, this is Lucas, my brother."

"Nice to meet you," Cecilia told Lucas, smiling.

"Yeah, same here," he smiled back. "We've heard a lot about you. Thanks for pitching in with the early show."

"There weren't a lot of houses around ours when I grew up, not much trick or treating either. This sounded like fun, so here I am." Lucas could see at once how the two of them would be such good and instant friends. They were a lot alike, he could tell after having known her for all of a minute.

The three of them left together, getting into the car and driving off home. On the ride over, Lucas was briefed on the plans the two of them had made over several days' conversations. Much as Cecilia could have pulled off a limping walk to rival all others, there were equal chances of her falling without her crutch, and no matter how much they had considered the options, none of them had worked to reasonably integrate her crutch into her costume, because what leg dragging zombie still had the presence of mind to use one of those? So, she was going to play for the other team and be a zombie hunter.

Now at least Lucas knew what Sam's side project had been. He'd been crafting something to cover Cecilia's crutch, make it look like it had been through hell with her instead of being covered with a floral print.

When they arrived at the house, they could see two people sitting on the porch. One Lucas recognized as his cousin from far up the lane, which meant the other could only be Adam Anders. Well, here goes… Both he and Maya had been wondering what would happen when those four would all be in the same place. Sam had never actually met Adam yet, and Lucas wasn't even sure whether Dora knew Cecilia was even a factor. She and Sam may have strictly seen one another as friends, but her presence might go and bring certain things into focus, things which might become problems.

On the whole, it had gone about as well as it could have gone. When it came down to it, you had four kids in this, all of them being just… kind, and caring… Sam and Adam met for the first time, shook hands. Adam thanked Sam for inviting him, and Sam said it was his pleasure. Cecilia and Dora were introduced to one another, and Cecilia expressed how she'd heard a lot about Dora from Sam, while Dora said it was nice to meet her and she was glad to know any friend of Sam's. It was all very civil, but at the same time… He could see through Sam, see how nervous he had been about this moment, for the introduction to his friend as much as for Adam Anders to become a real person he knew. Lucas could see as well as Sam did that Dora's new boyfriend was actually a really good guy, well deserving of the title. On the flipside, Lucas also saw the thing he had both expected and dreaded. He knew his cousin well enough to know, even if she kept a straight face, when something managed to come and rattle her, a little or a lot. And there had been movement.

There was no time to address teenage drama, not now. They needed to finish setting up, and they had to get as much of their costumes on as they could, until Maya would arrive and get them made up the rest of the way.

"Hey, so, how much coaxing do you think it would take for the dogs to let us make them up to look like zombies, too?" Maya had joked with a smile when she'd finally come through the door and found Lucas attempting to keep Lou from eating his frayed pant leg.

"Right now, probably not m-hey!" he yanked his hand back when it nearly fell prey to the dog's teeth. "Everything's strange, so they're already a bit of a nightmare," he joked, squinting at Lou. She only stared up at him, tongue lolling out. "So much drama," he smirked, scratching at her ear before turning to Maya. "Your presence and your services are being requested upstairs," Lucas informed her.

"Work, work, work," she sighed.

"Is there glitter on your face?" he asked.

"Muse magic," she bowed her head. "No worries, I'll be scary and gross in no time. How's it going up there?" she asked now, a look of apprehension in her eyes.

"Fine, I think," Lucas nodded, setting Lou down before moving up to Maya. "Complicated, but mostly just fine. I'd say it could have been worse if it had even been bad."

"Right…" she sighed. "Come on, time to make like zombies and… make more zombies…"

Maya had been giving her brother some tips and tricks in a bit of covert training for him to be her assistant tonight. Now, as they worked their way through everyone's transformation, she was pleased to see he was enjoying himself and doing great work.

"Hey," she'd tapped his shoulder after they'd finished on Cecilia and Lucas. "How do you want to do this, with the others?" Did he want to work on Dora or Adam? Whichever way he went, there would be something to get in the way, wouldn't there?

"I can do hers," Sam shrugged, looking back to his sister after a beat. "If I do his I might end up making him look weird."

"Weirder than a zombie?" Maya intoned, trying not to laugh. "Alright, if you're sure. You know, it's kind of…"

She didn't get to finish her sentence, which might have been a good thing, as Dora and Adam walked in at this moment, ready to be zombies. So, Maya and Sam got to work.

She would have mentioned how this reminded her of that night eight years prior, and she would probably have regretted it, knowing it would only upset him as the comparison inevitably would hit a wall. A fifteen-year-old Hart brought inches apart from and in contact with a sixteen-year-old Friar (Cassidy), complicated feelings in between… Only, the morning after it had been Lucas and her they had become boyfriend and girlfriend. Tomorrow morning, Sam and Dora would still be exactly what they were now.

They'd done what they could to put out the word through the area, so parents would be aware of activities going on at the house, so they might bring their kids around for some trick or treating, with candy, and games, and – of course – zombies…

"Hey, hey, our first people are coming, let's go, let's go!" Maya called out, after spotting some costumed kids and their parents making their way up the lane. Within moments, their little horde was on the march, off to take their places for Halloween part one…

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners