January 27th 2020

Chapter 27
Their Haunting in the Lane

"Did you see how they ran?" When he turned around, Lucas found Missy Sanderson standing there, still laughing. The thirteen-year-old lived up the lane with her parents and grandparents and was getting to be a familiar face around the house. Maya would suggest that the arrival of a boy not much older than her in the neighborhood had only increased the girl's interest in the new people living on the lane. It wasn't as though Lucas couldn't have figured that out for himself. Every time she'd show up and say hello, her voice would barely be able to carry the words 'hi, Sam' without sounding like it had hit turbulence. Today, she was dressed not as a zombie but as what looked to be a character from some show or another that Lucas couldn't pinpoint, like he knew it was a thing, but not which one exactly.

The rule had been set back in the house that, for the most part, they were to remain in character. He saw no reason to break here, and he gave his best lurching zombie in response. Missy just looked at him, smiling. He sighed. She was too familiar with him to be spooked.

"Come on, help me out here," he whispered, so she made a gesture like 'go again.' He did, and she quickly gave a loud scream before running away.

"Zombie fiancé…" a grunt made him turn to find Maya dragging her way toward him. "Death did not do us part…" she declared in her broken zombie voice. It was very hard not to break character at that, especially as her shambling along had made her trip and he'd only managed to catch her for a moment before they'd gone and fallen in a heap together. After that, they just laughed.

"Hey…" he smiled as she tried to push her hair out of her face and he reached to assist. "Happy Spookversary," he told her, renewing her laughter. That was what they called it, of course, because this day was as important to them, in the whole timeline of their relationship. She kissed him.

"Who knew zombies had good breath like that?"

"It's the brains," he casually shrugged.

"Right," she chuckled. "Well, come on, the others are starting to arrive, so we're going to be transitioning into like… part one point five."

"A bit of this, a bit of that," he translated, indicating first the trick or treaters and their parents spread out around them and then the house behind them. Maya nodded. "On it," he resumed his zombie voice and she responded with her own growl.

It was really all she could have hoped for. She'd wanted this to be something special for the kids in the area, the kind of thing they'd look forward to in years to come, and she only had to look around to see they were all enjoying themselves. And beyond all the kids, there was the rest of her merry band of players. For knowing them in their natural state, her brother and Lucas' cousin in particular were putting in some great performances. That was the power of costumes though, wasn't it? They became another person, and that was almost like giving themselves the freedom to step out of their comfort zone.

Sam was suddenly entirely less reserved, while Dora showed an aggressive drive so unlike her usual sort of wood nymph like state. As for the newbies among them that night, they were quickly getting a feel for the two of them.

For having played against Adam's older sister, Maya could say the two of them may have clearly looked to share DNA, but there the comparisons ended. Carly Anders was what Maya could only call the Nadine Zhu of her own school, top of the class, star athlete… Her younger brother was a very sweet and caring kid, enough so that you almost felt bad for recognizing he was… well, not the brightest by any means. If he had not barely scraped by every year, he would never have managed to keep up advancing through the grades with Dora and the other kids their age. He made up for it in other places, naturally. Tonight, for instance… The kid was impressively knowledgeable on all things zombie apocalypse. And he was devoted to remaining 'authentic' through the night. He had been all about making Dora laugh – which he succeeded in doing, to the point where she could hardly breathe – back in the house, but the moment they'd gone out to greet the kids, he was all business, if the business was portraying a 'realistic' zombie.

As for Cecilia, Maya could see what Lucas had meant when he'd told her that the girl reminded him of Sam a lot. It was the kind of resemblance you would have rather they not shared, for the root of it. They were both of them just good kids who'd grown up to be driven, and imaginative, and with a blooming empathy in them… and then they'd gone through that loss. The circumstances were vastly different, one of them carrying the knowledge for so long and the other just blindsided by an accident, but the results were there, weren't they? Maya had become so familiar with her brother's face, with that underlying sort of… gap… left by the things he'd experienced, the things he had felt and still felt, and she saw it in the girl, too. Sam had seen it when he'd met her, he'd told her. But she's really lonely. I can see it, I know what it looks like to carry… that…

Maya knew how hard it had been for her brother to let out what he was really feeling after their father had finally passed. She couldn't say for certain what was the state of Cecilia's recovery, but for being so much like Sam that way, she could make guesses. It was bad enough to have lost her mother so suddenly like that, but then all those surgeries, the recovery… The Schmidt twins may have done more for Cecilia than for Sam without knowing it, when they'd nudged their friend in her direction. As far as this night was going, it looked like she was really thriving in her role as zombie hunter, grizzled, and limping, but so very determined to eradicate this plague of the undead. Her favorite part was easily going up to 'rescue' some of the trick or treaters.

"Woah…" Riley had not even managed to stay in character for a second upon arriving with Dylan and Rosa, who were absolutely keeping up their roles. "How did you even do all this?" she asked, indicating the house and the land around it.

"Brains?" Maya sniffed at her, disguising her laugh into a grunt when her best friend of old yelped. She could pulverize hordes in video games, but a live person in front of her was as troubling as one in a movie or on television. "Good, squishy brains," Maya settled for hugging her, which seemed to do the trick. To no one's surprise, Riley was joining the ranks of the humans that night. The theme had been simple enough that way. You can be dressed as whoever you want, but you then have to turn them in either a zombie or a hunter. It was preferable if the base character wasn't already one of those things.

As more and more of their friends arrived and made their way into the house, the activities outside dwindled down and finally ended, leaving them squarely in Halloween, part two: The Party. Here, the zombies were just a bit livelier and coordinated, and more likely to fraternize with the hunters. The music was going strong, as was the dancing. Lucas and Maya had been right at the heart of that for a while before taking a break.

"Hey, I'll be right back," Lucas told her as she made her way to the kitchen to get them something to drink. Finding Adam at the candy bar, he was directed to step outside if he wanted to find his cousin. She'd told her boyfriend to keep enjoying the party while she took a breather.

In fact, she'd walked off as far as the road, sitting cross-legged atop one of the bales of hay they'd gotten hold of for decoration, as somehow they 'needed' some of those for their Halloween apocalypse zone. She had a small plastic case grasped in one of her hands, which confirmed to him she'd taken out her hearing aids, and he approached from not too close, so not to startle her.

"Got too loud in there?" he asked, once she could see his face. Dora nodded. She still looked like a zombie, but she was his cousin again.

"I just needed a break."

"Absolutely," Lucas nodded. For a few seconds, neither of them said a word. Dora turned her eyes back to the sky and the stars. Finally, Lucas tapped her shoulder so she'd look at him. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I just need a few minutes…" she promised, but he shook his head. That wasn't what he meant. "Oh… Yeah…" she bowed her head, turning the case in her hand over and over again. He tapped her shoulder again, and when she looked up again, he could see tears in the corners of her eyes. "I don't know why I feel like this…" she shook her head. Lucas looked around them, confirming it was just the two of them still.

"I think you do know, whether you like it or not," he looked back to his cousin. It was hard to keep the conversation going when she needed to look at him to know what he was saying and all her head wanted to do was to bow low under the weight of her feelings. So, Lucas sat on the ground in front of the bale, as a sort of compromise. "They're just friends," he pointed out, giving an opening for her to use.

"I know," Dora told him. "That's not… I'm with Adam."

"You are," Lucas nodded.

"I like Adam, I've liked him for years."

"You never told me that," he gave his cousin a small smile.

"That's why they're called secret crushes, okay?" Dora echoed his expression.

"Okay, fair enough."

"When we started going out, I didn't know how it was going to go, but it was kind of great. So we kept going out, and it got even better, he got better, like you think you know someone and then you spend more time with them and they're just…"

"Better."

"Yeah," Dora nodded.

"You didn't tell Sam about him before that," Lucas made a new point, honing in the source of his cousin's troubles. She looked at him and there was just a bit of sadness there. He reached up to dab the tears from her eyes before they could spoil her makeup.

"I like him, too," she spoke quietly.

"I know," he replied with a sympathetic smile.

"I was going to try and see if he… if maybe he'd like me, too, but I don't want to mess things up between us, so I didn't… I didn't say anything, and then Adam… Adam asked me out, and I said yes, and then everything just…" she shook her head, words spilling out, and Lucas was the one to bow his head now. Was it any wonder it had taken Maya and him that long to get together in the beginning? The whole experience could be confusing for the best of them, and while it had worked out in the end for him and her, it had all gotten mixed up when it came to his cousin and Maya's brother, neither of them being in a position to see the whole picture, while Lucas and Maya could see it all too well but also couldn't tip their hands. Whatever would or wouldn't happen between them, it would have to be up to them.

"Is he still your friend?" Lucas asked, once he and his cousin could see eye to eye.

"Yes," she replied, sounding like 'obviously.'

"Do you want him to continue being your friend?" Another obvious yes. "Then you and him are going to have to find a way to make it work."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners