On a cold day in the Greater London area, the chill nipped at everyone's noses, leaves blow in the phantom winds, and ushered the return of Samhain.
The forecast predicted a cold night with advisory to wear heavy clothes when going out to the parades and parties. A chance of flurries in the morning, but there won't be any accumulation, as the flurries dissipate as its neared sunrise.
A gentle breeze swept up the leaves, past the Odds & Ends, located west of Bleaker Street, where the intrepid Ripley and her friend, lover, and associate, Matt, worked to ready for closing.
With the parade coming down their street, they might as well, and Ripley's not keen in allowing drunken men and women to stumble into her store late at night.
On the account of Ripley's wrist, she couldn't do much, barely much, since a lot of the wares in her secondhand shop required two sets of hands.
She tried to help Matt more than once, but he kept her away, out of fear of her stitches tearing. He knew she meant well, of course, but after the disastrous Vena incident, he didn't want to take any chances. At least until Ripley healed.
Ripley dreaded her upcoming appointment, but Matt promised that it'll go well, Ewen cleared her. Her cut's slowly healing, but by the time it's her appointment, she won't have to explain a thing to the doctor.
Not to say that Ripley didn't wish the appointment existed in the first place, but considering what happened to Vena, she didn't want to test the waters and end up like her.
Ewen swore she wouldn't, but considering everything that happened up to that point, Ripley's weary about everything.
Matt pushed boxes of movies towards the wall, collected over the weeks, and readied for them to put out in the coming days as they worked selling the rest of the stock.
"Thanks for helping me last night," Ripley took the time to thank Matt for helping her make the sugar skulls.
Since there's going to be a parade starting soon, Ripley opted to keep the skulls and their accompanying candies and drink in her flat for the duration of the holiday.
Ripley didn't know what Mallory normally drank, so she settled on some wine, just a taster's bottle, purely because Ripley wasn't a wine fan to begin with.
She accompanied the other skulls with their respected drinks of choice. Guessing on Berkley's preferred drink, but otherwise, she got all the drinks for her dearly departed friends and headmaster.
"In a way, it was fun, but in a culinary sense," Matt smiled at Ripley as he rubbed his hands on a rag on a stool near the boxes.
Matt never heard of sugar skulls before, but Ripley showed him and he helped her make them.
It was daunting considering they're dealing with molten sugar, but it was fun all the same and he learned some history lesson on why sugar skulls were common around this time of year back in Ripley's universe in a different part of the world.
Matt even had the idea of using some hummingbird friendly sugar in the creation of the sugar skulls, so Ripley wouldn't have to worry about the waste.
All they'd have to do is melt the hardened sugar skulls in hot water and they'll be ready for bird feeders Matt put up outside Ripley's bedroom window.
Nothing like seeing tiny birds happily drinking sugar water in the morning.
"You're not hurt too bad are you?" Ripley worryingly asked him.
Since it was his first time, expectedly, he received some blisters on his fingers, but Matt didn't mind it, all in part of learning, and that he wasn't deterred.
"They'll heal," Matt mustered as he looked down at his fingers, most wrapped in bandages.
Finishing his duties, Matt asked if Ripley wanted to see the parade.
They could peak out the laundry room window if they wanted.
Although the laundry room's cramped with two people in it at once and the window's barely big enough for the two to look out comfortably.
"Hm, dunno, you see one parade, you see them all," Ripley didn't think this parade's anything special.
They've all said parades were special, but they're hardly anything different.
Ripley especially didn't care for the ones with big floats and lip singing with bad remixes of popular songs.
"Just a thought," Matt shrugged.
Ripley inquired if he still planned to go to the pub with teammates from his old football team tomorrow night and he nods.
He hadn't seen them in a while and wouldn't mind catching up with them.
Matt asked if Ripley liked to come along, but she declined as she reminded him that they'd have to come up with an excuse as to why her arm's in a sling.
"Hey, have some time to yourself, I think you've earned that," Ripley saw it as time for Matt to collect his thoughts away from her shop and the TARDIS.
He's been running around in different worlds, meeting new people, enemies, he hardly had time to spend with his other mates.
Fair's fair, for all he's done, he deserves a little time outside the shop.
As for Ripley, what's she going to do with one arm?
With the medication Ewen prescribed, she couldn't drink anyway, and even then, she's tempered herself off the drink.
Wouldn't make sense to drink seltzer at a pub while the guys drank their pints.
Also, she'd stick out more than a sore thumb and nothing bogs down a night than 50 Questions with Matt's drunk mates.
Rather than deal with that, Ripley's staying at the shop.
"Only if you're sure," Matt stepped towards the counter as Ripley sat on her chair.
Ripley smiled and told him to have plenty of fun on her behalf and call if anything happens.
"Aw, don't you worry none, El, I'll have plenty of fun!" Matt leaned over the counter and planted a kiss on her mouth.
Leaning back, Matt asked how's she feeling.
Ripley thought long and hard before grinning, saying along the lines of, "Well, I've been feeling peckish lately."
Noticing the pun, Matt shook his head as he chuckled at her pun.
Rubbing his neck, Matt commented that he's lucky his high collared shirts and bow tie hide them, because he didn't want to have to explain how he got them to his baby cousins.
"But I guess it's fair considering how often I staked you," Matt gave his own pun and Ripley held her hand over her face as she chuckled loudly.
Sharing a laugh with each other, the two conversed and overhead they heard people clamoring outside.
"Good thing you took a cab," Ripley mused as she heard people taking their spots and chattering about their Samhain plans outside the shop door.
Ripley received mail in the post about the street closed off for the duration of Samhain last week and warned that any vehicles parked on the eve of the parade would've been towed.
In the mail, it said there's public parking on a street over, but with the crowd right outside their door and the fact that it'll go on for almost the entire night, Ripley rather Matt come in via cab and stay the night until the parade concluded.
"Yeah," Matt glimpsed outside the shop.
Many in costume, varies shapes and sizes, and Matt spotted children with their parents clamoring for the best spots to watch the parade.
"Well, that's about everything for the time being," Ripley shoved the last bit of things in a box under the counter before coming around it.
Knowing ahead of time, Ripley made sure they're prepared to wait out the parade. There's plenty of food upstairs in her flat to tide them over and there's plenty of horror movies showing tonight on the Telly for them to watch.
While Ripley didn't know half the movies, it's oddly comforting to watch a horror movie on Samhain.
Matt followed her up the staircase after he made sure the door's locked and the sign in it.
Entering her flat, she went towards her couch and took her spot at the end of one side. Throwing off her shoes, she threw her legs up with the remote in her hand as she turned on the Telly and flipped to the movie marathon.
Matt took off his bow tie and tweed jacket, putting them on the coat hanger before he fetched a plate of food from her kitchen.
Taking a spot near her as he sat the plate on her table and took off his shoes, Matt caught a familiar sight on the screen and recognized the movie playing.
"Oh, I love this one!" Matt points at the screen as the movie started.
It's a haunted house movie, but an oldie that held one one the spots in Matt's heart. He watched it with his dad the one Samhain when he was younger, gave him fright, made his mum mad at his dad for letting him watch it, but it held nostalgia for Matt.
Chewing on the seasoned chips as he allowed them to linger in the sauce from his steak, Matt smiled gleefully as the movie played.
He finished his plate in minutes as the movie went and put the plate in the wash before sitting back down near Ripley.
Ripley ate here and there earlier in the day, so she's content watching the movie with Matt.
Noticing the scene on the screen, Matt's eyes twinkled as he remembered what happens after.
"Oh, my mum nearly pinched my dad's ear off for this!" Matt told Ripley about the time he watched this with dad and the upcoming scene's when his mum walked in on it.
Ripley watched the scene.
It's as exactly as you expected in a horror movie about a haunted house with a group of young-somethings trying to have fun before the ghosts try to kill them.
"Fake," Ripley rolled her eyes.
She's aware what goes into a movie and that this is all coordinated.
"Tell that to my mum," Matt shrugged.
His mum relaxed a little afterwards, mostly because she realized that there's worse things on the news, but gave Matt the "talk" to ensure he didn't get any wrong impressions on the scenes.
"So, what, the bed comes alive and eats them?" Ripley asks.
Hey, Ripley had to watch a lot of bad horror movies in her universe when there wasn't anything in particular on and that she couldn't watch her usuals.
A killer bed isn't out of a realm of possibilities.
"Nah, he gets killed in the loo," Matt tells her.
After the steamy scene concludes, the character, Isaac, leaves the bed to head into the loo.
"Hm, different universe, same tropes," Ripley notes that the characters play by the similar tropes that've been categorized in her universe.
As Isaac's choked to death by a disembodied hand coming from the medicine cabinet, Ripley got an idea, a mischievous one.
Waiting for the perfect time as Isaac freed himself from the hand and tried to escape, she caught on when the jump scare's going to happen, and timed it carefully.
Counting down to when Isaac's surprised by a phantom menace, Matt squeaked as she pushed him down on the couch with her looking down at him with a grin on her face.
"Ellie!" Matt sputtered as he was into the movie he didn't see Ripley slowly move towards him before surprising him.
Looking down at him with a grin, Ripley wagged her finger at Matt.
"Rule One of Horror: Always watch your back," Ripley giggled mischievously as she stole a kiss from him as she grinned.
Matt pointed out that she needed to be careful, on the account of her wrist, but Ripley told him she's careful and that she needed time out of the sling, her arm's getting tired.
"Besides, I'm not lifting anything, am I?" Ripley points out as she rested on Matt.
She had him there.
"Hm, but you are forgetting something," Matt thoughtfully said as he looked up to Ripley.
Ripley asked what that is and Matt told her in a form of a long kiss.
When he pulled away, he said, "Rule Two of Horror: The hero always gets the girl."
Ripley chuckled as she wagged her finger, "Some of the time, Matt. Some of the time. Not always."
Matt wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.
"You know, I forgot to do something," Matt realized.
Looking at him as she relaxed, Ripley asked what he forgot and he told her.
"I love you, Ellie," Matt smiled wildly.
Smiling back, Ripley replied, "Ditto."
While Ripley didn't care for the movie, she got that from, she did like the scene with the shadows dragging one of the antagonists to Hell, dated effects at the time aside.
The couple continued their movie marathon until they fallen asleep to the sounds of Pamela dragged into a refrigerator by a silly looking gremlin.
THE END
