Update: Initial beta-reading done. Missing words and typos should be less now.
"Trick or treat!"
Subaru energetically yelled in front of an unamused pinkette, his hand held out holding an empty pumpkin basket. His wide smile never once shook even under the intense gaze of the girl.
"We don't take solicits." She moved to close the door but the boy quickly blocked it with his hand. She paused for a quick second, then slammed it anyway.
"Ow ow ow ow! Hey Ram, don't be so cold!" Subaru pushed the door open, waving around his stinging hand. "Wow, you really slammed it hard… A-Anyways, come on! It's Halloween. Give us candies or we'll play a trick on you!"
Subaru's small companion gave a small smile. She wasn't holding out her basket like Subaru does, but she was still dressed for the occasion. Well, maybe underdressed, actually...
Ram, on the other hand, only gave him a confused look.
"Stop spouting stupid things, Barusu." After a tense moment, she finally gave up, letting out a loud sigh. "... Fine. Wait here." Before Subaru could even react, the door was shut close already.
"Well, she told us to wait, so I guess we wait." Subaru turned to his companion, shrugging his shoulders.
"Mhm." The white-haired girl nodded, staring back.
"Don't worry. Ram may be like that but she's a real softie inside. I'm sure she'll give us tons of candies and stuff." He gave her a thumbs up, as if to reassure her. The girl just smiled back at him.
It wasn't long before Ram came back, her scowl still present. In her hand was a plastic bag full of assorted candies and snacks. Subaru salivated upon seeing it, his hands already twitching to hold the thing.
"Here you go. Rem prepared something, you're lucky." She told him, her tone kind of bored. "Now get out of our porch."
"Sweet! Happy halloween Ram!" the raven-haired boy did a small victory dance, holding the bag up. "Yeah! Free candies! Halloween is totally awesome!"
"Idiot…" Ram whispered to herself as she closed the door.
"That's a lot of candies."
Subaru blinked, momentarily forgetting his partner. He turned to the small girl, her eyes sparkling at the sight of the many candies inside the bag.
"Yeah. We're going half-half, that's fine right?" With this alone, they'll fill over half of their respective baskets. His trip this Halloween might end up short, he thought.
"Really? You will give me half?" She tilted her head, as if she never even thought of that.
"Well, of course. Ram gave this for us you know?" Subaru rolled his eyes, walking up to the small girl.
"I don't think so. She gave that to you."
"Ehh. Even if that was the case I'm still going to give you half." He ripped the bag open and forcefully dump them into her basket, making the girl blink. "There!"
She stared at her half-full basket, then looked up to face him. "Thank you. You're very kind." She gave him a small smile.
"It's nothing. Now let's go! More candies!"
He pointed to another house, marching funnily as he went. The girl broke into a bigger smile as she followed him.
=-...-=
The two knocked on every house of the street, happily trick-or-treating everyone they know. Well, Subaru know. He didn't really know who the small girl was. He just saw her staring at a house, holding a basket this morning. He thought she was just being shy and helped her trick-or-treat.
Before he knew it they already went over his entire neighborhood, their baskets and his pockets filled with sweets to the brim. They went over a hill overlooking their entire town, watching as the various lights all over turned on. The sun has set over the horizon, and now the moon was illuminating their surroundings. Subaru loudly sighed, tired.
"We got a lot, didn't we?" The boy's smile faltered upon seeing her still half-full basket, it never getting more than what he put there initially. He thought it was really sad how she never got any more candies. It was probably because she's not from around here. Well, at least he thought so. He's never seen her before.
"Hm. This is more than enough for me." She glanced at her basket.
"... Nah. We're going half-half again!" Subaru started grabbing all of his treats from his pockets and put them on her basket, stopping only when he saw her shaking her shaking her hand and head.
"No, no… thank you. But it's fine. Those are for you." She grabbed a handful and dropped it on his open hand.
"But…" Subaru looked down, feeling conflicted. On one hand, he felt like maybe he was being too pushy, but on another he thought maybe if he wasn't there, she would've gotten a lot more… He was feeling guilty.
"I'd feel bad." They both said at the same time. Blinking at each other, they snickered, then laughed. Well, a very quiet one on the girl's side, but still a laugh nonetheless.
"No, really, I insist. Please." Subaru pleaded. "Look, I don't even have a costume. I wasn't even planning to do this until I…" he paused, shaking his head. "Anyways, my point is, I'm giving you these and that's final. You can hate me after it if you want to." He smugly smiled at her as if he won something.
The silver-haired girl could only watch on as he filled her basket, him smiling evilly all the while. He forced her and was willing to even look like the 'bad guy' just to not make her feel bad. The girl thought it was like that.
This boy was extremely selfless, and verily kind.
"... I see. Very well then. In exchange, can I ask for your name, mister?"
"Sure! I'm Natsuki Subaru, the best and strongest man around these parts." He flexed his non-existent muscle at the girl. "What about you? What's your name?"
"My name?" The girl paused, looking down. "I… I'm Pandora."
"Pandora-chan, huh? Nice to meet you." He nodded.
"Nice to meet you too, Subaru-san." She stayed still for a while, then stood up. She grabbed her basket, then patted the back of her white dress. "I should get going now, Subaru-san. Thank you for going out with me. It was really fun."
"No problem, I enjoyed it too." He stood up right after. "Let me walk you back to your house. It's already dark."
"Mm… no, it's fine. You should go back to your home now, Subaru-san."
"Well, if you say so… I hope we can meet again, Pandora-chan." Subaru walked away, glancing one last time. "Bye!"
"Goodbye."
=-...-=
"Subaru-kun!"
Subaru was kind of surprised when he saw Rem pop out of his door, but then again she always does this. She's probably cooking his dinner again.
"Hey Rem. Good evening."
"Good evening! I made you your dinner." Bullseye. "Let's eat."
"Perfect. I'm starving." He went straight to the kitchen, placing his basket on the table. "Man, I didn't expect to go trick-or-treating this year. I got loads of candies though."
"Yeah… My sister said you visited our home earlier this afternoon?" Rem said over the stove. "I'm sorry I couldn't come with you, Subaru-kun. Me and Emilia-san were studying for our research papers in the library."
"Nah, it's fine. I was with this little girl so I wasn't really lonely." The boy said, idly browsing through his candies.
"Little girl?" Rem paused, blinking. "Did you meet her after you went to our house?"
"Hm? No. We trick-or-treated Ram together actually." Subaru smiled upon seeing a candy he particularly liked.
"Eh?" The blue-haired girl stared at him. "But sister said you were alone."
"Did she not see her?" Subaru frowned at that thought. "She had this ghost costume kind of thing. She was kind of small, but not that small she wouldn't notice her…"
"Oh, come to think of it… She said you were saying things like 'we' and 'us' when you were clearly alone."
"..." Subaru found it weird. Subaru knew Ram wouldn't have missed her. She was literally just right beside him, after all. She wasn't hiding behind him or anything.
They heard a knock on the door, to which Subaru absentmindedly answered. He was still busy wondering what was going on. Something felt weird.
"Who is… oh, Ram. Perfect timing."
"Good evening too, Barusu. Is my sister inside?" Ram glared at him, but he wasn't having any of that. He was too focused about something.
"Ram, did you not see the girl with me when we trick-or-treated earlier?"
"What girl? You were alone, idiot." The girl passed by him, annoyed. Before she could go in further, Subaru grabbed her arm.
"Wait, wait. Ram, you're kidding right?" Subaru's mind began clicking. Things didn't make sense. Not at all. "Please tell me you're just pulling my leg right now."
When Ram- who was usually scowling at him all the time- gave him a small but discernable look of worry, he knew she wasn't lying.
"... No. Barusu, what are you talking about?"
A chill ran up his spine. Subaru instantly bolted out of the door, intent on getting answers. He could hear the twin's yelling behind him, but he didn't care. This is weird. She was real. Pandora… he could see her. Talk to her. She was definitely real.
On his way to the hill he left her on, he passed by the house where he first met her. She was staring at it, maybe she knows someone in there?
"Hello? Hello?!" He rapidly knocked on the door, not caring at all if he was being disruptive. The door was flung open by an annoyed-looking woman.
"Yes? What is it?"
The woman was unmistakenly a relative of Pandora. Silver hair, small height… their only difference was the obvious matureness this woman held over Pandora. Subaru shook his head, snapping himself out of his thoughts.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but… do you know anyone called Pandora?"
=-...-=
His heart sunk further down each step he took. It wasn't long before he reached the hill, the woman's words still ringing within his mind.
He saw a basket lying on the grass, still full of candies. Subaru grimaced.
"Pandora is my child." After her initial outburst, she lead him inside, thinking he was a friend of her daughter. "Pandora was such a good little girl."
Subaru noticed the trail of candies leading to the forest near their town. It felt like it was beckoning him to follow them. Subaru glanced at the basket one more time, closed his eyes, then followed it.
"She loved Halloween a lot. She'd always give me this bright smile whenever I gave her candies."
The thicket of the trees fully covered the moonlight, basking the whole forest in almost pure darkness. Subaru's phone barely lit up the way, and the candies' distance from each other began to widen and widen. Subaru would've normally gotten scared from the darkness alone, but right now he didn't care. He was too confused to do so.
"On the night of Halloween, she went out trick-or-treating, but never came back."
Subaru could still hear her voice inside his head. Her polite, quiet, yet happy tone when he gave her his candies… That longing and lonely voice when they said goodbye to each other.
The trail of candies stopped in front of a giant tree.
"We searched and searched for her every day, for several weeks… but we never found her. Someone said they last saw her on top of the hill on the north of town, but even that led to a dead end. Pandora is still missing to this day…"
Subaru's phone shakily lit up the front of the tree. The first that he saw was the brown cloth. He recognized it as the same thing Pandora wore when she was with him, only now it was covered in dirt and grime.
"It's been 10 years now since she went missing." The woman grabbed a picture of her daughter and showed it off to the boy. The girl was exactly like Pandora.
Subaru's eyes watered upon seeing the skeletal remains of a seemingly small child. She was sitting up against the tree, her hands hugging her knees curled up to her face.
"I miss my little girl." The woman broke down in front of him, all the while hugging the picture of her daughter. "I miss her…"
Pandora must've gotten lost in the woods somehow. Subaru's heart ached at the thought of the little girl curled up on the tree, crying for help, alone and lost. Subaru's knees gave out as he cried.
"Pandora-chan…" Subaru thought to himself. "Was Halloween… better with me?"
=-The End-=
AN: This story was heavily inspired by Mike Inel's "Missing Halloween" animation in youtube. If you haven't watched it, I suggest you do. It's amazing.
Well, that's all folks. Advance Happy Halloween.