Halloween 2014: Part 2
Elsewhere, with the kids…
"This is a bad idea." Aeryn said as she followed behind the other kids.
"She's right," Glen followed. "Won't our parents get worried?"
Glenda huffed and turned around to face her brother. "They were taking so long! All of the good candy is going to be gone by the time they stop fighting. If we don't hurry up, we won't get any at all."
"Yeah!" Killer piped up. "Halloween is like a birthday; it only comes one time a year, and we don't want to miss it just because our dad wants to beat up another dad!"
"Hey,'' Glenda hissed, pushing her face into Killer's. "Our dad could kick your dad's butt any time he wants to!"
"No, he couldn't!" Killer answered back as the rest of the pack circled behind him for sibling support.
"Yeah," Bruno commented afterwards. "Your dad can't kick our dad's butt; he's so tough he can kick his own butt!" There was a moment of silence, as his words registered with the kids. Killer ended up facepalming while Bruno pondered. "Wait, that didn't sound right."
Just when it seemed like things were going to heat up between the kids, PJ took it upon himself to step in between Glenda and the litter, holding out his hands and forcing them away from each other. "Now stop it. Our moms and dads are already fighting; we shouldn't be doing the same now! Let's just go and get some candy before the night is done. Then we can go back to the parents before they know that we are gone."
Hearing his encouraging words, Angel sighed, placing her hand about her chest in a swoon-like fashion. "Oh, he's so brave!"
Another one of the Freddy kids, Buster, scoffed at Angel's comment. "That's not brave. I once watched a scary film with my dad, and I only cried twice! Now that is brave!"
Ashley gasped. "You watched a scarwee film? Wow, you are brave!" she smiled, her doe eyes twinkling toward him and fingers twiddling her ringlets of curly hair.
The confidence after his boast was gone though, as Buster looked down at the ground, avoiding all eye contact with Ashley and hoping that the small blush on his cheek wasn't visible to the gushing little girl. "Well, like I said, it wasn't that scary-"
He was interrupted as his six sisters all cooed and sang together. "Buster and Ashley sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"
"Shut up!" he yelled at them, flushing a deeper shade of red.
"Everyone stop!" PJ called out. "We need to stop fighting if we want to get the candy!"
I think it was safe to say that the apples didn't fall too far from the trees with this group of kids.
Aeryn sighed. She was reluctant to go through with the plan leaving their parents' sides to go trick or treating, being the sensible one. But she knew there was no stopping them, and the sooner they went trick or treating and got candy, the sooner they could get back home. She stepped forward and stood by her brother's side. "I think I know a bunch of houses close by that will have plenty of candy. If we can get there before any other kids show up, then there should be plenty for all of us."
"Now that's the spirit!" the Krueger boys shouted simultaneously.
"Yeah! What are we waiting for?" Glenda asked excitedly.
PJ smiled, as it seemed like the group had finally come to an understanding, and they could move on without the fear of getting into another argument. "Then let's go!" he cried out triumphantly and turned to lead the way to their destination...only to stop in his tracks when he saw that the group was being watched.
Sitting on a rock, just a few metres ahead of the group, appeared to be a little boy staring right at them. With a bag sack by his side, the boy was dressed in a ragged, orange onesie and a sack covered his head with stitches for a mouth and shirt buttons for eyes. The boy looked at the group curiously, and at PJ in particular.
"Uh, hello?" PJ called out to the boy. He didn't respond verbally, instead he hopped off his rock, picked up his bag and walked over to the ground. The sack dragged along the ground. No one in the group knew what to do, watching as the boy advanced on them until coming to a full stop in front of them.
"I think he likes your scarecrow costume." Ashley said to PJ.
PJ was about to reply over how silly that sounded, but then again, with the way the mysterious boy stared at the group and put more focus on PJ's costume, looking at him up and down, it must have been true. The boy was most likely amazed by the realistic and magical detail of PJ's scarecrow attire, not the mention that it was the closest resembles to the boy's costume out of the whole group.
"I know you don't I? I heard my dad talking about you." PJ said with an air of caution.
The scarecrow boy merely tilted his head.
"Okay. Do you have a name?" PJ asked.
The boy nodded before holding up his sack from the ground, tilting it upside down and shaking the contents out for the group to see. They watched as dozens of wrapped sweeties fell from the bag and onto the ground, but not in a typical fashion were it would be scattered and all over the place; instead they fell into a pattern that spelt out a word.
"Sam?" PJ read out loud. "Is that your name?"
Sam nodded in response.
"Oh yeah, now I remember! My dad told me about you! You're Samhain, the demon of Halloween. You're awesome!" PJ spluttered in a sudden bout of fanboyism.
Sam simply nodded in approval, then he leaned over and picked up one of the sweeties on the floor and showed it to the group. After that, he then pointed towards the street to the left of the group. A quiet neighbourhood with a few dim lights switched on, illuminating the area in a foggy glow.
"Why isn't he talking?" Glen asked.
"Maybe he can't talk?" Angel theorised.
"Yeah," Bruno said. "That means he's a mutt!"
"You mean a mute, dumbass!" the Krueger boys said in sync yet again.
"Mutts are what you boys are." their sisters followed up in similar simultaneous fashion.
Ignoring the taunts from the group behind him, PJ pondered on what Sam was trying to get at. "You know where the best candy is?" he guessed.
As soon as Sam nodded, he then raced off in the direction of the neighbourhood he pointed out, as if he wanted the others to follow him. Subconsciously, the group started to follow.
Suddenly, Glen rushed out in front. "Wait a minute! We can't follow him!"
"Why not?" Glenda groaned.
"What about stranger danger? We don't know him! What if he's a killer?"
"But wasn't your dad a killer too?" Buddy Krueger asked.
Glen stuttered for an answer at first. "Yes, no, yes, no...that's different..."
"And," Killer stressed. "I think stranger danger only counts for adults. He's probably just another kid like us who wants to get the best candy! I say we follow him."
Glen placed his head in his hands, exasperated. But knowing that he wasn't going to persuade them to change their minds... "Okay, but if there's any trouble, then I want everyone to know that I was right and the smart one here!"
"Don't worry; there's one of him and..." PJ took a moment to count how many of them were here in the group. It hard to keep track of everyone, especially the litter. "Lots of us."
"Let's hurry before he gets all the good candy!" Glenda said impatiently, rushing ahead into the lead.
The other kids followed after her, as she did her best to keep up with the mysterious Sam, who directed them towards their first house at the end of the neighbourhood. A fairly-sized home with one of the windows on the second floor illuminated from the inside, meaning that someone was home, and for the kids, that meant knocking on the door to get some candy.
By the time the group had caught up with Sam, he was taking a few steps towards the front door. Each of them got their little bags ready, preparing for the wonderful experience of feeling the weight of their bags grow with delicious treats. Their mouths were already watering and their eyes were as big as their stomachs.
KNOCK! KNOCK!
Sam's small fist pounded on the door before he followed suit with the other kids, and opened his own little sack, ready to collect some delicious candy and sweets and all kinds of yummy goodness.
The seconds pass by, and there was nothing. The only sound came from the cold breeze that whipped against the tall trees behind them. The kids waited as patiently as they could for some kind of response. But when nothing came from the silent house before them, their tolerance and patience wore thin.
"Maybe no one's home?" Glen inquired.
"Of course someone is home!" Glenda responded, pointing up to the second floor window that was still shining through.
"I don't think he heard the knocking!" Aeryn interjected.
Hearing this, Sam decided to have another go. Pulling back his fist he was ready to strike until Brutus and the other pups stopped his fist half way to the door.
"Allow us." Brutus said.
The Krueger children, both boys and girls, stepped forward and calmly stood in front of the door. At first, none of the other kids knew what to expect.
"What are you doing?" PJ asked them.
"Just watch. This always get's a response." Buffy replied.
Without another word, the litter of boys started banging their hairy fists against the door in a long, continuous barrage that was loud enough to deafen the whole neighbourhood. They were relentless, and they continued to bang against the door with enough force, with the others fearing they would break down the door any minute. As if that wasn't bad enough, the pups then all let out a collective howl together.
Just when it seemed like this assault on the eardrums would never end, the door burst open, and a grumpy-looking old man with thin white hair stepped out. "Pack it in, the lot of ya!" he bellowed, silencing the smirking pups.
Bruno turned back to PJ. "Works every time." he said with a wide grin.
The old man didn't look amused one bit, staring at each of the children with an intimidating glare. "What do y'all want?"
"Tick or treat!" the kids said whilst holding out their empty bags.
"I ain't got any candy! Now scram!" the man shouted bitterly.
"What?" PJ gasped. "You must have a little bit!"
"I told ya, kid, I ain't got any! Now get out of here before I call the cops on y'all."
His threats didn't seem to work that well, especially when Ashley started to giggle. "You talk funny."
The man's eyes bulged open even wider. "I talk funny?" he questioned in an offended manner. "That ain't no way to describe a man with an authentic Texas drawl!"
"Hey," Bruno called out. "Our dad knows someone from Texas!"
"I don't care!" the man shouted. "I told ya, I ain't got no candy, or treats, or anything! Now get off of my property!"
The kids didn't move despite his hollering and menacing tone. He gazed at each of them, waiting for some kind of response. Then Glenda raised her hand.
"What?"
"Do you know the Texas song from Spongebob Squarepants?"
Instead of a verbal response, the man opted to slam the door in their faces and walk back inside, leaving the kids empty handed.
"Wow, what a pile of-" Glenda started to say, until her brother's hand covered her mouth.
"Don't say it." Glen said, then removed his hand from Glenda's mouth once he was sure she wasn't going to finish her insult. "But for once, I agree with you."
"What do we do now?" Angel asked.
PJ shrugged his shoulders. "I guess we go to the next house."
The kids all hung their heads in defeat and sadness, marching away from the grumpy man's house. They hoped they would have more luck with the next one. Before getting too far, PJ noticed that Sam wasn't following them. Instead, the peculiar boy wandered to a different part of the house. PJ stayed behind and watched Sam walk about, until he finally came to a stop.
Sam looked back and then pointed upwards. PJ followed Sam's directions and noticed the brightly lit window on the second floor. "You think there might be candy up there?" he asked, wondering if that was what the mute Halloween boy was indicating. When Sam nodded, PJ called out to the others. "Hey everyone, come back!"
They all did as instructed and returned to the front of the house. "What's going on?" Glenda inquired.
"Sam thinks the old man might be keeping some candy up there." PJ pointed up at the window, with everyone gazing towards the light.
"Well, even if he does somehow know there's candy up there," Aeryn spoke sceptically. "How are we going to get up there?"
"I've got an idea!" Glenda stated. "We build ourselves a catapult and fling Glen up there!"
"Wait, what?" Glen gasped with fright.
Aeryn placed a soothing hand on Glen's arm. "Don't worry, we won't let that happen." she told him reassuringly, soothing his worries instantly, and even making him blush a little in the cheeks.
As this went on, Candy Krueger approached PJ. "Just asking; how strong are you?"
"Huh?" PJ arched an eyebrow at Candy, perplexed by her question. "Well, I think I'm a little strong. I get it from my dad's side-"
Suddenly, the Krueger boys shouted out. "Dogpile! Ladder formation, go!"
Before PJ had time to react, the pups hopped on his back one after the other, piling on top of him and them climbing on top of one another as if they were helping each other into creating a ladder. PJ, taken back, stumbling all over the place, trying to keep his balance and ensure the pups wouldn't fall.
He was about to trip backwards, until Sam offered a helpful hand and heaved himself against PJ's back, stopping the boy from falling and causing the ladder to collapse. His knees were shaking, and his shoulders felt crushed under the heavy weight of having a dozen kids sitting on top of him.
"It's not enough!" Killer called out. "Come on, we need a few more people!"
The Cotton-Totec twins, Aeryn and Ashley, as well as the Tilly-Ray twins, Glen and Glenda, looked to one another, wondering the best course of action. At this point, it was too late to argue; the pups were already stacked up in their attempt to reach the window. Perhaps another person or two would be enough to make it.
"Like my dad says," Glenda stated. "If you don't buy a ticket, you don't win the lottery."
"But dad buys a ticket all the time and never wins." Glen retorted. His sister chose to ignore him.
Glenda carefully stepped on PJ's knee and hoisted herself up. "Sorry about this." she whispered to him before climbing up to the top.
Glen reluctantly followed his sister, doing his best not to hurt PJ, although at this point, there wasn't much anyone could do other than get this over with quickly. Aeryn and Ashley were the next to climb up, with Aeryn making sure the shyer of the siblings made it to the top without getting hurt along the way.
Once they had made it, the ladder of children swayed because of the Halloween winds, making it more difficult to grab the edge of the window. Aeryn lifted Ashley so that she was sitting on her older twin's shoulders. Ashley waved her hands about with the ferocity of a flapping fish out of water. Eventually, she was balanced enough so she could attempt to reach the window.
But it was just beyond her. The little girl's fingernails scrapped just under the ledge and against the wall. "I can't reach! We need one more person!"
"What about Sam?" Aeryn asked.
"No!" PJ shouted with a groan. "If he lets go of me, then I might drop everyone!"
The ladder wobbled the longer they stood, threatening to tip over at any minute unless something was done. Just then, a thought came to Brutus. "Hang on! What about the other girl?"
Bruno looked up at him. "You mean the one in the Frozen costume?"
"Yeah, the one in the..." Brutus went on, but then stopped when he realised what his brother had just said. "You idiot! All the girls are wearing Frozen costumes! I'm talking about the funny, Goth-y looking one."
Glenda wondered who Brutus was talking about for a second, and then it came to her. "Oh, you mean Angel? Yeah, where is she?"
Each child on the ladder looked back down toward the ground, trying to look for Angel, and it didn't take long. They found her standing close to PJ, admiring and swooning over the boy.
"Wow, you really are so strong!" she cooed. "Like a superhero!"
"ANGEL!" all the kids screamed at her.
"What?"
"GET TO THE TOP AND LOOK THROUGH THE WINDOW!" they yelled at her simultaneously.
"Fine." she grunted and flicked her hair in a spoilt manner. With a pout, she hurried herself and began to climb the ladder.
Grunts and groans came from the other kids as she climbed, not too bothered with where her foot would end up whilst ascending, whether that be on top of someone's head or right in their face. She just wanted to get this over and done with.
Eventually, she made it to the top of the ladder, which continued to wobble and sway due to the high winds and increasing weight that was being forced onto PJ stuck at the bottom, with only Sam as his support.
Angel seated herself onto Ashley's shoulders, luckily not hurting the poor girl, though she was quite uncomfortable. Angel reached forward and managed to latch her fingers onto the window ledge, with enough space to move forward and peek inside.
She scanned the room through the glass. The room appeared empty at first, until Angel noticed the grumpy man sitting with his back turned to her on a sofa sitting in the middle of the room, staring at a TV screen that showed a sports game playing live. The man's arm reached out to the side with his gaze still fixated on the TV screen. Angel followed the man's hand, and saw what he was reaching for.
"He has candy!" she whispered below to the other children while she watched the man grab a handful of sweets and treats from a small bowl sitting on a table nearby.
"How much?" Aeryn groaned in a hushed tone, the weight of her sister and Angel on top starting to get the best of her.
"Enough for all of us!" Angel responded. She watched the man stuff his face with treats. He sucked on his sticky fingers, devouring every little treat he could.
Knowing that they were conned out of treats, Glenda nearly yelled out. "That sneaky, ugly, son of a-"
"Glenda!" Glen hushed his sister before she could finish her rant.
"Well," Killer said out loud. "Now that we know he has candy, what do you do?"
"Hold on!" Angel called out to them.
She lowered herself slightly to stay out of sight as the man rose from his chair. Aeryn and Ashley grunted and groaned underneath Angel, not helping with the kids desperately trying to keep balance. But it was necessary to stop the man from seeing her, as he turned around and headed toward another door. He opened it and stepped inside. From peeking over the window still, Angel could just about see the sink that was inside the other room.
Once the man had closed the door, Angel looked down to the other kids. "I think he went into the toilet."
"So now what?" Ashley inquired.
As the kids all passed glances to each other; it seemed they had all come to a unanimous decision on what to do, though Angel wasn't too happy when she picked up on their plan as they all stared up at her. "Why do I have to trouble myself in getting it?"
"Because you're the only one who can reach!" Glen told her.
"I don't know." Angel doubted, fearful that the man would come out of the toilet and spot her taking the candy. Especially since her mother wasn't around to protect her.
Noticing her doubt, Bruno called up to her. "Angel, if you go in there and get the candy, you can kiss PJ afterwards."
"What?" PJ, Aeryn, Ashley and Glenda all gasped.
Suddenly, all of Angel's doubt and hesitation disappeared. "Why didn't you say so?" She wasted no time in leaning up against the windowsill, and pushing up the glass, allowing her to slip in, all before PJ could voice his opinion over the deal about her getting to kiss him after she retrieves the candy...if she retrieves the candy.
Once inside, Angel stood still and silent, looking over to the bathroom door, hearing the commotion inside of the man moving around. She didn't want him to come out when she was getting the candy, and a plan hatched in her head when she saw a small stool lying next to her. Quietly, she picked it up and snuck over to the bathroom door and laid the stool up against the knob. Hopefully this would buy her a few more seconds.
Now she was in the clear to grab the bowl and candy and skedaddle back outside to the others. She tiptoed over to the bowl, the sounds from the TV would hopefully muffle out any noise that she would make. The floor creaked beneath her with each step.
Finally, she made it to the table without a hitch and picked up the bowl with the delicious treats stacked within.
She breathed a sigh of relief and turned to head back out the open window. Then, the colours of the peeling wallpapers around her stole her gaze. "Hmm, not a very nice colour scheme. He should go with something more exotic as my mother would say-"
"Angel?" Aeryn's soft calls alerted Angel. "What's taking so long?"
"Relax," Angel whispered back. "I have the candy, and the man isn't returning any time soon..."
She was about to eat those words, for right at that very moment the bathroom door was PULLED open, not pushed like she hoped. The stool that was pressed up against the door tipped over, and landed hard right on the man's foot, causing him to jump up and yell in pain. "What the Sam-Hill is-" He paused and did a double take when he saw Angel standing in the middle of his room, holding the bowl of candy.
"Uh oh," Angel whimpered before making a quick dash for the window, just as the man limped after her yelling obscenities
"Catch me!" she yelled, getting closer to the open window.
Hearing her cries faintly, PJ called up. "What did she say?"
Ashley looked down the ladder toward her brother. "I think she said-"
"CATCH ME!" Angel's shouts carried over across the whole neighbourhood as she leapt out of the window and into Ashley's arms. Though the momentum caused the ladder to tilt as each of the kids held onto each other, trying to prevent one another from falling.
PJ's legs stumbled back away from the house and over toward the forest they had emerged from earlier. He tried with all his strength to keep the human ladder straight up, but the weight was too much for him and he could feel his grip loosening. He feared that they would all drop and fall from the sky, until he ended up crashing into the bark of a tree. Thankfully, all the other kids were able to grasp onto branches and keep themselves from falling to the ground.
PJ picked himself up and saw the other kids climb on down from the tree, until finally, Angel was the last who scaled down the tree whilst holding the bowl of candy in one hand. Once she planted her feet safely back onto the grassy ground, she was brushed herself and struck a pose. "Graceful like a lady."
"You were about as graceful as a hippopotamus!" Glenda sniped.
Angel glared at Glenda. The two looked like they were going to have a few choice words with each other, until Angel felt the bowl of candy swiped from her hands by the Krueger kids. "We've got it!" Brutus shouted out victoriously, and soon enough the other boys started high-fiving each other.
PJ was almost about to jump in on the celebrations, when his path was blocked by Angel, who puckered her lips at him. "Now, remember the promise that if I got the bowl, I get to kiss you!"
"Huh? Wait?" PJ hesitated and backed away when Angel started to advance on him.
However, the moment didn't last. The front door to the old man's house burst open, and the man himself barged outside and sent an rage-filled look the children's way. "Y'all gonna be in more trouble than a field mouse in a rattlesnake cage when I'm through with you!"
Instead of backing down, Aeryn stepped forward and shouted back, "You had candy when you said you didn't! You're not very good at sharing!"
"I don't give a hoot about sharing. Now I'm gonna call the cops on y'all!"
"You can't call the police on us for taking candy on Halloween!" Glen retorted.
"Oh, I can. Just you wait and see..." the man ranted on and on, giving one threat after the other to the children. But, unbeknownst to him, Sam snuck up behind him and waited like a shadow.
The other kids watched Sam, as he brought out his favourite lollipop with a jagged bite mark on it. He rubbed his fingers against one of the sharper tips, like a blacksmith polishing his weapon, until a glint shone from the bitten candy. Ready, he brought his arm back before jabbing the lollipop right into the man's behind.
The man's eyes watered and bulged wide, his whole body jolted with pain before he shot up into the air, leaving a puff of smoke where he stood, almost like something out of a cartoon. He flew up so high that he managed to grab the ledge of the window Angel had used to sneak in, and held on for dear life so not to fall back down to ground. "Hey, get me down! Y'all gonna pay for this!" he cried out. His feet dangled in the air, kicking against the side of his house in the hope of finding something to stand on, but were unsuccessful.
Sam scurried over toward the other kids, who all clapped and cheered as the man struggled to keep a firm grip on the window ledge. Each of them patted Sam on the back and congratulated him on teaching the man a lesson.
"Now then," PJ said, getting the others' attentions. "Let's go to the other houses, and get as much candy as possible!"
Much Later On...
Thankfully, the following houses the children visited weren't nearly as hostile or unwelcoming as the Texas man. In some, they were welcomed with folk that were delighted to fill their bags with buckets of candy, sweets and any other treats they desired. There were others that were a bit more conscious with how many sweets they handed out. There was even one house that offered free toothbrushes and toothpaste with every candy they gave.
Every house they passed meant their bags and sacks grew heavier and heavier, until it got to the point where they could no longer carry them, and were instead dragging them along the ground whilst still on the lookout for more.
At this point, they considered their new friend Sam a lucky Halloween omen. This was turning into the best Halloween ever. Though that feeling didn't last much longer after they had been given candy from the last house in the neighbourhood...
Candy now filled their bags to the brim, and each child was finding it difficult to say the least.
"PJ! Aeryn!" Ashley called out while trying to lift her candy bag up. "I can't move my bag anymore."
Before her siblings could hurry over to help out their little sister, Buster Krueger was already close by and lifted the bag up with ease and took the pressure off the tiny little girl. "Here, I got it!"
"Aw, thank you." Ashley said to him.
Buster smiled back at the girl, and steadied himself to lift up the heavy bag of treats. He wrapped his arms around it, and lifted it up pretty easily. Too easily. "Hey, this is pretty light." he commented. However, it soon became clear why he was able to lift the bag effortlessly, because he wasn't the only one lifting it up.
The bag was then snatched from his hand, causing Buster to fall to the ground. Behind them were three teenage boys with leather jackets and each riding bicycles. The boy at the front, holding Ashley's bag of candy laughed. "Looks like we hit the jackpot tonight." The two other boys chuckled darkly afterwards.
"Hey, that's mine! Give it back!" Ashley whined, trying to hold back tears.
"Well, it's mine now! Why don't you go cry to mommy and daddy!" He then hooked the bag over the handlebars of his bike, and before any of the kids knew what to do, the biker boys put their foot on their pedals and charged off down the street, continuing to laugh and snicker to themselves. As they went off, one of the boys kicked his leg out and knocked over a pumpkin with a carved face on it, causing it to smash to pieces upon impact.
Sam's body flinched when he saw what the boy had done to the pumpkin. He was already angered that someone had stolen another child's Halloween candy, but busting open a jack-o-lantern during Halloween night was a step too far.
PJ and Aeryn rushed over to cuddle their teary sister. "They took my candy.'' she whimpered and sniffed.
"Don't worry, we'll get it back!" PJ consoled her. He then turned around and walked over to Sam. "Can you help us get my little sister's candy back?"
Sam nodded confidently.
"How are we going to get it back?" Glen asked curiously.
"I say we scare them!" Glenda suggested.
"Oh, we like that!" the Krueger pups agreed unanimously.
Though PJ liked that idea himself, he thought it through more. "We'll need something more than just our costumes if we want to really scare those bullies!"
He then felt Sam tap him on the shoulder a few times. PJ turned to see what Sam wanted, and the little Halloween boy took a few steps back, placing his sack on the ground before bringing his fingers up to his mask-covered mouth. Despite the bag over his head, Sam was able to let out a bone-chilling, loud whistle that echoed throughout the night.
A cold wind enveloped them all, causing chills to run up their spines, as all of a sudden, green, transparent hands burst forth from the ground and bodies began to rise up from beneath, giving the kids a right good scare at first. The bodies of those rising from the ground were transparent, with a tint of green glowing around them. Chains shackled to their arms and legs, and ragged cloth hung from them like capes and cloaks.
One of the ghouls floated over toward Sam, seeming menacing, which didn't help calm the trembling children who watched on in fright...until the ghoul let out a long, over exaggerated yawn and stretched his arms out. "This better be good, Samhain! I haven't had a good night's rest in over a hundred years!"
Sam waved his hand to gesture the ghost closer. The transparent figure did as instructed, leaning closer as Sam raised his hand to cover his mouth from the kid's line of sight. He seemed like he was whispering something into the ghost's ear, who listened intently. Once Sam had finished, the ghost reeled his head back in shock. "Stealing a child's Halloween candy? That's the number one crime anyone can commit on this glorious night!"
"Hang on a second!" Glenda called out. "Sam can talk?"
The ghost shook his head. "Oh no, he can't say a word."
The kids shared a perplexed look before PJ asked the obvious question. "Then how can you understand him?"
It's a Halloween thing, you wouldn't understand." he answered before turning to Sam. "So I take it these are your new friends, Samhain?"
The Halloween boy answered with a confident nod of the sack-covered head.
Ashley nudged forward, getting the ghost's attention. "Are you going to help get my candy back?"
"But of course!" the ghost proclaimed proudly, and then the other apparitions surrounding them chanted in agreement. "Sam says you need to teach some bullies a lesson, and reckon a good scare ought to do it. So, can you all be especially scary?"
"Well," Bruno said. "Our dad says we can be little terrors!"
"That's good enough!"
PJ rubbed his hands together, and a gleeful smile formed underneath his glowing scarecrow mask. "Come on everyone; let's show those bullies the true spirit of Halloween!"
Elsewhere...
Their bikes skidded to a halt, and the teenagers stepped off and walked deeper into the dark forest. Cackling and joking amongst themselves, as the lead boy filled his hand with the candy he had taken. "Like taking candy from a baby...literally!"
"Yeah!" his two friends uttered like dogs on a command.
"You know something?" the lead boy turned to his comrades in crime. "We shouldn't keep all this candy to ourselves."
"We shouldn't?"
"No, we'll have a bit for ourselves. And then give the rest to any other little boys and girls we come across...for a price!"
"But will kids want to buy Halloween candy when they can just go to people's houses?"
The lead boy sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Two things! One, it's late at night and all the good candy will be long gone by now. And second, kids are stupid! They get so wrapped up in this Halloween mumbo-jumbo, they'll buy anything as long as a jack-o-lantern is stamped across it. If we say it's special Halloween candy, or something like that, then they'll be a line the size of a queue to buy the next iPhone 72 or whatever to buy our stuff."
"I guess that makes sense."
"Of course it does. Because we know all this spirit of Halloween is a bunch of crap. Ghosts and spirits, and respecting the rules of Halloween, a load of-" His statement was cut short when a strong gust of wind blew the candy bag right out of his grasp and up into the air.
As if it was playing in slow motion, the teenagers rushed to try and catch the bag before it fell to the ground...except it never did fall. Instead, the bag remained hovering in the air, drifting about slightly in the calming wind, before vanishing into nothingness before the teenagers' very eyes.
"Uh...did the bag just disappear?" one of the boys whispered, suddenly feeling very cold.
The lead teenager tried to shake it off as nothing more than an illusion. "Don't be ridiculous!" he barked. "It's late, we're tired, and we probably just imagined it. The bag must have fallen somewhere else. Look for it!"
They did just that, splitting up into three separate directions and searching the ground for any sign of bag or the treats inside. However, there wasn't a single trace of the bag, and before long, a series of howls sounded off in the distance, carried along by the cold whip of the wind.
"What was that?" the other boy cowered with chattering teeth.
"It...it was just dogs barking!" the lead boy snapped yet again, turning to face both of them. "Will you two stop acting so paranoid?"
He watched them both, their faces paling until they were as white as freshly cleaned bed sheets, and the pupils in their eyes shrank. Their sight was fixated on something behind the lead teen. He wanted to think it was all some kind of trick on their behalf, but seeing the terrified look on their faces confirmed his suspicions that there was something scary looking behind him.
Slowly turned, he jumped back and gasped, holding onto his two chums for dear life. They cowered away from the approaching figures. Half a dozen ghosts advanced on them, green slime leaking from their transparent shoulders. And if that wasn't bad enough, at their feet was miniature looking monsters blanketed in shadow. It was too difficult for the teens to recognise the smaller monsters as the kids they had stolen the candy from. Even without the shadows, they were too scared by the ghostly sight before them.
They backed away, hoping to get away from the ghosts, but once they turned around they were trapped by a wall of little girls, all wearing demonic looking versions of the Elsa and Anna costumes. Each of them raised their hands, and hissed in sinister, musical chime; "Do you want to build a scarecrow?"
Then, a cloud of green dust exploded in between the teens and the girls. When the dust cleared, two figures that resembled scarecrows from Hell stood tall and proud. Sam and PJ got really invested into their act, outstretching their arms and curving their fingers so they resembled talons or claws. Teeth sharp in their foaming mouths, and their eyes glowed brightly green, matching their frightening aura.
PJ extended his hand and pointed towards the terrified teens. "You have disrespected the rules of Halloween!" he said in his darkest voice.
"We...we're...we're sorry!" the teenage boys pleaded with shaking knees. "We'll never disrespect the rules of Halloween again!"
"Good!" PJ snarled. "Because if you do, whether that be breaking someone's pumpkin or stealing candy, then we will find you...and we will tear your souls apart."
That was too much of a scare for the teenage hooligans, and they soon sprinted faster than Usain Bolt in the other direction leaving a cloud of smoke in their wake and running and screaming into the night.
Once they had gone, the scary atmosphere in the area seemed to fade away. The shadows around the boys evaporated, the slime melted off the ghosts, and the girls' costumes appeared to return back into their normal, cute princess-ey looking form.
PJ jumped for joy. "Yeah! That was awesome!" Sam nodded in agreement.
The ghosts hovered over towards PJ. "Wow, that was an amazing display, kid. Loved the line at the end as well. Nice touch."
"Thanks, I got it from my dad." PJ said.
That word seemed to trigger something in Aeryn, who called out to the group. "Speaking of which, I think we should be getting back to our parents now. It's been a while."
"I agree." Glen said.
"Yeah, I say the fun is over for tonight." Killer commented.
"And it has been a lot of fun!" Ashley said cheerfully. She then felt someone tap her lightly on her arm. She turned and saw a ghost holding out his hand, and in his palm, her bag of sweets materialised before her very eyes. A squeal of delight escaped her lips as she happily took the bag. "Thank you."
"Excuse me!" Glenda shouted to get everyone's attention. "How are we going to find our parents anyway?"
She brought up a good point. They had wandered around so much tonight that they lost track of where they started their journey earlier that night. No one had any idea on where to even start to find their way back home. That is until they heard a faint noise coming from the horizon. It started small, and then it started to grow.
"Hey, I know that sound." PJ said, recognising the voice. But unable to think of where he'd heard it from. The noise wasn't a...pleasant one, to say the least, and the sound of a wailing voice that tried to sound like a country singer didn't help. Although it was helpful enough for PJ to finally remember who was making that noise. "It's Uncle Ghostface!"
"We can follow the sounds of his singing!" Aeryn said.
The main ghost jabbed his fingers into his ears, rubbing within. "Really? That's a person singing? And people say the dead make a lot of wailing."
"Well, we've got to go now." PJ said to the ghosts. "This was fun. We should do this next Halloween if you want."
The ghosts all offered warm smiles back to the children, waving them goodbye before disappearing into the night, their green glows fading into tiny little glints that gave the area around them a very festive look.
The Cotton-Totec boy turned to Sam and offered out his hand. "I'm going to miss you, new friend."
Sam looked at PJ's hand curiously, almost as if he was not sure what to do next. To help, PJ grabbed Sam's hand and shook it within his grasp. Eventually, Sam got the idea and shook along with him. The two let go and parted ways, with everyone else saying their goodbyes to the little Halloween boy as well.
The last one to leave of the group was Angel, who offered a simple wave and grin. Just as she was turning to leave, Sam raised his hand to stop her. She did so and wondered what he was up to. Sam took out his favourite lollipop, with the bite mark still on it, and handed it over to Angel. Her stares changed from looking at the lollipop to Sam, and she was soon taken back by the kind gesture. She took the lollipop from him and looked upward to thank him, however, he was already gone out of sight. Angel looked around for any sign of him, but there was none. With a faint blush on her cheeks she rushed off to catch up with the other kids.
Meanwhile, Back with the Adults...
"Oh my fucking God, is this really worth it?" Freddy cringed while trying to cover his ears.
"If this will help us find our children, then yes, it is worth it Frederick!" Pinhead groaned back, while also trying to cover his ears. Though he was determined to see this plan of using Ghostface's loud singing as beacon for the children to possibly hear and find, he was starting to wish he hadn't suggested it.
Ghostface didn't waste his moment to shine. He sang loudly and rocked his musical instrument like there was no tomorrow, whilst everyone else around him either kept a look out for the children, or cowered to find a place to hide from the dreaded sounds of the scream-mask wearer's country vocals...
"Islands in the streaaaaaam! That is whaaaat we aaaaaare!"
Chucky continuously bashed his head on the ground continuously. "I think my head is going to explode...again!"
Holding in the cringe-worthy pain of the sounds that were surely bursting her eardrums, Kirsty threw her arms around Pinhead's neck in frantic worry. "Oh, Pinny! What are we going to do? What if we can't find our babies?''
"We will find them, my sweet." Pinhead said assuring, while holding Kirsty close to him, gritting his teeth, trying to ignore Ghostface's continued singing.
"Perhaps," Elliot spoke up. "We will be more successful if we split up...?"
Freddy and Chucky quickly rose to their feet. "I call the group that doesn't include Ghostface!"
For the first time in what felt like forever, Ghostface stopped playing and turned to the group. ''Hey, just a reminder; it was your idea to let me play!"
"Yes," Freddy said with a sinister tone while glaring over purposely at Pinhead. "And remind me to shish-kebab the person who suggested that idea!"
"There will be no shish-kebabing, Frederick!" Pinhead yelled angrily. "We will not rest until our children are brought back safe and sound..."
After his speech was done, Angelique slithered closer to him. ''Oh Xipe, you're so strong and brave. Like a superhero. It excites me to see you..." She paused in her sultry compliments, and the sly smirk on her face disappeared. "This doesn't feel right. My Angel is out there, and I want to know if she's okay." She folded her arms and stared off into the distance, hoping to catch a glimpse of her daughter.
Freddy and Chucky looked at each other in shock. "Country-faces's singing must have broken my ears, because for a second I thought I heard Angelique turn down the chance to hog PinBoy?"
"Yeah," Chucky mumbled to his buddy, and then he listened intently as another sound was heard in the distance. "I must be going mad too, because I swear I can hear your kids yapping!"
Freddy listened in, trying to pick up on the sounds that Chucky was hearing. He too could eventually hear the sounds of barking and yapping, growing louder and louder. "Yeah that sounds like them. Killer has a bit of a lower pitch, while the girls have a higher tone."
"How the hell can you tell their barks apart?" Chucky asked. "You've got like two dozen kids!"
As the two failed to realise the bigger picture with hearing the barks coming from the children, Ginger rushed over to Freddy. "Wait? You can hear them?"
"Yeah, I can..." Freddy started, but then stopped mid-sentence when he realised what she was implying. "Oh my God, I can hear them! They must be getting close..."
He yelped when a dozen little kids tackled him from behind and he fell hard to the ground as his sons and daughters hugged him tightly while he gasped for air on the ground.
"My babies!" Ginger squealed as she dived on top of Freddy to cuddle her children tightly.
Soon after that, the other children rushed into view, and it was like a parents race to see who could hug and embrace their kids the fastest, but it was too close to call. Kirsty and Pinhead wrapped their arms around their little trio of PJ, Aeryn and Ashley. Tiffany gripped her arms snuggly around Glen and Glenda, whilst also involving Chucky in their little family hug. Although the doll wasn't having too much fun as he was getting crushed between his wife's...um...womanly bits, though that wasn't the worst thing that could happen to him.
Angel approached her mother, who for a split second seemed like she was going to burst into tears, until she returned back into a more graceful posture. A Princess of Hell has a reputation that needs to be up held. "I knew you would make it back safe and sound."
Without warning, the little girl rushed to Angelique's leg and hugged her tightly. "Sorry if I worried you, mommy." Angelique's arms slowly moved over Angel's shoulders and pulled her in closer, subtly so that the other members of the group couldn't see her show her more warmer side.
Eventually, Kirsty let go of her children and looked at them all. "Where were you all night? What happened?"
"We had the greatest Halloween ever!" PJ answered excitedly. "Well, it didn't start too great because we didn't know what house to go to but then we met this boy named Sam who didn't talk much but helped us to find houses with lots of candy but there was this grumpy old man that wouldn't give us candy so Angel had to sneak into his house to get it then we ran into some bullies and we met up with some ghosts and..." the boy babbled before his parents had time to even register what he was saying.
"Slow down, PJ, slow down." Kirsty said. "We'll have plenty of time to talk later, but right now, let's just get you all home."
"Can we also take all our candy home too?" Ashley inquired innocently whilst holding up her full bag of candy. The parents looked around and noticed every single child had a loaded bag of candy, completely filled and would no doubt lead to many days of hyperactivity, aching tummies and much need for lots of tooth brushing afterwards. "We got lots!" Ashley said.
Understatement of the year.
"Yeah," Glenda said. "I helped lead us all to get lots of candy."
Hearing this, Chucky laughed proudly. "That's my girl."
"Hold on short stuff," Freddy called out interrupting the doll's moment of pride. "I think she's pulling strings. Clearly my kids led the way if they were the first ones back!"
"You mean the first ones to run home with their tails between their legs." Chucky mumbled.
"Gentleman, please," Pinhead called out, hoping to calm the situation. "Charles, Frederick, this is not the time or place to determine which of your children presented more leadership qualities in helping their group to find their way back home to us. Besides, my little PJ obviously took charge and showed great-"
"Shut up!" Freddy and Chucky shouted at him at the same time.
Kirsty facepalmed hard while using her other arm to hold her kids close. "Really? You three are still arguing about that? Maybe our children have learned to get along with each other and work together as a team...something you three can't seem to grasp."
"We can work as a team." Freddy replied.
"We just don't want to." Chucky followed on.
"Figures." Kirsty muttered grumpily.
Despite her sour attitude concerning the dads' scuffles over their kids, Kirsty couldn't be more happy and relieved to see her children back safely in her arms again, happy and healthy, as were the other kids with their parents. It was such a beautiful moment, that even Ghostface had to wipe away a tear from his mask-covered face. "This is so wonderful," he said. "Why don't I help set the mood with another song-"
"NOOOOO!''
''Oh come on, even when I save the day you guys won't let me sing?''
''A meteor shower wouldn't be strong enough to convince me to listen to your singing again.'' Freddy taunted.
Instead of being offended, Ghostface felt inspired and took out his notebook. ''Oh, I can use that as a lyric for my new song!''
Later, Cotton-Totec Residence...
Kirsty peered her head through the open door, and her heart warmed seeing the kids fast asleep in their own beds, snoring away loudly. Each of them still had their costumes on, and PJ's magical scarecrow suit had now reverted back to how it was when his dad bought it at the store and before Leviathan worked his magic on it.
They may have given her a good scare tonight, but seeing their sleepy faces made her feel much better. Though she promised herself that next year, she would keep an even closer eye on them. She would like to go one Halloween without something going wrong.
Once she was sure they wouldn't be waken up, Kirsty slowly closed their bedroom door and headed back to her own room, and making sure to switch the hall lights off. The light coming from her and Pinhead's bedroom, through the creak in the door, helped her to find the way in the pitch black darkness of Halloween night.
Finally reaching her destination, she opened the door and was greeted by Pinhead, who stood at the edge of their king-sized bed. "Are they asleep?" he asked.
"Yep! Safe, sound, and snoring. I would imagine the night they've had, they would have fallen straight to sleep."
"I agree. They must be exhausted."
Kirsty nodded. For the past few hours she had been filled with worry and dread, wondering what her children had gotten up to. But now that they were back in their beds, she could relax properly for the first time. "How about, for next Halloween, we just have a nice indoor party?"
"That would be a nice change of pace." Pinhead concurred.
It had been a long night for them too, but neither felt all that tired, especially when compared to their kids. Pinhead was brought out of his thoughts when he heard the faint click of their bedroom door lock. He looked forward and saw Kirsty standing there, with her arms behind her back and over the doorknob, and a seductive smile on her face. "Kirsty?" Pinhead started.
"Well, now that the children are asleep, I can finally take this costume off," She then reached up to grab the zipper at the front of her suit, but she didn't undo it. Instead she kept her hand hovering across it. She looked at Pinhead and pouted at him. "Do you want to help me?"
"I..." Pinhead stuttered, unconsciously walking closer to Kirsty with his hands stretching outwards and too mesmerized to speak. But just before he could grab the zipper on her suit, his hands retreated. "Uh...nothing is going to pop out, is it? Particularly a furry pet belonging to our daughter with two long ears? It was embarrassing enough to be surprised by it once!"
Kirsty sighed, trying to stop herself from chuckling at seeing Pinhead cower under the fear he was going to get scared by a breast-popping rabbit. "Don't worry. He's safely tucked away in his rabbit hutch. I checked."
"You're not just saying that to trick me?"
"I promise you, nothing is going to pop out of this costume..." Kirsty said sincerely. Though her expression changed when she considered her words, and she looked at Pinhead again with a sultry look. "Although, if you hurry and unzip me, two things will actually pop out of this costume."
Hearing her playful teasing words made Pinhead quickly get over his fears. As she took another step closer, enticing him more, he finally found the courage to reach for her zipper and began to slowly pull it down. With every passing second, more and more of her was exposed to him as her costume slipped off her shoulders and the top halves of her breasts were revealed. Pinhead wasted no time, and quickly planted his lips over the skin of her neck. He made his way downwards, leaving a trail of feather-like kisses from her neck towards the top of her breasts.
Kirsty moaned with delight, throwing her arms around his neck. Whilst sighing with pleasure, she pulled his head closer to whisper in his ear; "Why don't you let me repay the favour, by allowing me to take your clothes off?" she said before giving a little nibble on his ear.
"That would be delightful." Pinhead responded, watching Kirsty's fingers reach out for his buttoned-up shirt.
Slowly and deliberately as if to turn him on, Kirsty pulled on the collar of his shirt, and the buttons started to pop open one by one, going down the entire front of his shirt until they were all undone. But before she could slip it off entirely, she noticed something underneath her husband's shirt; a sudden flash of blue and red, something which surprised and amused her simultaneously. She stopped and stared in bemusement whilst holding the partings to his shirt open.
"Honey, what's this?" she asked, pointing at the familiar latex material over his chest.
"What..." Pinhead groaned, unaware of what his wife was seeing. He was so wrapped up in the pleasure of the moment he failed to notice that Kirsty was looking to him and his chest in confusion. When he finally did see her and looked down at his chest, his face paled as he remembered something he had completely forgot about because of the missing kids drama earlier. "Oh...you see...I can explain..."
"Go on then. I'd love to hear you explain why, after you said you wasn't going to wear a costume, you're now wearing a Superman costume!" Kirsty smirked.
Indeed, Pinhead had the familiar blue and red Superman costume, with the 'S' symbol showing proudly on the Cenobite's chest. His eyes shifted around the room, looking anywhere except Kirsty's face, as if he was trying to look for some kind of excuse. "Well...you see...at the store, PJ saw it, and wanted for me to try it on, just to see how it would look. And I must have forgotten to take it off as I left the shop."
"Wouldn't the theft alarms have gone off? Unless you paid for it."
"No, no, it was just an honest mistake. Why would I want a Superman costume?"
She wanted to probe a little further with her interrogation. It was fun seeing Pinhead squirm and try to talk his way out of admitting that he just wanted to wear the costume himself. But, they had other matters to attend to. So, going along with his excuse Kirsty's hands slipped down towards his belt buckle, swiftly undoing it before pulling it off his jeans, which then fell down his legs. Before Pinhead could do anything else, Kirsty almost did a double take when she noticed something else which had lay underneath his jeans. "You're even wearing the red trunks?" she giggled.
Standing tall, with both his shirt and jeans gone, Pinhead had the full old-fashioned Superman costume from head to toe. Yes, even the red trunks over the blue tights, which Kirsty couldn't help but stare at, especially since there was a noticeable bulge which pushed out obscenely beneath.
Once again, Pinhead was left baffled as to what to say next. "Uh...I didn't even notice. It's not like I deliberately looked for the one with red trunks-" He stopped mid-sentence and his eyes widened in their sockets as he felt Kirsty's hand place over the bulge in his red trunks.
"It doesn't matter. You won't be wearing them for long anyway." she whispered seductively, trailing a fingertip along the smooth yellow belt which set off the red trunks she so desperately wanted to remove. "Now help me out of my costume, and I'll help you out of yours." she cooed, trailing her other finger along the red and yellow 'S' on his chest. "Superheroes have to help each other."
It was like a dream come true for Pinhead hearing Kirsty say those words, and he wasted no time in reaching for her zipper. He began to pull it down, about to reveal all of her gorgeous body to him...
...Until a fluffy little rabbit sprang up from between Kirsty's breasts and almost scared the life out of Pinhead once again, causing him to jump over the bed, bounce off it and collapse to the ground in a heap.
The End...