Hi, everyone. Here is my story for the Halloween challenge from the BTR Writers' Support and Plot Adoption Forum. It's a bit rushed, because I wrote it in like a day, but I hope you all like it.


The day in which Carlos shows up at Apartment 2J with a black cat cradled in his arms, the boys don't think much of it. After all, it seems like the kind of thing Carlos would do – brining in a stray animal in the hopes of finding it a home, despite what Bitters might have to say about it.

"Carlos, you can't just bring in a stray cat into the apartment," Logan says as he paces around the living room, eyes occasionally drifting down to the animal sitting atop the brown coffee table, licking its paws. "How did you even bring it in here anyway?"

"Hid him in my jacket." Carlos shrugs as he slides off the couch, plops down on the floor, and starts to scratch behind the cat's ear. The animal lets out a loud purr in response. "He was a very good boy. Weren't you, Buttons?"

"You named the cat… Buttons?" James chuckles and shakes his head. "What if he has a home?"

"He doesn't have a collar."

"Could've fallen off," Logan notes.

"Where did you find him?" Kendall asks as he walks into the room with a bowl filled with water in one hand. He places it in front of the cat, who sniffs it, makes a face, and turns back to headbutt Carlos. This causes a smile to spread across Carlos' face.

"The alley behind Rocque Records," he says, pressing a kiss to the cat's head a second later. "He was all alone, meowing at me. I mean, look at him." He hugs the cat to him and pouts. "How could I just leave him all by himself?"

"He is kind of cute," Logan mumbles as he reaches for the cat. The animal wriggles out of Carlos' hold and walks up to Logan's hand, sniffing at it curiously. "But, Carlos, there's no way Bitters will let us have a cat in here."

"Yeah, isn't there some kind of no-animal policy or something?" James asks.

"If he finds out, he's gonna kill us."

"Who says he has to know?" Carlos says, directing the question at Kendall, who had last spoken. "He hardly comes up here. And if he does, then we'll hide Buttons."

"Yeah, 'cause I'm sure hiding him in your jacket is gonna work."

Carlos rolls his eyes at Logan. "It worked to get him in here, didn't it?"

"Yeah, but… I don't know, Carlos."

"Come on, Logie. We can't just leave him out in the cold all by himself," Kendall says.

"Kendall, it's October. We're in Los Angeles. It's not cold."

"Still!" Carlos frowns and tightens his arms around the cat once again. "He needs us to take care of him. Especially with Halloween coming up…" He trails off, his eyes growing sad. "I don't want someone to do something to him just because they think he's evil."

Logan lets out an exasperated sigh and turns to look at Kendall, who gives him a look, which Logan recognizes as his "don't look at me" look. "Fine," he says, pursing his lips together. "I guess we can keep him—" Before he can finish speaking, Carlos is already raising a hand in the air, a triumphant cry slipping past his lips. "For now," he adds, which seems to do nothing to diminish Carlos' enthusiastic mood.

"You're not gonna regret it! You're gonna love him," Carlos says, grinning from ear to ear. "Come on, Buttons." He lifts the cat from the coffee table and up into his arms. "I'm gonna show you my room and let you get all cozy. And then I'm gonna go and get you some food and a litter box. We can't have you making a mess on the carpet, can we?"

"He's already attached to him," Kendall whispers and nudges Logan on the side. His eyes are trained on Carlos' back as he walks away toward his room.

Logan watches him go as well. The cat's face is visible from that angle, since his paws are resting against Carlos' right shoulder, his yellow eyes staring straight at Logan. He blinks once, then twice, his lips quirking up at the edges. It almost looks like he's smiling.

"I'm just glad I don't have to share a room with him," Logan mutters, tearing his eyes away and looking down at James.

"Oh, come on, Logie. Cats are sweet," Kendall says.

"I'm allergic."

"So? They're still sweet."

"Not so sweet when they make me sneeze every few minutes."

"You're so bitter sometimes, you know that?" This time, it's James who has spoken. "I'm surprised your last name isn't Bitters."

"Ha-ha." Logan rolls his eyes and smacks James' knee. "You're so funny."

James grins. "I can't have my good looks be the only good thing about me, can I?"

Logan smacks him again.

"Ow! I'm kidding, I'm kidding."

"You better be," Logan tells him.

"Maybe we should help out Carlos." As he says this, Kendall moves to grab the bowl of water and starts walking toward the kitchen to dump it in the sink.

"Help him with what?" James asks. He pushes himself off the couch and follows Kendall, as Logan trails behind.

"Getting food and things for the cat."

"But it's his cat."

"Doesn't mean we can't help out." Kendall turns around, fixing them with a stern look. "I'm gonna go to the grocery store. Do either of you wanna come along?"

Logan shrugs. "I'll go, I guess. Let me just get my hoodie from my room."

Kendall smirks at this. "I thought you said it wasn't cold."

"It's not, but…"

Kendall holds up a hand, causing Logan to trail off. "Just go get your hoodie, Logie."

Logan rolls his eyes at him but does as he's told. As he passes by James and Carlos' open bedroom door, he manages to spot Carlos on his bed, trying to get the cat to play with his red watch. He shakes his head and continues walking. Once inside his room, he grabs his hoodie and the car keys, and then makes his way back to where he left Kendall and James.

"James, are you coming?" Logan asks while he's putting on his hoodie.

"Nah, I think I'm staying home, but you guys should probably buy some candy while you're there. Halloween's only two days away, after all."

"Right, candy. Got it."

"Make sure to bring some Snickers!" James calls out as Logan and Kendall are walking through the door.

"For you or for the trick-or-treaters?" Logan grins, peeking his head back in. All he gets in response is the frown that comes to James' face. "I'm joking. Anything else?"

"Not that I can think of," James says.

Logan nods. "Okay. Call if you guys need anything."

"Will do."

Once the door is closed behind him, Logan turns to Kendall. "Come on, let's go." He grabs Kendall by the arm and pulls him along with him.


At the store, Kendall manages to find a silver bowl and a food bowl that's blue on the outside and white on the inside. On the outside, it says "Good Kitty," with a heart next to it.

"He better be a good kitty," Logan says when he sees it. Even then, he can't hide the smile from his voice.

"What did you get?" Kendall asks, nodding to the green basket hanging from Logan's arm.

Logan rummages through it as he lists what he got. "Some candies, canned food, some dry food, some treats, this fuzzy-looking toy—" He holds up a toy that looks like a dead rat. Kendall scrunches up his nose at the sight of it. "And some catnip."

"For someone who doesn't want a cat in the apartment, you sure got him a lot of stuff."

"I'm not a monster. Might as well make him comfortable while he's there."

"Yeah," Kendall says, smiling at Logan, "might as well."


"What are you guys gonna dress up as for Halloween?" Katie asks a couple of hours later as they're all sitting in the living room. Buttons is sprawled out across her lap, purring happily as she rubs his stomach.

"I thought you were 'too old' for trick-or-treating," Kendall says before tossing some popcorn into his mouth. On the TV, a rerun of Beetlejuice is playing.

"I didn't say I was gonna go trick-or-treating," Katie says, nudging him with his foot. "I asked what you were gonna dress up as."

"I didn't know we had Halloween plans," Kendall says, but his eyes aren't on Katie – they're locked on the TV.

"We don't," Katie says flatly, "but it's still fun to dress up."

"What are you gonna dress up as?" Kendall asks when a commercial starts playing. His question is directed at Katie, who now has her arms folded across her chest. Appearing to be unsatisfied with the sudden lack of attention, Buttons jumps off her lap and starts to rub himself against Carlos' legs.

Katie pouts but turns to Kendall. "It's a surprise."

"You're not gonna dress up as a spider again, are you?" Kendall asks, to which Katie fevertly shakes her head.

"That was when I was five, Kendall."

"And when you were eight."

"When I was eight I didn't dress up as a spider."

"Yes you did. You wore all black and had a bunch of legs."

"I was a tarantula!"

"Same thing."

"That is not the same thing."

"Is too."

"Is not."

"Is too!"

"Is no—"

"Have you guys noticed that Buttons has a spot under his chin?" Carlos asks, which causes him to receive puzzled looks from everyone in the room.

"All cats have spots, Carlos," Logan says from where he's sitting on Kendall's other side.

"Yeah, but his almost looks like—"

"A star?" James asks as he peers down at the cat, his eyes landing on the spot Carlos has mentioned. There is a spot under his chin – a white one that seems to be a star inside a circle. "Uh. Is it me or does that look like a pentagram?"

"It does," Carlos whispers under his breath.

"You guys are just imagining things," Logan says with a roll of his eyes.

Carlos swallows. "Yeah, you're probably right." He reaches down and pulls Buttons onto the couch along with him. He stares into his eyes and frowns. "He seems like a normal cat, right?" he asks, turning to the others.

"Seems pretty normal to me," James says carefully. "Maybe he's just a special little fella. Aren't you, Buttons?" he coos as Buttons licks at his extended hand.

The others roll their eyes and turn their attention back to the movie.


That night, as Carlos is laying in bed, he can't seem to get comfortable no matter how hard he tries. It takes him a couple of hours to fall asleep, and then he suddenly awakens, feeling out of breath. When he opens his eyes, a small cry escapes him when he finds Buttons sitting on his chest, his yellow eyes peering down at him.

"Buttons, what are you doing?" he asks.

The cat doesn't make a sound. However, Carlos doesn't miss the way his right front paw twitches. Right after that happens, the lamp beside his bed turns on for what appears to be only a fraction of a second.

With eyes blown wide, Carlos turns to the lamp, and then back to Buttons. "Did–Did you do that, Buttons?" he asks quietly.

The cat only continues to stare back at him. After a moment, he partly closes his eyes and starts purring.

"Can… Can you do it again?"

Once again, the cat's paw twitches and the lamp turns on. This time, it stays on for a couple of seconds, before the room is once again covered in darkness.

"How did you do that?" Carlos asks, dumbfounded. He continues to look up at Buttons, until the cat walks away and curls up into a ball by the foot of his bed. Carlos stares at him for what feels like minutes but is probably only seconds. Eventually, he falls back against his pillow and closes his eyes tightly. I must've had too many sweets, he thinks.

When he opens his eyes again, Buttons is in the same position as before, appearing to be asleep.

Definitely too many sweets.


"Carlos, are you sure taking Buttons to Rocque Records is such a good idea?" Logan asks the next day as he puts on his shoes. Gustavo had called them in for a spontaneous dance practice. They had a performance coming up in a week, and according to Mr. X, they weren't ready for said performance.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Carlos asks from where he's sitting on the couch, petting Buttons.

"Um, because Gustavo will probably get mad and yell at us or break our necks, if not both."

"Logie, don't you think you're exaggerating a bit?" Kendall asks as he plops down next to Carlos.

Logan turns to look at them both, sending them a glare.

All Kendall does is grin at him. "I'll deal with Gustavo."

"I don't know, Kendall…"

"Come on, it's only for a little while. And Gustavo does have a cat, which means he must like cats."

"I guess."

"I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"


"No. No, no, no!" Mr. X yells for what feels like the upteenth time that afternoon. "You," he says, jabbing a finger into Carlos' chest, "are doing the move wrong. It's not like that. It's like this." He twists his foot in a way that looks extremely uncomfortable and makes Carlos wince. "Understood?"

Not really, Carlos thinks, but instead says, "Yeah, totally."

Mr. X presses his lips into a thin line and nods at him without saying anything. Carlos watches him walk away and back to the boombox that is on top of a wooden chair in the corner of the room. As the music starts to play and the boys get into their respectable positions, Carlos turns to look at Kelly, who is standing next to Gustavo in the room's entrance, holding Buttons. When Carlos turns to look in their direction, she grabs the cat's paw and waves at him with it.

He grins and raises his hand, but before he can wave back, he feels a body collide against his own, sending him to the floor.

"Ow," he groans, staring up at the ceiling.

"Crap! Carlos, are you okay?" Kendall asks from somewhere above him. He sees a hand outstretched toward him and grabs it, allowing Kendall to pull him to his feet. "Sorry about that. I didn't realize you were in the same spot."

"I wasn't paying attention. It's my fault," Carlos says, sheepishly. "I'm sorr—"

"It most definitely was your fault."

Mr. X walks up to him with a furious look on his face. A few feet away from them, the boombox is still playing the demo version of Love Me Love Me. Seeing the look on Mr. X's face, Carlos backs away, almost tripping over his own feet in his hurry.

In a matter of a few seconds, Mr. X reaches him and opens his mouth – to yell at him, no doubt – but before he can get a word out, the sound of something crackling fills the room, followed by a loud boom. All eyes turn to the boombox, which is now on fire, smoke coming out from the top of it.

Carlos stares at it, his mouth hanging open. Slowly, he turns back in Gustavo and Kelly's direction, but his eyes don't land on either of them. Instead, they lock on Buttons, who looks oddly satisfied with himself. As if appearing to feel Carlos' eyes on him, he turns to look at him, and Carlos swears he sees him wink.

"What—How?!" Gustavo bellows. He turns to Kelly, who looks equally as surprised as him.

As Gustavo runs to get the fire extinguisher, Kelly hands Buttons back to Carlos and tells the boys that they should probably head home.

After Carlos places Buttons inside his jacket, the four boys walk out of Rocque Records, all of them completely silent until they're outside.

"What even happened back there?" Logan asks as he turns to all three of them. "How did that even happen?"

"Maybe it was a faulty boombox?" James suggests.

"Still. How could a boombox just explode out of the blue? It seemed to be working fine before."

"Maybe it was haunted," Kendall says with a chuckle.

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it."

"Maybe… Maybe Kendall's not so far off," Carlos says quietly as he looks down at Buttons' face, which is peeking out from inside his jacket.

Logan raises an eyebrow at him, "What do you mean?"

"Well…" He shifts his weight from one foot to the other under the boys' gaze. "Something happened last night."

"Something like…?" James presses when Carlos doesn't elaborate.

"The lamp flickered."

"The lamp… flickered?" Logan raises an eyebrow at him.

"Yes. I woke up in the middle of the night to find Buttons sitting on my chest. Then his paw twitched and the lamp flickered."

"Are you saying you think Buttons made the lamp flicker?" Kendall pauses, and then adds: "And that he made the boombox explode?"

"I—maybe?"

"Carlos, he's a cat."

"So?"

"Cats don't have magical powers."

"But it happened twice!" Carlos shouts at Logan. "And both times, his paw twitched."

"So you think Buttons is possessed."

"I didn't say possessed."

"Then what do you mean?"

"I don't know. Maybe he's… Maybe he's something else."

"Like?"

Carlos shrugs. "A familiar, maybe?"

"What's a familiar?" James asks, turning to the other two with a puzzled look on his face. Kendall stares back at him with a blank expression on his, while Logan sighs and turns away.

"Carlos, there is no such thing as familiars."

"There are too!" Carlos insists. "I read about them once."

"So you're telling me you think Buttons is a familiar because the lamp flickered and the boombox exploded?"

"Yes!"

"I can't believe this."

"What is a familiar?" James asks again, this time in a louder voice.

"It's a witch's attendant, essentially," Logan answers him, finally. "You know, like those black cats you see in movies where witches are involved. It's like a magical helper of sorts."

James stares at him with the same blank expression Kendall had a minute ago. He then turns to Carlos, his eyes landing on the black cat cuddled up to the crook of Carlos' neck. "But he looks like a normal cat."

"That's because he is a normal cat."

"Familiars don't look any different than other animals," Carlos says. "He could be a familiar."

"Yeah, and I'm a giant lizard," Logan mutters, rolling his eyes at Carlos' words.

"Well…"

Logan turns to glare at Kendall.

"Kidding, kidding," he says, raising his hands in the air. "But maybe Carlos has a point."

"You think Buttons is a familiar too?"

"I don't know." Kendall looks down and kicks a loose pebble that's on the ground. "Maybe we shouldn't rule it out completely. That's all I'm saying."

"Yeah, maybe…" Logan says, trailing off.


The boys spent the rest of their day getting their Halloween costumes ready. There was a Halloween party downtown that Guitar Dude had told them about just a couple of hours before, and they all planned to attend. The only rule of the party was that everyone had to dress up.

Logan wasn't the dressing up for Halloween type – not since he was eight, anyway – but he had found a doctor costume at the nearest Spirit Halloween, and decided to go with that. It was what he wanted to be when he was older, so it wasn't really all that much of a costume.

Kendall was going to go dressed up as Spider-Man, James as a mummy, and Carlos as a wizard. Once they all had their costumes, they decided to hang some purple and orange lights around the apartment, before everyone gathered on the couch to watch Hocus Pocus – a movie they never missed during this time of year. Mrs. Knight had taken Katie to stay over at a friend's house, so it was just the four of them for the time being.

It is during the scene where Binx appears for the first time that things start getting weird. The lights on the walls all of a sudden start flickering, causing the four boys to look up in surprise. Buttons, who is sitting on the floor, has his paw raised and is chittering up at them.

"Now do you believe me?!" Carlos shouts, earning the other boys' attention.

"But, he can't be… He can't be a familiar," Logan says, his eyes now on the cat.

All of a sudden, the chittering stops, Buttons lets his paw drop to the floor, and the lights go back to being a bright and steady purple and orange.

"I don't understand…" he says slowly. "How did he do that?"

"Magic?" Carlos offers. causing Logan to shake his head.

"This is insane."

"But not impossible."

"What if it's all just a coincidence?" Logan asks. "Maybe he was just chittering up at the lights because they were flickering."

"That's not what it looked like," James says, his face half-hidden by his hands. "The lights stopped flickering as soon as Buttons lowered his paw."

As James finishes saying this, Buttons runs out of the living room, only to come back a moment later with something in his mouth.

"What is that?" Kendall asks, pointing at the cat.

"I don't know. A candy wrapper?" Carlos says as he reaches for the cat. Buttons dodges him, though, and hops onto the couch, stopping in front of Logan. He drops whatever he had in his mouth on Logan's chest and blinks up at him.

"What is it?" Kendall asks, poking Logan on the side. When Logan doesn't budge and instead keeps his eyes locked on the cat, Kendall snatches it, noticing that it's a paper. On it, something is written in crooked handwriting. "It's an address," he says, passing the paper on to James.

"An address for what?"

"Beats me. That's not my handwriting. That's none of our handwriting."

"The paper couldn't have just appeared out of nowhere," Logan says, finally looking up at them. "Let me see." He reaches his hand out and waits for James to hand him the paper. When he does, he stares at it for a long time before speaking again. "This is all the way on the other side of the city."

"Maybe we should go," Carlos suggests, but Logan immediately shakes his head.

"Carlos, we don't even know who lives there."

"Yes, that's why we're going to find out."

"What if an axe murderer lives there?!"

"You really think an axe murdered would own a cat?"

"It's a possibility!"

"Logie, calm down." Kendall sighs, placing his hand on Logan's shoulder. "It's no big deal. We'll go there tomorrow, drop off the cat, and be on our way back home in no time."

"We don't even know if that's where Buttons lives," Logan says, sounding exasperated.

"Well, then we'll find out, won't we?"

"What about the Halloween party?" James asks with a pout. "I really wanted to go to that."

"We'll be back before then, I'm sure," Kendall assures him. "Right, Buttons?" he says, turning to the cat. Buttons lets out a loud meow in return. "See? No biggie."

Logan shakes his head at him. "You guys go. I'm staying home."

Kendall frowns but says, "Suit yourself."


The next afternoon, as James, Carlos and Kendall are getting into the BTR mobile, Logan comes running after them, cheeks flushed and out of breath.

"Wait for me!" he shouts, waving his hands in the air. Since it was already 4:00 and the party started at 5:30, the boys had dressed up in their Halloween costumes, Logan included. As he ran, the stethoscope hanging from his neck swung from one side to another.

"I thought you weren't coming," Kendall says, stepping out of the driver's side of the car.

"I can't let you guys get murdered, can I?" Logan asks, stopping in front of him. "I'll drive."

"I could've just used my spiderweb powers against the 'axe murderer.'" Kendall grins.

Logan rolls his eyes at him. "We better hurry if we want to get back by the time the party starts."

Kendall nods and all of them jump into the BTR mobile.

The ride isn't that long – only about thirty minutes – but when they arrive at the street the address is in, Logan is surprised to find it is just a normal-looking street. Jack o' lanterns sit on some of the lawns. A plastic skeleton hangs from one of the trees in one of them. When they find the address they are looking for, he realizes it's the only house he has seen so far without any decorations on the outside.

"Carlos, are you sure this is the right address?" he asks, turning back to look at Carlos.

Carlos looks down at the piece of paper in his hand, and then up at Logan. "Yup, this is the place."

"Well," Logan sighs, "you guys ready to get murdered?"

Next to him, Kendall grins. "As ready as I'll ever be," he says, pulling out a can from the floor. As he presses on the nozzle, a spiderweb-like string comes spilling out, covering the dashboard in its sticky substance.

"That… will do nothing," James says from the backseat.

"I also have pepper spray," Kendall tells him as he pulls it out. "Gotta be prepared, right?"

"At least that would do something," Logan notes with a wobbly smile.

Together, the four of them exit the car, Carlos carrying Buttons in his arms.

"We're gonna look pretty stupid, coming to return a cat, wearing Halloween costumes," James mumbles as he pulls out a mirror and looks at his reflection. "I guess at least my makeup turned out good."

"That's what you're concerned about?" Logan scream-whispers, raising an eyebrow at him.

James pouts at him. "No…"

Shaking his head, Logan walks up the steps that lead to the house's front door, and then reaches for the doorbell, his finger trembling as he does so. Turning to look back at his friends one last time for reassurance, he presses it and tries to swallow down the fear consuming him from the inside out before the door swings open.


Hope you all enjoyed! And I hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

~ BigTimeRush-BTR :)