Hello again! Tetsu-roku here. It's almost Halloween! I decided to write another story for this ominous season (laughs like a maniac).

Chapter 1: The Boy

It was just past dusk when Paine first saw the little boy. The kid was standing across the street, inside the vacant lot next to Calli's home.

Paine had pulled trick-or-treat watch duty this Halloween. She was busy listening to Yuna and Rikku about stuff she would never care about in a million years. She wouldn't have noticed the boy but for the fact that he was by himself. Parents nowadays wouldn't let their kids go trick-or-treating by themselves, especially with the increase of fiend activity around these parts. It was a sad commentary on the times that there were sick people out there who took advantage of Halloween to prey on little kids as well. Paine had never thought much about this sad thought. She never shed a tear, but when she told Yuna and Rikku, they cried a river.

Pathetic, she thought.

But she couldn't stop noticing the little boy in the vacant lot. The boy just stood there holding his goodie sack before him He was dressed as a ghost, wearing a bedsheet over his head. It looked like he made a pretty good haul already. He was holding each handle with one hand, and the bag dipped heavily toward the ground.

"Hey guys," she said to Rikku and Yuna.

"What's up?" Yuna asked. She was in her Warrior dressphere.

"Are you tired of trick-or-treating, Paine?" Rikku asked, jumping around like a frog. As it turned out, Rikku was dressed as one.

"Have you ever noticed that boy?" Paine asked the two girls. Then she face Rikku. "Minus fifteen respect points."

Rikku faced Yuna. "How many is left?" she asked.

Yuna shook her head. "I think you're down to negative three hundred and fifty-seven."

"That's not a lot, is it?"

Yuna sighed. "You know what? I'm not even going to bother to answer you."

Paine stared at them. "Get back on topic," she replied, disgusted with the way that they were acting. But Yuna and Rikku were off, arguing about respect points.

Paine saw other groups of kids pass by in both directions. No one seemed to pay attention to him. The boy had probably ran ahead of a group or his parents. No doubt, they would catch up with him shortly.

Paine's thoughts were interrupted by the croaks of Rikku. "Croak!" she croaked. "Come on, slow poke!" She broke her thoughts and ran to catch up to the group.

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What will ever become of the boy? Why does Paine seem so interested in this little boy? Tune in next time