Samhain

There were few days when a demon could be himself and not be persecuted for it…and all hallows eve was one of them.

Sparda hated how commercial the festival had become…remembering the old days when Samhain had all been about the fact that it was the night when the material world joined with the world of the dead, when the spirits of the dead and those who were yet to be born would walk among the living...when the bonds between worlds were either weakened or broken. It was just like what had happened to Christmas and all of the other big festivals; even Easter and St Valentines Day…it was almost sad.

Kneeling on a chair with his elbows on the windowsill and head cradled in his hands, he watched all of the children and their escorts going about the business of threatening people into giving them chocolate and sweets. Trick or treat…it was just a pleasant way to teach the youngsters to take advantage of every poor sap who let them.

He sighed to himself and began pointing out each individual he spotted. "Child, child, child, teenager pretending to be a child, child, child, demon, child." And his train of thought and speak continued in much the same pattern for a good whole five minutes…occasionally punctuated by an exclamation when he recognised one of the demons. "Child, child, how did you get out? Child, teen, child, hope he didn't see me, child…"

Finally, he was distracted by his sons' tugging on the back of his shirt.

"Dad!" Dante yelled. "You're not even dressed!"

Sparda turned around and looked at his two young boys were all ready to go out trick or treating. Eva usually took them, but she had a very bad cold and so he had had no option but to take them himself…unless he wanted to earn their hatred for the rest of his life.

Dante had decided to be a skeleton, with the usual black suit with bones printed on it and Eva had crawled out of bed long enough to paint his face for him. The look was somewhat ruined, however, by the cowboy style holsters he was wearing to carry his two cans of silly string…not to mention the fact that he seemed to be dragging Rebellion along with him.

"You can't take the sword with you." Sparda said flatly.

"Why not? No one has to know it's real."

"If I let you take it I will never hear the last of it from your mother. Leave it here."

"O-kay." Dante moaned and promptly dumped the blade on the floor.

"I told you so." Vergil taunted beside him with a sly grin. He was dressed in a neat 'bloodstained' Victorian style suit, face made up to make him appear drawn and sleepless.

"Ready to go?" Sparda asked, bust his question was met with harsh stares from both of his sons.

"We are," said Vergil, "But you're not."

"Yeah ,dad, you gotta dress up on Halloween. Even Jackpot's got a costume!" He demanded and pointed at the resident hellhound which sported a pair of fetching purple bat wings on a harness. He was scratching at them furiously whenever no one was looking in an attempt to get them off. "Mum was gonna be a vampire this year, y'know."

"Hmm…" Sparda hummed to himself and tapped his chin. "Stay here, I'll be right back"

Racing up the stairs and into the bedroom, he wrenched open the door of his wardrobe (which was predominantly filled with weapons) and pulled a case of sorts out of the bottom.

Eva, from the bed, smiled. "I knew you'd think of something."

He unzipped the case and looked inside. "I just hope that it doesn't fall apart on me…I've had it for a very long time now."

"If it's survived all these years than it'll survive tonight."

Sparda sighed, received a wink from his wife and got changed.

-A Few Minutes Later-

Sparda emerged back downstairs, dressed now in the purple suit that he'd thought he would never wear again…from the skull on his cravat and the (bloody stupid) monocle right down to the pinkish red stones on his polished leather shoes (Yay, LDK bonus outfit!). He had one of the may large swords in his possession strapped to his back as there was no way he was going out on a night like this without protection. On Halloween he usually patrolled the streets like a guardian to fend off demonic attack…but that would be impossible now. He'd just have to do what he could.

Vergil nodded approvingly while Dante gave him two thumbs up. "Dunno what you're supposed to be but you look pretty ok." He then paused with thoughtful expression. "Um…one problem."

"What is it?" Sparda asked, giving himself the once over. "Did I leave my fly undone?"

Dante sniggered. "Nah, not that…it's just…you're a light bulb."

Vergil nodded in agreement. Ever since their father had stepped into the room, the place had gotten that little bit brighter.

Sparda frowned and then clicked his fingers as he realised what it was that was giving him such a pleasant glow. Dipping one hand into a pocket he yanked out a chunk of luminite. "I wondered where I'd left that." He said, and dumped it on the table. He then proceeded to pat his pockets down and relieve himself of various other items, like green and purple star shaped stones and golden yellow stones that had tormented faces carved into them.

"What are they?" Vergil asked.

"Oh, just things…you know…devil things… you two can have them if you want them, there's enough to share out evenly. You never know…they might come in handy one day."

The boys smiled and nodded, already separating the objects into piles for when they got back.

"So, can we go now?"

Sparda groaned quietly and smoothed back his hair with one hand. It was time to get going.

Compared to other children's costumes, Vergil seemed quite plain. When questioned as to just whom he was he would inform them that he was Frankenstein. Upon hearing his response most people would politely laugh and ask him why he didn't have bolts in his neck and wasn't green. Vergil would then adopt a haughty tone of annoyed superiority and explain that the monster never had a name and was most certainly not green and that he had come dressed as Victor Frankenstein, the monster's creator. And then, just to add insult to injury, he would query as to why they did not know this…and Dante would attempt to pretend that he and Vergil were not related.

Jackpot was so excited Sparda was sure that he was going to have an 'accident' of the hot and flamey kind but the boys were enjoying themselves and it wasn't as dangerous a night as he had expected it to be. Of all the demons he had seen or sensed around the place, none seemed to have much in the way of malicious intent but that could well be because they had seen a certain Legendary Dark Knight, decked out just a they remembered him, tooled up with a vicious looking blade and a stern expression…not to mention being tailed by an excitable but loyal looking hellhound (even if it was a puppy it was not to be taken lightly). And not only that, but he had his beloved boys with him; so he would be extra vigilant…and vindictive if it came down to a confrontation.

Somewhere along the routes around the streets, Dante managed to get his hands on some eggs to threaten people with and they nearly lost Jackpot when he smelt that someone nearby had decided it was a nice night for a late barbeque.

Three stolen sausages later, they got their puppy back and Sparda was soon being used as the pack horse to carry all of their ill gotten gains. Trees and doors about the places of people whom had been so foolish as to deny the twins their treats now sported egged out symbols which Sparda had to hurriedly wipe off or mess up before they called up any unholy terrors…either that or they had Zorro style 'D's and 'V's marked out in silly string.

About half way through their outing, when they were receiving treats from a kindly old lady in a nearby street, Jackpot decide to stay by the gate and attempt to scratch his winged harness off again. It finally got to much for him and when he was certain all three of his masters were occupied with the strange lady he decided to use the most certain method of getting rid of the annoying bits of fabric and wire attached to his back.

It was Sparda who first smelt the molten plastic and smoke that indicated that Jackpot had sparked up but when he snapped his head around to where the young dog was still sitting, all that gave away what he had done was the rising dark cloud of smoke that was already beginning to dissipate. Jackpot was panting happily, tail wagging furiously and the entire harness had been reduced to dusty marks and a few melted smears on his coat.

"Oh no…" Sparda whimpered and hoped that no one else in the street had noticed, and then all but dragged the twins away. "I think it's just about time we started to wind all of this up."

"Aww…but dad!" Dante whinged.

In response to this all his father did was point at the dog which yapped contently and shook the soot off.

Both boys nodded in agreement and decided that it was the right time to wander on home…maybe making a few last stops along the way.

"Hey look, dad." Dante said as they turned back into their own street, pointing at something.

Sparda looked to where his son was indicating. There was a large man with sunken features and pallid skin striding purposefully towards their house with two huge white wolf-like dogs padding beside him. The stranger had an enormous blue and white sword strapped to his back.

Sparda froze. "You!" he hissed, mainly to himself.

"Dad?"

"You stay right here," he ordered the two of them, "and don't hesitate to yell if anything or anyone you don't recognise comes your way."

Vergil and Dante's Halloween giddiness faded a little; their father was using his serious voice. "Sure…don't worry, we'll be fine. And we've got Jackpot."

-

The stranger noticed the twins down the street just as he got to the front gate of the house he had been headed for…he and his companions had been so focused on what they had intended to do that they had not even noticed.

They boys were playing with a black puppy and munching on candy quite happily but their father was no where to be seen.

Huffing to himself, he decided the kids could wait; he had bigger snowy haired fish to fry. He chuckled at the thought of the cruel plans he had for Sparda and his family. It had taken him a long time to gather enough power to get him out of the underworld and in human form. Tonight was the only one he could do this in. When the sun rose up he would be banished back from whence he came, when the boundaries were solid again.

"Hey, Bolverk!" he suddenly heard an awfully familiar voice cry out behind him, and as he turned he saw it was far to late to dodge the heavy blade already in the process of being swung at him. "Trick or treat!"

End

Author's Note – Oh, I had so many plans for this chapter…I had so much written down on paper…and then I lost it all. I think it got recycled. Well, this is as much as I could get together from bits and pieces in my head. Hope its ok. Next update will be Jackpot 2 at long last. I guess the pics will be done in time for that one…

Arileo – A sequel to Bless You, huh? I'll put some thought into it. There was more I could have done with it but I wanted to keep it short...so…yeah…we'll see. Thanks for reviewing!

Inujak – Aye aye, captain! (Salutes too hard and knocks self out)

BiOhAzArD – Yeah…I wish I could possess the PS2, it would make life so much easier – 'why must I go the long way through the monster infested forest to find the abandoned building with the boss in it to get a key for the door! Just climb over the goddamn wall!'

GryronInferno46 – Like the idea…stay tuned for Jackpot 2. Thanks for the review!

Meirelle – E bay! Brilliant! Oh yes, I am definitely looking into that one. Thanks for the idea and the review!

Bustahead – (points upwards) that's what happens when Bolverk comes to visit. He goes home with a really big booboo. Thankee for reviewing.

Darkshadowgirl – Jackpot will be back on the next update in about a week or so, most likely at the weekend. Just hold on a little longer. Yay, reviews! Thank you!

And to everyone else who reviewed – huge mega uber thanks you! With hugs!