October 25th 2020

Chapter 299
Their Spooking of Games

"Hey, guys," Lucas smiled as he climbed out of his car to find his cousin working along with Sam, and Missy and Kai, putting the finishing touches on the outdoor decorations and other items for the evening's activities. "Do you need any help?"

"No, we're good, we're almost done," Sam replied, never looking up from where he sat arranging the extra, smaller pumpkins, which they had bought.

"Alright, well it all looks great," Lucas replied, frowning to himself as he wondered what was up with him. He couldn't put it into words, but something seemed off about his brother. He put this notion aside as he turned and smiled at his cousin when she came toward him. "Love the costume," he hugged Dora. When he let her go, she looked down at herself before turning her eyes back up to him. This year, she was dressed, it felt, like some kind of autumn fairy, with great, colorful wings that sort of looked like maple leaves.

"Thanks," she told him, and here again it felt as though something had gone amiss.

"Are you okay?" Lucas asked her. She stared back at him, possibly at a loss for words herself.

"Oh, yes, I just had a long day at school," she finally explained.

"Yeah, had one of those myself," Lucas chuckled, passing her a brief sign to ask if she was sure that was all. Dora nodded. "Okay. Maya inside?" he asked, pointing to the house.

"She was going to fill the candy bowls, last I heard," Missy piped in.

Lucas headed inside, where he was quickly greeted by a pack of bats and devils. The dogs had been outfitted with horns, and wings, which they all bore with impressive patience. They made him laugh, especially for how they went trotting off together.

"Maya?" Lucas called out.

"In here," she called back from the kitchen. He followed her voice and found she had indeed seen to the candy, although now the bowls had been filled, and his wicked Snow White sat at the table, adding one more empty wrapper to a growing pile before biting into a fun size chocolate bar. "Hey," she waved with the fingers that weren't holding the other half.

"Okay, so the weird vibes are in here, too, huh?" Lucas blinked, moving over to lay a kiss at his wife's forehead. She looked up at him. "What's going on?" Maya sat quietly eating the rest of her chocolate, like she was considering her response with great care. "Should I be worried?"

"I don't know, do you want the truth or do you want to have fun tonight?" Maya sighed. Seeing how she was eyeing the candy again, he gave her chair a pull so she'd be turned to face him and not the treats.

"Is this really an either/or?" he asked, to which she gave a shrug. "Try me." Maya looked at him for a few seconds more before clearing her throat, rising, and moving to ensure no one was nearby. Eventually, she went and pulled Lucas by the hand, leading him out the back door and into the Hex. Once there, with the door shut, she turned back to him. "Seriously, whatever this is, I need to…"

"Dora was here when I came home from work earlier," Maya started.

"Okay…" Lucas slowly nodded, at once unsure of where this was going and made to want to know, as it involved his cousin.

"She was just coming out of Sam's room, with the… vast majority of her clothes in her arms," Maya continued, figuring it would be best to just get on with it. There was just no point in being coy about it. Lucas certainly looked appropriately stunned by the revelation.

"She…" he blinked.

"Yeah."

"And Sam was…"

"Asleep… naked… blanket…" Maya vaguely mimed, setting the scene. In response, Lucas could only take the few steps that would bring him to sit on the small couch. Maya followed him, sitting on the armrest and looking down at him. "I should have seen this coming. Wouldn't be Halloween without our favorite drama, right?" she sighed. He didn't reply. "I can't stop feeling like I want to be mad at him, at them, but there's no point, is there? It's not like anyone's cheating on anyone, and they're… their own people… But I still…" she held out her hands, squeezing at a nothing that felt like it wanted to be something.

Whatever the discovery had been for her, she knew it would be complicated for him, too. It had been her brother, and it was his cousin. Much as she never sought to install a distinction, she had only known Sam for… not quite half his lifetime, while Lucas had known Dora since she was a baby, he'd held her as such, when he'd been eight years old, so he remembered the whole of her life. She was and always had been his favorite cousin, the one who mattered most to him. She wasn't a kid anymore, no, but he would always get this flash of that tiny girl who'd make a run for him every time they saw one another. And Sam, he had become his brother, even before he'd married his big sister, but now he'd found himself in the position of potentially causing some sorrow for his cousin, and it put him somewhere he didn't want to be.

"Here," Maya reached into her pocket and handed him a chocolate. The wrapper crinkled in his hand, but he just stared at it without opening it. "What do you think, we just stay in here all night, I may have hidden one big bag of these in here, for recording and rehearsing cravings. We can have our own Halloween, just you and me." If nothing else, that got a small smile out of him. "Just say the word, and I'm locking the door," she moved to stand but was pulled back down, landing in her husband's lap this time. "You might be on to something there, Huckleberry," she smirked, eventually letting out a breath and setting her forehead to his.

"This is so not what I envisioned tonight to be," Lucas breathed out.

"No? What did you have in mind?" Maya asked, figuring all she could do now, for both their sakes and maybe Sam and Dora's, too, was to coax the merriment right out of him and let it pull out her own as well.

"Oh, you know, so many of those Halloween greatest hits…" he started, locking his arms around her waist. "And playing our parts," he looked at her now as though taking in her costume for the first time. Maya gave him her best 'I'm not so innocent, how do you like them poisoned apples' look. "And at the end of the night, when the clock strikes midnight…"

"Wrong princess," Maya teased.

"… it's November," he carried on, and the look on his face made her laugh.

"Yes, it will be," she agreed, catching him in a slow, almost healing kiss. They had decided that they would start trying in November, hadn't they? With how eager they had both been, how much longer could they be expected to wait? "What about…" she started to ask, as the notion of her brother came back around. The thought had the misfortune of coming along with a flashback she could have done without, but it couldn't be helped.

"That may have already been taken care of," Lucas revealed. It wasn't as though he had gone to Sam and told him 'you need to clear out because your sister and I are going to be busy,' but he had advanced the possibility of having the house to themselves for their anniversary, and Sam had responded by arranging to spend a night or two at a friend's place.

"Man with a plan," Maya nodded appreciatively. "So, are you ready to go back out there?" Lucas looked for a moment like he had forgotten and was now remembering the thing she'd told him. He rubbed at his face and she tried not to laugh.

"Yeah, let's go," he replied as she stood up and offered her hands to pull him up.

"First things first, you need a transformation. I just don't know if anyone will believe you as a bad guy," she joked.

"I can be scary… Just see how Sam will act once he realizes I know," Lucas shrugged, and now Maya laughed.

By the time either Maya or Lucas rejoined the others downstairs, with wicked Snow joined by her equally wicked prince, the group had grown, now counting the Hunter Harts and Riley and Dylan, even as Rosa and Jenna arrived, too, all of them here to assist with the outside part once people would start to arrive. As expected, the moment their gazes crossed, Sam had grown a definitive 'oh crap, he knows' look, while Dora would look to her cousin with something like concern, for the first time in her life.

"Yeah, this is going to be weird for a while," Lucas told Maya under his breath.

"Uh huh…"

Regardless of this thing hanging over their heads, Halloween was upon them, and soon the night was a go. Kids, families, they started to arrive, some of them already on their fourth annual visit to the Friar house's night of spooks and games. Seeing those kids, recognizing them, seeing how they were growing year to year… It was an unexpected bonus to the whole thing, and Maya and Lucas both were supremely appreciative of it.

Maya saw more than a few of her students that night, mostly those who had younger siblings, or those who had been to the house before. Stella and Phoebe showed up, joining Missy and Kai for a bit of maze running. Khalil and little sister Desi also came along, and as soon as they did, mirror twins Nellie and Gracie ran off to bring their new friend to see all the games. Desi Russell looked so much like her big brother, right down to that bright smile, which was put on full display as soon as she found her friends. By the time they would head their separate ways that night, a sleepover would be set for the upcoming weekend, and all three of the nine-year-olds were barely able to contain their giddiness.

"Hey, Mrs. Friar," a cheerful voice intoned, in a very student-like rhythm, and Maya turned around to find she had thought correctly.

"I don't think you need to call me that anymore," she smiled, looking upon Milena Janacek. It wasn't as though she never saw her former student anymore, thanks to her connection to August Matthews, but still there was this temptation to just hug her for how glad she was to see her. This feeling was only increased for finding both August and her brother, Tony, not far behind.

"Yeah, but it's really hard not to," Milena admitted. The exchange was getting to be something of a routine between them.

"Are you guys sticking around for the party?"

"Can we?" Milena nodded.

"Absolutely," Maya laughed, as her former seniors went along and disappeared among the visitors. Almost like an apparition, as soon as they'd passed her by, Maya spotted Cecilia coming along, and it was a new turmoil of emotions, thinking of what had happened earlier and how she might react if/when she found out, too. "I was starting to think you wouldn't make it," she smiled, approaching the girl.

"I didn't want you to think I'd chickened out. I missed my bus," Cecilia told her, looking at her costume in such a way as to suggest that walking around in it had been the thing to slow her down and cause her to miss that bus, forcing her to wait for the next.

"Next time, just call me and I'll go get you, alright?"

"I will," Cecilia nodded. She looked nervous, and Maya could understand why, just as much as she worried to think her brother's ex had no idea what she was walking into.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners