"So did anything interesting happen before I got here?" asked Chuck as they walked back toward the house.
"Me and Sonic played Cops and Robbers, and I blew him away," bragged Manic, pulling out his revolver and blowing imaginary smoke off the barrel.
"I still scared the crap out of you when I jumped out of that laundry basket," protested Sonic.
"Yeah, but at least I didn't cry my eyes out," retorted Manic.
They reached the door.
"Heh, I remember your own dad would play pranks on me around this time of year when we were your age. Whenever I watch a scary movie, I don't look over my shoulder for a monster, I look to make sure your dad doesn't jump out at me again," said Chuck, stepping through the door.
As he did, he was met by a man with a hockey mask and a machete.
"RAAAAAAAWWWWWWWRRRRRRRR!" he shrieked.
Uncle Chuck was so surprised that he fell on his rear end, the OO look on his face.
The masked killer removed its mask to reveal Jules laughing just as hard as Aleena had when she scared the twins. His laughs became contagious as the siblings themselves started laughing at Chuck's unfortunate encounter, and it only got worse when they realized the irony of it all happening right after he told them about how Jules used to scare him alot.
Chuck just sighed as he waited for his bro and nephews to regain their composure, but it proved unnecessary when a hedge girl dressed like a familiar disney princess ran up and gave him a big hug. He was delighted to see his niece again and held her tight as her mother came into the room.
"Hope the boys didn't give you too much trouble," laughed Aleena, pulling both Chuck and Sonia into a group hug.
After hugs and kisses all around, Jules and Aleena left the house to go jogging and Chuck finally showed the tiara to Sonia. Her eyes nearly popped out of her sockets when she saw the crown and she reached for it despite the fact that it was several feet away, such was the nature of infants. Grabby, grabby. At least she was old enough to put it on her head, and not in her mouth.
"Girls sure get excited around shiny things," chuckled Chuck (pun intended).
After that, the sibs sat around the older hog, listening to another COPS story, though this one seemed to bother their Uncle a bit.
"So who'd you nab this time?" asked Sonic.
Chuck's mood got a bit darker.
"Somone who I won't be missing. That's for sure," he began.
"No matter how much you think you may know, one unexpected event can change your whole life forever. Everything you once believed can turn around in the blink of an eye, and you'd never see it coming."
That got the small hedgies' attention. They all sat still, having learned to stay quiet from hearing previous stories, listening intently, their unusually big eyes fixated on their super hero of an uncle. Chuck kept his voice to a whisper.
"I once believed I had the power to save anyone who called for help, until two and a half months ago. We'd gotten another call from a child claiming to be a kidnap victim, and we followed the call to the house it came from, but by the time we got there, the kidnapper had already discovered the child had called us and we found her beaten so badly that she didn't even look like she was alive. Worse, the kidnapper was using her as a hostage, demanding we not put him in jail in exchange for us letting him go. We turned off all recording devices and then promised to let him go, and as soon as he handed the girl over to us, I tasered him and every cop in the vicinity pounced on him and gave him a beating far worse than what he did to his victim. We had turned off the recording devices so he couldn't use them against us in court because we couldn't let him get off without giving him what he gave that little girl since he'd beaten her to within an inch of her life. We got her to the hospital, but she had lost so much blood that she was dead on arrival...after being separated from her parents for so long, she never got to see them again. After being caged like an animal inside the man's closet for two years, she never got to feel the softness of a bed in the hospital...all because that sicko felt like he had to take someone else's life to make up for his own pathetic existence."
Chuck sat silently staring into nothingness as he relived the whole thing, regret filling his mind.
"We didn't have to wait for clearance, we didn't have trouble finding the house, we went there as soon as we were called, and we moved faster than we ever had before, but there was nothing we could have done. If anything, we may have arrived in time to let that little girl see justice before the end," he said, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
"What was her name?" asked Sonic.
"It wasn't anyone you knew, thank God, but I don't want you getting images in your head everytime you meet someone with her name, so I'd prefer not to tell you," replied Uncle Chuck, pushing the situation from his head.
"Sooo...why'd you tell us about it, then?" asked Sonic.
"It happened a month and a half ago. I couldn't stop thinking about it since then and I didn't feel safe letting you guys go out trick-or-treating alone this year, so I decided to go with you, which was why I came," replied their Uncle.
"We're not going alone, mom and dad and all our cousins will go with us," said Sonic.
"I know, but I still felt powerless not being there myself, which is why I decided to hang around. I just can't shake the feeling that something may happen to my niece and nephews," explained Chuck.
"We're still glad you came. It'll be awesome showing you off to everyone at the party, :)" said Manic.
Chuck's face lit back up to its usual friendly glow.
"Speaking of which, I did bring some goodies of my own. Wouldn't wanna take up space without giving something back," he said.
"Oooh, whatchu bring?" squeaked Baby Sonia.
"Actually, I brought a few things. One of which is a plate of those little hot dogs wrapped in biscuit bread. The second is what I call monster mouths."
Xo "EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWW!" squealed Sonia.
Oo "What are monster mouths?" asked Manic.
"Not much, just some apple slices glued together by carmel with nuts or candy corn in between them to look like sharp teeth between two jaws. It's actually very simple to make," said Chuck, proudly.
"Clever," admired Sonic.
"Yeah, such is the genius of simplicity," gleamed Uncle Chuck.
Sonic then heard a ringing noise coming from the office and ran inside to where the new wireless phone was sitting on the desk, and pulled it off its stand and brought it to his ear.
"Hello? Hedge Residents," he greeted.
"Oh, hey Sonic, is your mom there?" asked a cheery voice on the other end.
Sonic immediately recognized the woman as his friend Skye's mom, Juliana, or Mrs. Sterin as he and his siblings refered to her.
"Nah, they're out jogging. They'll probably be back in ten or fifteen minutes," replied Sonic.
"Okay, just tell her to call me back. I was wanting to know if you guys were still coming," she said.
"Yeah we're still coming. My mom pulled some brownies out of the oven but she wouldn't let us have them because she was saving them for the party," said Sonic.
"I guess that says everything. Well thanks for letting me know, Harvey was worried you guys would cancel at the last minute or something, he's a detail nut," laughed Juliana.
"No problem," replied Sonic, "My uncle also brought some monster mouths, which are apple slices with nuts and carmel between them, and he also brought some hot dogs wrapped in biscuit bread or something."
"o.o Ooooh, mummy hot dogs," said Juliana.
So THAT's what they're called. thought Sonic.
"By the way, is Skye there?" he asked.
"Hold on a second," said Juliana.
Sonic could hear her calling Skye, followed by a long pause before he heard a familiar voice ask "Hello?"
"What's up?" asked Sonic.
"I am, XD" replied Skye.
It was their own inside joke. Skye sounded alot like sky, therefore, he was always up.
"So what's going on at the party?" asked Sonic.
"Sorry, mom said I'm supposed to keep it a surprise," replied Skye.
"C'mon, you can tell me, I'm your friend, :o" whined Sonic.
"Nope, you'll have to wait a few more hours. MWAHAHAHAHA!" laughed Skye cheesily.
"That reminds me, what costume are you wearing tonight?" asked Sonic.
"Well I was gonna go as a pirate again, but then my dad got me a firefighter outfit from the halloween store. It even looks like a real firefighter costume, too, 8D" said Skye.
While Manic wanted to be a cop, Skye had wanted to be a firefighter, and yet, his costume story was very similar to Sonic's in that he was gonna use the one from last year, but then daddy brought home the one he wanted, but like Manic, he was dressing up as the man he wanted to be when he grew up, so his experience had similarities with both Manic's and Sonic's. It struck Sonic as ironic that Skye also had light blue fur, sort of a mixture of green and blue. o.o
"Awesome! Manic's got a police outfit and is borrowing Uncle Chuck's badge. I'm going as an army guy, :)" boasted Sonic proudly.
"Coooooool, do ya got any guns?" asked Skye.
"Naw, just some equipment on my belt, but Uncle Chuck did bring a big knife for me to carry in my belt, like the kind Rambo uses," replied Sonic.
"Sounds cool, but you need a big gun if you're an army guy. You can use one of mine when you come over," said Skye.
"Sweetsie Cola!" cheered Sonic.
This halloween was getting better and better.
"By the way, whatcha bringing to the party? o_o" asked Skye.
Sonic thought about that for a moment.
"You'll have to wait a few more hours, XD" he replied, and then quickly hung up.
He ran back to the family room where Sonia was watching Manic and Chuck have an arm wrestling contest, but they stopped when they saw him enter the room.
"Who was it?" asked Chuck.
"Just Mrs. Sterin asking if we're ready for the party," replied Sonic.
Then Manic remembered something.
"We still need to bag up those leaves for the bonfire, :O" he said, running toward the front door.
"Right behind ya," said Sonic, following him.
"Chuck glanced at Sonia.
"Guess we better go help em," he said.
They both got up off the couch and followed the twins outside to help them bag up the leaves.