Act. 4 The Hunters Become the Hunted

Bubbles and Squeak stopped at a clearing in the woods. They had been aimlessly running after nothing for a few minutes now.

"…Hey Bub- I mean, Spike, where do ya 'spose those two kids went?" Asked Squeak.

"If I knew, do ya think I'd be standin' here in the dark like this?" Bubbles snapped back, thoroughly irritated and confused by the sudden disappearance of the two costumed teens.

"Maybe we should go back...we left the car and all of the can-"

"SHHH SHHH!" Bubbles waved a hand in front of his companion's face and bent his knees slightly, listening, "Did'ja hear that?"

The night was still and quiet, even the wind wasn't blowing anymore. Squeak waited and listened.

"…No…I-"

The rustling of branches was barely audible, but Bubbles heard it for sure.

"There is it again!" He hissed under his breath, "There is definitely something going on here…"

"Bubbles!"

Before he knew what hit him, Bubbles felt a blunt force against his back, pushing him to the cold earth violently, knocking the air from his chest. He let out a strange noise- a yelp muted by the lack breath in his lungs. He felt the weight shift on his back and saw a figure leap before him as the weight was lifted. The devil masked teen had jumped down onto him from a tree above.

"Oops, sorry about that." He said, shrugging, "I guess I didn't see you."

Bubbles coughed hard as he tried to straighten himself up. He shooed Squeak away who had run up to him, trying to help him to his feet, asking frantically if he was ok. Bubbles, who was already red in the face as it was, seemed to become even redder as the chubby boy smothered him like a mother to her child. He finally gave Squeak a sharp push away.

Devil Lad just stood there, hands in his pockets, watching as the older boy struggled to catch his breath and get up off his knees by himself. It was almost more pathetic than if he had let Squeak help him.

"Yer….dead…." He managed to wheeze as finally hoisted himself to his feet.

"Yeah! Dead!" Squeak echoed nervously. He was clearly more concerned with the older boy's health than Devil Lad's punishment, but he went along supporting Bubbles, not wanting to embarrass him any further.

"Ok." Replied the demonic joker. He snapped his fingers and added, almost as if it were an after thought, "Oh, but you have to catch me first."

With that, he dashed away, vanishing again into the darkness. Bubbles, rejuvenated by his rage, shot after him without hesitation. Squeak, as usual, hobbled after them, yelling out for the two of them to slow down.

The eldest boy was like a rabid animal now. He cleared any obstacle in his way, jumping over logs and pushing aside bushes without missing a beat. He was seeing red, his body boiling so hot with anger he didn't even feel the cold anymore. The boy in front of him tried to throw Bubbles off by serpentining through the forest, weaving in and out around trees, but it put little distance between the two of them. He kept his eyes trained to the boy's back, not even daring to blink. The more they ran, the farther into thicker brush they seemed to be going. There didn't seem to be a path at all, anymore. The three were just running through bushes and thick overgrowths now. Devil Lad would disappear into leaves, and then reappear briefly on the other side as Bubbles emerged from the shrubbery. It was getting increasingly hard to keep his eyes on his mark.

As Bubbles followed Devil Lad through another thicket of branches and vines, he suddenly felt the ground beneath him disappear. Instinctually, he grabbed a handful of leaves and thin branches, saving himself from a fall into, what appeared to be, a swampy trench below. He cursed himself quietly, pulling himself up to solid ground again. Before he could assess the situation fully, he heard the staggered trotting and heavy breathing of someone struggling to run. Squeak emerged suddenly from the brush, running past Bubbles, a confused expression written on his face.

"You idiot!" Bubbles exclaimed, reaching out to grab his friend's sleeve, but his reflexes failed him this time.

Squeak tumbled down the steep muddy hillside, wailing all the way. He continued to roll until he finally splashed into the murky brown water below.

He sat himself up, his left side completely coated in mud where he had landed.

"…I'm ok."

The chubby teen spit out dirty water and wet grass.

"Oh, uh…" he tugged at his left arm that was still emerged under water.

"What?" Bubbles barked down after him.

"It's stuck or something?" Squeak gave his arm another vigorous yank.

The appendage came loose, and he pulled it up from the water to reveal it had been caked in thick mud. As he attempted to stand up, he found it was much more difficult to lift his legs, which had also been sucked into the earth. Bubbles watched over the ledge, forgetting about his goose chase completely.

"I can't move." Squeak finally said bleakly, admitting defeat.

"Yer such an idiot, I swear. Stay there, I'm gonna find somethin' for you to grab on to so's I can pull you out."

Bubbles turned to leave, parting the bushes ahead of him. A whistling from above brought his attention to the skeleton faced teen sitting on a branch just above him.

"Happy Halloween." Finch said in an almost sing-song way.

A gleaming glass orb cut the air and pelted Bubbles in the dead center of his forehead. He fell forward to his knees, curled over, yelling out in pain as a trickle of blood streamed out between his fingers cuffed over the site of attack. Finch jumped from the branch, landing in front of the wounded older teen and delivered a powerful kick directly between his legs, causing his upper half to snap and fall over, tensed with pain. His eyes were glossed and glassy and his mouth opened up like a big "o", a look of agony and shock evident in every crease on his dirty, red face.

Suddenly, the red devil appeared before him like an angel of death. He stood there with his skeletal reaper companion, looking down at the crippled boy with no gesture of remorse or pity. After a moment, the two exchanged looks and Devil Lad set a mud-covered sneaker on Bubbles' shoulder, firmly pushing his helpless pain snared body over the edge of the trench. He rolled down the slick hill and into the water, face first. Squeak tried desperately to wade to his friend's side, losing both of his shoes in the process as he pulled at his legs with all of his strength. Bubbles came up from the water, gasping for air. Another sharp pain pierced the side of his face, and a large glass marble fell into the water next to him with a benevolent plink.

"One for you…" Finch aimed his last marble at the chubby teen below, pulled the sling taught, and released it. It created an instant welt on Squeak's neck, who let out a cry. "And one for you."

Finch and Devil Lad watched amused as the two below struggled to collect themselves. Squeak tried to speak to Bubbles, who was so disoriented by pain and surprise that he didn't even know where he was or how he managed to land himself in a muddy swamp. He babbled on about nothing and Squeak sat beside him in the water like a loyal dog, unsure what to do next.

"Ok, I'm over it." Devil Lad said after another moment of watching the pathetic display.

"Same."

They made their way back through the forest, casually walking side by side.

"How long to do you think it'll take them to get out of that mess?" Devil Lad asked as they made it out through the thickest part of the forest.

"Honestly, I couldn't say. It's hard enough to lift your legs in that water, but climbing up the side and getting out is almost impossible. It's all slippery mud and it's pretty steep…"

Finch felt euphoric. All the adrenaline in his body had drained and the walk out of the forest was quiet and calm. The night didn't seem so glum anymore, Finch felt like he was thirteen again.

He looked up at the sky, which had gone from pitch black to a navy blue- morning was on it's way. Any minute now, he may be gone. A momentary sadness crossed him, but he shook it away quickly. If Devil Lad never did come back, at least he had these memories.

Just up ahead, lights broke the night. The sidewalks were abandoned, the streetlights had turned off, the houselights of the mansion type homes all out and all of the children safely home. The night was just nearly over. They had made it out of the forest, guided by the headlights of Bubbles' car. Leave it to those two to leave a running car unattended.

Finch walked up to the driver side of the car and unzipped his fly.

"Are you kidding me, man? That's like pissing on someone's grave. You don't know when to stop."

"Hey, they're going to come after me anyway, might as well go all out."

As Finch finished up, something in the back seat of the car caught his eye. The luminesant green of a dying glow-in-the-dark ghost stenciled onto a cheap plastic trick-or-treat bag. Finch wordlessly opened the back door and began to pull out bag after bag.

"Bingo."

Devil Lad ran over to the drivers back door, "What is all that?"

"Candy. It's bags and bags of candy. Bubbles and Squeak must've been hiding out in the neighborhood preying on the kids trick-or-treating. There are six full bags in here."

He pulled them all out, one after the other, and set them on the concrete in front of them.

Devil Lad put a hand to his head, dumbstruck by their luck.

"That's more loot than we ever scored by ourselves."

"C'mon, help me get this shit out of the road."