THIS IS HALLOWEEN THIS IS HALLOWEEN


1. Someone's Not Getting a Refund on That Halloween Decor

"It's all right, Milo," Veronica tilted her Scarlet Pimpernel hat up to wink at Milo, who shrank against her leg at the sight of all the spooky decorations that littered Mrs. Santiago's lawn. "Look, the pumpkin is smiling at you!"

The candle on the inside of the pumpkin promptly burned the rest of it to ashes.

Veronica chuckled nervously. "Well, just pretend there's a smiley face in the cinders. That works too."

"C'mon, Milo!" Sara tugged him off Veronica's leg, nudging him towards the front porch. "Dr. Zone and Time Ape need to do the special trick or treat line together!"

"Don't force him if he doesn't want to," Veronica warned gently.

Milo adjusted his grip on the Dr. Zone's gift-shaped cast that served as his basket and slowly walked towards the house. He shot glances over his shoulder at the ghosts swinging from the trees, and the skeletons that littered the front lawn.

Only for him to come running back to Veronica when a ghoul with glowing red eyes popped out of nowhere.

"Hey! Leave him alone!" Sara scowled, stomping up to the ghoul and punching it in the face until the head snapped off. "He just wanted candy!"

Veronica grinned at the sight while she comforted Milo. Good thing he was easy to calm down. "We'll choose a house that doesn't haven't a lot of scary stuff. How does that sound?"

2. Trick or Squeak

Eileen set the vacuum in the closet, about to grab her coat before they took Zack trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Marcus had insisted on selecting the costume this year, claiming that Eileen would dress up Zack as something so precious that the world would implode from cuteness.

Well, there was some truth to that. But Eileen knew the real reason.

As she shrugged on her coat, she felt the air suddenly warm up behind her. She rolled her eyes.

"Tomcat, it'll take far more than your claws to scare me," Eileen said, turning around to look at Marcus, who frowned when his sneak attack was blown.

"How did you know?" he asked.

Eileen smirked. "I always know. Now, is there a reason why you chose a mouse costume for Zack? I thought you didn't want 7 billion people and counting to die from cuteness implosion?"

Marcus chuckled. "No reason at all. Now, perhaps my wife will enjoy hearing how loudly I can purr?"

"We'll see," Eileen replied, shaking her head fondly as she headed to Zack's bedroom.

3. It's the Great Pumpkin, Cavendish

"I think you missed the bit where Milo said the Great Pumpkin story was from a cartoon," Dakota said, giving up on trying to pull Cavendish out of the pumpkin patch.

"I don't believe it," Cavendish grumbled. "Besides, the readings give no indication that a flying pumpkin comes from a different dimension to give children toys on Halloween."

Dakota tapped a large pumpkin that had a blue ribbon on the stem from a county fair. "I found the Great Pumpkin."

"Where?" Cavendish whirled around, frowning when he caught Dakota snickering at him. "Oh, be quiet."