This one goes out to Daisyangel who gave me the idea. Thank you, my friend! :)

Eliot: 10

Alec: 6

Parker: 5

"And then, they went in the house and there was a skeleton in it and it jumped up and grabbed them and locked them up forever." Alec switched the flashlight under his chin off and sat back against his headboard with a satisfied smile.

Eliot rolled his eyes. "That's the best you got?"

"Hey! It was good! Wasn't it Parker?" he said, crossing his arms.

She wasn't even paying attention anymore. "Huh? Is it over?"

Alec slumped. "You weren't listening?"

She patted his shoulder. "It wasn't very scary."

"Bet you guys can't tell a better one," he grumbled.

"Yeah, Eliot! You tell good stories," Parker said, scrambling across Alec's bed to sit by him.

"No way. Last time I told you guys a story Alec got in my bed in the middle of the night and made me keep all the lights on."

"Did not!"

"Totally did."

"You're mean."

Eliot shrugged. "'S not my fault you're a baby."

"Am not!" he cried, his lip in a pout.

Eliot recognized the signs. If he stayed on this road, Alec was going to cry and then he would get in trouble. Sometimes it was worth it - someone had to toughen the kid up a little - but it was Halloween and he didn't want to ruin his brother's night.

"Whatever. Parker, tell us a story," he said, changing the subject.

Alec was still sulking but Eliot knew he'd be over it soon. If not he could always make it up to him later with trick-or-treating loot.

"Ok," Parker said, grabbing the flashlight and turning it on under her chin. "Once 'pon a time, there was a fairy. An' the fairy sneaked in peoples houses every night and taked things. An' one time the fairy taked a baby."

She paused.

"That it?" Eliot asked, eyebrows raised.

She shook her head. "I don't know if the next part's too scary."

"We're good," Eliot said, glancing at Alec. "Just tell us."

"Well," she began again, dragging the word out. "The fairy bit all the eyeballs out and the baby went back home but nobody could know who the baby was so they thought it was a monster and put it in the basement. The end." She clicked off the flashlight.

"Parker, that doesn't even make any sense!" Eliot said. Honestly. Little kids were no good at this.

"Yes it does," she insisted. "An' it's true."

"It's true?" Alec squeaked. "There's a fairy that eats kids' eyeballs?!"

Eliot put his head in his hands. Alec was definitely going to get in his bed tonight.

"Hey," Nate said, opening the door and turning on the light. "You guys ready to go?"

"Trick-or-treating?" Alec exclaimed, his fear momentarily forgotten at the promise of candy.

"Yeah, hurry and get your costumes on. Mom wants a picture," he said.

Parker dashed past him to get to her room and Alec leaped off the bed to grab his robe and lightsaber.

Eliot was not quite as excited. He was at a crossroads of sorts. He liked getting candy and he even liked getting dressed up, but it was getting difficult to find a good costume. He couldn't get away with dressing up as a cop or a cowboy anymore. Those were little kid costumes. So he'd settled on wearing his football gear but that just wasn't quite as fun.

They gathered in the living room where Sophie was painting black whiskers on Parker's face to go with her cat costume.

"Parker, what's the belt for?" Eliot asked her, tugging lightly on the black sash around her waist.

"I'm a ninja. Duh," she said, turning her head to look at him and smearing the last whisker.

"Ah! Hold still!" Sophie insisted.

"You're not a ninja, you're a cat," he informed her.

"A ninja cat," she said, messing up the face paint yet again.

"Eliot," Nate said, putting a hand on Parker's head to keep her from moving. "Let it go."

"C'mon!" Alec said, brandishing his lightsaber. "Let's go!"

"Picture first!" Sophie said, frowning at Parker's face. "It'll have to do."

"Okay, everyone line up by the door. Where are your candy bags?" Nate said.

"Over on the couch," Sophie said, arranging them all and pulling out her phone. "Okay, smile! No, Parker, look at the camera and smile. Alec, get that sword away from your brother's face. Hold still. Smile!"

They achieved some semblance of a good picture and Sophie and Nate released them into the apartment building. They hit all the people they knew in the building first and then piled into the car to go to some of their more distant friends and acquaintances.

"Trade you a gummy frog for your Snickers," Parker offered Alec, which he promptly accepted.

"Don't eat it all in the car," Sophie pleaded.

Eliot agreed. When Alec had been really little he'd eaten a ton of Halloween candy and then got carsick and puked all over Eliot's cowboy boots. Eliot himself had always been more strategic with his candy. It was practically currency in elementary school.

They pulled up to a big house with cobwebs, orange lights, plastic skeletons and zombies and a host of other gruesome decorations.

"Who lives here?" Alec asked, practically sitting in Eliot's lap so he could see out the window.

"Probably Santa Claus. Get off!" Eliot said, shoving him back toward his own seat.

"One of my coworkers at the museum," Sophie answered. "He said they always go the extra mile on decorations."

Parker was already getting out of the car, ignoring the creepy decorations. She was focused solely on the goal of obtaining more chocolate.

"Parker, wait up!" Eliot said, opening his door to follow her.

"You don't have to go to this one if you don't want to," Sophie told Alec, noticing his reluctance to get out of the car.

"I'm not a baby!" Alec said. He tightened the belt on his Jedi robe resolutely and got out.

Eliot was waiting for him on the sidewalk, one of his hands hanging on to Parker's ninja belt to keep her in place.

"Hurry up, Alec!"

The three of them walked up to the house, Parker in the lead and Alec sticking close to Eliot.

"What are you so afraid of?" Eliot asked him as they approached the porch. "This stuff's fake."

Alec grabbed his arm. "Is that fake?" he said, looking at the lifesize scarecrow propped up next to the front door.

"Come on," Eliot said, practically dragging him up the stairs after Parker.

Parker raised her hand to push the doorbell just as Eliot pulled Alec up the last stair. With a sudden roar the scarecrow leapt at them, it's hands outstretched toward the boys. Alec yelped, his candy flying everywhere as he stumbled backward, but Eliot stepped forward and calmly punched the thing in the nose.

The scarecrow stumbled backward with a pained noise and Eliot realized pretty quickly that it was just some guy, probably their mom's friend in there.

"Geez, kid," the scarecrow said, taking the burlap sack off his head and rubbing his nose. "Quite a right hook you got there."

Eliot ignored him. He was busy dusting Alec off and helping him pick up his candy. "See, Alec? Nothin' to be scared of."

Alec grinned. "Thanks, Eliot."

"Hey, you think I'd let anything bad happen to you?"

Alec shook his head.

"Scarecrow guy?" Parker said, holding out her bag with a glare. "Are you gonna give us chocolate or what?"

The boys dissolved into giggles at the look on Scarecrow guy's face.

"Better make it extra chocolate," Alec said, laughing.

Eliot just smiled. Parker was going to get extra candy and Alec's fear was banished. It was a good night's work.

This one has a couple of autobiographical parts. The kids stories are based on "scary" stories I've heard from my nieces and nephews and the first time I went to a haunted house (I was 13) I punched one of the masked workers right in the face when he tried to sneak up behind me. Good times. :) Also, if anyone ever wanted to draw them in their costumes I would love you forever!