A/N: Okay, so I know it's kind of weird to drop a oneshot for a fandom I haven't written anything new for in a really long time, especially when it takes place after, or at least at a time far into, a fic that's not nearly complete yet, and still probably won't be for a long time. But you don't really need to read Bonds of The Elements Through Time to understand what's happening here, and it's not like it's spoiling all that much. I mean, you all most likely guessed it was going to go this direction given the tags.
This particular Halloween fic was inspired by, of all things, an AITA post on Reddit by somebody who did this exact thing to his son. You'll be happy to know however that this story goes a lot better than the real life events, thankfully. Without further delay, please enjoy!
"Ah!" Mono couldn't help but cry out as the ghoulish face appeared in the window of the old, decrepit house. The teenage girl whose perspective they were watching from lets out a high-pitched scream along with him as the music swells before all became silent and still once again.
The camera zooms out, and the girl hugs herself while taking another look at the window, which is now empty, as though the monster had never been there to begin with. "I-It's fine, Emma," the girl mutters to herself, voice trembling. "There's nothing there. You were probably just imagining things. Quit being so dramatic." She straightens herself up. "I'm going in there, and I will prove once and for all that there's nothing to be afraid of. This house is not haunted!"
"What are you doing?" Triple was sitting on the couch next to Mono, gazing at the TV screen with an exasperated expression. "No, you idiot! Don't go in there!"
Mono couldn't help but laugh a little. With Triple's commentary, the movie wasn't nearly as scary as it would have been had he been watching it alone.
If mono had somehow known that this is where he would be a year ago, he never would've believed it. Living in a city, safe with a loving family, watching a movie on a TV, of all things, with no need to fear any real danger? It all sounded like some sort of surreal, impossible dream, and yet, here he was.
"This movie sucks," Triple huffed, but mono knew the shadow girl didn't really mean that. She just enjoyed making fun of it. "This girl has no self-preservation instincts; she never would've survived as a runaway."
"This movie was made before that, I think," mono replied as he reached for a marshmallow with sprinkles shaped like a cute cartoon ghost.
"Well, she's gonna be the first one killed off, I am calling it now."
Several jump scares, messages written in dried blood, and flying furniture later, this was proven to be the case. The girl ended up being chased by the monster from earlier right onto a decaying floorboard, where she fell through, her screams echoing as she plunged into the darkness. The ghoul then turned to roar right at the camera, giving the children a good look at its crooked but sharp teeth.
"Seriously?" triple scoffs. "That is beyond ridiculous! Why even have the monster there at all if it's not the one to do the deed?" She pauses the movie and turns to Mono with a sigh. "In any case, this movie is helping me get into a spooky mood, even if it is terrible."
Mono nods, grabbing a pumpkin-shaped chocolate and letting it slowly dissolve on his tongue. He'd never celebrated Halloween before, when would he have when he was living in an actual nightmare? He wasn't sure if he'd like it at first, given he'd already seen enough scary stuff to last an entire lifetime. But he found that he actually enjoyed the holiday so far. Although maybe all the candy had something to do with it.
"I hope Six gets back soon," he mumbles around the sweet treat. His other sister had gone into town with Isabelle to search for costume ideas. Mono had opted to stay at home given he already had his costume prepared, and Triple didn't need one. So here they were, watching crappy horror movies on DVD and eating way too much Halloween candy.
"Me too," the shadow responds, reaching for some candy herself. "How long does it take to decide on a costume anyway? She probably isn't having as much fun as we are…" she trails off, blankly staring at the TV, which had turned staticky from being paused so long. Mono cringed, looking away. Staticky TVs still gave him a bad feeling, even after all this time.
"Heeeey, bag boy?"
Mono turns to face Triple again. When she used that tone of voice, it usually meant trouble. And that nickname… "I haven't had my bag in months."
Triple shrugs. "The name just stuck. Anyway, I have an idea for a fun prank we can play on Six when she gets home."
The plan was simple. Mono and Triple would wait until Six was about to enter. Then they'd turn off the lights, hide behind the couch, and jump out when she entered the room. At least, that's all it was at first. Then things got complicated.
"Where did you even find this?" Mono stared at the weird porcelain mask incredulously. It was oddly cold in his hands, and it gave him a odd feeling in his gut if he stared at it too long.
"I have my ways…" Triple whispers mysteriously, sounding like one of the ghosts from the movie. "You should wear it. You love trying different headwear."
"Uh…" Mono fiddles with the mask nervously. "Thanks?" He was grateful to his adoptive sister for considering him like this, but at the same time, there was something about this mask that just rubbed him the wrong way, but he wasn't sure what.
"I'll use my powers to make some spooky shadows, too. Oh, this will be so much fun! I can't wait to see the look on her face!"
Mono had to admit, Triple's enthusiasm was starting to rub off on him a little bit. He hadn't been sure about this little prank at first, but now he found himself excitedly thinking about Six's surprised reaction when she saw the two of them leaping out from behind the sofa. It was going to be great.
"Bye, Izzy!" Six called over her shoulder before heading into the massive castle of a home. She still couldn't believe she actually got to live here, even though she'd already been here for almost a year.
"Hey, Sixie!" Leora called from down the hall. The young lightcaster was holding a large bucket full of treats, shaped like a jackolantern. "Want some?"
"Yes please!" Six rushes over, grabbing several handfuls of candy and stuffing both her raincoat pockets full.
Leora giggles. "Woah, save some for the rest of us."
Six feels her face warm. "S-Sorry."
"Nah, I'm just messing with you. Got any ideas for what you're gonna be for Halloween yet? I hope the trip with Isabelle helped you decide, because there's not much more time left, y'know."
Six nods, rustling the hood of her coat. "I think I finally know what my costume will be. I just need to find a few more things to make it perfect."
"Do I get to know what it is?"
"Nope, it's a surprise."
Leora smirks. "Well, you'll have to wait to find out what my costume is then, too."
Six shrugs, popping a piece of candy in her mouth. It was chocolate with strawberry cream inside. Yum! "That's fair. Where're Triple and mono?"
"They're in the TV room, having a little scary movie marathon or something."
Six frowns. She hadn't really been a fan of scary stuff, even before her time as a runaway. She probably wouldn't join them, but she supposed she could pop down for a minute to check on them, and let them know she was home.
The lights were turned off in the small TV room when Six entered. That wouldn't be so weird on its own, except six couldn't hear the television playing, or her siblings' voices.
"Hello?" Six asked softly as she took a few steps into the room. "Triple? Mono?"
The couch was empty. Dents in the cushions and several loose candy wrappers were the only indication that her siblings had been there. Six began to get a bad feeling that something was very, very wrong.
"H-Hello?" When Six walked further into the room, a low whooshing noise filled her ears. Glancing around, she realized that the TV was the culprit. The television with its dim, static-filled screen.
Six had only a few seconds to take in this realization before her ears were filled with screams, both from herself and from the monsters.
They were small, no bigger than her, one made of dark writhing tendrils, the other sparking under its creepy mask. That was all the detail Six gathered before she was bolting out of there.
Six knew she shouldn't be screaming, or making so much noise with her feet. Hadn't her time as a runaway taught her anything? But she'd let her guard down. She thought she was safe in the Haven, all of them did. Especially with the Corruption fading by the day. But now, her judgement was clouded over with pure, unadulterated terror.
"Help!" Six couldn't stop herself from crying out, her vision blurry from tears she only now realized were falling. "Someone! Please, help!"
"Oof! Hey!" ? That was Leora's voice. Shaking her dark hair from her eyes, six realized she had run right smack dab into her eldest sister. She all but cried with relief.
"Leora! The—they got—TV, it was dark—monsters!"
"Whoa, whoa, hey. You have to calm down, sis. I didn't get a word of that."
Six suddenly found herself surrounded in warm, golden light. It wasn't painful to her body or her eyes, and it gave her a pleasant tingling feeling.
"Deep breaths, Sixie," her sister's voice seemed to echo all around her. "No monsters can get you in here. Breathe along with the light, okay?"
The glow obscuring Six's form began to brighten and dim in a slow, rhythmic pattern. Six, despite her terror over the fate of her other siblings, tried her best to match her breaths to it.
Sooner than she thought, Six's heartbeat slowed, and she found herself thinking clearly once again. Leora must've realized this because soon the light dimmed and stayed that way, and she found herself leaning heavily against the very concerned looking lightcaster. "Okay. Now that you're calm, mind telling me what happened? Clearly something really freaked you out."
Mono was a mess. He didn't understand how everything had gone so wrong. It was supposed to be just a fun prank. But clearly, Six didn't see it that way.
That wasn't just shock, or a pure startled reaction they'd gotten out of her, it was panic. [Mono would know, he'd seen his fair share of panicked people in his lifetime.]
What had they done to set Six off like that? Was it the shadows? The sparks? Or maybe it was this stupid, creepy mask!
Before he realized what he was doing, mono had torn the awful thing from his face, throwing it against the wall. It slammed into it with a crash, a weird black mist floating out of it as it shattered. The air in the room felt less tense after that, but only slightly.
Then, the door began to slowly open with a creak. Mono tensed, and he heard Triple sucking air through her sharp teeth somewhere nearby. Had he angered some malevolent entity by breaking the mask?
In the back of his mind, Mono registered that this was exactly like a scene from one of those cliché horror movies they had been watching mere moments before, when all was well. It shouldn't have been this scary, but the boy couldn't deny the dread pooling in his chest.
Fortunately, it wasn't some evil spirit; it was just Leora. Unfortunately, as soon as the preteen saw them, she stormed into the room, bristling with righteous anger.
"What did you do?" Even her braids seemed to be prickling. "What did you two do! Poor six was having a panic attack! She had become convinced that the two of you had been kidnapped by monsters through the TV."
"Oh no," Triple moans, her expression Grimm. "We jump scared Six as a prank."
"It was your idea," Mono insisted.
"But you went along with it. In hindsight, though, we probably went a bit too far."
"You think?" Leora's voice cracked. She glared at the TV, which was still full of static. Triple's eyes widened when she saw it.
"I didn't even realize it was still like that!"
"Me neither." Mono was now beginning to realize what this must've looked like to Six. Their sister, who hadn't been spending the day watching horror movies and hadn't seen this coming. And with their whole past together, why hadn't either of them stopped to think about how this might affect her? Had they really spent so much time in a safe place they'd forgotten what it had been like back then? If Six had forgotten, well, they certainly had reminded her.
"Where is Six now?" Triple looked just as stricken by the realization as Mono felt. This must've calmed Leora considerably, for the older girl immediately softened.
"I told her to go hide in her room in case there were actual monsters down here. I doubted it, of course, but better to be safe than sorry."
"Can we go see her?"
Leora gives Mono a sad little smile, and nods slowly. "I think that's a good idea. Six'll be glad to see you're okay."
Six's bedroom door was closed when the trio arrived there, but there was soft sniffling coming from the other side that made a pang stab through Triple's chest. Leora knocked softly on the door. "It's okay, Six. No monsters here."
"R-Really?" Six's voice was muffled, they could barely make out what she was saying.
'Yeah, it was just Triple and mono playing a dumb joke."
"A-Are they here?"
"Yeah, want me to let them in?"
Rather than responding verbally, there was a rhythmic thudding of footsteps from behind the door before it flew open, a black and yellow blur bursting out from the opening that Triple just managed to catch. She hugged her sister close, Mono patting her on the back as well.
"We're so sorry, Six," she murmured. "I don't know what I was thinking."
"We should've known a prank like that wouldn't have gone well, Mono added. "We just got caught up in the spirit of things, I guess."
"I'm just so happy you're okay," Six said, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "But don't ever do that again, please."
Both of them quickly promised that they wouldn't, and vowed to themselves that the rest of the season was going to be much better for Six.