"All ready!"

With that remark, paws skittering across the floors could be heard from behind. Looking at how their costumes fit him in the mirror, Nick quickly glared over where they heard the sounds of running, not seeing anyone in the hallway.

"Boo!" a certain young voice called out from behind.

The fox turned himself around and saw his son Noah standing behind him, paws out in front of him. The seven-year-old kit was dressed in his cute vampire costume Judy helped him pick out, pretending to bare fangs the way the vampires did in the movies.

Nick placed a paw up to his chest and the other over his face, the way he might have if he received the greatest fright of all time. "Oh no!" he cried. "The vampire has come for my blood. Spare me!"

Noah tittered innocently at his father's reaction. "It's just me, Dad," he said in between his giggling.

His father pretended to wipe his forehead with a sigh of relief. "Whew! Thank goodness," he replied. "Your costume looks so lifelike that I thought there was a real-life vampire standing behind me for a second."

"Okay, you two," Judy said as she slowly stepped into the room. She was now wearing the long blue dress that was part of her princess costume, a glittery wand that sparkled as she walked along in her paw. "What do you think?"

"Looks wonderful, Fluff," Nick said to his bunny with a smile.

"Oh, Mom!" Noah said as he jumped up and down with great enthusiasm. Today was his absolute favorite holiday of the year, and he could not wait to head out and go trick or treating once again. "I made up a story that I wanna tell you and Dad."

"Really?" Judy asked with interest. "Is it a spooky story for Halloween? I love those."

"It sure is," the fox kit answered, nodding his head. "It's a very spooky one."

"Let's hear it, Noah," Nick said to his son, reading to hear what story he had come up with.

"Just a sec." Noah ran out of the room for a moment before returning with a flashlight. He flicked it on and held it up to his face, the light casting a shadow over it. "It was a Halloween night, just like this, when two leopards were walking through down the street. It was really, really dark and quiet, and all of a sudden… they saw a monster!" He clicked his flashlight off and set it down to his side, smiling back at his parents. "Did ya like it?"

Nick realized that that was all there was to his kit's little spooky story he was telling. "Yeah," he said. "That part about them seeing a monster…"

"Pretty scary, huh?" Noah inquired.

"Sure was," Judy chimed in.

"Yeah..." The kit paused a moment, face-pawing when he realized something. "Oh, I forgot to tell the best part of my story. I messed it up."

"You can still tell us how the rest of it went, son," Nick replied.

"Okay." Noah reached down to pick up his flashlight and casted the glow on his face once again. "The monster let out a roar so loud that it blew the spots off the one leopard."

"And what happened to the other one?" his father asked, pretending to sound apprehensive about what happened next.

"He tried to run away from it," the kit continued, "but the monster was faster. No, not just faster. It was faster-er."

Nick nodded his head. "I think I see being a writer in your future, Noah. You sure know how to tell a scary story."

"Thanks, Dad. One day I'm gonna come up with the best stories in the world."

His father replied, "Let's hope we don't run into any of those tonight. I wouldn't be sure what to do if I saw one of them."

"There would no need to fear, Nick," the gray doe assured her fox, twirling the thin, shimmering plastic rod she was still holding onto. "This wand of mine will protect us from all evil." Turning her attention to her son, she said, "Now then, I think it's time we head on down to the ZPD for their Halloween celebration."

The kit in his vampire costume started to wag his tail with eagerness, excited to finally head out to the event in the city he had been looking forward to all day long.

Author's Note: Hey there, readers! You don't know how long I've been trying to get a story written out that was written in time for Halloween. I originally planned to do some that were centered around the holiday, but some things came up in real life and writing got pushed aside for a short time. Came up with this simply yet short story, though, and I hope you all enjoyed it.

I have some spookier Halloween stories that I'll probably share with y'all once I've finished working on them. Even when the spooky season is over, being a little bit of a horror fan, I like to read scary stories regardless of what time of year it is. :)

'Til next time, everybody! :)