On the beginning of the evening of October 31st, Samuel gets ready to go out on a trick-or-treating evening with his friends. He got himself a little Ninja outfit to wear for his candy chase, but while he feels eager to go out, a part of him feels troubled.
His thoughts are interrupted when he realizes that Bill is sitting on his bed with a playful stare and tone. "So... Are you ready for that night of mischief and fright?"
"Um... You know you can't show yourself outside, right...?" Samuel got a little worried, thinking the demon planned to create some chaos outside.
Bill reacts defensively. "Easy there, Fuzzball... Of course I won't cause trouble. I'll have to follow you hidden, you won't even notice I'm here!"
"Then... what's with the eagerness?"
The demon shrugs. "Nothing wrong, I'll just like to see the atmosphere out there... I mean, it definitely won't be any close to what kind of scary things I could create, but I guess I'll have to do with what I see."
"... You're not gonna do anything bad, right...?" Sammy looks quite concerned.
His question gets interrupted when the house's doorbell gets heard.
"Go on, Fuzzball... You wouldn't want to make your friends wait, would you...?" Bill says playfully before vanishing. So the boy quickly grabs his bag to go open the door.
Dipper and Mabel are here, respectively dressed as an explorer and an unicorn, and they both have eager smiles.
"Hi, Sammy!" Greets Dipper.
"Wow, you got a cool outfit!" Gushes, Mabel.
"Eh... Thanks... You too..." Samuel is being genuine, although he's still a little bothered by something. But he doesn't want to mention it yet.
"So, shall we get going?", encourages Dipper. To which Samuel nods after closing the door.
After taking a few steps towards the neighborhood streets, Mabel feels really cheerful as she looks around.
"Look at all these decorations!" She's really impressed.
"Yeah, they're pretty good!" Dipper remains fairly grounded given how they're the standards of the town. "So let's get going, I got the perfect itinerary for us planned! Let's start here!"
Samuel hides a little sigh of sorrow to join them cheerfully, as they start going door to door, getting their share of candies.
Moments later, as they're done with the street, they start talking about the experience before moving on.
Dipper speaks up. "You know, I've heard other trick-or-treaters talking about the decorations too. I didn't expect this at first, but it seems the citizens decided to set the scare factor up a notch this year!"
"And it's awesome! Come on, let's continue!" Mabel is overjoyed and leads to them to the next street.
Sammy is more of the silent type through this journey, although he's definitely having a good time with his friends. But his curiosity is indeed high due to the decorations. It includes fairly scarier stuff than what he's used to, like animatronics of spiders, zombies, ghosts, mummies and the like. He is impressed in a good way, but it causes him to wonder how it's possible.
For now he puts those cares aside and he follows his friends for the night. As they follow another street, they accidentally catch on a conversation that two younger childs seem to have.
One kid says. "I'm telling you, that pumpkin head's expression changed in front of my eyes... It looked at me and it grew a scarier smile..."
His friend answers. "You're just imagining things because of how great the decorations are. Come on, let's get more candies!"
"Alright..."
Dipper and Mabel don't really pay attention to it, but this causes Samuel to get curious.
Said kids then approach the trio. "Hey um, you guys...?"
Dipper answers the two. "Yes...?"
One of them point at a house that's a little out of their way. "No need to try that house over there. The owner wasn't a kind one when we went there."
"I see, thanks for the advice! Have a nice candy chase, you two!" Dipper says, and the two groups part way after that.
Mabel immediately goes "It wouldn't hurt to try, right?" She goes to that house without hesitating.
"Oh dear..." Dipper sighs and follow. "Yeah, let's try it, Sammy... We got nothing to lose..."
Samuel nods and they ring the doorbell.
The three chant the usual "Trick or treat!" when the door opens. But as they've been warned, they're greeted with a negative answer.
"Go away, you kids! I don't give candies for these stupid celebrations!", before the man slams the door.
Dipper frowns a bit. "Gee, rude much...?"
Mabel shrugs. "Hey, we tried. Come on, let's go explore some more!"
"She never stops, does she...?" Samuel giggles a bit.
Dipper runs ahead to catch up with her and Samuel starts joining them, but then... He suddenly hears a scream coming from the house they just visited, which has him really intrigued before he leaves quickly.
The rest of the evening goes very well, although they keep running into discussions/thoughts about the decorations being scarier than what's usually done around town.
Eventually, it's getting late and Dipper claims. "I'd say we've done a good coverage of the neighborhood, and we have a solid amount of candies! You wanna stop now?"
Mabel says. "I'd like more candies, but... I'm growing a little tired, yeah... I'm glad of what I have, though."
Samuel nods. "Yeah, we definitely did good tonight! Let's stop by your home, it's closer than mine!"
So they have a calm walk to the Pines residence while they streets start emptying themselves when most kids are calling it a night. They all enter to put their bags inside and have a short discussion.
"Hey, Sammy... What's up with you tonight...?" Dipper asks, which surprises his friend.
"Uh? What do you mean...?"
"I could tell you had fun with us, but you feel... a little somber..." He claims.
"Yeah, seems like your face is struggling to be happy!" Mabel observes.
Samuel is impressed. "Oh dear... You two do know me very well indeed..." He can't help but smile. "Okay, I'll tell you, there's indeed something that's been concerning me tonight. But... Please keep in mind, I don't want to be like one who seeks to taint an evening of fun by bringing up the subject... I... I don't want that to be the case..."
Mabel smiles at him. "If you have something on your mind, it's best that you tell your friends, doesn't it?"
All of them sit in the living room, his friends are encouraging and willing to hear.
Samuel sighs and doesn't want to make them wait. "Do you think... we might be getting too old for trick-or-treating?" There's some silence following this question, so he justifies his thought. "You guys turned 13 exactly two months ago from today, and I'll also turn 13 later this year... Do you think enjoying Halloween... or anything that give us joy, really... will have to be a thing of the past...?" He starts sounding really emotional and scared as he explains.
"Oh, Sammy..." Mabel feels bad about seeing him emotional like this. Especially since she can relate to these feelings.
Dipper loses his smile too as he starts thinking about it.
Then he says... "It's our call to make!" with a confident smile, before he continues. "Yes, maybe trick-or-treating specifically will be a thing of the past for us... But it doesn't mean being a teen or an adult will have to be dull! If we don't want it to be dull and sad, it won't!"
Mabel wants to be optimistic as well, saying... "We would have other ways to have fun, and you're never too old for candies and costumes, and all that! Childhood is something we have to say goodbye to, unfortunately..." Saying that is something that hits really hard home, as she thinks about what happened at the end of their vacation, but she tries to brush this aside quickly. "But we decide when we're done having fun! And I say, we keep being the cheerful fun-loving group that we are! What do you say?"
The twins' enthusiasm is very contagious, and Samuel wipes a tear away. "... You know, when you put it that way..."
Then he switches the subject. "Hey, um... You've noticed the decoration, right? I'm surprised it was so scary this year... It's great, of course, it's all for fun, but... It's an odd change of pace from the previous years..."
Dipper shrugs it away. "I suppose most folks around town felt like more budget and efforts were welcomed to make it fun."
"And it was, I loved it!" Mabel cheers.
"Oh, I liked it too." Samuel starts standing up. "I should be heading home now before it gets too late and dark..." He grabs his bag. "I had a great night tonight, and I hope we'll enjoy future Halloween, even in other ways!" The message from his friends really worked, and they're glad to see it as they say their quick goodbies.
Sammy has a calm walk back home on empty streets. However he looks around and feels like some of the spookier decorations seem to have either vanished or be replaced by tamer ones now that there's barely anyone outside.
Soon enough, he reaches home, puts his bag of candies in a safe spot and is quick to go to his bedroom. But he has a sneaking suspicion about something...
"So, you had a fun night?" Bill, like often, speaks up out of nowhere with his loud voice, and Samuel looks at him with some frown. "What's the issue, Fuzzball?" He asks, confidently.
"You did something... I know it! ... Those decorations... They were your doing, wasn't it?"
Bill reacts confidently. "You sure know how to deduce things correctly. Ever considered working in a job about mysteries?" He cackles, but that doesn't erase his vessel's annoyance. "Yes, I did! Halloween is the only time of year humans celebrate spookiness, and frankly, the way they do it is so tame and boring... It was only natural that
I'd help spice things up, wasn't it? The rule was that I wouldn't show myself, and I didn't!"
Sammy deduces from the confirmation. "So that's why... This kid who said he saw that pumpkin head become scarier... It was because he saw your magic in action..."
"Correct! It wasn't meant to be, but I suppose not all of these young thrill seekers are as unobservant as they look". Again, the demon just shrugs every fault away while admitting them.
"This is not good, Bill! We agreed that you wouldn't do anything bad!" Samuel starts being angry, but Bill defends himself.
"So? All I did was make some harmless decorations spookier than they were supposed to! No one was hurt! Even your friends loved those!" Bill takes pride in his actions.
"No one was hurt... Wait, what about that man who didn't give us candies! I've heard a scream right after we visited... It was you too, of course!"
"Bingo! You warned him, trick or treat. There was no treat, so it was the other option." He cackles, before seeing the boy's expression. "Relax, I didn't do anything cruel. He just got an unexpected shower... A jam shower!"
Samuel actually can't contain a little chuckle.
"See, that's something humans actually do and it's not harmful or anything! So there's no reason to be mad at me!" One could say, the triangle is very good at being the devil's advocate.
Samuel sighs. "Okay, Bill, I won't stay mad, but we need to talk... You can't do this kind of stuff without warning us first..."
Bill takes offense. "What? Why?"
"We have a deal about you not using your powers in bad ways, and probably not in the open like that either... You raised some good points about not having hurt anyone, but not telling me and my friends before makes it a bad act regardless..."
Bill leaves a groan... "So many stupid rules and limitations... How do you stand this stuff...?" There's some silence after that. "... Fine... I won't do this kind of actions again without warning, you have my word..." The triangle says that begrudgingly, while Samuel nods.
He switches the subject with a more cheerful tone. "Anyway, Fuzzball, I've heard and deduced your concerns from tonight...". Before there's some freaking out from the boy's part, he says. "And I wanna say, Pinetree and Shooting star are completely right!"
"... Really...? You think so?" Sammy is surprised to hear that from him.
"Yes! I mean, do you know how old I am?" Bill asks earnestly.
"... Um..." Because he never thought about that before, the boy starts overthinking it.
Bill frowns a bit. "Scratch that, you might give me an unpleasant answer... ... And I've long lost count anyway... My point is, I don't let how much time passed since my birth determine how I should act! If I love fun and mischief, I love it and I don't let a silly number dictate how I should act! So why should you? If you and your friends want to keep having fun, keep having fun!"
Sammy is really impressed from how wise this sounds, despite Bill having his own logic. And he smiles genuinely. "Thanks Bill, you are right... These were concerns I had no reason to have.
"No problem, Fuzzball!" He looks at him for a second before saying. "So, shouldn't you go to sleep, Ninja Boy?"
Samuel realizes, a bit embarrassed, that he kept his costume on the whole time, between being lost in thoughts and it being comfortable. "Oh right, I should change and go to sleep..."
Bill speaks loudly. "If you're too tired, keep it on! Who cares?"
This causes his vessel to giggle. "Eh... Yeah, let's try it..." He sits on his bed, and he already feels drowsy. "I don't know if I have... the energy... to..."
The demon knew full well that this was gonna be happening, so he looks at him, amused... "Seems like he already needs his recharge mode... Not surprised! ... Well, I can't just leave him like this..." He uses his powers to lay him down in a comfier position under the blankets, and looks at him for a moment before vanishing.
Author notes: For a chapter that was meant to be showcasing a holiday celebration, it sure went a little deep, didn't it...? Felt like a good opportunity to tackle the growing up dilemma that was already explored a little on the show, with an optimistic message about it. I hope I did it well enough.
Felt like a good opportunity for some Bill wisdom too, even if he took a backseat in this chapter. Besides being the sneaky demon he is...
Also interesting how not only do I publish this chapter on the month of Halloween, but on Friday the 13th, of all days.
Thanks for reading!