Oh em gee all hallows eve? Sorry this took so long lol I was having a bought of writer's block.
Reviews!
SomeRandomRobo: Yesss that's pretty much what I believe lmao. And me and my friends did try out the Ouija board and we managed to get a ghost named Masam who was a friendly ghost and died in a BMW? I wasn't moving the board and I don't think my friends were, so I might have a ghost in my house now. At least they're friendly…!
MoonTheMagical: Ikr, I wish it wasn't a Monday bc I couldn't stay out super late. Saturday and Friday Halloweens are best. And that's too bad that you're sick! I can relate to the tissue box thing tho LMAO
Lydia-From-Limmet: aww well thank you for sticking around this long lmao, honestly I'm just surprised I haven't run out of motivation yet, with all the unfinished stories I have in my docs…and on my page. And Henry needs a very, very thorough lesson on red flags tbh
Song: This Is Halloween remix by Odd1sOut and a whole bunch of artists!
Enjoy1!1!1!1!
Chapter 92
This Is Halloween!
Rain thundered down on the rooftops like the world's longest drum solo, clear rivers racing each other down the large bay window. The sky was a mixed watercolour canvas of jet blacks and midnight blues, and the ocean below splashed choppy, angry waves onto the wet gray shore, seafoam collecting on knotted masses of seaweed home to a family of scuttling crabs.
Ruby pulled the gauzy curtains over the window and bounced back onto the couch to face her friends. They were planning on an evening walk, but; "Well, looks like we're gonna have to do a…rain check, hehe."
"Ugh, groan." Tulisa sighed, smashing her face into a teal pillow printed with lemon slices.
"You'll make a great dad one day, Rubes." Ducky assured her, patting her twice on the back. He was wearing a black-and-purple striped hoodie and black pants, his dark brown and purple hair wild around his head.
"Gee, thanks guys." Ruby said with a roll of her eyes, crossing her striped-sock-covered legs, which she wore under a black-sleeved baseball longsleeve.
"What should we do?" Myah asked, lying on her stomach as she played with a stray thread sticking up from the carpet. She wore her favourite fluffy beige hoodie and some leopard-print pajama pants, paired with socks with teddy bears.
Ducky shrugged, sliding off the couch beside Ruby and onto the floor. "I have some cards in my room, if you want- hey!"
Ruby blinked innocently mid-braiding a few curls of his hair. "Sowwy, Ducky."
Josh gagged. "Please, never use that voice again."
Ruby ignored Josh and continued absent-mindedly braiding Ducky's hair. "I don't wanna play cards."
"Well, what do you want to do?" Tulisa asked, pulling up the sleeves of her gray sweatshirt that read NYU in navy blue letters.
"I don't knowwww." Ruby whined, finishing the braid and tying it with a spare hair elastic. "I'm boooored."
Josh folded his arms together sternly. "Well, you're gonna have to come up with something, because it's not like something cool is just gonna burst through the door-"
And then the door slammed open with a sharp click, and a purple-striped wetsuit-clad Michael burst through the door, dripping salty puddles on the floor and clutching a rental surfboard with a picture of a dolphin on it with a shivering, pale hand. "Hey. I need a towel."
"What." Josh deadpanned.
Ruby turned to her friend with a smirk. "Well Josh, it looks like you were right!"
Michael ignored her, instead asking, rather rudely; "Can I have a towel? Now?"
"Can you get out of our house? Now?" Tulisa fired back, standing up with her hands on her hips. Ruby had explained everything she knew about Michael to her friends, and while most of them had taken it kindly, Tulisa was still wary. Ruby couldn't exactly blame her, "Why don't you just get a towel from your own place instead of stealing ours?!"
Michael rolled his eyes, tapping his foot impatiently. "Because! I went surfing and then it started raining so I came back, and freakin' Jax had locked me out and I didn't remember a towel. Now hurry up before I catch hypothermia."
"How did your dog lock you out?"
"How are you so short?"
Tulisa threw her hands in the air. "I give up. Ruby, you deal with him."
Ruby sighed dramatically, getting up off the couch. "I'll get him a towel."
"Hey, this isn't exactly fun for me, either." Michael snapped as she left. "I wasn't planning on spending my one night off drenched and sitting in a house with a bunch of bad-smelling teenagers."
"Well, look on the bright side," Ducky replied, playing with one of his braids. "At least things can't get any worse."
Tulisa slapped her forehead, wondering how Ducky could get such good grades in school but be dumb enough to say the words that would invoke divine punishment for things to get even worse. And then suddenly, the lights went out, the heat turned off, and the house was plunged into ice-cold darkness. The clocks seemed to angrily think it was 12:00! 12:00! 12:00!
"Now things definitely can't get-"
Three pairs of hands slapped against Ducky's mouth. "No."
~lll~
Five minutes later, Michael was wrapped up in two fluffy blue towels and sat shivering on the carpet with a mug of tea that he'd brewed for everyone, were they all say in a circle. Candles from Ducky's room lit their faces in shimmering gold from below like they were practising cultists.
"Mm, this is actually really good." Myah murmured wonderingly, sipping her cinnamon-apple-cider tea.
"I don't have this accent for nothing," Michael drawled, then proceeded to shake his wet hair like a dog, sending droplets all across the room. The saltwater fluffed it up and darkened it to almost black. Tulisa tried not to think about who that made him look like.
"Ugh, you got it in my eyes! I'm blind!" Ruby wailed, flopping on the ground like a dead fish.
"You're hilarious." Michael said without the slightest hint of humour.
"Well, excuse me for trying to have some fun," Ruby muttered, sitting back up. "It's pitch black and rainy, and apparently nobody here has anything else to do besides sit in the dark and stare."
A moment of silence.
"Well," Tulisa began tentatively, "whenever our family had a power outage, we'd tell scary stories to pass the time. Do you all want to do that?"
"Sure!" Ruby chirped. "Do we make up stories, or do we talk about stuff that's happened to us? Because I pretty much live in a paranormal horror story."
"Let's talk about stuff that's happened to us, then." Tulisa decided. "So, who wants to go first?"
A beat.
"I could." Michael said, his tone changing to a more sarcastic one. "If you guys can handle hearing about He Who Shall Not Be Named."
Ducky shrugged. "Me and Myah have only met him once, and the worst thing he did was make fun of my hair and try to bite my arm off."
"Can confirm that happened." Myah chimed in.
"I suppose." Tulisa sighed. "I'll have you know that I'm not particularly fond of your father, though."
Ruby snorted. "I don't think there's anyone in the omniverse who is."
Michael picked up one of the candles, unbothered by the hot wax. Okay, I've got this. I can say his name. Easy. Two syllables. Four letters. Rhymes with seven. A toddler could do it.
"Now, it was a dark and stormy night…Halloween 2005."
~lll~
"What the hell is this?" Clara snapped, pointing to her middle child, who appeared to be trapped inside a box. "I told you to make him a costume, not…package him."
At her house, Clara had made her daughter an intricately stitched vampire cape and bought some plastic fangs, and stylishly ripped up a black hoodie and painted a Ghostface mask for her eldest son. William had been left in charge of Evan's costume, which was proving to be a terrible mistake.
William furrowed his brow, glancing at his son, who didn't seem to mind his cardboard cage. A jagged hole was cut out by the back of his head, brown tufts peeking through. "Oh, that's it…Evan, turn around. In your costume."
Evan rotated so that his face now peered out the hole. In hastily scrawled Sharpy below, it read Cereal.
Clara gave William a Look. "Cereal."
William nodded. "Cereal."
"I'm cereal!" Evan cheered with a sunny grin, a rare moment of energy.
"And I'm a cereal killer!" Elizabeth roared, charging at her brother from the kitchen, meat cleaver facing directly towards Evan's stomach. Before anyone could stop her, the knife plunged through the thick cardboard by his torso…and no further than that.
"Shit! Fuckin' cardboard!" Elizabeth whined, stamping her foot.
William bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing, but Clara stared at her, horrified. "Beth, we do not use that kind of language in this family! I have half a mind to put you in time-out while everyone else goes trick-or-treating!"
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. "You're being a big cu-"
"WOAH, would you look at the time?" Evan interrupted, checking his watchless, skinny wrist. "We should really get going now. Where's Mike?"
Elizabeth's hand shot up, shiny ginger curls (that had taken Clara an hour and multiple burns on the hand to do, her daughter sure was fidgety) bouncing. "I'll go get him!" Before anyone could comment, she tore off down the hallway, sliding down the floor in her slippery socks and up the stairs to Michael's room.
Clara sighed, glancing briefly at her watch. "Well, Katy and I are going out with a few friends to a club, so I should probably go."
"A club, how cute. Don't drink too much now, you hear me?" He wagged his finger at her like a stern teacher telling off their student.
She gave William a long, hard look. "Don't do anything dangerous."
"Dangerous? Me? You're so funny, Clary-bell." William sing-songed, taking her hand and twirling her around like a ballerina.
Clara shook his hand off her. "Don't touch me."
"Whatever you say, dear. Have fun with the girls. Say hello to the slut for me." His silver eyes danced with mirth, thin lips curved in an amused smile.
Clara knew what he was trying to do, and ignored him, bending down on one knee and pressing a kiss to Evan's forehead, who'd been so immersed in his book of fairy tales that he'd pretty much forgotten about his parents. "Bye, Evan. Make sure to watch your siblings, okay? I don't want them getting in any more trouble."
"Mike's the oldest, though. He should be looking after us."
Clara smiled softly and ruffled his hair. "You and I both know you're the mature one in this crazy family."
Evan giggled. "Okay. Have fun at the clubhouse, Mummy!"
"BYE, MUMMY!" Elizabeth hollered from upstairs. "BRING BACK SOME OF YOUR CLUB JUICE FOR ME!"
"Me too," William chimed in. "After tonight, I have a feeling I'm going to need some."
~lll~
"TRICK OR TREAT!" Chrorused Elizabeth and Evan, bags held wide open for candy.
A lady with her gray-streaked black hair tied up in a milkmaid braid gasped when she saw the pair. "Oh, look at you two. A bat and a…box! How scary!" She dumped a few chocolate bars into their sacks. "Happy Halloween, you two!"
"She called me a bat," Elizabeth said, appalled. "I am not a bat."
"Psst. Dorkwads." Michael hissed, gesturing to them from the bushes in the lady's front yard. "C'mere."
Dubiously, the pair walked over to him.
"Brother tax," Michael snapped, holding out his hand. "Pay up."
Evan frowned, remembering the plan William, who was candy to kids back at their house, had drilled into them. "I thought you were supposed to be trick-or-treating with Jeremy in the neighborhood over."
Michael rolled his blue-gray eyes. "Trick-or-treating's for babies. Now gimme, I owe Pat a shitload of candy cuz he got sick on Halloween."
Elizabeth dug around in her bag, her tongue poking out a bit. Her eyes lit up, and she held out a small blue object. "Here you go, Mikey! Patrick will really preciate this."
"A-ppreciate," Evan corrected.
Mikey snatched the object, than raised his eyebrows. "Dental floss? Really?"
"What? He's got old grass breath. Yuck." Elizabeth retorted, sticking out her tongue.
At Michael's blank stare, Evan chimed in. "It's because he smokes so much. That's why you don't smoke, Ellie."
"But I wanna smoke grass!" Elizabeth pouted. She stomped down the driveway, and before Evan could stop her, ripped out a chunk of sod and stuffed it in her mouth, chewing it obnoxiously.
Michael rolled his eyes, hopping out of the bush and grabbing her arm. "You look like a chipmunk. C'mon, I've got candy to eat."
But before they could get any further than the road, some kid with a hoodie pulled over their face snatched up Evan and Elizabeth's candy bags, cackling like a witch.
The three siblings stood petrified for a beat, then Elizabeth began to scream bloody murder at the top of her lungs and, just as Michael had expected, Evan began to cry. Other trick-or-treaters turned to stare and Michael turned around, pretending to be very interested in the bush beside them and also not at all related to the two disturbed children.
But when the two didn't stop their wailing, Michael reluctantly backtracked. "It's just candy, idiots. We can get more so easily." Their neighborhood was filled with old rich people who ate cute kids like his siblings up, they could probably replenish their stock in mere minutes.
"BUT I W-WANT THAT CANDY!" Elizabeth sobbed, tears bleeding black eyeshadow down her cheeks. "IT WAS R-REALLY YUMMY, A-AND THEN THEY TOOK I-IT!"
Evan sniffled. "I-I had a whole package of Whoppers. I like Whoppers."
"Oh my God. Fine. But you owe me, big time." Michael griped, shoving a cherry lollipop into his mouth and scanning the area for something they could use to chase after the thief. Bikes would be ideal, but all that he could see was some sort of two-person, neon pink contraption resting in the driveway across the street, with a large, sturdy plastic basket on the front and purple streamers coming from the handlebars and…and it was the only bike in sight.
"I hate my life."
So they clambered onto the bicycle, Michael in front, Evan on the back (taking the helmet like a loser) and Elizabeth squeezed into the basket. They steadily pedalled up the road, which was luckily cleared of cars for Halloween festivities. Another plus side to living in a neighborhood like that - no kids his age to make fun of him for riding on the stupidest, girliest bike ever made.
"I see them!" Elizabeth cried as they reached the top of the hill, pointing down to where the kid sat on a bench, almost blending into the grass with the olive-green hoodie they wore. Michael nodded, pushing off the ground and letting go of the pedals so that they could cruise down the hill. The scarlet trees blurred as they started to pick up speed.
"Hey Ev, can you brake a bit?" Michael asked, figuring the brakes must be on the second seat, 'cause they sure weren't on his.
Evan put his feet down only to meet air. "Sorry, I don't have them. Are they on your end?"
"If they were on my end, why would I be asking you?!" Michael snapped, panic seeping into his veins. They were speeding down a hill at who-knows miles per hour, right in front of that kid!
"Wheeeeee!" Elizabeth cheered, throwing her arms in the air and promptly blocking his vision. "This is better than the space-planes at the carnival!"
Desperately, Michael looked left and right for somewhere soft and padded he could throw Liz - Evan's skull was covered with the helmet, luckily - but they were going too fast and his adrenaline kicked in as he grabbed his sister in a sort of bear hug, eyes squeezed shut, and landed on something soft and squishy.
"ACK!" Came the very familiar yelp of-
"Jeremy?!"
"Michael?!" Jeremy asked incredulously, rubbing under his sandy bangs and grimacing. That's probably going to leave a bruise. "I thought you were staying home sick!"
"Yeah, well, I (ow) got better." Michael winced at a particularly nasty scrape that had torn through his jeans, the kind that was white at first but then quickly began to well with blood and scab over. Luckily, it seemed his siblings were fine. Elizabeth had been cushioned by both of the older boys and Evan would have some bruises on his side (and cry about it too, probably), but seemed okay otherwise. "Wait, why didya take my siblings' candy? Not cool, man."
"Well, people don't exactly jump at the chance to give a teenage boy with no costume a bunch of candy," Jeremy reasoned. "Also, I didn't just take from your siblings."
Elizabeth snapped to attention from her spot face-down on the grass. "I want candy."
Michael absent-mindedly tossed her a stray Snickers. "So you've been stealing from a bunch of poor little kids on Halloween night? Double not cool."
His porcelain skin flushed rose under his freckles. "I just wanted some candy."
"Then buy it at the store, dummy."
"Yeah, well I don't exactly have a lot of money to do that right now, okay?" Jeremy muttered. "Anyways, I'm sorry I took from your siblings. How about I give you guys the rest of the candy I have? There's a ton of full-sized bars in there, this neighborhood is ridiculously good. At least compared to the trailer park."
Elizabeth's eyes went wide as saucers. "Are there Kit-Kats?"
Jeremy grinned mischievously, tossing her and Evan each a bar. "You betcha."
Evan, who had a habit of doing this every Christmas, slowly and meticulously unwrapped the bar. His sister however, shoved the whole thing in her mouth, wrapper and all, and swallowed, chocolate all over her face. It was actually kind of impressive. "Jerry, you're my new favourite friend of Mike's."
"I'm honoured!" Jeremy said, beaming. "Now I should probably get running before my mom passes out in the bathtub again."
"Oh." Evan paused mid-bite. "Is she okay?"
"Nope!" He replied brightly.
"..."
"Alright, see you at school tomorrow, Mikey-wikey!" Jeremy called, hopping on his bike and making a kissy face at him, to which Michael promptly flipped him off.
"That was weird," Evan said, finally taking a bite of his chocolate bar.
"You said it, biatch!" Elizabeth agreed enthusiastically.
Michael sighed. "Liz, don't say that. And we should probably get going, it's getting late and you know how Father hates the college trick-or-treaters." Last year, a bunch of frat boys had TP-d a few of the pines around their house (why they would bother with the effort of climbing the massive hill to their place, Michael would never know) and William had used the security cameras to scan their faces, track them to their houses, and leak their information to the Internet, where they were never seen again. And then he'd stuck the kids with the task of scaling the trees and pulling all the paper down, which resulted in pine needle scratches and lots of sticky sap-fingered children.
Across the street, a sandy blond and a scarlet-haired woman carrying a baby whispered something to one another, then the man started across the street. Michael noted the red pizza delivery visor labelled 'Steve' he was wearing.
"Excuse me, kids, but where did you get that bag? It looks an awful lot like the one me and my wife were carrying when some kid took it off…"
Michael looked at Evan.
Evan looked at Liz.
Liz looked at Michael.
"Time to run," everyone agreed, and then they did.
~lll~
"You call that scary?!" Ruby yelled. "Where was the spook? Where was the spark?"
"I liked it! It was really cute!" Myah's voice became quieter, softer. "Your siblings sound like they were amazing kids…I'm really sorry."
Michael's relaxed posture went stiff. He didn't reply.
Ruby cleared her throat. "Um, anyways-"
And then in a beautifully blinding rush of light, the power was back on! Ruby blinked the cyan and magenta flashes from the sudden adjust while Ducky gleefully snuffed out the candles with his tea. Finally, the air conditioning and lamps were on, significantly reducing the darkness. Though Ruby couldn't help but feel like some sort of…presence was with her, floating around her head or behind her back, watching her.
Ruby shrugged. Oh well, it was probably nothing. Just the Halloween story shivers getting to her. And as she walked away, the small boy disappeared in a puff of purple smoke, off to another dimension far, far away.
A/N
Omg spooky moment! Also why is it winter now? I'm still processing summer 2020 tbh…
Question/Challenge: What's your favourite compliment that you've gotten? I remember this one kid said my hair looked like a lion's mane lol, I rly liked that one
WAIT I ALSO REMEMBERED WHAT WERE U GUYS FOR HALLOWEEN? I was a plague doctor….again. Yeah, I wasn't super creative this year lolz. Got lots of candy though, and then me and my friends watched Life Of Luxury (we bought an egg off the dark web gone wrong1!1)
Have an amazing day/night!1!1
~spooky spooky ghost boo