Hi, everyone. This is for the BTR Writers' Support and Plot Adoption Forum's Halloween challenge. I hope you enjoy.
"Hey, no fair! You practically ate all the candy!" James pouts as he grabs a candy wrapper from the floor and tosses it at Carlos' head. Carlos only grins and grabs the last chocolate from the candy bowl on his lap, unwraps it, and tosses it in his mouth. Once he's done chewing, he sticks his tongue out at James, who rolls his eyes in return.
"You guys do know the candy wasn't for eating, right?" Logan heaves a heavy sigh at the two boys sitting to his left and snatches the bowl from Carlos' lap.
"Hey!"
"I told you two not to eat it. This candy was supposed to be for the kids that came knocking at the door. But no, you guys just couldn't control yourselves."
"Umm, excuse me, I only ate one piece of candy. One," James says defensively. "Carlitos over here was the one who ate the rest." He nods towards the smaller boy, whose face is smeared with chocolate.
"Can't prove it." Carlos smirks.
"I don't need to prove it. The chocolate that's all over your face is more than enough evidence."
Carlos only glares at him and crosses his arms over his chest. "I can't help it. It's like the candy was calling my name!"
"For the last time, Carlos, candy can't talk."
"I said it's like it was calling my name, not that it was calling my name. There's a difference."
"Whatever," Logan mutters under his breath and stands up from the floor, the empty bowl still hugged to his chest. "Make yourselves useful and pick up all the empty candy wrappers from the floor. I'm gonna go see if we have any extra candy—"
"Yay!" Carlos shouts, gleefully raising his hands up in the air.
"—that we can give away," Logan finishes, making Carlos groan.
As Logan walks out of the living room and into the kitchen in search of more candy, Kendall brushes past him and plops down on the couch. "So, what exactly are we gonna be doing tonight?" he asks to no one in particular. "I mean, we can't just sit around and wait for kids to arrive at the door."
"I was thinking we could watch some horror movies," James suggests. "I mean, it is Halloween. We gotta do something Halloweenish."
"Halloweenish isn't even a word," Logan says from the kitchen. "And horror movies? Why can't we watch Hocus Pocus or The Nightmare Before Christmas or some other movie that isn't scary? Why must it be a horror movie?"
"Because, Logan, Halloween's all about scary stuff, like ghosts, vampires and werewolves. Halloween isn't any fun if there's no thrill in it," James says as if this should be obvious to Logan. "Unless you're scared," he adds, raising an eyebrow at him.
"I-I'm not scared!" Logan exclaims, his cheeks turning a light shade of pink. "I'm just, uh... I'm—"
"Oh, come on, Logie. It won't be that bad," Kendall says, offering him a small smile. Logan just ignores him and goes back to looking through the cupboards.
"Well, it looks like there's no more candy," Logan mumbles, moving to stand in front of the three other boys. "So, I'm gonna go down to the store across the street and buy some more. I'll be back soon."
"Want me to go with you?" Kendall asks, which only makes Carlos and James chuckle. "What?"
"You better go with him, Kendall. Wouldn't want him to get eaten by a werewolf or something," Carlos says with a grin, making James snicker beside him.
Logan just rolls his eyes at the two as he grabs his jacket, which he had left on the couch, and puts it on. "You guys are both idiots. Werewolves only come out during a full moon, and tonight's not a full moon. Not to mention that werewolves aren't real."
"If you say so, Logie-bear. Just don't come crying to us when you see one."
"I told you not to call me that," Logan says through gritted teeth, holding back the urge to smack James upside the head. "On second thought, I'm just gonna go up to Camille's apartment and see if she has any left over."
"Scaredy cat," Carlos whispers as he watches Logan walk towards the front door.
"I heard that."
"Bye, Logie-bear!"
"I hate the both of you," Logan mutters, before closing the door shut behind him.
Fifteen minutes later, Logan returns, the bowl now overflowing with candy.
"You guys are lucky. Camille had a bunch of candy left over, so this should be more than enough," he says, placing the bowl on the kitchen counter. "But it's not for eating," he states when Carlos starts getting up. "Sorry, 'Los."
When he sees the frown plastered on Carlos' face, James stands up, pulling the shorter boy along with him. "Come on, buddy, let's go make some popcorn." He then turns to Kendall and tosses the remote control in his direction. "Can you check if there's any good horror movies on TV?" he asks him. "If not, we must have some somewhere."
"Yeah, I think we do... At least, I know we used to. I'll find something," Kendall says with a smile.
"Do we have to watch a horror movie?" Logan asks as he takes a seat beside Kendall and hands him a soda can.
Kendall shrugs as he places the soda can on the coffee table in front of them, and then turns to Logan. "You don't have to watch it if you don't want to, you know," he tells him, "only if you want to."
"Yeah, but... they'll make fun of me."
"James and Carlos?" Kendall asks, raising an eyebrow. "They're just messing with you. Don't take what they say to heart. You know they don't really mean it."
"Yeah, I guess..."
"It'll be fine, Loges. You can always leave if it gets too scary for you."
"I guess you have a point. Can we watch at least one Halloween movie that's not scary, though?" he asks hopefully.
"I don't see why not." Kendall grins, and then turns on the TV. "So, what kind of movie do you guys wanna watch?" he asks loudly, so that James and Carlos can hear him from where they're huddled together in front of the microwave.
"Something scary!" James says as he whirls around. "With like ghosts and stuff!"
Kendall hums in response and surfs through the channels for a couple of minutes, trying to find something that'll fit James' very descriptive request. "Insidious starts in about fifteen minutes. You guys wanna watch that?" he asks, turning to James and Carlos, and then to Logan.
James and Carlos nod eagerly, while Logan just gives him a shrug of his shoulders and crosses his arms over his chest, staring at the screen in front of them.
"Ooh, popcorn's ready!" Carlos exclaims when the microwave starts beeping. He hurriedly opens the door and takes the bag of popcorn out, wasting no time in tearing it open.
"Carlos, wait, you're gonna..." Before James is able to finish his sentence, the bag slips from Carlos' hands and he lets out a rather high-pitched scream. "...burn yourself."
"You could've mentioned that before I put the popcorn in my mouth!" the smaller boy shouts at his best friend.
"Oh, I'm so sorry for assuming you'd be smart enough to wait a few minutes for it to cool down." James rolls his eyes at Carlos and bends down to pick up the bag of popcorn that had fallen on the floor just seconds before. "Here. Don't burn yourself this time, got it?"
Carlos nods and moves towards the refrigerator to grab something to drink, while James grabs the broom to move the discarded popcorn that managed to fall on the floor.
Minutes later, all four of the boys are huddled on the couch, with their eyes locked on the screen, where the movie's just starting. Well, all of them except for Logan, whose hands are covering his face in fear.
"Loges, stop being such a chicken," Carlos says when he glances at his best friend and takes notice of the state he's in. He reaches past Kendall and tries to pry Logan's hands away from his face, but all that does is earn him a smack on the shoulder. "Ow. Aggressive much?"
"Can you guys quit it? Some of us are trying to watch the movie," Kendall grumbles as he pushes Carlos away.
"How long's the movie?" Logan asks, his voice even more quiet than usual.
Kendall shrugs his shoulders and turns to look at him, feeling bad for practically forcing Logan to watch the movie with them. "You can leave if you want, you know. I can call you when it's over, so we can watch something else."
Logan glances at Carlos and James, and then turns to Kendall and shakes his head. "No, I'm good."
"Logan..."
"I'm fine, okay?"
"Alright," Kendall sighs, not quite believing Logan's words. He has known him more than long enough to know that he's not a fan of anything scary, which is why it bothers him that James and Carlos keep teasing him for being scared. They should know better than that – they know better than that.
It's over three hours later, after having watched Insidious and Hocus Pocus, that the TV is turned off, and Carlos jumps to his feet and rushes to his room. Kendall, James, and Logan just stare confusedly in the direction in which he disappeared, wondering what it is that he's up to. They don't have to wait long for an answer, though, as he emerges just a couple of minutes later with a flashlight in his hand.
"What's the flashlight for?" Logan asks out of curiosity and bites his lip nervously. He has an idea of where this is headed, and he doesn't like it.
"To tell scary stories, duh."
"Carlos, are you sure that's such a good idea? I mean, what if—" Logan starts to ask but is cut off as a pillow is tossed at his face. "Rude much?"
"Stop being such a party-pooper, Logan. It's just scary stories. They're not real," James grumbles.
"That's what you think." Carlos snickers as Logan glares in his direction. "Have you guys ever heard of La Llorona?" He smiles as each boy shakes their head in response. "Perfect."
"What is that?" Kendall asks as he leans his elbows on his knees and places his chin on top of the palms of his hands.
"La Llorona basically translates to The Weeping Woman in English. She was a woman from Mexico named Maria, whose husband left her for a younger woman, which led her to drown her children in a river as a means of revenge."
"That a pretty messed up way to get revenge," Logan comments, frowning at Carlos' words.
Carlos only nods his head in response and proceeds to continue the story. "Shortly after drowning them, she realized they were dead and drowned herself."
"Wait, are you for real?"
Carlos rolls his eyes at James, annoyed by the fact that he has been interrupted yet again. "Anyway... She drowned herself and died, but that's not all."
"Oh no..."
"Oh yes." Carlos smirks at Logan, who looks even paler than usual. "It is said that when she got to Heaven, she couldn't enter the afterlife, until she found her children, therefore she was caught between the spirit world and the living world. So she now roams around as a ghost near rivers in Mexico, looking for her children, wailing '¡Ay, mis hijos!' Or 'Oh, my children!'"
Logan feels his skin crawl, his breath catching in his throat. "Please tell me that's the end of it."
"Apparently if you hear her wails, it means something bad is going to happen, or that those who hear her could die."
"You're lying," Logan says, causing Carlos to snicker under his breath.
"I'm not lying. I'm just telling you what I know," he says, before jumping up from the floor. "Anyway, it's late, so I'm going to head to bed. Goodnight! James, are you coming?"
"I thought we were gonna tell scary stories—" James starts to say, before Carlos grabs him by the arm and drags him to their shared bedroom.
"Well, we should probably head to bed, too," Kendall says as he tries to stifle a yawn. As Logan sits, frozen on his spot on the couch, Kendall picks up the popcorn bowl and takes it to the kitchen. "Come on, Logie," he says, breaking Logan out of his thoughts.
"Coming," he says, voice quiet. He trudges after Kendall, exhausted but knowing he's probably not going to be getting any sleep tonight. Especially not after what Carlos has told them.
As expected, he tosses and turns for the next hour, unable to put his mind to rest. On the other side of the room, Kendall sleeps soundly, and Logan can't help but feel a bit jealous of him. What he wouldn't give to not be plagued by thoughts of a wailing woman, crying out for her children right now.
When sleep does finally come his way, he dreams of a woman with long, black hair, dressed in a white gown. She's sitting by the edge of a river, turning rocks over in the palm of her hand, her face hidden from view. Suddenly, she rises from her crouched position and turns around, and it is once she does that Logan feels a chill in the air. The woman has two hollow holes where her eyes should be, and her mouth is open in a silent "o." That is, until she starts crying, gripping her hair in between her hands, and pulling.
"¡Ay, mis hijos!" she wails, facing away and into the rushing river in front of her. "¡Mis hijos!"
When she receives no answer to her cries, she turns back to where Logan is standing, paralyzed, and reaches for him. "¡Mis hijos!" she wails again, and grabs at his hands, squeezing tightly. He tries to scream out, but nothing comes out. Unable to fight the mighty grip she has on him, he flails as she pulls him toward her, and then into the river.
Logan awakens with a start, hair damp and clinging to his forehead. He clutches one hand to his chest, where he can feel his heart hammering at a frantic pace. It was just a nightmare, he thinks as he tries to steady his unsteady breathing. It wasn't real.
"¡Ay, mis hijos!"
He freezes, his blood running cold.
No, he thinks as he shuts his eyes tightly, it can't be.
"¡Ay, mis hijos!"
There it is again, and it's close. Too close. It's almost as if it was coming from—
He pulls back his covers and gets out of bed, slowly making his way toward his bedroom door, which is open just a crack. With his pulse drumming in his ears, he pulls the door open all the way, and almost screams when he comes face to face with Carlos and James, who are quietly snickering.
"Are you guys serious?" he says, more angry than anything. "It's not funny!"
"Sorry, Logan," they both say, but they're smiling, and Logan wants nothing more than to knock those smiles off their faces.
In lieu of a response, he slams the door on their faces and trudges back to bed.
"What's going on?" Kendall says, voice groggy from sleep and blond hair tousled.
"Nothing," Logan grumbles as he crawls back under his comforter. "Go back to bed."
Apparently, Kendall doesn't need to be told twice, because within seconds, he's out completely.
"Happy Halloween!" Carlos shouts from the other side of the door, causing Logan to growl in response.
Yeah, Happy Halloween indeed.
Thank you for reading. :)
~ BigTimeRush-BTR :)