"So you're telling me that this place loves Halloween so much they celebrate it twice a year?" Mike summed up with a grin. "This place just keeps getting better and better!"

"Sounds like you love Halloween too," Dipper laughed as he and Mabel kept brainstorming costume ideas.

"What's your favorite part of Halloween?" Mabel asked. "Costumes? Candy? The excuse to prank and scare people?"

"Halloween is my favorite holiday, has been since I was a kid," Mike explained with a smile. "And while I did love the excuse to scare people, the costumes were definitely my favorite part."

When his mother was still alive, Mike just loved them working together to make elaborate ideas and costumes come to life. After she died, Mike liked the chance to hide behind costumes and pretend to be someone else. To pretend he was just a normal kid and not a kid from a crumbling family. That he wasn't an Afton with the exception to become just like his father. (There was a reason he'd started hiding behind his Foxy mask after all.)

"Even after I died, Halloween was still my favorite as it was the one time of year I could go out without the need to hide I was a walking corpse," Mike continued with a chuckle. "People weren't scared of me and I'd get so many compliments for how "realistic" my costume was. I even won a few costume contests."

It was the only day that Mike could pretend that he was normal.

"You should dress up with us and come trick or treating with us!" Mabel suggested with glee. "You can pick the theme and we'll all make costumes to match!"

"That'll be fun!" Dipper agreed. "So what do you want to be now that you don't have to be a zombie?"

Mike couldn't help but be influenced by the twins' excitement and there was only one answer that Mike could give.

"Pirates!"

The next few days Mike and the twins spent all their free time working on their costumes. Mike was going to be the captain (something the twins insisted on) while Dipper and Mabel would be his co-first mates. It was incredibly fun to be working on the costumes with the twins, though it did make Mike a bit nostalgic for when he did the same with his siblings. On impulse, Mike added a foxy symbol to his hat in place of a skull and crossbones. It was a small tribute to the Halloweens he'd had with his old family and making it a part of his new one. (It was also a reminder of his promise to Evan. That he'd learn to forgive himself for what happened and that it was okay to enjoy the same things he loved as a child.)

Soon the day arrived and they dawned on their completed projects. Mike wore a red shirt, dark blue pants, and brown knee-high boots. Over that he had a purple coat with gold trim and a large hat to match it. Helpy sat on his shoulder, dressed in a parrot onesie. Dipper wore a white and orange striped shirt, a blue bandanna, grey pants, and boots that matched Mike. Mabel also wore the same colored pants and boots as Dipper as well as a long-sleeved pink shirt. All of them had swords at their hips and smiles on their faces.

"I've mapped out the best route to get the most candy," Dipper said, unrolling the paper he had prepared just for this. "We ready to head out?"

"Aye me laddie!" Mike said, doing a flawless Foxy impression (helped by his voice-mimicking software). "Let us go plunder that candy treasure!"

"Yar-har!" Mabel agreed enthusiastically.

They set out on their journey through the neighborhood, joined by Candy (dressed as Peterpan) and Grenda (dressed as Tinkerbell). When they got to the first house, Mike stood back a bit as the kids all crowded around the door. The woman that opened it complimented them on their costumes and gave candy to the kids. The group was about to leave when the woman called to them and wanted Mike to get some candy as well. Mike was surprised as he was an adult and hadn't planned to do the trick or treating himself, just escorting the kids. But the woman insisted despite Mike's attempts to protest and Mike accepted the candy, thanking her before they moved on.

The same thing happened at the next few houses, so Mike stopped arguing and just accepted the candy the people insisted on giving him. Mabel was the one to figure out that even though the townsfolk didn't talk about Weirdmaggedon, they were showing their gratefulness to the Pines family by giving them candy, which included Mike. Once they figured that out, Mike would just stand with the others at the door to save time.

The night went smoothly, with all of them getting tons of candy and just having a great time. The Pines siblings said goodbye to Candy and Grenda and began heading back home with all their loot. As they were passing by a random house though, Mike felt a wave of energy that made him freeze in surprise and look towards the house.

"What's the matter Big Bro?" Mabel asked as she and Dipper noticed his reaction.

"I felt some kind of energy from that house," Mike explained still looking at the house. "I'm not sure what it is, it seems familiar somehow…"

It wasn't Remnant as Mike was very familiar with how that felt, but it did have a similar feel to it and Mike felt like he should know what it was.

"Could it be ghost energy?" Dipper suggested. "Since you had been a ghost you'd probably be able to recognize it better than normal people."

"I think your right!" Mike agreed in realization. It did feel like whenever Mike summoned his siblings to talk with them. "I think someone summoned a-"

Mike was cut off by the sound of something breaking in the house followed by the sound of young girls screaming. Mike immediately dropped the candy he was carrying and sprinted towards the house, the twins doing the same a split second later. They burst through the front door and started sprinting up the stairs as they heard thumps and more screams coming from somewhere above them. They ended up in a girl's room, where the girls were huddled by the bed, and a summoning circle was drawn in the middle of the floor. Mike barely paid the girls and circle any attention though as his gaze was immediately drawn to the ghost cat hissing on top of the bookcase.

"That's definitely a summoning circle," Dipper said, quickly scanning it over. "But it's missing the symbols to help keep the ghost contained within the circle."

"So it could be anywhere?" Mabel asked, looking around the room in a mix of fear and determination. "How will we find it?"

"What do you mean?" Mike asked the twins in confusion. "It's right there!"

Dipper and Mabel looked where Mike was indicating, but their eyes just glanced past the cat that Mike could clearly see.

"I can't see anything," Mabel said, looking all over the bookcase.

"Neither can I," Dipper added, turning to Mike. "I think it's too weak for anyone but you to see."

"Right… right…" Mike agreed, reminded that he wasn't entirely tied to the mortal world.

Mike cautiously approached the cat, but it leaped away, knocking over books and making the girls scream again. Mike began chasing the cat, which is normally a hard enough task but it was even more difficult as this cat could fly and slip through furniture. Mabel meanwhile tried to calm the girls down by chatting about random things while Dipper studied the circle more.

Mike was eventually able to grab onto the cat, getting some scratches on his human hand as a result. Securing the cat in his animatronic arm, Mike turned to the others as he shook out the stinging pain in his human hand (which to the others looked like it just spontaneously got scratch marks).

"I've got the ghost cat," Mike said, gripping the cat tighter when it tried to escape. "Now what?"

"I should be able to send it back-" Dipper began only to be interrupted by one of the girls.

"You can't send Muffins away!" the girl protested with tears in her eyes. "I've missed him so much ever since he died! I don't want to lose him again!"

"Kid… Muffins isn't happy like this," Mike said gently, kneeling in front of the girl. "He's scared and angry and very confused. I know you love him and don't want to let him go, but you have to. He won't be happy as a ghost, but if you let us send him back, he'll be a lot happier. If you love him, you'll let him be happy and let him rest."

"…he isn't happy..?" The girl said in shock before giving a sniff. "I… I don't want him to be scared… I'd rather he'd be happy in heaven…"

"You're making the right choice," Mike said with a kind smile. "I know it isn't easy to say goodbye and to lose those we love, but it's something that happens and no matter how much we want to, we shouldn't change it. And just like you want Muffins to be happy, I know Muffins wants the same for you."

The girl just nodded sadly, looking at the space in Mike's arms where Muffins was even though she couldn't see him. Satisfied that the girl wouldn't stop them, Mike turned back to Dipper and they sent Muffins back to the world beyond. Making sure the girls weren't planning to summon anything else, the Pines siblings took their leave.

"Well, that was a bit more of the Halloween spirit than I was expecting," Mike joked as they gathered up their candy. "But all and all, it's been a great night!"

"Want to finish it off by watching scary movies and eating so much candy we get sick?" Mabel asked with a grin.

"Yes!" her brothers responded in sync. They resumed their walk home, debating what movie they should watch first.

AN: You can see the Pines siblings dressed in their costumes on my Tumblr.