#epicentre

Auntie Ingrid has five daughters. You rarely see her and your cousins because you don't live in the same country as them but you almost always see them back at Norway for camp.

Like now.

Frida tells you not to have favourites because that might hurt your cousins' feelings so you pretend not to. But you do have a favourite because of course you do.

Skatt's your best friend.

She's great. She's outdoorsy like you and enjoys hikes like you do and collecting things in a little woven basket and loves splashing in puddles after its rained.

Skatt's the best and you hope that she thinks of you as her best friend too.

"Hi, auntie Ingrid!" You say brightly as you meet her and cousin Skatt in front of the doors of the hotel.

"Hi, squish," She greets warmly, fluttering a kiss over your head that has you giggling," Where's Frida?"

"Back there." You gesture vaguely behind you where you assume your mama has followed you. You'd practically bolted the moment you got down the stairs in your haste to get to your auntie and cousin.

Ingrid glances behind you. You're right, at least. Frida is back there, shouldering a bag on her shoulder and holding your usual whicker basket in one hand. She's shaking her head softly but Ingrid knew Frida had kind of expected you to bolt.

You always did when you saw Skatt, crushing Ingrid's daughter in a tight hug like always.

"Another forest walk?" Ingrid asks with a laugh as Frida finally arrives next to the little group.

"It's all she's been talking about since we arrived," Frida replies," But this time, can we promise if they find a deer antler, they have to leave it there? I can't carry another one of those through the hotel again."

It had been nothing short of humiliating at the last camp during the routine forest walk that Frida and Ingrid took you and your best friend on every time. The pair of you had wandered a little off the path and straight into a bush that held the biggest deer antler either of your parents had ever seen.

They were content to leave the area with just a few pictures of you both with the antler but they'd turned their backs for just a second. A second was enough time though. Enough time for you and Skatt to wrap your little hands around one of the prongs and start pulling it from the bush.

You'd nearly thrown a tantrum when Frida denied your request to bring it back to the hotel. The threat on your end had worked though because now it sat in Emma's home in Sweden after Frida had dragged it all the way back to the hotel and paid an outrageous amount to send it through the mail.

She'd nearly thrown her back out carrying it.

This walk was going better. At the very least, you and Skatt had stuck to the path like you were meant to. That was progress.

"That is a caterpillar," Skatt tells you, pointing at the bug that's crawling over a fallen log," It will get fat soon and become a butterfly."

"Butterflies are pretty," You reply.

"We have caterpillars at home," Skatt boasts, chest puffed out," My Mami is looking after them while we're here. They're not ready to be butterflies yet but they will be soon."

"We have a dog at home," You offer up," But he isn't going to become anything else. Just a dog."

"Dogs are fun," Skatt says," I think. We have a cat."

"Cats are cute."

It's always fun going on a nature walk with Skatt. She knows a lot about insects and bugs and always explains things so nicely unlike her sister Bebita, who can be a little condescending when you ask her about her interests.

Skatt knows about bugs and insects and you know about plants so you make sure to point out some of your favourites as you pass.

"Not all mushrooms can be eaten," You explain as the two of you crouch at the base of a tree," Only certain ones. Naughty mushrooms can make you sick and make you see things that aren't there."

"Wow." Skatt pokes the mushroom with a stick. "Have you eaten a naughty mushroom?"

You shake your head. "No but I have eaten yew berries before. They're like naughty mushrooms but if they were berries instead. My Mama made me throw them all up into her hand and still took me to the hospital to get checked out. You shouldn't eat berries or mushrooms if you're not totally sure that they're safe."

Skatt pokes the mushroom again. "Is that safe?"

You shake your head. "No, that's a naughty mushroom. But I did see some safe berries on that push! They're blackberries!" You turn, hand already out towards Frida. "Can I have my basket please?"

The pair of you scurry off to the blackberry bush, little hands reaching up to pluck the berries off the bramble.

"Do you ever get the feeling," Frida says fondly," That we've been demoted to just carrying things for them? She was totally capable of carrying her basket today."

Ingrid laughs. "You should have seen Skatt last week, claimed her hands were tired and made me carry her new cockroach tank all the way home."

"With the cockroach in it?"

Ingrid buries her head in her hands. "The worst half an hour walk of my life."

"Don't worry," Frida says, throwing the words over her shoulder as she walks closer to you and your friend," There's still time for it to get worse."

It's easier now the adults are here to reach the higher up berries on the bush that you're still too little to reach. Frida even lifts you up on her shoulders so you can grab some high berries too, grabbing as many as you can fit in your basket before she lowers you back to the ground again.

"We can make pie with them," You say to Skatt, taking her hand to pull her back up the path.

"Actually, squish," Frida winces," I don't know if the chefs will let you. Maybe-"

"They'll let us," You reply," The chefs love me. I'm their favourite taste tester."

Ingrid finds you before you're ready.

You're fairly certain she has a tracker on you but after hours of rummaging through your clothes and scanning your phone for apps, you've come up empty. She either has a tracker or she's using magic but Ingrid's Ingrid and you're fairly sure that she's not cool enough to know magic.

Either way, the nefarious methods she uses to find you don't really matter in the grand scheme of things. Not when she's leaning up against the car as you (very slowly) pack away your spray paints.

It's been a little while since you've been in Spain. The move to France has been alright but it's still another new culture and language to adapt to. Your French isn't coming along as well as your Spanish did but you're still a certifiable genius (at least that's what all your teachers and your sister says) so you make do.

"I can't believe you pick him up with dirty hands," Ingrid scolds lightly as you lift your cat up onto your shoulders. Lil Vince stretches out across them and flicks his tail in her general direction.

"He showers with me every evening," You point out, suppressing a laugh at the way Ingrid's eye twitches when she sees Lil Vince's white fur become stained with the residue on your fingers.

"He's such a weird cat," She says with a shake of her head and you roll your eyes.

"I don't think you're weird, Vince," You tell him, more for show than anything else," Ingrid doesn't see what a distinguished gentleman you are."

"He took a shit in one of my flowerpots."

"You can't prove that was him."

"He ate from my plate last night."

"You were seeing things."

"He coughed up a furball right outside my door."

"Baseless accusations."

"Are you arguing with me for the sake of it?"

"I don't know. Am I?"

Ingrid groans and you grin at her. Lil Vince mews.

"It's Halloween tonight."

"I'm aware." You jerk your thumb back at the wall you were just tagging. "Why do you think I did that?"

Admittedly, it's not your best work. You got off the plane last night and you'd never been a good traveller so you're still kind of exhausted. It's a little more sketchy than you would prefer, a man writhing and howling in pain as claws sprout from his fingertips, bones breaking at odd, grotesque angles and fur sprouting from random patches of skin.

Ingrid takes a moment to study it. "It's good."

"It's alright."

She rolls her eyes. "It's Halloween," She says again," And your nieces would like you to join in."

"Hard pass."

"You don't get to pass on this."

"Yes I do! You said, I get one pass a month to get out of family days."

Ingrid rolls her eyes so far that you think they might get lost behind her skull. "And you used it at the beginning of the month, when you didn't want to go to the museum with us."

You groan. She's right. She's definitely right. You had used your one free pass for the month to avoid going to the museum with the rest of the family, unwilling to wander around long enough for your feet to hurt.

"It's not even dinner time yet," You point out," And we're already going out trick or treating?"

"Not at all," Ingrid says. She pops open the car door. "This is your warning in advance. Your nieces want you to dress up with them. So, do you want to stay out and find a costume here or do you want me to drop you home and you can find one there?"

When you were six, Ingrid took you trick or treating. You'd never done it before and she was much too old but she still did it anyway. Because you begged her. Because you promised to be on your best behaviour. Because you asked her nicely.

You didn't have a costume. You'd asked her to take you too late. So she'd made you one. She cut out pieces of your clothes. She made a little mask. She held your hand when you crossed the street and made sure to take extra handfuls to put in your bucket.

It's been years since that moment but you kind of reckon you owe her. She'd made the night magical for you. The least you could do was make it magical for her kids too.

Vince mews from his spot stretched out on your bed.

"Don't look at me like that."

He mews again. You point at him, wiggling your finger around so he focusses on it.

"You're next, you know. If I'm going then you're going."

He rolls over and curls up away from you.

"He'll be in good company," Ingrid says as she slips into the room," Because Cub wants to take her cats too."

"Even the fat one?"

"She says she's going to carry him."

You laugh at that. "For five minutes, maybe, and then we'll have to carry him instead."

Ingrid sits down next to you on the floor, passing over the white bedsheet and pillowcase you asked for. She slides over a pair of scissors and you take them. "It's better than Skatt at least. I left Mapi to convince her not to bring out the cockroaches. I'm not holding those for her."

"What's next?" You laugh," Teeny wants to bring the damn hedgehog out?"

Ingrid laughs too, bumping her shoulder against yours. "Don't give her any ideas. Before we know it, Sunshine wants to bring her birds out too."

"Maybe you'll have to get Bebita a pet too," You joke," Just to even it out."

"She'll probably want a tiger," Ingrid says," Or a crocodile. This house is a zoo."

"And you have no one to blame but yourself," You tease.

Ingrid sticks her tongue out at you, drawing out a template on the sheet with a black marker. Just two big circles as she passes the rest of the sheet towards you. "Maybe I'll send you off to the zoo to free up space. How does the penguin enclosure sound?"

She marks another set of black circles in the pillowcase as you cut around the set on the sheet.

"I'd prefer to hang with leopards, actually. I get to be high up, you know?"

"They'd eat you."

"And Bebita tries to do that every day. I'm prepared." You set down the scissors. "How do I look?"

"Like you're wearing a white sheet with cut out eye holes."

"Ingrid!"

The download screen is slowly but surely working through the data to download Silksong onto your XBox. Your stream runs in the background and you keep an eye on it as you wait, spinning in your chair and sipping on the energy drink that you'd had to smuggle up to your room.

"-Yeah, I completed Hollow Knight a few years ago. Yeah, I really loved it. It was hard but I think that just adds to the gameplay, you know? I loved the art style and character design. I tried to get my mum and her girlfriend to try but they quit fairly quickly."

You continue to scroll through the chat as you wait. "Halloween stream this year? No, sorry chat. Not this year. My sisters, I've spoken about my little sisters, right? I've got three of them. They're like toddlers so we're taking them Trick or Treating this year. So, yeah, no Halloween stream this year."

The download screen finally completes and you grab your controller to boot the game up. "Costumes? I don't know. I haven't really thought about it much. Maybe a whole family costume? Or like a sister costume? I don't know how much my mums are willing to splurge this year. They might buy big costumes so the little ones can grow into them."

You lean back and stretch your hands above your head.

"Right, Silksong. New game. Great premise. Let's do this, chat."

You'd honestly forgotten all about Halloween. Your mind has been more focused on your other interests like your games and your Pokémon cards and your English class with that one teacher that says that you've got an eye for telling a great story.

But it's at the forefront of your mind now as you unlock the front door and shepherd your sisters through it. Lucy told you this morning not to worry about picking them up from school but then you'd found out from Keira that training would run late and you really didn't like the idea of leaving them in the late pick up club after so many years of being stuck in one yourself.

"Who wants snacks?" You holler as you unpack all the rubbish from their lunchboxes and lean down to throw a meat stick at the dogs by your feet, the family dog Narla and your youngest sister's dog, Bluey.

"I wanna cheese string!" Bear announces from where she's climbed up onto the sofa.

"Me too!" Comes Peanut's agreeance and you spare a glance at Pup who stands by your side and furiously nods her head.

Three cheese strings and a jug of juice later, you're sat in the armchair with your old DS in your hands running through a playthrough of Pokémon Omega Ruby.

"Hall-ween is soon."

"It's Halloween, Pup," You correct mindlessly," And yes, it is. Are you excited?"

"Mum said we can go trick-treating."

"We are. Do you know what you're going to wear?"

"What you wearing?"

You wish you knew. Halloween isn't as big of a draw to you now that you're older. It was just an excuse to play a bunch of horror games and eat your weight in sweets. Last year, your costume had been a simple white sheet with eye holes cut out.

"I don't know, Pup."

"You can go as Pokémon man!" Bear announces proudly.

"Pokémon man?"

"Yeah!" Peanut agrees," From the tv show!"

"Wait, Ash?"

"If that's his name," Bear says blandly," Then yes. You can be Ash and we can be your Pokémon!"

"Wait a moment here-"

"I want to be a puppy Pokémon!"

"Oh! I want to be one with horns!"

"Can I be a bear?"

The situation dissolves into chaos fairly quickly after that and soon enough you're squished between them, scrolling through a list of Pokémon for them to pick from. Control slips from your hands even quicker when Lucy finally comes home and wholeheartedly supports what's going on, though you think that's just because she's so relieved that she won't have to organise Halloween costumes and go through the endless 'but I don't know what I want to be!' from any of them.

"You're a good sister," She says to you softly," For doing this with them. You didn't have to."

You laugh, a grin spreading on your face. "I kind of did. Did you want to deal with the tears if I refused?"

Lucy bumps you with her shoulder as she stirs the sauce for dinner. "Keira can't go with us this year. She's flying out to visit Laura but she promised she'd bring you all back gifts as an apology."

You roll your eyes. "I won't be upset. It's just Halloween. It's not like it's a birthday."

"You know your Ma worries about missing things."

"She doesn't need to. I'll still have access to her house though, right? I'm pretty sure I left some enrichment toys for the mice there last week."

Lucy rolls her eyes. "Yes, she's not going to change the locks on you before she leaves."

"Just checking, Mum!"

The day of Halloween creeps up on you quicker than you'd expect. School, for once, allows a non school uniform day so long as the students dress up and your Ash Ketchum costume wins the best costume in your year group though that's only because a bunch of your classmates choose to just dress as themselves on the weekend.

But, still, you get a nice Amazon gift card out of it that you already know you'll be trading with Lucy for actual money when you get home.

It's a short walk to the school your little sisters attend and you slip easily into the crowd with all the other parents, sidling up to Lucy's side and she she takes your cap to put on her own head with a smile.

"They're running late," You say as she takes your bag from you," Usually, they're out by now."

"You're impatient," She replies fondly and you roll your eyes.

"I got it from you, you know. Impatient mum raises an impatient daughter."

Lucy's hand comes up to ruffle your hair just as the doors to the school building opens and the students come flooding out. Pup's class is out first and you grin when you see her.

Getting Pokémon costumes were a little harder than getting your own costume. Only the most popular Pokémon like Pikachu and Charmander got proper costumes so you'd had to settle on onesies instead.

Pup comes running out of the school building and right into your legs. You stumble back a little and Lucy's strong body behind you keeps you upright.

"You're here! You're here!"

You laugh. "What kind of Pokémon trainer would I be if I didn't come and collect my Pokémon?"

Pup twirls in her Growlithe onesie, wiggling her tail as you flip her hood up with a grin.

Peanut and Bear come running out a moment later, abandoning their teachers and classmates to collide into your legs just like Pup did. Lucy still comes to the rescue, keeping you upright.

Peanut stands proud in her Rhydon onesie, hood already flipped up to display the horn that she'd insisted on having. Bear looks delightful in her Bewear onesie, arms lifted up for you to easily swing her up onto your hip.

"Mum! Mum! Mum!" Peanut greets Lucy with a ram against her leg and your second hand is filled with Pup's clutching it tightly. "Are we trick-treating now? We are, aren't we? Let's go now!"

Lucy winces, rubbing the top of her thigh to sooth the ache from your little sister's ram. "Not right now. We're going to go home and eat dinner first. You've got a call scheduled with Mummy and Laura and another one with Ona. We'll go trick or treating after that."

"And we can show off our costumes to them?"

The door cracks open, light spilling in from the hallway.

You hurry to mute your stream, still gripping your controller tight as you lean back in your seat, blinking a few times to get used to the light.

"Hey, Pup," You coo," What are you doing up?"

Your youngest sister shuffles into your room, hand still clutching your door handle as her dog scampers in after her.

"Woke up."

"I can see that." You glance at your computer, eyes widening suddenly when you realise that it's definitely Christmas day and you spent the whole night gaming away. "But it's still early. Why don't you go back to sleep?"

"Here?"

You wince, glancing back at the death screen displayed as you hurriedly switch to an ad break. You swing your little sister up into your arms and settle her onto your bed.

Bluey the dog barks once before leaping up too. She paces in a tight circle for a moment before curling up at Pup's feet.

"You have to actually try to sleep," You tell your sister," It's too early to go in to see Ma and wake everyone else up. The sun isn't even awake yet."

Pup yawns a yawn so big that her whole body trembles with the effort and snuggles under your blanket.

You return back to your stream, plugging in your headphones and picking up exactly where you left off. You keep your commentary on low. Pup can be a light sleeper sometimes and you don't want to interrupt her.

You're just in the middle of switching to a cosier game when your door opens again. You mute again quickly and glance over at your door.

"Hey, Peanut," You say," You're up early."

"It's Christmas," Peanut replies bluntly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and pouting," We have to open presents."

"It's too early for that," You reply, selecting your game and booting it up as your sister wanders closer, little hands resting on the arm of your chair.

"It's not."

"It is. Ma isn't awake yet. You know you're not allowed presents until everyone is up."

Peanut nods just once. "I'll get her."

"No," You say pointedly," It's too early for that. Ma won't be happy if you wake her up."

"She will."

"She won't."

"She-"

You glance back at your screen. Your game is still loading and your chat doesn't seem to mind that you've muted again.

You tug Peanut closer and slide her into bed next to Pup.

"I'm not tired."

"You are."

"I'm not."

"You're so tired, Peanut." Your finger runs down the bridge of her nose just like how Lucy did when you were younger. It works just like how it did with you all those years ago.

Peanut drifts right off next to Pup.

You return to your game.

It's a simple organising game with a cute soundtrack that's perfect for the wind down time you always like to schedule before you end your streams.

You haven't slept a wink and you know you only have a few more hours before Keira gets up. Today is going to be a very long day and there's no way she'll let you retreat into your room. You need all the rest you can get.

The door cracks open again just as you say your goodbyes to the chat.

"Hey, Bear," You say as you end your stream and glance over at her," You woke up early too?"

She shuffles in with a nod. A blanket drags after her as she all but invites herself onto your bed and curls up next to Peanut. To add insult to injury, she pats the empty spot next to her like she's doing you a favour by inviting you into your own bed.

You shake your head with a laugh but do as your (very demanding) little sister says.

"We will sleep now," Bear declares," Until it is time for presents."

"We will, will we?"

"Yes."

There's not much else you can say to that. Bear is, by far, your most demanding sister and you know arguing with her won't end well so you just lay down and let her place her head on your chest.

It must be hours later when you finally wake up again, the light of the sun peaking through your closed curtains and Bear's head still pillowed on your chest.

You groan a little at the shaking of your shoulder and you blink awake.

"Hey, you," Keira says with a smile," I didn't realise they were all planning a sleepover."

"I wasn't expecting it either."

Keira smiles indulgently at you all. You and Bear cuddled up together. Peanut drooling on a pillow. Pup curled up into a ball with her hand dangling off the bed.

"What time did you get to bed last night?"

"You won't like my answer."

"That late, huh?"

"It was a really good game."

Keira laughs. "I know."

"You know?"

"You think that I don't watch your streams? I'm your biggest fan."

"Wait, seriously?"

You sit up, gently moving Bear so she's not jostled much. You rub the sleep from your eyes like this whole situation is some elaborate hallucination brought on by your lack of sleep.

You blink.

Nope. Keira's still right in front of you.

"I did fall asleep a bit after you started up your new save file though. I couldn't keep my eyes open."

"You saved yourself a lot of embarrassment," You admit," It's probably good that you stopped there."

"And it's not very good," Keira says pointedly," That you spent most of the night gaming."

You flash her an awkward smile, something she rolls her eyes fondly at you in response. "But you're not going to tell me off for it because it's Christmas and I made sure the little ones didn't wake you up early?"

"Just this once," Keira teases," Only because you actually were sleeping when I came in."

"Not because I'm an amazing big sister?"

"If I had to reward you for being an amazing big sister then it would never end."

"Is that a bad thing?"

Keira laughs, leaning down to kiss you on the top of your head. "It's never a bad thing. Now, can you be an amazing big sister for me again and help me get your sisters up for the day?"

"Do I get extra presents for it?" You ask cheekily and Keira grins, shaking her head softly.

You have a big sister.

Sometimes, people at school tell you that she's not your real sister because she's adopted. But adopted means she's part of the family so you don't really understand what they mean by that.

But your big sister is your big sister and you love her a lot.

When you and Momma used to live in Germany, Sötnos lived back home in Sweden. She joined you all two years ago in England and when you and your mummies moved back to Germany, she had to spend her time in London seeing out the rest of her contract.

But now Sötnos is in Germany with you all too.

You think she likes Germany even though and she and Morsa don't really understand the language. It's okay though because she's got you and you understand German.

You're good at your languages.

Magda says that you're the best in the family at languages so it must be true.

You're the best at other things too like being a goalkeeper and bringing rocks to life.

Rocky, your favourite rock, sits on the shelf next to your bed so he can wake you up in the middle of the night if Magda tries to throw him out again.

She's not allowed to do that anymore because Pernille told her off but you want to be careful.

Careful like you are now as you wiggle out from under Pernille's arm in bed. You'd had a scary dream last night so she'd let you into the Big Bed to sleep with her and Magda.

But you're awake now, with an amazing idea to help your Auntie Frido with her goals in life.

You slip out from under Pernille's arms, shuffling towards the door. You freeze when there's movement behind you but it's just Magda flopping over onto her stomach, arms stretching up and around her pillow.

She always sleeps heavy.

You could draw on her face in permanent marker and she wouldn't even notice.

So your little feet go on their way, padding down the hall to the third bedroom in the house.

It creaks open and a head pops up from the bottom of the bed.

Sötnos' lamb looks at you, blinking once or twice before settling his head down again and going back to sleep.

The rustle is enough to wake your sister up though and Sötnos groggily rolls over to look at you.

"It's early," She complains," What's wrong?"

"I have important things to say," You say, fist buried in her blankets as you pull yourself into her bed.

"And they couldn't have waited until later?"

"No," You say plainly, settling on Sötnos' legs so she can't escape you," It is important."

Sötnos groans before flicking on her lamp and rubbing her eyes to rid them of sleep. "Go on. What is it?"

Sötnos is one of your heroes. After Magda and Pernille and Zećira, you think she's your favourite person in the world and you always want her to do well.

Auntie Frido says people that want to do well need to come to the best club in the world.

You know Sötnos wants to do well too because she left Sweden to go and play for Arsenal and you love Arsenal.

"You should live with auntie Frido," Is what you tell your sister.

"What?"

"Because she lives in Barcelona. That's in Spain, by the way."

She laughs. "I know that. Why do I have to live with Frido?"

"Because that's where you should play! So you can be the best!"

Sötnos laughs, pulling you into her arms properly. "You want me to move away from you?"

You pull a face. You hadn't thought of that. "I don't want you to go..." You say slowly," But I do want you to be the best. And Auntie Frido says Barcelona is the best. It has Tia Tana there and Ingrid and her silly girlfriend."

"You make a good point..." Sötnos says slowly and you nod along," But I'd like to stay in Germany with you. Is that alright too?"

"You-You don't want to be the best?"

"I can be the best here. How else would I become the best if I didn't have my favourite girl giving me so many pointers? You're very important."

You giggle, looking down bashfully. "Really?"

"Really," Sötnos agrees," We've got to develop together, remember? So we're on the Sweden team at the same time."

You nod. "Okay! I'll tell Auntie Frido that you have to stay here! It's very important."

"What's important?"

The door creaks open and light from the hallway streams into the room.

Pernille stands there, wrapped tightly in her dressing gown with messy hair sticking up from her head.

"Girls," She says, not waiting for an answer to her question," It's early. Why are you talking so loudly so early?"

"Momma!" You say," Good news! Sötnos is staying in Germany!"

"I...wasn't aware she was leaving?"

"That's good! Because she's not!"

"Right."

Pernille exchanges a look with your sister that you don't quite understand just as Magda's head pops around the doorframe.

"I take it all this excitement means that no one's getting anymore sleep?" She asks, trying to rub all the sleep out of her eyes. She blinks a few times, focussing on the way you and your sister are cuddling in bed together with a soft smile on her face.

Her gaze drifts down to the foot of the bed and her eyes go wide.

There's exactly one costume store in town.

Sometimes, Katie wonders how it stays in business because it's almost always empty when she drives past it. She supposes that the store must get record amounts of profit during holidays just like this that keeps them running until next Halloween.

Either way, it's probably more fun for you to go into a physical store rather than just ordering online.

You hold Katie's hand tightly and watch as Caitlin carries your little sister further into the store, where all the sizes for very little girls wait for them.

"Alright," Katie says as she looks around the store," Last year, you were a witch. Do you want to be a witch again?"

You shake your head quickly. Last Halloween wasn't fun. It was a little scary for you and the costume definitely got really itchy at the end so you didn't want a repeat of that again.

"That's alright," Katie says though inside it's like her switch has been firmly flicked over to stress overdrive. She was so sure that you would be easier to go Halloween shopping with but apparently not. "We can find you something different."

It's easier said than done, of course, because Katie is really struggling here. She's not quite sure what she's doing or even what you could possibly want to be. Every costume she pulls from the rack goes straight back onto it.

She's at a total loss as to what she's meant to be doing. You shoot down almost every outfit she pulls out. Some are too scary (honestly, who in there right mind makes an Art the Clown costume for children?) or too itchy (stores really needed to offer more options for little ones with sensitive skin) or not warm enough (it was flipping October, no parent wanted their kid to be cold while trick or treating).

Katie's hand is warm in your own as she leads you through the aisles and aisles of costumes. You completely miss out the super scary section filled with all the villains from scary movies that Katie says you're much too small and young to be watching but know that she and Caitlin sometimes watch when you and your sister are in bed.

Instead, you stop at the generic Halloween villain aisle. Katie pulls out a few options, holding them up against your body before shaking her head as a no. The witch is out because that's what you were last year. The zombie is gone because it's a little too short on the arms and made from extremely thin material as Katie mutters about how you'll freeze in it before even stepping out the front door. Likewise, the vampire outfit is out too.

Katie thinks she's hit the jackpot when she pulls out the werewolf costume. It's got long trousers that are made to look like ripped jeans with fur sprouting from the rips. There's a long flannel shirt with similar fur lined slashes.

She holds it up in front of you and grins. "What do you think, kiddo? Have we got a winner?"

You smile at first and almost go to nod your head but you stop yourself, fingers reaching out to anxiously play with the bottom of your shirt.

Katie's smile fades. She drops to one knee, drawing you a little closer. "What's up? Come on, kiddo. Talk to me."

"Wolves are like dogs, aren't they?"

Katie frowns. "Huh?"

"Wolves...They're like big wild dogs, right?"

Katie's frown deepens. "I mean, I guess so? Like they're related to dogs. Not quite like wild dogs but, yeah. I suppose so."

You push the costume back into her hands. "I don't want the cats to be scared of me. Coopurr doesn't like dogs, you know."

Katie puts the costume back onto the rack. You're still little so there's really no point in arguing with you about how the costume won't actually make the cats scared of you. You're shy and timid but you have a stubborn streak a mile long and she knows that she'd get nowhere arguing in a costume store with you.

The generic costumes are a complete bust so Katie wanders with you further into the store in the hopes of something else being better suited to your tastes.

A glance all the way to the back sees Caitlin is also at a loss of what outfit to get for your sister because she's stuck by the mask section, letting Gremlin try on as many as she wishes.

Katie rolls her eyes, wondering, not for the first time today, why she insisted on this experience when your older sister (in the middle of her angsty teenage years and sulking at home) was more than happy to just order her own costume off the internet.

You stop in front of the racks with all the animals. A cat would be a cute choice for you, Katie thinks, but the thought sours when she sees the only options this place has are black cats. You have your own cat at home, a beautiful ragdoll you had named Baby and she just knows that the only way you would dress as a cat was if you could match with Baby.

The dog costumes are out too, just like the werewolf one was. The pig costume has you giggling but you stubbornly refuse it just like the horse and chicken one. One by one, costume after costume, Katie's hope dwindles until you're down to the last aisle and the last set of costumes.

It's a lost cause, Katie decides, ready to throw in the towel and spend the rest of today surfing the internet to find you a costume.

Superheroes.

That's the last set of costumes and you're perhaps the least interested child in superheroes that Katie's ever seen. Even your little sister, Gremlin, is more interest in superheroes than you and that's because she's always firmly on the villain's side.

But still, Katie needs to salvage this. She ignores all the male superheroes automatically before realising that there's a distinct lack of female superheroes for you to choose from.

"Mam?" You ask, hand coming out to tug Katie's shirt.

"One second, kiddo," She replies," I'm just-"

"Mam..." You say again," Can I have that one?"

Katie jumps in shock, head whipping around. "Which one, kiddo?"

You pull the Spiderman costume off of the rack and stare at it, fingers drifting over the mask that stays attached. "Can I be Spiderman? He's my favourite."

Kaite smiles at you, soft and fond as she takes it from you.