#instievent001

When the invitation to attend an All Hallows Eve dinner had arrived at the twins’ house, Klara had been wary. She recognised the name when Wanda read it out as the American man who’d tried to convince her to leave the circus with him. Curious, she’d gone along with the twins to see what it was that this man had truly wanted. Had he been honest when he told Klara he simply wanted to help people like them? Or did he have some other motivations?

Joshua had not expected the invitation. As far as he was aware, no one was privy to his abilities (or his address, for that matter) aside from him. And he had certainly never made the acquaintance of any Charles Xavier. He would have likely disregarded the whole thing had it not been for Natasha. There was still a lot about her past that neither of them could piece together, her real name being one. If this strange man knew of his gifts then perhaps he knew other things, too.

Jubilee wasn’t surprised to wake up and find the mansion prepped and primed for Halloween. It was just the sort of thing the Professor would think up, and she could see Hank’s ideas of “spooky” throughout the house so well that she knew what rooms he had a hand in decorating. Picking up a Redvine from one of the many canisters of candy on every surface of the hallway, she chews on it steadily and stares into the main sitting room. Two of the light bulbs in the ceiling fan are missing, the third is flickering in and out like someone has left it just a little bit unscrewed. Sighing, she chews steadily, “So where do you think the skeleton is hiding? You know, the one that comes flying at you from up high.” 

While they were setting up, Charles had been practicing his speech for tonight. It was short and sweet. He decided to start out by saying if ever they needed, everyone could feel free to find sanctuary in his home. There was more than enough space and the benefit he and Raven would have was the company of new friends. This place was far too enormous for only two people after all. It took hours to set things up, but finally he made his way to the front door and stood just outside it.

“If they needed a vampire for their little haunted house, they could’ve just asked.” Poppy remarks in a flat voice, slowly circling the prop coffin. When the toe of her shoe hit the motion detector, a gimmicky late-show version of a vampire flung itself from the coffin with a shrill shriek. She doesn’t flinch. Kneeling beside it, she raises a brow at the animatronic vamp, then looks back at her company with a somewhat ironic gaze. She bears her own fangs in a wicked smile. “The real thing is much better, don’t you think?” 

After decorating all night, she couldn’t sleep because she was so excited for people to see the work they had done. Instead of winding down for a couple hours of rest, she got to work on finding the perfect costume. She wasn’t supposed to be a part of the haunting, but it seemed like such a waste. Talia slipped into an all black body suit and zipped it up the middle. To cover the silver zipper, she squeezed into an all black corset that would have been a super pain in the ass to lace if it didn’t have a secret zipper added to the side. Next, she put on knee-high black boots with buckles to secure them in place. There was only one thing left to do. Camouflage. She covered covered half of her face with black makeup before securing a mask on just in case.

Of course she’d known what her dad was up to, it wasn’t like he was good at keeping secrets from her. Jean had even helped set up some of the macabre dolls that would hide in different rooms, and helped paint signs to direct people around the house. But the structure of the haunted house remained a mystery to her, as Hank had insisted. She huffed, looking around the vast dining room. “I told them to put that weird ass old guy in here...” she murmurs annoyed before her eye catches on something she wasn’t privy to. One of the paintings her father acquired when she was a girl is missing, in its place an empty frame. “Huh?”