#trick-or-treating

👻 Trick! 👻

You hate to say it, but you've felt uneasy ever since you got to this particular unit in the apartment complex. You've been all over the area with no problem and there are plenty of other trick-or-treaters around, so it's not like you're alone here, but something just feels... off...

Are you being watched? No, that's ridiculous. You'd know if you were being watched- you have like 7,000 eyes. It doesn't matter that they're made of paper; you see all. If anything, people should be afraid of you watching them.

You head toward the apartment door and ready yourself to knock, but something clatters somewhere down the hallway. What was— ... ?! Maybe a kid dropped something. Yeah, that was it. You raise your hand to knock—

Scritch... Scritch...

Claws on the ground? Is someone walking their dog, or...?

Okay, time to knock. Let's get the candy and get out of here—

"AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

At the sound of the piercing, echoing howl, you jump about a foot in the air and let out a scream that you didn't intend to make. Your head turns and there is something HUGE running at you. Man? Beast? Monster?!! You don't have time to decide. You pound on the door, frantic.

Hearing the commotion, Tristan opens up.

"What's—" but he can't even get the words out before you shove inside and slam the door behind you.

"HEY!"

THUD!

Something smacks into it, hard.

Tristan jumps as well. "WHAT WAS THAT?!" he shrieks.

Both you and Tristan look in horror as the doorknob twists and swings open before either of you can stop it. On the other side is a hulking (well, okay, maybe average-human-sized) black furry werewolf rubbing his rubbery mask's snout.

"You broke into my house?!" he exclaims.

Tristan's horrified expression blinks into bewilderment, then incredulousness.

"Darius?! Man, what the fuck!! You scared us to death!"

The werewolf—Darius—moves on to rubbing his arm.

"Well, I paid the price! I hit the damn door!" he complains.

"Don't freakin' scare people! That's so mean!"

Darius' gaze drifts over to you and he shrugs sheepishly. "Alright, yeah, sorry."

You're mad at him! Had 'fight' kicked in and not 'flight', you probably could've punched him to the very moon he howls at out of pure adrenaline.

He stands there trying to make a genuine apology, but what you can see of his face looks troubled. His brows are knit together into a frown, and it's only then that you realize that he can't tell which set of eyes are your real ones. With how hard he's trying to figure it out, he looks like his mind might explode. Maybe that smack into the door rattled his head, too. That, or he has really poor vision in that costume.

"I'm sorry, I— ... Ahh..." he trails off. Poor guy is really having a tough time.

Finally you break into a laugh and accept the apology. He's working hard for it, after all. That brain is clearly scrambled.

"Here." Darius pushes past you into the house, then clumsily pulls open a drawer on the catch-all table. He digs through it, all the while never taking off his oversized paw glove, then sloppily drags out a fancy, full-sized candy bar.

"For being a good sport." he utters, plopping it in your bag.

Tristan closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose, then shakes his head as Darius ushers you out with a quiet but shameless "Happy Howl-o-ween!".

"They're never going to come here again, you dolt." Tristan grumbles. "At least, not without bear spray."

As Tristan goes to close the door, he gives you one more sincere apology.

🍭🍬 Treat! 🍬🍭

It takes a minute for them to come to the door, but through it you hear both boys sounding a little confused.

"Was that a yell?" Tristan asks.

"Yeah, I think someone's at the door, but why didn't they knock? ... They'd knock, right?"

"I don't know..."

There's a shuffling sound, then Darius opens the door a little cautiously.

"Yeah! Someone's here!" he calls over his shoulder, but as he opens it fully and sees your costume, he gets excited. "Ohh! A bat! Hell yeah! That's so cool!!" He shuffles back and forth, moving for the candy bowl, but then waffling onto the other foot as if torn on a decision.

"Ahh, ahh...! Hang on!" he dashes inside the apartment, then returns a second later with something massive, black, and fluffy in his hands. "I feel like you'd appreciate this," he exclaims. "being a fan of spooky creatures and all!"

Proudly he holds up the hairy mass, displaying it at a better angle for you to see. It's a giant furry werewolf mask, the maw curled up into a snarl that displays glistening canine teeth. It's quite scary actually, but very well-crafted.

"This thing took me FOREVER to make! But it's sick as hell, right?!" He plops the mask down on the table, then has to lift the fabric up to procure the candy bowl from underneath it. He extends the bowl to you so you can make your treat selection while he studies your costume.

"Your ears are awesome! Love the purple! The flair! The drama!"

🍭🍬 Treat! But it's probably more than you asked for! 🍬🍭

Tristan opens the door and greets you warmly. "Oh hello there! Happy Halloween!"

While Tristan's perfectly content to just hand out standard Halloween candy, once Darius sees you, he has a different idea.

"Can you cook?" Darius asks.

Tristan gives him a look, then indicates your costume.

"Well, I'd certainly hope so. They're a chef."

Darius shakes his head. "No, like, I mean, can you actually cook? In real life?"

You didn't know that you'd need to prove your credentials to dress up as something for Halloween. As you mentally gather the list of your favorite go-to recipes, Darius interrupts your thought.

"Y'know what, it doesn't matter. Here, take these." He disappears for a moment, then comes back with an armful of various spices in tiny glass jars.

"Hey!" Tristan protests. "Those are mine!!"

"You buy too much in bulk!" Darius snaps, dumping the containers into your bucket. He addresses you: "Make a soup, make a casserole, I don't care, just help me make room in my kitchen."

"My kitchen." Tristan corrects him.

"I pay most of the rent."

"And I cook most of the food. ...Unless you want me to stop, then you can live on takeout for the rest of your life."

Darius is deathly quiet for a second. Threat understood.

"... Anyway, those were all duplicates, Tris. Trust me, you still have plenty more where that came from."

Tristan purses his lips, but concedes, turning to you as he checks what exactly Darius just gave away from his stash.

🍭🪄 You're in for a treat! But first... a trick! A magic trick! 🪄🍭

Darius opens the door and reaches for the candy bowl, but looks you up and down first. His eyes rest on your witch hat.

"Do a trick." he demands, crossing his arms.

You stare blankly back. What? A trick? You didn't expect to have to perform for candy! You open your mouth to say that you don't have anything prepared, but before you do, Darius repeats himself.

"Do a trick!"

"They're not a dog, Dair." Tristan chastises him as he slides around his roommate, picking up the treasure trove of sweets. "Give 'em a break."

Darius huffs. "Well what's the point of being a witch if you can't do magic? C'mon, entertain me."

Tristan raps him on the shoulder. "It's Halloween. the point is to have fun."

"Eh, fine." Darius looks bummed, but snatches some candy to give to you anyway. Tristan shakes his head.

"Alright, if you must see a magic trick... Give me a second." He dumps the bowl into Darius' arms, then shakes out his limbs, getting ready for whatever he's about to do. You and Darius both lock in.

"Okay, check it out. Nothing in my hands, right?" he flashes his empty palms at you and Darius, and with a nod you both confirm that he's not holding anything.

"Think long and hard about what you want this All Hallows' Eve." he waves his arms a bit. "Go on, make a Halloween wish."

Darius snorts. "I'm not gonna—"

"If you don't do it then the magic won't work."

Darius rolls his eyes. "I wish—"

"Shh! Hallow-wishes are a secret!"

"Then why did you tell me to—"

"Ta-da!!!" quick as a wink, Tristan reaches behind your ear and procures not just a single piece of candy, but a whole handful. Wait, how...?! With a grin, he drops the loot into your trick-or-treat bag.

Darius' eyebrows raise. It seems that he didn't spot the secret to Tristan's sleight-of-hand trick. He's impressed, but trying to hide it.

"Okay, great! But that was for them. What about me?"

"You're literally holding the candy bowl right now. What more do you want?"

Darius pouts. Tristan raises his empty hands up in a surrender.

"Alright Darius, if you really need something for yourself, I guess I can give it to you. You're determined... Anyone would be if they only had candy on the brain." he buries his hand in Darius' fluffy black hair and gives it a tussle, then suddenly half a dozen fun-size candy bars rain out and drop haphazardly down to the floor. Now Darius' eyes light up, and he finally breaks into a large smile, tapping the sides of the bowl in applause.

"Ahhh, yeah!!"

Phew! Thank goodness Tristan took care of that on your behalf! Would Darius have given you anything if he hadn't? Maybe you should pick up a book of magic tricks for next year. Yeah, you could come back here and charm the socks off of that weird goth guy. If he wants a show, you'll give him a show!

"Happy Halloween!" both boys chirp, and as you set off you see Darius grab hold of Tristan's wrist and examine it.

"Okay, but where's your secret candy pocket, and how can we exploit it to sneak snacks into the movie theater?"

"I can tell you all about it later, even teach you how to do the trick if you want. It only took me one night at summer camp to learn."

(It’s @3-2-whump, dressed as a pirate)

🍭🍬 Treat! 🍬🍭

Tristan and Darius both dive for the doorknob at the same time, perhaps with two different goals in mind - one to trick, one to treat. Luckily, Tristan gets there first and pulls the door open, a gloating grin on his face as he turns to Darius, victorious. Darius rolls his eyes, then nods his head toward you.

"Fine, you won. Now give them what they came for."

Tristan smiles fully, then looks over your costume. "Arrrr-hoy, me hearty!"

"'Arr-hoy'??" Darius repeats, playfully mocking his roommate, but Tristan is so excited that he makes a pointed choice to ignore him.

"Ye come fer ye booty, eh?!" Tristan continues, and beside him, Darius looks mortified. Oh God... what is he doing??? But Tristan carries on with the charade before Darius can stop him.

"Gold! Gold is the only thing fit for a pirate of course! Ye must have gold before ye make me walk tha plank!"

"Oh my God, stop..." Darius sighs, burying his face in his hand.

Tristan rummages through the candy bowl while he's talking to you, meticulously searching for and plucking out anything in a gold, yellow, or yellow-orange wrapper. When he's gathered a satisfying handful, he dumps the variety of treats into your bag. Gotta give him points for creativity, you suppose.

"Ay, ye plundered all me loot I can afford to give ya!" Tristan says, giving you a friendly, but dismissing wave. "Have fun on yer high seas adventures tonight, and may yer candy treasures be bountiful!"

You thank him and head out, but a few steps down the hall you hear light smack followed immediately by Tristan letting out a high-pitched squeal.

"DARIUS!"

When you peer back over your shoulder to see what caused the outburst, Tristan's face is beet red, his free hand cupping his rear as he stares wide eyed at his roommate. Darius is smirking.

"Save some of that precious booty for the rest of us." Darius purrs sarcastically, clearly hamming it up and trying to get under his best friend's skin. It's working. Tristan plops the candy bowl down, then gives Darius a shove backwards.

I'm dressed as Wednesday Addams.

🍭👻 Trick and Treat! 👻🍭

Darius opens the door, an impish grin tugging at the corners of his mouth, only to lay eyes on your costume.

"Oh hell yeah!" he exclaims. "Wednesday! That's sick!" whatever thought was going through his head moments before seems to have abandoned him entirely as he barrages you with questions.

"What's your favorite episode? Favorite character (though perhaps that's obvious)? Are you a fan of the other versions of The Addams Family? Because if you haven't seen the older movies and shows then you should watch them!"

He's so busy blabbering on that he absentmindedly grabs a second candy bowl, one placed right next to the one they normally use to hand out treats. He rummages through it while chatting away, then pulls out a huge handful of... individually wrapped gummy snakes? Alright, it's Halloween, spooky treats are fine. Clearly he likes you, because he's being generous with this scoop.

He reaches out to put the loot into your treat pail, but finds some resistance; one snake seems to have come out of its wrapper. A big snake. A long snake. A long, long unwrapped gummy snake. Hold on, that's just a rubber snake painted to look like candy! What's that doing in there?

Darius' vision flicks down and lands upon the cleverly disguised toy, then he tugs at it to free it from the bowl in his hand, still chatting away. He instantly realizes his mistake the second he makes it, since he cuts himself off mid-sentence.

"And then when the body swap happene— FUCK! NO!"

Suddenly the contents of the candy bowl explode up and out into the air, sending at least two dozen gummy snakes flying in all directions. Both you and Darius jump back at the same time, and he chucks the bowl, rubber snake and all, out into the hallway. Once your heart stops racing, you examine the bowl itself.

That prankster... The painted rubber snake was attached to some sort of spring-loaded base at the bottom of the bowl, and when Darius pulled on it he set the contraption off. It must have been designed for trick-or-treaters to grab to get a fright, but he was so wrapped up in a rare geek-out session that the one who got surprised was mostly him.

Darius is wide-eyed, but trying to play it off coolly.

"Ahhhha..." he laughs lightly, though his voice cracks. "Totally meant to to that!" A small gummy snake landed on his shoulder, where it now sits like limp spaghetti. You don't know if you should point it out to him or not. He's quiet for a second before he tussles his hair in an attempt to recollect himself.

"Uh... anyway..." casually he reaches over and grabs the normal candy bowl, shovelling a second large handful of more typical fare into your bucket, perhaps as an apology. "Cool costume...! Happy Halloween...!"

He flashes a strained smile, and you swear his cheeks are glowing a gentle pink with embarrassment, even under his ghastly pale makeup. You thank him and head down the apartment stairs to continue on with your night. Once you're out of sight, he lets out a deep sigh, coupled with a pained laugh. You hear the sound of plastic wrappers being shuffled into a pile to be dumped back into the trick bowl. A second voice joins in- Tristan.

"... ... ... You triggered it yourself, didn't you?"

🍭🍬 Treat! 🍬🍭

With a great deal of excitement, Tristan pulls open the apartment door. Your enthusiastic yell makes his eyes go wide- first in surprise, then with pure joy.

"TREAT! TREAT! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!" he responds back, mirroring your energy. "Hooray! You're our first visitor!"

Behind him, Darius saunters out from the living room, looking ravishing in elegant historic attire. Is he dressed as a vampire, or is this just one of his normal goth looks? It's hard to tell with him. He fiddles with his sleeve cuffs, adjusting them just so.

"Someone's here already?" he asks, glancing up. Upon seeing you, he smiles softly and waves. "Oh, hey! Great costume!"

Tristan scampers off, an eager bounce in his step as he grabs the candy bowl from their kitchen counter.

"First one, first one~!" he hums happily to himself, probably thinking that he can't be heard. He must really like this holiday.

"Here you go, my friend!" as he appears back in the doorway, he extends the treasure trove to you, waiting for you to make your sweet selection. "You can take two... or three! ... or four! ... or-"

"Tris..." Darius sighs, though his tone is that of a playful chiding rather than a full denial of fun. Tristan waves him off dismissively.

"Fine, fine, cap it at four, just because you got here first. You can have bragging rights for everyone on the block!"

Once you've gathered your treats from the bowl, Tristan beams and Darius lets out a small laugh at his expression.

"Well, you've already made his night." he says, elbowing his friend.

"Happy Halloween!" they both happen to say in unison.

"Have a great night!!" Tristan adds as you turn to head to the next unit.

As the door closes, you hear him quietly singing the same tune from before, and a quick glance over your shoulder shows him doing a silly little dance in Darius' direction.