Young Writers Society

Halloween night has finally arrived, and that can only mean one thing: trick-or-treating! You've picked out the perfect costume for tonight, and you're sure you're going to get as much candy as you possibly can from the houses you visit. Nothing could possibly go wrong tonight - not even a missing costume piece, or a healthy treat instead of a candy bar can put you down.

But something does go wrong.

It's a hard concept to grasp no matter what age you are, but realities like to overlay on top of each other on Halloween night. This Halloween is no exception, and kids who aren't trick-or-treating in your reality suddenly are. The town has become a strange amalgamation of everyone's towns, and only a small band of kids seem to notice.

You're one of them.

You'll have to band together with them if you want to figure out what's going on - even if they're a little weird.



( This is probably self-explanatory thanks to the description of the roleplay, but please make sure your character is a kid! I'd say a kid is anyone up to eighteen years old, but feel free to make them as young as you'd like. You're also free to take an older character of yours and write them from when they were younger. )

"Come on, Levi!" Juniper said, tugging on her older brother's arm. Levi hadn't moved from his spot on the couch for the past hour, and Juniper was starting to get concerned that they'd miss all of the trick-or-treating. Juniper wasn't sure if there was a final time to go trick-or-treating or not, but it was best to be prepared.

"I don't want to go," Levi said, crossing his arms and showing his fake fangs as he gave a frown and a scowl. "I'm too old for it - I want to give out candy."

Juniper plopped herself down next to him.

"But you said we'd go together," she whispered.

He didn't look at her. "Mom said that."

Juniper gaped - in her head, her parents and Levi were one entity. If one said that they would do something, the other would agree to it. Levi was supposed to take her trick-or-treating. She was sure of it!

"...I'm too old," Levi said.

Now the gape turned to a stare.

"Levi," she whispered, "you're eleven."

Her brother made a point of looking away. "...I'm too old," he awkwardly repeated, clearly starting to see the flaw in what he was saying.

Juniper took a deep breath and got back to her feet again.

If he wasn't going to come with her, there was only one option left.

"I'm going to tell on you," she informed him.

Levi froze.

"I'm going to Mom and Dad and I'm going to tell them you're no fun-"

"I'll come!" Levi hurriedly interrupted, his cloak swishing behind him as he jumped to his feet.

"Yay!" Juniper exclaimed, scooping up Levi's pillow case and handing it to him. "We're going to get candy, we're going to get candy~"

And, on that note, the two embarked on their journey through the costume-filled streets.

The night began at the costume party, because last year, they'd won first place for "best couple" and they got money for it, and although Cain hated parties, he loved money. The party had become markedly more fun when someone had pulled out beer but then Eve had informed him that she wasn't sticking around if he did something stupid like drinking, because she didn't want to explain to their foster parents that she'd been a part of that, due to the fact she didn't want to get in trouble or, worse, moved back to the dependent unit and wait to end up at another home. Without him there.

That had been a sobering enough thought to convince him (with a certain amount of regret) to go trick-or-treating instead, because as much as he liked money and alcohol, he also liked candy. So they got that.

"And what are you two?" the nice old lady at the house asked, and Cain looked at Eve and Eve looked back before he ended up answering.

"I'm zombie Jesus of Nazareth from Easter," he said, "and she's what she looks like."

They didn't get extra candy.

The next house wasn't as productive as he'd hoped, either, so they decided to change tactics and have Eve talk instead. And when her chipper little voice started up and told the nice old grandmas and grandpas about how they made their costumes all on their own and they'd done it with supplies they rifled from the garage and dump because they were poor little orphans, they definitely got extra candy.

Trick-or-treating was affront to Levi's honor and dignity, but there was little he could do against the threat of being told on. Juniper was good - even if she was only a kid.

(Levi was more than a little worried to find out what she'd be like years from now, but he tried not to think about that too much.)

Juniper was entirely oblivious to his scowl. She was humming and skipping down the road, occasionally parting ways through the crowds of kids and the rare adult with her wooden sword. Some gave her looks of envy; others gave looks of annoyance.

Levi barely even gave her a look.

He just wanted this night to be over.

He glanced down.

...At least he got free candy out of it.

Juniper suddenly came to a stop in front of him - he was so taken by surprise that he bumped right into her.

"Levi," she whispered, "the house is all wrong."

He looked at the house they were standing on the sidewalk in front of. It didn't look wrong to him. It just looked like a house with a little set of pumpkins on the front step and some spiderwebs in the trees.

"What are you talking about?" he asked. "I know you don't like spiders, but-"

"No!" she protested. "It's all wrong! The colors are all wrong, and the door is, too! And they never have pumpkins."

He glanced back at the house.

"...I think it's just your imagination," he said. "All of the Halloween spirit is getting to you."

She huffed and crossed her arms.

Levi turned his attention back to the street. Juniper was just overreacting. Little kids like her were like that-

"S***," he swore, jumping when he suddenly noticed the boy and the girl in walking down the sidewalk. They hadn't been there the minute before - he was sure of it. Where could they have possibly come from?

Juniper gasped again.

"Levi," she whispered, "you swore."

"I'm old enough," he said, dismissing the comment with a wave of his hand. Then he spun his sister around to face the two coming down the street towards them - he wasn't sure what either one were supposed to be, though both of the costumes looked homemade. "Juniper, have you seen those two before?"

She screwed her face in concentration.

"No," she said. "But they're older, so maybe we've never met."

He thought for a moment.

"...Would you believe me if I said that they weren't there a minute ago?"

Juniper gave him a long, hard look.

"...Yes," she finally said, "because you wouldn't ever lie to me."

They were walking down the block, laughing at some stupid joke Cain made about how Jesus was a zombie because he came back to life, and Eve was beaming as they went down towards the next house.

"No, look," Eve was saying, "zombies eat brains, and Jesus didn't eat brains!"

"Jesus died and came back out of his grave!" Cain protested. "That constitutes undead!"

"Undead doesn't equal zombie!"

"What other undead is he, then?" he asked, and she shook her head.

"Maybe he was a vampire."

"He went in sunlight, Evey."

"Okay, fine, maybe he was a ghost or a spectre or something that manifested and only appeared corporeal," she said, and she would've crossed her arms if they weren't making up the cross.

"How wouldn't they have noticed?"

"I don't know, but it's not like humans always have great judgement. Look at you, for example."

"Hey!" he protested, but he couldn't help the laughter as they turned the corner. There were only a couple other kids nearby on the street--a vampire who looked around ten and a slightly younger kid dressed as something Cain couldn't identify but Eve recognized as from Camp Half-Blood--who were standing in front of the next house talking. Something about them tipped Eve off to the fact they just seemed a little...nervous, or distressed, and there weren't any adults with them.

Before Cain could stop her, she was trundling over, and she came to kneel down in front of them so she was at eye-level. He wandered a few feet behind her but let her do the talking. She was better with kids than he was.

"Hey, are you guys lost?" she asked. "If you need call your parents, we have phones, or we can walk you to somewhere you know, if you need some help."

The moment that the girl headed over to them, Juniper ducked behind Levi - just barely peeking out from behind her brother. Levi could feel her little shaking fingers gripping his arm tightly; if he wasn't supposed to be the older one here, he might have let himself fall into an act that mirrored her genuine reaction to the situation.

It was what made sense, given the circumstances.

But he still had to be responsible, and he couldn't let Juniper have to fend for herself when he was perfectly capable of it.

"We're okay," he said, giving the cute little kid smile he had perfected years ago. It was an art form by this point - no one had ever been able to see entirely through it, though some might have suspected that he was putting on a brave face from time to time. "We were just getting overwhelmed by all of the houses - there's so many!"

He subtly nudged Juniper with his elbow.

She frantically nodded in agreement.

"I want to get all of the candy," she added.

Cain’s eyes narrowed a little as the kid grinned and informed them that he was fine, the younger one—presumably his sister—ducking behind him. He normally wouldn’t have thought twice about the situation but for a few things, ,none of which he would’ve cared about if they didn’t all come together: firstly, the girl was hiding, which kids rarely did unless they were scared for one reason for another; two, there were no parents or older kids in sight, and most of the time, a kid who couldn’t be older than eleven wasn’t the caretaker unless they were pretty close to home; and, finally, that the lie was positively terrible. He was both acknowledging something was going on and the then trying to excuse it with a like like that.

“That’s bull,” Cain said, taking the impending cuss off the end at the last moment because he didn’t want Eve to glare at him. “Where do you live? It’s not safe out here alone unless you’re close to home.” He would know; he’d run into his fair share of street scares throughout his admittedly short life.

Juniper ducked behind him a little more.

"My parents said we shouldn't talk to strangers," Levi said, with all of the innocence that an eleven year old should have theoretically had. "And they definitely said we shouldn't be telling strangers where we live."

They hadn't specifically said that at any point, but it could be argued that it was underneath the "don't talk to strangers" rule.

"So, you're lost," Cain clarified, "and you don't know where you are. But, you think it's a better idea to dodge that to get rid of us and be stuck out here alone? Or deal with whatever grown-up comes by next? Kids aren't as dangerous as adults are," he pointed out, crossing his green arms.

Eve rose as he spoke, going to stand at his side again. She was much shorter than he was--the boy was over six feet tall despite his young age, and she was little more than average height--but the cross that extended past her head made them look about the same.

"We're not lost," Levi said, a little bit of an indignant tone slipping through the childish facade. It was hard not to reply like that - the boy was treating him like he didn't know the dangers that kids faced. He did because - spoiler alert! - he had been stuck as one for what felt like an eternity. So take that, surprisingly tall middle school kid.

But then he bit back the indignant tone, returning to the more innocent one he had used just a minute ago. "I just don't want to tell a creepy boy with a creepy costume where we live!"

Juniper eagerly nodded from behind him, just the tip of her head visible from her hiding spot.

"If you're not lost, why were you lying?" he asked. "And it's Halloween, you can't go judging someone off their costume, the literal point is to be creepy! Plus it's Jesus and he was supposed to be a cool dude, so. Anyways, the point isn't where you live, the point is that you really seem like you need someone to pick you up or make sure you get home in one piece."

"Cain," Eve said quietly, bumping him with the long box that was her arm. "I think you're just scaring them."

"Fine," he said, sighing. "I'm gonna get candy." With this, he strode down the path to the house, and she glanced after him.

"No drinking!" she called. "And no drugs! Or smoking!"

He only shot her a thumbs-up as he walked, not calling back nor bothering to actually turn around.

Jesus was honestly one of his least favorite people to talk about, but he was supposed to be a practicing Christian. He even went to church with his family every Sunday - the last thing he could do was start arguing about that with Juniper right here.

Juniper nervously watched the boy - Cain? - go, clinging to Levi as he started to slowly follow after. He was trying to put distance between the two of them, the girl and Cain. When they were far enough away, he turned to Juniper again.

"Why are we following him?" she whispered, a nervous expression on her face.

...How was he supposed to explain this to a nine year old?

He looked over her costume.

"What would Percy do if he noticed something was weird?" he asked.

Juniper mulled it over.

"Find out why and fight it if it's a monster," she finally said, a bit too enthusiastically. Her hand started to go for her wooden sword - Levi quickly stopped her by putting his hand on hers when she started to draw it out.

"We're not going to fight," he said. Yet. "But we are going to figure out what's going on and if we need to be heroes."

This plan seemed to boost Juniper's spirits - she eagerly started towards the house, ready to get some candy and do some investigating.

Levi quickly joined her.