After a short argument with Witcheon that we could collect all the candy in her bag and share them fairly later, everyone got their own bag, because she said that we would only try to steal her hard-earned candy that way.
Drone led the way, and I was still keeping my distance to him, which he seemed to notice after a while. “I think, I know you…” he said, scanning me with his red eyes. “Oh, right! You are the one hiding in the bag earlier! I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“But you did. I thought you’d take me back to the laboratory.” I looked down at the ground.
“What laboratory? The next laboratory is hours away. I couldn’t fly that long, even if I wanted. And you look way too heavy, to carry you with me, no offense!” Drone replied.
“The one in the forest.” I answered. “I escaped from there.”
“Your backstory kinda doesn’t make sense, but I’ll try not too hard to think about it. It’s Halloween, and it’s about having fun, not about creating the best backstory!” he said and left my side again to continue leading the group.
“Wrong!” Witcheon interposed. “It’s about getting the most candy!”
“It’s about having fun with your friends while collecting candy.” Vuldoom corrected.
“And about scaring others.” Anpu nodded.
“What is fun about scaring others?” I asked. “Getting scared by Darkrai wasn’t fun.”
“You’ll see soon enough, once you are on the other end of the scales!” he smiled.
We reached the first house that Drone had led us to and Vuldoom rang the doorbell. A creature opened the door and all the others screamed “Trick or treat!” while pretending to be scary. And apparently, it worked. The creature in the door lifted her hand to her forehead in shock and almost fell over, before picking up the courage and telling us to take her candy, but not her life.
“You’re lucky… this time!” I heard Witcheon mumble, while she picked three treats from the wicker basket. We others only took two, because Vuldoom told me that it was good form to do so. When I asked her about the three pieces that Witcheon took, she said that she hadn’t seen it, and I was too scared to ask the others about it after getting a death stare from Witcheon with the whispered threat “Snitcheons get Stitcheons!”
I had no idea what that meant, but I decided to keep my mouth shut.
And so we went from house to house. We scared the poor creatures inside and basically robbed them of their candy, but none of them seemed to be mad about it. And whenever Vuldoom didn’t look, Witcheon took more candy than it was considered good form. I think, she tried to bribe me for my silence, because sometimes, she took a fourth one and gave it to me.
There were other groups out on the streets as well, laughing and talking, and whenever we crossed them, Witcheon gave them advice on where to get the best candy. Obviously, she never mentioned any of the houses that Drone had scouted for us. “The less competition, the better. Let them ring on those doors which inhabitants only give out chocolate bars that were already expired when Sinnoh was still called Hisui! This will leave more of the good stuff for us. And if no one else visits the houses that we already visited, maybe there are enough treats left for us in a bonus round on our way back home later!”
Anpu shook his head. “You are a criminal mastermind.”
“One of us has to be the smart one.” she grinned. Then she turned her head to me. “And you, Mi? Can you at least try to be scary when we ring on the next door?”
I thought about what happened to Jerry when he lifted my rag and took a peek under it. “Last time I scared someone, I scared him so hard that he died.” I sheepishly said.
“Maybe try to scare them not so hard then?” she suggested. “Can you do that?”
I sighed. “I can try.”
It turned out that pretending to be scary was a lot more fun than actually being scary. And I gave my best at pretending!
At the next house, I hid in the bushes, while the rest of the group rang at the door. The owner opened, and the others were more or less trying to scare him, before it was time for me to make my big entrance. I elongated my arm and grabbed Anpu by the ankle before pulling him into the bush, while he was screaming for help. One by one I grabbed them and pulled them away from the door, and the owner was forced to watch in shock. When we were all in the bush together, we jumped out from it and screamed “Trick or treat!” which earned us way more than the usual two pieces of candy for each of us.
“Five?” Witcheon asked in disbelief. “Mi, you are a gold mine! Keep this up, and we'll be overloaded with candy by the end of our tour!"
It felt good to be encouraged by the toughest member of the group, so I kept trying my best at the houses that followed, and it paid off.
“So, where are we going next?” Anpu asked, when we were back on the streets. We had been trick’r’treating for quite a while now, and the moon was already standing high in the night sky.
"Hate to break it to you, but this was the last house I could find with a decent amount of candy.” Drone said.
“Oh, come on!” Witcheon griped. “My bag isn’t even full!”
“Mine is.” Vuldoom said. “Yours is just bigger.”
Before a tiff could break out, I tried to find a solution. “How about we go to one last house?”
“Didn’t you listen? We have been at all the good ones already.” Drone buzzed.
“We haven’t been at that one.” I pointed to an old-looking building at the top of a small hill, where no streetlights guided the way. It looked like it would fall apart, if someone glanced at it the wrong way. And seemingly none of the other trick’r’treaters were paying attention to it.
Drone looked at the house. “That’s new. I swear, it wasn’t there when I was scouting earlier!”
“So you don’t know if it yields good candy or not?” Witcheon asked. “Good enough for me. Let’s risk it then!”
“What do you mean, it wasn’t there?” I asked, now hesitant again. “Is it normal that buildings just pop into existence?”
“Maybe I just overlooked it because it’s so far away from the street.” Drone tried to justify his mistake.
“Are you two coming, or are you just planning to stand there?” Witcheon called. She and the other two had already started walking towards the dark and eerie building.
What was once a wooden fence was now completely broken down, with only a few scattered poles still sticking in the ground to remind strangers that trespassing wasn’t allowed. The unmown grass in the front yard was sprawling so high that the first step of the creaky wooden staircase which let to the front door was hidden by it.
“No bell?!” Witcheon exclaimed.
“Just try knocking, dear.” Anpu sighed.
Witcheon lifted her paw and knocked, but to her surprise, the door just swung open with a sound that sent a shiver down my spine.
“Hey, Mi…” Vuldoom said with a concerned tone in her voice. “This was your idea. Do you want to go in first?”
“Go in?” I asked. “It seems like nobody is home. We should go.”
“Are you scared?” Witcheon asked. “Alright then, scaredy-meowth, I’ll go in first!”
She stepped into the hallway. “See? Nothing happens. Let’s find the bowl of candy and take everything we can!”
At that moment, multiple purple flames began to form around her. “What?” Witcheon asked and tried to step back, but one of the flames burned her hind paw, and she shrieked out in pain. “Anpu, if this is supposed to be some kind of joke, I swear to Arceus, I will tear you apart if you don’t stop this right now!”
“I’m not doing anything!” Anpu backed down in panic.
“Oh yeah? We will see about that!” she growled and blew a frosty breeze into the dancing flames. But instead of quenching them, it made them only circling faster. They grew higher and higher, until they fully enclosed Witcheon. Then we heard her scream, the flames died down, and our friend was gone. The only things left of her were her bag of candy and her hat.
“Where did she go?” Drone flew towards the spot where she had disappeared. He hectically scanned the area. “She’s gone! We have to search for her!”
“No way I’m going in there now!” Anpu said with a shaky voice.
“She’s our friend!” Vuldoom reminded him. “And I won’t leave her behind, wherever she might be!”
“Watch out!” I yelled, when I saw the purple flames forming anew around Drone. His eyes widened in shock, and he tried to fly away, but the flames followed him, circled faster around him and grew bigger. An ear-piercing scream was the last we heard from him. With a clanking sound, the chain with the balls that he had carried fell to the ground, right next to Witcheon’s bag.
“Nope! That’s it! I’m not setting a paw into this cursed building!” Anpu said and stepped back. Right into another purple flame that was beginning to form behind him.
“Run!” Vuldoom grabbed me and pulled me inside the building while Anpu’s terrified scream was cut off, and only his golden ornaments were left behind.
“They got burned alive!” I stammered. “And you are running towards the danger?”
“It didn’t look like they got burned. Looked more like they were carried away by some kind of will-o-wisps!” she panted while running around a corner.
“And why did their body fall apart then?” I asked.
“Mi, those were their costumes!” she sternly said.
“You keep using that word, but I don’t know what that means.” I felt helpless.
She stopped her running. “This thing you wear! That’s called a costume.”
“That’s my rag! I was born with it!” I insisted.
“Stop playing dumb!” she scorned me.
“But I AM dumb! This is just who I am! And you are Vuldoom!” I almost started crying.
“No, I’m a Vulpix who disguised herself for Halloween!” she yelled at me, while pulling her horns off from her head. They were fake! I couldn’t believe it. “I just love Anpu… Houndoom so much, that I wanted to be a Houndoom as well. Just for today! But now he is gone, and I’m scared!”
A purple flame appeared next to her.
“Watch out!” I shouted and Vulpix screamed when she saw the flame.
“Please help me! I don’t want to vanish like the others!” she begged me with tears running down her cheeks that washed away the artificial black coloring of her fur and revealed the orange color underneath it.
I didn’t know what to do. Lifting my rag would put her in danger as well, if she peeked under it. But what if she looked away?
“Close your eyes!” I commanded.
“Why?” she whined.
“Just trust me!” I grabbed my rag with my free hand.
She looked at me, frightened. But then she nodded and closed her eyes. I pulled up my rag just a little, but it was enough to create a suction that the flames were pulled into. I expected to get burned by them, but instead they just disappeared under my rag with a quiet fizzle.
As soon as the last flame was gone, I let go of my rag again. “It should be safe now.”
Vulpix opened her eyes and looked for the purple flames, but there wasn’t a single one left.
“How did you get rid of them?” she asked, looking at me like I was a monster.
“I told you, I’m an experiment.” I sighed.
“This wasn’t just a made up backstory for your persona?” she asked and came closer to me. “Can I see what’s underneath your rag?”
“No!” I stepped back. “The last one who took a look died.”
She froze in place. “I never know what is a lie and what is the truth with you.”
“I never lie.” I said. “It’s all true. The laboratory, the catastrophes, everything! I’m a failure. That’s why they locked me away!”
“Experiment or not, I don’t care.” she decided and came closer again. “You are our friend! You have a pure heart! You saved us. Saved me twice now. That’s not something a failure would be capable of!”
With that, she snuggled up against my rag. And I couldn’t help but tear up a little.
“Now, let’s go find our other friends!” she said after a while. "Alright! Where do we start searching?"
The dark hallways of the building seemed like a labyrinth, but we managed to navigate through it, until we reached a pair of stairs. One that went up, and another one that went down.
"Should we split up?" I hesitantly asked.
"Heck, no! What if the flames return? We're smarter than these folks in horror movies." Vulpix shook her head. "Let's search the basement first. If you find any creepy-looking books, don't read them out loud!"
"Um… sure." I said and followed her down the stairs.
Behind the cellar door was even more darkness. There were no windows down here, so not even the occasional moonlight could lighten up the room. So Vulpix took matters in her own paws. She breathed out a bright red flame that danced in front of her. And in the light of the flame, we spotted them. Witcheon, Anpu and Drone were laying on the ground, seemingly out cold. But there was something else. A majestic four-legged creature with a beautiful mane that someone had seemingly weaved starlight into. On its back sat a headless rider that wore a ruff made of pumpkins. And all of the carved pumpkin faces turned to us.
"Is this a costume, too?" I asked.
"I don't think so…" Vulpix gulped.
The rider grabbed one of the pumpkins, ripped it off its ruff and shook it. Its eyes began to glow with bright purple lights and liquid flames flowed out of its mouth, dripped to the ground and rushed towards us.
"Mi, use your experiment magic again!" Vulpix squeaked in fear.
"Step behind me!" I shouted.
She jumped behind me, and I lifted my rag a little. The flames were pulled under it and disappeared once more.
The creature neighed in confusion, with all the pumpkins tilting like heads. Then their eyes began to glow with the purple light again.
"Is that all you can do?" I asked provokingly.
But instead of flames, there was movement next to the creature. My friends were waking up again!
"Anpu!" Vulpix rushed over to her loved one, hugging him. Anpu returned the hug and opened his eyes. His purple glowing eyes.
"Step back from him!" I screamed. "That's not Anpu!"
Vulpix realized too late what was going on. Panic was in her eyes when she tried to free herself from the tight grip. And when liquid flames dripped from Anpu's mouth onto her fur, she screamed. Witcheon and Drone circled her, and purple light was all I could see, before they made way for their newly acquired member of the group of mindless minions.
Vulpix's eyes were glowing purple now as well and all four of them were slowly coming closer to me.
I was painfully reminded of the experiment that I couldn't save back in the laboratory. Even more so, when I realized that my comfort plushy was gone again, because as I wanted to grab it tightly, my hand was empty.
But instead of fear, another emotion was bubbling up now. Was this how anger felt like? I took a step forward into the creature's direction. "This stops now! I won't beg, and I won't hesitate to end you, if you continue with this! This is your one and only chance! Let them go!"
Another neighing came from the creature. It sounded like it was mocking me, while my friends still came closer behind me. I wouldn't fail them. I was done being a failure!
"You leave me no choice!" I sighed and grabbed my rag with both hands. "You brought this upon yourself!"
And with that, I pulled my rag up. Not just a little bit like I did for the darkness or the purple flames, no, I lifted it fully and faced the creature with it. The room in front of me began to warp and distort, and the creature screeched and whinnied in fear now. It stood up on its hind legs and tried to escape the suction. But it was already too late to stop now. Its forelegs distorted and were pulled under my rag, then the creature’s head and finally, the rest of it as well. A few loose objects like nails and screws were flying towards me and just like the creature, they vanished with no chance to return.
It took all of my strength to pull my rag down again, before I could turn around to my friends. The purple lights in their eyes were flickering, before they returned to normal.
“What happened?” Witcheon was the first to speak. “Where’s my candy bag?”
“Upstairs… Front door.” I muttered. I felt exhausted. Almost like I had overexerted myself. My vision was getting blurry. The last thing I saw were Vulpix and Witcheon rushing to my side, preventing me from falling over.
When I opened my eyes again, we were back on the street in front of the hill.
"Hey, Mi is still alive!" Witcheon announced. "Not tell us, how did you get rid of that thing?"
"You saved us, didn't you?" Vulpix smiled.
I simply nodded, but didn't elaborate.
"Come on, tell us what happened!" Anpu said.
I sighed. "I don't think I want to talk about it. I'm not proud of what I had to do."
"If Mi doesn't want to talk about it, we should respect that." Drone hummed.
"But I need to know!" Witcheon urged.
"Respect. That!" Drone repeated, silencing her.
"The threat is gone and won't come back. That's all that counts." I said.
"So? What are we going to do now? Get back to trick'r'treating?" Anpu asked.
"Heck, no! I'm done with scary things for this year!" Witcheon shook her head. "I'm glad that no one stole my candy while we were down in that basement. We shouldn't push our luck any further. I'm going home!"
"Sounds like a good idea. It was fun, but I'll never enter another spooky house again!" Drone agreed while lifting off. "See you later! Byeee!"
But before Drone could fly away, a shadowy figure almost crashed into him. For a brief moment, Drone looked at Darkrai in horror and Darkrai just stared back. Then it looked down at us, and although I was still exhausted, I made myself ready for another fight. A fight that never happened. Instead of attacking us, Darkrai just flew over our heads, and to the spooky house on the hill. The door closed behind the nightmare-inducing creature and in the next moment, the house disappeared as if it had never been there.
We all stared at the point where the house had been, too baffled to say anything.
“Has Darkrai been living here all the time?” Witcheon bursted out.
“Maybe the strange creature was responsible for scaring it out of its home, and it only attacked us with its nightmares in self-defense? What a poor thing.” Vulpix deduced.
“I bet, it gets pretty lonely in that house.” I said. “Hopefully, the plushy I lost in there can act as a makeshift friend, until Darkrai is ready for a real friendship.”
“Like it did with you?” Vulpix smiled.
“Exactly.” I nodded.
“Enough with this corny talk. Let’s head home.” Witcheon started walking, while pulling her full candy bag with her.
I wanted to follow them, until a concern crossed my mind. “This might sound weird, but… do any of you have a spare room where I can stay for a while?”
The rest of the group just laughed.
The end
Sharing IP every day with my husband derBhaal . 
