Uh oh. That sounded like trouble. “How?”
“You’ve got to help me scare each one of the guys this Halloween, before midnight. We’ve already gotten Nathan and Kota. I got Dr. Green this morning when he picked me up. I kept one of the Volto masks and met him at the door with it.”
I backed my head up, my eyes wide and my mouth open. Scare the others? As in people like Silas and Mr. Blackbourne? How in the world did he expect me to do that?
He laughed and winked. “Don’t worry,” he said a little louder as he stabbed at the inside of his pumpkin, pulling out a handful of seeds and tossing it onto the growing pile on the newspapers. “I’ll help you with your...
pumpkin
.”
Initiation was really the word I was wanting him to explain. Initiation into what?
And secretly, I wanted to be included. After the stressful last few weeks, a little fun by a few scares, with Luke’s help, seemed a great way to pass the day.
Besides, if I was helping Luke with his pranks, he couldn’t get me again, could he?
––––––––
D
r. Green came back in, loaded with bags from the grocery store. Nathan and Kota went to peek at what he was carrying in. I was about to join them when Luke nudged my arm, whispering to me.
“Hurry up with Gabriel’s pumpkin,” he said. “He’ll be here soon, and I’ve got the perfect plan. We need to start with him, because we’ll need his help for the other ones.”
I pressed my lips together, hopping back to the pumpkin and trying to hurry. Luke’s enthusiastic smile, and his brown eyes lighting up with amusement, were enough to get me moving.
It warmed me, because it helped me to shake off the thought of homecoming. It helped me to forget yesterday. I wasn’t sure Luke was aware, but he was helping me by putting me to work and giving me a new focus. Initiation.
The sun was up by now. Kota put on coffee and the others took turns with pumpkins and with eating some breakfast sandwiches. I was just finishing up scraping inside the pumpkin when the sound of a car rolling up caused me to turn toward the window.
Luke nudged me and then checked around him at the others who seemed to be busy. “You ready?”
“For what?” I whispered.
He reached into his pocket and then under the table passed me what felt like a furry toy.
When I opened my palm to check, there was a spider in my hand. Gnarled legs, fuzzy and with beady black eyes.
I dropped it, wiping my hand on my clothes as if that could remove the feel of it. I choked on a squeal. I knew we were scaring Gabriel and that it wasn’t real, but it wasn’t what I expected. It was so lifelike.
Luke laughed and then knelt to pick it up. He nudged my elbow, checked to make sure the others were busy and then whispered, “Hurry. Open the top.”
I did, and he dropped the spider inside the pumpkin. I closed it back up and then stared at him. Would it work?
The front door opened with a bang. Heads turned.
“Oy!” cried Gabriel. Shortly after, he appeared in the entryway of the kitchen, bags in hand. He wore dark blue jeans and a black V-neck shirt that formed to his body. His hair was still wet from a shower, and the blond locks in the front were combed back on his head, mixed among the russet. His angled jawline, high cheekbones and piercing crystal blue eyes were more prominent now. Handsome didn’t even begin to describe it. There were orange crystals in his lobes today, and the usual three black earrings going up the side of one ear.
“Hi,” Dr. Green said, waving from the other side of the kitchen counter. He had his collection of decorations spread out. “Didn’t I get enough? I got what you wanted me to.”
“I had some more stored away,” Gabriel said. “And Victor had some from his house that we...borrowed.”
“Stole!” Victor’s voice rang out. He nudged Gabriel out of the middle of the space and continued forward, dropping a large paper witch onto the counter. His fire eyes were roaring and his wavy hair was tousled. He wore the usual black pants but now he just had on a white T-shirt. His cheeks were pink as he turned immediately to Kota. “I’m pretty sure this witch belongs to a neighbor on my block.”
“Naw,” Gabriel said. “That’s one you had in the kitchen. Your mom said I could have it. Sort of. She implied it.”
“I think we’ve got enough decorations that we don’t need to steal other people’s,” Kota said. He picked up his pumpkin, which had a spider hanging on a web. Clean lines, simple. He addressed Gabriel. “This works?”
“You did that last year,” Gabriel said. He pointed to the side of Kota’s pumpkin. “At least do a zombie on the side.”
“I can’t do a zombie,” Kota said. He turned his pumpkin toward Luke and I. “Looks okay?”
I nodded, smiling. Looked good to me. “I like it,” I said.
Kota beamed.
“Yeah,” Luke said. “I like the spiders.”
Gabriel made a noise that sounded like a snort and a grunt at the same time. “Where’s my pumpkin, anyway?”
“Sang’s gutted it for you,” Luke said. He turned the pumpkin.
“Did she do one yet?” Gabriel asked.
“Waiting for you,” Luke said.
“Can I just do a regular pumpkin face on mine?” Victor asked. He selected one and brought it to the table. “Or something a little more traditional?”
“That’s what Mr. Blackbourne does every year,” Gabriel said, stepping up to his pumpkin and then looking at the one left for me to do. He drew it close so it was next to his and looked at them both, studying. “Hmm...What do you say, Trouble? Double team our pumpkins? I’m thinking either Cthulhu fighting a T-Rex or Harry Potter in a wand battle with Voldemort.”
My eyes widened. That sounded good to me, but I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to carve a dinosaur or Harry Potter.
“We don’t have too much time,” Kota said. “We’ve got other things to set up.”
“Hmm,” Gabriel said. He pressed his fingers to his mouth, looking thoughtful as he gazed at the pumpkins. “And I want to get the gravestones set up in the yard. Hang on, what’s that fairytale story you said Sang liked?”
I wasn’t sure who he was talking to, but I looked at Victor with my eyebrows up, more surprised by the question. Victor’s fire eyes sparked with curiosity. “You like fairytales?” he asked.
“She likes the Princess in Disguise one,” Luke said. “The one about the princess that dresses up in a star, moon and then a sun dress.”
“Let’s do pretty this year,” Gabriel said. “It’ll gross out Micah and Tom. Plus, Jessica and her little friends will get a kick out of it.” He pointed to Luke’s. “Want me to poke the holes as a guideline?”
“Figured you’d want to,” Luke said. “We’re doing all three?”
Gabriel nodded, backing up and grinning big. “We’ve got this shit.”
“You’ll have to gut the rest of your pumpkin,” Luke said. He nodded to it. “Sang started but I don’t know if she finished.”
I got a nudge in the elbow from Luke. “Uh,” I said, trying to blank my face and not appear to be lying. “Yes.”
Gabriel’s crystal eyes barreled in on my face like a gunshot. “You’re the prettiest little liar, Trouble. What’s he got in there? An eyeball? A gnarled zombie mask?” He reached out to the top of the pumpkin to pull it off.
Oh no, it won’t work!
I glanced at Luke, who was grinning, and looking at me directly. He made a motion with his hand quickly, a scurrying motion like a spider with his hand and then pointed to Gabriel’s back and winked.
I thought I got the picture.
I waited until Gabriel was looking over the pumpkin. He smirked at it, looking inside. “Now, is that a real spider he brought in or is it a toy?”
His head was bent over. I wasn’t sure he would feel it if I did it through his shirt, so I aimed for the back of his neck and lightly traced my fingertips there, trying to mimic a spider crawling up.
He let out the strangest squeal, hunched his shoulders and pulled back. He slapped at his neck and then cried out, “Fucking Jesus Christ! Don’t do that shit.”
Luke busted out laughing. I started to giggle. Kota shook his head but smiled. Victor rolled his eyes.
Dr. Green slapped a palm against the kitchen counter and then pointed right at me. “Look, guys, there’s Luke number two, right there. Watch out for that one.”
“She’s a great pupil,” Luke said, dropping a palm on top of my head and rubbing my hair.
“Felt like a real fucking spider,” Gabriel said. He grunted loudly and then popped the top of his pumpkin back into place. “But Sang, if you trust me with your pumpkin, you should head outside and start on the yard with someone. Give me room to work. You can come back in and help me carve once I do the outlines.”
“I need a shower now,” Luke said. He skipped around me, poking Gabriel in the side as he went by. Gabriel tried to slap him back, but Luke dodged and then raced to Mr. Griffin’s bedroom and shut the door behind himself.
“Sang,” Victor said. “Want help with the outside decorations?”
“Yes,” I said, “I don’t know what to do.”
“I left the outside decorations in the garage,” Dr. Green said.
“And there’s more in Victor’s trunk,” Gabriel said. He pulled a chair up and stared at the pumpkins, smoothing his hands over the surface. “Princesses are fucking difficult.”
“Not really,” Victor said quietly, and then winked at me. “You just need to know how to talk to them.”
My cheeks heated.
Yet amid all the Halloween chaos, I was already feeling amazing. Before I went outside with Victor, Nathan was already working on a zombie on his pumpkin, and Dr. Green was gutting two more. I suspected the others would be here soon.
Halloween together.
––––––––
N
athan’s front yard was barren of Halloween decorations, unlike our neighbors, who had pumpkins, skeleton figures on the sidewalk and witches hanging from doors. Kota’s house even had spider webs amid the bushes and hanging from the porch.
Victor stood with me, looking at the flat expanse of yard we had to work with.
“Okay, Princess,” he said. He had his hands on his hips at first, but slowly he worked his hand toward my back, holding onto me warmly. He pointed with his other hand toward the yard. “We’ve got to set up a zombie graveyard, apparently. Gabriel’s orders. I’ve got the tombstones. Dr. Green has the zombies. I think the point is to scare the kids. They’ll have to be brave to get to the front door and get their candy reward.”
“Who is going to be here to pass out candy?” I asked. “We’ve got to go to the homecoming dance.”
“We’ll just leave a bowl by the front door this time,” Victor said. “That might be a good idea. Usually Dr. Green and Mr. Blackbourne will do it.”
“What do you guys do?” I asked.
“Go trick-or-treating, of course,” he said. “Have to keep that up while you can. Let’s get started.”
It took us a good deal of time to decorate the yard. The sun started to warm things up a bit. I was doing stuff barefoot and kneeling in the grass, getting the pajama bottoms and the T-shirt all dirty. Probably a good thing I hadn’t bothered with a bath yet. There really was a lot to do for Halloween. I hadn’t realized how much I had missed.
By the end, Victor and I had a couple of rows of tombstones, each with a funny phrase like, “Joke’s over, now let me out.” and “R. U. Next.” and “Openings Available, Apply Inside”. The front of the tombstones were littered with plastic skulls and zombies trying to crawl out of the ground. I did the tombstones and the skulls, because the zombie parts were very gross-looking.
“Who made the tombstones?” I asked.
“North built them,” Victor said, readjusting a zombie arm poking out of the ground in front of a tomb. “And Silas painted the phrases.”
I smiled big, reading the tombstones again, trying to picture saying them in his voice. It made me giggle.
Victor wiped at his brow with the back of his arm and gazed at me, the fire in his brown eyes flickering. “Going to be ready for tonight?” he asked.
I smiled and nodded. “I’m nervous, though,” I said. “I mean, with what we’re supposed to do.”
“I think we’re all nervous,” he said. “Probably why Kota and Mr. Blackbourne were insistent we spend time together today.”
“They said so?” I asked.
He stood fully, dusting off his hands on his pants before he strolled toward me. He reached out for my hand. His longer fingers threaded between mine and he tugged, guiding me toward the road. “Let’s check out our handiwork.”
He continued to hold onto my hand as we stood on the road, checking the results. His thumb traced the back of my palm, starting in small circles, and then following the bones in my hand, as if tracing each one that he could reach. Each movement of his thumb tugged my heart with it. I was excited being with him, doing this together.
We looked out toward the graveyard, standing close together. Since the sun was out, it didn’t look so scary, but I imagined at night, it would look really spooky.
Victor started to move his arm, and released my hand to put his arm around my shoulders. “Not a bad job,” he said. “We make awesome graveyard builders.”
I started to pull away from him, smiling. “I’m all sweaty,” I said.
“So am I,” he said, and he tugged me in closer, pressing his side into mine. “Sweaty together.”
I giggled. Victor could be funny, once you got him away from the others. Despite being the well-bred, rich kid among the rest of them, he never seemed to mind working hard. Maybe it was that Academy influence. Whatever it was, I liked it.
Kota and Nathan emerged from the house, followed by Dr. Green, carrying pumpkins. Kota’s spider was joined by Nathan’s zombie, and Dr. Green’s had a Japanese mask, with horns and a tongue out.
“Hey!” Nathan called after he put his pumpkin down. He waved. “Get your pumpkin finished! The others will be here soon and we’ll have to get dressed.”
Victor sighed. “One day, Princess,” he said in a low voice. “Maybe next year, we’ll go somewhere else for Halloween. We’ll let other people decorate, and we will relax and have fun instead of all this work.”
“I like it,” I said quietly.
“If you like this, just wait until Christmas,” he said, turning to me, his fire eyes lit up to a blaze. “Or Thanksgiving. I hope you like football. We play football at Thanksgiving.”