Halloween Horrors!

      "Like, hold still!" Love the red Gelert grumbled, brushing back a strand of hair from her Fyora Wig. "We're like, never going to catch up with the others if you keep moving!"

      "Oh, be quiet!" The Xweetok stuck her tongue out at her sister, who scowled and yanked on the wings, which caused Emily to cry out in alarm.

      "Savannah!"

      "Girls..." their owner warned. stepping into the living room. She gazed at them with her sapphire eyes, and then hiked Misty, her baby Xweetok, up on her hip. The girl wasn't in her costume yet, and instead wore a pair of blue jeans and a lavender sweater.

      "You need to hurry up and get dressed, before your sisters finish trick-or-treating. They may even get all of the candy."

      "Really?" Emily's bright blue eyes widened in horror at the thought of no more candy, and then she leaped up, nearly knocking the red Gelert to the ground. "We've got to go!" She scooped up her candy bucket and dashed over to the front door.

      A smile spread across Savannah's naturally pale face, and then she looked around quizzically. "Before you leave, do you know where Alisa is?"

      "Nope." Love shook her head. "Last time I saw her, she was, like, stuffing her face with lollipops and running to her room."

      "Oh. Well, alright. I'll go check on her. You two can go ahead, but take Nicky with you, please?"

      "Sure." Emily smiled and then ran and grabbed her three year old brother, a blue Kougra dressed as Jeran and squealing the word 'Candy!' repeatedly.

      After waving good-bye to her three pets, the young girl ambled upstairs, in search of one of her youngest pets.

      ******

      Sitting quietly on her Peophin bed with her Sandan, Lucky, in her lap, was five year old Alisa. She sighed. Her room was silent, aside from her occasional sigh and Lucky's snuffling. The Usuki Curtains across from her bed were drawn shut, not allowing any light from the full moon into her bubble gum pink room. On the floor next to her bed was a pair of overalls splattered in paint, and a paint brush, as she had been going as an artist for Halloween.

      Knock-knock.

      The speckled Acara looked up to see her owner peering into the room, already in her costume. A red and white polka-dotted bandanna was holding her hair up. Savannah had exchanged her sweater for a Soup Faerie costume.

      "Can I come in?" the girl asked, and then trotted in when Alisa bit her lip and nodded.

      "Whatcha doing in here?" Savannah inquired, once she had plopped down beside her Acara. "Everyone else had already left, and you're usually the first one out the door." Even though she had only just turned five that year, Alisa had always loved the thought of trick-or-treating when she was three and four.

      "Um..." Alisa mumbled, putting down Lucky, and biting her lip again. She rolled over so that she was facing Savannah, and sighed. "I don't want to go trick-or-treating tonight."

      "Why not? Are you not feeling well?" The brown haired girl reached out a hand to feel her pet's forehead, but Alisa shook her head.

      "No, I'm feeling fine. It's just... well..." Savannah saw tears forming in the pet's eyes, and scooped her up, along with Misty.

      "It's just what?" she asked gently.

      "It's just... I'm afraid to go!" The speckled Acara then began to sob, and Savannah had to cuddle and soothe her for several minutes before she calmed down again.

      "What are you afraid of?" the girl asked quietly. "I thought that you loved Halloween."

      "I did, but... but... but now I'm afraid. There's always monsters and evil faeries running around on Halloween."

      "But those are just pets in costumes like mine and yours! You know that. Remember? I explained it to you when you were finally old enough to understand Halloween."

      Alisa shook her little head fervently. "Nope. Sakuro, a pet in my Neoschool class, said that almost all of the costumes are really real monsters!" More tears began to form in her eyes.

      "So you're afraid that if you go outside, a monster will get you?" Alisa nodded, her bottom lip quivering. "But there are no monsters! Sakuro was just being silly. You needn't worry."

      "Nuh-uh! He pinky swore that her was telling the truth!" Savannah's Neopet held up her pinky finger, as if to prove her point, and the owner sighed, realizing that there was no point in arguing.

      "Okay then. If you don't want to go trick-or-treating, then I'm not going to make you. But how about you get into costume and help serve candy with me?"

      Alisa bit her lip, thinking it over, and then nodded. "Okay."

      ******

      At first, serving candy went okay. Misty had been put to bed, so the brunette and her other pet were free to eat candy without the baby Xweetok crying for some. A steady stream of the younger trick-or-treaters, who would be retiring for the night early, arrived first. They were dressed mostly as faeries, petpets, Kaus and pumpkins, which were okay with Alisa. But then the older pets started to arrive.

      "I'm gonna go refill the candy bowl," the girl said, leaving the living room as Alisa shoved another piece of chocolate into her little mouth. The night had been slow, and she knew that soon Savannah would make her go to bed.

      Ding-dong! The doorbell chimed loudly.

      Alisa smiled, enjoying herself, and hurried over to the door. She expected a group of sleepy faeries on the doorstep, being supported by their owners, who would be saying that 'This is the last house', so when she opened the door, the poor Acara was shocked.

      "Aieee!" The young pet let out a loud, long shriek at the sight of the creatures on the doorstep.

      "Alisa? Sweety? What's wrong?" her owner cried as she dashed into the living room with an overflowing bowl of chocolates in her arms. Once she saw the creatures, she too gasped.

      On the doorstep stood Jhudora, a Werelupe, two ghosts, and a large Spyder. Or at least... that was what it looked like...

      "Wait a second," the young teen said, walking slowly towards the creatures, to Alisa's horror. "Wren? Dove? Rivers? Zana? And... is that you, Hyra?"

      Sure enough, as soon as she had finished speaking, the 'horrible creatures' began to remove their costumes. Wren and Dove, Savannah's twin blue Xweetoks, were the ghosts, Zana, her striped Xweetok, was the Spyder, and Hyra, her friend's faerie Kougra was Jhudora. And lastly, Rivers, another friend's faerie Xweetok, removed her Werelupe head.

      "Wow, Alisa, you nearly scared me to death!" Wren cried.

      "ME?" the five year old squeaked, astounded. "You scared me!"

      "See, Alisa," Savannah explained once she had given the pets candy and the two were alone again. "There's no such thing as real monsters. They're all just pets in costumes, like your sisters were." Do you believe me now?"

      The young Acara sat quietly for a moment, and hen nodded. "Savannah?"

      "Yes?"

      "Can we go trick-or-treating tonight?"

      The girl smiled, and wrapped her arms around Alisa. "Sure thing, kiddo."

The End!

Thanks for reading! I had fun writing this!