A Ghostly Halloween

    Fear and Halloween are a rumored pair of doom, but neither actually acknowledges the other. Fear simply does not exist on Halloween.

    Our story begins on that day before Halloween. It is near night, and all of the residents of 462 Stonehenge Drive are sitting inside, watching an episode of Neohome Hunters on their Neovision screen.

    One is a ghost, a transparent young Bori named Talyn. She looks bored. The others are engrossed with the show, as they are thinking of moving away from Brightvale soon. Talyn would die if Larch, her owner, asked to be on Neohome Hunters. The Bori hates that show and figures it would ruin her reputation if anyone saw her on it.

    Sitting next to Larch is Linty, Talyn's younger sister. Linty is a Halloween Gelert. Should be a menacing little thing, but Linty is as happy and bouncy as if she were Faerie. Shows that not all match their colors. Bet anything that Linty would love to be Faerie.

    On the loveseat are Benji and Hiero, the two older brothers of Linty and Talyn. Hiero is the oldest, Benji a little younger than him. They are both Uni, but Benji is Tyrannian and Hiero is Royal. Hiero is down-to-earth and Benji has his head up in the clouds, always.

    Talyn is bored. "Any ideas for Halloween tomorrow? We could throw a party here, maybe, possibly... would that be okay with you, Larch?"

    Larch tears her brown eyes away from the show. "Well... okay, I guess so. You can invite..."

    "Everyone!" Linty exclaims, jumping up and laughing.

    Larch's face falls. "Well... I was gonna say... like, ten people..." she mutters, but everyone knows she wouldn't argue with her darling Linty, which is why Talyn is so proud of her sister now. Using her power to her advantage!

    "I'll write the invites," volunteers Hiero. You can see how excited he is; they all are, at the prospect of a party.

    "Yeah, but we'll give you lists of who we want to invite, maybe everyone from our grades..." Benji suggests.

    "Wait, wait, hold up here; this neohome isn't near big enough for all the students from the ninth, eighth, seventh and second grades!" Larch protests.

    "We've got a huge backyard, though, so we can party there," Talyn argues.

    "It'll be so much fun... I can't wait to invite Piper, and JayJay, and Kelly, and Kevin..." sings Linty.

    Again Talyn is proud, because Larch doesn't argue with Linty. Ever.

    So they work all night. All four of them make lists of who to invite, and Hiero gets the student directory out, finds their addresses, and neomails off the elaborately drawn invites. Talyn is in charge of the decorations, so, even though it's nearing nine o'clock, she heads to the downtown Brightvale stores and uses Larch's neopoints to buy lots and lots of junk. Then she goes out back while there's still a little light and sets everything up. From the shadows it looks like everything's amazingly cool, but Talyn has to wait till the morning light to really find out. Linty requests Larch's help to make amazing Halloween meals, and they bake cookies, many gross foods, and other Halloweeny stuff. She throws together two bowls of candy, explaining that "one's for your guests, and the other is for all the trick-or-treaters; I'll stay inside and give away candy."

    Benji doesn't do much, just sits on the loveseat and watches more neovision. No one really pays any attention to him. They're all too busy.

    "Omigosh! I forgot... I need my costume!" Linty screams. Larch shrugs.

    "Too late now. We can get it tomorrow," Larch says.

    "Noooo... I wanted to make sure it was super cool."

    "You can do that tomorrow."

    "Everyone else has their costumes."

    Larch sighs and gives in, like always. It's like Linty has mind control powers or something. They head off to town to buy the costume.

    It is ten-thirty at night by now. "Hey... has anyone seen Talyn?" asks Benji.

    "If by 'anyone' you mean 'me', since no one else is here, then I think she's still in the backyard," Hiero answers, still throwing together a few invites.

    "Oh, okay, I'll go check," Benji says, and stands up and walks out the back door.

    It's chilly. It's always chilly in October. Benji's glad they don't live in Terror Mountain. He shivers. "Talyyyyyn? Talyn... you there?" he calls, a bit quietly. He looks up at the decorations. Spooky.

    "Talyyyyn..." His call sounds like a ghost riding the wind, eerie and staying only a second before fading away.

    He starts to search the large backyard. He's making sure not to ruin anything but he's opening up stuff, looking everywhere. He can't find Talyn. His breath is coming quicker and quicker. He opens up the shed door, looks around. Can't find Talyn.

    "Talyyyyyn..." His voice is quieter still. His knees are shaking. He's galloping around and quietly hissing her name.

    She isn't there.

    Benji lets a shiver ripple his brown fur. Can't find Talyn. Can't find Talyn...

    Then he walks over to a fake coffin and opens it up.

    "Aaaaaaahhhhhh!" screams something. It pops out and races at Benji. Benji screams shrilly and gallops away.

    He's sweating now, even if it's forty degrees out. He's trying to run but he keeps tripping... there's nowhere to go... where's Talyn?

    Then he hears laughing.

    He twists around. It's Talyn, the ghost, with a Virtupets-made recording device. Benji doesn't know really what it is, but he does know it records moments in time and makes them able to watch on neovision.

    He thinks he knows what happened.

    "TALYN!" he yells angrily. "You didn't get that whole thing on record. Did you?"

    In response, Talyn laughs harder. "You shoulda seen the look on your face. It was priceless. Brr... it's cold out, don't you think?"

    Benji growls to himself. "Let's go in."

    Talyn is still chuckling as she goes inside.

    *

    It's the day of the party now. The four are running round and trying to get things ready. Almost everyone has written back, saying they can come. It's a day off of school and they're all really excited. All their costumes have arrived. Linty boasts a pair of Faerie wings, a crown that hangs lopsided from her ears, and pink paint for the bat on her tail. Benji is wearing the outfit of a vampire, a long, dark cloak and fangs. Hiero made his costume himself; it looks like a Werelupe. Just like one, complete with long teeth and jeans that look like they've taken a beating. Talyn... well, no one's sure what Talyn's costume is, but they're pretty sure she's wearing contacts that make her eyes blood red, and a black coat.

    Hiero piles up the neomails until he's checked off one from everyone on the list. "Good news, guys. Only five people from all the grades can't come. Your friend Lizabeth has come down with the flu, Talyn. Jason has a family reunion to go to. Benji, Carly and Fred can't come. And Linty, JayJay is going on vacation."

    The decorations look great in the daylight, and Talyn purchases a few cans of glow in the dark paint to paint everything and make it spookier. There is a dance floor, complete with Halloweeny songs; the shed's been turned into a kind of spook house; there is a long table of candy and all of the goods Larch and Linty have baked. Everyone agrees it will be one awesome party.

    Finally, their first guest arrives at six-thirty, half-an-hour before the party actually starts. It's one of Talyn's friends. "Hi, Kat -" Talyn sneezes. "Sorry, hi, Katie. Welcome to the most awesome party ever!" She opens the gate and the Shadow Korbat enters the backyard. It's not super spooky yet, since it won't get dark for another half hour or so, but it looks awesome, and Katie's jaw drops.

    After Katie comes a flurry of guests arrive. The music comes on and tons of people flock to the dance floor. A few people are pigging out on the doughnuts and candy on the table. There's a long line for the spook house.

    We all did great, thinks Benji, especially Talyn. These decorations are killer! He's dancing to some awesome tunes.

    Linty's having fun too. She's going in the spook house again and again with her friends, screaming and giggling and running back out to get back in line.

    Hiero is hanging out with his friends, eating some cookies, roasting some smores over a campfire, and dancing a little too.

    Suddenly Benji thinks... Oh, oh no. Where's Talyn?

    He has a pretty good idea.

    So Benji walks over to the coffin, right by the snack table, and lifts it up.

    Out flies a ghost, yelling loudly and running around in the air, eyes blood-red.

    The music stops abruptly. Their guests start screaming and running away.

    "Come ON! COME BACK! It's just Talyn, trying to make a fool out of you!" Benji yells. But the guests are scared. They're running around the yard, can't see anything anymore, nowhere to go. The glow-in-the-dark paint has gone out like someone pulled the switch on it.

    Benji is angry. She's ruining the party! There's only one thing to do.

    He feels his way inside the house and slams the door. "LARCH! Talyn is scaring all the guests!" he calls. But Larch doesn't answer.

    Then he hears someone coming down the stairs. The figure appears in plain sight.

    Talyn.

    "What are you..." Talyn stops to cough. "...talking about?"

    "But... but... you were outside, in that coffin again, and you popped out and scared everyone... how'd you get inside so fast?" Benji asks, his mouth wide open.

    Talyn's eyes widen. "I came inside 'cause I felt sick. I think Lizabeth gave me the flu... I came in about an hour ago..."

    The two of them run to the window and look at the backyard, where the ghost is running around and chasing four-hundred petrified guests.

The End