I might add or change stuff here, but for now this is finished :)
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Ah, Halloween. It’s probably one of my favorite holidays. Not only because of the mass amounts of candy that people fill their backpacks and pockets with, but also because of the wonderful frights we all get to experience. Whether it’s through scary movies, haunted houses, or even creepy seances you have with your friends. Everything about it is wonderful. Especially because it is tonight.
"So what is this 'Halloween' thing you won't shut up about?" Olive asked as they filled a bin half-full of assortments of candy they had bought.
"And why are we putting candy outside? Is it some sort of.. offering? or something?"
Butterscotch laughed a bit, covering her mouth as she spoke.
"No! No, it's for the kids that go trick-or-treating."
They had even more questions. What was trick-or-treating? Is it some kind of trap? would people drag those poor children into their homes by luring them in with candy? What kinda sick 'holiday' was this?
"Do I need to explain to you what Halloween is?"
“Uhm..”
Olive wanted to pretend they knew what Halloween was, but they couldn’t. Nothing had come to mind, even when just hearing the word.
“It would be appreciated.”
Butterscotch Climbed up the ladder attached to the bookcase and slid out a leather-covered book with some form of symbols on the cover that read "⊑⏃⌰⌰⍜⍙⟒⟒⋏". Butterscotch began flipping through the pages searching for what Olive assumed was a specific page to read.
"Finally here it is-"
She then read off a translation of what was written down. messing up on a few words in the process.
"Ok here- 'Halloween is a holiday celebrated each year on October 31st. The tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of-' Samhain? Is that what it says? 'when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. In the eighth century..' Hm.. Uh-huh.. 'The evening before was known and-' wait, no that word is 'as'- sorry- 'All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, wearing costumes and eating treats.' that should sum it up."
"Alright-" Olive said, still a bit uneasy about the whole idea of 'Halloween', "So what are we supposed to do on Halloween? Do we go "Trick-or-Treating?"
"Well, I usually just stay here." She said, sliding the book back in its place on the shelf.
“What? Why? There are so many things you could do tonight and you choose to stay here? In a library in the middle of the woods?”
“Yeah. I suppose it’s not the most exciting thing to do, but it’s not like I have a choice.”
“Hm? what’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, considering how old I am now, both you and I would be ‘too old for trick-or-treating.”
“What? That’s dumb we’re both only 16.”
“Well, it’s basically law. You can’t argue with the law.”
“No- No it’s not-”
“AAAA NO NO ITS A LAW-“
Olive rolled their eyes and walked off. “Whatever. I’ll be outside if you need me.”
- - -
They sat outside on the wet grass under the dark sky. There were no trick-or-treaters seen for a solid 30 minutes. There was no one that would be in the middle of the woods on Halloween night, but they had stuck their sword in the ground beside them though, just in case.
“Damn it- all I wanted was to know what this stupid holiday was- I wanted to just go out and have fun, but I’m here.”
"In the middle of the woods >:( "
the only thing heard was the soft noise of the blowing wind. All that surrounded were the trees that seemed to slowly be losing all of their leaves. Slowly, but definitely losing their leaves. But then, something happened. crunching leaves were heard from a distance. Crunching that slowly got louder with each step. It wasn’t an animal. olive knew that. they knew it well, too. It was a person. They clenched the sword in their fist, but didn't take it out of the ground in fear that they might do something they'd regret. Its glowing pupils were the size of pinpricks, and they grew just slightly larger with each step. It took until it got close enough to see what it actually was.
Is that a kid?
It stood by Olive, holding an empty pillowcase. It was wearing shorts and-
"Is that my hoodie..?"
The menace shrugged its shoulders, looking down at the bin of candy.
"Do you want some?"
They nodded, slightly shivering as the cold air had begun to finally bother them.
"Alright, take as much as you'd like. After all, it doesn't seem like anyone else is gonna be here any time soon." Olive said, sort of mixing the candy with their hand so the menace could see all the types of candy that were there, and could pick out whatever one they'd like. They took a couple of candy canes and an almond joy. They opened the almond joy and took a bite out of it, and seemed very displeased with the taste.
"Yeah, I don't like those either. They're nasty."
The menace smiled and stuck out its tongue to show displeasure for the candy bar as they threw it on the ground.
"Ha! yeah! throw it on the ground!" They said, laughing a bit.
The menace walked up to Olive and hugged them, still shivering, but the hug made them feel just slightly warmer.
"Are you cold? Do you want to come inside?"
The menace hesitated for a response before nodding their head. They were too cold to say no, and quite literally anything would help. Especially blankets. Olive opened the heavy door to the library to let the menace inside. They stood in awe at the massive amounts of books that stood wall to wall. They rushed to the chair near the fireplace and covered themself in a blanket. Olive had looked away for a moment as they looked around for butterscotch, but the moment they looked back at the menace, they were gone. Olive frantically looked around, not knowing where they could’ve gone. They looked at the door, it was still closed. They couldn’t have opened the windows, they were too heavy to push, even for Olive.
“AH, SHIT DID THEY DESCEND THROUGH THE FUCKING FLOOR?!”
They kept looking around the library, searching intensely, examining every piece of furniture or book on a bookshelf. This continued for another five minutes until-
They heard a faint laughter coming from above them. They looked up and were surprised to see the menace on the ceiling. Olive didn’t even question how they got there, but we’re just happy to see them. After all, they didn’t even know whose child this was. They brought this child into their home-
…
Did they just- kidnap a child?
- - -
“Wait, stay here I’ll be right back.”
They quickly ran to butterscotch and hugged them, burying their head in her shoulder.
“Oh, Olive- Is something wrong?”
“Butterscotch, I think I just kidnapped a child.”
“…”
“..you did what?”
“I let a kid into the house they’re on the ceiling I think I kidnapped a child-”
“Well, where are they now?”
“I told you, they’re on the ceiling.”
Butterscotch pushed olive out of the way and ran to the main part of the library and looked up to the ceiling. She was surprised to actually see a child climbing on the ceiling, and sharpening a candy cane of all things.
“OLIVE! WHAT DID YOU DO?!”
Olive ran as fast as they could to where Butterscotch was, yelling something along the lines of, “I TOLD YOU ALREADY! I LET A KID INTO THE HOUSE! I DID IT BECAUSE THEY WERE COLD AND I FELT BAD!” But the menace didn’t know for sure if that’s what they said. They were starting to feel a bit dizzy from being on the ceiling. Olive stood underneath them and was ready to catch them when they fell. just waiting.
"Wait- can't I climb walls-"
"Olive- Did you just remember this-"
"yeah..-"
"Get. The child. Off. Of. The. Ceiling."
"Okay, Okay- Fine-"
Olive Climbed up the nearest wall, sort of as guidance so they didn't have to see butterscotch laugh as they failed to jump onto the ceiling. It was easy to get to the ceiling, though. All they had to do was.. not look down. They grabbed the menace off of the ceiling and jumped down, the sharpened candy cane scratching their face in the process.
"Olive, why would you bring a child into the library?"
"They were cold! It's cold outside!"
"Well, what the hell are we supposed to do with it?"
Olive thought for a moment, this was a child. A child that was young enough to go trick-or-treating.
“We could take them trick-or-treating. Or- y’know- just take care of them.”
Butterscotch took a moment to respond, It might not be the safest, considering the child could climb on walls, but olive seemed very eccentric about the idea. And, I mean, who could say no to that?
(most people)
“Hmm.. fine. we can take them out to trick-or-treat. But only for an hour."
"But first.." Butterscotch said, taking a bandage out of their bag and placing it on olive's face where the candy cane scratched.
"There. That's better."
"yes!" They held the menace infront of them, "Did you hear that? You can scare people for candy now!"
The menace smiled in excitement, jumping down from olive's arms and rushing over to the fireplace to get their pillowcase full of candy. They ran to go open the door to go outside but waited long enough for olive and butterscotch to catch up to them. They started to walk towards the direction of a nearby village.
The night had finally begun.
- - - -
All interactions were normal, for the most part. They say, "Trick-or-Treat!" Get the candy, say "thank you", and go to the next house. But one interaction stood out to them. They had gone to their fifth house of the night, and said house 'forgot' to put out candy. So naturally, the menace was upset and did what any person would like to do to people that annoy them, They pounced on the person that lived in this house and scratched them, injecting poison into their veins and slowly killing them. Olive picked up the menace and made sure they couldn't get out of their grasp.
"No! You don't do that to people who don't have candy! Plus, we have an entire bucket of candy at home."
The menace stuck out their tongue in annoyance before Olive let them down. They knew they probably shouldn't have done it, but at the moment they were a bit upset, resulting in what had happened now. They pushed the person back into their home before closing the door as if nothing had happened.
Olive rolled their eyes and laughed a bit, "Let's just move on to the next house-"
- - - -
This repeated until they got to the end of the village, and before they realized it, they had been out there for an hour. It was time to go back to the library. But just as they had gotten back to the library, the menace hesitated to walk back inside, and Olive couldn't manage a reason why.
They soon figured out just minutes after entering.
- - -
Chains had wrapped around the menace, dragging them slowly back to their hive, they had tried to stop it as best as they could, holding onto the edges of walls and bookcases, but they couldn't hold on for long. It wasn't possible. The longer they tried to resist it, the more chains there were. And the weight of the chains got heavier until they couldn't hold on much longer. the chains pulled them backwards to their hive as they waved goodbye from the shadows. Olive tried to run after them, but Butterscotch held them back.
"They'll be back. Don't worry."
"And what will happen if they don't?"
Butterscotch looked back into the woods, "I have a feeling they may have imprinted on the library, if you know what i mean."
...
"No, no I dont-"
"AAAA NO NO YOU UNDERSTAND-"
- - - -
⋆ . ˚
✩
✭
⋆☆ﾟ
Butterscotch had woken up in the middle of the night and looked around the library for Olive. They were nowhere to be found. She had resorted to looking outside. It was raining, but it was worth checking. And lucky for her, that was exactly where Olive was.
"Olive? what are you doing out in the rain?"
"I dunno. I guess I got kind of attached. I've been waiting for them to come back." They said, taking off the bandage that was still on their face.
...
"Butterscotch.. I don't know how to describe it. But tonight was one of the best nights I can remember."
"And not only did i spend it with them, I got to spend it with you, too."
Butterscotch stood there, a bit flustered.
"I know I didn't acknowledge you as much, and I apologize for that, but I enjoyed every bit of tonight I spent with both of you. I guess I was a bit wrapped up in my feelings to say anything."
Butterscotch smiled, "That is called love, dear."
"Oh. well, can you explain it to me a bit more?" Olive said, sitting down on the stone steps in front of the library, patting the area next to them.
Butterscotch sat down, "Well, Love is probably a word you've used before."
"Most likely."
"Or maybe you're one of the few that has never loved."
"..."
"I think I've said this before, but you are dying with every minute that goes by. Your heartbeats have a predefined number. You will only breathe so many times."
"You choose to sit here, and spend your time talking to someone who, in their next life, will most likely forget about you."
But should you feel bad about that?'
"Maybe you have never loved."
"Only you know if that describes you."
"But i have a feeling you may have loved before."
"And only you can change such thing. If you want."
"..."
"You know some things about me."
"You know about the boredom i cause."
"I'm boring, and I know that."
"But even such feeling has more love within it..."
"More love than I will ever get."
"Look around you."
"Endless possibilities."
"You can go out and meet people you could love."
"You can feel such emotion within you if you try."
"You won't forget."
"Like any other thing that lives on this plane of existence, you have a mind of your own..."
"But 'people' are all i will ever meet."
"..."
"Meet someone."
"Who knows? They might become important in your life."
"Perhaps you could tell someone what you feel for them."
"Rejection is the worst that could happen."
"But acceptance could end up being your answer."
"You can do what I refuse to do."
"So why don't you do it?"
"You have a better chance to get what you want -"
"Me? I don't stand a chance at all."
"I will never have someone who truly loves me."
"I will never have someone who cares."
"Even if i do, I'll just push them away."
"..."
"Go."
"Meet people."
"Love them."
"Do good to them."
"Be someone they can love, but never change yourself."
"Be someone they will never forget."
"Be someone whom they look up to, and that sets a good example; if that is what you want."
"Be the someone I will never be."
...
Olive look to the ground below them. They knew who they loved, but apparently that someone hasn't picked up on any hints yet, or just refuses to believe it.
"..."
"You know, I think I've already found that special someone. Someone i'd love to spend my entire life with. and perhaps, afterlife, if that's even possible." They said, looking at butterscotch and quickly kissing her on the cheek. Butterscotch looked back, their face turning completely red as Olive realized what they did.
"haha.. I- I think I'm gonna go sleep now, i must be tired.." Olive said, rushing back inside and leaving butterscotch out in the rain.
. . .