An Eye For An Eye

Soixante-Et-Onze

With a mirror to help, I applied a bright red lipstick. It fitted nicely with the vampire costume. I had tried the plastic fangs but they were too uncomfortable to wear for any amount of time. I left the bathroom to return my makeup to its place in the guest bedroom and then headed downstairs with a grin on my face.

Dressing up was fun, and it provided a small escape from reality for a while. Usually reality was a bit boring but the last few months had proven my life to be anything but boring.

Deuc turned as he heard me walking down the stairs and I smiled. His eyes were glowing red.
“You look rather beautiful.”
“Thank you,” I said as I walked over to him and sat on the arm of the sofa. “I do quite like it.”
“I’m glad you do,” he said. He was smiling and I only smiled wider.

There was a knock at the door and I turned to look at it.
“You should go answer that.”
“Why me?” I asked, furrowing my brow.
“I’m blind and you’re the one in the costume,” he said and I sighed.
“You have a point,” I said as I stood up. “Be back in a minute.”

Opening the door, I saw two children. The girl was dressed as a witch with a broomstick. It had silhouettes of cats on the skirts of the dress. The boy looked to be a superhero I didn’t recognise. Tamika stood behind then.
“I’ve been roped into taking my niece and nephew trick-or-treating,” she said. I grabbed the bowl of candy and put some in each of their pumpkin styles bags. “Didn’t really know where else to go.”
“Happy Halloween!” Tamika’s niece exclaimed. She then thanked me for the candy. I said it back to them and they seemed rather happy with the handfuls of candy they had received.

“Didn’t think you’d dress up,” said Tamika. I shrugged.
“Just a bit of fun, I guess.” She shrugged and then nodded.
“Say thank you James,” she said to the boy dressed as a superhero. He looked younger than the girl. The boy said a quiet thank you.
“I took them to mine and Charles gave them some candy, they think he’s my boyfriend.”
“I’d think the same if he wasn’t gay,” I said. Tamika laughed and then shook her head.
“That happens a lot.”

“Where are you going now?”
“To their other aunt's house and then to the grandparent’s.”
I smiled and nodded, waving as Tamike took both of their hands and started walking. “Stay safe.”
She grinned. “We will. Hope Deuc’s alright.”
“He is.” I waved again before shutting the door and heading back to the living room.

“Tamika?” Deuc asked as I sat down next to him.
“Yeah,” I said, nodding. He wrapped his arm around me and I snuggled up to him. “Didn’t realise she was an aunt.”
“Yeah, they’re like, four and six I think,” he said. I hummed, nodding again. I rested my head on his chest. “James and Mariette, that’s their names.”
“Ah,” I said. “James was a superhero, no idea which one, and Mariette was a witch. She had a broom as well.”
“They’re sweet kids,” said Deuc with a smile. I had to agree, they did seem quite sweet.

“So, you think the vampire costume is nice then?” I asked with a grin. He chuckled and then nodded.
“I do.”

There was another knock on the door and I sighed as I moved to stand up.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” I said. “Again.” I grabbed the bowl of candy with one hand as I opened the door with the other.

“Hey,” Jack greeted. He had some makeup on his face to make him look a bit more zombie like. Tasha was with him too, she was dressed as a cat with a cat ear headband. Feeling a little relieved, my attention turned to the three kids that stood in front of them. One of the girls was Cinderella, while the two boys were a vampire and a cowboy. The cowboy had a bag with ‘Wild West Bank’ written on the side and contained the candy he had gathered up to date.

“Hi,” I said as I started putting the candy in their bags. I had brought far too much candy when we hadn’t really expected anyone to actually knock the door. Now I was thankful I had brought a lot since people had turned up and there would still be some candy left over for us two to eat. “You two are dressed up too?”
“Family Halloween party,” said Jack. He didn’t look too happy at it.
“We’ve ended up taking these three round before the party actually starts in half an hour,” Tasha explained. I nodded, still glad that I wasn’t the only adult that dressed up for Halloween.

“Tamika came earlier with her niece and nephew, you just missed them actually,” I said. Tasha nodded. “She wasn’t dressed up though.”
“She never does, she doesn’t like it much,” said Jack. That made sense, some people just didn’t enjoy it.

“We better get going,” said Tasha as she slowly started walking backwards towards Jack’s car. I nodded.
“See you later, glad you’re feeling better,” I said, remembering how Deuc had said that they had some pretty bad injuries. They looked better now though, which was good.
“Thanks,” said Jack. Tasha actually smiled at me as she tried to herd the kids towards the back of the car. I smiled back.
“Have fun at the party too,” I said, waving as I started shutting the door. Jack waved back as he got into the car.

Almost an hour later, and only Briar had knocked on the door. She called Deuc ‘wolf boy’ and wished us both well, especially after what Tamika had told them about the wendigos. No one else knocked on the door and I was fairly convinced that no one would. Mostly because Deuc said no one else who was part of the pack had any relatives that would be trick-or-treating.

“Am I safe to start teasing you now then?” I asked bluntly. Deuc laughed and nodded.
“I think so, my love,” he said, a grin on his face.
“I swear, I will be very pissed off if someone does interrupt,” I said as I snuggled up to him yet again.
“I know you will,” he said. I could hear the smile in his voice even though I wasn’t looking at him. I looked up, smirking.
“Want to go upstairs?” I asked. He nodded and before I could stand up, he lifted me into the air. I laughed, not expecting it. “Are you going to carry me to bed?”
“I think a little more than that will happen, my love.”