𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐁𝐘 𝐌𝐄- (ᴇᴅᴅɪᴇ ᴍᴜɴsᴏɴ)¹

𝟎𝟐| 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐎𝐟 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

𝐓𝐰𝐨⊰᯽⊱┈──("𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈.")

⊰᯽⊱┈──╌❊ ¤ ❊╌──┈⊰᯽⊱

𝐈𝐅 𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒𝐍'𝐓 𝐂𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄, Elias hated Halloween. It's not that he thought it was stupid or something only meant for children, he just had bad history with holiday.

After that fateful night of October 31st, 1981, Elias couldn't look at the holiday the same way ever again. He started his own tradition, of driving to Lover's Lake with his supply of weed and get high to forget his woes, then slept in his car until morning and go back home after getting a changing his clothes.

It had been a steady going tradition, one that he had to break that year because of that stupid test he was supposed to do the following day and the lame task he'd been assigned by his mother that evening.

Giving trick-or-treaters candy for Halloween.

"Thank you, Elias!"

Elias stared at the five middle schoolers standing on his porch, his hand halfway into the ceramic bowl of candy. He smiled uneasily, tilting his head slightly to the left. "For what? I haven’t even given you anything yet."

One of the four girls in the group smiled at him coyly, twirling a strand of her midnight black hair that hung out from her makeshift Wonder Woman crown. "What she means is thank you for opening the door for us. Tilly was scared out of her mind about coming here and she nearly peed herself when we forced her to ring your doorbell–"

The black haired girl winced, and Elias turned to the blonde next to her, who had on a tight smile on her lips. "Ignore her. She doesn't know what she's talking about."

Amused, Elias quirked an eyebrow and started dropping bars of candy into the kids' sacks. "Uh, okay. You're welcome, I guess."

When he got to the only boy in the group, he saw noticed how he looked at him with equal parts bitterness and fear. The smile on his lips twitched, and he shoved down the urge to laugh. "Happy Halloween, guys."

The black haired girl squealed, and Elias startled. As he moved to close the door, the kids chorused 'Happy Halloween, Elias' and he swung the door shut.

He stared at the door in bewilderment for a moment, then he shook his head with a small laugh. "Jesus, middle schoolers are weird."

He trudged back to his spot in the living room couch, where his books lay open on the coffee table, waiting for him to study.

He'd put the record player on, and the soft melodies of music from Elvis Presley's Christmas album sounded all around him as he dived deep into his books. For a while, no more trick or treaters came by, and he managed to fo a decent amount of work.

Well, that was before the power started acting all crazy.

At first, it was just the lights, blinking once or twice, but he ignored and tried focusing.

Then the record player stopped working, and power in the entire house went out.

He dropped his pen and looked up. "What the hell?" He muttered to himself. The blackout lasted too long for his liking, and he got worried when he noticed something odd from all the other houses around the neighbourhood.

Through the windows, he could see that their power was on.

In the next minute, he went out to the backyard, and he noticed the lights in the pool flickering eerily. A sudden chill washed over his back, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and he shivered.