Waves

Spooked: A Halloween Waves One-Shot

In honor of Halloween, I thought we needed a little one-shot featuring just how Eve loves to prank Joe. Enjoy!

Eve read through the instructions on the fake finger kit one more time and quickly tucked the hose inside her sleeve before hiding the plastic toy under a tea towel on the counter. Throughout the course of their relationship, Eve had always loved pranking Joe during Halloween; his skittish nature making him the perfect target. He'd be home from practice shortly and she was in the process of making dinner, which would serve as the backdrop for her latest prank courtesy of the kids down the street who gave her the idea.

While she wasn't big on holidays in general, Halloween was Eve's favorite. She enjoyed the scary movies and themed parties; her costumes always something goofy or grotesque versus the more risqué ones her friends enjoyed. Joe was something of a Halloween Scrooge and never wanted to do anything festive, instead choosing to hide inside with the lights off to avoid passing out candy.

Hearing the garage door open, Eve smiled to herself as she continued chopping the vegetables she'd be using for her prank. Flossy jumped up on the counter and meowed disapprovingly, almost as if he knew what she was about to do. "Oh don't be so judgmental you brat-cat," Eve cooed, tossing him a piece of broccoli.

"There's my girl!" Joe came into the kitchen and dropped his bag on the floor, pulling Eve in for a kiss. "How was practice?" she asked, motioning for him to sit down at the island while she grabbed him a drink. "Good. Nothing crazy during install," Joe shrugged, "what's for dinner? I'm starving."

Smiling to herself, Eve turned around and motioned to the stock pot on the stove. "Chicken soup. I'm just finishing up these veggies and then they need to cook down a bit." Joe nodded and caught up on emails while chatting with Eve. Once she felt he was properly distracted, she went for it; slyly placing the fake finger on her cutting board and slicing down hard on a piece of carrot.

"Shit!" Eve feigned injury and leaned over the counter, discretely pushing down the little button that started dispensing fake blood onto the floor. "Oh my god, did you cut yourself?" Joe jumped up from his stool and ran over, his stomach dropping at the amount of blood everywhere.

"I can't look but I think I got my finger really bad," Eve cried, trying to keep a straight face. Looking down at the mess strewn about, Joe's face turned green at what appeared to be Eve's index finger on the tile. "Honey, I think you cut part of your finger off. We need to go to the hospital right now," he croaked, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around Eve's hand.

"Call an ambulance," Eve sniffed. "You don't think you can make it in the car?" Joe filled a glass with ice and tried to pick up the finger on the counter but couldn't, bile rising in his throat. "Not for me. Gotcha!" Eve gleefully wiggled her two intact hands at Joe as he slowly realized what she had done.

"You are a fucking asshole," Joe scoffed, pushing a doubled over Eve away from him. Picking up the fake finger, she chased him around the kitchen laughing. "Sorry honey, but the kids showed me this and I knew I had to try it on you," Eve chuckled, wiping down the counter and pulling the rest of her ingredients from the fridge. "All of you deserve to be grounded," Joe grumbled.

The rest of the week leading up to Halloween was relatively quiet for the pair, with Eve sticking to less messy pranks. There was the rubber rat she left on Joe's drivers seat, and the very realistic looking tarantula she hid in his boxer drawer. Every night when she got home from work, she watched one of her favorite horror movies, often alone as Joe had no tolerance for them, although on one particular night, she got him to join her for a late night viewing of Halloween 2.

She watched him grimace and look away every few minutes, snickering at his discomfort. "What about the Halloween series freaks you out so much?" she asked, burying her feet under his thighs for warmth. "It's just so violent...he turns people into filets every 5 minutes. Plus he never talks. That's so fucking creepy," Joe shuddered. It was in that moment Eve got an idea that she knew she needed to attempt—only problem was she was going to need help with it.

The night before the Bengals' home games required Joe to stay at the team hotel, and he always shared a room with Sam. Eve was familiar enough with Joe's routine that she knew he'd be in bed watching film around 8PM before he dozed off at 9, so she coordinated her plans with Sam to ensure she timed her surprise just right.

True to form, Joe immediately showered after dinner and climbed into bed, yawning while he reviewed coverages on his iPad. Checking the time on his phone, Sam cleared his throat and stood up, leaving his computer on his bed. "My back is locking up a bit. I'm going to go downstairs and stretch it out a bit in the gym. I'll be quiet when I come back." Joe tossed his tablet onto the nightstand and turned off the light, rolling over onto his side. "Sounds good. I'm going to try and go to sleep anyway."

Slipping out of their room, Sam headed for the elevator and went down a floor where he met a waiting Eve, clad in a blue jumpsuit. "He's going to kill both of us," Sam said, handing over his room key. "Not us. Just me," Eve replied, putting her mask on, "how do I look?"

"Like a dude about to go terrorize Haddonfield. I left my laptop open on my bed and it's streaming to the group chat so we'll catch this on tape. Go get 'em." Sam high-fived Eve and wished her luck as she made her way to their room, her body filled with giddy excitement.

Tapping the plastic key against the sensor, Eve held her breath and opened the door, praying that Joe was asleep. Loudly walking over to the small table that separated the two beds, Eve flicked the light on then turned it off; doing this over and over again until an exasperated Joe turned over.

"Sam, what the fuck, you said you'd be—" Joe's words cut off and were soon replaced with a scream when he spotted Eve standing over him in a Michael Myers costume, holding up a rubber knife. He scrambled to stand up but got tangled in the sheets, whimpering a bit as he swatted at her.

Looking around the room for some sort of weapon, he had settled on his iPad and was holding it up like a sword when suddenly the masked intruder started moonwalking across the room. "What in the hell..." Joe slowly made his way over to the now-twerking Myers impersonator and ripped the masked off, cursing loudly when he discovered his wheezing girlfriend.

"Eve, I swear to God, I may actually toss you out that window," Joe yelled, crumpling to the floor and holding his chest. "Go ahead. We got it on tape and trust me, it was worth it," Eve panted, tears running down her face. A knock at the door revealed several of Joe's teammates and coaches, all holding up their phones as they hooted and hollered at the sight of their quarterback rocking back and forth on the floor.

"If it makes you feel any better, you screamed a lot less than I had anticipated," Eve offered, pecking Joe on the cheek. "You are a jerk," Joe hissed, pulling Eve's mask down and begrudgingly posing for photos before kissing her goodbye, his heart rate still elevated after Eve's elaborate prank.