the big book of oneshots

plot twist [fire emblem fates]

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plot twist

not every story speaks of greatness.

A pair of brightly-hued trick-or-treaters charged across the sidewalk with their father, toting with them pillowcases bursting with all kinds of delectable candy: The elder brother's face was caked in red and white makeup as Pennywise from It, while his little sister wobbled around in her pumpkin costume. It had been a shorter night of trick-or-treating compared to the Halloweens they had experienced before, but Kana and Shigure had still found it satisfying— at least they had gotten Milk Duds and the like.

This Halloween was different in other ways too: Some Chinese lady more intent upon shrieking at some Chang'e person rather than giving the two of them candy, their father nearly getting doused in water by Keaton because he was mistaken for one of the several flirtatious boys who had tried to make a move on Velouria, and the overly-hungry young woman who had called Kana "so darling I could just eat you up!" Besides, Azura had come down with a cold and therefore wasn't able to take Kana with her.

"Dad?" Kana asked. She teetered up to Corrin, tugging on his coat.

"Yeah, what is it sweetie? If you two want to continue for a few more minutes, I'll have to call Mom and let her know." Corrin began to unpacked his phone and tap their home phone number onto the screen when Kana shook her head.

"No, I'm tired. I want to hear a story!" Shigure sweat a little at the sight of his beaming sister: Their father seemed to have been storied out for tales of terror. Night after night he had told Kana the creepiest (yet still child-appropriate) stories he could recall up to the night of Halloween, and to compensate for the long amounts of time spent with his daughter watched classics such as The Shining and It with Shigure. There was no way that Corrin would be able to think of something that he hadn't told Kana before.

"Well," Corrin began, swiping his grey bangs away from his forehead, "I don't really have any new stories to tell you." Shigure looked down to his little sister, sending her a pleading glance that spoke, "Please don't get mad at Dad, please don't get mad at Dad—"

"Oh, it's fine, Dad. I don't mind hearing a story you told me before, there's actually one I really wanted to hear!" Corrin let out a near silent breath of relief.

"Which one?"

"The one about when you and Uncle Leo and Uncle Takumi went trick-or-treating!"

"Oh yeah, I remember that one," Shigure grinned. He recalled that tale with fondness: His father and their uncles Leo and Takumi had gone trick-or-treating together one night, stopping by a house where the bowl of candy was just visible inside the house. Eager to get the candy, the trio had gone inside only for the door to click shut behind them. Apparently, a witch had trapped them in her house and wouldn't let them out unless they went through various challenges like putting their hand in a bag of eyeballs and the like. While Shigure suspected that the bit about the witch was heavily fictional, it was still a story he loved to hear.

"Alright, I'll tell you the story now," Corrin said.

"Yaaaay!" Corrin cleared his throat and immediately Shigure raced through his mind in an attempt to recall the exact details of what had happened, but only the vague memory of the plot in summary form was found. Ah well. It made for better storytelling if there was to be a surprise.

"So when your uncles and I were still kids, we were out trick-or-treating..."

---

"How many houses are there again? I'm getting cold," Leo the vampire mumbled. The three boys were out trick-or-treating and by Corrin's declaration had decided to greedily ravage all of the houses for as much candy as they could possibly get. And while most nights the families had strict curfews, Halloween was a definite exception.

"Just this block! Then we'll go home and see what we got!" Corrin the pirate had proclaimed himself as fit to take the lead, and to demonstrate his excellent capabilities as a leader had run ahead of them. His time as a leader was cut short, however, when he crashed into a stop sign on the edge of the block and sent his hat tumbling off.

"Hey! There's the last house ahead. I've heard it's haunted— OOOH!" Takumi the skeleton clawed at the air in an attempt to scare his friends but was unsuccessful.

"Let's go up and see what kind of candy they have." When they reached the top of the stairs to the house there was no bowl of candy to speak of outside, let alone an actual human being. The bowl laid inside on a stool behind the glass-paned door, just tantalizingly out of reach: Filled with delights such as Snickers, Twizzlers, and Corrin could have sworn he caught sight of a homemade cookie or two mixed in. Takumi leaned against the door, thinking it a nasty prank to leave so much good candy inside...before having it swing open and being forced to stumble back outside wildly.

"There's a sign that just says 'Take one'," he pointed out. All three sent each other a knowing glance— did these foolish adults really think they were just going to take one candy bar? "Let's just get as much of it as we can and leave— and by the way, if we get attacked by a ghost or spider I'll save us!"

"Thanks, Takumi," Leo grunted. With that they shuffled into the house and scooped up candy into the bags, taking note of how for some reason the contents seemed to mainly consist of their favorites.

They also noticed the door behind them clicking shut.

"Oh no," Corrin whispered, bug-eyed. He turned around in the darkened entrance, reaching out for his friends. "What do we do?"

Leo approached the door and attempted to tug on the handle, but it wouldn't budge. "It's locked or jammed or something!"

"Oh no!" Takumi wailed. "We're gonna die in this house and get killed by a ghost! Or haunted! But that's just as bad!"

---

"...So what happened then, Dad? Did the witch come out?"

"Witch?" Corrin gazed at his daughter skeptically. "What witch? We went around the house trying to find the way out, eventually came across a back door, and then got out of there and never came back again." Panicking, Shigure grabbed hold of his little sister's hand, fearing she might burst into tears or at least get mildly annoyed. To his utter shock, she burst out laughing.

"That's so funny! Does Mom know about this?"

"Uh, Kana? You know how to keep a secret, right?" She bobbed her head up and down in a nod.

"...Let's not tell Mom about this, okay?"

a/n: just wanted to write something short and sweet in time for halloween. Sorry of shigure seems ooc, I just have a little trouble properly presenting his personality.

also this is inspired by something that actually happened to my friend's dad. yeah. he told us the spooky version at her birthday, and then the real story. and yes, the two ladies were conchita from evillious and junk from touhou.

hope this little drabble brightened your day and bye!