Söbriety • Mötley Crüe •

100. All Hallows' Eve

A/N: I'm so sorry this took longer than expected to publish, but we made it to 100 chapters!! So, ever since I was tiny, special Halloween episodes of shows have been my absolute favorite. I thought I'd take a stab at doing my own version of one. Thank y'all for reading this far! 

"We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones."
- Stephen King

Three Months Later
Halloween

Ryan's POV

"Jesus, fuck! Don't fucking do that!" I flinch when Nikki comes out of nowhere and slaps his hand against my shoulder. "You know I hate it when you sneak up on me!" I suck in a deep breath to calm my racing heart, cursing my new heart medication for not working as well as my old one.

"Jeez, I didn't mean to. I yelled for you like five times." He raises his hands in surrender, turning to see what I'm looking at outside. "What are you staring at?"

"Do you see that shadow? By the fence?" I place the tip of my pointer finger against the glass of the back door and he squints his eyes.

The silhouette of what looks like a small person is nestled into the left-hand corner of the privacy fence, but my eyes won't adjust well enough to make out where it's coming from.

"No?" He quirks an eyebrow, placing the back of his hand against my forehead. "You okay? You sick?"

"No, I'm not sick, asshole." I slap his hand away, earning a soft laugh. "There's a kid-sized shadow right in the left-hand corner. You really can't see it?"

"I don't see what you're talking about, but it's probably just from that tree or something, babe." He shrugs his shoulders, turning around. "Now come on, we have a bunch of shit to do before everyone gets here."

"The sun's in the wrong spot for it to be that tree." I mutter under my breath, squeezing my eyes shut then opening them back up to see if it disappears.

I tilt my head to the side in confusion when I run my eyes over the width of the fence that's suddenly shadow free.

Maybe I am sick.

"Daddy! We need to do my costume!" Wylie's yell comes out as more of a screech from upstairs and he bows his head in exhaustion, his shoulders slumped.

"I'll be right there!" He yells back before kissing me on the cheek.

"You're the one that wanted to do it." I gently poke his chest and he sighs out through his nose.

"I know, and I'm stoked about it. I just didn't think it'd take this much effort." He groans, taking off for the staircase.

I wade through the house, looking at all of our Halloween decorations; half a dozen skeletons littering common areas like normal people, spiders draped from the walls, paper ghosts hanging from the ceiling, and several creepy babydoll heads on the mantle.

"Can we get these for the party, momma? They are so cool!"

She is my kid after all.

I don't know whose idea it was to make the miserably four-month pregnant lady throw a Halloween party, but I'd like to murder them.

"Ryan! Come help me!" Sharise yells from the kitchen loud enough to echo through the entire house.

That's right, it was her idea.

It's always Sharise that gets me into these things.

Vince has Skylar this year and I don't think she could stand being alone, so here I am, wrapped up in another party that I don't want anything to do with.