Just Another Creepypasya Fanfiction

13. Ghostly, Ghastly Ghouls

        "This wasn't a good idea," I say.
"I think that you're right," Lui agrees.
"Why did you wait so long to do it?" Clockwork asks. Neither of us can answer.
Alisper stands next to us awkwardly as we look at the empty aisles together. We should have expected this. Anyone in their right mind should have expected this. But I suppose that's not a fair statement. None of us could be described as being in their right mind. Still, we should have been smarter than to think that shopping for a Halloween costume on Halloween would be a good idea.
"I don't need a costume," Alisper says. Despite her best efforts, her disappointment is still obvious.
I shake my head. "No, we're going to get you a costume still. We might not be able to buy one, but we'll find a way to get you one. How about you take Ben to go looking for some movies, and us three will keep searching. Sound good?" She looks pleased with the idea and excitedly takes Ben's hand. I let myself sigh when they're gone. I turn to Clockwork and Lui. "Okay, team, what's our plan?"
"Look around for any costume. Even if it's for a boy. We can dress it up for her. But we need to try to find something," Clockwork says. "We'll go from there."
We separate and start going down the rows of what used to be Halloween costumes and decor. It's all baren wasteland now. I sigh and curse at myself. I should have come here sooner. The only costumes I can find are for adults, and those options are pretty run out too. The feeling of anxiety that I am all too acquaint with starts to creep up on me. I ruined her first Halloween with my lack of planning. I shouldn't have lost track of the time like that. I breathe. This isn't the time for me to panic.
Eventually, we regroup. The others didn't have any luck better than mine. The search is then taken online. We scroll through as many DIY options as we can find and discuss. We find a few that we would be able to do on such short notice, then save them so that Alisper can go through and pick out the one that she likes the most herself. After that, we go through the aisle again to find a candy basket for her. She can't go trick or treating without one. Well, technically, she can. But if people are still the way they were when I was a child, they won't give her anything without one. The basket we find is designed like a white Jack-o-lantern. We take it, grab the last large bag of candy, and leave to find Alisper and Ben.
Alisper starts running when she sees us. "I found a movie!" She cheers. "I want to watch this one! Can we get it please?"
I laugh. "Sure, but what is it?"
She looks at the case and realises that she had the title facing herself. She flips it around for me. "Corpse Bride!"
I smile at her pronunciation. "It's actually 'corpse', not 'corp-see'. But yes, of course, we can get it. Did you see any others that you want?'
Alisper points at Ben, who has a handful of movies in his arms. He places them in the cart. "Frankweenie, ParaNormal, Coraline, The Aadam's Family...' You get it. There are a lot of movies."
Clockwork peers into the basket to see them all. "No Nightmare Before Christmas'?" She asks, sounding disappointed.
Ben shrugs. "I finally met someone who isn't interested in it."
Liu takes it upon himself to show Alisper all of the costume ideas we found while we continue talking about movies. She swipes through all of her choices, then points at the screen. Liu brings the phone over to me. She wants to be a simple ghost. I ask her if she's sure, and she says yes immediately. We leave the entertainment section to go in search of a sheet. On the way there, Alisper insists that we need costumes too. It's not hard for her to convince us. We decide to be a family of ghosts. She's okay with it.
We grab a few sheets, then get some white tights and shirts. It'll be weird to wear something so skintight, but it's supposed to be cold tonight. We could wear normal clothes on underneath the sheets, but that would be too much like breaking character. We all agree it'd be better to go in all white, like a family of Caspers.
We walk around the store some more in search of a few other, holiday items. We come across a couple of pumpkin carving kits and a few decorations. It's not much, but we decide it's better than nothing. If we look around too much, we'll end up spending the whole day here, which would ruin all our plans to celebrate in the first place. It's time to go home and start preparing. We have food to make, costumes to alter, and pumpkins to cut up.
The whole car ride home, Ben talks to Alisper about the different faces you can give the pumpkins when you carve them. He tells her that it doesn't have to be a face, but that its traditional. Clockwork is able to give an explanation as to how Jack O' Lanterns became a thing. Liu and I don't have much to contribute to the conversation, so we ignore them and talk to each other. We never figured out what we're having to eat, but it definitely has to be on theme for the holiday. He starts up a list of the ideas that we're able to come up with. It's admittedly not a lot, but at least we could think up a few. Hot dog fingers aren't a bad idea, unless you ask a health nut.
Ben and Liu gather up all of the bags we have while I unlock the door. Clockwork is quick to pull out the sheets we bought. She has Alisper stand still while she cuts out holes for her arms and eyes. Liu has Ben help him with prepping the food. I set up a pumpkin carving station on the porch for us.
Once her costume is fitted, Alisper runs away to go play. Clockwork throws a sheet over my head and starts cutting into it. It doesn't take too long for it to look like an actual costume. The ragged edges only add to the ghost effect. Ben and I trade places once mine is done, then Clockwork takes Liu. He cuts up the sheet for her after his is done, then they take over the kitchen work together. Ben is instructed to keep Alisper company and I'm put in charge of setting up the decorations. It's an easy task that only takes about five minutes of my time. We really need to go holiday shopping a lot sooner if we want to do this again someday.

After the food is cooked, we gather to eat and watch one of the new movies. About halfway through it, I get up to clean our dishes, then Clockwork goes with me outside to make sure the carving station is spread out enough for everyone. We move a few things around, and she comes up with the idea of grabbing a couple of tarps for us to sit on. We sit a stencil book next to each of the pumpkins so that everyone has easy access if they want to follow a design instead of creating their own. Clockwork decides that everything is perfect, then we go back inside to join the others.
When the movie ends, we invite everyone outside. Alisper runs out of the door as fast as she can, followed immediately by Ben. They agree to sit next to each other. I decide on the other side of her, then Clockwork sits next to me. Liu takes the only option left - in between Clockwork and Ben. We give Alisper a verbal explanation of what to do, then we start cutting into them. I make sure to have mine positioned so that she can watch as I do it. She watches me for a short amount of time before flipping through the stencil book. Ben helps her pick out the coolest one, then she asks me to help her put the stencil on the pumpkin.
"Do you want me to make the first cut for you? It can be hard," I offer after the stencil is on it correctly.
Alisper shakes her head. "No, I want to do it. Thank you."
"Okay. Let me know if you change your mind."
I watch her from the corner of my eye, wanting to make sure she doesn't hurt herself without making her feel incapable. Right when I think she's going to give up on trying, she lifts her cutter above her head. She brings it down with all her might. It's not flawless, but she still stabs right through the pumpkin. I see Lui give me a look of concern and I give the same one back to him. Clockwork looks uneasy, but she's trying to not display it. Ben is congratulating Alisper for her strength. She's ecstatic. I try to feel the same way. It's normal to find solutions to our problems by whatever means are necessary, and then feeling proud when it works. It doesn't mean that her psyche is completely screwed up.
I hope.
None of us are very good at carving gourds, but they all look good sitting together. It makes the random cuts and wonky lines look intentional rather than goofy. We sit them up on the porch railing, then clean up the tarp and utensils. There's a short vote on what to do next; movies or trick-or-treating. In the end, we all decide candy is better than things we can do any day. We get our costumes on before piling into the car. Ben can't stop talking about how excited he is. When I start getting annoyed, it occurs to me that he never really had the normal child experience. Growing up in a cult puts a dampener on things, and then you have being sacrificed. I'd be excited too if I weren't old. I wonder if I'm short enough to pass as a kid?
We stop in a random parking lot, then walk off towards the nearby houses. The first two we stop at are standard procedure homes - gushing over the matching costumes, demanding to be told 'trick or treat', and giving out a handful of candy. But at the third house, the owner gives Ben a spare basket and pours half of her candy bucket into it. She tells us its a gift for the kids of all ages. Ben is thrilled. Him and Alisper declare a war on one another to see who is able to get the most candy by the end of the night.
Not all of the houses are decorated, but the ones that are are extravagant. Large animatronics, fog machines, 'blood' splatters, and even fake house setups take up a few of the yards. It makes Alisper uneasy and she doesn't want to go up to any of them. But somehow, Ben is able to convince her to. Each and every time, she ends up leaving with the biggest smile possible. And then it happens again at the next, over-the-top house. Every time, the rest of us praise her for her bravery. After a while, I don't think she's actually frightened of them. I think she just likes being told that she's doing something right — like facing her fears.
The night comes to an abrupt end when three police cars come flying past us. Maybe I'm paranoid, but the turn they took looks like the one you need to take to get to Alisper's old house. I call the night over to avoid any potential trouble, in case they start asking questions to randoms on the street. The girl doesn't need to be made into a liar.
Despite the sudden call to go home and go to bed, she doesn't seem to notice or mind. She skips happy as can be back to the car, talking about how much fun she had. She asks if it can be Halloween again tomorrow. We laugh and say no, but assure that some things can be non-holiday things too. She says that she really wants to carve more pumpkins. Clockwork gives me a horrified look. I laugh again.