Of Melodies And Melodramas

The Pumpkin Queen

AN: Hey guys! This is Beck, and I just wanted to give you the whole FYI thing. We're breaking this up from person to person so we'll be jumping from perspective to perspective for a hot minute until they all come together.

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October was always Melanie's favorite month, it was the heart of fall (her favorite season) and the entire aesthetic it provided her was intoxicating. She adored the constant thrum of children prattling on about candy and costumes, the scent of the freshly carved pumpkins that lined the porches of every cookie cutter clean suburban household on her street (Reynolds Way if the was to be specific), as she continued hanging up plastic bats on the large oak tree in the courtyard-esque front lawn of her house, that she was in her element. There was something magical about the whole ordeal, as if each other Halloween wasn't a individual day to come once a year, no Halloween was constantly being merged into one huge holiday in her mind.

Decorating the house was always a family occasion, her father had loved doing so and would always corral her mother, older sister Ella, and herself into pitching in with making the house sufficiently spooky. They put up lights, baked, and even arranged all their decorations into sections divided by the type of creatures making it a favorite in the neighborhood and even in those in the subdivisions surrounding it. It was the centrepiece of the whole Holliday's festivities and her and her sister would simply preen with the attention that was peppered unto them as they passed out candy in their festively spook (but undoubtedly cute) costumes alongside their father.

Her father had been a good man, mellow and full of puns that would always bring smiles to anyone's face. He was the kind of man that gave everything he could, even when he didn't have much himself, empathetic and kind to everyone who had the pleasure of meeting him. Melanie had been very close with him before he passed away a year prior, he was a military man. Army to be specific, he was an army doctor with a nagging tendency to be in the wrong place at the wrong time which ended up bringing about his demise. His place in Arlington Cemetery was a well deserved one, although more often than not Melanie found herself wishing he was a bit closer to home so that she could properly grieve without the long trip.

To say her family had collapsed would be melodramatic, but not completely untrue. Her mother became reclusive only leaving home to seek the comfort of her long time addictions: men and alcohol. Her sister wasn't that far behind, seeing as she delved into the world of drugs and horrid people she had begun calling friends. Leaving Melanie to fend for herself as her mother and sister gallivanted off in the night partaking in their not so guilty pleasures. Just the same, Melanie thought, relying on the normalcy of routine and traditions her father left her. That's what he would've wanted she hopes as she clings to these petty distractions on the lethargic Sunday afternoon.