The Halloween Spirit

Too Clever

"Hey Nathen!" Darla called down the hall. Nathen looked absolutely miserable amongst the excited students and spooky decorations. There were dark rings under his eyes and his hair looked unbrushed. His clothes were rumpled as if he'd slept in them and one of his shoes was untied. He didn't even smile as Darla approached. She didn't seem to notice, and if she did, she didn't seem to care. Her voice dropped to a near whisper when she spoke.
"I heard about what happened to your dad." She grabbed the hand that wasn't holding onto his backpack strap and rubbed her thumb against it comfortingly.
"I'm so, so sorry." She said with big, sorrowful eyes. Nathen's stomach churned a little bit. This display of sympathy... it disgusted him. He jerked his hand back and Darla looked stunned.
"Your uncle told you, did he?" Nathen hissed.
"How- How'd you know?" She stammered.
"He's the one who handed me those staged photos."
"Staged?"
"Oh yeah. Staged." Nathen's eyes hardened angrily and he stuck a shaking finger in her face, almost poking her in the eye.
"You're uncle has something to do with how my dad died, and I'm gonna find out what." He snarled and stormed away. The crowd of students engulfed him and he disappeared.
Darla, inexplicably, started to giggle.

Halloween night. The excited squeals of children, the whooping of tipsy young adults and the screaming of all ages echoed through the neighborhood. Nathen sat in his room, fingers flying over his keyboard, feverishly searching up answers to the questions that refused to stop running through his brain.
He checked the news articles, obituaries, police reports, even the national park's website for any scrap of evidence that might prove to his mom that he wasn't going crazy.
A knock on the door made him jump.
"Nathen, put on that red and white striped shirt." His mom ordered from the other side of the door.
"Why?"
"You're going trick or treating."
"What?! Mom, you can't be serious!" Nathen shouted.
"I am. I signed you up to escort some kids around the neighborhood. I bought you an eyepatch and a pirate hat. You'll fit right in."
"No! I won't."

"Just have them back by eight and you'll score twenty bucks. I love you sweetie."
Nathen grumbled unhappily and exited the car, an eyepatch and tri-corner hat playing the role of his costume. His mom sped off as he approached the house, the sound of a Halloween party in full swing oozing through the walls. The door opened before he even needed to knock. A red headed woman in flowing Celtic garb smiled at him.
"Hello! You must be Nathen." She beamed and moved aside for him to enter. He grunted to affirm her assessment, a surly scowl on his face. She closed the door behind him.
"Your mom told me that Halloween isn't really your thing. Just try not to be too much of a party pooper before eight."
She pointed to a table covered in snacks, done up to look like spooky or gory stuff.
"Snacks are there. You should probably have something to eat before we set out. The kids have a long rout planned."

The party was almost unbearable. Nathen picked at a banana and nursed a glass of punch, only making polite small talk to everyone who approached him in the corner where he tried his hardest to disappear. The kids were mostly running around and shrieking, roleplaying as their costumes. There was a particularly entertaining fight going on between a tiny Darth Maul and a tiny Iron man, with the pink power ranger playing ref. The occasional teenager could be seen mulling around, picking through the snacks or playing with the little ones.
But eventually, the time came to trick or treat. The parents split kids into groups, with two teenagers to watch about five at a time, while the parents stayed behind to hand out candy and get drunk. Nathen got paired with Iron man, Frankenstein's monster, Applejack, a toilet and the pink ranger, his teenage counterpart dressed as Batgirl.
The groups split up, planning to take different sections of the neighborhood and trade candy later. Nathen let the kids and batgirl run ahead of him, staying just close enough to keep them in his sights. They went to every house, even the ones that clearly had their lights off, to try and get candy. Apparently Applejack had brought a carton of eggs that had long since expired, and chucked one at each house with their lights off. Nathen actually chuckled at that, but went right back to being surly when she ran out of eggs.
About half a mile in he started to get tired, but the kids were still going strong, driven by their near demonic hunger for sugar.
Suddenly someone grabbed his arm  from behind.
"Hey Nathen!"
He turned as much as he could. A girl dressed as a nun with with brown eyes stared back at him, wearing broad, toothy smile.
"Darla?! What the hell?!" Nathen yelled.
"I thought you weren't gonna come! I thought you hated Halloween! Happy birthday by the way!" She piped before standing on tiptoe and kissing him on the cheek. His mind went temporarily blank.
"Well I-I didn't- I mean I don't- I mean-"
Darla laughed. "You're so cute when you're flustered. You know that's actually what made me like you in the first place."
His mind went blank again. The world around them froze. It was just the pirate and the nun. No batgirl, no kids, no minivan pulling up behind them.
"You... like me?" Nathen stammered.
"Of course, silly. Why else would I have asked you on a date?"
"A date?"
"The haunted house. You think one of my friends would really cancel on me?" Her tone shifted to one of haughtiness on the last word, before she laughed loudly and pulled Nathen even closer.
"I always wanted you to come." Her big brown eyes were shining in the streetlights. Nathen found himself unable to look away, through not from captivation. Some primal urge to remain still commanded his body. As if moving would bring his demise.
"Then of course, you said you didn't like Halloween." Her tone shifted from flirtatious to angry, and Nathen's instincts now told him to run. He tried to pull back, but just like in the haunted house her grip was like a vice, nearly cutting off blood flow to his arm.
"Then you were horridly mean to my uncle, then to me. After all that, I just don't know what to do."
She finally let go and Nathen stumbled backwards, but his back hit the chest of the man standing behind him. He looked up, and Mr. Clair's kind smile looked back down at him.
"Lucky for my darling daughter, father does."
One arm wrapped around Nathen's neck in a near death grip, the other forced a damp rag over his nose and mouth. A chemical oder filled Nathen's windpipe as he gasped in. His brain knew he should try and wrestle the chloroform rag from his face, but his body told him to free his neck. Unable to make a decision in time, he faded into blackness, Darla's crazed smile the last thing he saw.

The chatter of excited children. The smell of stale apple juice. The hum of a car. His head laying on someone's lap, stroking his hair. Sensations returned to Nathen one by one, each more unpleasant than the last. Memories came to him more slowly, but they were even more unpleasant. He tried to push himself up, but his arms were tied behind his back. As he realized that, he felt even more of his bindings. His ankles and knees were tied, he was blindfolded and gagged.
"Aww. You're awake. That's no good." Darla cooed into his ear. His guts squirmed and he desperately wanted to throw up.
"Victoria and Christopher took longer than expected to trick or treat, but it'll keep them from fighting for a while."
She continued stroking his hair, almost lovingly, and he only felt sicker. He tried to squirm out of her grasp, but he seemed to be strapped in place by the seatbelt.
A long while passed, and the road went from smooth like pavement, to rough, like gravel. He started to panic. There was nowhere near town with a gravel road, so how long had he been asleep and how far had they already gone?
"You know, I really meant it when I said I liked you." Darla whispered into his ear. Her breath was uncomfortably hot and he shrunk away from it.
"You're so cute, and smart... and lonely looking. Pathetic, really. I wanted to keep you."
Nathen tried desperately to tune out her rambling and listen to the grinding of the gravel road. But her lips were so close to his ear that it was impossible not to listen.
"I wanted to give you a good time. I wanted you to see how worse off your life was without me, and see how wonderful our family was and want to be a part of it. I wanted you. Your everything. Mind, heart, soul... body."
Nathen choked down the bile that worked its way into his throat.
"But you just had to ruin it. I should've watched you longer. Seen that you didn't like what I like. But here we are, and we can't change that." She planted a kiss on his cheek and sat up straight again, stroking his hair. Nathen's eyes started to water, soaking his blindfold. What could he do? He'd been kidnapped by the girl he might've once had a crush on and her crazy, serial-killer-esc family who were such big psychos that they'd convinced the whole world of their perfection.
"Oh good! We're here!" Darla whispered.