Haunted

One

I laughed as I watched the two girls fight with each other over the fancy mint chocolate bar they had just received. The house had had only one left and naturally, they decided to give it to the pretty young princess. But the older girl, dressed age-appropriately in black tights, a black t-shirt and cat ears, could not accept the fact that for once, her younger sister had something she wanted.

"Raanu, I'm older, give it to me!"

The princess named Raanu, holding the chocolate bar behind her back, shook her head vigorously.

"No way Mali. You always get what you want. I want something for a change."

Mali groaned as she attempted to reach behind Raanu's back.

"Raanu, I'll give you ten dollars."

"No."

"Come on, this is the last house and I haven't gotten anything good! You got all the good candy."

"Can't help it," Raanu said happily as she began to unwrap the bar. Mali shrieked and tried to grab the bar out of her hand. Figuring I should probably put an end to this fight before it escalated, I stepped between my two younger cousins.

"Guys," I said calmly, "this is stupid. It's Halloween. It's just candy."

Mali opened her mouth to protest when I interrupted.

"Mali, you're freaking thirteen years old. Raanu is ten. Leave her alone."

Mali gave me a cold look.

"Fine, take her side. You always do."

And with that, she pulled out her iPod from her candy bag, put on her earphones and began walking five feet away from Raanu and me. I rolled my eyes. Hormonal teenagers. Raanu, chewing happily on her chocolate, fell in step with me and slipped her hand in mine.

"Mali is so mean. It's just candy," she said.

"Halloween isn't about candy."

She looked at me as though I had just told her the sky wasn't blue.

"Yeah, it is."

I rolled my eyes as we continued walking towards the last building on the street.

"It's about scary stuff. Duh. Kids these days have no backbone. It's all about cute, happy things. Even on Halloween."

I looked down at her pink princess costume.

"Your costume mocks everything Halloween is about."

"Hey!" she cried, clearly offended. I suppressed a giggle.

"It's true. Halloween is the one night of the year where the creatures of the dark come out to play."

"There's no such thing as ghosts."

I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Is that why you're still scared of the dark?"

Raanu swallowed the last piece of chocolate and licked her lips.

"I'm not scared of the dark."

"Oh yeah? Don't let the creatures of the night hear you say that. They might want to make a new friend."

"Shut up, Akka," Mali said, turning around, clearly annoyed by the conversation. I stopped walking and looked at her, a teasing smile on my lips.

"I'm not scaring you, am I?"

Mali glared at me.

"Well, if you're not scared, why don't you invite them to play with you?"

Raanu dropped her hand from mine and stared at me.