Life, Death, and Time - A Books Of Beginning Collection

Oneshot: The Phantom Painting

Background: The first October Eternity spends with the Wibberly family. Obviously features my ocs. 

Content: Halloween! Adventure. Family. Humor. Some Kate x Rafe and Eternili. Some Spookiness because Halloween. Eternity's first major holiday with the Wibberlys.

"Nice costumes," Eternity said with a grin, looking down at the two younger Wibberly siblings. Abby and Jake grinned back up at her, the latter nimbly fishing a jolly rancher out of the cauldron of candy to be handed out to the trick or treaters of Westport who stopped by the house later that night. 

"Thanks," Abby answered, while her brother popped the piece of candy in his mouth, "know who we are?"

"Hmmm..." Eternity mused, "Jake is definitely Sherlock Holmes-"

Jake grinned, his teeth and tongue stained purple from the candy he had just ate. He wore an old fashioned brown suit and tie with a lighter brown long button up coat over top, and the stereotypical Holmes hat. A magnifying glass was tucked in his breast pocket. 

"You got it!"

Eternity chuckled, "does that mean you're Dr. Watson, Abby?"

Abby shook her head, "no, I like Watson, but I want to be a detective, not a sidekick. I'm a different famous super sleuth - Hercule Poirot, from the Agatha Christie novels."

"I see," Eternity said, though she had never read any Agatha Christie in her life. Still, Abby had, so she assumed her costume was accurate. The black haired girl wore a black suit and tie, a fedora hat, and carried a walking stick. She also had a distinctive fake moustache stuck to her upper lip, which made for quite the amusing sight. "Very dapper, both of you."

Abby giggled and preened, while Jake stole a piece of caramel from the candy cauldron and proceeded to unwrap it. All around, the signs of Halloween decorated the Wibberly household, with false cobwebs draping across the railing to the staircase, wall hangings and welcome mats and spooky candelabras and other potentially false but potentially real strange objects decorating the inside of the house. The outside was even more dressed up, with heavy fake tombstones littering the front yard, creepy candles lining the front walk, bat and ghost decorations hanging heavy in the trees and plastic skeletons climbing out of the bushes. Best of all, in Eternity's opinion at least, was the enchantment that Lili and Rafe had set up earlier, which cast moving shadows all across the wall of the house, like a projector but more deliberate. The shadows would stalk after people who came up to the door, per Lili's request. 

Of course, there were also jack-o-lanterns set up on the front porch, two with creepy faces made by Abby and Jake, one carved with a single eye, done by Lili, one with a W for Wibberly, done by Rafe who had been a bit busy and didn't have time to think of something else, one carved by Kate and decorated with a bat, and finally, Eternity's pumpkin, with a skull carved into it. A table also sat on the front porch, where the candy cauldron would be placed, if Jake didn't eat all the contents before it was time to trick or treat, that is. 

"So you all do Halloween right," Eternity said, taking a seat on the couch, "but what about the rest of your family? What are they doing? Lili hasn't said."

"Oh," Jake replied, "Aunt Wil and Uncle Michael usually go to the Halloween festival on Loris with our cousins and Wilamena's relatives, and usually some of Michael's friends too. Our Grandparents will hand out candy but that's it, since, y'know, they're retired. And as for Aunt Emma, well, sometimes she'll rope her friend Dena into coming to Loris with her for the sole purpose of pranking Michael, sometimes she'll gorge herself on candy, and sometimes she'll come join us."

"Will she be joining us this year?" Eternity asked. 

Abby shook her head, "no, she isn't. Honestly, she might have gotten banned from Westport Halloweens. I wouldn't put it past her - spooky season makes her even more chaotic than usual."