﹙ TAKE A BITE ★ ﹚

CHERRY KNOCKED ON THE FRONT DOOR!

Before anybody inside could answer, she barged in. They were past the point of knocking to enter, which was simultaneously good and bad.

She came bearing lots and lots of candy, at least. It was the Madden's first Halloween, it had to be celebrated properly.

"You don't look scary at all." Colby criticized from his spot on the couch. "What are you, a deer?"

"A doe." Cherry corrected. "You look like a fucking grape."

"I'm not a grape, genius, I'm me. Flashform." Colby made a gesture with his hands that implied she was missing something. "Since I didn't get my power or my suit until after we moved to Texas, I can wear it as my Halloween costume! And no one will know I'm a villain."

"You're not a villain. You're just a nuisance." Cherry informed, sitting down beside him.

"And you're not?" He retorted, scooting away from her.

Aria and Jake came down the stairs in their matching costumes, doing a spin to display their effort. Their costume was equally creative and carefully crafted.

"Where are you guys going?" Colby questioned.

"Some senior is throwing a party and Cherry got stuck on candy duty." Aria explained. "Hartley-assigned."

"No. Please don't leave her here." Colby sat up straight. "Can't you at least put her on the porch?"

"You can go on the porch and I can stay in here." Cherry suggested, tearing open her party-sized bag of a variety candy.

Aria and Jake walked past Vic and Eva, who were standing at the front door in front of a group of kids.

"Trick or treat!" The children called in unison.

"Ooh! I've heard of this!" Eva stepped out onto the front porch. "I'll take a treat." 

"No, you're supposed to give them a treat." Colby explained from across the room.

"Well, that's not fun. I'll give you a trick!" Eva offered, her smile growing.

Colby sighed, sitting up on the couch. "No, okay, they give you a trick if you don't give them a treat." 

"So, there's nothing in this for me?" Eva double-checked.

"If you have the nerve to come to our house and knock on our door, then you're going to give us treats, or we're going to give you tricks," Vic decided, earning a nod from his side.

Cherry watched as Eva made the kids pour their candy into her hands. Colby seemed more entertained than disturbed.

"Well, I was gonna go out trick-or-treating tonight, but it looks like you guys found a way to bring the candy right to me." Colby watched his parents through the door frame.

"You were gonna go trick or treating?" Cherry resisted giggles. "How old are you?"

"So now I'm not allowed to have fun or be at peace in my own home." Colby rolled his eyes. "If God exists, He hates me."

Both of them scoffed at the same time. The most entertaining part of their night, besides watching Vic and Eva take candy from little kids, was arguing over the argument to choose the movie they were going to watch.

Cherry selected Terrifier 2 after smacking Colby across the face with a throw pillow.

The film was turned off a couple of minutes after Cherry threatened to throw up in the candy bowl. That threat didn't do much to deter Colby from the TV since his parents were dropping piles of candy onto the coffee table.

"You guys are so messed up. I have to go track down all those little kids and return them their candy." Cherry grabbed her bag of store-bought candy.

"I can't wait to divide all of this up." Colby ignored her pitying comment.

"We did. Your pile is over there," Eva pointed towards a pack of black licorice and a box of raisins lay on the floor. 

"All yours." Cherry hiccuped, looking back at Colby. She waited a couple of seconds. "You cured my hiccups!"

"That's not a compliment." Colby said as he sulked over his bad candy. "Gimme that."

The pair went back and forth, tugging the plastic bag of store-bought candy meant to be passed out to children. Cherry yelped and the bag tore in half, exploding all over the living room.

She huffed and stood up, straightening her antler headband and heading into the kitchen to retrieve a bowl to clean up her mess.

When she returned, the entire living room was dark and Colby was gone. She didn't really mind that second part.

"Are you trick-or-treating?" Eva asked Celia, who was dressed in a black robe.

"Every Halloween since I was a little girl, I've been a Grim Reaper," Celia explained. "I like to remind people they're dead to me." 

"You should really wear that get-up more often. Let people see the softer side of you," Vic joked. 

"I've heard rumors about you two snatching candy from the neighborhood kids." Celia changes the subject.

"And let me guess, you want in?" Eva groaned at the prospect of sharing.

"No! I want you to give those treats back to everyone you stole them from! And you can start by giving me some."
Celia held out her candy-collecting bag. 

Cherry shook her head at the argument and picked up all the spilled, individually packaged candy into a large bowl. She set it on the edge of the coffee table and returned to the couch.

Now that the remote was free, she could watch whatever she wanted.

"Oh, come on, Celia! You're celebrating Halloween in your own unique way, let us celebrate our way!" Vic pleaded.

"Return the candy or the real Grim Reaper will visit you tonight and teach you both a lesson." Celia warned ominously.

"Uhm, Celia, we're adults. Do you really think your little made-up Halloween story is going to scare us?"

"Time will tell. Nighty night, neighbor."

Eva and Vic returned to the living room, shutting the door behind them. Suddenly, something started tapping on the window. It was Celia, tapping her costume scythe against the glass.

"Haha, very funny, Celia," Vic said, not looking too impressed.

The same noise came from the back window. Celia appeared there too, tapping the window with her scythe.

"Is it me, or is Celia a lot faster than she looks?" Vic narrowed his eyes.

"I don't think that's Celia." Cherry told them, sitting up straight.

Vic and Eva paid her no mind, convincing themselves it was nothing. They sat down on the other end of the couch and ate some of the candy they'd taken from the trick-or-treaters.

"Give it up, Celia," Eva called out when she heard tapping coming from the window in the kitchen. "We know it's still you."

"Yeah! We won't be scared until we think the real Grim Reaper is after us, so we'll give the candy back." Vic entered the kitchen and stumbled when he saw someone in the window "We locked all the doors, right?"

"Of course. But she has a key!"

"Eva, look at us. We've done some of the scariest things the world has ever seen. Are we really going to be frightened by the likes of a grandma in a Grim Reaper outfit?"

"Absolutely not. But there's no harm in being safe!"

Vic propped up a chair on the doorknob and a moment later, the lights shut off. The Grim Reaper appeared right in the living room and another one in the window above the sink.

"How could she have-" Vic started, his gaze flickering between both reapers.

"Clearly, that's a prop," Eva pointed to the reaper in the window. "We would be crazy to think a literal Grim Reaper was haunting us."

Cherry grabbed the remote as her weapon of choice when she spotted another Grim Reaper on the stairs, tapping its scythe against the wall.

Several of the Reapers appeared inside and outside the house, tapping their scythes.

"We're surrounded!" Vic shouted, circling his wife's back, "We don't know where they're coming from!"

"Colby, help!" Eva called out for her son but received no answer,

"It's too late for him," The Grim Reaper made his way down the stairs. "Give me your candy, and I will return no more."

"Keep him!" Cherry urged at the same time that Vic shoved the candy bucket towards the Reaper and Eva begged for her son back.

The Grim Reaper lunged at Cherry, who threw the remote and bonked him in the head. "Dude!" Colby yelped, pulling his mask down,

"Colby, what's the matter with you? How could you do this to us?" Vic gasped when he saw the reveal.

"It wasn't all me." Colby defended, gesturing to Celia.

"You used our own child against us?" Eva questioned.

"Not just yours. I rounded up some kids you stole candy from, and I let them use my old Grim Reaper costumes." Celia motioned to the kids who pouted into the house from all entrances. "See! Grim Reaper always catches up to you. Oh, jumbo size!"