"There's no way I'm going in there."
   Alex stepped away from the gloomy forested area surrounding a large mansion sitting at the end of a winding road. The half moon formed a spotlight around the building, keeping a nervous energy around it.
   "Come on, it's not that bad," Chell said, nudging her friend with her painted shoulder. "It's just an abandoned house. I've gone in there tons of times and I'm still standing here."
   "Yeah, but it probably wasn't on Halloween." Alex looked back at her friend. "I mean, really, why would I want to go in there in the first place?" Her friend rustled in her pocket and fished out a ten dollar bill, holding it up in Alex's face. Looking at the bill, she sighed and yanked the money from Chell's hand. "The shit I put up with, I swear..."
   Chell looked behind her at Alex's car, noticing Daimian sleeping in the back seat. "Oh yeah," she started with a smirk, "What if you took your brother with you?"
   "Oh, good idea." Alex walked to her car and knocked on the door, making Daimian bounce up in his seat. She looked into the car as the window slowly rolled down on the black suited figure.
   "Yeah?" Daimian squinted as his eyes adjusted to the bright street lights starting to turn on.
   "You're coming with me," Alex said, opening the back door. Her brother fell down onto the pavement face-first, moving his arms in front of his head as he landed. "I'm taking you to this spooky house up the hill for Chell."
   "Wha-" Daimian quickly stood up and rubbed his face. "That's what we stopped for? Why would I want to do that? You need someone's hand to hold?"
   "Nooo-" Alex looked back at Chell. "Look Symbiote Suit," she looked forward and pointed at Daimian's chest, "in this world, money's everything and my best friend's offering us ten dollars just to walk around a dusty ass house." Alex started walking closer to the small mansion, looking back at Daimian. "Come on, it's in the Halloween spirit! And after this, I'll get us a thing of Thai."
   Daimian perked up and ran up behind his sister, peaking his massive white eyes at her. "Alright, let's go sis. That ten dollar's isn't gonna earn itself!" The two walked up the gravel path as Chell waved back at them. Pushing open the rusted door, they poked their heads inside. Daimian pulled out his phone and turned on the dim screen to somewhat light up the area. "Huh, it's not too bad in here. A little creaky, but I think it can be fixed."
   Alex's phone buzzed before she took it out of her pocket and read a message from Chell. "Get me a plank of wood and I'll throw in- oh god..." Alex held her hand in her face and looked up at a busted staircase. "Chell, you have got to make better financial decisions." She set her booted foot on one of the loose boards and snapped it in half, tearing it off of the rusty nails that held it together. She looked up as she started hearing footsteps.
   "Yo, what the hell was that," Daimian asked, pointing his screen in Alex's face. He looked down and noticed his sister holding the broken board. "What the hell is THAT?"
   "Well, you see-" Before Alex could finish, the footsteps grew louder with each step until they saw a figure on the second floor baclony. By the looks of it, they wore a mask with the jaw ripped off fashined like upper teeth with sharp eyes hovering over them. The siblings looked at each other before they bolted for the door. "MONEY IS A POWERFUL THING-" Alex screamed as they rushed to the light of outdoors.
   "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"
   "I DON'T KNOW!!!"
   The figure slowly descended the stairs as the two made it to the door, which shut in their faces by the click of a button. They turned back to see the figure looming over them, smiling from the mouth below his jagged mask. Without thinking, Alex hit the figure with the board and ran away from the scene. The figure looked back at the scare young woman, inching closer to her.
   As the figure left him behind, Daimian sneaked out one of the front windows and ran across the gravel path. He ran to his sister's car and popped open the trunk, pulling out a black briefcase with his suit in it. Closing it, he saw Chell in the passanger's seat knocked out, holding a blunt in between her fingers. Shaking his head, he rushed to the forest to put on his suit.
   Inside, the figure approached Alex, who curled up in a ball and sat in a corner as she held the piece of wood. "Do you know who I am, young lady," the figure asked as he inched closer. Alex shook her head and the figure tilted their's. "Ah, then my record's been cleaned... you see, every once in a while, I get a visitor in this house. And do you know what you do with those who come here?" Alex shook her head once again. The figure inched his face closer to Alex and clicked another button on a little box.
   "They die at the unfeeling hands of-" the lights flash on, revealing an older man with a hearty smile. The mask seemed to be stitched together with various cloths that didn't mesh well and the lenses of his eyes curved slightly from some sagging cloth. With rotted teeth and a ripped trenchcoat, the man continued. "-The HALLOWEEN MAN!"
   KSSSSHHHHH
   "Get ready to get your ass beat then, Blinky!" The singular light bulb hanging over the main entrance shattered as a rock collided with the glass, raining down on the Halloween Man. "You must be new to town, I don't think I've seen you around these parts before."
   "What the shit?" The man turned back to see Obscurity perched up on a broken window from the second story. "Who the hell are you supposed to be?"
   "Someone who hates the way you're treating Ms. Jett over there. I get she's an intruder, but that's an interesting choice of punishment for a house you don't own."
   The Halloween Man stepped closer to Obscurity and craned his neck up. "Oh, and you have the deed for this place? Are you trying to run me out of a house that's been abandoned for years?"
   Obscurity leaped down from the window and landed on the cold tile. "Eh, I don't know about abandoned, it really just needs a good paint job-" Looking back at the Halloween Man, the barrel of a pistol comes from the corner of his lensed eyes. Before the man can properly pull it out, Obscurity kicks the Halloween Man's hip, sending the gun flying into a nearby closet and going of.
   Alex tried to inch toward the door before the closet doors opened, revealing two dead bodies stacked on top of each other. Shocked, she tripped on one of the loose tiles, causing the Halloween Man to look back at his prey.
   "You two will make fine pieces in my collection," he said in a hallow voice, reaching into his other pocket to pull out a second pistol. He fired, hitting one of the windows with an ear-piecing BANG. The siblings held their ears as the Halloween Man readied his shot again, aiming at Alex.
   Obscurity fell to the floor, looking at the loose tiles. Grabbing one, he lifted himself back up and hit the Halloween Man in his masked head, knocking him on his ass. The second pistol flew from his hand, landing at Obscurity's feet. The young man picked up the weapon and threw it to the side, watching his enemy start to drift into a concusioned coma.
   Jumping out of one of the first story windows, Obscurity looked back at a confused Alex stagger up and wake to the door. Moving quickly to the forest, he switched from his hero costume to his Halloween costume and walked back to the front of the mansion just as Alex was walking out. He held onto his shakey sister as they sat in the loose gravel.
   "Shit, dude... that was crazy."
   "Sorry for bailing out like that. Are you okay?"
   "I- I guess so." Alex lifted the plank of wood to her face. "That's another twenty-five dollars in my bank account and probably a lifelong fear of mansions for me."
   Daimian patted his sister's back as they stood up and walked to the car. "Don't worry. Chell had it out for you this time."
   Alex looked at her brother confused. "What's that supposed to mean?"
   "Well-" Daimian thought to himself for a quick second. "That was a pretty good prank she pulled on you're ass, I didn't think she's pull it off."
   "What?"
   "Yeah, this whole thing was just a little joke. I mean, hiring one of her buddies from work to scare the shit out of us with guns and bodies, that's what she was really paying you for. Ain't that right, Chell?" Daimian knocked on the passenger seat's headrest, causing Chell to tense up and quickly nod her head.
   "You bitches," Alex said, getting into the driver's seat and buckling her seat belt. "Next year, I'm blowing this out of the water with your all's prank. Now how about we get us some Thai and go back to Dan's house for a nice, relaxing Hallows Ween?"
   Alex turned the key and drove off before Daimian looked back to see the police going to the scene. Shaking his head, he turned back to the front. "That sounds good to me."