DISCLAIMER: I own what is my own.

A Romance Darkly

By Corvus no Genmu

Wednesday Addams was not a happy child by nature. In fact, she was rather morbid and had enough emotion to fill a raven's feather, nothing more. However, even with her morbidness, Wednesday could still feel and right now, she felt anger. Anger towards her newly born younger sibling, anger towards the nanny, Debbie, and her enticement towards her Uncle Fester, and anger towards her parents for believing Debbie's words of her and Pugsley wanting to go to summer camp of all things. She had already encountered one of the sunnier kids, the ones that were filled with bright teeth, wide smiles, and hopeful eyes, and already she was taking a swig of poison for some menial attempt of escape.

That was when she saw him.

He was standing alone, his back to a large tree whose branches were devoid of leaves. His parents, if there were there at all, weren't around and he kept his eyes more on the sky than anything else. His clothes were patch-worked, though not as much as his top hat which looked to have seen much better centuries, and his face was deathly pale. His hair was cut short though some of it did dangle in his eyes a bit, and it was his eyes that captured most of Wednesday's attention. They were a deep purple, almost black, and they seemed to draw her into a dark pit with absolutely no escape within their colored orbs.

She continued to stare until she became aware of how his eyes were now focused on her own. Blinking once, she tilted her head slightly to see if he could hold her gaze. No one save her parents were ever able to look into her eyes for long without looking away at least once so you can imagine her loathing when it was she who had to look away first. The boy's thin lips pulled back into a smile before he moved to stand before her, his eyes alit with something that Wednesday could not immediately identify.

"Greetings, Dark Lady." His voice, soft as silk yet containing a fine knifelike edge, seemed to echo in the air. "Would it be wrong of me to ask for your name before I present my own?"

"… My name is Addams. Wednesday Addams." Her eyes were hard, waiting to hear the same remark that usually came with the introduction of her name. 'Was her middle name Thursday?'

"Ah, 'Wednesday's child was so full of woe'…" He smiled and leaned forward slightly. "And yet I see surprise in your eyes, Dark Lady."

"Of course," she said, hesitation nonexistent in her voice. "It is not often that I meet someone whose knowledge is beyond that of a child's."

"Ah, flattery." The boy smiled and tipped his hat. "You give me too much credit, Dark Lady."

Wednesday's eyes narrowed. Why was he calling her that? Instead of voicing this question she asked him another. "What is your name?"

"For now, you may call me Samhain."

"Samhain?" she whispered, her eyes narrowing further. The name sounded familiar to her but before she could ask any more of him, her mother called her back while Samhain himself began to walk away with a simple wave back to her.

"See you next time, Dark Lady."

Indeed he did, the next day in fact. The two camp councilors had managed to convince her and Pugsley to get dressed in their swimsuits and accompany the rest of their housemates to the lake so that they might practice life-saving drills. Samhain was there, standing next to Pugsley, and was dressed in nothing more than a pair of black swim trucks that were decorated with crossbones and his top hat. Though her expression remained the same, Wednesday could easily be described as appreciative of the lack of clothing Samhain was wearing alongside most of the other girls who were quite vocal of their appreciation. Had she the time to, Wednesday would have taught the girls the meaning of fear.

"Okay campers!" shouted Councilor Gary with an excited air that sickened Wednesday. "Today, we're going to practice our life-saving maneuvers and—" Councilor Gary then took notice of Samhain's raised hand. "Yes, Samhain?"

"I would like to request that I be excluded from this exercise."
"Why? Can't you swim?" The tone of the question was nice but behind it, Wednesday could easily hear that taunting. If he took that same tone with her, she would make him regret every having her at his camp.

"That is not why." Samhain's eyes were narrowed into thin slits; he did not miss the hidden taunt in Gary's voice. "I am allergic to this form of water."

"Oh really?" asked Gary, sounding interested but still with a mix of disbelief. "Then why are you dressed for a swim?"

"To prove my point." Samhain kneeled down and glared down at the water with an expression of distaste before lowering his arm in its crystalline waters. The moment his fingers came into contact with the water, there came a loud hiss as thick plumes of steam began to rise upwards but Samhain continued to lower his arm up to his elbow. The steam got so thick that, for a moment, the girls couldn't even see Samhain from their side of the dock until Gary shouted for Samhain to stop. The steam dispersed slowly to reveal Samhain, still on his knees, holding out his right arm that dripped small droplets of blood, the skin severely burned especially on his hand.

"Believe me now?"

Even as he was ushered away to the medical hut, Wednesday's eyes never left Samhain's form. What kind of boy was he to willingly expose himself to such levels of pain and not break a sweat? Who was he that he could keep the same face as she did? How could he be allergic to water of all things? Where did he come from that such things as this were common place?

Why was he here?

It would be a few days later until Wednesday would see Samhain again in the surprising fashion. She and her brother had been 'punished' to the 'Happy Cabin' (as the councilors called it) for lacking family spirit and had to spend the entire day in there, surrounded by fluffy toys, posters of world peace, and, worst of all, PINK. It was instantly decided that they had to leave both to save their Uncle Fester and their insanity. Dressed in identical ninja suits, the pair made their way across the grounds, both confident of their invisibility and their skills in the ancient arts of ninjitsu. When they had arrived at the large fence that was the boundary line between freedom and torture of the most unpleasant sort, Wednesday was about to use her brother as a spring board when they heard a voice whisper out from the darkness.

"Konba wa, Yami-dono."

"Who's there?" hissed Wednesday.

"Who, what, where, and how? Which is the right question?" A towering form stood just outside the moon's thin beams of light, gazing down at the siblings with shining emerald eyes like fire. "Why, I believe, is the better question to ask, Dark Lady." The behemoth stepped forward to reveal none other than Samhain, eyes normal and height slightly above Wednesday's own. "So tell me my dear, why are you escaping the camp in such an oriental fashion? Surely there are more arcane ways of travel?"

Whatever Wednesday's answer was going to be was stopped before it was even formed in her mind by the loud siren and flashing lights originating from the camp. Soon, the trio was surrounded by the entire camp and faced by its two councilors.

"Well, we're off to a bad start here Miss Wednesday, Mister Pugsley," said Gary. His female counterpart, Becky, stared at Samhain with something akin to disappointment.

"And you, Samhain. I'm surprised at you."

Samhain shrugged. "I figured that my time here was over. I demonstrated one of my allergies already after all."

"Oh? Are you allergic to sunshine, fun and family as well?" she asked, her voice matching Gary's own in terms of double-meaning.

"I might as well be." Samhain shrugged once more.

"I think they should be punished!" exclaimed Cindy, the camper with the brownest nose. "Punished! Punished!" The other campers joined her only to be silenced by Gary and Becky.

"Here at Camp Chippewa we do not punish! However, there is one thing that I do believe will help our three grumpy gusses."

Pugsley nervously looked at the object in Gary's hand. "What?"

"Kumbaya my Lord, Kumbaya my Lord, Kumbaya my Lord, Kumbaya!" Wednesday's eyes widened and she started to back away from the smiles, the cheerfulness, of the campers when she felt a steady hand upon her shoulder. Glancing to her left, Wednesday saw Samhain standing beside her, his eyes glaring out at the camp.

"Never show fear to those who do not comprehend its ferocity." Samhain whispered to her. "Stand proud, Dark Lady."

They had gotten away without severe punishment; all three having been banned from the next day's activities not that any of them cared about it. So far, Pugsley was spending his time trying to forget the traumatizing objects inside the cabin as well as the utterly revolting song the campers had sung the previous night. Unlike her brother, Wednesday had already put the previous day's events behind her and was focusing more on trying to find the one who seemed to fill her with more questions than even she could answer. However, finding him proved to be a difficult task in its own right. She had already searched for him amongst the grounds where the 'normal' campers wandered about in like headless cockroaches and yet she could not find him. This actually pleased her in a sense, seeing as she wouldn't be caught dead in such happy and sun-filled places.

If she could help it anyway…

Finding no success in searching the places where she wouldn't go, Wednesday began to look in the places that she would and found him in the first place. The small section of the lake that wasn't tainted by the flesh of humans, where only nature and its creatures were allowed to reign with complete lack of care against man and their machines. The sun's light made parts of the lake look aglow with golden fire, giving it an ethereal look that made Wednesday's lips twitch slightly. Samhain was sitting there on a log just on the lake's edge, staring out at the water with a plain expression adorning his face. She sat down next to him, leaving a large space between them, and stared out at the lake. Silence reigned for some time before she decided it was time to speak.

"What are you really allergic to?"

"Besides running water?" asked Samhain, his eyes still on the lake. "Holly, oak, a few other plants… Oh, and silver. You don't want to know what happens when I eat something using silver utensils."

"What?" She glanced at him to see his dark eyes staring deep into her own.

"I die." His eyes returned to the lake while her own remained on his face. Slowly, she turned her eyes back to the lake as well while also moving close enough so that her hip and shoulder came into contact with his own. Samhain glanced down at her for a second before gazing out at the lake, a small grin playing on his lips.

It was dark both inside and outside the medical cabin, night having fallen some hours ago. The councilors had long since retired to bed as well as the campers accepted and not save for two darklings that even now were maneuvering about the dark cabin, each trying to catch sight of the other and not entirely willing to break the ghostly silence that came from the night. However, time was something neither of them had for like all children, they too needed the comfort of sleep both short and eternal.

"Where are you?" A female voice, harder than steel and yet softer than silk.

"Here…" A voice, obviously male, whispered out from the darkness. Soft silk underplayed with a knife's edge accompanying a towering monster with eyes of flame. "By the skeleton…"

The clouds enshrouding the moon's pale light parted ways, revealing a grisly human skeleton and two young darklings standing on either side of it, their eyes locked on the other's own.

"I found your note in my pocket knife. How'd you get it in there anyway?" he asked her.

"That doesn't matter," she whispered. "I have a question to ask you. Do you believe in the existence of evil?"

"Do lemmings believe in suicide?"

"Listen, my uncle is getting married to a horrible woman. A lady in a white uniform."

"A nurse?"

"No. A nanny. … I've got a pass. … Do you want to come?"

Dark orbs blinked twice before a pale face leaned forward, deeper into the pale moonlight, tilting slightly. Eyes like obsidian stared into her, gauging both the question and the asker. "Are you asking me as a date?"

"No." The voice was harder than before, eyes shut to his own and yet staring back with equal strength.

Silence.

"It would be my honor."

It was indeed one of the darkest of matrimonial ceremonies, the only light coming from black candles and the white dress of the bride. Freaks, monsters, psychos… they made up the entire gathering and yet many of them were nothing more than human with strange mental traits and those that were not human in body were more human in soul than most humans. Amongst the masses of family, there was one who was not, outside the bride. Samhain stood out amongst them not for his pale face, of which there were many, nor of his entirely black and rather haphazard attire, indeed much family lived in the coffins they were supposed to rest in and couldn't help looking worse for wear. No, it was none of those mediocrities that had him standing out amongst them like an angel in Hell. It was both his standing of being outside the family and the strange attraction that most of them could see and feel coming from him and the girl who had invited him.

Wednesday.

Even though most of the family thought him nothing more than a lost or extended cousin, they could sense there was something unique about him in the way that made them unique only far stronger than there own eccentricity. Most of them passed such thoughts easily and focused more on the wedding up to its finale where the newest member of the Addams Family, Debbie, tossed the wedding bouquet. There was a maddened grabbing at the bouquet until the unmarried women back away to reveal that it was none other than Wednesday who had managed to catch it.

Samhain gulped slightly and glanced up at the stars. "Now you're next to be married."

"It's not binding." Her voice sounded strained in her denial.

A relative, a female cousin, glared down at the girl that had stolen her chance of wedded bliss and muttered under her breath, "Tramp."

It took a moment for the relative to fully realize that something strange was occurring beyond the usual strangeness that came with her beloved family. Everyone save herself seemed frozen in the position they were in, even the midnight winds seemed to have paused in their dark flight across the world. Bats hung in the open air in mid-flight as a cricket lay half-eaten in the jaws of a tarantula. Indeed, time itself had frozen everything save her and the one who stopped it in the first place.

It was standing in the place where Samhain once stood but in no way could this creature be the boy that Wednesday was suddenly enamored with. It stood high above her, its glowing eyes gleaming in the fires of the jack-o'-lantern that served for its head. It was wearing a tattered trench coat with the sleeves cut at the elbow to allow its long wooden arms to extend past the length of a normal human arm. A pair of battered jeans adorned his wooden legs while his feet were adorned with a pair of heavy work boots. To top it off, he was wearing a large fedora that had a raven's feather sticking out from the side. The fanged grin adorning the creature's face lengthened as it leaned forward so that the sickles that served as the creature's fingers could touch her face just enough to mark her skin.

"Say such a thing again," The creature's voice, while male, sounded like cobwebs being made, echoed with the sounds of the green fire inside its head. "And I will show you such fear that the only comfort you shall find will be a bottomless pit." The creature leaned forward so that its face was just a breath's length from her own. "But even that won't save you."

Wednesday glanced next to the boy beside her, noting the strange smile adorning his face even as the female members of her family tried to support the relative who had suddenly fainted right out of the blue. She pushed the questioning aside for now and was content to watch her Uncle and… Aunt drive away in the limo, the tin cans rattling against the ground and the corpse that was dragged alongside them.

"He's doomed." Wednesday stated as she glanced once more at the cover of the postcard that her Uncle Fester had sent them. Instead of a dark murky swamp in the Florida Everglades or a deep dark pit in the western canyons there was bright sunlight shining down alongside a blue ocean with a white sandy beach adorning its side. To make it all the worse, there was a gaudy writing across the top saying, 'Getting a Tan in the Keys!' Samhain glanced back at her before being drawn back to the task at hand. Today was archery practice at Camp Chippewa and while many of the accepted children had easily shot the arrow in the target, few of the 'outcasts' could manage to string it properly with the injuries they had attained in the 'games' they participated in with their housemates.

It wasn't easy either with Councilor Gary being as patient as a child on Christmas morning.

"Go!" Samhain's eyes narrowed and he glared at the councilor for a second before shooting the arrow and grabbing two more arrows and shooting them one after the other. The trio of arrows impacted heavily against the target, almost knocking it over. Silence reigned from the campers and two councilors as they all stared at the target. The trio of arrows had landed no more than a hair's length apart from each other on the target's center.

"That's game." Samhain handed the bow to Pugsley and moved to stand behind Wednesday.

"Whoa to the public." Wednesday's voice echoed in the silence.

Samhain sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly. He and the two Addams kids were, once again, in the Happy Cabin this time for much more serious reasons. Councilor Gary had decided to make a play about Thanksgiving of all things and had decided to cast the in group of kids, mostly the girls, as the main set of pilgrims, leaving the outcasts as the Indians with Wednesday as their leader. When she found out, and got over the shock, she immediately voiced her opinions of both the play and the play's creator/director and had, once again, gotten punished alongside her brother and Samhain to the Happy Cabin where they were being forced to watch movies of the most sunniest disposition.

Pugsley had gone into a state of shock at the mere mention of the names of the films and had already zoned out by the time they were halfway through with the first one. Wednesday had, thus far, been sitting strong against the onslaught of music, smiles, and overall happy-endings of the films while Samhain remained in the same relaxed, if slightly bored, position he had been in since he was forced into the cabin.

"Overall this version of 'The Little Mermaid' is okay in terms of animation and story-readjustment but the original was much better." Wednesday quirked an eyebrow and turned her head to look at Samhain.

"How could it be better?"

"Well, for one thing, the mermaid in question didn't have a soul." Samhain stated. "In fact, none of the mermaids and mermen had souls."

"… Tell me more."

"If that is what you wish." And so it went that Samhain would tell Wednesday the truthful version of the story of the Little Mermaid as well as the other dark stories written by Hans Christian Anderson, only silencing whenever the councilors came to check on them or to place the next film in. It wasn't until they were more than halfway through with 'Annie' when Wednesday spoke her anger towards the camp.

"This has got to stop. My brother is brain dead for sure now." Said brother could only drool in response.

"If he wasn't before," said Samhain, pushing the boy so that he lay on the floor. "No offense but has he had his brain removed before?"

"Five times but that isn't important. We have to get out of here and teach those councilors a lesson they'll never forget."

"I might have an idea but it would require you to sacrifice a great deal."

"A goat?"

"No. You'd have to smile."

"NO." Samhain flinched inwardly; Wednesday could be as intimidating as a demon when she really didn't want to do something, a trait that Samhain liked very much.

"Oh come on, Dark Lady. I saw your parents and relatives; they smile thus you can as well."

"I. Don't. Smile." Wednesday looked fit to kill him at any given second.

"Fine, fine." Samhain shrugged and turned his back on her, a move a rare few would make though none had ever made the move he was about to do. "If you're that afraid to smile we'll just have to have Pugsley do it." A hand grasped his shoulder tighter than a vice and forced him to turn around to stare into angered eyes.

"What di you say?" A harsh whisper promising pain equal to Hell if the answer wasn't the right one.

"You're afraid to smile." A voice like silk containing no hidden edge with its placating nature. "It's perfectly okay to be afraid."

"I'm never afraid." Wednesday stated, her entire face etched in anger. "And most certainly not of a smile."

"Good!" Samhain wrapped an arm around her shoulders and leaned close so that his mouth was near her ear as he whispered, "And think of it this way, to see one such as yourself smile… it will certainly disturb if not frighten the other campers." The cold anger melted away into nothingness before a smile of the most sadistic nature grew along her pale face.

It was quite a play really. It is not everyday that half the cast decides to turn into a mob of cannibalistic headhunters bent on terrorizing and destroying the entire camp. The two councilors, while alive, were already tied up and were being cooked while many of the in-crowd were being chased through the forest with arrows flying through the sky after them. The only area of peace in the large campgrounds was the same spot in which Pugsley and Wednesday had tried to escape once before. This time, both Addams were on the opposite side with one, Pugsley, off getting the getaway car while Wednesday stood staring at Samhain with disappointed eyes.

"Aren't you coming?"

"Nay, Dark Lady. I have my own family to return to as you do. However, I promise to meet thee at thy home when the time is right."

"You won't forget?"

"No, Dark Lady. I could never forget someone such as yourself."

"You couldn't?"

"Beautiful, Darkly beautiful. Never lost but never found. Singing life without a sound. Darkling waters wrapped around. The silence of the music of the Beautiful. The Darkly Beautiful. Branching fingers reach and fly. And dancing, linger in the sky. The starry wind, the moon and I. Entangled by the music of the Beautiful. So Darkly Beautiful.

"It only takes a little time to lose your soul. When it smiles at the truth that it's been told. It's so easy just to stop and watch it go. Joining all the other fallen leaves. Of other lives and finished dreams. And nakedly I find it seems. The only thing I know. Is that you're Beautiful. So Darkly Beautiful! And your dark and moving mystery. Defies with its simplicity. The lie that says our lives end in the ground. The sweetest song is sung without a sound. In the silence of the music of the Beautiful. The Darkly Beautiful."

Silence.

"Did you compose all that on your own?"

"For a Dark Lady, I did indeed."

"Samhain." Wednesday leaned forward as did Samhain and, together, their lips touched in the form of a darkling's first kiss. They separated slowly, unsure if they wanted to truly part ways even though they knew they had to. "I will never forget you."

"Nor I you my Dark Lady." A car pulled up with Pugsley in the driver's seat. He honked to get their attention and just for the fun of it. "Go, you have your family to save."

"Goodbye, Samhain."

He watched her as she left alongside her brother and continued to watch for some time before stepping back from the metallic fence, a soft sigh issuing from him even as bony wings sprouted out from his back. A obsidian shadow passed over him to reveal the creature that had frightened Wednesday's relative to the point of death. In his true form at last, Samhain smiled a sad smile before flapping his leathery wings and taking off into the expanse of the forest. His time in the world of humans and normalcy was over.

For now.

A few months later… on All Hallow's Eve…

Wednesday stood amongst her relatives as they celebrated the holiday they all looked forward to every year. Normally, Wednesday would be amongst the other darklings, helping them dig up old family so that they too could join in the festivities. Now however, her attention was focused more on the boy beside her. She didn't know when or how he had arrived but there Samhain was, standing beside her as though the time between them was nonexistent, which, in a way, was for an Addams.

"It's been a while, Samhain. I thought you had died."

"No. Death is a good uncle of mine really." Samhain replied, a small smile on his ivory face. A sudden feeling in his hand made the boy glance down to see Wednesday's hand clasping his own. His eyes narrowed before he finally made the decision to the question that had been plaguing him since he and Wednesday had gone their separate ways back at Camp Chippewa. "Follow me." Samhain led Wednesday away from the large cemetery and into the dark expanse of the fog-covered woods that she and Pugsley had often explored in their younger years.

"Have you ever wondered where holidays come from, Wednesday? Holidays like this one?"

"Not really."

"Well then," Samhain stopped before a tree with a large jack-o'-lantern etched on its surface. "I believe it's time you begin."

And the door opened.

The sky was overcast with black clouds and fog crawled along the brittle grass like serpents, brushing enticingly against the bloodied red leaves that clung desperately to the shrubbery.

"Boys and girls of every age, wouldn't you like to see something strange…?"

An autumn wind rose to the sound of strings as gravestones burst forth from the earth, black shadows slinking along their surface. No shadow was alike to another but they all bore one similar trait. They were all monsters and were united together in a darkly harmonious song.

"Come with us and you will see; this, our world of Halloween…! This is Halloween! This is Halloween! Where pumpkins scream in the dead of night…!"

Soaring upwards from the mist was a casket of ghostly specters, too malformed from age to retain even a sliver of their mortal shell and now nothing more than pale wraiths of their former selves.

"This is Halloween, everybody make a scene…! Trick or treat till the neighbors gonna die of fright! It's our world, everybody scream in this world of Halloween…"

Their wailing accompaniment was enhanced by the screams of the unseen audience as a center stage twisted itself into a gothic monstrosity of masonry; a demonic fountain that gurgled with fresh ooze of fine, green pallor from a fang-lined maw. Shadows swirled around the fountain and changed it to a bed, covered in grime but it was not disgust in the eyes of the audience but terror as crimson eyes shined above a mouth full of gleaming fangs.

"I am the one hiding under your bed with teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red…!"

The eyes flashed and the bloodied light bathed the bed and twisted it upwards into a massive spiral staircase that provided shelter for a hulking brute twice the size of a full-grown man with a head of shaggy hair from where spiders descended in whole swarms and whose massive paws held no claw or finger but thrashing serpents. "I am the one hiding under your stairs with fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair…!"

"Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!"

The spiders took the sky, their threads ensnaring the staircase and forming a massive cocoon of thread that burst apart from the weight of three coffins that fell heavily to the earth before slowly arising upright as their lids opened to reveal a duo of nobility, both dressed like royalty of the night. Rings marked them wed in life and the crimson shine of their eyes and fanged grins bound them still amongst the undead. The woman stepped coyly forward, blonde hair cut in sharp tufts along the nape of her neck as she turned and beckoned to her husband, a towering man of crimson cloth whose broad, mad grin was unmatched.

"In this world we call home…" The woman hugged herself tight, an expression of ecstasy on her face as her husband's fang scratched lightly against the soft curve of her neck. "Everyone hail to the pumpkin song…"

They vanished into the sky as a swarm of bats as a dumpy figure shuffled forward, a stout looking wooden puppet that bore a genial face and a lopsided bowler hat.

"In this world, don't we love it now…? Everybody's waiting for the next surprise!" And surprise he did, spinning in place as he head twirled the opposite way to reveal a demon's face set in a ferocious scowl with amber eyes and bloodied teeth. He turned and gaze around the corner of the coffin as though suspecting another monster's approach. "Round that corner, man hiding in the trash can something's waiting to pounce and how you'll—"

"SCREAM!" The coffin exploded into splinters and the doll crumbled to pieces in fright as a massive creature that was both ape and fish alike and caught midway through evolution postured grandly, displaying a body thick with primordial muscle. "This is Halloween!"

"Red-n-Black, slimy green…" A splash of neon blue ooze and the second coffin crumbled to reveal neither man nor slime but a sick, gelatinous combination of both whose very touch caused the wood to simmer and melt like butter in a warm bowl of soup as its cyclopean red eye gleamed with childish delight. "Aren't you scared…?"

"Well, that's just fine!" Cackling interrupted the two monstrosities as hags rode in on their broomsticks, wrinkled skin covered in liver spots and warts. They rode above the duo laughing and coming dangerously close to taking more than a few heads with their passing as they rode up toward the sky where dark clouds parted to reveal a night sky empty of crimson and azure moons and replaced now by a single moon of pearly white. "Say it once, say it twice; take a chance and roll the dice… Ride with the moon in the dead of night…"

A massive tree ambled forward with leafless branches weighed by the hanging remains of the deceased now nothing more than bones bleached white from endless days underneath the sun. The tree turned to reveal that is bark was indeed worse than its bite for it bore the face of a warlock on its trunk, a face whose mouth opened to sing, "Everybody scream… Everybody scream!" before the bones of the hanged men interrupted it.

"In our world of Halloween!"

A clown giggled as he rolled past the tree, circling about on a unicycle that was clearly several sizes too small for one of his girth.

"I am the clown with the tear-away face…" The clown followed his words with a demonstration, tearing away his face and leaving a black void of nothing that spoke in opposite to his once high-pitched tone, "Here in a flash and gone with a trace!"

A flash of smoke and he was gone with naught but the wind blowing but it was not a natural wind…

"I am the "who" when you call, "Who's there?"…" There were hands in the wind, touching and caressing all that it blew across. "I am the wind blowing through your hair…"

The wind fell to shadows that rose and covered the pale moon to form a ghoulish face of a monster every child that has ever feared to close their eyes in the dead of night could recognize. A nightmare given life or a life made up of nightmares, it did not matter for this creature made them all feel like little children underneath its taunting gaze. "I am the shadow on the moon at night filling your dreams to the brim with fright…"

"This is Halloween, this is Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!"

A whole gang of freaks and weirdos entered the scene each more horrific than the last.

A young girl of teenage years dripping wet with lock, obsidian locks covering her face stepped forward to the head of the procession with an equally young man following along just behind with hands of scissors and blades, both singing with voices soft from where they stood on the crevice of life and death. "Tender lumplings everywhere life's no fun without a good scare…"

A woman with skin the color of freshly watered grass and hair colored like roses wearing nothing a suit of well placed vines and leaves that grew forth from her very skin whose adoring gaze was upon the thing beside her that was much a spider as it was a man, colored in hues of red and blue but whose eyes were dark, pitiless voids above a fanged mouth. Another woman stood taller than them both with hair molded in the shape of horns marching regally forth, her skin a sickly shade of pale green to the plant woman's own as a beady eyed man of the desert sands walked beside her, both bearing scepters of power, hers bearing a dragon's skull, his the hood of a cobra. "That's our job but we're not mean in our world of Halloween…"

"In this world, don't we love it now? Everybody's waiting for the next surprise!" The two-faced doll appeared on the scene once more, leading another procession that was made up of the earlier monsters and terrors with the largest of them dragging behind it a horse of straw upon which sat a simulacrum of Death; a scarecrow of mahogany limbs and head of a pumpkin which grinned with a mouthful of fangs and bore upon his back, wings of bone and aged leather that hung stiffly out to the sides.

The entire monstrous horde was now united in song and though their voices were as mismatched as ever, they made a strangely horrific harmony as they introduced the last but most important member of their wickedly large band as they stood around the gothic fountain, returned once more in its glory and gushing still with fresh slime. "Skeleton Jacque might catch you in the back and scream like a banshee, make you jump right out of your skin! This is Halloween, everyone scream won't ya please make way for a very special guy…?"

The simulacrum came alive as emerald fire ignited in his pumpkin skull and he leapt to his feet, dancing wildly atop the straw horse in moves impossible for any man to accomplish with whole limbs turning and twisting upon themselves in complicated motions as the chorus continued to sing, "Our man Jacque is King of the Pumpkin Patch, everyone hail to the Pumpkin King now…!" The Pumpkin King leaned back and turned sharply, breathing forth a cloud of flames that engulfed him as he leapt into the air to dive into the fetid ooze of the grisly fountain and disappear entirely. "This is Halloween, this is Halloween… Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!"

The youngest of the creepers and jeepers, the drowned girl and the scissor-handed boy, grasped the edge and peered deep into the ooze as though trying to spot him. "In this world we call home, everyone hail to the pumpkin song… La la la la-la la… Halloween…"

From the ooze, a form rose, a familiar yet still frightening sight amongst the crowd for the spectators knew him for who he was, especially the pair whom had stood throughout the entire performance silently and never once blinking not for fear but of desire to not miss a single ghastly sight.

"La la la la-la la… Halloween… La la la la-la la… Halloween… La la la la-la la… Halloween… La la la la-la la la-la la wheeeee!"

Samhain's grin was a perfect copy to that of the Pumpkin King's own as he inclined his head to the young lady at his side. "So which was it to you…? A trick… or a treat…?"

Fin