AN: I wrote this just for fun and hope you enjoy it! There's two chapters to it and the second one will be posted Thursday.

Chapter 1

It was a dark and stormy night, wind drove the rain into the sides of Tony Stark's Malibu house from every angle, lightening streaked across the sky followed by a roll of thunder. A water spout could be seen in the distance.

"I thought you said it never rains in California." Steve said as he leveled a look at Tony as the lights flickered.

"It usually never does, honest, and certainly never on Halloween. I can't remember the last time it rained on Halloween…must've been over ten years ago…" Tony shrugged, "Sorry Cap, I don't control the weather around here, although..."

All eyes turned to Thor who sat on the couch with a plate piled high with pizza, "Why are you all looking at me?" He asked, turning his attention away from his food.

"Because you can control the weather, right?" Clint asked, "Can't you make it stop raining? We were going to go to the horror nights."

"I'm sorry, friends, but since I did not make this storm, I cannot make it stop. Not all storms are caused by me, but I am flattered that you believe so." Thor gave an apologetic look, "Why can we not go to this horror night? It is but a bit of rain."

"Because this is California, no one knows how to drive in the rain, and I'm not wrecking my car because some idiot has to slam on their brakes because there's an inch of water in the intersection. Besides, there could be a landslide, if there's not been one already, and PCH would get shut down, then we'd have to spend the night cooped up in my car, you get the picture. And um, that" Tony pointed out the window, "isn't a little bit of rain." With a sigh, he reached for a bottle of rum.

"Why are we even here then? We could've stayed in New York…" Clint grumbled.

"We are here because Tony promised to take us to the haunted house-"

"It's not a haunted house, Natasha, it's Horror Nights." Tony corrected her.

Natasha rolled her eyes at him, "Anyways, maybe next year. Let's just watch a scary movie instead."

"Yes, scary movies! Excellent idea, I should have thought of it myself." Tony lit up, "I've got just the one! Did any of you ever see the Paranormal Activity movies?"

"Para what?" Thor asked, "Sounds like something Loki would be interested in…"

At that the lights flickered again.

"No, never had the chance, we're always busy with some mission." Clint said, "Hey, where's your Halloween candy? Who has fruit at a Halloween party. Oh wait, this really isn't a party because we weren't supposed to be cooped up in your house, we were supposed to be out there, having fun as ghosts and zombies jumped out at us with bloody knives. Don't you ever look at the weather forecast?"

Tony shook his head at Clint, "First, I don't have any candy because Pepper wouldn't let me buy any, said I'll get diabetes or something…Second, I do look at the forecast occasionally but most of the time when they say a storm is coming, it never does, so I didn't pay attention this time."

Bruce spoke up next, "As for the movies, no, I've never seen them. As for the candy thing, Pepper's right, you could get diabetes, but you could've bought some candy secretly. What's Halloween without any candy? You don't have to eat tons of it, but at least a little bit…"

"Do I even want to see these movies?" Steve asked dubiously.

"Of course you want to see them!" Tony said and instructed Jarvis to start it.

"I don't know guys, they don't sound too wholesome…" Steve looked around but no one else seemed to mind.

Everyone screamed at the end of the first one, then looked around at each other as Jarvis started the second one. No one wanted to admit it but they were all rather freaked out. Halfway through, the power went out and the Avengers were left sitting in the dark while the storm raged on outside and the surf pounded the rocks below the mansion.

"Great…just great…" Tony muttered, "Jarvis, any hope in getting the power back on?"

A worrying silence came from the AI. "Uh, Jarvis? Any minute now…come back to me. Don't fail me now…" Tony waited but Jarvis wasn't responding, "Damn…something's wrong."

"What could it be?" Steve asked.

"Well, with any luck it won't be a demon like in the movie." Thor said.

"Don't you have flashlights?" Natasha asked, "You know, for instances like this?"

"Yeah, I do…uh…I just don't know where they're at. Jarvis knows. But he's currently out of commission right now." Tony got up and attempted to make his way across the living room but stubbed his toe on the coffee table and cursed loudly.

"Sit down." Clint said, getting up, "Tell me where you think they are. I can see pretty good in the dark."

"Hey, who touched me?" Natasha demanded.

"Oh, was that you? Sorry…or not." Clint said with a grin you could hear in his voice.

"You guys…why are the street lights on?" Steve asked, standing by one of the windows.

"What? Are you trying to tell me that we're the only ones without power?" Tony asked, "That's not how it's supposed to be! My house is supposed to be the only one with power when everyone else doesn't have any!"

"Something is wrong…I can sense it." Thor said quietly.

"Oh yeah? Your spidey sense is tingling?" Tony said with a smirk.

With furrowed brows, Thor shook his head, "I do not know what a spidey sense is, and I do not believe I have one. And I feel nothing tingling…"

"This is how all those horror movies start." Bruce said slowly, keeping his voice low, "Raging storm, power goes out, we're all trapped inside with the killer."

"Killer?" Tony asked.

"Or it turns out that one of us is the killer." Bruce continued.

"It was that unholy movie, you've invited evil into this house." Thor's voice was very serious and everyone got goose bumps.

"Nah, I already invited one monster into the house and there's no room for more." Tony laughed, "Hey, Bruce, how's it going?"

"Very funny, Tony." Bruce said.

"Just find the damned flashlights!" Natasha snapped, "Now I know how Fury feels...it's like a bunch of kids…"

Suddenly everyone was on their feet, bumping into each other while trying to search for the flashlights. A gust of cold air blew in and the front door slammed.

Jumping, Clint turned towards the door, a flashlight in hand, "Who was that?" He demanded. "Did someone just go outside?" Natasha asked.

"Let's do a headcount." Steve suggested, "Clint and Natasha are accounted for-"

"Unless someone's imitating their voices." Tony said with a grin.

"There's Tony, Bruce?" Steve shouted.

"Here." Bruce called from the kitchen, sounding like he had just taken a bite of something. "

Thor?"

"I am right here." Thor said.

"Did I miss anyone?" Steve asked.

"Nope." Tony said.

In the eerie silence that followed Clint shined the flashlight around the room and then they heard it. A child's laughter, it sounded like it came from another room.

"Okay…what the hell was that?" Tony demanded, stepping closer to the group, "And how many flashlights did you find?"

"That sounded like the laughter of a child, Tony." Thor said, "Have you never heard it before?"

"Um, yeah, I know what a kid laughing sounds like. But last time I checked, there were no kids in my house!"

"Yeah, that was really creepy." Bruce said, walking into the living room from the kitchen with one of the sandwiches that were left over from dinner, "But at least that means none of us will go on a killing spree. Tonight anyways, there's always tomorrow…"

Clint handed a flashlight to Natasha, "There were only two. Nice planning, Tony. Aren't you supposed to be prepared for earthquakes and things like that?"

Another door slammed shut somewhere upstairs before Tony had a chance to respond to that.

"Someone is in your house." Thor said.

"Yeah…we kinda guessed that by now…" Clint said.

There was more laughter and the sound of a ball bouncing down the stairs.

"Shit." Tony breathed as Clint, and Natasha shined their flashlights at the bottom of the stairs and a yellow ball bounced into the room. They followed it with the flashlights and it came to rest at the backdoor.

Then there was the sound of footsteps, quiet ones. Everyone turned around only quick enough to see the back of a little girl in a tattered white dress with brown curls dash down the hall.

"What was that?" Thor demanded.

"Looked like a little girl to me, haven't you ever seen one before?" Natasha motioned for them to follow the girl.

Just as they were about to move, Tony screamed.

"What? Did you see something?" Clint asked and then chuckled, "And man, you kind of scream like a girl." "

Something touched me!" Tony shouted, rubbing the back of his neck frantically.

"What was it?" Bruce asked.

"How should I know? It felt like a spider web or hair or something!"

"I apologize, it might have been my hair." Thor told him.

"Keep your hair to yourself, Goldilocks…" Tony muttered, then realized that Thor wasn't standing anywhere near enough to him that his hair would touch him, a shiver went down his spine but he said nothing.

The six mighty heroes stood there, huddled together, "Alright, we should split up, let's find out what's in here." Clint said, "I'll go with Tony and Thor."

"And I'll take Bruce and Steve." Natasha said.

So they split up and began, slowly, to go through the house. Every now and then they heard the girl laughing, and every now and then something would touch someone on the back of the neck or the arm. It was like a tendril of mist. Cold and ethereal.

"I gotta go to the bathroom." Tony said, "You guys wait outside."

"Yeah, because we were going to go in with you." Clint said with sarcasm.

"I bet girls would, because they'd be too scared to go in alone and too scared to wait in the hall."

Tony laughed as he went into the bathroom and as he was washing his hands once he was finished, he saw a reflection of a pale faced child with dark circles under her eyes and a purple-blue hue to her lips, starring at him in the mirror as soon as he saw her, she grinned. Screaming, Tony turned around to find nothing there as he frantically tried to open the door. With his hands still wet, he couldn't open it right away and pounded on it instead, "Open the door, let me out! Now!"

"What happened?" Clint shouted as he opened the door and Tony practically fell out.

"I saw…" He gasped for air, "I saw…her…it…in the mirror."

"Man, this house is freaky. Remind me never to visit again." Clint stepped around Tony and inspected the bathroom, "Nothing here." He announced, standing in the doorway. He then frowned when he saw the way Thor and Tony were looking at something behind him, eyes wide with fright. The skin between his shoulder blades tingled, "Something's behind me, right?"

"Yes." Tony said softly.

"A little girl…" Thor whispered.

Clint slowly turned, flashlight in hand but nothing was there save for a wisp of mist, "Let's go see if the others found anything yet." That was when they heard it. The bloodcurdling, high pitched scream that belonged to a child.

They nearly broke their necks getting down the stairs.