A/N: Okay, so recently (as in Monday) we turned in our Psychology midterm papers, and mine had been on serial killers. So for several months I've been researching serial killers and reading books, and one of the books I used as a source sounded suspiciously like a how-to book, only for serial killers! And then I was thinking 'man, if some wacko got a hold of this we'd be in serious trouble' when I thought of a circumstance like the one in 'A Piece of the Action' and thought 'shoot, what if a whole planet adopted this book?' Thus, this story was born.

Happy Halloween.

Kirk knew that being stuck inside the same walls for days and weeks and years on end could get very, very boring. To alleviate the tedium, he allowed simple decorations and celebrations among the crew for almost any holiday.

Especially Halloween.

Cobweb decorations as well as a few other spooky items were found in the rec room, halls, gym, and pretty much everywhere on the ship. There were even simple costumes, though the uniform was always worn, of course. Kirk passed a woman who walked by with zombie make-up decorating her whole face, but her red uniform and black boots stayed immaculate. He smiled to himself. It was the little things in life that made it great.

He reached his destination, Sickbay, and found that the nurses had taken over. Black and orange streamers lined a few tables, cut-out bats studded the walls and someone had moved McCoy's skull collection out into the open. Nurse Chapel walked by with tiger face-paint and another nurse wearing fairy wings over her uniform.

Kirk had seen stranger.

He found McCoy in his office, looking over a pad and wearing a cowboy hat. "Getting in the spirit of the season, Bones?" he joked, entering.

The doctor looked up from his seat and then glanced out at the main of Sickbay. "More like it sprung up around me."

Kirk chuckled. "Where'd you get the hat?"

Surprised, McCoy glanced up. "Oh, this. Chapel and Uhura got it for me on Centaurus."

"You asked them for a cowboy hat?"

McCoy narrowed his eyes at him. "No. I'm not sure why they bought it. All they said was that it had something to do with fantasies and three too many drinks."

Kirk considered this for a moment. "That might explain why they bought me a tricorn hat."

McCoy shrugged. "So, what can I help you with?"

"Just letting you know that we're beaming down on Occlutan shortly. Be at the transporter room in 15 minutes."

"Will do."

Occlutan seemed to be a normal planet still protected by the Prime Directive. However, aspects of their society confused Spock. Further research and censor scans revealed little evidence of a government, yet the whole place was a structured environment and gave no semblance of an anarchy. Doing research revealed that one other ship, the Apex, had visited the planet long before the Prime Directive. Spock was beginning to think that some form of contamination had occurred.

And so with a bit of prodding, he, Kirk, and McCoy were beaming down to investigate.

"This seems like a normal town," McCoy commented. They walked through a suburban development. Nobody was outside, though, despite the fair weather. "What exactly has got you on edge, Spock?"

"I am uncertain for the time being, Doctor," was the reply. Spock was busy with his tricorder. "Yet from the patterns observed it would seem impossible that these people could have worked together long enough to build-"

He was interrupted by a terrible yowling. They started to see a cat race by in front of them, screeching at the top of its lungs.

It was on fire.

"What the-!"

A little boy appeared from where the cat had. He was laughing so hard he could barely breathe. He stopped when he noticed the three men.

"Who are you?"

Kirk groped for words for a moment. "I'm… Kirk, he's Spock, and he's McCoy."

"Spock," the boy said, wrinkling his nose. "That's a funny name. Where'd you get it?"

"My parents," Spock said after a moment.

The boy glowered and he crossed his arms. "I know that, I'm not an idiot. If you want to be such a smart aleck then go get Baker to cut your tongue. It'll be twice the fun, then."

The men grew confused as the boy laughed a little more. "Twice the…" Kirk trailed. What did the kid mean by that?

The boy changed the subject. "Where ya from?"

"Oh, far away," Kirk said vaguely. "We're just passing through."

"Oh, travelers?" he brightened. He giggled some more, growing excited. "I'll get to see Harris go postal again!" He ran back behind the house, leaping over the bushes.

They stayed silent for a moment. "I'm worried about that child's parents, Jim," McCoy said.

Kirk nodded slowly. "Let's keep moving."

The left the neighborhood and walked further into town. Here there were people on the streets. Some examined store windows, others seemed to have a set destination in mind. It seemed normal, when there was a crash and an alarm started blaring.

They whirled and saw two people flee from a store with some items. The window had been smashed to pieces. There were some screams and curse words from the owner, but once they were out of sight he relaxed and simply started sweeping the broken glass away. The men glanced at each other and approached him.

"Sir," Kirk said. "Were, were you just robbed?"

The man looked up at them. "Yes, what's the matter with that?"

Kirk blinked. "Well, aren't you going to go after them?"

He chuckled. "No, I was the same at that age. Let them be. Besides, I can get robbery compensation, and my friend Denny will get paid from his job."

"What does Denny do?" Spock asked.

"He fixes windows." The man said so casually, so off the shoulder that it seemed the most natural thing in the world. He went back to sweeping the glass and they slowly backed down the street.

"Fascinating," Spock said. He observed the rest of the street. "The entire economy seems to be built around crime."

"That's not exactly a good thing, Spock," McCoy pointed out.

Kirk was looking somewhere else. "There's a restaurant, I wonder if they have a dine-and-ditch policy," he mused. They hurried over, noticing some cold stares from the pedestrians. Kirk pushed open the doors and walked in. And stopped cold.

"My, God…"

There were bodies hanging from the ceiling. There were bodies hanging from the ceiling. Some were complete, others had limbs missing or skin peeled off. Toes were stubs and teeth rotted. The ones with heads were suspended from a rope around their necks. The ones without heads were held up by their wrists, arms, knees, or whatever was left. Kirk tried not to gag.

A waitress came up. "Hello! Select your item and you can look at our menus on how you would like it prepared," she said sweetly.

"You can't be serious…" McCoy replied, feeling faint.

Her look turned disapproving. "You're new here?" she asked bluntly, all pretense of sweetness dropped.

Kirk could only nod.

She sighed and walked away from them, shaking her head. "Harris'll give us a show tonight," she muttered.

"Jim," McCoy said. "I think we should go."

"I agree." Kirk took out his communicator. "Kirk to- Spock, what are you doing?"

"I believe I have located the main town building on my tricorder. If there is a government, it would be there, or at least provide some answers."

"Answers!?" McCoy fumed. "These people are madmen! Do you really want to stay here longer than necessary?"

"Doctor, we have phasers and Starfleet training to protect ourselves from these people's… habits." He glanced back at the corpses.

"Spock, if all this is due to contamination," Kirk bit his lip against what he had to say next. "Then we need to fix it so… lead the way."

"Jim!"

"Bones, you can always beam back to the ship," he stated.

McCoy glanced back at the bodies. "No. No, somebody needs to make sure you two don't end up like that." He exited with them.

The walk to the townhouse was unnerving, to say the least. The unnatural silence was occasionally broken by a bloodcurdling scream. They saw at least two kidnappings and were powerless to prevent it- the cars sped off at breathtaking speeds. Several alleys were blood-splashed and they would occasionally find a piece of a person here and there. But nobody seemed to care.

The townhouse was practically empty. Spock found a mural depicting the history of the planet. There were images of farming Indians, the industrial age, and then some figures in interesting clothes.

"It must be the crew of the Apex," Kirk realized. The painting depicted shaking hands and several stacks of books. Kirk pointed at that. "They might have left one behind."

"Indeed." Spock looked beneath the painting as some documents in a glass case. One caught his eye. Peering closer, he read the title.

Serial Killers, by Anthony Hopkins. Published 2256, 8th Edition.

"Joy," McCoy said.

I don't know any Anthony Hopkins's; it's just a random name I made up. I'm not totally satisfied with this chapter; it's really hard to write about a serial killer society (let's face it; it's self-destructive and they'll all kill each other). Maybe the next chapter will be better.

Also, depending on how the next chapter goes, the rating may go up to M. I'm still not sure just yet.

Please review!