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“Hey, kiddo, ready to go?” Maze called as she strode into the room, then stopped in her tracks. Trixie was sat on her bed in jeans and a T-shirt. “Where’s your costume?”
The young girl’s mouth formed a silent oh, and she looked awkwardly a the floor. “I’m sorry Maze, I didn’t know you were coming over.”
“Of course I’m coming over, it’s Halloween. We’re going trick or treating, that’s what we do every year.” Trixie looked up, her face wrinkled into a slightly embarrassed frown. “We’re not going trick or treating? How come?”
“Because I’m eleven, and that’s practically a teenager, and trick or treating is for kids.”
“Seriously? Who’s too old for candy and free money?” Maze asked, confounded.
“It’s just, there’s this party some of my friends are having, and Mom said she would take me.”
“Huh.”
“I’m sorry, Maze. But it’s not like we made a specific plan or anything…”
“Sure we did. First time we went, you said ‘This is so awesome we should do this every year from now on,’ and I said ‘Okay deal but only if we split the profits.’ Or something.”
“But Maze, all the really popular girls are going to be at this party! And the invite list is really exclusive. If I duck out now I’ll be doomed to being a total geek forever!”
“Okay,” she huffed, “I suppose if your popularity depends on it. Just don’t let those girls give you any shit, I’ve seen enough of their kind, and they get their just desserts. If they don’t like you, that’s their loss.”
“Thanks Maze.”
“Whatever. See ya later, kid.”
She made her way to Lux, hoping to distract herself from the rejection by stealing Lucifer’s booze and admiring the inevitable Halloween eye candy. It was early, but it was Halloween and the club was starting to get busy. One look and the bar staff stayed out of her way as she grabbed a bottle from the top shelf and started pouring it down her throat. She had worked her way through most of it when the host approached her out of nowhere.
“Mazikeen,” he said cheerily, “I wasn’t expecting you to join us for the festivities.”
“Yeah, well, your kid ditched me for the popular girls.” Her voice dripped with menace.
“She’s not my kid.”
“Uh-huh. Apparently she’s growing up, and she doesn’t wanna hang out with me anymore.” She cast her gaze around the room, resting on a shapely pair of legs in a very short orange skirt. There was a black jack-o-lantern face printed on her perfectly rounded derriere. “Maybe I’ll just have to make some new friends.”
“Don’t give up on her just yet, Maze. She’s not even fully formed yet. Think of the fun you can have with her once she reaches that rebellious stage.”
The demon smirked a little. “It would be a great way to torture your girlfriend, wouldn’t it?”
“Absolutely. Not that I can officially condone that sort of thing, mind you.” He gestured to a brawny barman to bring her another bottle. “In the meantime, feel free to amuse yourself. Someone needs to entertain the guests now that I’m busy with the Detective.”
Maze rolled her eyes and nodded. “And here I was thinking that you actually cared enough to want to cheer me up, for once. But no, you want to use me as part-time hooker.”
“No, Maze, I-” he bagan, but then he saw smirking at him. “You’re winding me up, aren’t you?”
“Yeah,” she replied with a jerk of her head. “It’s getting way too easy. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to feel up a pumpkin.”
Maze almost jumped when her phone started vibrating. She lifted the delicious jack-o-lantern out of her lap and stared in disbelief at the screen before answering. “Hey, short stuff, what’s up?”
“Maze, I’m sorry for ditching you. This party is so lame, everyone is just sitting around pretending to be grown ups. It’s boring. And all the snacks are healthy and they don’t even have any chocolate cake because they’re too scared of getting fat. Please please please will you come and rescue me?”
Maze smiled. “Well, I dunno kid, I found this really cool party, and I think there might be actual strippers later.”
“Maze, I’m dying here. Honestly, I think this party was planned by one of your relatives. I would much rather be with you, scaring the neighbours into giving us huge piles of sugar.”
“I suppose, I could pick you and we could make a few stops…” she said, her voice casual, but her mouth twisting into an evil grin.
“Thank you thank you thank you! You are the best demon in the world and the underworld and I promise we’ll go trick or treating every year until I’m old enough to come to one of your stripper parties.”
“If your mom has any say in the matter, that will be never.”
“Yeah, like I’m gonna tell her that’s where we’re going. I’m not Lucifer.”
They both laughed. “Awesome. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Don’t you wanna know where I am?”
“Duh! I’m your guardian demon, I have your phone permanently tracked.”
“Cooooool. See ya in ten.”
Needless to say, the pumpkin was rather disappointed, but was appeased when Maze took her phone number and promised a rematch. Trixie ranted all the way back to her apartment about how horrible the popular girls were, and the fact that when they weren’t bitching about everyone else, they were just going on and on about boys.
“Hang on, what are we gonna do for your costume?” Maze asked as they arrived home. “Who do you wanna be this year?”
Trixie squirmed a little. “Well, to be honest, the party was kind of a last minute thing, so I had been working on something… but you have to wait out here while I get ready. And you have to promise not get weird about it.”
“Sure,” she agreed. “I’ll find a pillowcase for the loot.” She went up and rummaged around in her room, spent a good few minutes sexting the pumpkin, just to keep her occupied, and then made her way back down. She stopped dead when she saw Trixie waiting.
The young lady’s artistic efforts had come a long way in the last few years, and the half-mask was very impressive. It looked like she’d spent hours with a hot glue gun recreating the strands of bare sinew and ravaged flesh. She’d also worked beautifully swirled lines of black around the eye, which she had recreated with a large iridescent sequin. Her hair had been pulled up into a tight, high ponytail, and she wore a pair of skinny black jeans and sequined top. Her bright pink leather jacket matched the pair of curved, bejewelled daggers, which Maze was surprised and delighted to see that she’d kept all this time.
“Huh,” was all she managed.
“You promised you wouldn’t get weird.” Trixie reminded her.
“Of course. Well, let’s get going, my pretty pink demon. This candy’s not going to collect itself.”