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It was a cool Halloween’s night. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the moon was bright, and the streets were lively with trick-or-treaters and those just celebrating the holiday.
“You guys can’t be serious!” Yelled a voice from inside a house.
“We are, so just try and stop us!”
“This thing is for kids! You guys are not kids!”
“Come on, Aaron, it’s the ONE TIME of year Enty can go outside and not be made fun of.”
Aaron sighed, his nerves burnt. Three men stood inside their house by the front door. Aaron stared at the duo before him. Both Enty and Scarecrow wanted to go out for the night for candy, even though they aged out years ago. Hell, they didn’t even have costume on. They both just were wearing their normal outfits.
“You guys aren’t even dressed right!” Aaron yelled, tired of dealing with this when he knew things were going to end badly.
“We are so! Our outfits are weird on a normal day, but here, they fit in fine! We look like we belong!”
“I like belonging…” Enty said quietly between the two.
“See?” Scarecrow said, walking closer to Enty and pushing him towards Aaron. “How can you say no to this face?”
Aaron just stared at the two. Scarecrow was being difficult, and Enty had the puppy-dog eyes going on, whether he knew he was doing them or not. Aaron sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, waving his hand.
“Fine, fine…I don’t care. Do whatever. Just don’t cause any trouble!” He yelled out the door, but it was too late. The duo had already made a beeline for the dark street the moment Aaron had said “fine”. He began to turn around and walk back inside the house, mumbling to himself.
“Gabriel, I swear, you and I are the only ones with common sense- Gabriel!” He yelled, his eyes landing on the other man attempt to sneak out the door behind him. The robed man promptly scurried away back up the stairs the moment Aaron noticed him. Aaron sighed again and began walking towards the basement.
It was going to be a long night.
~
“This is GREAT!” Scarecrow yelled, walking down the street, Enty by his side. “Free candy, and no one gives us weird looks for simply existing!”
“Yeah! No one has called me an abomination yet!” Enty said joyfully as he dug through his bag of candy. Scarecrow just stared at him.
“Who hurt you?” He said plainly, but Enty was ignoring him, too distracted by the candy bag.
The duo walked down the street, passing by dozens of other people.
“Hey man, nice costume!” some guy in a ninja outfit said to Enty as they passed. Enty turned to Scarecrow, a huge smile on his face and tears in his eyes. Scarecrow rolled his eyes.
“Come on, man, we have way more ground to cover.” Scarecrow said, picking up the pace.
“They give me candy! For being spooky!” Enty said joyfully, skipping a bit to catch up to the other man. Scarecrow nodded, happy his friend was having fun. Enty looked...odd. He was half human, half...something. He had these weird black ghostlike branches all over him, the bulk covering the left side of his head. The side covered by the branches also showed his solid glowing yellow eye, contrasting against the darkness. The black branches were thickest on his head, though they were also scattered and curled around the rest of his body to a degree, the ghost branches hiding parts of himself.
They approached another house, where an older lady looked them over.
“Aren’t you guys a little old for this?” she said.
“No.” Scarecrow replied in the sternest voice he could.
“How old even are you two?”
“…He’s 1.” Scarecrow said in a deadpan voice, nodding towards Enty.
“I thought I was like, 30 somethin-ow!” He exclaimed as Scarecrow hit him on the shoulder.
“Shut up, I’m trying to get us candy!” he whispered. The old lady could still hear everything.
“I…whatever, ok, here yah go...kiddos…” she said, handing them a few pieces of candy.
“Thank you miss!” Enty said, hopping away. Scarecrow just rolled his eyes again and followed.
“You’re peppy as hell, you know that.” Scarecrow said to Enty, who joyfully was taking in the sights of the decorations on all the houses. “It’s damn annoying.”
“I can’t help it!” Enty replied, his branches flaring a bit as he spoke, moving as if they were in the wind. “This is just so fun!”
“Yeah, yeah, yah weirdo.” Scarecrow mumbled. He liked Enty. He did. But he was damn naïve, go-lucky as hell on a good day, and a high maintenance emotional wreck on a bad one. Or average one. Scarecrow thought of the time they went to the zoo and Enty accidentally stepped on a butterfly. He didn’t stop crying for 7 hours.
Scarecrow watched as Enty split off their path to go stare at some flickering jack-o-lanterns lined on the street.
“Eeesh.” Scarecrow said, walking past. Enty was flighty, and Scarecrow didn’t want to dawdle. He was in this for the goods. He stopped by a few more houses, not really keeping track of his companion’s whereabouts. It was only as he reached the last house in the cul-de-sac that he realized Enty was nowhere in sight.
“Oh, god damn it.” He said, scanning the area. How the hell was he going to find someone literally made of darkness on a dark night like this? Especially with hundreds of people in weird outfits like theirs. He walked back the way he came, keeping an eye out for his emotional lookalike. If he lost him again, Aaron was going to kill him.
He took note of the time. It was beginning to get late, and they had been out all night. A good number of houses were already dark, and the people were beginning to disperse. He reached another darks side street and paused when he heard voices from down the lane.
“…o that effect? Are these branches part of you?”
“Dude, my hand goes right through them, this is so metal.”
“H-hey! S-stop!”
Enty. That was his voice. Scarecrow made his way down the street only to see Enty surrounded by three other older guys, probably college age, maybe older, each with costumes that consisted of a mask and nothing more. He did commend them for their effort.
“Dude, you think he’s like, not human or someth-” the one guy stopped as Scarecrow approached.
“Oh, look, must be his twin or something!” Another guy said, pushing Enty slightly. The other guys just laughed.
“This freak belong to you?”
“Listen, only I get to call him freak ok? And if you don’t mind, my partner and I have only a bit of time left, so we are just going to be on our way, comprendo?” Scarecrow said, approaching who he assumed was the leader. The man did not back down.
“Heh, what makes you think we’re gonna take orders from a freak like you?” he said with a laugh. Scarecrow swore he could smell alcohol on the man.
“Because you do not want to mess with me.” Scarecrow said, staring back at the man, unblinking, not moving an inch. “But I’m in a good mood tonight, so I’ll let you off the hook. Come on, Enty.” He said, motioning for Enty to follow him as he turned away from the group. Enty slowly shuffled his way out from the center of the group and aimed to catch up to Scarecrow only to let out a cry as he was pushed roughly to the ground.
Scarecrow tuned around to see Enty face-down on the ground, the three guys laughing over him as he curled in on himself.
“Alright, and now I’m pissed.” Scarecrow said, anger rising in him. He threw off his trench coat and hat and marched towards the laughing men, fire in his eyes.
~
Aaron was in bed. It was late now. He had tried waiting up for the duo to return, but there had been no sign of any of them. Not having the energy to care anymore, he went to bed. Or he tried.
At about 11:00, his phone rang.
“Hello…?” he said in a groggy voice.
“Mr. Uhh, Blackwell, is it?”
“Yeah…” Aaron replied, not even bothering to open his eyes or turn on the light.
“We have two of your uh…family…members…here…” the voice said, as if he were unsure of what he was saying.
“Wait, who is this?” Aaron said, sitting up now.
“The county sheriff’s office sir.”
“Oh, god damn it.” Aaron said, falling back into the bed. “What did the idiots do now?”
“We have uh, ‘disturbing the peace’, ‘resisting arrest’, and uh…’arson’…here…” the phone operator finished but jumped when he heard a crash on the other end of the line.
“DAMNIT!!!” he heard through the line, though it sounded farther away, as if the man had thrown his phone.
“Sir?” The voice asked quietly. He heard footsteps.
“I’ll send someone over there, oh, for the LOVE OF-” the line cut out on. The operator sighed. It was one of those nights.
Aaron marched up to Gabriel’s room. He knocked on the door a few times, but with no response, he opened it anyway.
“Gabriel, I need you t- oh what the hell.” He sighed. Gabriel’s room was covered in lit candles and crucifixes of various shapes and sizes. Some makeshift altar stood at the other end of the room with Gabriel in a church robe kneeling in front of it.
“I, uhh…” Gabriel started, nervously. “It’s the uhh…night of evil so and you didn’t let me go out, so I uhh…was…trying to ward off the evil of the night…and you know…” Aaron just stared at him. “…protect the house?”
“From what, Gabriel? From what exactly?”
“…you know…demons…and uh…witches and-”
“Oh, shut up. Take of that outfit, go to the police station, and pick up Enty and Scarecrow.”
“They got arrested again?” Gabriel said, annoyed.
“Yeah. Again. Just…just go.” He said turning around. He couldn’t deal with this right now. He watched as Gabriel left, though it always unnerved him when Gabriel drove. He didn’t even know what cars were a few months ago, and he still sees them as this holy act of God. Aaron is the only other one who drives because Scarecrow is banned from having a license in their area, and Enty cries every time he get behind the wheel. Before the car is even turned on. Aaron walked back into his bedroom and turned the lights back out, hoping Gabriel could handle things.
~
Aaron let out an annoyed scream as his phone rang again about 30 minutes later.
“Mr. Blackwell?” a different voice asked. He could hear his friends yelling in the background.
“What now?” he asked, not caring about being polite at this point as he turned on the bedroom light.
“It seems you have uh…three family members here, they are not uh…cooperating with basic demands and we would appreciate if you come into the station.” He said.
In the silence after the question, Aaron could hear his friends voices clearer.
“-OU IDIOTS! ALWAYS WITH THE FIRE!”
“-NOT MY FAULT THEY WERE JERKS! THEY DESERV-!”
“GUYYSSSS!!!”
Aaron sighed.
“Alright, alright…I’ll be right there…” he said. He hung up, got dressed and headed for their other car. He was not happy.
~
Aaron pulled into the station’s parking lot. The streets were dead, it was midnight, and all was quiet. He knew that was about to change.
He stepped into the station, and immediately could hear his friends arguing down some hallways. Regaining his composure, he walked up to the front desk and told them who he was and who he was here for. After a minute of waiting, a policewoman walked out of an office and up to him.
“Mr. Blackwell, thank you for coming in tonight.”
“Yeah, no, I should be thanking you for dealing with these idiots.” He said, following the woman as she led him down a hall.
“They are being difficult, yes, but trust me, I have seen worse. Before we do any legal work, I would like to show you the security footage from earlier this night, just to put us all on even ground.” She said. Aaron motioned for her to go ahead.
As they walked down the hall, they walked past the holding cells. The first had three young men inside, all covered in soot and looking worse for wear. One of them looked up at Aaron.
“Oh no, oh no no no, there’s four of them???” he cried, fear in his voice. The other two men looked up with eyes wide and backed away from the front of the cell, putting more distance between them. Aaron knew who they had dealt with, apparently. He rolled his eyes and kept walking.
In the next cell was his friends. Scarecrow stood by the gate, yelling his head off, Gabriel was kneeling on the opposite side, seemingly in prayer, and Enty was just rocking back and forth in the middle.
“WE DID NOTHING WORNG, YAH BASTARDS!! LET US OUT OR-oh hi Aaron.” He said, getting quiet right as he saw his roommate. Aaron kept walking, following the sergeant, but shot Scarecrow a sharp look as he passed.
“We will talk later…” he whispered harshly. Scarecrow backed away from the bars and proceeded to sit on the floor next to Enty.
Aaron and the officer entered a smaller office down the hall with monitors everywhere. Another man sat in a chair typing away on the keyboard.
“Right, so, here is the first incident…” the woman said, pointing to the main screen. The man at the desk hit a play button and Aaron saw a dashcam camera feed pull up.
The footage was of a cul-de-sac, and in the middle was a car that was on fire, to the point beyond repair. Two of the guys Aaron had seen in the first cell lay on the ground, unconscious, while he saw Scarecrow pinning the other to the ground, seemingly punching him, not wanting to get off as cops tried to separate them.
The cops managed to drag Scarecrow off, and he watched as he was promptly handcuffed and placed on the ground. Aaron sighed a bit when he saw Enty back away from some cops, then try to run, but he ended up just running into more cops.
“Stop tryin tah run, yah idiot! It only makes things worse!” Scarecrow yelled from the ground. Enty did not seem to register what he was saying, and, panic overtaking him, he proceeded to try and run again, his branches covering more of him. “Stop it, Enty! Just let these morons do their job and Aaron or Gabriel will bail us out!”
Aaron shuffled awkwardly as he felt the sergeant’s eyes fall on him.
Aaron listened back to the tape. The cops had Enty restrained and were seemingly trying to take off his “mask” and failing.
“What the hell is this?” one of the cops asked.
“I don’t knowwww…” Aaron heard Enty cry in distress.
Aaron watched as they both were shoved into a cop car, Enty still struggling the entire time.
“We had the fire put out promptly, though you may have some charges as the car belonged to one of the men involved in the fight.”
“Great. Just great.” Aaron said, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Now, for the second incident…” the woman said as a second video started. “This is security cam footage from about 30 minutes ago, when your other comrade entered the building.”
The video showed the welcome desk from before, and Aaron watched as Gabriel entered. He went up to the desk, seemingly asked for the direction of the other two, and, ignoring protests from the cops, marched down the hall to the cells.
The camera changed to one right outside of the cell, where Gabriel walked right up to the two and pulled out two of his small crosses and threw them at the duo, each hitting the other in the face.
“What the hell is wrong with you two! I knew you shouldn’t have gone out on this night of evil without me, see where it got you!” he screamed.
Another cop approached the yelling Gabriel, who, upon being interrupted by the man, threw another crucifix at the cop. Aaron put his hand to his face and covered his eyes and sighed. He could hear Gabriel screaming “threats” as he was restrained, Scarecrow laughing, and Enty just asking for everyone to get along. The footage ended.
“Yeah, you need to get better control of these guys…” the woman said, turning to Aaron, who did not look up.
“You think I don’t know that?”
The duo left the office and walked up to the cell. Gabriel ran to the gate.
“It was all Scarecrow, I swear! It always is! I can’t be in prison again, I’m innocent! Just like last time!”
Aaron ignored him and looked to Enty.
“I, uhh…they touched me, and I didn’t want them to, so I tried to get away.”
Aaron then looked to Scarecrow. Who just stared back.
“Well?” Aaron said, annoyed.
“…They were being assholes!” he said, throwing his hands to his side. Aaron made a strangling motion with his hands toward Scarecrow and turned back towards the sergeant.
“Shall we uh, begin the paperwork?” she said. Aaron nodded and followed her, trying to block his three friend’s yelling from his mind.
~
“You three are unbelievable!” Aaron yelled, trying hard to focus on the road. “All three of you! On a holiday no less!”
“A holiday of evil…” Gabriel added, ominously.
“Shut up, or so help me, I’ll-”
“You’ll what? Send us back to jail? Scarecrow mocked.
“Maybe! I can’t believe you three-”
“Hey hey, it was mainly Scarecrow!” Gabriel yelled.
“You aren’t any better!!!”
“I have the most sense of ANY of you-”
“You LITERALLY never listen to ANYONE!” Scarecrow yelled back.
“At least I don’t set fires for no reason!”
“I had a reason!”
“Oh, what was it, then?”
“I wanted to!”
“Will you two SHUT UP! You both are being idiots! More than usual!” Aaron yelled. He sighed when he heard Enty begin to cry from the back.
“Can’t we all just stop yelling….” He said with a wavy voice.
“When you all learn to LISTEN, maybe!” Aaron said, looking back. The car swerved a bit. “I just…I told you not to go out! You didn’t listen! Enty, Scarecrow told you to cooperate, you didn’t listen! Gabriel, I told you go just go to the station and pick them up without trouble, and oh, what happened? You DIDN’T LISTEN!”
“Hey, you ain’t no saint either frilly!” Scarecrow yelled.
“Maybe not, but at least I don’t have a POLICE RECORD!”
All three stopped talking when a familiar siren sound faded in from behind them. Their car became illuminated by red and blue flashing lights. Aaron just stared ahead, gripping the steering wheel with all his might. He pulled the car over.
“God, FUCKING DAMNIT!!!” He yelled. He rolled down the window as an officer approached. “Hello officer is there a problem?” he said calmly with a forced smile.
“Maybe. I just wanted to check in, your car was swerving a bit and…” the officer faded as he looked into the car. “Scarecrow? That you?”
All eyes looked to the back seat where Scarecrow sat, eyes wide. He looked down to the floor.
“…Hi Jim…” he muttered.
“I’m sorry, what?” Aaron said. The officer gave a laugh.
“Yeah, this guy keeps getting dragged into my office back at the East side station. Dude has an entire drawer to himself in the office.”
Aaron looked back at him, dumbfounded.
“I…can’t believe you. How much crime do you do?” Scarecrow paused a moment, then quickly replied.
“Do you want my schedule for workdays or weekends?”
“Oh my god.” Aaron said, turning back around.
“Oh, he has a file too!” the cop said with a laugh, pointing to Enty. Gabriel almost choked.
“You WHAT?” he said. Aaron didn’t even bother looking back.
“Mine has coloring books!” he said, joyfully. “Oh, Oh, Mr. Jim, do you have any here?”
“Afraid not buddy.” He said, earning a small ‘awww’ from Enty.
“How the hell do you have a file?” Aaron said shortly, not looking back.
“Scarecrow takes me to work with him sometimes!” Gabriel looked to Scarecrow, who facepalmed.
“Enty…I told you not to mention that you idiot!” he said, elbowing Enty.
“It’s fun!” Enty said, not phased by the hit. “He taught me to do this cool thing called ‘arson’!”
“And he’s BAD AT IT.” Scarecrow said, leaning back and crossing his arms. The cop was laughing now. “He just freaks out every time something catches fire!”
“The lad also keeps getting dropped off from people who keep finding him lost. Boy tends to wander…” the cop added.
“Ok, ok, shut up, everyone. Is there any other crime that you guys do that I need to be aware of?” Aaron said, looking back. Aaron sighed as he saw tears form in Enty’s eyes.
“I didn’t mean to I swear, but sometimes I steal snacks from your drawer because they are so good and I like them too, and you never share!” He said quickly, tears falling down his shadowy sides face. “I’m sorry, please don’t send me back to jail…” he cried.
“Wait, I Gabriel too.” The cop said, pointing to the passenger side where Gabriel sat. Aaron shot daggers at the novice. Gabriel starts to sweat.
“Uhhh…” he began, not sure what to say.
“Yeah, back when it was just him and Crow, he came in a lot. And he has gotten into a few fights with street preachers...”
“WHAT? Gabriel???” Scarecrow yelled, almost wheezing from laughing. Gabriel just starts stuttering.
“Look, ok, like, he was there, he said he was Christian but he had a ton of mean and obviously untrue stuff on his sign, and he was yelling at random people for no reason and calling them quite rude names, then he pointed to me-me! And said I was going to hell because I “looked like some long haired wierdo” and I tried to reason with him! He was just speaking constant lies! BLASPHEMOUS LIES!!! I tried to convert him, but he REFUSED to follow the true Christianity, then, apparently, they don’t like it when you touch their sign, and he got all mad, and this other guy tried to talk to him and he just PUNCHED HIM! And that was just way too far, so I tried to intervene, but I only made it worse because he hit me, and then I tackled him off the podium!” he stopped, taking in a breath after not breathing through the entire speech. “Because he was a jerk!” he finished, turning away from the group.
The rest of the car just sat in silence, all jaws to the floor. Scarecrow had a huge smile on his face, Enty a confused expression, and Aaron just slowly turned back around to face the front of the car.
“Am I really…the only one here…who has not been arrested for violent crimes?” Aaron asked quietly. No one else said a word. Aaron slammed his head onto the steering wheel, causing the car horn to blare.
After a moment, he pulled his head up and looked to the cop. He was about to say something when Enty spoke up.
“Are we still in trouble, Mr. Jim? I wanna go home, today has been stressful.”
Aaron looked away from the cop and forward once more.
“Yeah, sure, boys. Just…please stay out of trouble? At least try to?” the cop replied. Aaron nodded. “You drive safe, and Scarecrow…” he said, leaning down to look into the back of the car again, “See you Tuesday.” Gabriel and Enty just stared at Scarecrow, who looked down to the floor again.
“Yeah ok…” he mumbled.
Aaron started the car and began driving once more down the dark road.
“I wanna come! Scarecrow, can I come please? Can I drive again?” Enty yelled, breaking the silence.
At that moment, Aaron let out a scream, startling the other three in the car. He swerved the car, nearly going off the road.
The cop down the road just looked on as the car weaved over the median. He could hear screaming from inside.
Aaron stopped the car on the edge of the road in the grass and got out. He walked over to Scarecrow’s door and yanked it open.
“What else have you been keeping from me, Crow?” he yelled.
“Uhhh…” Scarecrow said, eyes wide. Not many things could unnerve him, but a pissed off Aaron…yeah, that was one of those things.
“What did he mean by ‘drive again’?”
“Well…uhhhh…”
“Oh, oh! I know this! Sometimes he runs quick errands, and when he comes back, he has a lot of stuff and can’t get it all in and drive at the same time, so he has me drive the car!” The others just stared at him. Scarecrow hid his face in his hands. “I get to drive fast!” Enty said with a smile.
“Well, that explains the dents in the car…” Aaron said, eyeing the various mysterious dents and scratches around the car. “Crow, you really let him drive our car?!” he yelled.
“Well, ok, first, I’m not an idiot, Aaron. We only used our car like, once or twice. You see-”
“Where did you get the other cars, Scarecrow?” Aaron said coldly.
“Uhh, well…”
“Where. Are. The. Other. Cars. Scare. Crow?”
“Scarecrow borrows them from some nice guys at the bar down the road!” Enty said. “He talks about cars, and money, and whatever ‘kerosene’ is, and Bartender Al gives me French fries. They think I’m cool there!” he said, smiling wide.
Aaron quickly leaned back and stood up straight.
“Scarecrow, you’re banned.”
“From what?”
“Everything.” Aaron replied, slamming the car door shut. He walked over to the driver side and got in.
“You are all grounded. Indefinitely.”
“I get DIRT???” Enty said, excitedly. “I love gardening! Yes!” he cheered.
Scarecrow rested his head in his hands again and let out a frustrated sigh. Gabriel just started blankly out the window, and Aaron took in a deep breath before driving once more.
It was certainly a long night.