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"I'll be back tomorrow or Sunday." Stan shouts to his mom, before slinging his black backpack on and walking out the door to make the long walk to Xeno's home.
It was Halloween today. Xeno and him had planned to go out trick or treating tonight. The holiday landed on a Friday this year so he was staying the night at the other boy’s house so they could be out late if needed be. He had packed an overnight bag with enough clothes to stay the whole weekend.
Stan dodges a couple kids who ran past him in superhero costumes. It was close to 6pm, so a bunch of trick or treaters were starting to hit the streets already to head over to the numerous houses lined up to collect candy. It wasn't quite dark yet, but the weather was nice so there were already large groups of people walking the streets and standing outside their homes to get ready for the night. He crosses the street quickly before a car can pull up and honk at him. Stan notices a large group of teenagers outside a house making fun of another older kid who was dressed up as an avocado.
That reminded him of his costume for this year and how he hoped he wouldn't get made fun of like that avocado kid. Stan had waited till the last minute to make a costume, well more like he already knew he would end up having to make his own costume.
Last year he had waited the day of and ended up just grabbing a box of cereal and a plastic knife. Stan thought it was hilarious, but anytime parents at houses asked what he was and he would say "cereal killer", he got numerous disapproving looks. Hey, it wasn't his fault that his mom never bought him a costume and he had to make his own. Every year he asked his mom if they could buy one and she always told him they didn't have the money and he should be creative.
Still he had asked again this year, she had once again told him no, tossed a roll of toilet paper at him, and told him hadn't been a mummy yet. He had considered making a makeshift eyepatch, tying a red bandanna around his head, and going as a pirate, but then Xeno had asked if he could make their costumes that year.
Stan was unsure about letting the other boy decide their Halloween costumes. Xeno's costumes were always nerdy and weird. Last year, Stan had walked into Xeno's house to see that he was dressed up in a black shirt with a radioactive symbol on it, had a red cape attached on, and was holding a hammer. The blonde boy had excitedly told him to guess his costume and Stan had guessed that he was a carpenter that had forgotten it was laundry day, which had earned him a hard glare from Xeno.
The other boy explained that he was the periodic element thorium, which had resulted in Stan giving him a blank stare because that didn't help at all. He ended up having to listen to Xeno go on a long ramble on how thorium was a radioactive chemical element and the costume was also a play on the superhero Thor.
So yes, Xeno's Halloween outfits were overly complicated and always had something to do with science. Stan was going to turn down Xeno's offer to make their costumes, but then his friend said that he had been wanting to do this idea for a while. He had given him a sad puppy dog eyed look and told him he needed Stan to be the other half of his costume so it could make sense. Stan couldn't turn down his best friend's plea when he was practically begging him. So, he agreed and was now just hoping he wouldn't be embarrassed the whole night wearing whatever Xeno had made for him to wear.
Stan makes his way through the apartment complex Xeno lived in, until he approaches the door to his place. He knocks and waits patiently outside the door, praying he hadn't made a mistake in allowing Xeno the opportunity to dress him up for Halloween that year. The door opens wide up and there stood Xeno's sister in her work uniform getting ready to head out to her part time job.
"Hey Stan. Xeno is in his room waiting for you with your costume." She tells him, holding the door open for him so he can walk inside.
"Nothing too embarrassing, yeah?" Stan asks.
"You'll see here in a second." She tells him with a smirk, following him into Xeno’s room.
Stan didn't like that response, but he makes his way to Xeno's room to see what awaits him. The door to his friends room is wide open and there sits Xeno on the edge of his bed reading a thick red book. The other boy looks up when he hears his footsteps and gives him a bright smile when he sees him.
"Stan! You're finally here. I've been waiting for quite some time. What took you so long?" Xeno asks, standing up from his bed.
"My mom made me run to the store for her to grab eyeliner." Stan responds, doing a full look over at Xeno's outfit.
How honestly had no earthly idea what the other boy was supposed to be. Xeno was wearing a long black dress outfit that looked like it had been cut so it wouldn't drag on the ground, was wearing white pants under it, black shoes, and had a white collar thing wrapped around his neck.
"What are you supposed to be?" Stan asks, wondering if he's a witch of some sorts but he doubts it didn't seem like something Xeno would do.
"Oh! You'll understand once you see your outfit. Close your eyes! It's hanging in my closet."
"Uh okay."
Stan closes his eyes shut and can hear the other sibling laughing lightly behind him. That's not a good sign and he braces himself for what Xeno is about to show him. He listens to his friend open his closet door and the rustling of hangers before he hears the door close.
"Okay! You can open them now." He hears Xeno tell him.
He opens his eyes and there stands Xeno with a makeshift t-shirt in his hands with a huge grin on his face. Yeah definitely something science related. In his hands was a t-shirt that was decorated heavily space themed. It was black, had glow in the dark stars hot glued on it, there were planet stickers placed all around it, and it seemed like he had sprinkled a light layer of glitter all over the shirt.
"Why did you make a space shirt and what are you supposed to be then?" Stan asks, surprised and not quite sure what to make of the costume Xeno had made for him.
"I'm Galileo and you're the solar system! I wanted to make your costume the moon or Jupiter, but I had no idea how to do that." Xeno exclaims, coming over to hand Stan the shirt.
He takes it from the other boy and stares down at the black space themed shirt in his hands. He can hear Xeno's sister’s laughter as she watches his dazed expression at the Halloween matching costume that her brother made him. Well he guesses it's not too bad and could have been worse. It's not as lame as possibly wearing a costume that's a pun play on a periodic element that no one would get but Xeno.
"Well I'm going to head out now boys. I'm working the night shift at my job, so I won't be home till later tonight. Make sure you guys are back home before 10pm!" She warns, before leaving her brother and Stan in the house to head to her job.
They say their goodbyes to Xeno's sister and Stan goes to the bathroom to slip on the shirt. He notices as he puts it over his head that the glitter was falling off onto the floor. Great, he was going to leave a trail of glitter behind him the whole night. He walks back into Xeno's room and he notices his friend has a cardboard tube in his hands that is painted gold.
"Elegant!" Xeno exclaims, putting the tube to his eye and pointing it in Stan's direction.
"What is that?" Stan asks, coming over to get a closer look at the thing in his friend's hand.
"It's a telescope! I made it as a prop so everyone can understand who I am."
Stan seriously doubts that it will help in getting people to understand who Xeno was supposed to be. He has no idea what this Galileo guy looked like, but his friend's outfit was a bit outlandish. Stan decides he's going to poke some fun at Xeno about it.
"So, are you wearing a dress?"
"No! It's an old outfit that was my sister's that we stitched up."
"So, it's a dress."
"No, it's not! It's a Baroque styled academic gown." Xeno pouts, glaring at Stan's teasing smirk.
"Sure, whatever you say Xeno. What about the white thing?"
"Oh.. we also cut up a white bib to make this." Xeno says, putting a hand up to mess with the white collar around his neck.
"So, it's a baby's bib?"
"It's a child's bib that was repurposed into a makeshift detachable collar!"
"You look like Wednesday from the Addam’s family." Stan tells him, walking over to look out the window in Xeno's room.
"I'm not Wednesday! I'm supposed to be Galileo Galilei. A groundbreaking astronomer, physicist, engineer and father of observational astronomy-" Xeno continues on, giving a spill about Galileo Galilei's accomplishments as Stan ignores his rambling to look outside the window.
He notices that it's gotten darker and even more kids are starting to flood the streets. They need to leave soon if they want to get the good candy before the other trick or treaters do.
"Galileo discovered that there were multiple moons orbiting around Jupiter. Which helped prove the Copernican theory that most celestial objects did not revolve around the Earth-" Xeno continues on, until he's interrupted from his rambling by Stan.
"It's getting dark out already and we need to leave now before everyone else heads out." Stan tells him, heading to his backpack to pull out his trick or treating bag.
"Oh okay! I got us bags for the candy." Xeno says, heading out the door to his room to the kitchen.
Stan was just going to use the grocery store bag he got earlier from the store when he went to buy the cosmetic his mom wanted. He's surprised but doesn't say anything as he follows after Xeno to the kitchen. Once there, the other boy grabs the bags on the table and gives one to Stan.
"Here you go! I got you that one because the cat looks like you." Xeno says.
The cat on the purple bag had bright blue eyes and was in a pumpkin surrounded by candy. Xeno's bag was green with a smiling ghost on it in a witch's hat with a pumpkin next to it. Stan happily takes the bag because he always just used what was laying around in his house to put candy in. Plus the bag was deep and big so he wouldn't have to stuff the remaining candy he got into his pockets.
"Cool thanks. Let's go."
They head out of the house to go outside into the night. Numerous kids are dressed up already and heading out of the complex to start knocking on doors on the nearby street for candy. Stan takes the lead and guides them out of the apartment complex towards the pavement to escort them to a neighborhood.
"Where are we going tonight?" Xeno asks, following behind Stan.
"There's this rich neighborhood I heard some kids talking about in class that's nearby here. We're gonna go there to get the good stuff."
"Is it far?" Xeno asks, noticing that Stan is walking the opposite direction on the street they usually go trick or treating at.
"Nah it's just a few streets over. I promise it's not far. We gotta hurry there before the others beat us for the good candy."
They make their way over to the neighborhood Stan heard about. He notices it is a bit far and they must cross a district intersection to cross over to the street. They pass by a small marketplace and follow the crowd that was gathering around the community gate leading into the neighborhood.
"You said it wasn't far!" Xeno complains, as they walk over to the first huge two-story house.
"It isn't. It was just a short 10-minute walk."
The houses in this neighborhood were brand new and there was still a lot of forest area around. There was a big park in the middle of the neighborhood. The adults had decorated the area for kids to walk through to go to the other houses on the side. They decide to start on the left side houses first and then cross the park later to knock on the remaining homes.
The first house had numerous gravestones in the front and skeletons stationed around the yard. They also had a small haunted house maze with a tarp over their driveway, that you had to go through first to get to the front door for candy. The braver kids were going straight in with no hesitation, but the cautious ones were outside the entrance to the maze hesitant to go through. Stan makes his way to the front of the maze to quickly go inside it for the candy but notices Xeno stops and isn't following him.
"What's wrong?" Stan asks him, coming back over to stand next to the other boy.
"I-is it safe?" Xeno asks, doubtfully eyeing the little makeshift haunted house.
"Of course, it is. You see all those other kids going in and it's not collapsing on them."
"I don't know Stan."
"Come on Xeno. What are you scared?"
"No! I'm not scared I'm just concerned for our safety."
Stan watches as kids way younger than them pass them and head straight through the maze with no fear. He looks towards the small haunted house and sees that it was built sturdy enough. There's no way that thing is coming down on them. Xeno is just scared.
"Look how about I go first and you hold my hand, yeah? If anything comes out at us, I'll be in the front and ward them off." Stan says, holding out his hand for Xeno to take.
"Fine. But I'm not holding your hand because I'm scared. I'm doing it so we don't get separated!" Xeno exclaims, holding the hand Stan offered to him.
Stan leads the way into the maze, and they enter it together. It's dark and foggy inside and it's only lit up by a few lights. He hears Xeno cough close behind him and then the kids that were up ahead in front of them scream. Xeno yelps and pushes himself into Stan's back. He squeezes Xeno's hand and tells him it's fine. They reach where the other kids got scared and the teenager that spooked them is smirking. Stan gives the teen a warning look daring him to try it with them, before they make their way out of the maze.
"See it wasn't so bad." Stan tells Xeno.
They make their way up to the front of the house steps. They hold out their bags once they knock on the door waiting for someone to open up and give them candy.
"Trick or Treat!" They both shout, once someone opens the door.
The person holding the bucket loaded with candy is an older woman in a 50s poodle skirt. She looks down at the pair of them, holding out their bags eagerly for her to give them sweets.
"Oh what do we have here? It looks like the solar system and Wednesday. How cute!" She tells them, grabbing some candy from the bowl and putting them into their awaiting bags.
"Actually I'm-" Xeno starts but doesn't get to finish because Stan is dragging him away by the hand.
"Thanks ma'am." Stan tells her over his shoulder, guiding Xeno away to spare the lady the long rant his friend was about to put her through about who he was dressed as.
"Stan I was about to correct her!" Xeno shouts, pouting as Stan drags him back to the exit entrance of the maze.
"It's fine Xeno. It was just a mistake, next person will definitely know who you are."
The haunted house had a second half that you had to go through to exit back out into the yard. He feels Xeno squeeze his hand tight as they make their way into the maze again. It's lit and fogged up the same way as the first half of the maze. They're going through it smoothly until someone jumps out from the back behind Xeno and shouts "Boo!" loudly. Stan listens as Xeno screams and slams hard into his back.
"Chill Xeno. They're not going to hurt you." Stan says, looking behind them to see the person who spooked Xeno was a tiny little kid who was laughing.
They make their way out of the small haunted house. Stan opens his bag once there out to peek down at what the lady gave them. It seems the kids in class were right. The older women gave them numerous pieces of candy of the good name brand stuff.
"I think the kid that scared yah was like 5." Stans teases, making his way off the lawn so they can head to the next house over.
"Shut up Stan!" Xeno tells him, following after him.
They continue to make their way gathering candy from all the houses on this side of the neighborhood. Seems like makeshift haunted houses were the popular trend this year and Stan had to continue to hold Xeno's hand as they make their way through them. The other boy keeps getting mistaken as Wednesday when they knock on doors and Stan has to quickly drag Xeno away before his friend can jabber on about who he was supposed to be to strangers who didn't care.
"Stan it's ridiculous that they have no clue who I am! Galileo is an important worldwide famous figure for his contributions to astronomy and other fields. Everyone should know who he is." Xeno huffs, from behind him.
They were currently making their way through the park to head to the other side of the neighborhood to hit those houses next. The park was decorated with Halloween decor throughout it. Kids were running around in the park and playing on the playground. There was a pumpkin patch that was scattered along the walkway path, cutting through the wooded area of the park that they were strolling along. Numerous carved pumpkins with different designs were lined up all along the path as they walked.
"Maybe the next house Xeno. You should pull out that telescope you made, that might help them figure it out." Stan says, as he continues through the jack o lantern lighted path.
When he gets no reply to his statement, he turns his head back to see why his friend didn't retort back a response. He notices that Xeno had stopped along the path to look down at a pumpkin. He retraces his steps back over to the other boy and sees he was staring down at a lighted up pumpkin with the typical jack o lantern smile.
"Did you know that there is a Nebula that was named the Jack-o-Lantern Nebula because it resembled this pumpkin here." Xeno asks, pointing down at the orange squash.
"No. What's a Nebula?"
"Nebula's are massive clouds of dust, hydrogen, helium gases, and plasma. They are sometimes formed from the dust and gas thrown out by the explosion of a dying star called a supernova. They're often called star nurseries because they are where new stars are born." Xeno explains.
"Oh that's cool."
"Yes! It's truly elegant. They often name them after what they resemble. There's one named the Crab Nebula and another the Butterfly Nebula. It's very fascinating. This pumpkin just reminded me of it."
"Honestly I have no idea what a Nebula looks like so I can't picture it." Stan says.
"I'll have to show you later what it looks like. Looking more closely at this pumpkin's hollowed face it does look quite like it, except the Nebula face design is a bit more slanted."
"Hmm guess you'll have to show me later then so I can give you my opinion about it."
"Yeah.. you know I've never carved pumpkins before." Xeno says, starting to move away from the pumpkin so they can finish up the rest of the other houses.
"I've never either. Maybe we can do it next year together."
"That would be fun! I'll have to think of a design. I would love to do a space themed pumpkin. Maybe Jupiter and its moons or the Carina Nebula." Xeno exclaims, as they travel out of the pumpkin patch.
"Maybe you should start small. Those seem hard to do." Stan suggests.
"I could always just paint over the pumpkins. There were a few in the pumpkin patch like that."
"That's cheating Xeno. We're carving pumpkins remember. We have to get our hands dirty, hollow out those suckers ourselves, and carve out the designs with all our strength."
"I guess you're right."
They hit the rest of the houses in the neighborhood, gathering lots of candy along the way. It starts to get late in the night and less people are walking around in the streets going house to house. As they walk further down the street, they notice that the houses on the far end of this street are older and outdated. These houses don't have their house lights on, and they seem abandoned almost.
"We should turn around." Xeno says, looking around to see that the further they continue on the less people they see.
"Hmm let's go to the end first and then go back." Stan tells him, looking down into his candy bag.
His purple bag is almost full, and he's thrilled to know that the kids in his class were correct about this neighborhood being the new place to go. He's never gotten this much candy before and it's all good stuff, none of those nasty worthless candies like tootsie rolls.
"Stan, I don't think any houses down here are giving out candy."
"Come on Xeno, what are you scared." Stan says, looking over at his friend.
"No! It's just getting late and we need to make our way back before it gets darker."
"Well I'm going to continue on. You can wait here for me if you want." Stan says, starting to walk faster.
"Wait don't leave me!" Xeno yelps, following after Stan.
He feels Xeno grab the bottom hem of his shirt, so he doesn't walk off without him. He smirks knowing the other boy didn't want to be left behind. Stan looks around as they walk farther, and he realizes maybe Xeno was right. These houses definitely don't seem like they're giving candy and the only people he sees now are a group of older kids laughing as they sit on the edge sidewalk of one of the houses munching on candy.
"Woah look at this Xeno." Stan says, stopping in front of one of the last houses on the street.
It's a very old huge house. He's not sure if it's two or three stories high, but the house is dark and has many boarded up windows. It looked like an actual haunted house or one of those creepy houses where people die in because a deranged killer was waiting inside for them. But that wasn't the weirdest part about it. What was strange was that the door to the house was wide open. Stan makes his way closer to get a better look at it.
"Stan, wait what are you doing? Someone might live here."
"I don't think anyone does Xeno. Place looks abandoned and if anyone did live here why would they leave the door wide open."
"Let's just go back. It's late, the trip back is long, and my sister said to be home before 10pm." Xeno says, tugging on Stan's shirt to try to pull him back.
"Hmm no. I'm going to go check it out. Again, you can wait here for me if you're scared." Stan tells him, continuing to move closer to the home's front porch.
Xeno had a point, it was getting late but he also was extremely curious now to see what was inside the house. The place seemed spooky and haunted. That was a great way to end this year's Halloween night. Besides the house didn't seem like it was occupied, and it might have some nice things in it that the old owners might have left behind.
"No come back."
Stan ignores Xeno's pleas and continues on into the house. He crosses the door threshold and glances around inside. The place is huge and dark. The only thing lighting up the place is the moon and the glow in the dark stars on Stan's shirt. There's a massive living room to the right and stairs in the front that lead upstairs to probably multiple rooms. He decides to turn into the living room first to see what's in there. There are tons of dusty furniture littered around the area. On the far left are cabinets that are filled with various things. Stan heads over there to see what's stored in them. He opens the first drawer and starts pulling out things.
"Stan."
He looks over his shoulder to see that Xeno had decided to follow him inside after all. The other boy makes his way over to where Stan was standing, and he feels him grab the hem of his shirt again.
"Look at these Xeno. Pretty cool." Stan says, showing Xeno the old records he had found in the dusty cabinet.
This was one of the main reasons why Stan braved going inside the creepy house. If it truly was abandoned, then that meant whatever inside was finders keepers. These records were in good condition and he reckoned he could probably sell them off at the local pawn shop near his house to make a couple of bucks. He might be able to scrounge up enough money from them to buy that skateboard he had been eyeing every time he went to the store.
"Yeah cool." Xeno responds back, frantically looking around nervously.
"You know Xeno, maybe we can make this place our base. All we gotta do is clean it up and give it a paint job to make it look nicer."
"Funny Stan. I don't think I want to hang out in this place again."
"Why not. There are multiple rooms upstairs. Bet we could turn one of those into a lab for yah. You could have your own place to do your crazy experiments."
"I would rather do my experiments in my clean safe room at the apartment. Not in a dirty frightening old house."
"Hmm suit yourself then. I'm gonna turn one of them into an art room. Then I can graffiti the walls over and over without the cop busting me."
Stan continues to dig through the cabinets to see what they contained. This cabinet seemed to only be filled with numerous records only. He pulls them out and blows the dust off to see who the artists are. He doesn't recognize any of the musicians or music on the records. They all are dated back to the 50s and are way past his time. He feels Xeno scooting closer to him little by little until he's clutching onto his arm instead of his shirt. Stan does feel a bit bad and guilty for pressuring Xeno to join him in the house. He knows the other boy is spooked and didn't want to come in here at all. But Stan knows they can probably sell all these, and he'll just buy Xeno some science supplies later to make up for it.
"Did you hear that?" Xeno panics, looking in the direction he heard the noise.
"No. Why don't you go check it out if you're worried."
"Come with me."
"I'm trying to finish looking through these cabinets so we can leave this place. How about you go check real quick. If it is something just shout from where you're at and I'll come running to find you."
He watches Xeno hesitate before he lets go of Stan's arm to back away slowly.
"If I die Stan, I'm going to haunt you."
"You're not gonna die Xeno. I thought you were a man of science. Didn't think you believe in ghosts."
"I don't, but I'll still find a way to come back and make you feel guilty for eternity for making me come into this gross eerie house with you!"
Stan chuckles as he listens to Xeno leave towards where he heard the noise. He finishes looking through cabinets and stands back to see where else he can snoop around next. The furniture in the room was covered up by aged white tarps and he decides to take those off to see what was under them. The first one was a smaller dresser that had nothing inside of it. He takes the second one closets to him off and under it was the record player for all those records. It's in nice condition for being old and dusty. He's wondering if they can somehow carry this thing out with the two of them, when he suddenly hears Xeno scream. He swiftly looks turns around when he hears Xeno's heavy footsteps running and sees his friend zipping out the wide open door.
Ah shit. That's not good. He quickly jogs out after him wondering what happened. When he exits the house, he's greeted to the sight of Xeno with his hands on his knees huffing out of breath.
"What happened?" He asks, coming over to comfort his friend.
"I went to the kitchen and there was a noise coming from behind a door. So I opened it up, a screeching noise came out, and there were two yellow eyes staring back at me." Xeno rambles out.
"Are you sure?"
"What do you mean, are you sure? Do you think I'm lying?!" Xeno angrily responds back.
"No, I don't think you're lying. But we have to go back inside."
"What why?!"
"Because I left the candy bags on the floor near the cabinets."
"We don't need them."
"Uh Xeno I did not just walk around a neighborhood for hours to gather all that candy just to abandon it because you think you saw a ghost."
"You do think I'm lying!"
"No, I never said that. Look how about we go back inside and grab the bags. Then you can show me this yellow eyed thing in the kitchen."
"No, I don't want to go back."
"Well I'm going to go back to get the candy and then check out this thing you saw. Never know maybe it's some new animal and we could be the first ones to discover it." Stan jokes.
"Urgh fine you owe me big time Stan." Xeno says, following Stan back into the house.
They pass the door threshold again and make their way back into the living room. Stan picks up their candy bags and hands them to Xeno.
"Here you hold them, just in case I have to fight the ghost you saw."
"I told you I'm not lying! There really is something in that room.
"Yeah sure let's go check it out."
Stan leads the way to the kitchen with Xeno trailing behind him. He glances around and notices that the kitchen is just as massive as the living room.
"Which door is it?"
"That one." Xeno tells him, pointing towards a door across from where they stand.
"Okay let's see what spooked yah."
"We don't have to open it Stan. We can just leave right now. We have the candy."
"Nah I wanna see what it is."
He makes his way over to the tall door and stops in front of it. Xeno is a little ways behind him hesitant to get closer. He slowly opens the door. It's pitch black inside, there's no electricity in the house so he has to squint his eyes to see if he can make out anything.
"There's nothing here Xeno. It's just dark." Stan says, turning around to look at the other boy.
"No there was something! I promise I saw it."
"Well whatever it was float up to top of the house or something because it's gone now."
"Stan!" Xeno shouts, scooting back further from the door.
"What?"
"Behind you!"
Stan turns around to see what has Xeno yelping like that. In the dark room in the door are a pair of big yellow eyes. Stan quickly backs up with one hand out to block the thing from getting his friend and another ready to strike whatever this thing is to protect Xeno. He's about to slam the door closed, but then the thing meows and slowly makes its way out of the dark room into the kitchen to uncover itself.
It's a black cat with big yellow eyes. It meows again when it sees them and tries to stalk closer to the pair of boys.
"It's a cat Xeno. A cat scared yah. See no monsters or ghosts." Stan says, bending down and holding out his hand for the cat to come closer.
"That screech did not sound like a cat!" Xeno exclaims, watching as the cat sniffed Stan's hand before nuzzling itself into his awaiting palm.
"Maybe it was choking on a hairball or something." Stan says, scratching behind the cats ears.
"No! It really did not sound like a noise a cat could make."
Stan about to respond back, but then they hear a loud noise from upstairs. A door chillingly creaks loudly open and then what sounds like footsteps can be heard from the floor above them.
"What about that?" Xeno panickily asks.
"Yeah I don't know about that. Let's get out of here." Stan says, picking up the cat and following Xeno outside the house.
They quickly exit the house and make their way as far away from it as they can. Once there at a safe distance away from the shadowy home, Stan puts the cat down on the ground.
"Why did you bring the cat?" Xeno asks, as he watches it swish its tail back and forth.
"Uh so it can be safe duh. Ain't that right furball."
The cat meows back up at him before it starts making its way back towards the house they just came from. They watch it go until it enters back through the still wide-open door.
"Doesn't seem like it wants to be safe."
"Well I tried. Guess the cat is the pet of whatever that thing upstairs was."
They start making their way back up the street to exit the neighborhood to go back home. It's definitely way darker now and there are even less people out. As there almost towards the park, Stan realizes he left something at the house.
"Shit."
"What?"
"I forgot the records."
"Please Stan don't go back." Xeno pleads, grabbing Stan's hand so he wouldn't turn around and go back to the house.
"Fine fine. Let's continue heading back."
He looks back over the direction towards the house, thinking about the goldmine he's abandoning. He'll just have to come back during the day to grab the stuff he left behind. Preferably with a bat for protection and maybe some catnip for the cat.
They make their way through the park and finally outside the community gate back into the streets. They cross the intersection and are making their way pass the small supermarket, when Stan notices a worker outside. The market worker is placing pumpkins in perfect shape near the dumpster in the back of the store. He walks over to see what the young man is doing with them. As they get closer the guy notices them and glances over to look at the pair of them.
"Hey little dudes! Nice space and Wednesday costume."
Stan smirks watching Xeno twitch in annoyance at being called Wednesday for the 100th time that night. He cuts off Xeno when he sees him about to open his mouth to correct the guy.
"Thanks. Whatcha doing with those pumpkins?" Stan asks.
"Boss lady said to throw them out. There the leftovers no one bought. If you want them go ahead." The man tells them, before he makes his way back inside to grab the rest of the pumpkins.
"You wanted to carve pumpkins, right?"
"Yeah."
"Cool. Let's grab some."
They each grab one pumpkin before making their way back to Xeno's apartment. Stan is moving at a steady pace, but notices that Xeno is struggling behind him trying to carry the pumpkin.
"Come on Xeno hurry up. Your sister wanted us back before 10 remember?"
"It's heavy Stan! I'm trying my best here."
Stan slows down his pace to match Xeno's so the other boy doesn't get left behind. They finally make it to the front of the apartment complex. Once they reach the stairs, he starts making his way up the steps but notices that Xeno was on the bottom looking up at him with weary eyes.
"I can't take it up the stairs. My arms already feel wobbly. I'm going to drop it."
"I know you can do it Xeno."
Xeno shakes his head once again telling him he can't. Stan huffs before going up the stairs to deposit his pumpkin on the ground before going back down to grab his friends to bring it up himself.
"Thank you." Xeno tells him, as he watches Stan bring the pumpkins into his apartment.
"Yeah yeah. You owe me some of your candy for my hard work."
Stan's hauling the pumpkins up on the table when he sees Xeno staring at the closed door to the apartment.
"What's up?"
"Can we barricade the door?"
"Uh why?" Stan asks, coming over to look at the door too.
"Just in case."
"So, you were scared. Don't worry Xeno your little ghost from the house didn't follow us home."
"No! I'm not scared about ghosts, but what if it was a person in the house and they followed us back home."
"I seriously doubt anyone followed us."
"Just I'm worried about the cat."
"You think the cat is gonna kill us?"
"No! Not the cat just what if it followed us."
"You think the cat followed us home and is reporting back our location to its ghost owner, so this phantom can come over and take us out for trespassing on its property?"
"Ugh nevermind."
"I'm joking Xeno. We can barricade the door if it makes you feel better." Stan tells him, going over to a storage cabinet by the door.
He pushes it up against the door and once Xeno is satisfied no one can get through it, they go back to the kitchen to start working on the pumpkins. Xeno grabs some knives, hands one to Stan, and then they get to work opening them up to hollow the pumpkins out. As they work on scrapping out the seeds they eat some of the candy they got from trick or treating.
"Aren't you glad I took us to that neighborhood. This is the most candy we've gotten so far."
"Yeah besides forcing me to go into that creepy house, this was definitely a better neighborhood then the one we usually go to."
"I didn't force you into the house. You followed me in yourself."
"I did not willingly follow you in! You threatened to leave me outside in the dark by myself."
"I didn't threaten you. I just politely told you that you could wait outside for me. No one was gonna get cha." Stan laughs, popping some M&M's into his mouth as he scopes out another chuck of seeds.
"Whatever Stan. At least you didn't drag me upstairs and we avoided getting murdered."
"We can always go back during the day to check out upstairs."
"No way! I'm never going back to that place. That house was huge. We probably would have got lost in it."
"Nah we wouldn't have got lost. We could have followed the trail of glitter falling off my shirt back to the front door." Stan says, pulling back his shirt and letting it go to show the excessive amount of glittering falling off of it onto the table.
"I wanted to make sure you shined brightly just like outer space!" Xeno giggles.
Stan shakes his head and they continue to work on their pumpkins. There staring to carve out the designs they drew on them, when they hear a noise outside. Xeno jumps and Stan chuckles.
"It's just the neighbors." Stan says, plunging his knife into his pumpkin to start carving.
"I know. I just got a little startled is all."
"Hm yeah. No need to worry. If murder cat wanted to kill us it would have done it by now."
"Not exactly. It could be planning a way to do it. Maybe it's contacting backup to bring to the apartment complex to take us all out and then take over the world."
"So now you think the cats an alien or something?"
"It could be! It sure didn't sound like a normal cat to me. You can't pass up the possibility of it being an alien that is hiding out until it has the perfect chance to strike and enslave the human race."
"Okay so you think the cat is an alien that choose an abandoned old house in the middle of this small town to hide out in before it could come up with a plan to take over the world." Stan questions, stopping his carving to look over at Xeno.
"Yep!"
"I think all that fog from the haunted houses got you high and messed up."
"Fine. When the alien cat comes from us, I'm tripping you and taking off running to save myself. See if you think I'm high after that."
"Cruel Xeno. Even after I carried up your pumpkin for you up the stairs. Next time I'm making you carry it by yourself and not helping yah."
Xeno laughs and they continue to banter about the possibility of aliens warping themselves to look like animals to trick humans into thinking their harmless. They finish up carving their pumpkins and once there done they place them closely together and stand back to admire their work.
"I think they look elegant!"
"Yeah there pretty good besides this part right here you messed up on." Stan teases pointing to a spot on the other boy’s pumpkin.
Xeno had decided he was going to try his Jupiter design after all and had stared carving it out but made a mistake. He carved to deep and miscalculated the design which caused the whole circle to plop out. Now he had a huge empty circle that he decided was going to be one of Jupiter's moons instead.
"I accidently did that!"
"Yeah but I could have sworn Jupiter was bigger than any of its moons."
"It is but I couldn't make Jupiter bigger than that circle. But what about yours. Why did you do the alien cat!"
"Thought it would be a nice way to remember the night."
Stan had actually started with just carving a regular cat onto his pumpkin, but then after the talk about aliens he carved an extra third eye above the other. He had also carved little antennas onto it to give it that signature alien look.
"Well it's very impressive." Xeno praises.
"Thanks. Next year we should get better tools." Stan mentions, starting to pick up the mess they made.
They clean up their mess and dump all the seeds in the trash. Once there done they make their way back into Xeno's room. They change out of their costumes and then plop on Xeno's bed, tired from the long night they had.
"Thanks for taking me trick or treating to that neighborhood Stan. Everything was fun, besides the dirty house." Xeno says, rolling over to his side.
"Anytime Xeno. We can go back next year too. Maybe the alien cat army will be gone if they don't take over and we can explore the house without any threats."
"Sounds good except going back to the house."
"Don't be a scary cat." Stan says, rolling over onto his side to be face to face with Xeno.
"I'm not scared! I just don't think its good idea to explore an abandoned old house. We can just do pumpkins instead again."
"Fine you win."
They continue to chat and eat candy while relaxing on the bed until they fall asleep happily exhausted from the long exciting Halloween night they had together.