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H
alloween, it’s just after midnight, and there's a full moon outside, a cold chill slithers its way under the door of the service station as Snoball sits behind the counter tapping her fingers along to the music, her boss let her create an appropriately Halloween-y playlist and while he wouldn't let her put anything from her favourite bands in there in fear of it driving away customers with the harsh nu-metal sounds, she was able to get him to let her add Undertale music into the mix.
So there she is, middle of the night, staring at the jack-o-lantern doughnuts that no one bought and she’d have to throw out tomorrow, one light they couldn't afford to fix flickering on and off, giving her a headache and humming along to “Bonetrousle” (a classic in Toby Fox’s musical library and better than Megolaviana in her controversial opinion) when
BZzzt-
The music cuts out halfway, and the whole store is suddenly cloaked in darkness, only illuminated by the moon's faint light through the glass doors.
Power outage,
“Damnit” she exclaims in annoyance, grabbing an emergency flashlight from under the counter, and banging it against the desk a few times to get the ancient batteries to work, the light falters before shining brighter than the sun in her eyes (rookie mistake on her part) she turns the flashlight around, jumping over the counter rather than walking around it (in her defence its cooler that way) and making her way to the circuit breaker panel at the back of the store, shivering in the cold air of the night.
She finally makes her way to it, shoving the flashlight in her mouth as she uses both her hands to flip a few switches at random to see if she can get the power running, and is successful, as she sighs with relief the lights immediately switch themselves off again as she hears a loud BANG from the inside of the shop
“That can’t be good.”
She rushes back inside, seeing a jar of, something, smashed on the ground, and a small trail of lollie wrappers leading towards the freezer section, a small chill runs down her spine and she gulps, takes a deep breath in and grounds herself a little, probably just some little kid up to no good on Halloween night, she thinks to herself, no need to call the cops, she spots a small shadow towards the back of the store, and raises her voice hoping to scare the kid off “HEY”
Nothing, it stays there, motionless, but was it, glowing? Nah, just Halloween spookiness getting to her head, it's gotta be. The shape darts away in an instant, dashing towards the display of almost stale doughnuts.
“HEY KID YOU GOTTA PAY FOR THAT STUFF YKNOW, MAYBE NEXT TIME STEAL FROM A BIG CORPORATION RATHER THAN A SMALL BUSINESS”
For legal reasons, she was kidding.
She hears a small
“Shit”
in a voice quiet but too deep to be a child, but not nearly squeaky enough to be a teen, a grown adult? Stealing food from a service station on Halloween night? Probably a homeless person, she’ll let them slide as long as they aren't aggressive or anything.
“LOOK, I’LL PAY FOR YOUR FOOD IF YOU REALLY NEED IT, I WON'T HURT YA IF YOU DON'T HURT ME OK?”
She kind of felt bad for yelling now, but as she turned a corner, and pointed her light towards the intruder, trying to dodge their eyes, she’d see something she wouldn't believe at first.
Navy blue, transparent, floating over the ground, no legs, spiked cuffs around the hands, fading to a lighter periwinkle near the ends of the limbs and tips of the ears, glowing, piercing purple eyes that stared right through her, wild and scared.
“HOLY CRAP-”
She almost falls back, bumping into one of the displays, her eyes dart around wildly, she thought she had to be hallucinating, did someone sneak something into her coffee?
“Y-you can see me?”
Ok, don't freak out Snoball, just a ghost, an everyday normal occurrence, average… everyday… ghost.
“Yeah, and I could hear you, too”
There's silence for a bit, just staring at each other, the lights turn themself back on finally, and he's still there, floating, collection of Halloween-themed snacks in hand.
“So… why do you need to steal food anyway, aren't you like, dead?”
“What can I say, I missed the taste of candy corn,
as shitty and cheap as it is
” He answered, shoving a large handful in his mouth as she watched them just disappear into nothingness
“Uh-huh… right... Do you uh, remember your name?”
“Of course, I remember my name, Axel, nice to meet you…?”
“Snoball..”
A little more silence passes
“Do you remember your life or how you died? It's ok if you don't….”
“God, I'm not stupid, not every ghost is an amnesiac, I remember every detail of my life of course, and I died by…. Uhh….hmm, I thought I knew, but I guess I don’t…sorry”
“Hey it’s alright”
Snowball finally stands up straight,
“So I'm guessing you're stuck here on earth?”
“Yeah, seems like it.. I know I ain't welcome back at home though even in death, so I've just been wandering..”
“I wont ask, but you free to stay here if you want”
“Really? You mean it?”
“Of course dude, it'd be nice to actually have, company around here”
