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“It’s not a sphere!” argued Dream, swinging his jack-o’-lantern trick-or-treat bucket against the leg of his vampire costume.
“It is a sphere!” insisted Desire, twirling the tail of their demon costume in their hand again. “I learned it in school and it’s round like a ball so it’s a sphere.”
“No it’s not! It has the top and bottom cut off and look, the sides are bumpy!”
“Pumpkins are as close as vegetables get to a sphere though,” Desire said petulantly.
“Melons are closer,” Dream was at his most annoyingly pedantic.
“You can’t put fire inside a melon though!” Desire gestured at the jack-o’-lanterns on the front steps of most of the houses lining the street they were walking down.
“You probably could!”
“Oh, Dream, would you stop it please? No one puts fire in melons, and pumpkins are close enough, you can let Desire have this one.” Death lifted the tail of her mermaid costume again to go up the stairs, and rang the doorbell. Dream and Desire crowded beside her, while Destruction, the Incredible Hulk, helped Delirium, a cute little blue alien, up the stairs. Despair followed slowly in her air elemental costume.
“They’re going to think I’m a ghost again,” she muttered morosely.
“Trick or treat!” the children chorused as the door opened.
“Oh, aren’t you sweet! Here’s some candy for you, little vampire, and you, you handsome devil, and what a pretty mermaid you are! And for you, Hulk, and your little blue friend, what a sweetie! And for you, what an imaginative ghost costume! And here’s a bit extra for your brother.” The witch at the door gave Death a bit of extra candy for Destiny, who was too big for trick or treating (in his opinion), but still willing to go along with his younger siblings ”to supervise,” and if he put on his Doctor Strange costume to do it, well, that was just getting in the spirit of Halloween.
“Do you think she knows my name is Hope?” Delirium asked Destruction worriedly. “She called you Hulk but she didn’t call me Hope.”
“She got mine wrong too,” Despair commiserated.
“It’s okay,” Destruction reassured her as Desire and Dream pushed past them down the stairs. “You know the name. Everyone else doesn’t need to.”
“But I want to tell her!”
“Okay.”
Destruction took her hand to go back up to the door as Death headed down, and suddenly, well. He was usually a bit clumsy and the costumes didn’t help. He stumbled to the side and knocked over the jack-o’-lantern.
“Oh no!” Delirium yelled as Destruction regained his balance.
“Something always goes wrong,” Despair moaned.
“Don’t worry, dears,” the witch called as she reached to the side. She pulled two ghosts on sticks out of the bucket of damp sand that was propping them up and dumped the sand on the candle fire before it could spread through the leafy decorations.
“All taken care of! And did I hear you say your name is Hope? Like from the Sandman comics?”
Delirium nodded shyly.
“Oh, I love that story! So sad, though. Excellent job on your costume!”
“Thank you,” Destruction said on Delirium’s behalf.
“And I’m an air elemental,” Despair grumbled under her breath, but the witch heard her.
“Oh, you’re not a ghost but an air elemental? That explains the neat ribbons you have going there! Very nice job! So creative!”
Despair wasn’t really accustomed to beaming in delight, but she did her best as they turned and went back down the front path. Destiny was waiting for them on the sidewalk as the other three ran ahead to the next house.
“All set, you three?”
“Yes!” Destruction agreed, as Delirium nodded enthusiastically.
“She liked my air elemental costume,” Despair confessed shyly.
“That’s wonderful.” Destiny put his arm around his little sister as Destruction took Delirium’s hand again.
“Let’s go!”