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“Aren’t you going out tonight?”, Linda called across the living room.
Sara uttered a dismissive grunt from the couch.
“Halloween is for little kids, mama!”, she snorted. “What do you think? Me walking down the road with a witch hat and crooked plastic nose to collect candy on doorsteps?”
Linda uttered a chiming laugh.
“When I was your age, there were crazy parties going on around Halloween. We’d have costumes and make-up and scary pranks. It was fun!”
But Sara just rolled her eyes, wiggled her toes in her cozy socks and returned her attention to the magazine on her lap. Linda poured the dough for the cinnamon rolls on the counter, put a handful of flour on top and started to knead, when Batmon swooped into the kitchen. Linda let out a little squeak of surprise when the cool whiff of his wings softly stroked her ear. Batmon set out for the landing, but the work top was covered in flour and he slipped, somersaulted a few times, toppled across the counter like a bat-burrito and came to a halt snout in dough.
“Simon!”, his mother yelled but couldn’t keep in the chuckle at the sight of the white powdered furball that was looking at her with big eyes.
Cake bat. Ugh!
He had just spent quite some time cleaning his pelt and checking it in the mirror back in his room after he had shifted, and it had been so beautiful, black and shiny – just perfect for a party night out. Now he was all white and crumbly.
Batshit!
Need to get this off. Quick!
The moment Batmon got onto his feet and took a deep breath, Linda’s eyes grew wide.
“NO!”, she shouted, but it was too late.
With a furious wriggle of its small body and wings, the bat shook the flour out of its fur. In an instant the kitchen was covered in a cloud of white fog. It settled on the cupboard, the floor, the kitchen tools, his mother – and his nose.
“Haa-tshiiuu!”, Batmon sneezed right across the dough.
“Amor!”, Linda sighed, hands helplessly thrown up into the air, frowning at her formerly blue jumper, that now looked like she had just escaped a snowstorm.
Whoopsy.
An excusing chirp sounded from the little black snout at her scolding look. But the humbleness didn’t last long, for Batmon had discovered a pack of raisins on the counter that Linda had prepared to season her rolls with. Eagerly he hopped close and nudged it. The plastic pack toppled over, and a good deal of the sticky fruit rolled out. With a happy squeak, the bat set about to collect the raisins one by one like a miniature vacuum cleaner, quicker than Linda could react. Munching with full cheeks, Batmon watched his mother setting the package back up again and emphatically putting a clip on it.
Unfair.
With a quick glance Linda checked the calendar on the wall. The full moon nights were highlighted with a red marker.
“I didn’t know there’s a full moon tonight”, she mused. “Be careful outside, cariño. You know you can’t change back at full moon!”
“Good!”, Sara shouted from the couch. “Maybe he finally gets eaten by a cat!”
The parent look Linda sent her was in vain. Sara leafed her tabloid, and Batmon didn’t care. He jumped towards the window and Linda opened it for him with floury hands. It didn’t matter anymore – the kitchen was a mess anyway. Batmon set off, and with a few strong flaps of his leathery wings glided through the air, leaving a dusty flour trail behind.
His first stop was only a few houses down the road. He found Ayub on the steps of his front porch, where his friend had just finished carving a big round pumpkin. It sat right next to him on the wooden steps to welcome the neighbors’ kids with flaming eyes and a fearful grin. Batmon drew close and chirped a hello.
“Hey man!”, Ayub greeted him and set down the knife.
Batmon landed on the pumpkin and carefully sniffed it. The fresh aroma of the juicy fruit was still lingering in the air. Ayub picked up a small bit of pumpkin pulp and offered it to the bat. Batmon eyed him suspiciously, crunched up his nose and tugged at the piece of fruit with long teeth. He took a tiny bite, but the taste did not compare to the raisins at all. Ayub tittered away at the disgusted look on the bat’s face.
“Alright, Simme. I don’t like it either.”
He got up, collected the fruit pulp he had scooped out of the pumpkin and his tools and carried everything inside the house. Batmon looked about himself and then down at his feet, that were clasping the shell of the pumpkin with his small claws. The big hole on the top of the hollow fruit was very alluring. It was perfect bat size. With a small hop he was inside. Turning about himself with folded wings he marveled at the glowing cave. He’d never been inside a pumpkin before. It was nice, the orange walls around him shining, the smell fresh and fruity.
Much better than the low stink of socks in Ayub ’s boy room.
The front door slammed, and Ayub returned. He plopped down on the stairs again, picked up the lid of the pumpkin and placed it over the hole. The boy bent down and knocked his knuckles against the pumpkin.
“What do you think. Would you like that as a house?”
Batmon looked out through the huge pumpkin eyes and blinked a few times. It was nice. But it was also wet, and he didn’t like to be shut in. A pleading chirp sounded from the pumpkin and Ayub was just about to open the cap to let him out, when a bunch of kids appeared in the yard, waving little baskets and wohoooing in their wouldbe-scary costumes. Ayub got close to the pumpkin and whispered to Batmon.
“Let’s give them a little Halloween show.”
When the kids drew near and collected their candy, Ayub smiled mischievously.
“Don’t get too close to the pumpkin. It’s aliiiiiihihihihve!”, he threatened with a hollow voice.
The kids looked at him with a disbelieving frown.
“Yeah, right. As if!”
One of the kids approached and peered into the big eye holes. Batmon crouched and didn’t move. When the boy drew even closer, the little bat let out a high-pitched screeching sound. The boy pulled back with a squeak and the other kids laughed at him.
“Oh, come on. That’s just a sound machine!”, another boy giggled and joined his friend to examine the big orange vegetable.
He reached out a finger and stepped up close. Inside the pumpkin Batmon hissed. Now the boys weren’t too sure of themselves anymore, but they were pleasantly shuddering.
“Don’t touch it!”, another kid yelled. It was keeping itself at a good distance, clutching its sweets bag to its chest and watching their friends with a worried face. The boys collected their courage. The smaller one reached out with a quick move and lifted the lid of the pumpkin. Nothing happened.
“I told you it was just a sound machine”, he whispered to his friend.
Ayub raised his eyebrow at them in a daring manner. The boys turned back to the pumpkin in unison, drawing their faces closer to look inside the hole at the top. Right at this moment Batmon shot out, stroked their faces with his wings in the go and screwed high up into the air, cackling. The boys let out a loud cry, jumped back in shock and tumbled away to their mates, everybody screaming.
“RUN!”, Ayub yelled, and the horrified kids took off, shaking and laughing at the successful Halloween creep they had been given.
Batmon sailed down towards Ayub like a falling leaf and softly landed on the porch railing. With outstretched wings, he performed a little – very un-batlike – bow. Ayub shook with laughter.
“Dammit, bro! You nearly gave ME a heart attack!”
Batmon chirped, set off into the air again, drew a few circles around the small front yard and with a last hoot disappeared into the black of the sky. Pranking was funny, but he had plans for the night. There was a bit of way to go from Bjärstad to Hillerska and he had been excited about it the whole day. Wilhelm had told him, the fancy boarding schoolers were having a Halloween party, and there was no way Batmon would miss out on that.
He hadn’t seen Wille for a couple of days now as they both had to take exams, and his mom wouldn’t allow him to stay out late because of it. But he would see him tonight – live and in person, and not just through the screen of his phone! The excitement about his date night was dulled though by the fact, that after so many days of unhappy distance – which had scraped on the verge of unbearable – his first night out would have to be THIS night of all things. Truth be told, full moon meetings with Wille weren’t exactly Simon’s favorites, because owing to the circumstances, there was no kissing going to happen for a needy bat. It was fair probably, although it hurt his little heart. But it was Halloween, and that was really rocking! And maybe, he would stay over at Wilhelm’s if he could and steal a kiss from Handsome in the morning, when his body would be human again and there’d be no more hair around his nose.
When he arrived at the party, a lot of students were lingering about the place that was decorated with pumpkins, fake bones, lanterns and big spooky plastic spiders. Batmon was fairly unimpressed by the decoration. He was not afraid of spiders. He could eat them. They weren’t nice though, hairy and spiky – but he could if they got nasty. He looked about in search for his Wille, when his attention was caught by a huge white thing that was standing on the doorstep. It was made from white metal and glass with silvery applications, beautifully sparkling with a little pinnacle on the curved roof. Batmon drew closer to inspect it. It looked nice, just like a little princess castle – the perfect home for a classy bat with a sense of style. The little door stood open, and there was a free space where a big candle was supposed to stand. Someone had taken it out to chase a ghost with it or whatever, so the space was open for a little bat, who climbed in and looked about.
The world looked funny through the glass panes that were reflecting the flickering lights from outside. All the carvings and decorations – Batmon’s eyes grew wide with adoration. This was the prettiest bat box he had ever seen! Just as he was musing on the question, whether he should perch on the ceiling and take a little nap in this beautiful little castle after his long flight, the door smashed shut behind him and the lantern was being picked up. A tall boy with a long and creepily painted clown face with ugly green plastic hair and a big red nose had swept it up and was now dangling the box around, so Batmon slid to and fro on the wooden floor in a very unpleasant manner.
“Look what I caught!”, the boy yelled and showed the lantern with the black fur ball in it around.
More boys gathered and ogled the catch. Someone knocked their finger against the glass, almost giving Batmon a heart attack. He wanted to get out, but the door was firmly locked and there was no getting through window panes – so much he knew. The little bat flapped its wings in a rage and bared its sharp teeth at the attackers. But the boys only laughed at him.
“Oh, what a frightening thing you are!”, the guy who was holding him chuckled. “This is a lantern after all. Shall we light it on fire maybe?”
Batmon wasn’t sure what the scary boy was talking about, for there was nothing inside the lantern to be lit – but him.
“Shoo, what an ass you are!”, a girl with big black hair shouted at that moment. “Fuck you Vincent, that’s not even funny! Let it out, poor thing!”
The girl, who was dressed up as a beautiful vampire lady, snatched the lantern from the guy’s hand and held it up to her face. The eyes that looked in at Batmon were big and brown and kind and soothed his racing heart a little bit, so it would not burst through his ribs right away. She opened the little hook that held the door closed, and even before the door was fully open, Batmon jumped out. He would have liked to say thank you to the lady, but it was much more important to bunk before the clown guy could go ahead with the lighting thing.
In a rush, Batmon fled and sped up, wings frantically flapping. The door of the location stood open and before it could even think, the little bat had swooped right into the room. Inside it was hot and crowded and a lot of people in creepy and fancy costumes were dancing to the heavy beat of party music. It was dark – which usually didn’t bother Batmon. If it hadn’t been for the flickering lights and the noise – the NOISE! He could hardly see where he was going, the beat of the music drowning out his echoes. His little heartbeat sped up again as he fluttered through the room to find his way out – but there was a corner, and there was another one. As he turned in a tight curve and sped along a wall, he heard screeches below him. Some of the party people had noticed a shadow swooshing over their heads and ducked away in surprise. Batmon looked down to see why everybody was so upset, when he was stopped midflight – by a wall.
THUD.
The faceplant was even harder than it usually was with windows. Damn it was hard. Outch.
For a split second, the little black bat stuck to the tapestry, wings outstretched, face in wall. Then it started to slip. Before dizzy Batmon could react, he fell – butt first – down onto the buffet table and right into the big punchbowl that stood there with a splash. The bowl luckily was half empty already, so he escaped the unpleasant sensation of drowning. But now there he sat, shaking his little head, dripping with the sugary pink liquid. Watching the little stars, that cutely exploded in front of his eyes in plenty of colors, Batmon unawarely licked his tongue around his snout to clean off his bathwater. In an instant his mind was clear. The taste was – sweet.
Super sweet! Fruity sweet!
The party had stopped, and a lot of amazed people stood staring at the spectacle. If anyone had waited for a Halloween show – Batmon had served. A face appeared over the brim of the bowl, and Batmon recognized Madison, who was looking down at him with a frown. She looked slightly different than usual, her face being half human, half skeleton – but it was Madison, no doubt.
“Simon?”, Madie huffed.
Batmon looked up at her with big innocent eyes. Without taking his gaze away from her, he let his body sink down a little more, until his snout was flush with the surface of the punch.
“What are you doing here?”
Batmon didn’t answer. Only his little mouth made a slurping sound.
Madison furrowed her brow.
“SIMON?”
Sluurrrrp.
“Are you DRINKING this?”
Sllluuurrrrrrpppp.
“Simon, don’t! The girls have put booze in! You’ll be drunk as hell!”
Sllluuuu?
Madie took the big scoop and fished Batmon out of the drink. The little flyer scrambled onto her hand, took a firm hold on her fingers with its feet and with a brisk move shook the liquid out of its fur just like the flour earlier.
“Eeeewww!”, Madie screamed and held out her hand to avoid the splash of wetness that came down all over her.
Batmon took the chance and set off, flapping his wet wings, and smoothly glided over the heads of the party people who were looking up at him. At least he had intended the flight to be smooth. But it wasn’t. It was wobbly, the straight line bending in unexpected directions and the ups and downs of his own uncontrolled movements giving him a sick stomach.
Fruity sweet, nasty feel – holy banana!
There's airholes tonight.
Right underneath, Batmon spotted the tall guy with the stupid hair, who had threatened to light him on fire. In a rage he started down on him, pinched his claws into the hair on his head and ripped the wig off on the go. The boy shouted and tried to grab him, but Batmon was quicker, speeding through the room and out the door, tightly holding onto his prey. The boy chased after him, but there was no chance he could reach him. Batmon soared high into the beautiful night sky, the cool air in his lungs reviving his energy. When he passed a tall tree, he let the wig fall down and it landed on a branch, just out of reach of the tall guy, who was jumping to get it, swearing in a rage, for his costume looked extra silly without the hair.
As the beat of the music faded out behind him, navigation got easier and Batmon set off for the lake, that lay still and sleepy under the twinkling starlight. It was good to get a bit of calm after all this excitement and he climbed high into the air to let his body drop down, stopping right before the water surface and shoot up again. Whatever the fruity sweet was doing to his body, it made Batmon brave and daring. When he was drawing his fourth loop, a sirring sound reached his ear and he spotted a big grey moth in the air right in front of him. Before his tipsy mind could hold him back, instinct hit, his jaws snapped – and the butterfly was in his mouth. Chewing on the crunchy insect, Batmon suddenly remembered why he didn’t normally eat food like this when he was being sober.
Ugh. Tastes like shit on a cracker.
It would have been nice to get another sip of the punch to down the crispy snack now, but whatever the students had mixed into that drink, it had given him enough of a head swirl. So it was probably better to drop this idea. When he was just spiraling through the air at max speed, his sensitive ears caught another sound – a whistle. It was HIS whistle.
Wille's whistle!
His heart jumped with joy at the sound and Batmon drew back over the water and towards the lakeshore, where his boyfriend was just walking out onto the wooden boardwalk, where they loved to sit together on lazy afternoons. As the bat approached, it found that something was different about Wille tonight. His boyfriend was wearing a weird dress, some puffy pants, a frock-coat and a white wig, just like a prince from former times. His pretty face was painted all white with black shadows around the eyes, the lips were dark red and blood was dripping from his mouth. Fear crept into Batmon’s little chest at the sight.
Is Wille not well?
He couldn’t always remember every detail about human behavior when he was in bat shape, but people should not bleed from their mouths – he was quite sure about that. Wilhelm came to stand on the boardwalk and looked about himself, eyes intensely scanning the darkness of the night. He whistled again and held out his arm. This was Batmon’s cue. Full of apprehension – and lightheaded from the booze – the bat let out its most alluring clicking sounds, that fellow bats might have perceived as slutty. But hey – it was his Wille calling! He could do with a little slutty. Batmon approached the boy with some inaudible flaps of his wings, halted in midair like a hummingbird, gripped the fabric of his outstretched arm with his feet and clung around it with his wings like a second sleeve. His heart was racing in his body and his chest heaving from his crazy flight, as he snuggled against his arm, hugging Wille as tight as his little paws would allow.
“Hey furry love, there you are!”, Wille said in a low voice, big smile on his face, that looked a bit scary with all the red stains on his mouth. “So sweet you came.”
Carefully, he fondled the fluffy pelt of the bat behind its big ears. A purr escaped Batmon's throat before he could check himself. Now close up he could see that the unhealthy color was really only paint on Wilhelm’s face.
Doesn't smell like blood either.
So the bloody face was a detail of the party dress, which was a bit funny, but then again – not. Batmon liked to picture his boyfriend as a prince, his light skin, lean limbs and dainty features were fit for posh nobility. But not that spooky vampire version. He didn’t really have a thing for vampires. Batmon was not allowed to bite people. Mom’s been very clear about that after his sister had snitched on him giving her hand some little stapler holes. Wille had been angry with him biting his thumb, too. So if Batmon must not bite people, why could people bite people? It was unfair and therefore vampires were stupid.
“Nice costume you chose”, Wille smirked at him. “Very halloweenish.”
Batmon showed his teeth to emphasize how much their arrays fit. Wilhelm glanced up at the night sky, where the full moon shone in all its glory, only tickled by a thin haze of almost transparent clouds.
“Shame you can’t change back in full moon nights. Would love to dance with you for a bit.”
The bat made a cackling sound.
“What do you mean, I can’t dance? That’s a rude thing to say for a flying mouse!”
Batmon gave a squeak. The one with the question mark at the end.
Mouse! How dare he?
Batmon let go of Wille’s sleeve and fluttered about him, round and round. It didn’t take Wilhelm long to figure that his bat-boyfriend wanted him to follow. Batmon led him back to the party that had slowed down now as more and more people were lazing about, boozed and tired. It wouldn’t take long anymore until the show for this year’s Halloween would be over. The little bat fluttered towards the white lantern he had been caught in before. Someone had placed it onto a table outside. Now the bat perched on top of it, clinging to the pinnacle with its strong legs an sat there like the cutest little fluffy gargoyle.
“What do you want?”, Wille asked with a furrowed brow.
He drove a hand over the smooth surface of the lantern. Batmon rolled his eyes. It was a very untypical move for a bat, but he had practiced and found, his big round eyes were very good for rolling.
“What?”, Wilhelm asked again. “Don’t give me that bitch look! Do you like that thing?”
Wilhelm inspected the box and opened the little door. Batmon left his place on the roof and fluttered down. He crawled into the lantern and hung himself from the small ceiling. A chuckle left Wilhelm’s chest as he watched his bat-boyfriend dangling inside the lantern.
“You want that as a bedroom?”, Wilhelm huffed, unbelieving. “Oh my God, you’re the gayest bat on the planet!”
Batmon grunted and folded his wings in indignation. Wilhelm put his hand into the box and plucked him down. He held the little pelted bat to his face for a conspiratorial whisper.
“Do you want me to steal this for you?”
Batmon made a little fluttery jump chirping and Wilhelm shook his head, grinning with his blood red lips.
“The things you make me do!”
After a quick look about himself, Wille snatched the lantern and walked away, back to his student’s room at the dorm. There he placed the lantern on his desk. He unhinged the little door, so the entrance would stay open and Batmon instantly crept in and hung there – a little black furball inside its sparkling white castle.
“I can’t believe people think bats are scary, when the truth is, they’re just gay as fuck, swanky and pretentious”, Wille tittered, while he took off his wig and massaged his sore scalp.
Batmon followed with one eye, as Wille thoroughly removed his make-up and washed his face with his fancy skin care. The boy stripped off his puffy pants and button-up shirt with the high collar and changed into his cozy sleeping t-shirt – the one, Simon had found for him at a second hand sale. He moved in unbearably slow human pace and took his time to get bed ready, while fatigue was about to pull the little bat’s lids shut as it hung there, watching. Halloween night had held a lot of excitement for a tiny flyer, given him a booze and a headache, a flour coating and a bath in fruity sweet. And it had even gotten itself a little house, its own private space in Wille’s room, like a pair of socks in the drawer or a toothbrush on his sink – only better.
When he was done, Wille plopped down on his chair, propped his head onto his fist and looked into Batmon’s castle with a pout of his lips. By now, Batmon was so tired, he really wanted to sleep, comfortably dangling in his glass house. But the closeness of Wilhelm made him force his eyes open again. Boyfriend was so beautiful as he sat there, face flushed from the skin scrub, lips still stained a little red, chin on hand, upside down. Batmon wondered if Wille knew, that in Batmon’s eyes he looked even more beautiful upside down – even though he could see inside his nose like this. And that meant a lot, for most people had ugly noses. Wille didn’t. Wille was beautiful. Wille was just made for a bat, looking pretty from every angle. He should tell him some time. Or maybe keep his little bat-secret to himself, that was probably only good for bat-brains anyway. Wilhelm reached into the lantern and stroked his fur with his finger, then gave him a playful little nudge, so he lightly swung to and fro.
“Want to sleep here or come over?”, Batmon heard him say, but his boyfriend’s voice sounded very far away and a second later, his mind was wrapped in cozy darkness.
When he woke, some early rays of sun were just creeping over the floor of the small room, tickling little specks of dust with their golden shimmer. Batmon twitched his ears and listened. Everything was still quiet. Usually there was always someone rummaging around in the early mornings, some early birds being already up or some late-night wanderers creeping in. It was just natural with a lot of teenagers in a dorm. But this morning, in the aftermath of the party, there was no sound to be heard, not even for bat-ears.
Batmon softly flapped his wings and hopped out of the lantern. He felt a twitch in his stomach – a precise sign he knew very well by now. A second later he changed, grew and expanded and full-size Simon came to sit on Wilhelm’s desk, feet dangling down, next to his lantern. His hair was still raven black and his skin soft, but he was having the face of a boy and the body of a teenager. Simon stretched his arms and neck and heard his back crack. His spine was never too fond of the hanging around upside down. His eyes fell on the white metal lantern by his side. Fondly, he stroked his finger over it and smiled.
What a catch!
If he wasn’t a bat with a taste! When his gaze lowered down to his feet, Simon figured he had forgotten to put on shoes before he had shape-shifted back in his room yesterday. A little annoyed sigh escaped his lips. So he would have to borrow from Wille again – which was weird, because his boyfriend’s feet were two sizes bigger and he walked like a clown in his sneakers. But it was still better than getting on the bus in socks. It would be easier to fly home, but just like he could not change to human in full moon nights, there was a twenty-four-hour lock on turning bat afterwards. Some kind of self-preserving function of his body probably to keep him from overworking it.
Right now, he still felt exhausted and tired. It was a very early Saturday morning. He peeked over to Wilhelm’s bed, where his boyfriend lay entangled in his blanket fast asleep, softly snoring with one bare foot hanging out over the ledge. Simon smiled, eyes growing soft, as he silently hopped down from the desk and sneaked over. He pulled off his sweater and pants, softly pushed Wille over and crept under the blanket with him. Wille uttered a muffled grunt as Simon nuzzled under his arm and pressed his chest against his, searching for his sleepy warmth. His boyfriend didn’t open an eye – he was used to Simon sneaking in with him in the early morning – but only tucked him close and buried his nose in his curls with an appreciative grunt. Simon made himself comfortable in his arms and placed a tender kiss onto Wille’s lips. The boy hummed softly and held him even closer.
“Why do you smell like punch?”, his boyfriend whispered, and Simon smirked, a small blush creeping onto his cheekbones. He hid his face in the crook of Wille’s neck and breathed him in. His perception was much number now compared to his bat-sense of smell, but still the sensation of sleepy Wille dazzled his mind. For a moment Simon doubted that he would be able to fall asleep again in his boyfriend’s arms. But Wille’s quiet breathing and the velvety touch of his skin quickly wrapped Simon in.
“Happy Halloween, baby”, Wilhelm mumbled with a last effort, lips against his forehead, before he drifted off again.
Simon smiled and closed his eyes.
“Happy Halloween, Wille.”
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