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“Wow,” Shadow said, hands on his hips as he took in the driveway in front of the house. “You guys really go all-out.”
Both garage doors were open, with pumpkins stacked decoratively on either side. The sun hadn't set yet, but flickering orange lights lit up the inside of the garage, which had been transformed into a party room, complete with a steaming cauldron, plastic-covered tables, and several large platters of cookies from the store, still covered in their plastic containers.
Vio joined him, backing up from where he'd been fiddling with some extension cords. “Erwin and Red are really passionate about Halloween, it's true.”
“As if you didn't have very strong opinions about what kind of candy to give out,” Shadow said, smiling. He bumped Vio with his arm.
“If we're giving the neighborhood kids free sugar, at least it'll be sugar that doesn’t attack anybody’s allergies,” Vio sniffed. He'd set up a few buckets full of different kinds of candy, labeled Gluten Free, Lactose Free, and Sugar Free. That last one just contained packaged apple slices.
“You're so good,” Shadow told him, looking over it all. He'd never been to a Halloween party like this one before.
A wave of melancholy washed over him as he remembered what he did usually do on Halloween. Since people were out and about on Halloween, it was a good night for hunting, but even better, it was a good night for kids to hunt. The first time he'd bitten a human that he'd found on his own had been under Uncle Poe’s supervision on Halloween, and he'd been looking forward to taking his little cousin Florentin out this year. Florentin was the best of his growing vampire cousins, weirdly attached to Shadow and eager to please. Shadow… missed him.
Vio must have detected the sudden shift in Shadow’s mood. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” Shadow said, then brightened a little. “Hey, do you have, like… an ice tray and toothpicks I could use?”
“I'm sure we do. Why?”
“Candy!”
Two jars of blood, a dozen toothpicks, a cup of sugar, and approximately two hours later, Shadow left Blue and Erwin in the garage to figure out the glow sticks on their own. He pulled off his knit skeleton-patterned gloves as he opened the door into the house, shoving them into the pocket of his hoodie. He shut the door on the silly spooky kids’ songs and headed into the kitchen.
“Hi Shadow!” Red said from his spot near the counter, running the hot chocolate maker again. He wore a cheerleader’s uniform, poached from one of Blue’s teammates. “Wow, your makeup looks great.”
“Thanks, yours too. I have to say, being able to actually see my reflection makes this kind of thing much easier.” Shadow looked at himself again in the glass front of the black microwave. It would usually be an awfully warped reflection, but the stark black-and-white skull face he'd painted on his skin was very visible, even here. He was proud of the job he'd done, and hoped that if a member of his Family happened to pass by, they wouldn't recognize him.
…Hopefully they wouldn't recognize the Knights, either, but he didn't know if anybody actually got a good look at those boys in the middle of the prom fight. Someone recognizing Shadow was far less of a stretch. He worried that his cousins would be on the prowl tonight. They had to know he was still out there.
Hopefully he wouldn't have to worry about it. Shadow opened up the freezer, poked one of his creations, and judged them hardened enough. He removed the silicone ice cube tray and started twisting it to get the cubes out.
“What's that?” Red asked. “Popsicles?”
Shadow held one up by the toothpick handle and grinned. “Lollipops! Uh, suckers? I don't know what you’d call them. We called them bloody pops. They aren't really frozen, just hardened.”
Red wrinkled his nose, but not in an unkind way. He just still didn't like the thought of someone consuming blood, no matter what form it took. Shadow didn't understand how Red ate raw ramen noodles, though, so it balanced out. “That's kinda cool.”
“I like the sugar,” Shadow agreed, sticking one into his cheek and dumping the rest onto a plate. He grabbed a sticky note and a marker, wrote out ‘Shadow’s. eat if you want to get sick’, and stuck it to the plate’s edge. “Malon got here a bit ago, right?”
His answer came a second later in the form of a muffled horror movie scream from downstairs. Shadow snorted.
“Yep,” Red laughed. “And… Shadow?”
“Hm?” Shadow turned, popping the bloody pop from his mouth.
Red’s face fell from his laugh into a hesitant expression. “Do you think any vampires will show up tonight?”
Shadow shook his head. “Nah. My Family has a vested interest in keeping us all secret, and attacking a whole house on Halloween isn't gonna do that.”
His Family would definitely be out and about in some way tonight, hunting for him or not, but he didn't add that. Red looked comforted by his answer. The hot chocolate maker went silent, finished with its mixing and heating.
“All right. Thanks. Sorry.”
“It's a valid question.” Shadow pulled his gloves back out of his pocket. “Want me to take that and add it to the big jug?”
“Oh—sure!” Red unplugged the hot chocolate maker and handed it over. He went about cleaning up a bit as Shadow left the warmth and brightness of the kitchen again.
Outside in the garage, the first few families had already arrived, decked out in their gaudiest best. Shadow spotted a couple colorful characters he half-recognized from recent animated movie posters, along with the ubiquitous princesses and cowboys and dinosaur riders. Cold air wafted into the garage despite the best efforts of a couple space heaters. The flamelike orange lightbulbs in decorative lamps cast a friendly, flickering light on the kids and parents taking seats at the plastic-wrapped tables. It was nice to be out under a dark sky again.
Shadow stuck his pop back into his cheek and carried the hot chocolate maker over to the orange jug of it on a table, pulling his skeleton gloves back on. Blue, dressed as some kind of zombie basketball player—which meant his usual uniform plus some makeup that, if pressed, Shadow would bet that Red had done—took the lid off of the jug for him, then went back to pouring out foam cups of hot chocolate and setting them out on the table for people to take.
“What's in your mouth?” Blue asked as Shadow poured what was in the hot chocolate maker into the jug.
“Bloody pop, extra sugar.”
Blue raised an eyebrow. “You made popsicles with toothpicks?”
“Suckers,” Shadow corrected.
“Don't stab yourself with it.”
Shadow laughed and set the hot chocolate maker on a back counter. “It's like a tiny wooden stake, you're right! Don't worry, I won't stab my heart with it. I think it's too small.”
“You're not a vampire,” a nearby kid accused. Shadow spun to see a freckled space explorer only as tall as his shoulder, holding three cookies and a foam cup of hot chocolate. “You're a skeleton.”
“Oh, right!” Shadow looked down at the glow-in-the-dark metacarpals printed on his black gloves as if in surprise. “I don't have a heart. I keep forgetting. Thanks for the reminder.”
“Whatever,” the kid said, turning away.
Shadow waited until he'd moved far enough away, then covered his mouth to muffle some laughter. He couldn't keep it all in.
Green passed by, carrying an emptied plastic tray with cookie crumbs. He wore a rather nice prince costume, complete with cape and crown, and a sword poached from the Knights’ training room. “You're not a vampire,” he echoed quietly, smiling.
“Quite right. I am a skeleton.” Shadow pulled his pop from his mouth again. “And this is, uh… bone juice?”
“Go help Vio with the candy,” Green told him with a roll of his eyes.
“As Your Highness wishes.”
Shadow waved to Erwin by the cookies and crossed the garage to stand next to Vio behind the low table with the buckets of candy. “How's it going?” he asked under the sound of cheesy music.
“I’ve run into a small issue,” Vio muttered. He tilted the brim of his pointed witch’s hat back.
“What issue?”
A group of little kids approached the table, wearing matching colored candy costumes. “Trick or treat!” they chorused.
“Happy Halloween,” Vio said, admirably trying to sound enthusiastic. He almost succeeded. He gestured to the buckets. “Go ahead and take one.”
The oldest kid scanned the signs, reading them. “Uh… we don't need special candy…”
“It's not special,” Vio sighed. “It's just candy and apples. Take one.”
“Um.” The kids moved hesitantly forward and took some of the candy from the Lactose Free bucket.
When they were gone, Vio sighed. “See? They all say something like that. It's not like the candy is weird! The gluten free ones are tootsie rolls! That's normal!”
“I see your point.” Shadow thought for a second. “Ooh, one second.” He grabbed a marker from the countertop, then added the word friendly to the bottom of two of the signs. Lactose Free friendly, Gluten Free friendly. “Maybe that'll help.”
“Oh. That's smart,” Vio said. “The extra word indicates that it’s free for anyone to take, but works for those people who need it. Good job.”
“Thanks.”
A little girl in some sort of fairy princess dress and tall crown approached next, carrying a pillowcase and trailing clouds of glitter. She looked nervous to approach, and Vio was not helping, staring at her like that.
Shadow rolled his eyes, grabbed the tootsie roll bucket, and rounded the table. He crouched down and beckoned the little girl over with a smile. “Hey. Want some candy?”
“What do you say?” the little girl's mom asked from a yard away.
The little girl looked at Shadow and blinked. “Trick or treat?” She was too young to make her words entirely distinct.
Shadow laughed and offered out two of the pink tootsie rolls. “Hey, good job. Treat, definitely.” She held out her pillowcase, and he dropped the candy into it. “I like your wings.”
“My mom got them for me, I'm Glinda.” She lifted her silver wand, poked Shadow in the forehead with the star on the end, then ran back to her mom.
“Sorry, thanks!” the mom said before turning away.
“No problem.” Shadow stood back up and touched the spot on his forehead. He glanced at Vio, who watched him with a curious expression. “What? Did I mess up my makeup at all?”
Vio shook his head. “No, it's just fine. I guess I didn't expect you to be good with kids.”
Shadow shrugged. “They're kinda cute. And I'm guessing human kids don't bite as often as my baby cousins.”
“I wouldn't be so sure.”
The night was a bit of a blur, full of Halloween music, costumed kids and their parents, some teenagers, and another bloody pop for Shadow. Vio lasted a while, though Shadow thought that had a lot to do with the fact that Shadow took over most of the social interaction part of handing out candy. The steady stream of customers slowed when it got really dark outside, but plenty still came over to visit.
Shadow dumped the rest of the tootsie roll bag into the bucket, then happened to glance up at just the right time.
Standing near the entrance to the garage, that… that was Florentin. Florentin wearing an obnoxious pop star costume, but Florentin nonetheless. He was Zelda’s younger brother, about twelve years old, with the same strawberry blond hair and freckles as Zelda, though his hair had a signature Deforest curl to it. He held a cheap bucket in his hands and scanned the dwindling crowd sitting at the tables in the garage, and Shadow knew that look. Florentin was on his first solo hunt.
“—Shadow?” Vio asked quietly, concerned.
“I'm fine.”
Florentin heard the name and his voice. His head whipped over, and he met Shadow's eyes.
Shadow felt some sort of warmth tinged with acid flood his heart. He was well aware that his Family as a whole hated him, now, but he'd hoped… and Florentin didn't look murderous.
He'd really been looking forward to taking him out this year.
What should he do? If he told Erwin that one of his cousins was here, he might shut the whole thing down out of fear, and Shadow didn't want that. As much as he thought that drinking unicorn blood all the time was a pretty sweet deal, he wasn't deluded into thinking that it was an easy cure-all option for everyone. He wanted Florentin’s first hunt to succeed, but he’d wanted to be the one to instruct him.
He could ignore Florentin. But that was stupid. They both knew that they were both here.
That left one option: talking to him.
The thought made Shadow extremely nervous. He'd imagined several interactions with members of his Family since his betrayal, and it never went well, even in his head. He really wanted to talk to Florentin, though. What if he didn't hate Shadow as much as Shadow thought? What if nobody did?
Shadow didn't want to go back. But… it would be nice to know if it was an option.
Mind made up, Shadow took a step to go around the table, glancing away from Florentin.
Unfortunately, his body had other plans. It felt like he tripped, and the world blurred as Shadow fell forward, hands out to catch himself. His muscles tensed as if shocked without the pain. He landed without much issue, but—
He was a cat again.
“Mrow!” Shadow said in frustration. He looked around, noting the different sights, smells, and sounds. He didn't want to be a cat right now! He wanted to talk!
Vio crouched down and reached out. His skin smelled like sugar tonight. “Shadow? What happened?”
“Meow riaow min.” I don't have a clue.
“Um… never mind. Maybe head inside. Don't get lost.”
“Eep,” Shadow answered sullenly. He darted beneath the tablecloth for a moment to think. Had Florentin seen that? Well, Shadow still wanted to talk to him…
At the very least, maybe Shadow could give him a treat that he actually wanted to eat.
Shadow stuck his head out, then headed over to the place he'd seen Florentin, avoiding costume boots and sneakers and the legs of folding chairs. He found Florentin still standing where he'd been, looking confused.
“Mow,” Shadow said, batting at Florentin’s fake leather pants.
Florentin crouched down and held his hand out. “Um… hey kitty. Uh. This might sound weird, but… are you my cousin? I thought I saw him… you… uh.”
Shadow nosed at Florentin’s hand. “Meep.”
“Right. You're a cat.” Florentin used his other hand to reach into his candy bucket. He put three pieces of candy down on the concrete floor in front of Shadow: licorice, taffy, and a packet of M&Ms. “If you have any idea what I'm saying, pick the chocolate.”
Shadow squeaked in an approximation of a laugh. He picked up the M&Ms in his teeth and ran off, outside the garage. The cold air only bothered him a little—he could get used to having fur.
“Hey!” Florentin left behind the candy bucket and chased after Shadow.
Aware that Uncle Poe or someone else would be nearby, Shadow didn't leave the yard. He ran a bit down the driveway, then followed the walk up to the front door. He dropped the M&Ms there.
Florentin caught up. He picked up the candy and shoved it into his pocket. “Okay, what do you want?”
“Mow.” Shadow bumped the door with his head.
“I can’t go inside. Is this where you've been living?”
“Eep! Ip! Chip!” Shadow bumped the door again.
Florentin turned the handle and opened the door, but stayed where he was. He watched Shadow enter the house, frowning. “Since when could you turn into a cat?”
Shadow sighed and turned around. He jerked his head, clearly intending Florentin to come inside. “Nyrow mip meep rianow.” You are invited to visit. Hopefully it would work, even if he said it in cat.
Suspicious, Florentin reached out his hand. No invisible barrier stopped him, and he blinked. “You're kidding.”
“Mrow reep!” Come on! Shadow led the way inside, toward the kitchen. It felt surreal, bringing Florentin inside the Knight’s house, clashing two entirely different worlds. Most of the lights in the house were dark at the moment. It smelled like chocolate and sugar, which was a bit less appealing like this.
Shadow was a cat. Again. With no way to get out of it.
He glanced back at Florentin looking around, and felt that surge of affection and melancholy again. Honestly, he did what he did back at prom, betrayed everyone and gave them as much unicorn blood as he could, for Florentin—and the other younger cousins, and the older ones, too. Shadow loved them.
The next step made Shadow trip, again. He fell to the ground, only a short distance away but still hard. His shoulder hit the hardwood floor, and he rolled to his back, grunting. “Ow.”
His mouth moved the way he expected it to. His gloved hand touched his face, and he blinked up at the ceiling.
Florentin’s face appeared, unimpressed. “That looked stupid.”
Shadow sat up, shaking his head and getting used to this new perspective again. He snorted. “I'm working on it.”
“It's… nice to see you,” Florentin said. He hesitated, then offered a hand to Shadow.
Although Florentin was shorter, Shadow took the hand and stood up. “You, too, Ren. I missed you.”
“Ew, sappy.”
“I'm allowed to be a little sappy, it's been, like, three months!” Shadow grinned at him, relieved that Florentin had not immediately attacked him. “You doing okay?”
Florentin shrugged. “I guess. Isidore brought us out tonight, he's not as fun as you.”
That warmed Shadow's heart, not that he said so. “Well, I'm gonna continue to be your favorite cousin, come on in.” He led Florentin through the rather large house, aiming for the kitchen.
“Why did you leave?” Florentin asked, following.
Shadow bit his lip and didn't turn around. How did he explain this? “Uh, well. I needed to. There's obviously more to it than that, but it's hard to explain, and you probably shouldn't be in here for long.”
“Uncle Vaati’s really mad at you. You refused to do the blood exchange and killed Zelda, didn't you?”
“Wait, what?” Shadow spun around to stare at Florentin. “What do you think I did?”
Florentin looked at him flatly. “I just said: you didn't do the blood exchange, shaming the Family, and then you killed Zelda.”
“That's not it at all,” Shadow said. He barely avoided rubbing at his forehead, still conscious of his makeup, but turned around and headed into the kitchen. He gestured to the plate. “Have a bloody pop. Extra sugar.”
“Ooh.” Florentin grabbed one from the plate, then hesitated. He looked up. “Wait. You poisoned this.”
“Yep,” Shadow replied, picking out another one for himself, the third of the night. He stuck it in his mouth. “Totally.”
Florentin licked at his upon seeing that. He made an appreciative face and didn't stop, so Shadow counted that as a win. “Uncle Vaati says you poisoned everyone who was at the gala.”
“And how would I do that?” Shadow asked.
“I don't know. Poisoning the kegs?”
“But I couldn't guarantee everyone would drink from those,” Shadow said, gesturing. “Inefficient.”
“Then… you poisoned the king’s cup. Everyone drinks from that.”
Shadow snorted. “And how would I poison it? The king fills it, and everyone drinks from it immediately. There's no room for me to poison it, everyone's watching. It'd be stupid, and I'm not stupid.”
Florentin scowled. “I know. Okay, how did you do it?”
“Give up already?” Shadow laughed. Well, this wasn't information Vaati didn't have. “Remember how I can go out in the sun?”
“Well, yeah.”
“That's because the blood inside me got… um, poisoned is the wrong term, but we'll use it. I was thoroughly poisoned. Sort of. But it did more than just let me go out during the day, and I wanted everyone to have some of it, so I gave myself more of that poison stuff before the gala.”
Florentin squinted, working through it. “So when the king drank your blood, he got poisoned, and then so did everyone else.”
“Bingo,” Shadow said, pointing with his pop. “I always knew you were smart.”
“But that doesn't explain why you left. Unless everyone was mad, but why would they be mad about being able to walk in the sun? And why'd you kill Zelda?”
“I—” Shadow paused. He did, technically, kill Zelda. He'd been the one to drive Vio's unicorn horn through her heart, and he'd been slightly reluctant to let Vio heal her back to life. But just slightly. “She isn't dead.”
Florentin looked up, his jaw slack. “Wait, she isn't?”
Shadow hadn't even considered what their Family would think about Zelda disappearing. He felt scummy. Sure, maybe the Deforests didn't mourn the way humans did, but they still would miss her. And him, maybe, but they were mad at him. “Wanna see her?”
“...yeah? I think so. Unless it's a trap.”
“Would I tell you if it was?”
“Mm… I guess not. Tell me where she is.”
Shadow picked up the plate of bloody pops. “Downstairs. I'll go first, so you know there aren't any hidden axes or poisoned darts in the walls.”
“Okay.” Still licking at his candy, Florentin followed Shadow to the stairs, then down them.
It was almost too easy for Shadow to slip back into thinking that everything and everyone wanted to kill him. He hadn't really missed the mindset. These days, the Knights tried to stop him from thinking that way. They wouldn't hurt him, and Shadow knew that. Slowly, with their help and talking with the counselor, he was internalizing it. He enjoyed living the way he did now.
Florentin hadn't learned those lessons, though. He still lived in a world where any of his Family could and would hurt him, even if they were trying to help him. Especially if they were trying to help him. The only way to get tough was to be inured against attacks and attempted murders, so really, trying to kill each other was sort of a sign of love.
Shadow knocked before opening the basement door. “Hey, Princess!”
“I'm busy!” Zelda called back. “Go away!”
Despite her words, Shadow was not deterred, especially since he heard video game music. He stepped into the basement, lit by a few dim lightbulbs and the TV screen. “Stardew Valley again?”
“Duh.”
“Co-op!” Malon said. She looked up and over the back of the couch. “Uh. Who's that?”
“Zelda?” Florentin said, careful, hiding behind Shadow.
The game immediately went on pause, and Zelda stood up. She blinked at Florentin. “Ren?”
“Zelda! You aren't dead! I thought you were!” Florentin didn't run, but he did step up to the back of the couch, bloody pop in hand, a smile on his face.
“Nope, not dead yet.” Zelda’s expression softened, just minutely, but Shadow noticed. “Why are you here?”
“Saw Shadow outside.”
Zelda’s eyes moved to Shadow, and he offered her the plate.
“Bloody pop? I used Vio’s blood, and the bitter notes are nice against the sugar, I think. Red’s would be too sweet.”
“I wouldn't know, I never get a chance to taste Vio's,” Zelda said with an edge to her voice, just shy of mocking him. She picked out one of the pops, though.
“What are you doing here?” Florentin demanded, sucking the last bit of blood off his toothpick. “Why haven't you come home?”
Zelda sniffed, but Shadow didn't miss the way she angled very slightly toward Malon. He was glad they got along a little. “They won't let me.”
Florentin turned toward Shadow, accusation in his eyes.
“Hey,” Shadow said defensively. “We’re doing our best!”
“We?” Florentin asked.
“You know. The people who live here.” Shadow gestured to the ceiling. “You saw them outside. Also, Malon.”
“Don't bring me into this.”
Shadow shrugged. He went to set the plate down on the counter, along with his latest used toothpick. He didn't want a tongue piercing right now. “Okay, well, just the Knights and I, then. You're different now, Zel, you can't deny it. Do you even want to go back?”
Zelda narrowed her eyes at him, arms crossed. “Yes. I want to go back home. To our Family. I find it disturbing and further evidence of your traitorous spirit that you are distancing yourself this far from us.”
“Oh,” Florentin said in understanding. “You found a new family. That's why you left.”
Shadow didn't even take a step, this time. As soon as the awful feeling of defensiveness and hate and guilt swelled up in him—guilt about letting Florentin think his sister was dead, guilt about keeping Zelda prisoner (even if she didn't have the chain on these days), guilt about leaving his other cousins at the mercy of Uncle Vaati, guilt about leaving at all—the feelings threatened to push tears from his eyes. But before he could, his ears popped and the ground under his feet fell away. He teetered, then dropped onto four paws again.
Emotion, of some kind, was the trigger? Was that unicorn book right? Shadow would be… consternated… if that turned out to be the case.
“Shadow!” Zelda called out, her voice loud enough in his sensitive ears that he cringed away. “You can turn into a cat?! How come you never told me?”
“Miaowowow,” Shadow grumbled. He trotted over and hopped up onto the arm of the couch.
“Oh, Red mentioned this,” Malon said, gesturing with the controller still in her hand. “Shadow turned into a cat for a few hours one day, but hasn't been able to do it since.”
“Maraw!” Shadow protested at Malon. He didn't need Zelda and Florentin to know that he couldn't control this, yet.
“What? Would you prefer me to lie?”
“Miw.”
Zelda snickered. “I think that means yes.”
Shadow huffed, but leaped onto the arm of the couch and sat down, feeling his claws poke into the upholstery fabric. He couldn't contribute much to the conversation anymore. What time was it, anyway? Someone might get worried about him and come looking for him, and then they'd find Florentin, and Shadow did not know how that would go on anyone’s side. He hadn't really asked for permission to invite in another probably evil vampire, even if it was just a kid that Shadow sort of trusted.
Florentin crossed his arms. “Okay, so we can stage some kind of rescue, Zelda. I'm sure we can come up with something good.” He glanced at Shadow, as if unsure what side Shadow would be on.
“What?” Zelda pulled back, nonplussed. “No. No way. I'm leaving here on my own terms.”
“But—”
Zelda narrowed her eyes at Florentin. “No buts. No rescues. And to that end, you can't tell anyone where I am, or where Shadow is. You can't tell them you saw me.”
“What?” Florentin’s shoulders fell. “But I can't just keep quiet! We have an advantage here, let's use it!”
“How?” Zelda challenged.
Florentin took a moment to think. “Everyone hates Shadow”—Shadow hissed—“what, it's true, everyone does hate you. So we stage his death, and you and I go home heroes. Uncle Vaati would welcome you right back, Zelda.”
“I fully intend on going home,” Zelda told him. “I have plans of my own, so back off and let me go through with them. All right?”
Malon gave Zelda a sideways look, somewhere between suspicion and scolding. But Zelda ignored her, bearing down on Florentin in the way that reminded Shadow that she was, in fact, the reigning fencing champion among the younger cousins.
“Fine,” Florentin said eventually. “But I get to come visit sometimes.”
“You had better.”
“Merowow, nian? Ree ip aip mrowree.” Shadow protested. Excuse me, what? I don't know if that's possible.
Zelda turned her glare on him. “You will make it happen.”
“...mrow.” Fine. He'd talk to Erwin about it.
“Good. Now, Ren, I'm sure you have things to do. Go back to whoever took you out tonight, good luck with the hunt.” Zelda sat back down. “Malon?”
As the video game music started back up again, Shadow rolled his eyes. The rolling came with an added sensation that was starting to become familiar—a blur, a stretch, a painless warping—
And Shadow sat on the arm of the couch, humanoid again, completely clueless as to why that had happened just then. He ignored Malon’s staring, sighed, and hopped off. “Ugh. Come on, Ren, let's head out.”
“I guess that there's no way you're coming back home?” Florentin asked, pushing away from the couch.
“Probably not. Why? Miss me?” Shadow glanced back, half a smile on his face.
Florentin scowled. “You wish. No, I just have to do all your chores, now. You owe me.”
Shadow offered out another of the bloody pops. “Candy?”
“...I suppose this is a start,” Florentin said, taking it.
Plate in hand, Shadow led the way out of the basement again, catching one last interaction between Malon and Zelda—
“Plans of your own?” Malon said. “Like what?”
“Like hundred-percent-ing this save file,” Zelda shot back.
Shadow rolled his eyes and started on another pop of his own. They really did taste good. He took Florentin back to the front door upstairs and handed him one of the few pops left. “For Isidore. Tell him hi for me.”
“I think you're crazy,” Florentin said, but paused before leaving. He looked up at Shadow with eyes that had no right to be that big. “I don't, but some of the little kids miss you. You shouldn't have left.”
Shadow pictured his emotion at that as a little monster with big teeth that he had to dodge. His strategy must have worked, because he didn't immediately turn into a cat, though he thought he could feel the tingling of the transformation lingering in his bones. “Maybe not. I'll tell you someday what it was really all about. How… is everyone?”
Florentin shrugged. “It’s been weird. I don't know how to describe it. But Gilbert hunted his first bunny yesterday, and Giselle’s been begging Aunt Koume to teach her how to make clothes.”
“Aw. Give Gil a pat on the head for me.”
“Okay.” Florentin stepped outside, licking his bloody pop.
“The stored blood here is actually not bad,” Shadow couldn't help adding. “Come back if you want to try it.”
Florentin rolled his eyes and started down the porch steps. “Yeah, okay, whatever. Happy Halloween.”
Shadow's next words stuck on his tongue a little, but he got them out. “With your visit concluded, your invitation is revoked,” he said quietly, words that tasted bitter in his mouth, and not the pleasant kind of bitterness.
When Shadow shut the door, that little black monster leaped up at him again, guilt and shame and sadness, teeth tearing at his insides. He almost couldn't breathe. He put his back to the front door and slid down to the ground, clutching his stomach. He screwed up his face in an effort to keep his tears on the inside—blood or saltwater, it didn't matter, they'd ruin his skeleton face paint either way.
Someone came around the bend from the kitchen, silhouetted against the light. Erwin frowned in concern, though the awful spiky wig and ill-fitting leather pants he wore made him look kind of stupid.
“Shadow?” he said carefully. “Who was that?”
Shadow looked up, and the monster inside of him forced a sob from his throat. He couldn't keep the tears in anymore. They flooded down his cheeks, hot and messy.
“My cousin.”
The feeling of transformation enveloped him once again. He collapsed in front of the door, a sad little mewling mess of a cat, unable to even explain why he felt so awful.
Slowly, Erwin reached forward and pulled Shadow into his lap, then proceeded to spend the next however-many minutes sitting there in silence, stroking his head.