Chapter Text
“Hey, Micah, wanna help me put up Halloween decorations?” Judah asked his older brother excitedly.
No one else had seemed too eager to help him for some reason, but Judah knew he could count on his fellow greatest crewmate to help.
Micah didn’t seem to be doing anything super important right now anyway. Judah had found him in one of the debriefing rooms just cleaning up.
Micah looked up from his work and smiled widely, “Heck yeah, I do! I don’t have anything else to do right now.”
“Sweet!” Judah exclaimed as Micah set his stuff down on the table and made his way over to him, “So, I don’t actually know where the Halloween decorations are, so we’ll have to go ask Shiloh and Elijah,” he continued awkwardly.
Shiloh and Elijah were the ones who usually kept the place organized.
Micah nodded and the pair headed to the Arxis room, the last place Judah had seen his brother and sister.
Thankfully, they were still there, talking to Alex about something near one of the control panels.
“Hey, guys!” Judah greeted, “Do you know where the Halloween decorations are?”
“Hey!” Shiloh greeted back as they approached, “Um, I’m pretty sure they’re…” she hesitated a moment before finishing, “...in the basement.”
“WHAT!?” Alex suddenly exclaimed.
Even Elijah suddenly grew uncomfortable.
Judah and Micah exchanged a look, “What’s so bad about the basement?” Micah asked.
Shiloh quickly forced a laugh, “Oh, nothing! It’s just the basement! Nothing scary about that!”
Micah and Judah exchanged another confused look before Judah concluded, “Well, I guess we’ll go get them, then. Thanks.”
“Anytime!” Shiloh quickly called after them as they left the room.
“What’s their problem?” Micah asked.
“Yeah,” Judah agreed, “No one else wanted to help me set up the decorations either.”
Why was everyone acting so weird?
“Well, it’s just the basement. I don’t see how that’s anything we can’t handle,” Micah concluded and Judah nodded confidently in return.
They made their way to the basement door and Micah opened it, revealing a narrow set of stairs leading into pitch blackness.
“Oh, wow, it’s dark down there,” Judah suddenly exclaimed.
“Like we said, it’s nothing we can’t handle,” Micah reminded him, though Judah could hear the slight shakiness in his voice, “I’m sure there’s a light switch down there somewhere.”
Judah forced himself to nod and the brothers slowly started making their way down the steps.
They really were narrow, and the further the pair went down, the darker and colder it got. Judah could feel dust in the air as well. Nobody really came down here, and it was evident.
Suddenly, the door behind them slammed shut, submerging the brothers in darkness.
Judah whirled around in a panic, and though he couldn’t see him, he could hear Micah run back to the top of the stairs and try to get the door open.
“It won’t open!” Micah exclaimed, “Guess we’re stuck down here whether we like it or not,” he made his way back to Judah.
“Well, it’s gotta just be jammed or something, right?” Judah tried comforting Micah (and even more so, himself), “Let’s just get the decorations and maybe it’ll open when we get back.”
“Yeah,” Micah agreed, “Nothing down here but a little dust and darkness. Dust and darkness never hurt anyone.”
“Exactly,” Judah agreed.
And so, they made their way further into the basement. Finally, they reached the bottom of the staircase and turned the corner.
The previously narrow space suddenly opened up, and Judah and Micah’s eyes were adjusted to the darkness enough now to see the area. There wasn’t much in the large space, just some generators and technical stuff to keep the base running. It wasn’t furnished besides that, which made the space even colder. It was already cold enough being underground, but the concrete walls and floor didn’t help matters…
Which was fine! Nothing scary about the cold… Nope.
“Do you see a light switch?” Judah asked.
Micah looked around, and even began feeling the walls. He suddenly stopped and turned back to Judah.
“Uh, nope.”
Judah tried not to panic. It was fine. The place wasn’t too dark. And they had each other. What was the worst that could possibly happen?
“Come on, let’s just quickly find these decorations,” Judah said determinedly.
The brothers continued their journey, walking further into the basement of the agency.
It was bigger than Judah remembered it being. There were other hallways lined with wires that lead to other open rooms with generations in them.
Who put the Halloween decorations down here in the first place? Shiloh and Elijah? Judah was going to have to have a serious talk with them after this…
“Where did they put them!?” Judah exclaimed.
“...I think we should split up,” Micah suddenly suggested, “That way we’ll find them faster.”
“What!?” Judah exclaimed, before quickly covering it up, “I mean, are you sure that’s a good idea? We might get lost down here.”
“The quicker we find the decorations, the quicker we can get out of here,” Micah simply responded.
Judah hesitated a moment before nodding, “OK. You go right, I’ll go left, and we’ll meet back up here.”
“OK,” Micah confirmed, “I’ll see you in a moment.”
Judah watched as his brother turned right and vanished from his view.
The darkness around Judah suddenly seemed to grow darker, and the coolness in the air suddenly seemed to grow cooler.
Judah thought he understood why no one had wanted to come down here now.
He gulped, summoning his courage before turning left and continuing down the hallway.
He’d faced worse than this. Evil Raelo lords and imposter phantoms. This was nothing he couldn’t handle.
Judah suddenly jumped at a sound from above him. He panicked a moment before realizing the thumping was just agents on the floor above him walking around.
“Get a grip, Judah,” he muttered to himself before starting to walk again.
Eventually, he reached a door, and to his relief, when he opened it, he discovered it was a closet.
And even better, there were a couple cardboard boxes labeled, “Halloween.”
He let out a sigh of relief.
Finally, he’d found them.
Judah reached up to grab the boxes and grunted a little as he pulled them off the shelf. Suddenly, something flew out of the darkness at him, almost as if part of the blackness itself had leapt at the orange-wearing agent.
Judah let out a little shriek and dropped the boxes, scattering the decorations across the floor, and covered his head instinctively.
When nothing happened, he hesitantly opened his eyes again to see a small bat flying off down the hallway.
It was just a bat. Just a bat. Sure, it probably wasn’t great there was a bat down here, but it was better than a shadow monster.
Judah leaned against the wall for support for a moment, trying to slow his heart rate, before kneeling down and beginning to gather the decorations back in the boxes.
Now that he was sitting still, he realized how quiet the basement was. Sure, he could hear the soft hum of the generators, but other than that, it was completely silent. Back upstairs at the agency, other people could always be heard either in the same room as you, or muted in the room next to you, but it was still always there. Down here, though, Judah couldn’t hear anything. The only other person down here was Micah (at least he hoped) and Judah had no clue where he was.
He started picking the decorations up even faster.
Despite his best efforts, his heart continued pounding in his chest, like a cup of water about to spill over.
He suddenly felt a hand touch his shoulder and the cup overflowed.
Judah full-on screamed as he jumped back.
The other person shrieked too and Judah realized it was Micah.
“MICAH! What are you doing!? Why’d you grab me like that!?” Judah exclaimed, about done with this whole exploit.
“Sorry. My hallway looped around to yours,” Micah explained.
“OK,” Judah agreed, “But you didn’t have to GRAB ME LIKE THAT!”
“Right, OK, I’m sorry,” Micah replied, “Hey, you found the decorations!” he exclaimed, relief evident in his voice.
“Oh, yeah,” Judah replied, “Quickly help me pick them up and we can go back upstairs.”
The brothers worked together to put the fake spiderwebs and glow-in-the dark skeletons back in the boxes before making their way to the exit.
“Alright, let’s give this another go,” Micah stated, before trying to pull the door open again.
“Ugh! It still won’t budge!” He exclaimed angrily as he stepped back a bit.
“WE’RE GONNA BE STUCK DOWN HERE FOREVER!” Judah cried, finally breaking, “We’re gonna have to eat the bat!”
“There was a bat?”
“And you’ll never be able to date Michelle!”
“What?”
“And we’ll probably grow sick of each other down here! I don’t want to grow sick of youuuuuuuu.”
“It’s going to be OK, Judah,” Micah comforted, “Someone will let us out, I’m sure.”
He turned back to the door, this time starting to pound on it and shout for the others.
After collecting his bearings, Judah joined him, and pretty soon, Elijah’s voice came from the other side of the door.
“You guys are still down there?”
“YES!” Micah and Judah exclaimed in irritated unison.
“OK, OK, I’ll help get you out,” Elijah replied.
He started tugging on the door too, but it still wouldn’t budge.
“OK, let’s all three of us try it,” Elijah instructed.
The green-wearing and orange-wearing brothers began pushing on the door, while the blue-wearing brother pulled on the other side, and finally, finally, the door swung open, causing all three of them to fall backwards from the force.
When Judah realized what happened, he ran up to Elijah and embraced him, “ELIJAH! I thought I’d never see you again!” he cried.
“What happened to you guys?” Elijah asked, hugging Judah back gently.
“Many things,” Micah simply replied, “Hey, can we take better care of things down there? Like, the door’s falling apart and there’s not even a light switch.”
Elijah glanced down the dark stairwell before nodding, “Yeah, OK… Hey, now that you’re back, me and Shiloh can help set up the decorations. Get this place ready for Halloween finally!”
Judah and Micah exchanged a look.
Honestly, Judah never wanted it to be Halloween ever again.