“Sang,” Kota said, pulling me out of my dazed state.
Before I fully focused, a wet dollop of pumpkin touched my nose.
The coolness shocked me, and I stared, wide eyed, mouth open, at Kota, who held his slimy, pumpkin-gut covered finger at my face. He grinned, his green eyes lighting up.
Nathan laughed deeply, jolting me and I started giggling and ducked my head out of Kota’s reach, patting his hand away. “Why?” I asked in a playful whine.
“Wake up, goofy,” Kota said, smiling. “You haven’t touched your pumpkin yet. Don’t you want to carve it?”
I wiped at my nose. “I don’t think I’ve done this before. Maybe in second grade...well, no. It really was the teacher doing it and a few volunteers from class, but the rest of us watched.”
“God, Peanut,” Nathan said. He reached for a roll of paper towels nearby and started wiping his hands. “If I hear any more sad stories like that, we’re going to have to go to Disney World or something to make up for it all.”
I was about to say we didn’t have to when Kota talked over me. “Maybe in the summer,” he said.
Were they serious? I didn’t say anything, and neither seemed like they were joking.
Nathan dried his hands and then picked up a knife, passing it to me. “Cut the top,” he said.
I took the knife, and Nathan and Kota took turns showing me how to cut open the pumpkin. I used the gloves at Kota’s request, especially after he mentioned Gabriel would kill us all if I ended up with orange under my fingernails.
With the pumpkins scooped out, Kota held out patterns for us to get started on the carving part. Seeds and guts were all over the table. The tangy smell was overwhelming.
“Okay,” Nathan said, going through the guide book on how to draw various shapes like witches and spiders. “Peanut, you want a ghost or a graveyard?”
I was just about to point one out when there was a rapid knock, rattling and shaking at the windows.
Both of them.
I jumped, rocking back into Nathan, the book falling out of my hands and crashing to the floor. Nathan grabbed my waist, moving me behind him. Kota turned fully toward the windows, spreading out his arms, protecting us both.
Thunk, thunk, thunk!
Giggling sounded, male.
“Shh,” came a whisper from beyond the windows.
More knocking, intense and quick.
Kota groaned, and dropped his arms, stepping back. “I know that’s you, Luke!”
“Nuh uh,” said a voice, clearly Luke. The knocking stopped and there were more giggles and laughter on the outside.
“Nathan,” Kota said, looking at Nathan with a fixed stare. He gave a short nod and the slightest lift of his lip in silent communication. I caught the signals from his face, but not the meaning.
“On it,” Nathan said. He nearly skipped as he rushed toward the front door.
The door opened and Luke shouted in the distance, “Wasn’t me! He did it!” There was a thud and a groan and then laughter. “No, seriously!”
I stood, staring at the wall as if I could see through it. From the thumping, I wondered if there was punching or tackling.
Kota quietly stepped up behind me. He had the gloves off now and his hand went around my waist, his palm resting above my belly button. He held firm there, his mouth at the back of my head, his lips and cheek pressing against my hair. “Watch Luke,” Kota said, his moving lips making my hair slide against my head. “He’ll have more tricks planted in places. He does it every year.”
“He just got here,” I said. “And we’ve got a lot to do. Wouldn’t that slow him down?”
“He’ll have planned this out for weeks,” Kota said. He drew me in closer, until my butt was up against his hip, and squeezed gently in a backward hug. “Stay near me. Trust me. He’ll be targeting you a lot. The rest of us are used to it and don’t fall for the old tricks anymore.”
I sucked in a breath, almost leaning into him at the thought. I turned my head slightly, intending to ask something else.
His lips met with my temple, close to my eyebrow. He kissed me quickly, the move making my brain malfunction and I forgot my question.
Thudding footsteps echoed in the hallway. Kota started to release me, but a second later, something crashed into me and I tripped forward.
Kota fell backward. His leg moved out, and I twisted to avoid him and got tangled.
I landed on top of him, half on the floor and the rest on his stomach.
Another body crashed on top of me. I caught a waft of ginger and citrus. It surprised me, because it wasn’t a scent I often caught, and in the scrambling confusion, I turned, trying to look behind me to identify the source.
Squeezed between him and Kota, I cried out in a squeal and choked when my voice box couldn’t handle the higher, louder notes.
Laughter filled my ear. “Pookie,” Dr. Green held me at the waist and tried to pull me off of Kota. “Sorry. I was being chased.”
“You’re fucking fast,” Nathan said somewhere behind him. “I got Luke, though.”
“I was trying to run around you and use you both as a shield,” Dr. Green said. He positioned himself on his knees, drawing me into him. He wore jeans, and from what I could feel, a track jacket. He squeezed his arms around me. I was dizzy, blinking, letting the wash of colors in front of my eyes fade and pressed a hand to my temple to stop the spinning. “You move too fast, Kota.”
“Never was a problem before,” Kota groaned, but he hadn’t moved yet. He remained on his back on the floor, his knees up and looking at the ceiling. He coughed and covered his face with a palm. “It is way too early for tackling.”
“You started it,” cried out Luke as he came around the corner. His jeans were splotched with grass and mud stains, his hair disheveled. A hair clip hung from his head, barely gripping at a few locks. The moment he was in the kitchen, he stripped off the T-shirt that was also stained and draped it over his shoulder. He was breathing heavily, and there were red marks across his stomach and chest. He bent over, grabbing at his knees and then placed a palm over one of the splotches on his chest. “Nathan pinches hard, dude.”
“Don’t try to scare us next time,” Kota said. He rose, adjusting the glasses on his face. He turned toward me. “You okay?”
“She’s fine,” Dr. Green said. He pulled away from me so he could stand and then reached down for my elbow to help me up. Once I was standing, he brushed at my back and hip. “You’re good, right?”
I smiled, choking on a giggle. I was hanging onto Dr. Green just to feel stable. Too many scares in the morning. Dr. Green’s touch chilled me through the material of the pajama pants and my shirt. They must have been outside for a while. A tremble started inside of me at the pit of my stomach, both from his cold hands and the excitement.
He reached up and clasped his hand around my mouth, the chill seeping into my cheeks. “Hold on there,” he said. “No giggling.”
I tapped at his cold hand over my mouth, mumbling that it was Halloween and he couldn’t possibly have a reason not to laugh today.
“We’re about to cut up our pumpkins,” Nathan said, smiling. His chest was still heaving a bit as he breathed heavily. He pointed to his pumpkin. “I think I want the zombie, but this alien guy looks really sick.”
Dr. Green released my mouth but hung his arm around my neck and drew me back to the table. “What’s Sang’s going to be?” he asked. He tilted his head, looking at my pumpkin between Nathan’s and Kota’s.
“She has to pick one,” Nathan said.
Dr. Green reached up, touching his cold fingers to my neck, enough to make me squirm and pull away. He grinned, his light green eyes lighting up and a wave of his sandy hair falling across his forehead. “I was trying to warm my hands. I can’t have them this cold if I’m doing pumpkin surgery.”
“You’ve got to gut yours first,” Nathan said. He pointed to the row of other pumpkins.
“I have to change my clothes,” Luke sa
id. “And maybe take a shower now.”
“Do your pumpkin now while you’re dirty,” Kota said. “Then you can shower.”
“Good idea,” he said. He snagged one of the pumpkins and then a second one. “I’ve got Gabriel’s. He’ll want this one.”
My mouth fell open, and I looked at Kota for confirmation if that was okay. I wasn’t sure if it was one of Luke’s tricks.
Kota didn’t miss a beat. “Luke,” he said, the command in his voice rising. “If you mess up his pumpkin...”
“No way,” Luke said with a grin. He took the shirt off his shoulder and dropped it onto a chair, scooting the chair away from the table to make room. “He’ll just kill me if he gets one of the smaller pumpkins. You know him, he’ll want a big surface to work on.” He placed his and Gabriel’s pumpkins on the table, reaching for one of the knives and starting on carving open the top. “Sang, want to gut Gabriel’s pumpkin for him? He’ll want to help you with your carving, anyway. Might want to wait until he gets here.”
It sounded like a good idea, since I still hadn’t chosen one of the stencils from the book. I got to work next to Luke, using Kota’s scoop this time and pulling guts from Gabriel’s pumpkin.
While Kota and Nathan were setting up their stencils, and Dr. Green went back outside to the car to grab some more supplies, Luke leaned in and whispered to me, “Okay, Sang, you ready?”
I got the hint I was supposed to whisper, too. “Ready for what?”
He leaned in closer, enough that I felt his lips brushing against the edge of my ear. “Initiation time,” he said. “We’ve got to make you part of the team.”
Uh oh. That sounded like trouble. “How?”
“You’ve got to help me scare each one of the guys this Halloween, before midnight. We’ve already gotten Nathan and Kota. I got Dr. Green this morning when he picked me up. I kept one of the Volto masks and met him at the door with it.”
I backed my head up, my eyes wide and my mouth open. Scare the others? As in people like Silas and Mr. Blackbourne? How in the world did he expect me to do that?
He laughed and winked. “Don’t worry,” he said a little louder as he stabbed at the inside of his pumpkin, pulling out a handful of seeds and tossing it onto the growing pile on the newspapers. “I’ll help you with your...pumpkin.”
Initiation was really the word I was wanting him to explain. Initiation into what?
And secretly, I wanted to be included. After the stressful last few weeks, a little fun by a few scares, with Luke’s help, seemed a great way to pass the day.
Besides, if I was helping Luke with his pranks, he couldn’t get me again, could he?
Gabriel’s Scare
Dr. Green came back in, loaded with bags from the grocery store. Nathan and Kota went to peek at what he was carrying in. I was about to join them when Luke nudged my arm, whispering to me.
“Hurry up with Gabriel’s pumpkin,” he said. “He’ll be here soon, and I’ve got the perfect plan. We need to start with him, because we’ll need his help for the other ones.”
I pressed my lips together, hopping back to the pumpkin and trying to hurry. Luke’s enthusiastic smile, and his brown eyes lighting up with amusement, were enough to get me moving.
It warmed me, because it helped me to shake off the thought of homecoming. It helped me to forget yesterday. I wasn’t sure Luke was aware, but he was helping me by putting me to work and giving me a new focus. Initiation.
The sun was up by now. Kota put on coffee and the others took turns with pumpkins and with eating some breakfast sandwiches. I was just finishing up scraping inside the pumpkin when the sound of a car rolling up caused me to turn toward the window.
Luke nudged me and then checked around him at the others who seemed to be busy. “You ready?”
“For what?” I whispered.
He reached into his pocket and then under the table passed me what felt like a furry toy.
When I opened my palm to check, there was a spider in my hand. Gnarled legs, fuzzy and with beady black eyes.
I dropped it, wiping my hand on my clothes as if that could remove the feel of it. I choked on a squeal. I knew we were scaring Gabriel and that it wasn’t real, but it wasn’t what I expected. It was so lifelike.
Luke laughed and then knelt to pick it up. He nudged my elbow, checked to make sure the others were busy and then whispered, “Hurry. Open the top.”
I did, and he dropped the spider inside the pumpkin. I closed it back up and then stared at him. Would it work?
The front door opened with a bang. Heads turned.
“Oy!” cried Gabriel. Shortly after, he appeared in the entryway of the kitchen, bags in hand. He wore dark blue jeans and a black V-neck shirt that formed to his body. His hair was still wet from a shower, and the blond locks in the front were combed back on his head, mixed among the russet. His angled jawline, high cheekbones and piercing crystal blue eyes were more prominent now. Handsome didn’t even begin to describe it. There were orange crystals in his lobes today, and the usual three black earrings going up the side of one ear.
“Hi,” Dr. Green said, waving from the other side of the kitchen counter. He had his collection of decorations spread out. “Didn’t I get enough? I got what you wanted me to.”
“I had some more stored away,” Gabriel said. “And Victor had some from his house that we...borrowed.”
“Stole!” Victor’s voice rang out. He nudged Gabriel out of the middle of the space and continued forward, dropping a large paper witch onto the counter. His fire eyes were roaring and his wavy hair was tousled. He wore the usual black pants but now he just had on a white T-shirt. His cheeks were pink as he turned immediately to Kota. “I’m pretty sure this witch belongs to a neighbor on my block.”
“Naw,” Gabriel said. “That’s one you had in the kitchen. Your mom said I could have it. Sort of. She implied it.”
“I think we’ve got enough decorations that we don’t need to steal other people’s,” Kota said. He picked up his pumpkin, which had a spider hanging on a web. Clean lines, simple. He addressed Gabriel. “This works?”
“You did that last year,” Gabriel said. He pointed to the side of Kota’s pumpkin. “At least do a zombie on the side.”
“I can’t do a zombie,” Kota said. He turned his pumpkin toward Luke and I. “Looks okay?”
I nodded, smiling. Looked good to me. “I like it,” I said.
Kota beamed.
“Yeah,” Luke said. “I like the spiders.”
Gabriel made a noise that sounded like a snort and a grunt at the same time. “Where’s my pumpkin, anyway?”
“Sang’s gutted it for you,” Luke said. He turned the pumpkin.
“Did she do one yet?” Gabriel asked.
“Waiting for you,” Luke said.
“Can I just do a regular pumpkin face on mine?” Victor asked. He selected one and brought it to the table. “Or something a little more traditional?”
“That’s what Mr. Blackbourne does every year,” Gabriel said, stepping up to his pumpkin and then looking at the one left for me to do. He drew it close so it was next to his and looked at them both, studying. “Hmm...What do you say, Trouble? Double team our pumpkins? I’m thinking either Cthulhu fighting a T-Rex or Harry Potter in a wand battle with Voldemort.”
My eyes widened. That sounded good to me, but I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to carve a dinosaur or Harry Potter.
“We don’t have too much time,” Kota said. “We’ve got other things to set up.”
“Hmm,” Gabriel said. He pressed his fingers to his mouth, looking thoughtful as he gazed at the pumpkins. “And I want to get the gravestones set up in the yard. Hang on, what’s that fairytale story you said Sang liked?”
I wasn’t sure who he was talking to, but I looked at Victor with my eyebrows up, more surprised by the question. Victor’s fire eyes sparked with curiosity. “You like fairytales?” he asked.
“She likes the Princess in Disguise one,
” Luke said. “The one about the princess that dresses up in a star, moon and then a sun dress.”
“Let’s do pretty this year,” Gabriel said. “It’ll gross out Micah and Tom. Plus, Jessica and her little friends will get a kick out of it.” He pointed to Luke’s. “Want me to poke the holes as a guideline?”
“Figured you’d want to,” Luke said. “We’re doing all three?”
Gabriel nodded, backing up and grinning big. “We’ve got this shit.”
“You’ll have to gut the rest of your pumpkin,” Luke said. He nodded to it. “Sang started but I don’t know if she finished.”
I got a nudge in the elbow from Luke. “Uh,” I said, trying to blank my face and not appear to be lying. “Yes.”
Gabriel’s crystal eyes barreled in on my face like a gunshot. “You’re the prettiest little liar, Trouble. What’s he got in there? An eyeball? A gnarled zombie mask?” He reached out to the top of the pumpkin to pull it off.
Oh no, it won’t work! I glanced at Luke, who was grinning, and looking at me directly. He made a motion with his hand quickly, a scurrying motion like a spider with his hand and then pointed to Gabriel’s back and winked.
I thought I got the picture.
I waited until Gabriel was looking over the pumpkin. He smirked at it, looking inside. “Now, is that a real spider he brought in or is it a toy?”
His head was bent over. I wasn’t sure he would feel it if I did it through his shirt, so I aimed for the back of his neck and lightly traced my fingertips there, trying to mimic a spider crawling up.
He let out the strangest squeal, hunched his shoulders and pulled back. He slapped at his neck and then cried out, “Fucking Jesus Christ! Don’t do that shit.”
Luke busted out laughing. I started to giggle. Kota shook his head but smiled. Victor rolled his eyes.
Dr. Green slapped a palm against the kitchen counter and then pointed right at me. “Look, guys, there’s Luke number two, right there. Watch out for that one.”