Just a a little side story I've written to get into the Halloween spirit of things.

“Do you want a costume

“Do you want a costume?” I asked. I couldn’t picture Luce being anything but Luce. Though, he actually looked off to the side after I had asked him, so at least he was thinking about it.

“You could...be a clown. An evil one.” I sudden saw him with a big, red foam clown nose and dismissed the idea. “No, I lied, don’t be a clown. You could be...hmm...” I adjusted my wig.

“He could be my Prince,” Annabelle offered. She was dressed, predictably, as a princess, like every year. Her pink, frilly dress really didn’t do much to flatter her thin, pin-straight body, but with the golden wig and the fake eyelashes, you’d be fooled. But I wasn’t, and I wasn’t gonna let her turn Luce into a stupid prince.

“I vote no,” I said, “that’s lame. He should be something super scary.”

“That’s the exact opposite, actually, of what he should be.”

“Where are you gonna find a prince costume anyway?! And he’s gonna scare the bejesus out of everyone anyway, regardless of the costume choice.”

“Which is why he should give him something nice!”

“He could be the Wizard of Oz,” I countered, “and we’ll tell everyone to not pay attention to the blood thirsty creature of the night behind the curtain!”

“You’re such a little brat!”

“Stick and stones!”

A few years ago, an argument like this would have ended up physically, with Luce playing the referee and dragging us apart before I punched her nose and bloodied up her stupid dress. But these days, she’d turn around and walk away, fuming for hours. Which meant I won the argument.

Annabelle sighed in frustration, then whirled away and clicked down the hall on her plastic-rhinestone high heels. Once she was out of ear shot, I turned to Luce and smiled.

“Ha. I win.” Suddenly, inspiration hit. “Ohmygosh! I know! You’re going as a vampire!”

If Luce was capable of giving looks, he’d have given me a “are you retarded?” one right then. But, as usual, he just blinked at me.

“A real one, though. I’m gonna do your hair and we’ll get a cape and you have to do the scary teeth thing, okay? This is gonna be so wicked!” I squealed.

The problem is, modern business suits didn’t give off the vamp-y vibe, even black ones. So we had to ditch the coat, and just wear the white shirt. Un tucked. With black pants. And fancy shoes. And white gloves that may have been grandma’s. The cape though...that was the clincher. That turned him into a real-life Dracula. It was all black, with the extra bit of fabric over the shoulders and the collar that turned up, nearly to his ears. We had wet down and slicked back his hair, and he was even rocking a widow’s peak, though not nearly the severe one Dracula had.

That was it, really. He looked so vamp-y anyway that it wasn’t a stretch at all. I even managed to coax him into showing some fang, longer than the ones he’d normally have (“normally” being a relative term here), just enough so that they’d be visible over his bottom lip even when his mouth was closed.

“Geez,” I said, circling him in the hallway, “you look amazing! I love it! And not even that scary either! You look...Anne Rice-y. Hey, you think we should name you “Lucian” for the night? Its much more mysterious...”

If I hadn’t actually seen it with my own eyes, I’d have never believed it, but Luce actually lifted one side of his cape and bowed. And then looked up with those creepy red eyes, and I just about died.

“My goodness! Don’t you look so handsome!” Mom gushed from the kitchen. She’d opted for the formal, Victorian dress and huge wig with all sorts of bows and flowers tucked in it. I thought, with a little make up and fake blood, she’d make a really good victim...but Mom’d never do that. That would paint Luce in a more...evil way, and that’s not a good thing.

For a sec, I though she’d swoon right out the kitchen; she pulled out her elaborate fan and waved it delicately over her face. Luce bowed to her too. He was really getting into the spirit now.

Annabelle peeked out from her room, where’d she been fuming for an hour, and even she couldn’t hide a smile.

Mom was taking us to a party that was really more of a political thing; it was a Halloween charity for something or other, orphans in Africa maybe, and she wanted Luce to come, for the social interaction. Apparently, there were gonna be some big, important people there and she’d planned on them seeing Luce as the gentlemen she thought he was. We were allowed to come, but only if we’d wear something tasteful. I was gonna be a zombie, but had to settle for a bride...a deathly one sure...but it was Halloween and it’s a waste to be something realistic. My dress was tattered and dirty, and I had a bouquet of dead flowers. Pill was a pumpkin and the most horrible little thing I’ve ever seen. She even had a ridiculous little hat with a felt “stem” and some “leaves”, which I was sure she’d throw off the second we’d get there.

Speaking of Pill, at that second she emerged from the playroom, squealed down the hallway, and ran into Luce, hugging his leg. He picked her up; Mom was probably going to make him hold her for a good chunk of the night, just to show off his skills with little kids. Despite his creepy aura, little kids usually have no problems with him. I have this theory its cuz he’s hypnotizing them with his secret vampire powers that I’m 80 percent sure he has. Which makes me wonder if he hypnotizes us sometimes. If so, what else can he do? Can he read minds? Once I get to that though, I always get weirded out that he might be listening to me, so I immediate go watch some TV.

“If anyone’s gotta use the bathroom, do it now,” Mom warned, putting on the cape she was using for her costume. Luce set Pill down and started to dress her up in the big orange coat that came with her costume. Annabelle had an elegant coat from Easter. I had an old winter coat that clashed with my dress but I wasn’t gonna wear anything lame and pretty. I would have gone without, in fact, but Mom wasn’t gonna let me out of the house in short sleeves.

Which was lucky, because the night was cold. The minute we stepped out of our house, we all shivered (except for Luce of course), and out breath hung in the air in little puffs (again, except for Luce). He did, however, pull his cape over Pill until just her little blonde head with the stupid stem was showing.

Once Pill had been locked into her car seat, and we were all seat belted in, Mom started the routine “do’s and don’ts” of presenting Luce in public.

“Remember, Luce is a part of the family, and he should be treated as though he’s nothing special, okay? Everyone’s going to want to talk with him -“

“None of which he’ll be responding to.”

“ -so he’s going to be busy all night and you shut your mouth little missy. I’ll be speaking for him.”

“Wait, how are you going to respond to ‘So, Mr. Vampire, how does it feel to be a million year old dead body with a penchant for human blood?’”

“He doesn’t,” Annabelle said before Mom could reach back and kill me, “He’s not a million, he’s not a dead body, and he doesn’t drink human blood.”

“Yes he does! Where do you think the packets of Red Cross blood come from? Its not like anyone is pulling them out of their butt, people have to -“

“Well its not like he goes around at night hurting people -“

“Holy crap, I didn’t say that!”

“You implied it!”

“What are you talking about?! I didn’t even -”

“ENOUGH!” Annabelle and I shut up. “You will NOT being doing this at the party, do you understand me? If you so much as LOOK at each other, I’m personally going to arrange that you’re staying home on Friday, no Tv’s or computers! Do you both hear me?!”

We murmured a truce and looked away from each other. It was going to be a long night.