Star Trek Halloween Story
okay, well. This story. >____< I wanted to write an original scary story for Halloween, but then the one I was working on turned into something else entirely, so here's a Star Trek Halloween AU in lieu of that.
Title: The History of Wonderboy and Young Nasty Man
Fandom: Star Trek
Pairings: Kirk/Spock, Sulu/Chekov
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~12,000
Summary: Halloween AU! Jim and company are high school freshman who run amok on Halloween night. When something truly scary happens, Jim rallies the gang to action.
The story about the third child who'd gone missing in Entwood since the end of the summer breaks on Halloween morning, and Jim's mother is going nuts over it, like all of the other mothers in the neighborhood. She's up earlier than usual, on the phone with Mrs. Sulu, saying that it's terrible, just unbelievable.
"Well," Jim hears her say as he heads for the icebox to get his Eggos, "They'll have to cancel Halloween, of course."
"What!" Jim shouts. He hadn't even planned on doing any trick or treating -- too babyish, he's in high school now -- but he did plan on wandering the neighborhood and maybe scaring some of the younger kids, or at least going by the old Mason house with Hikaru and Nyota, a Halloween tradition.
Jim's mother waves him off and walks out of the kitchen with the phone, going back to the living room, where the television is playing a news report about Zach Bennett, missing since yesterday afternoon and now thought to be the third victim of the Entwood Valley Snatcher. Jim pops his waffles into the toaster and eyes his stepfather, who is reading about the baseball playoffs at the kitchen table, seemingly oblivious. Frank would probably be pretty pleased if Jim was the fourth victim, so what does he care?
"I'm going out for Halloween," Jim says. "I don't care what she says."
Frank grunts and gives him a look. Jim's mother married him five years ago, and he and Jim still haven't gotten past what Jim's mother dubbed the 'adjustment period.' Jim refuses to adjust to Frank's obsession with the stupid, overpaid Yankees and his tendency to walk around the house with no socks on, exposing his disgustingly hairy feet to the general public.
"Well!" Jim's mother says when she gets off the phone, bustling into the kitchen in her robe, flushed with the excitement of unpleasant gossip. "This is just unbelievable. Three children now."
"When are they gonna catch that guy?" Frank asks, his mouth full of Frosted Flakes. "Seems like they could triangulate on him pretty easily, or maybe get some DNA from that first body they found." Frank likes to think that because he watches every possible incarnation of CSI he knows quite a lot about crime fighting and could teach the police a few things. Jim hates CSI. He likes the X-Files, and Paranormal State, and sometimes the Ghost Hunters. Regular murders are depressing. Supernaturally motivated tragedies are more dignified somehow. There's a real story behind most of them, beyond just some loser lashing out at society, at kids.
"I'm still going over to Hikaru's tonight," Jim says, less bold now that his mother is present. His Eggos pop up in the toaster and he hops up to get them before his mother can respond.
"Fine, but Frank will walk you there, and believe me, Mrs. Sulu isn't going to let you two out of her sight. No trick or treating, no wandering around --"
"Mom, Jesus!" Jim throws the hot Eggos down onto the paper towel he's prepared for them. "Why did you even pay for me to take karate if you won't let me out into the world now that I'm a black belt?"
"Out into the world!" Jim's mother scoffs. "I let you get away with a lot, Jimmy, and maybe that needs to stop. Anyway, going around without an adult is a privilege that's suspended until they catch this lunatic."
"I'm fourteen years old!" Jim says. "I'm in high school! I'm not a freaking baby."
"You are a young, blond boy, which is exactly what the other three victims have been," his mother says, glaring at him. "Don't test me, Jim, or I won't even let you go over to Hikaru's house tonight."
Jim leaves the kitchen with his Eggos and his book bag, grumbling under his breath. Frank follows with a sigh after some prodding from Jim's mother, and Jim thinks about throwing a fit and trying to walk to school like he used to before the neighborhood went on lockdown, but he decides he'd better act like an angel for the rest of the day if he has any hope of sneaking out with Hikaru later. He's not afraid of some stupid pervert murderer. Jim hopes he runs across the bastard, actually. Between he and Hikaru they could probably take him down easy. They'd be heroes! What would Jim's mother be able to say then? She'd certainly never again have cause to act like he's a toddler who needs protection.
Frank drives Jim to school, a journey that is weathered in resentful silence. Jim refuses to listen to Frank's stupid morning drive time sports show and Frank refuses to endure Jim's music. Jim stares out the window at the Halloween decorations that have been put up in yards and on porches, first sad and then angry that Halloween has been compromised by this dick who is hurting kids. Well, not just hurting. Killing. Jim thinks of the first victim, Greg Harper. Jim didn't know him, but he felt like he did when he saw his picture on the news. He looked so normal, and Jim was haunted by his face, imagining what it must have been like to be taken, to be killed. He wants to go back and save that boy, to save all of them, and sometimes, a lot lately, he imagines that he does, and he doesn't only catch the Snatcher, he kills him in revenge. No mercy. No trial that would get screwed up by technicalities like the ones in Frank's crime shows.
The traffic is bad pulling up to the front steps, with so many people in the surrounding neighborhoods suddenly driving their children to school, not even trusting the bus stops. Jim gets out without saying anything to Frank, and he can hear the sports show that Frank turns on as soon as Jim walks away. Jim isn't sure what his mother sees in Frank, but Jim thinks his real father must have been way better. He can't remember him at all; he died the day Jim was born, in a car accident. He was on the way to the hospital from work when it happened. Jim has a Ouija board and has tried to talk to his dad before, but it never works, maybe because Hikaru is a skeptic.
When he gets to his locker Hikaru is there waiting, looking annoyed. Jim figures he must have gotten the same song and dance from his mother that morning. Hikaru has lived across the street from Jim since they were both six years old, and they've been best friends since then, on the same little league teams and in the same karate classes.
"Hey," Hikaru says. "This sucks."
"I know," Jim says. "But listen, whatever -- we can sneak out. We've done it before."
"Yeah." Hikaru frowns. "What about the murderer?"
"What about the murderer? Are you kidding? I hope I see him. Listen, we'll carry baseball bats. Maybe we can take him down."
"You're an idiot," Hikaru says.
"Hikaru, listen. When they catch these creeps, what do they always look like? Fat old losers. I'm not worried about it. And hey, what are you worried about? You're not his type."
"Fuck you," Hikaru says, punching Jim's shoulder. "And what do you want to sneak out so bad for, anyway? Pavel's coming over, we can watch movies --"
"Ugh, Pavel," Jim says, making a gagging sound. Hikaru punches him again. Pavel is Hikaru's next door neighbor, a boy who moved to the neighborhood five years ago. He's a year younger than Jim and Hikaru, still in middle school, and Jim is always embarrassed to be seen with him. Hikaru used to be, too, but his parents have always forced him to include Pavel, and in recent years Pavel seems to have actually grown on Hikaru, who has stopped allowing Jim to invent ridiculous American customs in attempts to make Pavel do stupid things public. Pavel is Russian, and a know-it-all, and a dork. The only worthwhile thing he ever did was beating Jim's arch nemesis, the unbearably geeky Spock kid who lives in the cul-de-sac, in a middle school spelling contest.
"I am not settling for Pavel and Poltergeist," Jim says as he and Hikaru walk down the hall. "We're gonna do what we did last year. Remember how much fun that was? Remember how Nyota screamed like an idiot when we saw that bat?"
"You screamed, too," Hikaru says.
"What? I didn't! Anyway, whatever, we're going to the Mason house."
"Jim, Jesus, why are you so obsessed with that place?"
"Because it's haunted as fuck."
"There's no such thing as ghosts," Hikaru says. Jim scoffs, pretending not to be wounded by this. He and Hikaru used to be partners in crime when it came to scouring the graveyard for the markers of murder victims and staying up late making up stupid ghost stories. Now Hikaru calls himself a 'scientist,' probably because of Pavel's lame ass influence. Jim is a scientist, too, a paranormal investigator.
"You've still got to admit that the place is creepy," Jim says. Fifteen years ago, according to neighborhood legend, the entire Mason family was murdered in that house, despite the fact that all of the doors and windows were locked from the inside and there were no signs of forced entry. They were all found in their beds, staring up at the ceilings of their rooms, mouths hanging wide open as if they'd been shocked to death.
"Fine, it's creepy," Hikaru says. "But that's just because it's a decrepit old house with broken windows. Not 'cause there's anything there."
"You can't scientifically disprove the existence of ghosts," Jim says.
"Whatever," Hikaru says, determined to try and act cool. He's started wearing gel in his hair, something that makes Jim nervous. Jim is not exactly the most popular guy in school, though he's beginning to get some attention from girls. He and Hikaru practically ran their middle school, always organizing everyone into elaborate games and impressing their teachers in class, but high school has been different so far. Jim feels young and stupid around the seniors, who seem to belong to a better, far away dimension, and Hikaru suddenly looks in the mirror way too much, and isn't interested in the games he and Jim used to play, like ghost hunters and graveyard tag. Lately he doesn't even want to race bikes.
"Well, maybe I'll go by myself," Jim says when they're standing outside of Hikaru's math class.
"No," Hikaru says, frowning. "You can't, it's too dangerous."
"Everyone thinks I'm such a weakling," Jim says.
"You're not a weakling, you're just an idiot," Hikaru says, patting Jim's shoulder. Jim shoves his hand away and walks off, annoyed. When he gets to his history class he sits down in the back, throwing his bag down. Spock, who always sits up front and in the middle, turns and gives Jim an irritated look to let him know that he's interrupted Spock's extracurricular reading. Jim flicks him off, and Spock stares, offering no response before turning back to his book. Jim has never hated anyone more. For some reason, just the sight of Spock gets under his skin these days.
*
After school, Jim gets a ride home with Hikaru and Hikaru's older sisters. Jim has to sit between Hikaru's sisters in the backseat while they coo over how cute he's gotten, pawing at him and messing up his hair. He glowers at Hikaru when Hikaru turns to smirk at him.
"I bet you've got a hundred girlfriends," Hikaru's oldest sister says. Her name is Polly and she's kind of unbelievably hot, but she's a senior, so of course she sees Jim as an infant, just like everyone else, apparently.
"No, no girlfriends," Jim says, muttering. Sometimes he thinks he wants a girlfriend, someone to hold his hand and roll around with in bed at home after school, before Frank and his mother get home from work, but then when girls approach him at school, even pretty ones, he just plays it off and teases them, trying to act cool instead of charming.
When they reach the house, there are a few little kids already walking the sidewalk with their parents, in princess and pirate costumes, toting pumpkin buckets. Jim is glad to see it, though it's still light out and of course the parents are hovering very close. He wonders what it will be like after dark, and suddenly he's in the mood for trick or treating. He and Hikaru did the whole neighborhood plus two nearby ones last year, and their arms were sore the next day from lugging pillowcases full of candy around all night.
"Has there been any news about the missing boy?" Polly asks Mrs. Sulu as she ushers all of them inside.
"No, nothing yet," Mrs. Sulu says. "And they still haven't found the second boy who went missing." She hugs Hikaru to her as she says so, and he fights out of her grip.
"I hope they torture him to death when they catch him," Hikaru's sister Amy says.
"Amy!" her mother scolds. Everyone heads into the kitchen and sits around the table, accepting sodas and pretzels from Mrs. Sulu. Jim has never seen her hand out after school snacks before; usually she changes into her work out clothes and hits the treadmill. Now she stands with her hands on the back of Hikaru's chair while everyone crunches pretzels, saying nothing as the reality of the crimes that have been perpetuated against their community settles over all of them, not for the first time. It comes and goes, and everyone in town has been tense since the first body was found and the news stories started coming out. When the doorbell rings Mrs. Sulu and Polly both jump and gasp.
"Trick or treaters," Mrs. Sulu says, sighing and going for a bowl of candy that sits on the counter. She leaves the room with the bowl, headed for the front door.
"I'm glad they didn't cancel Halloween," Jim says. "That's too depressing."
"Yeah, but what if he's out there tonight, looking for kids who are alone?" Polly says. "You two aren't going, are you?"
"Not trick or treating," Jim says, though he still wants to. Polly doesn't need to know that.
"Not anywhere," Hikaru says, throwing a pretzel at Jim. It bounces off of his forehead and onto the floor, breaking into three pieces. Artie, the family cat, dashes into the kitchen to chase the biggest piece under the table, and Jim can hear it crunching between his teeth.
"I'm going out," Amy says. "Leo's having a party."
"Ugh, that McCoy creep?" Polly says, making a face. "Why would you want to go to his party? Why's he inviting a girl three years younger than him, anyway?"
"He didn't invite me specifically," Amy says. "It's just, you know, a McCoy party."
"Yeah, and they're disgusting," Polly says.
"Don't tell Mom," Amy hisses, and Polly rolls her eyes.
Leonard McCoy is a senior, the neighborhood bad boy whose wealthy parents are perpetually out of town. He's the only senior who pays any attention to Jim, and getting a ride home from school one day in McCoy's yellow Mustang has been the highlight of Jim's freshman year so far. He and McCoy are in Keyboarding class together. McCoy is taking it for the easy A; he's already got early acceptance and a scholarship to Emory, pre-med. McCoy is usually drunk in class, but he's still a pretty good typist.
When Polly and Amy head off to their rooms to do their mysterious after school girl things, Hikaru and Jim move into the living room to play Tekken on Hikaru's old Super Nintendo. They take turns answering the door for trick or treaters once Hikaru's mom has started on her treadmill, and when Jim pulls open the door and sees Pavel standing there he wants to slam it shut again. Pavel isn't wearing a costume, just his usual oversized metal band t-shirt and anxious expression.
"Hello," he says, pulling on the hem of his shirt. "Is Hikaru home?"
"Can't you see you've got the wrong house?" Jim says, and for a moment Pavel actually looks apologetic. When it dawns on him that Jim is teasing him he looks down at his shoes.
"Pavel," Hikaru says, pushing Jim out of the way. "Ignore him. Come in."
Pavel brightens at the sight of Hikaru's face, and Jim wonders again why Hikaru ever stopped resenting Pavel as the little tag-along that he and Jim always saw him as before eighth grade. That was around the time Hikaru started to sound like his mother when it came to Pavel: Don't be mean to him, he's sensitive. Jim isn't sure how someone who's so obsessed with being cool justifies a sidekick who brings tupperware containers full of smelly beef stew to school for lunch, but whatever.
"Are we going to go trick or treating?" Pavel asks as he falls onto the couch, taking Jim's place beside Hikaru. Pavel's parents are somewhat infamous for being lax when it comes to supervision, which accounts for his wandering the neighborhood alone while it's been forbidden for everyone else.
"No trick or treating," Hikaru says. "It's lame. If you want candy, my mom has some in the kitchen. Let's just stay here and watch scary movies."
"But that's not as fun," Pavel says, whining a bit, and for a moment Jim is actually grateful for his presence.
"I agree wholeheartedly," Jim says.
"Nobody asked you," Hikaru says, giving Jim a look. He elbows Pavel. "Jim wants to go to that haunted house, like last year."
"See, see!" Jim says, jumping up and pointing his finger at Hikaru. "You admit it's haunted!"
"I do not! That's only what they call it -- you know -- dumb kids --"
"Yes, I want to go to the haunted house as well," Pavel says.
"But you don't believe in ghosts," Hikaru says, looking scandalized.
"No," Pavel says. "But it is fun, on this holiday, to be scared, yes?"
"Pavel, there's a real life mad man out there killing kids!" Hikaru says, grabbing Pavel's arm, eerily reminiscent of his mother.
"He will not kill us, he waits months between victims!" Pavel says cheerfully. "He plans, you see, that's why he hasn't been caught. The first boy, at the end of the summer, that was August, then the second one in September, and now another at the end of October. If it was the end of November, yes, okay, there is reason to be scared, but not now, when he has taken one just yesterday."
"Perfectly wonderful reasoning!" Jim says. Who would have thought that Pavel could be so useful? Hikaru is staring at him with his mouth hanging open, as if he doesn't know how to counter that argument.
"Please, Hikaru," Pavel says. "It will only make things spookier, having a killer on the loose on Halloween."
"You're morbid," Hikaru says, flicking Pavel's ear. "But fine. We can go trick or treating, early, in a group. We'll get Nyota to come with us, and maybe her brother, too. We can walk by the Mason house, but we're not going to fuck around trying to get inside again this year."
"God, Hikaru, way to be a pussy," Jim says. Hikaru whips a pillow at him in response. Jim throws it back, and thus begins a play fight that culminates when Hikaru's father walks through the door and asks them what the hell they think they're doing.
"Let's go get Nyota," Hikaru says, slinking away with Jim and Pavel following as his father gives him a deadly look.
"Be back before dark!" Hikaru's father calls as the boys run across the street and down toward Nyota's house. She's sitting on her front porch with a bowl of candy in her lap, eating from a miniature bag of Skittles.
"Trick or treat," Jim says, bounding up the stairs ahead of the others.
"Catch," Nyota says, holding up a blue Skittle. Jim takes two steps backward and opens his mouth, crashing into Hikaru when he tries and fails to catch it.
"What are you doing?" Hikaru asks, sitting down beside her. Pavel is quick to follow, constantly at Hikaru's side. Jim leans on the railing and surveys the street, watching for suspicious looking vans or dangerous loners.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Nyota says. "Sitting here bored out of my mind. I told my mother, I'm not white, I'm not a boy, what do I have to be worried about? She still doesn't want me going out. She says the whole world's gone crazy. You know what, shit, I wish we could have a real zombie apocalypse for Halloween."
"You would not survive a zombie apocalypse," Jim says with a scoff.
"How the fuck do you know?" Nyota has the dirtiest mouth of the four of them, and in fact taught Hikaru and Jim most of the more colorful curse words that they know. "And bullshit I wouldn't, my dad's got a gun and I'm a good shot. Anyway, I'd rather get turned into a zombie than die of boredom. This is the worst Halloween ever."
"Chill out, it's just getting started!" Jim says. "Let's get some candy so that junior here will have a lollipop to suck on." He gives Pavel's shoulder a shove with the toe of his sneaker to emphasize his point. "Then we can go check out the Mason house. You know the Masons died on Halloween night."
"They did not," Hikaru says. "I think you're the one who's made up half that shit about the Masons."
"I am not!"
"Whatever," Uhura says. She puts the bowl of candy down and stands up, stretching her arms over her head to show off her boobs, a recent development. "We don't even have costumes."
"Who cares?" Jim says. "All the moms will want to get rid of their candy so they don't get fat. They're not gonna hold us to the costume rule."
This mostly proves true as the four of them begin making their way through the neighborhood, each holding a pillowcase Nyota took from her house, but a few mothers give them looks and ask them what they're supposed to be.
"He's Lars Ulrich," Jim offers, pointing to Pavel, who is wearing a Metallica shirt. "She's a zombie, and Hikaru is, uh, a vampire hunter."
"And what are you?" one of the mothers finally asks Jim, holding her bowl of candy back when he reaches for it.
"Wonderboy," Jim says.
"I doubt it," she says, tossing a peanut butter cup into his pillowcase.
They hit most of the neighborhood, knocking on doors until dusk. As the sun starts to go down, Hikaru begins prodding them to head back to his parents' house, but Pavel doesn't want to quit, and for some reason he's much more successful than Jim when it comes to browbeating Hikaru into doing things these days.
"Three more houses," Hikaru says when they come to the cul-de-sac where the dreaded Spock resides with his humorless father and hippie weirdo mother. They don't have their lights on, but Pavel marches up the driveway anyway, and Jim follows, happy for the opportunity to irritate his enemy.
Pavel wraps on the door and there's no answer, but when Jim puts his face against the front window he can see Spock inside, curled up in an armchair and frowning down at a book. He stares at Spock for a moment, boggling at his weirdness. Spock has a stupidly perfect bowl cut and elfish little ears that almost come to a point. Jim used to call him an alien when they were kids. These days Jim calls him Young Nasty Man, and has ever since the middle school bus driver referred to Spock as such when he corrected her grammar. Spock thinks he's the smartest kid in school, and Jim still gets angry when he thinks about the seventh grade science fair, where Spock's interactive DNA model beat Jim's amazingly awesome working volcano, which was disqualified due to Jim's use of fireworks.
"Hey, Young Nasty Man!" Jim calls, banging on the window. Spock looks up from his book to glower at Jim, and Pavel continues knocking on the door, Nyota and Hikaru joining him now. Pavel and Nyota are actually friends with Spock, as much as such a thing is possible, since they were all in chess club together in middle school. Hikaru had wanted to join, too, but he refrained out of loyalty to Jim, since Spock was president.
When Spock finally drags his ass up from his chair and answers the door he's frowning and not bearing candy, wearing the same stupid blue turtleneck that Jim has seen him wear since they were ten, even though Spock is taller now and the sleeves are too short.
"Can I help you?" Spock says, regarding the group standing on his front porch with his usual look of haughty disapproval.
"Spock, it's Halloween!" Pavel says. "Where is our candy?"
"We don't celebrate Halloween," Spock says. "It's a frivolous holiday that makes light of ancient pagan rituals and contributes to rising levels of childhood obesity."
Jim snorts at this perfect recitation of Spock's parents' respective philosophies. His mother is a fruitcake and his father is a prick. Spock clearly aspires to be both.
"Well, if you don't want to come get candy with us, you should come with us to the Mason house," Pavel says. "It's really spooky."
Spock frowns. "It's just an old house that has fallen into disrepair," he says. "There's nothing 'spooky' about it."
"Oh, c'mon!" Jim says. "Aside from the fact that an entire family died mysteriously there!"
"They did not die mysteriously, it was a tragic murder-suicide," Spock says.
"Bullshit!" Jim says. "They died in their beds, nobody knows how --"
"Perhaps that is what your mother told you to comfort you, but what actually happened involved a cheating wife and a jealous husband. Only the youngest son escaped."
"Jesus," Nyota says. "That's way better than Jim's stupid story. How'd the guy off them?"
"No, no," Jim says, waving his hand through the air as if to clear Spock's story out of it. "That's not what happened. Spock doesn't know shit."
"I do know shit," Spock says, so primly that Pavel and Hikaru laugh. "I know all about what happened, but out of respect for that family I will not go into detail."
"Whatever," Jim says. "That's only because you don't really know. And you don't want to go to the Mason house because you're afraid."
"I am not afraid," Spock says. He and Jim are staring at each other now, jaws tight and fists clenched. They've gotten into some pretty bad fights before, accounting for the only blemishes on Spock's otherwise perfect record at school.
"If you're not afraid, prove it," Nyota says, tugging on Spock's arm. She's always seemed to have a bit of a crush on him, much to Jim's disgust. "Come with us."
"I can't go out, my parents aren't home and they asked me to stay in," Spock says.
"He's afraid!" Jim says, grinning.
"Guys, it's getting dark," Hikaru says. "Let's just go back to my house, okay? Spock, you can come if you want."
"Did no one hear me say that I can't leave my house?" Spock is still looking at Jim like he's thinking about where to land the first punch. He's surprisingly deadly in a fight and Jim still has a scar across his bottom lip from one of Spock's more impressive blows.
"You're such a mama's boy," Jim says, backing up a little, out of punching range. "You think my mom wants me to be out right now? No, but what do I care? She doesn't run my life."
"Your mother probably wants you home because it's dangerous to be out while there is a killer at large," Spock says.
"Well, maybe I'd be a danger to him."
"That's very unlikely."
"C'mon, Spock, the Mason house is just down the street," Nyota says, tugging on his arm again. "Just come with us, it'll be fun."
"I don't see how such a thing could possibly be fun," Spock says.
"He's afraid!" Jim chirps. "Spock's afraid of ghosts!"
"You guys, let's go!" Hikaru says. "I'm gonna get in trouble."
"Just for five minutes," Nyota says, pulling Spock out onto the porch. "C'mon, to show Jim you're not chicken."
"I don't care what Jim thinks of me," Spock says, but he turns back and shuts the door of his house behind them, following the group down the stairs.
"We'll just walk past the Mason house, that's it," Hikaru says as they leave Spock's cul-de-sac, pillowcases full of candy swinging at their sides. The streets are starting to empty of trick or treaters as the last of the sun disappears, and some of the jack 'o lanterns have already been blown out. The wind seems colder as the neighborhood quiets down, and Jim begins to look around for suspicious characters, his heart beating a little faster as they head toward the back of the neighborhood, where the Mason house sits at the bottom of a long, steep driveway. It's completely dark by the time they're halfway there, and steadily getting colder. Everyone has gone silent except for Pavel, who never stops talking.
"Have you ever had a popcorn ball?" Pavel asks. He seems to be directing the question to Hikaru, who doesn't answer. "Mrs. Jacobs brought some in for the class today. I didn't really like them. I still have a little piece of popcorn husk stuck in my teeth, I think. I can feel it but I tried to look in a mirror when I got home and I couldn't see it. Do you have any dental floss at your house? I never floss my teeth. Is that bad? Is it true that Trident is good for your teeth? I should research that. Maybe that will be my next science fair project."
"Hey, look," Jim says when they pass by McCoy's driveway, which is jammed with cars, a few seniors standing around out front, holding plastic party cups.
"McCoy's party," Hikaru says. "I guess Amy is there."
"We should stop in and get her," Jim says. "She shouldn't walk home alone, especially if she's been drinking."
"Jim, no," Hikaru says, eying the house warily. Music is blaring from the first floor, and the only indication that the party has anything to do with Halloween is a plastic skeleton hanging on the front door.
"Yeah, we should go in!" Nyota says. She's always been Jim's partner in crime when it comes to embracing a daring agenda. "I want to see what a senior party is like."
"It's just a bunch of idiots getting drunk," Hikaru says.
"I agree, I don't think we should go in there," Spock says.
"God, is there anything you're not afraid of?" Jim asks Spock, marching up the driveway. "I'm going. You guys do what you want."
Everyone follows, even Spock, and Jim takes heart in still being able to at least lead the neighborhood kids around despite being kicked to the bottom of the totem pole at school. Maybe if the seniors see him hanging out with McCoy at this party they'll offer him a little more respect at school on Monday. He stows his bag of candy under the front porch, not wanting to seem childish, and Nyota and Hikaru follow his lead, but Pavel hangs onto his protectively, eating from it as they make their way inside and wind through the crowd looking for Amy. Jim is actually looking for McCoy, but he can't find him anywhere.
The senior party is not quite as thrilling as Jim had hoped: some guys are playing pool, but for the most part kids are just standing around, drinking and smoking, giving the group of freshmen who have wandered into their midst suspicious looks, though none of them seem curious enough to ask Jim and company what they're doing here. Jim asks a group of girls near the back porch if they've seen McCoy, and when he turns around Pavel and Nyota are drinking from a plastic cup full of foul smelling beer.
"Where did you get that?" Jim asks, annoyed and intrigued. He and Hikaru had beer once, a can that Jim snuck from Frank's supply at the house. It tasted horrible and didn't really get them drunk, but they pretended it had and enjoyed a pleasant afternoon of wandering around the arcade laughing at each other and stumbling against the machines, playing it up for Nyota, who was mad that she hadn't been included in their plot.
"It's keg beer," Nyota says proudly, passing the cup back to Pavel, who drinks from it like it's nothing special. "And you and Hikaru can't have any."
"Are you still bitter about that?" Jim scoffs. "Well, I don't want any. Listen, I'm going to find McCoy and ask him if Amy is here. Apparently he's upstairs moping because his girlfriend broke up with him."
"Let's just go!" Hikaru says, casting a worried look at Pavel as he drains the last of the beer. "Amy can take care of herself."
"That's not very brotherly of you!" Jim says, heading for the stairs. Again, everyone follows, even Spock, who is looking around the party as if he's studying it from an anthropological perspective, frowning just slightly and craning his neck to see everything.
"I just want to say hi to Bones real quick, then we'll go," Jim says. He feels a little guilty calling McCoy by his nickname since he's not even sure where it came from; it's some kind of inside senior joke. Jim has heard rumors that McCoy is called Bones because he once broke a guy's arms and legs in a fight over McCoy's girlfriend, but that's probably not true. Maybe McCoy invented the rumor himself to keep guys away from his girl, but that doesn't seem to have worked. When Jim finally finds McCoy in one of the bedrooms on the second floor, he's lying on a king sized bed , a bottle of whiskey in his hand and his best friend Scotty at his side, nursing his own bottle. The room is messy, and there's a giant aquarium along the back wall, its bright blue glow illuminating the otherwise dark room.
"Bones," Jim says, trying to sound confident in his use of the nickname. McCoy sits up and glowers at Jim, then sighs and drinks when he seems to recognize him.
"Hey there," he says. "Jimmy. From Keyboarding. What's up. Happy Halloween."
"I was passing by and thought I'd come say hi," Jim says, a little unnerved by the state that McCoy is in, his eyes barely open and his face drawn and grave. Jim can't imagine getting this screwed up over a girl.
"We're out looking for that creep who's been killing kids," Jim says, and he hears Hikaru groan under his breath.
"Yeah, that's brilliant!" Scotty says, slurring and raising his bottle. "How great would it be if some kids, like, lured him in and beat the hell out of him! So great!"
"I should come with you," McCoy says, nodding in agreement. "I feel like killing someone. Yeah."
"What happened?" Nyota asks, sitting on the bed beside McCoy. Jim can't believe her nerve, and he's something like jealous when McCoy slings an arm around her and sighs.
"My girlfriend," McCoy says. "She left me for a guy on the baseball team. A fucking second baseman."
Jim watches as Spock and Pavel wander over to check out the aquarium, Hikaru following glumly, muttering about how much trouble he's going to get into. Jim tries to decide if he'd rather sit on the bed with the seniors and drink whiskey or look at the fish, and when McCoy begins to cry, his head in Nyota's lap, he opts for the fish.
"Look at the eel!" Pavel says brightly, pointing to a nasty-looking creature that is staring out at them from a little cave, its mouth hanging open.
"It's a banded snake eel," Spock says, his chin tipping up a bit in a way that makes Jim want to smack him.
"Yes, Mlyrichthys Colubrinus!" Pavel says, out-nerding him. Jim snorts.
"Pavel, I think you're the smartest guy I know," Jim says, just to irritate Spock, who stands up a bit straighter and frowns slightly.
"I wish I could get in and swim with them," Pavel says, flattening both of his hands against the aquarium glass.
"Then again," Jim says, and he glances over at Spock, who's on the verge of something like a smile.
"I thought you were going to ask McCoy if he's seen my sister," Hikaru whispers to Jim.
"He's kind of busy right now," Jim says as McCoy chokes out another sob. Nyota is beginning to look as if she deeply regrets sitting beside him.
"So ask that Scotty guy," Hikaru says.
"Why don't you ask him? Are you afraid of the seniors, Hikaru?"
"Fuck you!" Hikaru hisses, so harshly that Jim jumps backward a little. "Why do you have to act like everyone's such a coward? Like you would really do shit if you saw the Snatcher! You'd run home crying!"
"Bullshit!" Jim whispers back. "Don't project your wimpy shit onto me! All you've done all night is whine about how you want to go home and lock the doors and hide under your mother's bed!"
Hikaru lifts his arm but Pavel catches it and pulls it back down, looking frightened. Hikaru turns to glower at him, but some of the rage in his face drains away when Pavel stares up at him pleadingly.
"Don't fight," Pavel whispers. "We should go."
"Yes," Spock says. "I believe we were en route to the Mason house -- why don't we go there and then call it a night? I think perhaps Hikaru's sister has already left the party, or maybe she never attended at all."
"Whatever," Hikaru says, pushing around Jim and dragging Pavel with him. "I'm leaving. This party sucks, anyway."
"You suck," Jim counters stupidly, and Spock gives him a reproachful look. Jim actually feels guilty for the dumb comment, but he pretends not to, scoffing in Spock's direction.
"C'mon, Nyota," Jim says as he follows the others toward the door, and Nyota looks thrilled for the opportunity to hand McCoy over to Scotty.
"You guys are leaving?" McCoy says, sniffling.
"Yeah, we've got to go," Jim says. "Good luck with your -- stuff."
"Hey, give that murdering prick a kick in the head for me if you find him!" Scotty says, and Jim nods, feeling like an idiot. Of course Hikaru is right. If Jim really ran across a murdering psychopath he'd piss himself with fear and run like hell. He follows the others through the thickening crowd downstairs and out the front door, staring at the ground, feeling dejected as they head down the driveway, back to the street.
"You forgot this," Spock says, holding up Jim's pillowcase full of candy. Jim stares at Spock for a moment, waiting for the catch, then takes it from him.
"Thanks," he mutters. "You want some?"
"No, thank you, I don't like candy."
"Why are you so weird?" Jim asks. Nyota, Hikaru and Pavel are walking ahead of them, Nyota complaining about the snot McCoy left on her shirt and smacking Hikaru when he laughs.
"Many people at school think that I'm weird," Spock says, "Because I'm not interested in conforming to their illogical modes of behavior."
"Why do you have to say things like that?" Jim asks, practically shouting. He's not sure why Spock has bothered him so much over the years, but he's always wanted to ask these questions. "It makes you sound like you think you're better than everyone."
"I don't think that," Spock says, looking scandalized. "I don't think it's possible to quantify human beings in that way. I just think that certain elements of the average person's lifestyle are overrated, or unnecessary, or in need of modifications. This makes me 'weird' to some, I suppose."
"Why do you talk like you're British or something?" Jim asks.
"My father grew up in London," Spock says with a frown.
"Oh. Well. That explains a lot," Jim says, as if Spock has just admitted that he's an alien after all. They turn onto the street where the Mason house is located, and Jim gives Spock a suspicious glance that's met by Spock's usual placid expression. For some reason, Jim's heart is racing, probably just because of the proximity of the most haunted place in town. He jogs ahead to catch up with the others, and he's glad when Spock follows, staying close.
Part II
Title: The History of Wonderboy and Young Nasty Man
Fandom: Star Trek
Pairings: Kirk/Spock, Sulu/Chekov
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~12,000
Summary: Halloween AU! Jim and company are high school freshman who run amok on Halloween night. When something truly scary happens, Jim rallies the gang to action.
The story about the third child who'd gone missing in Entwood since the end of the summer breaks on Halloween morning, and Jim's mother is going nuts over it, like all of the other mothers in the neighborhood. She's up earlier than usual, on the phone with Mrs. Sulu, saying that it's terrible, just unbelievable.
"Well," Jim hears her say as he heads for the icebox to get his Eggos, "They'll have to cancel Halloween, of course."
"What!" Jim shouts. He hadn't even planned on doing any trick or treating -- too babyish, he's in high school now -- but he did plan on wandering the neighborhood and maybe scaring some of the younger kids, or at least going by the old Mason house with Hikaru and Nyota, a Halloween tradition.
Jim's mother waves him off and walks out of the kitchen with the phone, going back to the living room, where the television is playing a news report about Zach Bennett, missing since yesterday afternoon and now thought to be the third victim of the Entwood Valley Snatcher. Jim pops his waffles into the toaster and eyes his stepfather, who is reading about the baseball playoffs at the kitchen table, seemingly oblivious. Frank would probably be pretty pleased if Jim was the fourth victim, so what does he care?
"I'm going out for Halloween," Jim says. "I don't care what she says."
Frank grunts and gives him a look. Jim's mother married him five years ago, and he and Jim still haven't gotten past what Jim's mother dubbed the 'adjustment period.' Jim refuses to adjust to Frank's obsession with the stupid, overpaid Yankees and his tendency to walk around the house with no socks on, exposing his disgustingly hairy feet to the general public.
"Well!" Jim's mother says when she gets off the phone, bustling into the kitchen in her robe, flushed with the excitement of unpleasant gossip. "This is just unbelievable. Three children now."
"When are they gonna catch that guy?" Frank asks, his mouth full of Frosted Flakes. "Seems like they could triangulate on him pretty easily, or maybe get some DNA from that first body they found." Frank likes to think that because he watches every possible incarnation of CSI he knows quite a lot about crime fighting and could teach the police a few things. Jim hates CSI. He likes the X-Files, and Paranormal State, and sometimes the Ghost Hunters. Regular murders are depressing. Supernaturally motivated tragedies are more dignified somehow. There's a real story behind most of them, beyond just some loser lashing out at society, at kids.
"I'm still going over to Hikaru's tonight," Jim says, less bold now that his mother is present. His Eggos pop up in the toaster and he hops up to get them before his mother can respond.
"Fine, but Frank will walk you there, and believe me, Mrs. Sulu isn't going to let you two out of her sight. No trick or treating, no wandering around --"
"Mom, Jesus!" Jim throws the hot Eggos down onto the paper towel he's prepared for them. "Why did you even pay for me to take karate if you won't let me out into the world now that I'm a black belt?"
"Out into the world!" Jim's mother scoffs. "I let you get away with a lot, Jimmy, and maybe that needs to stop. Anyway, going around without an adult is a privilege that's suspended until they catch this lunatic."
"I'm fourteen years old!" Jim says. "I'm in high school! I'm not a freaking baby."
"You are a young, blond boy, which is exactly what the other three victims have been," his mother says, glaring at him. "Don't test me, Jim, or I won't even let you go over to Hikaru's house tonight."
Jim leaves the kitchen with his Eggos and his book bag, grumbling under his breath. Frank follows with a sigh after some prodding from Jim's mother, and Jim thinks about throwing a fit and trying to walk to school like he used to before the neighborhood went on lockdown, but he decides he'd better act like an angel for the rest of the day if he has any hope of sneaking out with Hikaru later. He's not afraid of some stupid pervert murderer. Jim hopes he runs across the bastard, actually. Between he and Hikaru they could probably take him down easy. They'd be heroes! What would Jim's mother be able to say then? She'd certainly never again have cause to act like he's a toddler who needs protection.
Frank drives Jim to school, a journey that is weathered in resentful silence. Jim refuses to listen to Frank's stupid morning drive time sports show and Frank refuses to endure Jim's music. Jim stares out the window at the Halloween decorations that have been put up in yards and on porches, first sad and then angry that Halloween has been compromised by this dick who is hurting kids. Well, not just hurting. Killing. Jim thinks of the first victim, Greg Harper. Jim didn't know him, but he felt like he did when he saw his picture on the news. He looked so normal, and Jim was haunted by his face, imagining what it must have been like to be taken, to be killed. He wants to go back and save that boy, to save all of them, and sometimes, a lot lately, he imagines that he does, and he doesn't only catch the Snatcher, he kills him in revenge. No mercy. No trial that would get screwed up by technicalities like the ones in Frank's crime shows.
The traffic is bad pulling up to the front steps, with so many people in the surrounding neighborhoods suddenly driving their children to school, not even trusting the bus stops. Jim gets out without saying anything to Frank, and he can hear the sports show that Frank turns on as soon as Jim walks away. Jim isn't sure what his mother sees in Frank, but Jim thinks his real father must have been way better. He can't remember him at all; he died the day Jim was born, in a car accident. He was on the way to the hospital from work when it happened. Jim has a Ouija board and has tried to talk to his dad before, but it never works, maybe because Hikaru is a skeptic.
When he gets to his locker Hikaru is there waiting, looking annoyed. Jim figures he must have gotten the same song and dance from his mother that morning. Hikaru has lived across the street from Jim since they were both six years old, and they've been best friends since then, on the same little league teams and in the same karate classes.
"Hey," Hikaru says. "This sucks."
"I know," Jim says. "But listen, whatever -- we can sneak out. We've done it before."
"Yeah." Hikaru frowns. "What about the murderer?"
"What about the murderer? Are you kidding? I hope I see him. Listen, we'll carry baseball bats. Maybe we can take him down."
"You're an idiot," Hikaru says.
"Hikaru, listen. When they catch these creeps, what do they always look like? Fat old losers. I'm not worried about it. And hey, what are you worried about? You're not his type."
"Fuck you," Hikaru says, punching Jim's shoulder. "And what do you want to sneak out so bad for, anyway? Pavel's coming over, we can watch movies --"
"Ugh, Pavel," Jim says, making a gagging sound. Hikaru punches him again. Pavel is Hikaru's next door neighbor, a boy who moved to the neighborhood five years ago. He's a year younger than Jim and Hikaru, still in middle school, and Jim is always embarrassed to be seen with him. Hikaru used to be, too, but his parents have always forced him to include Pavel, and in recent years Pavel seems to have actually grown on Hikaru, who has stopped allowing Jim to invent ridiculous American customs in attempts to make Pavel do stupid things public. Pavel is Russian, and a know-it-all, and a dork. The only worthwhile thing he ever did was beating Jim's arch nemesis, the unbearably geeky Spock kid who lives in the cul-de-sac, in a middle school spelling contest.
"I am not settling for Pavel and Poltergeist," Jim says as he and Hikaru walk down the hall. "We're gonna do what we did last year. Remember how much fun that was? Remember how Nyota screamed like an idiot when we saw that bat?"
"You screamed, too," Hikaru says.
"What? I didn't! Anyway, whatever, we're going to the Mason house."
"Jim, Jesus, why are you so obsessed with that place?"
"Because it's haunted as fuck."
"There's no such thing as ghosts," Hikaru says. Jim scoffs, pretending not to be wounded by this. He and Hikaru used to be partners in crime when it came to scouring the graveyard for the markers of murder victims and staying up late making up stupid ghost stories. Now Hikaru calls himself a 'scientist,' probably because of Pavel's lame ass influence. Jim is a scientist, too, a paranormal investigator.
"You've still got to admit that the place is creepy," Jim says. Fifteen years ago, according to neighborhood legend, the entire Mason family was murdered in that house, despite the fact that all of the doors and windows were locked from the inside and there were no signs of forced entry. They were all found in their beds, staring up at the ceilings of their rooms, mouths hanging wide open as if they'd been shocked to death.
"Fine, it's creepy," Hikaru says. "But that's just because it's a decrepit old house with broken windows. Not 'cause there's anything there."
"You can't scientifically disprove the existence of ghosts," Jim says.
"Whatever," Hikaru says, determined to try and act cool. He's started wearing gel in his hair, something that makes Jim nervous. Jim is not exactly the most popular guy in school, though he's beginning to get some attention from girls. He and Hikaru practically ran their middle school, always organizing everyone into elaborate games and impressing their teachers in class, but high school has been different so far. Jim feels young and stupid around the seniors, who seem to belong to a better, far away dimension, and Hikaru suddenly looks in the mirror way too much, and isn't interested in the games he and Jim used to play, like ghost hunters and graveyard tag. Lately he doesn't even want to race bikes.
"Well, maybe I'll go by myself," Jim says when they're standing outside of Hikaru's math class.
"No," Hikaru says, frowning. "You can't, it's too dangerous."
"Everyone thinks I'm such a weakling," Jim says.
"You're not a weakling, you're just an idiot," Hikaru says, patting Jim's shoulder. Jim shoves his hand away and walks off, annoyed. When he gets to his history class he sits down in the back, throwing his bag down. Spock, who always sits up front and in the middle, turns and gives Jim an irritated look to let him know that he's interrupted Spock's extracurricular reading. Jim flicks him off, and Spock stares, offering no response before turning back to his book. Jim has never hated anyone more. For some reason, just the sight of Spock gets under his skin these days.
*
After school, Jim gets a ride home with Hikaru and Hikaru's older sisters. Jim has to sit between Hikaru's sisters in the backseat while they coo over how cute he's gotten, pawing at him and messing up his hair. He glowers at Hikaru when Hikaru turns to smirk at him.
"I bet you've got a hundred girlfriends," Hikaru's oldest sister says. Her name is Polly and she's kind of unbelievably hot, but she's a senior, so of course she sees Jim as an infant, just like everyone else, apparently.
"No, no girlfriends," Jim says, muttering. Sometimes he thinks he wants a girlfriend, someone to hold his hand and roll around with in bed at home after school, before Frank and his mother get home from work, but then when girls approach him at school, even pretty ones, he just plays it off and teases them, trying to act cool instead of charming.
When they reach the house, there are a few little kids already walking the sidewalk with their parents, in princess and pirate costumes, toting pumpkin buckets. Jim is glad to see it, though it's still light out and of course the parents are hovering very close. He wonders what it will be like after dark, and suddenly he's in the mood for trick or treating. He and Hikaru did the whole neighborhood plus two nearby ones last year, and their arms were sore the next day from lugging pillowcases full of candy around all night.
"Has there been any news about the missing boy?" Polly asks Mrs. Sulu as she ushers all of them inside.
"No, nothing yet," Mrs. Sulu says. "And they still haven't found the second boy who went missing." She hugs Hikaru to her as she says so, and he fights out of her grip.
"I hope they torture him to death when they catch him," Hikaru's sister Amy says.
"Amy!" her mother scolds. Everyone heads into the kitchen and sits around the table, accepting sodas and pretzels from Mrs. Sulu. Jim has never seen her hand out after school snacks before; usually she changes into her work out clothes and hits the treadmill. Now she stands with her hands on the back of Hikaru's chair while everyone crunches pretzels, saying nothing as the reality of the crimes that have been perpetuated against their community settles over all of them, not for the first time. It comes and goes, and everyone in town has been tense since the first body was found and the news stories started coming out. When the doorbell rings Mrs. Sulu and Polly both jump and gasp.
"Trick or treaters," Mrs. Sulu says, sighing and going for a bowl of candy that sits on the counter. She leaves the room with the bowl, headed for the front door.
"I'm glad they didn't cancel Halloween," Jim says. "That's too depressing."
"Yeah, but what if he's out there tonight, looking for kids who are alone?" Polly says. "You two aren't going, are you?"
"Not trick or treating," Jim says, though he still wants to. Polly doesn't need to know that.
"Not anywhere," Hikaru says, throwing a pretzel at Jim. It bounces off of his forehead and onto the floor, breaking into three pieces. Artie, the family cat, dashes into the kitchen to chase the biggest piece under the table, and Jim can hear it crunching between his teeth.
"I'm going out," Amy says. "Leo's having a party."
"Ugh, that McCoy creep?" Polly says, making a face. "Why would you want to go to his party? Why's he inviting a girl three years younger than him, anyway?"
"He didn't invite me specifically," Amy says. "It's just, you know, a McCoy party."
"Yeah, and they're disgusting," Polly says.
"Don't tell Mom," Amy hisses, and Polly rolls her eyes.
Leonard McCoy is a senior, the neighborhood bad boy whose wealthy parents are perpetually out of town. He's the only senior who pays any attention to Jim, and getting a ride home from school one day in McCoy's yellow Mustang has been the highlight of Jim's freshman year so far. He and McCoy are in Keyboarding class together. McCoy is taking it for the easy A; he's already got early acceptance and a scholarship to Emory, pre-med. McCoy is usually drunk in class, but he's still a pretty good typist.
When Polly and Amy head off to their rooms to do their mysterious after school girl things, Hikaru and Jim move into the living room to play Tekken on Hikaru's old Super Nintendo. They take turns answering the door for trick or treaters once Hikaru's mom has started on her treadmill, and when Jim pulls open the door and sees Pavel standing there he wants to slam it shut again. Pavel isn't wearing a costume, just his usual oversized metal band t-shirt and anxious expression.
"Hello," he says, pulling on the hem of his shirt. "Is Hikaru home?"
"Can't you see you've got the wrong house?" Jim says, and for a moment Pavel actually looks apologetic. When it dawns on him that Jim is teasing him he looks down at his shoes.
"Pavel," Hikaru says, pushing Jim out of the way. "Ignore him. Come in."
Pavel brightens at the sight of Hikaru's face, and Jim wonders again why Hikaru ever stopped resenting Pavel as the little tag-along that he and Jim always saw him as before eighth grade. That was around the time Hikaru started to sound like his mother when it came to Pavel: Don't be mean to him, he's sensitive. Jim isn't sure how someone who's so obsessed with being cool justifies a sidekick who brings tupperware containers full of smelly beef stew to school for lunch, but whatever.
"Are we going to go trick or treating?" Pavel asks as he falls onto the couch, taking Jim's place beside Hikaru. Pavel's parents are somewhat infamous for being lax when it comes to supervision, which accounts for his wandering the neighborhood alone while it's been forbidden for everyone else.
"No trick or treating," Hikaru says. "It's lame. If you want candy, my mom has some in the kitchen. Let's just stay here and watch scary movies."
"But that's not as fun," Pavel says, whining a bit, and for a moment Jim is actually grateful for his presence.
"I agree wholeheartedly," Jim says.
"Nobody asked you," Hikaru says, giving Jim a look. He elbows Pavel. "Jim wants to go to that haunted house, like last year."
"See, see!" Jim says, jumping up and pointing his finger at Hikaru. "You admit it's haunted!"
"I do not! That's only what they call it -- you know -- dumb kids --"
"Yes, I want to go to the haunted house as well," Pavel says.
"But you don't believe in ghosts," Hikaru says, looking scandalized.
"No," Pavel says. "But it is fun, on this holiday, to be scared, yes?"
"Pavel, there's a real life mad man out there killing kids!" Hikaru says, grabbing Pavel's arm, eerily reminiscent of his mother.
"He will not kill us, he waits months between victims!" Pavel says cheerfully. "He plans, you see, that's why he hasn't been caught. The first boy, at the end of the summer, that was August, then the second one in September, and now another at the end of October. If it was the end of November, yes, okay, there is reason to be scared, but not now, when he has taken one just yesterday."
"Perfectly wonderful reasoning!" Jim says. Who would have thought that Pavel could be so useful? Hikaru is staring at him with his mouth hanging open, as if he doesn't know how to counter that argument.
"Please, Hikaru," Pavel says. "It will only make things spookier, having a killer on the loose on Halloween."
"You're morbid," Hikaru says, flicking Pavel's ear. "But fine. We can go trick or treating, early, in a group. We'll get Nyota to come with us, and maybe her brother, too. We can walk by the Mason house, but we're not going to fuck around trying to get inside again this year."
"God, Hikaru, way to be a pussy," Jim says. Hikaru whips a pillow at him in response. Jim throws it back, and thus begins a play fight that culminates when Hikaru's father walks through the door and asks them what the hell they think they're doing.
"Let's go get Nyota," Hikaru says, slinking away with Jim and Pavel following as his father gives him a deadly look.
"Be back before dark!" Hikaru's father calls as the boys run across the street and down toward Nyota's house. She's sitting on her front porch with a bowl of candy in her lap, eating from a miniature bag of Skittles.
"Trick or treat," Jim says, bounding up the stairs ahead of the others.
"Catch," Nyota says, holding up a blue Skittle. Jim takes two steps backward and opens his mouth, crashing into Hikaru when he tries and fails to catch it.
"What are you doing?" Hikaru asks, sitting down beside her. Pavel is quick to follow, constantly at Hikaru's side. Jim leans on the railing and surveys the street, watching for suspicious looking vans or dangerous loners.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Nyota says. "Sitting here bored out of my mind. I told my mother, I'm not white, I'm not a boy, what do I have to be worried about? She still doesn't want me going out. She says the whole world's gone crazy. You know what, shit, I wish we could have a real zombie apocalypse for Halloween."
"You would not survive a zombie apocalypse," Jim says with a scoff.
"How the fuck do you know?" Nyota has the dirtiest mouth of the four of them, and in fact taught Hikaru and Jim most of the more colorful curse words that they know. "And bullshit I wouldn't, my dad's got a gun and I'm a good shot. Anyway, I'd rather get turned into a zombie than die of boredom. This is the worst Halloween ever."
"Chill out, it's just getting started!" Jim says. "Let's get some candy so that junior here will have a lollipop to suck on." He gives Pavel's shoulder a shove with the toe of his sneaker to emphasize his point. "Then we can go check out the Mason house. You know the Masons died on Halloween night."
"They did not," Hikaru says. "I think you're the one who's made up half that shit about the Masons."
"I am not!"
"Whatever," Uhura says. She puts the bowl of candy down and stands up, stretching her arms over her head to show off her boobs, a recent development. "We don't even have costumes."
"Who cares?" Jim says. "All the moms will want to get rid of their candy so they don't get fat. They're not gonna hold us to the costume rule."
This mostly proves true as the four of them begin making their way through the neighborhood, each holding a pillowcase Nyota took from her house, but a few mothers give them looks and ask them what they're supposed to be.
"He's Lars Ulrich," Jim offers, pointing to Pavel, who is wearing a Metallica shirt. "She's a zombie, and Hikaru is, uh, a vampire hunter."
"And what are you?" one of the mothers finally asks Jim, holding her bowl of candy back when he reaches for it.
"Wonderboy," Jim says.
"I doubt it," she says, tossing a peanut butter cup into his pillowcase.
They hit most of the neighborhood, knocking on doors until dusk. As the sun starts to go down, Hikaru begins prodding them to head back to his parents' house, but Pavel doesn't want to quit, and for some reason he's much more successful than Jim when it comes to browbeating Hikaru into doing things these days.
"Three more houses," Hikaru says when they come to the cul-de-sac where the dreaded Spock resides with his humorless father and hippie weirdo mother. They don't have their lights on, but Pavel marches up the driveway anyway, and Jim follows, happy for the opportunity to irritate his enemy.
Pavel wraps on the door and there's no answer, but when Jim puts his face against the front window he can see Spock inside, curled up in an armchair and frowning down at a book. He stares at Spock for a moment, boggling at his weirdness. Spock has a stupidly perfect bowl cut and elfish little ears that almost come to a point. Jim used to call him an alien when they were kids. These days Jim calls him Young Nasty Man, and has ever since the middle school bus driver referred to Spock as such when he corrected her grammar. Spock thinks he's the smartest kid in school, and Jim still gets angry when he thinks about the seventh grade science fair, where Spock's interactive DNA model beat Jim's amazingly awesome working volcano, which was disqualified due to Jim's use of fireworks.
"Hey, Young Nasty Man!" Jim calls, banging on the window. Spock looks up from his book to glower at Jim, and Pavel continues knocking on the door, Nyota and Hikaru joining him now. Pavel and Nyota are actually friends with Spock, as much as such a thing is possible, since they were all in chess club together in middle school. Hikaru had wanted to join, too, but he refrained out of loyalty to Jim, since Spock was president.
When Spock finally drags his ass up from his chair and answers the door he's frowning and not bearing candy, wearing the same stupid blue turtleneck that Jim has seen him wear since they were ten, even though Spock is taller now and the sleeves are too short.
"Can I help you?" Spock says, regarding the group standing on his front porch with his usual look of haughty disapproval.
"Spock, it's Halloween!" Pavel says. "Where is our candy?"
"We don't celebrate Halloween," Spock says. "It's a frivolous holiday that makes light of ancient pagan rituals and contributes to rising levels of childhood obesity."
Jim snorts at this perfect recitation of Spock's parents' respective philosophies. His mother is a fruitcake and his father is a prick. Spock clearly aspires to be both.
"Well, if you don't want to come get candy with us, you should come with us to the Mason house," Pavel says. "It's really spooky."
Spock frowns. "It's just an old house that has fallen into disrepair," he says. "There's nothing 'spooky' about it."
"Oh, c'mon!" Jim says. "Aside from the fact that an entire family died mysteriously there!"
"They did not die mysteriously, it was a tragic murder-suicide," Spock says.
"Bullshit!" Jim says. "They died in their beds, nobody knows how --"
"Perhaps that is what your mother told you to comfort you, but what actually happened involved a cheating wife and a jealous husband. Only the youngest son escaped."
"Jesus," Nyota says. "That's way better than Jim's stupid story. How'd the guy off them?"
"No, no," Jim says, waving his hand through the air as if to clear Spock's story out of it. "That's not what happened. Spock doesn't know shit."
"I do know shit," Spock says, so primly that Pavel and Hikaru laugh. "I know all about what happened, but out of respect for that family I will not go into detail."
"Whatever," Jim says. "That's only because you don't really know. And you don't want to go to the Mason house because you're afraid."
"I am not afraid," Spock says. He and Jim are staring at each other now, jaws tight and fists clenched. They've gotten into some pretty bad fights before, accounting for the only blemishes on Spock's otherwise perfect record at school.
"If you're not afraid, prove it," Nyota says, tugging on Spock's arm. She's always seemed to have a bit of a crush on him, much to Jim's disgust. "Come with us."
"I can't go out, my parents aren't home and they asked me to stay in," Spock says.
"He's afraid!" Jim says, grinning.
"Guys, it's getting dark," Hikaru says. "Let's just go back to my house, okay? Spock, you can come if you want."
"Did no one hear me say that I can't leave my house?" Spock is still looking at Jim like he's thinking about where to land the first punch. He's surprisingly deadly in a fight and Jim still has a scar across his bottom lip from one of Spock's more impressive blows.
"You're such a mama's boy," Jim says, backing up a little, out of punching range. "You think my mom wants me to be out right now? No, but what do I care? She doesn't run my life."
"Your mother probably wants you home because it's dangerous to be out while there is a killer at large," Spock says.
"Well, maybe I'd be a danger to him."
"That's very unlikely."
"C'mon, Spock, the Mason house is just down the street," Nyota says, tugging on his arm again. "Just come with us, it'll be fun."
"I don't see how such a thing could possibly be fun," Spock says.
"He's afraid!" Jim chirps. "Spock's afraid of ghosts!"
"You guys, let's go!" Hikaru says. "I'm gonna get in trouble."
"Just for five minutes," Nyota says, pulling Spock out onto the porch. "C'mon, to show Jim you're not chicken."
"I don't care what Jim thinks of me," Spock says, but he turns back and shuts the door of his house behind them, following the group down the stairs.
"We'll just walk past the Mason house, that's it," Hikaru says as they leave Spock's cul-de-sac, pillowcases full of candy swinging at their sides. The streets are starting to empty of trick or treaters as the last of the sun disappears, and some of the jack 'o lanterns have already been blown out. The wind seems colder as the neighborhood quiets down, and Jim begins to look around for suspicious characters, his heart beating a little faster as they head toward the back of the neighborhood, where the Mason house sits at the bottom of a long, steep driveway. It's completely dark by the time they're halfway there, and steadily getting colder. Everyone has gone silent except for Pavel, who never stops talking.
"Have you ever had a popcorn ball?" Pavel asks. He seems to be directing the question to Hikaru, who doesn't answer. "Mrs. Jacobs brought some in for the class today. I didn't really like them. I still have a little piece of popcorn husk stuck in my teeth, I think. I can feel it but I tried to look in a mirror when I got home and I couldn't see it. Do you have any dental floss at your house? I never floss my teeth. Is that bad? Is it true that Trident is good for your teeth? I should research that. Maybe that will be my next science fair project."
"Hey, look," Jim says when they pass by McCoy's driveway, which is jammed with cars, a few seniors standing around out front, holding plastic party cups.
"McCoy's party," Hikaru says. "I guess Amy is there."
"We should stop in and get her," Jim says. "She shouldn't walk home alone, especially if she's been drinking."
"Jim, no," Hikaru says, eying the house warily. Music is blaring from the first floor, and the only indication that the party has anything to do with Halloween is a plastic skeleton hanging on the front door.
"Yeah, we should go in!" Nyota says. She's always been Jim's partner in crime when it comes to embracing a daring agenda. "I want to see what a senior party is like."
"It's just a bunch of idiots getting drunk," Hikaru says.
"I agree, I don't think we should go in there," Spock says.
"God, is there anything you're not afraid of?" Jim asks Spock, marching up the driveway. "I'm going. You guys do what you want."
Everyone follows, even Spock, and Jim takes heart in still being able to at least lead the neighborhood kids around despite being kicked to the bottom of the totem pole at school. Maybe if the seniors see him hanging out with McCoy at this party they'll offer him a little more respect at school on Monday. He stows his bag of candy under the front porch, not wanting to seem childish, and Nyota and Hikaru follow his lead, but Pavel hangs onto his protectively, eating from it as they make their way inside and wind through the crowd looking for Amy. Jim is actually looking for McCoy, but he can't find him anywhere.
The senior party is not quite as thrilling as Jim had hoped: some guys are playing pool, but for the most part kids are just standing around, drinking and smoking, giving the group of freshmen who have wandered into their midst suspicious looks, though none of them seem curious enough to ask Jim and company what they're doing here. Jim asks a group of girls near the back porch if they've seen McCoy, and when he turns around Pavel and Nyota are drinking from a plastic cup full of foul smelling beer.
"Where did you get that?" Jim asks, annoyed and intrigued. He and Hikaru had beer once, a can that Jim snuck from Frank's supply at the house. It tasted horrible and didn't really get them drunk, but they pretended it had and enjoyed a pleasant afternoon of wandering around the arcade laughing at each other and stumbling against the machines, playing it up for Nyota, who was mad that she hadn't been included in their plot.
"It's keg beer," Nyota says proudly, passing the cup back to Pavel, who drinks from it like it's nothing special. "And you and Hikaru can't have any."
"Are you still bitter about that?" Jim scoffs. "Well, I don't want any. Listen, I'm going to find McCoy and ask him if Amy is here. Apparently he's upstairs moping because his girlfriend broke up with him."
"Let's just go!" Hikaru says, casting a worried look at Pavel as he drains the last of the beer. "Amy can take care of herself."
"That's not very brotherly of you!" Jim says, heading for the stairs. Again, everyone follows, even Spock, who is looking around the party as if he's studying it from an anthropological perspective, frowning just slightly and craning his neck to see everything.
"I just want to say hi to Bones real quick, then we'll go," Jim says. He feels a little guilty calling McCoy by his nickname since he's not even sure where it came from; it's some kind of inside senior joke. Jim has heard rumors that McCoy is called Bones because he once broke a guy's arms and legs in a fight over McCoy's girlfriend, but that's probably not true. Maybe McCoy invented the rumor himself to keep guys away from his girl, but that doesn't seem to have worked. When Jim finally finds McCoy in one of the bedrooms on the second floor, he's lying on a king sized bed , a bottle of whiskey in his hand and his best friend Scotty at his side, nursing his own bottle. The room is messy, and there's a giant aquarium along the back wall, its bright blue glow illuminating the otherwise dark room.
"Bones," Jim says, trying to sound confident in his use of the nickname. McCoy sits up and glowers at Jim, then sighs and drinks when he seems to recognize him.
"Hey there," he says. "Jimmy. From Keyboarding. What's up. Happy Halloween."
"I was passing by and thought I'd come say hi," Jim says, a little unnerved by the state that McCoy is in, his eyes barely open and his face drawn and grave. Jim can't imagine getting this screwed up over a girl.
"We're out looking for that creep who's been killing kids," Jim says, and he hears Hikaru groan under his breath.
"Yeah, that's brilliant!" Scotty says, slurring and raising his bottle. "How great would it be if some kids, like, lured him in and beat the hell out of him! So great!"
"I should come with you," McCoy says, nodding in agreement. "I feel like killing someone. Yeah."
"What happened?" Nyota asks, sitting on the bed beside McCoy. Jim can't believe her nerve, and he's something like jealous when McCoy slings an arm around her and sighs.
"My girlfriend," McCoy says. "She left me for a guy on the baseball team. A fucking second baseman."
Jim watches as Spock and Pavel wander over to check out the aquarium, Hikaru following glumly, muttering about how much trouble he's going to get into. Jim tries to decide if he'd rather sit on the bed with the seniors and drink whiskey or look at the fish, and when McCoy begins to cry, his head in Nyota's lap, he opts for the fish.
"Look at the eel!" Pavel says brightly, pointing to a nasty-looking creature that is staring out at them from a little cave, its mouth hanging open.
"It's a banded snake eel," Spock says, his chin tipping up a bit in a way that makes Jim want to smack him.
"Yes, Mlyrichthys Colubrinus!" Pavel says, out-nerding him. Jim snorts.
"Pavel, I think you're the smartest guy I know," Jim says, just to irritate Spock, who stands up a bit straighter and frowns slightly.
"I wish I could get in and swim with them," Pavel says, flattening both of his hands against the aquarium glass.
"Then again," Jim says, and he glances over at Spock, who's on the verge of something like a smile.
"I thought you were going to ask McCoy if he's seen my sister," Hikaru whispers to Jim.
"He's kind of busy right now," Jim says as McCoy chokes out another sob. Nyota is beginning to look as if she deeply regrets sitting beside him.
"So ask that Scotty guy," Hikaru says.
"Why don't you ask him? Are you afraid of the seniors, Hikaru?"
"Fuck you!" Hikaru hisses, so harshly that Jim jumps backward a little. "Why do you have to act like everyone's such a coward? Like you would really do shit if you saw the Snatcher! You'd run home crying!"
"Bullshit!" Jim whispers back. "Don't project your wimpy shit onto me! All you've done all night is whine about how you want to go home and lock the doors and hide under your mother's bed!"
Hikaru lifts his arm but Pavel catches it and pulls it back down, looking frightened. Hikaru turns to glower at him, but some of the rage in his face drains away when Pavel stares up at him pleadingly.
"Don't fight," Pavel whispers. "We should go."
"Yes," Spock says. "I believe we were en route to the Mason house -- why don't we go there and then call it a night? I think perhaps Hikaru's sister has already left the party, or maybe she never attended at all."
"Whatever," Hikaru says, pushing around Jim and dragging Pavel with him. "I'm leaving. This party sucks, anyway."
"You suck," Jim counters stupidly, and Spock gives him a reproachful look. Jim actually feels guilty for the dumb comment, but he pretends not to, scoffing in Spock's direction.
"C'mon, Nyota," Jim says as he follows the others toward the door, and Nyota looks thrilled for the opportunity to hand McCoy over to Scotty.
"You guys are leaving?" McCoy says, sniffling.
"Yeah, we've got to go," Jim says. "Good luck with your -- stuff."
"Hey, give that murdering prick a kick in the head for me if you find him!" Scotty says, and Jim nods, feeling like an idiot. Of course Hikaru is right. If Jim really ran across a murdering psychopath he'd piss himself with fear and run like hell. He follows the others through the thickening crowd downstairs and out the front door, staring at the ground, feeling dejected as they head down the driveway, back to the street.
"You forgot this," Spock says, holding up Jim's pillowcase full of candy. Jim stares at Spock for a moment, waiting for the catch, then takes it from him.
"Thanks," he mutters. "You want some?"
"No, thank you, I don't like candy."
"Why are you so weird?" Jim asks. Nyota, Hikaru and Pavel are walking ahead of them, Nyota complaining about the snot McCoy left on her shirt and smacking Hikaru when he laughs.
"Many people at school think that I'm weird," Spock says, "Because I'm not interested in conforming to their illogical modes of behavior."
"Why do you have to say things like that?" Jim asks, practically shouting. He's not sure why Spock has bothered him so much over the years, but he's always wanted to ask these questions. "It makes you sound like you think you're better than everyone."
"I don't think that," Spock says, looking scandalized. "I don't think it's possible to quantify human beings in that way. I just think that certain elements of the average person's lifestyle are overrated, or unnecessary, or in need of modifications. This makes me 'weird' to some, I suppose."
"Why do you talk like you're British or something?" Jim asks.
"My father grew up in London," Spock says with a frown.
"Oh. Well. That explains a lot," Jim says, as if Spock has just admitted that he's an alien after all. They turn onto the street where the Mason house is located, and Jim gives Spock a suspicious glance that's met by Spock's usual placid expression. For some reason, Jim's heart is racing, probably just because of the proximity of the most haunted place in town. He jogs ahead to catch up with the others, and he's glad when Spock follows, staying close.
Part II