Taking Flight - Halloween
One Year After Double-Edged War

SPOILERS ALERT - The events of this short story takes place after Double-Edged War: Taking Flight

Bill and Mary’s farmhouse was decorated for Halloween. The windows were each covered in black muslin curtains to honor the dead, a dozen votive candles spaced evenly along the porch railings. They even had several small soul cakes—cupcake sized and wrapped in plastic—for anyone participating in souling this year. It was a small but growing practice, thanks to the Adventists. Bill didn’t participate but Mary had told Kaelin last week that she was planning to join the local chapter on their walk this year, just to see what it was about. She was leaving shortly after Kaelin and the kids did.

Kaelin finished straightening Sam’s brand new black suit, making sure his dark tie laid straight, then turned to Kiana. She was fidgeting with the lace hem of her black dress, teeth digging into her lower lip.

“What’s the matter, honey? Is your dress too big?” She’d gained some weight in the past year that she’d lived with Bill and Mary but was still thinner than Kaelin liked. Mary said she’d been having nightmares most nights, and the counselling hadn’t helped yet.

Her voice, though, was stronger than it used to be when she answered, “We should be wearing costumes.”

“Remember what Mary said?” Kaelin reminded her. “It’s insensitive.”

“No better than Black face!” Sam piped up. “That’s what Bill said.”

Kiana sighed. “What about just my kitty headband?”

“Not this time.” Kaelin fixed one of her curls. “Now go say goodbye to Bill and Mary. Victor is waiting for us outside.”

Sam took off running, Kiana following at a more hesitant pace. Kaelin waited by the door. His own suit was uncomfortable, but not for the reasons he’d expect. It fit almost perfectly. He hadn’t realized that Mary had paid enough attention to him over the past year to guess his size. He’d shown up in a pair of dark trousers and a black button-down he’d snagged from the back of Endymion’s closet, planning to make do. Mary had surprised him with the suit, insisting he take it.

“Ready?” he asks.

“Ready!” Sam yells.

“I guess…” Kiana agrees, shifting her weight. Her black flats creak against the floor. “But…we really can’t wear a costume? Even just a little one?”

Kaelin bit back his irritation. She’d asked a dozen times already. “No, sweetheart. Victor’s waiting, anyway. No time to change.” Kaelin opened the front door and ushered the kids onto the front porch.

Victor was dressed in his usual dark blue uniform, leaning against the car where Kaelin left him. He raised his brow at their outfit. “Who died?”

Kaelin faltered. “Um…lots of people, I guess. We normally pick a random cemetery and lay flowers. So we’re not missing out on anything too important.” There were always too many graves, not enough mourners.

“Oh, hang on. Kiana, Sam, go get in the car, I’ll be right there.” Kaelin nudged them toward the stairs, then went back inside.

Mary was in the kitchen, twisting the lid of her thermos tight. “Mary?” he said, voice hesitant at bothering her.

She turned with a motherly smile. “Yes, Kaelin?”

“Um…I forgot to grab flowers. Can I…” he waved toward the back door.

“Oh, shoot, I knew I was forgetting something! I picked some fresh for you this morning. I put them in the fridge, let me grab them.” She pulled out three bouquets of sunflowers. “I hope you don’t mind. They were my mother’s favorite, it’s become a bit of a tradition.”

“No, of course not. I don’t mind at all.” Usually, he and the kids picked whatever weeds they could find that even resembled wildflowers and made do with that. The usual guilt welled up inside him, but he stamped it down. He did the best he could then; he couldn’t begrudge Bill and Mary for being able to provide better for the kids now. “Thank you,” he added.

“Of course. You kids have fun. You still planning to bring them back tomorrow?”

“Yes, if that’s okay. I don’t know how late Endymion will want to stay out, I don’t want them to be tired.”

“Still okay, I know you’ll take care of them. Call if you need anything, though.”

Kaelin wouldn’t but he agreed anyway, then carried the three bouquets out to the car. He opened the back door and passed one to each of the kids. Then, he climbed into the passenger seat and set his carefully into by his feet.

“I texted Endymion. I’m just taking you straight to the apartment,” Victor said. He paused, giving Kaelin an odd look. “You’re sure you’re ready? You don’t need to change?”

“Why?” Kaelin frowned. “Is there something wrong with the way we’re dressed?” These were nicer clothes than anything they’d ever owned before. He’d never gotten the impression that Aldis would be snobby enough to turn them away based on their clothing.

“No…If you guys are happy, then we’re set.” Victor glanced into the backseat, probably to double check that the kids were buckled, since Sam had a habit of forgetting and Kiana hated the feeling of the strap, so she’d sometimes see if she could get away without it, then pulled out onto the road.

The drive back to the apartment was familiar after so many times of driving it. At the border, however, Victor’s phone dinged. Victor glanced at the phone, grinned, then shook his head. “Nevermind. We’re going straight to the palace. Endymion will meet us there.” He tapped out something on his phone, tossed it back to the center console, then switched lanes.

“Let me guess. He’s taking longer to get ready then he planned?” After all, Kealin thought, Endymion absolutely hated the “monkey suits” and also hated having a single hair out of place. The combination could mean hours of stalling and even more time re-gelling his hair.

“Something like that.”

***

​

The exterior of the palace was extensively decorated with blue-and-gold string lights that lit the yard almost bright as day. He could hear the humming electricity from inside the car. Pumpkins and gourds lined the pathway, some carved into strange faces, some lit by flickering candles. It looked like something out of an old movie.

“Look! Look, that one’s a ghost!” Sam yelled, pointing at one of the carvings.

Kaelin felt his stomach twist. There was something…sacrilegious…about seeing the spirit carved into the jack-o’-lantern. Halloween may have been a commercial holiday in the past, all about candy and pranks or so the TV shows implied, but even Mrs. Fowler hadn’t dared to risk insulting the spirits.

He supposed that vampires didn’t need to fear death the way humans did.

“Ready?” He asked, feigning an excitement he didn’t quite feel. “I bet Endymion’s waiting for us!” Or not, depending on how long it was taking him to finish doing his hair.

Kaelin got the kids out of the car and started for the door. Instead of a door person, there was an old-looking sign that said, “Enter…if you dare.”

“Well that’s not creepy at all,” Kaelin muttered, but decided he did dare. Mostly, because the sooner he found Endymion, the better.

He walked into a nightmare.

Large webs stretched from corner to corner, spiders the size of his palm crawling from strand to strand, threatening to drop on his head at any moment. Smoke that smelled oddly chemically writhed along the floor like fog. Up ahead, he heard screaming—electronic, like a soundtrack.

Victor bypassed them into the hallway, then paused when they didn’t follow. He turned to look at them, lifting a brow again. “The party’s this way.”

"Um…I thought we were going to be going to like…Sunday service.”

“Well…it’s Tuesday,” Victor said slowly, like he was talking to an idiot.

“Yeah, I know. Sunday service is like…you know what. Never mind. Do you know if Endymion is here yet?” Kaelin decided he didn’t want to explain human religion to Victor at the moment.

“I believe so. I think I saw his car outside.”

“Great. So now all I have to do is find him,” Kaelin said, relieved.

“I imagine that will be easier than finding Waldo.”

“Who the hell is Waldo? Actually, I don’t care. Let’s just find Dimmy.”

Victor laughed, then waved a hand behind him. “Just follow the screams.”

Kaelin rolled his eyes, but inwardly, nerves twisted his stomach. This looked nothing like the near-silent Obon his first foster family had done, where they’d walk to the cemetery with lanterns and burn incense on the grave of their lost daughter, nor was it the brightly colored Feast of All Souls that his second had celebrated. Mrs. Fowler hadn’t done anything but drink in silence, though she’d not stopped him from taking the kids to the cemetery down the road to lay flowers, a ritual he’d picked up at either his fourth or fifth home, he couldn’t remember.

Victor led them to the ballroom. It had been awhile since Kaelin had seen it, but it definitely hadn’t looked like this that last time. Decorations were just as over the top as in the hallway, except the smoke in here smelled more real, probably from the crackling fire he hard outside in the courtyard. Everywhere he looked were monsters. Not like…real ones, but ones from the movies. People dressed up like werewolves and ghosts and demons and angels.

“See?” Kiana piped up, arms crossed. “I told you we should have wore costumes.”

When Kaelin found Endymion, he was going to kill him.

The question was…what on earth was Endymion dressed as?

Kaelin scanned the crowd before realizing that Victor was right…Endymion was far too easy to spot. As soon as Kaelin stared into the corner by the speaker, he was nearly blinded by the strobe lights reflecting off of every inch of Endymion’s sparkly skin.

“HE’S EDWARD!” Kiana screamed, the loudest he’d ever heard her, and she took off at full spring.

“Shit,” Kaelin cursed, running after, tugging Sam along beside him. He knew Aldis wouldn’t have invited the kids anywhere that they’d be in danger but still. Little human running through a crowd of vampires? Not the best idea. At least with Kaelin’s enhanced speed, he caught up easily, though he couldn’t go too fast without accidentally hurting Sam.

Kaelin didn’t anticipate Kiana flinging herself at Endymion without warning so Kaelin wasn’t prepared to stop her. Instead, he watched on as Endymion knelt to catch her, cringing at the amount of glitter that transferred onto her pretty black dress.

Kaelin thought from afar—it was hard to tell, the way the light shone off him like a disco ball—that he was wearing an overly sparkly shirt. From here, it was clear that he was not wearing a shirt at all. Instead, every inch of exposed skin was covered in a thick layer of glitter in every shade of the rainbow.

No wonder Victor made him meet us at the palace. No way in hell would he have let Endymion in his car like this.

Kaelin was so distracted by Endymion’s costume—if it could be called that—it took him several seconds to notice Aldis and Ceryn beside him, dressed in matching costumes of a king and a queen. A little on the nose, in Kaelin’s opinion, a thought which crossed his mind before he could stop it. Either Aldis didn’t hear or didn’t care, because he didn’t react.

“Kiana!” Endymion wrapped his arms around her, keeping her steady. “What are you wearing?”

“Kaelin said we weren’t allowed to wear costumes. It’s no better than Black face,” She explained, voice serious.

Kaelin cringed and covered his eyes. “Technically, Bill said that. I said it was inappropriate.” If he’d known that everyone else would be in costumes, though… “How much glitter do you have on, anyway? It’s hurting my eyes!” Normally, Kaelin enjoyed staring at shirtless Endymion. How dare he ruin it for him?

He uncovered his eyes again in time to see Endymion, still holding Kiana, push to his feet. “I only used three of the six jars of Unicorn Snot,” Endymion answered, then nodded at Sam.

“Hey, kiddo.”

“Is that a werewolf? I mean, a real werewolf?” Sam said instead of returning the greeting, staring wide-eyed at a large, muscle-bound man near what Kaelin imagined was a bowl of punch. But…who knew.

From here, Kaelin couldn’t tell. He’d mostly been around vampires, and a few dragons, but he wasn’t great at differentiating scents yet.

“Yeah,” Aldis answered. “That’s one of Koen’s guards.”

Which meant as little to Sam as it did to Kaelin, since he had no idea who Koen was, but he didn’t feel the need to socialize with him anyway. Not to be rude or anything, he just wasn’t sure how good the wolves’ noses were, and whether his pills were strong enough to prevent them from catching his scent. He still hoped that anyone who thought he smelled like a vampire would assume it was because of his relationship with Endymion.

“Do you think he’d shift and let me ride him?” Sam asked, bouncing on his toes.

“No!” Kaelin blurted. “You are absolutely not allowed to ask him that!” The last thing they needed was to accidentally insult someone from another kingdom. He felt like they still hadn’t recovered fully from the incident with Liri.

“Butt nuggets,” Sam cursed, shoulders sagging. “When am I ever going to get another opportunity like this?”

“It’s alright, Sam,” Aldis said, patting his head. “Want to go grab something to eat instead?”

“Do they have liver? And offal? I heard werewolves eat liver and offal.” Sam perked up way more than he should at the thought of eating whatever that was.

“There is liver over there for sure,” Aldis answered, taking Sam’s hand and heading instead toward the punch bowl. Kaelin decided Aldis probably knew what he was doing. Maybe.

Kiana scrunched her nose. “I am not eating that. I’m a vegetablarian.”

“Vegetarian,” Kaelin corrected, ruffling her hair. “I’m sure they have lots of other choices besides liver.” He leaned in and faux whispered, “I’m not eating liver either.”

“No, of course not. You only eat Endymion now.” Kiana snickered.

Which was so not true. He also ate Life Enders and sometimes the bagged blood when Endymion made him. And also, how embarrassing? When Kiana was around, sometimes he also ate marshmallows and chocolate and gummy bears.

“Stop telling all my secrets, you little pest,” Kaelin teased.

“I’m not! I didn’t tell anyone about how you fell into the goat poop last month! I kept it a super duper secret, just like I promised!” Kiana grinned, proud of herself even as she inadvertently betrayed it now.

“Okay,” Ceryn said with a laugh, “How about I take you to find something that isn’t liver?” She stretched her hands out for Kiana.

Kiana hesitated but only for a moment. Kaelin knew that as much as she preferred to be with Endymion and Kaelin, she loved Ceryn like an older sister. “Promise that I won’t have to eat goat, either? They are so cute and fluffy, and even when they poop, they look like they are smiling.”

Living on a farm was good for her. She was bonding with all the animals. Unfortunately, it didn’t make it easier for her to put on weight, since she now considered all animals to be her best friends and therefore, inedible.

Sam would eat a full carnivore diet if they didn’t blend up some green things and hide them in his nuggets occasionally.

“No goat. I saw a veggie pizza and a whole table full of nothing but desserts. Let’s go check out that table first,” Ceryn bribed.

Kaelin bit back his instinctive warning to not feed her too much sugar and turned to glare at Endymion instead, though it was mostly feigned. “Costumes, Dimmy? Couldn’t give me a head’s up? Were you afraid we’d outshine you?” Not possible, considering the amount of glitter he was coated in. Kaelin reached out and ran his finger down Endymion’s bare(ish) chest, surprised when it came away mostly clean. Oh that was going to be a bitch to get off later.

“It’s Edward. You know, like from—” Endymion started to say.

“Twilight, yeah, I get it,” Kaelin interrupted. “If you’d warned me, I would have warn a baseball cap.”

“I asked if you guys needed outfits. You said Bill and Mary got stuff,” Endymion answered.

“I mean, they did. Like…mourning outfits. For Sunday service kind of thing…” Kaelin self-consciously ran his hand down the front of his suit.

“It’s Tuesday,” Endymion said, sounding just as confused as Victor had. “Why would you go to Sunday service on Tuesday?

“You don’t, it’s just what it’s called. You know, go to church, light some candles, put flowers on the graves?” Which reminded him that they’d left the sunflowers in Victor’s car. Oops?

He supposed they didn’t need them anyway.

“So…a funeral?” Endymion raised his eyebrow. “Why do you attend funerals on All Hallows Eve? Don’t you dress up and dance around the fire? Call down the spirits?”

“Because it’s considered speciest to dress up like real supernatural creatures and run around making fun of them. Besides, most of humanity is trying to ward spirits away, not bring them closer. Light candles to light their path to heaven, leave food and gifts to appease them. That kind of thing.” Kaelin suspected, looking around, that the supernaturals were not nearly as offended by the costumes as humans believed them to be.

“The spirits I’ve met don’t eat real food.”

“I think it’s more the thought that counts. But it’s not like the majority of humans can actually see spirits. I think most of us—them—us? Don’t really believe in them anyway, but since we didn’t believe in vampires a decade ago either…” Kaelin reached out and shoved Endymion’s shoulder. “Feel pretty real to me, though…”

Endymion laughed, dragging Kaelin under his arm. Kaelin couldn’t help melting into his side, despite the glitter that was sure to be transferring to his suit. “It seems like a waste of food from a species that complains about food shortages.”

“The thought of being eaten by an angry spirit is enough to outweigh a bit of hunger pangs. Besides, it’s not like most of us weren’t used to being hungry anyway.” Speaking of, Kaelin felt his stomach growl. He probably should have eaten before grabbing the kids but he’d gotten distracted adding the last few finishing touches onto the painting he was working on. Endymion had gotten him new paints last week and he’d been obsessed with them ever since.

Kaelin wrapped his hand around Endymion’s waist, slipping his hand just under the waistband of Endymion’s pants, then stilled. “Endymion?”

“Mmhm?” Endymion hummed a response.

“How far down does this glitter go?” And why did he have a bad feeling about the answer?

“You have to stay in character.” Endymion answered. “Edward glittered all over.”

That was the answer Kaelin was afraid of.

***

Later, Kaelin carried a sleeping Sam—apparently, werewolf rides were exhausting—into the apartment, while Endymion carried a still wide-awake Kiana. She was bouncing on his hip and giggling, her cheeks pink. She was wearing Victor’s large fluffy black cat ears—so big, they dwarfed her head. She looked like she was going to pass out the second she stopped moving.

Kaelin originally had planned on making the kids shower before bed—they all smelled like campfire and smoke. Instead, he carried Sam right to bed. There was a smear of silver sparkles on the comforter, but not enough that he thought that it would disturb the boy’s sleep.

He tucked him in as Endymion sat Kiana down by the door. “Go brush your teeth,” he told her. Kaelin turned in time to see Endymion freeing her of the ears, dangling them around the bedpost so she can find them in the morning.

Kiana went to, presumably, protest but was interrupted by a wide yawn. “Can I stay up a little longer?” She asked when it finished.

“No,” Kaelin answered before Endymion could tell her she could—he always caved. “Go clean your teeth, sweetheart. I saw Ceryn sneaking you extra candy.”

Kiana’s shoulders slumped but she must have known she wouldn’t have gotten away with it anyway because she went into the bathroom without further protest. He loved that she felt comfortable enough to argue with them now. He just wished it didn’t always happen at bedtime.

Kaelin went to unsnap his suit jacket but froze when he saw Endymion toe off his shoes and socks. Even his feet were covered with glitter. Endymion shoved his shoes under the bed and went to sit.

“Nuh uh! Nope. I am not waking up to glitter everywhere,” Kaelin hurried to stop him. “You can hop your sparkly butt into the shower.”

“But I’m too tired, ‘Dad’,” Endymion whined.

“You should have thought about that before you decided to glitter your ass crack,” Kaelin answered, struggling to hold back his smile. “Kiana has to brush her teeth, you have to brush…everything.” Kaelin waved his hand in a big circle in Endymion’s direction.

“Fine,” Endymion sighed. “Want to come scrub my back?”

“Only because otherwise, I know you won’t bother.” Kaelin agreed. He loved showering with Endymion, but not when the kids were here. Something about them being in the next room made him self-conscious. He didn’t know how parents ever ended up with a second child.

Before they could do more than grin at each other, Kiana came racing into the bedroom, her whole face and hands stained with iridescent, slimy goop. “I think a unicorn sneezed in our bathroom! It’s amazing!”

Kaelin glared at Endymion, lips twitching. “Never mind. Looks like you have to give her a bath first, then you can shower. I think I’m going to bed.”

“Fine,” Endymion agreed, scooping Kiana up and carrying her to the bathroom. “But I’m rubbing my not scrubbed back ALL over you once I get done.”

“I’m going to make you eat whatever glitter ends up on me. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Kaelin climbed into the second bed with Sam. “Better yet, glitter monsters can sleep over there.”

“Ok,” Endymion nodded, then whispered loud enough Kaelin could still hear him, “I think glitter monsters should attack the boring people before we sleep.”

“I heard that,” Kaelin called back, but smiled as he closed his eyes.

There were worse things than a little bit of glitter.

If you want to see Endymion's side of this night. Click Here!

For more Kaelin and Endymion -

Check out Double-Edged War here.