No Surrender | Eddie Munson

Chapter Fifteen: Trick or Treat, Freak

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: TRICK OR TREAT, FREAK

I WAS MADE FOR LOVING YOU — KISS

I was made for lovin' you, baby
You were made for lovin' me
And I can't get enough of you, baby
Can you get enough of me?

——————

"Boo."

Barely awake, I groan and roll over, only to come face to face with a small figure shrouded in a white sheet.

Chuckling, I reach out to pat its head. "Good morning, my little poltergeist."

I hear a muffled 'Good morning' as I take my pills and haul myself out of bed, then a thud. "Ow."

Eleven is stood right in front of the doorframe, her little hands struggling to free themselves from under the sheet so that she can massage her bumped forehead. I'm still only half dressed — a blue pyjama shirt over jeans, the fabric messily bunched around the waistline. I produce a pair of scissors from the sewing kit on my desk and sleepily mumble, "Come here."

There are a few more thuds while she tries to follow the sound of my voice. Blinking rapidly to clear my vision, I gently pull her towards the bed and sit her down beside me. She utters a shy complaint when I pull her costume away. Then, quieting when she sees what I am doing, the girl patiently waits for me to cut two ovals out.

Brown eyes gaze up at me through the holes once the sheet is back over her. "Thank you, Beth."

"No problem. Now go scare Hopper, okay?"

It isn't long before a sharp cry sounds throughout the cabin, "Oh, Jesus!"

Stumbling into the kitchen, I sink into my seat. A half-empty cup of coffee waits at Hopper's place and I stare longingly at it, still stuck with the bitter aftertaste of my medication.

"Ghost," Eleven says.

Grunting, he starts to dish out some fried toast. "Yeah, I see that."

"Halloween."

"Sure is," he replies with a weak attempt at enthusiasm. "But right now, it's breakfast, okay? Come on, let's eat."

"They wouldn't see me."

He sets the plates down with a frown. "Who wouldn't see you?"

"The bad men."

"What are you talking about?" I try to open the Tupperware containing my breakfast but Hopper is quick to slap my hands away with a quiet reminder of, "Half an hour."

Her next words come out as slow and stunted, although perfectly rehearsed, "Trick or treat."

Glancing to me in frustration, he huffs. "You told her about that? You wanna go trick-or-treating?" He doesn't even sound angry. Just tired. Bizarrely, it irritates me. "You know the rules."

"Yes. Yes. But they wouldn't see me. They wouldn't—"

Already, he stands again, stooped to her level with a gentle but firm grip on her shoulders. "I don't care. I don't care, all right? You go out there, ghost or not, it's a risk. We don't take risks. All right? They're stupid, and..."

We know the words well by this point but that doesn't stop the irritability in her tone, "We're not stupid!"

Feeling his eyes on me, I mutter the response.

"Exactly. Now, you take that off, sit down and eat. Your food's getting cold."

I sip on my glass of water, my head propped up on one elbow. There are still another ten minutes or so before I need to leave. Barely a second passes before I hear his weary sigh. "All right, look... how about I get off early tonight, and I buy us a bunch of candy and we can sit around and get fat, and we watch a scary movie together? How's that for a compromise?"