Halloween.
The holiday that's name was originally the festival of Samhein, was a superstitious and religious day. The one that was started by the Celts about two thousand years ago. Back then, November first was celebrated as the new year, and Halloween or Samhein was a celebration the day prior. Well, it was more of a ritual really.
The Celts believed that on the transition of October thirty-first and November first, summer ended and it was the beginning of the new age. The age of dark and cold days, where there would be nothing to harvest, all the crops would die and people would struggle to keep their tummies full and bodies warm. And so this day was associated with nothing other than death.
October thirty-first was also believed to be the day on which night, the boundary between the world of the dead and the world of the living became blurred. People believed that on this specific day, ghosts of the dead returned back to earth and roamed their cities, their streets.
In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, the Celts believed that the presence of otherworldly spirits made it easier for the druids and Celtic priests to predict the future. To commemorate the event, druids built sacred bonfires where people gathered to burn crops and animals as a sacrifice to the Celtic deities.
That's when the costumes come to play. During the celebration, Celts wore costumes that consisted of animal skin and heads, a little brutal for my taste, and attempted to predict each other's future.
The celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies.
By meshing the beliefs of different European ethnic groups and the Indians, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge.
Slowly but surely, the superstitious and religious overtones of the original Halloween were lost. And that's how the initial religious holiday that came by the name of Samhein became more of a commercial holiday.
No one cared about druids, fortune-telling or the deities anymore. Heck, half if not more of the American population didn't even know where their favorite holiday originated from.
Instead of lighting bonfires, we grabbed our plastic little pumpkin buckets and walked door to door to ask for candy. I didn't mind the change at all though. I mean, could you imagine that the cute dog Francis your neighbor had would suddenly be used as your creepy neighbors' Halloween' costume? Bye-bye Francis.
Going trick-or-treating was definitely less gruesome and barbaric. I get it was a tradition and the times were different, but yuck. Besides, what if someone didn't have a dog but a fish for instance? What did they do with that poor thing?
Yeah, kids going around the neighborhood dressed as movie characters, animals or in one of those weird last-minute costumes most fathers seemed to adore, was definitely more pleasant. I often found myself wishing, I grew up here.
Going out with friends and getting tons of candy for free? A dream come true if you ask me. Even though I was quite worried about the safety of those children. What if that neighbor with that pedophile looking mustache told you to hop on into his white truck where he stored all the candy. Or what if Susan next door who hated your kid's guts for being 'too loud' decided to poison them. There are a lot of sickos out there.
Maybe pumpkin carving was the safer option...or maybe not. Imagine a ten-year-old with a big ass knife. I'd fucking lose my shit if I saw Chucky waving at me with his knife from across the street. Hell no.
But kids seemed to enjoy it anyways. Who cared about one finger right? You had nine more. So what you lost a thumb while trying to carve out a perfect triangle.
Or imagine this. You walk up the steps to someone's porch but that someone hates Halloween. You ring the doorbell and he opens and stabs you with a knife. And when you yell for help and blood is spraying out of your chest, people walking past the house point at you with their greasy little fingers and laugh at the 'amazing effects' and wonder why they haven't seen it at Target.
Yeah, I think it was a good thing I didn't grow up here. I'd probably ruin more than one childhood. Good thing these were just my thoughts and no one could see those. But hey, it doesn't stop there.
If you thought kids Halloween was fun ohoho, you're in for a surprise. Teenage Halloweens were the real shit.
Besides the annual alcohol poisoning that my fellow classmates and fratboys seemed to love so much, there was the undeniable presence of that one freak. You know, the one who wasn't invited, was about fifty years old and whos name was unknown by everyone? Yeah, that one.
Let's call him Freddy.
Freddy comes to a frat party with a videotape and breaks into the woman's bathroom hoping to get some videos for his spank bank. Poor Freddy chose the wrong day.
The assault of about ten girls who are occupying the miniature bathroom, that somehow gained the ability of Hermione's purse, containing an insane amount of stuff in the smallest space, definitely wasn't fun.
Our buddy Freddy walks out, if he even comes out alive that is, either looking like a dragqueen or the barbie doll you gave to your three-year-old cousin on her birthday, who's another birthday gift was a pack of crayons.
A minute of silence for Freddie.
After Freddie's attempt to at least steal used underwear he found hanging on the bedside lamp in one of the rooms, Freddie gets beat up by Tyler because those panties, if that pathetic excuse of an undergarment can even be called that, belongs to his hot girlfriend who was one hundred percent dressed as a sexy nurse.
Then, even worse than Freddie, you've got the word disgusting in its palpable form. The werewolf gang. Yup, you guessed it. Those douchy guys that are probably on the football team who decided that T-shirts were overrated.
I can't blame them though. With the number of hits to the head they get, I don't think my brain would work either.
And the smell of puke and sweat lingering everywhere you set foot in, wasn't even worth mentioning, you get the idea.
Halloween was great. But a bit overwhelming. You'd probably think I'd hate it from my thoughts on it, but I actually don't. It's one of the few holidays I enjoy. I just try to dodge every invitation to a frat party that comes my way.
The thing I loved about Halloween were the costumes. You could dress up as anyone in the entire world. No one had to know the person underneath it. For one night, you could be someone different. For just one night, you could become a completely different person.
If you were, for instance, scared of not being able to protect yourself, you could dress up as Superman. And for those few hours with your soft pad muscles, you'd feel invincible. Like you had the strength of Clark Kent. For one night, you'd become a superhero. Someone strong and independent.
For me, that was Harley Quinn. Yes, she might have been unhinged and just a tad bit insane. But she was free. She was herself. She didn't play the role of someone she wasn't. She was crazy, she had her flaws. Sure, her flaws were violence but that's not what I was going for.
My point is, Harley had more to her. She was giddy, girlish, sweet but she was also a fierce fighter. And no matter what her qualities were, she laid all her cards on the table. She came out and said, 'Hey, this is me. Either accept me or don't. I don't care which one you pick, just don't get in my way if you decide you don't like me. If you find me to be a freak'
She was confident. She didn't care about what others thought of her. She didn't play a role. She was just...her.
And that's who I wanted to be. If just for one night, even if no one understood the meaning behind it. I was me. I acted on my emotions, I did what my heart craved, even if my rational thinking mind told me it might not be the brightest idea.
What I desired to do, who I desired to be. That was me tonight. Lalisa Manoban in a Harley Quinn costume giving me strength. Knowing that even if I did something crazy, just because, no one would question it. If I acted somewhat differently, no one would question it. Because that was the role I took on tonight. The role of being myself.
After finishing up my make up, making sure I looked indisputably deranged and insane, I looked myself over in the floor mirror and sighed happily. I looked great!
My blonde hair was up in two, messily looking, pigtails which hair ends, were dyed with chalk dye. The left pigtail was now, instead of just blonde, blue and the right one, pink. Obviously, I didn't want to walk around like this all the time, that's why I settled for chalk dye since it wouldn't last too long. But I had to admit, it looked somewhat intriguing.
The dyed hair was complemented by the equally colored eyeshadow and a heart under each eye. A red-tinted lipstick adorned my full lips and a bright highlighter accentuated my cheekbones.
I decided to go for the Margot Robbie, Harley Quinn, instead of the old school comic one, just because I thought the one from the movies was much cooler. That's why instead of the black and red overalls I wore a torn t-shirt with the words 'Daddy's Lil Monster' imprinted on it.
My naturally long legs appeared even longer now that I was wearing the heeled black and white boots. The shorts and fishnets I wore, also did my legs quite the justice. I wasn't a narcissist, but I had to admit, my legs were a pretty attractive feature. And having them covered in fake tattoos all the while wearing fishnets. It didn't look slutty, but I guess you could say it was pretty alluring.
And last but definitely not least, the golden 'Puddin' choker. I also wore the cuff earrings, golden rings, spike cuffs, and red and blue gloves, but the choker was the cherry on top.
Throwing on my coat, I picked up the baseball bat that was covered in all sorts of words and doodles and made my way out of the room to wait for Jungkook in the living room area. Jennie, who dressed as a Cher from Clueless (but with brown hair), left a few minutes ago to go and meet up with the girls saying she'd be seeing me later in the evening. It was then that I realized, I forgot to tell my dearest boyfriend about the planned sleepover.
To be frank, I was slightly worried about his reaction. I was hoping he wouldn't mind much since we spent a lot of time together during these past two weeks. I even canceled plans with my friends to spend time with him so that hopefully accounted for something in his books.
Just as I was about to text him, about his whereabouts, hence it was already seven forty and he was supposed to be here at half-past seven, the sound of knocking against the wood of the dorm room door filled the now, empty room that was only occupied by me. Standing up, I fiercely walked to the door and swung it open without a second thought. Even if it was some freak, which was highly unlikely, he should brace himself because I had a wooden baseball bat in my hand and I wasn't afraid to use it in case of emergency.
But as expected, using the sports equipment that I was oh so ready to use for contingent violence, wasn't needed as I came face to face with a wide, mouth eating grin..quite literally. With his hand in front of his mouth, where the grin was drawn, I was greeted by a green slicked back haired Jungkook.
"Hi!" he greeted with a smile as soon as he removed the hand from the front of his face.
I looked him up and down, making sure he was indeed dressed as the Joker, matching my Harley costume. And indeed he was.
His muscular upper body was covered in fake tattoos and gold chains hanging from his neck. The only article of clothing that somewhat covered his bare chest was the long purple coat that reached all the way to under his knees.
He was wearing blue tracksuit pants with some text I couldn't read on the right leg and some blue flip flops since Joker was meant to be barefoot while wearing this fit.
And like I had my bat, he was holding a purple cane in his right hand.
He even put on red lipstick and black eye make-up.
In my humble opinion, the Suicide Squad Joker was the worst Joker but his costume looked great and it matched mine perfectly, not that we agreed on matching costumes.
"I thought since you said you'd be Harley, I'd dress as Joker? You know, cause they were a couple...and we are a couple. You don't mind, do you?" he asked, his tone laced with insecurity. It was cute how he always strode to make me happy and make sure he wasn't overstepping in any way. He was being quite cautious nowadays and it made me happy because it showed he cared about us too.
Stepping on my tippy toes, I planted a soft kiss to his lips, replacing the frown on his face with a wide smile, "Hey," I greeted as we pulled away, "don't worry about it, we're a couple after all and besides, you look amazing...just," I placed my hand on his toned stomach, "don't let anyone see these,".
"Don't worry babe, they might see, but no one other than you, is allowed to touch." he winked and I laughed at how silly we were being, "Ready to go?"
I nodded my head rather eagerly, but my excited smile was soon replaced with a frown when I remembered that I still had something to tell him, "Actually, why don't we come inside for a minute. I have to tell you something." tugging on the sleeve of his coat I pulled him inside of the apartment and closed the door behind him.
He looked at me expectantly and I looked to the ground, feeling somewhat guilty for not telling him sooner. I felt the familiar nervous tingles in my stomach as I looked up meeting his questioning gaze.
It wasn't anything big, why I was I making it out to be something it wasn't. I was acting as if I was going to tell him I did something horrible. Jeez, it was just a sleepover with the girls. I shouldn't be this nervous about telling him, should I? He never did anything that should make me feel this way. It's not like he'd do anything...would he?
Scratching the back of my neck awkwardly I walked closer towards him until I was standing less than three feet away from him. I took his hand in mine and thought for a moment on how I should formulate the next words.
Oh, Jesus what is there to even think about, it's a fucking sleepover, it's not like you're going to cheat on him.
"I forgot to tell you," I said and bit down on my bottom lip, sucking it inside my mouth, "I and the girls...we thought we'd have a sleepover since I wouldn't be joining them at the haunted house. Is that alright with you? I mean, I'd still be with you as long as you'd want me to-"
"I thought you'd spend the night at my place and we'd get to watch some horror movies together," disappointment filled his voice and I felt guilty for causing the sadness to his voice, it was my fault, I should've talked to him about it sooner.
"We spent a lot of time together in the past week and I slept over at your place too. I was supposed to go out to the haunted house with them but-"
"Oh so I'm the bad guy?" he cut me off and freed his hand from my hold.
"What? No! I didn't say that I just-"
"You just what? God Lisa, I thought you liked spending time with me. Sorry for making you spend time with your boyfriend, must be really hard on you," he scoffed and ran his hand through his green hair, messing up the slicked-back look a little, not that he cared much at the moment.
He spun around on his heal and walked towards the kitchen, placing his hands on the table, resting the weight of his body on it. I walked towards him and placed a hand on his shoulder in hopes that the touch would calm him down. Thankfully he didn't shrug it off, but he didn't respond to my touch either. Making me feel even worse than before. I didn't want him to think he was holding me back, that I didn't want to be with him.
"I'm sorry, I'll just text Jennie to tell the girls that I won't be joining them and we can spend the night together okay?" I asked gently and rubbed his back soothingly.
"No, I'm sorry," he said suddenly and turned around with a sad look in his eyes, taking both my hands between his bigger ones, "don't do that. Have fun with your friends. I'm not important."
"Yes, you are-"
"It's okay Lisa, you already had to cancel plans because of me once. I wouldn't want you to that for me again." he kissed the back of my hands and smiled sadly, "C'mon let's go. I want to be with you as much as possible tonight."
I didn't have the energy to fight him on it anymore, so I just nodded and let him drag me out of the dorm. I felt so conscience-stricken about what I've done or more like didn't do. If I told him earlier, things might have been different. We would've talked about it and come to a conclusion together just like couples do. Make decisions together. But I was selfish and didn't say anything until the last moment.
Sure, I forgot about it, it's not like I did it on purpose, but still. It hurt him and I was responsible for that. It's not how he said though. It's not like I don't want to spend time with him, it's just, me, Jisoo, Jennie and Rosie talked about it a while back. About going to the haunted house together. And I bailed on them. But at least I could spend the night with them.
But now, I made Jungkook upset and that wasn't good. I felt bad about it. Did I do the wrong thing? Should I just text them and tell them I had to cancel? Even though I had these thoughts circling my mind, I won't do it. What's done is done and maybe he needs some time to himself too. At least he'll spend some time with the boys. He was neglecting them recently.
We walked hand in hand through the school campus, not caring about the looks we were receiving from the passer-byes who were no doubt ogling Jungkooks bare chest like some hormonal teenagers. One would think that at their age they'd be past that point, but it seems they still start drooling whenever they see something they like. They could tone down on the gawking though, seeing as I, his girlfriend was right next to him.
The usually quiet, serene, clean school grounds that reveled in colors of green and now, during autumn, occasional orange and red were now filled screams of joy, laughter, beer cans and cups everywhere. Students that were usually dressed in their casual clothes such as leather jackets, hoodies or lettermen were now in costumes that would be on any other day considered ridiculous. Seeing nineteen-year-old boys running around in spiderman spandex would truly be preposterous.
As we were nearing the house, I took in the decorations. It looked like someone has tried to make it as scary as possible but only for it to end up in a failure consisting of fake cobwebs everywhere you laid your eyes on, and some poorly drawn skeletons. They should've asked art majors for help because it looked absurd. But hey, it was all supposed to be fun and make us laugh, not give us PTSD.
I soon revoked this thought as I winced at the scream that has reached my hearing, coming from the shack in front of me. Okay, maybe it was meant to make you shit your pants. I mean, I personally wasn't a scaredy-cat, but I had to admit, being locked in an unknown space was quite scary in itself. People jumping at you dressed as serial killers, monsters, your worst nightmares even definitely weren't helping the situation. Okay, so maybe I was scared a little, but just a tiny little bit.
"Scared?" Jungkook quipped with a teasing smile on his face, as we stood in front of the facility which was supposed to bring us to our knees in fear. His brown eyes were sparkling in mischief and I couldn't help but wonder if he was up to no good.
"What? No, I'm fine," scoffing, I put on the best confident smile I could muster. So much for being myself huh. I or not though, I wasn't about to show anyone I was scared of some stupid annual Halloween attraction. No way.
We stood in the line that was fortunately no too long, waiting for it to get shorter and after solid ten minutes there were only eight people in front of us and they let in always a group of ten so now we just had to wait for the signal that the previous group was out. I was nervous.
The all familiar tingle of nervousness was already present in my stomach and I twiddled my fingers in anticipation, all while trying to look badass and unfazed. Bitch please, I ain't getting scared by anything and anyone, I have a bat.
"Any sorts of weapons shall be left outside and returned once you're out of the house. We don't want any injuries like last year alright?" the person in charge called, giving me a pointy look and motioned towards the empty, awaiting box.
Oh hell no! Nuh-uh, I'm out.
I looked at Jungkook in distress and he sneaked his arm around my waist protectively, "Don't worry, I'll protect you, babe," he said with a wink and pushed my body forward as the people in front of us started entering. I was so nervous, I didn't even notice it was our turn already and suddenly standing outside for another ten minutes or so didn't sound so bad.
Unfortunately, all chances of escape were doomed as soon as the heavy door closed behind us and the locking sound was heard. Well, I still had one chance of escaping this hell hole, getting through it and I wasn't particularly in love with that idea. But I didn't have any other choice. This was it. No way back just straight ahead.
After my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I took in my surroundings. In front of me was an old-looking decaying staircase that led to the second floor of the house. Honestly, I had no idea what idiot would ever go there since no way in hell would we be escaping through the second floor, I mean, how would we even get back down?
To my left was an empty, pretty peaceful and not scary hallway and to my right was again a hallway, but this one had its wallpaper all riped with fake blood all over it. Guess whos going to the left, bye suckers!
As I was about to pull on Jungkook's arm towards the safest looking hallway, he looked at me with the same mischief from earlier and pulled me towards the staircase instead. I shook my head vigorously, trying to convey to him that there was no chance I'd go upstairs where I had no idea what would happen. Instead of a warm reassuring smile and letting me drag him to where I thought we'd be okay, he pulled on my hand harder pulling me upstairs.
The rest of the group has already disbanded and everyone went their separate ways and of course, Jungkook and I were the only ones going upstairs. Before we entered the house we were told by the instructor that all ways led outside but they were all different kinds of scary, three levels to be exact; normal, hard and extreme. Hopefully, the one with the ripped out wallpapers and fake blood was extreme because I only had one pair of underwear with me and that was the one I was currently wearing.
The wooden staircase screeched under the pressure of our combined weight, as our feet kept pressing on it and the sound alone made me feel very unsafe. Just as I was about to heave a sigh of relief at the last step, I screamed as a piece of a wall popped out with a skeleton jumping on to me, "Mother of God, fuck!" I swore as I threw the plastic over the railing and glared at the laughing boy whose hand was extended for me to take.
I swat his hand away and walked right past him, taking the middle route and walked forward leaving Jungkook behind. That was only for a little while though because I soon found myself back where I was before, walking right behind him as he approached the door at the end of the hall, "Come in after I tell you to, wouldn't want you getting a heart attack," he winked and I stuck out my tongue in response, What a showoff.
Slowly but surely, he opened the door, taking a peek into the poorly litted room. He took a step inside, looking around the room that looked like some sort of a study. I could see a table that was covered with dust looking fairly old, a small leather couch in the corner, lined with two stands with face sculpture statues. There were no windows in the room that would be nailed shut like on the first floor, the only thing decorating the walls were some old-looking paintings with creepy old dudes on them.
Jungkook turned around, giving me a small smile and motioning for me to come inside. As soon as my foot touched the doorstep though, the door shut itself forcefully with the clicking sound of the lock. Panicking I grabbed the doorknob, trying to twist it but to no avail. I felt my anxiety creeping up on me and I started to get really scared being on my own.
I raised my fists up and started banging against the wooden door that I only now noticed, had scratches on it, "Jungkook? This is not funny, open the damn door!"
And finally I heard his voice from the other end of the door, "I didn't do this and I can't open it either, it's locked! I'm sorry to say this but I'm afraid you'll have to find another way out. There was a secret door in the room that just opened so I'll just go through there!"
"What?! No! You can't leave me here alone to die!"
"Relax, you won't die. Besides, there's nothing I can do. I promise I'll find you as soon as I can okay? Just relax, whenever you get scared just think of me, that I'm right next to you. It's just a game don't worry okay? Just go back the way you came from and take another route." he called and I saw no point in arguing, we had no other options seeing as the door wouldn't budge.
Damn it, I thought, this is exactly what they wanted. For us to split up. If we were still a group of ten, we'd be fine but we decided not to cooperate.
"Okay..." I said a little quieter this time around and spun on my heel to walk back to where I came from. As soon as my back was completely turned to the door though and I lifted my gaze up, a scream like no other left my mouth.
In front of me was standing a tall figure with a wicked smile on their wicked little asshole face, with what I assumed to be a plastic knife pointing straight at me. My body was taken over by fear and self-perseverance so I gathered all my courage, balling my hand into a fist and punched the little shit straight into his face.
His plastic knife fell to the ground as his hands shot up towards his, now what I assumed and in all honesty hoped for, broken nose.
"You are so fucking lucky I don't have my bat asshole!" I screamed in anger and walked or rather stomped past whoever it was angrily, Fucking assholes.
I neared the staircase again, where I had to pick another route to thread and I had no idea which one to pick. Maybe I shouldn't pick either of them and just walk downstairs and chose the peaceful hallway as I initially intended to. Either way though, I wasn't scared anymore. After seeing that poor guy with his hands clutching his nose after the powerful blow I delivered, I realized it wasn't all that scary. They were just a bunch of people trying to scare others and I was a person with hands that I knew how to use, to save myself and punch people if necessary. Really, it wasn't my fault.
"Fuck!" I screamed as I rounded the corner, deciding to go to the right, "I could've punched you damn it!" I let my fist fall to my side as I realized I wasn't in any danger.
Sighing in relief I looked over the person standing in front of me, the mix of the color green and red filled my vision.
Green strapless fitted mini bodycon dress with ivy leaves attached to the neckline and around the side of her neck with red hair swayed to the other side were all I could see. I looked the person up and down, she looked amazing, absolutely beautiful.
Gladiator string white high heels, a long back train, and a golden forearm cuff. She looked stunning.
My eyes shot up, to meet the questioning look of the other female and my mouth fell agape as her name, so similar to the beautiful flower, escaped past my lips like a recitation, "Rosie?"
Brown orbs, accentuated by the faint green eye make-up bore into mine, her gaze equally as intense as I intended mine to be, "Lisa,"