eerieindiana | Eerie, Indiana fanfiction: Sentinel

Written for Day 20 of the

31daysoffandom October challenge. The prompt I used for this one was "samhain". Crossover with, unsurprisingly, Trick 'r Treat.

Harley stood on tiptoe and stared out through the grimy window pane at the night time scene in front of him. Jack-o-lanterns, roughly hewn with crooked grins and lopsided eye holes, glowed with a soft golden light along the cracked and weedy asphalt of the path that lead to the front door. The dark glass reflected his own freckled face and the sad, worn living room behind him. A rectangle of bright yellow light appeared in the shadowy image, as Simon emerged from the kitchen balancing two chipped mugs on a Thomas the Tank Engine lap tray.

“Hey,” said Simon, carefully lowering the tray to the stained end table in front of the sagging sofa. “You want a sandwich? I found a tin of corned beef at the back of the cupboard, I could make cheese and beef hash, if you want.”

Harley made a non-committal noise, turning his attention to the tray. Hot chocolate, the cheap, sugary kind that Grandma’s Kitchen gave away as free samples because nobody ever bought it. One of the mugs had a slightly wilted candy cane dissolving into it, filling the air with the smell of peppermint. Simon picked it up and passed it to his brother. Harley took a sip, tasting the buttery sweetness of condensed milk that Simon had used to thicken the watery drink. He grinned, showing the gap where one of his milk teeth had fallen away, then turned back to the window.

“What’chu looking at?” asked Simon, also turning to stare out into the evening gloom.

The toddler-sized figure in the burlap sack and orange romper shook its head, putting one small orange finger to the line of stitched sacking that presumably marked where its mouth should be. In the unsteady light of the jack-o-lanterns, its black button eyes seemed dark and knowing.

“Nothing,” said Harley.

Holmes Brothers

The End by