Bodt Hallowen

“Hold on, hold on! I’m almost finished!” Marco chuckled as he zipped up the back of young Michael’s Spiderman costume. The small brunet had been unsure about going trick or treating. He didn’t have that many friends in the neighborhood and was often bullied for being weird or ‘spacey.’ However since his older siblings were going to be with him, he felt a lot safer.

Once he was all zipped up, the nine-year-old ran excitedly to the tall hallway mirror. He stared at himself, examining the red and blue fake muscled suit before pretending to shoot out webs.

Marco snickered at the little boy and then walked down the hall into the kitchen to fill a bowl of candy to leave outside. Grabbing one of the multiple bags from the kitchen table and ripping it open, Marco dumped the KitKats into a large orange and black bowl. Once the bag was emptied the teen slipped one into his pocket. He was going to be dragged all over the neighborhood; might as well get at least once piece for himself.

“I thought those were for the neighbor kids.”

Marco almost jumped, but he’d rather not have one of his siblings remind him about it for the rest of the night. He turned toward his sister and after eying her blue jacket with the rainbow stripes across the middle and hat with a large D on the front, raised an eyebrow. “And I thought you were twenty-five. Isn’t that character Mikey’s age?”

The blonde flipped her brother off while making a pursed lipped smirk. “Firstly she’s eleven, and secondly Clem is my girl. Best survivor, hands down.”

Marco laughed lightly, shaking his head. “Right, how could I forget something like that.”

“So that’s all you’re wearing?” Mathilda asked after a moment, reaching out a hand to snatch herself a KitKat from the bowl. “Just orange and black?”

Marco lightly whacked his older sister’s hand. “Someone other than Mikey needs to be acting their age here.” Plus it was still the Halloween colours. The noiret grabbed another bag from the table and emptied the contents into the bowl. Looking over at his sister, Marco couldn’t help but snort at the face she was making to the bowl. “Whatever’s left when we get back we can keep, ok? And don’t forget, Marty’s trying to get candy too, I’m sure you can convince them to share.” The other acted young enough to pull off looking like just a tall preteen. Both Marty and Marco were thin enough to pull off being young, however Marco wasn’t going to join in. Someone had to play parent.

Speaking of his twin…

Marco was about to ask if Mattie knew where they might be, when Michael let out a startled yelp. The pair rushed back to the living room to find Marty dressed as a zombie, and Mikey close to tears.

“Martin Bodt! Did you scare him?!” Marco rushed to his baby brother and after crouching down he held up a hand, waiting for his brother to link fingers with him before pulling the small boy into a hug.

Marty held their hands up defensively. “All I did was jump out!”

Marco sighed heavily through his nose, shooting his twin a glare and turned back to Michael. “Mikey, it’s alright, Marty’s just a jerk. A jerk who’s going to come apologize right now.” He glanced over his shoulder.

Marty groaned before taking the few steps forward and crouching down next to their brothers. “Sorry I jumped out at you, Mikey. I was just playing zombie.” Mikey looked up, hesitated, and then nodded. He seemed to have forgiven his older brother for scaring him. However before Marty was able to stand up, Mikey leaned forward and snatched the clear glasses off their face. “Hey!”

“If you’re a zombie you don’t need glasses since you’re dead and can’t see anyway.”

Matilda laughed from her spot at the doorway, and Marco couldn’t help but snicker as well. Mostly for the wide-eyed, open mouthed expression on his twin. Marty clearly hadn’t been expecting to suddenly have everything blurry.

“Do you want me to walk into a tree?! Give those back you little shi-!”

Marco cleared his throat loudly.

Marty huffed before just holding a hand out for the glasses.

Michael looked down at the glasses in his red gloved hands and then put them on. There probably wouldn’t be another time and he had been curious to see what his brother always saw through them. He looked around, blinking. “How do you see with these?”

Martin wasn’t able to see what Michael was actually doing, but based on that question and how Marco was now giggling, they were able to make a guess. “They were made special for my eyes, now give them back, brat.” Michael took the glasses off, putting them back on their older brother, who had to adjust them so they weren’t crooked. The brunet was looking up expectantly, so Marty huffed out a quick ‘thank you,’ before standing back up.

Marco stood, grabbing a few empty sacks, and gave them to both Mikey and Marty. When he gave one to Marty however, he made sure his twin’s matching brown eyes were locked with his own. “You are not going to TP any houses tonight, Marty. We’re not having a repeat of last year.” Marty knew Marco was being serious but they couldn’t help but grin at that memory. “I mean it. Don’t.”

Marty nodded with a snicker. “Yeah, yeah sure. I won’t. Ok?”

Marco eyed his brother carefully, and then turned to the other two. “Alright. Ready?” Mikey and Mattie both nodded. After ushering his siblings outside, Marco went back into the kitchen and emptied the final bag of candy into the bowl. Taking it with him, the teen joined the others and after setting the bowl on the front steps he locked up the house.

Mikey grabbed Marco’s hand, though he walked ahead of the group. He lead them first to a house covered in many fake cobwebs and only then let go of Marco’s hand so he could run up to the door. Marty soon joined the small boy, just as excited as a little kid. Mattie stayed back. She knew she was too old for this, but it was still just so much fun to walk around after dark in costumes.

Coming back from the house, Michael retook Marco’s hand and then started walking to the next house. As they neared the walkway, Mattie spotted a few people she did some of her various freelance work with. She gave Marco a tap to let him know she was going to head off with them.

“You have your phone with you, right? And keys?”

“Yes, Mom,” she teased.

“Alright, I can handle these two. Don’t be out too late.”

The blonde gave a nod and half a wave before jogging off to catch up with her co-worker friends.

At the next house, Marco waited at the bottom of the steps while his brothers got more sugar. It went like that for pretty much the next hour; going from house to house filling their bags with an assortment of treats that Marco would have to occasionally remind the two not to eat until after they returned home. It was a rule that had been imprinted on all the Bodt siblings’s brains since they became old enough to walk from house to house, having fun trick or treating. Even though Marco had to drop a few reminders, Mikey and Marty didn’t really argue.

As Michael led his older brothers to one of the last houses on the block, the family from that house took their large dog out for a walk. The dog didn’t really scare the boy, it was when one of the other kids next to him suddenly screamed that upset him the most. The scream was loud. He had already let go of his brother’s hand, so he ran from the noise.

“Michael!” Marco darted after his brother, Marty soon following, but it was too dark to see properly and it seemed the entire neighborhood was out that night.

Running down the street, the two kept calling for Michael though there was no sign of the little boy.

“Ok. Marty. I want you do stay right here. I’m going that way,” Marco pointed left, “come back here, and then go right.”

“I can help you look for him!” Marty protested. It didn’t make sense for only one to go looking.

“Mikey might come back this way. If we’re both running around looking for him we might end up passing him. I need you do stay here in case he walked by.” Before Marty was able to respond, Marco took off running to try and find Michael.

Deciding not to just stay put, Marty ran back to the house with the dog. Going up the one step Michael had gone up, they looked to the side, where the one kid had screamed, then turned around, trying to guess where a scared kid might run. Heading in a slight angle to the road, Marty jogged along slowly, trying to not miss anything, and looked for a sign of their little brother.

Marty passed a few houses until they spotted Michael’s candy bag by some bushes. They jogged up to it and picked it up before crouching down to look in the bushes. After moving a few branches out of the way, they finally spotted a Spiderman looking up at them.

“There you are, you little shit,” Marty breathed in relief and reached in to pull the small boy out. That just made the child wiggle further into the bush. Growling, Marty pulled back. It was normally Marco who worked with Michael, so it took a moment for the noiret teen to work out how their twin would handle the situation.

Trying again, Marty just stuck a hand into the bush and held it there. Michael stared at it hesitantly, before finally linking his fingers with the other and allowing himself to be pulled out of the bush. Marty stood back up holding their kid brother. “You ok? You didn’t get hurt, did you?”

Michael shook his head. “Sorry for running…”

“It’s alright. The most important thing is that you’re ok. C’mon, let’s go find Marco before he has an aneurysm.” Taking the candy bags in one hand and holding their brother in the other, the noiret walked off to find their twin. Michael rested his head on his brother’s shoulder, feeling safer now that he wasn’t in the bushes alone anymore.

Marco jogged back to where he left his twin. He was becoming increasingly stressed the more time passed with no sign of his kid brother. Running a hand through his hair and gripping it, Marco tried to think of what he was going to do. Luckily he didn’t have too long to panic.

“Oi, Marco!”

Said teen turned to the source. “Oh thank god.” Marco jogged up to his twin and baby brother, waiting for Michael to link fingers before hugging the small boy. However, he didn’t take him from his twin as Michael seemed to want to stay in Marty’s arms.  “Where’d you find him?”

“In a bush. After you said not to go anywhere, I went back to try and retrace what his steps might have been.”

For once Marco was actually glad Marty didn’t listen to him. He nodded before kissing his baby brother on the forehead and side-hugging his twin. “We should probably head back home, if you two are done trick or treating?”

The two nodded. Mikey getting lost was enough excitement for tonight’s candy gathering, they’d gotten enough anyway.

The trio walked back slowly. Marco unlocked the door and picked up the candy bowl on his way into the house. There wasn’t much left in it, just a few KitKats which Marco gave to his brothers.

Only after the front door was locked did Michael finally slide down from Marty’s arms to go sit in the living room.

It was still fairly early; not even ten o’clock. After digging through the candy bags for a few select pieces, Marco helped Michael out of his costume and into pajamas while Marty showered, washing off the zombie make-up.

Once everyone was in their sleepwear and the candy was put away, the brothers made a pillow fort, large enough for Mattie to join in when she finally came back, and put on a DVD of Hocus Pocus. There were very few Halloween movies they could watch together with Michael so young.

~*~

Halfway through the movie Mattie came back. The blonde went to her room to change out of her costume before she joined her brothers in the living room.

“You boys have fun?” she asked, climbing into the fort.

Deciding not to mention the panic when Michael went missing, Marco just nodded. “You?”

Mattie nodded, then glanced at little Michael, who’s eyelids were starting to droop. “Someone’s getting tired,” she giggled softly. Michael tried to protest but it was true. The small boy leaned back against Marty, who softly roughed the boy’s hair. Mattie was going to have to ask about it tomorrow but it was nice that Mikey and Marty seemed to have gotten closer.

~*~

Much later, the parents came home from their date. The two went in quietly, though were a little surprised to hear the TV on. It was after two in the morning.

Eliza Bodt hung her purse and coat on the hooks in the hall then went into the living room. She walked over to the TV, clicking it off, and then bent down to peer into the fort. She smiled at her four children, all fast asleep, cuddling pillows and blankets. She reached in to take Marty’s glasses off so they wouldn’t end up bent in the morning and after folding the legs, set them down on the corner of the table nearest to them. Marty stirred slightly but stayed asleep. After switching off the light in the living room, she joined her husband upstairs.