He walks into the living room to find her laying on the couch.
"Hey! What do you think of my costume?"
"The garb of a warrior to ward off malicious spirits!"
She says a she stits up excitedly.
"Looks really good!"
He takes a seat beside her.
"Almost a shame that the wards around the property make it unnecessary." He teases lightly.
She shrugs, grabbing her controller off the coffee table.
"Eh, this way we get to relax, and don't need to worry about spirits."
She boots up the gaming system and begins to click through the menus.
"We're not gonna get another relaxing night to ourselves for a bit now that Spooky season is ending."
"Yeah, it was really nice of your parents to take the kid. I miss her like heck, and I'm sure the wards will be fine, but I sleep a lot easier knowing that she's safe in the Grove."
She grumbles as her character gets hit out of a jump and falls into the muckmaggots,
"Yeah, now that they finally decided to meet her, they can't get enough of her. We probably wouldn't get her back for another year or five if we weren't so on top of reminding them, and they wouldn't think anything of it."
He chuckles, "Well I'm glad they're getting along so well... I was worried for a bit there..."
She glances away from the screen for a moment, "They don't not like half-elves... it's just... well, it's complicated... They don't dislike you either..."
"I know, I know." He reassures, "but knowing that and seeing how they fawn over her are completely different."
"Yea- Oh shoot! This runback is absolutely ridiculous! There must be a save point closer!"
"You could look it up you know... Or I could..."
"Oh don't you dare!" She glares at him as she starts to make her way back towards where she died.
"I'm not looking up a gosh dang thing until I- Oh crud- Stupid poison darts.... I swear-"
He looks from the screen to her, "That's bad I take it?"
"My.... All my rosaries..."
They are interrupted by a knock on the door.
He begins to stand, "Who on could that be at this hour..."
She motions for him to sit back down with a sigh, "I'll get it... I need to take a break from this anyways..."
As she approaches the front door, she gets a strange feeling... it really is quite late...
Upon opening the door, she is greeted by... nobody?
She sticks her head out and takes a look around.
!!!
Before her floats a single spirit that seems to have slipped past the wards.
T̷̻̀r̴͔͘i̶͓̋c̴̲͘k̸̺͗ ̶̫͆o̵̥̓ř̶̩ ̵͙̔T̵̟̊r̵͓̈e̴̙͝a̴̢̐t̵̬̉
She laughs nervously, "I'm sorry... Can I help you?"
T̴̲̾ͅr̶̻̔̈́i̸̲̠̎͆c̶̹͒k̷̟̓ͅ ̷͖̲͆̚ǒ̷̢̘r̴͇̅̏ ̷͚̦̾T̷̹́̀r̶̭̕e̶̹̾́ͅa̴͇̤̐ṯ̸̆͜
"Sorry... I didn't quite catch that.... I'm quite the... um... fearsome warior... you know..." She stammers, motioning down to her red cloak.
Ț̷̓h̵̫̽ȅ̵͇n̷̻͐ ̵͕̅w̵͉͑ḣ̵̨e̴̘̋r̵̰͝e̷̬̚ ̷̟́i̵̡̊s̴̼͛ ̷̗̆ỷ̶͕ō̴͜u̷͓̓r̴̈́ͅ ̴̖̆ẅ̸̦́e̶̛͕ã̶͕p̴̌ͅȍ̵̲ṅ̶͕?̶̜̓
"Well... um... it's back... in... the... TV room..."
She trails off...
"I'm going to get cursed aren't I?"
The spirit grows is size, glowing with a malicious energy and speaks clearly.
Trick or Treat.
Elf so sweet.
Find her something good to eat.
If you don't, by dawn, beware!
My eternal ghostly fate she'll share!
"Hey Honey, who was at the doo- gods above! What happened?"
"Well... Looks like I've been cursed..."
His eyes go wide, "What do we do?!"
"Well first of all, calm down."
"Calm down?! Calm Down???... You!... don't seem all that concerned..."
"It's only a spirits curse... and we'll be seeing my mother tomorrow anyways. A quick Remove Curse should take care of it no problem... it's just..."
"What? It's just what??" He steps forward, panic rising again.
"It's just going to be really embarrassing when she finds out there was a gap in my wards... But I think we should be ok! The curse had a really easy way to break it! I just need to, 'Find something good to eat' and I should be good to go!"
She begins to float towards the kitchen.
He trails behind to find her repeatedly waiving her hand through an apple.
"Well that's no good..."
She looks at him, tears in her eyes, her forced nonchalance slipping away.
"Oh Sweetheart..." her takes her face in his hands, wiping a tear with his thumb.
She sniffles, "It's going to be really embarrassing... She's going to think I can't even ward my house properly... and she'll be right..."
"Sweetheart... no ward is perfect your mother knows that... That spirit could have been an outlier... or it could have died on the property before the ward went up, or-"
He pauses as he notices a change in her expression.
"What is it... is there something on my face?"
Her hands come up to rest on his forearms, giving them a gentle sqeeze.
"I can touch you... Wait a moment... I have an idea!"
She grabs his hand and leads him out of the kitchen.
"Stand there."
She points to a spot on the floor of their bedroom.
"Is this for some sort of Counterspell or something... oh... Oh!"
"I thought of something good I can eat in this form..."
She let's out a low giggle as she let's it rest against her face.
She takes hold of it with her hand, licking it from base to tip.
He shivers, "oh... that's a bit chilly... but not bad..."
She grins, before taking the tip in her mouth and swirling her tongue around it... and then through it, it's ethereal form giving way with a bit of pressure and leaving a tingling sensation in it's wake.
She wraps her hand around the base, taking him deeper inside her ethereal form.
"OoOooOOoooo" he gasps.
"How ish it 'at you shound more 'ike a ghosht than I do?"
She mumbles around his length, taking full advantage of her ghostly form's lack of gag reflex.
"OooOoOOOO I'm about to...!"
She feels a burst of warmth in the center of her chest, followed by a dizzying blast of light that shunts the two of them apart.
She stares up at him blankly for a moment, her elven form having been restored.
She spits out globs of the thick and slimy substance that seems to cover her body entirely.
"Ectoplasm... Bleh..."
🎃 Happy Halloween! 🎃
Thanks, as always, for reading! 💕
I'm trying out color coding my dialog since there was so much of it in this one! Let me know what you think!
Shout out to whity00 for putting together such a fun bounty!
You can find the rest of the entries here!
https://civitai.com/bounties/10015
Maybe even sumbit one yourself! Though you are running outof time! One week left!
Find the original sets here!
https://civitai.com/posts/23012991
https://civitai.com/posts/23055078
https://civitai.com/posts/23992838
https://civitai.com/posts/23992987
You can find all my short stories here: https://civitai.com/articles/22874