Agatha winced sympathetically and nodded. “I guess somebody’s gotta do it. Probably wouldn’t want him dying and becoming a permanent resident of the town…”

Carver snerked. “I think he’d fit right in with the redneck zombies across the lake. They have the same taste in alcohol, and a shared IQ of six between them.”

Agatha bit back a chuckle and sampled one of the poison puffs. “Wow, Barrel! I never forget how good you are at cooking, but it still always surprises me anyway!”

“What I have is not [i]talent[/i],” Carmilla corrected Lock. She drained her glass again before continuing. “It’s trained [i]skill[/i]. Your sister is the one with talent, which remains relatively unrefined. But I suppose there’s [i]some[/i] potential, there,” she added with a sniff. 

Chad thanked Shock with a grin. As she walked away, he turned where Lock had indicated and put on what he imagined to be a good ‘game face’. 

“Nine seconds left on the clock,” he said in a hushed but very serious tone. “Three opposing players blocking, no one to pass it to, and no path to get closer.” 

He bounced on his toes, still talking. “His team is two points down. If he makes this shot, they win the championship. If he misses, he’ll go down in history as the biggest let-down the Halloween Town Hares have ever faced. Will, he, make it?”


Chad jumped into the air and threw the beer can at an unnecessarily high arc. “He takes the shot!” The can descended, hit the side of the trash bin, and bounced off it, coming to rest on the floor a foot away from it’s target.

The blonde boy dropped to his knees, yelling, “[i]Nooooooo![/i]! It’s a rim shot! And there’s the buzzer! [i]There, is, no coming back from this![/i] A young man’s career ended; an utter [i]failure[/i]! How, will he, go on?”

He slumped down in defeat. Then a few seconds later, cheerfully hopped back to his feet and walked over to pick the can up and drop it in the trash normally.

Lillith started dancing a slightly creepier variant of the jitterbug, which resembled a skeleton jerking its joints as it stalked living prey.

Carmilla shook Carver’s vine away. She shot Shock an obligatory dirty glance as they passed each other on the trickster’s way back from the refreshments table. The vampiress poured herself another helping of wine and put the bottle down for someone else to partake later. She decided to nurse this glassful slowly; the regular inclusion of blood wine with dinner at the vampire castle had built up her alcohol tolerance quite well, but three glasses in under ten minutes -- plus what she had imbibed before Chad’s unwelcome arrival -- would be a stretch even for her.

Once they were sure Carmilla wouldn’t interfere with Shock’s prank, Carver recoiled their vine. Next up on their agenda: preparations for more mayhem. They tapped out a quick message to Lock, telling him to drink some of the crappy beer.

[i]It’ll keep him off guard,[/i] they told him. [i]See how much he’ll take before he figures out the pranks aren’t accidents.[/i]

Chad, having completely missed Shock’s tampering due to his theatrics, turned around just in time to have a helpfully pre-opened fresh can of booze pressed into his hands. “Hey, thanks!” His smile dropped a bit when she said she was the singer in Lock’s band. “Oh! Dude, I’m sorry! You’re actually not that bad a singer. I’m just used to guys doing the whole, growl-y scream-y kind a’ music. You know, like that dude in Linkin Park, singing ‘With You’.”

He then softly sang a rough attempt at a line from that song, as a demonstration.