Shawn wanted to say something, wanted to come up with some excuse that would make Junior's mom stop. But the words died on his lips - he couldn't make himself say anything. He just stood and watched...

"You get out of here. GO BACK HOME!" Junior's Mom yelled at Shawn.

"And don't let me see you...." She trailed off.

"Wait, didn't I see you on TV? On a commercial about Halloween?" She asked Shawn suddenly.

Shawn was taken aback at Junior's Mom's sudden change in demeanor, but at least it stopped him from getting yelled at. "I was in a Halloween commercial, ma'am." He tried to put on his most respectful look - obviously, he couldn't look too happy or flattered, since it wasn't exactly a happy situation. But at least it gave him a chance to get a word in edgewise. "I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to get Junior in trouble. Trick-or-treating was my idea, I should've asked you first."

Junior's Mom looked like she was about to say something pleasant in reply, but then Junior let out a squeal which brought all the negativeness flooding back into the conversation.

"Well go home!" She snapped. Then she yanked on Junior's arm pulling him back towards the house, the pair turning their back on Shawn and growing smaller as they faded into growing darkness of what was slowly becoming night.

Shawn thought for a moment he might be able to talk Junior out of trouble...and then Junior's cries brought a quick end to that. He watched them fade away into the dark before turning awkwardly back to Michael. "I guess...we should keep going to Leonard's?"

"Yes." Michael agreed, standing still as a statue and watching Junior's shadow fade away, the boy's sobs still audible.

"Leonard." Michael repeated.

Shawn waited until he couldn't hear Junior's voice at all, on the off chance that his mom changed her mind. When she didn't, he reluctantly turned around and started walking towards Leonard's.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 11:47, Thu 30 July 2020.

There were bright glowing lamp lights from within Leonard's house, illuminating the different rooms and showing that people were home.

As Shawn and Michael headed up the driveway, it was easy to see the path from the grass. There was a sign on the door that read "Boo."

Shawn was relieved that Leonard's family seemed to be celebrating Halloween. He walked up the path and knocked on the door, putting on his best 'happy trick-or-treater' expression.

Leonard opened the door wearing a giant robot costume that was homemade. Unlike Junior's costume, Leonard's was carefully painted and had a silver, metallic glow to it. Red and blue lights adorned the front of the costume and they blinked intermittently. Leonard was holding the head of the robot in the crook of his arm, as if ready to put it on at a moment's notice.

"You are a robot for Halloween." Michael said, sounding much like a robot himself as he said it.

"No." Leonard corrected, "I'm a fake robot. On the outside, everything that I am looks like a robot, but really, my costume is that a real person is on the inside. That is the trick that I made. Get it? So it looks like I'm a robot, but really I am real. Its like having a costume within a costume." Leonard explained.

"Like an egg." Michael observed without emotion.

"I guess." Leonard replied.

"That's a really cool costume!" Shawn was genuinely impressed - the costume wouldn't look super out of place on some of the movie sets he'd been on. "So if being a fake robot with a real person inside is the costume, does that mean that normally you're a fake person with a real robot inside?"" He giggled out loud as he said it, clearly kidding around.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:51, Fri 31 July 2020.

"Come on inside!" Leonard responded with his own giggle and invitation at Shawn's joke. He didn't answer the question though.


As Leonard opened the door, Shawn saw the interior hallway of the house was a complete pig-stye. A long running sock was strewn across the floor and piles of papers and unopened mail had accumulated against the walls.

Shawn follows Leonard inside, pausing to wave Michael in as well. He looked around the house, wondering if they had a bowl of candy set out. "You ready to go trick or treating?"

"Almost!" Leonard said. "I just need help picking out a pillow case. Come to my room." Leonard said, and he ran down the hallway, nearly tripping over a pile of papers before cutting right into a side door.

Shawn followed after Leonard a little more slowly to make sure Michael could keep up, since he knew this was probably the latter kid's first time in the house. He headed for Leonard's room. "Better get a big one!"

Michael trailed behind as both boys followed Leonard into his room.

"Yeah, a big one." Leonard said. "I just need to find it. Can you guys help?"

The room was a disaster. Shawn looked amid the pile of discarded clothes and plastic debris from wrappers that had food still in them all about the floor.

A pillow case could be anywhere. In any of those piles. In the closet, under the bed. It was a total disaster.

"I'll look over here."  Shawn gamely tried to look through one of the piles of debris, though he was limited by the fact that one of his hands was obviously busy with Mr. Clayton, and he didn't want to get food stains on his costume.

He remembered what he saw last time he was here, and kept his eyes open for new drawings that Leonard had done as well. "Oh yeah, have you had any more luck with those dreams? They were pretty scary." He tried to keep his tone casual, like he was asking about a TV show Leonard had mentioned liking.

Shawn moved around a pile near the closet, unable to find on the plain floor a pillow case out in the open.

"What?" Leonard asked, head underneath his bed, butt sticking out.

Shawn picked another pile and wandered around it. "You drew that spooky story about the clowns juggling and showed it to me last time I visited, remember?" He was feeling a little paranoid now after what had happened to Junior, but he kept his tone light. Still, he decided to add a little falsehood to see if Leonard would correct it. "You said your mom wanted to put them on the fridge."

Leonard's butt moved to the side neck still under the bed like he was an ostrich with his head in the sand.

"Uh-huh." He agreed with Shawn, clearly more focused on finding the pillow case. "I don't think its under here." Leonard complained in a  muffled voice. "Where could it be?"

That only made Shawn's suspicions worse. He walked over to the bed, grabbed Leonard's pillow, then shook it until the pillow fell out and left him with just the pillow case. Then he backed away, making sure that the exit to Leonard's room was clear in case he had to run. "I found a pillow case...though maybe you should tell me who you really are?" He still kept his tone light, in case this was all an elaborate joke or misunderstanding.