Dusk came sooner than expected, the last of the sun's rays cosseted behind soft grey cloud. Main Street took on the look of an old photograph, every familiar thing a shade of grey. Slowly the view was fading into blackness and the night would begin.

Shawn sat there alone, Main Street empty except for the occasional gust of wind in the air that would push aside different leaves, yellow, brown and red. Each one showing the last signs of its color before all would blend into the dark shadows of Halloween night.

Shawn looked around the street, enjoying the quiet for a moment. But he had to get ready for Halloween, so he headed for his house, not wanting to miss out on trick or treating time.

Shawn walked down the street. He could see Tiffany's old house across the street from his own house. There was a single sign hung in purple letters on the door that read 'Boo.'

Shawn saw that Michael was outside the house and that he was dressed in what looked like a Thundercats costume. It was Lion-o, but the costume clearly didn't fit the skinny looking kid. It was too baggy, and Michael was holding Lion-o's mask in on hand and had a pillow case in the other.

"Hey." he said in a dead-pan voice as Shawn approached.

Shawn gave Michael a friendly smile as he approached him, though he knew the other boy wouldn’t necessarily appreciate it. “Hi Michael. Are you trick or treating tonight?” It was actually a little freeing, not to have to worry about using the right words and keeping the right expression.

"Yes." Michael responded in a deep voice, a computer reading out the response to a functional input.

Michael stared at Shawn. The sun was setting behind the skinny boy, far off in the horizon, painting the landscape with an orange glow. Occasionally Michael would blink, registering a sign of life the way a blinking cursor might show that the screen or application was still active.

Shawn nodded, mostly comfortable with Michael’s silence. “I have to go home to put on my costume. Are you trick or treating by yourself?”

Michael blinked for a second. His eyes drifted towards what Shawn was carrying, and then back up to Shawn's own eyes. Then he simply nodded.

Shawn nodded in response. "I have some friends coming with me. After I get changed, do you want to come with me trick or treating too?"

Michael nodded his head. "Ok" He said, as if it didn't matter one way or the other. His body turned slightly towards Shawn as Shawn walked down the driveway towards his own house.

The car that was supposed to be in front of the house wasn't parked there. This indicated that Dad was not home. It also meant that front door could be locked. Although, given the fact that Mom didn't live at Shawn's house anymore, this latter point was anything but certain.

Shawn gave Michael a quiet “See you then.” before departing. Since the house seemed empty, he approached the front door and tried to see if it was unlocked. Hopefully he could get inside and change.

Shawn opened the door to his house. A blast of stagnant, stale air caught his nose like he was entering an old person's home that hadn't been cleaned for a long while. The door bounced against the door-jam, creaking slowly back in the direction of Shawn as if it were about to close before it came to slow stop.

Inside, the interior of the house was familiar, if not, dimly lit. It appeared that no one was home, the hallway silent except for the heat of the furnace blowing through the vents in the ceiling.

Shawn closed the door behind him, wrinkling his nose a little as he caught the smell. He hadn't been gone all that long; had the place smelled like this when he lived here? Still, home was home, and he had stuff to do. He headed upstairs towards his room. He could get changed and check on Mr. Clayton too. He still felt a feeling in the pit of his stomach that he had left him alone too long.

The hallway and its dark, brown tile grazed Shawn's feet as he headed towards his room. Even in the dark Shawn could see the flower patterned wallpaper that he had come to associate with home. Despite Mom being gone for what might have been a long time, there wasn't a hand print or scuff mark anywhere. As Shawn headed upstairs, he noted that the door to his room was open.

The stairs creaked under foot as Shawn reached the top. Turning make his way around the stair banister, Shawn could see that there was an object in the middle of the his room on the rug.

It was Mr. Clayton's case. It was just sitting there. Left out of the closet in plain sight.

Shawn felt a little nervous, seeing the case out in the open like that. Had Mr. Clayton been wandering around by himself? Or had someone gone through his stuff? He went to the case to see if it had been opened.

Shawn approached the case and saw that it was completely shut. There was nothing else out of the ordinary. Everything seemed to be exactly in the same place that it was left.

Wherever Dad was, he didn't hear to be at home. As Shawn approached the case, he realized that his room door was open. And it was the smell inside the room that was so....stagnant.

It was the source of the smell. Shawn's own room.

Shawn wrinkled his nose as he realized where the smell was coming from. He'd previously assumed the smell was his fault, somehow, but he'd been gone and the smell seemed to have spread further. Regardless, he had other things to do right now. He set his costume down on the bed, and went to open the case.

With the costume on his bed Shawn opened the case and.....


It was empty.

Mr. Clayton was not inside. A quick glance around the room and Shawn could see that the Puppet wasn't anywhere.

Shawn tried very hard not to panic. He checked the closet where the box was usually kept, in case he'd fallen out somehow. He looked under his bed, and in all his drawers. He even called out softly, "Mr. Clayton?" as if he might get a response.

As Shawn rushed around and then spoke the words softly, heard a 'cricking' sound from down the hall. It was followed by a gentle, flutter, like that of tree limbs reaching out and touching the window.

After sitting still for a second the sound came into focus: a radio sound. It was coming from Shawn's Mom's room. Or at least, Dads room, since Mom did not live in the house anymore.

Shawn, confused at what exactly was going on in the house, left his room quietly and headed towards his Mom's old room. Was someone home and not telling him? Was Mr. Clayton messing with the radio?

Shawn slowly walked into the room. The sun was setting, and in the far window Shawn saw the silhouette of his Dad. He was sitting in a rocking chair and Mr. Clayton was on Dad's lap.

A grainy 1930s radio was playing what sounded like an old time commercial. Dad was snoring a light snore. And Mr. Clayton's eyes were shut. The radio commercial played, and it appeared as if the commercial voice was that of Mr. Clayton's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO59E4xH1WI

As Shawn approached, the radio turned off, leaving only the orange glow of the room. The only sound was Dad's snoring. Except for the rising and falling of Dad's chest, nothing in the room was moving.

Shawn did any actual double take as he realized Mr. Clayton was sitting in his father’s lap. Had he gotten him out to play with or something? Not wanting to wake his father, he tiptoed into the room and tried to take Mr. Clayton back without waking his father. He needed to practice before he went trick or treating.

OOC: Shawn Rolls Dexterity + Stealth

OOC: 8:39, Today: Shawn rolled 2 successes using 5d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 8,4,5,9,5.

There was no sound in the house, yet the rocking chair was moving, moving and the radio had stopped talking. Dad's sleeping body rocked back and forth in front of the window, Mr. Clayton seated on his lap. Shawn had practiced for months but somehow the need was now pressing, urgent even.

Mr. Clayton sat on top of Dad, the Puppet's own eyes were closed.

Shawn lifted Dad's arm, taking it off from around Mr. Clayton. The Puppet's eyes remained shut as Shawn silently made his way to the hallway, Dad still asleep.

Shawn retreated back to his room, closing the door so he wouldn’t disturb his Dad. Then, as he had for months now, he dragged his little stool out in front of the mirror, then sat down with Mr. Clayton in his lap. He looked at the dummy a little bit accusingly. “What were you doing with my Dad?” It was an absurd question, on the surface, but Shawn knew better than to think his Dad found Mr. Clayton and just decided to play with him.

Mr. Clayton's eyes opened and a wicked smile broke across the Puppet's wooden face.
The face of a child who knew he had done something naughty. The face of someone that knew a secret and knew that someone else wanted to know the secret.



"Nothing!" Mr. Clayton said in a coy, defensive tone. "We were just playing around is all. He came and got me out of the case to play. So I was just showing hims some things about Ventriloquism. I didn't say anything! He just put his hand up into me and started to practice some letters is all."

"Your Dad has big hands." Mr. Clayton noted and he gave Shawn a little smile to accompany  the notation. Then Mr. Clayton whispered to Shawn.

"Your Dad's hands are bigger than yours...."

Shawn didn't know exactly why this was a bad thing, but he felt an utter certainty that it was, in fact, a bad thing. "Why does my Dad want to learn about Ventriloquism? He doesn't know anything about that sorta stuff." He felt oddly defensive about his own role. "And even if he did, I'm way better than him."

Mr. Clayton attempted to shrug off the incident and began to play it down.

"He fell asleep." Mr. Clayton replied. "He wasn't really interested. He's not like you. He can't handle practicing all of the time." Mr. Clayton reassured.

Shawn was a little relieved he wasn't being replaced, but for all that Mr. Clayton was playing it down, he still felt worried. "And you didn't...do anything to him. Right?" Shawn always got the feeling his Dad felt the same about his ventriloquism like he did about the acting - that if he showed enjoyment or interest in it, it made him a bit of a disappointment. He was a little concerned Mr. Clayton might have picked up on that.

Mr. Clayton raised his eyebrows.

"Daddy didn't say anything." Mr. Clayton answered, referring to Shawn's Dad. "He just put his hand up me." Mr. Clayton explained, adjusting his waist a little and moving his wooden chest forward as if Dad's hand was still in there.

Shawn frowned a little at Mr. Clayton's reply. "That doesn't answer my question." It wasn't like his Dad to just decide to play with Shawn's toys, after all.

"Fiiiiiiiine." Mr. Clayton answered back in a defiant, petulant, tone. "But can we stop talking about this now?" the Puppet wriggled his arms and held them out to Shawn in a gesture of surrender or avoidance, it was hard to tell since they jutted out in a stiff, unnatural position.

Shawn noticed that Mr. Clayton still wasn't answering the question, but there wasn't much he could do to make him answer. "Fine, let's talk about something else. Do you like my Halloween costume?"

"Yes." Mr. Clayton blurted out. "But I think you need an accessory! Yucka, Yucka!" Mr. Clayton spread his arms out to Shawn, with the expectation that Shawn would pick him up and make Mr. Clayton Shawn's accessory and bring him along on Halloween night.

Shawn considered making a joke about using the vampire fangs he'd bought as that accessory, but they seemed to be having a positive moment for once and he didn't want to ruin it. He picked up Mr. Clayton and set him on his lap. "I think you'll do a great job! We'll have to say hi to Junior, and maybe you can see if you can help Leonard with his weird dreams."

"You betcha! Yucka Yucka!"

OOC: Shawn joins thread

Shawn: Halloween at Dusk...