“You guys ready for your first Halloween since your move to this neighborhood?” Alverost approached his next-door neighbor, Zero300, as he adjusted his zombie costume.

 

Clearly, Alverost and Zero300 were not the two young men’s birth names. They were codenames. As Scribblers of Scribble Hub, the society of Writers, they were assigned codenames based on their Creativity Skills. During introductions, their birth names were not given in order to protect their identities.

 

Zero300 especially understood this as a few years back, he and his old group of Writers had suffered a betrayal that nearly killed off half their members. In his old group, codenames were optional and some members had chose to use their real names instead. Because of that, they were the first to be targeted. Zero300 did not want to experience something like that ever again.

 

“Not quite...I can’t decide on which costume to wear. Should I wear this?” Zero300 held up the cowboy outfit that laid on the bed next to the zombie outfit. “Or should I go as a zombie as well?”

 

“Haha, cowboy outfits are too boring? Let’s go with the zombie outfit. I know Ispheria and Steelz are wearing mummy outfits. We could totally be an undead legion, haha.”

 

“Haha, I like the sound of that. Zombie outfit it is. Wait outside while I change.” Zero300 tossed the cowboy outfit away and reached for the zombie outfit.

 

“Alright.” Alverost nodded. “Don’t take too long. Everyone is waiting.”

 

Minutes later, Zero300 came out of his room equipped with full-body zombie armor. “So, how do I look?”

 

“Hmm, why the zombie mask?” Alverost rubbed his bloody face. “Why not go with makeup and some fake blood?”

“Haha, that would take hours. Didn’t you say everyone was waiting? We don’t have that much leisure time, now do we?” Zero300 grinned under his mask.

 

“True, true. Alright, come let’s head out.” Alverost replied with a nod of affirmation.

 

As they walked out of Zero300’s room, they were greeted by Ispheria and Steelz who had just arrived. They were each sporting brown bandages and leather rags. From a distance, they looked like two mummies fresh out of their coffins. Steelz was even jokingly mimicking the movements of a mummy despite Ispheria’s annoyance.

 

“Wow, cool mask!” Ispheria ran over and immediately complimented on how good Zero300’s costume was.

 

Steelz also expressed some excitement. “You two zombies plus us two mummies…we look like a group from the undead legion. All that’s missing is probably a vampire or a werewolf.”

 

“Werewolves aren’t undead.” Ispheria corrected.

 

“They aren’t? I-I mean of course they aren’t! You know what I meant!” Steelz retorted.

 

“Haha, no worries. We understand.” Alverost gestured to calm Steelz down. “Calm yourself. You’re hyperventilating.”

 

“Ugh, I know. It’s just that sometimes, Ispheria can be a little too….” Steelz leaned closer and whispered. Though he trailed off, the intention was clear.

 

“I can be a little too what?” Ispheria stomped her feet as she jabbed Steelz with a finger.

 

“Nothing!” Steelz backed away with his hands up in surrender. “I didn’t say anything!”

 

“You!” Ispheria glared as she pointed angrily at Steelz.

 

“Haha, alright, enough guys. Enough!” Alverost smiled.

 

As he was a senior Scribbler, his words carried some weight. Once he called Ispheria and Steelz to stop, they immediately ceased their behavior. Seeing the situation becoming a bit tense, Zero300 interjected with a half-hearted joke. Luckily, the trio were easy to humor and they loosened up quite a bit.

 

The four Scribblers continued chatting for a while as they made their way to the Scribble Hub branch building. Once inside, they saw that the rest of the community had already finished with their preparations.

 

The building had been decorated with Halloween flair and everyone was in his or her costumes. Most have decided to go trick-or-treating along with them. As for the rest who were not as outgoing, they had decidedly volunteered to stay behind in order to defend the home base as well as give out candy to the prospective trick-or-treaters.

 

“How’s the situation?” Alverost asked a fellow Scribbler as he observed the variety of Halloween costumes.

 

There were the classics including the witches, the ghosts, and the zombies. And then, there were the others...the anime cosplayers, the armored Storm Troopers, and the elves from Warcraft. Everyone was enthusiastic about dressing up. Even the shy ones wore masks at least to display their Halloween spirit.

 

“Everything is just about finished. We’ve done all the decorations. Some wanted to add a scary prop outside to jump-scare the kids, but we’ve decided against it. Oh, and we should have enough candy, but a couple of us decided to bake some sweets just in case.” The Scribbler, wearing a vampire outfit, pointed out.

 

“Hey, nice outfit, want to join us to go trick-or-treating?” Steelz asked.

 

“No.” The Scribbler shook her head. “I don’t really like going trick-or-treating.”

 

“What? You don’t like trick-or-treating? The blasphemy!” Steelz playfully teased.

 

“Haha, yea. I’ve decided to stay here and pass out candy. At least I still have some Halloween spirit.” The Scribbler waved as she headed over to the kitchen to check on the baked goods.

 

“Alright then.” Alverost nodded as he motioned for Zero300, Ispheria, and Steelz to follow him. “Let’s head over to the main stage for our meeting.”

 

The four weaved through crowds of people until they reached the main stage room. Inside, there were a crowd of people chatting and laughing and overall enjoying themselves. It was a day of fun and celebration after all.

 

While Ispheria, Steelz, and Zero300 blended in with the crowd, Alverost made his way to the top of the stage. Walking to the podium at the center of the stage, he tapped on the mic a few times before waiting for everyone to quiet down.

 

Once everyone’s attention was directed towards him, Alverost asked. “Hello everyone! It’s nice to see everyone in good Halloween spirit. Is everyone ready to go trick-or-treating?”

 

“Hells yeah! We’re down to tricking them lowborn muggles, haha!” One Scribbler responded.

 

Suddenly, a flash of red dove through the crowd and appeared before the Scribbler. The red belonged to the glaring eyes of SheepHusher, a Moderator assigned to maintain order within the community.

 

Before the Scribbler could apologize and regret his words, SheepHusher unleashed her Creativity and lifted up her forefinger. She placed her finger on the Scribbler’s lips and muttered one word – Hush.

 

Creativity swirled around SheepHusher’s arm like a writhing snake and plastered itself onto the Scribbler’s mouth. When the Moderator removed her finger, the Scribbler found that he could not speak or breath from his mouth!

 

SheepHusher turned towards Alverost and asked. “How long should we silence him for?”

 

“Haha, don’t mute him for too long. I’m sure he didn’t mean it. Look, he’s regretting it now.” Alverost pointed out at the Scribbler’s depressed and guilty expression.

 

As SheepHusher turned to look at the muted Scribbler, he nodded fiercely as if agreeing to what Alverost had stated. The Scribbler even got on his knees to beg. He didn’t want to be muted for the rest of Halloween…or worst, the rest of the year.

 

“Fine.” SheepHusher waved her hand. “You’ll be unmuted in an hour’s time.”

 

“Thanks SheepHusher.” Alverost replied for the muted Scribbler.

 

As SheepHusher blended into the shadows, Alverost continued. “Okay, then. Let’s get ready to move out. Everyone divide into groups amongst yourselves. We’ll go conquer each of the neighboring communities as well as the nearby cities. Let’s amass as much candy and baked goods as we can and meet back here before midnight. Dismissed!”

 

“OOOHHHH!!”

 

“YAH!”

 

“LET’S GO! LET’S GO!”