"This movie is TERRIBLE! My left asscheek could write a better horror story than this!"

Max scoffed, rubbing his canine skull in frustration, dreadlocks flinging and bouncing against his wrist. Brad giggle-snorted, scarfing down a bowl of popcorn, sharing with Calli, resting comfortably upon his lap. He sat on a long leather couch besides Calli, Maxwell and Maile, who was sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the group, eyes fixated upon the screen. She didn't feel the same way Max did, quite the opposite. Her adrenaline was on a roll as her fright factor was nearly triggered once again, fully engaged in the horror film they were now watching in a dark living room, no other lights on nearby. Luckily the doors and windows were all shut tight and locked. They'd rented a classic horror film from a local video rental store in Brookings for a cheap thrill to be watched upon the eve of Halloween, which they were now doing. Gus took a trip up north to Eugene to discuss prospects of scheduling a full-scale collaboration tour with other similar anthropomorphic rock bands in hopes of devising a mini-festival circuit, with Enim-Noinu as the headliners. He insisted that the anthro musicians stay at home while he conducted business, suggesting their presence to be a distraction to the other tour promoters. With reluctance, they agreed to his decision and worked at keeping boredom out of the picture while they spent a weekend alone in the company of their own keeping. 

"It's not that bad, shepcoon. The production value is actually pretty sweet, for a movie made in the seventies." Brad said, reaching for the VHS tape's box to check the date and confirm his suspicions. 

"Nope! This is absolute rubbish. Seriously, Brad? I could act better blindfolded and drugged up!" Max hollered, making an obnoxious scene. Calli smacked his thigh with a stern frown-faced smile, eyes fixated on the screen.

"Shut up, dingus! It's about to get really good! I sense another scary moment coming up..." Calli whispered aloud to Max, eyes magnified by her bifocal glasses, head resting upon Brad's chest. Her saluki hand-paws clenched hold of Brad's jeans and tightened their grip significantly, anticipating the next big spooky jump-scare reveal. Brad felt Calli's heart racing as she pressed against his chest and smiled casually, putting an arm around her shoulders and embracing her. 

"So do I... no good can come from stepping out of that woodshed..." Brad said in a low voice. Max scoffed and rolled his one good eye, wondering why in the hell good money had been spent and wasted on renting such a dumb exploit of foolish old-school nonsense. 

"No good can come from washing your balls in a shower either, homeboy." Max whispered to Brad, snickering. 

"Blow it out your bunghole, ya filthy animal." Brad said, giving Max's bicep a hard flick. Max yelped and took the hint, settling down to continue watching the dumbest movie he'd ever seen, quite possibly.

"Oh my gosh, I can't watch..." Maile said, voice lilting and trembling with fear. She covered her eyes with her hand-paws, then spread her fingers into slits to peek through tiny openings to gaze in curiosity and raw terror at the movie. She was hesitant to witness the fate of poor Melinda, the last survivor of the log cabin slaughter, who was now stepping out from her place of hiding with a big hunting machete in hand, ready to attack the maniacal serial killer who now stalked her every move. Maile had come from absolute hell, the inner-ninth ring of it, but she still had a weakness for horror films, even if they seemed campy and lame to others. The notion of being scared for hour-long stretches at a time both fascinated and horrified her all at once. 

Just as Melinda turned on a bright flashlight to peer into rustling bushes nearby, the television flickered out. All at once, the group was cast into immediate silence, surrounded by shadowy blackness. 

"Are you freaking kidding me??" Calli said, cutting through the silence like a hot butter-knife. 

"Should've seen that coming! Nice ending, bro." Max said with a sarcastic tone in his voice.

"Oh, damn! Power outage, right now??" Maile said, voice registering much higher than usual.

"Calm down, guys. Remember the gennie out back? We can start it up and get a little burst of fresh juice. Not enough to finish the movie, perhaps..."

"Oh, thank GOD for small favors." Max said, voice scruffy and ragged.

"Yeah, but we could at least keep the fridge running, maybe switch a light or two on. Let me up, Calli darling."

A bright flash powered on from below the group. Maile switched on her cellphone's LED lamp, bathing her fellow anthros in a brilliant glow of stark light. She shone it where she felt light was needed. Brad stood up from the couch, brushing off small popcorn kernel bits from his shirt. Calli remained seated on the couch, rubbing Maile's shoulder with companionable relief. Max saw a small green glow emanating from the red panda girl's eyes, fetching and alluring. 

"Maile, may we borrow your phone to guide our way out back? We'll come back in as soon as we can." Brad said, holding his hand-paw out to Maile. She fidgeted and squirmed, then placed her phone in Brad's hand-paws with reluctance. 

"Just hurry on back! You know how I feel about staying in pitch black darkness like this for too long."

"I know. C'mon, Max, help me out."

"Fine, dad! Lead the way!" Max exclaimed, hoisting himself up from the couch in a hurry, careful not to trip over Maile's ankles. The moon was covered by a large stormcloud, muting any potential light to be seen, except for the power of Maile's cellphone LED lamp. 

"We'll be right back, just stay put and remain calm." Brad said, shining the light upon the girls. Calli and Maile raised their arms to shield their eyes from the incredible glaring brighness as Calli gave a thumbs-up. 

~

"Of all the freaking nights for the power to blow, it just had to be tonight, didn't it? Isn't that a weird slice of coincidence, brother Cyphers?" Max asked as he held the cellphone light up to the modest-sized gas-powered generator, resting on a cinder-block platform beside the home's large outdoor backyard patio. Bradley yanked at the machine's ignition cord, attempting to start the power-producing device up. He'd checked the gas levels and it was topped off ahead of time, saved for moments like these. Brad nodded and glipmsed towards Maxwell, seeing him as a mere dark silhouette behind the phone's lamp glow.

"Weird coincidence, indeed. This is a Halloween first, I believe. At least we're together at home, save for Gus and Sammy. Why did he bring the ol' doggo with him to Eugene, anyways?" Brad asked.

"I guess for a little extra company? I'm surprised Maile let him go with, to be honest. Maybe that's why she's been so scared lately, no companionship from her pet. That, or she's just a gigantic pussy of a demoness."

"Try saying that right to her face sometime, shepcoon. See how far that'll get you in life." Brad said, brow cocked aslant. Max nodded and shrugged, focusing the light upon Bradley's progress.

"Touche, dude. Wait." Max froze in place, looking out towards the desolate forest beyond the house's patio. "Did you hear that?"

"Max, enough with that nonsense. I think this might need to be primed, it simply won't start right away. Has it been that long since we've run this thing? I'm surprised it didn't just boot right u-"

"Shut up!! You didn't hear that just now??" Max snapped, holding the phone towards Brad while staring into the dense copse of woods. His throat flexed and bobbed as his shepcoon whiskers trembled, chilled vapors of air emanating from his mouth in gusts of panicked breath. His un-patched right eye was wide open, jittery with fear and staring relentlessly into the mire of pure darkness. 

"Max, I think that movie scared you a lot more than you realize, dude. C'mon, let's try to pull this cord together, maybe a little extra strength is all we need to-"

A low, croupy growling cried out from around a nearby corner of Gus's home, sounding like hell incarnate. It was closer than maybe thirty yards from where Max and Brad stood. Max yelped and crouched down to his knees, hiding the phone's light in his palm. Brad also lowered himself beside the shepcoon, eyes averting towards the source of the awful sound, generator all but forgotten.

"What in the hell?" Brad whispered, feeling his heartbeat echo in his own ears. His panic had jumped to outrageous elevated proportions. All he wanted to do now was get back inside the house and stay there.

"W-w... what was that?!" 

"Dunno. A bear, maybe?"

"No bear ever made a noise that goddam freaky before, Brad. That was way more than a freaking bear." Max whispered, refusing to let his voice raise any higher in volume. 

A shrill tittering high-pitched cry rang out into the night, sending icy cold shivers down Brad and Max's spines. Rustling from nearby bushes came closer towards their position. Their eyes slowly adjusted to the very low light conditions and Max peered at a small pair of red globed, hovering in the murk of solid blackness. His breath froze in place and he remained very still, staring at what seemed to be small crimson beady eyes. 

"What would Miranda do?"

"Whaaa...?" Max replied, losing himself to the relic that now appeared to shamble closer to him. He thought he'd simply wet himself with fright.

"Miranda! Y'know, from our movie? How would she react in this circumstance?"

Max suddenly recalled a scene from the movie that stood out to him in particular, since it portrayed small critters that he found especially cute, if not entirely out of place in such a demented and low-key B-side slasher-horror flick. He gained quick influence from Brad's words and without skipping a beat, raised Maile's cellphone up to eye-level. He removed his hand-paw from the LED lamp and shone a bright burst of light into the woods. A small piercing growl echoed out and Brad jumped against the generator in reaction to what Max was already laughing at in the pitch-black darkness. A grey fox yipped and leaped into the air, turning tail and scurrying off into the thickened dense forest, refusing to honor its curiosity any further. Max nodded with a smug grin, brushing his dreadlocks free from his face, swinging them over his forehead, tucked between his long pointy German shepherd ears. 

"Some bear, eh, brother?" Max snickered, giggling aloud.

Brad caught his breath and endured a small bout of physical hysteria, letting loose some of his pent-up fright. 

"What in fuck's name?!"

"See? It was just a damn fox, bro. Nothing to it. Those guys are wild out in these woods, probably has a den nearby or something. C'mon, I'll help you get that generator started."

~

Maile and Calli sat in place, catching occasional glimpses of her phone's flashlight from outside near the patio. She breathed fast and hard, maintaining herself as best as she could. Calli combed her slender saluki finger-paws through Maile's long brown hair, rubbing her head in an attempt to keep the red panda demoness calm. 

"The darkness really scares you, huh? No worries, love. I'm here with you."

"Um... yeah... I guess so... always has, really... thanks, Calli. I appreciate your presence... I couldn't handle being here alone, not with anyone else nearby."

"Separation anxiety?"

"Huh?"

Calli cleared her throat and repeated herself. "Sounds like separation anxiety to me. It could've been from a previous circumstance where you were left alone for all the wrong reasons, MaiMai. There's simply no shame in that level of tramatic experience, though you certainly have nothing to fear. You could also be affected by that movie we were watching. Believe it or not, I too was also quite jumpy throughout the majority of it. For an older film, it still packs a wicked scary punch."

"True story. I hate movies like that, they always remind me of my family. Dad, especially."

"Woah." Calli couldn't recall the story of Maile's upbringing, since she'd never heard the red panda girl discuss it openly.

"Don't worry, you'd be kept up nights if I did tell it. I won't spare you all those gory details, Calli-dear."

"Read my mind, huh? You and Max share such weird powers, y'know that?"

"All too well, sister Crimshaw."

They heard a faint woosh of hydraulics echo through the house, along with a dry mechanic hum from the kitchen. The fridge was back on and running. A nearby light from inside the dining room switched on and Brad and Max walked back into the living room, holding Maile's cellphone. Max leaned down and handed it back to her.

"Here ya go, Miles. Hope we weren't gone for too long." Max said. Maile shook her head and smiled with swift relief.

"Not at all! I was hoping you two were able to get the generator running again."

"No problem at all! Though we did run into a small fuzzy neighbor outside."

Maile flinched in reaction to his words. Calli shook her head and stared with subtle contempt at Brad.

"Dude, don't. She's scared enough already."

"Oh, sorry! My bad, Maile. It was nothing, really. A fox was sniffing us out, we shone your light on it and off it went. No big deal. Max thought it was a bear."

"Like hell! You were the one who insisted on the bear approach!"

"As if, shepcoon."

"But it's gone now, right?" Maile asked. Brad and Max both nodded their heads in unison, granting her swift reassurance.

"Well, this is shaping out to be a very... lively Halloween night so far. Hey, let's put tea candles in our pumpkins. How's that for a smooth idea?" Calli said, trying to encourage her friends to reclaim some festive spirit. Brad smiled and flicked on another nearby light, casting a dim glow in the living room. He and Max brought over pumpkins they'd carved not even a few nights prior to the film viewing engagement, just in time for Halloween. Maile carved the face of a demon, possibly her father, maybe even her real form. Bradley carved a spooky kitten witch. Max carved a spider and Calli carved the shape of Barney the purple dinosaur into her pumpkin. When they placed candles inside and lit them with Maile's intrepid finger-paw-flicked assistance, Max giggle-snorted upon looking at the four pumpkins lined up in a row upon the dining room table. 

"Seriously, Calli? What on earth inspired you to carve that into yours, anyways?"

"Dude, you weren't scared of that big purple bastard in your youth?"

Thinking of his own father and the fate of Harper Blackburnadeaux's untimely demise which landed Maxwell in a boarding school filled with older juvenile rapists at a young age, he shrugged and shook his head. "I actually never got a chance to watch him at all. So no, not too scared."

"Consider yourself lucky, shepcoon. The covenant school I attended in my youth always seemed to play Barney for the children. Not so much on any televisions, but boy, we had plenty of vinyl records lying around. That sort of thing stays with you as a child, trust me."

"I can only imagine." Brad said. 

A knock rang out from the front door, causing everyone to jump and cry out loud. Maile was the loudest. Brad and Max both turned their heads towards the front door, noticing the porch light was on. Through a blurry window embedded into the door, they noticed a strange green figure, blotted out and standing in place. Max's eyepatch began to glow with a stark purple iridescent light that trembled from his left eye socket. Brad shushed the anthro girls and rolled his shoulders, cracking his knuckles and creaking his neck. He walked towards the door to answer it.

"Dude, are you freaking nuts?!" Max exclaimed, heart racing at breakneck speed in his chest. He felt veins popping and protruding across his forehead and his breathing escalated to a state of hyperventilation. 

"Probably a trick-or-treater. They still come around every so often during Halloween, y'know?" Brad said, voice eerily calm in light of the low lighting. The generator was working hard outside to keep them bathed in sweet electricity, which might have not been enough. 

"Yeah, or a freaking serial stalker with a big-ass pickaxe ready to ram into our damn skulls." Max said, brushing at his tail with nervous repetition. Calli hugged Maile, trembling with fear while knelt upon the leather couch. The saluki girl kissed her forehead and offered her relief in the best way she knew how, by way of maternal consoling. 

Brad hesitated for a moment to turn the doorknob and pull the front door open, pondering at Max's suggestion. They were, after all, way out in the middle of the woods in Grants Pass, a secluded cabin with limited commerce and virtually no power, save for a running generator. Who could say what he'd open the door to?

Another knock, louder than before, rapped at the door. A series of five consecutive pounds. No doorbell could be heard, since the generator didn't reach that far quite yet. 

Brad opened the door to a large green dragon stood on the front porch, holding a small orange plastic pumpkin bucket with a black spider-adorned handle swinging from its long-clawed grip. 

"Trick'r'treat, y'all!" A familiar voice cried out in a smooth southern drawl, a lilt most familiar to the gang, especially Maxwell.

"Oh my fu- Darrel?! Dude, you nearly gave us a damn heart attack!" Max cried out to his foxcoon cousin, dressed up like a large green dragon. "How'd you even find your way here in all this darkness?!"

"Followed the path by moonlight, lil'cuz!" Darrel said, pointing out towards the front yard's driveway. Brad and Max both saw it clear as day, only illuminated by a stark luminous pale blue glow. Evidently, the moon had come out of hiding for the foxcoon to arrive with impromptu timing. 

"Darrel!! Our power blew out, we're running off a generator right now!" Calli cried out to him, reassuring Maile that there was nothing to be afraid of, it was only Max's cousin. Maile took a deep inhaled breath and blew out a sigh of relief, rubbing her eyes and yanking her hair back into a bundled ponytail.

"Sorry we don't have candy to spare, ol' buddy, but come on in anyways. Gus is out of town and its just us. We were watching Rabid Fiasco Cannibals before the damn power blew out, probably a tree branch that fell on an electric wire somewhere near the interstate. That happens sometimes." Brad said, closing the door behind Darrel's swishing foxcoon tail, covered by a spindly dragon's tail pouch.

"Y'all ain't got a thing to worry 'bout over that, check this out!" Darrel hopped and skipped in a dainty fashion towards the dining room table, irritating Maxwell to high-holy heaven. He turned his bucket upside-down and spilled its contents clear across the table. Plenty of wrapped hard candies and bagged goodies slid onto its surface. No chocolate to be seen, since most folks understood the threat that chocolate held against canines, anthro or feral. 

"Dude, you hit the motherlode!" Maile said, eyes wide and glowing green. She'd forgotten all about being scared of the power outage, now fixated upon the variety of treats that Darrel had delivered unto their humble abode. 

"Go on, take your pick, but don't eat it all at once - y'all might get cavities." Darrel said, clicking his tongue and giving Maile a friendly wink. Maile scoffed and tousled his hair with playful sisterly determination.

"As if! I'm a demoness, dude. We don't suffer from sugar debilitations like you mere mortals do all too often."

"Yeah, if we were all demons, we'd all be quite lax about our sugar intake, wouldn't we?" Max said, attempting to promote reason and logic. 

"I even got your favorite, cuz!" Darrel said, wrapping his arm around Max's neck and giving him playful head-noogies. Max growled and tried to yank Darrel free from his head. 

"Gah! Cut it out, jerk-wad! Y'know how I hate it when you do that!"

Brad unpeeled a strawberry hard candy and slipped it into his mouth, humming with satisfaction. "Deee-lish. You have delivered tonight, fair dragon. Thanks for the candied goods! Hey, wanna hang out for a bit, wait for the power to come back on? We can probably jam with a board game in the meantime until then or something."

"Yeah, or tell spooky ghost stories." Calli said. Maile flinched and cowered into the couch's backrest, covering her face. Calli smileld and rubbed the panda-girl's head with considerate tender loving grace. "Maile, that was a joke, I'd never scare you like that."

"Woah, panda-girl! Y'all ain't a big fan of this kinda scene, huh?" Darrel said, especially surprised. He thought Maile would be most certainly down with the Halloween vibes. The red panda girl just shook her head and peered up at Darrel with big, puppy-dog eyes. Darrel just snickered and waved his hand-paw, cocking it at his wrist. "No big deal, darlin'! We won't do anything too freaky if you'd rather not."

"Yeah, like watch lame-ass horror movies. In the dark. On Halloween." Max snapped aloud. Brad and Calli glared at him with stern frowns. "What, it was your guys' idea to play that dumb shit!"

Maile stood up and stretched her arms up over her head. She decided to quit acting like a little sissy and make the best of her Halloween night with her friends and closest cohorts. 

"No worries, guys. As scary as that movie was, it was also quite thrilling to watch it alongside you. I'm sure the power will come back on eventually. For now, shall we play Battleship or Monopoly? I think we might even have Sequence lying around."

"I'm game for Sequence! Haven't played that in a dog's age!" Calli said. 

"Y'all ain't got Cards for Humanity?" Darrel asked. Brad and Max shook their heads. 

"Sorry champ, Gus isn't into that one as much as we are, so he refuses to even keep it around. I'm all for Sequence!" Brad said.

"Screw it, let's play Sequence until we get non-gennie-made juice back!" Max said, heading towards a nearby supply closet to retrieve the playing-card board game. Maile led Darrel by hand-paw to the dining room table, where they would all sit in place and snack on the foxcoon dragon's earnings while spending quality time together, devoid of any scary movies. 

~

From outside, another pair of beady red eyes stared through the rear sliding glass door, leading to the backyard patio. The fox squeaked and yelped aloud, scratching its belly with its hind leg and peering with caution at the large noisy running mechanical device, curious to see how much longer it would stay running before it finally died off from consuming its entire supply of gasoline. 

END