Daily Life With A Lilim: Halloween Special Part 1

~Trick Or Treat?~

Halloween might be one of the few holidays that Stanley was ambivalent towards. And by that he meant he actually acknowledged it as opposed to ignoring its existence. In some cases he actually looked forward to it but only because some of the best content can come out of this particular holiday. Horror movies (when they are done right) were something of a guilty pleasure for him and don’t even get him started on the games.

Ever since Five Nights at Freddy’s blew up on a budget price of the first combo at your local burger joint Indie developers have a field day with horror games. Personally while he thought the first game was a charming game the franchise has since blown up into a massive garbage fire and the content creators who do playthroughs are fucking obnoxious man children overreacting to squeeze as much out of the franchise as they can in the same vain as the developers.

The only truly positive thing to come out of FNAF blowing up was the fact that it put Indie games in the spotlight. If that game can spawn a multimillion dollar franchise then who’s to say someone else couldn’t catch lightning in a bottle? The result was mostly forgettable god awful low effort clones but there have been some worthwhile horror games over the years.

Outside of the traditional horror game scenes are the themed events in some triple AAA games. Even old games no longer at height of their relevance can make a comeback with a decent enough themed event. A great example is Rainbow Six Siege: Outbreakbut Ubisoft being Ubisoft they took what could have been there annual ‘Pumpkin Spice Latte’ and ruined it.

But back to Halloween it was one of the few holidays where Stan willingly participates in the local tradition and no he does not hang up decorations or dress in costume. He does something much more important and worthwhile…he hands out candy to kids when they trick-or-treat.

Shocking yes but the reason behind his action was partly due to sentimentality and a bit of sympathy on his part. Some of Stanley’s fondest childhood memories were of Halloween specifically trick-or-treating. Dressing up in cheap store bough or handmade costumes going door to door and receiving free candy, it was great. Then he and his friends would take back their haul to whoever house is closest before sorting, trading and occasionally tossing one or two of their bounty.

Since Stanley had something of a personal attachment to the act of trick-or-treating he didn’t half-ass this. There was no setting boxes or buckets of candy outside and letting the kids have at it because expecting kids to see a bucket of candy laying out on your doorstep with no protection and expecting them to take one is supremely naïve. Even if he didn’t have an inclination not to trust most people as far as he can throw them Stanley has seen way too many videos of kids and even parents just stealing the entire candy supply of well meaning yet naïve people. So with that in mind he always does the arduous task of getting off his ass to greet the trick-or-treaters and hand out the candy himself.

Little did Stanley know or even realize until much later but this single act had far reaching implications that he himself wouldn’t realize until much later. See Stanley has lived in this neighborhood for a couple of years and his lifestyle choices have made an impression on the general neighborhood populace. Being a grouchy, unkempt, anti-social, hermit who only ever leaves his home every couple of days tend to create rumors amongst the neighbors who have all at least have a passing relation with each other. Stanley was pretty sure if he was ethnic he would have had the cops called on him by a ‘concerned neighbor’ at least once.

Sounds callous but that’s just the world we live in these days. Even still he’s pretty sure there was at least one guy who thought he was doing something illegal but eh, the cops have never shown up to his door before so its whatever. Until Ezraphel Halloween was the only time Stanley had any form of prolonged contact with his neighbors and even then it’s mostly the kids. Thing about that is the impressions of children can easily be impacted with continuous generosity.

In Stanley’s case he was giving out candy during Halloween which while it was something almost everyone was doing Stanley did something that most others didn’t. In his quest to ensure that the kids have as good a Halloween as possible just as he did Stanley broke his own rules. As a kid one of the worst things that can ever been done to him on Halloween was having a subpar candy haul at the end of the night. For some reason there would always be those few assholes who would try their best to ruin his night with cheap and/or expired candy that was inedible and best thrown out.

Worse than those assholes were the lame ass dickheads promoting ‘healthy eating habits’ by giving out fruit (fucking fruit) or that dentist who gave out dental floss…dental floss. Have you ever seen a kid give a grown adult a “the fuck is this?” type of look? That was him a decade and a half ago and he didn’t care what anyone said that guy definitely deserved to have a bag of dog turd left on his porch and lit on fire.

It was due to experiences like this that as a kid Stanley vowed that when he got older he would not become one of those people and the same held through for now. So every Halloween Stanley swallowed his reservations (of which there was surprisingly little) to go the extra several miles and shill out the extra cash to buy the good shit in bulk. Only high quality name brand candies are being distributed from the Berkowitz household and he wasn’t skimping on the amount either.

Naturally the kids receiving the candy were all for it starting as a welcome novelty in the first year it became an anticipated curiosity in the second year and by the third year it was a beloved expectation. Now Stanley didn’t think for one second that his once-a-year generosity raised his social status in the eyes of the neighborhood nor did he really care for being popular amongst children (especially in this day and age) but at least he can say for certain that he wouldn’t be the reason for kids having a shitty Halloween.

Nor would he be the victim of any tricks some of the little shits would cook up if he pissed them off. He would like not to have dog turd set on fire and left at his front door thank you very much.

And that’s the excuse/explanation he gave to Ezraphel when she asked him about Halloween at the start of October when the advertisements caught her attention. Naturally a holiday where people celebrate monsters (in a fashion) would grab her attention but she was really sold on the idea after she found out people dress up as said monsters with the kids going around the neighborhood asking for and receiving free candy. To that end Ezraphel has taken the time to studying the holiday in detail. He could pinpoint the exact moment when she finished too since one morning he woke up to find the entire house adorned with conjured Halloween decorations.

Though he was initially annoyed Stanley didn’t exactly mind the festive decorations since she didn’t go overboard with them. That wasn’t the only thing festive either, case in point the two were currently having dinner which consisted of spaghetti and ‘eyeballs’ with a side of garlic bread ‘fingers’ which will be drunk with ‘Witches brew’ lemonade and for dessert she made ‘ghost’ cupcakes.

It was times like this where Stanley understood why people take pictures of their food because this entire week Ezraphel has been serving out meals with her creativity cranking up to eleven.

“Stanley can we go trick-or-treating for Halloween?”

Stanley paused and with Ezraphel’s expectant look upon him he took a moment to ponder her question and weigh the pros and cons before giving answer-not really he already knew the answer.

“No.”

“But why not~?” she whined.

“Because the reason you’d want to go trick-or-treating is so that you can get Halloween themed candy for your stash” he clarified while taking a bite out of an eyeball.

This year like the ones before Stanley bought Halloween candy for trick-or-treat and naturally Ezraphel wanted some because she’s insatiable in more ways than one. Luckily he was a master at ignoring her attempts at emotionally manipulating him into giving her some and stonewalled her attempts at stealing some by threatening her with severe punishment.

“T-that’s not true at all!” she stuttered a bit before catching the deadpan look he gave her as he chewed his food “okay maybe a little” she mumbled “but I also want to do it because it seems like fun.”

Stanley couldn’t help but sigh. One of the things he realized with his girlfriend was that Ezraphel was the type of person to do something if it seems fun and there was a worthwhile payoff for the effort.

“I’m sure it does but the thing is trick-or-treating is for kids.”

*Flash*

“’I should have seen this coming.’

“Ta da~” a now much younger and smaller Ezraphel exclaimed while striking a pose as she stood on the chair.

Stanley didn’t outwardly react to this immediately as he was struck with the realization that for the very first time in their relationship he was now taller than her without being on an elevated position. He had to take a moment to let this new sensation sink in then…

“The answer is still no.”

“Please” she whined giving him the puppy dog eyes.

*Stare*

Stanley matched her stare with a deadpan glare.

*Stare Harder*

Surprisingly he broke the glare even sooner than she expected which was odd but she would take this victory.

Reaching over the table Stanley began patting her on the head which for some reason brought out a rather weird reaction from the Lilim who leaned into his touch her tail subconsciously wagging behind her.

‘T-this isn’t so bad.’

“That’s adorable” he admitted and her expression lit up with a smile “fine if you want to go trick-or-treating I won’t stop you.”

“Yay!”

Retracting his hand he began going back into his steak “yeah you have fun with that. I supposed I’ll just stay here and hand the candy out by myself…again.”

Not that he minded doing that.

That had her freeze “eh?”

“What?”

“You’re not coming with me?”

“Why would you ever believe I would?”

“But you said you love trick-or-treating.”

“Yeah when I was a kid.”

“So…”

“Ez, I’m not one of those old guys going through a mid life crisis and looking to relive my youth” he deadpanned “I liked Halloween back then because it gave me a break from dealing with all the bullshit in school and I liked trick-or-treating because I can get free candy without begging my mom or budgeting my allowance. Nowadays I can take as much breaks as I want and buy as much candy as I want.”

Ezraphel grumbled a bit before offering a compromise “then can you at least go with me.”

“Nope.”

“Why not?”

“Let’s just forget the fact that people would wonder why I’m babysitting a kid for some reason out of the blue and the fact that it would leave the house devoid of anyone to hand candy out to the kids when they inevitably visit the house.”

People wouldn’t have cared so much last year but Ezraphel had firmly established her presence in the neighborhood. Apparently those times she went out to explore it wasn’t just under the cover of an invisibility spell, she actually made some friends with the neighbors much like she did in the local stores they frequent for groceries. And unfortunately she was not at all shy about fingering him as her significant other, he knew this because people started calling him by his real name…Ezraphel’s boyfriend.

“But I’m not going to kid myself the main reason for why I’m declining is simply because it is not worth the hassle.”

At his answer the loli Ezraphel was now pouting which made for an adorable sight however Stanley was unfazed by this. To him all kids were scheming little shits until proven otherwise and in today’s climate they’ve been never been able to prove otherwise.

“And I can’t convince you otherwise?”

“Why are you so adamant about this? I thought you’d want to be the one to greet the kids.”

Ezraphel frowned, it’s not as if she didn’t know this but…

“Wait a minute” Stanley’s eyes narrowed “this wasn’t some scheme to turn me into a kid again is it?”

“Um…”

‘Shit’ she silently cursed ‘how did he know?’

“Your silence betrays you” he remarked dryly.

“M-maybe”

“And we have confirmation” he looked up to the ceiling at this point he was exasperated and it was reflected in his voice “Ez…what the hell?”

In a flash she was back to her original age and appearance looking equal part bashful and remorseful “I’m sorry for deceiving you Stanley it’s just that…well…”

“What?”

“You hardly talk about your past and when you do its very negative but when you were explaining Halloween and your childhood trick-or-treating it was the first time I’ve seen you genuinely happy to be talking about your past.”

“I’m a pessimistic guy by nature Ez, you know this.”

“I do but” she bit her lip “I feel that it is wrong not have anything positive to say about your childhood.”

“So let me see if I understand this. You wanted me to go trick-or-treating so you could witness me living out one of the standout ‘happy moments’ of my youth?”

“Pretty much” she shrugged a bit while wincing “are you mad?”

Stanley couldn’t help but cringe, not at her words but the fact that he was apparently such a pessimist that his girlfriend had to concoct a scheme like this in order to fish for positivity.

“I’m not mad, maybe a little confused” Stanley pinched the bridge of his nose “at least you didn’t decide to turn me into a kid while I was sleeping or something stupid like that.”

“Oh no! I would never betray your trust like that” Ezraphel retorted quickly.

‘Too quickly’

“Thank God for that”

Though in truth it wouldn’t surprise him if that particular plan was on the table but decided not to call her out on it. What matters was that she went with her better judgment and simply asked him permission instead of going through the drama that would cause.

“I’m gonna be real here Ez this plan of yours would never have worked. The reason why I liked trick-or-treating was because it was the only time I could get free candy without begging my mom or budget my allowance.”

He also had friends but that’s beside the point.

“Nowadays if I want candy I can just buy it myself, which I did and will be giving it out to actual trick-or-treaters because they deserve it.”

Ezraphel didn’t look satisfied by that but nodded all the same “m’kay”

“You know I always hated that idea of ‘reliving the past’ it’s all such bullshit”

Real talk: from an objective collective standpoint Stanley’s problems with his past may not be as bad as he was making it out to be. But that’s not the point if his past made him take drastic actions that would shape character for years to come then there is no way in hell he can look at them through an objective lens.

It is for this reason why Stanley didn’t dwell on his past once he moved on, not even the good times. He’s made every attempt in his power to completely divorce himself from his past and so Ezraphel’s actions while coming from a good place was doomed to fail from the start.

Stanley took a deep breath because what he’s about to say next is the epitome of cringe pulled straight out of an anime

“Instead of going through the trouble of re-enacting my ‘happy childhood years’ wouldn’t it better if you focused on making happy memories with me now?”

‘God I want to ram my head through a wall.’

So cringe and yet it had the desired effect on Ezraphel who looked as if his words had just blown her mind.

“You’re right” she whispered shaking her head before a huge smile appeared on her face “you are absolutely right Stanley! I should focus on making happy memories with you~”

“Gonna have to put a pin on that for tonight. I’ve got some work related business to take care of and it’s going to take all night.”

“Does it have to be tonight?”

“This particular work I’ve always done before Halloween so I can give out candy to trick-or-treaters.”

“Hmm, I suppose it can’t be helped then” she begrudgingly admitted “but since I didn’t get my treat I hope you’re prepared for a trick.”

For some reason he felt dread…why?

“Ominous” he blandly replied while getting back into his pasta.

He figured she would do some Halloween themed kink play which he was cool with.

‘As long as it’s not some Hellraiser-type BDSM bullshit.’

He was not prepared for what Ezraphel had in mind for her ‘trick.’