The moon towered California as little kids, adults, and simple-minded teenagers prance around the city carrying little buckets filled with candy.

Doorbells rang throughout the milky twilight.

Its sweet tune enticed the children, but deep inside a melody lies a warning everyone ignores.

Bright orange, brilliant yellow, and blood-red leaves tumbled along the white limestone sidewalk.

Laughter and cries moistened the somber sky; though Halloween is an affluent holiday full of chastity and childhood, the four kids distanced themselves from the rest of the world.

Gobbling down their greasy popcorn, the four children watched every single episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? on the television set.

If you haven't seen the show, it follows an unusual premise. It is about a group of young kids who call themselves The Midnight Society.

In every episode, they would gather around the campfire and tell each other scary stories that have been submitted by their secret organization.

Curling beside her scared boyfriend, Brooke watches the television series with intrigue while draining her fizzy orange soda.

"Whoa." Nessa's eyes widened at the sight of a huge, terrifying clown coming out of door #6. "That clown guy was fucking crazy."

Her teeth tore through gummies, chocolate M&Ms, and Twizzlers. Feet tapped anxiously on the floor, irking Johnny a little.

Nevertheless, he slides his greasy hand in Nessa's and squeezed it tight until she stops fidgeting.

The atmosphere is cold. Black aura encloses the four children, and the only light they have is the glowing television perched on the plywood table.

But somehow, the teenagers felt safer in this environment than the outside world.

As soon as episode two was finished, Johnny shuddered. "Jesus, that clown freak was way scarier than IT."

An alarmed Caleb pivots his head to confront Johnny.

"Dude!" he exclaimed. "I told you not to bring up that fucking movie again!"

Brooke and Nessa both shook their heads in dismay. Smooth hands rifled through buttery popcorn.

A couple of months ago, Johnny dared Caleb to sit through the entire movie of IT without taking a bathroom break.

The teenage telepath accepted the challenge; but instead of celebrating his victory, Caleb refused to take a shower for three months.

"Caleb does have a point," Nessa agrees, munching on her snack. "You did make him shit his pants."

"Daring you was an innocent mistake," said Johnny, adjusting his bottom to meet Caleb's stern eyes.

Nessa sets down her greasy glass bowl on the coffee table.

"Yeah, no shit." she snorts.

A surprised Johnny, Caleb, and Brooke stare in Nessa's way.

"What?" she licked the butter from her sticky fingers. "I am just preaching the truth."

A nineteen-year-old swordsman rolls his eyes to the ceiling.

"Anyway, I am sorry," Johnny tells Caleb. "I didn't realize how sensitive you are around clowns."

Brooke lowers her eyebrows at the bickering boys.

"Guys," she kindly scolds. "Please don't talk during the show."

In response to Brooke's discomfort, Caleb kisses her on the right side of her forehead.

"Sorry, babe." he giggles nervously.

Sighing very softly, Brooke grabs a handful of milk chocolate M&Ms from a brown packet, then leans her head on his left shoulder.

"It's all good, sweetie," she says to Caleb.

Nessa pretends to gag, whereas her older sibling nudges her on the shoulder with his elbow.

"Ugh, knock it off." Johnny scolds her.

Nessa made a disgruntled face. "What? You know how much I hate that corny romance crap."

"Shut up." Johnny's eyes glued to the ending credits filling the screen.

Back in Idlewild, he used to date Brooke during their sophomore year until their romance begins to dwindle.

Now, they became close companions.

After finishing her chocolate candies, Brooke stretches out her arms, slithered out of her boyfriend's embrace, ejects the fourth tape, and pushes the next one into the slot.

Together, the four kids continued watching scary movies until it was midnight.

Masked children and adults both held hands.

Soft and hardened candies shimmied in dark orange bags. Naive laughter died like a small candle in the wind.

After finishing Movie Night, the four children cleaned up their remains.

The Phoenix siblings swept up the kernels; Brooke washed the greasy bowls and cups with soapy sponges, while an exhausted Caleb positioned the VHS cassette tape back inside its cover.

"Well," Johnny yawned. "I have fought ghosts, sea monsters, and horrifying witches. But I never saw anything scary like those things in the movie."

"Yeah," Nessa nods in agreement. "The Tale of the Dark Music creeped me out."

"The Tale of Watcher's Woods sent chills down my spine." Brooke shivered. "Those poor old ladies."

She dried the bowls with a red dish towel and placed them on the rack.

Nessa scrunched her face. "'Those poor old ladies' were witches, Brooke. And not the good kind."

"The Tale of the Ghastly Grinner is one crazy episode. God, I think I am going to have nightmares for the rest of my life."

Johnny scowls in disbelief. He gathers the golden brown popcorn seeds with his broom before dragging them into the dustpan.

"Last I checked, you weren't exactly cowering like a chicken." he reminds her.

"Yeah, I was." Nessa carried the dustpan over to the trash can. "I was holding onto your arm the entire time. Don't you remember?"

Her older brother tries to remember Nessa gripping onto his arm, but all he can think of is her breath reeking of sour gummies and dark chocolate.

"Sorry," he chuckled, pushing his dark brown curls out of his eyes. "I guess I was so afraid that I barely noticed it."

That's when Nessa kissed Johnny on his left cheek. "Hey, I am not going anywhere, big brother. You can count on that."

At the end of the day, the children cleaned up the living room, changed into their pajamas, and wished each other good night.

Johnny and Nessa slept in different beds, while Brooke and Caleb shared the same bedroom.

They have been dating for almost two years, 10 months, and thirty-one days, and yet their relationship is healthier than my parents.

Adventurous, rebellious, and loyal, they were like the adolescent versions of Bonnie and Clyde. However, the couple seeks pleasure in helping their friends than helping themselves to the stolen loot.

"I still can't believe Halloween is over." her boyfriend comes out of the shower, sporting a white tank top and soft gray pants. "Time went by pretty fast."

Hip-hop artists and movie posters cloaked soft yellow walls.

On the oak brown desk table, old notebooks, letters, and inked pens were replaced with old yearbooks, Tiger Beat magazines, forty cassette singles, a variety of firearms, and gun oil containers.

Brooke's tie-dye sarong hung on the tough brown leather chair, which stood close to the white closet.

Next to the closet is a deep brown bookshelf filled with timeless James Baldwin's novels and Caleb's favorite records.

Brooke settled on the large queen-sized mattress with a carved wooden bedpost and sun and moon bedding.

"You okay, babe?" asked Caleb, drying his hair with a towel.

His girlfriend smiles; she applied lotion across her bare arms and legs.

Since half of her clothes are in the laundry, Caleb loans Brooke his oversized Wu-Tang T-shirt and deep red shorts.

As he plopped down beside her, Caleb asks if she is alright.

"Yeah," Brooke sighs sadly. "I am just a little tired, that's all."

Stretching out his arms, Caleb slithers in bed next to Brooke and plants a kiss on her lips.

Slow fingers tread along her deep brown skin; cocoa butter and lilacs peeled off her curly Afro.

Caleb strokes Brooke's naked shoulders and kisses her ears; comforting whispers made Brooke's stomach perform somersaults.

"I love you so much," he mumbled.

Brooke smiles, then smoothed his collarbone with her finger. "I love you."

She curled beside Caleb, closed her eyes, and slept on the mattress.

Melancholy and hooting owls. The gushing rain eased the echoing silence. Caleb's warm hand caresses Brooke's tiny waist.

Waves tumbled on the coarse sand. Seagulls cawed in the sullen sky. At first, the starry scenery is tranquil; no one disturbed the house or its inhabitants.

But as the scorching sun appeared through the clouds, its bright beam of light forced the children out of their peaceful slumber.

The horrendous alarm clock aggravated an adamant Johnny.

He tries to shut the alarm off, but the noise continues screaming in his ears until Johnny angrily rips the cord out of the plug.

"Jesus Christ," he sighed in annoyance.

Johnny slides himself out of the covers and onto the silky brown carpet. His curly hair is a complete mess; purple circles formed around his eyes.

While the others reluctantly left their beds, Johnny wanders out of his room to brush his teeth.

His gray Nirvana T-shirt covered a section of Johnny's loose blue pajama pants. Awkward feet creaked against the unstable floor.

His exhausted eyes lazily stare at the folded clothes sitting on his chair. Approaching the chair, Johnny placed his hand on the stack to discover that they had just been in the dryer.

"Damn," Johnny thought to himself.

How Brooke has the energy to get up quicker than the others is beyond him.

Sighing some more, Johnny decides to check on Nessa to see if she is still up.

Opening Nessa's door, the boy clasped the knob, twists it, and swiftly opens the door to find Nessa painting her finger and toenails in deep scarlet.

Unlike his bedroom, Nessa's is chaotic.

Empty blue walls filled with grunge posters and records: Nirvana, Screaming Trees, Stone Temple Pilots, and Pearl Jam.

Dark flannels and wrinkled clothes spread across the floor. Her desk table covered in ancient notebooks and endless collages of Nessa's celebrity crush Eddie Vedder.

Her dark gray bedding is covered in drawings, old Barbie dolls, and photos of the siblings' blissful parents.

Pushing her hair away from her hazel eyes, Nessa applied more red polish on her right, fat toe until she was finished.

"Morning, Johnny." she greets warmly. "How did you sleep?"

"Terribly." he waddled around the dirty pile of clothes so he can talk to Nessa. "Do you ever clean your room?"

Nessa caps her nail polish bottle and casts Johnny an I-really-don't-care look.

"You told me you were going to clean it up." he reminds her, yanking the small bottle of nail polish from Nessa's hands.

Much to his bewilderment, Nessa snatches the nail polish out of his hands. "I only said that so you would get off my back."

Vanessa places the bottle on her delicate nightstand, retrieved her stack of folded clothes off the mattress, and approaches the closet so she can get dressed.

Johnny irritably swivels his eyes.

"Well, clean your room," he instructs her. "I am going downstairs to check on Brooke."

"Aye, Aye, Momma's Boy." Nessa teased.

She did a mocking sailor's salute, prompting her nineteen-year-old brother to flip his finger in retort.

Unamused, a sluggish Nessa jumps back on her bed and began peeling off her shirt.

Warm bedsheets rest near her bare feet; her hands spread across the beddings while her older brother Johnny waddled out of the bedroom and begin brushing his teeth in the bathroom.

Tangy mint and hot water. Foggy glass, wet face, and heavy breathing.

It reminded Johnny of the time when his friends and family threw him a birthday party.

Though he was showered with gifts and food, Johnny didn't feel alleviated. He was like Peter Pan-unwilling to change.

The more he matured, the more anxious Johnny gets.

Now and then, he wished he could pick an age and just stay there. That way, Johnny wouldn't have to deal with puberty, agony, and ugly lines on his face.

But Johnny knew it will never happen.

Minutes after brushing his teeth, he gets himself dressed. However, as Johnny shuts the door behind him, he could hear someone singing in the shower.

"What the hell?" Johnny thinks to himself as he awkwardly shifts down the hallway.

The singing came from two doors across from his; it sounded loud and off-key, but Johnny can understand the lyrics:

"Baby, I know you're hurting
Right now you feel like you could never-"

"Caleb?" Johnny knocks on the bathroom door with his left fist, prompting the singer to stop.

"What?" the abrupt sound of shower curtains almost deafened Johnny's ears.

"Brooke's cooking breakfast," he informs Caleb. "So, when you are finished singing off-key, come downstairs."

Turning off the shower, an offended Caleb scoffed: "I don't sing off-key!"

Johnny smirked. "You kinda do. And Nessa thought I was a terrible guitar player."

"You still are!" Nessa shouts from her room.

Ignoring her, Johnny came downstairs to find Brooke making breakfast.

Her hair transformed into wild curls; she dons a soft green floral babydoll dress, dark shorts, and brown heels. Colorful rings secured her fingers.

"If you're hungry, please be careful," she tells Johnny. "I had a vision of you slipping on an egg yolk."

Johnny blinked at her for a moment. "You kidding?"

"Nope." Brooke placed the bacon grease on the white napkin. "You face planted on the floor."

"Oh, Jesus." Johnny thinks to himself. "It's a good thing she told me."

Brooke expressed a tired sigh. "Can you call Nessa and Caleb down here? Their breakfast is getting cold."

Johnny circles his eyes to the ceiling.

"Are they getting dressed?" asked Brooke.

"Well, you know Nessa is not a morning person," sighed Johnny. "And Caleb is spending three hours singing 'I Will Never Break Your Heart' in the shower."

Brooke couldn't help but giggle. Her beau is a huge fan of the Backstreet Boys, but he is too stubborn to admit it.

Caleb wraps his arms around her waist and kisses the left side of Brooke's neck. Today, he wears a colorful Coogi sweater, ripped jeans, and a pair of Red Air Jordans.

"Morning, princess." he murmured. "How are you?"

A cheerful Brooke strokes Caleb's dreadlocks.

"I am doing fine, Sunshine." she beamed.

"Jesus Christ." Nessa grunts, taking her seat on the table. "Can you two stop?"

Caleb tries to snatch the vegan bacon strip off a plate when Brooke slaps his hand.

"You'll eat it when I am finished." she reminds him.

Johnny laughs as he sets the table. His black Soundgarden vintage T-shirt flopped in the breeze; ripped jeans were wrinkled while his black Converse sneakers were caked in mud.

"Come on, Caleb." he urged. "Let Martha Stewart have her fun."

Brooke shoots him a callous look while pouring vegan eggs onto a plate.

"Haha," she says sarcastically. "That is so funny, Johnny. You should be in Def Comedy Jam."

Nessa and Caleb both snickered under their breaths, annoying Johnny in the process.

"Anyway, time to eat!" Brooke picks up the plates of food, placed them in front of her friends, and hands them each a napkin.

Afterward, she joins her friends as they eat their breakfast in silence.