The thief sneered as he watched Al'Kuna walk out of her
NeoHome on Halloween night.
"Take care guys," she called, "don't party too
hard." She was answered by laughter from within the NeoHome and chorus of goodbye's
before the door closed behind her.
Finally the lookout arrived and crouched next
to the thief. "She's on the ship leaving Neopia. She won't be back until tomorrow,"
Lookout assured Thief.
"Excellent. Keep an eye out for the cops. I'll
clean out her account." Thief crept to the front door and picked up a small,
well-hidden recorder. He stopped it, pressed rewind, and then played it back.
The simple password came clearly to his ears and he snickered to himself. How
stupid. Anyone could guess that password within their allotted four tries.
He muttered the password to the locking mechanism
of the NeoHome and swaggered into the house.
***
Outside, Lookout leaned against the house grumbling to himself. Thief had
better give him his fair share of the loot for keeping watch on this totally
empty street. Even as he swept the street again with his eyes, three shadows
rose around him and knocked him to the ground. His shout of alarm dying in his
throat as all the breath was knocked out of him. The shadows closed in.
***
"Trick or treat," Thief snickered greedily to
himself. He made his way to the deposit box in a dimly lit room that was all
decorated up for a party. He pulled open the deposit box and reached in to take
the first paint brush out.
"Trick I believe. Yes... definitely trick,"
growled a deep, thick voice from behind him, and a black shaggy figure materialised
out of the shadows.
"Lookout!" Thief bellowed in fury. "Oh don't
bother. We've already... dealt with him." The flashlight in Thief's hands trembled
as it was pointed to the shaggy figure. If it had started out as a Shadow Gelert,
it certainly didn't look as if it had finished that way. More like a Weregelert;
covered in shaggy black fur and armed with outsized talons and long sharp canines.
Something thick and red coated its muzzle and long sharp teeth. Its eyes seemed
to glow hungrily as it looked the thief over.
"Indeed," snarled another voice from his other
side. This one had been a cloud Lupe once, but now the vibrant colours had paled
from a long lack of exposure to light. Long vampire fangs overhung her lower
lip and were also coated in the red stuff, which looked a lot like blood. A
long vampire's cloak draped over her shoulders and her yellow eyes seemed to
entrance Thief's eyes with sinister glee.
"I'm... still hungry," the Weregelert growled
thickly, and then like lightning, he leaped for Thief's face with a rasping
snarl.
Thief's scream of terror ended abruptly and
silence descended in the front room.
***
"I want to thank you guys for letting us set up our sting in your NeoHome,"
the Shoyru Chief of Police said warmly, smiling at LaCody, who was dressed up
as the fire faerie.
"It's no trouble at all. I'm just glad it worked."
LaCody smiled back.
"He fainted," Mercolagos growled thickly around
the oversized fangs in his mouth, as he stormed into the kitchen, dragging an
unconscious Thief by the collar of his shirt, "I can't believe he fainted. What
a wimp."
Merc licked the strawberry jam off of his lips
and teeth with a satisfied slurp, "Oh yeah, and LaCody, you might want to turn
up the heat for those jelly doughnuts for the next batch. They're still kinda
messy. But I can't fault their effects.
Alkuna chuckled and licked her lips as well,
"A tasty Halloween effect though. I kind of like the idea of strawberry jam
as fake blood. It really does thicken like real blood." She brushed at her pale
fur, which had been faded out with flour.
The Chia police put handcuffs on Thief's wrists
and dragged the two hackers out to the squad cars. "Well I think that's that,"
the Chief said, "All except for one thing." He turned and gave LaCody a stern
glare that slowly melted into a pout, "How about those cupcakes you promised
me?"
LaCody laughed and pulled a fresh batch of chocolate
cupcakes out of the oven and set them out to cool off for the frosting.
"Trick or teat?" she smiled at him.
"Mmm. Treat. Definitely treat..." the Chief
chuckled, eyeing the cupcakes eagerly.
The End | 
