Trial of Courage
Trial of Courage - Halloween KidgeFest 2018 Day 3 Prompt Fill Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Pairing: Kidge; implied/ referenced Allurance and Hunay. Summary: I was gonna do something else for today, but it would have taken me even longer - and I still need to finish the first prompt - so hopefully some goofy shenanigans involving the Kidgelings will suffice as a nice alternative? And maybe an apology because Wowzers this other fic is gonna be a doozy. Standard Disclaimer: If you read and enjoy this, please give it a like/ reblog so I know if I should write more.
They had walked past this house many times over the years. On a normal day, it was just a nice house where a nice old couple lived. But on one night a year, it became something completely different. On this night every year, it seemed to grow to be two times its normal size, looming over the rest of the quaintly decorated neighborhood. There were dim lights all around the house, in varying shades of dark purple, red, and orange, casting odd shadows here and there. The windows of the second floor of the house were covered with wooden boards. It looked like on the windows had been smashed up, too.
Rumors flee from the house, about ghosts haunting the place that got real restless on Halloween. The legends said that Joey Thornton, the son of the couple who lived there, had summoned a demon that threw him out the window. Because of his violent death, and the deal he made with the demon, every Halloween, the house became cursed by Joey’s spirit. He spent all of Halloween chasing naughty children out of the house. And they said that if you dared to venture into his old room, the demon itself would come after you.
A shudder ran through him at the thought, reaching up to yank his ninja hood more firmly over his head.
There were a few people milling about out front, chatting quietly, and the front door was propped open. There wasn’t a lot of light inside, just a flickering strobe effect visible through what little he could make out of the entryway.. He gulped as a dark figure loomed in the flickering light, the movements jerky and disconcerting, but then released it when he realized that with was just Donald, the Thornton’s wayward pet cat.
They’d never crossed the street to enter the Thornton’s house before. But, this year, things were different.
“Full. Sized. Candy bars, Amber!” Alfor declared, his words a bit muffled by the thick white bread he was sporting.
Amber cocked her head curiously, tilting the wide brim of her pirate hat up and out of her eyes. “Oh yeah? And how do you know that?” She asked, but her gaze stayed on the house.
“Because that’s what Denny Ramirez told me!”
“You listened to Denny? As in the same guy that got scared when Mrs. Kingston turned off the lights for that movie in class two weeks ago,” She laughed.
Alfor flushed a bit but glared at her. “Fine, if you don’t think you’re brave enough to do it-!”
“I’m more than brave enough,” She cut in, holding her plastic cutlass up and jabbing him in the chest with it, “I just want to make sure it’s worth the trek. I’ve heard some other kids say that all you get is a big ole’ popcorn ball.”
“And who said that?”
“Carol Dickens,”
“Carol Dickens! You believe her over Denny Ramirez?”
“Considering she didn’t pee her pants when the classroom lights went dim? Uh, yeah, I do!”
The older boy threw one hand up before pointing his staff at her in retaliation. “Well, why don’t we go see for ourselves, then? And let’s make a bet out of it?”
Kaden could tell by how his sister’s eyes twinkled that she liked the sounds of this. “What are you thinking, exactly?”
“Winner gets five pieces of candy from the loser. Winner’s choice, of course,”
“Taking Reese’s and Butterfingers off the table, though,”
“Oh, no, they are very much staying on the table! It’s the winner’s choice! Loser doesn’t get to go making demands,” He barked right in her face.
“You’re saying that as if you’ve already won,” She scoffed.
“Because I already have,” He sneered back.
“Why are you two like this?” A third voice chimed, sounding an odd mix of exasperated and anxious. Then again, this was typical of Richter. He always seemed to think all the really cool, fun things that Amber and Alfor wanted to try were actually really scary.
Stealing another glance at the house, though, Kaden couldn’t help but think that maybe he was right this time.
“You’ve got some gall on you to think you can beat me and Kaden that easy,” Amber laughed, causing him to jerk to attention at his name. She reached out and gave his shoulder a small squeeze, flashing him a bright grin. “Ain’t that right, bro?”
Richter seemed to notice his uneasiness, looking from him to his sister. “Hey, Amber, this is between you and Alfor. If Kaden doesn’t want to go then –!”
“Who said I didn’t want to go? I’m just as brave as any of you big kids!” He huffed, whirling to pin the other with a glare. For a moment, his fear of the spooky house was forgotten. He was a Kogane and Kogane’s didn’t back down from a challenge, ever! Richter looked stunned by the response, but he merely sighed and shook his head at the four year old. He should have expected as much from Amber’s brother, really.
She was left preening at his response. “That’s right, Kaden! And when we show Alfie who was right, he’ll owe us each five pieces of candy!”
“Wait, we didn’t say five each! It was five total!”
“The rules of any proper candy bargain apply to any kid that has candy to throw into the ring, meaning that he’s included, too!” She harrumped, sticking her tongue out at him for added emphasis.
“She does have a point, you know. Those are the rules of candy bargain, as deemed by the fifth graders on the playground. And we all know that the fifth graders have this kind of stuff figured out,” Richter agreed with a nod.
Blue eyes narrowed and pinned him, causing him to flinch. “Fine. Wager stays the same, but Kaden gets to be in the pool. Can we get this started then?” He asked, pointing at the house with his staff.
Panic coursed through Kaden as he glanced back over, seeing what he could only call a horned silhouette in the smashed second floor window. “We need a grown-up to go over there!” He proclaimed suddenly, hoping that would be enough to maybe deter it all. He didn’t want to have to admit he was scared, because that wasn’t cool. His Mom and Dad and Amber were never afraid of anything, so he wasn’t going to be either!
At the same time, though, he really didn’t want to go into the creepy old house. Not tonight, anyway.
Amber and Alfor both stopped at the curb, looking from Kaden to each other. “Good catch. Mom and Dad would be really mad if we went to a house without one of them,” She said, shifting to approach her brother again.
“My Dad will definitely take me across the street, so it’s just on you, Kogoons! Come on, Richie, let’s go ask your parents, too!” He blew a raspberry at Amber before turning his attention to the half Balmeran beside him.
“Who said I was going with you guys? You three are on your own!” Richter proclaimed in disbelief.
Amber blew a raspberry of her own in return before grabbing his arm and tugging insistently. “Come on, Kaden. Let’s go talk to Mom and Dad,” She huffed, practically dragging him to where their parents were gathered, a little farther up the street with their two younger siblings. He fell in line with her steps quickly, trying to ignore the way his stomach roiled in response.
Pidge was crouched in front of a stroller, shaking her head with a small laugh. “He’s out like a light,” She said, glancing up briefly at Keith.
He carefully pushed back the floppy dragon’s head of his costume so that he could see much easier. “Is he really? I mean, he’s wearing those goggles,” He pointed out.
She looked up at him with a small smile and held the swirly eyed-goggles up with one finger. “You question my ability to remove parts a costume from a snoozing toddler?” She teased, pushing herself up and grinning at the cooing baby strapped to her husband’s chest. Large green eyes were looking around at everything before her with wonder. “Newt was so excited to stay up late and play mad scientist, but in the end baby sister beat him out, huh?” She mused, reaching over to carefully pluck the tiara from her head.
Aria turned her head to stare at her mouth with her mouth wide open, as if shocked she’d dare to remove the piece of her costume, then let out a quiet squeak when an orange leaf fluttered past her instead.
“She’s probably enjoying all the sights and sounds. All kinds of new stuff for her,” He chuckled in agreement, perking up when he spotted the other two approaching. “Ah, and there’s the rest of our little ones. Ready to call it a night?”
“Actually, Daddy,” Amber mused, putting on her sweetest voice and smile, “can we just hit one more house before we go? Please?”
Keith’s brow knitted a bit. “Amber, sweetheart, you’ve already been to all the houses in this neighborhood. Plus, it’s getting late and we should be heading home,”
“We haven’t hit all the houses, though,” She said, pointing to the house across the street.
“Oh, the Thornton’s house. Looks great, like usual,” Pidge mumbled to herself. The Thornton family had always been fond of Halloween, as she learned after having a conversation with Angie Thornton when they went out for Amber’s first Halloween all those years ago. Angie informed her that while they’d always loved the holiday, they really started amping up their game up about a decade ago. There had been an accident while Joey and his father, Frankie, were putting up decorations that, despite Joey only suffering some minors cuts from broken glass, had grown bigger and bigger because of his friends to the point that an urban legend had been started by the older kids to scare the younger ones. The fact that Joey had been a high school senior and then been a dorm student at the university in the town had only worked to their advantage. Every Halloween, he came back and dressed up like a ghost to help his parents run a haunted house that did pretty well at startling all the kids under the age of twelve.
Which, she realized, was probably part of the reason her daughter was so interested in it now.
“Hmm. I don’t know. You might still be too young for the haunted house,” Keith chimed worriedly. He knew that Frankie and Joey kept an eye out for how old the kids coming in were, and adjusted their behavior to accommodate, but he still tended to worry about exposing the kids to things too far from their comfort zone.
“Alfie’s Daddy is gonna take him to the haunted house,”
“Oh, well if Lance is totally cool with mentally scar his child, then I should be, too,” He said flatly, rolling his eyes a bit.
Pidge flashed him an exasperated look and lightly shoved his shoulder, but his dry joke still got a snort out of her. “Oh, be nice. Ari’s still doing well, and since Newt’s asleep anyway, I can take her over real fast while you watch the other three,”
“No, Mommy, Kaden’s coming with,” Amber chimed.
That gave her pause, as she looked from Amber to her older son. His gaze had flickered back to the house, eyes wide and glossy. Sensing eyes on him, he whipped around to look at his parents. The discomfort was clear in his face, but Pidge could also see the gleam of resolve. “Y-Yeah! I wanna go to the scary house, too!”
She and Keith exchanged glances, both of them knowing exactly what was going on. When she turned back he was still staring at her, clearly gearing himself up to argue about how he actually did want to go. She stole a glance over to see that Lance was approaching with Alfor, he and Amber already starting on another animated exchange of playground taunts. She was a bit relieved to see her distracted. While she appreciated how close the pair were despite the age gap between them, she sometimes worried how Amber’s control over her brother could be unknowingly used against him.
Pidge walked a bit closer and knelt down in front of her son, being careful of the long white coat of her own costume as she did. “Kaden, you can come with us to the spooky house if you want to. But you need to make me a promise, okay?” She asked, making sure to keep her voice gentle.
“What?” He mumbled.
“I want you to stay close and hold my hand real tight, okay? Mommy doesn’t really like going into spooky houses,” She said softly.
His eyes widened on her, disbelief obvious. “Really? But you’ve fought big scary monsters before! Nothing ever scares you or Daddy!”
She laughed and pulled him closer to her. “Sometimes, we’ve had to push past our fear to help take care of each other or to help protect other people. And just because we’ve faced all those scary things before doesn’t Daddy and I still get scared sometimes. We get scared about bad things happen to you or your brother or your sisters. I know Daddy gets kinda scared if he’s stuck in tight spaces. And I get kinda scared of spooky houses. We can help keep each other safe while we’re in there, you and I,” She explained softly.
Kaden took a deep breath and nodded, indicating the handle of one of his toy katanas strapped to his back. “I’ll protect you, Mommy. No scary monsters are gonna get you, cause I have those,” He vowed, some of the fear in his own belly settling a bit, reaching over and taking her hand. She smiled and led him to join the other two kids. He squared his little shoulders and puffed his chest up a little, feeling much better about everything. Knowing that his Mommy and Daddy felt scared sometimes made him feel better, and he felt even better knowing that his Mommy didn’t like spooky houses, either.
If someone as brave and strong as his Mommy was afraid of it but was still willing to go in, then he could be too.
