Page 13 of Ransom

"Remind me again why we couldn't just hit up the high-rise?" I grumble, but there's no real bite to it. Already it's pretty damn obvious what the city is lacking. The wide roads, decorated houses, and hordes of people here in suburbia clearly have this whole Halloween thing figured out.

We stayed in the city last year. I arranged for all the apartments on three floors to have candy, and Mia was happy enough. But this year, everyone wanted something different. Something more.

They wanted the big Halloween. The kind we saw on TV, but most of us never experienced. Yeah, we had Halloween in my old neighborhood. My mom tried to make us costumes, but she was not crafty, and between her full-time job and taking care of us, she didn't really have the time. So we'd go out with a sheet over our heads, or a cowboy hat, and fit right in with all the other kids whose parents worked too fucking long and hard to have time for costumes.

Cara leans forward from the passenger seat, her excitement palpable. "Trust me, Ransom. You've never seen Halloween like this."

"Full-size candy bars," Bree chimes in from the back. "And cans of soda. It's a kid's dream come true."

"You do know we can afford to buy as much candy and soda as we want?"

Bree just rolls her eyes at me, like my comment is too stupid to respond to, which makes me laugh. When teenagers do that shit, it's infuriating. When the women do it?

Funny.

As we turn onto another street, it's like Halloween puked all over the neighborhood. Houses decked out in orange lights, inflatable ghosts bobbing in the breeze, and jack-o'-lanterns grinning from every porch.

The streets are alive with families and kids in costumes. Princesses and superheroes dart between houses, plastic pumpkins swinging from their hands. Parents trail behind, some in costumes of their own, others holding big insulated mugs that I'd bet have very grown-up drinks in them.

I slow the van, taking it all in. There's something about these neat rows of houses, each with its own little patch of lawn, that makes me wonder about the lives inside. Do they gather around dinner tables every night? Do the kids play catch in the backyard on weekends? What would my life have been like if I'd grown up someplace like this? Would anything have been different?

A group of teenagers shuffles by, hopping like little kids, one of them wearing a tire around his chest. Not a fake one. Nope, an actual tire. Interesting costume.

A toddler screams past the teens, dressed as a dinosaur, howling with laughter. His dad is slow-walking behind him, pretending he's actually trying to catch him. That kid is going to sleep great tonight.

Or maybe not. Depends on how much candy he eats.

I never thought about shit like that until Mia came along. Teen boys eat so much shit I couldn't tell you if their attitudes were sugar-related or just hormonal. But the shit food is cheap, and for a long time, that's all I could afford.

"See?" Cara says, nudging my arm. "Told you it'd be worth the drive."

I nod, still processing the scene. "Yeah. This is a lot more than I expected."

I park the van, and we all pile out onto the sidewalk. The rest of our crew follows suit, their cars lining up behind mine. We gather in a big group on the sidewalk, forcing everyone to walk up on the grass to get around us.

People are fucking staring. Though I guess I can't blame them.

Mia's bouncing up and down, her little yellow minion costume practically glowing in the twilight. "Let's go, let's go!" she chants, tugging on my hand.

I look around at my brothers, all decked out in matching minion outfits. We look ridiculous. Of course, everyone's staring. But if Mia wants us in matching costumes, we wear the fucking costumes. Colton and John tower over the rest of us, their costumes stretched to the limit. Finding ones that fit them was a fucking nightmare. In the end, I paid a costume designer out of LA a ton of money to custom-make all of ours.

They’re fucking epic.

"Alright, boys," I call out. "Let's line up. You know the drill."

We form a line, shuffling into the order we drew last night. Trick-or-treaters and their parents give us a wide berth, staring and whispering. I catch snippets of their conversations.

"Are those all minions?"

"Look at the size of that one!"

"Is this some kind of flash mob?"

That last one sends Maya and Janey into a fit of giggles.

Mia leads the charge, practically skipping to the first house. I'm right behind her, with the rest of the guys crowding close, not wanting to miss any of it.

The front step is small, so the rest of the guys make a circle at the base of the stairs. "Go ahead, honey, ring the bell," I tell her. Mia presses the button with enthusiasm. The woman who answers the door takes a step back, her eyes widening as she takes in the sight of us. Her hand flies to her chest, and for a second, I'm afraid she's going to call the cops, but then she bursts out laughing.

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