A Treat For You

It was Akari's first Halloween in her new form. She watched as her family set up decorations for the wonderful holiday. On the bright side, she didn't have to worry about getting her costume ready, because she was already a ghost. Akari's little brother, Hoshi, looked up at her while holding his bag for trick-or-treating. He wore a Superman costume, with his red cape flapping as he ran around the living room in delight.

"Akari, aren't you excited for Halloween?" Hoshi grinned.

"I sure am! But I won't be able to prank my neighbors with my scary costumes..." Akari sighed.

"Of course you can! You don't even need to prepare a costume. Isn't that awesome?"

The siblings turned their heads when the door swung open. Their mother came in carrying a huge bag of candy for the trick-or-treaters. Akari floated over to her, attempting to help carry the candy, but then realized that the bag when straight through her arms. Her mother smiled sweetly at the poor ghost.

"Don't worry, sweetie. I'll be fine carrying the candy by myself. Thanks for trying to help though."

Akari's stomach growled at the sight of all the different colors of candies. How could I possibly be hungry? I'm a ghost! Akari thought. She flew out of the house to see how her friends were doing. There were jack-o-lanterns on the doorstep of pretty much everyone, and various decorations on each house. She watched her friend, Akiko, create her latest stylish Halloween outfit, which would never disappoint. Akiko waved at her, with a piece of orange fabric in her other hand. Akari went through her window and looked at her progress. The dress was even more magnificent than last year's outfit, with neon colors. Her friend looked at her up and down and then back at her outfit.

"I have an idea," Akiko said while picking up some string.

Suddenly the room became silent as she did a few stitches here and there for the next few minutes. Her friend finished the last few touches and showed it to Akari. She gave her a thumbs up. But to her surprise, Akiko tossed it into the fireplace.

"What are you doing?! You worked so hard on that!" Akari yelled.

"I know. But since you can't fully celebrate with us this year, I thought I'd give this outfit to you."

"But you just threw it into the fire!"

"Ugh, just pick up the outfit, unless you just wanna keep staring at it."

Akari floated over to the fireplace and picked up what looked like the "spirit" of the outfit. She smiled as the pretty piece of clothing stayed in her hands the whole time. After looking at how detailed it was, she decided to finally put it on. The little sequins shined under the light as Akari twirled in her new Halloween outfit. She thanked her friend multiple times while Akiko looked through her cabinet full of fabrics for her next dress. They said their goodbyes and Akari flew down the neighborhood, watching the little children in costumes go from house to house. She noticed a small chocolate bar that was in good condition on the floor. The wrapped was still intact, so she considered eating the treat. The ghost tried picking it up and failed. She tried a few more times and then sat on the sidewalk in defeat. Her stomach's growling was getting louder. A little boy snatched the chocolate bar from the ground and shoved it in his bag, laughing as he ran to his other friends. An older boy with glasses, around Akari's age, walked up to her.

"Sorry that cheeky little monkey took your candy. Perhaps I can make it up to you?" the boy offered.

Akari recognized the boy's cute British accent. It was her friend, who she secretly liked, Jack. She quickly got up from her knees and turned her head in embarrassment.

"You don't have to. I'll just get some candy from my house," she reassured.

"But according to my studies, ghosts are unable to consume human food in their ghostly form." he pushed back his glasses.

There was nothing more to say after he said this. Jack offered to take her to his house to try an experiment to make candy for her to be able to eat. Akari grinned at the thought of eating something sweet again, especially made by her crush. She gazed at the giant house before her. The boy seemed to be your average person but with the intelligence of a genius, so she assumed he'd have a house that was much smaller. There wasn't any toilet paper or eggs tainting the wealthy feel to the mansion to Akari's surprise. The place was even bigger on the inside. Jack lead her downstairs to a dimly lit room, with glass beakers and books scattered across the table. Akari noticed one book was opened to a page about ghosts like her. Another was about spiritual food. Her friend saw her staring at his workspace.

"So. You probably know what the surprise is now, right?" he sighed.

"What do you mean?" Akari tilted her head in confusion.

"Nevermind. You'll see when this experiment is finished."

Jack had been preparing a surprise for his friend ever since she died in her sleep a few months ago. He never got a chance to confess to her, so he decided that this Halloween would be a perfect time since it was also Akari's favorite holiday. The boy picked up the book he left earlier and poured a special mixture and a few other ingredients into the bucket of candy on the table. He scooped the now-glowing candy with a ladle for Akari to see.

"You should be able to eat them now." Jack blushed while dropping the candies into Akari's hands.

"Really?!" she exclaimed while shoving them into her mouth, "Mmmm, they're so yummy!"

"Y-You like them...?"

"Who wouldn't?"

After hearing this, he ran to one of the shelves across the room and ate a piece of candy from a container. His body turned transparent, just like Akari's.

"With this candy, I can become a ghost for the next few hours so you don't have to worry about celebrating as a ghost by yourself." Jack smiled.

"You don't have all of that for me. I'll be fine."

"But I want to."

Jack floated over to Akari and gave her a big hug. She turned red at the sudden embrace. So does this mean Jack likes me? Meh, I'll worry about that later. Let's just celebrate Halloween before Jack turns back into a human again! Akari thought. After their embrace, they went scaring people for fun and trick-or-treating in their neighborhood, or at least tried to, with the smiles on their faces never fading away.