#I got to carried away with drunk mimic and I am ashamed

[fandomsumthing]

Halloween Fright

Trigger warning: fake gore, could get kinda creepy (not really), slight Parksborn.

Enjoy!

~<🎃>~<👻>~

October 31st, Halloween. Kids out going door to door collecting candy or egging houses. Teens watching horror movies or going to parties because they think their too old to be out and getting that sweet treat. Well, some teens.

Adults either watching over their children or at that more adult parties or asleep. No need to celebrate it other than just to have fun. Especially for those secret heroes.

Speaking of which, a certain secret spider was sitting in his room, staring in the mirror, doing horror make up with music playing in the background. Peter had plans to met up with Harry that night for one of those Halloween parties. It was at this little area of woods that was usually rented out for these types of parties. Of course he knew that Gwen, Anya, and Miles would be there so he wouldn't have to follow Harry around like a lost puppy.

He was also told to dress scary. Apparently this party had a contest and you'd win by scaring the most people. If you get scared you're out.

"I'm not striding to win, but I am going to scare some people." Harry had told him over the phone. By people, Peter knew he meant the him. He used to jump out at him at random when they were kids. Peter would act like he wasn't scared even after screaming.

It had been like that for years, but now Peter had an upper hand with his spider-senses. And some other qualities as well. A few months back, his late night scrolling had him watching some special effects videos and that made him want to try it. So he did, and he had practice for quite some time now. If he wasn't ashamed to admit that he was good at it. But no one knew that except for May, who had walked in on him when he was trying out a zipper face.

If he didn't know that he's reflection was his, he'd probably scream. He was aiming for a zombie look and he succeeded. His had fake blood focused in one area to mimic being bashed in. His face look normal, beside the blood the flowed down from the fake bash, until it got down to his nose and under. It looked like the flesh was skinned off of his face, leaving a bloody mess. He was so glad that he was wearing an old shirt because the fake blood had dropped down his neck and trickled down the front of his shirt.

There was a fake bite mark on his arm that could be seen through one of the rips in his hoodie.It was going to be thrown away so might as well use it for something, right?

It looked mostly complete except for one thing, his eyes. He had been avoiding this part, but he knew that it wouldn't look quite right without them. He had gotten foggy contacts for his eyes to complete the dead look. He bought them with his own money as soon as he was told about the party at the beginning of the month. He had gotten them to fit the circumference of his eyes so he could wear them the whole night without any problems. (Looking at you cosplayers, make sure you know to get your eye sized by a doctor.)

Taking a deep breathe, Peter held his eye open and placed the contact in. He moved it around and then looked in the mirror. Yup, starting to look complete. His normally green eye was now heavily shaded with a grey color, but the green coil still be seen slightly. He then repeat this with the other.

Finally done Peter got up, turning off his radio and taking his phone off the charger. He was ready to scare the absolute shit out of some people.

"I'm leaving now, May!" Peter called as he walked down stairs.

"Okay! Have fun! And stay away from drunks! They could mistake you for an actual zombie!" May called back from the kitchen, catching a glimpse of her nephew. "Maybe put your hood up for the way there? Not that I don't like it, just so if any of your friends see you they don't ruin the surprise for everyone there." She added.

Peter stopped before leaving. "Genius as always." Peter smiled and pulled his hood over his head then leaving.

~<🎃>~<👻>~

The way there was full of stares, compliments, and scares for some. He had actually gotten stopped by a mother who had tried to make him feel bad for scaring her son, which was not the chase. The kid was actually really intrigued with his make up. Other than that interaction, his way there was all around great.

Getting there was exciting but also worry some because there was only one person standing in front of the forest. Peter recognized her as the host, Maggie. She was wearing devil horns and a tail. She was wealthy to a point and always threw holiday parties, but this was the first Halloween one. She had made it clear that she was participating because she was the one giving out the prize and handing out the refreshments.

"Hey Maggie, where's everyone else?" Peter asked, getting her to look up. She jumped back with wide eyes.

"Jeez! Wow! That's so cool, Peter! Everyone is scattered throughout the trees, the scaring part hasn't started yet. It'll be starting soon, though, so you best get in there!" Maggie said and motioned to the forest. Peter nodded and headed in.

He kept his hood up and just continued to walked with his head down until he knew he was totally alone. Once he was, he took off the hood and unzipped his hoodie, letting it slide down one arm. He knew that it would slide down farther during the night, but zombies don't really care if their jackets are falling off. He then messed up his hair some more so that his face could be seen, but his eyes were slightly hidden through the mess. He also made sure his shoes were tied, he didn't want to trip.

As one could tell, Peter was in it to win it. He was quite sure why himself why we wanted to win so badly, but now knew he just wanted to. Though, he wouldn't be mad if he lost either. But it would make his night great if he did.

"Hello lovely people!" Maggie's voice boomed from the hidden speakers. "Welcome to the first ever scare contest! We have a few simple rules! Touching is allowed, but no touching those special parts because of you do you're creep and definitely won't win with that type of creepy! Try sticking to the arms and calf of the legs for those on the ground! You can climb trees, but be careful! And try not to drop directly on someone! Oh! And no hitting or fighting. If you are scared by a tree or a squirrel and not by an actual person, you are still in. If you get scared, please go to the far back to the actual party area with your hands up in order not to be scared by other people, though they might still scare you because why not! And I know that some of you will try lying and saying you didn't, so your scream or you're fearful cussing will be podcasted through this very PA system! Before I let this begin, the safe word is Ghost! If heard, people around them please help them to the back to be assisted by medical students or to get them water. Last one standing wins the big prize! You all must be asking yourselves, 'what is it?' Well, a part of it is money! Now that is all said and understood, let the scaring begin in 3... 2...1!" Maggie ended it with an maniacal laugh.

With the game officially starting, everything became slightly tense but mostly exciting. He began walking slowly, taking in every thing around him. He knew Miles would be in the trees already so that he appeared taller. Harry was most likely looking for him. Gwen was probably charging at people.

But Anya, oh she was his rival in winning and he hated not knowing what she could be doing right now. They had made it clear to each other that they both wanted to win. They had even "trashed talked" each other. Well, not really trash talk, more like silly school yard insults. Anya did say, however, that Peter was the least threatening person, other than Miles, in the friend group. Everyone else agree, except for Miles who had seen Peter in full on rage before. But that little comment got Peter to actually do the bite mark on his arm.

Needless to say that he was mostly targeting her, but was willing to scare anyone in his way. He learned that it's better to make scary noises then actually scream so that he could keep his voice. And that walking slowly does set people on edge before running at them. The whole thing is to conserve energy to be able to keep scaring.

He kept walking for a few minutes before feeling his senses go off slightly, not for danger but as a warning of someone approaching. He stopped in his tracks and looked from side to side calmly, knowing that whoever it was they were approaching from behind him. He continued walking. Their foot prints came closer and Peter could hear their slight chuckle.

He could see the shadow of their hand rising in order to touch is shoulder. Now. Peter turned around fast, a smile spread across his face, now staring, his eyes wide to show of more of the white, at the guy with a werewolf mask and gloves. The guy had obviously not seen Peter's face and let out a shriek, and it was repeated on the loud speaker. "The first one to fall!" Maggie's voice came after it. The guy in the werewolf mask reached up to take his mask off, revealing Flash Thompson. His face still a little shaken.

"Good job on that." He said, putting his hands up in a surrendering fashion and giving Peter a slightly smile. Peter returned it with a proud one.

"Thank you, Thompson. I was planning on doing this for our study sessions." Flash's face instantly dropped which got Peter to laugh. "I'm just kidding!" Flash nodded and walked away with his hands up.

The game carried off like that for an hour. People's screams coming from the loud speakers, some being caused by Peter. He could see other with their hands up going to the back to the party. Their costumes were scary, but they mostly look like they were made on a eighth graders budget. Well, Peter's was sorta in that cost range too, but he had been doing this makeup for months before he even knew of the party. Practice makes better.

A few of them spotted Peter creeping from behind a tree and they cussed loudly or jumped or just speed up their pace. Pretty funny in Peter's opinion. He saw Gwen and Miles walking back with their hands up, and he decided against scaring them out right. Tying his jacket around his waist, he started approaching them from the back, putting his hands in his front jean pockets.

"Who got you guys?" Peter asked which got them to stop. They turned there heads, smiles on their faces. Gwen had scales on her cheeks and forehead with damp hair and Miles had fangs in and a half assed suit.

"Harry got me- HOLY SHIT!" Miles yelled , fully looking at Peter now. Gwen was too and gave a surprised gasp.

"Did you do that yourself?" Gwen asked, her impressed eyes scanning over Peter.

"Nah, got hit by a car on the way here." Peter quipped, crossing his arms with a smirk.

"At least you didn't fall out of a tree like Miles here." Gwen nudged Miles, Miles grimacing at the ground. Gwen just unknowingly gave him grip practice for a week.

"Of course you did. Didn't you say Harry got out?" Peter asked Miles, who nodded. "Can you point me in his direction?"

Miles pointed down one of the trails. "He was there when he got me, I'm sure if you keep walking you'll find him." Miles mumbled.

"Thank you kindly." Peter said, saluting his friends as he walked away. He then stopped, "Oh, and Miles. Monday." He could hear Miles groan as he continued on his way.

As he continued down the path, he heard a scream from farther down the path that was echoed on the loud speakers. He could see a figure walking at him with their hands up. It wasn't Harry, he was slightly taller. As he got closer, Peter could see his ripped clothes and drawn on stitches that lead up to Shammas.

He looked up and met Peter's gaze, and he was obviously about to scream or yell something until Peter covered his mouth and brought his other hand up, his index finger pressed against his lips.

"Sorry, just tell me, is Harry back there?" He asked and Shammas nodded, raising a question eyebrow. Peter smiled and lowered his hand from his mouth as he got an idea.

"My guess is that he scared you, you want to get him back?" Peter asked and Shammas thought about it.

"But I'm out." Shammas said, still questioning Peter. He'd met him before, but he wasn't like this. Like, here he presented himself with more confidence while in his bloody attire. It was almost frightening.

"I know, I just need you to get his attention and I'll scare him." Peter explained. Yup, definitely frightening.

"Alright." Shammas nodded.

~<🎃>~<👻>~

Harry walked in a circle. He had his area that he was comfortable in. Sure, moving around could get him a chance to scare Peter, but he also didn't want to.

Peter wasn't weak, but his costume of a drown victim was really convincing to some people. He didn't think Peter would be able to look at him like this. Plus, his sit and wait approached was working excellently. He got about ten people just laying in wait. At this point he could just sit back and-

"HARRY HELP!" He heard Shammas yell. It didn't sound like a fake cry for help. His voice sounded panicked. He also couldn't get him out if he was trying to scare him, so why would he even try?

"Shammas?" Harry yelled back. No answer. He called out again, this time moving towards where Shammas voice had came from.

As he approached, he could see a figure on the ground. As he got closer, he could see that the figure laying down on the ground was Shammas, who was laying with his eyes shut. He wasn't knocked out, just laying there.

"Shammas, what the hell are you-" Before he could finish, he was face to face with a bloody face. "Looking a little wet aren't we?" The voice was rough.

Harry fell back "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" Harry screamed. It was then replayed and that's when he realized he was out. He looked at Shammas who was laughing on the ground. He caught a look at Harry's red face and got up and ran still laughing, knowing that as soon as Harry got to the party, he'd chase him down.

Harry then looked at his scarer, about to chew his ear off when he was met with Peter's smiling and giggling face dangling upside down, his arms hanging down by his head. Harry looked up and saw that his legs were wrapped around the a branch.

"Peter?" He gasped and he got a nod with a giggle accompanying it. Of course it was bloody and unsettling for Harry, and a bit too real looking, but if anyone could make a zombie look cute it was Peter.

"How'd you? When did you? What?" Peter began laughing harder at Harry's confusion.

"I'm a man of many talents, Harold." He said smiling. Harry laughed and put his hands on Peter's checks, catching Peter off guard and getting him to stop laughing.

"That you are Parker." Harry leaned in and Peter closed his foggy green eyes. Peter felt at bliss just like that, but he didn't get the kiss he was now longing for. He lost the warmth of Harry's hands, which caused Peter to open his eyes. He saw Harry holding his hands up like he was surrendering.

"Sorry my undead love, but I have to get to the party, I am out after all." Harry said walking pass the upside down Peter. Peter jumped down.

"Harry, you can't leave me like that!" Peter whined, Harry smiled and was so glad that he wasn't facing Peter. If he was, he might of just ran up to him a wouldn't be able to control himself after that.

"I'll make you a deal, if you win, I'll give you way more than a kiss." Harry said, practically hearing Peter stiffen. "See ya later." Harry then walked off, hand in the air. Leaving Peter there with a new found reason to win.

~<🎃>~<👻>~

It was a few minutes until Maggie's voice came on the loud speaker once more. "Hello to the left standing! Yes you heard me correctly Peter Parker and Anya Corazon! How funny! The people who got the first two scares in the game are the last ones standing!" Peter smiled, thinking of the shock on Anya's face, "It'll probably take forever for you two to find each other so go towards the light! Is it a race, nope! But get to the light and we'll find out who's the winner through one simple challenge! Unless you find one another and scare them! But it's okay if you don't!"

Anya would take the hunting option. When Anya wants something, she'll do what it takes to get it. Which mean she could get Peter to say Ghost if it becomes too much.

Peter thought for a little then concluded that going by tree is safest. So he got up in the tree that he scared Harry in and began his trip. While in them, he could see figures under him and his spider sense was going nuts. What the hell? He didn't stop though. They could just be strangers that Maggie hired to scare him and Anya.

He got to the light, it was like a lamp post but the lights are attached to the tree. Peter stayed in the trees and circled around to find Anya. He found her approaching. She looked like a broken clown doll. Great. Clown doll. Peter didn't like either of them that much. He knew he'd definitely say Ghost if he got stuck on the ground with her.

Her's was way better than his anyways. She'd think Peter's costume is child's play. And that's when an idea came into mind. He didn't need to get her to scream, just surprise her or make her cuss.

She was approaching pretty fast so Peter put his plan into action. He got in front of her, took a deep breathe, and fell backwards, landing right in front of her. That caught he off guard.

"You fucker!" She yelled. It was repeated over the loud speaker. It was repeated over the loud speaker! Anya looked down at Peter, a slightly amused look on her face.

"You proud of yourself Parker?" She asked jokingly.

"Totally." Peter's voice was laced with slight pain as he did finger guns at Anya. The light then shut off and Anya put her arms up. Peter on the other hand stood up and brushed himself off.

"Good job on the make up by the way." Anaya commented, getting a smile from Peter.

"Shall we?" Peter asked and Anya returned it with a sigh and a nod. They walked, well Peter slightly limped, back to where the party was and were greeted with cheers and clapping.

The party was illuminated with purple lights. There's was a cleared space that most people were in so Peter guesses it was the dance floor. A snack bar that was being refilled, and some cheap decorations.

"Hello!" Maggie said, getting Anya's and Peter's attention from the crowd. "It appears that Peter has won! Fantastic! There is a second place prize of $50, so here you go Anya." Maggie then handed over two $20 and one $10.

"As for you Peter, come with me." Maggie motioned and Peter followed. They had to go through the dance floor and Peter could hear a few people talking about him.

"No wonder he won." A guys voice whispered to his friend as Peter passed. Major confidence boost coming one after another. Not enough to give him a big head, but enough to make him proud of his makeup ability.

Maggie lead him to a curtain be hind the snack bar. After getting behind it, Peter found a gift basket with candy, a bat and spider (how ironic) stuff animal, some gift cards to local restaurants, and an envelope with a drawing of witch on it.

"The envelope contains $150. Don't try and give it back to me because I know how you get when people give you money." Maggie said seriously. "You won it fair and square. Also, you should leave it here until you're ready to leave, don't want these gremlins to take your prizes."

Peter gave her a smile and Maggie gave an awkward one back. Peter then remember that he did look like he lost most of his face. "Oh, sorry, forgot." Peter said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Don't be! That whole thing got you this prize." Maggie said, "now go enjoy the party, Pete! I'm sure you're friends want to talk to you!" Maggie then ushered him out from behind the curtain.

Peter stood around awkwardly, trying to spot out his friends. He spotted the Harry's face in the crowd laughing at a joke that someone had made, and he started towards him.

Being the victor did cause him to be stoped a few times to congratulated or asked how to do what he did. He answered them with "I watch too much tutorials." Or something along those lines.

"Hey Peter!" Harry called as he walk towards him.

"Hey scaredy-cat." Peter said getting Harry to let out a laugh.

"You didn't really scare me, just surprised." Harry retorted.

"But you still got out, didn't you?" Peter smiled as Harry sighed but nodded.

"Yeah, you did. And you won." Harry took a step closer to Peter.

"Do you really want to kiss me here?" Peter asked, remembering that someone could snitch to Norman.

"We could go be hind a tree." Harry said, gently grabbing Peter wrist.

"You seem really excited to make out with a person who looks dead. Is there something you're not telling me?" Peter joked as he followed Harry to a far away tree. Harry laughed.

"Well, you're definitely the cutest zombie I've ever seen." Harry replied as they stepped behind the tree, out of sight from the party. He moved the hair out of Peter's eyes. Even fogged up, they looked magnificent. He leaned in and finally kissed Peter.

They've done this some many times that Peter's arms instantly wrapped around Harry's neck and Harry's around his waist. But still, the kiss still gave different effects every time. It always felt new. This kiss was becoming heated pretty quickly however.

They weren't going to go that far, they both knew that. Making out in public was already dangerous enough for them, they didn't need to get caught doing something that should be done in private.

After the session had came to an end, they bath returned back to the party, meeting up with their friends. The rest of the night was spent laughing and just having all around fun. At the end of the night, Peter found himself walking home with Harry. The basket felt weird to carry alone and he really did want to hang out with Harry.

"Maggie's talking about doing this next year, except hiring scare actors along with us." Harry said as they got back to Peter's neighborhood. "Are you going to do this again?" He asked, looking Peter up and down.

Peter smiled. "Yeah, except I won't go as a zombie and I'll be scaring the scare actors."

[hannahvera]

I’m in a modern Canadian history class, and the professor tells us how recently it was that some beaches in our country still had signs like “No dogs or Jews allowed”. I slink down low in my seat. I feel so embarrassed. Antisemites are the ones who should be ashamed, but instead I am. I always feel burning, white-hot shame whenever any kind of mistreatment of Jews is mentioned. I feel as if I’ve done something wrong. As if we deserved it. I sit in a classroom of what I can be statistically sure are mostly non-Jews, and I pray that my facial features don’t give me away, that nobody can tell I’m Jewish. I curse myself for wearing the chai (Hebrew for “life”) necklace that my bubby gave me for my bat mitzvah. I was thrilled to receive it as a 12-year-old gaining maturity in my community, and it means even more to me now that my bubby has passed away. I wear it almost constantly and take comfort in the connection it makes me feel to her and to my culture. It rests just above the neckline of my shirt and I hope it isn’t visible to my classmates.

At a dinner party, I instinctively introduce myself to a new person with the pronunciation of my name that I always use outside of family, my brain moving too slowly to register that I am talking to a Jewish person who could probably pronounce it the right way. My cousin is standing next to me and gently corrects my pronunciation of my name. My own name. I mimic her and repeat it to the dinner guest. It feels alien on my lips. I trip over it. There is no sense of familiarity; I am estranged from myself. I suddenly feel so unbearably sad that my parents refrained from putting the "c" at the start of my name that would indicate its correct pronunciation in Hebrew — basically, the sound is that of coughing up a hairball — for fear that I would go through life being called Chan-uh, as if that would be any more incorrect than what most people call me now. It’s been years since I’ve attempted to teach any non-Jew to say it properly — I just got too tired of trying. I feel so sad that I’ve sacrificed my name and my identity for the sake of convenience. I think of all the other tiny, insidious ways that I act out internalized antisemitism, and I’m angry at myself.

Out for brunch, a friend of a friend “jokes” about the relentless persecution of Jews throughout history: “Well what do you guys keep doing to piss everyone off?” He laughs. I laugh. I hate myself for laughing. I am horrified to realize that I’ve internalized this question, that even as I study multiple accounts of history that all provide me with the answer, “Nothing. You did nothing wrong”, I keep asking myself, “Well, what did we do?” Why is it hard for me to accept that a people could simply be the unlucky target of the worst that human nature has to offer? I don’t blame any other group who has been slaughtered or enslaved or oppressed. Why can’t I stop searching for evidence of my own people’s guilt when I know intellectually that it’s not there?

We’re celebrating Hanukkah and my dad mentions that he would probably not feel safe putting a menorah in our window. He looks sad, so I make a joke about it to lighten the mood. This is what we do; Jews are known for their gallows humour. It’s a shared coping mechanism for a collective trauma. A common refrain heard around the table at most holidays is the TL;DR version of their origin stories: “They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat!” But there’s no holiday yet to celebrate our survival of the Holocaust. It was too recent. And the fact is that not many of us survived. We say of the Shoah, “Never to forgive, never to forget”, but I don’t feel at all sure that it will never happen again. I don’t even feel sure that it won’t happen again in my lifetime. I tell myself not to be paranoid but I carry a fear deep in my bones that I can’t exorcise.

It’s 2 in the morning at a house party that’s dying down, and one of the last remaining guests, someone between a friend and an acquaintance to me, drunkenly rambles at me on a variety of topics. One of them is some opinions on Jews that are less than savoury, which she spills out in a confessional way. She knows I am Jewish and has some close Jewish friends herself. I don’t know if her drunk brain has forgotten about me or if it really thinks she isn’t saying anything offensive. I have never really experienced such overt antisemitism right to my face before and I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. Too stunned to say much and thinking that there wouldn’t be much point in trying to engage with someone this drunk, I uncomfortably endure several minutes of this until I can politely excuse myself and go to bed. The next time I see her she seems to have no memory of her monologue in the kitchen and we never speak of it. But I am shaken. I don’t feel safe around her anymore. I can’t look at her the same way. And I can’t be sure of what she thinks when she looks at me.

I don’t really know how to end this. I had hoped to have something uplifting to say, but the truth is that I’m still learning how to navigate a world in which there are so many voices that tell me to hate myself. A lot of the time, my Jewish identity and culture is a source of strength, joy, and comfort. But sometimes, too often, those voices win.