Suggested by Goodboy26242

Jesse had been looking forward to autumn for ages. It was by far one of her favourite seasons – she loved the summer sunshine, the winter snow, and the first spring flowers, but none of it beat autumn. She adored huddling up in sweaters, drinking hot cocoa, watching the leaves change colour... just thinking about it was enough to get Jesse to count the days until October when autumn truly began.

However that year, things weren't quite going according to plan.

The first few blissful days of autumn, Jesse spent alone, in her office. She was up to her ears in paperwork thanks to the recent activities of a bunch of vandals who blew up part of the town wall. Stuck watching the leaves change colour outside her windows.

When she's finally sorted through the worst, Radar offered to finish off the rest for her so she could go ahead and finally take off the time she's wanted for ages. Finally she could begin the calm days of baking pumpkin pies and sitting by the fireplace, right?

Despite how much she had been looking forward to spending time with her friends, Olivia decided it was the perfect time to take an unexpected trip to Redstonia, and drag Axel along with her.

Alright, no big deal, they'd be back in a few days time! Jesse decided she could still enjoy the next few days with Petra and Lukas until Axel and Olivia returned.

Wrong again, a few of Beacontown's best builders were unavailable, so Lukas volunteered to go help with the repairs to the town walls. By that point, Jesse was feeling thoroughly fed up. At that rate, she was going to spend the entire, wonderful season alone.

Axel and Olivia were due to return soon, and Lukas had almost finished helping where he was needed, but Petra could still tell her friend needed some serious cheering up. However suggesting they go on a long trail ride outside town, turned out not to be the best idea either. Jesse was grinning from ear to ear when they left, but of course not even that could go smoothly. On the way back, the clouds that have been painting the sky for the past week finally gave way, soaking the two girls and their horses thoroughly for the last thirty minutes on the road. They arrived home cold, wet, and utterly miserable.

And the rain showed no signs of letting up for days to come.

Finally they were all together again, huddled up in the large wooden livingroom of their tree-house, a fire crackling in the fireplace. But instead of reading books or baking pies in the calm of autumn, they were listening to rain and hail furiously pouring down on the roof of the tree-house. Which wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the power constantly going on and off, the dozen buckets and pots laid out everywhere for the leaks, and the fact that them getting soaked in the rain had finally caught up to Jesse and given her a cold.

It hadn't turned out to be the season she had been looking forward to.

"Just decide!" Petra growled in frustration, falling down dramatically so she was sprawled out on the carpet. "Do you want to be on or off?"

As if to answer her question, the lightbulb flickered to life again, before promptly going out once more.

"I don't think there's any point in waiting for the power to become stable again, not with how bad this storm is tonight." Olivia said with a sigh, getting to her feet and flipping off the light switch, so the endless flickering was swapped out for just darkness.

"We might as well just go to bed." Jesse grumbled from where she was sitting against the couch.

"Oh come on, don't be like that now!" Petra said, propping herself up on her elbows. "We agreed we were going to have a game night!"

"You do realise power is a vital part of gaming, right?" Olivia asked, raising an eyebrow in the dark.

"Hey, Petra's got a point." Lukas said as he placed down a few lit candles. "We can enjoy tonight the old fashioned way! Five friends, hanging out by candlelight while it's raining outside? It can be a lot of fun!"

"What are we meant to do exactly, tell ghost stories?" Axel asked, sounding unamused.

"Oh, yes!" Petra sat up excitedly.

"No." Jesse and Olivia bluntly responded in unison.

"You guys are no fun." The redhead mumbled, before flopping back down.

Jesse sighed heavily, leaning her head back and closing her eyes. For as much as she wanted to spend the night with her friends as planned, she'd much rather wait for one without a storm. And preferably when she wasn't sniffling and coughing.

"Look, what about a board game?" Lukas suggested, slapping his hands together.

"Ugh, you'll just pick something lame like Monopoly." Petra moaned, pulling her bandanna down over her eyes.

"Yeah, you and Liv always win while the rest of us suck." Axel added. "Let's dig into some snacks instead!"

"We ate less than twenty minutes ago, Axel!" Olivia protested, giving him a playful slap on the shoulder.

"Truth or dare?" Petra suggested.

"No." Lukas shook his head quickly. "I only made that mistake once."

"Oh come on, are you still salty about that one time I made you eat a snail?"

"Yes, Petra, I am."

"Come on guys, let's talk about something positive!" Olivia pleaded, leaning back on the couch's pillow. "Like, weren't we planning on carving pumpkins to decorate the tree-house with tomorrow?"

"And putting up orange and yellow fairy lights." Jesse added, smiling vaguely. "I am looking forward to that."

"Speaking of pumpkins and decorating, Halloween's in a few weeks." Petra said, perking up excitedly. "Have you guys thought about what you're dressing up as?"

"Do we have to?" Lukas asked playfully, causing the redhead to elbow him in the dark.

"What do you mean have I thought about it, I've been working on my costume for months." Olivia said, grinning. "I'm going as a witch."

"I'm still torn between pirate and werewolf." Petra said, leaning back on her elbows. "Are you going as a vampire again, Lukas?"

"Oh hell no, I couldn't wait to get out of that outfit last year." The blonde said, chuckling. "I'm picking something way more comfortable like... Grim Reaper!"

"Are you sure that's not just an excuse to be lazy?" Petra asked, raising an eyebrow. "It's pretty much just a black cloak and a scythe."

"I tried the extravagant outfit, it didn't work for me. I was sweaty, I was hot, and for the most of the night I had a wedgie." Lukas deadpanned.

"What about you two?" Olivia asked, looking over at Jesse and Axel. "Please tell me your not dressing up as a massive cookie again, Axel?"

"I still don't get what you had against that outfit." Axel said, pretending to pout. "I'm doing zombie this year."

"Hey Jesse, you should go as a ghost." Petra piped up.

"Why?"

"Because you're as boring as one!"

"Oh, haha." Jesse rolled her eyes, chuckling. "Very funny. I was thinking something medieval."

"That's such a good idea!" Olivia exclaimed. "I wish I thought of that! Please say I can help you with your outfit?"

Jesse began opening her mouth to say yes, when something cut her off. A strange rattling noise, coming from somewhere in the tree-house.

"Did anybody else hear that?" Lukas asked, sitting upright and looking between the others.

"What, did the thunder scare you?" Petra asked sarcastically. "Or maybe it was the tree branches scraping against the window? So scary!"

"No, I heard it too, that didn't come from outside." Olivia said, to which Jesse gave a confirming nod.

"You guys are just getting spooked from all the Halloween talk, I didn't hear a thing." Axel said.

"I swear it sounded like bones rattling, a skeleton." Jesse added softly, still looking a little spooked.

"It's been raining for days, the forest is crawling with mobs." Petra brushed her concerns aside. Her blue eyes were gleaming in the dark. "You know, this makes me think... Have I ever told you the story of the Eternal Night of Skeletons?"

"That sounds like absolute crap." Lukas remarked, lifting an eyebrow. "If you're going to tell ghost stories, at least be creative with them."

"No, no, this isn't a ghost story! This actually happened." Petra was grinning from ear to ear as she sat up on her knees, dramatically gesturing with her hands as she spoke. "It was a storm, much like this one, during this same time of year as well. People called it the eternal night, because even though the sun rose as it should, the clouds let no light through!"

Jesse and Olivia exchanged anxious glances, both girls already uncomfortable from what Petra was telling them.

"The storm didn't stop for days, weeks." Petra went on, making her eyes wide in the dark. "Soon enough, people had to evacuate the town, because the houses were getting flooded."

"What does it have to do with skeletons?" Lukas asked, shuddering slightly.

"There was this one particular family." Petra's voice was low and eerie. "They got separated from the others in the storm, and found themselves in the dark forest, water already up to their knees. While the elements were deadly, they didn't fear any monsters. Of course there were no Endermen, and zombies fled to high ground so they weren't transformed into drowned's. Most spiders were up in the treetops, the water too deep for them." She took a dramatic pause. "But the skeletons were more dangerous than ever."

Jesse gulped slightly, subconsciously edging closer to Olivia. The engineer's eyes were wide as she listened to the story, while Lukas was chewing his nails nervously. Only Axel didn't seem to be phased by what Petra was telling them, contentedly chewing on a chocolate bar he had dug out somewhere.

"When the skeletons closed in on this family, they weren't alone." Petra's voice was almost a whisper in the dark. "They were riding skeleton horses, created by lightning, who moved below the water with ease. The family thought they could hide, they could run. But they were surrounded." Her voice drifted off dramatically.

"Days later, their bodies were discovered, rotting away in the mud."

Jesse felt a chill of dread run down her spine at the redhead's words. She grimaced, nauseous at the thought.

"The only way people were able to connect the dots, were by the thousands of bones that were strewn throughout the forest." Petra went on. "Anybody who approached the location, would hear their footsteps echoing back up at them from a carpet of hollow bones."

The last words had barely left Petra's lips, when there was another frightening rattle of bones somewhere inside the tree-house. Jesse inhaled sharply, immediately scrambling to her feet and looking around with wide eyes.

"What the hell is that?" Lukas was on his feet as well, his face ghostly pale in the candlelight.

"Petra, if this is some sort of sick joke..." Olivia's voice trembled anxiously.

Jesse was looking around anxiously, when the entire tree-house was suddenly lit up with lightning. In that brief moment of flashing white, the silhouette of a bony shape stared at them from right outside the window.

The screams were deafening as they lurched back from the window, the bellowing thunder to follow swallowing up their shrieks. Jesse had practically clambered on top of Lukas, while Olivia had curled herself up into a ball at the base of the couch with her arms covering her head in fear.

There was another flash that briefly lit up the room, but this time it wasn't from lightning.

It was from a camera.

"That reaction was better than I ever dreamed it would be!" Petra was almost crying with laughter, folding double. "I can't believe all three of you fell for that!"

Axel was laughing too, holding up his hand to high-five the redhead.

"You two did this?" Olivia's voice was shrill as she swung towards them.

"You should have seen your faces!" Axel laughed. "It was priceless!"

"What the hell?!" The more Jesse's panic seeped away, the more anger rose up within her. "This was all a joke?"

"I can't believe it." Lukas collapsed back onto the couch, raking his hands through his hair. "I nearly peed my pants right now and it was you fooling around all along!"

Petra only shrieked with laughter at her friends' words, wiping away the tears that had started running down her face.

And as the initial shock and anger wore off, all three of the others began laughing too. At first it was just nervous chuckles, but soon enough they were sprawled out throughout the room, gasping for breath through snorts of laughter.

"Okay, I'll admit it." Jesse was still clutching her stomach as she laughed. "That was actually a good one."

"Not that I enjoy being on the receiving end!" Olivia snorted.

"I just have one concern." Petra said as her laughter finally died down. "It didn't sound like the rattling came from just outside the tree-house, and Axel and I didn't plant any more skeletons."

Silence settled over the group instantly.

"I'm kidding!" The redhead burst out laughing once more. "How did you fall for another one so quickly?"

"I swear, I'm getting revenge one day." Jesse said, laughing as she leaned back on the couch.

Okay, maybe their situation wasn't all bad – she had a feeling they were going to have heaps more fun that season.

___

Almost a little late, but here's my first one shot for this month of autumn and spooky celebrations!

I had way, wayy too much fun with this one– It was suggested for two members of the Order to play a big prank on the others, and it took me a while to decide what I wanted to go with; I'm happy with what I ended up creating!

I haven't been writing many one shots, and I'm trying to get back into the swing of things, so thank you to everybody who's been leaving suggestions!

I hope you all enjoyed this little pre-halloween one shot as much as I enjoyed writing it!