Halloween

Alan's Pov

It was Halloween. I was happy, more candy just for me! My brothers are taking me haha! Yep, as hard as that sounds they're taking me. I mean, I can go by myself but dad says I'm to young. But there are kids aged 7 going by themselves! It's not fair. Well, Scott says that Halloween is every kids' favorite day... besides christmas... and he's always right. Oh, by the way, my name's Alan Tracy, youngest of the family, and I hate Halloween. Want to know why? Read my story...

Halloween, 6pm

"Come on guys, I can't leave without you, otherwise I would have already!" Alan called impatiently, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

The others heard Alan's yelling and did nothing, they were busy arguing over who was going to take him out this year.

"I can't. I'm going with my friends this time." Gordon stated loudly.

"I was going to go with my friends too... sorry..." mumbled John.

"I have to help out with the Halloween party my college is throwing." Scott said with a smile.

"I did it last year, and the year before. I'm not taking him again" Virgil said, frowning.

"John why can't you take him?" Scott asked, folding his arms.

"Because I'm 16 now, and I'm not taking him with me. It's a time when I don't want to be the one to watch Alan all the time. Bye." John waved as he left.

"Well, I can't take him." Scott said, leaving quickly.

"I took him the year before, and yeah..." mumbled Virgil, leaving too.

"God! Right when I want to have fun too..." Muttered Gordon, murderously stalking down the stairs. He picked Alan up by his underarms and pulled him out of the house.

After about an hour Gordon pulled Alan to one side and said to him, "Alan, I want you to go get candy, and meet me back here later ok? In, er, two hours. If I'm not back here, just wait right by this post."

"Okay... but I'm not 'allowed' to go off by myself, Gordy, dad said!" whined Alan, swishing his bag of candy in front of him.

"Well, is dad here? No! So do what I say." Gordon snapped angrily.

"Fine. I will!" Alan shouted, stomping away from Gordon and going from house to house.

Gordon left his little brother to it and went to meet up with his friends. Together, they were going to the college Halloween Party at Scott's school.

The usual 5 minute walk actually took 10 minutes because they kept stopping to get candy as they went along. Once they got there, they decided to get some dancing in, Scott spotted Gordon and went over to him, pulling him away from his friends.

"Gordon! wheres Alan?" Scott asked, worried.

"Getting candy, what else? He's old enough to go trick or treating by himself." Gordon shrugged.

"So, you just left him to go off by himself?" hissed Scott incredulously.

"Basically" Gordon shrugged again, causing Scott to sigh explosively, hands itching to throttle the younger Tracy.

Virgil spotted Scott looking increasingly frustrated and hurried over to see what was wrong. "What's going on?"

"Gordon let Alan go off by himself tonight." Scott growled, looking murderously at the teenager opposite him.

"What?! Why did you do that?" Virgil cried, throwing his arms into the air.

"He wanted to be with his friends tonight instead." Scott guessed, eyes narrowing dangerously.

"We need to go and find him..." Virgil said quietly, eyes narrowed like his eldest brother's.

They left the party quickly, heading off to go find Alan. They had walked for about 10 minutes when Gordon remembered that he had agreed to meet Alan in from of a specific house.

"Guys, I told Alan to meet me in front of a house... The old one on Ponce de Leon rd!" Gordon turned round and started running back the way they had come, heading for the house.

"Gordon! Gordon, wait up!" Virgil called, Scott turning and running after his brother, long strides meaning it was not hard for him to gain on Gordon.

Back to Alan.

Alan's Pov.

I waited on the sidewalk for my brother... but he didn't come. I waited for 2 whole hours! Then this person came up to me and asked me if I wanted an apple. I said 'sure', because, it was a normal thing to do right? Give apples to kids on Halloween? She left, and I took a bite of it. What? I was hungery and it was past dinner time, what's a 9 year old kid to do? And, when you have a perfectly red apple in your hand, there was nothing to do but eat it.

I ate the apple. It was nice. However, after I had finished it, I started to feel a little sick... I didn't know why, but I was scared, and hurried home. I didn't think I would make it before I threw up, but somehow I managed to get in and into the bathroom before I was sick. I heard dad knock on the door, but everything went black before I could do anything.

My dad knocked again, but I guess, when I didn't answer, he broke it down because there was a crash. Then... I vaguely remember someone picking me up and telling me that I had to wake up and stay awake... Dad put his hand on my head and took my temperature... I think he cursed out loud and then he quickly ran out to the car with me in his arms.

"Daddy, where are we going?"

"We're going to the hospital, Alan" He said, in a shaky voice. "Stay awake until we get there."

My dad sounded scared, and I didn't know why... was it because I sick? Just then, that horrible feeling came back and I groaned loudly.

"Alan, Alan, stay awake for daddy now, okay?" He took one hand off the steering wheel to touch my leg, and I opened my eyes to look at him. "Just stay with me."

"Mm-hm..." I replied.

Back to the tracy boys.

"I told him to meet me here..." gasped Gordon, eyes searching for Alan. "Where is he?"

"Hey, what's that?" Virgil bent down and picked up the object from the floor.

"That's Alan's necklace..." Scott said, taking it from Virgil's hands, a feeling of dread creeping up on them all.

"Maybe he went home?" Virgil suggested hopefully.

"It was late... but I told him to meet me here, and Alan's never done anything against what we've told him..."

"We'll head towards the house, and start again from there." Scott said, hoping that their errant younger brother would indeed be back at the house.

Virgil walked slightly behind Gordon and Scott, the former of which was stopping himself from screaming his brother's name. As they turned the last corner, Virgil spotted a familiar blond mop of hair and ran over.

"John!"

"Guys? What are you doing out here?" asked John as he met up with them, walking towards the end of the road where their house.

"John, have you seen Alan?" Virgil asked hopefully.

"No... not since I left the house earlier this evening." John said slowly, brows furrowing as he was trying to figure out why they were asking him. "Why? Where is Alan anyway?" He paused. "This had better not be some kind of Halloween prank."

"Does this look like a prank?!" Scott exclaimed, indicating the worried faces of their younger brothers. "Gordon here, let Alan go off by himself tonight." The eldest Tracy sighed, shoulders slumping. "We can't find him."

"What? What in the hell were you thinking, Gordon?" John shouted. When the always-calm John Tracy lost his temper, the other brothers knew that he was seriously upset. "When did you last see him?"

Any answer was cut off by Scott's mobile ringing. He fumbled about in his pocket for the phone before answering it, not noticing the caller ID.

"Hello?" He said, frowning at his brother to be quiet, as they had started bickering amongst each other.

" Scott, can you get to the others quickly?" Jeff asked, voice trembling slightly.

"Yeah, they're right here dad, what's going on?" Scott asked. "Where are you?"

"I'm at the hospital with Alan. He has a temperture of 107.6. Currently, he's in a room with several doctors and they haven't told me anything! One of the nurses said that the doctor would be out shortly, but he isn't here yet and I don't know what's wrong with him! Get everyone here now." Jeff said breathlessly, hand clenched around the phone. "I'm in the A&E department."

"Alright, dad, stay calm, we're coming." Scott answered, eyes wide.

"Scott, what's the matter?" Virgil asked as Scott put the phone down.

"Alan's in the hospital." The eldest said slowly, the revelation eliciting a gasp of absolute from Gordon. "He's sick... really sick. The doctors aren't telling dad anything, he doesn't know what's going on..." As they neared the house, Scott ran towards the car and ushered John, Virgil and a tearful Gordon into the car. "Get in the car and belt up, we have to get to the hospital."

They got in the hospital almost 20 minutes later. They parked the car and practically sprinted into the A&E department, where they saw Jeff sitting, watching the door next to him nervously.

John hurried forward and crouched down in front of their father. Putting one hand on his shoulder, he said, "Dad?"

"How is he?" asked Scott, concerned for his baby brother.

"I don't know... they won't tell me anything... he's been in there for 40 minutes now." Jeff stated, sounding increasingly detached.

"Is there anyone here for an Alan Shepard Tracy?" A doctor asked, emerging from the room Jeff had been watching.

"Yes! I'm his father." replied Jeff, getting to his feet and hurrying over to the doctor.

"Mr Tracy, it seems a look-a-like drug was given to your son. It may have been placed inside of a piece of candy, or fruit, that looks exactly like it is a part of that candy or fruit; and that's what's caused this. He's still got a fever, and it has gone up, I'm afraid, but, we're trying our best to get it down. He's still in a critical condition, but he will be alright at the moment, you can see him now." The doctor said. Once he had finished talking, the boys crept closer.

"Can we come in too?" Scott asked hopefully. "We're his brothers."

The doctor smiled kindly at the four boys. "Of course you can. Mr Tracy, it's lucky you got him here as quickly as you did, that drug was fast acting, and he could have died."

"Thank you." Jeff said gratefully.

"Anytime, sir." said the doctor. "He's in room 242."

"Okay, thank you again." said Jeff and then he turned around to see his other sons.

"Dad? How is he?" asked John.

"Your brother was drugged." Jeff stated bluntly, eyes narrowed. "It I hadn't have got him here when I did, he would have died. He's still in a critical condition, his fever went up further and they're trying to bring it down... but we can go see him." Jeff's eyes shone with something that looked like tears, but none of the boys noticed it - if they did, they never said anything. "Today we almost lost someone else close to us... come on boys, let's go and see your brother."

They all walked into room 242, and saw Alan connected to machines and had a nose tube in his nose. Gordon recoiled, hiding his head in Scott's side.

"Oh my God..." Gordon whispered, he hated to see his brother this way and he kept muttering that it was his fault. "Dad it's all my fault!" cried Gordon eventually, pulling away from Scott and walking over to the bed. "I let him go trick or treating himself, I didn't mean for this to happen!" Gordon sat beside the bed and wiped his eyes. Normally, he'd have a problem with crying in front of his family, but right now, he was feeling too guilty to care. "I'm sorry Al..." Gordon took Alan's hand and gave it a squeeze. Alan responded by squeezing it gently back, but didn't open his eyes.

Alan fell back to sleep, as peacefully as you could when you're really, really sick.

Jeff was in shock. He tried to get out of it, he hated feeling helpless, and the other emotion boiling through him was rage. However, the last thing anyone needed was him getting mad at Gordon, so he sighed, put one hand on his second youngest's back and said, "I know. No one wanted this to happen Gordon, no one did." With that he left the room. Gordon started to cry even harder and looked at his unconscious brother in sorrow.

"I'm really sorry Alan... I am." Gordon sobbed. He knew that Alan would be fine, at least, he hoped he would, but at that moment, he was so scared and frightened. That was something he wouldn't be able to get rid of until Alan was out of the hospital and back at home.

2 days later, Alan was finally let out of hospital. Gordon found himself grounded for - what seemed to be the next three years - 2 months. Everyone relaxed when Alan came home, they were doing better than they ever were as a family unit, and for that everyone was thankful.

5 years Later

I still can't believe all of that happened on Halloween. It wasn't my second favorite holiday anymore because people are still doing those thing to kids and I had a first hand experience of it.

I was 14 this year, and now, my friends Fermat and Tin-tin come with me trick or treating. Since I started going with them, I've enjoyed it again. Gordon got scolded for what seemed like forever the day I came home from the hospital. Scott went into pseudo-protective big-brother mode, and has watched me closer since, and Virgil, God! He and Scott teamed up with the watching thing, and they are constantly checking up on me. It's like a tag-team! John talked about my experience with me to make sure that I was less scared to go out of the house.

Tin-tin somehow knows about why I loathe Halloween, I also think that Fermat knows, they've stuck by my reason for not going... and my family has become closer since that time.

But one thing I learned at age 9 is, don't take anything from strangers.

Note: Ok, i know, weird. But things always happen during Halloween, this was supposed to make a point - not to take anything from strangers, 'cause how do you know what they could give you? And it was Gordon's fault for not being there to stop Alan from eating it. It wouldn't have happened if he was watching his brother, but noooooo he wanted to go trick or treating with his friends and go to that college Halloween party... Sorry... got off topic lol!, what do you think? Well, reveiw please, no flames, if you don't mind, 'cause I've just put the fire out in my inbox .

well review and check out my other Thunderbirds storys, listed below:

1. Alan's 5th birthday

2. Video Taped

3. Who i am

4.Better than this

5. Angel