This is Episode 3 of American Horror Story season 1.5 - Murder House Revisited. You should read the previous episodes first or you may be confused. Check my Profile to find them.

Monsters

1977 - Halloween night

16-year-old Ben Harmon sat on the steps of the boys' home in handcuffs. People came and went in a rush, up and down the stairs, in and out of the quaint two-story home. Back and forth, back and forth. The red and blue lights of the nearby emergency vehicles flashed, washing out the candlelight from the Jack-o-lanterns on the porch.

Paramedics wheeled another stretcher out of the house. Ben couldn't see who was on it. When he tried to rise to get a better look, the policeman standing behind him put a hand on his shoulder and shoved him down again. He glared at the man. The officer gave him a cold look.

"Why'd you do it?" asked the cop. It wasn't an official tone; he sounded appalled.

Ben curled an evil smile at him just because he knew it would bother the cop. "Because I hate Halloween."

It was a lie but he wasn't going to spill his life story to some flatfoot who obviously didn't give a damn. He wouldn't understand anyway. Nobody would. Unless they spent their life in a place like Waverly's Foster Home for Wayward Boys, how could they know what it felt like? To have to deal with those people every day. Putting up with the combined shit of ten stupid boys, getting beat up, listening to the caretakers put the fault on Ben.

"You ground up glass and put it in brownies to feed to your friends because you hate Halloween?" the officer said.

Ben looked away from him, wishing the man would leave him alone. "They weren't my friends." He knew how that sounded and it irritated him more. "They're just a bunch of asshole kids."

Paramedics brought out another stretcher. It bounced on the on the steps and Mrs. Deene's arm flopped out. There were still brownie crumbs on her plump hand.

"You'll be lucky if nobody dies," the policeman said.

Ben ignored him. He thought maybe if he did the man would go away. But he didn't.

"What's the matter with you?"said the cop. "You hurt a lot of people. Don't you even care?"

"Don't you have police work to do?" said Ben.

The cop huffed a breath that wasn't quite a laugh. "You are my police work, son. After they get done cleaning up your mess, you and I are going for a ride."

Ben shifted in his cuffs. "Am I going to jail?"

Now the cop laughed. "I don't think so, pal. You're going to the nut-house."

The teenager didn't know what to think of that. Jail time had a certain amount of street rep to it. Being a mental patient just made you crazy. He wasn't crazy. He was just mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.

"I'm not crazy," he said.

"Sure, pal," the officer responded. "You keep telling yourself that."

Another stretcher rolled by. Two policemen followed but they went over to where their fellow officer was keeping watch over Ben.

"That's the last one," said the tallest cop. "Christ on crutches. I think we used every ambulance in town."

The last ambulance started away with a short whoop of its siren. The cop behind Ben put his hand on the teen's shoulder. "Let's go. The folks at Kirkbride Hills are expecting you."

He helped Ben to his feet then steered the wayward boy to the squad car. Sirens wailed in the night.

...

░A░m░e░r░i░c░a░n░ ░H░o░r░r░o░r░ ░S░t░o░r░y░

...

2018 - 5 months before the earthquake

Chad and Patrick sat on the king sized bed in Chad's room, propped by a wall of bolsters and matching throw pillows, eyes on the portable DVD player. Tate, in child guise, had started out seated between them but over the course of the movie had shifted till his head was on Chad's lap and his feet were in Pat's. He didn't ask permission to sprawl on everyone but no one told him to move either.

He was having trouble focusing on the movie. He was having trouble just staying awake. It wasn't that the movie was dull or that the time was even that late. He'd just been sleepier in general. It seemed to be the unfair trade-off for how his nightmares had stopped so suddenly. He barely remembered his dreams now. He was still completely uninformed that he was being medicated via evening snack.

He stifled a yawn. He needed to do something other than lay there or he'd fall asleep for sure. To stop himself picking at his sleeves he poked at Chad's nearest hand. He noticed the man was still wearing his wedding ring. Tate fidgeted with it drowsily. Chad glanced down briefly then went back to watching the movie.

Tate shifted a little but he couldn't see Patrick's left hand from where he was. The last time he'd seen Pat's wedding ring, Tate had given it to Violet to go play Frodo in an attempt to stop the gay couple from kidnapping her brothers. It made him hesitant to ask the man if he was wearing it. But he wanted to know. There seemed to be a solution to his dilemma but Tate couldn't figure it out.

"Pat?" he said finally. It was too much effort to sit up and look.

"Hm?"

"Are you wearing your ring?"

There was a long pause before Patrick answered. "Yeah."

Tate lay there an equally long moment, sewing his sluggish thoughts together. "Sorry I took it that time."

Chad looked down at him, brows inching up. Patrick shot the kid an odd look as well. Then they both looked at each other, each knowing intuitively what the other felt about the random apology.

Patrick blinked away his peculiar expression. "Yeah. Well. I got it back." He reflexively straightened the band with his thumb.

The movie filled the silence that followed. Tate fell asleep before it ended, right where he was. This left Chad and Patrick to wonder whether to move him or leave him.

"He's been nodding off a lot lately," Chad said during the end credits of the movie. "He was sleepwalking again last night."

Patrick frowned and didn't say anything. Putting pills into Tate's food was a subject they'd argued about several times and he didn't want to get into it again, especially with the kid laying right there.

"Why do you still wear it?" Chad asked after a bit.

Patrick looked down at his ring and thought about whether or not he wanted to go there. "I don't know," he said eventually. "It's part of who I am."

They fell silent for another stretch while the ending song wound itself down. Then Chad said: "Do you want to watch another movie?"

"What do we have left?" Pat asked.

Chad shifted a little so he could reach the red paper DVD sleeves that were on the bed. "There's-"

Tate muttered something. Thinking he'd woken up, Chad listened. But what he said made no sense. It was gibberish. Chad looked closer and saw that Tate's eyes were still mostly-closed. He wasn't awake but he was talking, sort of.

"Tate?" Chad asked.

"When the wolves come out of the walls," Tate said quite clearly. He didn't open his eyes. "It's all over."

Chad glanced over at Patrick who looked dour.

"Tate," Chad repeated. This time he shook the boy. "Wake up."

Tate blinked a few times. "Huh?"

"The movie's over. Time to get ready for bed."

Tate nodded and yawned then dragged himself off the bed. He nearly walked into the doorjamb on his way out.

Pat stared at Chad.

"All right!" Chad exclaimed finally, like his arm was being twisted. "You were right. There. Feel better? I was wrong. You were right. We'll take him off the God-damned pills tomorrow."

"You can't do that."

Chad boggled at him. "Jesus! Would you make up your mind?"

Patrick scooted to the edge of the bed. "He's been taking that shit for two months. You can't just stop. You're going to have to wean him off of it or-"

Chad didn't like the sound of that 'or'. "Or..?"

"It could make him really sick."

"Sick how?"

"That stuff causes nasty withdrawal," said Patrick. He stood up. "I told you taking anything from Ben was a bad idea."

Chad's eyes widened. "I said I was wrong. Can you give it a rest, please? You know, I don't remember you saying anything about withdrawal when I asked you to look that stuff up so don't act so high and fucking mighty."

"I did tell you! You just didn't want to hear about it!" Pat sucked in a deep breath and tried to calm down. He really didn't want to get into a fight. "I'm going to bed." He turned to leave.

"His or yours?"

Chad regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth. Patrick paused only long enough to absorb the verbal blow. Then he left.

...

Author's Note:

Welcome back. I hope you're finding your extended tour into suburban horror diverting. I'm probably rushing by posting this so soon after the last Episode ended but I've never been good at restraining myself when I have something to share. You should see me with candy.

The beginning segment was inspired by the conversation between Ben, Vivien, Chad and Patrick in AHS season 1. They were carving pumpkins when Ben said he never got to do that sort of thing as a kid. Chad asked him why not. Ben and Vivien exchanged looks and then she changed the subject. Patrick and Chad noticed it too; it wasn't at all subtle. So I started wondering what Ben's Halloweens were like.

They were exciting.

The name Kirkbride Hills is a combination of my favorite asylum architecture style (the Kirkbride) and the name of the mental hospital in Nightmare on Elm Street pt. 3 (Westin Hills). Wolves in the Walls is a weird children's book by Neil Gaiman, who also authored Coraline and the Sandman series of comics. This chapter title, Preludes & Nocturnes, also happens to be a Neil Gaiman Death graphic novel title.