Really Strange Stuff - Ch.32 - All Hallow's Eve (Patreon)

=::= Mara's PoV =::=

I grinned as I checked my costume over one last time. The past four years I'd done the demon-girl thing, but now it was old. And since I started leaving my horns and tail visible full-time I really couldn't call that a costume anymore.

So I went with something completely different, and thanks to a little application of demonic magic it was entirely realistic. The only downside was it felt a bit weird. I was pretty sure I could live with it for one night though.

Instead of my long pointy dark red horns I now had a pair of fuzzy cat ears sticking up from the top of my head. And I still had a tail, but instead of being a spade-tipped demon tail it was now covered in dark cat fur. It swished back and forth while I adjusted my dark red leggings, then my ears twitched to my mater's voice.

"I look and feel ridiculous," she sighed loudly from the bathroom.

Mehter responded, "You look great Lily. Honestly love, you need to learn to loosen up. Did you really spend the past four halloweens hiding and sulking in our daughters' mind?"

I snuck out of the bedroom and peeked in through the open door at my demonic moms while they were talking. They were both in their human forms, Lily's made it obvious she was related to me and Mira, but she appeared to be about a decade older. Like a thirty-ish year old sister, or a young sexy aunt. Eva's human shape was a beautiful mid-twenties blue-eyed blonde. And both of them were dressed up in costumes for tonight's party.

My mater was meant to be a vampire, with elongated fangs that were probably supposed to look fake but I was pretty sure she'd made them real. She also wore a long flowing black dress and a cape. Her normally dusky skin had taken on a greyish pallor, and her eyes were completely black like they were in her demonic form.

And mehter was obviously meant to be a witch, but she looked cute rather than scary. She wore a tall pointed hat ontop of her long blonde hair, and a flowing black cloak covered most of her body. Overtop of that she had a silver pentacle amulet thing hanging from a cord around her neck.

Seeing them like that filled me with enough happiness that a faint rumbling noise started in my chest, and I had to quickly move away from the bathroom door so my purring wouldn't give me away. Instead I leaped down the half-staircase into the living room, where my other half and our girlfriends were making the final preparations for our party.

Mira had her back to me which seemed like a perfect opportunity to get into my character, so I lined up then pounced. My arms and legs wrapped around her from behind as I teased, "Hey Adora!"

All five of us went with a theme this year, which meant Mira and I weren't so identical tonight. She'd changed her jet-black hair so it was sunny blonde, and her eyes were blue instead of our usual green. She was dressed in a silly white and gold outfit with a mini-skirt and a short red cape. She even had the gold-coloured tiara, and bracers on her wrists.

"Mara we don't have time to play around," Mira responded while I continued hugging her from behind. "The guests will be here any minute now."

"Maybe you could go light all the jack-o-lanterns?" Melissa suggested. She'd shifted from her normal 'average girl next door' appearance, although she hadn't actually changed that much.

Her sandy-blonde hair was lighter and longer, while her figure had become a little bit taller and slimmer. She was dressed in a long sleeveless fuchsia dress with light green frock thing draped over her shoulders. Her hair was full of green and pink flowers, and she had fake vines wrapped around her arms.

"What's the point?" I scoffed as I stayed in character. "It's not like there'll be any trick-or-treaters tonight, since halloween's not until Thursday."

Mel gave me a hopeful look and replied in her character's airy voice, "It's still a halloween party Catra, and it's important to attract the correct energies for tonight's event."

"Then why don't you do it, Perfuma?" I teased. "Pumpkins are plants, and that's your thing."

Then I added, "Or get Sparkles to do it, she's supposed to be all magical and stuff right?"

"The name is Glimmer," Amber glared at me as she got into character too.

She hadn't changed her appearance that much either. She was still short and cuddly, the biggest difference was her hair. Instead of a mousey brown pixie cut it was now pink and sort of swept up to one side. She was dressed in dark purple shorts, light purple boots, a light purple blouse, with a short translucent blue cape.

"What. Ever." Susan stated in a bored tone. "I'm like, totally regretting I suggested this theme."

She was in character too, which put another smile on my face. Her short red hair was now a deep aqua blue and hung down past her shoulders in a single thick ponytail, while her normally-fair skin now carried a dark tan. She was dressed in a tight short-sleeve blue bodysuit that covered her from shoulders to ankles. She had matching blue shoes, and wore a gold-coloured belt and bracelets.

It was too bad Grace couldn't make it, I figured she'd have been perfect as Queen Angella. Unless I could convince her to be a bad girl like me, because I thought she'd have rocked a Shadow Weaver costume. Unfortunately she was still busy with her latest fashion shoot so she had to turn down our invitation.

Then Mira spoke up again, and this time she was playing along as well. She glared at me and ordered, "Catra go light the jack-o-lanterns."

She continued, "Glimmer, you're on snacks duty. Perfuma please take care of the music. I'll put in the order for dinner."

"And Mermista," she added as she looked to Susan, "You're on drinks."

"Seriously? Just because I'm a water princess doesn't mean I know anything about mixing drinks," Susan pretended to complain as she started towards the kitchen alongside Amber.

I giggled as I headed for the front door. We had a small army of jack-o-lanterns out there, one for each member of our whole entire extended family. And despite my character's lack of magic I still cheated with my own demonic power. I waved my arms and flicked my wrists with a flourish, and every single one of the little candles lit up at once.

"Hey Mara! One of these days that's going to get you into trouble," Sam stated as he and Troy emerged from their pickup.

They'd just pulled into the driveway, and both were in costume. Melissa's big brother wore an old-fashioned suit and a fedora, and he had a colourful plastic squirt-gun in the shape of a gangster tommy-gun in one hand. Meanwhile his boyfriend Troy was totally rocking an old-timey dress with a matching hat and heels. He'd been on a bit of a health kick the past two years, so rather than the stocky guy I first met way back when he was now kind of sleek. Along with the dress his costume included a candy cigar in his mouth, and he held a colourful plastic squirt-gun in the shape of a pistol.

"Hi Sam, Troy!" I greeted them happily. "I give up, who are you two supposed to be?"

The two struck a pose as Troy responded, "Hey Catra. The name's Bonnie Parker, this here's my boyfriend Clyde Barrow. We're on the run from the law, hoping we can hide out here for the night?"

My eyes widened as I recognized the names, "Oh cool! Yeah come on in, you should be safe in here. I doubt anyone will be wearing a cop costume."

I led them back into the house, only to discover two more guests had arrived while I was outside. They came by magic though, instead of using one of the doors. Or more accurately, Eva went and got them.

"Lexi, Marianne, cool costumes!" I exclaimed when I saw them in the living-room. "Are you supposed to be anyone specific? And what happened to Lucas?"

They were dressed like they'd just stepped out of ancient Greece or whatever. The tall attractive French girl had her chestnut hair pulled back into a ponytail, and she was dressed in some sort of armour made out of layered leather straps. She also had a small bronze sword hanging by her hip. Meanwhile the short fluffy catgirl seemed to be dressed in nothing but a white tunic and a simple cord belt. And both of them had those old-timey leather sandals with the straps that wrapped around their ankles.

"Hello Mara," Marianne replied with a smile. "I'm a Mycenaean warrior woman, and Lexi is my servant girl."

Lexi added, "Lucas had other plans, he and his friends were doing a pub crawl back in London."

Then she commented, "Nice to see I'm not the only catgirl here tonight. Who are you supposed to be? And who's your squirt-gun-toting friends?"

"I'm Catra!" I announced with a big grin. "And these are Bonnie and Clyde. Oh I mean, Sam and Troy!"

By that point Melissa joined us to greet her brother, so she took over the introductions. And from there things only got busier.

Amber's friend Matt and his date Kaia were the next arrivals. He was dressed as a stereotypical tough-guy hockey player, with the bloodstained jersey and a fake black eye and fake missing teeth. And Kaia was in a cheerleader costume, with the short skirt and pompoms and everything.

Then Susan's friend Willow came by with her latest girlfriend, Elena. They were in a cute matching couples-costume, with Elena dressed up as a sexy bee-girl while Willow was the bee-keeper. And not long after that Sue's other friends Erin and Logan arrived. They were both dressed in matching uniforms from one of those sci-fi shows Susan liked, complete with the shiny insignia on their chests and fake communicators and space-guns on their belts.

Around that point Eva finally talked Lily into coming out of hiding, so mater and mehter emerged from the bedroom and came down to join the party. Mater was acting totally awkward and uneasy, but me and Mira and mehter all did our best to try and get her to lighten up. It seemed to help too, as she and Eva started mingling with the guests.

Except that was kind of awkward in a way, since even though some of them knew who Lily really was we had a couple people who didn't. Like Kaia and Elena didn't know anything about demons or the supernatural, and Willow probably had suspicions but I was pretty sure she didn't know the truth. So we had to be careful how we did the introductions or whatever.

Kate and Hannah showed up about fifteen minutes later, and as soon as I saw them I knew exactly who they were supposed to be. Kate had dyed her blonde hair a lilac-purple colour, and she wore purple leggings and a long-sleeve purple top under a black tunic, while black ankle-boots completed the outfit. She even had a jar full of purple slime tied to her belt. Meanwhile Hannah wore a pair of denim shorts over dark blue leggings, and on top she had a white and purple hoodie with fake cat-ears sewn into the hood.

My temporarily real cat ears and tail all stood up as I greeted them both, "Amity! Luz! You made it! Come on in, join the party!"

Kate smiled, "Thanks Mara. I mean, thanks Catra."

"Everyone's costumes are amazing," Hannah commented as she looked around our big crowded living room.

I nodded, "Yeah they're all really good. It's -"

"Oh there's Lily!" Kate suddenly exclaimed when she spotted my vampire mater. She grabbed her girlfriend's hand then practically dragged Hannah away to go introduce her.

A moment later Mira was by my side. She slipped an arm around my shoulders as we both watched Kate and Hannah start talking with our demon mom.

"I'm glad you made friends with Kate," my other half commented quietly. "And I'm glad she and mater can be friends in person now too, instead of just secret penpals."

I wrapped an arm around Mira's waist, and slipped my tail in between her legs then wrapped it around her thigh as I replied just as softly, "Me too."

Then I added, "It's pretty crowded with so many friends and family here, but I like it."

"I wouldn't want it this busy all the time, but it's nice when we have these parties." my other half agreed. "Our girlfriends seem to like it too, I think? Susan certainly looks happy. Same with Melissa and Amber, they're all having fun."

"Yeah," I nodded.

I could have stood there hugging Mira a while longer, but the pizzas and wings arrived right about then so there was another flurry of activity dealing of all that. Then for the next little while it felt even more crowded, as everyone gathered around the food for a bit. That didn't last too long though, as folks gradually spread out again once they'd loaded up a paper plate with a slice or some wings and grabbed a drink or whatever. There were lots of folks in the living room and some sat in our small dining room area, but a few ended up chilling in the kitchen. And some even made their way downstairs to the basement, where it was a bit quieter.

Melissa had some pizza while Amber munched on a wing or two, and even Mira grabbed a slice. I noticed mater and mehter didn't bother with the people-food though, and neither did I. My demon moms were talking with Kate and Hannah while the human girls ate, which made me smile. I decided not to intrude on their conversation, and instead I just wandered around the house to make sure everyone was doing ok.

At one point I ended up down in the basement with Susan. She was chilling with Erin and Logan, but they were all talking about work stuff and it only took a couple minutes for that to go way over my head. So after checking that they all had drinks and everything I headed back up to the kitchen.

Sam and Troy were in there raiding the fridge for more beer, along with Matt and Kaia. Then as I moved on into the little dining area next to our living-room I found Amber talking with a few people that I didn't recognize. I figured they must have just arrived while I was in the basement, but all three were in costume so I assumed someone else must have invited them. Like last-minute guests or whatever.

There was a short calico catgirl dressed as a drum majorette, with a pink mini skirt and a fancy jacket and silly hat. She even had one of those twirly baton things in one hand, and a vodka cooler in the other. Then next to her was a tall ravenette catgirl dressed up like a golfer, with the fancy shoes and silly poofy golf pants and everything. She even had a golf club in one hand, and a beer in the other. The third was a foxgirl wearing a numbered sports jersey with elbow and knee pads. And she was carrying some kind of wooden sports stick that had a little net on top, and she had a cooler in her other hand.

"Hey wait a second!" I exclaimed as I suddenly realized who they were. "You're those three internet reporters! Amber these are the ones I was talking about, they tried to get me to do an interview on Wednesday!"

I forgot to use my demonic intuition on them when I met them at school but I tried doing it now, and that's when I got an even bigger surprise. Ever since I became a full demon my intuition thing worked on almost everyone, including my girlfriends. The only people I knew it wouldn't work on were other full demons, like mater and mehter and Mira. But it wasn't working on these three, and that made my gut lurch. If these reporters were actually demons in disguise then we could all be in serious trouble.

The moment that thought crossed my mind I knew both Mira and my demon mom heard it. We were all still connected, even though mater got her own body we could all share our thoughts. We could even meet up in head-space too, either in Lily's apartment or Mira's villa.

Amber obviously didn't recognize the potential danger. She was all calm and casual as she responded, "It's ok Catra, they told me who they are. And they promised not to record anything without our permission, so I figured it was ok to let them in. After all, it's a party and they're all in costume."

"And it's not like we're in any danger from them," she added. "Not with the whole DLP here, plus Lily and Eva."

The catgirl drum majorette chimed in with a stream of questions, "What does DLP stand for? I'm guessing the D is for demons? What about Lily and Eva, are they demons too? Or are they something else? Goddesses maybe?"

My ears folded back and my tail puffed out a bit as I looked past the three party crashers. My mater and mehter were both heading our way, and from the look on my demon mom's face she was ready to deal with the three interlopers, whoever or whatever they turned out to be.

I grimaced as my attention shifted back to the calico catgirl, "I think you're about to find out."