DISCLAIMER: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and all characters are property of NBC and Dick Wolf.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This started as a drabble and just came out. It's way over the 100 word limit and I could bear to cut any of it, so it's a ficlet now.
SPOILERS: Post-Loss.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.

Haunted
By Nic

There's one night a year where everyone can be whoever... whatever... they want to be. One night when things are never questioned and magic takes over.

I sit at my window, watching Harry Potters and Pokemon stroll by in the dusk, clutching plastic pumpkins filled with wrapped candy. No one goes out after dark anymore around here. I don't even like to and I have a gun.

I wonder how everything's going at the precinct. I'm sure everyone's having a great time at the party. I'm sure Elliot in that godforsaken pirate getup is harassing Munch whose costume probably consists of the absence of his sunglasses. I said I couldn't go because I couldn't find a costume. I said I couldn't go because I needed to visit my godson. I said I couldn't go because I hated Hallowe'en. I said just about everything.

I couldn't say that I didn't want to go. I couldn't say I was having a hard time dealing with... everything. I put on a good game face, but everything underneath is in shambles. I kills me to know you're out there somewhere. The sick and twisted part thinks that you could be living three floors below me but since I never say hi to anyone in my building, I've probably missed you. It really scares me to think that I won't recognize you when you come back. If you come back.

This night makes me wonder what the chances are that you'll knock on my door wearing a mask right out of Amadeus and say 'trick-or-treat' in that husky bedroom voice you know I love. This night plays tricks on the rational mind.

So while kids and adults alike take advantage of it and pull on a costume of the latest and greatest obsession, I'm left thinking... You know, this night has become your life.

I'm left wondering... Who do you want to be?

The End

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