Katy Dicaprio bounded happily down the street with Frank-Dicaprio and Lucy in matching cat ears on either side of her.  She was dressed as a kitty cat, the best-looking costume around by far as Frank commissioned the damn thing from some designer out in Hollywood.  She never tired of watching Frank find new and interesting ways to dote on Katy.  She would be a hopelessly spoiled brat for sure, use to the best of everything and intolerant of anyone who couldn’t provide for her as her daddy did.

Behind them Nery, Vito, Tony, and Giuseppe followed – but not too close.  They were there for protection, but weren’t to interfere with the evening’s fun.  This was family time, sadly with recent events the gangsters couldn’t relax even for a moment… not even on a holiday.

“Twick or Tweat!”  Katy, with her first missing tooth, mangled the statement cutely at the next door.  The old woman handing out lollypops smiled brightly at the cute kitty. 

“What a lovely family.”  The elderly woman said of the three of them.  Lucy hugged Frank’s arm tightly and smiled up at him.  Behind them, she could hear the guys talking with someone – a new voice.  She and Frank looked back at the same time finding one of Godfather Varys’ people had caught up with them.

Lucy sighed.  Frank patted her arm.  “I’ll go.”  He said.  “I need to put in my time right now anyway if I’m going to earn this.”

Giuseppe walked up to them both.  “Sorry to interrupt, Boss.”  He didn’t make clear which Boss he was referring to.  Lucy supposed it hardly mattered anymore to whom he felt he was most loyal.  It had been a bitter thing to accept at first, but she was getting use to sharing things and that meant her most loyal friend and trusted bodyguard.

“I’m coming.”  Frank said taking off his cat ears. 

“Actually – Big Boss needs both of you.”

“It’s Halloween!”  Lucy started to protest, but shut her mouth fast.  Of course, he’d need her tonight.  She had forgotten all about the neglected business of promotions during the war.  Frank coming was probably a formality to him working his way to a button again.  But they’d only just started down this street and poor Katy would miss out … unless…

“Frank and I will go.  I want you guys, all of you, to stay with Katy and see that she gets that bag full.”  Lucy took off her ears and went down to explain her absence to their daughter.

“Full?”  Giuseppe said.

 “Just make sure she has fun.”  Frank explained.  “I know you won’t let us down.”  He pat Giuseppe on the arm and then leaned down to kiss Katy on the cheek, promising her a new dolly for daddy and mommy having to go to work in the middle of trick or treating.  Lucy only barely kept her eyes from rolling.

Frank and Lucy drove off and Katy looked up to Giuseppe.  “Next house?”

“Alright kid.”  The older Sicilian nodded for the others to keep pace and they surrounded the small child, their eyes darting to every person in a mask as if they expected a Chicago typewriter lurking around every corner.

*ding dong*

The kids in front of them yelled “Trick or Treat!”  The man in his wife beater and stained shorts grabbed a handful from the bowl and threw it into each bag, clearly eager to get back into the house to watch his TV and finish the beer he had in his hand.

Katy’s eyes lit up at the sight of the large handfuls of candy and she ran up past the other kids and ran the doorbell eagerly.

“Twick or Tweat!”  Katy said holding up her bag. 

The man, barely paying attention, threw one tiny bit-o-honey into her bag and slammed the door in her face.  Katy looked in the bag and frowned.  Giuseppe looked to Vito who, being Frank’s brother, the man was probably the senior of them in this sort of thing.  The unspoken exchanged took only a moment.

Nery and Vito stepped to the side with Katy and spoke to her gently about being grateful for the things we’re given while Giuseppe took Tony back to the car and filled him in on how he used to take Tommy and Lucy trick or treating as kids.  At the car the two men donned jackets, fedora’s and strode back to the wife-beater’s door.

*ding dong*

The man opened the door, looked down to the guy’s knees – expecting a kid.  Instead his head rose up and looked the two mobsters standing before him in the eyes.

“Nice house.”  Tony said around the toothpick in his mouth.

“Be a shame is something happened to it.”  Giuseppe said, moving his jacket to expose his gun.

“Wha… what do you want?”  The man stammered.

“I think there was an oversight,” Tony nodded back to Katy.  “Don’t you?”

“I’m sure he didn’t mean nothing by only given the girl one small candy… did ya?”

“No!  I … I… here.”  The man came out and put a huge handful of candy into Katy’s bag.  “That’s a fine kitty costume you got there little girl.  You enjoy all this candy now, huh?”

“Thank you, Mister!”

The man went inside quickly and the guys all chuckled at their fun new game.

Katy squealed and jumped up and down.  “We’ll fill my bag for sure!”

“Darn right kiddo.”  Giuseppe said.  “Your dad said you needed a full bag… we ain’t goin’ home till you got it.”

Katy bolted for the next house following another group of children.

*ding dong*

The adults who were with the group of kids that Katy followed, looked her bodyguards nervously as they all waited for the kids to come back with their loot.

“Twick or Tweat!”  Katy said holding up her bag. 

This house was properly supplied with Hersey’s chocolate bars and Katy was satisfied.  The parents of the large group of children found their way to the other side of the street.  This made the bodyguards a lot more comfortable so it was just as well.

*ding dong*

Some older boys raced up beside Katy at the next house, Giuseppe put his hand near his gun, knowing better than to under estimate young street hoods.

“Twick or Tweat!”  Katy said holding up her bag. 

The boys were fast, snagging the chocolate bars before they fell into Katy’s bag.  The lollypop hadn’t even landed before Nery cracked his neck.  “I got this.”  The youngest bodyguard said to his fellows. 

While Katy was consoled by Tony, Vito and Giuseppe – Nery grabbed the teen boys by their ears and drug them screaming behind the house.  A few moments later he returned with their bags in hand, full of the best candy they’d been lifting from little kids all night.

“Look what Uncle Nery found Katy!”  Vito said as the man came back wiping blood from his knuckles.

Katy clapped happily, unaware of the teen boys running in terror back to their own mothers. 

Nery poured both bags into Katy’s, fill it just three short houses into the night.

Katy’s eyes bulged at the sight of more candy than she’d ever seen in her whole life.  Then it dawned on her.  “Does this mean we have to go home now?”  She sounded so heart broken.

The guys looked between one another.  “There’s a haunted house in Southside.  Kids like being scared, right?” Vito suggested.

“SCAREY!”  Katy said bouncing.

Giuseppe shrugged.  “Lucy and Tommy loved that shit.”

“I don’t know… maybe she’s too young for that?”  Tony said thoughtfully.

Nery waved a hand, “She’s a pretty tough kid and we’ll be there.”

“HAUNTED HOUSE!  HAUNTED HOUSE!”  Katy demanded.

“See, she wants to go.” Nery said.

“Alright but if Frank is pissed… this is on you guys.”  Tony said.  Together the group walked back to the car and loaded Katy in.  Driving to the Southside of Chicago they located the United Charities of Chicago Haunted House.  United Charities helped needy families in the Chicago area to put food on the table and clothes on the backs of kids.  They were advertising one of the ‘scariest and most entertaining haunted houses in history’ which anyone could walk through for a donation.

Giuseppe paid for Katy and her bodyguards and the group entered the home … a two-story building with long hallways covered in mirrors, black cloth, and flickering lights.  Scary sounds and screams had Katy already staying close to the guys but her eyes were narrowed with determination.  She was a TOUGH kitty!  The guys chuckled as she examined herself in a fun-house style mirror and giggled nervously.

As they entered the first room, the way back closed behind them and seemed to lock – the sound of ‘ghosts’ could be heard up ahead.  Katy clung to Tony’s leg.  It was the first sign that the guys MIGHT have made a huge mistake brining her here… only now… there was no way back.  They would have to walk her through the bad stuff to get out.

“Was that a ghost?  I don’t like ghosts!”  Katy said.

Tony sighed.

Up ahead he could see someone else.  Another person in the room with them… Tony pointed out The_Kid up ahead to Katy, “See we’re not alone… this is going to be fun.  Look at that person – they’re having a great time!”

Frank & Lucy were going to lose it over this if they couldn’t get Katy through without somehow making this horrorfest fun for her – and THAT he feared was going to take a miracle.

Kid jolted as he heard the door behind him open. What the fuck had he thought before coming in here? He signaled to his bodyguard, Chu, to hide somewhere, and moments later he tried to do the same. Too late. The man that had walked in pointed at him a said something he vaguely understood. He quickly threw his hand in his hair before turning around and smiling at the people who had walked in. He made out the silhouette of a little girl and a couple of large men, which was a pretty uncommon thing to see.

It was hard to see their faces, with the flickering lights, but he finally recognized them. “Wait... you’re Lucy’s daughter right? Would you want to go through the house together? I’m pretty terrified as well...” he asked, over the sound of screams and loud thumps. 

"It's mamma's friend!"  Katy said with excitement.  

The bodyguards were started to realize wasn't just any kid... but THE Kid... a local mafia don!  Tony and Vito stepped in closer to Katy before realize this Don had no interest in spending time with them, but with Katy instead!

"My mom is Lucy.  I'm Katy Dicaprio."  She announced proudly.  "What's your name?  Do you want some Neco Waffers or Baby Ruth?"  She said digging into her bag.  "I got lots of the good stuff from the mean boys bags."

She produced the aforementioned Baby Ruth Candy Bar when the rattling of chains could be heard coming towards them, the door handle jiggled.  Katy grabbed onto The Kid.

"Is it a ghost?"

Kid took the candy and warmly thanked Katy. He had seen her at the supper LuckyLucy had invited him, but he hadn’t spoken with her very much. The formalities of course, but nothing more. He usually was very shy, and awkward with women he thought where pretty. 

He suddenly got snapped out of his daydream by a suspicious and unexpected noise. Just as he heard the noise, Katy grabbed his arm in fear and asked him what it was. He had to be strong, he had to show he was fearless, that’s what Chu had gave him as a tip to impress the ladies. 

“Well... it might be...” he said, in an awkward fashion. He shook his head and restarted with more assurance. “You don’t need to worry about that Katy, I’ll protect you! These ghosts are no match for us, they’re the ones that are going to be scared...”

Katy and The_Kid move forward reaching out for the door handle Katy opens the door.  She gives a look back to her friends Guiseppe, Vito, Tony, & Nery ... they were doing what they always did... looking around, but not always at her.  It sometimes made her sad they always had to be watching for bad people.  She supposed that most of the time this was a very boring job they had... but not tonight.  Here in this spook house there was a ton of scary stuff to watch out for!

In this first room there was several bowls illuminated by a light covered in red cloth that made everything look like it was covered in blood.  She'd been covered in blood... once.  She was sad thinking about Aiden going to be with Jesus and Mother Mary.  Aiden was nice.  Looking to The Kid she clutched to him tight.  She wouldn't let her new friend get hurt the way Aiden did.  The Kid had to be almost as old as Aiden and if Aiden could die, maybe that meant the Kid could too?

She looked up at the sign above the bowls and sounded out the words the way her tutor was teaching her to do.  

"P... put you...er... your ... ha... nnnn..da.  Hand.  Put your hand  i.  i.  nnnnn.  ssssss.  inssssi...da.  Inside.  Put your hand inside eeee aaa ch.  each.  Put your hand inside each."  She said proudly.  

Guiseppe was already checking the door knob.  "Locked."  He stated flatly.

"Guess we gotta touch the stuff in the bowls to open the doors?"

She looked at the big words on the labels and frowned.  Sounding each out would take a bit.  "Nery?"  

"Yea kid?"

"Can you wread what's in the bowls please?"

He cleared his throat and said in a funny voice that was obviously meant to indicate this was silly not scary, "The first one here says witches eyeballs... the second says monster guts... and the last one is human hearts."

"No it isn't!"  Katy protested.  "No one would make kids touch that stuff."

She looked at the objects in the red light though... and she couldn't be for sure.  Those round slimy things COULD be eyes...  And the hearts... well, she'd never seen a human heart before but those things looked like nothing she'd ever seen before.  But the monster guts she knew well what that was!

"That's Pasketti.  I know that.  That's not real monster guts."

Vito laughed.  "Kid's smarter than her old man."  

The guys all chuckled as Katy bravely shoved her hands into the cold wet spaghetti noodles.

"What do you think the other stuff is?"  she asked The Kid.

Kid’s expression slowly grew to horror as he watched Katy put her in the monster guts. What if they weren’t actually spaghetti, but what it said it was? He felt a little reassured when she turned around and talked to him. She seemed okay, must’ve been pasta, just as she thought. She was pretty cute, and smart! Damn....

He peaked in the first pumpkin, which was the bowl, and saw the white skinny balls floating in a puddle of red liquid. He gulped and turned around to look at Katy and her hit him with her prettiest smile. Fuck... he had to do it now. He took a couple of deep breathes and stuck his hand in the cold fluid. The balls felt weird under his hands... unnatural. Wait a minute... he grabbed one of them and took a good look at it. Eggs, they where eggs... which had become slimmy and disgusting because of the liquid. He looked at Katy and burst out laughing, fucking eggs! 

With a reborn confidence, he stuck his hand in the heart pumpkin, and he felt something move. He hurried himself to take his hand out, terrified. Since when did hearts crawl? What the fuck was in there? He took a little peak and immediately  realized what he had put his hand in. Cockroaches. Fucking cockroaches. Ha. Ha. Ha. He shook his hand with disgust and faced the ever so good looking Katy. 

“We did it! You where amazing when you put your hand in those guts...” a cold shiver sliced right through his spine simply thinking about it. “Let’s go to the next room!” he added, grabbing her hand and slightly pulling her towards the door. He opened, full of confidence, only to jump back into Katy’s arms, frightened. 

“CHU? WHAT THE FUCK MAN?” he yelled at his clueless bodyguard, standing in the next room. 

“I found ‘is boss...” he answered, lifting a big bag of drugs. Kid’s eyes grew as big at the eggs in the last room, and he quickly grabbed the bag and hid in his coat. 

“It’s candy...” he said to Katy, giving her a warm smile.

Katy saw the big bag of white power 'candy' and smiled brightly.  "Can I have some too?!?"

The guys almost said in perfect unison, "NO!"  

Katy jumped at her bodyguards' enthusiastic insistence she not enjoy the 'candy.'  She pouted.  "But I shared MY candy!"

Nery came down to Katy’s level, “I don’t think The Kid is gonna eat that candy.  He’s probably gonna sell it.”

Katy turned to The Kid, “Sell your candy?”  She looks thoughtful for a moment.  “People pay a lot of money for candy?”

Vito chuckled.  “You ain’t got no idea how much that candy’s worth sweetie.”

She looked back to The Kid, “Will you share the monies you get from selling it?  I was here when you found it and I wanna buy papa and momma Christmas presents!  Please?  Can we share it?”

The bodyguards were chuckling again, this time over the idea that as an elementary aged kid she was trying to push a Mafia Don into cutting her in on a drug deal, but Katy (having no understanding of what this really was) paid them no attention. 

“We can sell my candy too!  I’ll give you a cut of mine if you give me a cut of yours and then we both will have monies for Christmas shopping and maybe we can even go to the store together.  Amir or your friend could drive and it would be lots of fun.  We can even go to the store with the giant bear that’s taller than me.”  She bounced.  “I love that bear!  One time I jumped off the steps onto him, Mom says I can’t do that no more but it was so much fun!  If I had a giant bear I’d jump onto him all the time.”

“Kiddo we should keep moving, I think there is a Mummy in the next room.  I can see his bandages from here.”  Giuseppe tries to get the kids moving on.

“Please say you’ll share the monies?”

Kid had already been sold the first time Katy had asked. How could he resist her? “Of course I will! With that money, we could even go eat at a local restaurant, like Bee’s Knee’s!” he added, smiling. “And that Christmas shopping sounds like a plan to me!” 

Then he turned around to face Giuseppe, with a little smirk on the corner of his face. A mummy? They weren’t scary at all! Ha, the next room would be a piece of cake. He opened the door and tried to make out the next room, but it was too dark. There was a little wooden table in the center, lit up by a single candle. With that light, the beginning of a bandage could be seen, until the door shut behind them, and the candle went out.

Kid’s heart started to beat faster and faster as he held on to Katy, who seemed to be as scared as he was. He heard he whisper something about not knowing what to do and being doomed. No! He couldn’t stand there, not doing anything while the girl of his dreams was scared to death. He walked around, not knowing where he was going, before walking right into someone, which felt very soft, almost like paper soft... FUCK. IT WAS THE MOMIE. 

He yelled from the top of his lungs for Chu, to come and help him. Shortly after, he saw a flashlight glow in his direction and a baseball bat landing right behind the momies head. He thanked his bodyguard as he got back up and one of Katy’s bodyguards found the light switch and opened it. The back of the room was packed with big white bags of coke, just like the one they had found in the other room.

”What the fuck is going on here...” he whispered under his breath.

"WOWY ZOWY!"  Katy exclaimed.

Nery's eyes went wide at the sight of more coke than he'd ever seen before.  "Holy Shi-"  

"Language man!  Kids."  Giuseppe cut off Nery.

"I don't think this is part of the haunted house you guys..."  Vito says looking around at the set up.

"The house ... the whole damn charity must be a cover for someone's operation."  Nery mused out loud.

"A Candy Operation?"  Katy asked walking over to a table covered in coke. 

Giuseppe grabbed her up.  "Yea Sweetie, but that means we need to get you home right now.  Your momma won't want you hanging out in someone's candy operation.  You know how she worries about those pretty teeth of yours."

"But we're not done yet - Uncle Vito, please!"  Katy pouted defiantly.

"Big man's right.  Your Papa would not like this one bit.  It's time for you to get home."

"My friend though... I gotta say goodbye!"  Katy struggled and kicked until Giuseppe put her down.  She ran to The Kid and gave him a hug.  "Can your friend get you home too?  I don't want to leave you but Uncle Vito says I gotta."

"I know this guy."  Nery said looking at the unconscious man on the floor.  "This is Davy Botticelli... he's just a goomba but he has their name so you can bet he's not going to be here alone for long."

"Botticelli...  That's no good.  They got a big beef with Red."  Giuseppe said flatly.  "She and that whole gang the guy with the hair keeps putting together."

" Wrench ?"  Vito asked.

"No.  He's the silent fuck with the fringe and the hand signs.   I'm talking about the other one.  The one who wears all that grease on his hair and smells like a perfume shop."  Giuseppe insisted.

" Finnigan ?"  Vito asked.

"Don't be an idiot.  He's the crazy Irish fuck who's always hitting on Red.  The OTHER one, you know...  the one who talks to hair when he thinks no one is listening.  You know the guy!"

" MasqCharlie ?"  Vito asked barely containing his smile.

"Now you're just screwing with me."  Giuseppe glared at Vito. 

Vito laughed.  "His name is Capazzo you mook.  Christ..."

"Point being,"  Nery stood up from the body on the floor. "They've likely got eyes on this place.  You might not want to walk out the front door with all this ... candy.  They're sure to notice.  You gonna be able to get out of here without our help, Kid?"

Katy looked worriedly at The_Kid  "I won't go if you're still worried about the monsters.  Even the grown ups seem worried now."  She takes his hand.  "Friends don't leave each other.  And we're friends now.  Forever.  But you gotta tell me your name so I don't call you Kid like these guys.  It's mean not to call someone by their name."