It had started off innocently enough. A normal day in one of her favorite months in Mia's new place of residence: Destiny City. Sure, rumors flew about that strange happenings occurred with frightening regularity around this time of year, but the historian had yet to experience anything out of the ordinary. The leaves were changing color, she was settling into her new position at the natural history museum at a comfortable pace, and the benefits of having every major retailer relatively nearby were quickly making themselves known. In what seemed like no time at all, the German-American felt for the first time in quite a while that she could easily call this place home and not feel strange about it.

Whistling to herself as she closed and locked her office at the campus, Mia waved at the security guard on her way out and gave a grin to the curator who was currently explaining one of their newer exhibits to a group of visiting students on a trip. One of the nice things about downtime between expeditions was the adventurer could come and go as she pleased, working to accrue new information on where she might visit next for a new archaeological find. Figuring that it was only mid-afternoon, she thought she might treat herself to some shopping and dinner in the city before heading home.

It was much later when Mia actually started the trip back to her apartment building, decked out in a new season-appropriate outfit of a fine ash grey turtleneck under a dark blackened leather bomber jacket, complimented by pencil leg jeans and warm heeled boots. She'd even bought a sash-like belt to tie off the look, where it dangled off her right hip. She didn't often concern herself with fashion, considering most of it would be torn to shreds in the exotic locales she frequented, but the explorer felt the new season in a new city warranted a bit of celebration. The fancy dinner had been the icing on top of a very pleasant evening.

She was in such a good mood as she walked that she was hardly wary at all of a slightly strange fellow passing out what seemed to be Halloween candies to any and all passerby that paid him mind. Nothing in particular about him seemed strange, it was just that if you stared long enough you felt a bit... off. Mia attributed the sensation to the wine she'd had with dinner and stepped forward.

"Candy, my friend? Would you like some candy? 'Tis the season for sweets and treats after all, and one as sweet as you deserves twice the treats!" the man exclaimed jovially.

"Ooookay," Mia laughed with only a twinge of discomfort, cupping her hands to receive the pile of sugary confections.

The reasonable part of her mind reminded her that she didn't have to eat it, after all. She could simply be polite and pocket it. The blonde looked at her newly-acquired treat: candy corn. Blech. Pocket it was. Smiling brilliantly and giving a wave, she continued her trip home without incident.

Later that night, Mia awoke in confusion with adrenaline pumping through her veins. Nothing was immediately wrong to her sleep-weighted eyes. Over the years she'd been saved several times by her instincts, however, and she sat perfectly still and listened. There! A quiet, high-pitched snarling coming from the floor of her apartment by the foot of her bed. Taking a steadying breath and bracing herself, the woman pitched forward in one sudden movement to lean out and see what was making the noise.

She wasn't quite prepared to find the candy corn from earlier scattered all over the place, in a rough approximation of what one might attribute to a stereotypical pentagram. Or she thought it was, she hadn't studied neo-witchcraft practices in quite a while. More of immediate interest was the shuffling, twitching creature in the middle. It itself looked like candy corn mixed with the ugly spawn of a potato and a radish. In retaliation, the little beast launched into the air and bit down hard on Mia's exposed leg. It didn't look like much, but those needle teeth hurt!

The historian awoke the next morning with little recollection of what had happened, just that she had been awoken in the middle of the night. Her leg was a bit sore, prompting a quick rub, but she brushed it off as having slept on it wrong in the night. Right now it was breakfast time. Stumbling in her sleepy stupor, Mia shuffled over to a cabinet to retrieve a bowl for some cereal. The reassuring clatter of the grains brought a thin smile to her face. She liked that sound.

A quick walk to the couch and she flipped on the TV while simply taking fistfuls of the dry cereal to eat. She wasn't much a fan of milk after all, and the crunch was fun. Though... this seemed crunchier and sweeter than usual. Wasn't this corn flakes? She glanced at the cereal in her hand: coated chocolate candies. What?

Shaking her head at her amusing mistake, Mia stood to go and fetch actual cereal. She'd taken one step before she glanced over her shoulder at the half-eaten bowl of chocolate. Her brow furrowed, her fingers clenched in a sudden desire. After all, it was almost Halloween right? She vaulted the couch, flopping down and upending the bowl into her open mouth. It was all over in just a second, but it'd tasted soooooo good. Like finally scratching an itch that had been just out of reach.

The rest of the day passed in a daze. The antiquarian couldn't really recall much about it, simply that she'd been out and about and there had been a lot of yelling. There were a few embarrassing visits the next evening, one from a neighborhood cop telling her that while the mother wasn't pursuing any charges, one really shouldn't literally steal lollipops from children in strollers. The other was her apartment's landlord warning her of someone going into apartments that had been left unlocked and stealing anything with large sugar content: candies, cakes, the like. Acknowledging and apologizing profusely, Mia returned to an apartment strewn with wrappers and flour: sugar was everywhere.

She wasn't so sure this town was nice and perfectly normal anymore.