Stray Cat Strut

"Alright, you little shits. Line up!" I snapped.

The little shits did not line up, because they were little shits, and you didn't earn such an illustrious title by listening to people when they gave you instructions.

I worked my jaw and narrowed my eyes at the lot of them. "Last one in line I get to pick their costume."

That snapped them to attention. It was always about the stick and the stick. If they misbehaved, you whacked them with a stick. And if they did good, you'd give them a stick to whack others with. Carrots were for losers.

The plan for the day was easy. Actually, it wasn't so different than the usual plan. Every year, on Halloween, we'd head out and canvas the nicer mega-buildings. Most of those had these events. Corps would 'give out' candies for the low-low price of filling out surveys and signing waivers, and there were a few shows and the like on as well.

For whatever reason, some people liked handing out treats and stuff. Some of the nicer, more upper middleclass mega-buildings would allow people to decorate their apartment doors. You could knock on those and do the old traditional trick-or-treat thing.

I found it kind of stupid, but it was also free food. It was one of the few nights in the year where being a poor shit wasn't all that bad, because people were bleeding hearts and orphans often got an extra handful of candy.

At the end of the night we always sorted it. Stuff that'd last a while, stuff that needed eating sooner, and then drugs and other crap that had been snuck in. The last we used to resell, because it was basically free credits.

This year would be different, though.