Alright, so, first thing you need to know: this is, in fact, the first chaptered story in my Halloween collection, hence the early post. Six chapters, each posted daily until the 31st. Woopee.
Second thing: these aren't beta'd. Why? Through a combination of schoolwork, camping trips, strep throat (possibly), and a mother who loves to hover, I'm writing these fairly quickly and at the last minute. Still, the story was planned. Just not written.
Third: these chapters will be edited. But I still want them posted on time, so the initial story will be raw. Then again, maybe this is a good thing; all of you early-birds will finally see how much of my writing is me and how much is the ever-excellent Cordria. Cori is still getting the chapters to be beta'd, and I will take her edits into account at a later date. Just not now. My head hurts enough just rushing. This is why all of these so far have only been one-shots. And without a deadline. Oi.
Without further ado, please enjoy the third in my annual Halloween fics - Hear the Haunting of the Bells.
Runic Rhyme
"What is this supposed to be, again?"
There was an exasperated sigh. "It's supposed to be sort of like a bazaar..."
"Except we're in America and it's not going to be here for long... right?"
Jazz chuckled at her brother. "No, Danny, only for a month or two."
Danny stared balefully at the site before him. "Good. I may not go to the mall often, but I actually like knowing where I am... this is just..." He searched for a word to describe the temporary baubles, ribbons, and the many, many stores turned inside-out that had transformed the Amity Park Mall into this bright and foreign marketplace. "... Weird."
Jazz snorted. "Right. Because hardly anything weird ever happens to us..."
"Your sarcasm is duly noted," said Danny, rolling his eyes. He looked around the immediate area, everything else being blocked by the large crowd. "Seriously, where are we?"
Jazz looked, too. "I... I think we're in the clothing section..."
"You think."
"Yes, Danny, I think. It's better than what you do most of the time," Jazz snapped, at this point well and truly pissed off.
Danny opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off by a familiar voice straining to be louder than the crowd. "Danny! Jazz! HEY!"
The siblings turned, startled, and were nearly bowled over by an overenthusiastic Tucker trying to get their attention. Sam was following close behind, but managed to keep her speed under control.
Danny, who received the brunt of the impact because both Tucker and Jazz fell on top of him, squeezed his hand to a position to properly push them off him. With a small amount of effort and a loud "Get off!" they fell off and to the side.
"... Ow..." moaned Tucker, and Jazz on Danny's other side gave her brother a glare. When he only glared back, she gave it up as a bad job and chose to glare at Tucker instead.
Pushing herself back to her feet, Jazz hissed, "What in the world was that!" And while Tucker couldn't hear her over the crowd, he understood her just fine.
"Hehe... sorry about that," he said, rubbing his beret back and forth on his head in a nervous gesture similar to Danny's. When Jazz continued to glare, he averted his eyes.
At this, Sam decided to step in. "He was frantic because he couldn't find a proper food court," she said, giving the bottomless pit an amused glance. "When we saw you in the crowd, he was thinking that Jazz, as a co-conspirator in this entire thing, would know where they put it..."
"And thus explains the speed of light with which he decided to grace us with his presence," muttered Danny. Sam still managed to hear, however, and shot him an odd look.
"What's up with you?" she asked, giving him a once over. He looked horrible, and she had a feeling that little of it had anything to do with Tucker's dynamic entrance.
"What's ever up with me?" he asked sarcastically. "Ghosts kept me up all night."
Sam raised an eyebrow. "I've seen you handle quite a few all-nighters with considerably more grace."
Danny chuckled bitterly. "Two weeks without more than five hours of sleep will do that to a person."
Jazz broke her glare at this. "T-two weeks? You've gone two weeks without sleep?"
Danny raised his eyebrow. "… Yes. I thought you knew."
She shook her head. "Every time I would check in on you at night, you were in bed. In fact, I thought the ghosts had stopped attacking…"
"Oh, that." Danny actually looked sheepish at this. "That was me using my duplication to ward off Mom and Dad. I caught them talking about taking extra precautions to see that I wasn't skipping out on curfew again." He gave Jazz a look. "I didn't know that you were doing it, too…"
Jazz glowered. "That was just to make sure you were okay. You know that." Danny said nothing.
The awkward silence was broken by a nervous Tucker. "Well, how's about we find that food court, huh?" He tried to wander off, but was stopped by Sam's grip on his sweater.
"Tucker, I swear you have the attention span of a goldfish. Can you focus on the issue at hand for once?"
"I can't help it!" Tucker whined. "I'm hungry!"
"Let's just go," said Danny, also tired of the current conversation. "Do you know where the food court is, Jazz?"
Jazz wasn't ready to let the subject go, but knew that she wasn't going to get anything out of her brother anymore. She sighed and said, "Let's get outside. I should be able to figure it out from there."
They stuck close together, trying not to lose one another in the chaos around them. Sam suddenly stopped, jerking the hand Danny had on her shoulder and bringing the others subsequently to a halt.
"Sam, what's wrong?" Danny asked, seeing that she was staring intently at something with a smile on her face. He followed her gaze and groaned.
There was a small stand, set up for what looked to be antiques. There wasn't much to look at, but Danny knew what caught her eye. "No, Sam."
"Oh, why not?" said Sam, not taking her eyes off the cart. "It won't be like last time…"
"Yes, it will be like last time," said Tucker, who had noticed what Danny had. "Because you said the same thing the time before that, and the time before that…" Sam turned just enough to give the techno-geek a glare and he averted his gaze.
Danny was left undaunted. "Sam, you are not going to buy that, alright? Just, no! No!"
"I can't believe you bought those…" Danny moaned once they were outside. Sam happily trotted alongside the others, holding her purchase: a large, thin antique box.
"Why not, Danny?" said Sam, grinning like a fool. "I've never listened to you before, so why now?"
"Dude... she has a point..." whispered Tucker, who quickly backed down under yet another glare.
"That's enough, guys," said Jazz, watching the group of underclassmen with undisguised amusement. She turned to Sam, saying, "Alright, Sam. What did you buy that has the boys so twitchy?"
Sam smiled and quickly turned the box so that she could open it better. What was inside stole everyone's breath away, even Danny. The box was split into four compartments, and inside each one was a different kind of bell. Each one had beautiful designs etched on the sides, and they had black ribbons attached to them at a different place for each bell; they were made to be worn.
Sam pulled out the set in the second compartment - a mismatched pair of ornate golden bells - and handed them to Jazz. The older girl looked at the younger in surprise.
"This is what I bought them for," said Sam, interpreting Jazz's confusion. "I usually give them to Danny and Tucker to wear-"
"And she usually buys a lot more than this," Danny murmured.
"-But I wanted to give one to you this year, too," she continued, ignoring Danny altogether. "It'll look gorgeous in your hair..."
Jazz smiled, taking the hint, and tied the ribbons behind her ears like her normal headband, with the two bells hanging just behind her left ear, the smaller bell in front of the larger. Sam certainly didn't exaggerate; the color of the bells brought out the hints of yellow in her strawberry-blonde hair. By the looks on Danny and Tucker's faces, they were impressed, too. Jazz playfully ran a hand through her hair, making the bells ring with crisp and cheery tone.
"Perfect!" Sam chirped, making the boys cringe as she reached into the box again. This time she pulled out a single, yellow-orange colored bell with fewer designs than the gold, yet looking no less enchanting. She handed it to Tucker, who looked at it dubiously.
"What do I do with it?" he muttered, making Sam roll her eyes.
"You wear it, obviously."
Tucker gave her a 'you've-gotta-be-kidding-me' look. "I am not putting this in my hair," he snapped, making Sam groan and nearly shove the box in Danny's hands. She picked the bell up from Tucker's outstretched hands and quickly tied the ribbon around his bicep, with the bell showing on the outside. When she stepped back, Tucker looked at it, making the bell ring lowly with a tone slightly deeper than Jazz's, and he noted how the color complimented his skin tone. He looked up at her curiously. "What is this one made of, anyway?"
"Brass," Sam said shortly, still annoyed with him, and she opened the box again while it was still in Danny's hands. She now pulled out a medium-sized gray bell, slightly smaller than Tucker's, with even fewer decorative shapes carved into it. The ribbon attached to it was slightly shorter than his, as well. Finally taking the box from Danny, only to hand it to Jazz, she made to circle his neck when he backed up.
"Whoa, whoa, what? No! I don't know what possessed you to do all of this, but for one thing, I'm not wearing that and two, even if I was, I wouldn't be wearing it as a necklace!"
Sam lowered her arms and pinched the bridge of her nose, a sign that she was truly irritated. "One, I'm doing this because I felt like giving all of you something for no real reason other than because I wanted to," she hissed, making Danny's anger falter. "And two, the ribbon is shorter than Tucker's or Jazz's and the last one is even shorter, so the only option is to wear it as a necklace. Besides," she said, lifting her head, "I've seen you wear necklaces before, and not all of them were from me, so what difference does it make now?"
Danny didn't answer, but he didn't argue either. He simply stared off in the distance before giving the barest of nods and holding out his hand. If he had to wear it, he would at least put it on himself. Sam happily complied, giving him the bell. Before he put it on, he rang it, listening to the deep tang of its tone, and asked, "Why iron?"
Sam blushed before saying, "Well, iron also means strength. I thought it would fit you." Humbled, Danny finally put on the necklace, which was so short it fit more like a choker, with the bell situated just to the right of his neck.
Satisfied, Sam reached back into the box for the fourth and final bell, revealing a pair of identical silver bells with no decorations at all, hanging from the middle of a chain that was in turn connected to the black ribbons. She made to put it on her wrist herself, but Danny's hands replaced hers before she could do so. Taking the gesture as an informal thank you and apology, Sam allowed him to tie the bracelet around her wrist. When he stepped back, she lightly shook her hand and made them ring - a cool, clear sound that didn't really carry but was heard by all four of them.
Sam looked at the others, noting how well they showed off her gifts, and smiled. The moment passed as Tucker got Jazz 'back on track' and they all made their way to the redesigned food court, but they did so with a much happier attitude than before.
Deep in the ghost zone, on a small outcropping of rock, a small girl lay curled on her side. She slowly opened her eyes for the first time in decades, possibly centuries. Sitting up, she stretched mightily before noticing something amiss. There was no sound.
She put a hand on her wrist, feeling frantically for something that wasn't there. She felt her neck. She felt her arm. She felt her hair. Each action was more desperate than the last. She stood up quickly, gazing around her small floating island and nearly tearing it apart in her search.
When she no longer had any other place to look, she drew herself up as straight as she could. And, even though she had long since stopped needing to breathe, she took a large gulp of air and shattered the silence with a wailing, inhuman scream.