Chapter 1: Backpack
"Everybody calm down!" it was useless; whispers and panicked buzzes blanketed the crowd as the townspeople turned to each other and whispered their wild worries. This had to stop soon, or they'd all be screaming for torches and pitchforks. The tall, suited figure made a noise like clearing his throat. "Please be quiet!" Still no obedience came from the crowd, and he finally clenched his teeth, taking the megaphone from the little shelf inside the podium. "EVERYBODY STOP!" He shouted, and every face, vampire witch or nightmare clown, turned to face the tall skeleton.
"Thank you," Sally said with a small smile, and looked at Jack, who sighed and put the megaphone back down.
"I know everybody's worried, but let's not panic about this," Jack began, stepping away from behind the podium and gesturing to various articles on a table next to him. "Now, we have collected evidence from where the most recent sighting was, and it does look very much like a human child has gotten into Halloween." The voices began to pick up, but stopped with a wave of his hand. "Now, the mayor and I are looking into the matter, but I must remind you all that we should be careful right now. There is a chance the child has already found the way back into the human world, and if that has happened we can hide the door. However," he picked up the small stuffed cat off the table and held it for them to see, "we must also remember that if we do see the child, the odds are we're going to scare her off. Remember, humans don't know that we want to avoid their attention. They – the ones that still believe – fear us infinitely more than we fear them."
"Which is why," Sally added, "we're asking that if any of you see the child, then try not to scare her. A child who trusts us is more likely to keep Halloween a secret than one who doesn't. If you see the human, keep quiet, don't make any sudden noises or movements, and try to find Jack as soon as you can without startling the child."
"Sally and I will try to figure out how the child came to Halloween, and why," Jack finished, setting the doll down and lifting up a small journal, "with this, and these." He gestured to the doll, backpack, flashlight and lunchbox. "No doubt the human child will start looking for them soon, so the place she was found will be monitored by the werewolves in case the human returns for these." There was relieved murmuring now, and the crowd began to file out of the town hall and disperse, retuning to preparing for Halloween Night – three months away.
"Jack," the skeleton looked at Sally, who took his free hand. "Do you really this will work? The poor thing could have wandered deep into the forest or died of fright by now."
"If that was the case, we'd have an extra ghost running around," Jack responded, turning back to the table and opening the backpack, lifting up one of the several dozen greeting cards he'd found stuffed into a secret pocket on the inside of the ragged red bag that had been filled with a menagerie of knickknacks – yo-yos and a Slinky, a small comic book about a strange boy named Lio, newspaper clippings of funny ads and comics, and a lumpy clay pumpkin strung on a piece of green string, all carefully packed along with the clothes and toothbrush. Jack opened the card with WELCOME BACK printed on it in big letters, and skimmed through the pre-typed greeting from "Graywood Home for the Youth", which had "Clarissa" scribbled in cursive in the blanks. He frowned. "You know Sally, I've been looking at all of these welcome home cards, and I've already found five different names written on them. But they're all talking about the same girl." He closed it, and looked at the back. "And this is the fifth date I've found. How many times can a child come back to the same…" he looked at the title again, "….orphanage, I'm guessing?"
"I don't know," Sally responded, reaching over and lifting another card from the same address. This one was scribbled in childlike writing and signed "Rosita". "This one says "Autumn" in it."
"I think that's her real name," Jack opened another pre-typed card – "Jessica" this time. "It's the only one the cards that weren't fill-in-the-blank used, and how she signs her journal entries." He sighed, and put the cards back in the backpack. "Why in the world would a little girl be sent back to the same place again and again? I haven't found anything useful in the journal yet – it's full of little stories and recipes torn out of magazines and old books." Jack opened the journal to one such page – a clipping of a cupcake recipe, the paper so old he could smell the dust stuck to it.
"Keep looking," Sally said, picking up a photo showing a simple, large building with the name of the orphanage carefully painted on the sign, "We'll figure something out."
"I hope so." Jack turned a page – finally, an actual entry, written in print taken right out from a child's handwriting book, very neat and very simple. "Ah, here we go. This is dated from about a week ago. Hm… Sally, look." She walked over and looked at the page. "Let's see… "I packed everything I need, so I'm going to leave tonight. I heard Mr. and Mrs. Smith talking downstairs about bringing me back to Graywood. I've been here two weeks already, so I was waiting for it. I already got the Welcome Home card in the mail. They got the name on it wrong, or double wrong. They call me Jessie, not Jessica. But I still like my name, Autumn." Why in the world would they want to send her…" Jack trailed off, reading more of the simplistic writing. "She wrote one more thing."
"What is it?"
Jack looked at the small scribble beneath her signature. "I don't want to be alone anymore."
Okay, first, I have had this story in my head for YEARS and am so glad to put out chapter 1. Second, I know I should be working on Tangled Puppeteer, but the spark just isn't with me on that one write now, and anything I try will probably just feel forced. Third, the "lumpy orange pumpkin on a piece of green string" was a legit gift from my dear friend SJ Rivera. Thankies!