Sorry this one's short: didn't have much time to write. Hope you enjoy it all the same!
Chapter 19: All Hallow's Eve Part 1
18-year-old Lucy had a quick break for food. Since time wasn't on her side and she wasn't particularly famished, she settled on an apple and a packet of chips. She crunched noisily as her hand continued to stain the diary pages black.
More than a year passed without much happening. The guardians left us alone, which was a relief to the both of us. We didn't like seeing those blithering, too-happy fools into our lives. We just tried to carry on life as normally as possible.
Just as we'd been doing before, we met up every evening. Before our nightly missions, we had breakfast (or I had, anyway) in the kitchen. Then, we'd spend an hour in the library. True to his word, Pitch taught me a dead language; Latin, to be exact. It was really hard, but really fascinating, too. Latin had such a sweet, melodic sound. It was such a shame it had died. But at least it lived on in at least three languages: Italian, Spanish, and French. Pitch gave me homework (which was a pain) and made me read whole passages out loud to him, and he made me start over whenever I made an error. I'll admit, it was tough. But in the end, it was worth it. I was able to read so many books that had been enigmatic to me until now.
That year was peaceful, and memories of my old life were slowly fading. It didn't bother me, strangely enough. That life had belonged to Lucy Rivera, the timid bookworm.
Now, I was Lucy Black, the Boogeyman's apprentice and a Nightmare Sand wielder. (Pitch didn't know I'd secretly taken his surname; it'd been totally inofficial and without documents, but it made me feel that much closer to my mentor.) I was happy with the life I was leading.
Until one day in October, when things changed. It was the stone tossed into the water, if you will.
"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door."
Lucy, now less than two months away from her thirteenth birthday, muttered 'The Raven' under her breath as she treaded through the sunlit streets. Her wavy hair, which reached her mid-back by now, danced in the cool wind. She tugged at a small, black wagon loaded with pumpkins she'd stolen from various pumpkin patches. Halloween was only a couple of weeks away, after all.
This was one of the few occasions Pitch allowed her to leave the Realm unsupervised. Since Halloween was the night dedicated to darkness and fear, it was the perfect time for the two of them to celebrate. After a long rest the day before, they'd spend the day carving jack-o-lanterns. And not just five or six. Oh, no. The mentor and apprentice carved hundreds of them. Then, they left the jack-o-lanterns at sites were people had been murdered or died unexpectedly. As Pitch had explained, jack-o-lanterns actually symbolized lost souls that supposedly walked the Earth. By leaving one pumpkin at each location, they were giving the victim an offering of recognition and respect.
Then, over a feast of pumpkin juice and enough candy to drive the Tooth Fairy mad, the two of them would fill the night with unexpected willies: a creaking floorboard here, a cold cackling there. Just enough to keep the fear present without turning the night of fun into a living nightmare.
Lucy kept her head bowed so that no one would see the ecstatic grin plastered on her face. Oh, what a night of fun it would be! She could hardly wait!
Continuing to quote 'The Raven', she scanned the small town for a particularly large shadow. Over the past year, she'd learned a thing or two about shadow travelling, though she'd made a lot of unintentional trips to China in the process.
Nothing. It was too early for proper shadows to form. She would have to wait another hour at least. Dammit! And she'd been looking forward to giving Pitch a wake-up call! At this rate, he'd be awake by the time she returned home.
Oh, well. Nothing she could do about it, right? She just had to wait.
Sighing, she stopped at a park bench and sat down, her hands on her knees. The soft rustling of leaves and birds chirping filled the air as she got comfortable. After a couple of minutes, Lucy cracked a smile. This was...sort of a pleasant change.
The Realm was her one true home by now. As crazy as it might have sounded, she liked the dark serenity of the cave. While she still avoided the Night Mares' ranch like the plague, she'd still explored it well enough to hardly get lost anymore. Though Pitch liked to change the directions his tunnels led just for the fun of it. Once, Lucy had left her room to brush her teeth and wasted all morning trying to find her way back. But it was still the one place she felt she truly belonged in.
But it was still...what, nice? Familiar? Amicable to be in seated in a park in the late October afternoon. After two years and a half of darkness, the light was strong enough to make Lucy wear sunglasses. But she still liked sitting there, watching families and couples pass by, going about their lives. There were even a few kids running around in their Halloween costumes.
Lucy smiled to herself. Those were the kids she liked. They enjoyed fear, and while they didn't exactly believe in the Boogeyman, their love for terror fueled Pitch like gas nourishes fire.
Speaking of kids, one was walking towards her now. Lucy could scarcely hide her surprise. He was taller than the others, a good four inches more than her (she was only 5'2), dressed as a skeleton. Through the holes of the mask, a pair of pale green eyes locked on hers. For some reason, Lucy's tongue formed a double knot.
The boy removed his mask, revealing a face with cheekbones that could be used as cutting stones. He had short, light brown hair and a twinkle in his eye that reminded Lucy of Jack.
He gave her a dimpled smile, "Hey. I'm Chip."
Lucy said nothing, but nodded in understanding.
Chip seemed a bit surprised by this, but he continued nevertheless, "Uh, listen. Me and a few friends were joining up for Halloween. Y'know, kinda like a party. Wanna come?"
Lucy arched a brow, "Why would you invite me? You've never even seen me before."
"Well, yeah." Chip admitted, "But the thing is, the girls here aren't really into Halloween. They don't get that it's supposed to be scary, y'know?"
Lucy nodded. She'd lost count of the number of times she'd seen girls her age wearing fishnets and tanks on this holiday.
"But you seem to have spunk." Chip added, eyeing Lucy's outfit: black-and-white striped stockings and a short-sleeved black dress with a long-sleeved white shirt underneath. "So, I thought, y'know. Maybe you can help liven it up?"
Lucy's eyebrow disappeared in her hair. Suspicious as it might have seemed, she found herself bending towards accepting. The boy seemed honest enough. Besides, when would she get another chance like this? That's right, never. In a few years, she'd become the next Boogeyman (Boogeywoman in her case). She'd never be able to socialize again. Why not enjoy it now while she still could?
Finally, she nodded, "Okay. Count me in."
"Great!" Chip cheered, "I didn't catch your name, though."
"It's Lu-" She stopped. She couldn't give her name to some stranger. It could arouse suspicion. She needed an alias. Something totally different from 'Lucy'.
Finally, a name appeared in her mind.
"Melinda." She answered, "My name's Melinda."
Huh. Not bad. It meant 'sweet serpent'. Pitch would certainly approve of it.
"Cool name." Chip grinned. Lucy ignored the heat rising in her cheeks as she and the boy shook hands.
"See you on Halloween. Here?" Chip gestured to the bench. Lucy nodded, "Sure thing."
"Awesome." Chip winked at her, "See you soon." With that, he slipped his mask back on and left.
Lucy grinned inwardly, feeling almost like a girl on her first date. This was so exciting! She'd never spent Halloween with someone of her own age before. Even before meeting Pitch, she'd often spent Halloween with her parents watching horror movies. They'd never liked trick-or-treating, so she simply hadn't joined in. This was going to be unforgettable.
Little did I know, Lucy wrote a little over five years later, of how right I actually was.