Over that week Jack had found himself asleep in the pumpkin patch more then once,with Malady leaning over him and helping him back to bed. She never said anything to him because she figured he was sleep walking.
Rycroft had been playing a bit furthur from home,but Jack could still see his child and that was all he was worried about as he went through the harvest, it was the night of the full moon and he felt ill at ease for some reason he wasn't sure just what it was.
To make matters worse Milady had awoke sick and she hadn't wanted to stir from bed. He had tucked her in and gotten up himself, fixed a bowl of soup for himself and Rycroft and taken the playful little tike into the yard to play so he didn't disturb him mother,who would have sick or not gotten up to play with him.
The little boy was busy chaseing bunnies,the bunny Jack had told him to let go had indeed returned and with all of his family as well it seemed.
He had jokeingly suggested that they have rabbit stew and Mlady had damn near given him a concushion when she hit him.He had gotten the point the bunnies were pets not ediables.
Jack had gone into the pumpkin patch to get a few of the pumpkins,he picked out two of the pumpkins that were perfect for what he wanted and the vines seemed pet him comfortingly.
Taking them with him he went and gathered his son and setting on the front steps he showed him how to carve his first pumpkin,the face carved into a silly smile.
"I don't like it I want one thats scary!" said Rycroft "With evil eyes, eyes that glow like yours daddy" he added as he ran tiny fingers still chubby across the pumpkin face.
"Make him frighting!" his son said happily as he bounced up and down watching his daddy carve them.Jack didn't know weither to feel complimented or insulted by his sons words so he settled on bemused and shook his hair from his eyes laughing.
"Evil it will be my boy" he said as he worked the face, the eyes slanted and the eyebrows arched evilly,the mouth was drawn back in a dark leer of prehaps anger, its nose was a dark hollow and the top was jaggedly cut.He ran a scar down the right side of the pumpkin face and held it at arms length,it gave him de ja vu.
"OHHHH" the approveing squeal of his son was all he needed and he smiled and hugged the little boy.
"Go ask your mum for a candle,if she's awake" Jack said softly as he stood to dispose of the pumpkin pieces,return it to the land. The voice of surpriseingly his father came back to him,a man he hadn't thought about in the six years he had been gone.
Rycroft went tearing into the house and Jack shook his head, if Mlady wasn't up she would be soon enough.He heard his sons excited explination about what he was going to be doing with the candle and the insulted sound of his son's voice as he declared that no he would not burn down the forest with it, and besides daddy had sent him in there.
A few minutes later he returned with his mother in tow and several candles.An orange one for the happy pumpkin and black for the scary one.
Jack looked Mylady up and down "You feeling okay?" he asked as he wrapped both arms around her watching Rycroft put the candles in the pumpkin's carefully.
"Just had nightmares is all" she answered softly and in the clipped tone of voice that said she didn't want to talk about it.Jack didn't press but looking back later he would wish that he had.
"Back to work I go" he said "First I will light my pumpkin and tonight we will light yours" he promised his son who was happy just to play with the pumpkin and sat watching it as its eyes nose and mouth burst into light,but after a few hours the newness of that wore off and Rycroft was back out in the field playing with the bunnies.
Jack was admist the pumpkins again, Mlady was with him this time though,she had rarely gone with him into the patch and he felt praticularly blessed by her presence in his garden.Her white hair a perfect contrase admist the orange green and black. It was like the presence of the moon at dusk.
"Your troubled yet you won't speak to me, never has then been such a block between us,Snow Queen, and I dislike it immensely." he said softly as she leaned against a fence and leaned close to her trapping her against the fence half way, she reach up and put her arms around him and leaned into his lanky form, she had been feeding him for five year and he never seemed to gain weight.
"It was nightmares about the lost child," she spoke low."He kept coming to me in dreams as though trying to warn me of something." she said softly."but what I can't say and Oh, Jack if I loose another one.." her words were low and her eyes filled with tears.
Her words filled him with forbodeing and he shook his head lightly his arms went tighter around her waist and he held her, "Lets call it a night early and go to bed right after dinner this eve,we'll put Rycroft with us,it will be better tomarrow." he tried to sound reassureing but knew he failed.
He silently led her through the patch back to the front of the patch where he usually worked and swept her up placed her on the fence there so he could finish he work before it got dark.
Rycroft wondered what was wrong his parents looked sad, he picked a few quick wild flowers that still bloomed this late in season and took them to them. Handing them to both of them . "Here you can have my pretties but you have to cheer up!" he said with a nod of his head, and his actions did indeed bring a smile to both there faces.
Nodding his head feeling his job done, Rycroft went back to chaseing his bunnies, his favorite was a black one and he often chased this one, and when it went off deeper into the woods,he cast a glance back to his parent who were happy and close,he figured he could grab Blackie and be right back before they would notice him gone.
It was easy for Jack to loose himself in his snow maiden's arms and his son had instigated it this time,he had pushed his parents together and insisted that they trade flowers and that they should prehaps dance, they didn't do that enough.
Jack scanned the bunnies for his son, all seven of the bunnies were there,no there were only six of them and missing was Blackie and his son.
"Oh for the love of.." he mumbled and sat up."Mlady do you see Blackie around here, or for that matter Croft?" he asked as he placed a hand to his brow and glanced around.
Mlady sat up and her eyes went across the landscape, nope nothing and she was chilled, that motherly sense went off and she was on her feet dressed in his shirt in her hurry to get out of the pumpkin patch and back into view of the field.
Jack was quicker then her,and sprinted into the woods also,he didn't scream for his son because if he was in fact in trouble he would jerk in fear of being in more trouble and there was a chance he's hurt himself worse if he was indeed in trouble.
Rycroft grabbed the bunnie and held it before it could squirm out of his arms and then blinked there were Horses,he heard hoof beats and he wanted to see the horse's Daddy had promised to teach him to ride when he could sit in the seat by himself, which would be next summer.
He hurried along holding onto the rabbit tightly.
========================= ===========================
The riders had been looking for this place for sometime,somehow that had gotten turned around in the woods, it was difficult to keep track with so many tree's that looked the same.
Kyle was in a foul and irritable mood, he wanted to do this and get it over with,he wanted to be in the next town by this time but no such luck.
The shadows were growing deeper and Kyle hated this place, it was eerie and the sound of the wind whispering through the trees seemed to always be around him, telling him he imagined to turn back.
His men didn't want to be here anyways and Greg had been on his neves all evening,he wanted to know if he could have the target before or after and Kyle had been tempted to shoot him in the head with his crossbow but he saved it,the ruffian wasn't worth an arrow.
Jinx didn't want to do the job at all and as the shadows had grown deeper he said that the pumpkin smell was makeing him sick that they should just turn back, keep the money forget the noble woman and head out of town.
Yet his men didn't know if he didn't kill he'd get worse and probly kill them in his anger.It wasn't something he enjoyed anymore it was something he had to do.
Then the little boy with the rabbit appeared on the side of the road,a pretty little kid,if not prehaps a bit feminine. With the oddest eyes looking wide eyed at the horses.He was dressed nicely in a wool cloak and warm looking clothes beneath it.
"Want a ride?" he asked looking down at the boy.
"He sure is pretty." Greg said and this time Kyle did hit him bringing his horse just within range to crack him good.
Jinx shook his head "Leave him alone, Kyle that little boy ,just leave him alone.." he spoke in a squeak in his nightmares that child had caused all there death's.
Jinx had been given to visions and they had kicked him out of the mill he worked when he saw the death of some of the men and talked about it, falling on harder times he wound up with the ruffians and killers.
Seeing the man who offered the ride hit the other man who was looking at him funny,Rycroft shook his head no, he didn't want a ride in fact he though he might want his mommy and daddy, that was definantly what he wanted.
"Moommmmmyyyy,Daddddddyyyy " he howled as loud as his little lungs would let him and he backed up into a tree, the black bunnie slid from his arms and darted into the street under the hooves of the horses,"Blackie" screamed the little boy chaseing after the bunny.If Blackie got hurt his mommy and daddy would be sad.
Mlady was the first to find the clearing only because she knew the way that the plants were,Jack was a better woodsman with out a doubt,he could track,but Mlady could tell the trampled plants from the others.
She emerged into the clearing as well,looking for Rycroft and seeing the gathered men about the same time they saw her,"Hey thats her " Greg said with a grin that split his face she was a beautiful little thing, looked a bit young,but he didn't care.
Kyle glanced at the snow haired girl and almost didn't do it,but Rycroft had recognized his mother and turned just as the hooves crashed down on him and Blackie.
"Oh god oh god " chanted Jinx at the sound of bones breaking and he promptly leaned over his horse and lost his lunch.It was a sound that would stay with him the rest of his life no matter how short that may be.
Seeing the horse's hoove come down Mlady couldn't even scream the sound caught in her throat and she went foward to him she was going to help him,she didn't even register the riders so great was her shock.
Kyle looked at the girl and shrugged he fired the crossbow at her,she didn't move and it struck her deeply in the chest,narrowly missing her heart but still damageing,and Kyle kept his barbed as well.
Greg leered and leaned over to retrieved the body, but felt a pain ripple through his body before he heard the shot,surprised he glanced over as Kyle put his smokeing pistol away,Jinx had been trying to help the girl.
"Lets go " he said "Now"
"What about her" Greg said disappointed but left the girl when Kyle started to reload. "all right" they spurred both of there horses on and into the night.
Jack was ready to scream but the sound wouldn't emerge anyways and he was seeing the world so much odder now.The pumpkin in his hand he had no idea how he had gotten it. He looked to it as he squinted against the brightness.
In fact he couldn't remember what had been going on only he had to go get his wife and his son was dead. These things he knew and he wept silently as he walked, but there was something else about Jack now a darkness that clung to him.
The lantern was the only glow, and Jack found the clearing, the horses were gone,three broken bodies were in the road and one lay along side it.
Jack knelt beside Mlady,she was badly wounded and the blood was dark. He couldn't remove that arrow or he'd kill her,he knew that,the only thing that kept the arrow from the heart shot intended was a simply locket,one he had given her when she was ten years old,she had placed inside a picture of him and Rycroft.
He placed his cloak over her, and moved on to where his son was, he held the small body to him it was already limp,the hit had broken him,killed him instantly.
"They won't be so luck" he whispered to the darkness.
He quietly cried over his son,then turned his gaze to the man who had been shot,he still lived.His attention went there.
Jack knelt over him,and peered down at him his eyes the same glowing orbs as the lantern beside him,"I will give you a chance for a swift death, who where they and where were they going ?" Jack whispered in a quiet hiss that came to Jinx.
"Kyle and Greg, they are heading to the next town" Jinx rasped as he looked up without fear at the slinky shadow, thin against the full moon a true jack o lantern.
The carveing knife came up, "and I will give this to you as well" he said as he closed his eyes "so I can go to god and maybe forgiven, Courtney Merdon hired them" he said and was peaceful as the knife came down, so sharp and quick the movement Jinx didn't feel it.
"Thank you " Jack said as he turned to the street,tomarrow he would start his hunt, they would learn that Samhein was to be feared here, very soon.
He gathered both his love and his child, looking down at the shattered body of the bunny it looked as though the creature had jumped into the hooves to save Rycroft the extra impact,and in a streak of compassion he picked the shattered bunnie up as well.
There would be a place for the bunny as well in the family plot, it had done what it could.He took his family as shattered as it was back home.
His mother came as did Spring who was in a rage, but Jack was coldly detached, he stayed with his wife, concerned she would die. If she did he feared he would loose his mind enough to return to that village and kill everyone.
He buried both Blackie and Rycroft in the Pumpkin Patch,the two playmates could be together for all times that way."Take care of them father" he whispered as though looking at something out of the corner of his eye.
Mlady wouldn't talk and didn't seem to see anything she was simply there. He held her,her body was with him but her spirit was gone it seemed. Another reason he decided for them to know his displeasure,and the pain he would inflict would be remembered."he swore softly.
He promised her that the night she returned to him,sobbing in his arms.She said she had to get out had to go away, she was going to stay with her Aunt in the America's.Jack did the only thing he could do he let her go,again his tears fell and his rage grew but with that icy detachment that even his mother began to fear.
Something new would stalk the night and on Samhein none the less he would complete his mission,little did he know that a new one would take the place of the old on, Jack o Lantern's ledgend was just beginning.
Rycroft had been playing a bit furthur from home,but Jack could still see his child and that was all he was worried about as he went through the harvest, it was the night of the full moon and he felt ill at ease for some reason he wasn't sure just what it was.
To make matters worse Milady had awoke sick and she hadn't wanted to stir from bed. He had tucked her in and gotten up himself, fixed a bowl of soup for himself and Rycroft and taken the playful little tike into the yard to play so he didn't disturb him mother,who would have sick or not gotten up to play with him.
The little boy was busy chaseing bunnies,the bunny Jack had told him to let go had indeed returned and with all of his family as well it seemed.
He had jokeingly suggested that they have rabbit stew and Mlady had damn near given him a concushion when she hit him.He had gotten the point the bunnies were pets not ediables.
Jack had gone into the pumpkin patch to get a few of the pumpkins,he picked out two of the pumpkins that were perfect for what he wanted and the vines seemed pet him comfortingly.
Taking them with him he went and gathered his son and setting on the front steps he showed him how to carve his first pumpkin,the face carved into a silly smile.
"I don't like it I want one thats scary!" said Rycroft "With evil eyes, eyes that glow like yours daddy" he added as he ran tiny fingers still chubby across the pumpkin face.
"Make him frighting!" his son said happily as he bounced up and down watching his daddy carve them.Jack didn't know weither to feel complimented or insulted by his sons words so he settled on bemused and shook his hair from his eyes laughing.
"Evil it will be my boy" he said as he worked the face, the eyes slanted and the eyebrows arched evilly,the mouth was drawn back in a dark leer of prehaps anger, its nose was a dark hollow and the top was jaggedly cut.He ran a scar down the right side of the pumpkin face and held it at arms length,it gave him de ja vu.
"OHHHH" the approveing squeal of his son was all he needed and he smiled and hugged the little boy.
"Go ask your mum for a candle,if she's awake" Jack said softly as he stood to dispose of the pumpkin pieces,return it to the land. The voice of surpriseingly his father came back to him,a man he hadn't thought about in the six years he had been gone.
Rycroft went tearing into the house and Jack shook his head, if Mlady wasn't up she would be soon enough.He heard his sons excited explination about what he was going to be doing with the candle and the insulted sound of his son's voice as he declared that no he would not burn down the forest with it, and besides daddy had sent him in there.
A few minutes later he returned with his mother in tow and several candles.An orange one for the happy pumpkin and black for the scary one.
Jack looked Mylady up and down "You feeling okay?" he asked as he wrapped both arms around her watching Rycroft put the candles in the pumpkin's carefully.
"Just had nightmares is all" she answered softly and in the clipped tone of voice that said she didn't want to talk about it.Jack didn't press but looking back later he would wish that he had.
"Back to work I go" he said "First I will light my pumpkin and tonight we will light yours" he promised his son who was happy just to play with the pumpkin and sat watching it as its eyes nose and mouth burst into light,but after a few hours the newness of that wore off and Rycroft was back out in the field playing with the bunnies.
Jack was admist the pumpkins again, Mlady was with him this time though,she had rarely gone with him into the patch and he felt praticularly blessed by her presence in his garden.Her white hair a perfect contrase admist the orange green and black. It was like the presence of the moon at dusk.
"Your troubled yet you won't speak to me, never has then been such a block between us,Snow Queen, and I dislike it immensely." he said softly as she leaned against a fence and leaned close to her trapping her against the fence half way, she reach up and put her arms around him and leaned into his lanky form, she had been feeding him for five year and he never seemed to gain weight.
"It was nightmares about the lost child," she spoke low."He kept coming to me in dreams as though trying to warn me of something." she said softly."but what I can't say and Oh, Jack if I loose another one.." her words were low and her eyes filled with tears.
Her words filled him with forbodeing and he shook his head lightly his arms went tighter around her waist and he held her, "Lets call it a night early and go to bed right after dinner this eve,we'll put Rycroft with us,it will be better tomarrow." he tried to sound reassureing but knew he failed.
He silently led her through the patch back to the front of the patch where he usually worked and swept her up placed her on the fence there so he could finish he work before it got dark.
Rycroft wondered what was wrong his parents looked sad, he picked a few quick wild flowers that still bloomed this late in season and took them to them. Handing them to both of them . "Here you can have my pretties but you have to cheer up!" he said with a nod of his head, and his actions did indeed bring a smile to both there faces.
Nodding his head feeling his job done, Rycroft went back to chaseing his bunnies, his favorite was a black one and he often chased this one, and when it went off deeper into the woods,he cast a glance back to his parent who were happy and close,he figured he could grab Blackie and be right back before they would notice him gone.
It was easy for Jack to loose himself in his snow maiden's arms and his son had instigated it this time,he had pushed his parents together and insisted that they trade flowers and that they should prehaps dance, they didn't do that enough.
Jack scanned the bunnies for his son, all seven of the bunnies were there,no there were only six of them and missing was Blackie and his son.
"Oh for the love of.." he mumbled and sat up."Mlady do you see Blackie around here, or for that matter Croft?" he asked as he placed a hand to his brow and glanced around.
Mlady sat up and her eyes went across the landscape, nope nothing and she was chilled, that motherly sense went off and she was on her feet dressed in his shirt in her hurry to get out of the pumpkin patch and back into view of the field.
Jack was quicker then her,and sprinted into the woods also,he didn't scream for his son because if he was in fact in trouble he would jerk in fear of being in more trouble and there was a chance he's hurt himself worse if he was indeed in trouble.
Rycroft grabbed the bunnie and held it before it could squirm out of his arms and then blinked there were Horses,he heard hoof beats and he wanted to see the horse's Daddy had promised to teach him to ride when he could sit in the seat by himself, which would be next summer.
He hurried along holding onto the rabbit tightly.
========================= ===========================
The riders had been looking for this place for sometime,somehow that had gotten turned around in the woods, it was difficult to keep track with so many tree's that looked the same.
Kyle was in a foul and irritable mood, he wanted to do this and get it over with,he wanted to be in the next town by this time but no such luck.
The shadows were growing deeper and Kyle hated this place, it was eerie and the sound of the wind whispering through the trees seemed to always be around him, telling him he imagined to turn back.
His men didn't want to be here anyways and Greg had been on his neves all evening,he wanted to know if he could have the target before or after and Kyle had been tempted to shoot him in the head with his crossbow but he saved it,the ruffian wasn't worth an arrow.
Jinx didn't want to do the job at all and as the shadows had grown deeper he said that the pumpkin smell was makeing him sick that they should just turn back, keep the money forget the noble woman and head out of town.
Yet his men didn't know if he didn't kill he'd get worse and probly kill them in his anger.It wasn't something he enjoyed anymore it was something he had to do.
Then the little boy with the rabbit appeared on the side of the road,a pretty little kid,if not prehaps a bit feminine. With the oddest eyes looking wide eyed at the horses.He was dressed nicely in a wool cloak and warm looking clothes beneath it.
"Want a ride?" he asked looking down at the boy.
"He sure is pretty." Greg said and this time Kyle did hit him bringing his horse just within range to crack him good.
Jinx shook his head "Leave him alone, Kyle that little boy ,just leave him alone.." he spoke in a squeak in his nightmares that child had caused all there death's.
Jinx had been given to visions and they had kicked him out of the mill he worked when he saw the death of some of the men and talked about it, falling on harder times he wound up with the ruffians and killers.
Seeing the man who offered the ride hit the other man who was looking at him funny,Rycroft shook his head no, he didn't want a ride in fact he though he might want his mommy and daddy, that was definantly what he wanted.
"Moommmmmyyyy,Daddddddyyyy " he howled as loud as his little lungs would let him and he backed up into a tree, the black bunnie slid from his arms and darted into the street under the hooves of the horses,"Blackie" screamed the little boy chaseing after the bunny.If Blackie got hurt his mommy and daddy would be sad.
Mlady was the first to find the clearing only because she knew the way that the plants were,Jack was a better woodsman with out a doubt,he could track,but Mlady could tell the trampled plants from the others.
She emerged into the clearing as well,looking for Rycroft and seeing the gathered men about the same time they saw her,"Hey thats her " Greg said with a grin that split his face she was a beautiful little thing, looked a bit young,but he didn't care.
Kyle glanced at the snow haired girl and almost didn't do it,but Rycroft had recognized his mother and turned just as the hooves crashed down on him and Blackie.
"Oh god oh god " chanted Jinx at the sound of bones breaking and he promptly leaned over his horse and lost his lunch.It was a sound that would stay with him the rest of his life no matter how short that may be.
Seeing the horse's hoove come down Mlady couldn't even scream the sound caught in her throat and she went foward to him she was going to help him,she didn't even register the riders so great was her shock.
Kyle looked at the girl and shrugged he fired the crossbow at her,she didn't move and it struck her deeply in the chest,narrowly missing her heart but still damageing,and Kyle kept his barbed as well.
Greg leered and leaned over to retrieved the body, but felt a pain ripple through his body before he heard the shot,surprised he glanced over as Kyle put his smokeing pistol away,Jinx had been trying to help the girl.
"Lets go " he said "Now"
"What about her" Greg said disappointed but left the girl when Kyle started to reload. "all right" they spurred both of there horses on and into the night.
Jack was ready to scream but the sound wouldn't emerge anyways and he was seeing the world so much odder now.The pumpkin in his hand he had no idea how he had gotten it. He looked to it as he squinted against the brightness.
In fact he couldn't remember what had been going on only he had to go get his wife and his son was dead. These things he knew and he wept silently as he walked, but there was something else about Jack now a darkness that clung to him.
The lantern was the only glow, and Jack found the clearing, the horses were gone,three broken bodies were in the road and one lay along side it.
Jack knelt beside Mlady,she was badly wounded and the blood was dark. He couldn't remove that arrow or he'd kill her,he knew that,the only thing that kept the arrow from the heart shot intended was a simply locket,one he had given her when she was ten years old,she had placed inside a picture of him and Rycroft.
He placed his cloak over her, and moved on to where his son was, he held the small body to him it was already limp,the hit had broken him,killed him instantly.
"They won't be so luck" he whispered to the darkness.
He quietly cried over his son,then turned his gaze to the man who had been shot,he still lived.His attention went there.
Jack knelt over him,and peered down at him his eyes the same glowing orbs as the lantern beside him,"I will give you a chance for a swift death, who where they and where were they going ?" Jack whispered in a quiet hiss that came to Jinx.
"Kyle and Greg, they are heading to the next town" Jinx rasped as he looked up without fear at the slinky shadow, thin against the full moon a true jack o lantern.
The carveing knife came up, "and I will give this to you as well" he said as he closed his eyes "so I can go to god and maybe forgiven, Courtney Merdon hired them" he said and was peaceful as the knife came down, so sharp and quick the movement Jinx didn't feel it.
"Thank you " Jack said as he turned to the street,tomarrow he would start his hunt, they would learn that Samhein was to be feared here, very soon.
He gathered both his love and his child, looking down at the shattered body of the bunny it looked as though the creature had jumped into the hooves to save Rycroft the extra impact,and in a streak of compassion he picked the shattered bunnie up as well.
There would be a place for the bunny as well in the family plot, it had done what it could.He took his family as shattered as it was back home.
His mother came as did Spring who was in a rage, but Jack was coldly detached, he stayed with his wife, concerned she would die. If she did he feared he would loose his mind enough to return to that village and kill everyone.
He buried both Blackie and Rycroft in the Pumpkin Patch,the two playmates could be together for all times that way."Take care of them father" he whispered as though looking at something out of the corner of his eye.
Mlady wouldn't talk and didn't seem to see anything she was simply there. He held her,her body was with him but her spirit was gone it seemed. Another reason he decided for them to know his displeasure,and the pain he would inflict would be remembered."he swore softly.
He promised her that the night she returned to him,sobbing in his arms.She said she had to get out had to go away, she was going to stay with her Aunt in the America's.Jack did the only thing he could do he let her go,again his tears fell and his rage grew but with that icy detachment that even his mother began to fear.
Something new would stalk the night and on Samhein none the less he would complete his mission,little did he know that a new one would take the place of the old on, Jack o Lantern's ledgend was just beginning.