The night passed and Jack sat quietly alone in his cottage watching out the window,he couldn't bear to go in the bedroom that was so empty without her.
True to her word she had kissed him good bye and walked out of his life,he was twenty three years old,and he lost his love. She had been able to heal herself,she had tore at the ground wanting to dig up Rycroft ,and in his own folly he did it for her, she spent hours trying to revive him,her powers weren't strong enough.
She had just lain there and he had tried to help her,he took her into there home and put her to bed, returned and buried his son again.He wasn't a priest but his father's teachings had stuck with him enough and Sean Lantern had made sure his boy learned.
Jack gave Rycroft his final rites and wished him well and on his way, then he had returned to the house and his loves arms.She had almost desperately clung to him and he made love to her holding her until she slept,he had failed her, failed to protect her, failed his son as well,hell he even failed Blackie who's family missed him.
He had thought Lord Harding would be angry with him but instead he hugged him and cried on him,it was sad to see,Jack some how knew that this was a troll and that the loss of his grandson had hurt him greatly,even more so his daughter whom was alive but wasn't really.
Prehaps the most touching sight was when he went out at twilight and the bunnies had gathered at the little boy's gravesite as though to say a silent good by to the both there child and his own.
He no longer looked like Jack as he had been,now pale exceedingly thin,his dark hair had been shorned off to just below his ears, and his clothing,were alot darker, normally the youth had worn a white cotten shirt long but tucked in and brown breeches with a green and brown vest,now he had changed.
Black clothing trimmed in dark gold so golden it was orange,knee high boots laced up the sides with orange leather,his father's long black over coat with out the priest collar.Jack didn't need to wear make up,shadows already gathered around his face, the sluagh he was said vengence was his to take, a child had been harmed, the pumpkin patch was silent it had told him all it could last night and stood stoticly guarding the shell of his child.
The sluagh leaned down and picked up the pumpkin he had carved for his son,he had promised to light it for him and that was what he did,he took the pumpkin with him.
He knew the horseman would take longer to get, but there was one whom he could get.Oh and she would suffer, for all the fear she instilled in Mlady when she was an innocent and for the pain and loss she caused her as an adult.
Into the city he slinked as silent as the shadows that now whispered in his mind and the shadows that gathered to offer comfort to one who could no longer find comfort.
========================== =============================
She brushed the ringlets out as she sat in front of the mirror,her eyes were a hard brown and she met them in her mirror she was angry,very angry the voices had lied to here,the full moon and Jack wasn't here.
Why do you really want him the question floated through her mind,is it because you were always the prettiest until she came along,she never wanted for what you did and she was quiet and shy when around men not open and flirty,she however loved Jack since she saw him.
Courtney paused and glanced out the window was there something out there? She didn't know but it didn't interest her,her father's hired men who watched out for the house since the horriable murder of Lord Harding Winter's grandson by highway men.
She snuggled down into her expensive sheets and sighed as she looked at the ceiling if she had it to do over would she do it diffrent she asked herself and the answer was simple,yeah she would have rid herself of that simpering girl child early on.
Befriend and berid of.
"And I wonder when Courtney dies who will be there to say there good byes and who will miss her once she's gone,the bell tolls tonight for you." the voice was a low hiss and it came from the foot of her bed.
Courntney sat stright up her brown eyes wide in the darkness normal sight couldn't penetrate."Who's there...I'll...scream" she said in a breathless whisper afraid as the shadows seemed to move of there own accord.
"Before this night is over yes you will" came the soft whispered voice as a pumpkin flaired to like. The dark portents of its face didn't hold much faith for the frightend woman.
"Jack?" she asked "Jack Lantern?"
"One and the same " he answered the pumpkin showed his features shadowed even more then normal by the flickering candle light and the look on his face was one of utter coldness.
"You came back to me " she said excitedly
"No, I came back for you" he answered with a low hiss,his yellow orange eyes flickered more then the candle in his son's pumpkin.He saw that she miss understood his words or willingly did so which ever he didn't care.
Concentrateing his magic,Jack opened a portal ,it formed in the corner, leaves and vines with tiny pumpkin's hanging from it, it was his own personal touch but just the same it was a frighting thing.
"Come Courtney, let us speak you and I of past discretions and new ones to come" he said with a low growling hiss, and Courtney wanted desperately to resist but found herself getting out of bed on her own accord,because she had to,not because she wanted to.
She was sobbing by the time Jack led her through the portal because she knew he wasn't really there to come back to her but rather to destroy her.
Her screams echoed through the Marshes and Bogs as Jack leaned against a tree and smirked his job was done here, there was no death worse then one alone and afraid,then his heart iced over a little bit more and he turned and walked away the distinct splashes and crys of the doomed woman giveing him some satisfaction.
The next morning all that was found was pumpkin leaves on the floor of Courtney's room, and a note written in a flowing illuminated script telling how Courtney had hired common thug's to attack Lord Harding's daughter signed by Courtney herself.
Courtney's body was never found and everyone figured it was Jack,but he wasn't about to be asked or brought in. He was of course else where,no where to be found nor would he be seen again in that villiage for the better part of a century.
================ ==============================
"Do ye think ell fin us ?" Greg asked again for the fifth time in the last twenty minutes.Kyle looked ready to kill him, he should have kept Jinx he growled to himself annoyedly.
Ahead of them in the road was a ...pumpkin.
"He's here" screamed Greg as he looked ready to turn and flee into the night.His horse whined in fear and then threw his rider as he tried to man handle him.
Kyle looked to the fallen thug and decided it was better to put distance between himself and Jack, Kyle was smart enough to know that it was the man from the house,he hadn't double checked to make sure that the woman was dead, but he had never though a common woodsman would become a frightful avenger.
Screams filled the night sky and people in the villiage wondered if it was the voices of the damned raised in an unholy chorus, no one wanted to go out to find out.
The next morning it was a frightful sight to see,body parts hungs from the tree's though the man that had lost them still lived barely, though not for long, he was quiet mad by that time.Screaming about pumpkins.
Jack leaned against the tree he was perched in and smirked as he watched the people gather the man together for burial.This time nothing was found as a way of knowing who had killed the man,he was just another deceased thug.
========================== =========================
The dark haired man watched the door constantly as he sat in the Pub in a small villiage in Ireland, the place had been called the Golden Harp and he was beginning to regret ever haveing taken that job for the noble woman.
He was so afraid he hadn't even killed in days,he knew a death would lead others to his location and Kyle didn't want that,god no, if he got caught the Pumpkin man would get him.
Jack sat at the table in the corner and sipped his spiced cider, no one came near him no one wanted to the sluagh was in a mood and his cloaked form projected his wanting to be alone to the world.
Even the bar maid who flirted with the men avoided him, she brought him drinks and then went away.He had coin to pay for it and he was finely dressed his clothing was expensive.
Kyle kept glanceing about the room, his eyes even settled on the sluagh but Jack was content to sit and wait,he enjoyed the fear instilled in the man,it was he who's horse struck the killing blow and it was he whom would pay for his actions,but slowly very,very slowly.
He moved over to the table as the man got more and more intoxicated."What da you want.?" he asked his hand going for the wide bladed knife in its sheath, and with a flick of finger, Kyle gasped unable to scream as the small throwing knife stuck into the hand pinning it to his leg.
"I want you to run" he hissed low in his throat. He leaned his head back so the fire light played across his eyes and gazed to the man."I want you to know I am hunting you, that though you run, you live only because I allow it, and that I can find you at any given time and kill you at my leasuire, I want you to settle down,prehaps have a family so someday prehaps when your old and grey prehaps a year from now,pumpkins will begin to grow and you will know that I came for you.." he hissed "Now leave.."
Jack settled down back into his seat and took out the long sharp carveing knife,he watched the door bang shut and heard the neighing of the horse and Kyle took off out of there at a break neck pace.
"Be careful now " Jack murmured to no one in praticular "Don't go killing yourself save that job for me."
The knife flashed in his hands as Jack worked the wood in his fingers it took form then became featured and soon in his hand after hours of the rise and fall of a knife was his son, holding a rabbit looking wide eyed and playful.
As he continued to work the second piece of wood this one slender and willowy,with a cascade of white hair falling over shoulder, the face was sweetly innocent and looked thoughtful, tears actually filled his eyes as he caressed the wood of his love and child,he could not be with them,but he would never be apart from them.
The two little wooden figures went into his pocket,always to be kept near him.
=============================== ================================
Ten years later Kyle looked out over the lands of his parents and sighed, His hair was completely white now and had been those ten years since he had come here.
His father opened the door and entered banging his boots on the side on the porch. "Let me tell you Kyle boy, it's the darndest thing, yer mother says we got pumpkin's growing this year." he said chuckled and went into the kitchen not noticeing the look of fear that flashed across his son's face.
The pumpkin patch there that year was huge, the children came to play in it and they said it was the prettiest patch in the country side. Though it was tempered with sadness for the elderly couple.
Kyle had been found in the patch a look of horror set on his features as though something to horriable for words was seen.All they found was simple wooden pumpkin clutched in his hands,one that as his mother put it "Looked evil like it was stareing at you with hellfire in its eyes" she would say.
Through the early Samhein morning flute music was heard prehaps a dirge prehaps just a good bye no one could be sure.Yet, it was noted that the bunnies were plentiful that year.
True to her word she had kissed him good bye and walked out of his life,he was twenty three years old,and he lost his love. She had been able to heal herself,she had tore at the ground wanting to dig up Rycroft ,and in his own folly he did it for her, she spent hours trying to revive him,her powers weren't strong enough.
She had just lain there and he had tried to help her,he took her into there home and put her to bed, returned and buried his son again.He wasn't a priest but his father's teachings had stuck with him enough and Sean Lantern had made sure his boy learned.
Jack gave Rycroft his final rites and wished him well and on his way, then he had returned to the house and his loves arms.She had almost desperately clung to him and he made love to her holding her until she slept,he had failed her, failed to protect her, failed his son as well,hell he even failed Blackie who's family missed him.
He had thought Lord Harding would be angry with him but instead he hugged him and cried on him,it was sad to see,Jack some how knew that this was a troll and that the loss of his grandson had hurt him greatly,even more so his daughter whom was alive but wasn't really.
Prehaps the most touching sight was when he went out at twilight and the bunnies had gathered at the little boy's gravesite as though to say a silent good by to the both there child and his own.
He no longer looked like Jack as he had been,now pale exceedingly thin,his dark hair had been shorned off to just below his ears, and his clothing,were alot darker, normally the youth had worn a white cotten shirt long but tucked in and brown breeches with a green and brown vest,now he had changed.
Black clothing trimmed in dark gold so golden it was orange,knee high boots laced up the sides with orange leather,his father's long black over coat with out the priest collar.Jack didn't need to wear make up,shadows already gathered around his face, the sluagh he was said vengence was his to take, a child had been harmed, the pumpkin patch was silent it had told him all it could last night and stood stoticly guarding the shell of his child.
The sluagh leaned down and picked up the pumpkin he had carved for his son,he had promised to light it for him and that was what he did,he took the pumpkin with him.
He knew the horseman would take longer to get, but there was one whom he could get.Oh and she would suffer, for all the fear she instilled in Mlady when she was an innocent and for the pain and loss she caused her as an adult.
Into the city he slinked as silent as the shadows that now whispered in his mind and the shadows that gathered to offer comfort to one who could no longer find comfort.
========================== =============================
She brushed the ringlets out as she sat in front of the mirror,her eyes were a hard brown and she met them in her mirror she was angry,very angry the voices had lied to here,the full moon and Jack wasn't here.
Why do you really want him the question floated through her mind,is it because you were always the prettiest until she came along,she never wanted for what you did and she was quiet and shy when around men not open and flirty,she however loved Jack since she saw him.
Courtney paused and glanced out the window was there something out there? She didn't know but it didn't interest her,her father's hired men who watched out for the house since the horriable murder of Lord Harding Winter's grandson by highway men.
She snuggled down into her expensive sheets and sighed as she looked at the ceiling if she had it to do over would she do it diffrent she asked herself and the answer was simple,yeah she would have rid herself of that simpering girl child early on.
Befriend and berid of.
"And I wonder when Courtney dies who will be there to say there good byes and who will miss her once she's gone,the bell tolls tonight for you." the voice was a low hiss and it came from the foot of her bed.
Courntney sat stright up her brown eyes wide in the darkness normal sight couldn't penetrate."Who's there...I'll...scream" she said in a breathless whisper afraid as the shadows seemed to move of there own accord.
"Before this night is over yes you will" came the soft whispered voice as a pumpkin flaired to like. The dark portents of its face didn't hold much faith for the frightend woman.
"Jack?" she asked "Jack Lantern?"
"One and the same " he answered the pumpkin showed his features shadowed even more then normal by the flickering candle light and the look on his face was one of utter coldness.
"You came back to me " she said excitedly
"No, I came back for you" he answered with a low hiss,his yellow orange eyes flickered more then the candle in his son's pumpkin.He saw that she miss understood his words or willingly did so which ever he didn't care.
Concentrateing his magic,Jack opened a portal ,it formed in the corner, leaves and vines with tiny pumpkin's hanging from it, it was his own personal touch but just the same it was a frighting thing.
"Come Courtney, let us speak you and I of past discretions and new ones to come" he said with a low growling hiss, and Courtney wanted desperately to resist but found herself getting out of bed on her own accord,because she had to,not because she wanted to.
She was sobbing by the time Jack led her through the portal because she knew he wasn't really there to come back to her but rather to destroy her.
Her screams echoed through the Marshes and Bogs as Jack leaned against a tree and smirked his job was done here, there was no death worse then one alone and afraid,then his heart iced over a little bit more and he turned and walked away the distinct splashes and crys of the doomed woman giveing him some satisfaction.
The next morning all that was found was pumpkin leaves on the floor of Courtney's room, and a note written in a flowing illuminated script telling how Courtney had hired common thug's to attack Lord Harding's daughter signed by Courtney herself.
Courtney's body was never found and everyone figured it was Jack,but he wasn't about to be asked or brought in. He was of course else where,no where to be found nor would he be seen again in that villiage for the better part of a century.
================ ==============================
"Do ye think ell fin us ?" Greg asked again for the fifth time in the last twenty minutes.Kyle looked ready to kill him, he should have kept Jinx he growled to himself annoyedly.
Ahead of them in the road was a ...pumpkin.
"He's here" screamed Greg as he looked ready to turn and flee into the night.His horse whined in fear and then threw his rider as he tried to man handle him.
Kyle looked to the fallen thug and decided it was better to put distance between himself and Jack, Kyle was smart enough to know that it was the man from the house,he hadn't double checked to make sure that the woman was dead, but he had never though a common woodsman would become a frightful avenger.
Screams filled the night sky and people in the villiage wondered if it was the voices of the damned raised in an unholy chorus, no one wanted to go out to find out.
The next morning it was a frightful sight to see,body parts hungs from the tree's though the man that had lost them still lived barely, though not for long, he was quiet mad by that time.Screaming about pumpkins.
Jack leaned against the tree he was perched in and smirked as he watched the people gather the man together for burial.This time nothing was found as a way of knowing who had killed the man,he was just another deceased thug.
========================== =========================
The dark haired man watched the door constantly as he sat in the Pub in a small villiage in Ireland, the place had been called the Golden Harp and he was beginning to regret ever haveing taken that job for the noble woman.
He was so afraid he hadn't even killed in days,he knew a death would lead others to his location and Kyle didn't want that,god no, if he got caught the Pumpkin man would get him.
Jack sat at the table in the corner and sipped his spiced cider, no one came near him no one wanted to the sluagh was in a mood and his cloaked form projected his wanting to be alone to the world.
Even the bar maid who flirted with the men avoided him, she brought him drinks and then went away.He had coin to pay for it and he was finely dressed his clothing was expensive.
Kyle kept glanceing about the room, his eyes even settled on the sluagh but Jack was content to sit and wait,he enjoyed the fear instilled in the man,it was he who's horse struck the killing blow and it was he whom would pay for his actions,but slowly very,very slowly.
He moved over to the table as the man got more and more intoxicated."What da you want.?" he asked his hand going for the wide bladed knife in its sheath, and with a flick of finger, Kyle gasped unable to scream as the small throwing knife stuck into the hand pinning it to his leg.
"I want you to run" he hissed low in his throat. He leaned his head back so the fire light played across his eyes and gazed to the man."I want you to know I am hunting you, that though you run, you live only because I allow it, and that I can find you at any given time and kill you at my leasuire, I want you to settle down,prehaps have a family so someday prehaps when your old and grey prehaps a year from now,pumpkins will begin to grow and you will know that I came for you.." he hissed "Now leave.."
Jack settled down back into his seat and took out the long sharp carveing knife,he watched the door bang shut and heard the neighing of the horse and Kyle took off out of there at a break neck pace.
"Be careful now " Jack murmured to no one in praticular "Don't go killing yourself save that job for me."
The knife flashed in his hands as Jack worked the wood in his fingers it took form then became featured and soon in his hand after hours of the rise and fall of a knife was his son, holding a rabbit looking wide eyed and playful.
As he continued to work the second piece of wood this one slender and willowy,with a cascade of white hair falling over shoulder, the face was sweetly innocent and looked thoughtful, tears actually filled his eyes as he caressed the wood of his love and child,he could not be with them,but he would never be apart from them.
The two little wooden figures went into his pocket,always to be kept near him.
=============================== ================================
Ten years later Kyle looked out over the lands of his parents and sighed, His hair was completely white now and had been those ten years since he had come here.
His father opened the door and entered banging his boots on the side on the porch. "Let me tell you Kyle boy, it's the darndest thing, yer mother says we got pumpkin's growing this year." he said chuckled and went into the kitchen not noticeing the look of fear that flashed across his son's face.
The pumpkin patch there that year was huge, the children came to play in it and they said it was the prettiest patch in the country side. Though it was tempered with sadness for the elderly couple.
Kyle had been found in the patch a look of horror set on his features as though something to horriable for words was seen.All they found was simple wooden pumpkin clutched in his hands,one that as his mother put it "Looked evil like it was stareing at you with hellfire in its eyes" she would say.
Through the early Samhein morning flute music was heard prehaps a dirge prehaps just a good bye no one could be sure.Yet, it was noted that the bunnies were plentiful that year.