Chapter 21:
Jack closed his eyes as he leaned back on the park bench, letting his head drop so it faced the sky. It had been close to a year since he'd become a fully-fledged Reaper, and he could say beyond a doubt he was pleased with the decision. It had been difficult at first, especially when he'd started reaping younger souls, but Death and the others had been there to help him through that rather steep learning curve; it had helped when he saw and heard the pain of souls who were unable to pass on.
That was one thing that had him and all the other Reapers furious with Mephistopheles at the moment; the bastard had more recently begun trying to steal souls before they were properly sorted, and the way they screamed… even if they were only trapped for a short while, they were so confused, so scared, in so much pain, Jack could barely begin to fathom it. He could empathize to a degree; he'd felt the same before Death had found him when he'd been 'reborn', and that made things so much worse.
No one else seemed to be faring much better. The Reapers were all paranoid, most of them latching onto dead souls like angry clams no matter how unnerving it was to their charges. Pestilence had lost some control of his aspect and would infect any living thing that got within five feet of him with all manner of illness, from the common cold to septicemia. Famine and War had managed to deal with it a bit more constructively; Famine would seek out groups of demons and get them to devour each other while War would just rip them to shreds or get them to do it themselves. Some of the weaker ones would explode if she even got close.
Well, Death seemed unruffled if you didn't probe too much, but damn if you looked too deep…
Jack didn't understand why Mephistopheles wasn't running to the opposite end of the universe and staying there for the next five million years.
At least it was Halloween; the Death Gods and their servants were out in force. Very few demons were strong or stupid enough to show their faces with this many powerful beings out and about.
A shift in ambient energy had Jack opening his eyes, looking to the roof of a café across the street.
Pitch Black emerged from the shadows, a pair of Nightmares on either side of him. The people on the street below immediately hunched their shoulders, tugging jackets tighter and pulling hoods over their heads. No one dared make eye contact with anyone else; all the humans hurried along, rushing to get home before night fell fully.
Pitch had undoubtedly become much stronger since his defeat of the Guardians; people who didn't believe in him could sense his presence, even adults. The entire planet had felt the effects of the defeat of the Big Four, but the scope and scale of the change had admittedly been unexpected.
Well, the whole Hell invasion thing wasn't helping.
Pitch grinned toothily as he observed the effect he'd garnered, eyes roving leisurely over the street.
His eyes passed right over Jack, unseeing. Jack wondered idly if the Boogeyman would have recognized him, anyway. His hair was mostly brown now, but it was still white at the tips, giving it a frosted look. His eyes were heterochromatic; the right one was the same ice blue it had been when he was a spirit, but the left was the earthy brown of his human days. He still wore his blue hoodie, but he'd paired it with black jeans and a set of gray tennis shoes.
A nudge to his shoulder; Jack looked back to see Mei looking at him questioningly. He smiled, reaching up and scratching between her ears. Mei snorted, pleased, and lowered her head to give him better access. Jack continued for a few more seconds before climbing onto the bench, leaping into the saddle from there. He picked up the reins, clucking his tongue and squeezing lightly with his heels.
Mei leaped into the sky, moving at a steady canter. The break was nice, but they had work to do elsewhere.
Mei snorted, trotting after a flock of fleeing pigeons while Jack waved at Aditi and Solriss as they came in to land.
"Woohoo! Scotland! I love Scotland!" Aditi said, grinning ear to ear as her horse's hooves touched the tile. They were on the roof of a pub off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.
"You were here just last week, lass," Solriss said as he dismounted, rubbing his horse's neck while she nosed his hair.
"I don't care; I love Scottish accents," Aditi said, practically hopping out of the saddle. Her horse immediately went to join Mei in the pigeon pursuit.
"How are things going on your fronts?" Jack asked. Both their faces fell instantly.
"Miserable," Aditi said.
"Not the word I would use," Solriss muttered.
"Absolutely horrendous? Abominable? Hideous?" Aditi said.
"About, yes."
Jack sighed. "Who else is on their way?"
"Yingxi, Ming, Cody, Maria… a whole host of others, basically. It's Halloween, there's supposed to be some pretty heavy patrolling up here," Solriss said.
"I don't see why," Aditi said, looking morosely at the street below. "No humans are out tonight; not even the youngsters."
Jack sighed again. "It's Pitch. He's made everyone too afraid to go trick-or-treating or go to parties or whatnot. People have barely even decorated this year."
The other two visibly deflated; Jack felt a pang of sympathy. Halloween was one of the biggest nights of the year for the Reapers, a night when they could have at least some fun. To have it be so… lackluster had to suck, especially after all the hubbub of the last few years.
Then Jack brightened. "Hey, why don't we bring people outside?"
Confused looks from the other two.
"Come on! There's going to be a bunch of spirits out and about, and we'll all be more than able to make ourselves visible! Let's throw a huge Halloween party!"
Aditi and Solriss looked at him like he'd grown an extra pair of heads.
"For crying out loud, let's at least give it a try! Round up as many spirits as you can! I'm going to see if I can find Shuck and the cat sidhe!"
Death was soundly shocked (and wow, he had not been able to say that for quite a while) when he reached the British Isles and found essentially the entire UK filled to bursting with spirits, fae folk and Reapers dancing and laughing together, fully visible to any who might pass. Of course, they had all toned down the ghostly and celestial appearances; they could pass for humans wearing exemplary makeup and costumes. If you didn't look too closely, at any rate.
And the humans… they seemed a livelier bunch than those he'd seen elsewhere in the past year. Indeed, some of the children had summoned up the courage to join the revelers. The faeries were absolutely loving it, letting the kids touch their wings and hair and spinning them about in the dance.
The Reapers and cat sidhe thankfully knew to make sure no human ate any faery food, otherwise no one would be making it home tomorrow.
To be fair, this was the most attention the fae folk had gotten in close to a thousand years. It would be better if their first instinct wasn't to kidnap any human who captured their attention, though.
And it was no shock at all when he and his steed flew over Edinburgh to see Jack right in the thick of things, laughing and dancing to an old Scottish tune with a young human woman near the chapel of Edinburgh Castle.
Death and his horse landed out of sight, in the space between buildings near the Scottish War Museum. The entity dismounted, running his fingers through the horse's mane as he assumed a human form and strode just to the edge of the ring of lights.
He hadn't been standing there long when he noticed a girl, only around six or so, standing by the old stone wall. She was wearing a black and purple dress fashioned to look like spiderwebs and a green witch's hat. She was shifting from foot to foot, occasionally taking a step forward as if to join in, then stepping back and looking like she was trying to melt into the wall.
Death cocked his head, considering. Her soul was dimmer than was usual in children her age, but that had not been an uncommon sight these past few months. But there were sparks… tiny little things that spurred her to take those steps, but never quite enough to ignite a glow.
And then Jack was there, crouching in front of her, grinning like an idiot and asking her name - Addison, really? That's my favorite name! – how old she was, what her costume was, did she know any cool witch stories?
Addison was smiling so widely her cheeks must have hurt. When Jack asked if she wanted to dance, though, it slipped from her face and she stared uncertainly at the crowd again. "I don't know how to dance."
There was a spark again. And it was staying.
"That doesn't matter! Everyone's just having fun!" Jack said. The girl shook her head.
"We're doing our dance unit in school; I can't do any of the moves and none of the boys can lead good. Peter says I look really stupid."
Oh, for crying out loud.
"I somehow doubt that," Death said. Both heads whipped toward him, Jack's jaw dropping in shock for a second. Death's focus, however, remained on the child.
"You won't look good the first time you try anything; it's a natural consequence of having no experience. If you would like to learn, I would be willing to teach you a few basic steps."
The girl blinked up at him, mouth hanging open slightly. She was looking a bit brighter now.
"Yeah, he's really good!" Jack said, undoubtedly picking up on the same thing. "He's an expert at, like, every single dance ever invented!" He grinned at Death. "No joke."
Death gave him a deadpan look. Jack smiled.
"Do you know the Foxtrot?" Addison asked, drawing the entity's attention back to her. "Mummy dances it with daddy sometimes, and she looks so pretty every time."
Death nodded, smiling as he held out his hand. "May I have this dance, my lady?"
Giggling, Addison took his hand and let him lead her out onto the dance floor.
"Do you want to lead or follow?" Death asked.
"Lead," Addison said without missing a beat. Oh, yes, she was glowing now, and getting brighter by the second.
"All right. Then you are going to start off stepping forward with your left foot. Take two steps… yes, like that, and then step to the left and bring your feet together. Then you repeat those steps over again. Now, since you're leading, you hold my hands like this… Jack, if you try to trip me up I am going to hide Red's horse treats and tell him you did it."
Happy Halloween 2017! My costume this year was Morgoth; I made it myself and was very proud of it. If you don't know who that is, read the Silmarillion.