Hello. How are you all doing? I'm so sorry this chapter is so ridiculously late. I'm am almost two months behind for Halloween's sake! At least this chapter is really long. 10,136 words and twenty-four pages. Longest chapter yet…I'm actually really sorry this chapter is so long. I wanted to cut it into 2 but I figured that it would mess up the flow. (Even though I like cliffhangers) Technically I could trim it down a lot, but I suspect we would lose a lot of important detail. Please Read and Review, especially since this is such a heavy chapter and I'm simultaneously hyped and anxious about it (the length being a big thing).
Also, I start college to study Animation in literally 4 weeks! For someone who writes so much, I need to figure out how to put some of this energy into drawing! Oh, and here's something cool. Last week I met a producer for Disney Broadway. Cool guy. Anyway, I asked him for some advice for an animation student from a Disney higher up. He told me that if I want to get to know someone famous then I need to figure out what they like that has nothing to do with work and get into that subject. He really wanted to meet one of the directors that if I said who, 80% of you would know who I'm talking about if you like Pixar. The director liked trains so my guy went and studied trains and wrote a book. Then he got an email one day through work from the director saying, "HEY! I heard your writing a book about trains! THAT'S SO COOL! Can I write the introduction?" I'm paraphrasing of course. Now they're friends.
In response to my story, my dad said, "That cool but you have to find out what they like somehow and write a whole book."
Dad, don't underestimate my fanfiction skills. Not only can I study a character that isn't mine with "enough" accuracy to reasonable guess what they would and wouldn't like, but I can crank out 140,000 words and not even be a fourth of the way through the book.
Reminder: Read and Review please.
Ps.( Added after I published this chapter) Who the heck is that one reader from Canada who somehow manages to be one of the first readers of a new chapter literally almost seconds after I post it? Seriously. I literally (not misusing the word) check the stats minutes later and BOOM! Someone from Canada is already reading. You're awesome.
Chapter 26
Generations
Many many years ago, long before the candy and the frights and the graveyard dances, Jack glanced down at the strange creature that rested her head on his lap as she slept fitfully.
He didn't know much about her, not even her name. She was certainly not human, he wasn't sure how many times he needed to remind himself of that fact, but he wasn't entirely sure she was dead despite the damning evidence contrary. She was young, but not so young that she wouldn't likely be married already if she was from this village. Or at least betrothed.
He briefly wondered if they still had dowries in the future.
The skeleton snickered without a sound and clicked his half rotten away teeth together as if to bite the inside of a non-existent cheek in amusement. Look at him. He actually believed the girl was from the future.
In hindsight, it was bothering him how accepting he had been of her claim, bar the obvious preliminary disbelief.
Why was he growing so…?
Hmm. Caring wasn't the right word…neither was fond….
Interested? Intrigued? Perhaps a word a little stronger than those.
Nostalgic and…trusting.
He straightened slightly, his spine creaking from hours of stillness. Those words seemed too strong and yet…
Fifteen years. Over fifteen damn years without a proper conversation. Fifteen years where it was often a coin toss to whether he would go another six months without coming across someone who could see him and wouldn't run away. Usually, the souls who managed both were tortured dead that he found upon stumbling on their grave. They wanted peace, or maybe justice, and he could only offer companionship and a promise to return when he came back that way, however long that may be.
Oh, he wished he could help them, but those who he really wanted to help were too weak to find their way through the veil that Jack discovered weakened on Samhain.
That left the others. They didn't run away from him Why should they? He would much rather run away from those monsters than face them. Some were ghosts so consumed by their anger and hatred that they could break the bonds that held them to their bones or haunts on this earth and wreak havoc on the living, for a night at least.
Jack didn't like those souls, though a large part of him felt pity and wondered if there was any peace or place for them. He had tried to help them…But what could he really do?
Whether it was the anguished or the angered, or other creatures like Fae or Trolls or Goblins, Jack could never say he had allies.
He was an anomaly among the dead if such a thing was possible. He was cursed with immortal death, yet forced to wander alone without being chained to one place or people? Or purpose?
Then there was this young womanl. When he first found her, he thought Fae. They were annoying, tricky beasts and he wanted nothing to do with them. Then he assumed ghost, but she was able to follow him far from where he supposed her grave might be, something a typical ghost couldn't do.
He still didn't believe she was like him, as she claimed. Well, she didn't claim to be cursed like him, she just claimed to be a skeleton, of all things.
It was funny, but he never considered himself a skeleton first, rather a man who was cursed to be an image of death as a reminder. Some days he caught his reflection in the water and didn't recognize the rounded white bone and empty sockets staring back.
This girl.
What kind of person makes a creature like him instinctively trust them when he hasn't even spoken on even terms with someone in fifteen years? He didn't know. All he knew is that this charred, slimy, bleeding youngster, with her strange words and accent and annoying tendency to follow him in silence for weeks without realizing, was someone he could trust.
Maybe not so much with his own life, or rather lack of, but in such a way that he knew he could trust her to let him take care of her life. He knew she could trust him with her own life. What a backward thought.
She hadn't even done anything to make him feel obligated in such a way! And it drove him crazy. He didn't like being out of control like that without understanding why. All she did was talk and slowly burn away and keel over at random moments! Probably the most useless companion he could be granted, though he really shouldn't complain given the circumstances.
As for the nostalgia…that was even harder to nail down. He didn't like thinking about his childhood, what little he had of one.
Somehow, the teen reminded him of himself. What a trite thing to realize. He saw it in the way she tried to bounce in her steps, despite being in extreme pain. He saw it in the way she smiled and focused on him when she listened and how she watched his reactions as she talked. The sheer…curiosity and joy she had in her eyes reminded him of younger days before everything went wrong with his life.
Most of all, and this was the part that made him loathe her in a twisted bout of self-hate, she had the same lost look in her eyes before those very eyes disappeared and left deep bloody sockets. She had the same look like him so long ago. Even without eyes, it was like her soul was screaming for…what? A home? A place of acceptance? She couldn't even tell him where she thought home was, honestly at least.
She was looking for somewhere to belong, and apparently, she hadn't found it yet. Or she wasn't sure she had. So instead, it was like she was chasing smoke when she already knew there wasn't any fire.
He grimaced at his own analogy.
That was what he gathered at least, listening to her rant at him and talk about "going home."
That was another curiosity, one that he forced himself to brush off before.
She was angry with him. And not even him properly, but a future version of him. That thought terrified and interested him simultaneously, and he really wasn't sure if that was good. He made his skull tear apart just thinking about it. What had he done to deserve her anger? Be an arse apparently.
Will he be unwelcoming to a girl he saw so much of his lost, lonely youth in? He didn't know what kind of person he would be or what about him would change for him to be hostile to this creature. Today, he would never be like that, maybe, if he was in a good mood. But what changes between Today and Tomorrow?
Night had fallen, and the lamps and candles that illuminated the inside of his son's dwelling were put out long ago.
Jamie didn't leave his wife's side for much. One of the elderly women who was helping keep the pregnant Mira comfortable practically had to force the young man to eat.
Jack knew what his son was feeling. It may have been many years, but he remembered the sleepless nights as Jamie's mother and infant sister were ill. Evelyn, his oldest, was the strength in those days. He dearly hoped history wouldn't repeat itself. Both he and his son had lost almost every woman in their lives. And they had lost each other, despite Jack's secret visits.
Jack stayed away from his son as much as he could. He wasn't part of Jamie's life anymore. He knew that, he just…
He hadn't nothing. Jack had nothing. Being forced to walk the Earth with nothing but whatever was left of his sense of self and the rocks beneath his feet was enough to drive him insane. The only thing that kept his mind in manageable pieces was that toward the end of harvest time he managed to pull himself out of self-pity to return to the village.
It wasn't that something kept him from the village the rest of the year. He was simply always a restless soul. With nothing to do but watch his son live on without him, he could never feel at home anywhere. But during the end of Harvest, the Samhain festival, the world seemed just a little more open to him. He could touch this world, and if he wasn't careful, Jamie could see him. He never let that happen though. He had to be especially careful with the veil between the living and the dead as thin as it was. Other spirits came, but he rarely consorted with them. They were often the angry one's looking for a release of their pain.
Jack came to the village to keep them from harming people as best he could. It was the least he could do. There were some that specifically came for spiteful reasons because Jack had defied them and interrupted their annual mischief, but Jack was stronger than them.
He hadn't seen any of those yet.
The spirit girl shifted.
"Besides ye," Jack muttered.
She shifted again. It couldn't be comfortable, he knew. He was a skeleton. He didn't exactly have a lap, to begin with.
Her eyeless eyes shot "open" as well as they could, and she groaned, putting a slick skeletal hand to her forehead in pain.
He helped her as she sat up with winces and sharp gasps of pain.
She really was a disgusting sight. There really wasn't any kinder way to put it. Oozing wounds and blistering charred patches of skin covered her entire body. None of it seemed to be healing either. Some of her remaining hair was pulled out and left in clumps on his clothes as she lifted her head. Her once white dress was oddly mostly intact, obviously through supernatural means, though it was darkened by soot and decaying in many places.
"Are ye alright?" he asked. What a foolish question to ask. He ignored that protesting chatter that snapped at him for even caring.
She flinched as though his voice was a knife. "I just ran into a tree."
He opened his jaw to argue before shaking his head in exasperation.
The future.
He was tempted to ask what the world this strange girl came from was like. Nothing was actually stopping him, but he felt the girl wasn't trusting enough of him about such matters, so he curbed his curiosity.
She stared at the ground for a moment.
"I'm going back to Washington," she said, with forced casualty.
The skeleton held her shoulder for a moment longer until he was sure she wouldn't tip like a poorly made chair.
"Why?"
"They need me."
"Who?"
"My.. my sister," she whispered. "She's blaming herself and getting herself hurt."
Jack frowned, "How do ye know such a thing?"
"I just do, ok," she snapped at him, clenching her fists tight.
Jack raised a brow but said nothing.
They sat in silence for a long while, the moon steadily climbing in the night sky and the insects singing their song in the darkness. It would be morning soon.
Anna didn't wish to talk. This was getting annoying. Not necessarily these dreams, but the fact that she was being knocked out every time. Falling asleep didn't actually send her here unless it was from acute exhaustion or she fainted. She could feel the ache on her forehead that she knew sent her here. Stupid fear, making her run into things.
"What…"
Anna flinched at his voice. His voice. She didn't care if this Jack was blameless for the behavior of his future self. It still stung to remember what he said.
"You shouldn't be here."
Wait…
She hadn't thought much about that incident, except to agonize over her own actions and be angry at Jack for what he did. Actually, what he did and didn't do. But…something bothered her about the way Jack said that phrase now that she had the quiet air to help her think. He had sounded…apologetic…not accusing.
Jack continued, ignorant of Anna's thoughtful and confused reaction. "What does you sister blame herself for?"
"My death. She shouldn't though."
Jack turned to stare.
"What?"
The skeleton blinked at her.
Anna looked at him. "I didn't tell you how I died did I?"
Jack shook his head.
In her defense, the same force that kept her from saying her name wouldn't have let her tell Jack how she died anyway.
But neither of them got the chance to discover this as the door next to them suddenly swung open and the lights from inside James' house were lit as a cry startled them.
Jack jerked back to avoid his arm being broken by the force by which his son burst outside.
As James frantically ran down the street, one of the women, a younger lady called after him.
"Hurry James!" As if she really needed to say that.
"What's wrong?" Anna said in concern, using Jack's thin, bony arm to pull herself up as both she and Jack went inside. They both kept to the walls to avoid being run over.
She leaned around Jack to see, his raggedy cloak getting in the way as he made her press against the wall behind him.
Mira didn't look too good. The pregnant lady was gasping and holding her midsection as one of the other women helped her sit up against the wall. The bed was wet, and another woman was busy bustling about getting ready.
"Oh," Anna whispered.
Anna remembered, barely, how her mother had been when Thim went into labor with the twins. She remembered a very long wait with her nervous father. It was her mom's first time giving birth, and with twins and a history of miscarriages, everyone was a little jumpy.
Of course, Anna didn't understand that at the time. She did remember that this was a time before her disease completely destroyed her sense of fear. That time of her life was one of the last times she remembered having an inkling of fear while she was alive. Would she be wanted anymore? She had already learned that she was adopted by then, and she understood it meant her mommy didn't go through pain like that to bring her into the family. These babies were different than Anna.
That was a long time ago. She got over that ridiculous fear against her will. She loved her family and her siblings, and they loved her.
Jack had mentioned his son and daughter-in-law's baby was due any day, but somehow the thought hadn't registered with Anna until then.
Mira was so thin and weak that her swollen belly didn't seem noticeable under the rough wool blankets.
She was sweating and crying.
"Where's Jamie?" she gasped in a voice that broke Anna's heart.
"He's coming dear. Just breathe. Count with me alright?"
Jack knew he should've just turned around and dragged the spirit girl out with him the second he realized what was happening but then the look in poor Mira's eyes broke him, and he couldn't look away.
Anna was busy watching the woman in worry, not grossed out at all. Her eyes wandered up to Mira's sweat slicked face and sunken eyes. She froze.
Mira was looking at her.
The girls stared at each other for a short moment, Anna too shocked at realizing Mira wasn't simply looking behind and through Anna at the door waiting for James and the doctor.
Then, Mira's feverish mind touched the deepest recesses of her survival instinct, and she started screaming at the two creatures in the house.
"Death! Death! Begone! They've come for me! Jamie! Keep them away!"
"Mira, please! Calm down!" the woman by Mira's bedside pleaded in fear at the young lady's sudden hysterics.
Anna breathed sharply and tried to go forward to show Mira she wasn't dangerous but Jack suddenly grabbed her arms and bodily lifted back as James and the healer appeared. Their timing couldn't be apter.
Anna started spouting off questions as Jack dragged her through the door and outside, almost throwing her.
Mira continued to scream as she saw the bloody girl with missing eyes and the dry, dead skeleton leave. Her mind unable to formulate the distinction between what she saw and reality in her sickness, she couldn't understand why Jamie didn't chase the creatures away from her and the child. And they didn't leave! They were outside!
"Jamie Jamie make them leave!" she pleaded in tears.
"Shhh. Shh. I'm here, love," James whispered, grasping her hand even at the insistence of the midwife that he and the healer needed to leave. "Make who leave, my dearest friend?"
"The banshee and the fershee! They've come for the babe and me!" Mira sobbed and gripped at James tightly even as another contraction hit. "Death omens! They'll scream. Don't let them scream!"
Anna rambled frantically as she tried to get her thoughts in order outside. "She could see us! Why couldn't she see us before? Why can she see us now? Is she okay? I thought the baby wasn't due for a few more days?"
"Silence!" Jack held her shoulders and shook her harshly.
Anna shut up and looked at Jack's sockets wide-eyed.
The skeleton removed his hands. "I apologize." He shook his head and stepped back, glancing at his skeletal hands.
Anna followed him out of sight from the open door, casting one last painful glance at Mira.
"She's dying." Jack turned away and started walking toward the bench.
Anna straightened and hissed at him, forcing through the pain of her burns to run in front to cut him off. "What?!"
"She can see us because she'll soon join us," Jack said, looking away. His mouth felt drier than bone, and there was a terrible ache in his ribs. It wasn't fair. He never got a chance to adequately meet Mira but didn't want his son to feel his pain.
Mira was a joy. She made his son smile. He recalled the early days of death when he came to check on Jamie more frequently. There was Mira. A village girl who always made poor orphaned Jamie always feel at home, even as other children scorned him and made fun of the boy whose father was a murderer and only allowed in town for his skill at metal before he died.
"That, th-that can't happen. You have to do something!"
Jack glared down at the girl. "And what, pray tell, do ye think a wretch like me can do?"
Anna looked behind them as she heard Mira cry out as Jamie argued with the midwife.
"What about the baby?" Anna whispered, arms raised and hands on top of her head in barely restrained panic. She was getting better at that. Panic.
"I don't know."
Anna was silent again. She sat down on the bench and buried her head. "Why am I here? Why do I need to see this?" she moaned to herself. "Why do this to me?"
"I don't have those answers," Jack said helplessly, sitting beside her.
Anna sniffed and hugged her own midsection as she sat up. "Is there anything we can do?"
Jack shook his head.
"We could pray?" Anna suggested meekly, glancing at Jack. Worth a shot…
Jack grimaced. "Despite having seen the gates of Heaven myself, I don't find myself keen on begging, Spirit. I gave up on that long ago. The cries of the dead, fall on deaf ears I think."
"Maybe," Anna whispered. "I'm not trying to be religious here. And I suppose it's strange for me, of all people, to hold onto Him…but…"
"I am not saying thy belief won't offer some…hope…" Jack admitted, "For you at least." He chuckled humorlessly. "Maybe He will listen. You'll likely have better luck than me in any case."
There was silence. Jack didn't look at the girl, but he supposed she was doing as she suggested, whatever good it would do. He jerked in surprise as she did something he wasn't expecting.
She hugged him.
It was a bit awkward, but Anna tightened her arms around him anyway.
He held his arms up above, not sure what to do with them.
Anna hugged him the way a child might embrace their father in comfort.
"I'm so sorry," Annalise said spitting out his dirty, dusty robes that got in her face. "This isn't fair to you. I just keep thinking about myself, but this must be awful for you."
Jack sighed and rolled his eyes before he finally returned the hug, blinking away tears he didn't know were there. He huffed sharply and shook his head. "Alright lass, would ye look at me for a moment?" He touched her head to make sure she was listening and looking at his face.
"Why do ye care so much about my family? I don't even know you."
Anna frowned and shook her head. She didn't know.
Jack huffed, "Then listen. I'm not a good man. Whatever pain I'm subjected to is of my own doing. I don't deserve the pity of a stranger." He tilted his skull back until it leaned on the house so he could see the fading stars as morning light came. "Life doesn't seem to be fair often. I fail to see why death should." He said it more to himself than her.
Anna frowned at him as he said the familiar words. He said them to her when she hid under a table in Harlequin's store. They were exact…
"Jack…sir..."
"Hush. Sometimes…many times… Life being unfair is quite alright. It makes you stronger. Even when you are against evil. But if death were fair, I would be tasting my own blood in Hell. In some ways, this is worse, but sometimes I can watch a sunrise and, for a moment, at least be grateful that I have seen one more. Look."
Anna let go and turned around to see where Jack pointed with his other hand on her shoulder.
It was sunrise.
Somehow this one felt different, newer. Maybe because it was a morning of a day long since passed, a sunrise she otherwise would never have seen in her life.
She listened to him as she watched golden beams bring color to the world. Vibrant greens. Blues. Purple. The hint of yellow of crops just out of view on the other side of the hill.
"However this day goes," Jack said, "There will be another one. I'll admit, I fear that if Mira loses her battle, my son will have lost a wife and child. I wasn't strong enough on my own when the same happened to me, but I had my son and eldest depending on me. I couldn't give up. Jamie is alone now. Losing his family may break him. But my son is not me. He is stronger than I ever was."
Jack glanced at the top of the hill. "But I don't think it will come to that. Not for many happy years."
"Why not?" It was pessimistic, Anna knew, but she couldn't help but ask.
"Because I'll damn my soul again before I lose a grandchild," he said with a dark tone of finality that Anna missed in her slight early morning stupor.
"I thought you said there's wasn't anything you can do," Anna mumbled distractedly. She sat up and looked at the ground.
"Maybe not. I shall figure something out."
Anna didn't know what he meant by that. She just sat there, silently cursing herself for being so…dull. She was having trouble concentrating, not because she was tired or in pain, though that played a part. It was more like she was having trouble focusing on what Jack meant. His words were like noise. Like a song blaring in a car but she could only hear the bass from the outside. She could hear him, but she couldn't focus. She compared it to being on pain drugs in a hospital.
"I'm surprised you haven't left yet."
"Hmm?" she muttered with a distant tone.
"Usually by now you would have disappeared or fainted."
"I don't have any control over it…"
"Hmph. Obviously."
Anna sighed and made a face at him. It was a little odd she thought. She noticed that she seemed to wake up from this dream-but-not-dream state at the most critical moments.
She looked down again. "I don't feel tired," she mumbled.
There was no response.
"Jack?" She looked up, but Jack was gone from his place sitting next to her.
"Jack?" she called again, looking around. This younger Jack didn't seem to know about fading, and if he did, he didn't reveal so. But he was still unnaturally fast and silent if she lost sight of him from a few seconds of looking down. He probably went to look for something. What, she had no idea.
She was alone now, the first time in a while. Anna perked up at the sounds of arguing getting louder.
She scooted farther down the bench when the village healer dragged Jamie out with him.
"James! Ye have to hold it together! Ye can't just start spouting things about thy father like that when thy wife sees visions."
"Ye heard her! If me father…"
"Thy father is dead and gone, boy!" the old man gripped Jamie's shoulders. "That never happened. Do ye want to bring misfortune by speaking of such devilry?"
"…No…"
"Then please, don't distress Mira. She's very ill, and this babe could not have worse timing."
Anna frowned as she listened. The older man sounded worried.
He moved to go back inside, but Jamie grabbed his elbow.
"Be honest with me," he said, voice small and tight and pained, "Is she…"
The healer squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. "Pull yourself together, then come inside. This is not a place for men, as Mistress Ida said, but…"
Jamie nodded stiffly and waiting for the other person to go inside before he collapsed on the bench, almost sitting on Anna, head in his hands.
Anna thought it funny how he was doing the same thing she did a moment ago.
"Please. Please." He whispered over and over again.
Anna bit her lip. "I don't know what I can do to help you," she whispered. "It be cool if I had some powers over life and death. Or healing. But I don't think I can be of any use here."
James continue to cry, not hearing her.
So she kept talking, her hand floating just above his shoulder. She was too afraid to touch him.
"I can control ropes though. Need help with hoisting something or kidnapping someone, I'm your gal. I can mimic people's voices too. I'm so useless here. I'm sorry," she said depressed and apologetic.
She waited a moment, imagining Jamie responding.
"My brother's name is James too, you know," she whispered thoughtfully, her voice quieter and tinging with just a little more sadness, "I'm pretty sure Jack remembers your name. I guess it probably was painful when he learned what my brother's name is. I'm assuming he knows…knew?...Will know…When you die. That's depressing. Probably not what you need to hear, if you could hear me. But I can't help but think…to me, you and Mira and…and your kid have been dead for centuries before I was even born. I'm pretty sure that makes you more of a ghost than I am. It depends on perspective I think…"
James sighed and rubbed his hands down his face as he glanced at the sun steadily rising.
Anna froze, for a moment thinking the man (though he wasn't much older than her) was reacting to her.
That wasn't the case though.
Jamie took a breath a wiped his eyes before standing up.
Anna followed him inside after a moment of hesitation.
"Please! I'm not going to hurt you," she said just as Mira caught sight of her, eyes widening in terror.
Mira, even in her pain and out- of-it-ness was shocked enough by Anna speaking that she quieted in surprise. She glanced around to see if anyone else could see Anna.
Both of them were quiet as Anna cautiously made her way next to Mira's bedside, opposite of Jamie. The midwife and the other woman (Anna suspected Mira's mother) wrote off Mira's behavior as a symptom of the fever.
Mira eyed Anna like a hawk.
The contractions had paused for the moment.
Jamie and Mira's mother went to the other side of the house to speak with the healer while the midwife ran to fetch more water, after glaring at Jamie and telling the mother to keep an eye on things. The well was just around the corner. She could risk stepping out for a second, even though she knew she really shouldn't.
"Who are you?" whispered Mira in terror, barely understandable in her shaky voice. Her eyes flitted across Anna's bloody charred almost featureless face and eyeless sockets.
"My name…uh…I can't tell you my name…I'm…. well…" Anna whispered unnecessarily. She sighed. "Listen, I know I look awful…but…I'm a good…uh…spirit. A good spirit."
"Then why do you look so…"
"…Frightening?"
Mira nodded.
"Nevermind that," Anna said softly and gave the kindest smile she could with bloody teeth.
Mira didn't look too convinced. The poor young woman look pale, ill, and horrified, adding years to her face.
"How are you doing?" Anna asked shyly.
Mira forced a weak smile and laid a hand on her stomach. She frowned at the spirit. "Ye..ye have not come to take them from me?"
"No!"
"But Hallow's Eve is tonight."
"What hast that got to do with anything?...Um, wait…Halloween's tonight?" Anna said quickly, mildly noticing that she said "hast."
Mira nodded, casting a glance at her husband and mother who seemed to ignore her muttering. "You're not a Fae come to take my child and replace them with your own?"
"Um…no..." That seemed like a big conclusion to jump to. "I don't have children. I…" her voice trailed off as something hit her, "…I don't think I can have children. Not anymore…So…Um, no changelings."
"You've not come to possess my child?"
That conclusion actually made more sense given their circumstances.
"Nay."
"Then you've come to take my life. You're Death." She winced. The contractions were starting again.
"I don't think so. I'm trying to figure out how to help you. Both of you," Anna said gesturing at Mira's womb.
A tiny bit of pained hope flashed behind Mira's eyes before she groaned and cried out.
Anna swallowed nervously and quickly got out of the way as Mira's mother rushed to her side, and Jamie almost ran into the midwife at the door.
"Shh. Shh. It's alright lass. Jamie, you should…" the midwife started.
"No, let him stay please," Mira begged, gasping. She shouted and groaned, breathing heavily.
James, for one, looked surprisingly stoic for a man witnessing birth.
Anna thought in olden days it was believed to be bad luck and very improper for men to be at the birth.
The midwife, Mistress Ida looked hesitant...before she gave in. She sighed. "Aye. But Healer," she turned to the old man and gave him a meaningful look. "Stay by the door."
He looked defeated and knowingly sad before nodded and going outside.
Anna hadn't heard them say it outright, but she knew they all thought Mira wasn't strong enough. She saw the look in the midwife's eyes. The woman was concentrating on the baby now. There wasn't anything she could do for Mira besides trying to save her baby.
"I'm going to die aren't I," Mira moaned.
"No, no. You're not," Jamie took her hand. He sounded pleading.
Mira's mother stroked her daughter's hair, her lip trembling.
Anna couldn't stay. The air felt…thick. Like…she could smell the death in the air. Was that possible? Could she feel death? It didn't seem all that ridiculous these days. There was another scent, lighter almost. Fresher. There was life too. She could smell that? Both "smells" were coming from Mira's direction and Anna, for lack of a slightly kinder work, hated it. They clashed in the energy and air in the house. Two contrasting "smells." The Life was smaller but more potent, while the Death seemed sickly and weak, yet suffocating. It was trying to snuff out the Life.
"Please? Stay?"
Anna jumped at looked back a Mira who stared at her with begging eyes.
"Mira? We're right here, dearest…"
Anna looked away in shame and ran out.
The humans who couldn't see her looked up in shock as the door slammed open and closed, making the healer outside yelp.
He stared at the door as it drifted closed. Was there the wind? He could've have sworn the air was still.
Anna dodged him and slipped in the dry dirt. She hit the ground on her side and cried at the sandpaper feel in her burns.
"Damn it…" she breathed. The healer was back to pacing in front of the door, unnoticing.
Anna pulled herself to her feet, rather impressed with her pain tolerance of late. When the Citizens mentioned her getting used to pain, she didn't think this was what they had in mind.
She gingerly pulled herself up on the bench and sat there waiting for Jack to return and hoping James wouldn't stumble out numbly with red eyes and an anguished cry on his tongue.
The noise from inside was good. It meant Mira was fighting.
Anna was dreading silence.
Morning came and went. A small crowd of friends and family gathered outside as the hours dragged on. Anna lost her spot on the bench and settled for sitting cross-legged against the wall, making herself as small as possible.
The crowd grew and shrunk as the day went on. People sometimes caught sight of Anna out the corner of their eyes, and it wasn't long before some people were whispering of a death spirit waiting for a soul to devour.
Anna ignored it. See couldn't keep them from seeing her and most brushed of the slight glance. They were just people who had their reasons and beliefs. She did wish they would be silent. It couldn't be good for those inside to hear those outside gossiping about evil spirits. Mira was stressed enough.
Women hung up bushels of plants on the doorway and off the roof for good luck and fertility and health and things like that, or so Anna heard. None but very few could stay all day. They had the last day of harvest to prepare for. Men and women worked in the fields together gathering the last of the crops.
It wasn't long before Anna could smell cooking.
Mira's labor had already lasted nearly ten hours before Anna realized she could explore the town and see what people used to do for Halloween. Or Samhain as it were.
She didn't stray far, ready to return to Jack's family at a moment. She kept to the shadows to avoid scaring children.
She really wanted to though. She kept getting distracted by how easy it would be to sneak up on a preteen and tap them on the shoulder before disappearing.
Her impulse control of pranking had suffered greatly went she died, even if she hadn't done very many lately. She had other reasons for that.
She did scare a few people. Not outright though. There was no screaming, only light brushes and staring from around a corner that made a few individuals creeped out without them understanding why. She didn't want to cause Mira or her baby any danger, and Anna supposed causing a panic would be bad. It wouldn't be fun for very long.
"I'm telling you, if she has that child it will bring misfortune to us."
Anna stopped and listened to the women gossiping in the shade of a tree on the edge of a row of houses. It was near the old forge where Jack used to work, Anna noticed.
The other women nodded. "A child born on Samhain."
"What will Fennik do?"
Anna had heard the name Fennik before, in passing. She assumed he was the village leader.
"I don't know. But I'm not letting my children anywhere near that creature. Mira is better off dying and taking the child with her rather than risk giving a demon life. Poor child. She should never have fallen for that boy. That family…one misfortune after another. His family is cursed. They shouldn't even be allowed to stay."
Anna clenched her half-skeletal fists and glared at the women. She felt personally insulted. For MANY reasons. One, HALLOWEEN for goodness sake. Two, she was born on Halloween, which had shaped up to be a horribly extraordinary "coincidence." Three, on a strangely deeper level she was incredibly upset anyone would say Mira should give up. The idea caused her such a sharp ache in her chest even as the logical side of her reminded Anna that regardless of what happens today, Mira and James have already been dead for a long time. And James' family wasn't cursed. Jack just made some bad decisions. He was the one being punished. Everything else was just bad things that happen in this world.
Her throat caught as she remembered something horrible. She forgot to check, but that last day of her life she remembered Chelsea saying children born on Halloween were sacrificed for being demons.
For someone obsessed with her Holiday birthday, Anna actually didn't know if that was true. She supposed that child and family would be seen differently, maybe feared and ostracized depended on just how strong the belief was. Killed? She didn't know.
Jack wouldn't let that happen right?
Anna shook her head. She opened her eyes and noticed something skittering through the leaves close to her bare foot.
"Hello there," she murmured sweetly and picked up the little creature.
The women were still talking, and in their usual unaware-human fashion, they couldn't notice the smirking glint in Anna's eye sockets.
"Want to help me with something little guy?" Anna snickered.
She liked to imagine the spider was more than willing, having remembered one time when Mira found him in her windowsill and gently gave him a new home in a nearby log rather than kill him.
Anna put the spider in the right spot and leaned down, preparing her voice for a slight change.
"Excuse me ladies, but could you please take your conversation somewhere else?"
A moment later two ear-splitting shrieks echoed through the hill as two women in their late twenties ran down the hill, grabbing their very confused children along the way to run away from a spider that swung into their faces and spoke. They screamed about demons the whole way.
Anna chortled as she calmly walked back to the main part of the village, thanking the spider out of polite habit that Halloween rubbed off on her. Her smile was suddenly wiped.
Sunset.
She couldn't help the suddenly light feeling in her bones as the last light of the day disappeared beyond the westernmost hill. Earlier, she had caught sight of a large bonfire being built in an empty field on the other side of the village. As she slowed to her walk, she noticed turnips in the windows and candles being lit, and a trickle of villagers making their way to the unlit bonfire in the distance.
There was a bubble in her heart, and a huge smile broke out on her face.
"Halloween…" she breathed. This feeling…she couldn't adequately describe. It was like pure fear but mixed with awed joy. If she had a better frame of reference for fear, she might have said it was like the terror and excitement of riding a roller coaster for the first time, terrified yet knowing you were safe. Almost.
Someone brushed by her and she jumped, an apology for standing in the way on the tip of her tongue.
She and the other person froze upon realizing they touched each other.
They each got a good look at each other and Anna realized he didn't have an oddly low set mouth, but a gaping slit throat.
He glared at her but said nothing and faded into mist, though she could still see him.
She shook her head at the ghostly encounter and stepped back.
The village suddenly seemed just a little more populated than earlier in the day. She could have sworn she saw a couple familiar shapes in the shadows, but it seemed whatever monsters may be visiting from the dark didn't let themselves socialize with ghosts.
If, and it was big if, but if they just happened to be some of the same citizens she knew, they wouldn't recognize her anyway. She didn't know everyone yet anyway.
Still, most creatures acknowledged her presence with sideways glances and slight curiosity.
She didn't understand why, but when she tried to meet a ghost's eyes, they looked afraid and were quick to get out of her sight. Then there were others.
They…scared her. They had this…defiant sort of look and stared her down like she was prey of some sort.
She was too inexperienced to realize just what they were sensing from her. It was a different kind of power than what the spirits usually expected from a soul. She was stronger than most of them somehow, but it was evident she didn't know this.
The best way to explain it would be that all human souls are lights of different brightness, but Anna's was a different color and very bright.
Most of these ghosts were dangerous. She knew that. Somehow.
She heard a scream.
Anna forgot about the ghostly stares and the slinking shadows immediately and ran toward James and Mira's house, silently cursing herself for wandering so far away.
That sublime feeling of Halloween disappeared when she saw the crowd that had gathered around the front door. Apparently, the Samhain festival wasn't really all that important to some people.
The door was closed, but there were too many people to secretly push through anyway. Without even thinking, Anna sunk into the ground as a shadow and darted under dozens of feet and the doorway. She materialized on the other side, breathing heavy in shock as she realized that she had figured out Fading again.
She shook it off and looked at the small group.
The baby wasn't born yet.
Anna froze. "Mira…"
"Mira," James begged, sobbing into his wife's limp arm. "Please…"
"We need to get the baby out now," the midwife said sternly. "James, we need to save your child now. Let her go."
James fell back on his heels, an empty look in his eyes, and nodded numbly.
Anna felt sick.
"She's not gone yet."
Anna jumped and screamed in shock as she spun around in fear at the voice.
A woman stood in the doorway staring right at the girl. She was tall, but not as tall as Anna. She had a thin frame and a young face, childlike almost, but her hair was silver and her eyes ancient. She stood straight like a soldier, one hand hidden in her gray cloak and the other crossed across her middle as if it was broken, though it obviously wasn't.
Anna swallowed, teeth clenched and whatever skin she had left crawling as she felt a chill. "Are you Death?"
"An Angel of Death. You might call me a Reaper." The lady spoke every word with a slight level of finality, as if any word she spoke could be the last Anna heard.
"Reaper…" Anna whispered. "Grim Reaper?"
"One." The lady nodded stiffly, her gray robes swaying as she moved around Anna away from the door.
The teenager didn't know what she was thinking, but she immediately put herself between the Reaper and the humans.
The Reaper smiled in sharp kindness and slight amusement but didn't continue forward. "What bravery. We don't have time for small talk, dearest light. Don't bother introducing yourself, Annalise."
Anna didn't say anything.
"Do you recognize me Annalise?" the Reaper.
"Should I?"
"No." the gray lady smiled again, "None of my charges remember me."
Anna stiffened.
"You're such an intelligent light," the Reaper said, "Surely, I needn't explain?"
"You…You took my life…"
"No. I guided your soul where you needed to go. You're a long way from home, light."
The Lady came closer and raised her hand, the turmoil in the room a world away. Time slowed down.
Anna glanced at the humans in the room who were suddenly statues. "What did you do?" She turned back to the Reaper, her Reaper apparently, and jerked back at finding the Lady's hand touching her cheek.
She couldn't move as the Angel of Death inspected her.
"Hmm," she hummed, "I simply gave us a little more time, light." She turned the terrified Anna's face to the side gently. "Mira isn't dead yet. Simply unconscious, but she only has a few minutes. Her breath is so shallow they may think her dead. In a moment, they will find that isn't quite the case yet. But the baby's fate still hangs in the balance." She locked eyes with Anna. "My name is Chakis by the way."
"H..hello Ms. Chakis," Anna squeaked. "Can you please let me move now?" She whispered her words with barely a breath on her lips in terror.
Whatever held her still released her and Anna relaxed a little, though Chakis still held her face.
"I am sorry about these," the Reaper murmured, touching a burn with a thumb and making Anna wince. "They're a reminder that you aren't in your own time. I could take them away, but you would lose yourself in this time without the pain of your past and the future anchoring you."
"Then I'd like to take a complaint to your manager," Anna quipped nervously, half expected lightning to strike her down.
Chakis laughed lightly and dropped her hand. "The world works the way it's supposed to. Even the functions of the least experienced situations. Such as this, light."
Anna decided not to ask about the funny nickname. Light.
She swallowed again, "Why did you bring me here?"
"What makes you think I brought you?"
Anna was silent.
"Hmph. Well, you are partly right, light. I did help bring you. We knew Jack needed some help telling you your story. He's not the best at explaining at times. I'm sure this wasn't the help he was expecting."
"My story?"
"Yours and Jack's"
"Both of us? Why would we have one story?"
"Ah. You certainly know how to ask the right questions, dear light."
Chakis took Anna's hand before the girl could retort and smiled. "Annalise, you'll find what I mean soon. Very soon. But I'm showing myself to you for one reason."
Anna frowned, still frazzled but present enough to listen carefully.
"I'm here to tell you that whatever happens next would happen whether you were here or not. We…I brought you here that you may understand, not have a chance to change the past. You can't blame yourself, and no matter how unfair things may seem to you, please remember that forgiveness will always be there."
Anna opened her mouth in confusion at the cryptic advice, "What are you…"
"It will not be an easy choice, but it's one you'll make because it's who you are."
Anna wasn't given a chance to ask what any of that meant because at that moment Chakis let go of her hand and time resumed as normal.
Annalise jumped at the noise that filled the heavy silence of the room. She felt so…weak all the sudden.
Chakis smoothly walked around the dumbstruck and confused Anna to stand at attention at the foot of the bed. She watched the midwife call the doctor and James attempt to wake his wife so that she could finish giving birth.
The Angel of Death locked eyes with Anna after a couple seconds.
"Time is running short for a soul in this town. I have a duty to attend to."
"Please," Anna begged, voice tight, "Don't…"
Chakis glared at Anna, silently daring her to oppose Death.
The air was suddenly thick with the suffocating "smell" of death growing stronger and intense, pressing against Annalise.
Anna moved automatically, stumbling backward, eyes wide. She Faded into an inky shadow on the ground and darted outside.
She zipped around the village in a random direction for a moment.
WHAT DO I DO!? I need to help Mira. Wake her up or something? Or keep the Reaper away!
That's it. I could sense it. I'm not strong enough to keep Chakis away from Mira and baby. She just sapped away whatever strength I have as a ghost or spirit or whatever.
But Jack…
Jack is a strong spirit. Monster. He's a strong monster. He could keep Chakis away. Then what? I don't know! But it might give us time. I can go back to sleep, or wake up, and look for some kind of healing spell in the witches' shop. Maybe that spell I heard that they put on the fountain water in town. That could help Mira. I don't know how to use magic or spells but…I have to figure it out. I have to.
I can't just let Mira or the kid die.
The Reaper said I can't change the past. But I'm here, and Mira and the baby aren't dead yet. Maybe the past is that they don't die here and now.
Jack. Where the heck is…
The black shadow formed into the shape of a thin skeleton figure with a long spiky coat and short spiky uneven hair on the side of a cottage wall facing the woods.
The round eyes of the shadow could see the vague shape of two figures on a hill on the edge of town.
It was the same hill Anna and Jack had seen a demon standing on what seemed like ages ago.
After a long, hesitant pause the two-dimensional Anna sunk to the dry grass and slithered up along the hill from a direction Jack and the other figure couldn't see her.
They seemed to be arguing.
Apparently, she didn't miss most of the conversation.
"I've waited all day for ye," Jack snarled, his voice threatening and defiant. "Here I thought ye were looking for me."
The other man's smile widened even as his eyes narrowed. "I'm little too busy to be catering to your whims, Jack."
Anna reformed behind a tree nearby and turned her head to listen in worry.
This other man was a demon. She knew it.
She wanted to go out and stand next to Jack, pulling him away from the man. Mira needed him!
This demon…Anna didn't know what he was doing here. She had never seen a demon herself before, besides those visions of Jack tricking the Devil so long ago. This wasn't the same man that Lucifer took the form of.
Part of her was thankful for that.
She didn't jump out and drag Jack away for the simple fact that she was too terrified to show herself.
Even now she was close to crying. She just wanted to run away. That aura of evil around that creature was just so was scared. And she couldn't even hate herself for being so scared.
But she couldn't leave. She just…
She was strong enough to refuse to leave Jack, even if she couldn't stand by him.
What did she owe him anyway?
The demon spoke again, and it took everything Anna had not to tremble.
She gripped her nails into the tree behind her and tried closed her bloody sockets, holding her breath.
"I'm merely curious," the man said flippantly.
"About what, you stain?" Jack said sternly.
"Word is…" the man started to walk calmly, gently circling Jack. "That you're looking to beg like a dog. Again. Pathetic really. I've been staying nearby to see if this was the case."
"Where did you hear this?" Jack chuckled drily.
"Oh, so you're not willing to bargain for a couple of lives?"
"…" Jack stiffened.
"We've kept tabs on you, little Jack," the demon sneered, "Tends to happen when you insult the power of Lucifer like an insolent maggot. When we heard your son got married? Well, I couldn't resist the chance to make your existence a little more unbearable."
"Thou made Mira ill?"
The man gasped in mocked horror. "Me? I'm flattered, Jack Smith. Sometimes these things just…happen."
Anna frowned but didn't move from her spot.
"But seeing her get so ill while pregnant with your grandchild? Well, that's just an opportunity we couldn't pass up. And we knew you would come back here eventually."
Jack moved toward him but froze when the demon raised his finger.
"Hold on Jack. I'm here to help. You see… we demons? We're not the villains here. Heaven's the one that has a quota of souls to meet per day."
"What?" Jack hissed.
The demon continued, waving off Jack's interruption. "Someone has to die today. It will either Mira or the kiddy." He smirked at Jack.
Anna's eyes widened, and she clamped a hand over her mouth to keep from breathing too loud. She didn't need to breathe!
Jack was silent as the man continued to talk.
"But it isn't all bad Jack. See, I'm here to tell you that you get to choose."
Jack looked horrified and backed up. "What?"
What? Anna carefully poked her head around the tree to stare in horror, careful to keep herself out of sight.
"So," the man smirked triumphantly. "Who'll will it be, Jack? Surely you know just how much the death of a child can destroy a father. Would you put your son through that? Then again, Jamie really loves that lady of his. If she dies, he might spend the rest of his life blaming his kid for her death."
Jack glared, "I don't get to choose who lives and who dies. Neither do you."
The man shrugged up at the taller skeleton. "Ironic that you say that. Murder seems to do the trick. I'll put it this way. If you let that nice "Father" up there make the decision, then we'll get involved." His smile took on a manic look. "And that entire town down there won't last past morning."
Jack looked sick.
"Oh, come now. What's one more life on your hands versus a hundred? It'll be just like the old days."
Jack clenched his fists but otherwise refused to react. This being before him wasn't worth it.
"I have all night to get the job done, Jack. But you don't. In other words, Mira's barely holding on as it is. Can't you feel it? Someone's about to join us on this side."
Anna could feel it too, she had all day. But now there was a Reaper in the room with James and Mira and the baby.
"Going…."
The timing was spot on. Anna could feel the air shift. The men could feel it too.
"Going…"
It was like a rubber band about to snap. Anna could almost see Chakis reach her hand out toward Mira.
"Gon-."
"Cease this."
Chakis stopped and raised her head, looking out the window toward them. Waiting. But she couldn't wait long.
Somehow, that disgusting smile on the demon's twisted maw got wider. "Oh? Made a decision, have we?"
Jake refused to give the spirit the satisfaction of begging. "Ye say Heaven wants a soul tonight, correct? Does that soul need to go to Heaven?"
"Not necessarily."
"Then take me."
There was silence for a long moment.
Anna cocked her head at a strange wheezing sound.
Laughter. Sick. Hysterical laughter.
"You!?" the demon roared in laughter, "You? YOU'RE WORTHLESS!"
He reached up as far as his physical human shape allowed, grabbed Jack, and threw him to the side with a disproportionate amount of strength.
Jack didn't fight back.
Anna winced at the clatter of bones as Jack fell into her line of sight.
Jack groaned and coughed at the impact. He propped himself on his elbows in the dirt and looked up.
He and Anna locked eyes.
The girl looked so scared that Jack didn't dare reveal to the demon that she was hiding behind the tree.
He tried his best to give her an assuring grin and turned around quickly to pick himself up.
"Be careful…" Anna murmured under her breath.
The demon kept ranting, throwing his arms about almost comically in his rage. "You really think your soul has any value after you insulted Lucifer? Your bones are worth more rotting out here than any feeble light you have left in you!"
Jack didn't know what to do. He had nothing else to offer for Mira or his grandchild.
The demon finally caught his breath, and the air rattled with the occasional giggles.
"Oh my. The idiocy. The arrogance!"
"Please…"
The demon froze. "What was that?"
Jack swallowed his pride. He begged. "Please."
"Heh. Please what?"
Jack stared down the demon pleadingly, acutely of the spirit girl behind him watching in horror. He was disgusted that he was allowing her to see him stoop so low. She shouldn't be there.
He hesitantly lowered himself until he was kneeling, the dirt getting in between his joints. He stared at the ground before raising his eyes just enough to catch sight of the Samhain Bonfire flickering in the distance.
The flames reminded him of that one last selfless act he did with his life. He saved his son.
He had to do whatever he could to save his children. James and his family were all that was left of his heart.
"There must be something I can do. They both…I..I can't take any more lives." He stopped himself and squeezed his eye sockets shut, tensing at what he was about to say. "I can't take theirs."
The demon paused mockingly in consideration.
"…Weeell…" the demon started with a too kindly understanding tone in his voice. "There is another option." He sounded incredibly pleased.
"What…"
"Heaven wants a soul, and they'll get one one way or another. And you are going to have to choose, I'll make sure of it, but…it doesn't necessarily have to be one of them specifically."
Jack swallowed.
"Hmm. Well the rules are a little complicated, so I won't bore you, but basically, what I heard was that someone in your family has to die tonight."
"But…" Jack's soul sank in his ribcage. "There's no one else."
"Buh buh buh! Don't interrupt, pet."
God. Anna hated this guy's smirk. She wanted to strangle him so badly.
Where are ropes when she needs them?!
"There's no one else in your family yet."
Jack seemed confused.
Anna was too. But it wasn't like she was about to ask for clarification hiding behind a tree.
Luckily (if she could think about it as "lucky") the demon explained.
"Time is very relative to humans, and, to an extent, us as well. But many centuries from now, you're going to have a lot of family members. Lots and lots of descendants really, if your bloodline doesn't get cut off prematurely that is. Like tonight."
Anna felt like she was this close to punching that smugness off that demon's nasty mug. She was already dead, but she wasn't sure what else a demon could do to her. Maybe she didn't want to find out.
Jack stared at him, his emotions flitting across his face. Worry. Guilt. Curiosity. Determination.
"Think of it like a debt. I'm sure you're familiar which those. The life will just be paid back later with one of your descendant plus a little more," the demon sighed dramatically, "Yes, you are still essentially dooming someone to a truly horrible death, but at least it won't be someone you know personally. Rather a good trade-off I believe."
"Yes."
The demon looked surprised but grinned. "What? You haven't even heard the whole deal. They're still your blood. Your grandchild? Not immediate. There will be many generations between you, but still. Are you sure?"
Jack stared at him stoically, refusing to let himself back out for James sake. He thought of his son and what he was willing to do for his family.
The pieces clicked together, and Anna suddenly felt incredibly…sick…
How comfortable she was around Jack Skellington.
Why he always avoiding her.
Why he was apologetic when he said, "You shouldn't be here."
Why she was so defensive of Mira and James' family.
Why she freaking looked like him.
No…
Please…no…
Please. Please say no, Jack.
"…Yes."