Hi everyone! I'm so sorry that I didn't keep up with the Halloween updates and that I haven't posted in more than two weeks. School has been ridiculous and Halloween doesn't count as a school free holiday. Plus a lot of midterm are schedule around Halloween. Talk about scary.
Anywho. It's three o'clock in the morning and I'm worried about an art project that's due at nine, so I'm just going to post this, reread it in a couple days and probably realize a huge mistake or two and then rewrite. Until then, I hope this chapter is at least somewhat coherent. Sorry if it isn't. I think I rambled a bit.
Chapter 32
Silhouettes
Less than three miles away, Anna dropped to the ground and walked alone down a street that was once familiar.
It took way too long to lose her "chaperone." Chaperones, plural, if you counted Zero and Jasper.
Sweet Water was nice enough, but the Governor and Chief wanted her to stay with him so she wouldn't accidentally sabotage their holiday.
There were more reasons of course: keep her from interacting with her family, make it easy for Jack to find her, etcetera.
But she knew she had to lose him the second a human (or something that looked like a human) glanced at her and the Thanksgiving Citizen, then pretended not to see them.
He seemed innocent enough, an old man sitting in a rocking chair on his porch in a house near the woods.
Sweet Water had even assured Anna that he couldn't see them if they didn't draw attention to themselves.
Anna knew that already.
But Sweet Water hadn't seen the glance. Nor did he recognize that intense…darkness she could sense from just looking at the man.
Anna couldn't really explain it any better than if she tried to tell how she could sense the demon in her "dreams." Visions. Whatever. She didn't have enough information to analyze why she seemed to have some of the abilities she did, so why waste the effort.
The skeleton walked on the sidewalk, sticking to the shadows as best she could force herself. She came to a crossroads and paused. Something itched in the back of her head, and she felt something off when she looked down one way.
She went the opposite direction. Another detour. She didn't care about following Sweet Water around while he did his job bringing Human's their thanks. Granted, she was very curious as to how Holidays did what they did, but every moment spent without her family was wasted time. Plus, she didn't want to put the kind spirit in danger.
"What are you thinking, girl?" Jasper said.
Anna jumped and looked up at the top of the stone wall she was walking by.
About time he showed up.
Anna didn't take the time to warn Zero and Jasper that she was running off. She had merely slipped out of their line of sight into the shadows.
Sweet Water had turned a corner, and Anna suddenly wasn't there.
The animals were just as shocked as Halloween citizens can be. For a moment at least.
"I didn't realize you were still following me. I thought you ran off to explore," she said. "Surely you wouldn't care about us being separated."
She eyed the cat.
He was too calm. He must have just found her. Which meant he didn't know she was avoiding something.
The cat yawned and stretched, his claws scratching quietly against the stone.
For a moment, Anna's nervousness tempted her to grab the cat and keep moving. Staying in one place was making that fear bubble up. It was reaching panic if she didn't find someplace safe soon.
But that was childish. She needed to stay in control.
Jasper looked down to Anna's side as Zero caught up, done being distracted by the smell in a nearby trashcan.
"I've seen the Real World before. Rather unimpressed. It's so dull much of the year," the cat purred. "As for keeping an eye on you? Your rather brash and annoying behavior is making me curious."
"Curiosity killed the cat," Anna said pointedly.
"But satisfaction brought it back," Jasper quipped, "I speak from experience.
"Besides, it will be Helga, not curiosity, that kills me should your idiocy land you in danger. Is sight-seeing this town of yours really so intriguing? Towns like these are a dime a dozen. Familiarity leads to carelessness and if you're seen by humans—heh. I'm sure your imagination can fill in the rest."
Anna frowned. She glanced down at the concrete beneath her feet and ran her fingers over the cracks in the wall.
"It's strange…everything looks familiar…" Her sockets looked up at the leafless branches above her, "But there's this…air…I don't know how to explain it. It's like I've never been here before. Like all my memories of home were only ever…pictures. Photographs. Flat images."
Zero whined and nudged her hand.
Anna shook her head, clearing the disturbed look in her sockets and started walking again. The itch was back, and she couldn't tell what direction it was coming from.
"You have an interesting way with words."
"I'm good with words."
"Could have fooled me these last few weeks."
"This is Ross Street," she muttered, ignoring him, "The woods are behind me, and I've probably already passed the school so if I just keep going until…"
"You are aware of where we are, correct?" Jasper asked, leaping down from the wall.
"Yeah."
"Then why aren't we at your house yet?" the cat said. "Surely you know the quickest way."
"I'm working on it…"
"You're lost."
"Leave her alone, cat," Zero growled. He could hear something in Anna's voice. Dread.
"I said I'm working on it," Anna hissed, her voice taking on a snake-like tone. "I know what I'm doing."
The witch's familiar tsked with a strange clicking noise only a cat could manage, but he walked without a word after that, slinking through the nearby grass and flower beds, pretending to hunt an invisible bug or mouse.
Both animals eyed Anna in slight annoyance as she muttered to herself. She was too far into the open. Some human could look out their window and see her if she was too obvious.
The "corner of the eye/almost invisible" thing was fickle. Admittedly, they were even more hidden from humanity since it wasn't Halloween and the veil between worlds was a thick as a typical day, but who would want to risk something like that?
In contrast, Anna was a little fearful of the shadows herself, half expecting something to reach out and grab her. She straddled them, a little more afraid of the dark than the possibility of a human seeing her.
She wasn't convinced the shadows could protect her from what she really feared. At least not for long. Part of her was reminded that it was strange that she even saw shadows as protective. Must be a Halloween thing.
Zero was nervous. He wanted Jasper to tell Anna to hide better, but the cat wasn't concerned enough. That left the dog to try nudging a jittery skeleton into the shadows himself while keeping an eye out.
They were getting dangerously close to the downtown area. That wouldn't do. There were always humans walking about the public streets. Anna was safer in the neighborhoods.
She would know this if someone actually taught her that.
But they kept going.
Anna was trying to figure out how to get to the other side of Main Street without being seen.
Or caught.
That was something else proper training could have been used for. It wasn't like she could use a crosswalk.
The lights got gradually brighter, and the noise of cars got louder.
But there were still no humans. Yet.
Zero's ears perked and Jasper's ears went back.
Anna yelped as Zero grabbed her by the coat and yanked her into an alley.
"Zero! What are you…" she shut up as Zero growled, his voice muffled through the coat fabric in his mouth.
Human voices reached her hearing, and she sobered, pressing her thin body against the brick building silently.
Déjà vu.
The two male silhouettes paused in front of the alley entrance for a moment, spoke for a second, then simply moved on. One of them laughed at something said while the other sounded frustrated. It was a strangely human interaction. The normalness made her shudder.
Anna waited until she couldn't hear them anymore and slunk out of the alley.
She glanced down the street. She should have been paying better attention.
Zero held her coat a moment longer.
He stopped, Jack O' Lantern nose twitching, and stared down the street in the direction the two men went.
"What is it, boy?" Anna whispered, crouching down and stifling her shaking breath.
Zero raised his misty hackles a little and made a strange noise.
"He says we have to keep moving. It isn't safe here," Jasper translated, eyeing the skeleton.
Anna shrugged. "I don't know what you two seem so worried about," she blatantly lied, letting confusion at Zero and Jasper's actions leak into her voice. "You don't need to be so scared of a couple humans, Zero. I'll just be more cautious, alright?"
Her feigned ignorance did nothing to ease the dog. They didn't know about the demons, and she wasn't sure she wanted to tell them. Those creatures were only after her, so far, and she wasn't looking toward to inevitable questions that would come if she opened that can of worms by telling the cat and dog.
Zero didn't respond but followed behind Anna keeping his hackles raised until that smell had faded behind them. But it didn't go away, not entirely. That was the most concerning.
Jasper followed, eyes narrowed and cautious. He had smelled the same thing Zero had before those men appeared.
That corrupted nightmare that attacked them in the Hinterlands smelled similar.
The sharp tang that reminded him of rotten eggs tickled a memory, one distant and in broken, misty pieces. The cat sorted through them, ignoring the flashes of a life he didn't care to remember and focused on that smell. He knew that smell. The nostalgia had bothered him since the smoke thing in the Hinterlands, but it was easy to put in the back of his mind at the time.
Anna and Zero were acting strange, like they each knew something, but weren't telling.
The skeleton started to calm down the farther she got from those two silhouetted figures.
Anna's mind raced. "I'm still new to this. Being a monster. "Sensing" strange things. But I remember what demons feel like. I sensed them the moment we got here. I don't know how. Somehow…they know I'm here. But I should thank Zero. We would have gotten caught that last time if he hadn't pulled me back."
She was doing a good job so far, but her chest was starting to hurt. Her heart that she knew didn't really exist was beating so hard she feared it would come flying out, cracking her ribs as it went. She breathed. She clenched her fists. She did anything she could to stay in control.
She wanted to curl into a ball and cry as the fear clawed at her sanity once again and it took everything just to stare ahead.
She was scared. Terrified even. Facing demons in her dreams were one thing, this was very different. Yet at the same time, it wasn't.
She remembered that horrible dark feeling on the hill in her dream—her vision. The demon, he didn't seem very surprised that she was there in the past. If anything, he was maybe…amused…
In the back of her head, she wondered if Chakis would do anything.
Anna shook her head. She didn't understand that creature, but Anna figured the Reaper wasn't the type to help, just react and do her job, which Anna wasn't too keen on her doing.
On second thought, maybe wishing Chakis was around was a terrible idea.
In that case, what could Anna do? Getting to her house wouldn't change anything. They would still be looking for her. She needed some way to fend them off.
But what?
Jasper held his tongue while Anna corrected her path at least twice more.
When he finally spoke, he kept his voice low and sultry as usual, but with a sharp edge to it.
"Do either of you two happen to know why we keep almost running into demons?" he spoke almost carelessly.
Anna tripped a bit, and Zero froze in the air.
Jasper sneered, "I seriously doubt Zero knows what's chasing us, only that they smell the same as that smoke thing that attacked us, but you…" The cat glared at Anna, "How have you any reason to be aware of demons, let alone recognize their energy enough to sense them? I never heard Helgamine nor Zeldabourne explain them to you." He paused, dropping his voice a bit. "How would that conversation come about anyway?"
Zero, surprised to learn the nature of what was worrying him, whined and stared at the witch's cat and the skeleton girl.
Anna didn't answer for a long moment. "It's a long story…"
The cat scaled a low tree branch.
Anna jerked back to find him glaring at her, eye to eye-socket.
Anna clamped her mouth shut and stared straight into his large blue eyes.
It was quiet, the only sound the faint rustle of leaves.
Finally, Jasper growled and rolled his blue orbs. "Where's the nearest church?"
"W-what?" Anna blinked at Jasper's apparently random question.
"The nearest church. Catholic preferably."
"It's…" Anna paused, "Why?"
"Just answer the question."
"Down Main Street, past the courthouse, and up Mulberry Drive."
"How long would it take us to get there?"
"Thirty-minute walk…"
"So three minutes with your fumbling about if we didn't have to worry about obstacles," the cat mused. "What about your house?"
"Closer."
The cat made a face, "Does your house have salt?"
Anna pursed her lips at him as she connected the pieces, "That actually works?"
"Against demons? Yes."
Zero growled.
"And ghosts so I was trying to avoid that."
Anna frowned, a little bit of fear replaced by hope. Maybe?
"Let's move along," Jasper snapped, his tail flicking as he jumped down.
Zero nodded firmly, for once agreeing with the cat.
"Wait…"
The animals stopped and looked back at the girl.
"You're…not going to…press for answers?" Anna said, clicking her teeth.
Jasper just purred. "Lies are complicated webs to weave. They're so exhausting to keep up. I'll just wait until the spider tires. Or wishes to play the game properly."
Anna frowned. There seemed to be a lot of spiders in this story. Liars, that is. Or at least secret keepers.
Zero silently floated closer to Anna and remained even more vigilant.
"Which way?" Jasper demanded.
Anna stepped over the black cat to put herself in the lead.
"We can try cutting through the park."
"Sounds good to me..." Zero couldn't smell anything wrong in the direction Anna indicated, but it wasn't like being a ghost gave him super senses, just supernatural senses perhaps.
Anna forced a smile at Zero's soft bark and ruffled his ears.
She stared down at the cat for a moment.
"What game?"
"That's up to you."
Anna rolled her eyes at the cryptic response and huffed. She stopped at a wooden gate to an enclosed backyard.
"We can pass through here," she said, reaching her long arm over the gate to unlatch it.
The three of them slipped into the backyard.
With an electric crackle, floodlights flipped on, and the back door slammed open.
An older woman with impressively thick grey hair glared out at her backyard and bellowed loud enough to rattle the weak glass window panes of her small wooden garden shed. "ALRIGHT THOMAS MCCREERY! GIT YERSELF AND YOUR LITTLE FRIENDS OFF MY PROPERTY BEFORE I CALL YOUR MOTHER, YOUNG MAN!"
The empty back lawn and garden were silent.
"DON'T TRY TO HIDE YOU LITTLE HELLION! I KNOW A HEARD THAT GATE OPEN!"
Nothing.
The woman waited a hot minute before turning to go back inside with a suspicious squint.
A small noise made her freeze.
A sneeze.
With fire in her step, the homeowner turned on her heel and marched right up to the garden shed.
"THOMAS! ANSWER ME RIGHT NOW!"
Nothing.
The woman frowned. Usually, Thomas would have come out by now. The woman showed a flash of hesitation as she reached out her hand.
She barely cracked open the shed before there was a metallic crash and a black cat streaked past her feet, disappearing into the shadows.
She screamed, stomping her feet at the cat. When it was gone, she swore, signed a cross over her chest, and shut the splintery shed door before going back inside.
Jasper waited until she was gone to return to the terrible smelling wooden box. The thick scent of garden chemicals and paint burned his nose.
Anna poked her skull out like the shed was an old coffin, eyeing the back porch.
"That was too-." Jasper sneezed again, his small cat nose making an adorable sound.
"Too close? You're the one who sneezed," Anna pointed out.
Zero sneezed too, flying forward and knocking into a small pile of cans.
Anna froze at the noise, but the back door didn't open.
The dog whined.
"Aren't I supposed to be the amateur?" Anna complained.
"Oh hush."
Anna squinted at Jasper as she completely lowered herself off the shelving. "Well, I—" She froze. "Get inside."
Jasper didn't hesitate at her tone and slipped inside the small shed as Anna clicked the door close.
That itch was back. It felt different, she wasn't sure how, but she couldn't afford to dwell on the slightly different feeling.
"This is boring! Where're all the decorations? The haunted houses?!"
"The candy," Barrel muttered dejectedly.
"Shut up," Shock snapped at Lock and Barrel."
"You shut up," Lock bit back, sneering at Shock behind his mask, "It was your dumb idea to follow Jack."
Shock made weird noises to mock her brother but didn't actually respond.
"And you took all my candy…" Barrel added.
"Just the hard ones!" Shock snapped. "It was for a good, bad cause!" she argued. "And you got to lick them all anyway."
"Yeah, what was that about?!" Lock added.
"Hey, you licked some of them too!"
Nonstop Tricks get a little tiring when you're not getting any Treats at all for your efforts.
"This is boring," Lock repeated, offhandedly tossing a strip of toilet paper at a sad looking bush. He glanced down at the empty cardboard roll for a moment before shrugging and throwing it over his shoulder into the street.
"I wanna go home," Barrel muttered. He stopped as something occurred to him, "Hey guys? How are we gonna get home?"
"Through the Turkey freaks' portal a'course," Shock said like it was obvious.
"…but…when do you think it closes?"
They stared at each other.
Lock stuttered, "Wh-whatever, Jack and the other stupids aren't going home until they find that jerk."
"What if they already found her…"
"Then…" the Halloween-demon boy trailed off.
"Hey! You what are you three doing out here?"
Lock, Shock, and Barrel's pupils shrank at the bright light directed on them, and their heads turned toward the police officer.
Barrels head twisted around like an owl to an unnatural degree with a sharp crack.
The policeman screamed. He stepped backward too fast and tripped, dropping his flashlight.
He groaned and blinked.
"Ow."
What did he just see? The police officer shook his head and picked up his flashlight. Wait. Where was he?
It flickered wildly, so he smacked it a few times.
"Alright, you kids-.
Where did they go?
He swung his flashlight down the street. Nothing. Not even the fading sound of footsteps.
A chill ran down his spine.
"H-hey! Y-your parents are probably worried sick! Come out."
There wasn't anywhere to hide.
A cold breath brushed against his neck, and a terrible sweet smell like decay wafted past him. The hairs on the back of the man's neck stood up.
He froze.
A leaf crunched behind him, and he twisted around, holding his flashlight like a weapon.
"SHI-!" Some part of his mind reminded him that there were just children here. Why should he reach for his gun?
The last he saw before his mind was enveloped in blackness were three horrible faces with sharp teeth and awful expressions. He could have sworn he saw bleeding eyes.
Jasper, Zero, and Anna jumped at the sound of a man's shrill scream.
Anna knocked a clay pot off the shelf with a slight swing of her arm. She instinctively flicked her wrist and caught it with a loose piece of rope that whipped out from its coil sitting on the shelf underneath. The magicked yellow polypropylene rope hovered in the air for a moment before the pot slipped out and shattered on the concrete.
The scream cut off abruptly, and the inside of the shed suddenly seemed a million times colder.
Anna's hand hurriedly reached for the latch.
"Anna, stop!" Jasper hissed.
"But someone….that scream!"
"And what would you do?! Look at your hand, girl!"
Anna looked down. Her hands were trembling enough to make chattering teeth seem gentle, and she couldn't even grasp the latch. Her bones knocked against the metal.
She stepped back, almost tripping on a rake and sat on the floor.
"Anna, what are you…" Jasper whispered harshly.
He shut up as Anna moaned and curled into her herself, drawing her lengthy legs up and covering her head with her hand. Her fingers weaved into her messy hair.
Her whole body was shaking.
Zero nudged her elbow.
"It's them," she whispered, "It's them. It's them. They're here."
"Anna calm down."
"I…I can't. I can't calm down," she panicked, grey tinted tears leaking out her black-hole like sockets. Her whole body felt like chattering teeth on a cold winter night. "I-Is it the demons?!"
She tried. She really tried to control her emotions. But she had been running around for hours terrified of turning corners. She had no idea what that scream could've been, but the paranoia found a chink in the armor and went for it without hesitation.
"I…I don't know," Jasper admitted, his ears falling back as he watched the skeleton lose it. "I can't smell anything with all this weed killer and paint in here."
Zero was starting to panic too. He licked Anna's hand, trying to distract her.
But she could only stare at the thin sliver of moonlight that snuck under the shed door. She stared with wide sockets and quick breathing.
"Anna, you have to pull yourself together," Jasper ordered, "We don't know if that was a demon."
"They're too close…" Anna whispered frantically.
"Anna…"
"They're coming for me," Anna whimpered, completely forgetting her surroundings. Her ramblings barely sounded like her at all.
It's was her mimicry, Jasper was sure. She sounded like several people whispering at once. Her voice was in there somewhere but overlapped by at least two others.
He didn't recognize the voices, and as far as he knew she could only mimic people she had heard before. One seemed old and very monotone, while the other strong one was young and female with an Irish accent.
"Demons can't take souls unless the soul is given to them!" Jasper snapped, "Now be quiet! Please! You'll get us caught."
Anna curled her skeletal hands into fists and pressed them against her sockets, almost shoving them in. She sobbed harder.
Jasper was getting frustrated with her, though he knew he deserved a kick in the head for thinking that. But he was getting desperate too.
"I shouldn't have come here. I should never have left!"
"Annalise Grisholme!" Jasper jumped into her lap and swiped a paw at her face.
Zero ducked behind Anna and stared at the cat from under Anna's arm.
Anna blinked at him, breathing heavily.
"I can't pretend to understand all of what's happening! But if you don't calm down right now, we will be caught by whatever caused that scream just now! So you can either calm down or possibly die like a dog—offense intended Zero—because you couldn't bring yourself to even stand up, you useless pile of dusty bones!"
Zero floated back a few steps.
Dark holes in a gleaming white skull glared at the cat.
"Ugh,…we're not…huff…going to speak of this," Shock strained.
Lock groaned and let go of the police officer's arm. He wiped the blood out from under his eyes.
"Hey! Pick up the slack doofus!"
"He's heavy!"
"You're a supernatural demon monster, you idiot! You could pick up a car if you wanted!"
"Well, I don't want too," Lock said, kicking open the nearest backyard gate.
Shock snarled and hit Lock with her broom.
"Guys...what if Jack hears about this," Barrel asked. He grabbed the human's ankle and strained to pull the man's body past the other two squabbling monster children.
"He's not gonna! We're going to hide him in…uh…there…" Shock pointed at a shed. "And no one's going to hear about this." She narrowed her eyes pointedly at the boys. "Capich?"
"I thought we were going to bury him," Barrel complained.
"Eh,…it'll take too long…" Shock shrugged. "Get the door Lock."
"Since when were you in charge?" Lock sassed but stood on his tiptoes to reach the handle.
SKKREEEEEEE!
"AHHHH!" Boogies Boys shrieked at a pitch embarrassing for Halloween Citizens as the door swung open to a twisted snarling face screeching at them.
Lock swung his pitchfork at the form.
Anna jerked back as the prongs struck her side and ripped through her coat. Purple flames flicked around her hands.
Anna's hunched, sharp form froze in surprised as the three young monsters fell backward on their rumps. The fire went out.
They stared at each other for a long moment. It felt like at least three minutes.
"YOU?!" Lock, Shock, and Barrel said.
Anna blinked and dropped the sharp gardening shears she had posed above her head in a murderous position. Her face slightly morphed back to normal, but she didn't relax.
"Me?! You! What are you doing—" she stopped abruptly seeing the prone form behind the kids, "Oh my god. Did you kill someone?!"
"Pffft. NO. We just knocked him out."
"He passed out," Lock corrected quickly, slightly nervous at the glare Anna sported.
She looked almost scarier than Jack at the moment with her ripped clothes, spiky hair, and pissed-off scowl.
"Though we probably would have killed him if he didn't go…" Barrel mimed passing out, "But it's just not fun when they're not awake."
Anna scowled at them. "That's awful," she deadpanned.
"Thank you," all three cackled.
Anna stepped over the still unconscious human and towered over the three monsters, making them back up away from the human a bit. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Zero moved from Anna's side, and Jasper took advantage of Anna's hunched form to climb up to her shoulder.
"Looking for you," Shock lied automatically, eyeing the black cat cautiously. "Everyone's really worried. Jack and a few others came here looking for you."
Anna snorted, "And you volunteered to what? Help?"
"Hey. Any opportunity to mess with humans is a good one," Lock said.
Anna squinted, no doubt in her mind that was the only truthful statement they had said in the conversation.
"Where's Jack?" she said, glancing up at the empty street past the opened yard gate.
"He's uh…" Shocked muttered. "We…split up…"
"…Does Jack even know you're here!?"
"Why would you care?"
"Because you're going to get trapped here, with me, if you don't go back before they close the portal," Anna said, dropping her voice to an almost calm level. "Little Braid said that they close it when the last dinner is finished. They don't run Thanksgiving by the sun, moon, or time."
"That's stupid."
"Shut up Shock," Lock turned back to Anna, "Well, maybe we don't want to go home?"
"What?"
Shock smirked as something occurred to her. "Yeah! Maybe we'll just stay here all year round. No more rules! No more adults telling us what to do. We can just Trick or Treat all the time and mess with humans." Her smirk darkened, "We can even give Ivy a visit."
Anna frowned. "Who…"
"And not even Jack can stop us!" Barrel added.
Anna shared a glance with Zero.
"Hell n-," she started before the back-porch floodlights cracked on again.
The man moaned.
"THOMAS!"
"Oh crap," Lock muttered.
Anna jumped and reacted quickly, yellow rope she remembered from earlier shooting out of the shed behind her and wrapping around the kids like spider-webs.
As an afterthought, another rope wrapped around the rousing police officer's ankle and dragged him into the shed before slamming the door.
"Sorry…"
She didn't stop running, three yellow angry rope cocoons bobbing in the air behind her, until she was far enough down the street that the lady's shouting was a distant murmur.
"Why'd I do that?" Anna muttered, dropping the wriggling cocoons on the sidewalk non-too-kindly.
Jasper didn't speak with Boogie's Boys there.
"Cause a weird man in that lady's shed was a good distraction for both of them, duh," Shock snarled, kicking off the ropes and ripping a few with a knife hidden up her sleeve for good measure. "Stop doing this!"
"No."
Meanwhile, the woman stared at the open the door to her empty shed in confusion.
"They're too tight," Lock growled in frustration, having trouble getting out of his tangle.
"Not like you have circulation to cut off," Anna shot back. "Let's call it retribution for tying me up in the Mayor's office."
Lock and Shock glared at her. Barrel was still a little too preoccupied to do anything but let out a muffled scream.
"You already got back at us!" Shock snapped.
"Oh, did I? You thre—" Anna cut herself off abruptly. She straightened, and her eyes widened in fear as she looked around.
Jasper yowled quietly.
Zero raised his hackles, keeping half an eye on the three Trick or Treaters.
"What are you?" Lock laughed mockingly before Shock suddenly punched him in the arm. "Hey!"
"Shut up," Shock hissed.
"What are you…" Lock stilled, and his tail lashed.
Even Barrel stayed silent and looked around worriedly. He pulled off the last of the ropes and cautiously stepped behind the scariest thing that was the least threatening, which was Anna at the moment.
Anna tensed and crouched slightly.
"Hello."
The five Halloween Citizens and one Runaway felt the other side of a scare as their spines chilled and they turned around.
Shock tripped on Lock's feet at the sight of the man who was suddenly standing closer than a human comfortably should.
It was the police officer.
"H-how…" Shock gasped. They just left him in the shed!
Lock caught her under an armpit, more on instinct than consciously. Had he been thinking straight, he probably would have let her fall and laughed about it later.
The three Halloween Citizen children scrambled to get behind Anna.
Anna shrunk minutely at the sight of him and she could hear her own bones shake slightly. She wasn't panicking again. Not yet.
"…It's polite to say "hello" back, young lady. Don't you know you're supposed to respect the police."
Anna shuddered and stepped back, the concrete sidewalk scraping against the soles of her shoes the loudest noise.
The man's fake smile didn't move as his eyes drifted to the children behind Anna, briefly passing over the cat and ghost dog.
"Intriguing. You know, many of our kind don't even know there exist creatures such as yourselves. You're myths, as it were. Ironic isn't it," he looked back at Anna, "Most angels and demons don't believe in sentient Holiday decorations. It's too fantastical even for many of us. Yet many humans don't believe in us. Don't you find that interesting, Annalise?"
"Who…what are you? We…I…knocked you out…"
The officer focused on Lock, making the boy flash his sharp teeth and adjust his grip on his pitchfork.
"You in particular! It's almost adorable that you are how human children see us. Pathetic really. Humiliating at the least."
"Why you…" Lock choked on his threat as the man took a step closer.
Anna held her hands out at her sides as he began to approach.
"I really have to thank you," the man said happily, eyeing Lock, Shock, and Barrel, "I was about to give up following you three. I even let the human in here," he tapped his head, "Take the wheel for a bit, not that he can tell the difference. You weren't even looking for Annalise! Must be fate. Thanks for that little bruise," he touched his forehead, "I'm sure my host will be feeling it in the morning. Now…" He held out a hand to the skeleton, barely three feet away from her. "Are you going to come with me quietly? My boss would love to meet you. I believe I'm due for a promotion."
Anna towered over the man, staring down at him with a tense, but blank expression.
The man's smile never wavered, but his eyes flashed a dangerous glint.
"Do you know why you're doing this?" Anna asked, not even reacting to his outstretched hand.
The man didn't budge. "Above my 'pay grade' frea…"
Immediately, the man was pummeled with knotted ropes hard enough to break his ribs, and his body wrapped up before being thrown out like a yo-yo into a nearby bush.
Anna flinched, hoping she hadn't hurt the human the demon was possessing too bad.
"RUN!"
The others didn't need to be told twice.
All six of them, except Zero and Jasper, melted into shadows and ran.
"What in Halloween was that?!" Lock's inky form shrieked. He wasn't keeping himself together very well, little smoky bits catching on the pavement a couple times.
Boogie's Boys weren't well practice in basic Tricks.
Anna flinched at hearing the voice in her head but not quite. This was how monster's talked while pulling this Trick?
"Demon," she said shortly, without moving anything that felt like a mouth.
"Obviously!" Shock screamed, knocking into Anna's two-dimensional side on a long stone wall.
"I…I want to go home," Barrel begged.
"We…" Anna hesitated, "W-we need to find Jack."
"What?! He'll kill us for following him!"
"Better than whatever that demon's planning," Shock shot back at Lock.
"Oh god, are you agreeing with me?" Anna hissed.
Something hit Shock before the witch could shoot something back and she was "knocked" out of her shadow, rolling a couple times, the other's far ahead up the street before they realized what happened.
The demon, sporting a new cut deep into the police officer's face sneered at her.
"Wrong one," he snarled in annoyance. He raised his hand.
Shock's eyes widened.
"Shock! Duck!" Anna shouted, too far away to do anything.
Shock did just as a powerful blast of green tinted magic slammed into the demon's arm, spinning him around and throwing him a fair distance down the street. He slammed into the asphalt like a doll.
Shock didn't have time to look to see who had rescued her before someone pulled her up by the back of her dress and roughly set her on a broom.
"As soon as you get ye'bearings, you get on your own broom," Helgamine snarled at the younger witch, ignoring the shouts about her sore head.
Shock clutched her broom and hat close and caught her balance as Helgamine flew over to where Anna and the others had reformed.
"Helgamine!" Anna gasped in relief. The relief turned into terror as Helgamine wordlessly ushered Shock off, dismounted and quickly stalked up to the skeleton.
"Helga I…" Anna didn't get another word out before Helgamine hit her upside the head with her broom. Repeatedly.
"Ow! Ow. Helga! I'm sorry! Ow! Stop!" Anna covered her head to shield from the assault.
"Now you listen here Annalise Grisholme!" Helgamine said, her voice terrifyingly calm yet sharp. "If you ever do something as idiotic as THIS!" she wacked the skeleton every couple of words.
"Ow!"
"Then so. Help. Me. Zelda and I will not. Be. There. To save. Your boneheaded arse. And if you happen to get out of it. Mark. My. Words!" the witch stopped broom smacking for a moment. She snarled and pulled the terrified girl down by her collarbone and whispered, "Then you better hope to Heaven and Hell and all the Purgatories, that I don't. Hear. About. It!
The witch suddenly calmed and smiled creepily, letting go of Anna. "Am I clear?"
Anna nodded frantically with shiver. "Yes, ma'am," she said quickly, her voice barely a whisper.
Helga narrowed her eyes.
"JASPER!" she barked.
They all jumped, but Jasper broke up into a run.
Helgamine let him get almost down the street. She raised her hand, and the cat was yanked up into the air by his scruff and levitated toward the group until he was hovering in front of his witch.
"Meow?" he said innocently and started purring.
Helgamine's eyes narrowed.
She jerked her head to the side and Jasper's neck suddenly snapped at a wrong angle, and his body fell limp.
Anna screamed, clapping her hands over her jaw and stared at her caretaker with horrified wide eyes.
Helgamine calmly placed Jaspers body in her bag that Anna hadn't noticed before.
"Relax Annalise. I'll revive his body when we get home if he behaves," she glared pointedly at a space in the air.
Anna watched as a very annoyed misty form materialized.
Zero made a sound somewhere between a nervous whimper and a dog laugh.
Jasper's ghost glared at the ghost dog mockingly.
Helgamine reached out and grabbed the ghost by the scruff, "If you want this body back, then you can start earning it by helping Zelda finish that exorcism!"
Jasper growled something and ran through the air in somehow still a very cat-like way toward Zeldabourne, who was holding the demon under a heavy green wave of magic.
She and Trouble barely acknowledged the sour-looking ghost cat.
Trouble's ears went back in shock and Jasper gave him a look that clearly meant, "Say anything, and I'll make you join me."
Zeldabourne didn't break her stare at the demon and continued to chant in Latin.
The demon was a little busy screaming to notice whatever the Halloween Citizens were doing. He was angrily screeching insults at Zelda in at least ten different languages.
"Stay. Here," Helgamine ordered Anna, the Trick or Treaters, and Zero.
Shock and Barrel each stomped on one of Lock's foot.
"Ow! I didn't even say anything!"
"You were going to," Shock hissed.
Helga glared at them, gave Anna a pointed look and went up the street to add her chanting to Zelda's.
Anna nervously waited for about…thirty seconds, before she jogged closer, stopping just close enough to hear what they were saying, the kids and Zero following.
She recognized that it was Latin, but she couldn't sort out any of the words.
Domini.
Sancta. Dominus. Satanica.
That was about all she caught.
The witches glanced at her out the corner of their eyes but didn't falter.
"YoU thiNk thiS ChAnGes aNYtHing!" the demon screeched, his arm was burnt, his head was bleeding, and his ribs were broken but that didn't seem to be what caused him pain. "hE'll get wHaT he wAnts! yOu can't BrEak oUt oF a dEaL wItH uS." He focused on Anna through the pain. "Y-yOu tHinK ThiS is paIn, WaiT tIll you'RE doWnStaiRs! You tHink yOu'Re coWaRd oF a GraNdfAther wIlL Protect yOu!?
"…Adi nos," both witches finished.
Anna shut her eyes and covered her head as a loud screeching roar enveloped them.
When she looked up, Zeldabourne was busy chanting something else over the unconscienced human while dripping water (fountain water, Anna realized) over the human's wounds.
"Aren't you two Pagan?" Anna said, slowly. "I thought only Priests could exorcise demons."
"The Christians got some things right," Helgamine said, "We have to add a lot of words and throw some of our magic in there to make the exorcism work for us. But it's still risky. We can't stop at any time, or it will blow back at us."
"…Thank you."
"You're welcome. Now pick him up and let's find a porch to leave him on," Zeldabourne said, standing up and wiping her knobby hands.
"Me?"
"You're the strongest kind of monster here," Helgamine said.
"Ah," Anna said, sarcasm leaking through. She walked through a distracted Jasper, making the now ghost cat growl a little and picked up the human.
She was oddly surprised by how easy it was. It was also very awkward figuring out how she was supposed to hold him. She settled for over the shoulder. Didn't help. He seemed so small compared to her.
The man shuddered as if she was ice.
"You seem really good at healing humans," Anna noted, as she carried the human to the nearest house.
How on Earth had the whole street not come outside at the noise? She was reasonably sure people weren't all asleep yet, and a lot of families were still having Thanksgiving dinner.
"I had…" Zeldabourne shared a look with Helgamine. "...Shall we say…practice."
"How?"
"Perhaps a story for another time, dear," Helgamine said. "For now, let's just say you aren't the first to come to Halloween with a human life on your mind."
Anna frowned, and nodded, leaning the mumbling police officer against the house's steps, ignoring how he flinched each time her bones accidentally touched his skin.
Her frown deepened as the man shivered.
She ground her teeth together and unclipped the man's badge from his belt. He didn't seem to have a name tag…wait…there it was. In his pocket. She quickly fixed it to his pocket flap and put his badge in his hands in plain sight.
"Anna what are you…" Helga asked.
Before the others could stop her, she reached over the officer's head and rang the doorbell insistently several times.
"Hey bone brain!" Lock snapped. "What are you doing?!"
Anna kept pressing the doorbell over and over until she could hear someone coming.
"Go!"
They ran to the nearest shadows without a word until they were out of sight of whoever would open the door.
"What was that for?" Shock demanded, "They could have seen us."
"Can you tell if it's cold?" Anna said. "Does your breath crystallize in the air?"
"…I don't got any."
"I don't either. Can any of us tell if its cold?" Anna said. "Look." She scratched a finger over a mailbox, loosening icy flakes. "Frost. It's getting cold. We couldn't just leave that man outside. He might have frozen to death."
Helgamine chuckled, "You're too human for your own good."
"What would you have done?"
"Same thing. Maybe. But I wouldn't have been so insistent with that doorbell. Now had you asked me that several years ago, I would have had a very different answer. You wouldn't be too keen to hear it."
Anna nodded.
"Let's go," Zeldabourne snapped.
"…To Halloween?" Anna asked.
"Of course! Where the bloody else would we…"
"I…"
"Annalise! You are not staying here!"
"Well, I can't just…go back!" Anna shot back.
Helga huffed and shook her head as Zelda and Anna went back and forth.
"Why not!? Haven't seen your family yet? Too bad! It's too dangerous here you blimey oak headed child."
The witches looked up.
Anna stiffened and looked in the same direction.
"Damn. We aren't done with this conversation, Anna. But we can't stay here," Helgamine said.
"Are those…those demons? Coming back?" Barrel asked.
Helga nodded at the boy, "And there's more of them coming." Her eyes narrowed.
Shock caught the looked and smiled sheepishly. "What?"
"Don't think you three brats are off the hook either," Helgamine warned.
"Figures," Lock muttered under his "breath."
Jasper's ghost meowed something.
Helgamine glanced at him before turning to Anna.
"We might not have time to get salt from your house, plus its too risky with your family around. We'll head toward that church."
"We're closer to there by now anyway," Zeldabourne added.
Anna looked down and nodded, shutting her eyes.