Recap

Jack has finally offered Annalise citizenship. She goes through the ceremony, which is often different for each monster. However, when she touches the scrying orb to see her future with Halloween, she does not remember anything except a sense that she has to accept citizenship. While she was blacked out, she was essentially possessed by a much older version of herself from the far future who takes the bittersweet opportunity to have a family moment with Jack who she hasn't seen in a very long time.

Author's Note: There is another large reference to Aria of Light's Tricked Out. I'll try to write all future mentions of Tricked Out in such a way that you don't have to have read that story to make sense of the new characters or previous events. Thank you to Aria for help with this chapter!

Chapter 61

Princess?

Town Hall was getting loud as more and more monsters gathered. The doors were open and there were even some crowds hanging outside as they strained to glimpse inside. But even with the open air, the hoots and hollers and greeting growls bounced off the insides of the large room until it was impossible to tell what was an echo and what wasn't.

"Quite a turnout," Sally said lightly as she sat next to Anna on an empty front row as Jack talked to some of the Council off to the side.

Anna pulled a grimace.

This wasn't just a regular town meeting. This was an announcement, and everyone knew it. She knew there usually weren't this many monsters attending, though to be fair, she hadn't attended most of the meetings the previous weeks. She had usually elected to stay home in the witches' shop and busied herself with the inventory they left behind.

Sally offered Anna a comforting smile and took the skeleton's hand. She whispered. "Thank you for choosing to stay."

Anna looked at Sally a bit confused, absently scratching the edge of her eye socket where her new Mark still burned like a throbbing inflamed eyeball.

"Why are you thanking me?" she murmured back, desperately keeping her voice low, "I probably was never going to run off to be a Rouge. Jack was right. I probably wouldn't have lasted a day. I have some self preservation."

"I know for a fact that's not what he told you," Sally admonished, still smiling. She looked at the side door as it opened.

Anna followed her eyes and frowned as she watched Nicholas and Auger fighting with a full-length mirror in an attempt to get it through the unyielding opening

Sally's eyes didn't leave the debacle as Jack jogged over to help. Her knowing smirk actually widened a bit.

"I'm happy you accepted Citizenship when it was offered..." Sally squinted at Jack's back. "Finally."

Jack sensed the stare and looked over his shoulder to cast Sally a sheepish grin, even as his gaze flicked to Annalise. He was quickly distracted as Nicholas pushed too much and the mirror nearly tipped.

There was a sharp string of curses from Nicholas.

"But I'll admit I'm not sure what Jack would have done if he had to explain to everyone here why you suddenly were missing again," Sally finished. She turned back to Anna and patted her hand. "How are you feeling?"

"I forgot this was tonight," Anna admitted sourly. "What am I even supposed to say?"

"Didn't you and Jack discuss this?"

"He just said he's leaving it to me how much of his past to reveal," Anna hissed. "What am I supposed to do with that? I don't know what's too private. I don't know is there's some...secret dangerous thing I know that other monsters shouldn't."

Sally frowned again. She knew Jack was trying to be "accommodating" and submit to Anna's sense of justice, but it clearly just stressed the teenager more to have to think about what to say and, more importantly, not say.

"What do you think the Town needs to know?" Sally asked, gently grasping the back of the girl's hand, where the skeletal fingers were twisting into her skirt.

"I don't know," Anna snapped, then immediately softened. "Sorry. It's just that… I know Jack's trying to make things…" She grimaced again."Eh...not right, but better. But it also feels like…" she broke off, frustrated, and Sally waited patiently as she struggled to put her complex feelings about Jack into simple terms.

"It's almost like he's decided to be a martyr no matter what," she finally admitted. "No matter what I say, his reaction is always the same. I don't know if it's some strategy to make me as mad-"

"That's a bit too much pre-planning for him," Sally muttered.

"-but it does make it hard to figure out what to say."

Sally smiled, bumping her shoulder against Anna's. "I'm sure you'll say exactly what you need to. And Jack will just have to deal with whatever you say. And he's got a gift for making even the worst of things seem better than they are."

In the corner, Jack finally wrangled the mirror into an upright position, balanced precariously against the wall. He spread out his arms, a few obligatory claps coming from nearby monsters, as he turned his back in a mock bow. Anna saw the unsteady shiver of the large object and raised her brow, waiting, waiting...

The mirror tipped forward and flattened the King like a bug, sending bones in every direction. Anna threw a hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter as Jack's skull rolled to her feet, looking far too haughty for a skeleton without a body.

"I'm glad you're amused," he said flatly, though Anna swore the edges of his mouth turned up as Sally's head tipped back in her own laughter.

The other monsters rushed forward, lifting the mirror and leaning it into a more careful position as Jack (quite literally) pulled himself together.

Anna needed to learn that trick.

"What's that for?" Anna asked about the mirror, curious at the way her Mark seemed to throb.

"You'll find out," Sally whispered, a gleam in her eye of one in one some joke as Jack walked to the podium and called for order.

Anna raised a brow, mildly impressed the glass hadn't shattered as she turned her attention back to Jack.

"Greetings everyone!" Jack said, waving down the noise with a smile. "Thank you all for coming tonight." His other hand tapped the podium distractedly. He glanced at the mirror a little impatiently.

"As if we'd miss this," someone behind Anna and Sally whispered to their companion.

Anna clenched her fist, but Sally gently pried her fingers apart to hold the teenager's hand.

Sally could tell Anna's aura was a mess and Anna's explanation about how unfamiliar fear and anxiety was came to mind.

"Now as I'm sure you're all aware, we have a few matters tonight to address instead of the usual assignments-"

"I guess we're starting without her then?" something hollered over the dulling noise of the crowd.

"If I dragged that damn thing out here for nothing-!" Nicholas snapped, glaring at the mirror as if it had personally offended him.

Anna just felt more confused. Who were they waiting for? Who would they even wait on compared to any other Citizen.

"I'm sure she's just running a little late," Sally spoke up while the Mayor groaned.

"Should have left her in the closest..."

Anna glanced over her shoulder at the dry, slightly amused tone Dracula spoke with as snickers went rippled through the room.

Jack chuckled. "Perhaps I should encourage Ivy to invest in a proper timepiece."

"She needs to learn how to read the moonrise!" someone complained, dipping into mutters about "modern" technology and the younger beings getting lazy about their sense of time. He seemed to be mostly ignored, though.

But there was that name again.

Anna frowned at the more familiar itchiness it caused behind her eye.

"Nevertheless, I won't keep you all in suspense too long. Annalise? If you please..." Jack crossed the stage in a stride to stand at the edge, offering his hand.

Anna stiffly rose and took it, planting one feet on the edge and letting him pull her up with the leverage. She shifted at the many many eyes peering at her. The lights didn't help. She searched for Sally's face, earning the assuring look she expected.

She turned to Jack expectantly, if only to try ignoring the other faces. Or lack of in some cases.

Nevermore, from his perch near the back, couldn't help chuckling at her.

The girl stood confidently, pretending to know what she was doing, but her sour and concentrated expression told them all what exactly she thought about this situation.

At least she looked acceptable.

Harlequin was going to throw a public fit if the teenager didn't stop picking at the loose threads at the edge of her sleeves, but at least she wasn't insulting his work by wearing a ripped coat and wrinkled shirt if it wasn't intentional. His insistence on making her a new outfit out of one of the bolts of new fabric she delivered from the weaver was the only reason she didn't look like an urchin. Harlequin hadn't trusted that Jack would have demanded the same standards from her before this gathering. Why in Halloween Jack didn't insist Anna clean up to something more presentable on the daily was beyond the tailor.

"As some of you may have heard," Jack explained, breaking some Citizens' thoughts, "There was an...ah...incident with demons." Well, that got a few startled gasps from those who didn't already know. Even the more hermit Citizens heard about this announcement but not about the demons apparently."Following that, we did have a brief visit by a pair of human children..."

"What?!"

"I knew it! I knew I smelled fresh blood in the square."

"I'm more concerned about the demon's bit, honestly."

"Well clearly that part's handled. Humans?! Again?"

"Not again..."

"Why don't we just open a zoo at this rate?!"

Anna snickered. She couldn't help it. It helped her wrangle that annoying fear at least.

Jack didn't look as amused as he shot her a tired look. He quickly tried to call for some order. "Settle down. Settle down, please! They have been returned and their memories taken. However, this wasn't what I've called you here for today."

"Then what?!"

Jack resisted the urge to huff and opened his mouth, hand open to gesture to Annalise.

"I apologise," Annalise beat him to it with a fair bit of confidence surging as she did her best to drag it out of her past, and more alive, self that wasn't hyper aware of all the staring and judgement.

Annalise straightened a bit as the muttering of the crowd started again and Jack let her continue. "That was my...screwup. And I apologize. I did not intend to bring humans here. They were my younger siblings. My brother and sister from when I was human. Alive."

Vlad and several others raised their eyebrows at that.

"They were severely injured because demons attacked me when I attempted to run away to haunt my hometown where I died." Anna glanced at Jack, but he wore a blank expression, waiting for her to finish. When she didn't, he nodded slightly, awkwardly encouraging her to say whatever she thought she needed to.

The monsters looked worried, but confused. There were even a few sympathetic faces, though Anna might have imagined them.

She felt like she needed to explain. "I'm sorry. I still have my memories of when I was alive. I know that's strange, and it must have driven me a little crazy. I...uh...I couldn't let them die. Especially not when..." her voice was in danger of cracking. "Not when I literally gave my life to save them." She shifted. That felt like something more private that she shouldn't have shared. "Maybe I thought it would have been a waste of my efforts, as selfish as that is."

No, she would have died all over again and found some way tear up the heavens for James and Jillian. They owed her nothing and she would do it again with no hesitation.

It was quiet for a moment.

"It's not common for a monster to arrive by purely selfless means," the Creature spoke up.

Anna wasn't sure whether that was suspicion she heard.

"Ha. Yeah kid, almost everyone here was killed by some over enthusiastic human. Lucky you."

Anna tried to place the voice, realizing a moment later it was the invisible man that was always trying to steal liqueur from the witches' shop.

Thomas Marvel ignored the glares in the direction of his voice.

Anna was never more grateful for a break in silence, even as both she and Jack noticeably winced at the choice of words. Luck had not been something in the cards for Anna's fate.

"Unless you, I dunno, died fighting off someone," Thomas Marvel not so subtly tried to probe.

"No. There was a...school fire, actually," Anna said.

"Tell us you started it, at least!" someone shouted, earning a round of laughs and "hear hear"s.

Sally didn't say anything, but she didn't look truly sympathetic for a moment.

Still, Anna snickered a little at the morbid humor.

"But why would demons..." a monster who Anna thought was "Chifte" muttered, the question hanging in the air.

Panic ached her sternum, but Anna forced the words out, wanting to get it over with.

"I'm...leverage, I suppose" she admitted, looking to Jack for a correction, but he just nodded, confirming her partial guess. "I am..." she stopped, irritated that she couldn't just say it, not seriously.

Jack put a hand on her shoulder, with a cautious promise of comfort. He checked that the words were what she wanted before speaking when she didn't make a move to stop him. "Annalise is my direct descendant. M-" He tried to add "my granddaughter" but the words wouldn't leave his tongue. So he just shut up for the reaction.

"What?"

"Great-something-granddaughter," Anna said over the startled growls, barely managing to avoid a stutter. "Give or take a few dozen generations..." There wasn't an immediate explosion of questions so she took that as a good sign.

Jack snorted a little as he looked back at the (mostly) shocked crowd. He purposely ignored the not too subtle exchange of coinage in the back or the vindicated expressions among the shock.

"Go on," he said, gesturing for Annalise to continue. He lowered his voice, looking unsure but stubborn. "You can tell them what I did..."

Anna didn't look as sure. "And centuries ago, long before he came to Halloween, Jack traded my life-ah no, my years -for that of another one of his descendants."

"...stercore," Auger hissed quietly.

Now the shock had shifted a bit more to disturbed. Still, curiosity reigned for the moment.

"Thus leading to her early death," Jack said quickly before the exclamation could open the floodgates of voices and questions. He didn't notice the image in the mirror propped up against the wall waver with impeccable, and possibly cursed, timing. "The deal was brokered by demons. While they don't have a claim on her soul, it would be remiss of them to pass up the opportunity to use her as leverage against Halloween as my blood."

The room erupted in a cacophony of noise and questions, while quite a few stared at Annalise in a light she wasn't sure she liked.

She had to take a step back from the noise, breaking Jack's hand away from her shoulder.

"You're related? I didn't want to assume, what with skeletons-"

"We thought you were a Legend, Jack...How can you have descendants in the human world?"

"Next Halloween should be interesting."

"I think we have Princess now, boys..."

"Everyone, please," Jack said, holding his hands up uselessly. "I'm sure you all have questions, but -"

"Does this mean you'll finally be training her?" came a pitchy shout.

"If the demons couldn't get her, does that mean they'll attack here next?"

The question set off a new wave of panic, monsters chattering wildly. Jack closed his sockets and gave a whistled scream that had every monster, Anna included, wincing. Silence fell, only to be broken by-

A crunch.

Soft yet obvious, the sound echoed through the room. Anna's gaze followed the motion of heads turning towards the mirror, where the clouded, opaque surface had been replaced by...

A human girl.

Oh, wait? Anna stared, the image not comprehending for a moment.

She looked a few years older than Anna was. She sat on a bed in a dark room, arm slung casually over her knee as she tossed popcorn into her mouth. Her hair was dark, cut close to the skull, the faintest traces of aura around her. As Anna looked at the tattoo of ivy strands curling around her bicep, giving off a power not unlike her own Mark, she had a sinking suspicion of who this was.

"Oh, don't let me interrupt," the girl said, light German accent muffled by a mouth slightly full. A swallow and flippant gesture at the crowd followed. "Carry on with the reality show."

"Ambassador Ivy, this is a serious matter," Jack said stiffly, and Anna's sockets widened at the confirmation the name gave.

"Yeah, demons after your non-existent ass, again." Ivy tipped her head back and tossed another piece of popcorn into the air, catching it with a practice that encouraged a few reluctant claps.

Jack sighed, and Anna stole a glimpse at his expression, frowning at the mix of exasperation and... something else. Something softer.

"Is this the part where I get to say, 'I told you so'?" The girl said with a pleased grin.

Anna was still trying to process how she was seeing a new human face amidst monsters.

Jack pointed a finger. "It most certainly is not."

The mirror did nothing to hide the way the brown eyes flashed with mirth, but as the human went to speak again Jack silenced her with an "eht!" that Anna had only ever heard used on Zero. Ivy rolled her eyes but remained silent, grinning.

The human definitely wasn't going to remain quiet for long.

"As I was saying," Jack re-started primly, frantically smoothing at his waistcoat, "The demons have strong reason to try and collect Annalise's soul, but she is, just like the rest of you, safe within the boundaries of Halloween. It simply means that she will be unable to come to the Human World on Halloween night." He glanced over to Anna who quickly looked away, her mind still reeling at the stipulation.

Sure, Halloween was tolerable now, but a year from now? A decade? A century? It wasn't that big, and if everywhere she went she was reminded of Jack and how unfair this was...

The explanation caused a new wave of grumbles, and Anna wished desperately that she could be allowed to sit down. Her bones felt hot with embarrassment, and she squirmed at the way that Jack seemed to talk about her like she wasn't even there. But isn't that what she wanted? She had spoken enough. And if she couldn't really participant in Halloween, would she just be a bother to the town?

To distract herself she looked back over to the mirror, where Ivy was watching the proceedings with thinly veiled amusement. There was something familiar about her, Anna decided, though she wasn't sure what. She was confident that she'd never seen her when she was alive, but perhaps in a dream...

As if sensing her thoughts, the human (WHY WAS THERE A HUMAN?) made eye contact with Anna and winked, pulling a Converse-clad shoe up onto the bed, and Anna remembered. Then she felt like an idiot for not making the connection sooner.

"That's not to say she can't participate throughout the year and Annalise herself has insisted I still trai—"

"YOU!" Anna leapt off the stage and almost tripped into the front row in her haste.

"Hey—!" said a monster she nearly fell on before she caught herself on the arm rest of the bench.

Anna righted herself quickly enough and halted in front of the mirror to look closer at the human. She could be embarrassed about this later, after the shock and the rush of memories wore off. She pointed accusingly at the other teenage girl.

"YOU!" she repeated, lowering her voice harshly as she and a smirking Ivy stared face to face. "You were fucking dead!"

Anna didn't notice how the crowd stiffened or some looked at her in more confusion and concern.

"That was you? Unless you pulled some freaky dream astral projection bullshit—"

"Language..." Jack scolded lamely, long past memories itching his skull.

Anna turned on him. "What language? You want Irish?!" She turned back on Ivy expectantly, eyes wide and demanding.

The human (very much not dead) held up her hands, eyes darting to the other Town members. "Ok, no you're right, I was dead. Key word was."

"You told me you had just died! You were glowing!" She paused. "And younger..."

"And your flesh was imitating candle wax; so we both look different."

"Flesh?" someone muttered.

Anna's bones shook. "So some people get to come back to life? How come I'm the one that gets stuck like this?"

Ivy propped her chin on her hand, gazing coolly at the mirror. "It was a couple of years ago. I got better."

"You can't get better from death!" Anna paused and looked at the Town. "Right?" She didn't know anything at this point.

"Well, Ivy did," Nevermore shouted from the back. "Still unsure on the 'how' part of that."

Anna's next cry of outrage was cut off by Jack, who looked between the two girls as though his worst nightmare was coming true. "The situation was very different, Annalise." When Anna re-directed her glare at the mirror to him, he quickly amended, "In terms of the death and how it occurred. Believe me, if there was a way for me to send you back safely, I would."

Anna couldn't deny the truth that she knew lay in Jack's words - if nothing else, getting rid of her would make things easier on him.

"I told you, Jack," Ivy said, unable to contain herself.

"Thank you, Ivy," Jack said through gritted teeth. Anna glanced between the two - there was a history there, something in the way Ivy's eyes softened as she looked at the skeleton who was pointedly not looking at her. Ivy shook herself and turned back to Anna, her voice lowering to a conspirator's whisper.

"I already told you this," she said, "but sorry again that he's being an idiot. There wasn't enough time on our little field trip to say what you deserved to hear."

Anna forced herself to calm down and nodded, her spine ramrod straight as she took a sharp and empty breath, the human habits hard to shake and still distantly comforting if she didn't think about it too long. Her aura was noticeably bristly and even with her inexperience she knew her anger was on display for all of town to see. She wondered if Ivy could see it through the mirror as a human. Most likely. Anna pinched the bridge of where her nose would be.

"No, I know there wasn't time, ironically. Something...something dramatic was happening, wasn't it? I saw you...dead...for a reason, and I figured something bad was happening in your time. You wouldn't have just been there randomly. I was paying attention to what you were doing. What I could see anyway." She shot a look at Jack. "I do happen to be rather observant if I can help it."

"That's not hereditary," someone said.

"Perhaps she picked it up further down the line," Vlad said coolly.

Jack obviously heard the comments and seemed torn whether to glare at Ivy, who snickered, or the sources.

"Er, are we ignoring the implications of the impossibility of the newcomer meeting the human three years ago?"

"Obviously, we are for now," Helgamine called behind her. "There's far too much to sort before we address that."

Anna looked at the witch gratefully.

"I told you she noticed your behavior, Jack." Sally raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms where she remained seated, carefully switching her watchful gaze between the two skeletons.

"Yes. I gather, my dear. Sally, please not you too," Jack groaned, which got a louder single laugh out of Ivy.

"I thought you learned your lesson about listening to us, Bone Boy!"

Anna grimaced hilariously at the nickname, and it only made Ivy smile wider.

Anna shook her head and continued over Jack's grumbles as if she had heard none of them. She managed a polite smile at Ivy. "Hi," she said, trying not to sound like she was gritting her teeth. "It's horrible to meet you, Ivy. My real name is actually Annalise. Or Anna. Not 'Light' or whatever Chakis told you."

She didn't notice ripple through the crowd as they reacted to the name.

Ivy returned the smile. "Sup. Nice name. I figured your parents weren't actually hippies." She was cut off as Anna's words caught up with the rest of the crowd.

Anna looked up at the flaring of auras and startled gasps and it took her a second to realise what happened.

It was deeply interesting seeing a flicker of truly unknown fear flash on monsters' faces, if only for the briefest second. She was sure many of them did not remember the Reaper that took them, but some part of a deep recess of their soul remembered the name along with whatever potential trauma sent them to this afterlife.

Anna looked at Jack. "I take it Chakis isn't common knowledge."

Jack frowned and shook his head, eyes distant for a moment. He looked personally exasperated about his knowledge of the Reaper but it seemed relatively minor on top of the realization he probably made a mistake letting Annalise and Ivy meet. "Reapers are common knowledge. Not ours specifically, much less her name. She's not walked among us for a very long time."

"It has before?!"

"She?!"

Anna had an incredulous disagreement to Jack's statement on the edge of her tongue, her gaze flicking up toward where the Requiem Bell hung above their heads past the ceiling. But she got the sense she shouldn't say anything.

"It's not bad that you've spoken to your Reaper," Jack assured her. "Just... highly unusual, is all."

How did you think I got to the past? Was on the tip of Anna's tongue, but she held it in, the same strange instinct keeping her quiet.

Ivy stayed silent too, her gaze flickering across the crowd.

"Any other world-shattering revelations?" Vlad said, a dry expectancy in his voice. "Are we to have a demon attempted attack? Is Sally secretly a double agent? Has the human managed to secure a mate? The latter would certainly signal the end-times of Halloween."

"I'll come through and kick your ass, Vlad, don't think I won't," Ivy snapped, her eyes narrowing. Though the monsters snickered at her expense, Anna couldn't help but feel grateful that the tense air had somewhat dissipated. Anna slowly backed away from the mirror, though hesitant to turn her back on the figure within it, and met Jack's sockets - which were locked right onto hers, troubled and searching.

"Is the meeting over?" Anna asked. The high of her anger was fading. She really just wanted to get out of there and avoid some of the questions that were no doubt going to be asked of her over and over again in the coming days.

Jack blinked but shook his head with a glance at the audience. "Actually..." He tugged down the edges of his waistcoat again and cleared his throat as he went back to the podium to shuffle some papers she hadn't noticed. "With the news out of the way we do have some Halloween matters to attend to." He gestured for Annalise to come to him, waving the papers a bit as some monsters chattered, relieved at the normality.

Anna frowned at him and tilted her head. "Uh...okay and what do you need me for?"

"Oh dear..." Sally sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

Jack tapped his fingers on the podium, grimacing at the realization he had forgotten to mention something else to the girl. One more thing for her to be livid about. He pointedly ignored Ivy's stare as her own eyes narrowed. "I've agreed to take you as my apprentice, despite no opportunity to use your abilities on Halloween Night. However, regardless of that agreement, there are certain duties that I, and Halloween actually, can't reasonably not expect of you as my...erm...my heir."

Jack saw the moment it clicked for her as a socket twitched, then widened, before a bit profanity made of sexual impropriety and calling on religious figures.

She still noticed some creatures flinch at her choice of swears. There was a reason most of Halloween's cusses differed from some typical human religious ones. She looked at the crowd in frantic realization. "Shit, I'm not actually a princess am I?!"

Jack didn't answer, and she groaned, covering her face with her hands and debating screaming into them.

"It sounds so fake," Anna said, disbelief thick in her voice. "This - what does this mean?"

"It mostly a formality," Jack stressed. "You needn't concern yourself with it too much, but -"

"Pumpkin Queen in training!" Ivy cheered, causing Jack to tip his head back and look close to praying. "'bout time we get some damn ladies in charge. You go, dude."

"That is not what -"

"It's a bit out of tradition," the Mayor said awkwardly. "This heirs business, that is. Not that it can't be done, of course, but -"

Ivy made a buzzer sound, causing the Mayor to jump at the rude interruption. "There's never been any heir because a) you monsters don't track family lines and b) nobody's ever stayed on the throne long enough to have an heir." She pointed to Jack, sending him a wink. "Bone Boy here is all about re-inventing the way things are, eh Jack?"

Jack's skull blanched somehow. Sally looked bashful.

Marvel's voice piped up, the confidence that he couldn't be easily attacked for his comment fueling him. Like it often did. "You know, Jack, if you don't want her as your heir, I'm sure you and Miss Sally could figure out something despite the lack of-"

Anna's sounds of protests were joined by the other monsters, torn between booing and slapping their hands over their ears. But Marvel had to finish the joke and rose his voice to shout over the protests.

"-Squishy bits!"

Much louder protests.

Jack stared at the ceiling again to avoid eye contact while Sally was covering her face.

"Oi, princess! If Jack gives you the bats and the bees talk, mind filling us in? A lot of us are curious if it's possible. Some of the dames still crushing on Jack definitely have wondered it. Few men too I'm sure."

Anna looked horrified, too stunned to come up with a witty retort. This was harassment she was sure.

Jack's embarrassment gave way to some confusion that was bit hard to interpret, like it was news anyone had an infatuation with him.

Anna was sure it wasn't the first time he'd heard that so his confusion didn't make a lot of sense. Was he really that unaware?

"Are you drunk, Marvel?!" the Creature snapped.

"Most likely," Dracula said.

"I think he's projecting," Zeldabourne said with a sharp smile.

Jack shook his head, still trying to maintain some dignity. "Someone slap him, please," Jack said, completely serious.

But it was impossible to tell where Marvel was. The bastard had learned how to throw his voice ages ago, courtesy of a Rogue by the name of Eric he met in the forest years ago.

Ivy was cackling. "Well Jack?"

"I'll take my chances with Anna," Jack mumbled, avoiding eye contact with every monster. He awkwardly smiled apologetically to Sally.

She just waved her hand, unable to met his eyes. She tried to cover her blush with her other hand.

Anna snorted, uncertain whether she was insulted or relieved. "Thanks."

She thought about it a moment longer, shuddered, then violently shoved the thought away and silently vowed to figure out some way to get back at Marvel. That was his name, right?

Sally stayed absolutely quiet but really she was struggling to hide a smirk too.

Anna didn't have any qualms about continuing to express her displeasure. She groaned again, getting back to the main topic. "I'm American. Or...was," she muttered, squinting at the derisive snorts. "Pretty sure we had an entire war against the idea of monarchy." Her sockets widened, and she clapped her hands. "There's a whole holiday about it too! I saw their Door. Ha!"

"You're welcome to throw all the tea into the lake you want after this meeting," Jack said dryly and still not looking at anyone. He paused, realizing she was exactly the type to take advantage of the sarcasm. "Annalise, don't actually waste tea, please."

"Don't tempt me," she hissed. She walked over closer to him and eyed the papers. "Fine," she said with a tone and expression that said anything but. "What do you want me to do?"

Jack cautiously considered how much involvement he actually wanted from her in this mood. "Perhaps, just take notes tonight..."

The Mayor didn't look very pleased about the suggestion.

"Fine," Anna wrestled the pen she had found out of her pocket and brandished at him, earning another exasperated look at the ceiling. "But I am using the ballpoint pen unless you want a mess." She glanced back at Ivy. "I'm guessing you're the one who left this here."

Ivy snorted. "Hey I get the whole aesthetic but dip pens still make a fucking mess! Can't let Sally get her pretty hands stained after all. She needs them for those long romantic walks, holding hands with Jack." She gave a slow and obvious wink to Jack who just stared at her deadpanned while she munched on more popcorn and a round of faint snickers erupted from the room.

"Ivy, please," Sally said with a sigh.

Anna paused. "Hm. That's a good point. But I still suck at writing with a quill so I'm borrowing it."

"I'm still convinced Jack hides a bucket of white paint in his office to cover up ink stains on his hands." Ivy said as Anna jumped down from the stage to sit next to Sally again.

"Completely untrue. Stop spreading baseless rumors, Ambassador Ivy," Jack deadpanned but there was amusement in his voice.

Ivy loudly groaned. "If you keep calling me that I'm calling you King Jack and the new kid Princess Anna! Look at the face she's making! She hates it as much as you do!"

Anna wondered why Ivy dragged her into the threat. The easy smile from the human when their eyes met again put her at ease. She recognized what she was doing. Clever.

Ivy was pretty good at keeping up chaos so the attention was staying off Annalise.

Anna made a mental note to thank the human when she got the chance.

She leaned toward the Mayor as Jack and Ivy argued.

"Mayor, I don't actually know what's important to take notes on," she whispered, putting on as polite a voice as she could.

He frowned. "Your point?"

"Perhaps it would be best if I snuck out for today. I will participate in the duties Jack needs, but today I think I may be distracting everyone from actual Halloween planning matters."

The Mayor looked conflicted. "You wish to excuse yourself from the responsibilities of your first meeting?"

She did her best to ignore the accusing tone. "I really think that for today at least, I'm probably more a hindrance than an aid until you and Jack tell me more about how meetings are run." She glanced around at the room. "Everyone's going to be wanting to ask me questions instead of working."

The Mayor still didn't look happy. He was staring at her and she just knew he was studying her aura, seeing the stress for what it was.

"Please?" she asked, quietly.

"...fine," the Mayor grumbled, glancing at Jack. "On your own head if Jack wonders."

Anna barely wasted anytime. She nodded and stood up, bee-lining for the side door. Obviously they would all see her leave. She was hard to miss. But there was no way she'd actually be able to sneak out past all the trained monsters with their curiosity and focus.

She met Jack's eyes as she closed the door behind her.

He looked mildly disappointed but didn't call her back.

Anna mouthed, "Thanks" at Ivy and Sally through the crack in the door as she escaped the room. The questions. The stares. The noise. The glowing colors. So many colors.

The second she was clear, she climbed out a window because she didn't know where the back door was.

The moment her shoes touched cobblestone she bolted, running all the way back to Jack's house.

Lily was taking a nap on the dull sunlight of the porch steps.

Anna stepped over her and ignored whatever questions her familiar offered. She didn't even hear.

She ran up the stairs and slammed the door of her sparse room.

Anna sunk to the floor and leaned against the bed Sally had brought her. She brought her knees up, and took deep breaths as she buried her head and dropped the quickly disintegrating act that held up her confidence and steady words on the stage. There were just too many eyes on her now.

Author's Note: Once again, thank you for your patience. Please join the discord to chat with me! Use this code following the usual discord invite link.

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