And the fan fiction ballet goes on. It's wonderful way to pass the time on a weeknight with crappy weather.

Everybody: There's been a misunderstanding – Mandy's right age is fourteen in the fic. Irwin started bugging her for her hand when she was ten and the Endsville-children's ages are 14 to 16 years. So sorry if anyone was creeped out, totally my fault :/


Boogeyman had been in Underworld Jail for the last three hundred years. It was a minor term, but being anywhere just for a little while can be extremely tedious when people around you are immune to your objectionable antics. If you're an objectionable person, that is; a description that fit Mr. Boogeyman like a glove. He had been imprisoned for having spellbound a mortal teenage nun. He tricked her into serving the entire nunnery fruit punch 'perfumed' with arsenic, just for the fun of it. It had been a real mess for the Underworld Police, because this did not happen in Winter Gates where all humans were used to weird things. They had to clean up the chaos at its site in England and make sure that the poor unknowing perpetrator got away scot-free as it was not her fault. The Lodge and Underworld Court placed her in witness protection at a convent in Switzerland, and Boogeyman was faced with 300 years of cold showers, runny tasteless prison food and tailoring clothes for nerds.

Boogeyman had been released early on good behavior, but only to find that his house and all of his stuff had been sold in a bankruptcy auction. Aghast he had wandered around downtown until hunger and the weather of Winter Gates drove him inside somewhere. The only "somewhere" open at that time of night was the infamous tavern "Shady Regulars". Plague rats, fleas and the neighbors' dubious activities aside, it was the only place he could afford. By the third day of his stay money was running short and he wondered what to do next. He did not have to worry long. That night he met what looked like a young couple at first. They bought him drinks and urged him to tell them about himself. They told Boogeyman that they were newlyweds looking for a place to build a house in town. After the fourth cider, when he had lost the feeling that they already knew all about him, they stated their true business.

The couple consisted of Sperg, Mindy's favorite goon, and a red-headed girl a bit older than him. Her name was Flynn Ghastly, known as just Ghastly. She had recently joined forces with Mindy after the Queen had arrested Ghastly's former boss for treason. Sperg and Ghastly's mission was to find someone of great supernatural power to aid Lady Mindy of the small county of Crumcrust. Her not-so-much lamented sidekick had recently been laid off, as his only idea had been to put rat poop in the court's hippocras.

Boogeyman had been reluctant. The pay seemed decent and his job would be to do what he was best at; being a pain in the derriere. But still – what did they want him to do? He seriously doubted that they would have come to him unless there was some immediate major plan. He was a professional, for goodness' sake.

He had met Lady Mindy personally at her once so proud manor. She had, while all the time twisting a lock of her hair, told him that she wanted him to aid her in overthrowing Mandy. By finding the Book of Hours they could use the queen's own magic to render her powerless. It was a good idea; keeping in mind that it came from an airhead like Mindy.

Oh, yes, Boogeyman had thought to himself. Her Royal Majesty Mandy, the child queen; too young to be beautiful, as her best years were yet to come. She was earlier known as the sickliest, most frail child of Queen Claire and king consort Phil. She was born on a very cold night in December, he remembered that very good, as royal announcers had wakened the entire city right after her birth, as the court physician doubted the little princess would even survive the night. But she outlived her parents, who died from tuberculosis, and was left to be raised by teachers, and also Grim.

Mandy had so far been the most proactive monarch. By the end of the second year of her regency she had built four orphanages, two women's shelters as well as the Southern Sun Hospital for lunatics. He did not know whether these were acts of paranoia or good will. But if you asked any battered woman or insane person in the city you'd found out how little it mattered. Boogeyman could have said no and went straight to the Queen to warn her, but… you know. It was not in his nature to be Mr. Nice Creep.

So, now he was lurking on the outside of the gates to Dimhald Castle, with Ghastly and Sperg. They were all wearing Mandy's emblem on the sleeves of their navy blue parkas. These emblems had been stolen from kidnapped Scythe Lodge officials who may or may not have survived the excruciating interrogations of Lady Mindy's goons. Even though these amulets were the finest work of Schlub cloisonné and with Mandy's colors rendered in fused glass and enamel on pure silver, Ghastly looked down on hers with distaste, as if it was a sacrilege. Boogeyman could not help but thinking that Mandy had far better taste than her rival.

Dimhald Castle was a splendid sight. Its security was also overpowering, not to mention formidable. The entire outer courtyard was bordered by a fifty yard high wall molded right out of harsh grey mountain, with three guards per battlement. Boogeyman counted fifty battlements only on the west side, and also kept in mind the guards' village around the wall. There was a big cluster of small log cabins, the largest could be found at the west waterfall, where many guards off duty were fishing for char and trout. He could not help himself but indulging in a wicked smile as he saw six little children in woolen pelerines having a snowball fight and then gathered to warm their hands on the outdoor fireplace, where a woman was frying fish on a rotisserie.

"Oh, look," said Ghastly in a cold voice. It was like Mandy's, but lacked the power. "We're inside someone's happy-place."

"Let's make sure we have our stories straight," Boogeyman replied to avoid more of Ghastly's sharp words. "If anyone stops us, we're the Lodge members back from the intercity kids' education program survey. Sperg, I take it you have the faux report ready?"

Sperg shook a ribboned scroll triumphantly. "It's all ready."

No guards stopped them at the magnificent wrought iron gate. (Hundreds of years later there would be a similar gate with a certain city's name in iron letters at this site.) Neverless, Sperg kept the report papers visible.

"Welcome," one of Mandy's said as he unlocked the gates.

Boogeyman checked his spring clock; 9 pm. "OK, everybody. The watch is tripled at the Queen's bed time, which is in half an hour. Let's make it snappy."

"You're saying you wanna steal a book, from under her bed, while she's sleeping in it?" Sperg looked at Boogey as if he had turned crazy.

"Yes," Boogey answered deviously.

"And how, exactly, are we gonna land that?" Ghastly tucked a few hairs back in her knot. Boogeyman looked up at the Queen's window.

"Don't worry. I know what to do."