Velveteen vs. The Eternal Halloween, Part II.
Title: Velveteen vs. The Eternal Halloween, Part II.
Summary: There was a time before Velveteen had retired from The Junior Super Patriots, West Coast Division; a time when she thought that a hero's life was definitely the life for her. And a time, once upon a dark and stormy night, when Halloween seemed set to last forever...
Originally sponsored by the 31 Days of Halloween.
***
Scaredy Cat crooked an eyebrow, once again looking briefly much older than his apparent six years of age. "No biggie?" he echoed. "Girl, I can't tell if you're being flippant or if you're just insane. I can't say I'm all that pleased with either option."
Velveteen's dizziness was getting worse. She secretly hoped this was a sign that she was getting ready to wake up from this crazy fun-house dream. Unfortunately, she'd passed the Alternate Reality Survival and Recognizing a Dreamscape in Ten Easy Steps units of Heroing 101 with flying colors, and the likelihood of this being 'just a dream' was going down by the minute. Too much of what was going on didn't fit with dreaming, even under the control of The Dream Postman or Daydream Believer. For one thing, she wasn't in her underwear, and no one was laughing at her. Not yet, anyway.
There was one test left that might determine whether this was just part of a particularly vivid fantasy, one that had somehow managed to trick her mind into thinking she'd lived through the same day several times in succession. "Hold that thought, okay?" she said chipperly, holding up one finger in the universal 'wait just one moment' gesture used by parents, teachers, and annoying babysitters the world over.
Hailey and Scaredy Cat exchanged a glance.
"I hate this part," said Hailey, looking pained.
"Ha," replied Scaredy Cat, spitting out the syllable so that it was less a laugh than a simple expression of scorn. "I remember when you insisted on going through this little dumbshow."
"Don't know what you're talking about, but I'll be right back with you," said Velveteen, and turned to scan the area around her. The rickety old farmhouse that Scaredy Cat had led her to had what she recognized as the 'standard' horror movie farm accessories -- a water barrel filled almost to the top with greenish fluid, some moldy hay bales, an axe driven deep into a tree stump, a small, fenced-off garden patch filled with ripe orange pumpkins, a creepy old tree. The fact that she could recognize everything around her just encouraged her hope that she was dreaming; she was a city kid, after all, and had never seen a real farm in her life. If this had been a real farm, it wouldn't have been so familiar. Right?
Right?
Even if this was a dream, she wasn't going to risk it by messing around with the axe, and she didn't trust the looks of the water barrel. After taking another quick look around, she turned and walked decisively in the direction of the creepy old tree. Not letting herself pause long enough to think about what she was doing, she put her hands to either side of the rough trunk, leaned as far back as she could, and then slammed her forehead into the tree as hard as she could. Pain exploded behind her eyes.
Before she lost consciousness completely, Velveteen sent a swift, silent prayer to whoever might be listening that she was going to wake up in her own bed, safe, sound, and not surrounded by crazy, creepy Halloween people. Then the blackness chased away the pain, and she crumpled mercifully to the ground.
Hailey and Scaredy Cat waited until she hit the ground before walking over to stand to either side of her crumpled body, looking down.
"Well," said Scaredy Cat, finally. "Guess we'd better get her inside before the scarecrows get here. You mind?"
"Just bring her," said Hailey. With a sigh, she turned around and walked back towards the farmhouse, trying to close her ears to the squelching noises coming from behind her.
"This used to be so much simpler," she muttered, and stepped inside.
*
The files on the so-called 'Spirits of the Season' are, by necessity, relatively thin when compared to the files of their better-known heroic counterparts. Some of the Spirits of the Season are believed to be nothing more than standard heroes, taking the by-now-traditional route of naming themselves for pre-existing archetypes. Does anyone truly believe that the jolly fat man who dwells at the North Pole is truly the Santa Claus of song and story, choosing to reveal himself to the world now that we have heroes enough to make his magical nature easier for the public to comprehend? And what of his companions, Mrs. Claus, Jack Frost, and The Snow Queen? Is it better to believe them just another side-effect of the introduction of superheroes to our world, or ageless beings connected by unbreakable bonds to the spiritual power of the seasons themselves?
The file on Hailey Ween, the Halloween Princess, consists purely of the report given by the child hero known as Velveteen (secret identity withheld in accordance with federal superheroic protection regulations). According to Velveteen, Hailey displayed an elemental connection to the very nature of the holiday, and was one day to ascend to the position of Pumpkin Queen, assuming she could retain control of Halloween until she came of age. Also according to Velveteen, Hailey had originally been a human girl, but had been 'claimed' by Halloween through some undetailed ritual, and had never returned to the place of her birth.
To date, no concrete information on Hailey Ween's original identity has been found, despite extensive searches conducted through a hundred and fifty years of personal records. Because of this, and other discrepancies in Velveteen's story, it is impossible to tell whether Velveteen's information was accurate, or merely a junior hero's attempt at justifying truancy.
It remains impossible to determine the truth of Velveteen's disappearance (JSP Incident File #1,715) at this time. It is the recommendation of the Psychiatric Division that Velveteen be monitored carefully for signs of instability...and that her quarters be secured at all times during the month of October, as it is impossible to fully rule out the possibility that she was telling the truth.
End report.
*
For the second time in less than six hours, Velveteen found herself waking up in an unfamiliar room, in an unfamiliar bed, wearing her costume, and in the company of strangers. As an added bonus, she now had a pounding headache to accompany her disorientation. "...ow," she mumbled, slowly pushing herself into a seated position with one hand as she rubbed her forehead with the other. "If this is a dream, it's the worst one I've ever had."
There was at least one major difference between this return to consciousness and the previous one: she was alone this time, with no Halloween girls or weird kids in cat costumes to be seen. Still wincing slightly from the pain, Velveteen dropped her hand and scanned the room, looking for exits and possible dangers.
It was impossible to tell from where she was sitting whether she was in the weird gray farmhouse or not. She definitely wasn't in the room she'd woken up in originally. The bed was another four-poster, but this one was heavy oak, the posts carved in an intricate pattern that started out as pumpkin vines at the bottom, worked its way up through a surprisingly cheery tombstones-and-skulls motif, and ended with bats and stars. Gargoyles topped the bedposts, and the bed was curtained with black lace in a cartoony cobweb pattern. The walls of the room were a cheery orange trimmed with a thin border of black, purple, and green squares, matching the four-color checkerboard rug. The dresser, bookshelves, rocking chair, and vanity mirror looked like they'd been made as a set to go with the bed; each was carved with a different series of patterns, but all the patterns interlocked, creating a odd Halloween puzzle-box effect.
There was a window behind the mirror. Velveteen pushed back the quilt that had been pulled up to cover her (Halloween-print patchwork with squares of velvet; they were definitely consistent in their decorating) and stood, starting towards it.
The mirror caught her attention before she could reach her destination. She stopped, and simply stared.
The seasonal costumes had been Marketing's idea, naturally enough. They were designed to be decorative, rather than functional -- no one was going to go charging into battle wearing their holiday gear if they could help it, since the temporary costumes didn't have nearly as much armor in their default specs -- and they did their job very well, keeping the heroes iconic without making them clash with whatever was currently dominant in the world's decor. Seeing herself decked out in black and orange rather than her usual brown and burgundy was a little odd, but it shouldn't have been surprising.
It was just that she didn't remember her costume being quite so, well, witchy. And she was pretty sure it was supposed to have actual sleeves, not weird torn cloth strips and fingerless gloves. And the random patches sewn onto her leotard and tights gave her an interesting sort of ragdoll look, but that wasn't the sort of thing Marketing usually went for.
And her rabbit ears were supposed to have a visible headband attached, since Marketing said that made them 'less like a cheap special effect and more like a dress-up accessory that every little girl in the country will kill for in a year.'
And they definitely weren't supposed to twitch.
Moving with slow, deliberate care, Velveteen reached up and took hold of the warm, furry tips of the ears protruding from the top of her head. Trying as hard as she could to reject what she was already feeling, she yanked sharply downwards.
Her scream echoed all the way across the Great Pumpkin Patch.
*
Hailey and Scaredy Cat remained calmly seated on the couch, faces turned towards the stairs. Velveteen's screams had started dying down, making it easier for them to resume their conversation.
"She's got good lungs, I'll give her that," said Scaredy Cat. "Still, she's not here to audition for Scream Queen's part. I really don't think--"
"You flunked out of this gig a hundred and fifty years ago," said Hailey. She kept her face turned towards the stairs, but there was ice in her tone. "Do I need to remind you? How you were reduced? How much of yourself I've helped you slip back into the cracks of this holiday?" The air around her was starting to take on a faint refractive quality, tossing off glints of black and orange light. "Should I re-think my forbearance?"
Scaredy Cat went pale. "No, no," he said hurriedly. "I get it. Don't give the kid any shit. I just...look, are you sure she's even ready for this?"
Hailey shrugged, the glitter in the air fading away as she twisted in her seat to face him. "I wasn't," she said. "But it didn't matter then, and it doesn't matter now. Halloween needs her. She'll do her duty."
Scaredy Cat sighed. "Hope you're right."
"Trick or treat and hope to die," said Hailey, and turned back towards the stairs.
*
Velveteen slowly managed to get herself back under control, although not before her throat felt raw from all the screaming. She forced herself to let go of the -- of her -- ears, watching with an almost clinical detachment as they sprang back into an upright position, the hairless flesh on the inside going from bloodless white to an angry red. All right; fine. She'd confirmed that the ears were, in fact, a part of her, and wouldn't be coming off without surgical intervention. What came next?
The rest of the costume. Carefully, she reached around to the back of her neck, feeling for the clasp. The relief she felt on finding it was almost enough to make her forget about the ears. For a few seconds, anyway. Then, almost without thinking about it, she lowered her hands and felt behind herself again.
This time, she managed not to scream. But it was a close thing.
"Fine," she said stiffly to the mirror, as she let go of her tail. "Not a dream, because I've experienced pain. Not a parallel dimension, because I'm demonstrating physical changes. So it's either magic or an alternate reality. Fine."
She knew how to deal with both of those things. They were both things that she was allowed to hit.
*
It was somewhat gratifying to find Hailey and Scaredy Cat together when she stormed out of the room and down the stairs. It was less gratifying to find them in the middle of a Halloween-themed tea service, complete with little sandwiches cut into the shape of bats and jack-o-lanterns. "You!" she shouted, jabbing a finger accusingly in their direction.
Hailey looked up, and smiled. "Tea?" she offered, politely.
"What have you done to me? You fix it! You fix it right now! I want to go home! I'm not--" At that point, the words sort of failed her. She wasn't what? A giant rabbit? Some sort of weird plush toy? In the mood for tea?
"It wasn't us," Hailey said. She sounded mildly apologetic, but only mildly, like a cat owner whose beloved pet had just shed on a pair of black trousers. "It's the holiday. Remember, I told you that you were here to save Halloween? There aren't any costumes here. In Halloween, everyone is exactly what they're supposed to be."
"I'm supposed to be--"
"A hero." Hailey indicated a chair on the other side of the living room. "Please. You decided to knock yourself out before we could finish explaining things before. This might be easier if you let me finish."
Velveteen hesitated. Looking towards Scaredy Cat, she asked, "Is she some sort of witch?"
"No," he said, scowling. "She's a princess."
"Please?" Hailey repeated.
Velveteen sat.
*
"The last battle for Halloween was fought in 1903," said Hailey, once Velveteen was settled. "The guardians then were Jack O'Lantern and the Pumpkin Queen, with their lieutenants, Trick and Treat, standing beside them. The attacks came from the great Corn Maze in the west, when the Wicked Witch sent her Scare Crows against the holiday."
"It was Baum's fault," added Scaredy Cat, resentfully.
Velveteen blinked, trying to ignore the alien sensation of her ears perking up. "The Oz guy?"
"Kids all over the country wanted to be Dorothy Gale and her friends for Halloween," said Hailey. There was something half-nostalgic in her voice. "That was enough to create the idea of a really scary, really powerful Wicked Witch somewhere out there in the world. There's always been a Witch in Halloween, but this was the first time she'd had access to that sort of power. So she attacked."
"What happened?"
Hailey hesitated. "I wasn't here for the whole thing," she said, slowly. "I didn't come until later. After the first big battles had already been fought."
"She baked Jack O'Lantern into a pie," said Scaredy Cat. Velveteen and Hailey both turned to look at him. "Made the Pumpkin Queen eat a big slice of it. Laughed the whole time, too. That movie they made? Their version of the Witch couldn't be stopped by anything short of some wide-eyed farm kid who didn't know what she was doing until she'd already done it." He glanced at Hailey, shaking his head very slightly. "There wasn't any other way to stop her. Halloween had to be saved."
"I know," said Hailey. Looking back towards Velveteen, she said, "I was the only girl they could find who fit the criteria. Strong enough ties to the season; enough of a desire to get away from her life; willingness to listen to the dreams they sent. Maybe most importantly, I had the potential to learn how to manipulate the holiday. So the Pumpkin Queen sent Scaredy Cat to get me and bring me here, and they put me on a road through the darkest part of the Autumn Lands, and I defeated the Wicked Witch. Halloween was saved."
Velveteen nodded solemnly, completely unsurprised by the idea that no salvation was forever. Being a superhero had taught her one very important lesson about worlds: they always needed saving again.
"They made me the Halloween Princess, since it was that or make me the new Witch, and that would have been...bad," said Hailey, with a small sigh. "There is a new Witch -- there's always a Halloween Witch -- but she's nice enough. A little distracted, but nice."
"So why me?" asked Velveteen. "Why can't you save Halloween again?"
"Because Princesses don't do the saving." Hailey's sigh wasn't small at all this time. It was deep, and weary, called up from the very center of her being. "I'm not allowed to save myself."
"Besides, the story's shifted again," added Scaredy Cat.
Velveteen frowned. "So what's the big deal this time?"
"Halloween is being attacked by superheroes," said Hailey.
It said something about the night Velveteen had been having that she didn't find this statement confusing in the least.
*
The first three superheros. The Big Three, the ones who stayed iconic and unforgettable, even though two of them were dead and the third was missing. Majesty. Supermodel. Jolly Roger. The names that launched a thousand dreams, a million games of let's-pretend. No matter how much the Marketing machine threw behind their new heroic lines, it was always Majesty, Supermodel, and Jolly Roger whose toy lines sold the best, whose dress-up gear was the first to fly off the shelves. It seemed assured that they were going to live forever in the imaginations of children everywhere.
The imaginations of children and, it seemed, the crazy fun-house of Halloween, where anything that inspires a sufficient number of costumes stands a shot at turning real.
"You've got the wrong girl!" protested Velveteen, following Hailey out of the house. The yard had changed, going from a semi-generic barnyard setting to something that would have been more appropriate in a Tim Burton film, all twisted, looming topiary and skeletal trees with leering faces in their bark. "I can't fight them. Go back and get somebody with actual power. Get the Super Patriots! Or at least...at least get Action Dude or Sparkle Bright..."
"They don't have a connection to Halloween like you do," said Hailey, looking back over her shoulder. "Try to keep up. It's a ways from here to the Patriotism Palace." She said the words like they tasted bad. Maybe they did, to her.
"What gives me a connection to Halloween? I barely have a connection to the team!"
"You'll learn," said Hailey. She didn't say anything after that. She just kept on walking, and, lacking any better ideas about how to handle things, Velveteen followed her, with Scaredy Cat trailing a bit behind.
For a while, it seemed like Hailey was planning to march them through the entire landscape of Autumn Land. Haunted forests, cemeteries, spooky covered bridges, even fields of corn where the stalks pressed tightly together, smelling of mold and loam. Velveteen had to trot in order to keep up, but no matter how far they walked, she wasn't getting tired. If anything, she felt better than she had when she arrived. Her headache was gone, and she felt like she could walk forever.
A hand tugged at hers. She glanced down, and found that Scaredy Cat had taken hold of her fingers, his shorter legs pumping as he struggled to keep up with her. "You don't want to stay here, do you? Don't say anything. Just shake your head yes or no."
Velveteen shook her head in almost violent negation, relieved even as she did to find that the holiday wasn't tempting her. Like Dorothy Gale in the story -- unlike the girl they'd tapped to play Dorothy's role -- she just wanted to go home.
"You want to leave, you have to do three things. First, you have to win." Velveteen opened her mouth to protest, and closed it again when Scaredy Cat glared at her. "You catch her attention, I never said anything to you. You got me?"
Velveteen nodded meekly.
"Good. Now second, when they go down -- assuming you can win -- you gotta grab the jack-o-lanterns. Don't give them to her," he shot a poisonous glance towards Hailey, "until she's promised to let you leave. And three..." He hesitated, once again looking strangely, terribly old as he said, almost too quietly for her to hear, "You don't let her call you back. You don't ever, ever, let her call you back. Got it?"
Velveteen nodded.
"Good." He let go of her hand.
Glancing quickly forward to confirm that Hailey was still focused on their unseen destination, Velveteen turned back to him, and hissed, "Why are you warning me? Why isn't Hailey telling me this?"
"Because, kid," he said. "She's the good guy."
Then the Patriotism Palace was in front of them, balanced on a high crag that looked far more suited to a crumbling old Victorian manse, and there was no more time for talking.
*
Hailey and Scaredy Cat stood at the base of the trail, watching as Velveteen made her way up the winding path to the final fight for Halloween as they knew it. It took a while for the bright patches on her costume to fade into the mist, but they did, and she was gone.
"You told her?" asked Hailey, not turning.
"Yeah," confirmed Scaredy Cat. "I'm not sorry."
"I didn't think you would be. We could use her, you know."
"Keep her now, lose her forever. Give her some time..."
Hailey laughed, darkly. "Aren't you supposed to be the monster here?"
"Oh, I am. I'm willing to let her find more things she can lose."
They stood in silence for a while after that, before Hailey asked, "Do you think she can win?"
"Honestly?"
"Yes."
"No."
After that, there was nothing else to say.
*
The doors of the Patriotism Palace swung open as Velveteen approached. They were supposed to open automatically for any licensed member of the Super Patriots, or their Junior Branches, but that was in the real world. Not...here. She found the self-opening doors creepy beyond all reason. She walked through them anyway.
The Hall of Victories had been subtly shifted, just like the rest of the hall, the Rogue's Gallery of Villains and Honored Heroes taking on a spooky, Halloween-esque theme. Not a friendly, cartoon Halloween like the one she'd seen with Hailey. This was a darker side of Halloween, the kind that sent little kids scurrying for their parents and made the older ones laugh uncomfortably. This was the Halloween that wanted to kill you, not just chill you.
"I can do this," said Velveteen, softly. "I'm going to go home." Then, because it seemed like the right thing to do, she started chanting under her breath, "There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's..."
The heavy doors to the conference chamber swung open ahead of her. Unlike the front doors, that wasn't supposed to happen. Velveteen stopped dead in her tracks, swallowing hard in an effort to force down the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat.
"...place like home," she whispered, and started forward into the darkness. Almost as an afterthought, she raised one hand, and beckoned. She didn't even look around as the immortalized heroes and villains stepped down from their pedestals and followed her.
The door slammed shut behind the last of them. There was a long moment of silence, all of Halloween seeming to hold its breath.
Then the screaming started.
*
Velveteen came walking down the winding pathway alone, three glowing jack-o-lanterns cradled carefully in her arms. The Patriotism Palace behind her was already starting to dissolve back into the raw stuff of Halloween. The next day, the men and women from Marketing would be baffled by the sudden, unprojected down-tick in the sales figures for the Big Three. They'd never quite recover their market share after that unexplained Halloween loss, and Marketing would eventually come to blame it on the unprecidented star power of two of their newest heroes, Action Dude and Sparkle Bright. That didn't matter on that misty Halloween night that had already stayed long past its welcome. All that mattered then was one exhausted child heroine, trying hard not to think about the stuffing that leaked from one of the tears in her costume as she walked down, down, down to the end of the path.
Scaredy Cat and Hailey were standing exactly where she'd left them. That was no surprise. Neither was the sudden brightness in the air around Hailey, the suggestion of her own private lighting crew, while Scaredy was surrounded by an equally subtle darkness. Things were returning to normal. Halloween normal. Whatever that might mean.
She focused first on Hailey. "Your last name is Ween, isn't it?" she asked. "That's how they caught you."
"Hailey Ween, and I was born on October thirty-first," said Hailey, nodding as she held out her hands. "Give them to me. They're supposed to be mine."
"Promise that you'll send me home," Velveteen responded, hugging the jack-o-lanterns tighter. "Then you can have them."
"What's to stop me from breaking my word?"
"He said you were the good guy."
The look Hailey gave Scaredy Cat was weary, but it was also amused. "He never gets tired of using that against me. Velveteen..." She looked back towards the battered junior hero, and said, "We could use you. Since Trick and Treat ran out, we've been short-handed. The heroes would never have been able to get that much of a hold if we hadn't been abandoned that way. You belong here. You have to feel it. I know I did."
"I just want to go home," Velveteen said. "Please. I want to see my friends, and do my homework, and be able to take my costume off." She was embarrassed to realize that tears were welling up in her eyes. With her arms full of pumpkins, she couldn't even wipe the tears away. "I want to be more than just a mask. I want to go home."
"All right," said Hailey, and held out her arms. "I promise you can go home. Now please, give them to me."
Carefully, so as not to drop them, Velveteen transferred the glowing jack-o-lanterns into Hailey's arms. They stayed there for a moment, glow increasing in intensity, before they exploded -- not into pumpkin guts and goo, as she would have expected, but into a wild swirl of autumn leaves, glitter, and bats that flapped their leathery wings frantically as they climbed up into the sky. Hailey laughed and clapped her hands, delighted. Even Scaredy Cat cracked a smile.
"Safe!" she crowed. "Safe and sound and it's all candy apples and construction paper cats for another turn of seasons." Her smile was almost broad enough to enter jack-o-lantern territory as she looked back down, towards Velveteen. "Now. What are we going to do about you?"
"Um...send me home?" said Velveteen.
"Well, yes," said Hailey, looking surprised. "I promised. It's just that you've been here for almost two weeks."
"What?" Velveteen stared at her. "But--"
"Can't rewind her," said Scaredy Cat. "Do that, she doesn't remember not to let you call her back. She'll have to go as-is."
"But--"
"You're right," said Hailey, sounding regretful. "All right, Vel. Take a deep breath."
"Hang on for a--"
Hailey raised her hand to her lips and blew, sending a cloud of orange and green glitter puffing into the air. Velveteen breathed in automatically, and choked as the glitter filled her mouth and got into her eyes, forcing them into a series of stinging blinks. She bent forward, coughing. It got harder to breath, and she finally had to sit down, struggling to get her balance back.
"Over here!" shouted a voice.
A familiar voice. Velveteen's head snapped up, coughing tapering off as she looked frantically around the dark wood where she was sitting. All alone. No signs of Halloween to be seen anywhere. One hand went quickly up to pat the crown of her head, and she almost started giggling as she realized that her bunny ears were gone. No costume here. No wounds that leaked stuffing. Halloween was over.
Somehow, it still managed to be an even greater relief when Action Dude came flying out of the trees ahead, surrounded by his pale orange glow, with Sparkle Bright riding a rainbow right behind him. They both slammed into Velveteen, and then all three of them were laughing and clinging to each other. Then Velveteen realized she was sobbing, and so was Sparks, and Action Dude, and--
The rest of the search team found them by following the fireworks that Sparkle Bright was creating overhead. They had a little time to calm the kids before Marketing arrived, and the debriefing began.
During the interrogation that followed Velveteen found herself thinking, more than once, that maybe she should have stayed in Halloween after all.
*
The next night, Velveteen crawled into her own bed, the sheets smoothed by her own teddy bears, and closed her eyes. Marketing had been mercilessly thorough, but in the end, they couldn't prove that she'd done anything at all. She wasn't a teleporter. So her disappearance, whether it was to Autumn Land or into a supervillain's clutches, couldn't have been her own fault. She'd be under evaluation for a while, but for the moment, the worst was over.
She was home.
*
"You really think she'll come to us eventually?"
"Us, or one of the others. She'd do well in Winter, I think. Not too shabby in Spring, either, if the Bunny wanted to get himself some help."
"She's so young."
"Older than you were, Hailey."
"They stay young longer these days, even while they're trying to put aside their childish things as early as they can. It's something in the water, I guess."
"She's going to be fine. Girls like her, they're always fine. Or they're monster-meat, but those're the risks you gotta take. She'd be taking them if she was here, too."
"I know, but..."
"Pumpkin Queen can't keep the throne forever. One of these days, you'll need to hand over the Holiday -- hand over keeping me from breaking it all down to hear the pretty smashing noises -- to somebody new. Take her now, it won't be her. Gotta give her time to get used to the idea."
"Are you supposed to be helping me?"
"What can I say? This year, I decided your trick would be getting a treat."
"Thank you." Hailey leaned forward, blowing out the scrying candle. The Great Pumpkin's eyes went dark as the last of the long Halloween's magic began to fade away. "It was a good Halloween, wasn't it, Scaredy?"
"They're all good Halloweens," he said.
Trick or treat.
Summary: There was a time before Velveteen had retired from The Junior Super Patriots, West Coast Division; a time when she thought that a hero's life was definitely the life for her. And a time, once upon a dark and stormy night, when Halloween seemed set to last forever...
Originally sponsored by the 31 Days of Halloween.
***
Scaredy Cat crooked an eyebrow, once again looking briefly much older than his apparent six years of age. "No biggie?" he echoed. "Girl, I can't tell if you're being flippant or if you're just insane. I can't say I'm all that pleased with either option."
Velveteen's dizziness was getting worse. She secretly hoped this was a sign that she was getting ready to wake up from this crazy fun-house dream. Unfortunately, she'd passed the Alternate Reality Survival and Recognizing a Dreamscape in Ten Easy Steps units of Heroing 101 with flying colors, and the likelihood of this being 'just a dream' was going down by the minute. Too much of what was going on didn't fit with dreaming, even under the control of The Dream Postman or Daydream Believer. For one thing, she wasn't in her underwear, and no one was laughing at her. Not yet, anyway.
There was one test left that might determine whether this was just part of a particularly vivid fantasy, one that had somehow managed to trick her mind into thinking she'd lived through the same day several times in succession. "Hold that thought, okay?" she said chipperly, holding up one finger in the universal 'wait just one moment' gesture used by parents, teachers, and annoying babysitters the world over.
Hailey and Scaredy Cat exchanged a glance.
"I hate this part," said Hailey, looking pained.
"Ha," replied Scaredy Cat, spitting out the syllable so that it was less a laugh than a simple expression of scorn. "I remember when you insisted on going through this little dumbshow."
"Don't know what you're talking about, but I'll be right back with you," said Velveteen, and turned to scan the area around her. The rickety old farmhouse that Scaredy Cat had led her to had what she recognized as the 'standard' horror movie farm accessories -- a water barrel filled almost to the top with greenish fluid, some moldy hay bales, an axe driven deep into a tree stump, a small, fenced-off garden patch filled with ripe orange pumpkins, a creepy old tree. The fact that she could recognize everything around her just encouraged her hope that she was dreaming; she was a city kid, after all, and had never seen a real farm in her life. If this had been a real farm, it wouldn't have been so familiar. Right?
Right?
Even if this was a dream, she wasn't going to risk it by messing around with the axe, and she didn't trust the looks of the water barrel. After taking another quick look around, she turned and walked decisively in the direction of the creepy old tree. Not letting herself pause long enough to think about what she was doing, she put her hands to either side of the rough trunk, leaned as far back as she could, and then slammed her forehead into the tree as hard as she could. Pain exploded behind her eyes.
Before she lost consciousness completely, Velveteen sent a swift, silent prayer to whoever might be listening that she was going to wake up in her own bed, safe, sound, and not surrounded by crazy, creepy Halloween people. Then the blackness chased away the pain, and she crumpled mercifully to the ground.
Hailey and Scaredy Cat waited until she hit the ground before walking over to stand to either side of her crumpled body, looking down.
"Well," said Scaredy Cat, finally. "Guess we'd better get her inside before the scarecrows get here. You mind?"
"Just bring her," said Hailey. With a sigh, she turned around and walked back towards the farmhouse, trying to close her ears to the squelching noises coming from behind her.
"This used to be so much simpler," she muttered, and stepped inside.
*
The files on the so-called 'Spirits of the Season' are, by necessity, relatively thin when compared to the files of their better-known heroic counterparts. Some of the Spirits of the Season are believed to be nothing more than standard heroes, taking the by-now-traditional route of naming themselves for pre-existing archetypes. Does anyone truly believe that the jolly fat man who dwells at the North Pole is truly the Santa Claus of song and story, choosing to reveal himself to the world now that we have heroes enough to make his magical nature easier for the public to comprehend? And what of his companions, Mrs. Claus, Jack Frost, and The Snow Queen? Is it better to believe them just another side-effect of the introduction of superheroes to our world, or ageless beings connected by unbreakable bonds to the spiritual power of the seasons themselves?
The file on Hailey Ween, the Halloween Princess, consists purely of the report given by the child hero known as Velveteen (secret identity withheld in accordance with federal superheroic protection regulations). According to Velveteen, Hailey displayed an elemental connection to the very nature of the holiday, and was one day to ascend to the position of Pumpkin Queen, assuming she could retain control of Halloween until she came of age. Also according to Velveteen, Hailey had originally been a human girl, but had been 'claimed' by Halloween through some undetailed ritual, and had never returned to the place of her birth.
To date, no concrete information on Hailey Ween's original identity has been found, despite extensive searches conducted through a hundred and fifty years of personal records. Because of this, and other discrepancies in Velveteen's story, it is impossible to tell whether Velveteen's information was accurate, or merely a junior hero's attempt at justifying truancy.
It remains impossible to determine the truth of Velveteen's disappearance (JSP Incident File #1,715) at this time. It is the recommendation of the Psychiatric Division that Velveteen be monitored carefully for signs of instability...and that her quarters be secured at all times during the month of October, as it is impossible to fully rule out the possibility that she was telling the truth.
End report.
*
For the second time in less than six hours, Velveteen found herself waking up in an unfamiliar room, in an unfamiliar bed, wearing her costume, and in the company of strangers. As an added bonus, she now had a pounding headache to accompany her disorientation. "...ow," she mumbled, slowly pushing herself into a seated position with one hand as she rubbed her forehead with the other. "If this is a dream, it's the worst one I've ever had."
There was at least one major difference between this return to consciousness and the previous one: she was alone this time, with no Halloween girls or weird kids in cat costumes to be seen. Still wincing slightly from the pain, Velveteen dropped her hand and scanned the room, looking for exits and possible dangers.
It was impossible to tell from where she was sitting whether she was in the weird gray farmhouse or not. She definitely wasn't in the room she'd woken up in originally. The bed was another four-poster, but this one was heavy oak, the posts carved in an intricate pattern that started out as pumpkin vines at the bottom, worked its way up through a surprisingly cheery tombstones-and-skulls motif, and ended with bats and stars. Gargoyles topped the bedposts, and the bed was curtained with black lace in a cartoony cobweb pattern. The walls of the room were a cheery orange trimmed with a thin border of black, purple, and green squares, matching the four-color checkerboard rug. The dresser, bookshelves, rocking chair, and vanity mirror looked like they'd been made as a set to go with the bed; each was carved with a different series of patterns, but all the patterns interlocked, creating a odd Halloween puzzle-box effect.
There was a window behind the mirror. Velveteen pushed back the quilt that had been pulled up to cover her (Halloween-print patchwork with squares of velvet; they were definitely consistent in their decorating) and stood, starting towards it.
The mirror caught her attention before she could reach her destination. She stopped, and simply stared.
The seasonal costumes had been Marketing's idea, naturally enough. They were designed to be decorative, rather than functional -- no one was going to go charging into battle wearing their holiday gear if they could help it, since the temporary costumes didn't have nearly as much armor in their default specs -- and they did their job very well, keeping the heroes iconic without making them clash with whatever was currently dominant in the world's decor. Seeing herself decked out in black and orange rather than her usual brown and burgundy was a little odd, but it shouldn't have been surprising.
It was just that she didn't remember her costume being quite so, well, witchy. And she was pretty sure it was supposed to have actual sleeves, not weird torn cloth strips and fingerless gloves. And the random patches sewn onto her leotard and tights gave her an interesting sort of ragdoll look, but that wasn't the sort of thing Marketing usually went for.
And her rabbit ears were supposed to have a visible headband attached, since Marketing said that made them 'less like a cheap special effect and more like a dress-up accessory that every little girl in the country will kill for in a year.'
And they definitely weren't supposed to twitch.
Moving with slow, deliberate care, Velveteen reached up and took hold of the warm, furry tips of the ears protruding from the top of her head. Trying as hard as she could to reject what she was already feeling, she yanked sharply downwards.
Her scream echoed all the way across the Great Pumpkin Patch.
*
Hailey and Scaredy Cat remained calmly seated on the couch, faces turned towards the stairs. Velveteen's screams had started dying down, making it easier for them to resume their conversation.
"She's got good lungs, I'll give her that," said Scaredy Cat. "Still, she's not here to audition for Scream Queen's part. I really don't think--"
"You flunked out of this gig a hundred and fifty years ago," said Hailey. She kept her face turned towards the stairs, but there was ice in her tone. "Do I need to remind you? How you were reduced? How much of yourself I've helped you slip back into the cracks of this holiday?" The air around her was starting to take on a faint refractive quality, tossing off glints of black and orange light. "Should I re-think my forbearance?"
Scaredy Cat went pale. "No, no," he said hurriedly. "I get it. Don't give the kid any shit. I just...look, are you sure she's even ready for this?"
Hailey shrugged, the glitter in the air fading away as she twisted in her seat to face him. "I wasn't," she said. "But it didn't matter then, and it doesn't matter now. Halloween needs her. She'll do her duty."
Scaredy Cat sighed. "Hope you're right."
"Trick or treat and hope to die," said Hailey, and turned back towards the stairs.
*
Velveteen slowly managed to get herself back under control, although not before her throat felt raw from all the screaming. She forced herself to let go of the -- of her -- ears, watching with an almost clinical detachment as they sprang back into an upright position, the hairless flesh on the inside going from bloodless white to an angry red. All right; fine. She'd confirmed that the ears were, in fact, a part of her, and wouldn't be coming off without surgical intervention. What came next?
The rest of the costume. Carefully, she reached around to the back of her neck, feeling for the clasp. The relief she felt on finding it was almost enough to make her forget about the ears. For a few seconds, anyway. Then, almost without thinking about it, she lowered her hands and felt behind herself again.
This time, she managed not to scream. But it was a close thing.
"Fine," she said stiffly to the mirror, as she let go of her tail. "Not a dream, because I've experienced pain. Not a parallel dimension, because I'm demonstrating physical changes. So it's either magic or an alternate reality. Fine."
She knew how to deal with both of those things. They were both things that she was allowed to hit.
*
It was somewhat gratifying to find Hailey and Scaredy Cat together when she stormed out of the room and down the stairs. It was less gratifying to find them in the middle of a Halloween-themed tea service, complete with little sandwiches cut into the shape of bats and jack-o-lanterns. "You!" she shouted, jabbing a finger accusingly in their direction.
Hailey looked up, and smiled. "Tea?" she offered, politely.
"What have you done to me? You fix it! You fix it right now! I want to go home! I'm not--" At that point, the words sort of failed her. She wasn't what? A giant rabbit? Some sort of weird plush toy? In the mood for tea?
"It wasn't us," Hailey said. She sounded mildly apologetic, but only mildly, like a cat owner whose beloved pet had just shed on a pair of black trousers. "It's the holiday. Remember, I told you that you were here to save Halloween? There aren't any costumes here. In Halloween, everyone is exactly what they're supposed to be."
"I'm supposed to be--"
"A hero." Hailey indicated a chair on the other side of the living room. "Please. You decided to knock yourself out before we could finish explaining things before. This might be easier if you let me finish."
Velveteen hesitated. Looking towards Scaredy Cat, she asked, "Is she some sort of witch?"
"No," he said, scowling. "She's a princess."
"Please?" Hailey repeated.
Velveteen sat.
*
"The last battle for Halloween was fought in 1903," said Hailey, once Velveteen was settled. "The guardians then were Jack O'Lantern and the Pumpkin Queen, with their lieutenants, Trick and Treat, standing beside them. The attacks came from the great Corn Maze in the west, when the Wicked Witch sent her Scare Crows against the holiday."
"It was Baum's fault," added Scaredy Cat, resentfully.
Velveteen blinked, trying to ignore the alien sensation of her ears perking up. "The Oz guy?"
"Kids all over the country wanted to be Dorothy Gale and her friends for Halloween," said Hailey. There was something half-nostalgic in her voice. "That was enough to create the idea of a really scary, really powerful Wicked Witch somewhere out there in the world. There's always been a Witch in Halloween, but this was the first time she'd had access to that sort of power. So she attacked."
"What happened?"
Hailey hesitated. "I wasn't here for the whole thing," she said, slowly. "I didn't come until later. After the first big battles had already been fought."
"She baked Jack O'Lantern into a pie," said Scaredy Cat. Velveteen and Hailey both turned to look at him. "Made the Pumpkin Queen eat a big slice of it. Laughed the whole time, too. That movie they made? Their version of the Witch couldn't be stopped by anything short of some wide-eyed farm kid who didn't know what she was doing until she'd already done it." He glanced at Hailey, shaking his head very slightly. "There wasn't any other way to stop her. Halloween had to be saved."
"I know," said Hailey. Looking back towards Velveteen, she said, "I was the only girl they could find who fit the criteria. Strong enough ties to the season; enough of a desire to get away from her life; willingness to listen to the dreams they sent. Maybe most importantly, I had the potential to learn how to manipulate the holiday. So the Pumpkin Queen sent Scaredy Cat to get me and bring me here, and they put me on a road through the darkest part of the Autumn Lands, and I defeated the Wicked Witch. Halloween was saved."
Velveteen nodded solemnly, completely unsurprised by the idea that no salvation was forever. Being a superhero had taught her one very important lesson about worlds: they always needed saving again.
"They made me the Halloween Princess, since it was that or make me the new Witch, and that would have been...bad," said Hailey, with a small sigh. "There is a new Witch -- there's always a Halloween Witch -- but she's nice enough. A little distracted, but nice."
"So why me?" asked Velveteen. "Why can't you save Halloween again?"
"Because Princesses don't do the saving." Hailey's sigh wasn't small at all this time. It was deep, and weary, called up from the very center of her being. "I'm not allowed to save myself."
"Besides, the story's shifted again," added Scaredy Cat.
Velveteen frowned. "So what's the big deal this time?"
"Halloween is being attacked by superheroes," said Hailey.
It said something about the night Velveteen had been having that she didn't find this statement confusing in the least.
*
The first three superheros. The Big Three, the ones who stayed iconic and unforgettable, even though two of them were dead and the third was missing. Majesty. Supermodel. Jolly Roger. The names that launched a thousand dreams, a million games of let's-pretend. No matter how much the Marketing machine threw behind their new heroic lines, it was always Majesty, Supermodel, and Jolly Roger whose toy lines sold the best, whose dress-up gear was the first to fly off the shelves. It seemed assured that they were going to live forever in the imaginations of children everywhere.
The imaginations of children and, it seemed, the crazy fun-house of Halloween, where anything that inspires a sufficient number of costumes stands a shot at turning real.
"You've got the wrong girl!" protested Velveteen, following Hailey out of the house. The yard had changed, going from a semi-generic barnyard setting to something that would have been more appropriate in a Tim Burton film, all twisted, looming topiary and skeletal trees with leering faces in their bark. "I can't fight them. Go back and get somebody with actual power. Get the Super Patriots! Or at least...at least get Action Dude or Sparkle Bright..."
"They don't have a connection to Halloween like you do," said Hailey, looking back over her shoulder. "Try to keep up. It's a ways from here to the Patriotism Palace." She said the words like they tasted bad. Maybe they did, to her.
"What gives me a connection to Halloween? I barely have a connection to the team!"
"You'll learn," said Hailey. She didn't say anything after that. She just kept on walking, and, lacking any better ideas about how to handle things, Velveteen followed her, with Scaredy Cat trailing a bit behind.
For a while, it seemed like Hailey was planning to march them through the entire landscape of Autumn Land. Haunted forests, cemeteries, spooky covered bridges, even fields of corn where the stalks pressed tightly together, smelling of mold and loam. Velveteen had to trot in order to keep up, but no matter how far they walked, she wasn't getting tired. If anything, she felt better than she had when she arrived. Her headache was gone, and she felt like she could walk forever.
A hand tugged at hers. She glanced down, and found that Scaredy Cat had taken hold of her fingers, his shorter legs pumping as he struggled to keep up with her. "You don't want to stay here, do you? Don't say anything. Just shake your head yes or no."
Velveteen shook her head in almost violent negation, relieved even as she did to find that the holiday wasn't tempting her. Like Dorothy Gale in the story -- unlike the girl they'd tapped to play Dorothy's role -- she just wanted to go home.
"You want to leave, you have to do three things. First, you have to win." Velveteen opened her mouth to protest, and closed it again when Scaredy Cat glared at her. "You catch her attention, I never said anything to you. You got me?"
Velveteen nodded meekly.
"Good. Now second, when they go down -- assuming you can win -- you gotta grab the jack-o-lanterns. Don't give them to her," he shot a poisonous glance towards Hailey, "until she's promised to let you leave. And three..." He hesitated, once again looking strangely, terribly old as he said, almost too quietly for her to hear, "You don't let her call you back. You don't ever, ever, let her call you back. Got it?"
Velveteen nodded.
"Good." He let go of her hand.
Glancing quickly forward to confirm that Hailey was still focused on their unseen destination, Velveteen turned back to him, and hissed, "Why are you warning me? Why isn't Hailey telling me this?"
"Because, kid," he said. "She's the good guy."
Then the Patriotism Palace was in front of them, balanced on a high crag that looked far more suited to a crumbling old Victorian manse, and there was no more time for talking.
*
Hailey and Scaredy Cat stood at the base of the trail, watching as Velveteen made her way up the winding path to the final fight for Halloween as they knew it. It took a while for the bright patches on her costume to fade into the mist, but they did, and she was gone.
"You told her?" asked Hailey, not turning.
"Yeah," confirmed Scaredy Cat. "I'm not sorry."
"I didn't think you would be. We could use her, you know."
"Keep her now, lose her forever. Give her some time..."
Hailey laughed, darkly. "Aren't you supposed to be the monster here?"
"Oh, I am. I'm willing to let her find more things she can lose."
They stood in silence for a while after that, before Hailey asked, "Do you think she can win?"
"Honestly?"
"Yes."
"No."
After that, there was nothing else to say.
*
The doors of the Patriotism Palace swung open as Velveteen approached. They were supposed to open automatically for any licensed member of the Super Patriots, or their Junior Branches, but that was in the real world. Not...here. She found the self-opening doors creepy beyond all reason. She walked through them anyway.
The Hall of Victories had been subtly shifted, just like the rest of the hall, the Rogue's Gallery of Villains and Honored Heroes taking on a spooky, Halloween-esque theme. Not a friendly, cartoon Halloween like the one she'd seen with Hailey. This was a darker side of Halloween, the kind that sent little kids scurrying for their parents and made the older ones laugh uncomfortably. This was the Halloween that wanted to kill you, not just chill you.
"I can do this," said Velveteen, softly. "I'm going to go home." Then, because it seemed like the right thing to do, she started chanting under her breath, "There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's..."
The heavy doors to the conference chamber swung open ahead of her. Unlike the front doors, that wasn't supposed to happen. Velveteen stopped dead in her tracks, swallowing hard in an effort to force down the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat.
"...place like home," she whispered, and started forward into the darkness. Almost as an afterthought, she raised one hand, and beckoned. She didn't even look around as the immortalized heroes and villains stepped down from their pedestals and followed her.
The door slammed shut behind the last of them. There was a long moment of silence, all of Halloween seeming to hold its breath.
Then the screaming started.
*
Velveteen came walking down the winding pathway alone, three glowing jack-o-lanterns cradled carefully in her arms. The Patriotism Palace behind her was already starting to dissolve back into the raw stuff of Halloween. The next day, the men and women from Marketing would be baffled by the sudden, unprojected down-tick in the sales figures for the Big Three. They'd never quite recover their market share after that unexplained Halloween loss, and Marketing would eventually come to blame it on the unprecidented star power of two of their newest heroes, Action Dude and Sparkle Bright. That didn't matter on that misty Halloween night that had already stayed long past its welcome. All that mattered then was one exhausted child heroine, trying hard not to think about the stuffing that leaked from one of the tears in her costume as she walked down, down, down to the end of the path.
Scaredy Cat and Hailey were standing exactly where she'd left them. That was no surprise. Neither was the sudden brightness in the air around Hailey, the suggestion of her own private lighting crew, while Scaredy was surrounded by an equally subtle darkness. Things were returning to normal. Halloween normal. Whatever that might mean.
She focused first on Hailey. "Your last name is Ween, isn't it?" she asked. "That's how they caught you."
"Hailey Ween, and I was born on October thirty-first," said Hailey, nodding as she held out her hands. "Give them to me. They're supposed to be mine."
"Promise that you'll send me home," Velveteen responded, hugging the jack-o-lanterns tighter. "Then you can have them."
"What's to stop me from breaking my word?"
"He said you were the good guy."
The look Hailey gave Scaredy Cat was weary, but it was also amused. "He never gets tired of using that against me. Velveteen..." She looked back towards the battered junior hero, and said, "We could use you. Since Trick and Treat ran out, we've been short-handed. The heroes would never have been able to get that much of a hold if we hadn't been abandoned that way. You belong here. You have to feel it. I know I did."
"I just want to go home," Velveteen said. "Please. I want to see my friends, and do my homework, and be able to take my costume off." She was embarrassed to realize that tears were welling up in her eyes. With her arms full of pumpkins, she couldn't even wipe the tears away. "I want to be more than just a mask. I want to go home."
"All right," said Hailey, and held out her arms. "I promise you can go home. Now please, give them to me."
Carefully, so as not to drop them, Velveteen transferred the glowing jack-o-lanterns into Hailey's arms. They stayed there for a moment, glow increasing in intensity, before they exploded -- not into pumpkin guts and goo, as she would have expected, but into a wild swirl of autumn leaves, glitter, and bats that flapped their leathery wings frantically as they climbed up into the sky. Hailey laughed and clapped her hands, delighted. Even Scaredy Cat cracked a smile.
"Safe!" she crowed. "Safe and sound and it's all candy apples and construction paper cats for another turn of seasons." Her smile was almost broad enough to enter jack-o-lantern territory as she looked back down, towards Velveteen. "Now. What are we going to do about you?"
"Um...send me home?" said Velveteen.
"Well, yes," said Hailey, looking surprised. "I promised. It's just that you've been here for almost two weeks."
"What?" Velveteen stared at her. "But--"
"Can't rewind her," said Scaredy Cat. "Do that, she doesn't remember not to let you call her back. She'll have to go as-is."
"But--"
"You're right," said Hailey, sounding regretful. "All right, Vel. Take a deep breath."
"Hang on for a--"
Hailey raised her hand to her lips and blew, sending a cloud of orange and green glitter puffing into the air. Velveteen breathed in automatically, and choked as the glitter filled her mouth and got into her eyes, forcing them into a series of stinging blinks. She bent forward, coughing. It got harder to breath, and she finally had to sit down, struggling to get her balance back.
"Over here!" shouted a voice.
A familiar voice. Velveteen's head snapped up, coughing tapering off as she looked frantically around the dark wood where she was sitting. All alone. No signs of Halloween to be seen anywhere. One hand went quickly up to pat the crown of her head, and she almost started giggling as she realized that her bunny ears were gone. No costume here. No wounds that leaked stuffing. Halloween was over.
Somehow, it still managed to be an even greater relief when Action Dude came flying out of the trees ahead, surrounded by his pale orange glow, with Sparkle Bright riding a rainbow right behind him. They both slammed into Velveteen, and then all three of them were laughing and clinging to each other. Then Velveteen realized she was sobbing, and so was Sparks, and Action Dude, and--
The rest of the search team found them by following the fireworks that Sparkle Bright was creating overhead. They had a little time to calm the kids before Marketing arrived, and the debriefing began.
During the interrogation that followed Velveteen found herself thinking, more than once, that maybe she should have stayed in Halloween after all.
*
The next night, Velveteen crawled into her own bed, the sheets smoothed by her own teddy bears, and closed her eyes. Marketing had been mercilessly thorough, but in the end, they couldn't prove that she'd done anything at all. She wasn't a teleporter. So her disappearance, whether it was to Autumn Land or into a supervillain's clutches, couldn't have been her own fault. She'd be under evaluation for a while, but for the moment, the worst was over.
She was home.
*
"You really think she'll come to us eventually?"
"Us, or one of the others. She'd do well in Winter, I think. Not too shabby in Spring, either, if the Bunny wanted to get himself some help."
"She's so young."
"Older than you were, Hailey."
"They stay young longer these days, even while they're trying to put aside their childish things as early as they can. It's something in the water, I guess."
"She's going to be fine. Girls like her, they're always fine. Or they're monster-meat, but those're the risks you gotta take. She'd be taking them if she was here, too."
"I know, but..."
"Pumpkin Queen can't keep the throne forever. One of these days, you'll need to hand over the Holiday -- hand over keeping me from breaking it all down to hear the pretty smashing noises -- to somebody new. Take her now, it won't be her. Gotta give her time to get used to the idea."
"Are you supposed to be helping me?"
"What can I say? This year, I decided your trick would be getting a treat."
"Thank you." Hailey leaned forward, blowing out the scrying candle. The Great Pumpkin's eyes went dark as the last of the long Halloween's magic began to fade away. "It was a good Halloween, wasn't it, Scaredy?"
"They're all good Halloweens," he said.
Trick or treat.