All Hallows Eve (A Blog Writers Original).
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Hey
there Earthlings, Alternatives and Trollers. Put down that mouse and
lend an ear. Welcome to The Bandersnatch blog where we talk weird,
wacky and wondrous. I'm Mama Ogre and I have no idea what I'm doing.
In
these trying times, I hope you are sharing the day with the people
you love no matter who you are or wherever you are and keeping in
touch with those you can't.
As
you should know Fridays is Funday blog day were we talk anything and
everything and pretty much run with it. Today's blog is on a short
story that I personally wrote; All Hallows Eve.
All
Hallows Eve
Decorated in Halloween's best and scariest
looking decorations and dressed in the finest costumes, No-one could
say the civilians of Santa Barbara shunned Halloween but wholly
embraced it. For every year like clockwork. Each and every building;
Corporate, Private and Public owned, both large and small were
bedecked in some of the greatest decorations around. From realistic
bats and skulls to gravestones and pumpkins, everything and anything
went. That sentence stretched to costumes as well. Men, Women and
Children were dressed up to the nines as anything from witches and
wizards through heroes and villains to popular cartoon characters.
Many parties and games for all ages were started on all hallows eve
as well as trick or treating. It seemed to many residents in the
north eastern part of Santa Barbara on this particular night that
there were twice as many 'treaters' than was normal for this part of
town. The tricks were twice as decisive, clever and crude. Several
adults, teenagers and children had already been taken to hospital
with strange and rather unusual injuries. It was later in the evening
when the younger children of Santa Barbara were being taken inside,
fed and put to bed, that it was noted that the unknown particularly
creepy children and teenagers were amongst the teenagers and
occasional child still roaming the streets.
A
strange wind picked up as one knowing old grandfather standing at his
front door with his son-in-law a sad yet knowing frown on his face as
his twelve grandchildren filed through the door.
"They're
here" He breathed mournfully as his son-in-law pulled him
straight inside and locked the door as three young people appeared
out of the gathering wispy mist.
They
were not the tallest of people, looking more like children at first
glance. Each of these strange beings looked at least sixteen or there
about. The Eldest was definitely a girl teetering near the brink of
womanhood. Her accomplices were more men in their features then boys
but something in the air around them spoke volumes of a child or
children planning mischievous things. Their names are Inky, Blinky
and Nodd. Inky was the tallest of the three of them and the elder
boy. His hair a vivid red and his eyes an inky black. He wore a mask
like that of a mouth less devil that seemed like a second skin at a
glance. Blinky was the eldest of the three and the only girl and boy
did she know it. Not being the tallest annoyed her to no end. But
with pale skin, dark hair and pale green eyes Blinky knew her own
skin. And she used it to her complete advantage. She was dressed head
to foot in a completely black 'sexy' witch costume with a tall black
hat and black boots. The boots she wore was particularly similar to
the mask Jarred the Plague doctor wore, as it had a long beak on it.
Nodd was the other boy and the smallest and youngest of the three of
them. Nodd had shortly cropped sandy blonde hair and bright blue
eyes, he was rather podgy around the middle and his black and white
striped clothes didn't help with calming the nerves or fears of
people who happened to cross him and his siblings at night, neither
did the completely blank white mask that he wore.
Certain
people -mainly young children and adults who had seen death- could
see them while others couldn't, the reactions of the people who could
see them varied from person to person but the main reactions would be
either flee in terror or fear or flock to them in joy. The pranks and
tricks increased in frequency, violence and malice the moment the
three ultimate pranksters appeared, Windows were broken in as well as
cars, stolen and crashed, people severely injured and several
decorations completely demolished. Many of the remaining teenagers
and children, who were not troublemakers or brave enough to finish
their trick or treating, returned home to their families. The brave
few children and teenagers who remained attempted to complete their
rounds. One such child was a determined twelve year old girl by the
name of Juno, dressed as a witch heading to the final house on her
rounds. Her Hat sat awkwardly on her brown flyaway hair as clear blue
eyes gazed out over an obviously fake nose. Juno walked up the
pathway, onto the porch, knocked on the door and waited patiently for
it to open.
“Trick
or Treat" she said as a tall bald man with a tired expression
appeared at the door and opened it.
The
bald headed builder gave a tired sigh and a smile as he grabbed a
half filled bowl of candy and almost shoved it into her chest.
"Here"
He said "Take as much as you want, you're the last kid"
Juno smiled and took her fill of the candy bowl.
Not
a moment later the bowl slipped from the man's grasp and clanged to
the floor loudly and broke in half scattering candy in all
directions, Juno looked up with a frown to see his strange look as he
visibly paled. Juno slowly turned around to see what he was staring
at. There they were running around causing havoc and mayhem was Inky,
Blinky and Nodd. Juno almost screamed as she turned on her heals and
fled towards her home, the bald man slammed his door behind her. Inky
saw Juno as she ran across the road and pointed his out to her
comrades. All three gave chase, cackling with joy and morphing every
few feet. Juno rounded the corner and was promptly stopped by Blinky.
"Who
do we have here then?" Blinky purred in a spine tingling voice
as Inky and Nodd pressed in from behind, cackling and smiling.
"A
recruit for our cause?" Nodd asked looking and sounding like an
excitable demonic like puppy.
"A
new and young recruit" Inky answered with a strange gleam in his
eyes as Blinky drew to her full height.
"Best
change her now and be quick about it" Blinky said raising her
hand as it began to glow a fluorescent baby blue.
"Wait"
A voice rang out from directly across the street from where they
stood. A young blonde haired woman with Blue-Green eyes stood on the
other side of the street dressed in all black from her shirt to her
boots and an impressive black cloak. "Inky, Blinky and Nodd"
she sounded like summer and winter all rolled into one "How dare
you, leave the girl be it is not her time, BE GONE!"
Inky,
Blinky and Nodd drew away from dot almost instantaneously, giggling
manically as they vanished and Juno flew to the young woman who knelt
down to her level and opened her arms to her.
"We'll
go then" Inkys voice echoed creepily around them
"And
find another" Blinkys voice joined in
"Whose
time is now and ours for the taking" Nodd Finished as they
cackled menacingly, Juno felt completely safe as she pressed her face
into her shoulder and the pranking trio completely vanished.
"They
will never learn" The young woman said making Juno stand in
front of her to check her face "Come child let us get you home"
"Who
were they?" Juno asked softly as the young woman got to her feet
and took dot's hand and began walking towards Junos home.
"Inky,
Blinky and Nodd are the most Nefarious trick or treat pranksters this
side of the river, they have been around for a very long time"
The woman answered as they walked towards the street where Junos home
was.
"OK,
what's your name?" Juno asked looking up at the young woman in
wonder as they got to the end of their street. "And why isn't it
my time?"
The
young woman chuckled and knelt back down to Juno's level, Juno
noticed the detail and leather strapping on the corset she wore.
"My
name is Beth, and you Juno your guts to come out on all hallows eve
after half seven is commendable but it'll attract those of a more
severe nature. I suggest you wait a year or two before you try this
on your own again"
Something
unusual clicked into place in Juno's mind, well two things. The first
thing : two years ago her cousin Jack had disappeared after talking
about a woman called Beth and three other children called Inky Blinky
and Nodd for a month solid. He disappeared and was found two days
later on the other side of the city, floating in the reeds of the
Jasper River, dead. Killed by extreme hyperthermia, Aunt Alice and
Uncle Henry were never really the same. The second was this woman
felt so much like a mother, like her mother. Junos face dropped in
sadness at the thought of her cousin.
I'm
going to die, aren't I?" Juno asked suddenly sounding remotely
like she'd accepted it.
"I'm
afraid so" Beth said before smiling "But not yet, not for a
few years"
Juno
nodded in acceptance her hat wobbling as she did so, a confused look
spreading across her face.
"Best
you get home, your mothers making cookies"
Juno
grinned, her confusion gone. Giving Beth an impromptu hug Juno ran
down the street and across the road to her house, keeping an eye out
for any late night traffic and other people. Beth smiled softly to
herself as Blinky morphed to her side.
"Why
did you send us away?" Blinky asked appearing to Beth at her
true height of four foot, munching on a candy apple she'd most likely
stolen as Inky and Nodd appeared sitting on some damaged decorations.
"She's down to join us"
"It
is not her time" Beth said sounding like winter information
running through her head "Not for another three years at least"
"But
why can't I change her now?" Blinky whine demanded throwing the
now useless apple core to the floor violently. Beth's anger flared
"She
is Jack Delaine's cousin" Beth hissed angrily as the anger
simmered into her eyes "Remember Jack, the little boy in the
depths of the Reapers dungeons, the boy who went mad" The Air
began to crackle with electricity "She is marked, LEAVE HER BE"
Blinky shrank back from the angry herald "GET BACK TO WHAT YOU
DO BEST, CHILD"
The
three terrified pranksters fled into the night. Few things terrified
the three, but a seriously angry Herald of Death was one of them. The
simmering anger flooded Beth's entire body as she turned on her heal
and morphed to another part of the city, where several of the student
houses belonging to one of the three universities stood. The breeze
coming up from the Jasper River teased itself across Beth's Collar
and Cloak, making it ripple impressively as she pulled the hood up
over her head. The latest Club music echoed around the street Beth
walked down, drunken students was stumbling in and out of one
particular house where it was all coming from. Beth stopped at the
end of a side street and slid into the shadows behind her which
covered her from the students view. Drunken students were almost
passed out across the cup and toilet paper strewn grass. Beth
wrinkled her nose and waited, she was here for one student destined
to die tonight and one student alone, as well as a patient at ST Guys
and one particular prisoner at St Jebodiahs and a first level Brother
at St Junos who still caused quite painful memories for Beth since it
was Halloween.
Beth
had been sixteen years old at the time of her death, four years older
than Juno when it happened on all Hallows eve twelve years ago. There
had been citywide riots in response to the religious and political
reforms affecting the whole country. Beth had been orphaned six
months before in another riot over pay. Beth had headed to St Junos,
tired and Pregnant, to her friend and the father of her child Brother
Lazarus a monk within the cloisters. Time and death had other plans
as Beth reached the steps of the cities magnificent cathedral, Her
waters broke violently as the riots burst out of a side street
opposite the cathedral behind the cornered off Bandstand. Monks and
the common people were fighting as Beth leant against the pillar
she'd taken refuge behind. Brother Lazarus tripped near the pillar
she was at and she called his name. Lazarus looked up at the woman he
loved as a rioter pulled out a gun and shot at the monk completely
missing him and striking Beth, striking her in the shoulder and the
stomach. The pain echoed across Beth's stomach and loins as the
student she was waiting for drunkenly stumbled out of the house a
beer in his hand and three friends following him. The anger Beth felt
dissipated, the boy wouldn't be alone.
The
boy pranced around drunkenly in the middle of the road to the music
as his friends tried to convince him to go home. As his friends began
to give up, Beth noticed a change in the boy's aura. She almost ran
across the road to the boy and grabbed his shoulder and elbow as his
body slid to the floor. The boy's friends ran to his side calling for
help and beginning CPR. Beth stood to one side with the boy still
holding onto his arm and shoulder.
"What
was that?" He asked sober and clear minded now "Was that
it? I felt my heart stop and that weird body slide then….nothing"
Beth
smiled sadly and said nothing letting the boy watch the scene a
little longer before taking him to Jarred the plague doctor for
processing.
As
she turned on her heal outside Jarred office, Beth reappeared inside
St Jebodiahs, The cities infamous prison. Walking along the corridors
and using the shadows and hidden corridors and corners to pass guards
and prisoners whose time it was not to pass on. Beth felt her
shoulder and stomach echo in pain as she saw clouds forming outside
one of the few large windows which were high off the ground. Thunder
and lightning flashed and rumbles off in the distance. Beth squashed
down the memory and slid through the bars of the Cell of the man who
had killed her and caused her so much misery.
"I
knew you would come" The now elderly man said sadly sitting on
the bed staring intently into space "Even in death you will not
let me have peace"
Beth
sat down opposite him with a faint trace of a smile on her lips. The
man had suffered but not quite enough.
"I
try to hold you no ill will" Beth admitted after a moment "it
is very hard although I am merely doing my job"
"You
were just a child" the man muttered looking at her with a dull
look in his eyes "Carrying one of your own…and now you're all
grown up….without your child"
"Death
let me live awhile to make sure my child was safe" Beth admitted
thinking of Dot the girl she gave up "in exchange for stewarding
the dead"
It
didn't hurt" he said almost jovial "I began to choke then
felt my body slide, then poof I was back on the bed"
"I
can imagine" Beth said looking up at the man's dead body hanging
from the rafters "Best Get you Processed"
Beth
took the Man to Jared and had him processed before morphing to St
Guys. An Older looking man battling a deadly and debilitating disease
had his time up the moment Beth got there. Beth watched with an
amused smile as the man gave a snake like wiggle out of his own body
and stood up straight and clear faced. Just like he was before the
dreadful disease, younger and untarnished by Illness. He turned to
his old body in the bed, the machines attached to it began making a
racket and attracting the attention of the Nurses and Doctors who
tried to revive him. Beth tugged on her charges arm and left quickly.
Within ten minutes Beth morphed out of Jared's office and to the
Plaza outside St Junos Cathedral.
As
Beth walked slowly across the Plaza and sat down on the church steps
memories of that Night flashed across her eyes and rang in her ears.
Lazarus appeared before her, as if she was lying on her back, Beth
grunted as pain flooded her. Brother Bartholomew and Brother
Michelangelo were there Beth tried not to scream as she felt herself
push out her baby girl as Bartholomew tried to stop the bleeding.
"Hold
on Bethlyn Please" Lazarus pleaded fear in his eyes “for me,
for our child”
"It
Hurts" Beth said painfully "I'm so cold" Her eyes
drifted from Lazarus to the strangely dressed man behind
Michael-Angelo. Beth fully closed her eyes and immersed herself in
the moment she heard her daughter's first cries and felt the freeing
tug of death.
"Beth"
a gruff voice said softly reaching her ears like an old car rumbling
down a road. Beth opened her eyes and turned to the old man standing
beside her. It was Morgen the Head Herald of Death and the Grim
Reapers right hand man and the man who'd taken her to Jared.
"Morgen"
she replied sounding warbled getting to her feet and giving a bow
"How are you?"
"I
am my usual self my child although I could ask you the same question"
He answered an epitome of a herald even after sixteen hundred years
Morgen had never even cracked a smile through his mask of stone.
Its
Lazarus time my child" Morgen said softening slightly seeing the
crack Beth was trying so hard to stop
Give
him one more mass" Beth chocked completely breaking "Please
just one more, let him see the sun" an image of tomorrow shot
through Beth's mind of Juno in one of the pews "Let him see his
daughter one last time"
Morgan
watched Beth break down in silent tears, he knew of her pain and of
her strength to get through working tonight. He knew also of how Beth
rarely asked for anything in the twelve years she'd been a Herald. He
sighed It was time to give these two closure
Beth"
he started before giving a soft smile "Get him tomorrow. After
the morning mass not a moment after"
Morgen
felt a wisp of joy race through his soul as relief flooded across
Beth's face as her tears kept running
Thank
you" Beth murmured gratefully collapsing before the stairs where
she'd lost her life.
"If
you can't collect him" Morgen warned with a strange look in his
eyes and a tilted head "I or Brother Bartholomew will"
Morgen
Disappeared back into the shadows as Beth raised her head to the
skies the clouds finally released the thunder and the rain.
I've
been writing short stories for the past few years now. Some never
made it past the first draft of the notebooks I have inevitably
thrown away, some have never even been posted online or seen by
anyone else, several of those written up on computer, have been
deleted and never recovered. Such is the way of my writing style.
Writing has always been part of my life since I was young. Having
come from a creative family whose members are pretty good at
something artistic (sister is the woman behind Lucid Seams and art in
general, both brothers are musicians to a degree and parents are
generally creative) whilst I can doodle and draw at a basic creative
level, writing was always the way I could express myself and showcase
what I saw in my head much better than I could ever draw or create
otherwise.
I
have spent time over the years, going through periods of writing my
own short stories and several fan fictions of my own. The writers
community of Fictionpress and Fanfiction are good places to get
feedback on such stories, but now I want to share them with you the
public. I hope you send back some form of comment on what you
liked/disliked on the story, the information would be valuable.
I
wrote All Hallows Eve partially due to my love of Halloween and
partially due to falling asleep during a Halloween movie marathon
which included The Nightmare before Christmas, Halloweentown, Hocus
Pocus and others. Bits and pieces of each movie must have swarmed and
fused in my head because this story along with another called All
Saints Day came out of the inspiration, the basics of a third story
called all souls morning is buried amongst several notes I have in a
box file of short story drafts and ideas I have on my shelf, maybe
one day I'll get round to actually writing it.
A
version of this story is on my Fictionpress.com account, the links to
both story and accounts to both Fictionpress and Fanfiction is in the
bibliography below.
THE
WEBSITE BIBLIOGRAPHY:
COVID-19
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SAFE, STAY INFORMED, STAY ALIVE.
And
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THIS
IS THE BANDERSNATCH, I'M MAMA OGRE AND REMEMBER STAY WEIRD, STAY
WACKY, STAY WONDEROUS AND I'LL SEE YOU SOON...
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