The others, however, made disgusted faces.
“Halloween,” Kyndel scoffed.
Autumn was taken aback. “What’s wrong with Halloween?”
“Everything,” Charlotte said with a frown.
“Outsiders think it’s entertaining to mock all of the magical creatures every year,” Kyndel said. “Dressing up like us and prancing around like idiots, but I can see why you would like something like that, Princess.”
Autumn rolled her eyes and Luke said, “Halloween isn’t about mocking magical creatures.”
“Then why do they dress up like us?” Forrest asked.
“Because it’s fun for them,” Autumn said. “For just one day they can pretend to be whatever they want to be. Little girls can be princesses and fairies. Little boys can be wizards and superheroes. They aren’t doing it to mock you. They’re doing it because they want to be you.”
“Yeah,” Luke said. “And they don’t even know that magical creatures exist. They just think it’s a bunch of fairy tale nonsense, like Autumn and I did before.”
The others frowned, taking in this apparently new information.
“So it’s just the Outsider children that do this you said?” Jastin asked.
“Well, no. The kids dress up and go trick-or-treating,” Autumn said. Then at the look of confusion on everyone’s face she added, “Trick-or-treating is where the kids go door to door and ask for candy.”
“What about Outsiders our age?” Cera asked.
Luke laughed. “They dress up too, but their costumes show a bit more skin. I love Halloween.” He sighed, staring into space with a dazed smile.
“People our age dress up and go to parties,” Autumn clarified. “In the bigger cities they have tons of celebrations in all of the clubs and pubs and stuff. It’s pretty fun, actually.”
“We should have a Halloween party,” Charlotte said, apparently having changed her mind about the Outsider holiday.
There was a murmur of agreement from everyone, except Victor, of course, who sat in distracted silence beside Autumn.
“Or we could do something better,” Luke said with a sly smile.
Avery chuckled. “Like what?”
“We could go up into the Outside.”
The group went silent, everyone exchanging nervous glances. Even Autumn looked at Luke in surprise.
“But most of us have never even been to the Outside before,” Charlotte said. “We aren’t allowed without a chaperone.”
“There’s a first time for everything,” Luke said. “Besides, we’re Warriors now. We can take care of ourselves.”
“But our ears…our skin,” Crystal said. “We won’t start to look like Outsiders for at least a day. We’ve all been in the Underground so long. Remember how long it took you and Autumn to transform completely into elves?”
“I know! It’s perfect!” Luke said.
Everyone shot him a confused look.
“How is that perfect?” Cera asked.
“It’s Halloween,” Luke said. “We can just say that we have really good costumes. We can go as elves!” Luke looked to Autumn then. “You’ll go, won’t you, Rose?”
Autumn thought for a second before nodding silently, a smile forming across her face.
“I’m in,” Avery said, smirking at Autumn.
“Me too,” said Forrest.
Charlotte and Jastin exchanged glances before agreeing too.
“Sounds pretty cool to me,” Cera said.
“I’ll make the costumes!” Crystal chimed in.
Everyone looked expectantly at Kyndel, who sat with crossed arms and a disapproving look upon her face. Eventually, she sighed, rolling her eyes. “Fine.”
“How about you, Victor,” Jastin asked. “Are you coming?”
Victor started at the sound of his name and looked up, confused. “What?” he said.
“Are you coming with us to the Outside on Halloween?” Forrest asked again.
Victor grimaced. “Why would I do that?”
“It will be fun,” Charlotte said.
“I’m not going to the Outside,” he stated.
Autumn sighed and Avery shook his head slightly in exasperation.
“Okay,” Luke said, “So, Crystal, how fast do you think you can make ten, I mean nine costumes?”
“We’ll have them by Halloween.”
By sundown, everyone dispersed, talking excitedly about the next weekend. Victor began to walk away in silence.
“Victor?” Autumn called after him. “Are you okay?”
He turned, looking surprised to see her there. “Yes. Why?”
“You just seem a little…out of it.”
He shrugged. “I’m just tired from all of the training, that’s all.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to go with us on Halloween? It will be really fun.”
He shook his head. “No. I don’t go to the Outside.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t like it there.”
“What don’t you like about it?”
“Outsiders.”
Autumn frowned. “What’s so bad about Outsiders?”
“Outsiders think they rule the world. They don’t care about any other living creature except themselves. They are the reason we had to come down here, to escape them. Outsiders are destroying the Earth.”
“Not all Outsiders are like that, you know.”
“Perhaps not, but majority are. Listen, I’m really tired. I’m going to go home. I’ll see you tomorrow, Autumn.” He kissed her forehead and left down the path toward his empty tree house.
Autumn walked slowly towards Arbor Castle. Avery was waiting for her around one of the curves and moved to walk beside her.
“This is going to be harder than I thought,” Autumn said.
“Maybe we should just—”
“No. I can do this. I just need more time.”
Avery looked as though he wanted to say more, but simply nodded in response.
“You have to be prepared! I’m not going to lose any of my Initiates this year,” Atticus shouted after Friday’s practice as half of the Initiates grumbled about how tired they were and the other half were about to collapse from exhaustion.
“We still have three months until the Warrior Trial. Why is he working us so hard?” Luke complained as they left the field.
“You heard him,” Crystal said. “He doesn’t want any of us to die. Avery and I weren’t exaggerating when we told you about all of those deaths that happened during the Warrior Trials.”
“I’m just ready for a break,” Luke grumbled. “I can’t wait until Sunday. How are the costumes coming?”
“I have one more to go!”
After Saturday’s practice, everyone walked to Arbor Lake together to go over the Halloween plan. Everyone, that was, but Victor, who had already left the practice field.
“Okay,” Luke began, having taken over the leadership position of this adventure. “We’re meeting in front of the waterfall boundary at 7:00pm. Make sure none of your parents suspect anything.” Everyone nodded. “Crystal, you’ll bring all of the costumes with you. We can’t leave our houses wearing them. It would also be smart if we all left separately. It would look too suspicious if we walked up there in a group. Any questions?”
“Are we done here?” Kyndel yawned.
“We are now. I’ll see y’all tomorrow at seven. Get ready for some fun, elves!”
Sunday went by quickly and soon Autumn was rushing out of the castle alone. Luke and Avery had left about five minutes before her and Crystal would follow once Autumn was out of sight. Hurrying down the path from the castle, Autumn dashed down another that wound up to the waterfall.
When she arrived, Luke, Avery, Forrest, and Charlotte were already there. Crystal showed up soon after carrying a large sack full of the costumes, followed by Jastin, Cera, and finally Kyndel. The Underground sun began to set in the distance.
Crystal passed out the costumes to everyone and they all changed out o
f their normal clothes behind the vast trees. The girls’ costumes were a soft green color resembling ballerina apparel with long sleeves made of a sheer material and skirts flowing around them like the branches of a willow tree. Charlotte had the brilliant idea to cover the girls in a shimmering powder to make them look even more ethereal than they already did.
The guys were a little less thrilled with their costumes. They wore white, Renaissance-style shirts with tightly fitted green pants to match the girl’s costumes.
“Are you sure Outsiders think elves wear these, Crys?” Forrest said, pulling awkwardly at the pants.
“I did some research on elf Halloween costumes and this style was the most popular. All the others were for Christmas elves,” Crystal said apologetically.
“I think they’re great,” Charlotte said, looking Jastin up and down with a wry smile on her face.
“Nice,” Cera said and chuckled, glancing over Luke, who blushed.
Avery stepped out from behind his tree, raising his eyebrows at Autumn’s costume. She repressed a coy smile.
“Shall we?” Jastin said, waving his hand towards the waterfall.
Autumn and Luke were elected to go first seeing as how they were the only ones who had gone through the boundary alone before. Luke went before Autumn, disappearing at the first touch of the waterfall. She stepped up after him, holding her breath. The memory of the last time she had touched this waterfall surfaced in her mind before she plunged her hand into the water to return to the Outside.
Outsider Halloween
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Returning to the Outside took much less time than leaving it, and before she knew it, Autumn had landed on the expanse of flat rock in front of the waterfall boundary. She stood, peering back at her reflection, a much different one than she’d seen there a few months ago, which felt like years.
“Welcome back to Crap World!” Luke exclaimed as Autumn stepped away from the waterfall.
“Crap World?” Autumn said with a laugh. “The Underground really has changed you, hasn’t it.”
“Uh, yeah. I’m a prince and a badass Warrior in the Underground. And I get to make out with hot elf girls every day. You can’t really beat that, can you?”
They moved together across the flat stones on the still water so that the others had room to land. Autumn immediately felt different—heavier—like there was more gravity in the Outside. Everything looked so much smaller than she remembered it. Sort of like an adult returning to their childhood home and realizing the ceilings were much lower than they had originally thought.
The trees were miniscule compared to the sequoia-sized ones in the Underground. The colors were duller than she remembered and the air no longer smelled of flowers, but instead, was permeated by a strange, unpleasant smell that she couldn’t recognize.
One by one the other Initiates landed on the flat rock in front of the waterfall.
“Ugh! What is that disgusting smell?” Kyndel said, gagging.
Autumn noticed that the others were all making similar faces. Then she was struck with a realization.
“I think it might be the pollution,” she said.
“Pollution?” Cera said. “What is that, some sort of disease?”
Luke snorted and rolled his eyes. “We’ve been in the Outside two seconds and you are already talking about pollution. Come on, Autumn.”
“Seriously, Luke, I think that’s what it is. They’re used to pure air in the Underground. There aren’t any factories or cars there or piles of trash that’ll take hundreds of years to decompose. I even think it smells different here too, don’t you?”
He frowned and sniffed the air. “I guess. Who cares? We don’t live here anymore.”
Autumn glared at him. “We are half Outsider, Luke. Don’t you care about your old home?”
Luke shrugged in dismissal. “Okay, so I guess now we just go through the tunnel and into town and catch a—crap!” he said, smacking himself in the forehead.
“Catch a crap? I hope that means something else here,” Cera said.
“What’s wrong?” Autumn asked.
“I forgot about money!”
“I have some,” Charlotte said, pulling a wad of silver leaves out of her costume.
“Outsider money,” Luke said.
“Should we just go back, then?” Kyndel said, sounding hopeful.
“No,” Luke said. “I left all of my savings from this summer in my old room. We’ll just have to stop by there first. Hopefully Mrs. King hasn’t found it.”
They followed Luke out of the forest and into the tunnel that opened up in Blarney Castle. Nine elves trying to maneuver through a narrow tunnel was not the easiest thing. Every few steps Autumn heard someone trip or hit their head on the low rocky ceiling. To everyone’s relief they soon emerged on the grounds of Blarney Castle.
Autumn looked back to see everyone walking together in a tight group, apparently afraid of what they might encounter in this strange, unknown world. Most of them wore looks of excitement, with the exception of Kyndel, whose nose was turned haughtily up in the air.
“Your trees are very small,” she noted.
“Well Outsiders don’t live in them, so they don’t really have to be all that big do they?” Autumn said, slightly defensive.
“Now girls. Let’s try to get along,” Cera said with a chuckle, winking at Autumn.
Kyndel rolled her eyes, flipping her strawberry blonde hair back and Autumn smirked back at Cera, who was watching Kyndel with an amused expression.
Avery came to walk beside Autumn.
“I like your costume,” he said.
She raised an eyebrow at him, looking around to make sure no one was listening. “I like yours too. You should consider wearing tights more often.”
“I’m considering it. Once I got past the initial embarrassment, I realized they’re really quite comfortable.”
Autumn laughed a little louder than she had expected to and Luke turned to look at the two of them. He seemed to note their close proximity to one another and his eyes narrowed slightly. Autumn’s face fell and she moved a few feet away from Avery.
They continued to travel down the rocky path to their old cottage. Finally, after what felt like half an hour, Autumn spotted it in the distance. The pub beside it was already packed full of people in costumes. The lights were all off in the cottage so she assumed Mrs. King was out.
“You lived in that?” Kyndel said. “No wonder you don’t act like royalty. You were used to living like servants.”
Crystal and Avery glared at her, since that was precisely what they were. Autumn gritted her teeth and resisted the urge to backhand her.
“When you say we don’t act like royalty, I’m guessing you mean we don’t act like we’re better than everyone?” Autumn said. “You know, you don’t have to be royalty to act like that. You seem to accomplish it pretty well.”
Kyndel shot her a look of loathing and muttered something under her breath.
They ambled up the walkway and Luke located the spare key underneath a rock near the front porch, unlocking the door and stepping into the house. Autumn followed him into the entryway. It looked exactly the way it had a few months ago—the umbrellas in their holder, the coat rack covered in Mrs. King’s many colored coats of various sizes, the spotless floor. Autumn wondered how Mrs. King had kept it so clean without their help. Then again, their absence had probably led to a tidier house in general.
The rest of the group entered cautiously behind them, mesmerized by all the strange Outsider objects situated around the house. Forrest picked up an umbrella, examining it closely with a look of amazement and shouting when it accidentally popped open. Crystal ran her fingers over Mrs. King’s coats, marveling at the different fabrics. Autumn moved blindly down the dark hallway towards her old room.
“Will you turn the light on, Luke?” she called over her shoulder.
Luke flipped on the light-switch and there was a collective intake of breath
in the cramped entryway. Autumn halted her progress down the hall and turned to see everyone except Luke looking up at the light fixture in amazement.
“Can you do that again?” Charlotte asked Luke, looking awestruck.
He chuckled, flipping the light switch down, then back up again. Everyone looked significantly impressed by this small bit of Outsider “magic.” Charlotte beamed and said, “That is so cool.”
“You can try it if you want,” Luke offered, standing aside for Charlotte to have a chance to turn the lights on and off.
“Do you mind if we look around a bit?” Jastin asked.
“Not at all,” Autumn answered.
The elves dispersed through the house, opening the refrigerator doors, turning on the television, and picking up the phone to listen to the dial tone. Luke found Autumn’s old cell phone, which had been dead for quite some time, and handed it to Crystal. Her eyes widened as she pressed a few buttons.
Autumn laughed to herself as she resumed her progress down the hall to her old room. Turning on the lights, she frowned slightly. Everything was the same as she’d left it. All of her books were on the shelves, her bed was made, and her clothes were put up, but for some reason she felt an overwhelming sense of despair. Thinking back on her time spent there, she realized how sad she had been. Her parents had just died and she hadn’t made any friends in Ireland. She had cried many tears in this room. Now that she was back, all of those old feelings were creeping back into her memory.
Shuddering, she hastened to empty the contents of her “sheep” bank onto her bed. She had saved up almost six hundred Euros while working at Blarney Castle. She grabbed a handful of the Outsider money, stashed it in her costume and turned to leave. She let out a small gasp when she saw Avery standing in her doorway with his arms folded across his chest, fixing her with a penetrating gaze.
“You scared me,” she said, breathless. Avery was silent. He looked as if he was contemplating something. “What’s wrong?”
“You’re different here,” Avery said.
“How do you mean?”
“Your light is gone.”
“My light?”
Avery nodded. “In the Underground you sort of…shine. Like you have a light inside of you. I can almost see it when you smile or laugh. I can feel it when I’m around you, the warmth of it, but here it’s nearly gone.”
Oaken (The Underground Series Book 1) Page 21
