by Tony Ortiz
“Good,” I said, shaking his pudgy hand, a bit confused.
“Did you know that Jesse was once a powerful name in Halloween? Two thousand years ago Celts had used your name like the Christians use ‘Jesus’ today. Your parents must know the story. Or you were just fortunate. You can hear that name a hundred times if you go to Ireland or France. I once met ten Jesse’s in one day. Can you imagine? You call ‘Jesse’ and half the town turns. . . . How do you do, Katie?”
“I’m good."
“Ray, we can’t talk long,” informed Jacoby.
"Yes. Where are you going first?”
“Lin’s shop. We need to fix Jesse up a little bit before going out.”
“They’re not letting in humans today?”
“No.”
“Well, come on in. Watch your step, Jesse and Katie. I haven't cleaned the place in ages.”
He shook Dorian's hand on his way in. The living room was a mess, cluttered with piles of novels, weird figurines, loose papers, backpacks, shoes, unopened Halloween decorations and a pile of lamps missing shades. Ray then led us down a long dark hallway, framed with black-and-white pictures of dead people lying on the ground. They were the most grim pictures I had ever seen. I hurried after Ray and Jacoby.
“I hope none of you are easily thrown off-balance?” remarked Ray, making his way to a red door at the end.
I shook my head.
“Katie?"
Katie shook her head, too.
"Good, good. You won’t hit anywhere near nine-twenty anyway. Jacoby, have you heard of the aircraft they’ve been testing? It’s been turning in faster times than the Blackbird.” He stopped at the door and turned to Katie and me. “It’s approaching ten thousand miles per hour.”
“You’re forgetting about the space shuttle,” said Jacoby. “That’s about seventeen–”
“Yes, yes, Jacoby,” Ray interrupted. “I say, very fast indeed. And you’re forgetting about the space probe, Helios-two. What are they clocked at, Dorian? One-fifty?”
Dorian was staring at a photo of a woman with a giant hole in her leg. He nodded, and Ray turned back to us.
“One hundred and fifty thousand miles per hour. I say, that’s blistering.” He opened the door and turned to the side so we could pass him by. “Pleasure to meet you, Jesse and Katie. Jacoby, come back for some Black Cider.”
“Will do,” he said.
“Jesse, Katie,” Ray added quickly. “Breathe deeply in and out. Don’t hold it in.”
Ray shut the door, leaving us in a backyard overgrown with tall weeds and dead grass.
“Jacoby, is he a halloween?” asked Katie.
“No. Human, just like you.”
“Why does he have pictures of dead people?” I said, immediately getting a push from Katie. “What? That’s not offensive–”
But she wasn’t talking about that. She was trying to turn my attention to the six black creatures sleeping in the weeds.
“What are those, Jacoby?” she said.
“Welgos. They're our rides to Lin's shop."
Jacoby walked over to one and patted it. It lazily opened its eyes, and gave a long soundless yawn, revealing two sets of flat black teeth and a black tongue.
“We need a ride to the North,” Jacoby said to the welgo, which looked like a large thin jaguar, with red tear streaks.
The welgo effortlessly lifted itself out of the weeds and arched its body in a long drawn out stretch. It could have been a black cheetah too, but much bigger with short silky fur. As the welgo stretched a second time sharp claws protruded out of its paws then receded back in. It took two smooth steps forward and lowered itself to the ground before Jacoby, scooping him up onto its back.
“Choose one,” said Jacoby, sitting comfortably on top. The welgo's skin molded around his legs, securing him to its body. “We have to move a little faster than you two are going.”
I stayed where I was. Meanwhile, a welgo sank under Dorian and lifted him up. Another offered its back to Katie. She was slow to climb on and automatically gripped its thin neck the second she was lifted up. The welgo's skin instantly began to mold around her hands.
“Jesse, let’s move along,” said Jacoby.
“Uhhh . . .” I stalled, spotting one resting in the corner. “How about that one?”
“You’re going to have to call her over.”
“It’s a she?”
“The only female welgo, and the only stubborn one. But she’s fine.”
I walked over to the last male who looked a little bit friendlier. But the female was already approaching me.
“I’m not picking you,” I told her.
Her round soulful eyes gleamed at me. She didn’t seem that scary up close. She lowered her body to the ground. Great. I grabbed her neck and climbed on. Her skin wrapped around my hands and legs just like it did for everyone else. Her skin was really warm. It felt like there was a layer of blankets wrapped around my limbs.
“It’s warm, no?” said Katie atop her welgo, looking perfectly at ease.
I nodded.
“I don’t hear them breathing,” Katie told Jacoby.
“No one does. They don’t make a sound.”
“That’s impossible,” I stated.
“They’re the most silent halloweens. You’ll never hear a single sound from them.”
Katie put her ear on her welgo’s neck and smiled.
“Like Ray said, take deep breaths and you’ll be fine,” he instructed at the gate. “They won’t be going too fast.”
My welgo nudged a rock, and it fell onto its side, making a thump sound.
“She’s the only one who ever makes any noise,” admitted Jacoby.
With those words, Jacoby and his welgo were on the move. The rest of the welgos followed, but my welgo just stood there, scratching the top of her head against the dirt.
“Uhmm . . .” I said carefully. She brought her head up. “We have to go."
She understood and slipped out of the gate and joined the others in the front of the house. Jacoby turned to my welgo.
“One-twenty north, thirty miles inland. You know the rest.”
Katie folded her witch hat and tucked it into her robe along with her red hair band. I had a feeling we were going to arrive very soon. I grasped onto my welgo’s hide. I heard Katie gasp as her welgo shot off down the street like a rubber band, gone from sight within seconds.
I clung desperately onto my welgo's neck and took a deep breath, but before I could breathe out, we disappeared into the night, making the rest of the world seem like it was at a standstill. I had never experienced such speed in my life. I clasped my arms firmly around her neck, and her skin completely molded around my forearms. Within a few seconds, she was running on the freeway, which looked like blurry trails of lights.
“G-go f-faster!” was all I could get out, fighting the prickly wind.
She jolted forward, going even faster, shifting gracefully in and out of lanes and occasionally dodging headlights flashing by. She made a few more swift turns before slowing. For the first time I could focus on things we were passing. Katie was right next to us, smiling away. She didn't notice us though.
“F-faster,” I commanded in a wavering voice, drawing one good breath before my welgo launched herself forward, leaving Katie and her welgo far behind in a stream of colors.
“S-slow down!” I gasped right away, feeling sick. “S-slow down!”
A few jolting turns and a huge sinking drop later I regained my vision. We were off the freeway, trotting down an empty street until she came to a sudden stop. Her skin relaxed around my arms and legs, and I slid off.
“T-thank you, Silky,” I muttered breathlessly, giving her a name. I felt a little dizzy and my legs felt like they were still moving. “You want to go back and do it–”
I tipped over and fell. Jacoby, Katie, and Dorian easily dismounted their welgos, and the graceful creatures made it off into the light fog.
“What are those?” I said
in awe as I stared after them.
“Jesse, I already told you,” said Jacoby.
“I know they’re welgos, but . . .” I had a hard time picking myself up from the ground. “. . . how fast do they go?”
“You remember what Ray was saying in the hall? Faster than that.”
Jacoby guided us up a winding sidewalk and stopped inside an ornate alley, crafted with stone mosaics walls and wooden pillars.
“We must hurry to the other side of town. You two understand?"
We nodded. Jacoby stopped again at the end of the alley, hearing heavy treads. A fifteen-foot mummy was clomping down the street. He stopped right in front of us, sensing our presence, but instead of turning our way, he peered into the dirty display window of a candy shop on the other side. Agitated by something, he pulled back just as a little blue monster walked under his legs, heading to the shop. The mummy picked up the tiny thing and brought it up to his cloth-swaddled face.
“I need ten Brainaches,” the mummy growled, “two Scream Bits, thirty Vines – peppermint, chocolate, and strawberry – and anything equivalent to Sour Teeth in five minutes. I will be waiting in Section Witch 4C. Are you going to get that for me?”
The mummy brought the teeny monster closer to its face and gave it a long hard stare. “I am hungry, little hallow.”
He dropped the scared monster and trudged by us, nearly bumping into Jacoby.
“Watch yourselves!” he snapped, not recognizing who it was. As soon as he did, he dropped his head and dove into a big door that had just appeared in the middle of the street.
“Alright, let’s get moving,” announced Jacoby, looking both ways before crossing.
Katie and I stayed close to Jacoby, with Dorian trailing behind us. We hurried between two homes and out into an old town teeming with hundreds of creatures: flying, disappearing, conjuring spells, and mingling ominously, all in the open.
“Seventy thousand halloweens are said to be here today,” Jacoby mentioned, heading down a Halloween-decorated sidewalk, “close to a fourth of the population. Don’t wander off, or you won’t be found again.”
On the other side of the street, a scruffy witch stood in the gutter, watching us while she was sweeping a mangled rat into a shoe box. Her red and black eyes glowed ominously as she narrowed them suspiciously at Katie. I couldn’t help but wonder if the witch knew Katie was a human? Of course she did: she was a witch. They would know their own kind.
Katie stuck her tongue out at the glowering witch, who tilted her head awkwardly at Katie. Behind the witch was a rundown shoe shop, with writing scratched into the display window:
DEADLY BOILS &
bewitched witches
“Are witches evil?” asked Katie as the old woman magically opened the door.
“A few are,” answered Jacoby. “But you’ll be fine. Murlie won’t bother you. She’s too busy gathering animals for surgical potions.”
We passed by one scary sight after another. The most disturbing thing I saw was nestled deep in the shadows of a deserted alley. A young girl was sobbing mutely inside an invisible box thrashing her hands around the bottom. She was desperately trying to get out.
“Jacoby, what’s happening to that girl?” I asked.
“I’m not exactly sure,” he said, coming over. “No one can figure it out. The only one who could is the hanalin ghoul who summoned the curse twenty years ago. He was killed the second he banished her so we will never know how to undo it. A ghoul is an omnipotent halloween.”
“But it was killed,” I pointed out. “Who could have killed him if it was infinite in power?”
“Most likely, it was Jack.”
“Oh.”
“Where did the ghoul banish her to?” said Katie.
“To some world that is as big as that box,” explained Jacoby.
“But can’t you ask another ghoul?” I asked. “Maybe they can undo it.”
“It’s been tried. No one can get her out. Besides, it wouldn’t do any good. She’s already dead. The curse killed her immediately. Until her soul discovers that she’s dead, she will remain in that box.”
We all stood there in the alley, staring in dismay at the weeping girl.
“Dorian!” shrieked a voice in the crowd, startling me. “Dorian!”
“Come on, you two, let’s move along,” said Jacoby.
We quickly walked down the middle of the street, as a dark-robed vampire stepped out of the crowd of samhains who were all bowing their heads.
“You don’t belong here!” he said as blood trickled out of his eyes and mouth. “No one wants you here!”
Jacoby and Dorian didn’t say anything in return and quickly turned the corner into the next street of shops. All the storefronts were dark and quiet, except for one, which lit up the street with an array of fluorescent colors and had distant sounds of an owl hooting and a crow cawing. A sign above the door was swaying and rattling in the wind, even though the air was perfectly still everywhere else along the street. It read:
Dress To Scare
candy~costumes~jinx boxes
Jacoby led us right to it. The doors moaned open and acknowledged everyone of us by name. The entrance hall was packed from floor to ceiling with fluttering costumes, dancing boots, bowing hats, flying capes and broomsticks, boiling potions, self-reading books, glowing jack-o’-lanterns, and eye-turning masks. It was the coolest thing ever.
The main room was even more fascinating, with two massive colonnades of shelves stretching all the way to the back, packed with scary decorations and more costumes. Every part of the store had a different theme. The center aisle was dressed up like a haunted graveyard and played the sound of a gravedigger burying a woman alive.
Lin came out from the back, dressed as a black jacket and jeans, with a white Mohawk.
“Hey, what’s up, dude?” welcomed Lin. “You come to buy some stuff?”
“Lin, can you give Jesse a quick touch up?” asked Jacoby. "We need to hide his human look more."
“The dead boy? He’s good.”
“You owe me, Lin.”
“Alright, whatever, man.”
Lin pulled out a dull knife and wielded it in the air, flicking it once in a while at random spots on my arms, finishing within a couple of seconds.
“You are done,” smiled Lin, pleased with his work.
My skin had been melted, blackened, and some parts on my arms were melted to the bone. My left wrist actually had a hole in it; the same type of hole that I had seen in the pictures at Ray's house.
"This is so cool," I said quietly to myself.
Katie didn't think so. She turned my wrist around to look at the hole. She looked sad by it.
A sudden crashing noise made us all turn to the entryway. A menala had just stumbled in on his hands and knees, mouthing a cry for help. Jacoby was already at the front door, shielding the menala from a cloud of red smoke filtering in through the cracks. He instantly put it out by inhaling it in one labored suck. Something seemed terribly wrong.
“J-Jacoby?” cried the menala quietly.
Jacoby turned around, just in time to grasp a key that sprang on its own from the potion shelf. He then said in a stern voice, “Kala, be quiet!”
He inserted the key inside the keyhole, and the door fused with the wall and froze over into a wall of ice. He then joined Dorian by the front window, which had also become completely iced over, waiting for whatever sinister force was in the street.
“Kala, I’m sorry,” Jacoby said after a minute, studying the darkness outside through a thawed-out spot in the window. “It was necessary to prevent a fight.”
“What were those things?” said Katie.
“Tortics. Kala, get up.”
Kala slowly lifted himself up. He was shorter and younger than Dorian, and had short orange hair; he was wearing a sparkling gray robe and black boots. Katie and I lowered our heads the second Kala raised his.
“Jesse and Katie, this is Kala,” said Jacoby. “He’s n
ot like Dorian. Kala, you don’t need to hold me.” Kala let go. “What are the tortics doing here?”
“O-one’s here to compete. And I . . .”
“You signed the contract?”
Kala nodded.
“Why?” said Jacoby, letting Kala hold his hand this time.
“I didn’t know they would want to play in the games–” Kala noticed something. “–Dorian! You got new boots! Where did you get those?”
Dorian kept quiet.
“Are you absolutely sure one of them signed?” continued Jacoby.
Kala nodded. “I don’t want to play. It won’t play fair. Dorian, you can play for me. You can grow hair like mine. They won’t know the difference.”
“Kala, you know they won’t allow it,” said Jacoby.
“But it’s okay to allow a . . .” Kala whispered the name, “tortic?” He raised his voice again. “They can’t! An infant could kill me! I’m going to die. Oh, why did I take his place? He could’ve just continued to play injured.”
“They’re not allowed to kill in the games, Kala,” reminded Jacoby.
“But it’s their first game. What if they don’t know the rules?”
“I’m sure they do.”
Dorian moved up to Jacoby and stared into his eyes. Everyone but Jacoby dropped their heads, even Kala.
“Jack's coming to the festival,” he whispered. “That's why they are here.”
They were speaking too quietly for me to make out the rest of the conversation. I did, however, catch one other muffled bit. "They are planning to kill Kala,” breathed out Dorian in an anxious whisper.
“The tortics,” Jacoby said strongly, “could’ve decided to give the games a try. They know it would be very foolish to kill at a festival. We don’t know if they killed Dili.”
“They're going to kill us?” yelped Kala.
“Kala, listen. Tortics are not going to kill you. Nor is Jack. They have no reason to.”
“They do!”
“Then what is it?”
“Tortics? They . . .”
“They have no agenda here, Kala.”
“Then Jack–”
“Kala, I don’t want to hear anymore of this. He knows better than to venture onto the festival grounds.”
