by Becket
In the armory, Bernard collided into several suits of pumpkin armor that had been lined up in a row. They collapsed over him in a loud clatter.
In the library, Beatrice collided into stacks of bookcases, toppling them all over like dominos. Books tumbled out and piled on top of her.
And back in the heart box room, Gates turned and ran after the two Button children, to make sure they were all right.
Mr. Fuddlebee pointed his onbrella at the Darkness.
Gideon whistled and beeped in support. His magic spells glowed like fire over his hands.
Still riding on the mechmage’s shoulders, Berkeley used the power of his mind to levitate bowls of gobstoppers from a nearby room. They hovered over his head, ready to pelt at the Darkness—and if you have ever been pelted with a gobstopper, you might imagine the serious welts in store.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The Magic Word & The Pumpkin Armor
In the Lunatic Library, Gates dug Beatrice out from under the pile of books.
Beatrice was holding her head and moaning.
“I love books, but not when they fall on me.”
Gates helped her to her feet.
Beatrice happened to look down and see a book lying atop the pile. It was titled Dark Night of the Troll.
Beatrice picked it up and read the first chapter on how to survive the darkest of dark nights. The author was a troll named Icky Reekbottom. There were only two words.
Light fire.
The second chapter explained how to light fire. It had a few more words.
Snick sticks. Clack rocks. Mumble magic word.
The third chapter was titled The Magic Word. There was only one word in this chapter, and it was the same magic word that Gideon had woven earlier. And now that Beatrice saw it written, she was not sure if she could weave it properly. It was written like this:
Extrasnicklegiggloryeensyverbyumpwise
Beatrice had to say that slowly. “Extra-snickle-giggle-ory-eensy-verby-umpwise.”
Suddenly the book in her hands burst into flames right before she could read the next chapter, which told her not to say that magic word in front of the book.
Gates held her mechanical hand before the burning book. A little pipe extended from her palm. Steam gushed out and put out the fire.
“My little brother has the power to make things float,” Beatrice said. “But if I can learn this word, perhaps I can help with my own special power too.”
Gates looked doubtful.
“I am not a mechmage,” she said. “I know how to use machines, not magic. I do not know if this magic will work for you.”
“I’ll have to practice the word the way I practice my other lessons,” said Beatrice. “That’s my real talent. Learning. I need to learn how to weave this magic word properly or else I might set the house on fire.”
“Your older brother,” Gates said in a hesitant tone, “does he have a special power too?”
Just then they heard a heavy clanking noise in the doorway of the library.
It was Bernard. He had taken off his old helmet and put down his broken broom handle. Now he was wearing the armor he had collided into. Over his head was a jack-o-lantern helmet. Over his arms and legs were plates of pumpkin armor. Over his chest was a chainmail shirt made of pumpkin seeds sewn together. And in his hand was a candle sword. Its end was on fire. Yet even though it was made of wax, it was as hard as stone. Bernard looked like a brave knight from some magical kingdom.
Gates’s blue cheeks blushed bluer.
“I cannot remember everything I read,” he said from beneath his helmet, “and I cannot make things float. But I have courage, and I think that can be magical too.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The Helm Room
In the meantime, while Beatrice practiced the magic word and Bernard practiced his pumpkin sword fighting, the Darkness fled from the heart box room and escaped.
Mr. Fuddlebee followed. After him came Gideon Gizmo with Berkeley Button on his shoulders. They ran by the library. Mr. Fuddlebee called out to Gates and the two Button children.
“Come along! We must enlighten the Darkness.”
They chased the Darkness up one corridor and down another. They passed many rooms. Some rooms were parts of the factory that made the magic of Halloween. At last they came to a room that had a large window.
Inside the room were many strange machines and computers, tangled in wires zapping with electricity and covered with copper pipes gushing out steam. And in the middle of the room was a large steering wheel—like the kind on a pirate ship.
“What sort of room is this?” asked Beatrice.
“It looks like a helm room,” said Bernard.
“Excellent observation,” Mr. Fuddlebee complimented. “This is indeed the room that pilots Macabre Manor.”
“This house moves?” asked Bernard in shock.
“It floats,” said Gates.
“Or at least it did once upon a time,” Mr. Fuddlebee added.
The Darkness was in the middle of the room, standing before the steering wheel. He put the old key into an ignition.
The whole house began shuddering like an old car that had not been turned on in many long years.
“We are too late,” said Gates.
A whooshing noise began above Macabre Manor.
“What’s that?” asked Beatrice.
“The hot air balloon,” said Mr. Fuddlebee.
The Button children could hardly believe him. But that is exactly what it was. A large hot air balloon rose up from the top of the jack-o-lantern house, filling up with air. The more it filled up, the more it lifted the manor up off the ground.
Gideon whistled in sorrow.
“No, Halloween is not lost yet,” Mr. Fuddlebee told him. “We can still save it.”
Yet even as he was saying this, Macabre Manor was rising higher and higher into the air.
Gates went to a computer station and pressed buttons. The Darkness went to her and started flipping switches and pulling levers. Gates dropped anchor to make the manor stop. The Darkness extended nozzles to make it go faster. Their fight made the manor halt, lurch forward, halt, then lurch forward again.
Bernard went to the steering wheel and started turning the manor around to go back, but the Darkness came over and fought for control. Bernard pulled one direction while the Darkness pulled another. The manor swung left and right, not quite going forward yet not quite going back either.
Macabre Manor floated over Halloween Hollow, over other jack-o-lantern shops and houses, over trains and carriages, over floating rugs and flying broomsticks, and over all the Mystical Creatures, who were looking up at it in wonder.
They all realized what was happening. Most dashed for cover, screaming. Satyrs hid behind sasquatches. Warlocks hid behind will-o’-the-wisps. Bogeymen hid behind banshees. Rock eaters hid behind robots. Vampires hid behind Valkyries. It was complete pandemonium.
Yet some stood still, glaring ferociously up at the manor, still utterly upset about the theft of their Halloween candy.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Defeating the Darkness
The Darkness was laughing wildly. It seemed he had won. No one could stop him now.
But just then, outside the manor, the anchor snagged on Trick Tower at the far end of Trick-or-Treat Street.
Gates pressed a button and it reeled in.
The manor came to rest on the street a minute later. Angry trick-or-treaters gathered outside once more.
Beatrice held out her hand. She had been practicing the magic word in her head and now it was time to use it for real.
“Extrasnicklegiggloryeensyverbyumpwise!”
A small tongue of magic fire appeared over her palm. She held it before the Darkness.
He looked at it and laughed at her.
“Do you think one small fire can chase me away? I am the Darkness. I have been fighting the light since the beginning of all things. One small flame cannot harm me.”
; Bernard held his candle sword before the Darkness too. The fire at the end flickered.
“Two small flames make the room a little brighter,” he said fearlessly.
Mr. Fuddlebee gave Gates a little nod. “Would you be so kind as to open the front door, please, and allow our friends inside?”
She took out the Gnostike Timepiece and unlocked the front door.
The mob of angry trick-or-treaters dashed into the manor and came rushing into the helm room. They crammed inside until there was no room left to move.
The Darkness backed against the wall.
Mr. Fuddlebee waved his onbrella at the mob.
“My dear friends, it is good of you to come. You have no doubt been surprised by the sudden flight of Macabre Manor. That is because the Darkness—you see him there, against the wall, dressed in the mechanical suit of armor—he would like to take Halloween from you. He would like to take trick-or-treating from you. Who knows what he plans to do with it? He could make it darker and scarier for all we know. Will you allow that to happen?”
Hearing this upset the mob even more than before.
Werewolves dressed as astronauts suggested shooting him into space. Wizards dressed as marines suggested shooting him with big guns. Gremlins dressed as cheer leaders suggested giving him a pep talk. Dwarves dressed as counselors suggested giving him electroshock therapy. A dragon dressed as a dentist suggested drilling his teeth. An elf dressed as a musician suggested giving him piano lessons. A sprite dressed as an athlete suggested making him do pull-ups. A troll dressed as a judge suggested hitting him with a gavel.
No one could agree on anything. Yet they all agreed that they had to stop the Darkness.
Beatrice stood before them. She held up her hand. In the middle of her palm was the magic flame.
“We cannot fight fire with fire,” she announced. “But we can defeat darkness with light. Let’s share this one small light and make it ours. Let’s brighten this dark room.”
Gideon Gizmo held out his hand and took some of the magic fire. It did not make Beatrice’s flame smaller. Yet it made the room a little brighter. Mr. Fuddlebee took another flame with the tip of his onbrella. Gates held another flame in her hand and Berkeley made two flames float around his head.
The room was now much, much brighter.
The Darkness pressed himself farther back against the wall.
Beatrice, Gates, Berkeley, and Mr. Fuddlebee handed their magic flames to the others in the room. The werewolves took one each. The wizards took one each too. The gremlins, elves, dragons, fairies, trolls, dwarfs, and many other Mystical Creatures in the room each took one flame as well.
No one’s flame was smaller than anyone else’s. Yet now the room was much brighter than it had ever been.
The Darkness backed himself as far as he could go against the wall. He was pressing so hard that his armor cracked.
Mr. Fuddlebee held up his onbrella. It buzzed and all the little screws and bolts came undone.
The armor completely broke apart and the Darkness spilled out. He swirled in an inky mass, trapped by all the light in the room.
Bernard thrust his candle sword into him.
The light at the end scattered his swirling inky shape until there was nothing left of him but lifeless shades and shadows.
The Darkness gave a final cry.
And then he was gone.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The Runaway Manor
Bernard and Beatrice stood beside their little brother, Berkeley, who was still on Gideon’s shoulders, licking the chocolate off the mechmage’s head. The two older Button children were panting and wondering what would happen next.
“Where did the Darkness go?” asked Beatrice.
Mr. Fuddlebee studied the helm room with his onbrella. It buzzed and whirred. He smiled at the readouts.
“The Darkness is as it has always been.”
“Where’s that?” asked Bernard.
“He is on the outer limits of the light.”
“Will he come back?” asked Beatrice.
“If he can,” the elderly ghost answered. “But there will always be more light to welcome him.”
In the meantime, outside, the anchor had been holding on to Trick Tower, a very old and wicked building. It was always playing pranks and nasty little tricks. It played one now, letting a piece of itself break away—the piece that had been anchoring the manor.
No longer anchored down, Macabre Manor once more started floating away.
The Button children held on to one another while all the Mystical Creatures started to panic.
Gates raised herself a little higher and spoke to them.
“Can anyone pilot a floating manor?”
“I have a floating apartment on the upper east side,” Mr. Fuddlebee said. “It is much different. My helm room, for instance, is filled with doodads and thingummies. And I see none of those here. I feel completely lost.”
The manor rose up and up and up, high above Halloween Hollow. No one inside had ever piloted a floating manor before. And everyone started saying their goodbyes.
“Mr. Fuddlebee,” cried Beatrice, “what will happen to our house if Macabre Manor leaves the hollow?”
The old ghostly face became very sorrowful.
“I regret that it will burst up through the Button house. There will be nothing left of your home.”
Beatrice’s heart sank as the manor floated higher.
“Wait,” said Bernard, who suddenly had a great idea. He turned to his sister. “You can read and remember books very quickly. Do you think you could quickly read a book on piloting a house?”
Beatrice thought for a second.
“Maybe it could work, but I do not know where one would be.”
Bernard grinned.
“Before we left the library, I saw a large leather book titled Meinrad Fobble’s Manual on Manners & Floating Manors. Perhaps that could work.”
“Ah yes,” said Mr. Fuddlebee. “Meinrad. Excellent fellow. Very kind while piloting a floating manor. He once let a whole neighborhood pass him at an intersection, and never lost his cool when the floating houses behind him started blowing their horns and firing their cannons.”
Bernard turned to Berkeley. “The book is on a shelf beside the door. Bring it here quickly.”
The toddler use the power of his mind to make the book float to the helm room in seconds flat.
It landed gently down onto Beatrice’s hands. She opened the book and started reading as quickly as possible.
She murmured through the chapters. “Kind House Cleaning… Sincerely Serving With Silver… Helpful Hosting, Careful Caretaking, Trick-or-Treating Etiquette… Ah, here it is! Polite Piloting.”
She read the rest of the chapter as quickly as she could. She remembered every word. And in no time she understood what needed to be done.
“Berkeley,” she said, “flip those switches over there.”
“Bernard,” she said, “turn the steering wheel three times to the left.”
The two Button brothers did as their sister said. They did their best to pilot the manor away from their home above.
But despite their most heroic efforts, it was too late. Macabre Manor burst up through the Button home and floated out over New Orleans.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Floating House Day
Most people had never seen a floating house before and none of them had ever seen a floating jack-o-lantern house with a hot air balloon above it.
The jack-o-lantern house floated over the Garden District. It floated over Audubon Park. It floated over important schools and universities full of professors who were so smart they did not believe in ghosts or goblins.
The people of New Orleans saw this amazing sight. Some of them panicked. But most thought this was a new reason to celebrate as they watched it float toward the French Quarter. They brought out lawn chairs and coolers full of ice and beer. They put on sunglasses and flipped burgers on barbecues. They brought o
ut bowls full of gumbo and jambalaya. They filled their plates with ambrosia salad. And they did what New Orleanians do best: The whole city had a great big party.
Someone called the fire department. The fire department called the police. The police called the politicians. The politicians called the mayor. The mayor rode in a convertible car with the top down and he spoke into a bullhorn to everyone in New Orleans.
“Maybe we should have a parade,” he said. “We’ll call today Floating House Day. What do you say? Should we put it to a vote?”
And everyone in New Orleans voted that it was a great idea.
They built parade floats and they had a long parade from the Garden District to the French Quarter. They threw out beaded necklaces in the shape of little jack-o-lanterns. Some people took at least one. But most wore hundreds around their necks.
The floating jack-o-lantern house made that day really wonderful for the good people of New Orleans.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Halloween Managers
Inside Macabre Manor, the Mystical Creatures were going crazy. Most had never been outside the hollow before. None had ever been in a runaway manor before. And all of them thought they were going to die a horrible death in the next few minutes.
The Button children, however, were cool and confident. Their house might have been destroyed, yet they had a whole new household to take care of.
“Berkeley,” said Beatrice, “pull that lever. Turn that dial. Flip that switch.”
The toddler used his power to do everything his sister said.
“Bernard,” she said next, “turn the wheel twice to the right. Now once to the left. Now a little back to the right. A little more to the left. Good! Steady on.”
