Miles To Go Before I Sleep

Halloween

Halloween

...

Jack reclined back against the trunk of the tree he was sitting in. It was sometime in late October and normally he would have been hanging out in Antarctica waiting for winter, but something had drawn him away from the place of endless cold and up north, where autumn continued to reign. He had opted for a secluded area in the countryside – a place where Ceres was unlikely to go so there was little to no risk of being caught by her.

It was a beautiful night; the cloudless sky showing off countless stars and the moon shining down on him. In all rights, he should have been happy.

"Why doesn't anybody ever see me?" he asked, tilting his head to stare forlornly at the moon. He spoke to the Man in the Moon often, always with the same questions. But MiM never spoke back. And he was always left feeling disappointed and lost. And then he would try again another night and the cycle would continue.

"Why am I even here? For what purpose did you put me here?"

And like always, the only reply was the silence of night.

Jack sighed, rolling his head to the side. "Why don't you ever talk to me?"

"Probably because I've never met you."

Jack jumped as the sudden voice cut through the silence like a knife. He searched frantically for the source of the voice but there was no one in sight. "Hello?"

"Hello!"

Jack looked up so fast his neck cracked. Lying casually on a branch above him was a young man with jet black hair that looked like he'd just gotten out of bed. He was dressed completely in black, save for the bright orange pumpkin on his head that had a spooky face carved into it. His eyes glowed yellow to match the lantern that was his headgear.

Jack caught his breath, placing a hand over his heart to calm himself.

"Did I scare you?" the stranger asked with a Cheshire grin.

"Yes!" Jack cried indignantly – there was no point in denying it.

"Good." The stranger swung down, landing nimbly in front of him. "So, who are you?" he asked, his voice lilting like he was asking about a secret crush.

"Jack," he introduced. "Jack Frost."

"Ooh! I've heard of you! Troublemaker, right?"

Jack frowned but didn't try to justify himself.

"I'm Jack-O-Lantern," the creepy guy said smugly. "Also known as the Pumpkin King, or the spirit of Halloween. Nice name, by the way."

"You too," Jack replied with a bewildered smile.

"Why don't you come join us for Halloween?"

Jack almost did a double-take. "What? You want me to go to your party?"

"Sure, why not? It's not like you've got anything better to do, right? Unless of course you'd planned on sitting here talking to MiM all night," he added with a smirk.

Jack huffed, getting to his feet. "It's your funeral," he said by way of warning.

"Yeah, kinda."

...

...

Jack-O-Lantern had led him a little ways across the countryside to a large, overgrown pumpkin patch in the yard of a church that had started to mingle with the graveyard. It would have all been a bit overwhelming had it not been for the countless lit turnips, gourds and pumpkins – all of which had faces carved out of them – and the vast number of spirits milling about.

Some were quite obviously dressed up for the occasion, while others appeared to look the way they did naturally. Jack was almost positive he'd spotted Death himself lurking around the punch bowl. There were ghouls that seemed to be lesser spirits serving under Jack-O, who all stopped to cheer as their master arrived. Even Pitch Black was present.

The whole place was just the kind of thing Jack had expected to find at a Halloween party, although he was fairly sure the skeleton decorations were real. He made a point of avoiding those.

"So Jack," Jack-O said, placing a casual arm over the winter spirit's shoulders. "Why not lend us a hand with a bit of frost?"

Jack raised an eyebrow in confusion and followed the Pumpkin King's gaze over to where Ceres was talking animatedly with one of the Pixies that was responsible for the Will-O'-the-Wisp.

"What did you have in mind?"

Jack knew he was probably going to regret this. Ceres already hated him enough as it was. Nevertheless, the prankster part of him couldn't care less. And so they set the plan into motion.

"How do you keep that flame alight without burning your hair?" Jack asked, gesturing to the Halloween spirit's headgear while they waited for their target to move into position.

Jack-O reached up and pulled the carved lantern off his head. Reaching inside, he pulled out a small flame that danced on the tips of his fingers without seeming to do any harm. "It's Hell fire," he explained and Jack automatically took a step back. Jack-O snickered but continued his explanation. "Before I became like this," he gestured weakly towards himself. "I tricked the Devil into not taking my soul. In the end, when I died, I was left with nowhere left to go. The Devil gave me this flame to light the way."

"Wait, so you're…"

"Yup, cursed to forever wander the Earth as a soul rejected by both Heaven and Hell," he finished dramatically.

"How come I've never seen you around before?"

Jack-O returned the flame to his pumpkin and placed it back on his head. "I only come out on Halloween." He glanced down at the gourds lighting the area, their glow starting to fade. "Only a few minutes 'til Samhain. It's time to have some fun."

...

Ceres was unsuspecting as she walked over to the table containing the party snacks. Jack waited until she was in just the right position before directing the wind to blow around her gently. The autumn spirit frowned, not having called upon her own wind and not knowing Jack was just across the clearing, hiding behind a particularly large pumpkin with her host.

The wind did its job well, blowing out the flickering lights in the lanterns around her.

Ready to turn it up a notch, Jack focused on the patch of frost by the plump woman's feet. The frosted image of a hand slowly pulled up from the grass, gaining a more corporeal form. The hand reached up like a being of the dead climbing from its grave and latched on tightly to Ceres's ankle.

The autumn spirit screamed, knocking the table over in her panic and desperately kicking her leg out in an attempt to free herself. The hand dissipated in a puff of snowflakes as both Jacks rose from their hiding place, bursting with laughter.

"Well what did you expect, coming to a Halloween party?" Jack-O grinned at her, but Ceres only had eyes for Jack Frost.

"You," she ground out in nothing short of righteous fury.

"Uh-oh," Jack's smile slipped as the wind swept him up into the air.

"See you next year, Frosty?" Jack-O called up to him, still trying to catch his breath as he watched the winter spirit get chased by Ceres.