Vengeance: A Halloween Novella

Chapter 2

November 1, 2022

Matthew Tkachuk's Limbo

Matthew Tkachuk stands, frozen in the emptiness of limbo. There's nothing around him, only darkness. This is how it is 364 days of the year. Occasionally there's a bright flash of light that illuminates the darkness like lightning in a thunderstorm cloud.

After his fifth time to Earth on Halloween, he's failed yet again to last the entire night alive in order to achieve his goal of getting to Elias Pettersson. There has to be a way though! The blood from Jason Dickinson lasted him the longest, so it's definitely possible! He just has to crack how to make it long enough to reach the Canuckling and talk to him.

He lifts a hand up to the empty dark air and swivels it around a few times, before a pamphlet book appears and drops right into his fingers.

"Let's see here...?" He flips through the book, passing the section that mentions the blood of a person to return to Earth (this he'd read before and tried out with the various western conference victims).

He stops on a page that has bold text at the top that reads: "How to last for the entire night." He chuckles to himself. "Simple. Why didn't I see and read this before?" He sticks his index finger to the page and begins to read the text aloud to himself:

"In order to manifest oneself in the real world for the entire night, not only must you possess the victim's blood, but you must also concoct a potion. There are three simple ingredients for this:

The blood -- only a few drops will do, you Vampire! -- of the victim. Murder is just too easy, try not to get the taste for this. (Oops, Matthew.)

A lock of your own hair or the hair of a loved one will do. Personally, we recommend your own, since it's so easily accessible.

And finally, a drop of your own blood. Just conjure up the knife. We promise that this won't make you a murderer or addicted to killing.

Just combine all of these ingredients together in a bottle and then drink it and see what happens. I can almost guarantee that a ninety percent of the time this will work and allow you to return to the real world."

Tkachuk tosses the book up into the air and snaps his fingers. "It's too easy!"

He throws his hands out before him and conjures up a small black cauldron before him.

Then he causes a sharp butcher's knife to poof out of the air with a simple swipe at the air and thought of the weapon. Tkachuk slashes off a lock of his hair and drops it into the cauldron pot before him. He slices the blade across the palm of his hand and then snaps the knife's existence away as quickly as it came.

He withdraws the vile with the few drops of Jason's blood in it and throws the whole thing into the pot.

At once, the ingredients seem to combine to form a billowing red fog that bubbles out of the depths of the cauldron.

Tkachuk commands a roll of gauze to appear to him and he wraps it around his bleeding hand. He might be dead in the real world, but he still bleeds in limbo. He ties the gauze in place and then stands before his masterpiece that is boiling and bubbling and fogging before him. It's not really a witch's brew...but he can't help but smirk.

The cauldron then appears to spit a cloud of fog at his face and he can feel the fumes burning the insides of his nostrils as he unwillingly enhales it. The icy white color to his pupil is replaced with a pitch blackness that seems to devour his entire eye. He snaps his head up, smirking evilly.

In a sudden rapid series of images, he is transported from the limbo state back to Rodgers Arena in 2020 on Halloween. He finds himself looking across the plaza at the man who shot him.

In the center of the hoodie, he can clearly see Elias Pettersson's face.

"You going to shoot me just because I hate you and your pitiful team, Canuckling?!" Tkachuk snarls at him.

The gun cocks, the noise echoing around the area. Elias says nothing as he keeps the weapon trained on Tkachuk.

"Go ahead and do it! I'll come back and find you either way! I'll KILL you, Pettersson!" Tkachuk spits out in a ferocious, madman snarl.

There's the crack and then he is brought back to limbo, staring at the air before him. He draws up a bottle from the air and, with a neat swoop, scoops up the contents inside the cauldron into it.

"Time to return to Earth," Tkachuk remarks to no one but himself and then tips the bottle up, drinking the potion inside. His eyes flash and settle on the eerie black hole look. "...and kill Elias Pettersson!"

October 24, 2023

Time flies by and soon it is the next year. The potion puts Tkachuk into a coma. When he finally blinks his eyes open, he finds himself lying on top of grass, under a tree in a cemetery. There is a thick dark gray fog that swirls around him and makes it difficult to see more than ten feet in all directions.

It's not night time out, but he can't tell if it's sunny or not and what time of the day it is.

He glances down at himself, noticing his skin...colorful, normal skin. He sets a hand firmly on the ground, finding that it doesn't sink into the grass. He also discovers that he is wearing black compression pants with his light gray Flames hoodie. It has green stains from the grass on it, but he doesn't care.

The potion worked!

He jumps up to his feet and looks around him, his eyes settling on the tombstone of the grave he'd been lying on top of. It is, of course, his own. His name, the years living and the cause: a gunshot.

A gunshot...from Elias Pettersson, he thinks to himself, flashing a vampire-like smirk.

He begins to walk through the cemetery, eventually reaching the high, rusty metallic archway that usually marked the entrance or exit. He walks out and heads down the sidewalk, away from the graveyard.

He rubs his hands together, excitedly. His heart pounds in his chest. He is itching to get his hands on Elias Pettersson. His mind begins to race with thoughts. How will he kill him? Strangulation, maybe? An eye for an eye, with a single gunshot? Perhaps he can suffocate the Canuck or-or bury him alive! There's so many choices!

Before long, he reaches the end of the road and the fog thins a bit for him to be able to see that he is in the middle of Downtown Calgary. He looks down at the sidewalk, spotting a small puddle that had formed.

His reflection shows him as a human, a fair causian complexion, light brunette curls that aren't white and ghostly anymore. But with a pair of big, beady black eyes. He is instantly reminded of the appearance of black-eyed children from the various tales or the kind of supernatural eyes from creepy paranormal movies.

Just then, a couple walking across the road, sees him. They don't seem to freak out or notice him. Well, notice who he is, that is. They just simply wave at him and greet him with a hearty hello.

So perhaps he can control who can see his black eyes (except for himself -- as this is his look and there's nothing wrong with it). He smirks at his reflection in the puddle and then steps forward to cross the road. Perfect!