King of Hell (AHS: Apocalypse)

Epilogue - Soul Retrieval

Misty savored her last weeks until spring's arrival with Miss Robicheaux's Academy to their fullest. The student body was only told that Misty had a friend who needed her help. Some of them were skeptical, others paid it no mind. Mallory and Coco, however, were the only ones who knew that were not part of the council or teaching body, as Mallory was witness and Coco had promised to keep Misty safe along with the rest that fateful evening. They were sworn to secrecy as special cases.

In preparation for Halloween, they all lent a hand in decorating the main hall, the ancestry room, dining room, and the kitchen with hang-up ghost props, pumpkin garland, and jack-o-lanterns were carved with candles placed inside them. Myrtle and Misty worked together to make special floral arrangements appropriate for the season – orange roses, bright yellow sunflowers, white lilies, and foliage gathered from outside that day as an added touch. When working with the floral arrangements, Myrtle had narcissuses brought in, and they caught Misty's gaze like a fly to honey. My wedding flowers, she thought.

"Narcissus," Myrtle said, inhaling the scent. "The flower of new life. A narcotic."

"They are beautiful," Misty replied with a smile, thinking of Michael. "T-They were my weddin' flowers."

"It's a wonder flowers are in hell at all."

"They are," she said, "if you know where to look. It seems like he can conjure a rabbit from a hat down there."

"Do you have a costume planned for our Halloween soiree?" Myrtle asked.

"I... will think of somethin'. It shouldn't be too hard," Misty said affirmatively.

The Halloween soiree was something held at Miss Robicheaux's every year since Cordelia went public with the coven in 2013, when the school also started accepting students on a massive scale. It was a chance for some select invited guests from the public to interact with the students at the academy. For Cordelia, it meant integrating into society and being accepted instead of stigmatized. All of the students, council and teachers dressed in costume.

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The day of Halloween, Misty was extremely nervous and slightly overwhelmed at the inevitable – at midnight, she was set to return to the underworld with Michael, and not return to the mortal coil again until May 1. She was in the greenhouse, watering the plants when she got an idea. Seeing some of the flowers were in full bloom, she found them appropriate to add to a costume. She kept it a secret until that night and brought one of her white maxi dresses down to the greenhouse with some twine. She plucked some daisies, small rose buds, violets, and snapdragon stalks and strung them on long pieces of twine to make a belt sash and a headband that tied in the back. That evening, she put it on and styled her golden curls around the headband to hide the twine and emphasize the flowers. She was barefoot, which added to her fairy-like ensemble.