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...
November 6
"AGGG! THIS IS HOPELESS!"
Ivy blinked and poked her head around the corner into the witches' workshop, then ducked to avoid a pot flying towards her head.
She was half a second too late and landed on the floor, holding her head and swearing.
Rosie was standing in front of an enormous pot, gripping her frizzy hair in her fists. A wave of heat rushed over Ivy and she gagged at the rotten stench, not unlike the smell from the Halloween tree.
"What are you doing?" She coughed, pushing herself up and waving a hand in front of her face. "Or, shall I say, trying to do?"
Rosie slammed her small fist down on the table so hard that a bottle of white liquid fell onto the floor and shattered, causing a thick white substance to float up. Ivy waved it away, her eyes still watering from Rosie's failed...what was it?
"I'm trying to create an aura elixir," Rosie hissed, kicking a rogue spellbook, "but it's not working! What am I doing wrong?"
"Time out," Ivy said, stepping over a smaller pot and holding back an eye roll. "For those of us who don't know what an 'aura elixir' is..."
Rosie grunted. "It's-in theory-an elixir that can cause those who drink it to become hyper aware of their surroundings. We'd be able to sense the very mood of humans, so that we could scare them better. If we can tell that one is terrified of the dark, we'll have something to go off of."
"Remind me to stay inside with the doors locked next Halloween."
"Good luck with that. Everybody's always either in the human world or getting ready for the after party."
Ivy opened her mouth to correct her-sorry, I meant when I get back to the human world-but thought better of it. "So, what do you mean 'in theory?'"
Rosie gave a minuscule grin. "That's because it's never been made. It was just the idea of some witch eons ago. If I make it, then I can become a witch!"
Ivy rubbed her face. "Aren't you already..."
"Apprentice, Ivy. Apprentice witch."
"So I take it that the fountain water wasn't a high enough standard."
Rosie ignored the jab and dug her hand through her pocket, pulling out a beetle shell and crushing it to dust in her fist. "Not to become a witch. I've got to create some new form of magic."
She sighed, her head flopping down on the table. "I just keep looking for ideas in these books, but nothing is working!"
Ivy frowned, her eyes running up and down the complicate instructions. "You're only 8-sorry, 108-though, right? Isn't that a little much?"
"I can do it!" Rosie pouted, crossing her arms. Ivy rolled her eyes, then noticed a stack of spellbooks hidden under a blanket. She stole a glance towards the door before turning back to the apprenticed witch, her eyes narrowing, "Do Helga and Gretchen know about this?"
Rosie bit her lip and stared at the door before leaping up and waving her hand around the doorframe. A sudden sudden pressure closed around Ivy, and her heart sped up as her ears popped. As soon as they had, the pressure eased somewhat.
"There, now they can't hear us," Rosie said, her voice oddly tin-like. Then she ran back to Ivy, who was breathing in and out deeply. Rosie rung her hands before staring up into Ivy's eyes.
"We're only allowed to go to the human world when we can prove that we can help. And not assisting another-but really working solo. They say 118 as a benchmark, but it's really as soon as you're worthy."
Ivy picked up the book, the pieces falling into place, "So you want to be a witch as soon as possible so you can help."
Rosie nodded, her eyes wide, "Gretchen's in charge of the portal-her mentor's the one who invented it-"
"How old is Gretchen?" Ivy cut in, shocked. Halloween has been happening for centuries....
Rosie laughed at Ivy's open mouth before responding, "Who knows? Helga and Gretchen aren't even the oldest ones on town. And speaking of Helga, she's perfected the healing magic we all use. She's the first witch to take an interest in it."
"Sounds like she'll put the Doc out of business," Ivy muttered, still trying to wrap her mind around Gretchen's age.
Rosie turned back to the ruined spell, cleaning up a spill with a stained rag. "He's more the inventor type, anyway." She turned to Ivy with a sudden seriousness.
"Promise not to tell Gretchen and Helga?" She begged. "They don't think I'm strong enough yet."
Ivy sighed deeply before holding up her hands, "I'm not a part of this. You do what you need to. I won't tell."
"Thank you, Ivy!" Rosie squealed, throwing herself at Ivy's waist. Against her better judgment, Ivy tensed only to relax as she felt Rosie hugging her tightly.
Well, relax as much as she could.
"Rosie...I'm not dead yet, I need some air."
"Sorry."
When the young witch had released her, Ivy winced at the pressure in her ears. "Can we lift the spell, please?"
Rosie's eyes narrowed as she waved her hand again, her lips barely moving to an unknown incantation. With a final pop!, the spell had disintegrated.
.......
"Hold your bandages, Imhotep."
The young mummery froze at the sound of his mentor's voice, silently cursing the creaky stair that had given him away.
"What kind of sneaking around was that? It's as though you were asking to be caught."
Imhotep eyed the door before turning to face the tall mummy. "Does this mean I'm not in trouble?" He asked hopefully.
His mentor's raised eyebrow gave him the answer he needed.
As Imhotep slumped by his coffin, his mentor laid a worn, bandaged hand on his apprentice's good shoulder. "It's still too sore to scare with, so-"
"-so it can't be used to have fun. I know, I know," Imhotep grumbled. "How much longer?" He whined.
Resisting the urge to roll his eyes at his apprentice's antics, the taller mummy shrugged. "That human knows more about this than I do. It said only a few days."
"Are you sure we can't just go to Helga?"
Imhotep's mentor slowly counted down from ten.
"You know that I would rather be stuck in the human world than even speak to Helga."
Imhotep winced at the disgust in his mentor's voice, regretting that he'd brought it up.
After a brief silence, Imhotep spoke again, "She seemed nice, the human."
His mentor snorted. "Believe me, I'm thankful it was there, but I'm not convinced Jack is doing the right thing, keeping a human down here."
Imhotep kept silent.
"It'll learn all our secrets, our scares!" His mentor ranted, pacing the creaky floor. "It probably helped you to gain our trust. It's working, at least on Jack-you heard him and Finkelstein had an argument, right? They haven't fought for half a century!" He twisted a stray bandage so tightly around a finger that it snapped off. "There's a reason why we have our own separate worlds-they belong there, we belong here. There in no in between."
"But what are we supposed to do?" Imhotep argued, pushing himself up despite the protest in his shoulder. "We can't send her back!"
"How it got here in the first place is what's bothersome," His mentor hissed. "I'll bet Helga pulled it through on purpose!" At Imhotep's shocked gaze, he took a deep breath. "It's the way things have always been. We scare them, they stay away. If one comes, who knows how many will follow?"
"I hadn't thought of that," Imhotep said, more to end the conversation that anything. When the silence became too great, he added, "At least Jack said we could use her to try out some new things for next year."
"It's just not right," The taller muttered. "And it won't end well, you mark my words."
..........
Gretchen's eyes narrowed as she walked past the workroom, finding Ivy slumped by the door, a scowl on her face.
Instinctively looking around for Helga, Gretchen crossed to Ivy and watched as the human's fingers twitched and twirled across the frays of her jeans.
"Something the matter?"
Ivy's head snapped back and she started, but calmed almost at once at seeing Gretchen. "N-No. Nothing."
Even without a truth spell, Gretchen could tell Ivy was lying. She raised her eyebrows and watched the human squirm under the witch's gaze.
"It's Sally," She muttered. "Yesterday I was talking to her and she starts saying how she's interested in sewing and making her own clothes."
Helga thought a moment. "That seems to be ideal. We don't have any official 'seamstresses' here, monsters are generally responsible for their own attire. It might give her something to do that would be beneficial."
Ivy snorted and stretched her arms, feeling the burn of unused muscles. "Like Finkelstein will let her do anything 'beneficial.'"
"For herself, no," Gretchen admitted. "But if it helps him, he won't oppose."
Ivy rolled her eyes. "Whatever. She wants me to help her learn. Do you know where I can get fabrics and such?"
Gretchen eyed the human skeptically. "You can..." She hesitated, unsure of how to phrase her disbelief.
Ivy groaned and pushed herself up, hating the pop of her back. "Why is that so hard to believe?" At Gretchen's raised eyebrow, she flushed. "Alright, it wasn't my idea, that's all. The point is that I can help her."
"So go to the store in the center square," Gretchen replied smoothly, trying to gloss over her earlier hesitation. "They've got everything under the Earth."
Ivy started, wondering if Halloween Town knew it was actually under the Earth.
Gretchen continued, misinterpreting the gesture as surprise that Halloween Town had a shopping area. "There's a sign out front, you can't miss it. Helga, Rosie and I have to work on something..." She snapped her fingers. "Actually, could you pick up some Stinging Nettle while you're there?"
Ivy's eyes went wide. "You mean you're not..." She trailed off, unsure of how to add you're not coming with me?
Gretchen picked up on the note of apprehension in the human's voice. She laid a hand on Ivy's shoulder and internally cheered when Ivy didn't flinch.
"You'll be fine," She said, her gravelly voice dropping to a near whisper. "They'll get used to you eventually."
Oh, comforting, Gretchen.
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes again, Ivy trailed after Gretchen as the witch sniffed the room where Rosie's 'aura elixir" had failed. She narrowed her eyes and turned to the human.
"Was Rosie fooling around in here?"
Biting her tongue and cursing the apprentice, Ivy gave a nonchalant shrug, "No idea. I'm pretty sure she's been with Angus all day, though. Only person I've seen in here was Helga."
"Helga!" Gretchen's eyes flashed as she noticed the tipped over bottle. "The thickest mist! Why would she waste that?"
Ivy stood in the doorway, her face blank. "Beats me. How do I pay for your stuff?"
Her mind still fixed on the mist, Gretchen pressed the heel of her hand against her eye. "Take the black-no, the brown string bag by the door," She growled and Ivy silently slipped past her to the door. "Helga!"
Outside, Ivy tucked the brown bag into her bomber jacket pocket and saw Rosie walking up to the front door. She grabbed the apprentice's shoulder, feeling a twinge in her chest when Rosie flinched. "Find Angus," she said, her voice low. "You've been with him all day and never went near the workroom."
With that, she left Rosie's confused form behind and headed into town.
Ivy kept to the side of the street, her head down, trying to ignore the stares and whispers. Did they think she was oblivious? The breaking point was when a group of chattering monsters who fell utterly silent as Ivy's approach. All head slowly swiveled to her, their gazes never breaking to even blink.
The moment Ivy was further away, they immediately burst into a flurry of whispers. Ivy rolled her eyes and squeezed her fists together.
Just as she was about to turn around and run back to the witches' place, the wind blew a cool breeze around her hot cheeks.
"Do not allow it to affect you, Miss Ivy."
"Affect me?" She hissed, as a fresh laugh rose from the group. "You can't expect me to put up with this!"
"I highly doubt this behavior is scarce in the human world."
Ivy shrugged, her mind suddenly on the string of American kids who passed her bus stop each day. They'd gotten a similar treatment from Ivy's friends. "But we stopped after a while," She mumbled, more to herself than the wind.
But the wind heard anyway. "As will they. You've been here less than a week, it will take time."
Ivy nodded in defeat, slowly rolling her shoulders back and walking away. "Just gimme a heads up in case one of them charges."
"I'll be here, Miss Ivy."
"Mama! It's the human!"
Ivy closed her eyes and counted. Eins, zwei, drei...
By the time she's reached the center square, Ivy's palms had little crescent-shaped marks from her nails.
She craned her neck to look at a run down shop, complete with a rotten egg small coming from the door underneath the shop's name.
"Seriously?" She asked the wind. "'Witch Tricks?'"
The wind was silent.
Rolling her eyes, Ivy walked through the door, only for the door 'chime' to let out a blood-curdling scream at her entrance. Caught off guard, Ivy let out a scream of her own, jumping a foot in the air. Then her cheeks burned red as every member of the shop (of course it's busy, just my luck,) and a few were clearly holding back laughs.
Trying to ignore them, Ivy raised her head and stalked through the entrance, her humiliation forgotten as she stared around the shop.
There was an enormous store downtown back home, with three stories full of costumes, makeup, and decorations. This small shack put the grand, sprawling store to shame.
Every wall was lined with strange gadgets, such as a complicated spider web(Ivy shuddered at this), a pairs of rattling chains, extra bandages for mummies, shears(what?), and enough knives to make Ivy nervous.
There was an entire section devoted to strange plants, with a few greens among the sea of browns, blacks...purples, blues, pinks...
Ivy spotted a small sign for Stinging Nettle Leaves and slowly waded through the ankle deep fog, noticing for the first time the chill in the air that caused goosebumps to form on her arms. The leaves were stacked but didn't have a cover and she hesitated. Well, I'm not touching them straight!
A monster noticed the human's confusion and strode over, a grin on it's face.
Ivy felt a bump at her elbow and turned to apologize, only to come come face to face with...herself.
Ivy blinked and started, watching as her doppelgänger met her eyes.
"Ok, that's just freaky," She muttered, not breaking eye contact with the brown eyed identical to her own. "This is so not right."
The Ivy Double shrugged, and Ivy watched in horror as her sly smile came onto the double's face. Oh god, this is so many shades of wrong.
"We've all got our tricks," it said, using Ivy's voice.
Is that what I sound like? I'm so sorry...
"So what are you exactly?" She asked, trying to keep calm.
Her doppelgänger shrugged again. "Shapeshifter. Pretty basic, but effective."
"You don't say," Ivy muttered, her eyes taking in her own face.
Other Ivy held out her hand, "Chifte. Nice to meet you, um-"
"Ivy," She cut Chifte off, hesitantly shaking her own hand. The shapeshifter nodded slowly, narrowing Ivy's eyes.
Trying to break the tense air, Chifte glanced down at the plant Ivy'd been eyeing. "What do you need Stinging Nettle for?"
"Gretchen wants it," Ivy answered. She distantly wondered why Gretchen would need it.
Chifte wrinkled her nose in the same way Ivy did when she was confused, "But Gretchen is the one who supplies us with the Nettle. Hasn't she..." The shapeshifter went quiet and suddenly avoided Ivy's gaze.
It was on the tip of Ivy's tongue to ask what she meant, but she put it away for later. "Do you have a bag of anything for it?"
"A bag?" Chifte asked, raising one of Ivy's eyebrows. "Can't you just pick it up?"
"It's Stinging Nettle!"
"So?"
"So I can't touch it, I'll break out!"
Chifte let out an "oh" and laughed. "Sorry, forgot. It hurts humans, right?" She reached down and scooped up a handful of leaves I'm her right hand.
"It doesn't hurt you?" Ivy asked, unconsciously scratching her own hand.
Chifte shrugged, "We've kinda built up an immunity, since every witch of Halloween uses it."
"Huh."
Chifte moved to the counter, laying the leaves out. "I'm sure I can find something so you can carry it."
The shapeshifter opened a cabinet and pulled out a burlap sack with a suspicious green stain on the bottom, "Anything else?"
Ivy leaned against the counter, flinching as a large red rat scampered across the counter. "Umm...some fabrics, needles, thread, and such."
The shapeshifter laughed, "Rosie tear another smock?"
"Something like that," Ivy muttered, not wanting to talk about Sally.
Chifte duped a pile of different fabrics on the counter, digging through and muttering to herself, "Where's the black..."
"Actually, we're looking for different colors this time," Ivy cut in. She tried to think of Sally's preferences, but came up blank. It's not like that comes into a conversation, anyway.
She grabbed a pink square, hesitated, then slowly reached her hand out and took a yellow. Meeting Chifte's(her own)eyes, she added a tan and brown to the pile, not noticing the spotted pattern.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"
A large orange lizard came scuttling out of the back room, arms moving so fast shelves toppled over, with unaffected monsters moving out of its way. It raced towards Chifte, still wearing Ivy's form, threw her hands up.
"Who in the name of Jack let a human back-"
"It's ok!" Chifte cut the lizard off, and there was a sickening slurp sound as Chifte shed Ivy's skin, becoming a tall, spindly windigo that matched a creature across the room.
Ivy stared down at the dried husk of herself pooled around Chifte's feet and fought down the nausea rising in her stomach. "Ok, that's just..."
"Chifte," The lizard sighed with obvious relief, patting the shapeshifter on the borrowed shoulder. "Not a bad scaring technique."
"I think I'm gonna be sick," mumbled Ivy, catching the attention of the lizard.
"And I assume you're the proper human?" Asked the lizard, leaning across the counter to stare at Ivy, the pointed nose inches from Ivy's own. The human resisted the urge to pull back as the lizard wetted it's eyeballs.
"Ivy," She said steadily, uncertain of the lizard's opinion of her.
"Hmm. So you say," came the answer, and at Ivy's confused blink the lizard drew back and clapped it's front hands together. "How may I help you?"
"I don't suppose you could...get rid of the..." She gestured to the husk. "It's a little unnerving to have my own face split down the middle."
Chifte waved a long, spindly hand. "It'll dissolve into goop soon enough and then be gone."
"Fantastic," Ivy muttered, taking her eyes off the double's. "Gretchen wants to buy this fabric and some stinging nettle leaves." She pulled out the little brown pouch and wondered what currency Halloween Town used.
The lizard hmmed again and leaned over the counter, then nodded. "For the fabrics, I'd say...six golden spiders and that wonderful itching cream."
Ivy blinked. "Huh?"
The lizard's eyes rolled as one scaly hand pointed to the bag in Ivy's hand, "It should be in there."
Ivy frowned and opened the bag, her jaw dropping as she saw an enormous cavern below. She waves her hand below the bag, unable to believe it. "It's like Hermione's handbag," she whispered with awe.
The lizard buffed impatiently and dug a hand in, ignoring both Ivy and Chifte's shouts of "hey!"
The lizard pulled out six spiders with a golden gleam and nodded towards a small vile, "That's the itch cream."
Ivy reached in and pulled it out setting it hesitantly on the counter. The lizard uncorked the bottle and sniffed it, taking in a deep breath.
"Now, about the stinging nettle leaves...I'll take that silver necklace she's got in there."
Ivy made eye contact with Chifte, who made slashing across her throat and shook her head violently. Ivy paused a moment before turning to the lizard and saying, "No?"
The lizard smiled and gripped the counter causing pools of sticky fluid to leak onto the surface. "A haggler, eh?" It said, wetting the eyeballs once again. "What'll it be, human?"
Ivy glanced to Chifte in a panic, and the shapeshifter raised a finger.
"Uh..how about one..." She watched as Chifte pretended to think, then snapped two fingers and pointed to the wendigo's head. "...an idea?"
There was a nod of affirmation from Chifte.
The lizard gave a wide grin, showing all it's teeth. "An idea for scares? Well, how can I pass that up?"
An idea for scares? On humans? No way!
"Umm.." Ivy tried not to panic, her mind going into overdrive as she tried to think of the most harmless scare she could. Then she remembered a haunted house she'd visited back home and had an idea.
"Take the...target's...surroundings, right? If you can, make sure they're comfortable there-or seek them out where they aren't scared."
"What would that do?"
"I'm getting there," Ivy waved a hand. "Then what you do is slowly change the stuff around them. Move an object- far enough that it'll be noticed, but not too far. Switch two things. If you change what they're comfortable in, they'll be easier to scare. Their own imagination will do the work."
Chifte's wendigo form didn't have eyebrows, but Ivy understood the silent shock on the shapeshifter's face all the same. She rolled up most of the fabric and pushed it into Gretchen's bag, saving two to put the nettle leaves in the burlap sack.
"Is that idea enough?" She asked, unable to resist a sliver of pride.
The lizard sniffed, "For the nettle leaves, it'll do. It's not the worst suggestion I've heard." The lizard then turned and did it's odd dance to the back of the shop, leaving only Ivy and Chifte.
"Well, Gretchen probably needs those as quickly as possible, if she's sending you," Chifte said, thankfully breaking the odd silence. "Just be sure to tell her..."
"What?" Ivy asked, seeing the same hesitation that had been on the shapeshifter's (borrowed) face earlier. "What is it?"
"Just...let her know we need our restock soon, that's all." Chifte nodded once to the human and then slipped away, stepping over the Ivy-husk that was not almost a transparent pile of liquid.
Ivy stared after the shapeshifter for a moment, not entirely buying the story, resolving to ask Gretchen about it later. "Hopefully Rosie didn't run into her," she muttered under her breath as she walked to the front of the store, feeling the renewed stares on her back. The door opened before she got there and a duck with razor sharp teeth quacked in surprise at seeing her.
Ivy rolled her eyes and then glared at the duck. "Do you mind?" She said over the duck's noise. "I'm getting a headache."
The duck stopped, as did several nearby monsters.
"What are you looking at?" Ivy huffed, signaling the nearest monster, who had the decency to look away. "Whatever."
And with the next scream of the door, the human was gone.
...
Have anyone of you ever heard of the Wendigo? Oh I get the chills listening to scary stories about them.