All Hallows Eve – The first trial
They stood watching out the wall of windows, which completely covered the side of the building. The sunset in beautiful oranges and pinks on the horizon. While the small park opposite the office building, which was also close to the thriving and touristy waterfront was beginning to come to life. Halloween was being celebrated by many of the pubs and restaurants as it would bring the easy money of the Saturday markets. Chris had begun a game of them counting the number of people in costumes, which were less than there used to be, due to it being considered immature by the boring new generation. Chris considered that their hipster outfits and ridiculous clothing attempts at fashion were actually more garish than a costume would be anyway. He knew that night was going to be a hard one. He looked at her and wondered if she would be able to handle the weirdness, “We’re getting close to the first trial.”
“So, I know you described it, but I am unsure if you’re exaggerating?” She queried, for the seventh time.
“Only way to understand is to go through it,” he shrugged remembering someone warning him of the same things his first Halloween, “Remember, one, don’t let them touch you. Two, if one of them see’s you, run! As they will chase you. Three, if being chased go through a wall as they have a harder time going through physical matter than us. It’s because they live between the realms. Four, when they call the hell hounds towards the end to round up the last few, just stand still and don’t think. They can feel terror, it’s how they hunt. If you calm down, they won’t chase you.”
“What happens if they get you?” She asked worriedly.
“I’ve seen it happen twice and it looked and sounded painful. The screams still haunt me. Hey, watch out, look they are on their way!”
She looked out the window and saw random little lights slicing through the air. She could hear it as well, it was the sound you could hear in movies when the actor cut the air with a sword at high speed, “Are they cutting into our realm?”
“Yep, look they are starting to come through,” Chris pointed.
She realised the sun had just about set and the only light was being absorbed by slowly expanding dark holes appearing every couple of meters. A bulky shape emerged from one, she thought it was too big to be able to get through, but waited until it was free. It stood around two meters in height. It actually was dressed in a hooded eternal black robe, like depicted in the real world pictures, with a glinting scythe in its left hand. It seemed to be blindly looking around for a few seconds until it turned it’s hooded head upwards. Even though she couldn’t see it’s eyes, she knew it was looking at them.
“Is that the Grim Reaper?” She asked as it stood still, watching them from the park.
“They all are reapers,” Chris motioned and she blinked seeing the whole street and park were covered with the creatures.
Suddenly they all raised their scythes and rented the air with them. As they did, a tremendous unholy howl rose in volume as other spirits seemed to be being hurtled to the earth. As they landed, the many different spirits took a moment to gain their bearings. The smart ones began running in random directions. Quite a few flew towards the building they were in. The reapers stood still with their right arms raised. She looked back to the one who still felt like it was looking at her, “How long do we,”
“Run! Keep moving while the reapers are chasing, don’t stop until they call the hell hounds and don’t try hiding. Stay moving through walls and try not bump into any! They only stay for an hour. Now go!” Chris yelled as he started running and the creatures hunched over and began going in all directions to hunt the spirits. She saw five, including the one that was hunting her start to advance towards the building.
Chris had told her about the four trials a few days beforehand, so she had had time to prepare. While Chris appeared to favour a thinking on his feet approach to the situation, she had always been a planner. Especially in stressful situations, where her mind was often her enemy and all common sense shutdown. She had devised random planned routes through the office floors. She started on floor two and took the third corridor, then moved up the stairs to seven and took the first left, then to five, then three etcetera. If she saw one, she would go through the closest wall and start reversing to a further point away down or up the floors.
They had discussed, why the reapers did this on Halloween and Chris had shrugged, “I assume because we’re not meant to be here. Just think, if every person who had ever died, stayed, well we’d hardly hear ourselves think.”
“But if we’re meant to go, then why don’t we?”
“I think, as mentioned before, that we might still be in denial of our deaths. So, we cling to this existence.”
“But then why do you choose to not go with the reaper, if it’s what is natural?”
“There is a difference between going because you’ve accepted and being forced kicking and screaming. All the spirits which fall, when the reapers appear for the hunt, are the ones who got caught. They aren’t the ones who moved on because they were ready,” Chris explained remembering running into ones he had known before during the hunt.
She turned the corner and stopped in horror as she saw the reaper slowly hovering down the corridor in the opposite direction. It halted and lifted its head as if smelling the air. It turned towards her and rented the air with a ferociously guttural scream of anger. She immediately went through the wall and then another as she sped along to the stairs. She didn’t look backwards, but felt the anger from the reaper as if it was right behind her. She got to the left stairs and went down five flights to the first floor, forgetting her reasoning with the need to escape such a threatening presence. She crossed the lobby cautiously, seeing by the big clock that they had fifteen minutes left and went to the right staircase. She accended to begin again at the second floor. She saw Chris and he warned quickly, “Different floor, quick!” Before darting through another wall. She reversed to the stairs and went up to the tenth floor feeling an almost bitterness at passing by where she had died. She didn’t feel that it was anyone’s fault, but that it was unfair. She had felt angry that no doctor had checked her heart, that they didn’t think to put her on medications sooner because they must have thought it an unlikely event at her age. Now her family had to be heart broken. But she hadn’t felt anger for long, more regret. She heard a scream from a spirit at the end of the corridor and she peaked at a Victorian garbed woman being embraced by the tall reaper as she faded from view, she heard the spectre whistle a high note and disappear. She ran to the window, after making sure it had gone and saw the building being surrounded by what appeared to be hounds or dogs, made of fire coming into to building. Chris appeared next to her and smiled, “This is the hard one. We need to stay calm and not fear them or feel anything from their snarling,” He sat down in a meditation pose and she copied him as the howling grew closer, “peace.” He closed his eyes and she did the same.
She took deep breaths, which she suddenly realised couldn’t really be breathing because they didn’t need breath. She stopped and realised that she didn’t feel any of the lack of air, which she had felt when she was alive. It was actually a very peaceful observation. The need to panic was gone. Even when she felt the heated sniff at her ear, indicating the dog was right by her. She opened her eyes and saw Chris with a flame dog sniffing him curiously, as well. The dog had long sharp teeth and looked terrifying, as Chris saw her focusing on them. He opened his mouth and smiling said in a casual voice, “Pineapple puppy, giggling grapes with a giraffe?” He raised an eyebrow and she almost giggled. The dogs growled and suddenly vanished in a puff of smoke. “It’s six pm,” he explained, “Well done, the next trial will be in an hour.” She felt relieved and a bit, not tired as ghosts didn’t feel tired, more fatigued than anything. She guessed that was why some ghosts that had been captured on camera seemed to stay in one spot. Instead of growing tired, they just stopped moving when their energy was depleted. The energy seemed mostly lost during emotional situations rather than movement.
All Hallows Eve – The second trial
“Good luck with the next trial. We won’t be able to talk until it’s done. Just remember that they want you to give in. Stay strong,” Chris encouraged as they both started to fade.
She couldn’t see anything. It was complete darkness. She was both fascinated and worried that she had somehow failed, without being given the chance to try. Suddenly the sound of a microphone being tap tested interrupted the silence. A spotlight flared to life and she blinked as a man holding what appeared to be a golden violin started playing a sombre tune. Due to the brilliance of the violin, it took a moment to realise that the figure holding it appeared to be in shadow. As he finished the piece, he bowed and the light shone on his face. She frowned as he looked like a theatre costumed devil. He smiled and said, “So, a fiddle of gold against your soul that I am better than you?”
She shook her head, “Sorry, I don’t play the fiddle and do not think I am the best that has ever been. But it is a catchy song even if the homage is a bit on the nose,” she smiled as best she could.
The light came on and she could see they were in a very swanky office. The walls covered in black marble with geometric artworks in spots along them. A big glass desk with silver framework sat the the centre, with a white imposing office chair behind it, looking for all intents and purposes like a modern throne. He sat behind it and snapping his fingers, a chair appeared on the opposite side. He motioned for her to sit.
“Fiddle isn’t your bag, no problems. First let’s talk about what you want, then we can talk about the small recompense for your dreams to come true.”
“You’re trying to make me make a Faustian bargain?” She laughed at the absurdity of expecting more of a mythical demon than amatuer bargaining tricks.
“You haven’t even seen what’s on offer,” he clicked his fingers and a big screen television appeared on the wall behind the desk.
“You going to have me come back to life as a walking corpse to scare the hell out of my family?” She asked jokingly.
“Oh no, sorry even the devil cannot bring someone back from the dead,” he shook his head.
“Then you have nothing to offer me.”
“Oh, don’t be so fast to think that. I have some influence in the land of the living. You want them to stop being heartbroken and broken from your death don’t you?” He clicked on the television and showed them crying in grief and then flicking the channel showed her husband getting a raise at work and them moving into a mansion. Her son growing up and meeting a beautiful girl, getting married and having a child, “Or if you don’t take the deal then the opposite might be true.” He clicked the remote and it showed her husband drinking and neglecting their son. Getting fired, moving into a small place and her son growing up and becoming abusive to his girlfriend then taking drugs and dying in an alleyway.
She hadn’t realised how dark the room had become. The jovial face has become threatening, “you can only corrupt the bad people who only value wealth and power. What you offered first would not work as unfortunately for you, they don’t want money. They want me back because they loved me. They will always love me and not replace me with such frivolous shit. A moral person cannot be tricked by material gain. It’s like the main philosophy of all folklore and fairy tales.”
“I believe you’re fiddle playing has bested me.”
“You played really badly. Why was it so easy to beat you? I’m not being prideful, I’m curious,” she asked seriously.
“The truth is that you set the difficulty level. If it was easy, then you are the reason and it’s because you’re getting ready to move on.”
“Oh,” she exclaimed and faded back to the building.
Chris looked anxiously at her as she came back, “You got through it. Two down, only two more to go. Next ones at nine.” They looked out as storm clouds started moving ominously towards them…
Maxine the Magnificent 