Helloween

HELLOWEEN

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Jay. There were other boys named Jay as well, but this one was from far Outside the universe. And he was jaysome, which others can be – of course they can! – but never as deeply as he was at eleven. He was eleven for many years. And after them he was older, and never quite as jaysome as he had been. But that was a different time, and those are other stories. Sometimes they came after this one, or even before since time does not touch a Jay like it does other things.

It was Halloween, of course. An old and hallowed night whose meanings were all but forgot even then. Jay had friends, and their names were Charlie, who ate gods, and Honcho, who was a wandering magician. Jay had no titles. Jaysome has no need for such things.

“I’m getting really confusled here,” Jay announced as he walked down a sidewalk.

“Oh?” Charlie said warily.

“I’m dressed up and have jaysome as my costume and people don’t notice,” Jay wailed.

“Ah. You are jaysome all the time,” Charlie replied with patience a saint would have wept to have.

“But it’s a disguise. I know,” Jay said happily. “I could be a vampire!” And he had fangs after saying that, though his grin remained joy.

“You could, but you would confusle other vampires.”

Jay let out a huge sigh of disappointment. “And I’m not allowed to be you.”

“No,” Charlie said. She had given up trying to explain that she wasn’t scary to Jay.

“Wait wait wait, I know of a costume,” Jay exclaimed.

He stopped a moment later. Charlie moved back. There was a god inside her, a thing of dark closets, red claws and fear. But it was scared and she followed its lead. “Jay?”

The boy turned. Once upon a time there was a boy named Jay who made a mistake that was not an oops nor an accident. He smiled.

“Jay,” she repeated, and the word was a question even as she dialled a number on her phone.

“Charlie.” The wandering magician was behind her between moments, for magic answers want and need and hers had burned as bright as a star for a moment. He wasn’t tall, but he could seem tall if he wished.

Jay ceased to smile.

“Go,” the magician said softly, and Charlie went. She ran, the woman who had faced down gods and angels in her time, stood against monsters both human and otherwise without pause. Once upon a time, Charlie ran as she never would again and every terror that kept her awake at night for years later followed on her heels was in the smile she saw in Jay’s face.

The magician did not move.

“Do you like your smile?” Jay asked. “I improved upon it.”

“Who are you?” the magician asked with cruel indifference.

“Names, names, names. Bringer of Sorrows. Walker of the Wasting. The Smiling One. Sun Breaker. The Waking Monster. The Sleepless King.” The boy’s smile widened to match the glee in his eyes. “Jayseltosche.”

“How are you here?”

“You are the magician. Figure it out.”

“I try not to figure out Jay. Now: how are you here?”

Jay’s head snapped back. His voice was a low hiss of fury. “You cannot bind me!”

“Do you want me to ask again?”

“YOU CANNOT BIND ME!”

“But I have. And it was not so long ago as you may wish.”

Jay raised his left hand. The magician did not move. It lowered. Slowly. “Jay realized being jaysome as a costume wasn’t being noticed. So he decided to not be jaysome. He opened a door. And I am here.”

“You act as though you could have refused.”

Jayseltosche blinked. The house behind the magician was unmade. Along with all who resided within in. No tricks, no treats: just cruel will and aweful power. “You can try and make me put it back,” he whispered, “but I cannot.”

The magician did not move, but a deep sorrow crossed his face for a moment. “I will ask, then, that you return to your own time.”

Jayseltosche smiled again. “No.”

The wandering magician wandered in a moment. One step. A second. His backhand rocked Jayseltosche back on his feet. “Have a care. It is within my power to ensure you never come to pass.”

“You are nothing!”

“That may be true. But I know enough of Jay to know that is not true to him. There are powers that go deeper than bindings, Jayseltosche.” The magician smiled in turn, and his smile was almost as cold as his voice. “Destroy me, and you will be banished so far Outside the universe that you will never find it again. And there will be things waiting in the ever-churning chaos that will destroy even you.

“You think you are a monster?” The magician’s voice raised to a savage shout. “Who do you think taught you all you know about monsters?”

Jayseltosche’s eyes widened. “You believe that? You?”

“Who else?”

“No. It -.” And he jerked backwards at memories. Because Jayseltosche had been Jay once, and such memories cannot be entirely unmade.

The magician stepped forward, one hand placed on the chest of Jayseltosche. “Return to your own time in the future,” he said, and the words were compulsion and command both. A dozen ghosts around the city ended up very confused as they were shunted decades back as well.

Jay blinked. “Honcho?”

“Jay.”

Awareness rose in Jay’s eyes, only to fade as quickly. “Uhm! I think I did an oops,” he said. “Being not jaysome isn’t a good Halloween costume at all!”

“No. No it is not.” And the magician smiled kindly. “There are some vampires sulking in the sewers who could use a new friend.”

“Okay!” And Jay led the way toward the adventure without another thought.

The magician looked back where the house had been. But what Jay’s future self had done was beyond his power to undo, and the knowing of it would only damage Jay. Perhaps be a catalyst toward the person he would become. The magician looked away, and followed after Jay. And offered up the closest thing he could muster to a prayer, that Jay would not be Jayseltosche for a long time and find a way back to jaysome from that.

He had met Jay further into the future. He knew it happened. But he hoped it happened far sooner than he thought it did.

The universe offered no reply, which sometimes is a reply after all.

*

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Jay. There were other boys named Jay as well, but this one was from far Outside the universe. It was Halloween, of course. An old and hallowed night whose meanings were all but forgot even then. Jay had friends, and their names were Charlie, who ate gods and was busy being away that evening, and Honcho, who was a wandering magician. Jay had no titles. Jaysome has no need for such things.

Jay and Honcho had a wonderful adventure with the lonely vampires in the sewers and Jay made some new friends. And a happy Halloween was had by all.