Chapter 6
Walpurgis Night
The sun had begun to set, but the streets had become even more alive than during the day. The cause for this would be the Walpurgis Night Festival.
Walpurgis Night is a holiday in Emeron, celebrated with children roaming the streets at night in colorful costumes, visiting houses to demand treats or be tricked. It was also a time for ghost stories and spine-tingling tales. Some people even believe that it was a time when the barrier between this world and the spirit world was at its thinnest.
Basically, Walpurgis Night is the Emeronian version of Halloween.
Other than the name, there really was no difference between the two holidays. Peggy could see that looking around her. Pumpkin Jack o' lanterns guarded every doorway, with some given the power of flight over people's heads by playful magicians. Orange and black banners that wished everyone a "spooktacular" holiday hung from lampposts. And, of course, as mentioned earlier, there were children of all shapes, sizes and ages roaming the streets in all manner of costumes. There were knights in shining armor, sword-toting musketeers, frilled up nobles, and magicians in robes and pointed hats.
Honestly though, it was kind of hard for Peggy to tell who was in costume and who was in their everyday clothes, only because Emeron was the sort of world where people walk around like that in any other day. The children, at least, must be in costume, though.
"Heeeey! Peggy, what's the hold up?"
George was a few feet ahead and down the road where two streets intersected, waving his hand over his head to Peggy to hurry up. He was dressed in a full tuxedo and bow tie, and came equipped with a tall top hat and cape. For some reason, when the Boss learned of his son's costume choice, his face became twisted in complicated feelings. The Head Magus, on the other hand, could barely stifle laughter, which was really creepy while she was in doll form.
"Come on, Peggy!" the little werelion called out. "Hurry up!"
"Hold your horses!" Peggy shouted back. "I'm coming! I'm coming!"
For this night, Peggy was dressed something like a fencer. She wore a purple jacket over a white, frilled dress shirt that she had borrowed from Mrs. Arkans. Mrs. Arkans had also lent Peggy the flat, wide-brim feathered hat. Attached to her belt was a thin scabbard used to sheath a rapier sword. Obviously, since weapons were no-no, the actual sword was missing. The bottom half of her costume, however, was taken from her regular work outfit.
Peggy was okay just going out in her regular outfit, but Mrs. Arkans said she just HAD to dress for the occasion.
As for why Peggy was rushing through the lively streets at night trying to keep up with a lion kid in a fancy suit, she was just paying back the favor she owed the Boss by looking after his son. Walpurgis Night always brought the shop lots of customers late at night, so the Boss could never take George trick-or-treating himself.
George insisted that he was old enough to go by himself, but the Boss wasn't ever going to let that happen.
Speaking of the Boss . . .
"Hey, George," said Peggy.
"Yeah, Peggy?" asked George.
Together, they walked through the crowded streets while bathed in warm-colored lighting from the shops and street lamps. They went from building to building, store to store, and house to house, collecting lots of candy and other kinds of sweet treats. Some pieces of candy started leaking out from the top of their baskets as they talked.
"Any idea why your old man's so grumpy today?" Peggy asked. Since this morning, the vampire had been scowling and grimacing at anything and everything to do with the holiday. He was almost like Scrooge on Christmas Eve. Peggy wouldn’t have been surprised if he suddenly spat out a “Bah-humbug!”
"Oh, that's easy," George said. "He just hates Walpurgis Night."
"So he really is like Scrooge on Christmas Eve," Peggy muttered.
George blinked and said, "What's a Scrooge?"
"It's nothing, never mind," Peggy replied. "Anyway, so the Boss hates Walpurgis Night. Why is that? Looking around, you'd think he'd be right at home with this stuff. And I don't just mean that because he's a vampire."
"I think it had something to do with what happened to him when he was a kid," said George.
"Something happened to him? What?" Peggy asked.
George shrugged and said, "I only heard about it a little from Grandpa, but one Walpurgis Night when Dad was a little kid, he went to the wrong fun house.”
"He went to the wrong fun house? What do you mean?" said Peggy.
"Well, he was supposed to go to a fun house for kids," said George. "But the babysitter accidentally took him to a place called a Horror House instead."
Peggy went, "Oh." She could see where this was going.
George explained further and said, "Instead of lame puns made by floating bed sheet ghosts, he had to deal with screaming banshees, horribly disfigured zombies, and people going splat!"
Called it, Peggy thought. Yeah, an experience like that would definitely make one hate a holiday.
"Because of that, Dad really doesn't like anything horror or occult related," said George.
“Well, you don’t have to worry about that happening to you,” said Peggy. “I’ll make sure we steer clear of any Horror Houses.”
George couldn’t help but show his disappointment.
“Aw,” went the werelion cub. “I was kind of hoping to see what one was like.”
Hearing that, Peggy thought that her boss made the right call by sticking a chaperone to his son.
After an hour or so more of their nighttime stroll, it was finally time for George to head home. When they arrived at the shop, the duo found it packed with people taking a break from the nighttime festivities. Waiters, part-timers other than Peggy were rushing to and fro to take and complete orders. The Boss, himself, was nowhere to be seen. He was likely stuck in the kitchen, cooking up light meals and snacks for the customers.
Seeing all the humbug the shop was going through, Peggy felt slightly guilty that she was not helping out. But the Boss, himself, said that everything was covered and that she should enjoy the festival. So, after dropping George off at home, Peggy went back out to explore the town and enjoy its once-a-year transformation.
Even at this hour, she could still find groups of little children huddled together and giggling as they headed for the next house. Grownups were also out and about together laughing the night away, but there was an especially lot of couples among them. Peggy tried to keep her eyes away from the romantically paired grownups and hurried along down the streets, admiring all the orange and black decorations that covered the buildings and roads to the best of her abilities. There were also lots of pumpkin lanterns with cute shapes carved out of them, like winking faces, smiling bats, and even happy puppy dogs.
Peggy’s trip eventually led her to the town square which was hosting something like an outdoor ball. Men and women in fancy weird suits and dresses, faces covered by sparkly domino masks, waltzed around each other while others sat at tables at the edges of the square and watched. It was there that Peggy noticed one small figured crouched down against a building’s wall, hugging his legs.
He was a pretty small boy with green skin, with even darker green hair, and wore frilly clothes like a noble from a Shakespeare play.
Unable to leave the little boy alone, Peggy walked over to him to see what was wrong.
“Hey there,” she said, trying to be as gentle as can be. “Is something wrong?”
The boy didn’t seem to react. He either couldn’t hear her, or thought she might be talking to someone else. Thinking that, Peggy got a little closer to the boy and crouched down until her face was close to his.
“Hi, are you okay?”
The boy looked up, surprised.
“Miss, you can see me?” he said.
That was a weird question to ask, Peggy thought. But she dismissed it and replied, “Well, I’m talking to you, aren’t I?”
Suddenly, the boy clapped his hands on Peggy’s cheeks and kneaded them as if they were cookie dough.
“It’s true!” the boy said with wide, astonished eyes. “And I can touch you too!”
“Ahem!” Peggy coughed.
Startled, the boy quickly retracted his hands and shyly shrank against the wall, looking almost like a puppy dog.
“Anyway,” Peggy spoke up, “what are you doing here by yourself? Are you lost?”
The boy shook his head.
“Do you know your way back home?” Peggy asked.
The boy nodded.
“Do you need help getting back?”
Again, the boy nodded.
Peggy straightened back up and started putting the pieces of the puzzle together. It looked like the boy went too far from his house. But although he knew where he was, for whatever reason, he could not go back on his own. Maybe he was just too scared by himself. How he got here in the first place, though, remained a mystery.
"Miss, will you take me home?" asked the boy.
"Huh? Well . . ." Peggy straightened up and scratched the back of her head, hesitant to answer.
She thought about getting a town guard to take the boy home instead, but before she could tell the boy that, he jumped up, grabbed Peggy's hand and pulled her to the east. His hands were super cold to the touch, as if made of ice. Peggy only noticed this for a second when she got distracted by the boy's tugging her onward. He was really strong for a small tyke.
"Okay, okay!" she said. "Quit pulling! I'll come with you!"
With no other choice, Peggy kept the boy company and journeyed with him back home. She followed the boy through every twist and turn down the streets, none of which was left unoccupied. Wherever they passed through, there were people in costume eating, drinking, and prancing around in merriment.
But further and further down their journey, the merriment slowly faded until all was quiet at the edge of a small forest with a single entrance and pathway that looked like it led up a hill. There was the occasional chilly breeze, rustling leaves, and a lone owl hoot.
"Hey," said Peggy, peering up the creepy, dark forest path. "Your house is not up that creepy-looking hill, is it?"
The boy scowled and protested, "It's not creepy. This is the esteemed property of the esteemed Berkshire family, the esteemed landlords of this esteemed land! Esteemed!"
"The landlords?" Peggy raised an eyebrow. She thought, wasn't the Southcott family in charge of this area?
Not wanting to start an argument with the little boy, she kept that fact to herself as she was once more pulled along by the child who was, apparently, a Berkshire.
Together, they hiked up the dark, dark hill, a hike that Peggy did not enjoy in the least. Not only was the hill path spine-chilling creepy to behold, it was severely neglected with small pits, rocks and plant overgrowth that made it hard to navigate through. Peggy wasn't sure how the kid could be okay when she was having so much trouble with all these obstacles. He was just smoothly gliding up the path as if flying over everything in the way while she tripped and stumbled every few minutes.
They eventually emerged from the woods to find a ginormous house standing over them beyond a tall, black iron gate. The faintly illuminated building had around five floors and appeared to have neatly trimmed hedges lining its base. And in the spirit of Walpurgis Night, lots and lots of pumpkin Jack o' Lanterns were lined up across the front of the house and along either side of the front yard's various walkways.
It's a mansion, thought Peggy, an actual, real-life mansion like on TV.
Unable to hold back any longer, the little boy broke away from Peggy and ran to the mansion, shouting, "Mother! Father! Everyone, I'm home!"
A dark figure standing guard by the door of the mansion was taken aback in surprise. He emerged from the shadows as a middle-aged man in a black suit with coattails.
"Young Master!" he cried out. "Is that really you, Young Master?"
"Yes, it's me, Cyrus!" said the boy. "I'm back!"
Whispers erupted all around Peggy, the boy and Cyrus and filled Peggy with faint hisses.
"He's back. He's back! The Young Master has returned!"
Peggy looked around, but spotted no one, and no thing, close by.
Up at the attic level of the mansion, a window burst open and a green lady poke her head out. She looked down at the gate and gasped. Peggy gasped herself when the lady suddenly climbed out the window and jumped.
But instead of plummeting to the ground in a splat, the lady gently drifted down as if as light as a feather and gracefully landed on her feet. She, then, picked up the sides of her skirt and ran through the front garden while shouting, "My boy! My baby boy has come back!"
The front doors flew open and a man in a white suit came out roaring, "My son! My son has come back!"
He caught up to the lady and raced her to the gate. But thanks to her head start, the lady won by a landslide and scooped the boy up in her arms in a big hug. The man soon caught up and embraced them both from behind.
It was a heartwarming moment; but not used to such things in real life, Peggy was left feeling a little awkward.
Eventually, the trio broke up and, after straightening up, the man stepped forward.
"Thank you for bringing my child home," he said to Peggy. "I am Lord Berkshire, and this is my wife, Lady Berkshire. It would be my honor to invite you into my humble abode and enjoy our Walpurgis Night Party with us."
"Oh, no, I couldn't possibly-!" Peggy didn't want to impose, but the Berkshire family wouldn't listen.
Lady Berkshire took Peggy by the hand and pulled her to the mansion.
"Right this way, right this way," she said. "Come, come!"
Lord Berkshire copied his wife and took Peggy’s other hand. The boy Berkshire pushed Peggy onward from behind.
And so, with no choice, Peggy joined the Berkshire family's party.
They took her into the mansion where close to a hundred people in frilly suits and dresses straight out of a pirate movie suddenly swarmed her in overly friendly greeting. Lord Berkshire had to literally push everyone away and give them all a stern scolding about bothering guests. While he was doing that, the boy gave Peggy introductions.
"That's Grandpa Lloyd, he liked to go hunting in the forest. But then a bear caved his skull in. Oh, and that's Auntie Allison. She looks so hyper, even though she's supposed to be sleeping in a special bed after being really sick for a long time. And, whoa! Is that Great-great Grandpa Warren? He was a super brave knight in the Crusades! So cool! He's got his sword with him too. And that hole in his armor. I guess it was true he got skewered by a spear at that last battle."
They all came to thank Peggy for bringing their youngest back home.
"Come! Come!" shouted an old man in a white nightgown. "As thanks, eat, drink! As lord of this house, I guarantee you will enjoy yourself!"
An old lady's head popped out of the wall and she said, "Don't by silly, Dear. Lloyd's the lord now!"
A little girl, barely older than ten, cut in to correct the old lady.
"That is wrong, baby sister," she said. "Your grandson is the lord now."
"Don't just stand there, boy!" snapped Lloyd. "Show the lady around!"
"I was getting around to that, Father!" Lord Berkshire snapped back before giving Peggy a tour of the mansion. With his whole family following close behind, of course.
They really went all-out on the Halloween decor, Peggy thought.
There were lots of Jack o' Lanterns lighting all the hallways. They were joined by skeletons in bow ties standing guard with their backs against the walls, while fake cobwebs hung from the ceilings with streams of bats cut out of black paper.
As Peggy walked past one skeleton, it held up a polished tray of crackers and said, "Appetizers?"
Peggy stared at the plate, and looked up at the eternally grinning server.
"I'll pass, but thanks," she said.
"So, Miss Lau," said Lady Berkshire, "tell us a little about yourself. We would all love to learn more about you."
"Yes!" said the boy. "Please? Please, please, please?"
Unable to resist the boy's imploring eyes, Peggy relented and started telling the Berkshire family about herself. She told them she was from out of town, leaving out from where, that she lived with an elderly lamia, and that she worked at a quiet little coffee shop run by a vampire.
"A coffee shop, that sounds rather lovely," said Lady Berkshire. "It would be nice to go and visit it."
"I agree," said Lord Berkshire. "This vampire sounds like a really dandy gentleman."
The family ended their tour with a stop at the grand ballroom, a huge, glittery, golden and bright space where people danced, twirling all over the floor and waltzing in the air. Peggy ended up joining in the airborne fun when the little boy took her hand in his and flew up to the ceiling with her, as if gravity had been turned off for them.
And then a clock chimed. It was one of many grandfather clocks stationed throughout the house. They sung in unison to signal the change of days.
Lord Berkshire took to the stage and called out to everyone in the ballroom.
"Attention, everyone!" he said. "Midnight has arrived and Walpurgis Night had ended. It is sad, but we must now bid farewell to our guest."
"I'll see her out," the boy volunteered.
As they headed for the door, responding to cheery goodbyes left and right, the boy took the chance to show his gratitude one last time.
"Thank you, again, for taking me home, Miss Lau," he said. "If it weren’t for you, I would never see my family again."
That was a bit of an exaggeration, Peggy thought. But she took the boy's thanks graciously.
With a smile, she said, "You're welcome. I had a swell time."
"I wish you could stay longer, the boy said. "Why did the night have to end so fast?"
Peggy could not resist giving the boy a head pat.
"Hey, it's not like this is goodbye forever," she said. "If you want, you can come and visit me anytime at the coffee shop."
"Really?" the boy said, brightened up.
Peggy nodded. "Yeah. You, your friends and family are more than welcome to hang out there."
"Thanks so much!" the boy said. "I'll let everyone on the Other Side know!"
"You do that," Peggy said, not knowing what the boy meant by "Other Side", yet.
Soon, they were out of the mansion and at the gate.
"Well, this is it," Peggy said. "See you around."
"Yes, let us meet again when the Veil Between Worlds is at its thinnest once more," said the boy.
With the gate closed between them, Peggy watched as the boy ran back to the mansion. Neither would stop waving goodbye to each other until the boy disappeared inside.
Once the boy was gone, the butler, Cyrus, stepped in front of the door and gave Peggy a polite bow. And then he stepped inside and closed the door. That was when the whole mansion, its entire front garden, and all the Halloween decor disappeared right before Peggy’s eyes and was replaced with a field of grave markers, lots and lots of grave markers that all shined eerily beneath the light of the silvery moon.
Peggy stared with popped-out eyes at the graveyard through rusted iron bars, opened her mouth and let out a sound from her throat that was like a fingernail scratching a chalkboard, only really, really soft.
**********
A few days later at the coffee shop, opening time was still a few minutes away, so it's workers were enjoying a short break. Peggy sat on a stool by the counter staring into her steaming cup while the Boss watched a news announcement on his magic mirror when she muttered some courage to speak up.
"Hey, Boss?"
The Boss went, "Yes, Peggy?" He didn't take his eyes off the hand mirror.
"Sorry, but I think I invited ghosts to the store."
"I see," said the Boss. And then he looked up. "Say what now?"
