Halloween 2020: Choose Your Spooky Outcome: Chapter 13
“Her name is Pumpkin.” You spit the words out as you hurry to your feet, helped up by Jim and Thad. It’s a moment you don’t dare pause for, much too aware of what can happen if attention lingers on this detail. Instead, you forge forward with details guaranteed to steal their attention. “She’s my daughter from a timeline where I lived to old age and died of natural causes.”
“Which was pretty much the start of when things went weird for me,” Pumpkin jumps in. She’s moving as she talks, leading you all toward the back of the cave, where you notice a small break in the stylized surface. “You died, and the world started to unravel. Not me being creative with the language, reality literally came loose at the seams.”
Although most of the memories are buried once more somewhere inside your brain, a momentary flash of Sheryl and your son dashes through your mind. Seeming to understand, Pumpkin gives you a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, like I said, it started to unravel. Made for a great first adventure, forced me to really tap into what I’m capable of, general origin stuff. When the dust settled, I’d managed to stabilize things and learned a few interesting details. Such as that my dad’s soul was not only trapped in an eternal cycle of death and life, it was multiple planes of reality away, housed on one with excellent defenses.”
“Wha… What?” Thad has a hand to his head like it’s about to explode, a worry that’s more tangible than it would have been moments prior. “I am so lost. She’s your daughter from a different timeline who is somehow capable of breaking between worlds, spurred on because you’re in some kind of death-trap?”
“For a guy who says he’s lost, that was a pretty good recap,” Pumpkin remarks. As you all reach the break in the cave, a small tremor shakes the rock. Dirt runs down the already eroded section, letting through the faintest glow. Light, real light is on the other side.
“I think I had to let it out of my mouth because my brain couldn’t handle it.” Thad is so aghast that when Jim offers a flask, he actually accepts, taking a sip before thinking it through and wincing at whatever horrific combination Jim has whipped up. “Gah! How are the rest of you taking this so well?”
Jim shrugs. “I have, at best, like a twenty percent grip on reality at any given moment. Takes more than time-kids to knock me off-balance.”
“Whereas I have know for some while that Merlin suffered an affliction related to death, though not the particulars in question,” Victoria remarks. “My greater interest lies in the blade you brought forth. It’s an outstanding recreation of the EverKey, one of the seven great fantastical artifacts.”
“Ummm. Well, this isn’t exactly a reproduction, nor is it the one you’re familiar with.” Pumpkin lifts the strangely shaped blade, no longer blazing with power. “Obviously this isn’t the one from your plane, seeing as I just got here, but it’s still a genuine article.”
Another tremor, exposing more light through the wall. Leaning forward, you grab hold and start to shovel, soon joined by the others, save for Victoria who is staring at Pumpkin in disbelief. “You claim to not only have gained possession of such an tool, but taken it from it’s native realm? That is a tall task indeed, especially for one so young.”
“Technically I’m older than all of you, except for…” Pumpkin puts a hand to her skull, and for a moment your heart freezes, but seconds later she shakes off the pain. “…there it is. Reality hates being messed with, tries to bring everything into line. It took this much work just to physically make it in here, looks like I don’t get to bring all of my memories along. Oh god, my brain, it’s actually starting to feel twenty again.”
As Pumpkin takes a moment to compose herself, the rest of you redouble your efforts. True breaks are forming in the wall now, and you can see that the light is fast approaching you. Remembering how you got into The Between, the need to hurry suddenly snaps into clear understanding. “Come on! We have to move.”
Jim goes first, largely by happenstance of trying to throw his shoulder into an unexpectedly soft section and tumbling ahead. Thad is fast behind, reaching out to try and catch him. Victoria goes next, giving you a moment alone with your daughter.
You hurry the words out, this would have been too much to explain with the others around. “That blade-key-thing you brought in, is it for what I think? To get me… unstuck?”
“It opens the way,” Pumpkin replies, taking your meaning instantly. “I’ve only learned bits and pieces about whatever is affecting you, and most of that is fading. But I know it isn’t as easy as swinging a blade. Whatever power has you in its grip, you chose to be there. You’re the one who has to choose to leave it.”
“A chance we won’t have until next Halloween,” you recall, since Pumpkin told you it was a one-off. “Which is all we need to say about that until then. Anything else is too dangerous.”
“You don’t have to tell me. I wasn’t sending codes without a reason.”
The two of you have no more time to waste, taking hold of Pumpkin you go tumbling forward, through the hole in the cave and into the moving wall of light just as it passes over. Rolling along the rough concrete, you come to a stop near the left rear bumper of Victoria’s limousine.
“Wooo! Survived another one! Who wants to roll the dice on gas station breakfast burritos?” Jim’s holler of hungry triumph confirms what you’d hoped, everyone has indeed made it out.
Thad brushes himself off, then reaches down to help you and Pumpkin up. “I could eat, though might hold out for something a little more substantial.”
“Given that our evening was quite taxing, I suppose some nourishment is in order,” Victoria agrees. “Besides, it will be an opportunity to hear the rest of how Pumpkin came to join us.”
You and Pumpkin exchange the briefest of glances before she starts toward Victoria. “I’ll tell you as much as I still can, just please say they have pancakes in this realm.”
As everyone piles into the limousine, you take one last moment to look at the new day risen over the crossroads. It was a hell of a Halloween, and who knows what the future will hold because of it. Yet you grin from ear to ear as you head to join your friends. Everyone made it out alive, including someone you weren’t even expecting. When it comes to Halloweens like this one, that’s what matters most in…