Halloween 2022: Choose Your Spooky Outcome: Chapter 8
“Every time Victoria tries to share her theories, something pops up to stop her. I don’t know what, but there’s clearly a force that wants her quiet, and to me that’s all the reason we need to hear her out.”
Both of them release your arms as you climb to your feet. By the time you’re standing, Victoria has moved over to a nearby apartment wall, with Pumpkin visually scouting the area in case of impending threats.
“When we got cut off, you were asking me how many times I’d done something. I assume the end of that question was ‘die’ right?”
“In a way, yes, but that’s not the whole of it.” Victoria takes a rare moment to gather herself, the cloak hiding her costume rustling as she fidgets with the edge. “Merlin… how many times do you think we have met?”
Trying not to focus on foreboding that sounds, you instead point your mind toward a factual answer. “I guess you could sort of say twice, once when we went to the same high school and then again at the Halloween party.”
“That’s how I remember it as well,” Victoria confirms, momentarily easing your worry. “But this world is vast, it stretches on further than we can see. Even if every building in sight represents a single death, there’s just too much. Despite our last ten years of perilous encounters, there’s simply no way I can see that you would have died this many times. Not in one decade.”
“I’m… I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”
“It is not a theory I propose lightly, understand, but Pumpkin proves you can go back much further than we ever initially knew. An entire life wiped away in an instant.” Victoria puts a hand on your shoulder, steadying you. “Compared to that, what’s a paltry ten years or so?”
Your breathing is coming fast, you realize, and it turns out to be a good thing Victoria’s hand is there. “So when you ask how many times we’ve met…”
“Yes Merlin. I suspect you, perhaps we, have had adventures long before that first fateful Halloween. I think we’ve had friendships that lasted years and grew just as this one has. All of which were purged when you were cast back to the beginning by some unknown trigger.”
Turning her head, Victoria examines all of the nearby buildings. “Perhaps this, in fact, is the cause of your true return. Maybe we’ve had this same conversation innumerable times, destined to repeat the same steps in a dance we never noticed.”
The hopelessness of such a situation claws at your stomach, the bottom dropping out. As you turn, searching for a place to perhaps empty the offending organ, your eyes fall on Pumpkin, your daughter from another timeline, still dutifully checking the area for an ambush that’s starting to feel a tad overdue.
“My daughter!” You yelp the words, startling Victoria and drawing Pumpkin’s attention, followed shortly after by the woman herself.
“Victoria, you and I might have come here before, but there’s no way Pumpkin could have visited. Even ignoring the fact that Sheryl only existed in a wish-world, having a kid is like a one-in-a-billion shot on which, um… potential candidate makes it through.”
Stepping away from the apartment building wall, you examine the surroundings with fresh eyes. An endless sprawl of the familiar, with hints of more in the distance and a horizon that is always moving closer. “Maybe we have been through here before, but it wasn’t the same us. They didn’t have our experiences, our lessons, our allies. Things are rough right now, I’ll grant you. Just not hopeless.”
It’s a lovely speech, so lovely in fact that you hear the gentle sound of slow applause echoing around. Which is strange, since neither Pumpkin nor Victoria are clapping. Jerking your head about, you search for the source, only to spot him standing atop a balcony railing five stories overhead.
Just like the first time you saw him, Doctor Willowbrook is wearing a long coat and a top hat. This time, though, it’s a coat with tails, and he’s added a pair of crisp white gloves that are being clapping crisply together. “How amusing. Victoria, you always did have the strangest taste in your toys.”
“You’re not my real father,” Victoria pointedly declares.
“Are you certain? Those others were mere shadows, granted, but we true Willowbrooks are made of sterner stuff. I don’t hold the inability to understand against you, anymore than a jack-o-lantern looks down of a pumpkin for its lack of light.”
“Okay, I’ll admit you do sound like him. Good. That’ll make this fun.” Popping open the clasp of her cloak, Victoria at long last reveals her evening’s costume. Dark purples and blacks flow together in an artful design, the gown they form is absolutely stunning. For a moment, you think she’s a princess, then Victoria unfastens the crown from a holder on her hip and dons it properly.
Tonight, it seemed she dressed as a queen, the sort wise folks in fairy tells went scurrying away from at the slightest rumor. Doctor Willowbrook snorts at the change, however.
“You always did have ideas above your station.”
“Yeah well, she’s also got friends.” Pumpkin grabs a potted plant off a nearby apartment porch and whips it up toward Doctor Willowbrook, who merely leans to the side and causes it to shatter on the wall behind him.
“Oh don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten you. After all, coming alone would have been so predictable.” Lifting his fingers, Doctor Willowbrook snaps, and another figure climbs up onto the balcony railing to join him. “And really, who better to pair myself with than a proper protégé, one with real talent. If only she’d been the one born here, the Willowbrook line’s future would be secure.
As the figure comes into view, Pumpkin gasps and your hands tighten into fists. It’s been years since you last saw her, but you promised not to forget Sheryl, and that’s a vow you’ve kept.
Its not her, not really. Your Sheryl is still out there, older and living on in a world Pumpkin saved. Besides, the Sheryl you knew didn’t have dozens of arcane symbols tattooed all over every visible inch of her skin. Her eyes certainly weren’t vacant and glassy like this one’s either.
“What did you do to my mom?” Pumpkin can barely get the words out with how tightly her jaw is clenched.
In a single step, Sheryl and Doctor Willowbrook leave their perch, landing only a few feet away. “Why not see for yourself? Fight against her to your heart’s content. I have some personal discipline to hand out.”
Sheryl starts running for Pumpkin, who is watching the charge with a conflicted expression. Victoria, meanwhile, has her nails reared back for slicing as Doctor Willowbrook draws steadily closer. Behind you, however, is an entirely open stretch of road. This might be a chance to finally put some real distance between yourself and that ever-encroaching-horizon.
Which Will You Choose?