After the moss demon incident we all needed a bit of a break. I didn't see much of the others for a couple of weeks, as I spent every free moment going hiking. I'm not sure if it was to get fresh air and exercise like I keep telling myself, or to reassure myself that the countryside was behaving itself and staying in its proper place. Either way, it helped.
When I wasn't out hiking it was basket weaving in the Wicker Stop. We had a couple of tourist groups in wanting to do the workshop, plus with Halloween approaching I had to help out Mike and make some decorations for the cafe. I think I did a great job. The wicker cobwebs were particularly charming.
I didn't plan much for Halloween itself. I was in the cafe all day, serving pumpkin shaped biscuits along with the coffees. Only one thing stood out - some guy who clearly wanted to be wearing a black suit despite actually showing up in jeans, with the kind of haircut that screams ex-military. Some old friend of Adam's, it turned out. I got them some eyeball biscuits and left them to it.
Once I'd finished closing I got out the TV. I'd invited the whole gang over for a movie night. Adam suggested some old movie called Beetlejuice which he reckoned was a classic, and it had Winona Ryder who was great in Stranger Things so I thought we could give it a go. Mike couldn't make it. The church was doing one of those house of light type things to try to bribe people into not doing Halloween, and he'd been roped in to do the face painting.
We weren't very far into the movie when we got a message from Mike. Something had happened at the church. Carmen and Gillian had showed up, but Gillian couldn't make herself walk through the gates of the churchyard.
This was bad. Gillian had been through a traumatic experience and had barely left the house since. Now she'd gone out for a night of harmless, if rather cringy, fun, and it had backfired horribly. Mike had told them to come to the cafe instead. I got them tea and biscuits and tried to reassure Gillian that whatever it was would pass. And it seems I've finally got the hang of the voice of temptation. I can only imagine my mother's horror if she knew I was using it to comfort a frightened girl.
I hoped we could have a nice peaceful evening after that, but no. Adam was convinced there was something watching him. I lit some sage, but he didn't seem to think it was helping, and when the movie finished he insisted we all go back to his junkyard. He wanted Gillian and Carmen to join us for some reason, but they weren't convinced, and I certainly wasn't bringing out the voice of temptation for that. They went home, and I went to the junkyard with Adam and Robin.
I don't know what happened when we got there. I know Adam has wards on the place because I helped him set them up and I'm specifically excluded from being affected by them. Adam and Robin walked in as usual, but when I tried, I found I couldn't. And it just wasn't that uncomfortable feeling I get from churches. I physically couldn't make myself take one more step. I stepped back, and then got the feeling that something was behind me.
Normal kids have monsters under the bed. I did too, except the monster was the archangel Gabriel. That's what I saw when I turned around, standing there in all his shining glory, flaming sword in hand ready to smite me. I recoiled, and he was gone.
The others saw nothing - although they did insist on dragging me through the wards. And I wasn't the only one experiencing strange things. Adam had had a moment back at the cafe when he remembered something terrible from his past, and Robin was hearing the sounds of wolves howling. We got Mike on the phone and learned that strange things were afoot at the church too - five or so more people besides Gillian had found themselves unable to enter the churchyard.
Then there was Robin's police scanner, which was telling us that an old man called George had collapsed dead on the street.
Getting me out of Adam's wards proved just as difficult as getting me into them. Mike was already there when we joined the scene, looking after another collapsed woman that the police scanner had warned us about. We were starting to understand now. The problem was fear, which rapidly became evident when one of the police officers became convinced that he'd seen a creepy clown. I reassured him that he'd just seen someone in a Halloween costume, while Mike backed me up.
Time for a team discussion. We were going to have to set a trap to capture this fear creature before it could do any more damage. The fact it liked to stay behind people wasn't helping us with identifying it. Adam was pretty sure that he was the one it was after though. What we needed was a circle surrounded by mirrors and magical fetishes, and enough people with experience in this kind of summoning magic to perform the ritual.
Which meant we needed backup, and the only person around with the necessary skills was Gillian. Well, at least it's getting her out of the house, even if Carmen definitely doesn't approve.
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