The Crow Behind the Mirror_Book One of the Mirror Wars

by Sean M. Hogan

  She tried her best to make the scribbles audible, her tongue twisting and twirling on every syllable. “Newt, loot, root, flute,” she shouted, “monkey-toast, honey-toad!”

  Lightning struck, the ground splitting under the violent force of an earthquake, and hellish fire shot out the moment the words fell from her lips—or so Alice had imagined. None of those things happened. In fact, nothing happened at all. She was as disappointed as a kid with nothing to open on Christmas morning.

  “Maybe I said it wrong,” she said with a sigh.

  “You just said honey-toad. It’s a high possibility,” Zach said sarcastically.

  “Maybe it takes time,” said Kevin.

  “Yeah, and maybe a full moon, or some chicken’s blood, or lightning, or maybe—just maybe—there’s no such thing as spells and zombies,” said Zach. “Pretending never makes things real.”

  Those were the same words Zach’s mother uttered the day she left on that plane. “Pretending never makes things real.” The answer Zach got when he asked why things couldn’t go back to the way they were before. Before her marriage with his father, Mr. Hall, went sour, before she fell for another man named Andrew, before she decided to leave the country and her family for him. Zach didn’t hear from her now except in postcards she sent now and then, always photos with fake smiles. Lately it had been only phone calls on holidays. Zach stopped answering those. In truth, some part of him wanted magic to be true, for her to be wrong. But truth—reality—is never quite what we so desperately need it to be.

  Zach turned his back on the scarecrow and headed up the trail. Alice and Kevin followed pace. And things might’ve ended right there. But unbeknownst to Zach that scarecrow with the sad carved eyes had a name. A name that once uttered carried with it special obligations things of pure magic must fulfill—and Mr. Jack Honeytoad was no exception to that rule.

  Those shriveled up husks of limbs filled with water and expanded like an old sponge to form flesh and bone. That jacket of ancient origin sprung up with a twirl, flinging the mud from its pores like a dog that loathes baths. His tattered jean pants knitted themselves together faster than any gnome or elf could manage. And when he became complete, the scarecrow gave out a howl of a yawn like a rooster in the morning light. He rubbed his pumpkin eyes, wiping away the sadness like dust on glass. He hopped down from his wooden post and stretched out his arms as long as he could, glanced over to Zach, Alice, and Kevin and said, “Boo.”

  Kevin shrieked before diving between a cluster of pumpkins.

  Alice just smiled and said, “Cool.”

  “Very funny, dude,” said Zach, unfazed by this lame attempt at a scare.

  “No dude here, just Jack,” said the scarecrow. “Though you kids get points for guessing my real name. Well, a point, anyway.”

  He pulled off his pumpkin head to show his human smile. Mr. Honeytoad or Jack, as he normally went by—no point in giving out your real, full name to those who might and probably will abuse it—looked (on the outside) no different from your average snot-nosed seventeen-year-old. On the inside was an entirely different story altogether.

  “Alright—let’s get things started—who said my name?” asked Jack, scanning over the trio. He brushed aside his long, shaggy blond hair from his green eyes, smiled his pearly whites, and wiggled his pointy ears.

  “No one said Jack, jackass,” replied Zach.

  Jack just ignored him. “Come on, don’t be shy, I don’t bite… children.”

  Jack’s words were met with an awkward silence.

  “Whoever said it gets a wish,” said Jack, his smile twisting into a devilish grin.

  “I did,” yelled Kevin and Alice at the same time, followed by a mean stare between siblings.

  “What?” hollered Alice, her hands clenching into fists. “I said the spell.”

  “I would’ve said it, if I knew there was a wish involved,” protested Kevin. “It’s not fair.”

  “Stop it, you two,” said Zach. “This kid’s just messing around with us. There’s no such thing as magic wishes.”

  Alice and Kevin shrunk with disappointment.

  Jack smirked over at Zach. “And you would be the expert on these things, kid?”

  “As a matter of fact, I am,” said Zach. “You see, I come from a little town called reality and they have things there like science books and common sense.”

  Jack held up the pumpkin. “Alright, Mister Expert, place your hand on top of the jack-o’-lantern, make your wish, and see for yourself if there’s no such thing as magic.”

  “If it gets you to shut up—sure—I’m game.”

  Zach stepped forward and plopped his hand on the carved pumpkin head, then paused for a moment to think of some clever wish to put this fool in his place. I should wish for his hair to fall out, he thought, or maybe for his butt to inflate to the size of a water buffalo. No wait, better to turn him into a donkey, like the jackass he is. No way he could fake that. Either way, I win.

  “Oh, I should mention, before you wish me into some melancholy mule—the wish is only good for one night,” said Jack. “So, enjoy it while it lasts.”

  He caught Zach off guard with those words. How could he have known his wish? He did just call him a jackass though. Lucky guess—must have been. But that cocky smirk of his was more than Zach could bear. Jack’s grin was the grin of Halloween itself and Zach had already grown past tired of manufactured grins and grimaces of a holiday that represented everything he hated most. So, he made up his mind.

  “Great,” said Zach. “Then for one night, I wish that people were who they claimed to be, that just for one night people stopped pretending, and the truth showed on their faces instead of the other way around.”

  In all the thousands of years of his existence, and of all those who uttered his name and made a wish, none had wished for anything close to this. Most had wished for selfish things: gold, power, ill will toward others, even wishes made in the name of love were rooted in selfish desires. No one ever wished for more honesty. What a strange boy, Jack thought, what a strange and interesting boy.

  In that instance, Zach swore his eyes were playing tricks on him. Because for a brief moment, like the flash and flicker of a flame of a candle the second before its last breath, that jack-o’-lantern smiled back at him, its carved grin lighting up with sinister delight.

  “Done,” said Jack.

  And with that the hollowed pumpkin crumbled and fell to tiny bits and pieces between Jack’s hands.

  Zach stepped back, the sudden decomposition catching him off balance and stealing the voice from his throat. And, for the second time this morning, he had been stricken breathless. He let the dried pumpkin guts and seeds slide between the cracks of his fingers and hit the dirt.

  “Then, just for tonight, what you see is what you get. Now if you’ll excuse me…” Jack closed his eyes, wiggled his fingers, and clapped his hands.

  And poof, he exploded in a puff of orange smoke and fireflies.

  The fireflies darted past Kevin and Alice and into the breeze. Alice, being one never to miss an opportunity to capitalize on a little magic, jumped with all the spring in her feet and clasped her hands together just in time to ensnare a straggler. But when she spread her fingers apart to peek inside, there was nothing but sparkling dust between the cracks of her palms.

  Zach’s mouth and eyes widened as he watched the fireflies fade into the sky. Magic was real. Jack was telling the truth. Which meant… His amazed expression melted into a frown as the dread sunk in. He knew trouble when he saw it and tonight was going to be a very long night.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The Cheshire Kitty-Cat

  ALICE HAD JUST FINISHED stuffing a handful of magical dust down her pocket when the first pumpkin crashed, exploding into a dozen gooey pieces, showering her and her brother with a splash of slimy seeds.

  “Hey, watch it,” she hollered back.

  Zach lifted a sad lopsided pumpkin and hurled it across the pumpkin patch in
a furious spout. “Rrrraaagh! I can’t believe this.” He snatched up another and sent it plunging down to its early demise before his feet. “Great, this is just what I needed. More trouble.” He stomped the last pumpkin shards to mush for good measure. “Just perfect.”

  “What the heck is wrong with you?” Alice shouted. “You’re acting like some kind of psycho.”

  “Me? What’s wrong with me?” Zach stormed over to Alice and stared her down. Their difference in size akin to David and Goliath.

  She stared right back up.

  “Whoa, easy now,” said Kevin, raising his palms as he stepped in between the two. “Let’s just all calm down and think about this rationally. We should just all hold hands, form a circle, and take turns expressing our feelings.” He reached for Zach’s hand but Zach just swatted it back.

  “What’s your problem?” Alice protested. “He’s only trying to help.”

  “Help?” Zach attempted and failed to pull out his stubby blond hair in frustration. “I wouldn’t even be in this mess if it wasn’t for you two!”

  “What?” she asked. “Hey, we didn’t know all this magical stuff was gonna happen.”

  “Didn’t you?” asked Zach. “You brought that spell book with you. Raising a little magical anarchy was your original goal, wasn’t it? I’d say you succeeded.”

  She raised up on her tippy-toes. “No one forced you to come!”

  “I thought hanging out with you two weirdos would be less trouble than unpacking. My mistake.”

  “You know what?” She jabbed her finger his way. “You’re a jerk.”

  “Look on the bright side guys,” said Kevin.

  “What bright side?” Zach and Alice both blasted back at him.

  Kevin massaged the back of his neck, smiled awkwardly, and gave a nervous little laugh. “Turns out magic is real. Who knew, right?”

  “Magic isn’t real,” Zach said, quelling his anger with a long-defeated breath.

  “Then why are you so mad?” Alice shouted, throwing up her arms and waving her hands around like a pair of furious bees.

  “I don’t know! I’m sorry, okay…” Zach rubbed his eyelids as he paced back and forth. “I’m just… tired. That’s all. And Jack got a little under my skin. It’s my own fault for falling for one of his tricks. I mean, that’s all it was, right? A trick. It was just our eyes playing tricks on us or something. Yeah, that’s exactly what it was.”

  “Yes, eyes can play tricks,” said a deep woman’s voice.

  The trio turned around all at once and raised their gazes to the hill full of—not just pumpkins—but freshly carved jack-o’-lanterns. Each one wore a uniquely sinister smile.

  “When did—?” Zach cut himself short when he saw them.

  On the very top of the hill, the point of the crude pyramid of stacked jack-o’-lanterns, rested one grinning pumpkin with two carved triangle-shaped eyes. Eyes that blinked green glowing light. Cat eyes.

  “And so can ears for that matter,” said the voice with a purr. The pumpkin’s lid popped up and two black triangle-shaped ears poked out. “The nose, on the other hand…” A black cat raised its head out of the hollowed out pumpkin and sniffed the morning air. “…is an entirely different matter.” She licked her paw and brushed her ear. “And don’t get me started on the tongue.” She turned her sights on her audience of three and gave them a coy smile with narrowing eyes.

  “Well, hello there,” she said with a voice that one would assign to a much larger cat, a panther.

  Alice’s eyes and mouth grew impossibly wide. If there’s one thing little witches love more than spells and brooms and the occasional undead servant, it was a nice fluffy black… “Kitty,” she squealed.

  “Did that cat just talk?” asked Zach.

  “She did indeed,” replied the Cat as she hopped atop the pumpkin and let loose a stretch and yawn.

  Alice jumped up and down, frantically clapping her hands. “Kitty! Kitty! Kitty!”

  “I saw this in a cartoon once,” Kevin said with a nod. “Needless to say, things did not turn out well for the mouse.”

  “They rarely do,” the Cat replied with a swish of her slender black tail.

  “Mrs. Kitty!” Alice started her climb up the hill toward her furry prize. “Here, kitty-kitty-kitty.” Tragically, her mother was allergic to cats so Alice had never known the pure unbridled joy of feline companionship. When the poor deprived girl was within arm’s length, she reached out with wiggling fingers. “I wants to give it squeezes and hugs.”

  “Down girl.” The Cat leapfrogged, and using Alice’s head as a springboard, pounced on a large warty jack-o’-lantern at the bottom of the hill.

  Zach stared down at the Cat, shaking his head. “This can’t be happening. You can’t be real.”

  “This is and I am,” the Cat replied.

  “Are you Jack’s cat?” asked Kevin.

  “No, I’m not Jack’s or anyone’s cat.”

  Alice came clumsily stumbling down the hill.

  “I’m me.” The Cat raised one paw and retracted her claws. “All me.” She dug into the pumpkin lid and twisted it open like a jar of pickles. “But then again…” She hopped down inside just as Alice reached the pumpkin.

  Alice lifted the jack-o’-lantern and peered inside. “Kitty?” But it was empty. “Awww…” Her shoulders slumped as she exaggerated a pout.

  “…there is always me…”

  Zach turned around.

  The Cat was standing atop the pumpkin he had smashed to bits minutes earlier, now reformed and carved up.

  “Who?” asked Zach.

  She crawled into its mouth.

  “Or what…” He blinked and she was gone.

  “…and of course, there’s…”

  Zach spun around to meet the voice.

  The Cat walked out of another pumpkin on the hill. “…me.”

  “…are you?” he asked.

  “What do your eyes tell you, Zach?” She stalked inside a pumpkin atop the hill and out another at the middle. “Or are they still playing tricks on you?”

  He frowned. “How do you know my name?”

  “I used my ears.” Her head poked out one pumpkin and her tail swished playfully out another a yard apart. “Eavesdropping is one of my favorite hobbies. One of so many.”

  “Why are you here?” Zach asked.

  “Someone made a wish, correct?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “No buts about it.” She swayed her hips back and forth as she strolled out of the jack-o’-lantern’s grin before Zach’s feet. “Someone definitely made a wish. You can just smell the magic in the air.” She circled the trio. “And do I detect a hint of chestnut?”

  “So, you’re saying magic is real?” asked Zach.

  She glanced half-heartedly back over her slender shoulder. “You’re not very bright, are you?”

  Zach got red in the face.

  Alice snickered.

  Kevin picked his nose.

  She escaped inside a pumpkin before Zach could storm over and rose from another atop the hill.

  “Don’t make me come up there, Fur-ball.” Zach shook his fist at the Cat.

  “Oh, please,” said the Cat as she casually groomed herself. “Save the bravado and pass the denial.”

  “I’m not in denial.”

  “Denial of denial… now I’ve heard everything.”

  Zach massaged his temples and cooled his temper. “I guess there’s no point in arguing about the existence of magic with a talking cat,” he told himself. “So, okay, fine, I admit it. Magic is real. So now what? What’s going to happen?”

  “Well, first I’m going to groom myself and then I’m going to find a nice juicy plump mouse,” said the Cat. “Maybe even two.”

  Zach’s temper returned. “To us!”

  “Well, I guess that depends on what you wished for.”

  “Jack tricked me.”

  A white winged butterfly fluttered past the Cat. “You wouldn’t be the fi
rst.” She tracked the flying insect with her green eyes. “Or the last.” She snatched up the poor winged creature. “You’re not even somewhere in the middle.” She took a bite, but the taste was not to her liking, so after a few awkward chomps and a shake of her head she managed to dislodge the nasty butterfly from her mouth.

  Zach’s shoulders slumped and his arms hung at his side like limp spaghetti noodles. “Why do I get the horrifying impression my wish is going to be misinterpreted somehow…”

  “What makes you think that?” The Cat smiled a Cheshire Cat’s smile.

  “How do I fix this?”

  “You’re asking me?” Her eyes narrowed.

  Zach fumed. “I don’t see anyone else around here that’s magical.”

  “Not yet, anyways,” said the Cat. “But I’m afraid one can’t fix what isn’t broken.”

  “Poor choice of words.”

  “One shouldn’t make a habit of that, you know.”

  Zach grumbled. “How do I undo the spell?”

  “Spells aren’t like knots either.”

  Zach grumbled louder. “Reverse.”

  “That would imply there’s a forward.”

  Zach’s grumble turned to a growl. “Cancel.”

  “All orders are final I’m afraid.”

  “Void. Nullify. Negate!” He stomped his foot on every word.

  “Those are all fine words,” said the Cat, lazily lounging about on top of the pumpkin. “But magic is so much more than the mere five letters that comprise the whole. I’m afraid no other word can compare. Best to stay the course and ride this one out.”

  “If you can’t or won’t help us, then why are you even here?”

  “Isn’t it obvious? I’m here…” She closed her eyes. A few yards away, a jack-o’-lantern’s triangle eyes came alive with green light. “…and here…” Those eyes shut and two more blinked open inside another pumpkin’s smile. “…and of course, here.” One by one, the jack-o’-lanterns lit up like the blinking lights of a Christmas tree. “Because soon she will be too.”

  “Me?” asked Alice.

  “No,” answered the Cat.

  Kevin pointed to himself. “Me?”