“Good luck with that,” I mumbled, rolling my eyes.
“What’s this tone I’m detecting?” Pip asked, watching me skeptically. “Talk to your auntie, what’s eating at you?”
I sighed, shoulders deflating a bit. I didn’t even care that we probably looked like idiots sitting on the kitchen island covered in smoke, goo, and flour. To be honest, I was sort of getting used to the craziness by now, and I’d probably be more worried if something like this didn’t happen. “Something’s not right…I can feel it. The guys are acting sketchy, and I’ve barely seen Jessica this week. It feels like nobody has time to hang out… They’ve always got somewhere else to be.”
Pip looked thoughtful for a moment. “I see…” She clicked her tongue. “And have you spoken to anyone about it?”
“I mean… Maddie?” I shrugged.
“October Hallowell Grimm, what have I always taught you about standing up for yourself?” Auntie Fe asked suddenly from the over by the stove. She turned to face me with her hands on her hips, but her orange hair was still covered in sticky goo so it was hard to take her seriously.
“What am I supposed to say?!” I threw my hands in the air dejectedly. “Am I supposed to beg my boyfriends to pay attention to me like a pathetic little girl? Or what…tell my spider she needs to hang out with me?” I snorted again. “I sound like an idiot even saying it out loud.”
The aunties both stared at me for a too long moment that made me slightly uncomfortable before Fe said, “This isn’t just about the guys, is it?”
“No,” I admitted without bothering to deny it. They could see right through me.
“Spill,” they said in unison. I hated when they did that.
“I’m failing at everything while everyone else seems to be living their best lives. The guys are great at everything they do, while I still can’t so much as bring a beetle back to life. I’m trying so fu—freaking hard with my lessons, but I just…can’t. Maybe I used all my powers against Ichabod and I’m just empty now.” It all came out in one long rush, but the second the words were out, I felt a little bit lighter.
“Dear…necromancy isn’t like riding a bike,” Pip said with a small smile and laid a palm on my arm. She pulled back a second later, leaving a gooey grey handprint behind. I once again tried not to gag. “It’s a muscle that needs to be…exercised, so to speak.” She giggled, and Fe and I rolled our eyes.
“My sister is right, Toby,” said Fe. “But raising the dead isn’t the same as practicing magic. The power won't flow through you unless you’re open to it, unless you truly want it. Your magic comes from the soul, and if the soul is closed off or feeling trapped, you’ll never be open enough to let the dead flow through freely. You need to be honest with yourself and—”
“If you’re about to tell me the power of friendship will activate my powers then—”
“This isn’t a Disney movie, dear. You need to work this out inside yourself. You’re blocking your own powers, and it’s up to you to figure out what put that block there. Emotions are directly tied to the soul, and therefore, necromancy is too. You need to sort it out before you expend too much wasted energy trying to force it.”
“You’re probably right,” I said with a deep sigh. “God, I’m such a loser.” I buried my face in my arms that were crossed over my bent knees.
“There, there,” Pip said as she patted my back. She clucked her tongue again before adding, “Losers still enjoy cookies, don’t they? Ouch!”
I heard a slap, and looked up laughing to see Fe’s hand towel connect with the back of Pip’s head. They were both grinning though.
I shook my head. “Not if they came from this oven.”
Chapter 4
Jason
Fuck, she was adorable. The sadness in her voice, however, was almost enough to make me call all of this off and run into the kitchen. I really thought about it, but I knew they guys would murder me if I ruined this for them.
October sounded miserable, and I knew it was all our fault. And without Maddie here to be a buffer, I was afraid of our girl falling back onto old habits. We’d worked hard for an entire year to keep her out of the darkness of her own mind. I’d hate myself forever for letting her slip back into it. I pressed my back against the wall just outside the kitchen where nobody could see me and listened closely. Another reason I’d almost run in there was the chaos. The aunties never did anything normal in their lives, and it didn’t surprise me in the slightest that October hadn’t batted an eye at gnome catching in the kitchen. I smiled to myself. Fuck, she was cute as shit sometimes.
“You better not be going soft on me, mate,” the voice in my head drawled. I rolled my eyes as I peeled off the wall, a box in my arms overflowing with decoration materials.
“Damon, I swear to the great pumpkin, I just want one day without you fucking around in my head.”
I heard him laugh, and was actually thankful just this once that I was the only one who could hear him because I needed to get out the door without alerting anyone. If she caught me right now, the jig would be up. “Well, if you’d stop thinking with your cock, then we’d already be halfway to the theater by now.”
I scoffed, maybe a little bit too loud as I finally made it to the door and inched it open, glancing back towards the kitchen repeatedly. I could still hear October and the aunties laughing back there, so I was pretty sure I was in the clear. I headed out into the brisk night…or day, I supposed. It was always dark here, and even after months of living here, it was still disorienting.
“I’m worried about her,” I found myself mumbling as we made it down the street. “She’s slipping again I think.”
Damon was silent in my head for a moment, but somehow, I could always tell when he was there. It wasn’t long before he said, “Maybe she’s just horny.” I nearly choked as he added, “When was the last time you gave her the old wham bam?”
“Dude…” I groaned. “You’re such an ass.”
“Well, I am a demon, you know. What’d you expect?”
True. I didn’t expect much. Sometimes, Damon’s inner monologue was so crude, I had to leave the room before October and her mind reading skills could pick up on it. It was becoming more frequent the longer we shared a bed. I was getting used to sharing my head with him, and my girl, so he was getting a little comfortable. I suspected my familiar felt just as strongly for October as the rest of us did, even if he’d never admit it.
We hurried through town just in case October decided to be sneaky and follow me. The guys had been trying in vain to dodge her all week. I knew we were just making her more suspicious, but I was sure it would all pay off in the end. Man, if anyone would’ve told me this time last year that we’d be sneaking around in an alternate dimension and throwing a Christmas party for the girl we all shared, I’d have called them psychopaths. But here I was, practically sprinting down Main Street, holding a massive box filled with paper and fucking glitter…real, actual glitter. I was so far gone for this girl, it wasn’t even funny.
But she deserved it. October was so strong, and she didn’t even realize it. We’d almost lost her that day in the graveyard with Ichabod. I almost lost the most important person in my entire life, and I replayed that night every single time I closed my eyes. All I wanted to do was make her happy. I knew how much Christmas meant to her…how much it had meant to her mom. It made me think about the last year of high school and how horrible we’d treated her. Even if it was for the right reasons, I still didn't like to dwell too much on the dark days.
After twenty minutes of straight up sprinting, I made it to the old theater. The front entrance was locked up, so I headed round back where I knew there would be a door propped open for me. Spotting it a little ways down, I slipped into the dark room and was immediately assaulted by the smell of pine and the sound of hundreds of little legs scurrying around. Horror and dread washed over me, but I didn’t let it show on my face because I didn’t want to be rude. We knew Jessica’s family had promised
to come to town to meet October, but seeing it in the flesh was another thing.
There had to be at least fifty massive spiders in the theater, ranging in size from small dogs to the size of a goat. I restrained a hysterical laugh at the sight of these spiders carrying around garlands and Christmas lights, some of them using their webs to help string them up along the walls. I spied Freddy over by the massive tree they’d pulled out of the Hangry Forest, but his skin looked a little green. He was watching the spiders with a barely contained cringe. I laughed, shaking my head and heading over towards the guys.
“Were you followed?” Freddy asked, taking the box of supplies from my hands and setting it on a small work table we had set up next to the tree.
I snorted. “Nah, she was a little preoccupied.”
Freddy frowned. “Doing what?”
Norman joined us a second later, also listening intently as I said, “Catching gnomes, apparently. It wasn’t pretty.”
Norman shook his head. “Christ, this place is a circus sometimes.”
“We need to talk about something,” I said, sobering a little.
“What’s up?” asked Michael as he came to stand next to the three of us. “Something happened with Tobs?” I could see the worry in his eyes already, in all of them, really. It's always been like that, even before we told October the truth.
“Nothing like that. She’s just…” I struggled a bit, wondering how to phrase it exactly. “She’s getting sad again.”
“We know that, it’s why we’re doing all this shit in the first place,” Norman said incredulously, gesturing to the theater decorated in twinkling lights, garland, tinsel, and fake snow.
“Dude, shut the hell up,” mumbled Freddy, nudging his twin with his elbow. He looked at me. “What’s really going on?”
I sighed. “I heard her talking to the aunties today. She thinks we’re keeping secrets from her.” We were, but it just wasn’t like that. “And she’s having trouble accessing her powers. I think it’s seriously bothering her, she doesn’t sound good.”
“Why the hell hasn’t she said anything? We could have done something,” said Michael, running a palm over his face.
“How exactly are we supposed to help with her necromancy?” asked Freddy. “We barely know what the fuck we’re doing with our own shit, how are we supposed to make up for an entire generation of necromancers who should have taught her this stuff?”
“There’s got to be something we can do about it,” Michael grumbled. “I hate seeing her like this… Reminds me too much of the old days.”
I laid a land on Michael’s shoulder. “I know, man. We’ll figure something out, but for right now, we need to focus on getting this Christmas thing done right for her. Even if we don’t have all the answers right now…the least we can do is make her Christmas something special.”
Freddy clapped his hands, rubbing his palms together, and said, “All right, back to work, fuckers. I gotta hang the tree topper, so Michael and Jason, you guys are on snowflake duty.”
Michael groaned, glancing at the huge box I’d just brought in. I laughed at his distraught expression. “C’mon, man, it’s not so bad. You can just magic them into existence, right?”
He stared at me dubiously, trying not to grin, but he was failing. “Dark magic doesn’t work like that.”
“It’s okay to admit you don’t know how to cut construction paper.” I patted his arm as I went to grab the box. I could hear Damon laughing inside my head.
“Just give me the fucking scissors,” Michael grunted, grabbing the crafting scissors at the top of the pile before taking a seat at the table across from me.
In the distance, I could hear Freddy and Norman arguing with Jessica about the placement of the tree topper. I just shook my head, once again wondering how the fuck we got ourselves into this particular situation. I started cutting into the hundred or so sheets of white construction paper, folding them in weird shapes and cutting little triangles into them. The result wasn’t perfect, but they did pass for snowflakes, which we’d end up stringing together with fishing lines across the room.
I got into a good rhythm, pretending I wasn’t racing Michael, who was watching me from the corner of his eyes, trying to cut even faster than me. He was always so competitive, even when it came to crafting, apparently. I zoned out for a while as we worked, thinking about October. I wished she was here right now. Whenever we were apart, I missed the fuck out of her. I’d spent our whole lives pining over her, and now that she was mine, it was hard to stay away. This week had been shit, forcing myself to sleep in my own bed when all I wanted to do was sneak into her room and fuck the living daylights out of my girlfriend.
When I found out about her little morning wakeup call with Norman, I couldn’t even lie and pretend I wasn’t jealous as shit. I must have jacked off three times last night, wishing she was in my bed with me. It was agonizing. But I knew if I slept in her bed and she got me talking, I’d probably slip up and spill the beans somehow. My girl always had a special way of getting me to open up and say things without even realizing it. Not to mention her mind reading ability. Therefore I had to suffer alone, even while living under the same roof.
There was a low chuckling in my head, and it caused me to snap out of it. I shook my head, realizing I’d completely checked out and my vision had gone black. To my right was a massive pile of finished snowflakes that I in no way remembered cutting. That had to be about an hour's worth of work…but I only remembered sitting here for twenty minutes at the most. I looked over at Michael, but found him sleeping with his cheek in a pile of silver glitter. He had a stack of about twenty snowflakes completed.
I picked up a snowflake from my pile and opened it up, knowing it was probably time to put them on the strings. I choked, however, when I realized that the snowflake had been cut in such a way that it resembled a man and a woman in a compromising position—doggy style to be specific.
“Damon, what the fuck?!” I said out loud, and his chuckling in my head grew louder. “Do you know how long it took to find all this white paper? Christ, what’s wrong with you?”
“Don’t blame me, you're the one who was daydreaming about a certain redhead,” he said with a chuckle. “C’mon, you know it’s funny. I think Tobs will love them, don't you? They’ve got spice and flavor.”
“It’s vulgar,” I grumbled. I was trying to restrain a grin though as I proceeded to pick up one snowflake after another and realized they were all depictions of people in various sexual positions. “You’re lucky I don’t have the energy to redo all of these. But you’re hanging them.”
“By myself?” he asked, aghast.
“Yep, get the fuck out of my head and get to work, asshole.”
Damon grumbed for a moment, but I knew he’d do what I said. I felt the moment my familiar stepped out of my body. It was a staggering sensation every single time, and usually left me lightheaded and woozy. One moment, we were one, and the next, there was an exact copy of myself standing right next to me. Only he was semi-transparent with two curling black devil horns on his head, and his eyes were bright yellow and slitted down the middle. He grinned mischievously at me, but I just shook my head and told him good luck. Now that I didn’t have to waste my time hanging all of those snowflakes, I needed to get started on making sure October was taken care of.
Michael
I volunteered to go find our girl and be the one to lure her in. I was glad it was me, especially after I’d left her hanging like that earlier. It was a dick move, but I was sure there were ways I could make it up to her.
Surprisingly, the theater surprise was coming along great…better than expected, actually. Well, aside from the weird sexual cutout snowflakes Jason and Damon made. I was also kind of glad to be out of that room packed with gigantic spiders. I didn’t care how long we were here, I’d probably never get used to it.
As I walked back to the manor, I kept my head on a swivel, trying to catch a glimpse of flowing orange hair. She�
��d been getting better at spying lately, but not as good as she thought she was. I blamed Maddie for that. We’d heard all about Maddie’s stalking escapades with Baen in the library.
Naturally, October was taking Maddie’s advice and straight up stalking us, because she was too smart not to realize something was up. I felt fucking bad for putting her through this. There were several times I nearly called it off because she seemed so upset. It was also hard keeping my thoughts quiet around her, and I was afraid if I was around her for too long, I’d let something slip. October just did things to me that I’d never experienced before with anyone else.
I got back to the manor quickly, knowing I didn’t have a whole lot of time to get her ready. I was prepared for her to put up a fight about it too, given the fact that I was pretty sure she was pissed as hell. Sometimes, that girl was a fucking spitfire, but that was part of the reason I loved her so much. I actually thought it was kind of cute the way she’d been spying on us all week. She wasn’t as stealthy as she thought she was, and it was entertaining to say the least.
I checked the kitchen first, but no one was there. It smelled like the inside of a sewage pipe in there though, and the walls were covered in flour and the remnants of some kind of strange brown goo. The smell made my eyes burn, so I backed out of the kitchen, shaking my head. Jason had told us about the gnome issue October helped the aunties with. Those two women were some of the strangest people I’d ever met, but I honestly wouldn’t trade them for the world. They were exactly the type of people October needed in her corner, even if Pip’s daily concoctions were horrible enough to burn off my eyebrows.
I searched the house, but couldn’t find anyone. I knew the aunties should be gone by now, heading down to help the ladies at Toil and Trouble bring the goodies down to the theater, but I didn’t see October anywhere. I’d assumed she’d be wallowing in her bedroom or talking to Maddie on that mirror…probably complaining about us and devising some devious scheme. Little did she know that Norman had contacted Maddie last week and let her in on the secret. I knew it had to be killing Maddie not to tell Tobs, but even she knew it would be worth it to see her surprised.
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