[July]
Ida stood upon the clock tower, gripping it with one hand. In her hours of waiting and observing, she watched the cautious people rush home like nimble mice before the sun set.
The people of the city of Harmishworth can never be seen walking the streets at night. But tonight, brave (or perhaps foolish) people dared to step foot outside; wearing fancy dresses and neat ties for the warm summer evening.
From afar, music and laughter could be heard, exciting them as they scuttled and darted towards the plaza. They were not alone. Large clumsy creatures traveled beside them wearing suits three sizes too small; breathing unnaturally quickly for lack of air.
One lady smoked a cigarette, making the large creature gag when the puffs of smoke entered his nose, making it clog and itch with displeasure.
The monster looked around and focused his attention on the watchtower. He gurgled, "You see the glowing young woman on the clock tower?"
The smoking woman, not bothering to look up, replied, "Hughbert, You're trying to scare me again. I'm not going back home without attending this party no matter what you say or do," she said.
Hughbert blinked. "I don't try to scare you, mademoiselle!"
"There's no one on the clock tower and there haven't been any darkhorde attacks for months. I don't know why you still use the worst of those examples to scare me!" She said.
"Your safety is a real concern of mine! If you tried to run from a darkhorde without me, you would trip on your poofy skirt and fall!" He said.
"Ugh! I can't believe my father hired you. Imbecile!!!" She complained, her hand waving herself. "With how much you eat, I can confidently say I can run without falling-- even faster than you! And you would be left in the dust of my heels as the darkhorde's feast!"
The guard creature looked hurt and flummoxed. His neck sank into his body like a tortoise, popping the buttons out of his suit, his sides overflowing, blocking her view of the mansion ahead of her.
"Haven't I the right to enjoy the party myself without you looming over my presence?" She rolled her eyes and moved to the right side to see better.
Hughbert's tears rolled down his cheeks. "Mademoiselle!" He announced, carrying her bags with him as he moved toward the mansion's courtyard away from her. "It's been nice knowing you for a day, but I can already say I quit being your guard! I shall meet you later when you want to be brought home!"
The woman grinned triumphantly, glad she could get rid of him. "Well of course, take your time enjoying the garden. I'm sure there'll be lots of sweets for you to stuff yourself with for the next few hours." She laughed to herself and strutted into the building.
Hughbert went into the courtyard and dried his tears with a handkerchief. He had a special fork in his pocket. How he would love to eat some tasty delights like chocolate cake right about now. The intoxicating smell of cake was emanating from the mansion. But now, he supressed his appetite.
I don't want mademoiselle to see me gorge myself with desserts, he thought to himself.
He looked around, looking for something to entertain himself with.He looked at the archway to the courtyard garden. In small letters it read, "Dedicated to Gunilla Bielke. From your husband". Hughburt was touched. "That's so sweet!"
More details about the mansion caught his interest. There was a marble fountain depicting a water beast: massive and fuzzy with thick white fur and white flaps trailing its spine on its back. It had a lifted front foot, and the design made it look like the water beast was controlling the flow of the water.
There was another statue on a pillar showcasing a man in a large Burberry gaberdine coat, trudging around with strong boots with canvas wrappings with two water beasts travelling behind him. The base of the marble statue was etched to make it look like snow at their feet. A sign at the base read, "Harmishworth's history with the water beasts: Bjorn's Bielke best friend".
Yes, Harmishworth has been friends with water beasts since the beginning.
There was also a statue of a boy.
Some other guests walked by, holding plates and slicing cake and stuffing them into their mouths. "Have you noticed that there are zero original servants here? Of course, there are servants, but they're certainly not the original ones that have used to serve the Bielke family for decades." The other friend had a serious expression, "They've gone missing recently..."
Hughbert widened his eyes.
What if that should happen to me!?
He wailed to himself.
I don't want to be let go and go missing!
He turned to go back into the mansion and tell mademoiselle that he actually didn't want to quit.
But then he saw something in the corner of his eye. The boy statue moved.
A ghost boy crept out of the statue, making the statue break, fall, and disappear like a case. He snickered and laughed. "I could make you go missing tonight! Ha ha ha!"
Hughbert screamed and darted away running back to the party. But the ghost boy stuck with him. "You'll be safe with me!" The ghost boy said with a sing-song voice.
"It's a ghost! Ghost!" Hughbert screamed.
A young woman's voice came from above."Keston! Leave the poor creature alone."Hughburt saw a young woman floating above, glowing in the moonlight. She wore a blue ruffled cropped cape and moved her silky dark blue hair away from her face. Her dark boots with gold spirals descended onto a pillar.
"You know you're not supposed to scare people like that." Ida said.
Keston, the ghost boy, grinned. "You don't know how fun it is scaring people as a ghost because you've never tried it! Also, me and my buddies really want to do the thing tonight. We have the tools for our plan ready!"
Ida looked around. "I'll pass on that offer."
"Aww c'mon! We've been waiting ages to do this!"
Hughbert chimed in with curiosity. "What do you want to do?"
Ida shook her head. "Keston has been begging me to let him steal a light necklace from a darkhorde. Which is crazy dangerous. And stupid."
Keston groans. "It's not! Besides, without it, Ida will have to stay sitting by the clock tower forever. She can't really leave these parts or else-" Keston's hands are scrunched up in fists and then make a poofing motion. "She disappears forever."
Hughbert frowned. "That's terrible! How will the light necklace help her?"
Keston smiled. "Well then, she'll be able to go wherever she wants! Like me!" Keston had a light necklace around his neck. "Light necklaces help us ghosts get wherever we need to go!"Hughbert asked Ida, "How long have you been sitting by that tower?"
"Five years." Ida said. "At least, I think. The more that I've been a ghost, the more that my memory of who I was just fades away."
Hughbert widened his eyes. "By Hemlock's son! That is too long!"
Ida sighed. "It's better than the alternative. Getting caught by a darkhorde is worse than just disappearing."
"But it's her birthday today. This is the best gift me and the others can give her." Keston pressed.
Ida shook her head. "It's not a big deal. Also..." She held up a plate with some cake on it. "Would you like some cake?"
Hughbert took the cake gratefully and looked at Keston. "How about I listen to this plan of yours and see what I can do to help?"
Keston grinned. "Okay, so, we've got to go to the train graveyard first..."
----------------------------------------------------------------
Hughbert heard a noise behind him.
What was that?
There was a labored and strange otherworldly breath. It sounded like a large creature was struggling to breathe when sleeping, but Hughbert knew very well how awake it really was.
He shouldn't be able to feel goosebumps, but that doesn't take away the feeling!
He went deeper into the abandoned train graveyard. He looked around and spotted a few more boys.
Hughbert had returned mademoiselle's belongings back, saying that he had changed his mind about helping her get back home. He knew that her father would give him a bad review, but he didn't care.
Hughbert had thought he know what ghosts were like before, like how scary they were. While he still believed that was true, meeting with the ghost boys made him think that perhaps they were just scaring people for childish entertainment.
The boys most favorite activity was turning themselves into statues and scaring people. And once he figured out that the ghost girl's name was Ida, he noticed that, compared to the rest of the ghost kids, Ida was like the runt of the litter. She was scrawnier than the rest, with long dark blue hair, and a ghostly white complexion. She said that sitting by the tower wasn't all bad. She liked the view, and looking at people had been entertaining from above.
They nodded with him, ready for the mission.
The voice of the ghost boy echoed in Hughbert's head, reminding him about what he needed to do:
Steal the light necklace from the darkhorde!
Hughbert peeked from behind the some trash, catching a glimpse of the darkhorde creature.
It has green slit eyes that are intriguing even in the darkness of the night. It's face was like a mask of tree bark if it was painted abstractly. The darkhorde shook its head proudly, the items dancing around its dark skull and mossy green limbs. Around its neck was a collection of necklaces, some with teeth and trinkets from an assortment of other creatures, and a transparent and blue hue walnut shell which enclosed a soft light glow.
Oh. They weren't lying. Darkhordes really do collect light necklaces.
Hughbert readied his stance. He would steal it from the darkhorde while it wasn't paying attention. He looked across from him, seeing the ghost boy readying his distraction.
Hughbert gulped.
But just before the ghost boy could start his distraction, the Darkhorde retches back, as if looking like it had a stomach problem. (Or maybe it was choking.)
Hughbert felt his stomach turn, he pinched his nose as he tries to stop his belly from feeling so queasy.
Oh no. Please don't tell me it's about to puke.
The creature does exactly that. Hughbert shook his head in disgust.
Ewwwww. I don't need to smell its lunch!
The creature grunts and prances around the vile pile of grossness.
The darkhorde makes a weird "kekekeke" sound, similar to the sound of cackles of the music radio that sputters out its last tune.
Hughbert focuses on the peculiar creature's mess.
Oh! It's a little green glowing slime baby.
The baby makes cute "blub blub" sounds as it goes to hug the darkhorde's foot.
The darkhorde makes some noises to the baby, "ja ja ja!" It moving its head diagonally towards it and backwards, communicating through clicks before it nuzzles the baby's nose.
The green blub baby laughs giddily with a high pitch! Each time it laughed, it splitting into more and more clone. First two, then four, then eight, then sixteen!
The darkhorde makes even more prominent and expressive "ja ja ja's!" as it moves its head more exaggeratedly, lift its head into the sky.
With this direction, the babies split off, some going to the north, others to the south, and the same for east and west.
The darkhorde follows one pack of babies, stealthily walking in the courtyard with piercing eyes. It growls with a low pitch menacingly, the ground shaking. Hughbert can feels the power in its growl.
Hughbert went to another trash piece, hoping the green blub babies won't find him.
One green blub squirms in front of his spot in the pillar.
Can it see me?
It stares right at him.
Gosh-all-hemlock.
The baby laughs as it rolls towards him.
Hughbert then looks up and sees three ghost kids jump out of their hiding place, hoping to distract the baby.
"Hey guard guy! You gonna get us our light necklace or what?"
Hearing this, the baby blubs giggle and chase after the ghost kids.
One of the babies holds onto one ghost kid's foot. "Wha-hey!!" the boy tries to shake the baby off. The baby laughs harder and grows exponentially huge, eating the child whole!
The ghost kid is agasp. "Great horn spoonnnn!" *the kid gurgles. The baby, now huge, rolls over laughing, seemingly laughing because of the absurdity of how everything it thought was so big now suddenly so small. The kid terrifiedly screams as the blub baby's laughing shakes the squished ghost kid back and forth.
Hughbert hears the jeers of other ghost kids in the distance laughing at Hughbert's predicament and the other ghost child's capture.
"What are we going to do Barry?"
Barry, the leader of the ghost children, folded his arms in displeasure.
He also saw a hooded figure coming out of the bushes. "Who is that?" one of the boys said.
"Coal sacks, I don't know who that is. I'll see what I can do to scare 'em off."
"Hey you!" He shouted at Hughbert. "The other boys are going to distract the blobs!"
The boys took mirror shards out of their pockets and scrambled towards the blub babies. The blub babies stopped in their tracks when the boys shoved the mirrors in front of them.
"What do we have, thirty of them?"
"There's still two missing."
"Danggit!"
Hughbert ran towards the darkhorde creature with glass in his hand.
The darkhorde creature snapped at Hughbert with deadly teeth but as soon as it saw its reflection in Hughbert's hand, it froze. Hughbert took the opportunity and stared at the many assortment of teeth and trinkets.
Where is it?
Suddenly one of the blub babies giggled near his foot and expanded, trapping Hughbert.
"Ack! No!"Hughbert tried to kick it away, but it made his hand wobble so much.
The darkhorde came close to snapping his hand off. Hughbert spotted the light necklace and snapped it off the darkhorde's neck, and shoved it into his pocket. He then directed his attention to the baby blub on his foot.
"Get off of me!"
The baby laughed, grabbed his other leg and expanded more, knocking Hughbert off his feet and slamming face first onto the ground.
Suddenly, the mirror shattered onto the ground."Nooo!" He and the ghost boys screamed.
The darkhorde pounced, teeth bare, going for the kill.
Hughbert closed his eyes in fear, but then, the hooded figure held a vial with a stentch Hughbert had never heard of before. He saw Barry standing frozen, looking at the hooded figure in the background. Upon smelling it, the darkhorde shook its head and backed away.
The hooded figure muttered some words, and then the darkhorde fell on its side, having fainted.
Hughbert gasped, and the blub baby that was holding him also gasped. The blub baby removed itself from around Hughbert's foot, and they all started joining back together and going toward the darkhorde.
The hooded figure then held a different mirror, one with enchanted words surrounding it, then placed the mirror on top of the darkhorde and the blub babies. They then disappeared into the mirror.
"What happened to them?" Hughbert asked, amazed. The hooded figure took off her hood. "I'm going to keep them safe. As for you... you managed to get that light necklace right? Would you mind if I looked at it."
Hughbert stayed frozen and stammered "Well-"
The ghost boys came up. "No!" Keston said. "That necklace is for our friend Ida!"
Hughbert looked at the hooded figure's face. She had silvery hair, looked middle aged and beautiful, blue eyes, and a elegant expression. "Ida? Why, she's right here."
Hughbert looked and saw in the distance Ida. Ida grinned and held out a light jewel in her hand. She said, "This lady let me borrow this jewel so I could come and see you guys!"
"That's awesome!" Hughbert smiled and gave the light necklace to Ida.
Ida took it gratefully and wore it around her neck. "It's beatiful, thank you so much!" She gave the light jewel back to the silver haired woman.
"Thank you for this, Fiorie."
"Of course. I did wonder why your friends chose to come to a train graveyard with the light being so sparce. But I suppose it makes sense that you all have your own light necklaces too."
The boys nodded and pulled out light necklaces from their pockets. "We found these off of darkhordes."
"It's hard living as ghosts, isn't it?" Fiorie said. "I think I have something you that will help you all."
Fiorie held out the jewel that Ida had held earlier. "This rare piece is strong enough for all of you, as long as you stick relatively close to each other. You can even chop it up if you want. It's good for any other ghost friends you meet."
"I'm willing to give this to you all for free, as long as you're all willing to be my apprentices for a month." She said.
Ida and the boys considered it, and thought it would be a good opportunity. "We're in!"
"Do you have a job, sweetheart?" Fiorie asked, turning to Hughbert.
Hughbert widened his eyes and shook his head. "Well... I was a guard, but not anymore."
Fiorie smiled. "Well Ida and the boys will probably need a guard on standby." She held out a pouch full of gold coins. "I think this will be good payment?"
Hughbert excited nodded, "I'm in!"
He, Ida, and the ghost boys were excited for the journey ahead.
They were too busy celebrating that they didn't notice one little green blub baby was lost. "Blub blub!" It tearfully cried.