What's a Little Seance Between Friends

James watched with open interest as a group of schoolchildren ran past the bench he'd been parked on since the night before. They were dressed in colorful costumes, though one wore a sheet over his head and sort of lackadaisically jogged after the rest. He chuckled at the display, as he felt a certain kinship to the spirit of the costumes, a ghost of all things, in a poorly made costume, unenthusiastic but moving along with the flow of things.

It was a dreary morning, but the spirit of Halloween for the youth was undampened. James himself felt in good spirits, as he had not felt in months. There was an energy in the air that was palpable to him, almost like the feeling before a heavy thunderstorm. He's always been critical of Halloween, but if this was what his days were to be, then Halloween of all days may be a day to look forward to.

"It got cold really fast, don't you think?" It took James a long moment to realize that the woman on the bench next to him was speaking to him. He turned to her with a frown, startled when she met him straight in the eye. No one had looked him in the eye for months.

"I hadn't noticed," he said absently.

"Well I have," she laughed, getting to her feet and wrapping her dark sweater tighter around her. James watched her walk away, gradually hugging herself less and less the further she got from him.

"Huh," he said. "That's new."

He watched as people passed him, wondering if it was a fluke that he'd been seen. No one else met his eye, but there was a subtle avoidance in their walking patterns. That was new as well.

He spent the rest of the morning watching, wondering if somehow he was getting stronger. He certainly felt it. He wonder if the day had anything to do with it, or that tonight was a full moon. It couldn't be the moon phase on its own, as he'd seen three full moons in the time he'd been in this state. It was dusk before he noticed the time passing. It was not as though he had anywhere better to be, but James had never lost track of time before he'd been made an apparition. Or ghost. Or whatever it was that he had become. In between? He'd yet to find another like him, though he did wonder if he'd encountered them without knowing.

He shook his head and stood from the bench. The woman had been the only person to sit with him that day. It made him a little sad, as the little old man who always sat with him had crossed the street to avoid the bench today.

James sighed, starting when he saw his breath puff into a cloud of mist. What was this? He didn't need to breath, had never moved air in such a way, and breath misted because of temperature change from inside to outside the body. Was he...was he returning to normal? He frowned, holding his breath and waiting. After the fifth minute he shook his head. Nothing was happening, and it was impossible to return from the dead besides. He looked up at the purplish grey sky, wondering if it was going to rain tonight. It was a good day for a storm, though he hope for the sake of the kids that it would hold off until later. That was the moment he noticed a sucking feeling deep in his gut, subtle at first but beginning to grow. He cooked his head and frowned down at his belly. What was that? He began to feel a weakness in his limbs and a dizziness in his head as the pull got stronger. The light of dusk began to fade and the street faded with it until he could see nothing but darkness. Then the world around him steadied, though he'd not noticed it rocking, and his limbs regained feeling, as much as they could. He was still resolved to darkness though, his ears ringing with nothingness until a slow chant began to whisper in his ear. It was unintelligible and soft, a coll of some kind. He listened for a long moment but still could not parse it. It was jumbled, fumbling and...ancient? A foreign language perhaps, though not like any he'd heard before. He let his feet move as they would, following the sound as it grew until a small flicker of light emerged ahead.

It looked like a candle. As he continued on, another candle flickered to light and another and another until there were six set in a circle. The chanting grew as he stepped into it, before abruptly erupting into a cacophony set of screams. Girls. There were girls among the candles, sitting in a circle with a drawing on the floor of...a pentagram and something else he couldn't make sense of. The girls were staring at him from the dark, a bedroom he realized, faces pale and wide-eyed, though they stayed seated.

"What the hell is going on here?" He asked, because children or not, he was not happy with being controlled in such a way. He growled when none of them answered.

"Ohmygod...ohmygod," said the tallest of the six girls, a blond that look 14 at the oldest and had a book opened in her lap.

"I told you this was a bad idea," said a girl from across the circle.

"I've been summoned by a teenaged seance on Halloween." James stated bluntly. "Is that what's happened? Because I'm not happy about becoming a cliché, I'll tell you that right now."

"Ohmygod," the tall one said again.

"Sorry!" One of the others blurted. "I didn't think anything would happen!" The others nodded frantically in agreement.

"You shouldn't play with things like this," he said, gesturing to the book that the ritual had obviously come from. "It's rude."

With that he moved to walk back the way he'd come, frowning when he felt another pull in his belly. The room dimmed further to darkness and the dizziness returned. When things once again settled and the chants began, this time a loud raucous "Spirit of the night reveal yourself to us!" He walked towards the voices, a frown pulling at his face, knowing what it was likely to be. When the candles and faces emerged, he sighed loudly. "You shouldn't mess with things you don't understand," he told them as they went into a shocked silence. Four this time, and one of them a boy.

"What's your name?" The boy asked, face pale but brow furrowed in determination.

"What's that got to do with anything?" James asked.

Then, the sucking feeling in his belly began to grow again, and he wondered if this was going to happen all night.

He sighed again, breath puffing into the air.

"I hate Halloween," he said as a parting shot before their preteen faces faded from view once again.