The Kinnan Disturbance

Note: I tried to combine all of this week's prompts into one story.

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“Bobby, we aren’t really going to sleep in the graveyard … are we?” Joey Alvarez asked as the two boys hurried down the street. “I’d rather just go trick-or-treating and eat a bunch of candy while we watch scary movies at home.” He pointed to the house they were passing. “It’s Nik’s first time trick-or-treating and I told him we’d meet up with him and show him the ropes.”

“Shut up Joey! Saul did it last year and he dared us. He said he’ll tell everyone at school we’re cowards if we don’t do it.” Bobby grabbed his younger brother’s hand and tried to pull him along.

“No!” Joey yanked his hand free and stopped walking. “I don’t care if you and Saul call me a coward. I’m not spending the night is some creepy cemetery. I’m going home, putting on my costume and going trick-or-treating.”

“Fine! You’re a baby and I don’t want to listen to you whine and cry all night anyway,” Bobby yelled as his brother walked away. “I’ll do it by myself! I’m no coward!”

 Inside Nik’s house, another argument was taking place.

“Can’t you just take him Willa?" Ashland Adoff pleaded with his wife. “The full moon is just two days away and I don’t want to risk it.”

“Give it a rest Ash!” Willamina gave her husband an exasperated glare. “Your bowling league has been scheduled on the nights before and after the full moon plenty of times and you’ve had no problem going out for that!”

“Can’t you just skip your coven’s Samhain gathering this one time?” Ash pleaded.

“You’re a grown werewolf who is fully capable of taking care of our son for one evening. This is the most important night of the year for me. You know that! You’re taking Niklaus trick-or-treating for the very first time and he’s so excited about it!” Willa flicked her long, dark red hair over her shoulder, walked to the closet and grabbed her broom. “I’m going to be late. Don’t forget to feed him dinner before you go and whatever you do, make sure you’re home before …”

“Of course! With everything that’s been happening, do you really think I’d risk Nik’s life?” Ash huffed. “Especially when no one seems to be able to figure out what is causing it. You and Nik mean everything to me!” He raked a hand through his thick dark brown hair.

Willa snapped her finger and placehopped to appear at her husband’s side. She leaned her broomstick against the counter, placed her hands on his shoulders and pulled him down for a long kiss. “Honey, I know human Halloween traditions rub you the wrong way. But we made the decision to raise Nik in the mortal world and this is really important to him.” She pressed her forehead against his and sighed. “Let him enjoy the experience and try to appreciate sharing this special one-on-one time with your son.”

Willa kissed Ash again, picked up her broom and headed out the back door. “Have fun! I love you,” she called out as she mounted the broomstick and flew off into the night.

As Ash shut the door, he wondered yet again how he’d ever fallen in love with a witch and just how grateful he was that he had. He turned on the oven and after a few minutes put in a frozen sausage and pepperoni pizza.

Throughout dinner Nik talked about how he couldn’t wait for Ash to see his costume and how cool trick-or-treating was going to be. He’d set the glow-in-dark ghost candy bucket he’d picked out next to his plate and smiled every time he looked at it. Nik rolled his eyes when Ash offered to help him with his costume. “No way dad! You won’t be surprised if you help me.”

Ash sat on the couch, drumming his fingers on his legs as he waited for Nik. Trick-or-treating like a common human! What would his parents say? They still hadn’t gotten over the fact he’d married a witch, were struggling to come to terms with their grandson being a werewizard, and had been absolutely mortified when he and Willa announced they were moving to a human neighborhood. They’d lived here almost a year and his parents still refused to come for a visit.

“Dad? Are you ready to see me?” Nik called from the doorway of the living room.

“Can’t wait another second,” Ash replied with as much enthusiasm as he could muster. “Get in here!”

Nik strolled into the room, turned full circle, ran up to Ash and yelled “I want to suck your blood!”

It took all of Ash’s willpower to keep a smile on his face. His son was dressed as a no-good, filthy vampire. A vampire! What was Willamina thinking? No self-respecting werewolf, witch or wizard would ever pretend to be a vampire. They were the scourge of the supernatural world!

“Wow!” was all Ash could manage to say.

“I know, it’s super-awesome dad! Mom tried to talk me out of it, but it’s the coolest costume ever, I kept bugging her for days, and she finally gave in and let me get it!” Nik spun around again. “Isn’t it great?”

“It’s something all right,” Ash mumbled as he stood up. “Let’s get the trick-or-treating started,” he said just as the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it!” Nik raced to the front door and flung it open.

“Hey Nik. Cool costume,” Joey said. “Hope it’s okay I came to your house so we can trick-or-treat together. Bobby … well, he’s not coming this year.”

“Sure! It’s fine. Right dad?” Nik glanced back at Ash.

“Of course! Glad to have you join us,” Ash replied.

“Awesome!” Nik hollered. “Your costume is great Joey. Where did you get it?”

Joey looked down at his Storm Trooper outfit. “It’s a hand-me-down from Joey,” he said quietly as he pulled his mask down off the top of his head to cover his face.

“Well I love it!” said Nik. “Come on! Let’s go trick-or-treating!”

As Ash and the boys began collecting candy from the neighbors, Willa arrived at the coven’s secret meeting place.

“Late again because of that husband of yours?” Abigail snickered.

“Hello to you too, dear sister,” Willa responded as she kissed Abby’s cheek.

“Hurry, the gathering is about to begin and the high council wants to have a word with everyone before things kick off,” Abby hooked her arm through Willa’s as they made their way through the crowd of witches.

“Greetings everyone. Tonight, we face a bittersweet Samhain,” said Rowan Tonneau, the head of the coven’s high council. “We’re all aware of the horrible things that have occurred in the Loch Lorraine region over the last few months.” She paused as the members of the coven murmured. “The time has come to take action. We’ve reached an agreement with the Supernatural Cooperative and the werewolf, ogre, ghost, goblin, and fairy councils have formed a committee with us to address the problem. Of course, the vampires refused to participate.”

She looked around at the worried faces of her coven. “Willamina Adoff are you present?”

Willa slowly raised her hand.

“The town of Kinnan appears to be at the epicenter of the … disturbance, and since that’s where you live, we’d like you to be part of the committee.”

Willa nodded grimly.

“Good. Please meet with Bernadette and Gillian before you leave tonight; they’re on the committee and will bring you up to date,” Rowan paused. “You may all be wondering what’s causing the disturbance and I’m obligated to tell you the committee has evidence pointing to this being the work of vampires and ghosts.”

Willa froze. In Kinnan? Where her son and her husband were out in the streets at this very moment? She and Ash thought it was the work of humans. Abby grabbed her arm as she began to sway.

“Willa? Willa! There’s nothing you can do for Ash and Nik right now. While we’re at the gathering, our cell phones won’t work, and we can’t placehop. Tonight’s spells will be crucial in protecting everyone in the Loch Lorraine area, including your family.” Abigail gave her sister a firm shake. “They’ll be okay. Let’s help the others.”

As Willamina tried to control her fear, Bobby approached the locked gate of Kinnan Hills cemetery.

He’d nearly chickened out and had spent an hour or so at the diner in town, sitting at the counter with a chocolate shake, trying to get up the nerve to come here. His hands shook as he climbed over the fence. He cautiously walked around the graveyard as he debated the safest place to spend the night.

After checking to make sure the door of the small chapel was locked, he opted to roll out his sleeping bag on the chapel’s portico because his back would be protected by the building and it was close to the gate if he had to make a run for it. The low walls between the tall gothic columns along the front and sides of the portico gave him a sense of security and helped hide him from view.

Every noise freaked him out, but he was determined to stay all night. If Saul Lopez could do it, so could he. No one was going to call Bobby Alvarez a coward!

He crawled inside his sleeping bag and willed himself to fall asleep, because while he was sleeping, he wouldn’t be afraid. As he heaved out a long breath and closed his eyes, he heard the door of the chapel creaking open and froze.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” Ivan Orsova ran his tongue over his fangs as Bobby struggled to free himself from the sleeping bag. Ivan placed a foot lightly on the boy’s chest to hold him in place. “Charlie, I think we have a volunteer for our next experiment!” he called out as a ghost drifted through the tombstones toward him.

“Oh my! A little human,” Charlie grinned maliciously as he floated over Ivan and Bobby. “He’ll do nicely. What exactly is the variant in tonight’s experiment?”

“I’ve been giving that a lot of thought,” Ivan considered his options before continuing. “All of our trials so far have failed miserably.”

“I think you should possess the boy before I attempt to turn him into a vampire. If you’re inside him, as an integral part of him when I do it, perhaps the evolution of our two species will be possible. The fact that it is All Hallows Eve should also help with our endeavor. We supernaturals have a bit more leeway today, do we not?”

Charlie laughed. “Of course! Why didn’t we think of it before? Both the mortals and supernaturals are starting to pay attention to our experimentation. We’re running out of time. Let’s do it!”

Ivan seized Bobby's arms and pulled him to his feet.

“Here we go,” Charlie called out as he entered Bobby’s body which shook for a few moments before settling down. “I’m in control of him now. Go for it Ivan,” Charlie’s distorted voice came from the Bobby's moving lips.

Ivan pushed Bobby’s head to the side and sank his fangs into the boy’s neck.

“I didn’t expect it to feel so real to me,” Charlie exclaimed. “It’s painful and pleasurable at the same time.” He continued to babble, and as Ivan drank Bobby’s blood, he wished Charlie would show more respect for the sanctity of the vampiric creation process.

“The child is on the verge of death,” Ivan said as he gently laid Bobby down on top of the sleeping bag. “Now force the boy to drink my blood." Ivan bit his own wrist and held it to the boy’s mouth. Charlie dutifully compelled Bobby to drink.

“Should I stay inside him until he dies, or come out now?” Charlie asked when the exchange of blood had been completed.

“That is the crucial question,” Ivan said thoughtfully. “As a ghost, what do you feel is the right thing to do?”

Charlie sighed. “I think I need to stay where I am until he’s dead.”

“Very well.” Ivan sat on the low wall and crossed his legs. “It takes about 30 minutes after human death for a vampire to arise and the boy’s heart just stopped beating.” He glanced up as Charlie exited Bobby’s body and hovered nearby. “Now we wait.”

Willamina and her coven resolutely cast protective spell after protective spell to defend the mortals and supernaturals in the Loch Lorraine area. She met with Bernadette and Gillian and was stunned to learn the committee believed the culprits were trying to create a race of half vampire half ghost supernaturals. They’d dubbed them vamposts.

Her need to get back to Ash and Nik won out and she appealed to the other witches to cut the meeting short. Bernadette thrust a list of committee member contact information into her hand as she turned to leave.

“The next meeting is at the goblin town hall in Grummolder next Tuesday at 8pm,” Gillian called out as Willa rushed to her broomstick.

Ash was relieved the boys seemed to be ready to quit trick-or-treating. Nik had invited Joey back to the house to watch a movie.

Ash had called Joanna Alvarez to clear it with her and was now as worried as she was about Bobby. The boy wasn’t home; she didn’t know where he’d gone. Joey had made it clear Bobby wasn’t trick-or-treating and Ash had assured Joanna he’d try to find out what Joey knew.

When he asked him about Bobby, he saw how nervous the child was. “It’s okay Joey. Your mom is just worried because she can’t find him. Do you know where he went tonight?”

It took some coaxing, but Joey finally told Ash about spending the night at Kinnan Hills. He and the boys were only two blocks away from the cemetery and he decided to take them with him so he could get to Bobby as quickly as possible.

“Don’t worry Joey. We’ll go over there and check on him,” he patted the boy’s shoulder. “Maybe between the three of us and all that candy, we can convince him to come home with us.” With a determined look on his face, Ash led the boys toward the cemetery.

As they approached the gate, Ash’s werewolf hearing picked up voices coming from near the chapel.

“You two stay here, while I go look for Bobby.” He leaped over the fence and ran toward the sound of the voices.

“Whoa! How can your dad jump fences like that?” Joey asked.

Nik just shrugged. He knew he wasn’t supposed to talk about his supernatural family with his human friends.

Bobby was just arising. Ivan and Charlie watched as the child’s human body faded a bit, but stayed much more corporeal than that of a ghost. Ivan reached out a hand and touched the boy’s arm. “I think it worked! I can touch him, but he still has the ghostly transparency you do Charlie.”

Bobby opened his now red eyes and looked at Ivan. “I’m soooo thirsty,” he exclaimed as he floated above the ground.

Ash burst up the steps to the portico. “Stop! Leave the boy alone,” he bellowed as he sized up the vampire and the ghost.

“Oooooh! A werewolf’s come out to play with us tonight Ivan! But there’s no full moon, so he’s nothing but a mere human wanna be,” Charlie taunted Ash.

Ivan sprang at Ash and the two tumbled to the ground. Ash’s werewolf strength allowed him to throw the vampire off, but the ghost swirled around him causing a distraction. The vampire was strong and cunning, and it took some time, but Ash finally managed to run them off.

“You’re too late wolfman! The boy is already ours,” Ivan yelled as he ran through the graveyard followed by the cackling Charlie.

Ash looked for Bobby, but couldn’t find the boy. “Nik! Joey!” he shouted as he ran flat out and vaulted over the gate.

“Dad.” Nik was sitting on the ground with his back against the stone wall adjacent to the gate. “Um, Bobby kind of floated over the fence, grabbed Joey and dragged him away.”

“I tried to stop him without using my werewolf strength or my magic, but I couldn’t.” Nik looked up at his father as a tear rolled down his cheek. “Dad …”

Dread filled Ash as he stared at his son.

“Before he grabbed Joey, well … Bobby bit me.”