October Illustration: Trick or-…

Ahhh~

He could smell it. The wonderful aroma of the tangling arcane wisps on the night air, mixing and congealing into the sickly sweet scent that tended to go entirely unnoticed to the mortals. It was a harbinger; a call to action to all those who could smell it. The veil was thinning, the dead whispering, spirits circling, and all manner of the unnatural and unholy beginning to stir. 

Evil itself takes a breath.

Azazel sat on a high branch of a dying tree, five glowing eyes combing through the crowed of masked and costumed mortals below, legs swaying almost jovially as he took them in. He didn’t feel the need to hide himself, not tonight, anyways. If anyone saw him even in this form, and a few had looked up to meet eyes with him, then they would either think him a rather convincing Halloween decoration, or at worst; a strange individual in an equally strange costume. 

His wicked grin, full of long and sharp fangs, widened a little when a small child looked up to see him and froze in her tracks. He gave the little girl a playful wave, who waved back through habit as the wide eyes of her surprised expression never left her features. For a few moments, they just stared at each other, and Azazel wondered briefly if she had lost track of her parents since no one around her seemed to be paying her any mind. The wide ever-grinning mouth on his abdomen began to salivate at the thought of a little midnight snack, but as soon as he had the thought, two individuals made their way through the crowd and took the little girl’s hand in theirs, leading her away. 

“Pity.” He chuckled to himself, watching the little thing go as the family their way down the street. Fortunately for the family, the demon wasn’t feeling particularly famished at the moment. He had sated that hunger by answering the summons of a group of poorly ignorant teens trying to conjure spirits. They got their wish…

Azazel always loved this time of year not only because he was at his strongest in the mortal plain , what with hell being so close, but also a sort of anniversary. His most recent summon happened on Halloween. A real summon, not what those tasty kids were attempting earlier. It finally allowed him full access to the mortal realm again and for the past near hundred years, he hasn’t really left. It was just too much fun, these mortals. So much chaos and corruption to whiteness and feed him and he didn’t have to lift a single clawed finger to do it. They do it themselves! Of course that doesn’t stop him tampering, but it certainly makes  his job much, MUCH easier. 

Speaking of tampering, Halloween was also the anniversary to another event, come to think of it… Yes, the day he was summoned back to earth was also they day he made a new vampire out of a certain small bat child. Azazel wondered what Brandyn was up to right about now. Likely being far too content with that new boyfriend of his; the Doberman, he thought but wasn’t sure as Azazel didn’t really care much. He could also pop into the bat’s place and see for himself… that would certainly ruin Brandyn’s night and Azazel couldn’t be more pleased with the prospect. 

He stood up on the branch, practically giddy with anticipation of messing with his vampiric offspring, and was about to be off to do just that when something caught his eye: a quartet of boys dressed in cheaply made, store bought monster costumes slinking into an unoccupied alleyway. He could tell they didn’t want to be followed by how they all kept looking over their shoulders and speaking in hushed voices so, of course, Azazel simply HAD to follow them, all thoughts of the loathing look on Brandyn’s face gone from his mind with this new source of amusement…

“Did you get it?” Frank the husky hissed out behind his plastic mummy mask.

“‘Course I did…” Aaron drawled out, his thick English accent on full display. The timber wolf pulled up his Scream mask as he fished something out of his jacket pocket before holding it out for the rest to see.

The group huddled around the wolf, looking at his open palm and seeing the intricate pendant. It was an odd piece of jewelry; the chain links of the necklace looked to be fashioned out of various different precious metals and of different sizes and thicknesses as well. At first glance, some of the links looked scuffed up, marred with scratched and gashes, but upon closer inspection a pattern would be noticeable, though they didn’t look like any letters or numbers any of the boys recognized. The pendant itself was even more curious; a glimmering crystal unlike any of them had ever seen glistened in the moonlight, reflecting reds and blues and pinks and greens onto the alley walls around them. The gem seemed to have a glow of its own, and Darwin could almost swear he heard the faintest of whispers coming from it around the sound of the busy street behind them.

A shadow moved on the wall and of the jumped. “Would you put that away before someone sees!” Kevin, the tall mink behind a werewolf mask whispered around gritted teeth, shoving the wolf’s hand back at him.

“Would you relax.” Aaron grumbled, stuffing the pendant back into his jacket pocket. “Ain’t no one gonna care what we got here and if you keep jumping at every shadow then we’re just gonna look more suspicious.”

Darwin agreed with the mink. Well, more accurately he disagreed with the whole situation. He didn’t even wanna be here but got roped into it because he knew the neighborhood the best and didn’t have to spine to turn the rest of them down. He just wanted to get back home and put this whole night behind him.

Another shadow moved, this time accompanied by a light whooshing sound, and they all turned around to look at the mouth of the alley… but nothing was there.

Not even Kevin…

“Kev…?” Frank called, lifting his mummy mask to peer down the alley. 

No response… no sound at all, actually… even though they could still see the people passing by on the busy street. The darkness of the alley suddenly felt as though it was getting darker, and the light of the busy street seemed to be getting further away.

“W-whats going on…?” Darwin asked, taking a step and turning to face the others…

The others that weren’t there anymore.

Instead, the small alleyway had stretched into an impossibly long, dark corridor, pitch black except for the small candles along the floor in uneven patterns shining a cold teal light that did nothing to fend off the darkness. 

Darwin turned to run in the other direction, back toward the busy street, but no matter how hard he ran, he could never get closer the end from where he started. In fact the street seemed to be moving further away from him as he ran toward it.

The cat had to stop to catch his breath after a while, the entrance to the alley somehow further from him than before he started running. “What the fuck is happening?” He asked himself, his voice bouncing and echoing off the walls of the corridor behind him. He was about ready to start heading for the exit again when someone stepped into the alleyway’s entrance, far enough away that Darwin couldn’t see any details, but close enough that whoever it was seemed impossibly large with glowing blueish-green eyes. 

The figure started down the alley toward Darwin, and he noticed the sound of clacking hooves against stone. A feeling of unease washed over him as the figure got close enough to notice the massive, evil looking horns that jutted from the top of the strangers head, and glowing pinpricks that couldn’t be less than two sets of eyes on him. 

Darwin didn’t want to go down the strange corridor, but it somehow felt saver than the stranger… But he couldn’t move. His feet wouldn’t listen to him, legs ignoring his desire to flee, mind racing with possibilities and consequences should this strange figure reach him. He hadn’t even noticed he wasn’t breathing. He just stood there, frozen and slack jawed as the creature drew closer.

~*~

“Would you put that away before someone sees?” Kevin whispered through gritted teeth behind a werewolf mask as he shoved Aaron’s outstretched palm holding the pendant back at him.

“Would you relax.” Aaron growled as Kevin looked behind him to see what had made that shadow, but there was no one there. 

“We need to get out of here before-” He started as he turned back to face the others, but instead found himself face to face with a goat man… A goat man with… four eyes…? Four glowing eyes.

The mink fell back with a yelp, scrambling to get some distance between himself and this stranger, but no matter how much he tried the distance never grew. The goat stood upright, showing off a fifth eye between two sets of pectorals and a grinning, tooth-filled mouth on his stomach. The creature had two sets of arms held politely behind its back, a long, whip-like tail with large pointed spines along half its length swayed lazily as it took slow strides toward him. A sudden burst of light exploded on the creatures head and for a moment Kevin thought it’s scalp was on fire, only to look closer and notice that the strange greenish flames weren’t actually touching the goat creature and floated softly between it’s horns. 

“Wh-where are they?” Kevin asked, trying to sound braver than he felt as he tried and failed to get his legs under him. “What did you do with-”

“Nothing yet.” The creature interrupted. Its voice was strange… deep and masculine, to be sure, but there was another voice laced within it, lighter and almost feminine… and yet another one that seemed to coat every word with low growl. “I wanted to ask you something.”

“You-…” Kevin’s mind was racing to try and keep up with everything while still processing this goat-guy’s appearance and voice. The voice was particularly difficult to deal with, as with every word it spoke, it felt as though cold, sharp hands were raking against his brain. “Ask me-me what?”

The goat came to say stop just in front of the mink, leaning down with a cruel smile. “Trick or treat?”

Kevin’s mind stilled, unsure of what to make of the question. “I, uh… Don’t got nothin’.” He responded wearily. 

The goat looked up and brought a clawed hand around from his back to tap at his chin, feigning thoughtfulness. “Hmm… I suppose that means ‘trick’ then, right?”

Sudden horrible images rushed through Kevin’s still mind. Terrible images so vividly clear his poor small mind couldn’t tell if they were real or not. He was torn limb from limb by wicked looking creatures for 50 years, over and over again only be magically healed at the start of a new day. He was boiled in oil for 20 years, perpetually feeling his flesh peel from bone as he drowned with scalding liquids invading his throat, never allowed to die. He was just about to be fed feet first into what looked like an evil meat grinder when suddenly, 70 years later, he was back in that same alleyways he was in all those years ago… the night his friends disappeared… the night he became Azazel’s plaything.

Kevin tried to scream, but found he no longer had a voice.

Azazel snapped his fingers, appearing to have just come out of a particularly deep line of thought. “I know! How about we make ourselves a little deal?” The demon said, crouching down on his hooves so that he could look the terrified little man in the eye. “Tell you what, you give me those three friends of yours and I’ll let you go. I wont even keep them that long, just for the night, and I’ll even make it as though you and I have never met. You won’t remember a thing-“

Azazel had barely gotten that last part out when the mink had suddenly spring up, shook Azazel’s hand vigorously, if not shakily, before taking off down the alley to the busy street.

He watched with bemusement as the mink barreled into the crowd, knocking a few people off their feet before he began to look puzzled, as though he couldn’t remember how he’d gotten there, the look of fear and terror gone from his face. 

He should have waited until I was finished making my offer. Azazel thought to himself as pulled hell itself up to him, turning as to meet the dark corridor and seeing the Siamese cat panting from trying to run out of his house. I would have also kept his suffering from his dreams.

Oh well. He’d be sure to treat his guests with much more care.

Come to think of it, he wondered if his legion would like a small reprieve… he hadn’t see them in so long and he had to make sure he made full use of his new playthings.

And the night was still so very young…