Eduardo had borrowed Garrett's horse, hoping to make it to Kylie and Sath's before he lost all the twilight. Rarely did he go to her house anymore; every time he went there it just seemed to reawaken old memories in him that he felt would be better off in some dark recess of his mind. As he made his way off the horse and towards the door he realized glumly this trip would be no different. Without thinking he put his hand to his chest where he could feel Kylie's necklace under his shirt. He took a deep breath, forced his hand to drop to his side, and knocked on the door.
Sath answered it, and for a moment each simply stood staring at each other. Sath forced herself to snap out of it. "Oh, Eduardo. Come in." Eduardo walked in feeling a bit better with the knowledge that he wasn't the only one who found the situation awkward. The house was kept fairly neat, with shelves lined with jars of labeled herbs or incense.
Kylie looked up from a table scattered with papers and various plants. Picking up Esbat, her cat, off her lap she stood up. "Hey Eduardo. Is something wrong?"
There would have to be for me to come here, Eduardo thought to himself. "You could say that. Remember any ghosts by the name Samhain?"
Ky's jaw went slack. "He's here?"
"Egon thinks so. He's spooked enough to dig up our ghostbusting gear. He thinks your witchy meeting tonight might have something to do with it, and-"
"He's not going to interfere with our holiday celebration, is he?" Sath worriedly asked.
"No. Well, not unless some goulie shows up and tries to make tonight last forever, then he might. Just like old times. You coming, Kylie?"
Kylie suddenly looked very tired. She had a whole new life established here, and was happy again. Now her old life was trying to fight its way back. "I'm going to the Sabbot with Sath, but if something happens, let me know immediately. Until then ask Egon not to interrupt the meeting."
*****
The full moon hung high in the clear night sky as Egon, Eduardo, Roland and Garrett patrolled the streets of the city. Slimer still had yet to return, and upon digging up their ghostbusting equipment from its five year dirt nap, they found their only ghost trap missing as well. The team thought the two events to be more than coincidence, and whether or not anything happened concerning Samhain, they were going to search for Slimer when they were finished here. It promised to be a long night, of that no one doubted.
Egon glanced at his PKE meter. The large gathering of goblins not too far from the city wall made him uneasy, made the entire team uneasy, but without any ghost traps they knew there wasn't really much they could do to stop an army of that size. At most they could hold off a handful of the goblins for a few minutes with their proton packs. They all had hopes that perhaps the army of goblins wouldn't try anything tonight, but knew that most likely there was going to be trouble tonight. Dr. Spengler looked up at the full moon. The full moon, the time period, the goblins...there's just too much for a simple coincidence.
Egon did a double take as he looked down at his PKE meter. Two goblins had broken off from the army and passed right by them! His mind raced; Secta and Lethwren had never shown that kind of speed before, but they traveled nearly a mile in what seemed like moments. "They're moving!" Egon called as he broke out in a run, the rest of the team following close behind. "We have to get to that meeting."
*****
Kylie joined hands with Sath's coven forming a circle around an inanimate figure. Kylie cleared her mind as the High Priest began a slow soft chant, focusing on the figure in the middle, their soon-to-be spirit of protection. It was a scarecrow, composed of a pole for a body, on the top of which sate a large pumpkinhead. A purple robe sat draped around the pole, gently fluttering in the fall breeze. The High Priest's chanting rose and grew more audible. Kylie, Sate, and the others joined in the chant as they visualized the scarecrow's purpose. A tingling feeling, now familiar to Kylie, flowed through her, down her arms to her hands, mixing with the others seated around her as the power flowed around the figure. Slowly they walked clockwise around the circle. Soon their protection spell would be complete.
*****
The strength of the full moon filled Secta and Lethwren, more on this Halloween night than any other before. They used the shadows for travel, enabling them to go faster than ever before. Their feeling of excitement fueled them as well, as their long formulated plan was finally coming to play. Soon they'd have a central power greater than any in the world, one that would guarantee their domination over these humans. Lethwren let a manical laugh escape his large orange mouth, which Secta quickly slapped to shut him up.
They were very near the witches now; Secta could feel their power in the air like an electrical charge. They stopped in the shadows of a large tree not more than twenty yards from them. Secta could see their spell was nearing completion; they were a bit later than he would have liked. He growled as he thought of how much easier this part would be if only that human had willingly allied with them. Not that it would change the result, now they would just be sure to make the remainder of that human's life particularly unpleasant. Secta nudged Lethwren who nodded in reply. They charged deathly silent, at the horrid human, his torturous fate now sealed.
*****
None of the witches noticed the slight stutter in the High Priest's voice as Secta and Lethwren charged inside of him and took control of his consciousness. The High Priest's uncontrolled panic in the back of his mind as he realized what happened and the sheer terror that ensued was easily worth the extremely uncomfortable feeling of being in a human host to the two goblins.
The enormous power suddenly at their disposal was a bit of a surprise, as their abilities merged with that of the High Priest's. They could feel the power the other witches were generating as a tangible thing that they could reach out and touch.
So they did. Ever so slightly, so as not to alarm the humans giving them the power, Secta and Lethwren altered the power fed into the scarecrow, slowly changing the intent of the spirit from that of protection to that of aggression, of angry and powerful control.
Kylie had a feeling in the back of her mind that something wasn't quite right. She continued her chanting, a bit softer now, and opened one eye to glance to her right to find Sath doing the same back to her. The two girls could see someone running towards them across the field. He seemed to be trying to run stealthily, yet his frantic footsteps did plenty to give him away.
The High Priest's face twisted into a face of outrage as Secta and Lethwren noticed the human approaching, recognized their pathetic ally. The two goblins could feel the witches' concentration waning slowly. "That fool!" Secta screamed in the High Priest's head. "He's going to ruin everything!"
"We've got no choice," Lethwren replied. "We must act now, before we lose them completely."
Secta agreed as they reached out to grasp hold of the power radiating from the coven. Their touch tainted the magic, twisting it to their purpose as they gathered it into the High Priest, using him to store it until they had enough. By now the group had stopped their circling and chanting completely, feeling the darkness gathering around them.
"We need more!" The High Priest shouted out loud to the confused group. He raised his fists in the air and Kylie dropped to her knees and screamed with the rest of them. She could feel her powers being forced against her will, ripped out of her soul.
Secta and Lethwren laughed with delight at the scene of torment and the anguish the High Priest was feeling at doing this to his friends. The goblins gathered all the power they had taken, added their host's power to it, and threw it into the lifeless scarecrow. With that, Secta and Lethwren jumped out of the High Priest, who collapsed trembling to the floor. Kylie, still kneeling, lifted her head to see the two familiar goblins, but was too weakened to do much else besides scorn herself for not taking more precautions after Egon's warning.
Kylie recognized the cloaked man who had been running toward them. Hope sprung up in her as Lord Marland approached their circle. But it quickly faded as he casually walked toward the goblin generals.
"Alright," Marland was speaking to the goblins, of which were paying more mind to the scarecrow in the center of the circle than him, "I've done all that you've asked and grow tired of your waiting game. Grant me that which you've promised me or you will be gaining one more enemy this night."
As Marland's speech ended, of which Secta and Lethwren were only partially paying any mind, the scarecrow's cloak began to flap wildly as if attacked by a fierce wind. The pumpkinhead began to pulsate, the eye holes glowing with their own life-force as the cloak grew and took shape around the pole it was attatched to. Soon the cloak took on the form of a complete body as clawed hands as orange as its head protruded from the sleeves. The new lifeform took its first breath as it stoop up to its full eight foot height.
Secta and Lethwren stood mesmerized at their new weapon, a powerful servant of the goblin army. "Samhain!" Secta said aloud, still in too much awe to say much else. "Sam...hain," Lethwren repeated.
Lord Marland, trembling part in fear of the new creation before him and part in anger at being ignored, grabbed Secta by the shoulder and forced their faces to meet. "Our deal."
The smaller goblin glanced briefly at the human's hand grabbing his shoulder. "You've done what was asked?" Marland took his hand away and nodded. "Then you are no longer needed." Secta made a quick gesture in the air and a small ball of black light appeared in his hand, which he tossed at Marland. It struck Lord Marland in the chest and sank into his skin with a loud hiss. Marland's eyes bulged as he clutched at the bubbling gash in his chest. He looked at his hands and saw his skin quickly growing darker, almost black, and his body was becoming stiff and difficult to move. He looked to Secta and Lethwren, wishing he'd never listened to their promises of eternal life and power, but knew regrettably it was too late. The goblin generals watched as his body become gnarled, deformed, and knotted into a large stone statue.
"Thank you for your assistance, friend," Secta spoke to the now lifeless statue.
Kylie, Sath and the rest of the coven watched the events in stunned disbelief. She looked from Samhain to the goblin pair to the large stone statue that was Lord Marland and turned away to try to think of what to do.
"Sath, look!" Kylie said quietly as she saw her teammates running across the field towards them. As the team got closer she could see the look of disappointment on Egon's face.
"We were too late to stop it," Egon said loud enough for the others to hear.
"Guess this'll make the job a bit tougher," Garrett said, "but a lot more fun!"
"Samhain just arrived from the look of things," Egon thought aloud as he stared at the spirit of Halloween, still crouching on the ground. "It's possible that the proton beams may do more damage than usual in his weakened state."
"Right," Eduardo said, drawing his proton gun. "Let's surround pumpkinhead and hit him with all we've got!"
The members of the coven took cover at the sight of the oncoming battle. Kylie took Sath over to Roland, who was carrying Kylie's pack.
Secta and Lethwren looked at their strange new adversaries, not the least bit threatened. Secta called out to Samhain as Lethwren began reciting a spell. "Samhain! The time has come for you to prove yourself. Serve us and dispose of those creatures!" Samhain leapt up to his feet with tremendous power, his evil eyes stopping for a moment on the two goblins before resting on the humans surrounding him. Silent but for a low growl it charged for Dr. Spengler.
"Throw it!" Garrett yelled.
A loud click echoed from all the proton guns. The familiar sound of a large stream of proton electricity and neutrons hurling wildly from the barrel to their supernatural enemy, however, didn't come. "Uh-oh", was all Egon could think to say as Samhain charged towards him, a demonic snarl on his face. He reached Dr. Spengler in seconds, a powerful left-handed slash all that was needed to knock the Ghostbuster to the ground. Egon could feel the air rush out of him as he landed on his back. The gashes on his face from Samhain's claws felt alive, pulsing and burning with an electric energy. Dazed, he could only stare forward and watch Samhain float by him, and Lethwren complete his spell, a stream of fireworks shooting out of his hands toward the sky. Egon assumed he was sending some sort of signal, probably for the goblin army.
"Run!" Eduardo yelled. The remaining Ghostbusters spread out as fast as they could, Roland busy dividing his time between opening up his proton gun to make some readjustments and trying not to trip running from the pumpkinheaded demon.
A few moments were all Roland needed to recalibrate some sloppy sabotaging. "I got it," he yelled as he turned and opened fire at Samhain. The proton stream hit Samhain dead center, keeping a thrashing and screaming Halloween god at bay. Kylie ran over to Egon to help him back up. "I don't think I can hold on to him for much-" Samhain hurled a melon-sized fireball towards Roland. Having no other choice, he stopped firing and jumped out of the way at the last minute.
Egon tried not to pay attention to the battle going on around him as he worked on repairing his and Kylie's proton packs. Kylie however could to nothing but watch as Samhain sprung into the air to avoid Roland's return fire. After a few such leaps he turned his head towards the field and smiled. Kylie followed his gaze and could make out the army of goblins heading towards them. As the night had been going on, the knot in Kylie's stomach had been getting tighter and tights; as she watched the massive amount of goblins coming their way, knowing that even if the packs are repaired they're still without a trap, the knot seemed about to snap in two. She wondered how so much could have gone wrong, first the trap gone missing, along with Slimer, then the proton packs not working. No one had even known where the equipment was buried, except for Lord Marland.
Kylie's frantic thoughts halted for a moment as she looked over at the grotesque statue that was Marland, remembered how he head stormed fearlessly up to the goblin generals and demanded his reward for carrying out a task. "Sath!" Kylie exclaimed, "Go back to Marland's castle. Tear apart his quarters looking for a gold, round disk. He must have taken the trap." Sath shouted her acknowledgement and ran for her horse. She took off at a full gallop as the sounds of the excited goblin army grew deafening.
Egon tossed Kylie her repaired ghostbusting gear as he strapped his own on his back. Roland had since fixed Eduardo's and Garrett's packs, and all five took aim for Samhain. Samhain leaped into the air to land in the middle of the goblin army. "Come to me, my little ones." Samhain called to the goblins in this deep raspy voice. The army fell silent as they all turned their attention to Samhain, their gazes wide and empty. "I am your new master now. Serve me." One by one to goblins around Samhain began to turn transparent, so much that eventually they were just a vapor swirling around their master eagerly. Samhain took one huge breath and inhaled the ectoplasmic vapor completely, absorbing their power.
"Well," Garrett said, "at least we don't have to worry about the goblin army. Hit 'em!" Five proton streams struck at Samhain, bouncing harmlessly off into the night sky.
"No," Eduardo said to Garrett, "now we just have to worry about one ghost who's stronger than the army combined!"
Secta and Lethwren ran up to Samhain, rage showing clearly on their glowing eyes. "You destroyed our army you fool." Secta started. "You are our minion and shall do as we command."
"NO!" Samhain's voice stopped both goblins, and for the first time a look of uneasiness played across their faces. "I am more powerful than they were, so they commanded me. You shall be my minions now." Lightning flowed from Samhain's eyes and fingertips to engulf the two goblins, generals of a now nonexistent army. In a few moments their eyes, once veiling twin minds of patience and scheming, grew wide and vacant. With expectant faces they stared up at their creation. "Samhain," Secta said, eager to serve. "Sam...hain," Lethwren repeated.
"Destroy them!" Samhain commanded them.
Secta and Lethwren turned their eager-to-please evil grins towards the team. The two goblins no longer had a fraction of the power they had wielded only minutes before, but neither did they still have the ability to realize it. They gathered their hands to their chests as two black orbs like the one that had struck Lord Marland began to form.
Garrett fired a proton stream and caught Secta, Eduardo followed his friend and snagged Lethwren. Both goblins continued their spells anyway, launching two black orbs towards their captors. Eduardo and Garrett dodged the projectiles, releasing their hold on their attackers as they did so. Egon and Roland took up the position of blasting the two spooks, but each goblin started another spell to conjure up more orbs.
After Egon and Roland jumped out of the way to avoid the spells fired at them, Garrett and Kylie stepped up to continue return blasts. "Why do I get the feeling this could go on for a while?" Garrett asked.
"It's not going to do us any good to hold them if they can just fire back at us," Kylie agreed. She looked over at the stone statue that was Lord Marland, then over to Samhain, a vicious smug grin on his face as he watched his two servants. Deep in thought, she almost didn't dodge the dark orb Lethwren sent her way. After a few moments, she called over the blaster fire, now coming from Egon and Eduardo's packs. "We might still have a chance of stopping them. We know these two are linked to Samhain. If we can find a way to contain him, it should get rid of those two."
"Sounds good, but our packs aren't working on him, he's too strong," Roland said. And even if it did, we don't have any traps."
"True, but I may be able to trap him by another means - magic. If our magic is what created him, then maybe our magic could be used against him."
"B-but can you do that kinda stuff alone?" Eduardo asked, keeping his eyes on the goblins partly because he was nervous about getting hit by a dark orb and winding up like Marland, and partly because he always got nervous when Kylie acted all witchy-like.
Kylie considered what Eduardo said. She wasn't sure if she *could* do something like that alone, but the coven had left, the High Priest was in pretty bad shape on the ground, and Sath was hopefully retrieving their lost ghost trap. So that leaves out help from people, Kylie thought, but what about help from another source? If she had a talisman or something magically charged, she might be able to cast it. She thought back to a couple years ago, when she had charged an item with all her amateur power, and all her hopeful love for someone she thought would be with her forever.
She ran over to Eduardo, who was waiting for his time to start blasting at the goblins again. Without wasting time for an explanation Kylie reached down Eduardo's shirt. A very stunned Eduardo yelled out, but as Kylie noticed, didn't struggle. "Ay! This isn't the best time for rekindling our-"
"Got it!" Kylie exclaimed, retrieving the talisman she had made for him long ago. "You guys keep me covered." Eduardo gave her a half smile and raised his eyebrows a bit. "You know what I meant," she answered in her flat voice.
Eduardo watched as she walked over to the stone statue, holding the talisman to her chest with both hands. He could see her mouth moving, but either she wasn't speaking loud of the proton blasts were drowning out her chant. His talisman began to give off a slight glow, looking like a second full moon held in her hands in the darkness of the night. The statue was giving off the same glow, reverberating in time with the talisman. Eduardo looked over to notice Samhain also taking notice of Kylie.
Samhain's evil grin turned to a snarl of rage as he began to move in towards Kylie. She needs more time! Eduardo panicked. He shot a few blasts at Samhain, which he easily turned away, hardly slowing him down. Eduardo ran around the Halloween deity hoping to surprise him from behind. Samhain simply turned around and swatted the beams away, stopping him momentarily but not long enough. Eduardo looked over at Kylie, watched her perfectly calm actions in the midst of near certain death, her small mouth moving to a chant he couldn't hear, and couldn't help but thing to himself once again how stunningly beautiful she was.
He threw his proton pack down and with renewed determination prepared for what he assumed would be his final act of stupidity. As the took off sprinting like a track star he hardly heard Garrett's alarmed shouting directed at him. Closing in in just a few seconds Eduardo put all the power he could into his shoulder as it struck Samhain in the side. The both fell to the ground for what Eduardo thought for sure would be a short struggle, but hopefully would buy Kylie enough extra time.
Samhain didn't disapoint Eduardo's expectations, as in what he was sure was only seconds the pumpkinheaded god had easily overpowered him. Shaking with anger as he picked himself and Eduardo up, he could only get out "You dare..." before deciding that words were wasted in this situation. Samhain lifted Eduardo into the air with a grotesque hand wrapped around the Ghostbuster's neck, and in one smooth motion arced him up over his pumpkinhead and back around to land headfirst on the ground. To Eduardo, the entire trip was a blur, except for the one glance over to see Kylie raise the talisman above her head as the statue radiated blindingly, reaching out with bright tendrils of light, before he could hear his own head smack into the earth with a loud cracking sound. He was plunged into darkness with a smile on his face, knowing it was worth the sacrifice.
Samhain raised his hands in the air, orangish lightning crackling from one hand to the other as he prepared to send a stream of energy towards the fallen human that would leave the survivors of this battle, if any, only ashes to mourn over. As he leaned forward to let the energy loose, however, his arms wouldn't follow. He looked up to find his arms and hands caught up in tendrils of white smoke.
"What? No!" Samhain thrashed about trying to free himself, but the more he struggled the more the tendrils wrapped around him. His eyes turned to narrow slits as the stopped his struggling and focused on his two goblin generals. They were contained in a proton stream, once again preparing to throw a pair of black orbs at their attackers to keep them busy. The humans, although, taking turns at returning fire, were beginning to wear down from constantly dodging. Samhain's eyes glowed radiantly with a powerful darkness, the tendrils of magic receding a little from the power coming from the enraged spirit. Black lightning struck out of Samhain's eye sockets, hitting Secta and Lethwren. Black wisps of smoke mixed with the proton streams surrounded them. The two goblins seemed alarmed at first, but then suddenly comforted. Alarmed at the fact that they could hear Samhain's booming voice inside their heads, then comforted as they were given instructions, a new purpose and a new way to serve their lord; every Halloween, when the moon was full, they would appear and be given one night to free Samhain, who would expel some of his power each time to renew their strength and magic.
Samhain, his energy now sapped, gave in to the tendrils wrapping around him. As he felt himself get pulled into the statue that would be his prison, he couldn't help grinning at the small victory these humans had won and how significant they felt it was. He simply needed to be patient and wait for the day his two drones would free him.
Secta and Lethwren watched as their master disappeared inside the statue, then tossed the black orbs in their hands. As usual, the two humans jumped out of the way. The return fire didn't come, however, as the rest of the team was staring in disbelief as Kylie trapped one of the most fearsome ghosts either team of Ghostbusters would ever face, without the help of a trap! Kylie turned, a weary smile on her lips and Eduardo's talisman clutched weakly in her hand. One look at her once true love and she lost what little energy she had left as she ran to him and dropped to her knees to examine him. She turned around to the rest of the team who was watching her. "He..he's alive.." she spoke in a weary voice, too choked with oncoming tears.
The sound of two pairs of feet scurrying about caused the team of Ghostbusters, now crowding around Eduardo, to turn towards Secta and Lethwren. "You," the small greenish one spoke, though he found it much more difficult to speak as he continued, the desire to free Samhain drowning out all other thoughts. "You do not belong here. You will interfere with us if you stay. We must free Samhain."
A cloud of purple mist began swirling around the two goblins. They could feel that they would be taken away soon, until the next full moon Halloween. Quickly the pair began chanting, quietly at first, then louder while tracing a sideways figur-eight in the air. The Ghostbusters dropped to their knees, feeling as if each had received a blow to the stomach. Kylie's ears were ringing so loud she almost didn't hear Sath call her name in panic. She looked up to see Sath, who was torn between wanting to run to Kylie's aid and fear that the spell they were under would get her too. "Kylie!" she called again.
Kylie took in as much air as she could manage, feeling as if the pressure would crush her. "Sath! Warn the coven, every Halloween with a full moon they'll come back to free Samhain! Don't let them succeed! Good luck, Sath!"
A bright light engulfed the Ghostbusters, and Sath could see the team was fading away inside of it. Quickly, she threw the ghost trap towards Kylie, hoping it would reach them in time. "Kylie, I-"
The brightness faded, and with it so did her friends. She looked over to where the two goblins were standing. The green and yellow pair were engulfed in the purple mist, electricity streaming around them. They didn't seem to notice though, for they both continued to stare at Samhain's prison. "Samhain," the taller yellow one said. The two of them disappeared into the purple mist, glad that whenever they next reappeared, the annoying group of humans would never give them trouble again.
The mist faded into the night sky, leaving Sath along in the middle of a field, a strange stone statue her only company.
