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All Hallows Haunt and All Must Have Fun

The fog had begun near the dusk hours, coating all the plants and flowers in the garden. It settled, heavy, and blanketed everything with a new cover that was only matched in mood by the graveyard that had unearthed itself from the grass and the moss. Names were etched on each gravestone, but the most unnerving part was that every few steps, if you stopped and listened very, very carefully, you might hear a knock of a human hand against hard wood. It was almost as if the dead were being called upwards.

The maze stood normal, but inside around the corners, there were things lurking and waiting.

Outside might have become frightening and gloomy, but the contrast to indoors was stark. Inside, carved pumpkins lit with candles turned the ballroom and restaurants into amber-lit abodes, costumed partygoers twirled to the music played by the band in the lobby (while the DJ had set up in the conservatory). Candy and small hors d'oeuvres circulated on the trays of immaculately clad waiters and though outside it was stormy, foggy, and spooky, inside was a delight of themed drinks, delicious food, and the manic and half-crazed mood of people in the midst of their fun.

The party for Halloween had begun.

And there was no telling when it might ever end.

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"Better you than me, mate." James had seen his fair share of wizards overwhelmed and torn apart by Inferi and he did not want to become one of their number.

"I'll back you up if you want to give it a try."

Kieren snorts, glancing over his shoulder as he takes another booted step towards the grave. "This is rich," he says, half to himself. "No one's going to believe me if I say I've been off fighting PDS sufferers while someone waves about a wand behind me." He still thinks he'll be happy to tell a story, because it means he'll be alive. With a sigh, Kieren nods. "Come on, then," he says. "If they're breaking through the dirt, they're going to be hungry. We'll need to try and reason with them. Or...something."

"Hungry. What exactly do they eat?"

James had a sneaking suspicion that alive-and-well wizard was on the menu and he didn't think that the risen dead necessarily cared if he was roasted or not before that happened. Not the way he wanted to meet his bitter end, not by far.

Kieren shoots a look over his shoulder that says he really doesn't want to know. "Brains, mostly. Organs," he says, stomach turning over to recall that he'd wanted those things and had done his absolute best to get them when he was still hunting with Amy at his side. "It's...not pretty."

James wondered if it would be cowardly of him to just let the guy deal with it on his own. After all, he seemed to want to help the blighters instead of saving his own skin and James, while he could understand trying to save someone from even the brink of death, liked to think about keeping himself and others safe. Sometimes sacrifices had to be made. Still, he was a Gryffindor, so he swallowed thickly and nodded.

"Well, I've got your back. Go...try something."

Kieren turns and faces the graves with a fraught look on his face, not entirely sure he wants to keep going with this, but he's sort of come this way already. Might as well go for broke, right? Clearing his throat, Kieren wanders into the middle of things. "Uh, hello? If anyone's down there," he begins warily, "we're not here to hurt you. We just want to talk or..." He draws out the 'or' while he tries to think of something. "Look, I'm like you. And you might think you want to come up here, but it's not what you expect. It's hungry and cold and terrifying and lonely," he gets out.

"And you'll be different, which isn't bad, but it's hard."

He listens and the knocking is diminishing slightly. Kieren wishes that he didn't wish that Amy had done this, had knocked from the coffin to let them know she'd only been playing. His face falling, he sinks into a perch on one of the stones. "I'm not a messiah or a saviour or anything, I'm just...like you, is all."

James lowered his wand slightly and just listened. While he had been prepared to take on a mindless horde all on his own, this was a little sad and a little too real for his comfort.

"You all right over there?"

Kieren is struggling to listen, but the sound's stopped so either they've all decided to listen to him or they've gone back to sleep. He's not sure which of the two he prefers, but both ways means he gets to survive, so he'll take it as a win. "I think so?" he manages, staring at the area around them. "I don't hear it anymore, the knocking."

"They're not ready to come out and join the party, I guess?"

James still did not want to let down his guard but he did loosen his vice grip on his wand. "That's too bad, really. They've got some decent food up there."

Kieren's gaze wanders up to James' head, right to the tip, and he gives him a frantically disbelieving look, as if he can't honestly trust what he's saying right now. "Right," he notes, dripping with wariness and sarcasm, "well, if you want them to feast on your brains and talk about how good they taste, I can stomp a bit?"

"Er, no, that's okay. So do you...what do you eat, exactly? Nothing?" If he wasn't like one of the bodies buried in the coffins and he wasn't entirely human, what was he? James was not entirely sure he wanted to know the extent of it.

"Because I could get you something, so long as it isn't my brain."

"Brains?" Kieren manages, but he's wincing and even paler than usual. "Nothing, really. Food or drink makes me sick. I can have it, but the aftermath is nasty," he confesses, shrugging his shoulders. "I've sort of gotten used to it. Haven't really eaten anything in years, now. When you're dead, no digestive system. Right?"

"Can you drink? Because a life without alcohol isn't worth living." James wanted a nice splash of firewhiskey after almost getting eaten and it would be nice to share a toast with the bloke who helped him out of a tight spot. It would be the least he could do to pay it back.

"No alcohol, either," he says, shaking his head. It makes him think of Rick, who'd been too stubborn to accept what he was, who'd drank like a fish and out it came in black bile. He shakes that loose, not liking to think about Rick or Bill Macy. Instead, he puts his thoughts on good things, like his family, like Simon, like being in control of his PDS. "I don't mind heading inside." He doesn't feel the cold, but he doesn't exactly love the ambience of the graveyard.

"I guess you can stand in my general vicinity while I drink," James said, tucking his wand back into the back pocket of his jeans before nodding back toward the hotel.

"Time for the long slog back, eh?"

"Yeah," Kieren agrees, thinking that watching other people drink is the sort of thing that he just has to get used to, seeing as it's basically what he does now -- pretend. He nods his head towards the light and warmth in the distance. "Might as well head off. Thanks," he adds, a bit off-handedly. "For, you know, sticking it out with me."

"It's what I do," James said, grinning at him. "Besides, never had my head looked at as an appetizer before. It's something to tell Evans the next time she wants to say I don't have any brains at all."

"Who's Evans?" Kieren asks, even though he's already two steps away. His curiosity has got the better of him, though, and he lingers, just a bit. Maybe it's just because he's not sure how long it will take him to get home and he's still tense from earlier. He could use a bit of mindless conversation, admittedly.

"My girlfriend," James explained. Calling her Evans was a long-held habit and he guessed he should probably start referring to her by her name when talking about her to third parties. Oh well, too late now.

"Lily Evans, but Evans is the preferred term of endearment."

Right. He'd forgotten that. Then again, he'd sort of been dead for a good bit of a year when the books were being finished off, so he thinks that's a pretty good excuse for missing out on the minutia. "Is she here, then?" he asks.

James shook his head. "Nah, mate. She's never come through here with me. It's like this place exists and...not everyone from my world can get through to it. I guess that's good, considering what's around in my world that I don't want following me through."

"Doesn't anyone find that a bit weird?" Kieren wonders, the look on his face saying that he definitely does. It's not that he wants to bring Simon here or anything, definitely not his parents, but not even having the option is strange. "Why are we the chosen ones? What's so special about us?"

"I always thought it was because there was something I needed to do here," James admitted. "I've always thought it was because she didn't need to come through and that I had it handled here. In hindsight, it's a little slow of me to think that. Why am I special? No idea."

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All Hallows Haunt and All Must Have Fun

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