Mystery Halloween in Hope Island by Céline and Carine
Category :
Challenge – The Halloween Challenge; Crossover - Hope Island

Status: In Progress 12/22/2004 - Chapter 2

Ratings: R

Links : (please, send your messages to the two addresses ;) We’re a team ;) ) : celineoustitch@yahoo.fr - carinesabard@yahoo.fr

 

Chapter 2 :

 

The night had just fallen on the small island of Hope Island. Having his guitar on the floor next to him, the Reverend Cooper poked the camp fire where lot of children of the island were gathered around. The children were getting fun with telling each other stories about ghosts and haunted houses in order to get ready for the Halloween’s atmosphere which was getting closer quickly.

 

-          So, Reverend... Do you also have an Halloween story ?

Daniel Cooper, with a mischievous smile on his face, laughed :

-          are you sure you want to listen to my story ?.... It is founded on real events... and you know me well now... I’m not the kind of people who tell lies...

A silence established in the group of young children which were around the camp fire. Dylan began laughing :

-          I don’t believe to ghosts stories anyway !! You can tell whatever you want, but I know that it is not true !!!!

The Reverend Cooper met the kid’s gaze... The latter quivered, as the gaze was so penetrating that the young boy could not repress a shudder

 

-          It is not a ghost story that I’m going to narrate to you... It’s a true story and which.... , he paused to take his breath again, .... only takes place on Halloween’s day if it’s full Moon...

A braided red-haired little girl quivered :

-          But, next Halloween is in one week, and it will be a full-mooned light !!!!!

The reverend looked at her in a mysterious way :

-          ‘It is right.....’ He paused. ‘It might be why I shouldn’t narrate it to you this year.

He took the water carafe, standing at his feet and made as if to use it to put the fire out... That’s when all the children in unison exclamed :

-          Yes, do, do, tell us !!! Tell us !!! Please, Reverend !!!!

Daniel then took all his time to sit down again.

-          Are you really sure you want to hear this story ?

The children excitedly nodded assent.

Daniel looked up then towards the sky and rose his gaze towards the moon, almost round and shining white and of beauty in that starry and cold sky of the ending fall. He turned his jacket’s collar up :

-          I guess you all know what is said about the full moon ?.....

-          It is said that there are more babies !!!! said the little red-haired girl blushing...

The reverend silently nodded.

-          and ?

-          My grand-father says we should cut our hair on full moon’s evenings so they can grow again faster... But I’m sure it’s all baloney !... He’s almost bald!!! Exclamed a grinning blond little boy, nudging Dylan.

The reverend burst into laugh...

-          Anything alse ?

-          ‘My older brother...’ began shyly the long-braided brown-haired little girl sitting next to the reverend, ‘ told me one day that,on the days of Full moon, some people change  She looked down. ‘You’re going to make fun of me...’

Daniel took her gently by the shoulders and leant towards her :

-          What did Peter tell you ? ... Into what would people change on full moon nights ??

-          ‘....Into werewolves...’ she whispered, looking down as ashamed...

-          It’s all lies !!! exclaimed Dylan laughing with his blond friend, Hank.

Daniel tightened the flushing little girl in his arms...

-          I think I might have some things to say to your brother Peter... Don’t you think you should go back home.... You’re only 9 years old, I wouldn’t want to scare you with my story...

The young Amy shook her head with force:

-          Nope, Reverend !!! i’m a big girl !! I have enough of being treated like a baby !!

Tears began to sparkle in her big green eyes.. Daniel, touched, took her on his lap :

-          ‘All right, my big girl, but you have to tell yourself that all I’m going to tell you tonight only occurs when Halloween falls on a full-mooned night... Okay ?....’ Amy nodded silently and snuggled up in Daniel’s arms.... ‘Moreover, you must all keep in mind a very important sentence, especially after I have told you my whole story...

The kids, mute, nodded.

-          That sentence is “There’s always a way”....

Silently, each of the children repeated the sentence... Daniel waited then for all the gazes back at him and with all the deserved attention for what he was about to reveal to them ....

-          What I’m about to tell you is an old legend spreading by word of mouth. You’re gonna tell me that a legend is not s story, but if I ask you, how can a legend have crossed years, even centuries, to end up here, what are you going to answer ?

The bewildered children were observing Daniel, who went on :

-          If a legend exists, it means that someone lived it to see what happened. Therefore, if someone has lived what happened, and told it to his children who then told their children and on... It means that this legend is not only a story.

Daniel looked at each kid surrounding him, slowly. He added :

-          It means that what I’m about to tell you is much more than a legend, it’s what really happened on each full-mooned Halloween.....

Daniel fell silent a moment.... It had succeeded in gaining all the attention of his small entourage.

-          The first time I heard about this legend, it was when it occurred and put in agitation a small city in the Oklahoma State... The city’s name was, and still is,in spite of the events that happened there, Healdton... We were then, one week before Halloween and everyone knew that the Moon would be full on the 31st evening... But no one seemed to worry much about it and everyone was getting prepared to that party with laughs and happiness... In this town, was living a priest.. You know, like Father Mac, and he was the only one to preach in this good town of Healdton.. Everyone loved him and knew him well : he had married, christened, celebrated the Communion of many inhabitants of the town. In short, he even sometimes buried people he once christened or married... Everyone loved him. There was hardly a Sunday when he wasn’t invited to share the Sunday lunch with one of the families of his parish...

The children hang upon his every word. This latter glanced sadly at the Moon.

-          This full Moon... Everyone in Healdton still remembers it...

He looked down and swept a hair lock away from the face of the little girl sitting on his lap.

-          Everyone agrees to say that it was on the 7th day before Halloween that all began..

Daniel shook his head, and once again, looked up towards the radiant Moon...

-          According to this story, which resumes the events only from 7 days before Halloween, the priest started to act unusually. A witness said having seen the man enter in his fishing store asking him a hook.. and when the witness came back from his back shop with the requested hook, he was scolded by the priest who swore he had never asked him a hook but some fishing line... Outright, the witness in question said nothing... He thought he had misunderstood the man... But when he came back with the line, he was once again scolded, for the priest affirmed to him to have asked for a hook and not a fishing line....

-          But if he was as old as Father Mac... may be he had gone off his head, like my grand-father.... bragged Hank.

Daniel plunged his eyes into those of the kid.  The latter immediately lost his desire to laugh.

-          This priest was not mad... And... still is not !...

Daniel observed in turn the little heads surrounding him... all mute and already stuck to his story.

-          The inhabitants of this town really began to get scared that day when....   Daniel hold his breath. When he was seen in 2 places in the same time...

-          It’s not possible !!! You are making fun of us !!  said Dylan, a bit worried.

Daniel bit his lip in order to avoid any smile of satisfaction, and went on, pretending he had not heard the boy’s intervention.

-          It was on the 6th day before Halloween... The priest had organized a game of French soccer behind the Church, and had invited all the children who desired to come... The afternoon went on quickly : the children and the parents who had come to encourage them, had not seen the time go by but...on the next morning.... At the local drugstore, a Mrs Jones, who had attended the soccer game, was talking about it with the owner, Mrs Lloyd... That’s when Mrs White, the owner of the Irish pub “The White Swan”, who happened to be there, joined the conversation. The latter asserted that the priest had spent his whole afternoon drinking beer after beer at the counter and chatting with the town’s mayor. Mrs Jones and Mrs White then started an altercation, which Mrs Lloyd had difficulties to make it stop. Each of the 2 women insisted on saying that they had both seen the priest in a different place at the same time. That’s then that Mrs White left the store slamming the door and came back some minutes later with the first one of her regular customers which she had met in the street and who had been in her pub the day before...The latter could only confirm the pub’s owner’s version. Then, Mrs Jones left the drugstore running to catch a young boy who had participated to that soccer game... And the latter, facing Mrs White, could only confirm the version of Mrs Jones...

-          But wait a minute ! This thing is not possible !! He could not be in two different places in the same time and doing two different things !!!! And, I hardly believe that a priest like Father Mac can spend his afternoon to the pub drinking beer !!

Hank shook his head, disconcerted.

-          And how ! that’s from there that the rumor began to spread. Everyone was observing the priest...   concluded Daniel, with a serious air.  But the worst.... is what happened 5 days before that famous night of Halloween… All the children were gaping and tuned to Daniel, who went on …  Whereas the moon wasn’t full yet, an image appeared in its circle.... That image was... the devil’s face...

A shudder ran through the audience, and Daniel burst into laugh.

-          I think that’s enough for tonight, go back home...

Whereas the protestations started to be heard, he stood up :

-          Do not worry, I will tell you the rest tomorrow..unless you will tell me the rest.

He ended his sentence in a low voice and a wink.

-          Reverend ?

Daniel felt a small hand pull his jacket :

-          What’s up, young lady ?

-          Could you take me back home ?....   Amy began blushing. She was rather ill at ease after the story she had just heard.

With a grin, he lifted her up and took her in his arms :

-          Nothing else could delight me more, Mademoiselle.