Legend of The Maze Part III: The Curse On All Hallow's Eve

PART THREE: THE CURSE ON ALL HALLOW'S EVE

 

Jessica rose early that day,

Wearing her favorite dancing dress

and a sprig of goldenrod in her hair.

She traipsed about the town,

smiling and humming softly to herself.

Around noon, she stopped by Paul St. John's shoppe

and bought a candied apple

then walked to one of the outer pastures to enjoy it.

She leaned against the fence there

and watched several clouds

as they made their languid paths across the sky.

She finished half the apple and fed the rest to a horse that had joined her.

He chewed happily until the entire fruit was gone,

And then proceeded to eat the stick.

She laughed, but kept her eyes on the road leading from town.

The day was half over and she had not seen any sign of Jack.

She sat down in the wheat grass beside the fence

letting her worrisome thoughts evaporate into the clouds.

She traced the edge of the valley with her gaze,

following it to the river at the edge of the fields.

A soft breeze began blowing as she returned to stare at the road.

Soon her heavy lids began to dance and flutter,

and as the sun passed its zenith,

Jessica fell into slumber.

 

She awoke with a start.

The light was far dimmer than midday,

and the breeze had turned cold and unfriendly.

The sun had moved to the valley's edge,

casting long finger like shadows across the town.

The horse that had guarded her sleep was gone,

And in the distance the bonfire was already burning.

 

Jessica gasped and leapt to her feet,

breaking immediately into a run.

She arrived at the bonfire breathless and anxious,

 just as the first dance was about to begin.

As the fiddler uttered the first wheedle of a song,

she eyed the crowd for Jack.

Not finding him, she looked instead for her father,

whom she found carousing with several of the other town elders,

but no sign of Jack.

Between her run to the revelry and the heat of the bonfire,

Her throat had become quite parched.

She moved to get a cider,

hoping to find Jack near the edibles.

Just then Thom appeared by her side.

He approached meekly and smiled softly at her.

Quite a change from the raging animal she had seen just yesterday.

"Hello Thom." she said coldly.

"Hello Jess.  Mayhap I can ask the next dance of ye?" he grinned dumbly.

"Perhaps..." she said, turning to grab a cider.

Still smiling, Thom leaned in towards her.

Jessica stared at him as if were about to bite her.

"PERHAPS...you should try to treat the man

whose bed ye are to share a bit more kindly,  missy."

She pushed him away and, grabbing a cider,

Rushed away from the bonfire.

Thom scowled as he watched her walk away.

The bonfire was indeed hot this evening,

And he was roasting beneath his dress clothes.

He turned to follow Jessica,

but just then there was a commotion near the bonfire.

 

Black feathers of smoke were pouring out of the bottom of the blaze

and the flames had turned a deep violet.

A column of flame shot up from the fire

And there was a cold rush of air

as the entire blaze turned to smoke.

Thom began backing away from the bonfire.

The smoke became a black smudge

against the dim remains of sunset.

The cloud swirled and twisted.

As the crowd watched, it burst into hundreds of bats.

The revelers began screaming as the tiny creatures swooped down,

their leathery wings swatting and smacking at everyone's heads.

Thom turned and ran, disappearing in the chaos.

 

Just then the bonfire exploded in a burst of sparks and embers.

As the smoke cleared, the bats moved away.

Where the bonfire had been, now stood a tall dark figure.

He wore a tattered black cloak,

and wielded a thick menacing scythe.

He was surrounded by a strange green glow,

and his head was adorned with a large jack-o-lantern,

carved in a horrible skull like visage.

He surveyed the fearful townsfolk with his glowing stare

as he stepped from the embers and into the crowd.

 

"BEHOLD!!!" He roared,

raising his skeleton arms to the sky.

As the townsfolk watched in horror,

the long shadows of sunset  stood up from the ground,

reaching upward with black tendril fingers.

There was a rustling of  Autumn leaves,

As the shadows became solid leathery walls

surrounding them and the entire town.

Contained in that space,

they had naught to look to but their captor.

He turned, fixing them with his hellish gaze.

"BEHOLD!" He roared again,

"BEHOLD-GOOD PEOPLE OF VALLEYDOWN!

BEHOLD-MURDER AND DARKNESS IN YOUR QUIET TOWN!
SIX QUICK HANDS DID HOLD ME DOWN!
ONE SHARP BLADE TO PIERCE, THEN KILL, THEN DROWN!
'TWAS WHAT CAME AFTER, THOUGH, THAT SET THE STONE
TO BRING YOU THUS MY MENACING TONE!
A REAPER'S STAFF AND A BODY LAY
AMIDST THESE FLAMES, BUT BURNED AWAY!
AND NOW WE ALL ARE TRAPPED WITHIN
DOOMED TO HELL BY HIDDEN SIN."

 

He arced the scythe over his neck

and slammed its hilt against the ground.

"I TELL YOU THIS AND SAY NO MORE,

BUT OFFER THUS INSTEAD...A DOOR.

 

BRING TO ME THESE KILLERS THREE,

BEFORE THE CROW OF COCK AND DAWN.

LEST THIS OFFERED DOOR SHOULD LOCK,

AND THE MAW OF HELL BEGIN TO YAWN.

THIS LABYRINTH BECOME THEN

YOUR ETERNAL DWELLING

WITH NO REGARD TO SOBBING,

SCREAMS, OR YELLING.

NO BARGAIN HERE OR PLEA WILL IMPLORE,

JUST ONE KEY AND NOTHING MORE.

 

WHO THE KILLER?

WHERE THE MURDER?

ONLY THIS AND NOTHING MORE."

 

And with that,

The glow inside his head turned to violent orange flame,

Exploding his pumpkin head outward
and catching his robes alight.

His headless body danced about,

waving the deadly scythe to and fro

and dropping bits of its burning robes as it twirled.

It  leapt back into the remains of the bonfire,

and kicking up smoke and ash,

clawed its way back underneath.

 

The townsfolk stared in disbelief,

his last words echoing through the thick night air.

The sun slipped just beyond the horizon then,

and Valleydown was swallowed by the night.

To Be Continued...

The first image here is an early rendition of Jack.  Much more Scarecrow than daemonic revenant in this version.  althought he is scary, there is a playful element.  In the second piece he is much more malicious.  I believe this piece was actually done before we began throwing the maze parties.  Sadly in my slackness, I did not write the date on the back so I have no idea what year I created it, but I do know it was around that same time period.  Jack later traded in his pitchfork for the scythe we see him with in the other pieces.  Much more dramatic...and daemonic spirits do love their drama!

{Pen & Ink}

The second image of Jack used here is from a previous post, but I could not resist using it again here for effect.  :-)  I wanted his cloak to be somewhere between bat wings and giant leaves, as if he were a dark green man / scarecrow / reaper combination.  More on the evolution of Jack...next week.  :-)

{Pen and Ink, Prismacolor, manipulated in Photoshop}

The Scythe study was done because I realized after my first drawing of Jack, that I knew ZIP about Scythes.  So in an attempt to make up for that initial drawing of a curved blade on a stick, I did some research and did the study you see here.  I just had a very frustrating fearful moment where I thought I had posted this already...I just did a quick scan and couldn't find it anywhere.  If it is somewhere in all this I apologize for the repeat.

{Pen & Ink}

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