The Samhain Chronicles

A shrill, chirping noise finally roused Danny from his deep sleep, and he sat up with a groggy groan. He squinted at the morning sun shining in his eyes, wincing at the impressions his glasses had made in his face, "Och... wh-what time is...?" He gasped at the time on the digital display of his alarm clock after he silenced it, "Mercy me, it's nearly half-eight!! I slept in!" He sped through the fastest shower of his life and an equally brisk shave (nicking himself twice in his haste) before throwing on a set of clothes that were wrinkled but reasonably clean. He brushed his teeth and tied his shoes simultaneously, leaving his toothbrush by the kitchen sink as he hurried out with his briefcase in hand. Miracle of miracles, he managed to unlock his classroom and plop down at his desk mere seconds before the first bell rang.

Danny sat at his desk with a hand on his sternum, puffing and panting for air, then began rummaging in his briefcase for his pills, "M-Made it...just in the nick of time... And they say miracles never happen!" He went ahead and doubled his usual dosage, remembering what had happened the morning before, then chased them with a bottle of water from his desk. Hunger gnawed at his stomach as the capsules and cool water hit the bottom of it. "Oh drat," he moaned, "I forgot to eat my supper... and Penelope was so kind to share with me as well." He reasoned that the spaghetti she brought was probably still viable and made a note to eat some for his lunch later that day, then began rummaging his desk drawers and briefcase for some kind of snack. The pills and water churning in his otherwise empty stomach were beginning to make him nauseous, so he figured eating a little something couldn't hurt. He had no luck with his desk drawers, however he did manage to find a badly mangled but still entirely edible protein bar at the bottom of his briefcase.

He scarfed the protien bar down in two bites without a second thought, although his nausea was not abated. Quite contrarily, the chalky, crumbly bar began fighting for supremacy against the cocktail of water and medication already in his stomach, making him feel that much queasier. He powered through it all the same, pasting on a smile as the first of his students began shuffling through the door. "Good morning," he greeted cheerily, clearing a space on his desk for a square metal basket, "I trust ye're ready to start the day, Students! Once ye've settled in, ye may leave your homework here." One by one his pupils formed a queue in front of his desk, and he smiled and nodded approvingly as a good portion of them dropped their assignments into the basket he'd indicated.

As the slow, shuffling procession continued, Penelope poked her head into the room and knocked meekly on the doorjamb with a smile. Once she had his attention, she beckoned Danny over to her quietly. Danny swallowed hard and straightened his bowtie, casually making his way to her side, "Erm... good morning, Miss Penelope. How may I be of service?"

Penelope smiled amiably but there was a hint of worry in her voice and lurking behind her eyes, "Good morning, Daniel. I missed you at our usual morning chat. How was your supper?"

Danny nonchalantly held his stomach with one arm, hoping to muffle another deep gurgle, and leaned on the doorframe with the other rakishly, "Oh, it was delicious, thank ye. I...wasn't able to finish it all, so it might be another day or two before I can return your cookery."

"I told you not to worry about it," Penelope chided with a proud little grin, "and I meant it. We both know you're quite trustworthy, and I won't miss it for a few days yet." Penelope then noticed Danny was still a bit winded and sweating a little from his mad sprint to his classroom, and her smile faltered as she laid a gentle hand on his arm, "Are you well, Daniel? You look... well, frankly you look exhausted. Did you get enough sleep last night?"

Danny scratched a sudden and persistent itch between his shoulderblades nervously, "Yes, I did, thank ye. In fact, I had a bit too much. Sleep, I mean. I very nearly didn't make it here on time for the bell."

Penelope let out a soft giggle and leaned in a bit closer, "I see. That explains then why you're wearing your jacket inside out."

Danny looked down with a deep blush to see his jacket was, indeed, inside out, and hurried to fix it, "It is? Oh, dear, how foolish of me! Thank ye very much for pointing that out. How I dinnae notice until now is beyond me!"

The second bell rang loud and shrill, indicating it was time for first period to start, and Penelope began walking away with a little wave, "Think nothing of it. Well, I just wanted to check up on you, but I'd better be going now." She took a few steps down the hall toward her classroom, then doubled back with a gasp, "Oh, wait a moment! I can't believe I nearly forgot!" Danny watched curiously as Penelope produced a plain white envelope out of her skirt pocket and handed it over to him. "I found this under my door this morning," she explained, "but it's got your name on it. I suspect whomever left it last night may have mixed up our apartment numbers. I'll see you at lunch, shall I?"

Danny took the envelope in surprise and tucked it into his inner jacket pocket, nodding a wooden, affirmative response, "Lunch? Oh... y-yes, I'd be delighted! Thank ye, Miss Penelope."

He floated on air back to his desk, feeling light as a breeze (or, perhaps, simply light-headed from skipping meals) and sat down with a dreamy sigh. Penelope wanted to have lunch with him; he could scarcely believe his luck! A twinge of anxiety then put a small kink in his stomach as the realization settled in: Penelope wanted to have lunch with him. Was this a meal shared between two colleagues or did she intend for it to mean something more? "It's surely business only," Danny told himself. Honestly, there could be no other explanation for it. Why else would she want to spend time with him? He reasoned that there must be something she wanted to discuss with him, perhaps the upcoming Autumn Ball as she was spearheading the planning committee for it single-handedly. He sighed glumly then, and his thoughts drifted to the envelope she'd given him.

The envelope both confused and intrigued him, as did the manner of its delivery. He never got any mail except the occasional bills, and certainly never had any slipped under his door in the dead of night before. It raised so many questions, and he couldn't help but think about the postcard he'd found in his briefcase the morning before. A part of him wondered if they could be connected, but he banished the thought for the sake of his own sanity. As badly as he wished to open the letter right away, he thought it best to wait. After all, he was behind on starting class as it was, and his students all were watching him and waiting expectantly for him to launch into his lecture. Danny stood with a sigh and gave his best attempt at a smile, ignoring a tiny wave of nausea as he picked up his roll sheet, "My apologies for the delay. Now, let's begin."

First period went by smoothly, but things took a turn in many ways after second period began. The closer it got to lunchtime, the more anxiety Danny felt. What would he say to Penelope? Should he even bother to make conversation at all? He didn't wish to seem stand-offish, but he didn't wish to look like an idiot in front of her either. What about his clothes? Did he have time to change before meeting her? Should he even bother to, or was he simply being stupid by overthinking the whole thing? The more he thought about it, the more ill he began to feel. These thoughts racing around in his head made it difficult to focus on his lectures, which he conducted indoors today, along with his still growling stomach. Toward the end of second period, his slight nausea from earlier had been completely replaced with an acute sense of dizziness. Feeling quite sick and wholly unable to focus anymore, he dismissed his second period class a full fifteen minutes before the lunch bell.

Once he was alone in the room, he folded his arms on his desk and rested his head on them with a groan in a vain effort to stop the room from spinning like a carousel. When he could sit up again, he started patting his pockets dazedly, "Can't let...Penelope see me like this... I'd better get something from the vending machine in the Lounge. Surely I've got...a-a few quid on me somewhere...?" His fingers brushed the smooth, heavy paper of the envelope in his pocket that Penelope had given him, which had momentarily slipped his mind, and he pulled it out to have another look at it. The front was completely blank except for his name, written in red ink in a delicate, swooping cursive that appeared feminine. "Suppose it wouldn't hurt to open ye now," he murmured, turning the envelope over in his hand to break the seal.

When he saw the back of the envelope, his heart skipped a beat and he forgot how to breathe momentarily. The flap of the envelope was secured in place by an old fashioned red wax seal, bearing the impression of a Triquetra. He flipped it back over hurriedly, looking for a return address that he was well aware wasn't there. His hands shook as he turned the envelope over once more, working his fingers deftly under the seal to break it. Inside the envelope was a single piece of card, a little smaller than an index card. The same Triquetra was watermarked in the upper left hand corner, with a boar's head stamped in black ink at the center bottom. The card had been embossed with an irridescent ink that seemed to shift from red to black in the light, and contained a single line of text:

"October 31st, Glenmore National Park; Midnight. The Iron Boar eagerly awaits your return."

Danny sat petrified with fear. He began to quake and couldn't seem to remember how to breathe properly. The painful flashes appeared in his mind's eye again, each image like a knife stabbing through his skull. The brand between his shoulder blades started to itch and even burn, growing hotter by the minute as if it had been freshly imprinted into his skin, and a deep, harsh laugh began echoing all around him from the ether.

The Clan has found ye at last, Danny Boy. Your days are numbered. Soon, this pathetic body shall be mine and mine alone, as it was always intended to be!!

Danny pressed the heels of his hands against his temples as his head pounded, then covered his ears to try and block out the shrieking, directionless laugh, "No... No, y-ye're not real... I'm in control here, because ye don't really exist! I have to call Dr. Horace, right now!" Danny leapt from his chair and hurried toward the door, planning to make a beeline to the safety of his apartment to call his trusted friend and therapist. Before he could leave however, one of the desks in the back of the room suddenly lifted off the floor and hurtled across the room at him. He uttered a shout of fear and alarm, flattening himself against the blackboard to dive out of its path, then flinched as the desk slammed down onto the floor again right in front of the door.

I am quite real, Danny Boy... more real than ye could ever imagine. Why don't I show ye just how real I am?!

Every piece of furniture in the room began to rattle violently, as if the very atmosphere itself was trying to shake loose all the bolts and screws in them from their pilot holes. The windows shook and slammed open and closed repeatedly, while books flew from the shelves and zoomed about the room. Danny's eyes grew wide with fear, confusion and disbelief at the sight as he ducked and dodged the flying books and furniture, which all seemed to be aimed directly at his head, "Wh-What's going on?! Who...?! What are you?!?" The menacing laugh reached a fever pitch, growing increasingly and deafeningly loud.

The countdown to Samhain has begun!! Kneel before my awesome power, Mortal!!

Danny covered his ears again and raced for the door, trying to get away, but didn't make it far before something hard and heavy smacked him in the back of the head soundly. He hit the floor like a sack of wet cement with a grunt, then everything went black. Visions danced in his head like a whirlwind, hazy and distorted shadows of a past he barely even knew. Some of the faces and scenery he saw seemed otherworldly and too fantastical to exist; they were alien to him, as if the memories he was envisioning belonged to another person, another life...another time, even. After what could have been hours, days or maybe even seconds the foggy mental photographs began to fade, and a voice cut through the dark becoming clearer every moment. "Daniel...? ...ke up... please...! Can y...ear me...?! Daniel, wake up!! Speak to me, please!!"

Someone was furiously shaking his shoulder, drawing him further out of the void. A weak groan escaped his lips and he blinked slowly, bringing a blurry yet stunningly beautiful face into view that at first glance he mistook for an angel.

"Here now," another, masculine voice piped up, "he seems to be coming out of it now. Move back; give him some air." A set of bony, firm hands rolled him gently onto his back and helped him sit up a bit, allowing him a better view of the concerned young woman kneeling beside him.

"Daniel," Penelope asked slowly, looking relieved now that he was awake but a bit fearful still, "Can you hear me? What happened to you? Are you hurt?!"

Danny managed a very dazed, foolish grin, "Miss Penelope...? How lovely to see ye... Perhaps ye would be so kind as to tell me what I'm doing on the floor?"

Penelope's tense shoulders relaxed a little more but her worry was far from quelled. "I heard loud banging and you were screaming," she explained, "I thought you were being attacked! What happened here, Daniel? Tell us, please!"

Danny looked over at Prof. Morgan, who was still propping him up (first rate chap, that Morgan), then at the room around him. An ill feeling sobered him up at once as he took in the carnage that was his once neat, tidy classroom. Every single desk was overturned and some were twisted and bent beyond repair; two of the three large windows were completely shattered, littering the floor with bits of broken glass everywhere. Darwin's cage sat on the floor in a crumpled up ball of wire, and the guinea pig was nowhere in sight. Books were strewn haphazardly about the place - most of which were in shreds - and his posters hung in tatters on the wall as if ripped apart maliciously by a giant set of claws. His own heavy desk was on its side, and had he still been standing where he was at the blackboard when he was knocked out, he would now be crushed underneath it. Bits of cotton wool and loose papers still rained down from the ceiling lazily, along with the occasional cracked prism, to join their destroyed bretheren on the floor.

Danny nearly fainted at the devastation, but Prof. Morgan held him firmly. "Easy there, Old Man," he murmured gently, "Just take your time. You're alright."

Danny nodded, too stunned to speak, and gripped one of the overturned desks to pull himself to his feet. When he eventually found his voice, it came out as barely a terrified squeak, "I... I'm not...e-entirely sure what exactly happened, Miss Penelope... I-" He looked around the room again, his shock wearing off and transforming into anger and hurt, "Wh-What in heaven's name could do something like this?! I... I cannae seem to remember anything!" His knees buckled and he swayed a bit where he stood, overwhelmed as he was with a caustic mixture of confusion, anger, and deeply-rooted fear.

He felt incredibly dizzy again and nearly dropped to the floor, however Prof. Morgan was quick to catch him with a grunt before he could fall. "Steady on, Daniel... Perhaps we should take you to the Medical Ward and have you looked at? You don't seem well at all." The shorter, wiry older man patted Danny's back reassuringly, sending inexplicably sharp waves of pain across his broad shoulders.

He drew them up instinctually with a hiss, gingerly reaching back to touch the brand on his spine in confusion and alarm, "Wh-What in blue blazes...?!" His train of thought was derailed when Penelope, without warning, put her arms snugly around his waist.

"I'll take him there, Prof. Morgan," she offered, widening her stance a little as she bore Danny's weight on her own narrow shoulders, "thank you for your help. Come on, Daniel; you can lean on me if you need to."

Danny turned scarlet, feeling a bit ridiculous being propped up by Penelope's much smaller, nimble frame. Still, he couldn't very well walk on his own at the moment, and the stares he was recieving from the students peeking in the door were growing unbearable. "Thank ye, Miss Penelope," he murmured, draping an arm hesitantly across her shoulders, "I apologize... f-for being out of sorts... and for spoiling our lunch meeting."

Penelope smiled as she began walking him down the hall, grunting a bit from the effort, "No apology necessary, Daniel. Your health is more important to me than a silly meal, and we'll have plenty more opportunities to socialize later." Her smile faded away as she shook her head, and a perplexed, nervous frown took its place, "I just can't understand what happened to your room. Was it an animal, or...a bit of bizarre, erratic wind?" A shiver coursed through Danny's body as he suddenly recalled hearing the Phantom Voice before everything went dark, and for a moment he wondered if he'd somehow done all that damage himself. The idea that he could go into such a severe fit, utterly destroy his classroom, and have no memory of it afterward frightened him to his core.

After a few minutes, he shook his head, "I wish I knew, Miss Penelope... but it may be better for all if I remain in the dark." They spoke not a word as she walked him down the hall and across the courtyard to the Academy's state-of-the-art hospital building. Along the way several students stopped and gawked at the odd sight, but they were quickly hurried along by the other teachers. Danny was woefully embarrassed by the looks they recieved from the students and other teachers alike, most of which were either confused, concerned, or holding back laughter. He tried his best not to lean too heavily on Penelope, both to save face and to ease her burden, but honestly his legs would barely hold him. Also, his head still throbbed quite a bit from the blow he'd recieved to it and from the flashbacks he'd experienced, and he truly felt as if he would be sick at any moment. At this point, he mused it was a good thing that his stomach was so painfully empty, else he may vomit all over Penelope and then he really would die of shame.

To her credit, though, Penelope was seemingly holding up very well under his weight. He was frankly impressed by the hidden strength she possessed in her diminutive frame, as she soldiered along with him dilligently throughout their hundred meter journey and up a short flight of stairs whilst barely breaking a sweat. She was however a bit winded when they got to the hospital building's main ward. It was a long, narrow hall with crisp white tiles on the floor and cheerful, sensibly-patterned floral wallpaper all the way around. The two longer walls were lined with tall, thin windows, making the space feel very bright and light. There were nearly a dozen twin-sized beds on either side of the room, partitioned off from each other with thick mint green cotton curtains suspended by rails from the ceiling, and each neatly made up with sunny lemon yellow sheets.

Penelope sat him down on the first bed they came to, then after pausing a moment to catch her breath hurried off to fetch the nurse. Danny flopped over onto the bed as soon as Penelope was gone, stifling a scream as he did so. The pain in his back had grown exponentially as they walked; it was as if the brand was searing his skin from the inside out, burning red hot and threatening to singe a hole straight through the layers of clothing on his back. The pain was so intense, that the soft, feather mattress underneath him felt like it was stuffed with hot coals and jagged, rusty bits of metal when his back hit it. He managed to claw off his tweed jacket and drop it on the floor, then loosened his bowtie before the pounding in his skull became too agonizing to bear. He felt feverish yet shivered with cold, his teeth chattering as he clumsily pulled the thin, yellow sheets over him. He must have blacked out again, because the next thing he knew everything had gone dark once more... but this time, it was different.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself laying on a strange kind of linen cot set beside a roaring bonfire. Millions of stars glittered in the clear night sky above, but he didn't recognize the constellations. Shadowy figures moved hypnotically around the blazing inferno in slow motion, dancing to music from reed pipes and drums. He didn't know the language they spoke, nor did he understand why they appeared to be wearing heavy wool tunics and leather jerkins, and...were those kilts? While he was still trying to make sense of the bizarre scene, a woman spun away from the other dancers and floated close to him. Her fiery hair hung down to her waist, wild and untamed in a tangled mane of ringlets and braids. Her eyes were a vibrant cerulean, intense yet oddly cold, and her features were sharp and sensual. To put it simply, she was breathtakingly gorgeous. She smiled alluringly at him as her hips swayed to the music, her long white arms beckoning Danny toward her. He found a strong urge to join her in her dance, and he reached out a hand in a kind of trance to take hers.

Something about her however gave him pause. Yes, she was incredibly beautiful, but a small voice in the back of his mind was screaming at him to put as much distance between her and his person as humanly possible. Danny started to pull his hand away, but before he could the mysterious vixen suddenly grabbed his wrist. Her touch was as cold as ice and her grip frighteningly strong. Her fingernails seemed to grow longer and sharper, digging into his skin like talons. Those enchanting cerulean eyes sparkled menacingly as she gave him a cruel smile. "Gotcha," she giggled, but there was no mirth to her melodious laugh. The small voice he heard grew steadily louder as he struggled to pull out of her iron grip, and to his surprise he realized the voice belonged to Penelope. She was calling to him, but he didn't know where she was. The enchantress seemed to be angered by Penelope's voice, which distracted her enough to allow Danny to yank his wrist free. As soon as he broke from her grip, she and the entire scene disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Danny felt as if the Earth had been suddenly yanked out from under his feet. He didn't even have time to scream as he began to plummet through a bottomless, pitch black void at lightning speed.