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For the devil himself is one with death. They walk hand in hand.
She was known as Blythe Pearl on earth, but in hell and beyond, she was Mortala. My Mortala. My bride. My deathly dark reaper queen. On her way home to me. Her last love.
My feathers ruffled. They didn’t yet know that I’d now lost my beloved friend to the pits of hell. Worse, they didn’t know my secret… the deepest secret I carried beneath my sealed beak. I’d hidden it from Blythe for so long now. If the familiars knew, that would cancel out any sort of nobility they believed I possessed. If the Halloween Boys knew… they’d kill me. Oh, the wretchedness I’d agreed to made me want to weep in sorrow.
Raven
“Your eyes,” I stammered out. “They’re so…” The devil hummed low in his throat. “So what? Terrifying, horrible, evil—” “All of those things, and like blood in an amber bottle. The shade is so dreadful and beautiful.”
“Sometimes,” I said, standing and approaching the altar, “the world needs an evil to look to just as much as it needs a light. Villains and devils are mirrors in a sense.” I struck a match, and the flame twirled and danced for its master. “Everyone wants to be the hero, James. But few are brave enough to be a demon in a world that idolizes the angels.”
“Hell is different things for different souls. For you and me, and the residents here, this is our dark paradise.” “And for others?” “For others, hell is more of an internal state than a gruesome destination. Hell is the shadow of self all beings must eventually contend with, in one life or the next.”
Judas was arguably the most formidable being in all the world, yet his strength was not a booming, loud thing, I was learning. His power was as quiet as he preferred to be. A hidden and reserved nature that contradicted any perception of who you’d think he was upon hearing his mythological title.
“My job is to look after this place and all its levels. I ensure balance. You’ll find that, on this side of the veil, balance is more paramount than most things. The notions of good and evil merely come from mortals making sense of the balance we on this side of the veil inherently comprehend.”
if I were in hell, then I would become hell. I would become hell for him. He would want to release me just to get rid of me. No more doormat, scared bunny, running teenager. This ended now.
Finally she's growing a pair!
Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away. Frida Kahlo
My father had guided me through hell, only to die and to get me to her one last time. His final apology. And my last words to him would haunt me for the rest of my days. You aren’t my father. While Minnie’s words and hands were a balm to my shame, proclaiming I was enough, allowing me my goodbye.
Onyx
my first irrational thought was that Captain Vex was a handsome guy. He was weathered in the way any man of the sea might be, but with long, dark hair and an ornately decorated beard.
Wolf's thought
See, that was another interesting thing about taking men to immortal rank. While most flaws and virtues peaked and died within a lifetime of around eighty mankind years, these boys would have hundreds, thousands of years to develop both their gifts and curses. What would shame do to Onyx Hart? What would pride do to James Cove? What would ignorance do to Wolfgang Jack?
you are them, and they are you, and hell is your kingdom, and Ash Grove is hell shimmering on the earth side of the veil.”
Judas talking to Blythe
Raven had, this entire time, been an extension of Judas’s love. A hint, a clue, of the love we shared for so long. Finally, it had become clear.
It was time to be the evil woman with horns. The keeper of doors. The legend of Belladonia. The stories of Fenrir. The savior of Ash Grove. The queen of hell.
“Where is my leather?” I breathed, remembering our song, our wicked prayer. Oh, the lifetimes of music we had made together, the folklores they’d written of us. All wrong, of course, but stories through time all the same.
“You are my burning willow. You are my hell; my place of eternal torment and sorrow. I am your devil, your guardian. I should love nothing, but I love only you,” he rumbled,
people who cannot suffer can never grow up, can never discover who they are.
Though maybe in everyone we love we are simply finding missing pieces of ourselves. Maybe they help us remember who we truly are. Maybe that’s magic.
I hope that The Halloween Boys have helped remind you in some small way that magic is real, that darkness is beautiful, and that everyone we love is a piece of us,
I hope it reminds you to love the opposing parts of yourself, and to make friends with your monsters, and set free your ghosts.
