A Requiem at the Witching Hour (The Girl Who Sang #2)

Chapter 2: Happy Halloween

The Museum doors swung open, and a ghastly, horrifying moan crept down the stairs, a thick, murky fog tumbling after to pool around the four children's feet. A woman stumbled out—a witch—holding a long wooden staff and wearing a high-necked dark purple dress dotted with thread-of-silver constellations. A black gothic jacket covered her arms and back, and a wide-brimmed pointed black hat sat on her head. The cuffs of the jacket and the wide band of the hat were sparkling with silver-thread stars and moons, and a large golden sun sat at the front of the band, high up on her forehead. Smoke billowed from her back, and she slapped at hungry flames licking up her sleeves. "By all the gods!" She exclaimed as she caught sight of the children, her face smudged and streaked with soot, "Adventurers? In my hour of need?" She spread her arms and dipped into a low bow, "I am the Good Witch Luzura, and I call for your help!"

The four children looked at each other, their faces breaking into wide smiles. "Come, brave travelers, join my quest!" Luzura beckoned them forward into the Museum. They glanced back at their parents and ran up the stairs and into the smoky gloom. Luzura stepped aside to let the children pass, then she waved the parents forward, "Come, have a seat and listen. If you have any questions, you can ask the lady with the pink hair."

A faint yell came through the door, "I have a name, Luzura!" and the witch rolled her eyes.

"If you have questions, Emira can answer them." She looked around in an exaggeratedly sly, shifty manner, and loudly whispered, "She's the one with the pink hair!"

~

Luzura crouched before the four adventurers, her staff across her knees and tucked under her elbows. "I have told you my name, now what shall I call you?" She let her gaze flit across the children. One was dressed as a mummy, one as a werewolf, and to her right was a knight and a cardboard box robot. She smiled as she considered their upcoming quest, making a few decisions. A faint, eerie call—a haunting, musical thread—echoed through the building, as if from a great distance away. The walls and ceiling of the Rotunda began to shimmer.

"I'm Robin!" the mummy called, her blue eyes shining between the strips of fabric wrapped around her face, short red hair sticking out between the overlapping ribbons of cloth. The long strips of white fabric coiled around her arms and torso, over her long-sleeved white shirt, and hung from her shoulders and wrists. She waved her hand in excitement, "And this is my step-brother Ricky!" She slapped at the werewolf wearing shredded-hemmed denim cut-offs and a ragged red-and-black flannel over a wolf-and-moon t-shirt standing beside her, who huffed and threw his head back in cartoonish exasperation. Ricky mumbled something behind the thick plastic mask he wore, and Luzura couldn't understand a word. "That's why I told them your name!" Robin said to the werewolf.

"Robin, Ricky, well met," Luzura's voice was warm and welcoming as she swung her staff up to lean against her shoulder.

The knight shifted his shield higher up on his arm as he put his hand on the hilt of his sword. He lifted his faceplate with his free hand, and a boy with dark skin and wide golden-brown eyes looked up at the witch. "My name is Ian," he said with a soft, careful voice.

Luzura nodded and smiled, softly repeating, "Ian, hello," then she turned toward the last child, "And your name, my mechanical marvel?" she asked with a grin.

"Beep—boop! I— am— Kay-Eight!" The robot moved stiff and jerkily, and the others laughed. It did a little dance, a crinkly zwooping noise coming from the accordion tubes covering its arms and legs. Its limbs were capped by boxy cardboard feet and wrist plates taped to fingerless gloves and moon-boots.

"Kay-Eight?" Luzura muttered, then grinned, "Kate?" The robot covered its mouth grill and giggled, then pointed at the white 'K8-E2' painted on the side of its boxy head. "It is good to meet you, Kay-Eight."