Ivy Strongwill and The Silent Sorcermaster

Chapter One - The Strongwills

Ivy Strongwill was always in the midst of strange incidents which seemed to fit the atmosphere of the spooky season. But the weird occurrences weren't limited to the end of October, they've been happening since forever, whether her parents wanted to acknowledge them or not. And they generally didn't. As usual, on the 30th, her mother had bought a pumpkin, to make a simple pie. The day before every Halloween, that was all she wanted to do, pumpkins were less expensive. Their house was one of the only ones with no decorations at all, as her parents refused to celebrate such heathen nonsense.

"Mom, can we get one more pumpkin and carve it, so that we'd have a scary face guarding the house?"

"No way, I'm not buying you one. Why don't you show the same interest in normal holidays, forget about this silly thing!"

"But I could even find a small one in the skip bin at the market, you don't need to buy it."

"It's not about money, I just don't want that Pagan object inside my house."

"What about outside the house? In the yard? Next to the yard?"

"No, no, and no, if I could, I would rid the whole town of those abominably sculpted vegetables."

Ivy pouted with displeasure at that answer. "Pumpkins are fruits," she replied.

"Sure, if you say so. Now go to your room and study for school as much as you study about silly things. Teachers are complaining about you again."

"I should be complaining about them."

"Just go and forget about these foolish ideas. Not everyone has as much free time as you do, I've yet to make a pumpkin pie!"

"So you're still cooking something for Halloween." Ivy smiled victoriously.

"No, I'm making it because pumpkins are cheaper now. You'd think that even if I prepared soup."

"I wouldn't, soup is not specific to this season."

"Fine, just go to your room and study. Stop pestering me, would you?"

The girl went around the corner and whispered to herself: "Yes! We're still celebrating somehow." Then she shouted: "I can't go to my room, I have to go to school...mother."

"Behave yourself then!"

Ivy's smile faded and her back hunched at the thought of going to school again. She prepared mentally for a moment, took a deep breath, grabbed her ragged backpack and forced herself to step outside.

"Bye, dad," she said as she passed through the dusty living room where her father was watching TV.

"Bye," he replied, without taking his eyes off the Fishing Channel. But he got scared and jumped with surprise when the fish that just escaped in the water seemed to splash him through the screen.

"Bloody...!"

"Are you okay, Mike, what happened?" his wife asked.

"Nothing, dear, I just splashed some water from my cup." Before Ivy's mom could enter to see there were no cups at all in the room, she stopped and shouted hysterically "Ivy Eulora Strongwill, how do you explain this?" She was pointing towards her big pumpkin, which was carved in such a way that an extremely scary face was laughing at her.

"What, mom, what could I have done so bad in the one minute since I left the kitchen?" The girl was turning around to see what was wrong.

"It's nothing, just go," her mother said, and shooed her away with one hand.

"All right." Ivy turned around once again, barely avoided hitting a wall, and continued walking.

It was time for her father to ask what happened. "Sophia, what's wrong?"