Scary not Scary (The Holidaze Book 3)

Chapter 29

Chapter 29
The celebration continued right through to the week before Halloween. While Spookville celebrated, Salem and Severson began to re-establish the Halloween world back to normality and the way the residents wanted it to be.
Devinah found herself spending less and less time with Salem and her involvement in the reclamation of Halloween became obsolete. She started to wonder whether she was spooky enough for him.
Salem’s happiness grew while her isolation gnawed at her. He never noticed that he had pushed her to the side, and he didn’t care either, or at least that was how it felt to her.
She had to accept that he was a dragon and fit in here, while she was still someone who wasn’t sure where she belonged. For a while, she had started to believe that her place might be next to Salem, but now she doubted herself.
“I think this years Halloween will beat anything ever seen before,” Salem said as he walked into the room where Devinah awaited her visitor.
“I’m sure everyone in Spookville will appreciate that,” Devinah agreed.
“Is something wrong?” he asked with a frown as she continued to glance around the room.
“I might as well tell you now, so you don’t think I just disappeared,” Devinah shuffled her feet.
“Tell me what?”
Before she could answer, a golden light flooded the room. Two of the Higher Gods appeared within the light as regal as ever.
“Devinah, you summoned us,” one of the Higher Gods spoke.
“You now have two leaders of the Halloween Holidaze, so I think its time for you to find the next place that you want to dump me,” Devinah said in a calm voice.
“Devinah, what does this mean?” Salem asked.
“I was only here to help out until the new leader of the Halloween Holidaze had settled in. I think its time for me to leave now,” Devinah admitted as she scratched at her arm and refused to meet his eye.
“What happened to you being the scarer of the world?”
She shrugged, “I don’t think its me,” she turned to the Higher God, “so where do you want me to go next?”
“Higher Gods,” Salem bowed to the entities before him, “I think Devinah belongs here with me. I believe that she’s the scarer of the world not the delighter of the world. Please don’t take her valuable insight away from us,” Salem pleaded.
“Perhaps you misconstrue our visit here. Devinah called us. We didn’t appear to take her away. She asked us to take her away,” the Higher God insisted.
Salem turned a gobsmacked face to her, “do you really want to leave?”
“Salem, you, Severson, and Faye have this world sorted. You just told me that you think it will be the best Halloween ever. You did that without any help from me. You don’t need me here anymore, Salem,” she reached out and patted his hand.
“So that’s just it, you’re going to leave,” he narrowed his eyes on her.
“When did you last spend time with me?”
“I’ve been busy organising the Spookville world after its big upheaval,” Salem replied.
“You have, but at no time did you make any time for me to help you or spend time with you. Even a minute, a hello or a how are you. It feels like you forgot about me now that your life is the way you want it to be. That’s okay, Salem, because it helped me to see that I don’t belong in this world with everything creepy, dark, and gloomy. The Higher Gods will eventually find the place that I belong, but this isn’t it,” Devinah explained.
“I… I didn’t mean to do that.”
“Its okay to let me go.”
“Wait, are you doing that human thing of running away?”
“I’m not human. I don’t even know what running away means,” she said before turning to the Higher Gods, “let’s go.”
“Are you sure?” the Higher God asked as he glanced between the two but settled on Devinah.
“Yes, let’s go and help out another Holidaze,” Devinah tried to sound cheery.
She vanished along with the Higher Gods and Salem could only stare at the spot where she had disappeared. Devinah left the Halloween Holidaze. She left him there. He couldn’t fully comprehend her actions, but she had still left him.
Salem dropped where he stood and tried hard to understand her reasoning. He struggled to keep a handle on his blazing anger.
Absently, he scratched at his now agonisingly itchy skin. He would need more Oil of Dragon. That train of thought halted his anger momentarily. He had used some the other day, so his skin shouldn’t itch at all. Why was nothing in his life making sense?
“Son, what ails you?” Severson’s voice sounded hollow to him.
“She left. Now my skins itchy when it shouldn’t be. She left,” Salem replied in a monotone.
“Devinah left?”
“Of course, who else would leave this paradise?” Salem gestured around the dank castle room he sat within.
“Son, I warned you not that long ago.”
“Don’t, Da, don’t try to tell me that Faye saw this coming,” Salem grouched.
“She did. You have a chance to fix things. Now where do you think she’d go?” Severson asked as he drew his cape around himself.
“The Higher Gods took her away! How would I know where to find her?” Salem snapped.
“I know you’ve met him before and probably thought about ripping his annoyingly good-looking face to shred with your talons,” Severson suggested.
“Da, if you’re trying to tell me something then tell me.”
“Devinah spent millennia with the man. Surely you know who I’m talking about,” Severson huffed.
Salem’s head jerked up and he stared at his father, “she said she had to go and help another Holidaze. Why would she go to the Love Holidaze? She’s already helped them.”
Severson huffed louder, growing frustrated at his son’s lack of comprehensive, “just go to the Love Holidaze already.”
Salem went to protest, but the glare in his father’s eyes stopped him. Knowing it would be a useless endeavour, Salem went to the love world of things. Its ghastly pinks contrasted harshly with the dark colours he wore. This place made him uncomfortable.
“I had a feeling I might see you here today,” a voice said as Salem made it to the musical fountain that played garish music and had cherubs flying around in a fluttering wildness.
Salem turned and saw Cupid standing near an alcove covered in sweet smelling flowering greenery. The blonde God made a gesture to follow him and as much as Salem didn’t want to, he did. A huge lake spread out before them, and Salem could only stare at its wonder.
“This is the Lake of Love,” Cupid said.
“And?”
“Devinah and I spent a long time together. We spent our days filling this lake by making matches of couples in the human world. There’s a secret on this lake that Caramia and I only found recently. I thought if I showed you it might help to connect the dots for you,” Cupid explained.
“Why would something from the Love Holidaze be able to help me?” Salem asked in disbelief.
“We never realised that even our connections in this world connect with all the other Holidaze. If you check the Halloween Holidaze, you’ll find a hidden place that has our world connecting with yours and every other Holidaze.”
“That makes no sense,” Salem argued as his skin grew itchy again.
“It does. Just follow me and I’ll show you.”
Salem forced his anger away but couldn’t stop himself from scratching at his arm. He chose to follow Cupid even as he pined for Devinah. He needed to figure out where she was and somehow get her to return to Spookville.
Cupid ventured closer to the lake. When his toes first touched the water, Salem had to wonder if they were about to start swimming. Cupid waved a hand, and the water began to part in front of him, showing a small area overgrown with flowering plants.
“Come on in,” Cupid walked in, so Salem followed.
“I’m trying to understand why this room has any meaning to me,” Salem said.
“Devinah used to belong here, so she has a leftover memory here. That’s not why I brought you. I intended to show you the connection.”
Salem stepped completely into the space and the greenery surrounded him. The constant running of water filtered through the plants creating a musical cascade.
“You spent time in the human world, so  you know all about pictures on screens,” Cupid said.
“Do you mean television?” Salem asked.
“I think Caramia has called it as such.”
“What’s it got to do with this flower strewn room?”
“This is where our world connects with yours and all other Holidaze. Just watch.”
A vision filled the room and Salem saw himself with Devinah. In the blink of an eye, he saw Cupid with Mia. With another blink, he saw Sander standing next to a woman he didn’t know.
“I’ll stop there because those are the people you know. From the Love Holidaze, we can see all potential couples within any Holidaze, not just the leaders of the Holidaze,” Cupid said as he gazed meaningfully at Salem.
“So, Devinah and I?
“Are as inevitable as Caramia and myself,” Cupid nodded.
“Then why did she leave?” Salem growled.
“You gave her no reason to stay.”
Salem lurched in place as his thoughts began to consume him, “I told her I wanted her to stay. She’s the scarer of the world and she belongs in Spookville with me.”
“You made her feel that you had your life and Spookville completely within your control. The other thing you did wrong was not include Devinah in your planning with the updated Spookville. You left her out of the loop, and she felt, well, she probably felt the same way as when Caramia turned up here. I didn’t realise at the time, and I’ve regretted her loss from here ever since. Devinah now feels that she doesn’t belong. She had started to believe that she did belong with you in your Holidaze,” Cupid explained a whole lot that Salem hadn’t even considered.
Hadn’t she once told him that she never felt like she belonged anywhere? Here he was rejecting her from the one place she had started to accept as her home. In his haste to care for Spookville, he had forgotten to care for Devinah. Shame filled him at his lack of notice towards her.
“I did her wrong,” he admitted.
“We both did her wrong and now we both need to make amends,” Cupid agreed.
“Do you know where she is?”
“I do indeed,” Cupid smiled, “the Higher Gods didn’t take her away, especially when they know they have finally found her place. She’s in the cottage with Caramia. Come on.”
Salem’s heart pounded in his chest as he tried to figure out what to say to Devinah.  His skin enflamed worse then he could ever remember before. He scratched his face unable to stop himself.
Salem recalled the cottage from when he had visited as George. Even then he had had a flood of emotions about Devinah. Why had he never looked after her the way he wanted to back when he was still George?
With his thoughts having control, he hadn’t realised that he’d walked into the cottage. The moment he saw Devinah his skin stopped itching. His eyes lingered on her and words began to drop from his lips.
“I never meant to ignore or exclude you from being a part of Spookville’s emergence. It wasn’t a part of my plan. Don’t leave. Please don’t leave me. Spookville needs you and I need you. Spookville wouldn’t be the same without you,” Salem pleaded as he held his hand out towards her.
Devinah looked at him, amazed that he had found her. She had expected him to forget about her and to move on with Spookville’s improvements. After all it had happened to her once before in the very Holidaze she sat in now.
“I don’t know what to say,” Devinah admitted.
“I’m sorry. What happened will never happen again. You’re the scarer of the world. You’re my scarer. Please don’t leave me,” Salem wiggled his fingers to encourage her.
“Do you even realise how long you left me unsure of what to do or where to go? It was like I didn’t exist for you anymore. I gave you so much time. It’s only me leaving that made you realise,” Devinah said before turning away from him.
A loud crack echoed through the quaint building. Devinah chose not to move her frozen stance. She wasn’t just mad at him, it hurt that he could discard her with such ease.
“Outside with that, Salem,” Cupid ordered.
Only then did Devinah glance around. Salem’s dragon had decided to make an appearance, which Devinah found strange. Salem had always had complete control of his dragon.
“Get a grip. Going all beastly isn’t going to help you here,” Cupid said.
“I have no control of it. Without her I cannot control the change. I become the part of me that will always belong in the Halloween world. She’s the only thing that can keep me calm enough to stay as Salem now. I was to stupid and to late to realise that I’d abandoned her. Even George wouldn’t have been that stupid.”
Devinah heard all of Salem’s words in her mind  and struggled to contain her shock. She stared out at the forlorn shape of the huge bronze dragon, who looked so out of place in this love filled land.
“Men are idiots,” Mia said from behind her.
“I’ve become aware of that recently,” Devinah replied and Mia chuckled.
“He didn’t realise what he had until he lost it and now he’s stuck as a dragon,” Mia gestured to outside.
“I never knew I was that important. No, that’s not true.  For a while, a long while I was always in his thoughts. After the renewal of the Halloween Holidaze he sort of forgot about me,” Devinah told her.
“And that’s why he’s in the predicament that he’s in. Let him stew for a while and figure out just what he’s lost,” Mia led her outside in the opposite direction to the way Cupid and Salem had walked.
“Mummy, there’s a dragon outside. A dragon!” Connelly came screaming up to his mother.
“Yes, there is. Don’t try and annoy him because with the mood he’s in he might just set your wings on fire and then no more flying for you,” Mia warned and Connelly’s eyes widened.
“Can I just look at him?”
“Yes, but look from a distance,” Mia insisted.
Connelly nodded and ran off leaving Devinah alone with Mia. She wasn’t sure what else to say to the Goddess of Love. Sure, she recalled how Mia had first come here, and the trouble she’d caused still amused Devinah now.
“Men are dumb sometimes and you know that better then most because you put up with Cupid for years. I’m not trying to defend Salem but we both know that sometimes they can be totally oblivious to the obvious,” Mia started to say.
“I honestly started to think that I wasn’t that important to him. Knowing that I am has changed my mind. He can only control his dragon when I’m around and that’s a huge thing. Maybe his itchy skin had more to do with me not being around him. It’s kind of humbling to have that much control,” Devinah admitted.
“Interesting. Sometimes it’s good for them to realise how important we are in their lives. This is a good lesson for Salem to learn. C’mon, we’re leaving,” Mia grinned mischievously.
“Where are we going?”
“Cupid will know where to find us.”
Mia touched her arm and Devinah found the world spinning out from under her. She knew that feeling, she was on the way to the human world.