The Witch With the Bouzouki

Twas the night of halloween, and all the city of Urnan was dressed for the frightful holiday. From scary to skimpy, the costumed people running up and down the street carried huge amounts of candy procured from generous town home dwellers and apartment denizens across the budding city.

People weren't the only ones dressed for the occasion. Animals like dogs and cats also had little costumes from things all across pop culture. And who could forget the very city itself? The decorations really set the mood. There were hot orange spotlights hitting clouds, spooky ghosts hanging from trees, and big animatronic spiders traveling up walls.

At least, I hope those are animatronics…

Anyways, everything around us came together to really put us in the Halloween spirit. Even the double full moon light of Darmos and Ecla was just perfect for the occasion. As my first ever time trick or treating, the vibe was already rewarding as it was…

“Trick or treat!” I held up my bird themed bucket to an elderly lady.

“Ooh, aren't you just a doll?” She smiled warmly as she forked over a full sized chocolate egg wrapped in colourful tinfoil. FULL SIZED! “What are you supposed to be?”

I didn’t know who this character was that I was dressed as, but everyone was telling me I needed to put on this white and blue dress with a big blue bow because I apparently looked like whoever wore it. We even both had wings, so I was allowed to let my real ones hang out in the open.

“Uh, an angel bird girl from a cartoon,” I replied.

“That's nice, dear. Have a good rest of the night.”

“Thank you, miss!” I bowed my head to her as I took a step back to let the next kid beg her for sweet treats.

There was a rustling on my head. Samael, my pink snake, sneaked down from my hair and tried to make a grab for the chocolate egg, but I held the bucket just far enough that he couldn't reach it.

“No! That's not for you,” I scowled.

“Ssss…”

“Just because it looks like an egg, doesn't mean it is,” I scolded at his hiss. He was always an ‘eat first, ask if it's safe later’ kind of snake, which I was still trying to train out of him.

With him getting back to his place in my hair, I ran back to my friend Yamin. A cinnamon haired girl currently wearing an orange martial arts gi with a blue belt and undershirt. “Yamin! Yamin!” I pulled out the candy egg and showed it to her. “I got a big one!”

“Ooh! Great work, Yalda!” Yamin nodded as she took a closer look. “I think those are the ones with little prizes inside of them.”

“Really?” I split the egg in half and found a… “It's empty…” I slouched in sorrow.

“Maybe I was wrong…” Yamin's face twisted with regret.

“Or maybe I’m just unlucky,” I sighed.

“Darn… Sorry I got your hopes up.” Yamin’s face cringed.

Ahh, heck. I still had a huge chunk of chocolate to eat. As a show of good will, I let her have half of it and we marched onto the next town home.

“♫I love candy. ♫” I sang out as I skipped down the sidewalk, careful not to run into anyone while I pranced. “♬Candy candy candy! It’s so very dandy! ♬”

♪Bring-bring-bring! Bringy-bringy-bring! ♪

There was a guitar rift that accompanied my voice. Where the heck did that come from? It sounded so close, but I couldn’t quite get a read on it.

“Yamin, did you hear that?” I asked.

“Hear what?” Her brow arched. “Are you eating too much candy again? You know it’ll make you do weird things,” Yamin said as she peeked into my ever filling bucket.

“Might make a ‘human’ do weird things, maybe…” I chuckled at her worry. “But I'm an Exceed, and we don't need to worry about that. Sugar rush or bust!”

“That’s what you said on your birthday before downing ten pounds of strawberry ice cream. You were doing the cha-cha in the sky, remember?”

Oooh yeah… I kinda blacked out from all that sugar. That was one wild birthday party.

Anyways, we were onto the next row of town homes that were along the street. These ones looked very promising, since they were on the higher income end of the city.

“Trick or Treat!” Yamin and I smiled as we graciously accepted the imported candy those people provided.

“Yummy yummy! Thank you!” I squealed with glee.

No idea what spawned such a holiday, but I was so super happy it existed..

“♬Candy candy candy! It’s so very dandy! ♬” I sang again.

♪Bring-bring-bring! Bringy-bringy-bring! ♪

There was that guitar rift again. It was odd, because it didn’t sound like any particular guitar I’d ever heard, and Yamin loved to practice guitar while we sang at scripture studies, so I knew the difference.

“Did you hear that?” I asked Yamin. “It happened again.”

“That time…” she started. “Yeah, I heard it.”

Like, it was obviously copying my tune. But where was it coming from? And why was it singling me out?

“Try singing again,” Yamin suggested.

“♪ha-haa-haaa-haaaa-haaaaa-haaaa-haaa-haa-ha.♪” I sang an arpeggio.

“♬Br-brr-brrr-brrrr-brrrrr-brrrr-brrr-brr-br♬”

Okay, something was definitely springboarding off of my singing for a tune to follow along with.

“Hey, I got an idea…” Yamin snapped her fingers. “I bet we can find whoever's doing that by following their sound.”

“Oh, so like, I sing, and we track down where the person playing is?”

We were on the money! Yamin’s plan was clever and started off great. I was singing all kinds of familiar tunes and anime openings, catching wind of whatever odd stringed instrument we were tracking down. Some corners it sounded further away, others it got louder.

Our song game of Marco Polo was kinda’ fun, and I could tell by how much more elaborate the person behind the instrument made their rhythm that they were really getting into it too.

But then suddenly they stopped playing along. It got really silent, despite the mixed crowds of children and adults chatting loudly, as if a source of significant life had just died.

“What happened to the person playing music?” I frowned with deep sorrow.

We were getting close to them too. I swear, if we just had a few more seconds, I could have easily tracked them down.

“Maybe they…” Yamin took a glance around our location. “Maybe they're around here somewhere?”

She noticed we’d worked our way to a pedestrian bridge over a thinner part of the river. Foot traffic here was light, but voices were prominent, one of them being very aggressive.

“Hey, look what we have here…” called out a sassy girl's voice from below us. “We found a witch!”

“Stupid witch! We hate witches around here.” agreed a second girl's voice.

“Indena, is that you?” I looked over the bridge to see three random girls. One dressed like a feminine devil in red, the other bandaged up like a mummy in a bikini, and together they were ganging up on someone dressed in a purple band outfit with a cylindrical witch hat on her head, which apparently had a speaker built into it. Wrapped in her arms was something that looked like a guitar, but a unique version.

“I-I’m sorry…” She said, scrunching up in fear while trying to take a step around them. “I-I’ll be going if my music is bothering you.”

“Nah, you're staying right here.” The cocky devil girl stepped up with a mischievous grin. “They say we should stone evil witches. And around here, we take that very seriously. You think it's funny to dress up like one and hang out on our home turf?”

“No! I’m not here to hurt anyone, I swear. I just wanted to play my…”

The devil girl prevented the witch girl's escape by forcing her into a wall.

“Doesn’t matter what you were doin’ here. You freak tourists are nothing but trouble.” the devil girl said as her friend supported her with a serious glower to the witch. “I don’t think you know how bad of a costume you picked, tourist," her fist reeled back, prepared for a punch. “So now, we gotta teach you a lesson…”

“No! Please…” The witch braced herself by turning her head away and protecting her instrument with her body.

The cocky devil girl's fist rocketed forward fast, balled up like a stone ready to strike soft flesh…

…but she never expected me to catch her by the elbow and hold her punch back, mere inches from connecting.

“Huh?” the cocky girl turned to see me, furious at her terrible bullying.

“How about you start throwing punches when you don’t have sins of your own to deal with, yeah?” I said. “Leave her alone.”

“Seriuosly? Do you know what witches can do?” asked the devil girl.

“Actually, I do.”

I’ve had to deal with one particularly stubborn witch who kept popping up out of the blue for a fight. Her power was terrifying and really gave me a run for my money.

But for as much as I wasn’t fond of witches anymore than these two punks, these girls were doing this out of malice and spite, trying to justify their hatred with scriptures I bet they hadn’t even read.

So to show them I meant business, my harrowing blue eyed gaze never once faltered.

“Wait…” the mummy girl uttered in shock, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder and pointing at me. “Do…do you know who that is?”

“No,” the devil girl responded. “Why? Should I?”

The second girl whispered into the first girl's ear. The cocky devil one gave me a scrutinizing look before her eyes went wide with shock. Suddenly her fist dropped and she stopped fighting me for her arm.

“Hallowed Angel…!” They both dropped to their knees and pressed their heads against the concrete ground. “We didn’t realize you were…”

“Get up,” I ordered. “Don’t bow to me like I’m some idol. Only God deserves that treatment.”

Both the costumed punk girls got back to their feet, tears spilling down their faces in shame.

“Look, there’s nowhere in scripture that says beat up an innocent person sitting under a bridge,” I scolded them. “So, I want both of you to go right home and read the Book of Raphael. Maybe you’ll learn how he dealt with witches, peacefully.”

“Yes, Hallowed Angel…” Both the girls said before leaving.

I debated forcing them to say they were sorry, but it didn’t feel like they had it in them just yet. They only listened to me out of fear, not respect in their hearts.

The witch girl was stunned to see that I’d come to her rescue, so much that she was speechless, looking me up and down carefully to make sure I was real.

“You saved me…” she took a deep sigh.

“I did,” I gave a disarming smile. “So no trouble from you either. Alright?” I playfully scolded.

“Excuse me…” Yamin spoke up as she joined us. Then she pulled out moist towlets from her pocket and started cleaning up the witch girl. It looked like she was covered in dirt and egg yoke. She didn’t fight as we put in a little work to help clean her up all nice and new.

I bet those girls were throwing stuff at her.

We finally got her nice and presentable, then took her back onto the sidewalks.

“Thank you both,” she said in a kind voice and bowed her torso. “As a token of my appreciation, how about I play you a tune on my bouzouki?” She held up her instrument.

Her hand brushed across her musical instrument and she started singing…

“♪Oh, you two are very kind… Oh, and very wise! I never thought I’d see the day when someone so nice would grace my eyes… ♪”

Her enchanting voice continued to sing for a few minutes, praising us for the aid we provided. A crowd of costumed people gathered as the booming speaker on her hat carried the song further than her voice alone could reach.

“Oh, I like this city already,” said one guy as he clapped along to her calming rhythm. “The people here are so interesting.”

“Got that right!” A woman said as her body swayed back and forth in an easy going dancy motion. “Urnan is such a lovely place! Glad we moved here!”

The witch girl’s strumming was masterful, so precise that I would have thought she’d been practicing for a hundred years, and she didn’t look much older than me.

“Yay!” Yamin gleefully clapped her hands as the song ended. “Wow, that was amazing!”

The crowd of onlooking tourists also joined in on the cheers. The witch girl was every shade of red and shied up with a silly little smile.

“Gosh, thanks everyone.” She flipped the witch hat off her pig tailed head and held it forward, bottom up to the crowd. “If you really enjoyed the show, how about a little cash?”

Did I say she was shy? I meant shameless.

People decided to part with some of their hard earned money and candy, then even asked for an encore, which she was all too happy to oblige.

Her voice, her instruments, and even the beat she created from the tap of her shoe was amazing. Better quality than anything I’d even heard over the radio. She was like a one witch band, and her improvised song impressed me all the more.

Once the costumed tourists had their fill of the witch’s lovely music, they were on their way to continue the Halloween festivities around the city.

“You really are amazing!” I said. “What’s your name?”

She stood on one leg and kicked the other up to strike an eccentric pose. “Jessette! The musical witch! But you can call me Jess if you’d like, since we’re friends now. One day I’ll be the biggest pop idol in the whole world and bring peace through my music! ”

“Jess, you sing like a bird! I love it!” I said as I picked up her hands and held them as a sign of friendship.

“That really means a lot! I’m happy you think so,” she replied. “But, who are you two?”

“I’m Yamin,” Yamin gestured to herself.

“Call me Yalda,” I nodded a few times, then pointed to the snake in my hair. “And this is my friend Samael. Hey, do you want to go trick or treating with us? You’ll get a lot of candy.”

“I do like candy a lot…” she had a bright and goofy smile that complimented her emerald green eyes, then rubbed her loudly gurgling belly. “Haven’t eaten anything in three days.”

What!? How can a human not eat for three days and have as much energy as her?!

Yamin poked both our shoulders and pointed to a familiar cafe just across the street. “I think the girl might need something a little more substantial than candy first…”