Teen Witch: Familiar

Halloween had officially begun at sunset. Kevin walked the sidewalks of the subdivision, wearing his zombie makeup, wanting to trick-or-treat but knowing he probably should not. Costumed kids ran past him to collect their candy. He wanted to join them, but at thirteen, he knew that he was most likely too old for it. Middle school was nearly over for him, and this was yet another bit of childhood to let go, his last Halloween.

At the very least, Kevin had a costume party to go to, although he was running behind.

Kevin made it to the house where his school friends were supposed to be. Jack-o-lanterns, fake spider webs, and black lights decorated the front of it. He ignored the sign that warned him to “Keep out!” and headed to the front door, but before he could knock, the door opened.

A witch in a black dress and pointy hat stepped out of the house and nearly collided with him on the stoop. Kevin took a step back and nearly fell into a bush. The girl halted and clutched her broom with both hands.

“Oh!” she said. “Excuse me.”

“Esme?” Kevin asked, when he recognized her.

Before she could respond, they were interrupted by the upset cries of children from inside the house. Esme stepped away from the door as a dozen kindergarten-aged children rushed out, all dressed in adorable costumes—werewolves, vampires, fairies, princesses, and various cartoon characters.

“Turn us back!” demanded a princess in a pretty pink dress.

The other children added their support, saying “Yes! Yeah! Turn us all back! Do it now! Come on, Esme!”

Kevin looked to Esme, who looked down at the children with a proud smirk on her face, clearly amused by their begging. “No,” she said. “You were making fun of me for wanting to go trick-or-treating. You called me ‘childish.’ Well, now it's your turn to feel childish for a while.”

“How long are you going to keep us like this?” the princess asked, sounding more annoyed than afraid. Kevin recognized her at last. It was Jasmin, their host for the party. Only, she was half as old as she should be.

“You’ll grow back to your normal age,” Esme said. “But, only if each of you collects 25 pieces of candy by trick-or-treating.”

“And if we don’t?” one boy asked.

Esme gave him a slight shrug. “Get used to feeling ‘childish.’ It will last quite a long while.”

“Oh no!”

“Don’t worry,” Esme said. “I’m sure you’ll do well. Just try to get into the spirit of it. Oh, and don’t bother trying to convince anyone of how old you really are. They won’t believe you.”

“Okay,” a woman said as she stepped out of the house and shut the door behind herself. “Thanks for waiting for me to get ready to go. Are you kids ready for some trick-or-treating?”

The kids all looked to Esme for help, but she just smiled at them and said, “Well, kids, are you ready?”

“Thank you, Esme,” the woman said. “I really appreciate you watching them for a bit while I got ready.”

“No problem,” Esme said. “I’m always happy to take care of little children.”

“Alright, let’s get going kids!” the woman said and led them down the driveway. The kids hesitated a moment, and then after a quick worried glance at Esme, they hurried after the woman out into the gathering dark.

Kevin and Esme stood there together on the stoop for an awkward moment of silence, long enough for Kevin to notice the quality of her costume. This was not some cheap, store-bought outfit but appeared to be made of quality fabrics, maybe even velvet.

Esme spoke first. “You’re Kevin, right?” she asked him.

“Y-yeah,” he said, feeling himself blush beneath his makeup. “I was just coming in for the party when…”

“Sorry,” Esme said. “Party’s over.”

“I see.”

“Eh,” she said, shrugging. “It was going to be a boring party anyway.”

Kevin was not sure how to respond.

“Well,” Esme said. “I suppose I’ll be off. I’m feeling like doing some trick-or-treating myself. Later.” She turned to walk away.

“Wait,” Kevin said.

She stopped and turned back to look at him, curiously.

“Would you mind if I went with you?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, nervously. “I don’t have any plans now, and I’m already in my costume.”

Esme looked him over, sizing him up. “Sure,” she said, smiling. “Let’s go.”

And so, Kevin went trick-or-treating with an actual witch.

***

After having trick-or-treated at several houses on her own while Kevin waited on the sidewalk for her, Esme confronted him and said, “Alright, are you going to trick-or-treat or not?”

“I want to,” Kevin confessed. “It’s just…”

“Just what?” she prompted him, adjusting her shoulder bag.

He sighed. “It’s just… Well,” he tried to explain. “One of my friends lives at that first house we stopped at. I thought I saw someone I know on the other side of the street at the next house. Then, at the next one, I just… lost my nerve.”

“What are you so afraid of?” she asked. “So what if somebody you know sees you? I wouldn’t care.”

“It’s not the same for me,” Kevin explained. “You can just magic away your problems. I’ll have to deal with people making fun of me.”

“Hmm,” she said, taking a moment to look him over and think. “What if I-?”

“No!” he said, holding his hands up defensively. “I don’t want you turning me into a little kid or a girl or a real monster or anything like that.”

“You sure?” she asked. “You’d make a great werewolf.”

“No,” he said.

Again, she spent a few silent seconds thinking. Then, she smiled, having thought of an idea. “You said you might be more brave about things if you could magic away your problems.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I suppose so.”

“What if I could share my magic with you? Then, you could cast spells on people like I do.”

“I guess that would be okay,” he said, imagining cursing some particularly annoying bullies he knew.

“Great,” Esme said, taking his hand and pulling him along behind her. “Let’s go enchant you.”

Kevin let her take the lead, but he worried about where this was going.

***

Down by the creek, under the old oak tree with the rope swing hanging from it, Esme leaned her broom against the tree trunk, lit a candle beneath it, and laid out pink and purple crystals in a pattern on the damp earth.

“Sit there,” she ordered Kevin.

“It’s wet,” he said, but he sat down anyway.

“Don’t whine.”

“Thanks for doing this,” he said, as he tried to get comfortable. “I mean, it’s cool that you’re giving me some power.”

“Don’t bother thanking me,” she said, while checking the arrangement of crystals. “If this works properly, then I’ll be multiplying my own power by sharing the burden of it with you.”

“What exactly is this going to-?” he started to say, but she cut him off.

“Let’s begin,” Esme said, walking around to stand behind him. “Close your eyes.”

Kevin shut them and listened to an autumn breeze rustle through the mostly bare trees above.

Esme chanted strange words, and Kevin felt the air tingle with energy. “Kevin,” she said, returning to English. “Do you consent to share in my power as my familiar?”

“Um,” he said, not really understanding what she meant. “Yes?”

“The pact is sealed!” she declared.

The wind kicked up, and in the distance, thunder rumbled.

Kevin felt strange. He sensed a power growing within himself, while simultaneously he sensed himself becoming physically smaller. As his body contracted and shrank, he felt his skin tingle as fur sprouted all over. He moaned and listened as the moan rose to a mewling purr.

As he felt himself dwindle away within his overlarge clothes, a tail sprouted from his backside, and his ears grew long and pointy. His fingers contracted down to form paws. Then, needle-like teeth filled his mouth as his face stretched out into a muzzle.

The wind died down, and Kevin’s transformation was complete.

He craned his head around to look at Esme and was shocked to find her looking comparatively gigantic behind him. Horrified, Kevin yowled up at her, demanding that she explain what had happened to him.

“I did what you wanted,” Esme answered him, apparently having understood him somehow. “You wanted to share my power, so I made you my familiar.”

Kevin wriggled free of his shirt and stood upon his piled clothes, balancing effortlessly on four paws. Looking up at her, he meowed, demanding an explanation of what a “familiar” was.

“It’s an animal companion, spirit-bound to a witch,” she explained.

He yowled a complaint.

“It only works if you’re an animal. I thought a black cat would be best. Would you rather I had made you a frog... or a snake?”

He snarled.

“Easy,” she said, trying to sooth him. “Being a cat is not that bad. Just try it for a little while. Once you’ve had a chance to do some magic, I’m sure you’ll appreciate it.”

She crouched down in front of him, and he hopped back defensively. Then, he watched as she collected her tools and his clothes and shoes and shoved it all into her bag.

As Kevin tried to figure out how she had fit that much in her simple canvas shoulder bag, Esme explained, “It’s bigger on the inside, kind of a pocket dimension, very handy.”

He growled.

“I get it,” Esme said. “You’re not happy. Why don’t you just take a few minutes to feel what it's like to be a cat? If you still hate it after giving it a try, then I can turn you back right away.”

Kevin felt like arguing some more, but he decided to just do as she said.

Standing there on the mud, feeling the damp pads of his paws getting chilly, he looked around, noticing for the first time how bright the world seemed to him, even with the moon having just risen. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness so well that he would have thought it an overcast day as opposed to nighttime. It reminded him of night-vision videos, only everything was mostly grey instead of green.

His pointy ears perked up as an owl hooted behind him, he spotted it immediately in the branches of the oak tree. Sniffing the air, he noticed a variety of smells. Beyond the strong scent of damp earth, he could detect faint traces of leaf smoke in the cool air.

It was overwhelming, sensing so much of the world so strongly, and yet he felt more excited than afraid. What he had lost in size, he had gained back in perception, it seemed. The night seemed inviting instead of intimidating. He wondered if this was what it meant to be nocturnal.

Kevin decided to conduct a quick test, he took a few steps, then broke into a gallop and leapt up onto a nearby log, landing gracefully atop it in near silence. He purred. That had felt so smooth, so elegant. His cat body moved like liquid metal, powerful yet agile and flexible. He had never been athletic as a human, but as a cat...

“See,” Esme said. “I knew you’d enjoy it if you gave it a chance.”

Kevin meowed, inquiring what she had planned for them to do now.

“We’ll keep trick-or-treating, of course,” Esme said, grabbing her broom and following the path out of the clearing. “After all, this is the one night of the year I don’t need to wear a costume. I want to make the most of it. Come on. We’ve got tricks to perform and treats to collect. Let’s go.”

Kevin ran to catch up with her. Then, he had to trot along at a somewhat quick pace to follow at her heels. Looking up at her, he felt uneasy about how large she was compared to him, now. He did not fear her, though. If anything, he felt drawn to her. There was a silent connection he felt growing between them, deeper than any friendship he had known and stranger than what he thought love could be. Wanting to explore that connection further, he kept near her as they headed back to civilization.

***

While they walked past a chain link fence bordering someone’s backyard, Kevin sensed heavy paws galloping towards them, he stopped and stooped low in defense as an enormous dog appeared at the fence and began barking and snarling at them furiously.

Kevin hissed back his fearful reply, desperately wanting the dog to go away, or at the very least, wanting it to be smaller and less threatening.

A warmth passed through him then, flowing from Esme, through his body, and out towards the barking dog. The dog kept barking, but with each bark the sound became higher pitched and softer. Meanwhile, the dog shrank, becoming smaller, younger even. Soon enough, it had dwindled down to nothing more than a yapping puppy. Hearing itself, it stopped barking then to look around to make sense of what had happened to it.

Kevin stood up confidently then and walked up to the puppy behind the fence. He snarled at it, causing it to yelp in horror and fall backwards, before awkwardly finding its puppy paws again and taking off running away from the fence, whining fearfully as it went.

“Well done,” Esme said. “You sure taught that beast a lesson.”

Kevin looked up at her, feeling proud of the spell he had just cast.

“It feels good. Doesn’t it?” she said. “That power.”

He had to agree. Before he had even realized what he was doing, he had tapped into her magic and directed it at the dog. Magic had felt so natural to him, as if it was what he had been born to do. It flowed through him like water through a river, smooth and effortlessly.

After hearing the puppy whimper in the distance, Kevin felt a touch of guilt about what he had done.

“Don’t worry,” Esme said. “It was a quick spell. It will wear off before the night’s over. In the meantime, I think that dog is learning that it should be a little more polite to anyone passing by its fence.”

Kevin agreed that it would be a good lesson for the dog to learn. Still, he felt a bit concerned at what he had done. He had not intended to do anything, and look what had happened. What might happen later if he used her magic again?

“We’ll find out,” Esme said, smiling. “Come on.” She turned and continued walking along the fence, with him traveling beside her as close as her shadow.

***

They stopped at many houses, and Kevin did not hesitate to follow her to the door as she collected her candy. After all, he could be certain now that no one would recognize him. For the most part, he kept quiet, even when people spotted him, and petted him, and commented on how calm and obedient he was.

His silence continued up until Esme walked over to the front door of a house that Kevin knew very well.

Esme rang the doorbell and moments later, Kevin’s mother opened it.

“Trick-or-treat!” Esme said.

Kevin meowed to his relatively giant mother, wondering if somehow she would recognize him.

“Oh my!” she said, looking down at him and back at Esme. “What an incredible costume you have! You’ve even got a black cat!”

Kevin meowed his thanks.

“Does it do any tricks?” his mother asked.

Esme and Kevin exchanged a look, and she said, “Ask him some questions.”

Kevin’s mother smiled and said, “Can you sit for me?”

Kevin took a seat.

“Good,” she said. “Roll over?”

He lay flat and rolled over sideways onto his back and over again onto his paws.

“Wonderful!”

Esme said, “He can even fetch things for you. Go tell him to find something for you in the house.”

“Really?” his mother said. “Alright then, cat, bring me... a sock.”

Kevin slipped between her legs and swiftly climbed up the stairs. Next, he nosed his way into his own bedroom, where he paused a moment, taking in this very familiar space from his unusual perspective and scale. Then, he grabbed one of his worn socks on the floor with his teeth and carried it downstairs to present it to his mother. He set it on the floor at her feet and meowed up at her.

“Amazing!” she said. “What a smart kitty you are,” she added, crouching down to pet his head.

Kevin purred appreciatively in response to his mother’s love.

His mother stood again and asked, “Do you know my son, Kevin? You look to be about his age.”

Esme and Kevin exchanged a concerned look, and she said, “I think he’s in one of my classes.” It was an honest response, if not entirely forthcoming.

“I know he was going out to a party at one of his friend’s houses,” she said, looking faintly concerned. “He should be heading home soon. Maybe I should call him.”

Kevin did not want her to worry, and he did not want her calling his phone and hearing it ring in Esme’s bag. He wished that she would not think of him, and he felt energy drawn from Esme flow through him to his mother.

She looked momentarily confused and said, “Wait… What was I talking about just now?”

“Uh,” Esme said. “You were just wishing me a happy Halloween.”

“Oh?” his mother said. “Of course. Happy Halloween to you and your little friend here.”

“Happy Halloween,” Esme replied.

Kevin meowed up at the woman as if to apologize and scurried away, immediately regretting casting a spell on his own mother. He sat on the sidewalk waiting for Esme, trying to come to terms with what he had done. He had pushed the memory of himself out of her mind for a moment. What if he had gone too far? What if he had made her forget him altogether?

“Don’t worry,” Esme said. “You don’t have the skill yet to make her forget you. It could be done, but that takes some experience and understanding to accomplish.”

Kevin looked back at his house, at the closed front door that his mother had shut just now. Through his cat eyes, the place looked different, unfamiliar. A cool breeze ruffled his fur, and he shivered.

***

The full moon rose higher as the night went on. Fewer kids could be seen walking around in costumes as dinner time approached. Esme sat with Kevin on the curb and fed him a peanut butter and chocolate cup as she sampled from a bag of sugary candy.

Across the street a boy dressed as an anime hero ran parallel to them, before tripping and falling onto the sidewalk. He groaned a moment before a pair of considerably larger boys caught up with him.

“No more running,” said the larger boy dressed like a werewolf.

“Yeah,” agreed the other larger boy dressed like a vampire.

“Please,” the anime boy on the ground said. “Just leave me alone.”

The larger boys chuckled, like a pair of predators mocking their prey.

The anime boy stood up, but he did not run.

“Now,” the werewolf boy said. “We were just going to take your candy and let you go, but you had to be a little pussy and run off.”

“Yeah,” the vampire boy said. “Looks like we’ll have to give you another punishment for that. How about we give you a wedgie? Maybe take your shoes as well?”

The anime boy sighed, looking sadly resigned, and said, “Fine. Just get it over with.”

Kevin did not recognize the boy, but he recognized the situation. He had been bullied himself, and he hated to see it happen to anyone. Esme’s power flowed through him again, which he directed across the street to the anime boy.

Just as the two larger boys seized the boy by the arms, a surge of energy passed through him. The spell took effect, and the boy became able to absorb what he felt he needed from whoever was closest to him. The boy wished to be able to escape his bullies. If only he were older and stronger than them…

Kevin watched as the boy started to grow. At first, it was hard to notice as he was still inches shorter than the bullies. Soon, that gap was completely erased and all three were the same size, the boy having grown and the bullies having shrunk. Feeling his power surging, the anime boy shook free of the grip of the werewolf and vampire boys.

The bullies took a step back and stared at the anime boy who grew larger and more muscular as they watched, his Halloween costume stretching tightly over his expanding body. Only when they tried to run and tripped over their own loose shoes did the werewolf and vampire boys realize that they were shrinking smaller. They got to their feet and stared at each other, realizing that they looked terribly small and skinny and appeared years younger than they had been, their costumes hanging loosely from their shrunken bodies.

They looked back at the anime boy, whose costume was ripping open at the seams as his bulging muscles burst free. As he topped, six feet tall, the other boys took off running, squealing in fear like the scared little children they were.

The anime boy stopped growing as he neared seven feet tall. He noticed that the bullies had left their too big sneakers behind as they ran away. He flexed his fantastic muscles and looked down at his massive body all the way to the ground where his feet had ripped free of his shoes.

Kevin watched the boy turned anime hero chuckle happily as he reveled in the size and age he had stolen from his bullies.

Esme stood up and called to the overgrown boy, “It’ll be gone tomorrow. Make sure you behave tonight.”

The overgrown boy looked at her. For a moment, he looked as though he might argue with her, but then he softened, having sensed her power. He nodded in reply and sauntered off down the street, leaving behind only their three pairs of shoes.

Esme looked down at Kevin and said, “What was the point of that? That was none of your business.”

Kevin meowed, definitely.

She sighed and said, “You’re too much of a softie. Think about it. You’re supposed to be putting us in a position of greater power, not other people, especially not some random kid you see getting picked on.”

Kevin meowed in stubborn defiance.

Esme shrugged and said, “Whatever. Have it your way, but I think it was a waste of energy.”

She started walking and Kevin followed several steps behind her. The bond he felt with her had grown so much stronger now that he could sense her thoughts as she had sensed his own. He recognized she was annoyed but also impressed. He had surprised her at how quickly he had learned to control the magic they shared. He became aware of how important that the word “share” was in the spell that had transformed him. She was not in total control of her own powers now, having shared so much of it with him. To some degree, he could do what he wanted now, and she could not stop him.

Kevin slowed his walk slightly, deciding that he felt like taking his time. Once Esme had gotten thirty feet ahead of him, she noticed and slowed to a stop to allow him to catch up. She said nothing, but he sensed that she was irritated at having to wait for him.

However, when he was with her again, she said, “Let’s not linger around here. We wouldn’t want anyone finding us near the scene of the crime, so to speak.”

He mewed in agreement.

“Come on,” Esme said. She walked a little slower than she normally would, allowing Kevin to keep pace with her easily.

***

After the last houses shut off their lights, Esme and Kevin knew Halloween was coming to an end at last. They stood on a street corner, trying to decide what to do next.

“Do you want to stop by my house?” she said. “We can sort you out there.”

Kevin did not reply, but she knew he would go.

After crossing the street and turning another corner, they encountered three teenage boys vandalizing a house. One was flinging toilet paper rolls into a tree as another one tossed eggs at the garage door of the house. The third one was busy smashing pumpkins on the porch.

Esme was ready to walk on by, but Kevin paused there. He knew who lived there, a nice old couple whose grandson was a friend of his. Kevin felt anger burn through him as he watched the teens TP and egg their property.

Esme whispered to him, “Do it. Make them pay.”

So, he did.

The magic blasted at the boys, and they all paused as they felt something strange happening to their bodies.

Toilet paper boy had all the color drained out of his body and clothes, leaving him pale white. Then, his body became a collection of squarish cylinders, which hung in the shape of a body for a moment before crumbling apart into a pile of toilet paper rolls. Resting there on the lawn, absorbing the dampness of the grass.

Egg boy also went pale, but his body became stiff instead, a statue of oblong ovals, eggs in the shape of a boy. The eggs tumbled onto the driveway, some cracking open and bleeding out their yellow yolks and sticky clear whites. Others merely cracked. A few remained perfectly intact despite the fall. Ultimately the dozens of eggs and egg innards and shell fragments rested in a heap, slowly dripping down the driveway towards the gutter.

Pumpkin boy became orange and green, transformed into a bunch of fresh gourds, except for the one on top, where his head had been. That one was a jack-o-lantern with a saw-tooth mouth and triangle eyes. A single candle burned within. For a moment, all the pumpkins held together. Then, they came smashing to the porch. The jack-o-lantern head came to rest safely on top of the mess of destroyed pumpkins below. The candle inside illuminated the horrified expression on the carved face until it blew out, leaving only darkness inside.

Kevin was not a murderer. The teen boys were not dead. However, they were not exactly alive right now. They were what they appeared to be, helpless piles of their tools of destruction. They could not speak, could not even move. They could think and feel, though. That was all they could do. Their initial confusion was soon replaced by abject horror when they realized what they had become.

The toilet paper boy felt the dry layers of his body slowly unreel in the wind as the rolls below that touched the ground grew soggy and mushy. He thought of what he was, of what this paper was meant to do, what it was meant to wipe.

Egg boy felt his shattered pieces smearing down the driveway, slowly congealing and solidifying as they went. He was a stain, a mess, a sulfurous stinking heap of garbage. He worried that it might rain. He feared being washed down the drain into the sewers.

Pumpkin boy felt the pieces of himself getting cold in the night air. The hollowness in his head was like a cavern where his silent screams echoed endlessly. He desperately wanted to be human again, or else he wished for this torment to be over, to be unaware and unconscious.

They all wished to be free of this curse somehow, whether that meant being returned to normal or being obliterated.

Kevin felt satisfaction at first for the revenge he had meted out on the boys, but regret and horror followed soon after.

“It’s too late now to turn back,” Esme said. “We can’t undo the curse immediately. They’ll just have to wait it out for a few hours, until the spell wears off.”

Kevin could sense the boys’ terror and confusion. It was more than they deserved, but they had deserved something. It was not right, but it was not wrong either. He wondered what he had become that he could do something so horrifying with only a thought.

“You are a witch’s familiar,” Esme said. “This is what we are. This is what we do: whatever we will, whatever we want.”

Kevin thought she was a monster. Esme thought he should look in a mirror.

***

Not much later, they made it to her house. Most people thought the place was haunted, as old and gothic as it was. It was a perfect home for a witch or a family of witches.

Esme climbed the steps to the porch and walked to the door, but she stopped before opening it. Instead, she walked over to the porch swing and sat on it, holding her broom between her knees as she rocked slowly forward and back.

She was thinking about turning Kevin back to normal.

Kevin hopped up on the porch swing and sat next to her. He thought he might like to go back to normal as well.

She looked at him and said, “You could stay.”

He wondered how that would work.

She showed him her thoughts, how he could live there with her. She would care for him, provide him with everything he needed or wanted. He would be a cat, but she would pamper him ceaselessly. She would love him.

Esme leaned over and kissed the top of his head between the ears.

Kevin could no longer blush, but he felt as though he should.

“You know my heart now better than anyone,” she said, and it was true. He knew it.

He meowed, wondering what would happen between them if he went back to being a human again.

“We could still be friends,” she said. “Maybe even something more if you wanted, but our bond would be severed. You would no longer have magic.”

It had only been hours since she had bonded with him, but the idea of losing that connection frightened him. It felt so much a part of him now that giving it up would be like surrendering one of his limbs, or his tail.

He was about to respond, but the door to the house opened, interrupting his thoughts.

A young woman poked her head out and looked at the two of them on the porch swing.

“Whatcha doing out here, sister?” she asked.

“Leave me alone, Celia,” Esme responded.

“Want some candy?” the woman asked with a wicked grin.

“No.”

“Wait a moment,” Celia said, her amazed eyes having spotted Kevin. “Is that… a familiar?”

“Maybe,” Esme said.

“How did you get him?”

“You know how it works.”

“And, he agreed?”

Esme nodded.

“Well,” Celia said. “Are you going to keep him?”

“I’m letting him decide.”

“You could just keep him, no matter what he wants,” Celia said, her wicked grin returning.

“I’m not keeping him if he wants to go.”

Celia’s brows furrowed, and she looked at her little sister curiously. “Are you getting sentimental? That’s not like you.”

“Leave me alone, Celia,” Esme said, looking away. “I need to let him decide.”

“But-” Celia said.

Esme groaned in frustration and stood up. She held her broom horizontally and mounted it. Sensing what she meant to do, Kevin hopped up onto her lap and steadied himself as the broom lifted them off the porch and flew them out towards the street, ducking under power lines and angling up into the air, where they rose up above the tree line and accelerated into the starry sky above.

Kevin waited for Esme to calm down as he enjoyed the flight, feeling the cool autumn air whistle past his whiskers. Up here, they were in a world of their own, away from the problems below, free to think for a while.

The moonlight illuminated the world for him as bright as day. He gazed around at everything beneath them. So many familiar places now looked strange to him from this new perspective. He saw it all with fresh eyes and wondered what else he would see in time if he kept on flying with her.

“It is beautiful,” Esme said. “Isn’t it?”

He meowed.

“And, this is only a glimpse of what you’ll see if you stay. There are whole worlds out there that you can’t even imagine now.”

Kevin spotted his house and thought about his mother. He wondered if she was thinking of him, or if he was still missing from her mind.

“She could forget altogether,” Esme said. “Everyone could forget you. No one would even miss you for a moment. We could move all of your things into my house and leave not a trace of you behind. It would be as if you had never existed. You would be free… free to be together with me, forever.”

Kevin thought it should disturb him to even consider leaving his home and his mother, but as tried to remember loving her, he found that she seemed like a distant shimmering star to him, while Esme was like the sun, so bright that he could see nothing else but her light.

After a quiet moment of deliberation, he meowed.

Esme nodded.

Then, they flew on together into the midnight sky. For everyone below, Halloween was ending. Up there, though...