Olaniyan leapt easily from tree to tree as he made his way down one of the Forgotten City’s long avenues, lithe blue body stretching out through the air as he sailed from branch to branch, Sometimes he landed on all fours or swung up into the canopy by just a hand or his feet. He stopped atop a large cherry tree hidden from the street below by a canopy of gold, brown and red leaves as below the city descended further into chaos.

Halloween had certainly blossomed across the city, the costume party had spilled out into the streets and was slowly dancing its way through more people. They were fighting back in some quarters but the surprise at which most costumes happened was taking people out faster than they could retaliate. Or the various other Halloween styled mischief that had been set loose throughout the town was catching them whilst they were defending themselves from another. From his vantage point Olaniyan watched a pair of giraffes and a grey wolf in a collar fighting off an encroaching swarm of squeaking bats with what looked like a broom, a garden rake and a magic wand. They were doing pretty good but just as Ola was ready to swing down and offer them a hand they stepped back amongst the pumpkin vines that lined the side of the street.

In seconds the plants had surged forwards, covering the three in creeping vines and leaves and their cries cut off as the impish magic imbuing the plants transformed them. The vines rippled and parted, revealing some artfully crafted Jack-O-Lanterns nestled against the stone of a very thematic halloween statue. The billowing cloaks, tuxedo’s and mask set the tone, the marble fangs shone white in the lamp light from the lanterns and the maiden in a negligee swooning at their feet set this classic halloween scene. The vampires claiming their innocent victim, it was a pretty fantastical statue

Olaniyan sighed and shook his head then buttoned up his long quilted jacket and peered off toward the next intersection. The gigantic sabre-toothed cat made from toffee that was stomping along the road paused to claim another victim of trick or treat. Soon enough another giant candy monster had been born and started to come in his direction. It wasn’t all the imps doing however, not now at least. Some of the more fantastic residents of the Forgotten City had heard of Halloween, and had started to join in the fun by releasing their own kind of mischief into the night. Gathering himself the monkey resumed his journey, homing in on the location of the imps, it was time he gave them a little taste of what they’d been causing themselves.

-0-

“So ready to admit you’re my pet for a month?” Rook shouted out to Nall as the black imp winged his way over the pumpkin patch towards her perch atop the statue that had once been the otter Quix.

“No way! I’ve just unleashed a horde of candy monsters trick or treating.” Nall landed next to the magenta imp and smirked widely, “They are going to go through every house trick or treating until everyone embraces Halloween.”

“That’s nothing,” Rook said waving her spaded tail dismissively, “I’m introducing the people of the city to costumes. Nothing says Halloween more than a proper costume,” she grinned showing off her fangs, “It’s spreading too and my pumpkins are creating themed statues and dioramas all over the city.”

“Yeah?” Nall smirked, “No one has time to look at them they're too busy becoming part of the swarm!” he bounced from foot to foot excitedly, “Have you seen how well that is working out? They’re duplicating themselves all on their own without any input from me, it’s great.”

Rook opened her mouth to retort to this claim when something blue and Fuzzy swung up the statue, leapt passed them both and wrapped dextrous toes around one of her eyes and one of Nall’s. She shrieked in pain and slumped against the black imp who was wiggling in surprise. The pair of them fell off the statue and landed in a heap in the twisted vines of the pumpkin patch. The blue figure bounced off the statue, rolled across the ground and leapt up, catching two more of their eyes with his hands. His knees hit the statue and he flipped in the air, turning several somersaults before wrapping his flexible tail about the statue’s outstretched arm. Swinging back and forth gently he peered down at the wriggling imps with a bright shiny smile.

“You… let go of me at once” Rook gasped, scrambling to her feet, her magenta body trembling at the intrusive contact. Nall meanwhile was taking it worse then she was, he was lying on his side gasping heavily, immobilized by the grip the monkey had on his eyes.

“What’s going on,” he managed to gasp softly, dragging himself up by his arms, “Why do I feel… so… heavy!”

“It’s our eyes, they sort of… are us! Didn’t you work that out yet? This body,” she tapped Nall’s chest, “Is just a shell, a puppet, a distraction from the true ahhhh stop that!”

Her shriek was directed at the blue monkey who had started to juggle their eyes between his hands and feet. He was throwing them too fast for her to pull free and it was making her nauseous as the world span all around as her focus in this realm was juggled so expertly. Shaking his head the monkey continued to juggle, his soft supply blue body gleaming in the light of the multitude of jack-o-lanterns spread all around the park.

“Ooooh,” Nall groaned, rolling onto his side and curling up, “I didn’t urf notice, that’s sneaky…”

“Stop it,” Rook whined, pawing feebly at the air toward the Monkey who was busy juggling them into insensibility.

“I can’t stop now,” the juggler laughed, “I’ve been watching you two work all evening, you’ve been very rude you know.”

“Rude... “ Nall whimpered, struggling to rise, to reach out, to use his magic on the monkey but he couldn’t focus. His head wavered and he clutched his stomach with a whimper as he felt like he was about to hurl.

“Well you’ve been doing all this fun stuff for everyone else. I thought it would only be fair if you got to experience some Halloween fun too.”

“Who… are you?” Rook asked, grasping at the faint hope that this brightly smiling monkey would slip up and tell her his name. He just laughed and twisted his feet, flinging their eyes in a figure of eight sequence now and reducing her to a groaning heap. The sound of Nall retching from the nausea wasn’t helping her and the juggling simian’s laugh was somewhere between entertained and triumphant.

“You can call me the acrobat, now then shall we?” he twitched his feet and started spinning their eyes back and forth between his hands as he swung back and forth on his tail. His feet caught the trunk of the tree and he pushed off, bouncing up and snatching the rest of her eyes out of the sky. Nall’s eyes tried to flee but the nausea induced from being juggled made them so unco-ordinated the monkey was able to snatch them out of the air and add them to his spinning circle of imp eyes.

Landing on a nearby rock Ola balanced on one foot and split the spinning eyes into two independent circles. One set blue, the other green, using one foot and his tail to keep the whole lot spinning as he watching the struggling imps try to react. Shaking his head he smiled softly and looked around for inspiration, “Of course now I have you both I really need to think up something extra special to do with you both.”

Nall staggered to his feet, leaning on Rook for support and took a couple of lurching steps toward the monkey. Muttering and holding down the desire to heave he tried to string together a spell. He thought he’d have managed it if the monkey hadn’t taken that moment to shift his aim and cause the spinning circle of eyes to intercept one another! The sudden sensation and sight of his eyes slamming into Rook’s blue ones wiped out any hope he had of staying coherent. His mind span, his thoughts started to come apart and the world grew hazy and foggy as his body sagged. He slumped backwards atop Rook’s body, she was mumbling to herself, making soft whimpering sounds as her body began to bubble and melt.

Nall’s own shape was oozing into hers, his limbs distending, losing shape and melting, flowing transforming into a thick liquid that started to mix and together. For a moment there where two puddles of magenta and black oozing together then they started mixing, blending, merging into one single purple coloured blob that bubbled and started to thicken until it had the consistency of putty. For a moment Nall felt his mind sliding into Rook’s, their thoughts, experiences, knowledge and powers blending. He could feel her struggling against the inexorable pull of Olaniyan’s magic and manipulation of what they were.

He felt his body starting to evaporate into smoke and mist, drifting up and away on the wind. Slowly but surely the mixture of mist and smoke was drawn into the larger set of eyeballs Olaniyan was juggling until the monkey brought his hands together and pushed the two together. Then there was a strange vertiginous moment of nothing, a blinding second when they had no sense of self and then he was. They had always been one, a history, a lifetime of knowledge spread out behind them, experiences in the past that had been them.

There was a sudden flicker of light, a pulse of blue tinged magic and the monkey was left holding one large eye. The black demonic pupil split the soft magical orb half green, half blue, one mind, one set of thoughts and feelings and a personality made from Nall and Rook.

Twisting the eyeball in his hands Olaniyan tossed it into the air and called out, “Come to me Roll, come, your master has need of you,” he watched with a very satisfied grin as the eyeball began to draw shadows toward itself. Swiftly the shadows became smoke that coalesced into a purple shape with clawed feet, a long whip like tail with a white spade on the tip. Ola smiled as magenta wings flickered into shape on his back and horns of cream and purple crystal span up out of his head to lay alongside his long, pointed imp like ears. The single eyeball receded into the top of his fore-head and two more eyes, one blue, one green flickered open below in the traditional place giving this imp familiar three eyes.

He stretched in mid air and flickered his tail, rolling four more independent dual coloured eyes out into the air above the park. They looked around, zooming around and up in a slow circle to cast their glance over the city then focussed on the blue monkey below.

“Master, this is going well, Halloween for the Forgotten City, I’d say it’s going very well indeed,” he drifted down to hang in the air before Ola and grinned, “Though I do think I am going to win our little bet at this rate.”

Ola froze for a second then reached out to grab Roll’s tail, “What do you mean lose, I don’t have a bet with you.”

“Sure you do, whoever spreads Halloween the most before midnight wins, the loser is the others pet for a month.”

Roll laughed happily and coiled his tail around Ola’s arm and crooned softly as he rolled onto his back and pointed up at the night sky, “Let’s see clearly now,” Ola gaped as shadows coalesced across the surface of wavered as shadows coalesced in a long line across its length. Blue and Green light bled out of the split pupil to cover the glowing orb a the massive eye-ball hung in the night sky and looked down upon a city gripped in the fervor of Halloween.

“I see decorations everywhere, jack-o-lanterns and statues, I see trick or treating monsters spreading candy and terror. There are swarms scuttering and flying, scampering and climbing whilst other citizens of the city are pulling on costumes and getting into character.”

Turning over onto his front the imps three eyes glowed brightly as he smirked at his monkey master, “I’d say I’m well in the lead master, I’ve spread Halloween to the city and yet you seem to have done nothing but watch.”

Ola’s mouth opened and closed in shock, this wasn’t what he’d had in mind when he’d stolen the familiars and bound them together and to him. He stammered and stuttered and looked around worriedly and jumped as Roll held up one hand and started to count down silently from four to zero.

“Time’s up master, I do believe it is Midnight and I think… I win…” the imps tail coiled up the acrobats arm and coiled about his neck, the spade resting firmly against his chin, “Pet.”

Ola squeaked, protesting that he didn’t have a bet, that he wasn’t part of the game but the imp just laughed and slowly drew his tail back, leaving behind a glistening trail of purple latex that gently morphed into a snug collar around the monkey’s throat.

Roll stretched his arms above his head and drifted in a slow, lazy circle around his pet, admiring the monkey’s body and the worried frown on his face, “Now then, how do I make you fit into my Halloween Ola, what is our city missing…”

The eyeball that was the moon shifted from side to side, focussing on different parts of the city, watching the chaos and fear, fun and mayhem spreading from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. There was a polar bear terrorising a large mansion on the edge of town as he slowly transformed into a candy monster. A pair of blue fox’s melding into one, transforming, shifting, flowing, adapting into one singular creature that then exploded apart into a swarm of clones. Turning upside down he grinned at Olaniyan and smiled, reaching out for his muzzle with his long fingered paws, “I know just what to do with you pet…”

For a moment their eyes met, Olaniyan’s vision swam and then he stepped backwards, hopping in amongst the pumpkin patch and without giving it too much thought used one of his feet to heft a jack-0-lantern into the air. He sent it spinning in an arch deftly with the flick of his wrist, spinning the massive gourd up and around in a circle whilst his feet threw another pumpkin into the air to join it. Hopping from foot to foot he juggled, their terrifying, smiling faces filled with fire as Roll followed his acrobatic pet and started to toss other items into the mix.

A mini scythe was first, it’s keen blade flashing in the orange light and after a moment of thought Roll tossed a giant gummy bear into the mix. A white chocolate mouse followed a beautifully crafted masquerade mask and then to finish the spinning, whirling circle of objects flying through the air between Ola’s paws the imp added one of his own eyeballs just because a giant flame wreathed spooky eyeball was pretty scary.

Crooning and encouraging, whispering and playing Roll directed Olaniyan to move toward the edge of the pumpkin patch and the city streets beyond. As Olaniyan moved he continued to juggle, his eyes growing lost, vacant and expressionless as his body began to flicker and fade. Bright blue monkey fur became scattered hints of grey, wisps of white, see through and translucent only to fade away entirely a moment later. The circle of goods continued to be juggled to fly through the air in a circle, seemingly unsupported and accompanied by that flaming eyeball and the brightly smiling faces of the jack-o-lanterns. Except every now and then in the flickering light reflected off the scythe blade the outline of the monkey would appear. Grey and wispy, tortured looking and ghost like only to fade away a second later leaving the juggled objects once again seemingly unsupported!

It was just what his Halloween needed and as Olaniyan moved throughout the city he’d find others, possess them, start them on a route to juggling their own collection of Halloween themed items. Poltergeists, that was what the city needed to add a little extra layer of horror into the mix.

Stretching out in the shadows Roll laughed happily, leaning backwards and allowing his body of shadow and nightmare to blow away on the wind, watching through his many eyes as Forgotten City embraced and fell into its first, true Halloween!