Page 22 of Fixing the Grumpy Pumpkin King
He tried again. And again. And again.
“This isn’t working. Maybe summoning isn’t my thing either.”
“Once more.”
“Jack—“
“Once more. I promise, this is your gift.”
Locke rubbed his face. “Fine. One more time. But then I’m gotta set up Freddy.”
He closed his eyes. Tried to clear his mind. Tried to feel... anything.
Then Jack’s voice was right by his ear, low and teasing and oh so seductive. “Maybe I’ll let you touch it if you…”
Magic erupted from Locke like a dam breaking.
He felt it rush out of him, wild and powerful and completely beyond his control. The air in the room shifted, charged withenergy that made his hair stand on end. Light flared behind his closed eyelids.
“Whoa! Rad!”
Locke’s eyes snapped open.
There was a kid standing in the middle of the room.
A translucent kid. A ghost kid. Maybe ten years old with short black hair, wearing jeans and a sweater that looked straight out of the 90s. He was grinning, looking around the room with mischievous glee.
“Oh my god. It worked. It actually worked!” Locke cheered like he was in middle school again and scored the winning goal in kick ball.
“This place is sick! Look at all this stuff!”
“Well done, Locke,” Jack said, and he actually sounded impressed. “You’ve summoned a spirit and didn’t blow up the house while doing it.”
The ghost kid turned to them, stuck his tongue out, and said, “Who are you losers?”
Locke blinked. “Uh. Hi. I’m Locke. I... summoned you?”
“Cool! This place is like, way better than where I was. So boring there. This place has all these freaky dudes!” The kid was already floating over to the Halloween decorations, poking at them with translucent fingers. “Hey I remember this guy!” The ghost kid touched the Freddy Krueger animatronic.
“Perhaps you should establish control before—“ Jack started.
The Freddy animatronic jerked to life.
“What did he just do?”
“He’s animating the decorations.”
“Dude! Check it out! Let’s make them chase people down and have them wetting their pants!”
More animatronics sprang to life around them. Jason. A vampire. A werewolf. All the carefully positioned Halloween decorations suddenly moved about jerky and uncanny.
“Can you make him stop?”
“He’s your summon. You need to command him.”
“Uh…hey! Kid! Stop that!”
The ghost kid was laughing and spinning in circles while making more decorations come to life. “This is awesome!”
