Night Of The Masks

Chapter 4
Part 4

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Chapter Description: With the truth behind the Gilne and the never-ending Halloweens exposed, the ever-shrinking Tia rallies her new friends for a plan.

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"What’re the Gilne?" asked Pammy, oblivious.

"They’re an ancient race of tricksters said to live in... Ugh..." Clearly annoyed by the overly-excitable bird who kept butting into the conversation, Miles focused his attention on Tia, "Yes, I think it was around the time you and your family left. I started thinking about them for some reason and I wound up reading some of my grandparent’s books on the subject until Sylvia was ready to go."

"W-Well what did the books say?" questioned Tia worriedly. "Um... I mean, is there anything you didn’t mention to me before?"

Miles stopped to mull that over, and soon explained, "I don’t really remember bringing it up in the first place but... Well, the Gilne are kind of an odd sort of trickster."

Rolling his neck back a bit as he thought over how to explain, Miles soon elaborated, "See, they were generally known to leave humans be and focus on each other. Except whenever some behavior or object caught their interest, in which case they would do whatever they could to cause it to remain in place."

"... Huh."

This was crucial information. As Tia let it bounce around her head, she began to stroke her chin. Before long, she gave a calculating look at Pam and Sylvia before asking the closest thing she had to an expert, "Would Halloween get their interest?"

"Why wouldn’t it get their interest?" asked Pam happily. "Free candy!"

Miles wisely chose to ignore the loud bird, "I don’t see why not... There’s a story in one of my Grandfather’s books about the Gilne falling in love with New Year’s Eve, and making it last for weeks upon weeks. They had to be stopped because it kept the new year itself from ever arriving, and as the eve continued, the drinking and celebrating became more unstable and chaotic."

"Definitely sounds like what’s..."

After a moment and another sharp pain to her head, Tia’s trailing off led to her insisting, "Wait, no, this is stupid! I get to feeling weird and suddenly I’m off looking for monsters. This whole Halloween thing is getting to me."

"Admittedly, things have been pretty unusual." Not that his memory was entirely cooperative, but Miles soon proposed, "However, it’s usually not something so broad that catches the Gilne’s attention. Perhaps then it is something about Halloween causing the issue rather than the holiday itself? Of course, this could all just be delusional ravings."

"I vote for just forgetting about all that and going to get candy!" announced Pammy, holding one hand into the air.

"Uh-huh!" Apparently on the same wavelength, the much-younger girl at her side did the same, "I’m with her, I wanna get more candy!"

This agreement was rewarded by a one-armed hug from the older girl, accompanied by a loud cry of, "See, she knows what I’m talkin’ about!"

Miles seemed to be getting more annoyed at this uninvited participant in their conversation with every passing moment. Rubbing his temple, he complained, "Yes, you’re clearly in the same mindset as a six-year-old. Your brainpower must be-"

"I’m four," corrected Sylvia happily.

Once he’d heard his sister say that, Miles’ eyes flew toward her at once. As they narrowed and looked over the dress he’d made for her, he asked, amazed, "What?"

"Yeah, remember?" With a giggle, Sylvia soon happily declared, "Though thatcha thought I was that old is really neat!"

"Hm."

This wasn’t going in quite the direction Miles was hoping for, but he was starting to get a clearer visual of things. Turning to Tia now, he questioned, "Tia, think carefully - have you been having any... discrepancies like this?"

"Hmm..."

As Tia attempted to turn her attention to the problem, her head gave a brief throb, but she pushed that out of her mind. Going over all the details one after the other, she asked, "Sammy. Sammy’s costumes. I know-"

Out of the corner of her eye, Tia saw Pammy raise one hand into the air, as if she was in school. The bookworm could only sigh before asking, "Yes?"

"What’s a discrepancy?"

Almost as soon as Pammy had finished her sentence, Tia was looking at Miles again, "Miles, you made Sammy two costumes, I’m sure of it! One of them was a vampire and the other was a dragon! At first I thought the dragon thing was something he went as last year, but I know it was made by you! Don’t you remember?"

"I recall the dragon, yes, but -- hm. It doesn’t make much sense for repeated... Hold on a moment."

Miles stopped there, putting a hand to his head as if it were starting to hurt. As he did so, the boy was clearly trying to think on something, perhaps piecing things together slowly through loose memories. After a moment, the boy seemed to hit on an idea, but he seemed somewhat hesitant as he explained, "I think my hobby might be what motivated this."

"Your costumes aren’t that good," mumbled out Tia weakly.

"It wasn’t ego- Gilne are attracted to masks and making things into something they’re not," explained Miles further. As he began to pace up and down the sidewalk, between the three girls, he continued, "They play pranks on each other by turning into different creatures.... Maybe one of them wants to keep Halloween going to keep buying my costumes. Or see more humans pretend to be what they’re not or something?"

"I guess that would explain it..." Tia frowned a little, however, and soon questioned, "But how does making people younger relate to that?"

Miles seemed to have thought of an answer for that, as there was no delay before he explained, "More people to dress up. Thus, they see more and more every night from people who before, or perhaps later more accurately, wouldn’t take part."

There was a certain, awkward moment there as no one quite had anything further to say. Until, that was, Pammy piped up with a question of, "Oh, I get it! Is this what LARPing is?"

"If we were LARPing, we’d wear costumes," replied Tia, clearly annoyed.

"Miles, you said we were gonn’ go trick or treating," whined out Sylvia. Her point as made clearer when she tugged on her brother’s pant leg. "C’mon, I don’t wanna stay here an’ talk all night."

"Sylvia, unless you want to wind up wearing diapers again, you’ll give us a chance to discuss this," came the blunt retort. As his sister pouted and crossed her arms, Miles turned back to the bookworm. "But how would we stop it? I’d assume the only way would be to tell it to stop, but how do we find something that can take any form?"

That was a good point. And unfortunately, Tia didn’t quite get any brilliant pieces of insight toward the subject right away.

Even if she did, though, they probably would’ve been dashed when the familiar voice of her cousin called out, "Tia? I thought’cha were headin’ on home so ya’d stop talkin’ all crazy-like?"

Tia didn’t even have the turn around to guess that she had not only AJ, but Sammy and the two new girls standing behind her. Once she gaze confirmed her thoughts, she gave a nervous chuckle, "Uh.... Hi.... You guys said you were gonna keep trick-or-treating..."

"We are," said Sammy bluntly. The tiny vampire held out his bag, opening it up and showing a sizable amount of candy (Sylvia toddled toward him to gaze inside). "We heard this area has the best stuff."

As Tia facepalmed and groaned over the sudden appearance, Miles put a hand to his chin. "Hm... Yes, we’re heard that as well...."

The designer boy pulled his gaze upward and began to scan the area. As he supposed, it was crawling with trick-or-treaters, all of them grade-schoolers. As a pair of ninjas passed him, he asked the group at large, "Where exactly did you hear the candy was good at this area?"

Iris was the one who opted to respond to that, with the quick explanation, "This kid was tellin’ us that, so ask him."

"I think they kinda were," Sammy answered to the somewhat excitable girl. Afterward, he began to mull the subject over - once that failed to turned up anything for a moment, however, the boy mumbled, "I don’t really remember... I think maybe you mentioned it this afternoon?"

"I... I remember that but...." Stroking her chin, Tia ran her brain over the possibilities before recalling, "Miles, I think you mentioned that to me... Last night."

"Hold onna minute," proclaimed AJ, holding up a hand curiously, "When’d the two of ya see each other last night?"

"And I heard it from one of my customers," explained Miles with a nod. "Several times, as a matter of fact- the whole time I was fitting her, she kept reminding me to come down here."

That sounded like it might have been a red flag. Curious at once, and not quite thinking she should set to explaining to the confused outside parties on this conversation until she had it straight herself, Tia questioned, "Was there anything else weird about that person?"

"Kind of." Miles had no trouble recalling this particular meeting, peculiarly enough, as he explained, "She kept wandering around looking at all of my work, and she seemed really... off. Like certain perfectly normal things were alien to her."

With that bit of news, a smile crept onto Tia’s mouth as she remarked, "I think we’ve found our Gilne."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa...." Things were again called to a halt by the bookworm’s blond cousin, who said in a slow voice, "What is this all about?"

"The Gilne are these imaginary things that play tricks or something," explained Sammy. "I’d say she was on a make-believe game to hunt them down, but she’s too much of a stick-in-the-mud."

"Gilne aren’t imaginary, they’re all real!" squeaked Sylvia in protest. The preschooler inched back over to her brother, asking, "Right?"

"It certainly looks that way..."

"Um... Excuse me..." The shyest member of the formative group stepped forward a bit now, albeit very reluctantly, as she commented, "While I-I’d need some real information to judge and all, doesn’t... whatever you’re doing kind of fall under being quick to jump to unlikely conclusions? N-No offense."

Iris took it upon herself to answer, "I dunno, if monsters and stuff don’t show up on Halloween, when are they gonna show up? Christmas?"

Having all this pointed out to her, and from her brother of all people, didn’t help Tia’s opinion of the matter very much. She gave a great sigh, wondering about what she was doing and the feeling she’d been getting the last few days.

Trying to rationalize things, she glanced at Sylvia, who was having her hair petted by her big brother. Then, turning to Fiona, she asked, "What grade are you in?"

"Umm..." A little taken aback by this question, the teddy bear stammered out, "The ei-eighth...."

"That’s not what you said earlier, is it?" In all honesty Tia wasn’t sure, if only because she wasn’t used to actually listening to people unless they were teachers, but she was still pretty confident in the belief, "You said you were in high school just a bit ago, didn’t you?"

"Well, I-I may’ve misspoken..."

"Don’t think so." Tia gave a firm shake of her head, and then explained to the group at large, "I think I can kind of recall being there myself. And I’m sure the same goes for the rest of you."

"I don’t," proclaimed Sammy in a blunt voice, raising his hand.

"Yeah, me neither." Iris gave a shrug before she admitted, "But my school years all sorta run together except for the sports stuff. Once you hear one teacher blab on about stuff some dead guy did you’ve heard ’em all."

While those two denied Tia’s claims however, AJ put a hand to his chin before wondering aloud, "Hang onna sec... I.... I think I might remember walkin’ back and forth to the high school... Bein’ in class with the teacher who lives down the street from us..."

"See? That’s the sort of thing we should be focusing on!" At once feeling herself growing a lot more happy than she probably should have been given this situation was as of yet still unresolved, Tia explained to the group at large, "Just try your hardest to keep all of this in mind, alright? Whatever this is has been messing with our memories but if we keep them in mind we might be able to do something."

Miles for his part could follow that logic, but with a polite nod he couldn’t help but point out, "That’s all well and good, but I’m afraid that if we do not pick up the pace on resolving this it won’t make much of a difference."

"Well, yeah, but we need to take this one step at a time, Miles," replied Tia helpfully.

Shaking her head, Iris added, "I still don’t get what you guys are talking about."

"I-I think I do.... I re-remember studying for these tests, a-and I think they might’ve been my ACTs..." As she wondered about the subject herself, Fiona suggested, "AH! I-Iris, you’re on the wrestling team, right?"

"Yeah, what’s why I’ve got the costume," replied the shorter girl. "What about it?"

"W-Well, the junior high doesn’t let girls on the wr-wrestling team."

"Hold on a sec!" Breaking her somewhat peculiar silence on this subject, Pammy was sure to do so in as dramatic a way as possible - by jumping into the middle of the group and giving a point into the air as she asked excitedly, "I figured it out - this is a dream, isn’t it? Kind of weird, most of my dreams are a lot more happy than this..."

"Yes, yes, whatever." Crossing his arms somewhat impatiently, Miles questioned, "Now that most of us at least have a grasp of the situation, should we get moving? We know the about area and I’d remember the woman if I saw her - the Gilne can change shape but usually become enamored with a form and stick with it for a time, therefore --"

Before the boy could progress further, he felt a tug at his pants leg. At once Miles turned his attention down, to where Sylvia stood - now even smaller before, and rubbing one eye sleepily as she explained, "Wan’ go night-night..."

Miles took a moment to respond to this before asking, in a deadpan tone, "I’m going to have to go back to changing your diapers again, aren’t I?"

Sylvia didn’t give a response, instead only beginning to suck on one of her fingers as her head drooped low. A reluctant sigh followed from Miles, who soon scooped her into her arms, handing her bag of candy to Tia, "Hold this. She feels a little too heavy than she should.... How old do you think we are?"

"For the moment?" half-quipped Tia.

"I think you look maybe elevenish?" replied Pam happily. The bird quickly skipped to a nearby puddle in the street and glanced at her reflection before crying, "I sure do! That’s how I looked in my eleventh birthday party pictures!"

"Okay, that gives us about six years worth of time we can blow before we’ll probably be spent on useful. Based on the way things are going that doesn’t give us a lot of time." Tia at once looked toward her brother now, expecting to find him to be similarly tiny. Which didn’t quite happen - instead, if anything he looked to be closer to her in height, though that seemed to be more Tia shrinking than him growing.

Once he realized his sister was staring at him, Sammy got the picture and explained, "Yeah, I dunno. I-I guess maybe that monster thing you still haven’t really said much about likes me the way I am or something?"

"Or maybe you’re really the Gilne!" cried Iris, pointing an accusing finger to the boy (who was now just barely shorter than she was). "Hey, bookworm, are you sure you really had a brother at all?!"

"It’s Tia," grumbled out the girl in question. "And I can remember about a dozen stupid embarrassing things he’s done to me when he was little, so yeah."

At that mention, the little vampire crossed his arms with an annoyed "Hmph," suggesting, "Maybe the Gilne thing wants to see me get older than you."

Trying to ignore the two siblings, Fiona turned to Miles, asking, "S-So, about this Gi-Gilne thing...."

"You know, it’s nice that the dress I made shrank to fit her- she does look rather cute in it." The boy was looking his sister over in his arms as she laid there sucking her thumb. "Although with my luck, her diaper will leak all over it and ruin it."

Okay, clearly things were starting to drift a little off topic here. Giving a heavy sigh, Tia at once questioned, "Alright, do we now have everyone straight enough on this that we can get moving? Hopefully we can get this resolved and wind up our proper ages again in the process."

"Yes, that is probably the best call." With a look down at the girl in his arms, however, Miles had to admit, "Although I honestly should consider getting her home to bed I suppose..."

"Miles, you can’t go!"

It wasn’t until those words left her mouth that Tia felt surprised at just how pleading they sounded. Hoping the blush coming to her cheeks wouldn’t be visible in the low light of the evening, she coughed and lamely finished, "Y-You’re the only one who can help us find the Gilne."

"That’s right, we need you...." Fiona neared the boy herself, leaning down to look at the sleeping baby in his arms, "Besides, I bet if we’re quiet we can do this without waking her."

"Maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll get so young she’ll disappear," suggested Iris. When Miles glared at her, she soon looked a tad apologetic.

Evidently, Pammy now deemed it time to butt in once more herself. This time, it was by way of questioning, "So, like, if this Gilne thingy gets hung up on ideas and stuff, won’t we need something else to get it inta or something?"

That was a good point. Frowning, the best Tia was able to offer was a quick mumble of, "Hopefully we figure something out on the way."

"And what way’s that gonna be?" questioned AJ to the group at large. "If fashion-boy here made this fella a costume, do we check out all the trick-or-treaters?"

"Good idea...." Glancing at the boy, Tia asked, "Miles, what kind of costume did you make for her?"

The boy thought the question over as he began to rock his baby sister back of forth in his arms. After giving her hair a gentle stroke, he admitted, "I don’t remember.... It feels like I made more than one costume for her...."

"Maybe we should look for a trick-or-treater who’s dressed like a Gilne," suggested Sammy.

"No, I don’t think that would quite work. While no one besides me is likely to wear such a costume, they’d likely prefer something different if costumes are their motivation." Looking around a bit and frowning, Miles was hesitant for a moment before he admitted, "I’m not sure how exactly to find her."

"Great."

That was Tia’s reply, while Iris gave a much more dramatic, "This is hopeless! Can we just get back to trick-or-treating and try to ignore all of this Gilne stuff or whatever?"

"I know!"

Pammy probably didn’t, but she didn’t wait a moment before giving her suggestion, "Why don’t we just ask everybody ’til someone says they’re it?"

Miles sighed before explaining, "In spite of your staggering IQ coming up with such a plan, I doubt that the Gilne are that stupid."

"W-Well, I can’t think of any other ideas for how to f-find one..." suggested Fiona. "It couldn’t hurt to at least talk to them...."

"Assuming we’re even right and it is in this area, it’ll take us forever to talk to every trick-or-treater," rationalized Tia.

"What if we put all our candy in a pile and screamed that we’d give it to the Gilne if they showed up," suggested Pam. "Who can resist free candy?"

Miles was silent for a moment upon hearing of that plan. The group at large’s immediate thought was that he was trying to come up with a way to shoot that down, and as such it was quite a surprise when after a moment he mused, "That might actually work."

When that was met from AJ with a confused, "Whatcha goin’ on ’bout now?", the boy shook his head and began to explain.

"Not so much that, no. But something like it - we need to get as many trick or treaters together as we can somehow. The Gilne’s most likely to go wherever the costumes are going."

"Are you sure ’bout that?" questioned AJ.

"Hardly, but I think that’s the best chance we have. It’ll want to take part in the festivities, and the best way to do that is by joining in on a large group of trick-or-treaters..." With that policy stated, Miles began to walk down the road, letting the rest of the party follow him, "Now let’s hurry up. Sylvia’s not getting any lighter."

"At least that means she’s not getting any younger either," added Iris.

As the group began to head off down the street, Pammy cried happily, "This is such a cool dream! I never meet friends like this in them before." The bird gave a quick glance at Tia before adding, "Hey, shouldn’t you have a costume if you’re gonna go trick-or-treating?"

"I wasn’t planning on -- Hm." Looking down at herself, Tia was quick to muse, "I guess having a member of the group without a costume could be kind of offputting to the thing, couldn’t it?"

"Well, I reckon so at least." Her cousin was quick to set to eyeing himself as well, musing, "I guess the two’a us had probably gerry-rig up something just in case."

"I might be able to paste something together if we stopped by my house, assuming my materials are still there," reasoned Miles slowly. "Really, after making costumes for everyone else, it would be nice to wear some myself."

"And we can drop off Sylvia too," added Fiona sweetly, bending low to coo at the sleeping baby. "I do feel sorta bad for taking her with us if we’re l-looking for a monster."

"Yeah, last thing I wanna do after losing all these years in aging is babysit," added Iris.

 

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