*Click* 

*Click click*

You flicker with the lighter and it ignites, the orange yellowish flame slowly turns to green and you light up the small candle in your hand. With a snap you shut the lighter and place it on your table for later use, you didn't smoke, just liked the pretty green flame and it was useful for lighting up candles from time to time. 

Taking a small carved pumpkin in one hand and the candle in the other, you gently place it inside the pumpkin then look around your room for a nice place to set it down. Pushing your standing calendar to the side, you place the mini jack-o-lantern on the window sill, it showed off its little creepy smile and triangular eyes.

"May I ask what are you doing Y/N?" his voice reached your ears and you turn around to Tynan standing behind your back and looking at the small decoration.

"Ah, Halloween is it? An interesting event I might say~" with a flick of his fingers you saw white strings leave his hand and fly to the pumpkin, they swished around for a bit, then to your surprise, turned into a duplicate of your own decoration. A ghostly pumpkin with a sly smile stood beside your own one, its surface gave off a whitish glow.

"It is, but my concern now is the question why are you smiling so widely?"I mean, you're always grinning but today you just feel MORE off." your eyes gaze into his own ones.

"Actually I am the same as always, might be your imagination you know?~" he gives another sly smile and turns to the door" Didn't you say that you need to get going somewhere?" 

"Oh right! I need to go outside quick!" You start changing fast as lightning and don't even care if Tynan saw anything, underwear is just like a swimming suit, no need to get angry about it being seen. 

Running to the corridor while still buttoning up your shirt, you swiftly put on your shoes and take the keys to the flat. 

"I'll be back after two hours or so!" you shout to him and without waiting for a response, close the door.

Backpack swishing from side to side you go down the stairs and exit the apartment. Today you had to visit your family's graves with your parents. They rang you not long ago to be outside so that they could pick you up and you would all drive to each cemetery location that you needed.

Zipping up your coat you nestle your head into your scarf more, hands in pockets you look around and try to see if they're already near you somewhere. Wind picks up and rustles the leafless tree branches above your head, some smack you in the forehead as the branches were long and thin. 

"Caw!Craw!"

You look up to the other side of the street and see a raven sitting on top of a street lamp. It caws a few more times and rustles its feathers. Either Tynan is gonna come with you or you're just staring at a normal raven. Adjusting your bag you hear some of the candles click against each other, they were small glass containers with candles, 3 in total, all had a rose engraved on them.

Soon enough your mom pulled up to you and all three of you drove off. After visiting two locations there was only one left and it was the farthest from the city. The graveyard was just beside the 16 century church, there were 2 areas  of graves, one was more close to the church, the other was a bit farther. One was completely bare against the sky while the other near the church was shielded by maple trees that by now, have already dropped all of their colorful leaves.

"Y/N, pass me the besom please" your dad asked as he was picking up dry leaves from around the gravestone while your mother was planting fresh flowers. Handing the twig broom you slide down the soil a bit. Sometimes it was a bit tricky moving as the graves were tightly situated near one another AND the maple tree covered part of the graveyard which was on an uneven hill. 

As you stood with a trash bag for the leaves in hand, you looked over the grave of your relative and your eyes travelled to the abandoned and heavily damaged wooden house, it sat just behind the low rocky fence. You heard from your parents that the priest used to live there and classes for children would be held there too but due to the rising of city life the house was abandoned, every time you passed through it you saw desks, chairs just standing outside the house, broken windows with sharp shards sticking out, half collapsed in roof, tall grass enveloping the surrounding area, yup, it was not a place to go to because you risked something to fall on you or step on glass.

Quickly the trash bag filled up and as your mom put in the old glass candles she said:

"Throw them in the trash bin ok?"

Giving a nod you turned on your heel and started walking towards the direction of the trash bin. You had to walk all the way to the back of this small cemetery, taking twists and turns among the graves. There were many people who cleaned the graves of their relatives, parents were busy and didn't see how some kids were running around, some played hide and seek with the gravestones. 

While walking down stone steps you suddenly feel a slight pressure and hear soft beating of wings. On your left shoulder sat a black bird, its beady purplish black eyes looked at you then at its surroundings.

"Comfy?" you ask the bird as you reach the end of the cemetery and near the huge trash bin that was overflowing with used up candles, fake flowers, pine tree branches.

"Quite so~" Tynan fully sits on your shoulder and starts cleaning his feathery belly, plucking one black feather out he starts patting your cheek with it as you place the trash bag down.

"*chuckle* that tickles, stop it, by the way, so you feel the need to clean yourself in bird form?" you poke his chest.

"I was itchy, probably from this place"

"You mean the cemetery or the church?" you look back to the entrance and see the church's roof poke out from above the trees.

"This area in general, it feels like holy land but I emphasize the word " FEELS"" he hops down to the ground and looks towards the entrance like you. " Do you see anything unusual or feel anything?"

"Well" you scan the area, no way there's anything bad here, every time you came here it was peaceful. 

But. Wait.

Squinting your eyes you look more attentively to the people walking around, their movements looked a bit too slow...

*CAW*

Your eyes dart to the trees and you see a group of crows spread across the tree branches, some flapped their wings and the movement looked normal. Except their shadows were strange... Where one crow was supposed to be sitting, you saw two, one original and one completely black.

"Ok Tynan, I admit that something IS off, but everything was normal every time I came here so what's going on?" 

"Well let's check it out Y/N~" he starts flapping his wings and takes to the air.

You start following him and as you pass the entrance gate you really are sure that the movements of people here were terribly slow, as if time was slowly stopping. Climbing the stone steps again you look forward and out of all the people, a single figure not far from you was walking towards you in a relaxed manner but much faster than the others were moving.

His back straight, black walking stick in hand, a man who looked in his 50s was walking towards you. He wore a simple black suit that complimented his skeleton-like slender body, a silver ring on one of his hands was visible, black as night hair was neatly combed to the back.

Snapping back from a daze you still walked forward and with each step you took, you felt heavy, you looked to your hands and you saw them split, your vision was blurry.

And suddenly

You started falling, the man's walking stick bumps echoed in your head, somewhere in the distance you heard glass shattering and before your vision completely blacked out, you heard a clear whisper just beside your head:

"Y/N"

.............

....

Air filled your lungs as you started coughing and wheezing. Pushing yourself up you sit on the cold ground and start looking around. Everything looked normal, except glass shards lied in front of you, it seemed they belonged to a nearby candle which had escaped and was now beside a gravestone. Standing up and dusting yourself off  you notice that there were no people in sight, everyone vanished.

"I don't like the looks of this..." you walk towards your relatives grave and don't find your parents, everything was eerily quiet except for the rustling of leaves. 

"Maybe I should look some more" you decide to climb the small path up the hill which connected the church, maybe someone would be there? You looked around for Tynan but didn't see him in sight. It was a bit cold so you wrapped your scarf tighter around you, dark clouds were forming as you walked and stared a bit at the sky.

Finally reaching the church you tried opening its door, often it was locked because in order to get in you had to wait for masses to start, but this time the newly painted door gave a slight creak and opened. Stepping inside it was a bit dark at the entrance but it got lighter as you opened the second big door to reveal the 16th century chapel, new bought white pews lined themselves up to the altar, a red carpet was laid on the grey tiled floor, some corners of the inside were shrouded in darkness as the giant chandelier's light couldn't get to every corner. Your footsteps rang in the air as you approached the altar and saw two big candles on each side of the altar and an open book, its pages were curiously blank even though the book was open mid way.

As you turn your back to the book you see the organs on the second floor, they always intimidated you as a child and now in this strange situation they didn't look any more friendly. 

*flap flap*

Your ears perk up as you look around and spot a black animal on one of the pews. With a whisper you call:

"Tynan? Is that you?" taking a few steps with caution you wait for it to speak or not.

But unfortunately for you, it just sat there watching you, no sound, no movement.

Seeing no use of being here you start walking towards the door to leave but just as you place your hand on the doorknob...

*CLACK*

 You froze

It sounded like a stick with a metal bottom jabbing the floor.

But when you looked back  you saw nothing, deciding not to stay any longer in the church you exit it. It's gotten darker, still no people so you start walking towards the gate of the church.

"CAW!"

Your shoulder gets heavy all of a sudden and you look to the animal with a bit of annoyance:

"Where were you? Why didn't you answer me in the church?" you accused your partner.

"My apologies, When I flew ahead of you I suddenly found myself in the forest down the hill, When I flew up a bit more I saw only trees for miles surrounding this one spot, and I wasn't in the church, I just flew down when I saw you come out of it~" even though he was a raven you could still hear a snicker escape him.

"So we're stuck in this closed off space? Great, why did it suddenly cause me problems I wonder" you refrain from opening the gate as it's no use seeing that you're surrounding by forest from all sides, leaving to find a highway wouldn't help as there was none.

"Is there no way for you to get us out of here?" your brows raise up a bit as you see him fidget for a bit, his beak turns left and right

"Well we have a problem with that, something is restricting me from acting, I can't do anything while I'm a raven."

"Hmm, might as well explore the surroundings, I feel a bit better with you around as this quiet was getting on my nerves" you pet his head gently with your finger and as you take another step, you hear that clack sound again, it was sharp and felt like it struck you in the heart.

"Tynan? Did you hear anything?" grabbing your chest you hunch a bit, the stabbing feeling passes quickly.

"I did not hear a thing, what's wrong?" 

"I keep hearing this clacking sound of a stick or staff, whichever, and now I heard it again and my chest started to hurt..."

He flaps his wings a bit"I can see that your physical body is taking some damage, but I do not understand from what exactly, maybe this place is taking a toll on you, better keep moving to find a way out, I'll try to gain some control over this area but it might take a while"

"Ok, we both try and get out of here"

But no matter where you looked which wasn't much space to be honest, you didn't find anything that would make you understand what was going on, neither did Tynan make any progress on finding a way to escape. What DID change though, was that you started to notice a strange creature in the corner of your eye. It hid behind trees, behind gravestones, behind the church walls. But it was always following you.

It had pale pinkish skin, resembled a human by shape but the features like: sharp fingernails, no mouth, fleecy straw like black hair and huge black two ring circles for eyes, were the details that REALLY separated it from anything normal that you knew about. When you described it to Tynan, he said that he only saw these creatures rarely. He had no clear name for them, only knew that they liked to live in cemeteries and watch people as they cleaned up, prayed to the dead. 

"One more thing I would advise you about is to never let it sneak up on you, most of these creatures are neutral but if they know that you can see them, they start to get curious and approach nearer every time, I heard from an acquaintance that some humans lost their souls like that, because when it sneaks up on you, I kid you not, that it will scare your soul out of your body~"

" And you're saying that with a sing song attitude becauuuse?"

"Well I've never seen the soul leave the body so fast so it is kind of intriguing~"

"If we can't get out of here I wonder if I can make soup out of you" leaning against one of the school tables you look at the abandoned wooden house again and just as you turn your head your  eyes pass by the creature which was poking its head from the back of the house.

Did it come closer? No it couldn't, you avoided it like the plague, if you don't seem bothered by it, it will not know that you see it.

*CLACK*

Your heart gets stabbed again, these pains were really slowing you down and you had to take rests from time to time, it felt like half a day has passed.

*CLACK*

"Ugh...." you look to one of the window to distract yourself from the pain but you spot that being staring at you.

It WAS closer.

*CLACK*

"Y/N? Is it the pain again?" you hear Tynan faintly. Your gaze travels to the church again and near it you spot the strange man from before you fell unconscious, he raised his walking stick again...

*CLACK*

"AGH!" you slump to the ground, lifting your head a bit you spot the creature 5 meters from you, hiding among the tall grass. It knew you can see it, you were sure of it now, and every time the man near the church struck his cane down it seemed that you were dying slowly, as if every clack brought you closer to death....

"Y/N! GET UP AND RUN!" Tynan's booming voice alerted you and with all your will you sprang up" GO TO END OF THE CEMETERY! QUICKLY!"

Sounds of cawing and annoyed hissing could be heard behind you as you ran like hell. Almost slipping on the path your hands quickly grabbed onto a nearby small fence of a gravestone for support, taking a quick glance back you saw the man with the cane walking towards you, he was approaching with a dry and calm demeanor. Yet you ran from him like you've never ran before.

It was but a short distance but in that small time you could hear Tynan shouting in your head to find the gate door, when you reached the end you didn't find it, one of the gates vanished, that meant you had to run to the other one which was near the church.

Good thing there was a separate path for cars that lead to the front of the church, taking a right turn you dashed until your breath caught in your throat but luckily for you, there you sat on the ground, in front of the gate. It was still locked and saw no signs of budging.

Gasping for air your chest rose up and down as your legs pulsed from being used for such a speed. 

"You can't really outrun me" The man states calmly while he stands before you, his hands on his cane.

You couldn't really utter a word from exhaustion, eyes threatened to close and you wouldn't allow that as it meant your end. Scrambling up a bit you stand up a bit wobbly to the sides, the man takes a step back to give you space and waits patiently. 

"How many times now, did we need to meet? Because you are exhausted, I will answer for you" he looks towards the church a bit"MANY, many times we had to meet, yet every time our meeting draws near, he turns the table on me and you keep living."

Once you open your mouth to speak you hear fluttering and in between you two, Tynan lands on the ground still in his bird form, some of his feathers were ruffled or plucked, he looked a bit beaten up.

"To what do I own the honor of meeting you Pale rider?" Tynan bowed as much as he could.

"You very well know why I'm here Tynan" the man states and strikes the ground with his cane yet again making you kneel from pain. 

"I hope negotiating is on the table?"

"You know I'm not one for negotiating" The man leans on his cane.

"I believe we could reach an agreement nonetheless" you don't remember when was the last time the demon spoke with such respect in his voice.

"Let's see where your confidence gets you" with just a motion of his hand, the man turned Tynan to his human like form. Your mind was slipping away bit by bit, just behind the strange man, you saw the being from earlier again, it looked like it was waiting for something. And you guessed, with your dizzy brain, that it was waiting for a chance to get you.

Looking at Tynan's back for comfort you noticed that much like his raven form, his human form was scratched up a  bit too, one of his sleeves torn, a small red line on the back of the neck, hair messier than usual. He really did try defending you didn't he?

What seemed like ages were actually a couple of minutes as a hand was offered to you by the demon. Taking it you were hauled up, your drowsiness was almost gone, no pain, just exhaustion hitting you.

"We have to go back to the gate you were running for" Tynan explains and you three start walking. Tynan was in between you and the man, you were frightened quite a lot so you mostly avoided looking at the man.

"What about that gate near the church?"

"Oh that one, best you forget about that one for a long while~" the demon stated and chuckled while the man seemed irritated a bit as he softly poked the ground and you thought for a split second that the pain would return but nothing was happening, even the strange being from before had disappeared to somewhere. 

Just when you could spot the gate, the man stopped in his tracks and addressed you with a calm voice:

"Till our last meeting Y/N" he then looked at Tynan as the later bowed deeply yet again, and he turned on his heel, you could hear indistinct humming throughout the cemetery. Both of you stood in front of the gate, Tynan took the metal handle and pressed it down then held the gate open for you.

"Best go back~ I have a hunch you'll want to rest after today~" he smiles slyly.

"You think so?" you ask sarcastically and walk through the gate. Nothing shifted, but you felt a bit lighter now, looking back you saw the same scene as before with people cleaning up graves. Along the way to your relative's grave you spotted the broken glass on the path and carefully avoided stepping on it.

...................

.......

Back at home you were wrapped in your blanket, a bowl of candy on your right, a demon on your left and your laptop in front of you on the extended couch. You two were watching a horror movie but you didn't really pay attention as other thoughts were about to slip your tongue.

"So, mind telling me how you got me out of that situation?"

"To which situation are you referring to exactly?~" he hummed

"You know pretty well that I know who he is, now tell me, what did you offer the pale rider?"

Taking one candy piece you unwrapped it and popped it inside your mouth, apparently the movie finally reached the point where the murderer killed almost everyone in the camp. 

"Curious to know?~"

"Of course I am, I want to thank you also for negotiating with him, I wouldn't be alive if you hadn't done that" you give a nervous giggle.

"......I will tell you that no wealth, no ruin, no silver, no gold satisfies him, only souls" he hummed a melody.

"How many souls did you give?"

"I can't really remember since our discussion took a  very long time"

"It wasn't long! About 5 minutes or so...." confused you look at him but he only gives you a smile

"To you, it only seemed 5 minutes"  

Good evening! ^w^ Here's the halloween special, almost 4000 words =w= I'm tired as hell but it was satisfying to write this one! Sorry that I'm a bit late but I hope you enjoy it!