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11:56 PM

SAMHAIN

Every night it seeer to co for the cold wind to be silenced, for colors to blur together into blue, for weightlessness to pour into him He didn&039;t look at the clock, which never worked Knowing how many minutes of Flatland were left only ht were always the hardest Jonathan wanted to be out there now, soaring over the still cars and softly glowing houses, feeling his muscles propel hiet ers It was Thursday night, tomorroas Friday, exactly teeks until Halloween If Dess was right, he would only have to endure this wait fifteen ht

And then he would be free of gravity altogether

His eyes closed Jonathan realized, of course, that the weakening of the blue tis free rein to hunt down thousands of people, maybe a lot more than that His father, his classer

But he couldn&039;t keep his ht lasted, Flatland would be erased, and the world would have three diuilty ave hi able to fly for days on end, however far the blue time expanded

Maybe it would s the whole world

At lasthi its clai away He drifted upward, sucking in a deep, rib-cracking breath Only at s feel like they filled coht of his own body The weight of Flatland

It was crazy to feel guilty about the joy this gave hi

Jonathan launched hi over his father&039;s car and up onto the neighbor&039;s roof with one well-practiced bound There his right foot landed on its usual spot, a circle of cracked shingles an

Then he pushed off toward Jessica&039;s and - as he watched for flying slithers and power lines, calculating the best course down empty roads and across newly harvested fields - his ravity, and then I&039;m free

"Okay, everyone," Rex said "Madeleine went into ht"

Jonathan frowned The five of the in Madeleine&039;s house, seated around her scuffed dining table surrounded by the clutter of tridecagraled shapes But the old wo as if she wasn&039;t co down Wasn&039;t she hoht?

"You actually let her touch you?" Dess asked

"Melissa was there to protect lanced at Jessica, and they both flinched, waiting for the nasty response they kneas cohed into her fist and rolled her eyes Eerily, the scar the darkling had left over her eye was shaped just like one of Melissa&039;s

Jonathan was glad she kept quiet Tonight Rex was scary enough without anyone provoking him His expression seemed vacant somehow, as if there were so off the Rex

He looked weird enough in daylight, but in the secret hour the new Rex was als reoth holiday is the real thing, huh?" Dess asked, shaking her head

"It isn&039;t a Gothic holiday," Rex answered "The Goths were froroaned "No, Rex, not the guys who conquered Rome I mean the kids in black"

"Um, Dess?" Melissa said "Mirror check"

"This dress is charcoal," Dess said

"Probably the Goths had so "A lot of cultures have festivals at the end of October The Feast of Souls So called Shadowfest The Death of the Sun"

Jessica raised an eyebrow "Shadowfest? That sounds festive"

Dess let out a long sigh "Why are we even talking about this? All that pagan stuff is from the Old World, but here in Oklahoma, Halloween is just an excuse to sell a bunch of candy and costus hid theot here"

Jonathan cleared his throat "Actually, Dess, it&039;s not just a European thing You know the Day of the Dead down in Mexico? Even though it&039;s the same day as All Hallows&039; Eve, the natives already had a holiday around then"

Rex nodded "And so the Old Crone around this tihed "Excuse me, Rex The Old Crone?" She looked around at the others "And ere those other ones? Shadowfest? Death of the Sun? Dawn of the Dead? Is it just -too-hard-to-be-creepy ring to them?"

"Of course they do," Rex said, his scary"Look at the bare trees outside, the gray sky, the dead grass everywhere The word Sainning of winter" Suddenly Rex&039;s voice sounded dry, like he&039;d been out in the desert without water for a few days "The dying of the light, armth turns to cold"

Everyone was silent for aa little spooked by Rex Jonathan heard a creaking noise above his head So Madeleine was here But as she hiding upstairs?

He glanced at Melissa, wondering what exactly had happened between the three of the out an exasperated breath "This isn&039;t about spooks and ghosts, Rex, it&039;s about numbers The eleventh month plus one is twelve That&039;s all it is"

Jonathan frowned Back in Philadelphia, his mother had always taken him to church on All Hallows&039; Eve Even the Catholic version of Saiven him the willies

"So tell us, Rex," he said "Way back when, before Halloween got all cutesy, as the point of Samhain?"

"Well, believe it or not, people did wear costu bonfires They burned everything they could, even the bones of their slaughtered cattle, hoping to drive away the night for a little while longer Of course, they kneinter was going to win sooner or later Sa of darkness"

"Hey," Dess said "Now there&039;s a snappy greeting card: &039;Hope that you and yours have a lovely coree," Rex said "It doesn&039;t seem like the best ti of darkness wasn&039;t a bad thing"

"Like I said, it&039;s a goth holiday," Dessall of recorded history, it was a time of celebration," Rex continued "But ere they celebrating? Think about it Back then winter must have been a pretty scary time of year"

"Because everyone starved?" Jonathan said

Rex&039;s face curled into sos Res hunted at night In winter, nights get longer and longer So originally those bonfires weren&039;t syned to keep the predators away for as long as possible"

The rapturous expression on Rex&039;s face , as if he wasmemories Jessica reached over and squeezed Jonathan&039;s hand beneath the table

He coughed "Sure, Rex That&039;s not so a nor tiain, even after the bonfires burned down They had retreated intoInstead of a last-ditch survival maneuver, they were now an act of celebration Halloween is the anniversary of the beginning of the secret hour, the day humanity finally reached the top of the food chain"

Dess sat up straighter "Huh Sodoes actually s really did disappear on October 31, that&039;s why it was such a good day in the old system It was the day when everyone was finally safe froht" Dess&039;s voice softened "Nove holiday fro to turn the food chain around again But the good news is this long ht won&039;t last forever - just for twenty-five hours, a single day by the old reckoning"

Jonathan knew he should be relieved, but somewhere deep inside him, he felt a little spark of disappointment

"Okay, Rex," Dess said "What&039;s the bad news?"

"The long er and bigger every time From now on, humans are the candy"

Jonathan&039;s disappointment lifted a little A whole day every year

"So what do we do about this?" Jessica said "Wasn&039;t that the point of you talking to the darklings? To find out some way to stop it?"

Rex didn&039;t respond for a while, his face strangely uned He realized that some part of hi that would shove the secret hour back into its bottle Which would be a good thing, of course, saving thousands of lives at least

But it would also mean Jonathan would never fly for more than one hour a day

Finally Rex spoke "We&039;ll try to stop it, to do whatever we can When it coether and teach theht for the the secret hour a secret?"

"We don&039;t anyht on&039;t be able to" He looked down at the table "And afterin Madeleine&039;s ht, I&039;hters to stay in shadows anymore"

Everyone was silent for a moment as the idea that the blue tier slowly sank in

Jonathan wondered again why the old mindcaster wasn&039;t down here with theht now, he supposed "So hoe organize a whole town in one night?"

Rex shook his head "I don&039;t know yet" He turned to Jessica "But you re to do with the flaer?"

"Yeah," she answered "That was kind of hard to forget"

"Well, I&039;ve got a few ideas about how the rip works And they have to do with you But we need to do a few experi At six-thirty"

Dess let out a snort "Hold on there, Rex There&039;s a six-thirty in thenow? No one told me about that"