Chapter Text
As it turned out, walking to a haunted house in the heart of a withered old forest was way more pleasant when you were holding your dad’s hand.
A fresh layer of snow had fallen in the morning, covering the trees like frosting and making the ground sparkle. It got kicked up every time Dazzle took a step, leaving trails of fuzzy footprints behind her, her dad, and Uncle Moon. The light breeze whistling through the trees was no match for Dazzle’s new jacket and mittens, though she could feel it making her cheeks rosy.
“Some big roots stick out into the road here, so watch your step,” her dad advised.
“Uh-huh!”
Calling it a road was a bit of a stretch—even before it had become overgrown, it barely would’ve been wide enough for a car. Still, following it was way easier than cutting straight through the woods.
“So,” said her dad, “Have you got any plans for today’s visit?”
“Uh-huh! I’ve gotta do some investigating!”
Uncle Moon chimed in. “Planning another break-in?”
“Nope!”
“Good. I’ve gone two whole weeks without your dad lecturing me about being a ‘bad influence’, and I’d like to make it to a month.”
Her dad lightly bapped Uncle Moon on the head, making his cap go askew. “Hush.”
“I’ve gotta decide what to get Jack and Uncle Solar for Christmas!” explained Dazzle. “I’ve got everyone figured out except them.”
“Everyone, huh?” Uncle Moon said casually. “What’d you get me?”
Dazzle couldn’t reach his head, so she bapped his arm instead.
He snickered. “Fair enough.”
“Do you know what Terra’s getting them?” asked Sun. “She might let you join forces with her.” Aunt Terra was hand-making her gifts for everyone this year, which Dazzle thought was the best idea ever, so the girl was spending a lot of time at her aunt’s house learning simple crafts and making stuff for everyone in the family. Her aunt always knew just what to do when Dazzle messed up a project, and whenever Dazzle finished a gift, she kept it at her aunt’s house so she didn’t have to worry about her uncles or dad accidentally finding it.
“Maybe,” said Dazzle, half-heartedly kicking the snow, “but I wanna get them my own thing. It’s my first Christmas ever with them! It should be special.”
“And it will be,” her dad reassured her. “You’re a bright kid. I know you’ll figure something out.” He got a thoughtful look on his face. “Let’s see…Solar’s always been a practical sort of person. Never been too picky, and never gets himself things he doesn’t really need. Maybe you could make him something pretty, like a decoration? Though, honestly, I think he’ll be happy with anything. He just likes to know someone was thinking of him.”
“What about Jack?”
Uncle Moon said, “Jack used to ask for a real sword every year.”
“Which,” her dad cut in, “we are not getting him.” He hummed. “Jack was always an active kid. He liked stuff that would give him an excuse to run around. Plus any toys that had interesting features. He’d figure out how to take them apart and put them back together.” His steps slowed a little, and he frowned. “I haven’t heard him bring up any of that stuff since we found him. I don’t know if it’s because he’s not interested anymore or if he just hasn’t thought of them.”
“Now that you mention it, I haven't heard him ask for any of his old stuff, either,” said her uncle. “I guess ghosts just don’t care about that kind of thing.”
The foliage ahead of them opened up to reveal an ancient-looking house, icicles hanging from broken roof trimmings and fresh snow caking the rickety porch steps. Dazzle’s dad held her hand tight as they climbed up—in case there was any ice, he explained. Then he knocked on the front door. “It’s just us,” he called as he carefully pushed it open—
—and a dark shape with glinting eyes and teeth swung down and yelled “Boo!”
Dazzle shrieked and practically jumped into her dad’s arms. She hadn’t actually been scared, but she liked pretending. Jack snickered and spun around to be right-side-up, floating lackadaisically a few feet in the air. “Hello!”
“Hi, Jack!” Dazzle walked in next to him, stomping on the carpet to knock the snow off her boots.
“I keep telling him to quit that,” Uncle Solar commented from his spot on the main staircase, “but he’s been adamant that a haunted house needs ‘spooks’.”
“Because it does!” exclaimed Jack, throwing his arms in the air. “A house with creepy stuff and a half-dead person but no spooks is just, like, every old person’s house!”
“I mean, he’s not wrong,” said Uncle Moon.
Jack beamed. “That’s why you’re my second-favorite uncle!”
“‘Second’ favorite? Mind telling me who’s first?”
Jack merely giggled and flew up the stairwell.
Uncle Solar rolled his eyes. “Well, we might as well head up there anyway.”
The ground floor of the house always made everyone feel a bit uneasy. If Dazzle had to guess, it probably had something to do with the unidentifiable mold growing on all the windows, or the bones in the dining room fireplace that kept reappearing no matter how many times Uncle Moon threw them away, or the door in the back hallway that kept trying to lure people into going through it. Suffice to say, the family preferred to spend their time upstairs.
The second floor was way cleaner than it’d been when Dazzle had first visited, though it was a bit more cluttered—lived in, one could say. A smartphone and laptop sat on a little table, the pillows on the loveseat were out of place, and atop a little piano lay a piece of paper marred with pencil scrawlings.
“Dad and I have been learning to play the harpsichord!” said Jack, gesturing to the instrument.
Dazzle tilted her head. “‘Harp-sih-cord’?”
“Uh-huh! It’s kinda like a piano, but you can’t play it louder by hitting the keys harder.”
“Which is a godsend when playing with you,” chuckled Uncle Solar. “Wanna show them what we’ve been working on??”
“Yeah!”
Jack and Uncle Solar took their seats in front of the instrument. It was colored in warm yellow tones, and the box-like part that held its strings had an open lid with fancy carvings in it. The father-son duo exchanged a glance, then Jack gave an exaggerated nod and they both began playing.
The tune was a simple version of “Silent Night”, with Jack handling the melody and Uncle Solar the chords—playing them one note at a time to sound fancier. The harpsichord’s tone was different from the piano sound Dazzle was used to, but she still considered it quite pretty.
About halfway through, Jack started speeding up. Only a little at first, enough for Uncle Solar to send him a questioning look, then a little more, forcing the befuddled man to return his focus to hitting the keys on time. Faster and faster they went, and by the time they reached the end, Jack’s fingers were jumping around quicker than Dazzle could keep track of them, Uncle Solar was playing the chord notes all at once to keep up, and the final note—“peace”, Dazzle recalled—shook the whole instrument.
“Yes!” crowed Jack, while his poor father visibly resisted the urge to faceplant. Dazzle laughed and clapped her hands.
A faint knocking sound rang out from the lower level.
“I’ll get it!” Jack leapt from the bench and flew down the stairs. There was the slow, distant creaking of a door swinging open, almost lackadaisically, as if nudged by the wind.
Then Dazzle heard a—
“Boo!”
—and a high-pitched screech.
One muffled back-and-forth later, Jack rose back up the stairwell, arms wrapped securely around Uncle Cosmo, whom he smoothly deposited on the carpet.
“Thanks,” Uncle Cosmo deadpanned.
“You’re welcome!” Jack chirped back.
Uncle Moon didn’t bother trying to hide his smirk. “Man, I miss the days when we all carried you around like that.”
“Why can’t you now?” asked Jack.
“‘Cause I got too big.” Uncle Cosmo put his hands on his hips and stood taller, as if to emphasize the point.
Jack’s brow furrowed. “But you’re as easy to carry as Dazzle?”
“Shush.”
“Come on, Cosmo,” cut in Uncle Solar. “Be nice.”
Uncle Cosmo sighed theatrically, his proud pose instantly deflated. “I’ll have you know I did not pay an exorbitant Uber fee to get here just to be insulted.”
“You know I’m gonna pay for that, right?”
“And how irresponsible you must be, throwing around your money when you have a child to feed!”
Jack interjected, “I don’t eat anymore.”
“Irrelevant!”
“Alright, alright.” Dazzle’s dad held up his arms in a mock-placating gesture. “Since we’re all here…do we want to get to business now, or wait a bit?”
The adults and Jack all exchanged glances.
“That depends.” Uncle Moon sent Uncle Cosmo a particularly questioning look. “Are you sure you’re ready?”
Uncle Cosmo straightened, playful immaturity set aside. “I’m sure.”
“And if he isn’t,” chimed in Jack, “I can always catch him when he faints again.”
Uncle Cosmo facepalmed in a futile attempt to hide his snickering. “Thanks, Jack.”
“You’re welcome!” And with that, Jack promptly crossed the room to the banister and flipped himself over it, tumbling down the stairwell. Out of the corner of her eye, Dazzle saw Uncle Solar have a mini heart attack before mumbling something about “never getting used to that” and heading for the stairs.
When the group reached the bottom, Dazzle’s dad escorted her outside, where the two of them would wait until the others were done. Dazzle crouched in the fluffy snow, her dad following suit, and got to work building a mini snowman. The snow was powdery and didn’t stick to itself well, so she had to keep packing it together, and that made it really lumpy. Her dad praised her efforts and helped her smooth out some particularly troublesome parts, but there was only so much he could do. It took several minutes for them to make a figure she was somewhat satisfied with, and then as she was carving the face, she wound up pressing just a little too hard and the head collapsed. She forced herself to act mature and not smoosh the remaining body in frustration.
She remembered how her dad had said Jack used to like learning to fix things. Maybe he could tell her how to work with unruly snow. She knew her cousin liked artsy stuff, too. The painted-over wall in her bathroom was proof of that.
She bet he could make a really nice snowman, if he could just go outside.
“Dad?”
“Yes, dear?”
“Do you think they’re gonna find a way to free Jack?”
Her dad paused, glancing back at the house. “Well, that’s certainly the plan,” he said. “But even if they don’t, we’ll make sure to visit him all the time, and Uncle Solar will stay with him, too. So it’s nothing you have to worry about, okay?”
“Okay,” she mumbled, going back to messing with the snow.
Dazzle hated the thought of being stuck in one house all the time, especially one where so much of it was scary and sick. She wished she could at least live there with Jack, so it wouldn’t just be him and his dad all the time, but all the bad stuff in there made the grown-ups worry that it wasn’t safe.
The snowman crumpled in her hands again. Dazzle huffed and silently admitted defeat, joining her dad in doodling in the snow instead. As it turned out, the powdery texture was awful for sculpting, but wonderful for drawing. In a matter of minutes, a mini masterpiece of stick figures, smileys, and space-themed symbols fanned out all around her.
It all made quite a pretty picture, she decided. It was a shame that it would go away when more snow fell or the wind blew too hard.
Just then, Dazzle got a wonderful idea.
“Dad! Can I call Aunt Terra? I wanna ask her something!”