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Hervoken Halloween was the sixth and final short story in the 2023 anthology Horrors of Arcbeatle. It was the second entry in the SIGNET series, and, as such, was also released as a free extra advertising the series on the Arcbeatle Press website. It introduced most of the SIGNET team (who existed only at the periphery of the previous SIGNET story in the anthology, The Thing in the Woods) and featured the return of the Hervoken, originally seen in the Tenth Doctor novel Forever Autumn. The Yssgaroth were also referenced, likewise under individual license from its creator.
Summary
With Halloween approaching, Aoife Fitzgerald's daughter Norah is happily playing at being a witch when the family receives an unexpected gift on its doorstep: a large, purple jack-o'-lantern. Driving to work in York, Aoife, a member of the freelance supernatural investigation team SIGNET, asks her colleague Olivia (a Gendar who transferred to Earth in a kind of intergalactic internship program) if she was responsible, but Olivia quickly clarifies otherwise. At work, most of the day is taken up fruitlessly looking for the source of a mysterious lattice of psychic energy that's appeared all over the city.
In the evening Aoife comes home to find that Norah has become mysteriously obsessed with the pumpkin, to a degree which frightened her husband Harvey. When Aoife goes to examine the pumpkin, from which Harvey had parted her at great effort to put her to bed, Norah mysteriously jolts awake and begins to protest against the apparent effort to take "her friend", "Hervy", away from her. Having analysed the pumpkin long enough to see that its purple colouring is natural rather than paint or dye, Aoife calls in Charles, SIGNET's leader, who arrives with Xana. As they begin to analyse the pumpkin in the kitchen, they realise that it is beginning to lose its purple colour and turn a healthier orange colour. As Xana realises that it's been psychically feeding off Norah's life-force to heal itself, Hervy speeds up its regeneration, regrowing its full scarecrow-like body and telekinetically using Norah's toy broomstick to fight off Aoife's attempt to attack it with a kitchen knife.
Having fully reformed itself, the creature reveals itself as a Hervoken, communicating in a mixture of psychic impulses and eerie songs. It explains that it was injured some time ago and separated from its kind. Charles and Xana, as per SIGNET's principles, offer it help, but Aoife, still resentful of it for tricking her daughter to steal some of her life-force, refuses to try and bargain with it, certain that it won't be satisfied until it's drained Norah completely. Whether she was right or not, the Hervoken senses her hostility and goes on the attack, forcing a reluctant Charles to side with Aoife in taking it down; though it attacks them by levitating ornaments and kitchen implements in a mad whirlwind around them, they find that the creature is allergic to salt, weakening long enough for Aoife to pick up the carving knife again and hack off its limbs, then finally slice the pumpkin-head down the middle, killing the creature and freeing Norah from its psychic hold.
A few days later, on Halloween proper, Charles drops by the Fitzgerald house again to check in on Norah's recovery. Aoife still resents him for his hesitation over whether to protect her daughter or give the monster the benefit of the doubt, which she still doesn't think it deserves. However, when the two grown-ups see Norah scampering out of the house in full witch costume, lively, cheerful, and fully intent on going trick-or-treating with the prior ordeal all but forgotten, Aoife comes to reflect that perhaps she should learn a thing or two from her offspring, and not remain hung up on the past.
Characters
Worldbuilding
- SIGNET recently "pushed the Yssgaroth back", following which psychic energy levels in the city dropped. During the event, Aoife Fitzgerald was temporarily possessed by the Yssgaroth.
- Another "untraceable terror loose in York" faced by SIGNET in the past was the Galvodon.
- The pumpkin is describe as smiling "a perfect Cheshire Cat grin".
- Charles has been a "surrogate uncle" to Aoife ever since she joined SIGNET.
- Charles owns a puppet ferret called Mr Fizzle.
- "Hervy" getting up is described as resembling "a vampire rising out of his coffin".
Notes
- The free ebook release contained a title page with the SIGNET logo and solicitations for Horrors of Arcbeatle as well as several upcoming Arcbeatle releases.
Continuity
External links
- Official Hervoken Halloween page at Arcbeatle Press