"Hervy"
"Hervy" was a survivor of the Hervoken, an ancient jack-o'-lantern-like species with psychic powers.
At some point, the severed head of this Hervoken wound up in 21st century York. Being heavily injured and stranded away from its kin, the Hervoken arranged to have itself mailed to the house of Harvey and Aoife Fitzgerald close to Halloween, coming across as an innocuous seasonal present. It then made psychic contact with their young daughter Norah, who nicknamed it "Hervy", and began to feed off her life-force to heal itself. Aoife, however, noticed Norah's change in behaviour.
Unfortunately for the Hervoken, she worked for SIGNET, an organisation devoted to investigating otherworldly threats. She called in her boss Charles and colleague Xana, who recognised the purple pumpkin as alien and realised what it was doing to Norah. Realising that it had been found out, Hervy rushed through sprouting a complete body, and attempted to explain its injury and loneliness to the humans. Charles was interested in helping it rejoin its people, but Aoife did not trust it, believing that it would not be satisfied until it had drained her daughter completely; sensing her hostility, the Hervoken attacked, and to Charles's regret, they had to fight back and ultimately kill Hervy using salt and a carving knife. (PROSE: Hervoken Halloween [+]Loading...["Hervoken Halloween (short story)"])
