The box had arrived outside Zabby’s door a week ago, wrapped in bright orange paper with a black satin ribbon. The card instructed her, as always, to wait until Halloween to open it (though Zabby doubted many people actually followed this rule.)

She set it on her dresser and wondered throughout the week which costume the author had chosen for her this year, but none of her guesses were correct. When she opened it, she found a crisp policewoman uniform, and a note from the author’s alter-ego.

We’re trying something different this year. Each of you is dressing up in the profession of another character. Have fun!

~ Hannah

Zabby was dressing up as Chief Snowiks, then. She was certainly happy enough with that. As she put on the uniform, she found that every layer made her want to stand up straighter, hold her chin higher. By the time she pinned on the badge, she felt stern and confident enough to wonder if she might have pursued this career in another lifetime.

But then again, she supposed that was the point of all this.

She would have been excited for the party if not for the fact that someone would be dressed like her, and she wasn’t exactly sure what that would look like. Would they be in her waitressing apron? A cheerleader uniform? Perhaps just a pink, poofy dress? Whatever it was, she didn’t particularly want to see it.

There was a firm knock on her door, and Hannah entered without waiting for permission. “Okay, sweetie. That’s enough contemplation,” she said, waving Zabby towards the hallway.

Zabby glanced at her watch. “The party only just started. I’m not that late.”

“Yeah, but I’ve got a lot of introverts to pluck out of their holes,” Hannah said with a shrug. “Go on. It’ll be fun. Willow’s already there.” This was sufficient for Zabby to start towards the door. Hannah patted her shoulder as she passed. “You look really good, by the way.”

The party room was, as these Out of Story occasions usually are, decorated to an extensive degree. There were probably a couple hundred strings of orange and purple lights draping the walls, and any surface that might contain a skeleton, witch, or mummy did contain one. A quick scan of the room revealed a pumpkin carving station, snack table, dance floor, and… yes, there was Willow.

Zabby hurried toward him, trying not to make eye contact with the characters from other stories. She found these inter-story socials very stressful. Willow could normally be counted upon to commiserate with her social awkwardness, but at the moment he seemed positively delighted. She’d forgotten that the man loved Halloween.

“Zabby! Hey, Zabby!” He called to her before she reached him. He was dressed in a lab coat with a stethoscope draped around his shoulders. “I guess you’re Snowiks, huh? You’ll never guess who he is…” Willow pointed.

Zabby found the unfortunate man standing in a corner dressed in a fluffy dog costume. He looked immensely unhappy. Jasper, dressed as a nerdy math professor, was standing next to him. “Oh,” she said, trying to swallow a laugh. “That’s… unfortunate. Hey, does that mean…?”

Yes it did. Cider came bounding through the crowd. He was so wiggly with excitement that Zabby had to calm him down before she could see that he was wearing a pink ballet tutu.

“Cute isn’t he?” Willow asked.

“So cute,” Zabby agreed, albeit unhappily. “Is he supposed to be me? I never did ballet.”

“No. Zabby, no. Of course not.” Willow had suddenly snapped out of his jovial party spirit and seemed very serious. “There’s a story here about dancing.”

“Oh. Of course, yeah.” Zabby felt embarrassed now, and wished she hadn’t revealed her self-pity to Willow. She instinctively tried to hide behind her hair, but then remembered that she’d pulled it back to better fit with the costume. She straightened up and looked around. “So, who is dressed up at me, then?”

Willow cleared his throat and tapped a finger to his nametag. Zabby noticed for the first time that it read ‘Nurse Reynolds’ and felt a lump in her throat. “I… I never finished school, though.”

Willow shrugged with a smile. “We all know you will. Come on, there’s someone I think you should meet.”

Before Zabby could protest that she didn’t really feel like meeting new people, Willow was towing her through the crowd. Luckily, he deposited her at a man who seemed similarly displeased to be here. He was dressed as a convict, in a clichéd costume of black and white stripes and a foam ball and chain around his ankle. He had red hair, freckles, and was munching on the veggie platter like it was the only thing he was enjoying about this evening.

“Hi, Derryl,” Willow said. “I wanted you to meet Zabby. She’s studying to be a nurse.” To Zabby, he explained, “Derryl’s a doctor in his story.”

“Oh, that’s cool,” Zabby said. “It’s nice to meet you, Derryl.”

The man immediately looked down at his phone and started typing. Perhaps he exceeded even her standards of social awkwardness. But then he finished and pointing towards her just as the phone buzzed in her pocket.

“He’s deaf,” Willow explained. Derryl punched him lightly and spelled something out with his fingers. “Oh. Sorry, he’s mute.” Willow corrected. “He can hear you just fine.”

Zabby read the text message: Nice to meet you, too. Are you planning on specializing in a particular area?

“I hadn’t really picked anything, I guess,” Zabby said. “I wanted to work for a few years first.”

That’s a good idea. I see a lot of young people rushing into things.

Zabby felt oddly like she’d passed a test. “So, what about you? Do you have a specialty?”

“He’s magical,” Willow supplied, which made Zabby instantly understand why Willow seemed so happy to be mingling. She constantly forgot that the majority of other stories were fantasy. Willow would probably have left her story and joined theirs if he was allowed.

Derryl nodded. He still wasn’t smiling, but maybe he just wasn’t the kind of person who smiled regularly. He started typing a response but was distracted when another of the guests started dancing nearby. It was a wild, sweeping sort of dance that made Zabby worry the man was going to knock something over. (Derryl, it seemed, had the same concern. He hunched protectively over the veggie plate and glared over his shoulder.)

“Willow!” the dancer cried out, stopping the dance as suddenly as it started. “Good to see you. I have a new spell you’d—Oh, hey is this guy supposed to be me?” he jabbed a finger into Derryl’s arm. “That’s hilarious!”

“I thought you were a dancer,” Willow said. 

“Oh, yeah. But also a jailbird.”

“This is Lester,” Willow told Zabby. “His story has magic triggered by dancing.”

“Yes, but today I’m a musician,” Lester said dramatically, swinging a violin in a wide arc and nestling it under his chin. He brought the bow up and screeched out a few tortured notes.

“Stop it!” A girl ordered in a tone that implied it wasn’t the first time. “You’re going to get it out of tune again.”

“Which is exactly why you should play something, my darling Teera,” Lester said, holding the violin out to her. “Come on, what’s a party without music?”

“There is music,” she said, taking the violin and twisting the little knobs at the top.

Lester pointed up at the speakers. “That’s not real music. Come on, anyone can throw in a CD. I want to dance to something that’s actually happening.”

“I don’t want to play it,” Teera said, handing the instrument back. “It’s not mine. I play better on my own violin,” she said, but the there was a tiny smile indicating that she’d do it after a few more requests.

“Is she from your story?” Willow asked after Teera left.

“Nope, she’s from the new one,” Lester said. “The one with music.”

“And…?” Willow said hopefully.

“Yes, it has magic,” Lester said. “Curses, actually.”

Willow bounced a little and told Zabby that he would be back in a minute. Once he was gone, and Lester had danced off as well, Zabby let out a slow breath and Derryl (deciding that the immediate danger was gone) backed away from the veggie platter.

“So, um, you were about to tell me what sort of medicine you practice? Magic, right?” she reminded him.

He made a few gestures with his hands.

“I don’t know sign language. I’m sorry.” Zabby put it on her mental list of things she wanted to learn.

Derryl texted to her: I have magic, but I prefer not to use it. Mostly I do diagnostic stuff.

“That sounds neat,” Zabby said. “A lot of lab work, I’m guessing?”

Tons. But I like that sort of thing. And since we have magic in the world we get a lot of interesting cases.

“My world doesn’t have magic.”

Yeah. Willow told me. He says the world sucks.

“Not really,” Zabby said, but then corrected, “Well, it does, but not because of the no-magic thing. I’d think having people with powers would just make everything more complicated.”

Trust me, it does. He peered up at her for a moment, lips pressed together. Then he bent over his phone again. Hey, you should join us for the inter-story doctor study group. Thursday afternoons. We have doctors and healers from a few different worlds and we compare medicine. It’d be good to have you there.

Zabby folded her arms. “Well, I’m really not a nurse yet,” she said. “I’m just studying.”

Yeah. It’s a STUDY group. He gave her a pointed look and then reached for another carrot stick. At first, Zabby thought he was putting it in his breast pocket for later, but then a white mouse poked its head out and took the carrot from his fingers.

Zabby was trying to decide if she should comment on the oddity or not, when another set of sour violin notes split through the air. Everyone cringed and covered their ears until a female voice rose over the mangled music, “Okay, okay! Just give me that!” The speakers cut off in the middle of The Monster Mash, washing the room in silence for just a moment. Then, Teera started playing a lively sounding tune that brought the party back to life.

Lester joined a girl with short, curly hair on the dance floor. At first it was just the two of them, but then the girl started pulling people from the audience and drawing them into the dance until the floor was full of laughter and music and movement. Lester had been right: it was completely different when the music was being created right in front of you.

Zabby felt her phone buzz in her hand. You should go dance with them.

Zabby looked up, and Derryl nodded towards the floor. Normally Zabby wouldn’t, but it seemed like everyone was enjoying themselves too much to pass judgment on her own dancing. “Okay. Do you want to come too?”

Derryl shook his head with wide-eyed horror. Zabby recognized the expression all too well, and it was odd for her to realize that she was no longer the shyest person in the room.

Coming from a place of empathy, she knew better than to pressure him. “That’s fine, you don’t have to.” He relaxed a bit. “It was really nice meeting you,” she added, meaning it.

Derryl just nodded his agreement rather than texting it.

“You said Thursday afternoons, right?’ Zabby found herself asking.

Another nod, more excited this time.

“I’ll be there,” Zabby said. “Probably.”

It turned out the man could smile after all. 

THE END

This story contained the following characters from my novels / stories. The books are available on Amazon.

Zabby, Willow, Snowiks, Jasper, and Cider – From A Book Without Dragons

Lester – From The World That Forgot How to Dance

Derryl – From Coven

Teera – From Sisters, A Sorceress, And Strangely Titled Songs (Coming in 2018!)

Hannah – From my mind. She’s my alter ego, so she is my intermediary with the characters. She pops up sporadically on my blog.