Jack Lantern ...Brains...: Jack Lantern, #1

Chapter One

Wake up Dead

Like a bolt, Mia Lannigan sat upright on the cold metal gurney beneath her. She was still in her torn, bloody clothes - that red shirt and those black jeans... She was cold, colder than she had ever been in her whole life.

The gurney on which she sat was positioned in a rather small room with cold white walls and a matching floor. It looked sterile. Lifeless. Uniform.

Just removed from Mia, she saw a small steel table, fresh clothes stacked neatly on its matte surface. They looked clean, warm, and not stained with blood. These were things her current clothes couldn’t make a claim to.

Swinging her legs off the stretcher, she slid off the edge and slowly made her way to the table.

The clothes were almost identical to the ones she wore, but they were as clean and un-tattered as she had hoped. On top of the clothes, pinned neatly to them, was a yellow bit of paper with messy handwriting across its surface.

We need to talk... was all that it said. Mia thought it rather blunt, but true.

After changing, she found the door across the room and passed through it into a large rectangular chamber with a bright burning fireplace directly ahead of her. She moved in a straight line to it, diverting only once, so that she did not tumble over the large green sofa that sat just in front of the fire. She wasted no time in taking a seat on the sofa, but shortly moved to stand directly in front of the dancing flames, trying desperately to warm herself, with very little in the way of results.

A few more moments of desperate effort passed before she heard a voice clearly ring through the silence, ‘That’s not going to do you any good. You’d better get used to the cold, at least for now.’

She turned, her eyes falling onto a man, not overly tall, and not overly short. He was not extremely muscular, but he was, at the same time, quite fit. He wore dark pants and a dark shirt, and simple green sports-jacket.

His most distinguishing feature, by far, was his face, which, like the rest of his head, was a pumpkin. He smiled at her. The Jack O’ Lantern features moved and changed as any other man’s face would, but for the exception that his was a Pumpkin.

‘You don’t look very surprised to see me,’ the man said, almost disappointed.

Mia was surprised to see him. She had begun to accept the broken memories of the man’s face as simple delusions. She faltered for a moment before finally finding her voice.

‘You’re real?’ she exclaimed.

‘Of course I’m real!’ he responded, ‘...otherwise I’m a figment of your imagination. And if you don’t mind, I’m gonna stick to being real for now.’

‘You’re real!’ Mia said again.

The pumpkin headed man narrowed his eyes in thought for a moment. He stood, frozen, then, he nodded slowly, ‘Yeah...’ he said, drawing it out much longer than it should have been. ‘The name’s Jack Lantern,’ he continued, moving into the room and holding out an extended hand, which Mia shook. The hand was flesh and bone, which made her wonder a little more why the man, Jack Lantern of all names, had a Jack O’ Lantern for a head.

‘I’m... Mia,’ she responded in turn, letting go of his hand, ‘Mia Lannigan...’

She fell into silence as she thought a little more on her situation. Here she stood in a room with a pumpkin headed man, and she had only gotten to this point by escaping a bodiless head that wanted to cut open her skull to have a look-see. She had only gotten here by falling out of a plane...

Mia’s breath caught in her throat. ‘I fell out of a plane!’ she exclaimed.

Jack Lantern nodded absently as he sat on the sofa and looked at her.

‘Any particular reason why?’

Mia was shaking now, she wasn’t sure if it was from the chill that still permeated her whole person, or from the shock, or from the thought that was slowly growing inside her mind. She took a deep breath and looked at him.

‘A...erm... head in a jar... he...’ she tried, but Jack looked to her seriously as he cut in.

‘Baron Von Reich?’ he asked.

Mia shrugged her shoulders, the thought still clinging in her mind. It would not let her be at peace.

‘I’ve no clue, to be honest,’ she admitted. She found it horrifying just to think about anything that had happened all night. But no matter how she tried, she couldn’t seem to remember anything beyond waking up on that horrible plane.

Jack Lantern considered her for a moment.

‘Do you know how to get in contact with your family?’ he asked.

Mia couldn’t speak, that dreadful thought eating away at her. She could think of nothing else. She needed to know, but shook her head in reply to Jack.

‘I don’t know who my parents are, or if I have any... I can’t remember anything...’ she managed.

Jack rubbed at his chin, looking to the floor, his orange face contorted in thought.

Finally, not able to bare it any longer, Mia found her voice.

‘Mister Lantern...’

‘Call me Jack,’ the man put in glibly, waiving off the formality uncomfortably.

‘Jack,’ she continued, ‘I fell out of a plane...’ Her voice was shaking as much as her hands. She felt nearly as scared as she had on the plane. ‘I fell onto your car... How did I survive exactly?’

Silence fell between the two. Mia looked at Jack as he seemed to be thinking just how to word what he was to say.

‘Well...’ he began, awkwardly, ‘Mia, I’m ah... the thing about that is... you kinda... didn’t exactly survive...’

Mia shook her head, not wanting to believe his words, even though she knew that they must be true. After all, in just one night, she had seen a man with no body, a red skinned monster, and a man with a pumpkin head! Was anything impossible?

‘What do you mean I didn’t survive? I’m here aren’t I?’

‘Alive and well,’ Jack smiled.

‘But I didn’t survive?’

Jack winced. ‘It’s kinda complicated,’ he admitted.

‘Am I dead?’ Mia demanded, looking into Jack’s eyes, which were empty holes, save two bright glowing embers floating within his head. They were quite like eyes, in a perverse sort of way.

‘You’re ah, something in between...’ Jack finally relented.

Chapter Two

Return of the Aeroplane

Mia’s head was reeling. She had died? But yet here she was, breathing, feeling... and cold...

A horrible image flashed through her mind, of her flesh slowly falling from her bones as it rotted away, like a Zombie. She prayed she hadn’t become a Zombie.

‘So what, then? I’m undead?’ she asked, remembering ghoulish things from stories she couldn’t place, but that vaguely existed within her shattered memories.

‘No, no!’ Jack insisted, defensively. ‘You died... you were dead! I did what I could, and something brought you back... You’re not undead, Mia! And you’re defiantly not dead!’

‘Then what am I?’ she almost bellowed.

Jack tilted his head to one side and looked kindly to her. His mouth was opened, ever so slightly, as if he were trying to explain it all, but didn’t quite know how.

‘It’s like this,’ he began. ‘You died, but you’re not dead. But you died... so you’re not alive, not quite... But you really are...’

Mia buried her face in her hands, trying to ignore the ringing in her ears. What did any of that mean? How could she be dead and alive at the same time, but somehow neither? It was all too horrifying. It seemed everything that happened to her was horrifying! And why were all of these things happening to her? All she had were questions.

‘That’s why I’m so cold, then...’ she said in a quiet, even voice that surprised her. ‘That’s why this fire won’t make me warm...’

‘Dying takes everything out of you... even the warmth.’ Jack said, his voice low and smouldering. ‘Bring someone back right away... nothing changes. They go on their merry way with a story or two... bring someone back too late... they’re... Mindless, animated flesh. Undead...’

Mia peaked through her fingers, slowly looking up.

Jack paused and looked to her, a small smile growing on his orange face.

‘But...’ he said, holding up a finger, ‘if you bring them back... in between... Before it’s too late, and after it’s too early... Then, Mia... everything changes...’

Mia looked at him, her hands falling from her face as he smiled gently.

‘You’re like this too?’ she asked, calmly.

Everything was so strange to her, even her own existence, now seemed foreign. She sighed, rolling her neck as the ringing in her ears seemed to grow louder, taking on a distinctive whine.

Jack smiled at her, nodding.

‘For a very long time...’

His voice almost seemed proud, as if he were quite impressed with himself.

Mia looked around the room, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to break free. She didn’t know what to say, or to think... She didn’t know how to feel about anything anymore.

Quite present, now, however, the ringing in Mia’s ears seemed to morph into a high pitched mechanical scream, drawing nearer and louder every moment.

Pulling herself away from thoughts of her situation, Mia furrowed her brow, worry crawling over her skin like millions of marching ants.

‘Do you hear that?’ she asked, as Jack stood and hurried to a large window near the fireplace.

‘Ah...’ Jack half mumbled, craning his neck and looking into the bleak night sky. ‘You fell out of a plane?’ he asked.

Mia stood, moving to him, trying to glance through the polished glass.

‘Yes, with madmen on it. What of it?’

‘Just a tiny little thing? Would have probably been a private jet.’

Confusion was swiftly latching onto Mia, growing stronger by the moment. She managed to nod in agreement, squeezing in beside Jack to look out the window at the black blanket of the night sky. She could see very little, but the sound grew louder still.

‘What is it, what are you looking at?’ Mia demanded, scanning the sky this way and that, with nothing popping out at her like she thought it would.

Jack pointed with a hand to a speck that she had not seen before. It was very small and seemed a good ways off, but she saw it, glinting in the moonlight.

‘Well, either things just seem to fall out of the sky around you... or your plane is back!’ Jack grimaced.

Mia’s eyes grew wide as the plane began to form into view before her. What had been just a speck a moment ago, was now a plane, very surely. She squinted into the darkness and saw trails of flame and smoke flying out behind its engines. The plane was very low and still moving very, very fast.

The ground shook as Mia saw the plane hit the lawn with terrifying fury. Metal screamed and crumpled as the plane plowed through the ground and continued forward, dirt erupting in waves before it as its hulking form careened toward the house.

‘Poo...’ Jack mused, ‘I hadn’t thought about that!’

‘Thought about what?’ Mia asked.

Jack sniffed.

‘It’s going to hit us,’ he said casually, and then, in a fluid motion, he sprang back from the window, pulling Mia with him.

They both tumbled to the ground as the jet plane smashed into the house. The engines howled as the building was torn apart.

Jack was pulling Mia up and away as she saw the wall with the fireplace give way, its entire form crumbling as if it had been made of nothing more than toy blocks, to be swatted down by the slightest display of force.

Fire was everywhere as Mia came to her feet beside Jack, her body aching. The plane screeched to a halt. The engines were dying down and slowly, with them, the overpowering sound and wind.

The plane, what was left of it anyway, was crumpled and in flames. Its side faced Mia and Jack, the tip of a broken wing no more than a meter away from them.

‘Right...’ Jack said, looking from Mia, to the crumpled remains of the jet plane. He seemed both a little surprised, and, Mia thought, understandably angry. ‘That’s it? Nothing else? Aren’t you going to come out of there and say something haunting and vague?’

‘Don’t antagonize them!’ Mia chided, which brought a crazed look from Jack.

‘HEY!’ he shouted, louder than before. ‘Let’s hear it! Where’s the creep show? Come on!’

Mia could feel that same fear she had felt on the plane begin to pulse through her veins once more. She felt that same feeling, as if her inaction was dooming her to a horrid death.

Finally, after another long silence, the door on the side of the crumpled plane moved just a little, the terrible sound of metal on metal grated at Mia’s ears. Then, with a thunderous boom, the door flew off of the plane and Jack ducked as it sailed over his head and smashed through the wall behind him, exposing the small stark room where Mia had awoken.

‘ZERE!’ a thick German accent bellowed from inside the plane. The grievous and all too familiar head was being carried out of the craft and into full view. A man in tattered clothes carried the head in a jar, who cackled vivaciously. More men, dressed in sleek black uniforms piled out of the plane; all of whom were scraped and bleeding, but looking not in the slightest perturbed. Their eyes were hollow, their skin green and their faces wrinkled, stitched, and as dead as they were.

‘Zubject fourteen!’ the head screamed. ‘Rip ze head open, scoop out ze brain! Ve cannot be stopped now! Ve mustn’t be stopped now!’

Jack stared at the men, pouring out of the plane and pursed his non-existent lips.

‘Okay... Run!’ he shouted, grabbing Mia’s hand, rushing back into the house as fast as he could drag her.

Chapter Three

Escape

A hand grabbed at the back of Mia’s shirt and pulled her roughly backward, slamming her to the ground.

She gasped as the pain of collision smashed through her. Winded, she struggled for breath, her head spinning. She looked up to see a vile-looking man grimacing down on her. He raised his foot, readying it to smash in her face.

Her eyes wide, Mia rolled as the man brought his foot down, the force of his motion impacting hard against the wooden floorboards, cracking them terribly.

Mia sprang to her feet, knowing the man was only just behind her. Her back was turned to him, but in front of her, Jack Lantern rushed towards her, something held aloft in his hands.

She stood there, staring at him as he yelled in desperation, ‘Get down!’

Mia didn’t hesitate, she just dived for the floor as Jack sprang over her, bringing an old cricket bat down with ferocity on the man who had tried to stomp her.

Mia heard a resounding crack, which she didn’t much want to think about, and saw Jack swinging wildly at other men dressed in black as they advanced after her in the narrow hallway.

Jack was moving swiftly, but with a brutal accuracy as he attacked two men at once. He brought the cricket bat to bear and swung it hard against the side of one man’s face. Without losing any momentum, he thrust the handle forward, along with his fist, dropping the second man.

He turned casually to face Mia and smiled proudly, swinging the cricket bat up and onto his shoulder. He stood frozen to the spot for a long moment, smiling, but suddenly, his face fell and he started forward.

‘I was really trying to think of something funny to say there,’ he admitted, stopping when he was beside her. He looked to her, silent, his eyes wide. He finally relented, as if it pained him, ‘Nope. I’ve got nothing...’ He paused again and considered Mia. ‘Can you think of anything?’

She looked at him in shock and disbelief. Was he truly asking her to come up with a smart remark right at this moment, when surely several more of the seemingly endless men in black were closing on them?

‘Erm...’ she began seeing that he was not, as far as she could tell, joking, ‘how about... Strike two, you’re out?’ she suggested.

‘No...’ Jack said narrowing his eyes, ‘for one, that’s baseball, and two, that’s not even how the game works.’

‘Does it matter?’

Jack winced and nodded.

‘Yeah... they’re two completely different games...’

Mia’s attention was drawn away from Jack as she saw several more men entering the hallway and staring down at them.

‘I was hoping for something about the bat itself!’ Jack was continuing. ‘Like... well, something good, anyway.’

‘Erm, Jack...’ Mia said slowly, pointing down the hallway. Jack heaved a sigh and looked past Mia, not to the men that pursued them, but to an old door at the opposite end of the hallway.

‘There’s a poo load of them, just behind me, right?’

‘A very large group, yes,’ Mia nodded.

Jack winced, and was silent. Mia looked back to the advancing group, and gasped as she saw the two in the lead strapping on large packs, making quite a racket as they did so. Soon, it became quite obvious what the packs were, as each of the men, in turn, also took up long metal pipes that were shapes somewhat like a rifle.

‘And, they have flamethrowers...’ Mia added wide eyed, turning back to Jack, who winced again, letting out a sharp breath.

‘Any ideas?’ she asked, frantically, looking from the men who began to shoot bursts of flame as they started down the hallway.

Jack nodded, narrowing his eyes. ‘Yes... Run!’

He pushed Mia forward with a firm hand and she rushed onward, moving as fast as she could. Glancing back, she saw Jack throw the cricket bat. It twirled through the air, smacking one of their pursuers in the chest and throwing him backward. She could hear the roar of the flames as the men began to set fire to the hallway, and with it, the rest of the house.

She could feel immense heat at her back, but she dare not turn, for if she did, she knew the fear would make her legs give out. Considering the fact that there was surely a wall of flame behind her, Mia thought it best to keep her eyes ahead of her... for the time being.

The hallway was becoming clouded with thick grey smoke that made it particularly hard to breath. Mia coughed under the oppressing onslaught as Jack grabbed her about the arm and pulled her through a doorway that she hadn’t seen – mostly on account of the smoke that billowed after them. Jack slammed the door closed, cutting off the deluge. Mia saw, however, the deadly grey mist begin to trickle under the door into the cramped room.

‘Well that should keep us safe for about five seconds!’ Mia coughed. ‘You do remember I said they have flamethrowers, right?’

Jack backed away from the door a little and turned to Mia.

‘Don’t you get snippy with me! You know this is my house they’re burning down!’

Mia looked frantically about the small room. It was bland, white, with several cupboards and shelves built against the walls. She hadn’t realized just how small the room was until that moment. She could see cans and preserves on the shelving, making her realize just where they must be.

‘And you’ve put us in the pantry!’ she bellowed.

Mia wanted to cry out, but she knew that would do no good at all. She began to shake violently, partly from the cold that still gripped her, and the sinking terror that gnawed at her insides.

She was going to die! She was going to burn to death in a pantry with a Pumpkin headed man!

‘I don’t want to die twice in one day!’ she said, on the verge of tears.

Jack, for his part, seemed not to be listening, as he was walking about, looking at each of the cupboards and shelves in turn.

A loud crack resounded on the door of the pantry and Mia jumped, her heart pounding inside her chest, like hammer on anvil.

Why was this happening?

Another smash against the door and it splintered. Mia could see a man’s hand bursting through the opening and flailing about, in desperate search for the door-handle.

Muffled voices could be heard on the other side of the door, laughing, cursing and jeering.

‘Come here and look at this!’ Jack now insisted, drawing Mia’s gaze away from the door for a moment.

Just beside her, Jack was looking at a shelf of what looked like canned pears.

‘Oh, brilliant!’ Mia said, walking over to Jack. ‘We’re about to be burned alive and you’re standing there picking out a snack?’

Jack made a face at her and seemed to roll those dark burning embers within his head.

Hands ripped at the splintered door, a wide swath falling away, and smoke poured in hungrily. Men pushed their way through the shattered wood, clamouring over each other, vying for the lead in the confined space.

‘Don’t burn her!’ she could hear one of the black clad men commanding. ‘If there’s too much trauma to the brain, the Baron will have all our hearts as nourishment!’

She could see the men, only an arm’s length away, smiling viciously at her.

There were three of them; the large knives they carried making her feel nauseous. She knew what they would use them for. The crazed look in their eyes left little doubt, and no room for hope.

‘Now, what would be great here,’ Jack announced, drawing the attention of the men to him, stopping them in their tracks. ‘Is some sort of secret passageway, don’t you think Mia?’

She looked to Jack who smiled a big, toothy smile. Or, at least, carved pumpkin teeth!

The sight was unnerving, not just for Mia either. She was sure the men took a cautious step back.

‘Oh, forget it!’ Jack sighed, smashing a hand against the preserves.