Inside the limousine it was stuffy and cramped. This was especially true for Daniel, who had to practically place his knees to his chin to fit under the low ceiling.
“Couldn’t you have rescued me in a van or something?” he complained. It was impertinent, he knew, but he had been through enough tonight that he didn’t feel like hiding his irritation.
“It was the only thing Mister White had on hand,” Annie chided him, just as annoyed. She sat across from him on a plush leather seat, expression equal parts worry and frustration. “It’s your fault for rushing into danger like that. You’re just lucky that Numbskull managed to trail you there, or we might never have found you.”
“Ah yes, well done that skeleton. Most ingenious,” one of the car’s other passengers chimed in. It was Caduceus, of course. Daniel still couldn’t believe he was sitting next to Caduceus. In a limousine. This night had gotten stranger and stranger.
Numbskull, the skeleton in question, was sitting opposite the most famous villain in the city. She was wedged precariously in between Annie and the hulking mutant Daniel had seen too many times now for his own liking. The giant brute gave him an embarrassed smile as his eyes passed that direction, but Daniel was looking for Numbskull’s whiteboard. Sure enough, it was in her hands. He had somehow missed how she produced it once again.
“I brought my cell phone, unlike Dingus the Rabbit over here.”
“What does that mean?” asked Daniel, a bit of stress worming its way into his voice, “I have a cell phone. I just… well, Annie usually keeps it.”
There was a short silence as Numbskull squeaked something out onto the board with her marker.
“They probably would have taken it off of you anyway. Next time just make a ruckus and we’ll know where to look.”
Daniel sighed. She did have a point, though. It had been preying on Daniel’s mind that he might have played it too safe in the previous situation. Speaking of that…
“Can we go over what happened again? I think I understand. I even managed to figure out most of it on my own in there, but it’s still a bit too much to take in all at once like this.”
“You got kidnapped. A big bunny like you. Kidnapped.”
“Yes, I get that part, but-”
“Revolutionaries,” Caduceus cut in with his wheedling voice, “Who stole a cache of magical tomes from the White estate. From what you’ve told us, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Well, yes, but their leader…”
“A fake!” the slim villain exclaimed through his mask, “Someone posing as me for the shock value, I would think. He didn’t have this, did he?” Caduceus held up the staff that gave him his name. Daniel had to admit that it was a pretty compelling point.
“You spoke with the fake Caduceus, right Daniel? What did he say to you?” Annie asked from the seat across. Daniel opened his mouth to answer, to give her the whole story, but he hesitated.
“I don’t…” he began, “I don’t know if you should be getting involved in this, Annie. Those people are dangerous.”
Annie’s face turned a deep shade of red and she was about to speak up, but then Caduceus interjected once again with a piercing scoff. It seemed the villain had quite a penchant for that.
“Don’t think she should be getting involved? Mister Hopper, without your young wife over there, you might still be in the hands of the villains.”
Numbskull nodded emphatically, holding up her whiteboard for all to see. “She’s the one I called when I figured out where we were.”
Daniel furrowed his brow. “How do you have her- oh… you have the number for my phone, which she has. Got it,” he trailed off, but something was still bugging him. What would Numbskull have done if the revolutionaries really had taken his phone and they’d been the ones to answer it? Looking at Numbskull’s wide, unflinching grin, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer.
“Then she implored Mister White for help, and he…” Caduceus trailed off for a moment, his eyes slightly unfocused, “Well, I happened to overhear, and offered my services. Fortunately I had Brent parked in the garage.”
Daniel shifted his gaze over to the giant mutant. “Parked? Like a car?” The big creature shrugged. Was that a trick of the light or was he blushing? “Anyway, that means you, Caduceus, were in attendance at the party.”
“Please, Mister Hopper!” Caduceus waved his staff in a placation, “We are allies just this moment, you and I. Do not ruin the moment by trying to bring me to justice just now.”
Daniel could only nod. Without Caduceus’ help, he still would be in a world of trouble. Even so, he met Annie’s eye and she gave an almost imperceptible flick of her eyes at the cowled villain. She knew who Caduceus was, or at least had a pretty good idea. Daniel mentally kicked himself for thinking that he could leave his wife out of this. Annie had always been smarter than him, and now she was onto something.
It was an awkward farewell when they returned to the White family manor and Caduceus took his leave. Daniel still had mixed feelings about just letting the villain and Brent take their leave like that, but after a few meaningful looks from Numbskull and Annie both, he got the picture. They could probably take him into custody here, but not without a fight, and Caduceus had just rescued Daniel. It wouldn’t be very sporting, and would certainly shatter any good will that might have sprung up between them.
If he were being honest with himself, Daniel still didn’t particularly want to fight Caduceus or his henchman in any case. This was the second time the green-cowled villain had come to his aid. The second time he had saved Daniel’s life. That had to be worth something, didn’t it?
Daniel realized he was frowning deeply, and tried to take his mind off things by directing his attention to Numbskull, who now sat in the back of their minivan with legs kicked up on the seat in front of her.
“Won’t your father worry about where you’ve gone in all this?” he asked, looking in the rear-view mirror at his companion’s grinning face.
Annie gave him a questioning look from the driver’s seat, and Daniel realized that she still didn’t know Numbskull’s true identity. He opened his mouth to explain, but was interrupted by a furious squeaking from the back seat as Numbskull tore a marker across her whiteboard. When she spun it around, it read in all capital letters: “CAN IT, EARSY.”
Was this her version of shouting? He raised his eyebrows, and gave Annie an apologetic shrug. Numbskull obviously didn’t want to share her identity just yet, but if the look in his wife’s eye was anything to go by, he’d be telling her soon enough anyway.
“So… you think you know who Caduceus is? Or was I misreading you in the limo?”
That got him a smile. Annie kept her eyes on the road, but there was a tinge of smugness in her voice as she spoke. “I’m not completely certain, but when I was looking for you after that chaos in the hall, I spotted a man come out of the same room and go for the garage.”
“...Where Brent was ‘parked’.”
“Exactly. He had the same kind of build, too. Tall, slender, kind of anxious.”
Daniel widened his eyes involuntarily. That had to be the man they had spoken to in Oliver White’s smoking room. Had he been that close to Caduceus’ true identity without realizing it? Was that was White himself was about to tell Daniel before the ill-timed attack? He heard a squeaking behind him and a skeletal foot nudged him in the back of the head. Daniel turned around just in time to see Numbskull holding up a whiteboard filled with cramped writing.
“You thinking the same thing for once? Otto Weissman, the skittish guy we met with Oliver White. He’s a lawyer working for the White family.”
“How do you know that?” Annie asked, causing Daniel to jump. He hadn’t realized she’d been reading through the rear-view mirror as well. He looked quickly ahead, but they weren’t in any impending danger of an accident, so he relaxed.
Numbskull took her time with the reply, but she soon held up another message. “The Bone Code requires that I keep my secrets.”
“You just made that up, didn’t you?” Daniel accused.
“The Bone Code does not require that I answer.”
Daniel opened his mouth to reply, but thought better of it. Probably nothing good could come of responding to something like that. Instead, he turned to Annie.
“So we know, or we think we know, who Caduceus is. What do we do with that information?”
“I don’t do anything with it,” she answered, keeping her eyes ahead, “You should tell your boss.”
“It’s a bit late… but this probably shouldn’t wait until the morning. We need to tell Bethany about the incident too.”
Daniel felt a single bony knuckle dig into his shoulder, and he turned to see what Numbskull had written.
“The kidnapping. You, the big strong rabbit, got kidnapped.”
He sighed. “Yes, the kidnapping. She’ll probably know what to do next. It’s got to be written somewhere in that giant rulebook of hers, right?”
Numbskull nudged him again, but he pretended not to notice this time.
“I’m going to close my eyes until we get there,” he said, eliciting a defeated clatter of bones from the back seat.
When they arrived at B.S.A. headquarters, it was well past midnight. Bethany was waiting for them, roused by Daniel’s call from the minivan on the way over. She was wearing rumpled business clothes, but her mess of hair and flat expression made it clear that she had been sleeping until just recently. She wordlessly opened the door as Daniel, Annie and Numbskull stepped out of the van and waited for them to come inside.
Daniel was careful not to let his own fatigue show on his face as he entered, but he was surprised to find that the room already had another occupant. Mort was sitting in one of the folding chairs, smiling weakly at the returning heroes. In contrast to Beth, his suit was pressed and sharp, and his eyes were sharp. The pale man looked positively chipper. It was either very late or very early, depending on perspective, and this fellow looked like he was out for lunch. Daniel shook his head. Maybe Mort usually worked at night, or he just enjoyed it. Either way, it didn’t have anything to do with him.
“Hello there,” Mort said with considerable enthusiasm.
Pushing down the slight annoyance he felt at the other man’s attitude in the face of their obvious exhaustion, Daniel pulled up a chair and slumped heavily down. He noted Annie and Numbskull doing the same. The skeleton didn’t look tired in the least either, but how could she? He shook his head, then turned to the wild-haired, sunken-eyed Bethany.
“You’d better sit down too.”
“It’s that urgent? I heard something happened at the White Estate, but nothing from Aguado or-”
“Yeah, the police weren’t involved. You need to hear this, though. We might have the identity of Caduceus.”
Without another word, Beth pulled up a chair and sat down. Her gaze was suddenly intense.
“Tell me.”
So Daniel went over the whole experience. From the bizarre green cloud in the White Manor to waking up in the derelict doctor’s office. He detailed what he thought was the fake Caduceus and his minion Amber, then revised that because minion didn’t feel like quite the right word. When he spoke of the real Caduceus and Brent the Mutant bursting in to save him, Bethany was on the edge of her seat. She didn’t look quite so tired anymore. Finally, he finished by explaining that Annie might well have picked up Caduceus’ true identity throughout all the fracas.
“Otto Weissman,” Annie said with a firm nod, “That’s right, isn’t it?” She looked to Numbskull who gave a jovial nod in return. “He’s a lawyer for the White Family.”
“That’s definitely not enough to make any sort of arrest, but it’s a start! Well done!” Bethany practically glowed, now. Daniel felt his eye twitch a little and made careful efforts not to show just how bone-tired and annoyed he felt.
She had a finger up to her chin now, looking thoughtful. “I have a few more questions, though. What about the green gas? That seems really bizarre.”
“It was poison, I think. It knocked me out, anyway, and I’m not sure what would have happened had I stayed in it any longer,” Daniel stated. He remembered the burning sensation that mist had incited in his lungs and winced.
While Daniel was answering, Numbskull had been busy writing a short response of her own on her whiteboard. She spun it around now, and held it up for everyone to examine.
“That was probably magic.”
There was silence in the room for a moment as everyone digested this, then Daniel spoke up again.
“The fake Caduceus was talking about magic as well. I know there’s a lot of weird stuff going on in the world,” he looked at the skeleton and waggled his own ears to punctuate this point, “but it’s still hard to swallow that there might be wizards out there.”
Numbskull made a short rotation of her skull. Daniel got the impression that if she had eyes, she would have been rolling them at him. Her response was quick, marker dancing across the board.
“Not wizards. Just magic. If you can look like that and I can walk around as a skeleton, is it really so hard to believe that there’s a way to conjure up some poison mist?”
Bethany broke in at this. “Numbskull has a point. Poison mist is a pretty common spell in roleplaying…” She trailed off and, after a few confused stares, seemed to remember her audience. “Anyway, we might not have wizards of the pointy hat and robe variety running around, but we should probably get used to the fact that spells are a thing that exist now.”
“The false Caduceus is a magician, then,” Annie concluded.
“That or his uh… partner. Probably Fake Caduceus, though. She seemed to have something else going on,” Daniel affirmed.
Numbskull shunted her board forward with more force than was probably necessary. Daniel felt his own brow furrow as he read what was written upon it.
“Those jerks stole a bundle of spellbooks from the manor, so we should probably be a bit more worried about that. There’s bad juju written in some of those.”
“That’s right,” Daniel said, “You mentioned something about that while we were in the doctor’s office…”
“How do you know they took spellbooks from the manor specifically?” Annie asked. Daniel thought her tone was a bit too sharp, but then again she was probably just as tired as he was.
“That’s because of Numbskull’s… unique situation,” Bethany began, but she was cut short by a wave from the skeleton.
“Bunnyboy will probably tell you anyway, so I might as well let the cat out of the bag. I’m actually Edda White.”
Annie was quiet for a long moment. She looked to Daniel, then back at Numbskull, a half-smile breaking through the fatigue on her face. “That’s… a joke right?”
“Oh my,” Mort, who had been content to listen silently up until that point gave his own surprise a voice.
It took some time more to convince Annie that Numbskull was, actually, the wealthy daughter and heiress of the White family. Eventually, only Daniel’s assurances that he had met and confirmed it with Edda herself at the party were able to coax out her grudging acceptance.
“I mean, Edda White is supposed to be this perfect vision of polite society, and Numbskull is...” she waved a hand at the lounging skeleton, “Like that.”
“I didn’t believe it at first either, but once you see Edda grin about something it’s hard to miss the resemblance,” Daniel assured her.
“Not that I don’t trust you, but…” she looked to Numbskull once again, “Can’t you like, put your skin back on for a minute so I can see?”
The skeleton put a hand to her chest as though offended. She produced her whiteboard and scrawled out a quick message.
“Here? No way! People are watching!”
“Oh!” Annie exclaimed, “You’re… not naked right now, are you?”
“Don’t be a dolt like your husband. It’s just not pretty when I turn back. Lots of meat and stuff. Real gross.”
“It doesn’t matter right now,” Bethany said, a little shortly, “Just take our word for it that she is who she says, and keep it to yourself.” She was rubbing her temples, the fatigue that had temporarily lifted from her now seeming back in full force. “We can meet again tomorrow but not… not until after noon, alright? I need to get back to bed.”
“What about Caduceus?” Daniel asked. Truthfully, there was nothing he’d rather do than retire to bed himself, but he did feel an obligation to tie up that loose end.
“Obviously we can’t do anything about him until we confirm that Otto Weissman really is his true identity,” Beth answered with a dismissive wave, “We’ll figure out a plan to do that tomorrow.”
“On that note, I have something that might help. Another invention,” Mort offered, “The thing is… I already gave it to your other friend in the hood. Gyrfalcon, was it?”
“Gearhawk,” Bethany gave an offhand correction, then looked to Daniel, “Make sure to ask him about that tomorrow, alright Hopper?”
“Understood,” Daniel said, standing from his chair as his wife did the same next to him. Before he could make for the door, however, Numbskull stepped into his path.
“Where do you think you’re going?” her board read.
“Home,” he answered shortly.
“I still need a ride home, big guy. You aren’t going to leave this helpless skeleton damsel stranded alone at night, are you?”
After waiting a moment for her to write out that message, Daniel sighed. He looked to Annie, who gave a noncommittal shrug.
“I guess we don’t have a choice.”
“I knew you’d do the right thing, Earboy.”
The next day, Daniel found himself sweating in a hot car outside the city courthouse. He loosened his collar with one finger, and peered through a pair of sunglasses at the building’s entrance.
“Are these really necessary?” he turned to Numbskull in the passenger seat, who was wearing a matching pair. Insofar as a skeleton could, he thought she gave him a hurt look.
“Of course they are. We’re ‘incognito’.”
Daniel gave her a doubtful look. “I thought we were going to be a distraction.”
“Duh,” she wrote out, sunglasses peering at him over the whiteboard “Thus the sarcastic quotes around ‘incognito’.”
“If you two walk around looking like that, it should be all the distraction I need,” Gearhawk offered from the back seat. He had been quiet on the ride over, and there was a barb in his tone now. When wasn’t there? Daniel sensed that an inevitable confrontation was brewing between himself and the other hero, but now wasn’t the time.
“I’m still not convinced this is a good idea,” he muttered, rubbing one hand across the back of his neck, “It feels kind of… illegal.”
Gearhawk make a ‘tsk’ sound and Numbskull shook her head. She scrawled something out, perhaps to save their other passenger from doing so.
“We went over this already, Bunnyboy. We’re not stealing or anything, just… looking.”
“The idea,” Gearhawk all be snarled, “Is to see what he does when he thinks he’s being followed. By you two.”
“You have something from Mort as well, right?” “Let me worry about that,” came the short response.
“All right, but I’d feel better if…”
“Shut up, there he is!”
Gearhawk ducked down out of view behind him while Numbskull pointed a bony digit in his face and then out the window. Sure enough, coming down the courthouse steps with a briefcase in hand was the slender figure of Otto Weissman. Seen like this, he didn’t look like Caduceus. Indeed, it was hard to imagine that long, mellow face perpetrating any kind of crime.
“I’d still rather just -ow! Okay, I’m going, I’m going,” Daniel said, rubbing his shoulder where Numbskull had pinched him. It hadn’t really hurt, of course, but being gripped by two cold, macabre fingerbones out of nowhere was still a startling experience.
He opened the car door and stepped out, making sure to be as conspicuous as possible. It wasn’t hard. He had to look ridiculous, with his sunglasses wedged between top-hat and beard. From the other side, Numbskull slammed the door and sidled over to his end. Daniel opened his mouth to say something, but another bony poke in the back got him moving across the street. He kept a reasonable distance, enough to look like he was following the lawyer, but no distance would probably be enough with the two of them looking like this.
Sure enough, Otto spotted him almost immediately. He gave a nervous look between the two of them. From the corner of his eye, Daniel saw Gearhawk slip from the car and do… whatever it was he did to land on top of the building above.
Then, the unexpected happened. Otto Weissman’s face broke into a wide smile and he came directly their way. Daniel looked down at Numbskull, but the skeleton just shrugged. The two turned back to the approaching man, just in time for him to reach them and pull up at a friendly distance.
“My, Hopper! Numbskull! The heroes of the day once again,” he dithered, “I like the sunglasses. Very ah… avante-garde?”
“Hello Mr. Weissman,” Daniel managed. A hot blush was making its way steadily up his face under the white whiskers. This was not the plan. He chanced a glance upward, behind the darkened lenses, and spotted Gearhawk glaring at him from the top of the courthouse. Somehow, the other hero’s gaze seemed to indicate that this was his fault. Maybe he was just projecting again. The hooded man vanished over the edge of the roof, and Daniel turned his attention back to Otto.
“I’m actually glad I ran into you two,” he wrung his hands, as though nervous of something.
Numbskull chimed in in her way, and Daniel was glad of the opportunity to regroup.
“Did you miss us that much?”
“Er, well, no. Not exactly. You see, Mister White and I were rather disappointed that we weren’t able to finish our discussion with you the other day. At the party.”
That got his attention. Now that Daniel thought of it, White had appeared to be about to say something pretty important before the chaos in the gala hall had spilled over and interrupted their conversation. It seemed to have had to do with Caduceus too. He felt his ears perk up. This might actually turn out to be just the lead they needed.
“Oh! Of course. Yes. I’m eager to hear what he had to say too,” Daniel recovered. He looked to Numbskull, who was just finishing writing out her own answer.
“And I’m VERY eager to meet Mr. White,” the whiteboard said. He wasn’t sure he liked the look of that mocking smile on the skeleton’s face.
“Well, er, yes.” It seemed like Otto had also picked up on some of the malevolence radiating from Numbskull’s eye sockets. He stuttered a moment and stared at her before picking up his voice again. “There’s a wonderful opportunity, actually. A costume party just a few days from now. As Mister White’s attorney I’m often invited to the events he attends, so it will be a perfect opportunity for us to speak again in private.”
“Right. A costume party, huh? That seems… well, I guess I can’t really judge,” Daniel looked to Numbskull for affirmation, who nodded, “But we’ll be there, Mister Weissman. Thanks for the invitation.”
“What should we wear?” Numbskull’s board asked. Her bony grin was the picture of innocence. Daniel had to suppress a smile, and was briefly glad for the levity.
“Oh, er… Well, it is a costume party, so I suppose you can dress up if you like. Or come as you are. I doubt anyone will complain if you show up looking like… that.” Otto waved vaguely in the pair’s direction, and they exchanged one more look between their sunglasses. “I’ll have the invitations sent to your headquarters, shall I?”
“That would be great, thank you,” Daniel said, then put a heavy hand on Numbskull’s shoulder, “We have business in the courthouse, but we’ll look forward to seeing you there.”
“Yes, quite! Goodbye now.”
Otto waved a friendly farewell as Daniel steered his skeleton companion up the steps and into the building proper. She was writing as they moved up, and held the board for his inspection when they entered the doors.
“We’ve got ‘business’ here? What, going to check and see if Brent has any parking violations?”
Daniel shook his head, looking out the window to see Otto disappearing down the street.
“No, I just wanted an excuse to get out of that situation.”
“If you two don’t get out of here soon, we’re going to have a new situation.”
That was a new voice, and Daniel turned his head around to see Gearhawk approaching from the other side. He was in full costume as well, and was drawing more than a few stares from the other people in the waiting room. Come to think of it, so were he and Numbskull. In fact, though the concession pained him, Gearhawk had a point.
“Hey, aren’t you-”
Daniel and Numbskull were out the door before the civilian could finish. Gearhawk was just behind, though he did offer the supplicant a brief apologetic nod as they left.
“What’s with your father and parties?” Daniel asked, as the three retreated down the steps.
Numbskull waited until they were clear and back on the sidewalk before writing out her answer.
“My father wouldn’t know ‘fun’ if it slapped him in the face. These parties are just excuses for him to meet with business partners.”
“I bet it doesn’t hurt his public image, either,” Gearhawk muttered as he joined the two. The man was breathing hard and Daniel noted that the back of his hood seemed to be damp with sweat.
“Have a good run?” he asked, narrowing his eyes, “Just what were you doing?”
Gearhawk shrugged the comment off with a glare. “Just a bit of investigative work. I checked to see if ‘Brent’ was parked anywhere nearby first. He wasn’t.”
“So we still don’t have anything concrete against him,” Daniel sighed.
“Not yet. I’m not done. You two go on without me.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” he asked. Even Numbskull looked more dubious than usual.
“Let me worry about that. Go enjoy your party or whatever,” Gearhawk turned, flaring his green cape, and stalked away. Daniel frowned.
“Someday I’ll figure out what his problem is.”
Numbskull nudged him and held up the board. “Is it possible he’s just a jerk?”
Daniel couldn’t really argue that. He walked back to the van.
“Wait! We’ve been over this,” Daniel crossed to the other side and opened up the door for his skeletal companion. Her board was already up with a sarcastic message.
“What a gentleman!”
“You know as well as I do that your fingers scratch the paint. Come on, let’s head back for now.”
“A costume party?” Annie was calm for now, but Daniel could see the light of excitement sparking just behind her eyes. He grinned a bit warily. He’d been afraid of this.
“Yes, er, it’s two days away so there should be plenty of time to-”
“No, no, we’re going shopping today. What do you think we could dress you as? Should we use the ears? You’d make a great March Hare, or one of those cartoon rabbits…”
“Don’t you have to… work?” he asked. In truth, he had been surprised to find Annie still home when he had risen late the next morning. Lately she had been well into her work day by the time he hefted his bulk out of bed.
“Mister White gave me quite a bit of time off,” she smiled, obviously pleased, “As an apology for what happened at his party.”
“That was… awfully nice of him,” Daniel didn’t have to fake his surprise. He still wasn’t sure what to make of Oliver White. A businessman, certainly, but he seemed to have a wealth of hidden layers behind that identity as well.
“Wasn’t it? The girls are at school, so that leaves us plenty of time to go shopping. I’ll be coming too, of course?”
He nodded, all doubts on that front gone. “You were invaluable last time. I’d be a fool not to insist you come along to this event too.”
“Darn straight,” she said, then paused in thought, “Do you know what Numbskull is going as?”
Daniel shuddered at the thought. “I have no idea, but it’s probably going to be something ridiculous.”
“I guess you’re stuck with me for a themed costume then, huh?” she grinned at him, and Daniel felt a bit of her warmth seep into his own chest. With work having been easier for her, and her help at the B.S.A., he hadn’t seen Annie this happy in a long time. He sincerely hoped they could keep up whatever was going right.
“What do you think about the Easter Bunny?”
Daniel almost choked on a laugh, the comment ripping him out of his thoughts. “Please no,” he managed.
Edda was having her own problems when it came to deciding on a costume for the upcoming event. She stalked up and down the aisles of a nearby discount party store, but couldn’t seem to find anything that really caught her interest.
Of course, she could just go as Numbskull. A walking skeleton was a costume all on its own. She didn’t have to put in the effort, but somehow that felt like cheating. Anyway, wouldn’t it be far more entertaining to go as a skeleton wearing a costume?
“Er, can I help you, ma’am?”
A young employee stood at the end of the aisle, watching her warily. Come to think of it, the other patrons of this store had been giving Edda a pretty wide berth. Was it her expensive clothing? He regal manner? Neither felt particularly fitting for this cheap party store on a corner downtown. She gave the clerk a dazzling smile, and saw his adam’s apple bob up and down nervously.
“Is this all you have?” she asked, motioning to the sad rack of plastic-covered costumes in front of her.
“Er… it’s not really costume season, miss. You might have to order online,” he replied.
“No, no, that’s not an option. I was hoping for something a bit more… creative than these, is all,” she replied, giving him a hopeful look.
The young man was transfixed. He stammered for a moment, then seemed to regain his bearings enough to reply. “The um… there’s a bargain bin in another aisle. Old Halloween costumes we couldn’t sell.”
Edda allowed her face to light up in delight. It was an easy act, and came so naturally to her. Even so, she was a little disgusted with how simply she was charming this poor young fellow. It was so much simpler to act like herself when nobody knew who she was as Numbskull.
“That sounds perfect, would you show it to me?”
The clerk nodded, sweat beading on his brow, and took her down a maze of messy aisles. Colorful confetti and unpopped party poppers crowded in on all sides. Edda was reminded of the library in her own manor, though these sad wares lacked any of the charm her books possessed.
“Here…” the man gave a kind of defeated wave at a wire basket set into a corner of the floor. Sure enough, it was filled with all manner of cheap discarded costumes.
Ignoring her companion for the moment, Edda stepped over and began rummaging through the collection. This was a pair of fuzzy ears for a werewolf getup. No, that would look ridiculous on a skeleton’s bare skull. What about this witch’s hat? She grinned to herself as she entertained the notion of Numbskull riding in on a broom. Did she have a simple spell that she could use to levitate herself like that?
“Miss, er, I really don’t think you’re going to find-”
The man mumbled to a halt as Edda pulled something out of the bin triumphantly. It was too big, campy, and probably in need of a good wash, but it was perfect. She had to stop herself from laughing as she ran the black fabric between her hands.
“Are… are you sure, miss?” the clerk asked, his face even paler than usual, “That’s not something the ladies usually go for.”
