The Longest Halloween, Book Three: Gabbie Del Toro and the Mystery of the Warlock's Urn. Frank Wood

onto all the magic about herself that she could.

      Gabbie paused the game on the image of her hero and hard crush, Joel Aubrey Franklin, a teenaged mortal boy from the Other Side who had been involved in heroic actions last Halloween, Gabbie’s favorite day of the year.

      “You’re right,” Gabbie agreed, turning off the console linked to the huge screen in the recreation room of the school. “Until next time, dear husband,” she said jokingly, blowing a kiss to Joel’s image.

      “You are so nuts about that guy,” Grawl teased as the two of them rearranged their chairs and tidied up their space. “Isn’t he a mortal?”

      Gabbie, Grawl and the other inhabitants of Ghoulsville had little use for the outside mortal world. She had heard that there was a time when Ghoulsville customs were more widespread than they were now. But as the mortal world’s influence grew, so did its borders, confining the once-expansive Ghoul Kingdom (as it was known then) into a small crescent of land that was kept separate from the Other Side by a magical foggy barrier. This barrier would thin and weaken around Halloween, allowing for interchange between the two worlds; then with the coming of All Saints’ Day, the barrier would increase once again.

      “Now Grawl,” Gabbie said, reaching up and tucking an unruly strand of her long, wavy, black and brown hair behind her ear. “you of all people know that the fact that Joel’s mortal doesn’t mean anything.”

      Grawl just grunted in reply.

      Gabbie paused for a minute, daydreaming about Joel Aubrey Franklin’s handsome face and determined manner. She and all of the students of Ghoul School had heard of how he had deposed the powerful werewolf Ian Samuels last Halloween at the Sinner’s Well. Once the first dailies had come out about that victory and she had seen him firsthand, she had to admit that she had been absolutely taken with the teenager from the Other Side. The year before that, this same Joel had defeated the ultra-wicked renegade goblin Googamond when he went wild on Halloween and tried to make the day last forever. For Gabbie that wasn’t really a bad idea, though she could understand how it might be problematic for mortals.

      Joel’s exploits had been so well received that a video game had been fashioned of his and Ian’s last battle for the Forever Kingdom Amulet outside the Barbary mansion. Grawl liked to change how things went, but everyone knew that Joel had defeated Ian, and it would have been cool if the story would have ended there. However, Ian had escaped from the holding cell in the House of Ghouls, along with a few other criminals, including the nefarious Googamond.

      Space being what it was in their region of the Netherworld, there wasn’t a lot of room to keep those villains nestled away proper and away from the school, as Gabbie’s mother said they should have been.

      Gabbie guessed that was why things had been a little more intense than normal at both the House of Ghouls and at Ghoul School, with those two criminals on the loose. Not to mention that the recent Pumpkin Hill Plunder and resulting arrest of her father and his students, her brother Efrian’s disappearance, and the horrible murder of their principal Barnabas Croft made for trying times in Ghoulsville. But Gabbie had faith that her Aunt Zeldabub would make things right.

      “Say, what’s that you’re doing?” she asked Grawl, who was swiping under his arms and across his chest with a small package of wipes.

      “Nothing.” He had thought he could get in a quick wipe before Gabbie noticed.

      “It’s not nothing,” Gabbie retorted. “Wait, are those wipes? They are! Grawl, how funny.”

      “What’s funny about a troll wanting to smell properly?”

      “You smell fine, Grawl.”

      “I smell like a troll, Gabbie. Everybody says so and I get it. So there.”

      “All right then,” Gabbie said, her voice light. She knew when to choose her battles with Grawl, who was still not fully comfortable with his troll status here at the school.

      Ghoul School

      Now done with their chores and with Grawl smelling like a proper gentleman, the two made their way toward Ghoul School. On their way into the library annex where they stowed their gear, they passed a corridor with purple tape crossed over its entrance. "Closed Until Further Notice" it said in dark black type. A new picture of the ghoul and former janitor, Mason Mims, hung at the entrance.

      “What happened in Memory Corridor?”

      “I don’t know,” Gabbie said. “Word is that they found Mister Mims frightened out of his life, lying at the entrance. Poor Mister Mims, it’s going to be strange going through the year without seeing him.”

      “You mean hearing him,” Grawl said, proceeding to adopt a high-pitched, scratched voice. “You dadblamed warlocks and witches need to mind your steps and manner. These floors and walls don’t just clean themselves, after all! And as for you, troll boy, I remember a day when the likes of you wouldn’t have even been let into these halls!”

      Gabbie giggled. “He was pretty rancid. Come on, Grawl! Goodbye, Mister Mims,” she said, touching his photo.

      Situated on top of one of the hills that nestled the canyon in which the House of Ghouls stood, Ghoul School was comprised of five tall towers atop which were stone facsimiles of the founders of Ghoul School. Some said there was a reason the eyes of those stony statues looked so real, especially at night, when they seemed to glow an eerie green. The towers each had their own dedicated theme. One housed the administrative offices where Lady Grimm—the acting principal since Principal Croft’s death—worked with her staff. Each of the other four towers were dedicated to a particular grade, sixth through ninth. The Founders Fountain sat centrally in the courtyard, emitting fabulous purple and orange water. The two lunch pavilions lined the right and left sides of the courtyard. The towers were all interconnected with raised walkways.

      You got your basic studies at Ghoul School, math and English and reading and Mortal History (as many students would foray to the Other Side), but because Ghoul School trained future generations of witches, warlocks, goblins, trolls and faeries, you got the magical curriculum as well. The school wasn't as big or as well-known as other magical schools out there, but they weren’t slouches, either. Zeldabub, the Queen of Ghoulsville, saw to that. (Though they were no longer Ghoul Kingdom, they kept all of the old titles). She hired only the best for the teaching and administrative staff at Ghoul School. Gabbie’s dad had been one of Zeldabub’s favorites too. There of course were some murmurings of favoritism, as he was her brother-in-law, but there was no denying his teaching chops. Which is why Gabbie believed in the back of her mind that everything would have to turn out all right for her dad, if Zeldabub had anything to say about it. She was the queen, after all, right? And maybe even more importantly, she was family.

      Beyond the towers were athletic fields, the swimming pool, the garden and the library, which comprised a sixth and separate tower all to itself. To the west was the Old Halloween Village, an untouched tribute to Halloweens of the past that was always a favorite during the season. To the east was the Serpentine Fire Rail station, another favorite of the season, where the dragons would convene at the foot of Mount Serpentine to form a wonderful golden fire that warmed the whole mountain. Families loved to book camp-outs there during the Dragons’ Roost.

      On the furthest end of the grounds stood the Halloween Door, which marked the farthest boundary of the school grounds. Students were not allowed past its gates. A terrible forest existed there that housed the Well of Lost Souls and the Boonies, where the various criminals who often emerged were detained. Gabbie shuddered at some of the stories of horrid criminals whose exploits had landed them a berth in the Well of Lost Souls or the Boonies. The thought that her father might soon be among them did not sit well with her. She fought to keep those thoughts out of her mind.

      New Faces and Old Enemies