The Jack-o-lanturn ~ Chapter one: Annelise's bracelet

by Cobweb in the little place that exists over the rainbow

Jackelynn Grace, whose name was always shortened to simply Jackie, was trying out costumes in the local Halloween store with her mother.
Jackie held up a lacy teal princess dress to her chest, and examined it.
"It looks so cute," said Mrs. Grace sweetly, running her fingers over its silky surface. "And it brings out your blue eyes."
"It looks girly," Jackie said scornfully, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "Way too girly. I'm not going to be seen in it."
Mrs. Grace sadly hung the dress back up. "Oh, Jackie," she sighed. "You're too picky. We've tried on everything that fits you! And now there's nothing left. Perhaps we'd do better to make our own costume."
"No!" cried Jackie wildly. Her mother always insisted on stitching together a costume. But it always turned out to be terribly scratchy, the wrong size, and looking horrible.
"Do you need help?"
Both Jackie and Mrs. Grace turned, to see a beautiful girl standing there. She had gloriously thick blonde hair that reached her waist, twinkling green eyes, a lovely creamy skin color, and crimson lips that were curved into a warm smile. She was jackie's age.
"I'm Annelise," the girl said in response to their looks of surprise. "I don't work here, but I come here so much that I know the store inside and out, and every detail of every costume in it."
Her voice was sweet and clear and persuasive.
Jackie looked down at her own thin body and wished that she had long sunshiny hair instead of a reddish, dark auburn. It took twenty seconds for her to get over Annelise's beauty and answer her question.
"Oh, yes," she said tentatively. "We might need a little help."
Something abnormal happened just then; Annelise's eyes flashed from dizzying green to a coal-black and back again.
"What are you looking for?" asked Annelise, ignoring Jackie's open-mouthed stare. "Something that'll look flashy, cute, and fits? I've got just the thing." She indicated a realistic-looking Indian costume on her right.
Mrs. Grace, Jackie, and Annelise talked for about five minutes, looking at costumes, until finally they found the perfect one: a catchy cowgirl outfit.
As they turned to leave, Annelise ahnded Jackie a bracelet.
"We can be friends," she said sweetly. "I've got a bracelet just like it. It'll be our friendship bracelets. Don't lose it, and don't take it off!" Her eyes flashed once more.
Jackie accepted the bracelet, which had crystal clear beadsn and teal ones, and glimmered in the sunlight.

It was twilight. Jackie sat examining her new bracelet in awe. She couldn't believe that she had made a brand new friend, a gorgeous one, at that. Just as she was picky about her clothes, she was picky about her friends, and not many charmed her heart like Annelise did.
Suddenly, a enigmatic voice hissed into her ear, "Stand."
Frightened, Jackie looked around for the source of the noise. Nothing stirred in the neighborhood except the leaves on the trees.
To her surprise, her whole body tingled, and before she knew it, she was standing.
"Take your necklace off."
Jackie's hands automatically removed the beautiful necklace she had worn around her neck every day. With a cry of shock, Jackie did her best to resist, but to no avail.
"Put it on the branches of the tree in your yard," hissed the mysterious voice. Tears of fright welling up in her eyes, she hung her fragile necklace on the branches of the tree.
"You must not go near it," whispered the voice. "Ever. If you do, terrible punishments will await you."
And then with a jolt, Jackie realized where the voice was comign from. It was coming from the bracelet. The bracelet was forcing her to do this. The gift of Annelise was controlling her.
Jackie hurriedly pulled it off, and hurled it as hard as she could into the street, where hopefully a car would crush it. She bolted back into the house, shivering. And on the street, the abandoned bracelet vanished with a puff of turqoise smoke.