Rascal's First Halloween
By
Rebecca Anna Coleman

-3-
Rascal's Reflection

I thought mom was just joking when she said she'll allow me to dye my hair blue to match my cosplay. But on this lazy Thursday afternoon. I found myself sitting in a vinyl salon chair, with a heavy, salon cape draped over my shoulders and tied firmly at the back. This was my first time visiting a salon and I found the lingering chemical smell a bit weird. It was also very noisy.

After a man is stabbed in the back and dies, he wakes up in the Labyrinth with a new body, new power, and another chance.

This story takes place in the same universe as my story Invoker.

The locker room routine is practiced now. End stall, bag on the hook, change in under two minutes. Mark is already on the floor, because Mark is always already on the floor - changed in thirty seconds in the open bay, the way he always does, because Mark has never had a reason to think about changing in a locker room.

I find him at the dumbbell rack, mid-warm-up.

"You're late."

"Two minutes."

"Two minutes is late." He racks the weight. "Biceps first."

---

CHAPTER 6
That day was one for bimbling. Sunscreen slathered, floaty dresses and floppy hats donned, or shorts and T-shirt in Lil’s case, and it was a slow amble past a wide variety of shops and tourist traps, with the occasional pause for ice cream, or a cold soft drink. We eventually emerged at the seafront, where all the usual sorts of souvenir cabins and eateries lined one side of a broad footpath, the other dropping onto a sort of beach.