14 days of fear-mas
“How come you are so willing to help me out with all this Georgie?”
“You’re my friend?” She looked at Jon like it was a stupid question and continued to work on the list of things that would be needed to be ordered to pull off the 14 days of pranks without missing a day if collecting items was hard or an order was late. They ultimately decided they would send the packages to his flat rather than the office, so there wouldn’t be a break on weekends.
“But, I’m-” Jon had taken the time to tell Georgie about Jess. Which Georgie wasn’t happy about, but at least he didn’t try to hide it from her. Georgie also hadn't scolded him about it, it was concern for him that she ended up expressing, which Jon still didn't quite get. She’d promised to talk to Jess about it before Jon could go around acting all guilty about it to Jess’s face. “Last time, you left when it got bad. I was prepared for-”
“No, you don’t get to pull that. We are good. You also told me that before- eventually?- whatever. You know what I mean. You told me I made my choice to leave when things got dangerous. That is enough for me to trust that you are not dangerous. I know I can trust my logic will stand by me if things get out of control. Right not is not that time so stop it. We got 14 days of misery to deliver. I was thinking for the stranger day, a box of those screaming chickens. We pack them compressed, so when he opens it, there will be a chorus of screaming chickens. Maybe glue on some of those little baby hands on their feet to get the message across that they are unsettling creatures?”
Jon started laughing, both from the relief of how quickly she changed beats not letting him have a say in the matter and talking about the nightmare chicken choir.
“That sounds pretty good. Think 12 is a good number of them? We could send them on the 12th day since we wouldn’t have to worry about them expiring or getting too gross.”
“Probably. Still think we should let the corruption mess be the last one so it has time to get super gross.”
“No, neither of us want that in our flats. And I can’t keep it at work.”
“Party pooper.”
Jon sighed deeply.
“Okay so that just leaves planing for-” Georgie continued the planning with Jon well into the night, making sure to have a shopping list of everything they would need to pick up from the store or get online.
--
It’d been about a month since Jon and Elias had returned to the past. Elias had checked with a few other Avatars to see if anyone else had memories of the grand world he had created with the ritual. None of them remembered though a few had a sense of complete fullness for just a moment in time before it faded.
It was worrisome, but none had figured out what had happened so Elias wasn’t going to dwell. Not even others in the other Beholding branches had any idea either. It was just the two of them, and that delighted Elias.
The month had gone smoothly after the googly eye incident. There were still some of the eyes around, either because they were hidden well, or because some of his employees thought they were cute and kept them around on their desk. He’d simply learned their locations to avoid them.
The Archives and Artifact Storage still had the most of them. Artifact Storage probably kept them for fear of activating any negative effects, while he was sure the archives kept them to drive him nuts. Jon hadn’t filled them in it seamed, so he couldn’t fathom what would cause them to keep the eyes. Also how it seemed to not affect Jon at all was a curious side effect.
It was a Saturday afternoon when the first package arrived. It was addressed to Jonah Magnus and contained a rather nice cut of steak, that Elias didn’t remember ordering. And if he had, there was no way he would use his name. There wasn’t a return address, and something stopped him just Knowing. That didn’t please him. Not Knowing where it came from, he proceeded to invite Peter Lukas over for dinner. Peter was the one that got the mystery stake.
If Lukas ended up dying from it, that would be a bit of a shame, but he was too curious about if there was something wrong with the steak or not, that well, it was a price worth it. Wouldn’t be the first sacrifice for his curiosity.
Sunday there was a tiny box with two boxes of blood worms. Same pattern. Addressed to Jonah Magnus, no return address, and he didn’t Know were it came from.
Monday night after work, there was a box waiting for him. I’d been delivered during the day. It contained three boxes of matches.
Tuesday’s package was odd. I had a wolf plush in it, but it had 4 mouths altered onto it. Elias was starting to feel like Jon was getting a bit too predictable.
So, Wednesday Elias didn’t return home, but instead opted to get a hotel for the night. Elias was grinning all night thinking how frustrated Jon must be. Jon probably hadn’t prepared for Elias to spend the night in a hotel to avoid a minor annoyance. He wished he could see Jon’s lament, but trying to see one another didn’t work anymore. He would just have to make a trip to the Archive in the morning.
Thursday there was a package on his desk addressed to Jonah Magnus when Elias got in. When he’d asked Rosie about why she had placed it on his desk, she said it seemed like whoever sent it probably wanted to send it the head of the institute. Probably something that would belong in artifact storage, but she thought Elias should check it out first.
It sat on his desk for a majority of the day, until curiosity got the better of him. There was an explosion of color and glitter that went everywhere. Inside there was a letter that said ‘it wouldn’t have been in your office if you would’ve gone home yesterday’
Elias was livid until something wrong caught his eye. The mail was postmarked from Tuesday. It was mailed Saturday? How would Jon have known that Elias would’ve gotten a hotel Wednesday night if he mailed it so many days ago? How had he even?
Returning home, Elias found the package from Wednesday that contained 5 bags of googly eyes. He threw them into the trash out of rage.
Friday there was a package filled with dirt. Elias spent the night awake debating how he was going to spend the weekend. He first thought about getting a hotel, but if packages were sent to the hotel like it had been to the office, Elias was certain that information would destabilize his connection to his patron. Which he found odd, cause he Knew that, it wasn’t speculation. He couldn’t understand it though. Why would the Ceaseless Watcher want him to not know something like that? Could it be since Jon knew it, the Beholding didn’t need the new information and the repeat would cause frustration? Because it wasn’t a mystery for Elias to solve? All the uncertainties agitated Elias, so he opted to say home.
Saturday’s package was empty. Nothing inside. Somehow that made him angrier than if there was something in it.
Sunday’s was equally frustrating. It contained 9 butter knives. The fact it was an odd amount of knives caused a rage that Elias couldn’t do anything with. He ended up calling Lukas to rant cause who the hell would send an odd amount of cutlery in a set.
Monday again, and day 10 of this onslaught of packages was a box with the inside painted with that shade of black called blackest black. The kind that absorbs all light.
Elias was starting to think that Jon had run out of ideas when he got another empty box with the inside painted in a gradient of sky colors with a slip of paper that said ‘Do you love the colour of the sky?’ until the following day when the box opened with a chorus of screaming chickens with baby hands.
Thursday, Day 13. Elias was tired of it. He ended up throwing that box away without even looking at it. The next morning, he could’ve sworn there were cobwebs in the corner of his room that hadn’t been there the night before.
Friday came, day 14 and Elias looked tired. There was no package this day, but an envelope without a stamp that simply had Elias’s name on it rather than Jonah Magnus that had been on all the others. He opened it, and inside there was a letter that said ‘in the end, I get what I want.’ and behind it was receipts from all the items that were sent to Elias the past two weeks.
--
It had taken quite a bit of work and a few calls on Georgie’s part to be able to coordinate the paranoia Jon was aiming for with Fear-mas. Two of each package sent to both locations, with the ones sent to the Institute simply sent to ‘Jon’ to arrive the day before it would be needed. All the office packages contained a letter of remorse Elias wasn’t home yesterday to receive the package, and if Jon could see that Elias hadn’t retrieved the package from the day before, Jon completed ‘Jon’ to ‘Jonah Magnus’ and placed it on Rosie’s desk to deliver to Elias.
That had been Georgie’s idea since the two names were so similar, Jon wasn't that good at manipulation. That way the packages would get delivered to Jon without risk of landing with Elias a day earlier than it was needed. Oddly enough Jon was the only 'Jon' that worked there. He'd been rather happy it had been the glitter bomb that was delivered to the office ultimately, but any of them would’ve done nicely.
The key to the whole operation was that the End package only receipts if only one set of packages were ever purchased and sent. After knowing which items were delivered were, he put in the item receipts and the cost to ship them. That one he figured wouldn't need the postmark and he could just leave it where it needed to be. It was extremely worth it to see Elias storm into his office holding the Gift of the End. Elias was radiating with paranoia from not being able to See how Jon had done it and Jon could taste it. He wasn't sure what he would do with the confirmation that he did enjoy the fear he created a tad more than the fear that he observed. He was partially hoping it was because this was new unrecorded fear rather than cause it was something he made, but he highly doubted it. Helen did tell him about how Micheal and the spiral before him had liked longer projects of fear.
It also mildly confirmed that Elias didn’t know about Georgie at all or Elias would’ve been able to see the plan. Jon would have to fill her in about that.
Jon didn’t get the cards he was hoping for the others to have, but the archives budget was increased and Jon was granted access to reimbursing his own expenses as long as they fit in the budget.