"After Midnight"

Every year on Halloween, the town of Wyrdham, Pennsylvania is visited by Stingy Jack and his fearless companion, Noobie. Jack is a benevolent Lord of the Fae, one of several preternatural races with whom we share this Earth. Noobie is a Barghest or "phantom hound" who follows Jack wherever he goes. Jack has a magic lantern he uses to light his way through the darkness, and he is a psychopomp, guiding recently deceased souls to safety in the Otherworld.

It is Jack's custom to find any ghosts or Fae who might be lost on Halloween, helping them find their way. But something is very different in Wyrdham this year. Jack senses there are well over a hundred lost souls in Wyrdham who need desperate help, and they all seem to be trapped at Full Circle Sanitarium. But neither he nor Noobie can enter the property, since it has been rebuilt with plenty of wrought iron embedded into its foundation. This prevents any Fae from stepping foot in the sanitarium without experiencing unbearable pain.

But Jack receives an answer to his prayers when he feels another presence in Wyrdham that might be able to help. He and Noobie track the presence down to the Seven Sleepers Cemetery in Wyrdham, where they meet the seven-foot tall scarecrow that has just raised some hell in Philadelphia.

Jack learns the scarecrow is named Sawyer Wynn, and that he is one of the Neverdead - the same lost souls who are trapped at Full Circle. When Sawyer explains he is here to destroy the Quantamaker Group and release the rest of the Neverdead, Jack offers to help. "I can make each of them remember who they were before they died," he explains, "and I can take each of them to wherever they might want to go. But I have to be able to interact with them, and I can't do that unless I can get inside the building." Sawyer agrees to do whatever he can to provide access to Full Circle for Jack, as he does not know what he will be able to do with the Neverdead once they are free.

Before they part ways, Sawyer asks Jack if there might be any way for a Neverdead to be destroyed; he hates living forever, and would like very much to die when he is finished with the Quantamaker Group. Jack frowns and says, "You're an impossible thing that isn't supposed to exist, Sawyer. I'm not even sure that a God could destroy you."