Unreason Season

By: Mia Dalia

 

    “So, what is he exactly?” I whisper-ask politely, all too aware of my stranger-in-a-strange-land status. 

    I love Archie. I love his charmingly old-fashioned ways. Only until now, I had thought them to be an affectation. Now I am here on this speck of an island where he grew up, to meet his family and celebrate our first Christmas together, and I recognize Archie’s peculiarities everywhere. Most of the island’s tiny population has been here for generations, stubbornly clinging to their antiquated traditions. 

    On the mainland, with Archie, in small doses, it’s practically adorable. Here, omnipresent and heavy-handed, it’s rather overwhelming. 

    I realize he’s an exception—the one who got away. He’s different. They eye him with suspicion, I can tell. And me, even more so. 

    But I love Christmas and always have. Archie’s mentioned that they celebrate a bit differently out here, but I have chosen to approach it with excitement instead of trepidation. 

    “He is the Lord of Misrule,” Archie explains, nodding at the man in garishly-bright costume. I can’t quite tell if he’s meant to be a jester or a clown, but either way, he’s pretty unsettling. Especially that makeup. When he grins, he looks like something out of a nightmare. “He serves as the mayor, of sorts, for the Christmas season,” Archie continues. “Inciting mischief and fun.” 

    Okay, I think, that sounds amusing enough. So I Google it later, using the island’s spotty Wi-Fi. Turns out the alternate title for this job was the Abbot of Unreason, which sounds infinitely more disturbing, and the mischief they got up to was intense enough to warrant a long-ago ban by both Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. 

    I want to tell Archie about it, but we are not permitted to sleep in the same room. Alone, in the dark, my mind conjures up all sorts of frightening things. When the knock comes, I think, excitedly,  it’s Archie. I throw the door open. My smile is met with a sinister grin. Tiny bells jangle with each horrible step. I want to plead, but I know he won’t listen to reason.

 

**

Mia Dalia is an internationally published, CWA-nominated author of all things fantastic, thrilling, scary, and strange. Her tales of horror, noir, science fiction, mystery, crime, humor, and more have been featured in a variety of anthologies, magazines, literary journals, online, and adapted for narrative podcasts.

Her stories have been voted top ten of Tales to Terrify (2023) and shortlisted for the CWA's Daggers Awards (2024). She is the author of the novels Estate Sale and Haven; novellas, Tell Me a Story, Discordant, and Arrokoth; and the collection, Smile So Red and Other Tales of Madness.

Find her online at:

https://daliaverse.wixsite.com/author

https://linktr.ee/daliaverse