XD Well, I have a PDF of one of the Arnold books, this one was Return of the Sewer King, which I guess is a follow-up to the sewer king episode. And here's a new urban legend for you guys. :D
Halloween approaches! So this will be my story. Yes, I do have another one in the works, but it's taking longer. So for now, you can have this puppy. :3 Don't worry, I'll still have the other one, even though it will be posted long after Halloween is over.
Takes place after TJM. ;)
Enjoy!
XXX
"Man I bet all the trees down in the jungle back there are all red and orange and yellow!" Harold exclaimed, pointing to a couple of trees around the park.
"The leaves don't really change in San Lorenzo, Harold." Arnold told him. "It's a hotter climate down in Central America, so they don't have winter, fall and spring like we do up here."
"Boy howdy, it's sure good to be back here after all that!" Sid said, fixing his hat on his head. "I'm glad we were back in time for Halloween!"
"Y'all can say that again." Stinky agreed, tossing a baseball between his hands. "Halloween makes pumpkin pie taste better!"
"Everything tastes better on Halloween!" Harold patted his stomach.
Helga rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "Everything tastes better to you anytime, pink boy."
"Whatever, Madam Fortress Mommy."
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that." Helga muttered, and then cast a secretive glance toward Arnold, who looked back at her with a little smile.
It didn't go unnoticed to Gerald, who raised an eyebrow, before he cleared his throat. "You know guys, since it's so close to Halloween, what say I present a new urban legend for you?"
"Willikers, you got another one?" Stinky asked in surprise.
"Boy howdy, a new urban legend! That's my cue!" Sid then stood up, gesturing to Gerald dramatically. "Lady and gentlemen, I now present our King of the Urban Legends, Gerald! Take it away, man."
"Thank you, thank you." Gerald stood up and waved to his friends as if they were a huge crowd. "Now then, today, we've got quite an interesting story. You guys know the Hillwood Plants and Flowers Preservation building near downtown, it's a big building, has big gardens and has all those greenhouses, where they grow plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables?"
"Yeah, I know that place." Arnold said, nodding his head, and everyone ad-libbed agreements.
"Good! 'Cause this legend takes place there. They say, that there is a ghostly spirit protector of nature. Some call her Mother Nature, or some call her Gaiaka, others...call her Plant Woman. She lurks in the west end greenhouses, in Greenhouse Five. They say that if you go in there, Plant Woman will spray you with fertilizer, a strange pheromone to hypnotize and attract you. And then her vines and flowers will wrap all around you, consume you, and you try to fight...but it doesn't work!" Gerald went on, squeezing his fists as if he were clutching a baseball bat. "They wrap tighter and tighter, dragging you into the earth with them, and then you're history. They say that you become a part of her plants forever, turnin' into the flowers, the leaves, the roots...everything! You become a plant your self. Plant Woman herself appeared on Earth Day, when an unfortunate employee of the building walked in there...and was never seen again."
"Whoa! A killer plant woman? That's scary!" Harold cried, clutching and biting down on his hat.
"Come on Gerald, that's just silly." Arnold said, shaking his head.
"For once, I agree with you, Football Head." Helga said, crossing her arms. "Really Geraldo, some kind of a killer plant woman with monster plants? No way, that only exists in comic books and movies."
"Did they ever see Plant Woman?" Sid asked.
"No one knows what she looks like, they say that all you see is a silhouetted shadow, with glowin' blue eyes lookin' at you from all the darkness, like Bela Lugosi's infamous Dracula Stare...you see the shadows of plants flowing and moving all around her, and then...that evil laugh. All ya hear is her voice, and that evil laugh. It ain't like any other evil laugh you'd hear from the villain in a movie or cartoon. Sometimes they say, in the dark of the night, you can hear the evil laughter floating from Greenhouse Five...so eerie, bone-chilling, as if you were in front of Dracula's Castle!" Gerald visibly shuddered. "Then, inside the greenhouse, all this fog rolls in...making it impossible to find the way out! And the last thing that happens before you're gone is the awful smell of the fog."
"What, would a cliched strike of lightning appear, and then you see bats flying from one of the windows, in front of a greenhouse that made you feel like you're an inch tall?" Helga raised one side of her eyebrow.
Even Arnold had a hard time not laughing at that as he hid a smile behind his hand.
"Real funny." Gerald rolled his eyes. "She'll attack you if you dare try to destroy her precious babies, all mother nature is sacred to her, as they say. And that, my dear friends, concludes the legend of Plant Woman."
"Willikers, that's one crazy dame." Stinky said, shaking his head. "Betcha she sacrifices her victims to the pits of the fiery underworld!"
"Pits of Hell, Stinko." Helga said casually, and earned a few shocked stares. "And even if that were the case, please, it's just a story."
"Oh yeah? Prove it!" Sid said.
"Fine. We'll go there on Halloween night." Arnold announced. "Gerald, you in?"
"Aw man, not this again." Gerald sighed, and nodded. "Okay, I'm in."
"We've got Rhonda's party to go to, so...yeah, we'll pass!" Harold said. "I gotta run, Mr. Green actually asked me to help him out at the shop tonight! Oh boy!" Excitedly he hurried off.
"Same here." Sid stood up. "In fact I heard my dad calling, better go!" He ran off before anyone could answer.
"I'll be goin' too, I gotta help my dad with the pumpkin carvin'!" Stinky rubbed his hands together excitedly. "Good luck at that there haunted greenhouse!" He walked off after Sid and Harold.
"What about you, Helga?" Arnold challenged, smirking toward her. "Are you in, or are you too chicken?"
"Chicken nothing, Football Head. I'm not backing down from this." Helga crossed her arms defiantly.
"Really?" Arnold leaned toward her, their noses barely touching.
"Really." Helga leaned the rest of the way, touching their noses together. "Unless you are too scared."
"It's just a story, like you said, why would I be scared?"
"I don't know, you tell me."
Since Gerald had his back turned, the two leaned in and shared a lingering peck, then smiled at each other as they parted.
"Nice try guys, I know you're smoochin' up back there." Gerald said matter-of-factly, not at all phased.
Arnold blushed, as did Helga, as they scooted further from each other on the grass.
"Um, so Football Head, got anything in mind you want to dress up as for Halloween this time?" Helga questioned casually.
"Yeah, actually." Arnold said, turning back to her. "I thought I'd go with a classic horror icon this year."
"That was my idea!" Helga exclaimed in mock offence. "Well, who'd you choose?"
"Freddy Krueger. What about you?"
"I'm gonna be Jason Voorhees. I've got the costume all set and ready for it."
"Well I'M going to be a dog." Gerald said. "Phoebe is going to be a doctor."
"Dr. Dolittle?" Helga snickered.
"You mind leaving her in the greenhouse or something?" Gerald whispered to Arnold.
Arnold just grinned. "No can do, Gerald. No can do."
"Arnold, you are one sick puppy."
XXX
Halloween night soon came along. The three, now joined by Phoebe, who had agreed to come, were meeting at the boarding house. It was 6:15, and already dark outside, a perfect time to get going.
As planned, Arnold was dressed as Freddy Krueger, which seemed odd to some, all things considered. He wore a red and green striped sweater he often wore at Christmas, a dark brown fedora that belonged to his grandfather, worn dark pants, and brown sneakers. He had a plastic knife glove on his right hand, and his face, in thanks to Mr. Hyun's daughter Mai, who was studying to be a professional makeup artist, managed to apply some neat makeup to make it look as if his face had been severely burned.
Helga was Jason Voorhees. She wore a bald cap on her head to conceal her hair, along with a hockey goalie masked touched-up to look like it did in the movies. Her clothing consisted of a fairly tattered, worn dark gray jacket, a ripped navy blue shirt, dark gray corduroy pants, and heavy duty workboots. She also wore black gloves, and held a machete made out of plastic, and was wearing a dark mud mask to make her face appear grotesque. She had opted to wear brown contacts to add to the effect, but she found they stung her eyes and scrapped that idea.
Gerald was in a dog costume, as he'd said, and wore a simple dog costume resembling a German Shepherd. It covered his body from head to toe, except for an open space where the mouth was, that his face poked out of.
Phoebe was dressed a doctor, and her costume was fairly simple. A white lab coat, a blue dress shirt, a black skirt, her hair pulled back into a ponytail, and dark loafers.
"Well this is weird. Two horror icons, a dog and a doctor. Could we all be any more of a mismatch?" Gerald remarked, snickering.
"Hey, a lot of people would say it's out of character for Arnold to be Fredster over here." Helga jerked her thumb toward Arnold.
"Yeah, I guess it is." Arnold admitted, rubbing the back of his neck with his left hand, the hand that didn't have the plastic knife glove, and then picked up his bag. "Are you guys ready?"
"Ready!" Phoebe chirped.
"I'm definitely ready!" Gerald said, holding up his bag.
Helga lifted up her mask and winked at Arnold. "I'm ready as I'll ever be."
He grinned at her and tipped his hat. "Whatever you say, Helga."
"Make a witty remark and you might be golden."
With their trick-or-treat bags in tow, the plan was that they would head out and trick-or-treat for a while, and then take a bus out to the preservation building, to the alleged haunted Greenhouse Five. Before they left, Miles and Stella, who were dressed as Indiana Jones and Sarah Connor from Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
"You kids have fun!" Miles tipped his fedora as well. "And be back by ten." The four of them were having a sleepover that evening at the boarding house.
"Don't go to any neighbourhood you don't know, careful crossing the street, try not to eat too much of your candy, and don't fill up your bags too heavy." Stella advised them. "And have a good time!"
"We'll be fine, mom, don't worry." Arnold assured her.
"And you boys, take care of your special ladies." Miles added, winking at Arnold and Gerald, who both blushed.
"I think it's gonna be the other way around." Helga snickered.
"Don't you be emasculating my buddy now!" Gerald warned.
"Pheebs, stop teaching Geraldo big words."
The kids all trouped out the door, heading out into the fading twilight. Gerald and Phoebe walked on ahead, holding hands (as per usual), while Arnold and Helga walked behind them side-by-side, and although on any other day they would've held hands (provided no one would see them), and even right now they would have since they were in costume, but it was hard to do considering Arnold's plastic knife glove and holding the bag in his other hand, and they felt a bit silly creating that silly image of their costume counterparts of the evening.
Oh well. That didn't matter. They knew there would be plenty of time for a little snuggling after it was all over and the makeup was scrubbed off. And it WAS their first Halloween truly spent together, and as a couple no less. They would make the best of it no matter what.
"Pheebs, you got the time?" Helga then said.
Phoebe looked at her watch as they stopped under a streetlamp. "Yes, it's 6:30 right now. Around 7:30 we'll catch the bus over to the preservation. The buses around there run until 9:30, so we'll have plenty of time to explore, catch the next bus and be back at the boarding before our curfew."
"Man, and to think that tonight we'll find out the truth about Plant Woman..." Gerald murmured.
"Come on Gerald, all those other urban legends we discovered turned out to be misunderstandings." Arnold said. "I guess except maybe for Sam."
"Sam?" Helga repeated, raising one side of her eyebrow behind her mask.
"The Sewer King." Gerald answered for him. "Maybe so, man, but this time it could be real."
Arnold just shook his head. "Oh well, we'll go see what's going on with it, anyway."
"Whatever you say, Arnold." Gerald said.
XXX
After they'd been trick-or-treating for the past hour, they were now on the bus heading to the Hillwood Plants and Flowers Preservation building. Their bags were full of candy, growing heavy, and they were growing tired. But it was nice to get a little break on the bus for a while, since the plant was located across town, not far from downtown.
Now they sat, earning some weird stares from other passengers, despite that it was Halloween.
"Should've worn a bald cap, Football Head." Helga teased, snickering.
"I guess I should've." Arnold said, taking off his fedora for a moment to scratch his head and then put it back on.
"Next time we're going as a famous couple or something. Least then I can kiss you with no worry of making it look weird."
Arnold blushed heavily, and Phoebe giggled, while Gerald pretended to stick his finger down his throat.
"And whaddya know, here comes our stop!" Gerald pulled the cord to signal the bus driver to pull over at the next stop. "Sorry guys, gonna have to save the smooching for later."
Helga lifted her mask up to her nose and stuck her tongue out petulantly.
The bus stopped, and the quartet disembarked. Their destination happened to be right near the stop, with the rows of huge greenhouses lined up behind the building. They all had large numbers on located on flags that hung from each roof of the greenhouses. Right among them was Greenhouse Five. They could see the flag where they were standing, thanks to the street lamps.
Slowly, the kids approached the rows of greenhouses. No lights were on, indicating that the building was closed, and no signs of life were to be seen. Maybe it was because it was Halloween, or that the air was crisp and cool, but they couldn't help but feel a chilling feeling, shivers going up and down their spines.
Gerald pointed, and they all turned toward Greenhouse Five. Even though it was nighttime, and not quite easy to see what was inside, they saw nothing, no signs of movement.
"Well! Nothing here. We came, we saw. Let's go." Helga said, turning to leave, but Arnold grabbed her hand, looking right at the greenhouse.
"Helga. Wait. I think I saw something in there."
"Where, man? I didn't see anything."
Arnold didn't respond, he just approached the door, and tried the knob. But it didn't move. He then pushed it, and saw that it opened. More like creaked open slowly, revealing the line of plants and flowers in soil and pots inside. They all went inside, where it was very warm. Too warm.
"Goodness, these greenhouses are sweltering!" Helga groaned.
"Greenhouses are designed to keep at a constant temperature so that the plants don't have to worry about the cold weather outside." Phoebe explained.
"Doi, I know that. Now come on, let's get out of here before-"
Gerald shushed her then. "Did you guys hear that?"
"Hear what?" Arnold questioned.
They all listened, their ears straining to hear whatever noise it was.
Silence.
"Geraldo, I thought you were supposed to be a dog, not a snake." Helga muttered.
"No...no, I think I heard something too." Phoebe said softly.
Now they looked all around the greenhouse, listening for the sound, and sure enough, there was the sound of footsteps, sounding as if they were walking along dried, dead leaves. And then, an evil laugh was sounded. Coming from down below, nearly to the point of being deafening. Needless to say, it startled them and even terrified them.
"IT'S PLANT WOMAN!" Helga screamed, jumping into Arnold's arms.
"RUN, GUYS!" Gerald cried, grabbing Phoebe's hand and heading for the door.
But before they could move, that was when the room was filled with a smoke substance, making it nearly impossible to see three feet in front of them. There was also a strange, putrid smell to it. It wasn't long before the four of them began coughing, their eyes stinging from the smokey substance, therefore making it harder to see. Footsteps were heard in the obscurely visioned greenhouse, and through their blurred, teary eyes, it was then that they came upon a silhouetted, shadowed figure.
A lot of long, thin tentacle-like shadows protruded from the shadowed figure, almost like tentacles, or vines, and glowing blue orbs, much like the dual beams of a car, stuck out of the smokey darkness.
"PLANT WOMAN!" Gerald screamed.
"GET US OUT OF HERE!"
Suddenly, the fluorescent lights came on, and a fan was turned on to blow away the smokey haze. Arnold, Helga, Gerald and Phoebe stood in complete awe, not moving, as this happened.
"What are you kids doing here, and at this hour? You know you're not allowed to sneak into the greenhouses." Came a new voice.
The smoke cleared and their eyes adjusted to the light, coming to see a young college girl around eighteen or nineteen standing there before them, taking off a gas mask she had been wearing. The "tentacles" turned out to be pots of ivy vines, and the blue glowing "eyes" were ultraviolet scanning lights coming from the gas mask, probably a new form of how they worked or something. The young woman had bright blue eyes, brown hair, and wore a green uniform that the preservation plant wore along with a white lab coat.
Helga's own eyes widened, and she lifted up her mask to see her better. "Casana? You're my babysitter, what are you doing here?"
"Oh, Helga! It's you. I had no idea." The woman, now known as Casana, smiled then. "I work here. It's a part of the Forest Science program I'm taking in college. Now, what are you guys doing here?"
"Well, see..." Gerald said sheepishly. "Kinda came to investigate the urban legend about Plant Woman."
"Plant Woman?" Casana repeated, raising an eyebrow, and shook her head. "There's nothing like that here, it's just me working in this particular greenhouse usually at later hours. What you've heard was probably just silly stories. There were times that kids snuck in here and then ran away before I could stop them."
"So the smoke?" Arnold began.
"It's for the plants." Casana held up a can with a spray nozzle. "It's not exactly toxic, but not the best to breathe in."
"The evil laugh?" Phoebe asked.
"There's a sub-level to the green houses, for storage and a good place to take a break. Sometimes I play the radio or television down there."
"...Well." Gerald murmured, shaking his head. "Looks like that urban legend was a flop!"
"I told you so, Geraldo." Helga rolled her eyes. "Anyway, we'll just get outta here now. By the way, Bob and Miriam are going to Seattle next weekend for some business thing, you available then?"
Casana nodded. "Sure, I'll be there! So Helga, who are your friends?"
"That's Gerald, my best friend Phoebe, and this is Arnold."
"Ohhh, so you're Arnold. I heard a lot about you! You're a real cutie."
Arnold blushed heavily under his makeup. "Um...thanks. We're sorry to have bothered you, Casana, we'll leave now."
"Just a moment, I need to ask you something. Do you still hold lectures here?" Phoebe asked. "I have to do a report on the basics of planting and maintaining and I was wondering if they still held the lectures here."
"They do, I'll talk to the manager tomorrow and see if we can set something up if you're interested." Casana promised.
"Okay, thanks! We're sorry to have barged in, we won't do this again."
"Good luck handlin' babysitting Helga!" Gerald hooted.
"I heard that, Geraldo!"
The four of them left Greenhouse Five, with their bags of candy in tow, heading back to the bus stop. It had been quite a Halloween night, that was for sure. The so-called urban legend regarding Plant Woman turned out to just be a college girl working there, and they were fooled into being scared yet again.
"What a coincidence." Helga remarked, shaking her head. "Who knew."
"Man, can't believe it was just a misunderstanding." Gerald sighed. "Oh well, let's go back to the house and watch some horror movies!"
"I can do with that." Arnold said. He looked toward Helga with a smile. When a movie and Helga were in the same room, that usually meant cuddling. And he liked that.
Helga blushed a bit behind her mask and smiled back at him. She was sure looking forward to when they'd be taking the makeup off, all right.
"And we'll pig out on our candy!" Phoebe added in cheerfully.
"Whoa Pheebs, 'pig out', you've been hanging around Tall-Hair boy way too long." Helga snickered.
Phoebe giggled and held Gerald's hand. "I suppose his mannerisms have caught up to me lately."
"You got it, babe." Gerald winked at her. "So hey, we had a good Halloween after all!"
"Looks like it, Gerald." Arnold grinned. "Even if we scared ourselves for no reason."
"Oh well, maybe next time a new urban legend will rise and we'll find out it was nothing more than someone dressed up as a ghost to scare people away." Helga quipped.
They all laughed as Halloween night grew darker and somewhere there was a wolf howling at the full moon...