I've always been obsessed with the opening song to Nightmare Before Christmas, and the more I listened to it, the more I thought it sounded like a story. Please Review
I wanted to coordinate our costumes, but Samantha wanted to be Sansa Stark and I wasn't about to admit I didn't know any of the other characters well enough to make my own costume. Samantha's long red hair fell down her back in surprisingly controlled curls and her dress was black and the neckline was surprisingly low-cut. She didn't seem to care at all, although Mark seemed to be mesmerized by her cleavage. He was supposed to be Link, but looked more like Peter Pan. Rachel had her short hair curled like a 1920's movie star and wore a flapper dress, she insisted that everyone call her Ron. Tom threw on his dad's old tool belt and covered his face and shirt with soot, claiming to be Leo from the Heroes of Olympus. William and Quentin were supposed to be Halo commandoes, and actually looked kind of cute in their matching paint-ball armor turned alien battle suits. Wilson's white-blond hair was slicked back and he wore all white…we weren't exactly sure what he was supposed to be. My own costume was a store-bought fairy costume.
Samantha drove, her mom lent her the family Suburban, and she was arguing with Tom about the fastest way to the Halloween carnival in Bullrun. "For the last time, I've been there a dozen times! I know the way!"
Tom rolled his eyes and sat back in his seat.
"And don't get that soot on the leather."
Mark and Rachel were chatting quietly about the recent math homework, and Wilson was playing Angry Birds on his phone. William was straightening Quentin's helmet.
As we drove through the streets chock-full of small children and their parents, Samantha finally turned off onto a side street and the rollercoaster came into view. The crowd hadn't shown up yet, but by nightfall there would be a crowd of drunk teens and early twenty-somethings. Samantha had given us all a can of pepperspray, she and Rachel had gone last year and Samantha had had to scare off several drunken idiots.
After a long parking ordeal, in which Samantha ended up kicking Tom out of the car for being an idiot, we finally made our way onto the grounds. We wandered around, looking for the entrance to the rollercoaster when something caught Wilson's attention.
"Boys and girls of every age!" a tall man dressed in all black with a stove pipe hat called from the entrance to a large black tent. He ran straight up to Samantha and gave her a gap-toothed grin. "Wouldn't you like to see something strange? Come with us!"
A group of darkly dressed figures ran from the tent and surrounded us. "You will see, this!" they pointed to the tent, "our town of Halloween!"
Samantha, ever bold, raised a critical eyebrow. "Town? Looks like a bunch of rags tossed over a group of dementors and a Spring-heeled Jack that appears to have lost his shoes."
The tall man grabbed her arm and dragged her into the tent, we rushed in after them. "This is Halloween!" he shouted as the tent flaps closed behind us.
A faint ghostly light appeared several feet ahead of us, and suddenly it flew forward to reveal a screeching, flaming Jack O' Lantern that somehow disappeared behind us.
Quentin ran for the door, but when he came to where the tent flaps had been there was only more darkness. "There's no way out!" he shouted, his voice dripping terror.
"This is Halloween!" we heard the tall man call again, this time much further away.
Torches suddenly burst into flame in a semicircle in front of us. Wilson grabbed one and the others quickly followed suit. Samantha held another flame aloft, turning her red curls into burnished copper. Quentin and William were shaking terribly, and even Tom looked shaken.
Something grabbed my ankle and I screamed. Wilson ran over with the light as I scrambled away from what had grabbed me. Mark lay on the ground, his lips pulled back in a hideous snarl to reveal razor-sharp teeth. When his blood-red gaze fell on the flaming torch he screeched and ran off into the night.
"What the hell was that?!" William shrieked.
"Has anyone seen Rachel?" Samantha called, she had moved away from the group. "I can't find her and she isn't answering me!"
Suddenly a shadow appeared above her and her torch winked out. Samantha let out a horrified scream and ran back into the ring of torches. A twisted creature with a 1920's hairdo positively crawling with spiders and long, snapping snakes for fingers hissed as it retreated away from the lights.
"Rachel!" Samantha cried again before Tom wrapped an arm around her and dragged her away from the hideous sight. The normally strong girl burst into tears and tore at her long curls as her cousin's form melted back into the darkness.
"This is Halloween!" a higher, closer voice called.
"I got that!" she screamed all of a sudden, jumping to her feet and tearing away from Tom. "Now give me back my cousin or I swear to God I'll-"
Drums began to beat and a large procession began making its way towards us. Flaring Jack O' Lanterns revealed a group of monsters, from ghouls to werewolves and even lizard people. They danced and sang as they passed, and Samantha stared at them, speechless.
"Let's go," Wilson whispered and started making his way out into the darkness. Samantha grabbed another torch and ran after him, quickly followed by the rest of us. Shapes began to appear in the darkness, but more than often they turned out to be rocks. One scuttled away in terror, none of them moved to attack us again.
We came to what appeared to be a large wooden box, and Wilson leaned out to get a closer look. Suddenly the lid flew off and he fell back as an enormous snake burst forth, its fangs dripping venom. It looked around blindly before collapsing back into its box, but we were already scrambling away from it.
After what seemed like hours of running we came to an old-fashioned lamp stand that let of a sickly greenish glow. A shadow sat beneath it, wearing a hood over a disfigured body. "Aren't you scared?" it asked, lifting its head to reveal a cat's head and sharp teeth. "Well that's just fine!"
It held out a few die in its big paw and let them fall to the ground. "Snake eyes…" it whispered, then disappeared into the darkness.
A bright, full moon appeared in the sky and the world around us was suddenly cast in a ghostly gray light. A group of horsemen ran past on skeletal steeds, seemingly chasing a group of monstrous human-animal hybrids through the nights.
Tom let out a shout and he dropped his torch. He doubled over, clutching his face and gasping and letting out gasping sobs. There was a sickening squelching sound and suddenly Tom's face fell into his hands. He lifted his head to reveal a hideous mess of muscle and bone before rushing off into the dark.
William started screaming all of a sudden, and we turned to see that Quentin's clothes now lay empty on the ground beside him. A blood-curdling scream came from our right.
"Who's there?" Samantha called, whipping her torch around to look. A shadow ran across the dead grass and let out another scream.
William was crying now, shaking on the ground. Wilson shook his shoulder, but he refused to leave.
"It's not safe here," Wilson whispered. "Come on, or you'll end up like one of them!"
William stopped shaking and sighed. A great wind suddenly whipped around us and he disintegrated before our eyes, the wind carried the dust away into the night.
Samantha stepped away from the matching uniforms and clutched her torch so tightly that her knuckles turned white. She turned to say something to Wilson, and he grabbed my arm and began to pull me away. Her eyebrows knit together in confusion, then her hands flew up to her neckline as it started to rise. The black fabric spread to cover her face and her beautiful hair. She let out a muffled protest, and then she began to rise. She shot up ten, fifteen, twenty feet until she was only a small shadow over the moon.
"Come on!" Wilson shouted. The shadows around us began to converge as we ran, and the torch's light began to fade. "No!" he shouted, and we were thrown into darkness.
I squeezed my eyes shut as we clutched each other. Our breathing was the only sound in the oppressive darkness.
Then a thousand bright lights flared up around us, the beasts all stood over us, their hoods pulled back to reveal monstrous faces. One, a wolfish creature, reached out a taloned paw to Wilson and he took it with his own shaking one. They lifted us up high with shouts and cheers until we stood atop a high platform. Wilson was even paler than usual in the ghastly light, and as one of them climbed up beside us I felt him start trembling.
"Who are you?" it asked in a deep, growling voice.
Wilson took a deep breath, "Wilson. Jack Wilson."
"Jack…" they breathed.
I gripped his hand even harder as it turned to look at me. "I-"
Wilson yanked his hand from mine and started yelling as the skin fell away from the bone. He stumbled away from me, his eyes wide with terror as his skin tightened and shriveled away. I covered my face with my hands until the beast rested a hand on my shoulder. He turned to look at Wilson and my heart froze in my chest. He was nothing but bones, still somehow holding together. He stared at his skeletal hands with empty eye-holes as one of the other beasts came forward with a long cloak to cover himself with. He looked at me and smiled, his jaw making a hideous creaking sound.
"Skeleton Jack, our new king!" the beast roared. The crowd screamed their approval and the platform lurched beneath us.
Jack walked up to me in a clatter of dry bones. He smiled again and took my hand in his dead one. "We're not evil, and it doesn't hurt, I promise."
Just then I the skin on my fingers began to turn gray and I tore away from him. "What did you do to me?!" I shrieked as the gray spread up to my wrist.
"I didn't do anyth-"
The platform beneath me suddenly began to lurch and I lost my balance. I fell into open air and fell, screaming into the dark.
Jack climbed down from the platform to find her body speared through on a sharp outcrop of rock. The gray had spread to cover every inch of her, but her heart did not beat and her chest no longer rose and fell with breath. He fell to his knees beside her and gripped her dead hand in his. Samantha appeared beside him, her voice was muffled beneath the black fabric of her dress as she whispered apologies and pulled him away from the body. Mark took his other arm and William, Quentin and Rachel brought up the rear. He and his procession moved on into their new kingdom of darkness.
No one saw Tom slip through the darkness and pull the body free. He slung over his shoulder and shuffled away into the darkness to deliver his finding to his new master.
I opened my eyes and found my wrists and ankles strapped down to a cold metal table. I tried to turn my head but found another strap covered my forehead.
"Ah, you're awake," a small, hideously pale man rolled over in his wheelchair and smiled at me. I started to shake as he stroked my face with a frail, papery finger. "Now, my creation, what is your name?"
I swallowed at the title and whispered, "Sally."
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