Spirited Back to Halloween: Hirac's Return

The probably forgotten sequel to "Spirited Away on Halloween", the town begins to fall apart when mysterious circumstances awaken an evil force...

PROLOGUE

Lock, Shock, and Barrel had never been in this room of the treehouse before. Their ball had fallen through the roots of the tree and knocked the door open, and they had taken a big chunk of their day in trying to fit into the tiny opening (a lot of butter had come into play), but they had finally managed it.

And they were glad they did, for behind the door was a menagerie of stone gargoyles. Grotesque creatures large and small, recently dusted but beginning to collect some grime once again. The enormous room had only one light source (a skylight of sorts which let in the beams of the moon), but the entire space was illuminated by the silver glow of the moonlight reflecting off of the gargoyles' smooth and perfectly polished bodies and wings. The sea of gargoyles spread out beyond what the kids could guess were the roots of their treehouse, which only made it all the more incredible.

"COOL!" The children raced into the sea of monsters, weaving in an out of the tightly packed statues as they made their way towards one central gargoyle which stood taller than all the others...

&&&

At the same time, at Jack's house, Jack and Sally were both undertaking the perilous job of cleaning out The Pumpkin King's many cabinets. They had gotten past Stage 1 (clean out every single cabinet) and were now on Stage 2 (sort out all the crap that came out of the cabinets). Sally sat on Jack's bed, papers and books up to her waist, trying to sort through all of the bits of paper and pictures Jack had amassed in the past century. Jack dealt with everything that wasn't made of paper, which consisted mostly of his forgotten keychain collection, leftover Christmas toys, and... a ring box?

Jack startled verbally, pulling a small ring box out of the papers. "What's this?"

&&&

"What's this?" Lock asked his "siblings".

"I dunno..." Shock responded, skipping along the many stone monsters, casting several shadows due to all of the reflections.

"But I like it!" Barrel finished, running ahead to the largest gargoyle, which sat under the sky light. "Ooo..."

&&&

Jack smoothed over the ruffled velvet of the ring box, opened it, and examined the contents: a marble-sized ball, translucent except for what looked like a few strands of red, blue, and gold foil. The way the light shined through it, it looked to be made out of jelly. It rolled freely inside of the ring box, not supported by anything.

The Pumpkin King cocked his eyebrow ridge. "That's odd."

"What's odd, Jack?" Sally asked, turning on her hip and knocking a few stacks of paper over. "Oops."

"I... don't know..." Jack titled the box, letting the jelly ball roll to the side. A sense of apprehension tugged at his breastbone, warning him of something (but he didn't know what). "But I don't like it."

&&&

"This one's got junk written on it!" Barrel screamed, calling the other two children to his side. "Look, look, written in the dirt, it says 'Oogie was here'. You think Oogie took care of the gargoyles?"

Shock paused, standing to the right of Barrel. "I didn't know you could read."

"Oogie Boogie didn't take care of anything," Lock popped his mask out of his pocket and smacked Barrel with it. "Stupid!"

"Well, maybe, this was the old furniture before we moved in?" Barrel suggested again.

Shock then smacked Barrel with her mask. "No, stupid, Oogie said the house always looked like it did, 'cept it used to be smaller, 'cause the tree grew!"

The idea of independent thought escaped Barrel's head, and he smiled vacantly. "Okay..."

Lock noticed more words carved into the calf of the largest gargoyle's leg, but since he couldn't read them, he ignored them. "Man, these things are cooooooool..."

&&&

Sally stumbled off of the bed, knocking over many other stacks of paper and books and a few breakable Christmas toys before finally reaching Jack, who was emersed in the jelly ball. He eyed it over her friend's shoulder. "Ew... it's shiny..."

"It looks like it's about to burst," Jack noted, noticing the strange bulged manner of the jelly ball. He felt his index finger being drawn towards it.

"Ew!" Sally step back a few steps, knocking even MORE stuff over. "Jack, no, it'll pop!"

Jack didn't listen, because he never does, because he's an oblivious twit, and gave the jelly ball a tiny poke-

BOOM!

A wave of energy burst in all directions from the mall, making Jack and Sally's bodies quiver like a sonic bomb had gone off in their stomaches (you'd probably relate to "like a car with its bass turned WAY up, times twenty" a little better, though). There was no sound to accompany the blast, but it did make the couple's ears ring.

&&&

The energy wave rocketed through town on its silent mission, taking creatures by surprise and rattling their jawbones, their ribs chattering within them like castinets. It made some of the smaller monsters feel like they were being turned inside out; large creatures felt a fistless punch to their gut.

The wave passed through the town's mascot, the scarecrow outside of Town Gate, and rocked it off of it's post onto the ground. A light sparked within its pumpkin head, and it began to growl...

&&&

Lock, Shock, and Barrel were, without reason, thrown to the floor, their insides suddenly squished flat into their torsos. The gargoyle room bounced, and the dust rustled free of its perch and rested in the air, obscuring the light and making everything look fuzzy and gray (and really really cool).

"What-"

"Was-"

"That?"

The Terrible Trio rushed out of the room, scurrying to see what had happened, leaving the gargoyles behind to collect dust again.

&&&

Jack slammed the box closed and stuffed it back in the drawer. "Okay..." he crackled, his voice and body still shaking. "Won't be doing that again..."

Later that night.

Barrel rushed through the door to the gargoyle room and slammed it behind him, holding a pillow over his mouth and nose to mask his breathing. Lock and Shock's screams could be heard on the other side of the door, along with the thundering footsteps of whatever else was out there. Barrel could still see its fiery eyes, burned into the back of his eyes so deeply that everything else was dark and fuzzy. His muscles tightly locked and what was left of his heart was pounding inside of his ribcage, he held his breathing as there was, literally, a scuffle coming from the other door.

He couldn't hear Lock screaming.

Shock began screaming louder, her voice moving in the direction of the playroom. Barrel gulped as there was a loud thump, and sudden silence.

He dropped the pillow, using his back to hold the miniscule door shut. He strained his ears as best as he could, hearing the slight "thunk thunk-thunk thunk thunk-thunk" coming towards his door. It stopped, and a red light began to shine through the cracks in the trap door. Barrel knew this trick; shining a light near a door, and looking for shadows from the feet underneath. He, silently as he could managed, slid onto a root that jutted out from the adjacent wall. The light moved from side to side; Barrel could hear it hissing, every now and then letting out a loud cough.

It seemed like hours. But the lights finally went away. Barrel snuck off of the wall and through the gargoyles, heading for the one thing that would provide him with any security; the leader-goyle. He was practically in tears by the time he reached the central gargoyle, collasping into its lap and clasping it's leg like a teddy bear.

Yet something didn't feel right under his fingers. He rubbed its calf lightly; was it chipped? He slipped himself behind the gargoyle's leg and read the carved, ancient writing.

"For it is our pledge, as gargoyles under the jurisdiction of King Jack I, to protect all citizens under Halloween skies, standing on Halloween soil, and breathing Halloween air to the first and foremost of our powers, til our wings split and our hooves run bald. Til our skin chips and our horns go blunt, so we are at servi..."

And the rest was gone, rubbed out over the passage of time.

Barrel sniffed, the words of security beaming a sense of warmth and joy into his chilled heart. He looked into the black, vacant eyes of the gargoyle, thinking somewhere in his heart that it could hear him. "Your leg said you would protect me. That thing got Lock and Shock!" he breathed as he leaned into the stone pectorals of the beast, speaking as if he was proving to himself that it was true. "You can't let it eat me! You've gotta help me!"

Barrel had no idea where the hand came from, but it picked him up and stuck him on the gargoye's shoulder. He heard the noise of stone against stone rubbing together, unable to see much through the swirling dust and dim moonlight. There was a sudden rush of wind, and when his vision finally cleared, he was in the sky, flying up and away from his beloved home.

He grabbed the first thing he could reach, a wing muscle. Happy that he was steady, he turned his head to see the face of the gargoyle he had been talking to staring towards HalloweenTown Hall.

"Don't worry," it spoke.

Barrel promptly fainted. The gargoyle caught the pudgy boy in one hand and handed him off to his fly-mate, quickly taking his rightful place at the front of the flock. He, being a bit on the dramatic side, finished his statement to himself.

"We know exactly what to do."

Rough prologue, story coming... if I feel like it. You guys might not care.