The Best Halloween Ever!
By: Tiffany, Cassandra, and Tara
Once again, we've teamed up to write a story about our tendency to take an adventure in other worlds, be it in a book, movie, or game, always together...
I do not own Nightmare before Christmas, nor do I own the company which made this memorable classic of Halloween-goodness. I also don't own Corpse Bride or the company that made it. I just own myself, the character named Duke who will be appearing, and the girls own themselves and their ideas.
Guess what day it was when this particular adventure of ours began...that's right.
Halloween, one of the most awesome holidays of the year.
I was taking Cassandra and Tara trick-or-treating, and I was dressed up as a skeleton girl with a jack-o-lantern shirt that looked like it was three shirts on top of one another, green under black, black under the orange, and green pants that were ripped at the ends. I wore my favorite black boots to complete it and my usual silver cross around my neck. I was painting my face a lot like Jack Skellington's off of the Nightmare before Christmas in the upstairs bathroom. I mostly chose Jack's type of face because it was the easiest to do, but also because I love that movie!
As I painted, I decided along the way, to paint my lips red and so I ended up looking like a half rag-doll, half-skeleton.
"TIFFANY! THE GIRLS ARE WAITING ON YOU!!!" I heard Mom yell at me.
"OKAY! ALMOST DONE!" I yelled back, putting just a little more black make-up around one of my eyes.
I then powdered my face in order to make the make-up stay and, after putting everything away, went quickly downstairs.
Our friend Tara was waiting for me in the entry way, dressed up like a little vampire. She wore a short black dress with long sleeves that were ripped at the ends, a black cape, some black and purple tights underneath the skirt, and some black pointy shoes from last year's Halloween.
As I came down, I noticed that Cassandra wasn't there.
"Hey Tara." I said to her and then looked around the entry way, "Where's Cassandra?"
"She left her cat ears in the play house by accident." Tara told me, shifting her trick-or-treat bag to another hand.
"She went to go get them?" I asked Tara and she nodded before I heard rhino's feet running through the house towards the entry way.
Cassandra burst into the entry way, stopping where she was and panting like mad while leaning on her knees, her candy bag swinging on her arm.
Cassandra was dressed up like a black cat, with a black mask, cat ears, a tail and she had also had a jack-o-lantern shirt. She also wore finger-less black gloves and some black pants that were also ripped at the ends like mine and they had cute little patches on them, complete with black tennis shoes that I knew had cat paw prints on the soles.
"Whoa Cassandra, where's the fire?" I asked her, wondering why she was in such a hurry.
Trick-or-treating had only just started a second ago!
"Tiffany! You have GOT to come see this!" Cassandra said, lifting a hand as she spoke and grabbing me by the wrist.
"See what?" I asked as I allowed myself to be led, "Did someone put a prank or something in the back yard?"
"Come see!" Cassandra replied, slightly yanking on my arm.
"No need to yank on me!" I told her sternly as we went to the back yard.
As soon as we were outside, Cassandra let go and ran ahead.
"Come on, come see this!" Cassandra yelled at me as she ran.
Rolling my blackened eyes (haha!), I went into a jog with Tara right behind me and when I caught up with Cassandra and looked into the back yard, I was shocked.
Right where there was normally a HUGE space of grass in our back yard, was a forest darkened by night. The moonlight made it seem spooky and almost, alluring at the same time as some white mist came rolling out of the trees.
"WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?!" I suddenly yelled, scaring both the girls into screaming and muttering an apology to them, I strode forward towards it, "Where the heck did this come from?!"
"I don't know!" Cassandra said somewhat defensively, coming to my side, "I just came out to get my cat ears, and when I came out the play house, they just grew really fast out of the ground!"
I stared at her for a long time, and normally someone would think that particular person was going crazy, but we had gone through too much and too many places together to think that about the other.
I quit staring at Cassandra and glared at the trees, wondering why they had come here of all places.
"These can't be real trees." I finally said, going towards a tree and kicking one as hard as I could.
Big mistake.
"OW! Okay, they're real!" I said, hopping around on one foot while holding my sore toe.
The girls had the nerve to giggle at what I was doing and I glared at them, making them fall silent.
After my toe FINALLY quit hurting, we just stood there and stared at the trees. The more I stared, the more I wanted to go in and check it out.
"Okay," I said finally, "Does anyone besides me want to go in and check this out?"
Both girls looked at me for a moment before nodding with slight smiles on their faces.
"Alrighty then, let's go," I said turning to the trees and adding, "Stay close to me."
"Ok." They told me and in we went.
We walked slowly through the mist and stepped over big roots, looking for the reason if it could be seen by human eyes or at all. We weren't in there very long at all before we all found the middle of the trees, which was a small clearing and in the middle of this clearing was a single tree. And on that tree was a jack-o-lantern, and seeing that made me freeze.
The Halloween Tree, from the Nightmare before Christmas! My thoughts screamed at me.
"Tiffany, what's wrong?" Cassandra asked me, seeing how frozen I had become.
Before they could move, my arms went out like a trap and stopped them both from going any farther.
"You see that tree right there?" I asked, and when she nodded, I added, "NOBODY touch that tree!"
After the words left my mouth, the nose in the jack-o-lantern turn and the tree opened.
"OH CRAP!" I yelled, as a strong wind with autumn swirled around us and I found myself headed face-first into the tree with the girls screaming behind me as I was plunged into darkness. The wind suddenly stopped tossing me and I had a sensation like floating for a moment before landing on invisible ground. I couldn't see anything at all, but it turned out that my hearing was fine.
"Tiffany, Tara?" A slight scared voice said from my left.
I reached out and finding a hand, grabbed it. I heard Cassandra gasp loudly and felt her try to pull away.
"Cassandra, it's me!" I said, and she stopped pulling away and gripped my hand, like she was afraid I'd disappear if she let go.
"Tara? Tara!" I called into the dark around us.
"Y-y-y-yeah?" I heard Tara stammer and searching through the dark with one hand, I found her and grabbed her hand.
"Everybody okay?" I asked, listening hard.
"Yeah, I'm okay." I heard Cassandra say, sounding a little braver than before.
"I think so." I heard Tara, she still sounded scared.
I suddenly felt like I was floating again and Cassandra cried out before gripping my hand hard with both hands, Tara doing the exact same thing!
"OW! I'm NOT letting go!" I told them both, and they loosened their grip just a bit.
As we continued to float, I uttered a prayer in my mind to God that we would be okay and He would protect us no matter what. I felt a little better after doing so, but I still scared for the girls and myself, having no idea what was going to happen to us.
Something finally came into my view and it happened to be a scarecrow with a sign that said HALLOWEEN TOWN on it. It swung to point at something as we floated by it.
"Oh perfect, here we go!" I growled to myself.
I did like the movie, but I never said that I wanted to go there! We were suddenly in a graveyard when I heard this...
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Cassandra suddenly screamed, making me look at her.
"What?!" I asked her, and noticed that her cat-ears and tail seemed like they were moving like they were part of her, I didn't get time to dwell on it.
"You're a real skeleton, or rag-doll...or." Cassandra said, staring at me with a pale face, seemingly completely lost for words.
I stared at her confusingly and then looked at Tara, who looked at me and paled, slightly paler than what she was suddenly was. That's when I noticed that I practically towered over them. I am taller than them, but not usually by the height that I found myself looking down at them. I spotted an old dusty mirror on the ground, and making Cassandra hold onto my shirt, I bent WAY over to pick it up and look into it.
It was my face, but it was completely white, with stitches on the sides of my red-painted mouth like I had painted, but that's not scared me the most. The part that scared me the most was that I no longer had eyes in my head. And the fact that I had skeleton hands that held the mirror.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed, throwing the mirror away and it bounced over a tombstone before disappearing behind it.
It took a while, but we managed to calm down and accept the fact that we were now what we had dressed up for Halloween. Which meant that I was really a rag-doll/sketelon, Cassandra was a black cat anthro, and Tara was a little vampire for this Halloween.
We were still standing together when I suddenly heard music and this is what all of us heard as we saw the shadows on the graves.
Boys and Ghouls of every age,
Wouldn't you like to see something strange?
Come along and you will see,
This town of Halloween!
We quickly walked out the grave-yard's gate and I looked up as ghosts nearly swooped on us and I ducked, making the girls duck as well. The ghosts continued on, singing their part of the Pumpkin Song.
This is Halloween!
This is Halloween!
Pumpkins scream in the dead of night!
Speaking of pumpkins, four landed in front of us and smashed on the ground, making us jump back. Then the ghosts suddenly appeared in front of us again, continuing to sing their part.
This is Halloween!
This is Halloween!
Everybody make a scream!
Trick-or-treat!
Til the neighbor's gonna die of fright!
In this Town,
Everybody scream!
In our town of Halloween...
We had followed the ghosts as they sang their part and we found ourselves in a bedroom of sorts, and we heard this nasty voice from the under the bed. I lifted up the covers to investigate.
I'm the one hiding under your bed.
Teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red!
That being sung, we saw the red eyes and sharp teeth. Cassandra suddenly hissed like a cat seriously ticked off and he disappeared. I let the covers fall back down without a word or a look at Cassandra and we went through a door to find some stairs. As we went down, we heard another voice, this one slightly nicer...
I am the one hiding under your stairs,
Fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair.
As the monster sang, he came out to show himself with a friendly smile and we waved with nervous smiles before he ducked under them again. We then proceeded to go out the door into the street and there were four male vampires waiting there for us, ready to sing their part with their strange accents.
In this town,
We call home.
Everyone hails to the Pumpkin Song!
With their part finished, they turned into bats and flew off. We continued walking until we found the town square, and there was the Mayor standing on his hearse, waiting to sing his part.
In this town!
Don't we love it now?
Everyone's waiting for the next surprise!
Then he spun his body, his head turning three turn to keep his strange eyes to the front. Then he spotted us for the first time and his head spun around, showing us the anxious/angry side of his head. He looked nervously at us for a moment, looking around with a hand up to his mouth. We stared for a moment, but then ignored him from that point, walking down an alley while he watched us and the music went on.
We heard unseen voices as we walked and I braced myself for the next part.
'Round that corner,
And hiding in the trashcan,
Something's waiting out to pounce and how you'll...
Despite bracing myself, I screamed along with the girls as a strange monster popped out the trashcan singing the word "Scream!" and a werewolf burst through the wall beside the trashcan, making us scream again.
This is Halloween!
Red, black, and...
A man that looked like he was made out of slimy mud popped out of manhole in front of us and sang.
Slimy Green!
The werewolf looked at us, singing the question.
Aren't you scared?
All three of us nodded quickly, not wanting any trouble from the other three. Then two witches zoomed past us, singing their part into the night air.
Well, that's just fine!
Say it once, say it twice!
Take a chance and roll the dice!
Ride with the moon in the dead of night!
We ran to the town square again and this time a huge oak tree with a face and five skeletons hanging on it came towards us, making us take a few steps backward.
Everybody scream!
EVERYBODY SCREAM!
We were about to until the skeletons hanging on the tree's branches sang in a nice soft tone...
In our town of Halloween.
We heard a loud squeaky wheel behind us and we turned to see an ugly clown on a unicycle ride towards us.
I am the clown with the tear-away face!
Here in a flash and gone without a trace!
True to his word, he vanished in a puff of smoke. A sudden breeze blew through the town square and I heard whispering in the wind.
I am the who when you call who's there!
I am the wind blowing through your hair!
A suddenly darkness made us look up at the moon and there was a shadow over it, looking like Oogie Boogie's face.
I am the shadow on the moon at night!
Filling your dreams to the brim of fright!
The shadow turned into bats which flew directly at us, making us duck very low to the ground. Then we heard another squeaking noise and this time when we turned, it was a gate opening and two monsters came through. One was a demon and the other looked like a psychopath with a black top hat and a green coat.
This is Halloween,
This is Halloween!
Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!
We stepped away from them and turned around to see a corpse child and a little mummy standing there behind us.
Tender lumplings everywhere!
Life's no fun without a good scare!
They made scary faces at us, making the girls step behind me. Then a corpse man and woman came up hastily. They seemed nice and not threatening, so I stayed where I was with the girls behind me.
That's our job.
But we're not mean.
In our town of Halloween!
They went past us with their children, so we turned around to watch them go and found that everyone that we had seen and some others that we hadn't were in the town square, next to a foundation with a demon statue on it and green water coming from the demon's mouth. The mayor and the monsters proceeded with their holiday, not paying attention to us anymore.
In this town,
Don't we love it now?
Everyone's waiting for the next surprise!
Didn't they sing that already? I wondered as we joined the crowd. A huge man with an axe in his head came into the crowd, pulling a scarecrow on a straw horse behind him. When I saw it, I was sure that it was the same scarecrow that had the sign on it.
Skeleton Jack is king of the pumpkin patch!
Everyone hail to the pumpkin king!
The scarecrow suddenly grabbed a torch from a monster near my head and as it brought the torch towards itself, I had to duck to avoid my hair catching on fire! As I straightened, I watched as the scarecrow swallowed the torch and standing up, it began to dance around. It swirled once in its dance and suddenly blew fire over the heads of the audience. I heard a couple of monsters cry out in alarm and the scarecrow continued to dance until the straw horse had neared the fountain. The scarecrow then jumped high in the air, flipping forward once before diving into the fountain.
The children that we had seen before ran to the side of the fountain, watching for signs of movement.
In this town,
We call home,
Everyone hails to Pumpkin Song!
A skeleton dressed in a pinstripe suit complete with a bat bowtie suddenly started to rise from the water as though he was a lift and the entire monster audience started chanting while waving their arms in the air, us joining them.
La, la, la,
La, la, la, la, la,
La, la, la, la, la,
La, la, la, la, la, la, WHEEEEEEE!
The skeleton was completely out of the water by the time we all yelled whee, and he was waving to the audience, the Mayor beside him and waving as well. And suddenly, it was just...over. I heard several monsters still cheering and some laughing.
"What a night!" I heard this Cyclops monster say nearby as he passed us and I couldn't help but grin at this, the girls grinning as well.
It had been fun, despite the fear and all.
"Oh that was so much fun!" A pretty female voice behind me said.
Confused, since I hadn't seen any young women or monsters the entire time we had been there and I turned around to look.
To my surprise and shock, it was Emily from the movie Corpse Bride, still dressed in her wedding dress, veil and all, minus the bouquet. I didn't get time to wonder why she was here, though, it seemed I didn't time to dwell on anything while we were there.
"Jack! JACK!" I heard the Mayor yell.
I whirled around, and there was the Mayor with his anxious face on again trying to get the skeleton's attention, who was in the middle of a fan circle. I noticed that he kept glancing at us the entire time he was trying to get Jack away from his adoring fans. I thought Jack looked a little gloomy and sad as his fans surrounded him, but I thought it must be a trick of the light.
Why would Jack be sad?
"Why's he looking at us?" Tara asked me, looking up at me and snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Let's find out." I said, and walked over to him, the girls right behind me.
The Mayor didn't notice us coming until I was directly in front of him and when he finally noticed, he jumped about ten feet in the air.
"Excuse me." I said politely as he tried to calm down, "But is there a problem?"
"I'm afraid so." The Mayor told me, looking like he was about to have a nervous break-down right in front of everyone, "We weren't informed that we were going to get any more than one newcomer, and we don't have any place for you three to stay!"
"...Well, we arrived by accident." I told him and he looked mad all of a sudden.
"What do you mean, by ACCIDENT?" The Mayor asked us huffily, "What kind of fool do you take me for?!"
Does he want me to answer that HONESTLY? I wondered as I started to glare at the Mayor.
"Is something wrong, Mayor?" A charming voice asked and turning around, I found myself staring at a bat bowtie being looking up at Jack's face...or skull.
Even though I was much taller as a rag-doll/skeleton, he still towered over me by quite a bit.
"Yes Jack! We weren't expecting more than one newcomer! And there's FOUR of them right here! These three are walking around like they own the place!" The Mayor whined, making himself look like the victim while Jack put his fists on his hips and listened.
"WE ARE NOT!!!" All three of us girls yelled at him, nearly making him fall back into the fountain.
"Sigh, Look we came by accident." I said to Jack, all three of us girls shooting the Mayor a glare to warn him to shut up, "We'll leave right now if that's what you want."
"As a matter of..." The Mayor started.
"Oh no, no, no, no! You three may stay with me at my house, which that is if you'd like to come." Jack told us, a welcoming grin on his face.
"But, but...Jack!" The Mayor protested.
"We'd love to!" All three of us said in unison, just to irk the Mayor.
"Great!" Jack said gleefully, spreading his arms out, "Let's go get you four settled in."
We stared at him in confusion for a moment. I even pointed to all of us one at a time, counting three for him.
"OH! Emily agreed to stay at my house as well before Halloween started, just until she can get her own house like you three." Jack quickly explaining as the infamous Corpse Bride came up to us.
"Hello." She said, taking the hand that I had held out to her in greeting and shaking it.
"Hello to you too." I replied with a smile.
Emily then shook Cassandra and Tara's hands, with them smiling up at her. Jack then gestured for us to follow him, the girls going in front of me to follow right behind Jack, Emily standing by my side as we also followed.
"Such adorable little children, are they yours?" Emily asked me.
I couldn't help but give her a startled look before laughing lightly, my eyes turning to the mentioned girls in front of me.
"No, the cat girl directly in front of me is my little sister, Cassandra." I told Emily, "And the other one is Tara, our adopted sister and friend. I'm not married or anything."
"Neither am I." Emily said, sounding sad and I knew why.
I had watched Corpse Bride so many times that I could probably recite word for word. And I was always sad for Emily when she let Victor go, even though I knew she was doing the right thing. And I had wondered where Emily had gone after she turned into butterflies and they had flown off.
I guess I knew now.
"Your dress is pretty." I told her, hoping to get her mind on something else.
"Oh! Thank you, I like your outfit too." Emily said, cheering up immediately.
"TIFF! WATCH OUT!" I heard Cassandra yell and I had a glimpse of something gray before I was plowed over!
I landed on my back, dazed for a moment and when I got over that, I saw that a gray ghost cat was sitting on my chest and it was purring at me. It didn't look anything like the ghost dog Zero, it looked like it was still alive except that it had glowing yellow eyes and you could see through it.
"Oh how cute!" Emily said, kneeling down next to me as I stared at the ghost cat, "She seems to know you!"
We all just stared at the purring ghost cat, and Cassandra's expression was thoughtful while looking at the ghost cat for a moment before own her face lit up.
"Burrs?" Cassandra suddenly said to the cat.
"Merow!" The ghost cat replied and turning around, she floated into Cassandra's arms, allowing me to get up and my little sister to pet her.
"Burrs!" I cooed, also petting her on the head and making her purr louder, "Burrs."
"Two ghost cats followed me here, come to think of it," Emily told us, also petting Burrs with the rest of us, "Is she yours?"
"She was ours...before she left us." I replied, continuing to pet the beloved cat ghost in Cassandra's arms.
It's true, we had a black/orange cat named Burrs. Sweetest little thing on Earth and she would let you hold her anytime you wanted, she never struggled even once to get out of our arms. She acted like a comforter, a friend, and a sister, all with nuzzling and snuggling up. She even acted like a mother to an abandoned kitten that I brought home, let him nurse and everything. When the kitten got big even to take care of himself, she left one day, and never came back. We don't know what happened to her.
We miss you Burrs, you sweet little kitty.
I was thrilled to have Burrs back, even though she was a ghost, and Cassandra was cuddling the purring ghost kitty.
"Burrs! Burrs." Cassandra cooed and Burrs began to lick her cheek, "Awwww! I missed you too Burrs!"
"This is nice to see, a reunion of friends long separated." Jack said, standing over Cassandra.
All of us jumped, we had forgotten that the Pumpkin King was with us for a moment. And then Tara was plowed over! Her cape went flying in the air as she went down with a THUMP!
"What the!" I yelped, all of us running over to Tara.
"Hershey!" Tara was giggling as ANOTHER ghost cat was on her chest.
This one was white with glowing green eyes and purring like there was no tomorrow as Tara was hugging and petting it.
"Hershey?" I questioned, staring at the ghost cat that was purring even louder than Burrs had been.
"My calico kitty Hershey!" Tara told me, getting up, but still holding onto the ghost cat.
I couldn't help but groan, making everyone look at me funny.
"What's going to plow WHO over next?" I asked, looking around and watching out for anything else and then asked Emily, "Is this the other ghost cat that followed you?"
"Yes, that's what I was going to say." Emily confirmed, petting Hershey.
"This is just such a good day." I heard Jack say and I smiled in agreement.
We continued walking and we reached Jack's house without anyone else getting plowed over by some pet that they had lost a while ago. I kept an eye...or socket out for anything else anyway, letting Cassandra give Burrs all the petting. Jack seemed very amused by my cautious behavior, because he kept looking back at me and grinning like he had heard the best joke of his life. I caught him doing that while I was looking around, so when he did it again, I made a scary face at him and he made one back, making me cringe. That's alright though, considering that's his job in the first place.
Jack's house is very big, despite what we see in the movie and it also has an ability that is very cool...it can make itself have more rooms and anything we needed, like clothes, shoes, food, and the rest we got whenever we wanted.
"How much would you sell your house for, Jack?" I asked/joked Jack.
"Nothing will ever make him sell this house, I'm afraid Tiff." Jack replied, a good-humored grin on his face.
Emily made supper that night, with the girls and I helping her, and Jack seemed to really light up at some company in his house. However, I didn't see the one rag-doll I thought should have been there.
Where was Sally?
There was absolutely no sign of her, not even a hair, and after I finished supper and excused myself, I wandered around the house, looking for her. I finally went upstairs and found pictures of Jack and her on the mantel upstairs, even a marriage photo of Sally in a really cool Halloween bride's dress. I smiled at that, but then I found something at the end that swept that happy smile right off my face.
It was a funeral biography of Sally in a glass frame.
I looked towards the stairs and listened to the noises downstairs to make sure that Jack wasn't going to come up. Hearing nothing that hinted that he was coming up, I reached over and picked it up, several cobwebs pulling on it before breaking gently off. I began to read and here's what it said...
Sally Skellington
Beloved Wife and would-be Mother
This wonderful woman was made in the laboratory of Dr. Finklestein, and according to the doctor, she had been hopelessly restless and refused to stay inside his home, saying that she needed to be outside. Other than that, she was a sweet girl and that he had always thought of her like a daughter, despite what he may have said about her in the past.
Sally was very kind and very skilled in what little skills she had. And once, she showed great feats of bravery when the villain Oogie Boogie had Sandy Claws in his grasp, and she attempted to rescue him, getting captured herself and nearly eaten by the Bug King along with Sandy Claws.
When she got rescued by Jack and the Mayor (Insert rolled eyes here), Jack proposed that very night and she accepted.
They married on one Halloween night before the scaring began and they lived happily together for two years, and they were expecting a child in the second year of their marriage.
According to Jack, they had been in Christmas town celebrating Sally's pregnancy when the incident happened. They had been walking on the Candy-cane Bridge when one of the planks suddenly broke under Sally and she fell into the water. She sank, unable to swim, and Jack had screamed for help before diving in with her. He had dove and searched but he couldn't find her, she had sank too deep very quickly. By the time help had arrived, Jack had nearly frozen and Sally was gone...
The elf police in Christmas Town investigated the bridge and found that the boards that had broken under Sally had been sawed so that they would break when someone stepped on them. Either this was a prank of the local elf teenagers or an attempt on Jack's life was never discovered.
Sally's body was never found and she will be missed, along with her unborn child.
God bless your soul, Sally Skellington
We will miss you.
As you can imagine, tears were rolling down my face as I read the 'incident' part of the story, Sally had been one of my favorite characters and I couldn't imagine WHY on earth or in heaven this had happened to her.
Sally was with child, it's so unfair that she died! My thoughts yelled as I wiped tears from my face and put the framed biography down where it had been.
"Tiffany?" Jack's voice suddenly came from the stairs.
My body froze with fear at the thought of him seeing me up here next to the mantel, and so I rushed to the windows as quickly and quietly as I could manage, but before I got there...
WHAM!!!
I was plowed over again!
Instead of Burrs or Hershey, it was a ghost dog with a jack-o-lantern for a nose and he was licking my face like there was no tomorrow. I allowed him to while I was dazed, seeing how I couldn't react anyway, and plus he was getting all the salt off my face and then Jack would never know I had been crying.
I was giggling like a twit as Jack came upstairs, and smiled at the sight of the dog giving my face a good licking as I petted him.
"I see you met Zero." Jack said as he came over and helped me up.
"I got kisses!" I told him, still kinda dazed as I was hauled onto my feet.
Hey, I had gotten plowed over twice by a ghost pet of some sort, it's not good for the head!
"So I saw!" Jack said laughing as I shook my head hard to get some sense back, and then he became somewhat serious, "What you doing up here?"
"I got bored and I was walking around." I said truthfully, leaving Sally's funeral biography out of this.
At the word 'bored', Jack looked as though he had just gotten an idea.
"I have a favor to ask you if you're bored." Jack said, a somewhat evil grin on his face.
I must have looked scared, because he started laughing again.
"It's nothing dangerous." He assured me, "In fact, it would help me a lot...if you're interested, that is."
I looked him in the face, eager to hear his idea and get away from the upstairs.
"I'm interested!" I told him.
"Before I tell you, though, I have only one question." Jack told me, and I leaned the side of my face closer to him to show I was listening, "Do you like reindeer?"
I blinked at the question as I pulled back, trying to figure out why he was asking that.
"I like animals, if that what you're asking." I told him.
"Great, would you mind exercising my reindeer?" Jack asked while he grinned his biggest grin.
I just stood there in confusion, and it showed on my face as clear as day.
It always does and Mom gets a big kick out of it. Just laughs her butt off!
"You exercise them by riding them." Jack explained and he was holding back a laugh, like he found my 'duh' expression very funny.
I gave him a mock glare before giving the thought of riding a thought. Jack waited patiently while Zero floated near his head.
"Where are they at?" I asked Jack.
Not much later, not much at all...
"Jack said we could do what?" Cassandra asked as we went down the stairs and to the stables.
"Ride his reindeer, in fact, he said it would help him." I repeated as I opened the doors and I poked my head in, "He also said that we could name them, he never got around to it since they haven't been exercised for a while, but he kept them in mind the entire time."
"Are they nice reindeer?" Tara suddenly asked, looking in from behind me.
Three skeleton reindeer stood in stalls, and they turned their heads when I opened the doors. I could see bridles and saddles without stirrups on the fronts of their stalls, ready to put on and go.
"One way to find out." I replied, going towards the first one I saw, "Pick a reindeer."
I picked up the bridle on his stall door and slowly opened it, ready to jump back if he tried to bite or anything. He did nothing, just stood there, waiting and watching me with those empty sockets, grinning his usual skeleton grin. I slowly approached, and slid the bridle on his skull carefully, ready to draw back my hands if he so much as moved. He still didn't do anything, not even after I touched him and feeling a little more confident, I picked up the saddle and started towards his back. He still didn't do anything as I stood by his side, just watched me with his head slightly turned until I strapped on the saddle and then he started nuzzling my shoulder. I looked at him in surprise and not knowing what else to do, I scratched the top of his skull. He let me do that and then he shook his skull, the jaw opening to make it look like a big, happy smile.
I laughed at this display of enjoyment and then took the bridle by the reins and led him out. The girls had figured out how to saddle and bridle right after I got finished with mine and they were leading theirs out after me.
The reindeer were pretty well-behaved and they followed nicely after you, but how they dealt with people on their backs I had yet to find out.
"I'll name you...Ivory." I told my reindeer as I stepped to his side, earning another big happy grin as he shook his head in agreement.
"Mine's Angel-wing!" Cassandra told me and I couldn't help but think that was predictable, she's always trying to think of unique names for animals or people.
"I named mine Snowball!" Tara told us, earning a strange look from both Cassandra and I and we kept giving her that look for a long time, "What?"
I almost gulped as I faced Ivory's back again and I took a deep breath before hoisting myself onto him, and he stood completely still while I got myself situated on his saddle. I picked up the reins and looked behind me to see how the girls were doing. Cassandra got on Angel-wing without problems, but Tara on the other hand...she got on Snowball (poor reindeer), but she fell off the other side!
Cassandra started laughing pretty hard and I wasn't too far behind as I bit my lip as Tara got back up and dusted herself off.
"THAT'S NOT FUNNY!" Tara yelled at us, trying again and this time managing to stay on, but facing the wrong end.
This was too much and I burst out laughing, nearly falling off Ivory and Cassandra was leaning forward on Angel-wing as Jack decided to come down.
"What's so funny?" He asked smiling, looking at me.
Unable to stop, I just pointed at the pouting Tara sitting backwards on the reindeer and Jack arched a socket at me as he walked towards Tara, probably wondering why this was so funny. He picked Tara up easily and turned her around, setting her down properly on Snowball's saddle. Tara then eagerly picked up the reins as Cassandra and I managed to calm down.
"Okay, let's go." I said, giving Ivory a light kick.
"I should mention something..." Jack started, but Ivory suddenly took off running, making me hold on tight and I heard Jack yell, "THEY CAN FLY!!!"
As I looked down, I found that Ivory had decided to start flying and here's what my reaction was...
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" I let out a scream that a banshee would have been envious of.
The girls had a completely different reaction though.
"WHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" They howled in joy, hanging on tight as Angel-wing and Snowball flew after Ivory.
I held on as hard as I could for a long, long time before finally bringing myself to relax and taking up the reins, I made him go faster. The girls followed suit and then the fun began. We dove in and out of clouds, around them and we played reindeer tag, with me being IT most of the time.
During the game of tag, I noticed that we were right above Halloween Town and I could see the Mayor going about his business. An evil grin crossed my face as a wicked idea formed in my mind as I snapped my fingers, and I waved the girls over.
"What?" Cassandra asked as they flew over.
I just pointed below us, right at the Mayor.
"So?" Tara said, looking back up at me.
I put the reins down as I leaned my elbow on my knee and my chin leaned on my fist.
"Remember what he said about us today?" I asked, my evil grin coming again.
They both nodded and looked down at him, and then Cassandra whipped her head into my direction again.
"Are we going to get him back for it?!" Cassandra asked quickly in one breath.
I just nodded, my evil grin still on my face and after the girls had gotten excited about pranking the Mayor, I suddenly had Ivory do a sky dive towards the town, the girls were caught by surprise before they followed suit.
I pulled Ivory out of the dive long before we were near the town, making him land on a rooftop and I watched the Mayor while hearing the other two land behind me.
All three of the reindeer seemed to know what we were going to do, they twitched and fidgeted like they wanted to get some action. I held back the urge to laugh evilly as I watched the Mayor order some monsters around as they busily prepared for the next Halloween, while the Mayor himself did nothing but order people around and check stuff off a list.
I swear, he was completely useless and helpless! Jack had to do all the thinking for him and everybody else had to do the work while he complained and barked orders...
"It's about time someone put him in his place." I said to the girls without turning around, "And we are just the ones for the job!"
I couldn't see them, but I knew that they agreed and I started explaining about what we were going to do with the Mayor before Boogie's Boys did something to him before we even started!
The Mayor was humming the Pumpkin Song to himself as I floated above him while I leaned over Ivory's side, and I carefully took his hat off his head before flying off with it. It was a full minute before he realized that it was gone and his stupid worried face came on as he looked for it.
"Oh man, I can't be Mayor without my hat!" He whined, loud even for anyone who cared could hear.
Believe me when I say, no one cared and went about their business.
Cassandra finished tying a really long thread that she had borrowed from a spider web onto the Mayor's hat, before placing it in front of his hearse and flew back up to the rooftop with us, waiting for him to see it. He FINALLY turned around after much looking and whining at the top of his lungs to see his beloved hat on the ground behind him.
"Oh silly me, it must have dropped off my head and slid there!" The gullible two-faced idiot said as his happy face came back on and he toddled towards it, one hand outstretched.
As soon as he got near it, Cassandra started pulling on the thread and it suddenly 'jumped' away from the Mayor.
"Huh?!" He yelled, his worried face back and went towards it again only to have it move away again, "Hey!"
He started running after it as we flew around and over the town square, Cassandra holding the thread tight as we struggled to keep in our laughter. The fun, unfortunely, didn't last long as the thread suddenly snapped.
"Oh crap!" All of us said in unison as the hat suddenly stopped, but we got a good comedy scene as the Mayor, who was still running at high speed, tripped over the hat, yelling as he went down.
The entire town saw this and burst out laughing, allowing us to laugh without blowing our cover in the air. Even the reindeer were laughing at the stupidity of it all!
And you know you're pathetic if animals are laughing at you.
"ALRIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH!!!" The Mayor roared as he picked up his hat and put it on, trying to regain his dignity that had been gone for only the Lord knows how long and then he looked around the town square, "WHERE ARE THOSE LITTLE BRATS?!!!"
"Boogie's Boys haven't been in town ever since Jack gave Christmas back to Sandy Claws." The fish-creature told him, still laughing.
"Well, whoever did it isn't going to make a fool out of me again!" The Mayor huffed as everyone calmed down and went back to what they were doing.
"Oh really?" I said, and then looked at the girls while saying, "Watch me and try to copy, this'll scare him good! Oh, and do the scariest monster thing that you can think of!"
I made my reindeer dive again, this time pulling out of the dive as soon we were almost hitting the ground and Ivory suddenly started running towards the Mayor with his antlers lowered. The Mayor whirled around at the sound of galloping hoofs and I waited until I saw the whites of his eyes before unleashing my newly learned banshee shriek, letting go of the reins to hold my hands in a clawed position near my head.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed as he stood there with eyes tight shut, trembling, and frozen as I grabbed the reins and pulled Ivory up at the last minute.
I looked down at the Mayor as he continued to shake and when I was safely in the sky, I pointed at Cassandra, silently yelling "YOUR TURN!!!"
Cassandra obeyed, waiting for him to calm down before charging him in another direction and letting out the scariest cat yowl I have ever heard! It made me jerk from the volume and chills ran down my spine. As Cassandra pulled up and joined me, I gave her a high five and we both pointed at Tara, who did the same as Cassandra. Her vampire howl was something I'd never forget and it was frightening, which was what we wanted.
The Mayor apparently had enough, because he ran screaming to his hearse and drove like a maniac out of town. You could still hear him scream as he disappeared.
We all started laughing, our putting-the-Mayor-in-his-place-plan had been successful. And then we heard the last thing in the world we expected to hear.
Applause.
We immediately stopped laughing and looked down to see the entire town in the town square, looking up at us and applauding us like there was no tomorrow. We looked at each other in surprise before looking down again, this time seeing Jack on the fountain.
"HEY! Come down and take a bow! That scare was well done!" Jack yelled up at us with his hands cupped around his mouth.
I looked at the girls and they shrugged, showing that I had to make the decision.
"Let's go." I told them and we all flew down, the crowd parting so that we could land. We dismounted the reindeer and ran up to the fountain with the reindeer following on their own, jumping on to stand with Jack. We girls joined hands and bowed, while the reindeer lined up and bowed their heads. The crowd went mad with applause, whistles, and even dead flowers were thrown at us!
"Thanks, thank you!" I said, ducking whenever I saw a dead flower coming at my head, and shaking the hands of the monsters that came up.
"Tiff!" I heard Emily and I turned around, watching her join us on the fountain, "I saw the scare you did, that was fantastic!"
"Well, I can't take all the credit, Jack provided the reindeer, and the girls did it with me!" I told her, slightly embarrassed by all the attention we were getting.
"Oh Jack, you're just as gloriously scary as ever!" I heard this behind me and I turned around to see the witches, the fish creature, and even Dr. Finklestein's Jewel flirting with Jack and the poor skeleton was backing up, "You're still the ghoul of this town! We all still think highly of you and always will!"
Somebody's going to be maaaaaaaad! I thought as I watched the female version of Dr. Finklestein try and hug Jack.
Still, as funny as it was, I decided to help out Jack a little bit.
"HEY LOOK!!! ISN'T THAT COUNT DRACULA GOING AROUND THE CORNER OVER THERE?!" I bellowed, pointing in the opposite direction of Jack.
All the girls (except Emily) gave a fan-girl squeal and charged off in that direction, leaving Jack alone to join us again at the fountain. All the other monsters went off, still laughing and one gave us a final whistle. I waved at him and then watched Jack as he came closer.
"Thank you." Jack told me wearily, setting himself down beside me.
"Anytime." I told him, sitting down also.
"So, did you name the reindeer?" Jack asked, looking at the mentioned skeleton animals that were standing in front of us.
"Yeah, Ivory, Angel-wing, and Snowball." I told him, each one of the named reindeer taking a step forward.
Jack and Emily suddenly started giggling, making the rest of us look at him strangely.
"Snowball?" Jack asked while still giggling, "Who named him that?"
Both Cassandra and I pointed at Tara without a word.
"What?" Tara asked, looking at us.
"That is so cute!" Emily said, still giggling along with Jack.
They were giggling so hard that I thought for sure they would have died of laughter by now...that is if they hadn't been dead already.
Emily suddenly fell onto Jack's lap, and the two stared at each other for a long time. I was surprised with how they looked at each other, Emily with a look of admiration, and Jack...
Jack suddenly helped Emily up rather roughly, making her look in surprise and hurt at Jack, while he stood up hastily.
"I'm sorry, Emily...it's just...that..."Jack started, but then he just shrugged and walked off on his own, probably to the cemetery.
We all watched him until he was gone and Emily turned to us, looking very unsure of whether to be sad or embarrassed.
"Did I...do something wrong?" Emily asked us, looking at me though.
"No..." I replied, looking at where Jack had disappeared, "He's just...still hurting."
"What do you mean, Tiff?" Emily asked, looking confused.
The girls walked around, standing directly in front of me while looking up at my face, looking like they also wanted to know. I sighed while closing my eyes before walking around the girls and joining Emily on the fountain, plopping myself down wearily. The girls then sat beside me and I took a breath while scratching my head before I started explaining what I had found upstairs in Jack's house. I started crying again as I described what I had read about Sally's death and when I finally finished, Emily and the girls were crying with me.
"That's...that's awful!" Emily said, covering her face with her hands, "Poor Jack!"
"Yes it is awful, that's why we're not going to say anything to him." I said to her firmly, wiping my tears away.
"What? But...why?" Emily asked, taking her hands away from her face.
"Because if he finds out that I read Sally's funeral biography without his permission and I told you girls what I found out, he's going to get mad or worse." I pointed out, "Not to mention it would probably open old wounds that don't need to be opened. Agreed?"
"Agreed." Emily replied, nodding.
I looked at the girls and they also nodded, showing that they also agreed to keep quiet about Sally's death. We all took the reindeer back to Jack's house and their stalls, which had the reindeer's new names carved into the wood, and we said goodnight to one another as we went to bed.
The next day, we found Jack downstairs, working with the Mayor who cringed at the sight of the girls and I. We said good morning to Jack before we ran outside laughing at the memory of what had happened yesterday, Emily following us with her lovely laughter. After we were done dying of laughter (figure of speech), Emily asked if we wanted to go shopping with her.
"We would love to, Emily, but we don't have any money with us." I told her and a bag of money dropped on my head, "OW!"
"Sorry!" I heard the Mayor's voice from above, and all of us looked up to see his worried face looking down at us from a window.
I could see Jack cotrying not to laugh, and I let him know I could see him!
"THAT'S NOT FUNNY, JACK!" I called up to him, "DON'T MAKE ME COME BACK UP THERE!"
Jack poked his head out with the Mayor's and stuck his tongue out at me, making me growl mock-angrily up at him. I then looked at the Mayor and held up the bag of money that he had dropped on me.
"What's this for?" I asked him, wondering if he was trying to be nice or...
"Consider that...a peace offering!" The Mayor told me before he retreated back into Jack's house.
"Oh...! A peace offering!" I said slyly, opening up the bag to see how much was in there.
"How much is there?" Emily asked, trying to look with me.
"I'm not sure, I'm not familiar with Halloween money." I told her honestly.
"Here, let me take a look." Emily offered, and I let her have the bag.