Sandman zipped behind a chimney with shorted breaths. He sank down on the brick wall trying to catch his breath. He swallowed and slowly peeped at the corner of the chimney. His hunter was gone. He sighed in relief and turned back around.
"It's intense, huh." Halloween appeared beside him. He jumped in surprise and fell off the Halloween decorated house. Halloween peeped down from the roof.
"Hehe, found you." She evaporated and appeared on the ground to help him stand up. He gave a sad smile as he dusted himself off.
"Alright now to find the others." Halloween looked around. Sandy suggested for them to find The Easter Bunny.
"No he's good. I'll find him later." Halloween waved. Then she spotted the woods beyond the back yard of the house.
"That's a good hiding spot" She ran. Sandman flew after her.
The woods was dark, the tall trees with branches curling everywhere made the night sky impossible to see. Only snippets of the moon's light peeped through to the ground. Sandy clutched Halloween's hand.
"Scared," Halloween smirked and turned away. "Hey!" She exclaimed as she spotted something and let go of his hand.
Instantly a dark shadow loomed over Sandy and engulfed him in a flash.
"Sandy look it a girl!" Halloween looked back, but spotted no sign of him. "Woos." She scoffed and turned back to the figure a distance away from her.
As she neared the female, she got a view of the girl's long black flowing hair, and Black Victorian dress that stretched all the way down to her thighs.
"That's a pretty sick costume." Halloween assumed, as she approached the girl knowing today was Halloween, and the fact that humans couldn't see her. Instantly the girl whirled around.
"Woh." Halloween jumped back at the sight of the girls yellow glassy eyes and the stitches on her lips.
"That's pretty cool." Halloween nodded. "Contacts and make up?" then she noticed the girl looking up at her and starting to scoot away.
"Wait, can you see me?" Halloween neared. Suddenly the girl stood up and darted away into the woods.
"Hey wait!" Halloween broke into a sprint then evaporated.
Sandy swam in the darkness searching for a route out. The darkness suddenly blew away from him as he rolled on the ground. He looked around and noticed he was back on the roof top from which he hid. He sat up and met Pitch's face. Sandy frowned and shook his fist at him showing some violent pictures with dust above his head.
"Well that's no way to say thank you." Pitch helped him up. Sandy showed a question mark above his head.
"I saved your life." Pitch sat down and hung his left leg off the roof. Sandy asked why.
"There's something dangerous in those woods Sandy. No one suspects it because it looks like an innocent girl."
"But Halloween was with me." Sandy signed.
"I only have 2 hands Sandy. You require both." Pitch smirked. The Sandman crossed his arms.
"Hey!" Halloween appeared before the girl. The girl turned to the left.
"Stop" Halloween poofed in her face. The girl darted the opposite way.
"Could you stop running" Halloween teleported in front of the girl again "I can only evaporate so fast."
This time the girl stepped back.
"Trust no one." The girl muttered hiding something behind her back.
"Oh my God those are real stitches, aren't they" Halloween stepped forward.
"Big sister told me." The girl backed away.
"You're sister told you to this?" Halloween reached out.
Instantly the girl screeched, "No!" toppling Halloween back and stretching the stitches on her mouth. The Girl covered her mouth and started to tear up. She dropped the secret she kept behind her back and ran away.
"Ow," Halloween reached for something she sat on. She expected a branch, probably broken into pieces, but she didn't expect to touch something silky. She pulled the item into view and saw a glass doll. Its face cracked from the collision with her butt.
"A doll?" she frowned and looked at the shoe.
"Made in China, course." She nodded then looked around spotting many glass dolls sitting against trees in a circle.
"China's getting rich." She uttered.
"Shes called the Doll Maker, most call her Doll for short." Pitch changed the subject. Sandman sat beside him.
"She's associated with doll making murderers." He continued. Sandy signed something to him.
"Of course she works for me." He confirmed. "Everyone connected to fear works for me. Except for that blasted friend of yours, Halloween. Can't seem to get her by my side, she's too happy. Anyway, point being, is that Doll Maker is a dangerous spirit. She trusts her sister more than me. You should be thanking me with your sparkly dust."
Sandman started to punch his shoulder repeatedly. If he could talk he would have been yelling. "What the heck! We should get Halloween out of there!"
"I'm not going back in there!" Pitch shoved him away. Sandman tackled him and started clawing at his face.
"Well if you're so worried about her, then go get her yourself!" Pitch leaned away. Sandy stopped but still glared at him. Then he floated his way back to the woods.
"Your funeral!" Pitch shouted. A sleep ball hurled toward him. Pitch collapsed and fell off the roof.
Instantly the doll in her hands grew in size. Halloween dropped it and skidded away. All the other dolls were also growing. The doll that Doll Maker dropped sat up and the cracked doll stood up. Parts of its face fell off.
"Oh God, God, God." Halloween stumbled to her feet and ran away.
Sandy floated around the wooded area. He tried to yell out Halloween's name but all that came out was a golden dust picture of a pumpkin. Suddenly from a distance he saw a figure running straight for him. He's eyes widened as it appeared to be Halloween. He opened his arms ready for an embrace but the Holiday passed him.
"Zombie dolls!" she yelled. Sandman frowned. Then he turned to the place where she had come from. A hoard people were running at him. He frowned again. This time he saw the cracked faced person. He extended his hand to reveal his sparkly whip. Halloween appeared next to him.
"No time to play hero. Run!" She grabbed his hand.
They raced through the woods, in a zig-zag like fashion. Branches cut into their clothes, or in the case of Sandy, flicked portions of dust from his clothes away. Meanwhile Sandy explained, the information he got from Pitch.
"What! Doll Maker! Course she wouldn't be human. She could see me. Yah she mentioned something about a sister." She answered.
Suddenly Halloween bumped into a colorful object.
The figure turned around.
"Oh yay you found me." The Tooth Fairy smiled.
"Told you this was a good hiding place." Halloween smirked. The Sandman rolled his eyes.
"What's that?" Tooth pointed behind them. They turned and saw the charging mob.
"Oh." Halloween faced back at her. "Um ever heard of Doll Face?"
"Who?"
Sandman corrected her.
"Oh sorry, Doll Maker." Halloween said with shortened breaths.
"Oh her, yah she works for Pitch if I'm not mistaken." Tooth replied.
"That's great, well, that's her minions of evil dolls coming at us."
"What!"
"Do you know what her sister looks like?"
"Um I think so." Tooth nodded while frowning.
The fleet was coming closer. Sandman conjured up his shiny whips.
"Ok, great, can you, um, try to remember as best as you can what her sister looks like?"
"Huh!? Honey I collect the teeth of billions of children in the world, something as far back as that is just impossible."
The mob life sized dolls were approaching; Sandman was already using his whip. CRACK! SWISH! WOOPA!
"Impossible is not on the guardians' dictionary." Halloween grabbed Tooth's head and touched her forehead with the fairy's.
A dim light flashed and sounds of thousands of voices were heard everywhere. They were all filled with emotions told by the memories of the teeth. Halloween forced her forehead away from Tooth's and stumbled back.
"Don't do that!" Tooth waved her hand.
"Mileena." Halloween uttered.
"Look out!" Tooth shoved her behind and punched a doll. It immediately cracked into pieces.
"You ok?" Tooth Fairy turned back to her but the holiday had vanished leaving the 2 guardians to fend for them selves.
Doll Maker sat at the edge of a lake in the midst of the woods. She hummed a little lullaby as she combed the hair of another doll. Suddenly she heard a cracking twig behind her. She jerked her head around but sighed in relief at the sight of her big sister.
"Mileena!" She stood up and ran. The braided haired fearling, Mileena, embraced her little sister. Both of them were about the same height.
"What happened to your mouth, did you open it to wide again?" Mileena touched her sister's cheek. Doll Maker's eyes instantly widened. She took her sister's hand and with it, flipped her to the other side and made her land on her back.
"You are not my sister!" she yelled still holding the arm. Mileena's features dissolved away to reveal a smirking Halloween.
"You're clever." Halloween grinned and vanished. Doll Maker whirled around in place with searching eyes.
"Did we get of on the wrong start? I'm sorry." Halloween's voice echoed around the lake. She then appeared in front of Doll Maker with a greeting hand. "Hi my name is-"
Doll Maker punched her face.
Halloween skidded into a bush.
"Ow." She uttered then met her eyes with an astonished Easter Bunny.
"Oh hey Bunny!" she smiled. Instantly she was dragged by the feet back into the lake side.
"I'm just trying to be friendly here!" the Holiday scolded at Doll Maker who was raising an ax.
"Trust no one!" Doll Maker yelled. Halloween's eyes widened and she vanished, dodging the blow.
Halloween appeared next to Bunnymund.
"Bunny you gotta help me, this girl wants to kill me." She whispered desperately. Bunny's ears twitched.
"Hold on mate, my fellow guardians need me." He thumped the ground and dropped into the hole he made. "Good game though!"
"What!" Halloween yelled as the portal closed.
Bunny hopped out beside the Tooth Fairy and Sandman.
"What's going on here mate?" he asked Sandman.
"Dolls!" Tooth answered charging at a group.
"Crikey" he pulled out his boomerangs.
"Ok maybe we can meet half way?" Halloween, appeared behind Doll Maker. The black haired girl whirled around and swung her ax. Halloween vanished.
"You know be aquantances?" She appeared behind her again. And the girl swung her ax behind one more time.
"Boarder line?" Halloween appeared in front of a tree a distance away from her. She dodged a hurling ax that stuck to the tree. She evaporated.
"Stop that!" Halloween appeared in front of her, grabbed the stitches on her mouth, and pulled them.
Doll Maker's eyes started to water. "You're hurting me."
"Call off the china dolls." Halloween ordered.
"They're bodies."
Halloween pulled harder. "Call them off!"
A tear ran down Doll Maker's cheek.
Meanwhile, the dolls that the Three Guardians were fighting slowly shrank.
The Guardians lowered their weapons. Bunnymund raised his paw and caught a returning boomerang.
Halloween's grip softened as she recalled what Doll Maker just said. "What?"
"Let go." The black haired girl wept.
"Sorry." Halloween released.
Doll Maker sat, down and held her mouth, while Halloween walked away.
"You know that wouldn't have happened if you just listened to me." Halloween notified.
"Mileena, told me to-"
"Yah yah I know, never trust anyone, but her."
Doll Maker raised her head up a little as she heard the holiday reproach her. She saw Halloween's shoes. She followed the height until her yellow eyes met the holiday's orange ones.
"Don't move now." Halloween raised the girl's ax, and swung.
Doll Maker rushed to the lake, petrified. She looked at her reflection. Halloween had sliced the stitches off her. A few remained on the edges, but it gave her enough freewill to open her mouth as wide as she can. She saw Halloween's reflection approach.
"Sorry," Halloween gave her back her ax. "I had no scissors with me."
"Thank you." She sad dully. "But how?" she turned to the pink bowed holiday.
"Hmm?"
"Pitch put these stitches on me. I tried to cut it off but I couldn't."
"That anorexic pale face!" Halloween frowned. "Why?"
Doll Maker turned back to her refection. "It's a secret. He told me."
"Come on, you can trust me." Halloween put her hand on the girl's shoulder. Doll Maker's attention turned back to her.
"I won't tell anyone." Halloween grinned in a Cheshire cat like fashion.
"Big sister will be mad at me." Doll Maker replied. Then a small smiled appeared her face.
"Come on she's at the lake." Bunnymund hopped.
"She just left us! In the middle of a fight, she just disappeared." Tooth exclaimed as she and Sandman followed. Sandman shrugged.
"Asylum" They heard a calm voice speak.
"I'll just call you Sylus, then." Halloween's voice replied. The guardians rushed to the source.
The 2 spirits noticed their presence.
"Oh hey guys" Halloween waved. "Sylus here wants to help me find the last person on my hide and seek list."
"I never agreed to that." Doll Maker replied.
"You left us alone!" Tooth charged at Halloween. Both of them fell into the lake.
"Hi, I'm Bunnymund." The Easter Bunny shook Doll Maker's hand. "Nice to meet you mate."
"I know who you are." Doll Maker said, not a little emotionless.
"If I could kill you I would!" They heard Tooth Fairy yell, as she clawed Halloween. Santa then walked into the scene.
"Oh there you are, mate, where were you hidden?" Bunnymund smiled.
"In Chimney, but I was getting impatient." North answered then he looked at the cat fight in the lake. "Did I miss something?"
Doll Maker arrived home at 11pm. Her sister embraced her as she walked in. then Mileena noticed her mouth.
"What happened to your stitches?"
Doll Maker recalled this conversation with Halloween as they practiced excuses.
"Remember if your big sister asks about them, say-"
"Everything." Doll Maker answered and went her way. Mileena was dumb struck.
Epilogue…..
Halloween sat atop the Statue of Liberty's torch and gazed up at the moon.
"I found some really cool information tonight." She started. "Apparently Pitch is going to try to take over the guardians' business. He even tried to keep it a secret by stitching up his helper's mouth. What are you gonna do?"
A shape formed on the moon's face. It was familiar form. Halloween made a huge grin and nodded. "Alright, I'll play along." She knew this was going to be interesting… because the shape that formed on the moon's surface was….
…..a snowflake.
"Jack Frost, you have been chosen…"
Fin.