Authoress note: Sorry there was a typo on the a/n on the last chapter! THIS IS CHAPTER 2, not the last chapter! Sorry!
Chapter 2
Halloween Town
Peter and Marie came to the bottom of the slide onto a hard surface.
"Oomph!" they both grunted as they reached the bottom.
Peter slowly got up and looked around. Then he saw is sister on the ground.
"Marie!" he cried. He jumped up off of the hard ground and rushed over to his sister.
Peter grabbed her shoulders and shook her gently until she groaned and opened her eyes. "W-where are we?" she asked.
Peter sighed of relief then realized, just where were they? He looked around their general surroundings. They were in a circle of trees just like the ones they were at before, but this was a darker forest. There was howling and cackling in the distance. This was definitely not back at home.
"I'm not sure. Come, let's go look around," Peter replied then helped Marie up off the ground.
They walked away from where they fell through the woods. They saw bats flying through the trees above. This frightened Marie and Peter put his arm around her shoulders to protect her.
Their feet ached by the time they finally reached the edge of the forest.
"My feet hurt…" Marie groaned.
"So do mine Marie, but we have to keep going," Peter replied.
And so they trudged on until they reached the gates to a town. They stopped and peered inside, but what they saw was not what they expected to see.
They saw monsters of different shapes and sizes. They saw a quartet of vampires, a werewolf, 3 strange children with masks, a one-eyed mummy, a clown with a scary face on a one-wheeled bicycle (Peter thought it was called a unicycle) and many others.
"My goodness, Peter! Where are we?!" Marie exclaimed.
"I don't know, but it scares me!"
They turned to run but they ran right into something, or rather someone.
"Oh my, who are you?" the twins heard a female voice ask.
Peter and Marie looked up at a girl with long, red hair and blue skin. There were stiches all over her body and she wore a rag dress, but still she gave them a kind smile.
"Here, let me help you," she said and held out her hands to the twins.
Hesitantly, they took her hands and got off the ground.
"Oh, your clothes are all dirty. Here, let's just brush off the dirt," the woman said and started brushing the dirt off their black clothes. "There all clean." The twins were unable to take their wide eyes off of the strange woman that resembled a doll.
"T-thank you miss," Marie thanked her.
"It's no problem at all. My name is Sally. What are yours?" Sally asked.
"My name is Marie," Marie answered.
"Mine is Peter."
"Well it is lovely to meet you Marie and Peter. Now, if you don't mind my asking, you don't seem to be from here? Where are you from?" she asked.
Peter remembered falling down a tree, so he pointed up to where their journey began.
"Oh dear…Here, please follow me and take my hands," Sally said holding out her hands which the twins took.
"Where are we going, Sally?" Marie asked.
"To meet someone because you aren't supposed to be down here," Sally answered while pushing open the gate.
"Why?" Peter asked.
"You will see," Sally answered while pushing the gate closed again.
"Sally, where are we?" Marie asked while looking around.
"This place is called Halloween Town," Sally answered as she let the twins into town.
Victoria cried. She cried until she ran out of tears as she and Victor road back into the city. Their children were missing.
Victor comforted her as much as he possibly could because he, too, was silently grieving. He hugged his crying wife as he stared out the window with a blank look. He has lost his brother, his son, and his daughter all on Halloween. Halloween must be cursed to him.
"We're here!" the driver called out as the carriage stopped.
Victoria sniffled and she crawled out of the carriage. Victor crawled out behind her.
The carriage rolled away and Victoria fell back into her husband's arms.
"Here ye! Here ye! Peter and Marie Van Dort are missing! Peter and Marie Van Dort are missing!" a man on the street shouted while ringing a bell. This just made Victoria cry even harder.
The couple went instead their household and sat on a sofa.
"We only turned out backs for a minute Victor! How could they have disappeared so quickly?!" Victoria sobbed into Victor's chest.
"I don't know Victoria. I don't know…" Victor replied. He was trying to hold back his own sobbing, he was trying to be strong for his wife.
"Where could they have gone? How?!" she cried.
"I don't know, Victoria. But I will find them, I promise you that," Victor told her with confidence. "I search those woods top to bottom to find them, if that is what it takes."
Victoria sniffled and nodded.
"Now, how about you get some rest. It will do some good."
Victoria nodded again but got up off the sofa and went upstairs where Victor tucked her in. He sat on a chair in the room until she went to sleep. Then Victor fell asleep in the chair. While dreams of happiness were in Victoria's mind, dreams of skeletons plagued Victor's.
Sally led the black haired twins through Halloween Town without anyone noticing the humans. Now, they stood on the doorstep of a very odd looking house on the edge of town.
"Here we are," Sally told the twins then she rang the doorbell.
"Just a moment!" they heard a male voice call from inside.
They heard a crashing noise inside the strange house. Peter and Marie exchanged glances and giggled. Then the doors swung open.
Peter and Marie looked up and saw an extremely tall, boney skeleton wearing a pinstriped suit and a bat for a bowtie. He had a large grin on his face when he saw Sally. Then she gestured to the twins; the Skeleton looked down. His eye socket widened.
"Oh! Oh, please come inside!" He stepped out of the doorway and Sally ushered them inside.
Peter and Marie were fascinated with the skeleton's home. There were strange, black furniture scattered all over the home. In the corner was a tall torch that was constructed out of mangled, black metal that looked like a boney hand clutching a ball of fire. There was a spiral staircase in the back of the room leading upstairs and on floor, behind the sofa, were blueprints of pumpkins, scarecrows, and other various Halloween items. They looked like they were just thrown on the floor.
The skeleton slammed the door shut and let out a deep breath.
The twins looked up at the skeleton with wide eyes. He flashed a kind smile down at them.
"Hello," Marie greeted.
"Hello, little one," the skeleton replied. "What are you names?" he asked then crouched down so he was almost eye-level with them.
"My name is Marie!" Marie smiled. "What's your name?"
Jack chuckled at her enthusiasm. "My name is Jack Skellington."
Peter stepped up to Jack. "My name is Peter. Peter Van Dort," he introduced.
Something in Jack stopped. His mouth was agape. "V-Van Dort?" He asked.
"Yes. That our last names," Peter asked. He was suddenly worried he had said something wrong to the skeleton.
Jack stood up staring blankly at the children, looking between the two.
They do look a little like him. Especially Peter. Ha, just like when we were younger. Peter and Marie both have his dark hair color and Peter has his wide eyes. They both are thin and pale, just as he is. They both have the same last name. When I was alive, there weren't any other families with the same last name as us. They must be his! There isn't any other explanation!
"Jack? Are you alright?" Sally asked, genuinely concerned.
Jack slowly started to chuckle, then it turned into a full blown laugh. He dropped onto his knees in front of the children and hugged them.
The children were slightly frightened. Had they said something wrong? Has he lost his mind? They didn't know.
"Jack! Are you okay?!" Sally asked, now frightened.
Jack let go of the children, a large smile plastered on his face. "He's okay! He's alright! Oh, I'm so happy!" he exclaimed.
"What are you talking about?" Sally asked.
"Here I will show you! Follow me!" Jack exclaimed and ran to the spiral staircase.
Sally watched the Pumpkin King run up the spiral staircase. She looked down at the children that seemed to be frightened. She giggled.
"It's okay, he's just really happy. I'm not sure what about, but he said he will show us. Come on," she said then ushered the, now calm, children up the stairs to a smaller room covered in books. There was a small table in the corner that was covered in different papers, blueprints, and books.
Jack was in the corner searching through a box of papers.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, ah-ha!" Jack exclaimed holding up a folded piece of paper. "Here look!"
Jack walked over to the children and unfolded the paper and showed it to Peter, Marie, and Sally.
It was a black and white picture of two little boys, standing in front of a stone fireplace. The boys looked almost identical. They both had jet black hair that was slicked back and wide eyes. The boys seemed to be pale and thin in the picture. Also, both of the boys them were wearing black suits and black shoes. There were only a couple of differences. One was wearing a bow tie, while the other wore a tie and one had a big grin on his face and the other seemed to be worried over something.
"Are they brothers?" Sally asked.
"Yes, they are," Jack answered looking at their expressions.
"That looks like father!" Marie exclaimed and pointed to the boy that seemed worried.
"It does!" Peter gasped.
Jack chuckled. "Because it is," he said looking at the picture.
"What?" The twins asked in unison.
"It is your father, and that boy there with the smile on his face, is me," Jack said pointing to the other brother.
"Really? So that would make you…" Peter trailed off then gasped.
Jack smiled. "Your uncle? Indeed. My real name is Jack Van Dort."
Authoress note: Sorry this took forever! I ran out of plot bunnies. But there you have it! If you have any ideas, please PM me or review! Reviews are appreciated!