The Hollow Halloween
Chapter Four: Bad Moon Rising
It was just before seven o'clock in Dimmsdale and kids were being shipped into Camp Learn-A-Torium by the carload. Dismal faces grew dimmer when they noticed the traditional orange pumpkin faces and black-as-night bats were missing. Instead they got replaced by smiling yellow sunshines and pretty pink flowers.
"Aw man," Francis groaned, "this ain't no way to spend Halloween. I'm so mad I could pound the stuffin' outta the next dork I see."
Behind him AJ and Chester 'eeped' and dove behind the teeter-totter.
"Whoa there scary special friend!" Gary sprang out into the padded playground, "We can't have any violence on this, the most funducational of all holidays!"
"That's right!" his peppy partner cart wheeled outside to join in. "So prepare to have your frown turned upside down because-"
The kids' blinked in disbelief when the two sang out, "It's Funeduween!!"
"The funest-"
"-the bestest-"
"-the neatest-"
"-the safest-"
"-most educational new day of the year!"
"That's it," Chester mumbled, "I'm goin' to military school."
"I think I'm gonna be sick." Francis grumbled.
"But Mr. Gary," Sanjay spoke up from the crowd of miserable kids, "what is Halloween without the candy, the costumes, and the pulling of the mischievous pranks resulting in minor property damage?"
The carrot top was all too happy to chime in. "Well special guest, when it comes to Halloween we've decided that it's just too scary, too dangerous, and causes way too much tooth decay. So from now Funeduween will be your safe, healthy, scare-free alternative!"
"Oh yeah! Says who?!" Chad objected.
"Says us!" Betty beamed, "And--the Mayor!"
A collective "awwww" sounded all around as the kids were ushered inside the building.
Suddenly the doors flew open revealing a storm that seemed to come out of nowhere. In between the lightning flashes a figure appeared and slowly stepped out of the shadows to reveal-
"Oh goody!" Betty cheered, "Another special guest!!"
"No you foolsss," Timmy hissed, "it'sss me, your worst nightmare."
"Now now Mr. Nega Pants," Gary tsked, "we don't use mean names or scary words on Funeduween!"
"Funeduween?" the black haired boy repeated as though it was the most ludicrous word he'd ever heard…which it was.
"Run Timmy!" Chester shouted, "Get out while you still can!"
A sinister smirk appeared, "You expect me to run from the likesss of them? Ehehehe, why should I? When it will be much more fun to have it the other way around..."
Gary and Betty exchanged bewildered looks.
"Eheh, I think now would be a good time to serve up the treaty wheaties," Betty suggested.
A cheer instantly rose from the kids.
"Good idea Betty," Gary cornily agreed and began to pass out yellow saucers like frisbees.
"Here we go!" Betty reappeared seconds later with a tray full of...
"Awww."
"Soy cubes!!" the daycare workers announced.
"But not just any soy cubes Gary."
"That's right Betty. These have been colored pink just for the occasion!"
"So eat up kids! There's plenty to go around!"
Timmy scowled at the disgusting health food.
No one noticed the final 'guest' to arrive. The dark haired girl slipped in silently and bypassed the others, choosing to lean against the far wall by the window instead.
From that vantage point she watched as a blonde in the second row skimmed the crowd. Probably looking for me, she smirked, well for my former self anyway. Heh, too bad, Tootie's a little 'tied up' at the moment…in the recesses of her mind.
Red eyes shifted to glance out the window at the darkening sky. Sunset was nearly over and soon it would be time to set the plan into action. Negas were creatures of the night, and thus more powerful then, especially on this night, Halloween.
That stupid scarecrow, Nega-Tootie sneered, he thought that by sealing the portal he could trap us all in that ridiculous coffin for good. But no one keeps a nega down! And speaking of which-
She watched as the deep orange and reds of the autumn sky faded into purple and indigo hues.
-my minions should be seizing control of those overbearing genies any time now…
In a nearby park Tootie's genie godparents were patrolling the area for any signs of negas, especially theirs. They still weren't aware of the true danger lurking within.
"Better hurry up and catch them before we're overshadowed." Des gulped. "Green just really isn't my color."
"Yeah well I'm sure if you put it that way they'll just surrender and we can call it a night." her companion replied in his usual sarcastic tone.
Des ground her teeth. "I knew I should've stuck with Chartre."
"Ha, the sprite? Right," Norm snickered, "What's she gonna do, plant dandelions in their hair? Heh, that's useful."
"You are sssuch a jerk!" she instantly froze and slapped her hands over her mouth.
Norm's eyes widened behind the frames of his designer shades. "Whoa, what's up with the snake bit Dezzie?"
"I-I don't know," she mumbled.
"Well, uh…knock it off okay? For a second there you sounded just like…"
Norm trailed off; his gaze had drifted upward to where the moon had just started to peek out from behind the gray clouds floating across the sky. He seemed transfixed by the light.
"Norm?" Des waved a hand in front of his face, "Hello? Earth to Norm, wake up Norm."
Snapping her fingers she produced a megaphone and held it up to his ear. "HEY GENIE OF THE EGO TRIP, SNAP OUT OF IT!"
She dropped the device and gasped when he suddenly grabbed her by the shoulders. There was something seriously wrong with him. For one thing, his hands were—claws?!
Des watched in alarm as the tan fur traveled up his arms and covered his face. His hair and beard became unruly as his grip tightened until she could no longer feel her limbs. She hovered paralyzed by fear as the transformation progressed.
Suddenly he released an eerie howl-
"ARROOOOO!!"
-and it was done. She was left at the mercy…of Nega-Norm!
Oh fez!
"Well what do ya know," the being chuckled through a set of razor sharp fangs, "looks like I won the bet."
Before she could ask him what he was talking about a strange sensation flooded her senses. She felt her control over her body slip away and soon became a prisoner in her own mind. A new being emerged to take over and she was in no mood for her partner's gloating.
"Would you shut up already?" Nega-Des snapped, "How was I supposed to know she'd put up such a stubborn fight?"
"Heh, didn't look like she was doing much fighting to me Nega-Dezzie."
"Don't call me that!" she snapped out of his iron grip and rematerialized a few feet away, arms crossed and scowling at the moon. That's the last time I gamble with a werewolf during a full moon.
"I believe you now owe me one T-bone steak, medium rare."
"You'll get a silver bullet if we're late for the master's scheme." she warned.
Nega-Norm blew on his claws and raked them against his shredded vest, "Don't be such a worry wart, we'll be there way before the bewitching hour. Everything's gonna go according to plan. By the time midnight rolls around this place'll be crawling with nega-creatures."
Wanda and Cosmo reached the Learn-A-Torium just as the festivities began. The boring, dull, educational 'fun'.
"Gyah!" Cosmo yelped and bit his nails, "This is horrible! So. Much. LEARNING!"
"Calm down Cosmo," Wanda was already searching the crowd of bummed out kids for their godchild, "we've gotta find Timmy."
She almost missed him, the grayish complexion, blackened hair, and dark circles under his eyes nearly made him unrecognizable. Something was definitely wrong, and it was getting worse.
"There he is!"
"Alright special funeduweeners!" a male voice sent Cosmo and Wanda in a panic. Quickly both poofed themselves into wall decorations and hid beside the ball pit.
"Aha!" Cosmo laughed, loving his new sunshine form. "Look at me! I'm bright!"
Wanda rolled her eyes and grinned. "Enjoy it while it lasts sweetie."
"Time to bob for apples!" Gary continued.
"YAY!"
The kids really should've learned by now that Funeduween wasn't half as fun as Halloween. There was always a dull and ridiculously overcautious twist.
Right on cue Betty chimed in, holding a snorkeling mask. "But before you do, make sure to wear the proper safety gear and do plenty of pre-bobbing breathing exercises! Remember kids-"
"Safety first!!"
From the edge of the front row Timmy scowled. Those peppy dolts are speaking in unison again. An unsettling smirk replaced the scowl. I wonder if they'll scream that way.
Back on the wall the disguised fairies gasped.
"Did you see that Cosmo?" asked the 'flower'.
"S-See what?" the 'sunshine' gulped, "The way Timmy's eyes just flashed all red and scary like his evil self? Nope!"
"Oh, this is terrible. He's changing into Nega-Timmy!"
"What'll we do?!"
"I'm not sure there's a lot we can do." the Wanda flower frowned, "Until he makes a wish our wands are tied."
Timmy's pointed ears perked, he knew full well that his godparents had tagged along. In fact, he'd been counting on it.
Perfect, with them here I can bend their magic to my will and make this the most terrifying Halloween ever! Move over Jack, I'M the new ghoul in charge!
"Mwuhahahahaha!"
Up front Gary and Betty blinked.
"Oookay," the blonde forced an uneasy smile, there was just something creepy about that kid (and it wasn't just his teeth), "I think we have a volunteer!"
"Huh?" Timmy's forked tongue hung off to the side.
"Don't be shy," Gary coaxed, "come on down and lose that frown!"
A hiss from Timmy caused both adults to cower and step back. Betty shoved the snorkel mask at Gary and ran to get a bowl of water for the apples.
Reluctantly Gary held his ground as Timmy approached. I knew I should've finished law school!
"Oh no!" Cosmo gasped, "I can't look!"
But he didn't have much choice, as his arms couldn't extend enough to cover his eyes in his current form. "Ungh! Ungh! Stupid sunbeams!"
The other kids watched on the verge of boredom as Betty returned with the bowl of water and sat it on a stool by her quivering colleague and the 'eager volunteer'.
"A-Alright now," Gary swallowed a lump in his throat and held the mask toward Timmy, who immediately slapped it away. "Gyah!"
"I don't need diving equipment to fetch an apple fool!" he growled and stormed over to the bowl.
Gary rubbed his sore hand while Betty cringed. The other children were wide eyed after seeing Timmy's outburst. All but Francis, who grinned in amusement.
"Heh, looks like Turner's gonna get some time in 'the Fun Box'."
Timmy stared down at his altered reflection on the water's surface. The sinister smirk was back.
"Wait just a second there special friend!" Betty chirped.
"That's right!" Gary added, "Before you bob, you must learn!"
"About the apple and its nutritional val-"
A threatening snarl from Timmy made both blanch and tremble.
"-or maybe later?" Betty muttered.
"Hmph." Timmy turned back to the bowl and threw a glance over his shoulder. "Gee, I wish something creepy would happen to spice up this boring game." he mused aloud.
Both godparents gasped.
"Yah!" Cosmo shakily raised his wand, "He means us!"
"Don't do it Cosmo!" Wanda shouted, "He's evil, pure evil!"
But Cosmo was already breaking down. "Must resist...natural urge...to grant...wish!"
"NO!" Wanda shrieked as his wand activated.
No one noticed the bickering wall decorations. All eyes were on Timmy as he plunged his head into the icy cold water.
A few tense seconds passed. Everyone unconsciously leaned forward for a closer look. Then...
SPLOOSH!!!
"AAAAHHHH!!!"
Screams rang out when Timmy emerged with a slimy, rotten, worm-ridden apple clutched tightly in his fangs.
Grinning he spat the apple toward the teaching pair and snickered when Betty caught it and shrieked. A disgusting game of 'hot potato' ensued between the pair.
"Oh ew!" a familiar female voice cried. "This is totally gross!"
Whipping around he saw none other than Trixie Tang shooing a worm that had fallen from the apple.
"So they hate creepy crawlies huh? Well let's see how they feel about SPIDERS!" pointing to the fairies on the wall he snapped. "Make it so!"
This time it was Wanda who mechanically granted the wish.
"Hey!" Cosmo scolded.
"Sorry," she shrugged.
Instantly an army of arachnids started pouring out from every nook and cranny, from under every table and behind each inspirational poster. Soon the whole room was covered in eight-legged terrors!
A single figure stood by the window watching the scene play out with an unreadable expression. Up until now she'd be silent, just sitting back and observing the clash of pure evil verses pure sap.
"Whoa-oh!" Nega-Norm peered in from outside. "Looks like that Turner kid's started the fun without us."
"That's no 'kid'," the silent figure hissed. "It's a nega-creature. One of us."
"I don't care what he is," Nega-Des sneered as she appeared next to Nega-Norm, "the little grub worm is interfering with our evil scheme. Want me to turn him into a toad?"
Nega-Tootie waved her off. "No, if Nega-Timmy wants to be bad, I say we let him spoil their pathetic celebration. Either way, we negas win."
"Hmph, if you say so." the witchy creature pouted.
"So what?" her partner shrugged, "We just gonna hang out here and let Count Buckula have all the fun?"
Their master flashed a fang revealing grin and removed a black petaled rose from her vest. "Nope, while he's stirring up the sniveling kids of Dimmsdale…we're going to unleash our fellow negas."
The werewolf smirked, "Now that's a plan I'm excited to be a part of!"
Back across the room Timmy stood amidst the madness, now completely overshadowed by his nega-self. It had taken all of five minutes to turn his peers into a frenzied mass of screaming dolts. And of course, he was just getting started…
"I think this party could use a little sprucing up, don't you?" Nega-Timmy chuckled darkly.
"Um..." Cosmo cast an uneasy glance at Wanda. "What'll we do now?"
"There's nothing we can do," his wife fretted, "Nega or not that's still Timmy, so we're stuck granting his every wish!"
"I was afraid you were gonna say that." Cosmo sighed.
Together the fairies raised their wands and set to work spooking up the Funeduween decorations. Soon the walls were oozing green slime, tables became cryptic coffins, and bats swooped down from the ceiling screeching fiercely.
"Mwuhahahahaha!!!" Nega-Timmy cackled at the sight of his pink clad peers screaming and running in terror.
"Eh, I don't know what everybody's getting so excited about," Chester shrugged and poured himself another cup of punch, "my trailer's ten times scarier than this."
A hissing noise caused him to look down. "Gah! Snake! Go swim in someone else's punch!"
"Well, you can't spook 'em all." Wanda shrugged.
"YAH!!" AJ's was the next scream to pierce the air, "There's a scorpion in my soy cube!"
The genius froze, blinked, then beamed. "Hey...there's a scorpion in my soy cube. Yay!"
"Ahaha, looks like some good came outta this." Cosmo grinned.
"This is like so uncool!" Trixie whined as she and Veronica raced toward the exit. "I'm so out of here!"
Before they could make it to safety gooey spider webs appeared, blocking every way out.
"EW!"
"ICK!"
"Like, what is going on here?!" the blonde exclaimed, tugging on the sticky strands in her hair. "This is the lamest Funeduween ever!"
"And it was pretty lame before," Trixie added. "And where did these stupid spider webs come from?!"
"AAAHH!!" a double scream answered their question.
Twisting against the webbing they saw their 'funducational' day care providers being cocooned by a hungry giant spider.
"Make that two good things," the green-eyed fairy laughed.
"Let's get outta here!" Elmer screamed as the bat swarm thickened.
Soon kids were fleeing for their lives, leaping out windows and breaking through the sticky webbing. The nega-ringleader remained undaunted. "Let them run, there's nowhere to hide."
"Not bad," a sinister voice remarked, "but look what I can do."
"Huh?" Nega-Timmy spun around just as Nega-Tootie's transformation was complete. "Who are you?!"
An evil, raven haired teen dressed in a skimpy dark purple dress and fishnet sleeves smirked down at him. "Just call me, Nega-Trudy!"
Right on cue lightning flashed and two supernatural beings appeared, both in nega-form.
"Meet my partners in crime, Nega-Norm and Nega-Des." she introduced them, "Together we're going to turn everyone in this spook-hating town into nega-creatures of the night!"
"How?" Nega-Timmy scoffed, "The portal's been closed!"
Nega-Trudy conjured up a hate canon, much like the love canons found in Cupid's bunker, but with a reverse effect. "With an arsenal of nega-powered weapons like this, who needs portals?"
"I see," Nega-Timmy noted, "so with enough nega-energy we can bring out the worst in everyone? Ha! I knew there had to be a way to outsmart that second-rate holiday!"
Now that he was up to speed on the plan, Nega-Trudy turned to her assistants and wished them all armed for battle. The nega-genies eagerly obeyed and faster than one-two-GONG the chaos began.
"Hey boss!" a blue, bat-winged creature barged into the office of the most hateful creature in the Anti-Fairy Zone.
The black haired being spun around in his chair, his brow furrowed in sheer annoyance.
"O-Oh," Anti-Twitter hooked a finger on his mouth, "your mother makin' ya dress all professional again?"
Anti-Cupid's temper was always at its foulest whenever his mother was around. From the looks of things, her most recent surprise inspection of the Hate Bunker hadn't gone well.
Ignoring the question the head anti-cherub clawed at the armrests and spat, "Just get to the point! What the heck's going on?!"
"W-Well sir," Anti-Twitter stuttered, "we just got a call from the guys in the armery. T-Turns out some of our most powerful weapons have gone...missing."
"WHAT?!" the entire Hate Bunker shook with Anti-Cupid's cry of outrage.
Immediately he ripped off his black wig and threw it aside, poofing himself out of that stuffy penguin suit and into his dark blue leather jacket. Much better! He really despised looking anything like his 'pansy double'.
"Who dares to raid MY arsenal of hate? Hearts are gonna break for this! What else is gonna go wrong today?!"
"A-Actually sir," his assistant ventured, "we did manage to trace their location back to a town below on Earth."
"So then what're ya waiting for?!" the testy anti-cherub snapped, "Show me!"
Zipping over to the control panel Anti-Twitter punched in a few codes until the Broken Heart Monitor lit up with the frantic chaos down in Dimmsdale.
"What in the name of dark chocolate is going on down there?" Anti-Cupid gasped. The scene was so unruly, so upsetting, so frightening, it was... sniff, beautiful!
"Aaahhh!" Sanjay had barely gotten one foot across the threshold from the padded playground to freedom when a handful of sharp nails snatched him up from behind.
"And just where do you think you're going little trick-or-treater?" Nega-Trudy chuckled, "And where's your costume?"
Sanjay's teeth chattered when she materialized a black broken heart tipped arrow in her free hand.
"Maybe I can help?" her voice was laced with malice.
One blood curdling scream later she dropped the squirming boy and watched with fiendish delight as he went from cowardly kid to menacing nega.
"Ahahahaha!" the newly released Nega-Sanjay laughed. "Now I am free! Free to wreak havoc on all of Dimmsdale!"
"Heh, one down, a whole city to go." Nega-Trudy summoned another arrow and watched her first victim search his cape, no doubt looking for something sharp and destructive. "Not bad, if I do say so myself."
"Aha! Behold-" he whipped out a sharp metallic object and took off, running circles around the sandbox, "-I am running with scissors!"
Nega-Trudy sighed and slumped over, "Well, considering what I had to work with."
"Wow," Anti-Twitter remarked as the screen cut to another area of the city, "that's pathetic. Want me to send down the Heart Stompers?"
Anti-Cupid tapped his chin thoughtfully, a single fang protruded from his broadened grin. "No...let's let them have their fun. And keep an eye on this nega-chick. With a little work, she could prove useful to our side."
To Be Continued…