Musically: Ouch. You all right?
Victoria: Yeah, I can feel everything again. But it's mostly painful.
Musically: Don't worry about it, you'll be fine. I gave you a little break, too.
Victoria: What do you mean?
Musically: There's another song again, but you don't have to sing.
Victoria: Whoo!
Victoria ran as fast as she could to Town Hall. The bruises and scratches didn't seem to hurt as much now; she had to talk to Jack. Did he know what kind of tortuous plans the children had in store for poor, unsuspecting Santa Claus? One way or another, she was going to tell him.
The building rapidly rose over the horizon, coming closer and closer as Victoria ran. Ragged breaths escaped her throat as she staggered through the door. A number of creatures tried to stop her, to see if she was alright, but she didn't stop until she had gotten to the front of the line. Jack was there. The monster band was conversing with him, playing an offbeat version of 'Jingle Bells'.
"Victoria!" Jack called as the band began to leave. She was leaning against a wall unsteadily, her chest rising irregularly as she tried to catch her breath. Dark green eyes looked up suddenly at him.
"Jack," Victoria panted, "I have to tell you..."
"What, what is it? Did you get hurt on your way back?" Jack asked, concerned. Victoria held a hand to her stomach in pain, but she waved him off with the other.
"Nah," she said tiredly, "I just got worn out. But there's something you have to know! Lock, Shock, and Barrel…they-"
"Say no more," Jack interrupted. Victoria's mouth was left slightly agape as she stared at Jack, who smiled knowingly.
"I know you're a bit nervous about Sandy Claws, but trust me. Those children wouldn't do anything to hurt him, or else they'd have to answer to me. You have my word for it," the skeleton said. Victoria frowned. She was about to tell him exactly where he could put his word when Sally peeked in from the door.
Sally blushed. A room with a smiling Jack and an angry Victoria was an awkward place to walk into. Quietly, she spoke.
"The Mayor said my job was ready?" Sally said unsurely. Jack beamed warmly and handed the list back to Victoria, who snorted indignantly. Jack eyed her confusedly. Victoria's green eyes rolled up to the ceiling, and then returned to the list where she saw Sally's name written in beautiful black ink.
Victoria told Sally her job, her voice getting more infuriated with each word, "You're going to make Jack's Sandy Claws outfit? I mean, Santa Claus?"
She turned on Jack with an incensed expression.
"You never said you were going to take his place!" Victoria yelled angrily.
Jack said, "Yes, I did. I wish you would stop saying that as if it were a bad thing." He looked at Sally gently while Victoria fumed behind him. Sally's face, on the other hand, was anxious and somewhat troubled.
"Sally, I need your help more than anyone's."
"You certainly do, Jack! I had the most terrible vision," she exclaimed. Jack turned around and rummaged around in the Christmas chest, looking for the pattern to his costume.
"That's splendid!" he replied absentmindedly. Something hard and square hit Jack's bony palm, and he soon retrieved a picture frame from the box.
"No, it was about your Christmas! There was smoke and fire…"
"She's not lying, Jack," Victoria said from behind him. She remembered her and Sally's conversation on the hill. Jack shook his head as he stared at his picture fondly.
"That's not my Christmas. My Christmas is filled with laughter and joy, and this! My Sandy Claws outfit. I want you to make it!" he said. He swiveled the picture frame around between his fingers so Sally could see it. A neat, colored drawing of Jack in a Santa Claus suit was taped over the original. Sally shook her head.
"Jack, please! It's going to be a disaster," Sally pleaded.
"You'd better listen to her, Jack," Victoria said flatly, "She knows what she's talking about."
"How could it be?" Jack said cheerily, "Just follow the pattern. This part's red, and the trim is white." He ran a finger across the picture, outlining the coat and the sleeve in turn.
"It's a mistake, Jack," the rag doll pressed on.
Jack handed her the drawing, saying, "Now, don't be modest. Who else but you is clever enough to make my Sandy Claws outfit?"
"You're ignoring Sally. Did you know that?" Victoria told Jack sarcastically. Jack grinned and waved at the rag doll.
"And you're ignoring me. Must be trying to break a record."
The Mayor called out, "Next!"
"I have every confidence in you!" Jack called out to Sally as she left. She cast a mournful glance back at Jack and Victoria, and then she started to walk away.
"But it seems so wrong to me," she muttered, "Very wrong." As Sally left, Victoria got up and leaned against the door, blocking Behemoth from entering. Jack gave her a baffled glance.
"Victoria, if you stand against the door like that, no one can come in."
"I know."
"Then why do it?"
Victoria stared Jack straight in the eye sockets and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Your Christmas is corrupt. Everyone in this town is infusing Halloween into Christmas, and with you ignoring me, it's not going to get any better. This could go seriously wrong!" Victoria yelled. Her arms were now up in the air for emphasis. Jack's eye sockets widened a bit, and he backed away some.
"Victoria, I'm telling you! When everything is set up and together, this Christmas will be the best that the world has seen. We just have to wait it out, that's all," Jack explained. Victoria opened her mouth to protest, but the door suddenly burst open despite the pressure. The girl practically flew across the room. The force from the blow had thrown Victoria against a wall.
Worriedly, Jack rushed over. She hadn't been badly hurt, but she was holding her head in anguish.
"Are you alright?" the skeleton asked, looking her over. Victoria opened her eyes and glared at Jack coldly.
"So, I have to throw myself against a wall to get your attention?" she asked audaciously. Jack's worried expression turned into a frustrated scowl.
"Never mind! I don't even know why I bothered, if you were going to act that way," he muttered. He turned around to find Behemoth staring dully at the wall behind him.
Jack fetched a nutcracker from the chest while Victoria picked herself up from the ground. Victoria bored into the back of Jack's skull with a glare that would make many want to shrivel up and die. However, Jack seemed immune to this as he explained the nutcracker to Behemoth.
"This device is called a nutcracker," Jack said slowly. Before he could say anything else, though, the door burst open. Victoria's head whipped around to see the perpetrators, as did Jack. A rumbling noise echoed through the room as a large, walking bathtub tromped into the room, toting a bulging black sack. Lock, Shock, and Barrel followed closely beside it.
"Jack, Jack! We caught him! We caught him!" they cried. The children came to a stop in front of Jack, grinning widely with pride. Jack was a mirror image of the three as he smiled back in excitement.
He exclaimed, "Perfect! Open it up, quickly!" A bony finger pointed to the black bag frantically. Barrel untied the rope in no time at all, and a pink blur suddenly sprang from its confinement and landed in front of Behemoth. The Easter Bunny sniffed around.
Jack slapped a hand to his forehead.
"That's not Sandy Claws!" he moaned in disappointment. Lock, Shock, and Barrel exchanged glances of extreme confusion, muttering amongst themselves.
"It isn't?"
"Who is it?"
Victoria watched, puzzled, as Behemoth leaned in closer to the pink furred rabbit in curiosity.
"Bunny!" he bellowed in delight. With a frightened squeak, the Easter Bunny dove back into the sack, cowering in fear. Jack heaved a sigh and walked over to the tub.
"Not Sandy Claws," he said sadly. Lock and Barrel stepped forward.
"We followed your instructions," the devil child said unsurely.
"We went through the door!" Barrel told him, nodding his pale face vigorously. Jack's face turned to one of irritation as he towered, intimidating, over them all.
"Which door? There's more than one! Sandy Claws is behind the door shaped like this," Jack said, showing them a Christmas cookie shaped like a tree. Shock suddenly smacked Lock in the face.
"I told you!" she said. Lock, in turn, started to wrestle with her, and Barrel joined in almost immediately. Jack stared at them for a second. Then, with skills only a true Pumpkin King could master, he contorted his face horribly and let out a deafening screech. The children gasped and withdrew.
Jack turned his attention to the shivering bag.
"I'm sorry for the inconvenience, sir," Jack apologized. He then looked at Lock, Shock, and Barrel, and pointed at the bag.
"Take him home first, and apologize again. Be careful with Sandy Claws when you fetch him. Treat him nicely."
The bathtub trailed after Lock, Shock, and Barrel as they made their way to the door.
"Got it!" they called, "We'll get it right next time." Victoria, who had recovered, strolled over to Jack until she was beside him. They both watched the children exit Town Hall until the door had swung closed with a bang.
"There shouldn't be a next time for them to get it right," Victoria said bitterly. Jack gave her a hard stare before finishing his conversation with Behemoth, who seemed to get a distant grip on the nutcracker. After the giant toddled out of the door, Jack turned towards the girl beside him. His eye sockets didn't meet her face; rather, they seemed to be locked on the piece of parchment in her hands.
Bluntly, he asked, "Anyone else?" Victoria shook her head.
"No. I've checked off everyone on the list," she said apathetically, handing the now messy paper to Jack. He skimmed over it, and his expression turned from mad to ecstatic in a few seconds.
"I can't believe it! Everyone working together on Christmas…making Christmas, if you will. Wonderful! This is spectacular!" Jack rambled, taking Victoria by her hand. She flinched (it was as if she had just doused her hand in icy water), but Jack didn't seem to notice as he led her to the front door.
"Let's see what they're doing so far, shall we?" he suggested as he pushed the door open. It flew open, nearly coming off of its hinges. Jack laughed in an excited disbelief, and Victoria's eyes widened as they both saw the scene that was laid out before them.
A large Christmas tree, or at least it looked like a tree, had been erected in the middle of the town square. Orange and black tinsel was hung around it. Spiky ornaments glittered dangerously like silver blades, and a large bat had been placed at the tip of the tree. The corpse children danced around it in wonder.
Monsters toted large, wooden crates, setting them down when they got to the right location. With crowbars, they pried the lids open to reveal black garland and lights. A member of the jazz band pushed a wheelbarrow full of pumpkins wearing Santa hats. Two witches carried six bats on a pole. The bats were decked out in holly and mistletoe with their wings spread wide.
The creatures were busy at work. Most were at tables set up randomly about the town and were building toys or weaving wreaths. They laughed jovially as they decapitated dolls and smashed toy cars with hammers. Victoria stared on in dismay. Jack, on the other hand, smiled widely and began to run towards the townsfolk, not believing his luck. In a sort of stupor, Victoria followed.
All through the town, a sort of chorus seemed to drift through the air.
"This time…"
"This time…"
Victoria jumped back in surprise as ghosts rose eerily from the main fountain, carrying boxes of tools. They chanted an off key song as they flew in different directions.
"Making Christmas, making Christmas!"
The ghosts were soon out of sight. Victoria cast an unsure glance over her shoulder to see if they had gone, and in doing so managed to bump into a rather large corpse woman. She was putting down planks on the road. To Victoria's surprise, the Mayor drove down the makeshift ramp in Jack's snowmobile and was singing a haunting melody.
"Making Christmas, making Christmas is so fine!" he sang. The others joined in.
"It's ours this time and won't the children be surprised!"
"It's ours this time."
Victoria was quick to leave. By now, Jack was far out of sight and Victoria was on her own. She walked by a table where two of the children, a corpse and a mummy, were busy ruining toys.
"Making Christmas, making Christmas!" they sang together. A few witches were gathered around a cauldron not too far from them, stirring the contents of the soup inside.
"Time to give them something fun they'll talk about for years to come!"
An undersea monster rose from the pot, singing along with them. Victoria shook her head and walked faster away from them. She could still hear the Mayor and the other citizens singing behind her.
"Let's have a cheer from everyone!"
"It's time to party!"
"Making Christmas, making Christmas!"
Vampires were gathered around a table in front of Victoria. They were painting a toy duck, adding oozing blood to gunshot wounds. She tried to ignore the queasiness in her stomach as they wrapped up the duck and laid it aside.
"Snakes and mice get wrapped up so nice,
With spider legs and pretty bows."
"It's ours this time!"
To her left, Victoria could see a corpse man chain-whipping a werewolf and a devil, who were sawing wood. They sang as they worked.
"All together, that and this,
With all our tricks, we're
Making Christmas time."
The werewolf suddenly stopped and pointed over Victoria's head.
"Here comes Jack!" he shouted. Victoria swiveled around to see the towering skeleton behind her, but no feeling of relief came to greet her. Instead of seeing how twisted this Christmas was, Jack was enjoying it. Immensely enjoying it. He looked all around him, grinning like a scarecrow as he spun around on the spot.
"I can't believe what's happening to me!
My hopes, my dreams…my fantasies!
Hehehehehe!"
Jack cackled madly as he was overwhelmed by it all. Victoria looked at him sadly and then took off in the opposite direction. Soon, she saw another table. This time Harley was standing at the other end, taking a rat and slamming it against either side of the table. He puffed out the rodent and placed it on his companion's head.
"Won't they be impressed? I am a genius.
See how I transform this old rat
Into a most delightful hat!"
In no time at all, Jack was by his side. He added some constructive criticism to Harley's hat, taking a bat and doing the same.
"My compliments from me to you,
On this, your most intriguing hat.
Consider though this substitute,
A bat in place of this old rat."
It was hard to keep up with Jack (not that Victoria was trying) as he glided from table to table, putting in his two cents whenever he could. The melting man was busy wrapping up a road kill turtle when Jack popped up beside him. Jack threw away the turtle, much to the other's dismay.
"No, no, no! That's all wrong.
This will never make a present.
It's been dead for much too long,
Try something fresher! Something pleasant!
Try again, don't give up!"
Again the skeleton was off. Victoria could see him going everywhere at once, and it was making her quite dizzy. Still, through all the bustle, the eerie song reached her and encircled her thoughts.
"All together, that and this!
With all our tricks, we're
Making Christmas time!"
Night fell quickly. A blanket of stars seemed to be painted across the sky as the sun set, and the crescent moon glowed dimly onto the mangled Christmas scene. A large sleigh in the shape of a coffin had been constructed, and the monsters were now busy loading it with gifts.
"This time, this time!"
"It's ours!"
"Making Christmas, making Christmas!
La, la, la…
It's almost here and we can't wait.
So ring the bells and celebrate!
Cause when the full moon starts to climb,
We'll all sing out!"
"It's Christmas time!" Jack finished cheerily. He hugged himself and turned around when the sound of crackling bones startled him. His grin became wider. A trio of skeleton reindeer was floating ominously before him, smiling in a way a skeleton can. Victoria put her head in her hands. This was turning out all wrong. Why couldn't Jack see that for himself?
Victoria: That wasn't much of a break. They're screwing up Christmas!
Musically: Sorry. I don't think it would have been much different if you had sang.
Victoria: When is it ever different when I sing?
Jack: (is naming the reindeer) You can be Femur, and you can be Tibula, and you can be Patella! Hoorah for science!