Hi everyone. I had this clearly in my head and I thought one day late was better than a week, so here's chapter 25.

Chapter 25: Into the Crypt

"Why can't this Jack Skellington just look at some of the more-modern horror stuff and use that?" Jason asked as they walked through Halloween Town.

Riku looked at him. "Like what?"

Jason raised an eyebrow at him and said, "Like taking inspiration from how haunted attraction rides back home scare you,"

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Riku asked.

"Because on those rides you're strapped down while monsters come from everywhere and attack you," AJ summarized.

Riku looked at them. "That's wrong on more levels than one," he said.

"What, you chicken or something?" Jason asked.

Riku glared at him. "No, I just know to stay on the road to dawn," he said.

Jason shrugged. "Your loss,"

"Maleficent!" AJ shouted. Riku and Jason turned to see that standing at the gate to a cemetery was the green witch herself. Without a word she turned and entered the cemetery.

"No you don't!" Jason said as he charged after her.

"Jason wait," Riku said as he and AJ followed. The three of them saw Maleficent walking casually through the cemetery like she was taking a stroll through some park. Riku could sense something wasn't right.

Soon Maleficent stood before the opening of some mausoleum. Riku didn't like the look of it. It had demonic looking faces that made everything else in this world seem like cute puppies. If Maleficent led them here, it couldn't be good. The witch stepped into it, Jason following her.

Riku shook his head as he and AJ realized what they had to do. "That reckless…" he said as the two of them followed. Behind them stood Maleficent.

"It worked," she said with a wicked smile. "Now they will fall prey to the evils within…"

It was dark and cold. Not cold as in low temperatures, nor dark like someone had turned off the light. It was the cold that made you feel like there was no good left in the world, and dark like the future was hopeless. It was the cold and dark of evil itself.

Jason was oblivious to that comparison. He just felt lost and unsure of where Maleficent could be. Well this mausoleum couldn't be that big. That witch couldn't hide forever.

"Jason," called a familiar voice behind him. Jason turned and suddenly the place was lit. He was back home, in Netokan! But how did he get into his living room? His mother was sitting on the couch reading from her holo-tablet.

"Jason, your father wants to see you," she said as she pointed behind him. Jason turned to see his dad was how he remembered him. Muscular, dark-hair, and an ego bigger than the building. What was strange was today he was actually smiling.

That threw Jason off. His dad never smiled. "What's going on?" he asked with caution.

His dad threw his arms up. "What's going on? It's the biggest day of your life!" he said as he pulled up some documents on the table. "The army has accepted you into their ranks, and you can go today. Once you sign you'll finally get to do what we've been talking about all these years. You'll finally get to be a hero."

"No," Jason said.

His dad chuckled. "No?" He asked as if he misheard the punch line to a joke.

"No. That's what you want. It's not what I want," Jason said.

His dad laughed. "What are you talking about? Of course it's what you want. That's all we've discussed you doing—"

Jason pointed his finger at his dad. "That's all you've discussed. You never listened to me or what I wanted to do. You say that if I go all Commander Macho I'll be respected, but it's not what I want."

The smile disappeared. "This isn't open for debate. It's too late to go back and now you need to sign these papers." He said.

"I won't."

"Yes you will."

No sooner had he said that then Jason felt his body move to the papers. He tried to stop and turn away, but he couldn't. It was like he had lost control of his body. His heart began beating faster and he did something he rarely did.

Jason got scared.

"No…no…no!" Jason thought as his hand reached out and pressed itself to the documents. He felt the warm scan and then the jab as it signed with his DNA. Jason watched in horror as his name appeared on the documents.

"Good. Now you can finally be just like me." His dad said. Jason found he could finally move again, but when he turned all he saw was a mirror. As he looked he saw his father in it. He raised his fist, and to his surprise his dad did the same. Jason stood on one foot and when his dad did the same he gave in to his fear.

He was his dad.

AJ found himself in the same darkness that was described earlier. The difference between him and Jason was he could tell this stuff was evil. He knew he had to find his friends and get out of there before…

"AJ!" A female voiced cried out before screaming. He turned to see he was on some red carpet, and there were millions of beautiful girls screaming his name. If this was a dream he hoped he never woke up.

AJ strolled down the carpet, smiling at every girl and signing the autograph app on her comms. He felt like a celebrity, a somebody, a…

"AJ, what are you doing?" He heard his mother call him. He couldn't see her, but she sounded bigger than before. "You're supposed to be home an hour ago!"

"He still lives with his mom?"

"He's totally not cool anymore,"

"Eww. I can't believe I touched him,"

These were some of the comments he heard the girls say around him. The masses began to move away, uninterested in him anymore.

"Wait, don't go. I'm totally cool," AJ said.

All the girls looked back at him, but there was something different about them. They looked sinister.

"We could never love someone like you," They all said in unison. They began chanting that over and over until the words began to merge together into a new phrase, one that AJ had feared being told:

"Never love you,"

Riku was familiar with this feeling of darkness. He remembered when he gave into it, thinking it was power and would make him stronger. Now he knew that was false and had made a firm resolve to never go back.

"Wait," Riku said as he took in his surroundings. He recognized this. It was the day the Heartless came to the islands, and how he…no, he was not repeating that mistake again. He turned and began to walk away from that area.

How did it get there? Now it was in front of him. Riku turned to walk away again, and the same thing happened. He tried again and it happened the same way. What was going on?

"Fool. You think you can change who you are?" A voice asked. Riku turned to see the burlap robed figure who had tempted him all those years ago standing before him.

Riku glared at him. "You…" he said.

"The darkness will give you strength. The power to leave the islands and explore the outside world," The figure said.

"No, I know you're Ansem, and I remember what happened the last time I listened to you. I gave in that time long ago, but I won't make that mistake again," Riku said.

"Fool," Ansem said from under his robe, "You think you can change who you are or what happened by simply turning your back on it?" Before Riku could react vines of darkness spread out from the ground and wrapped around him. Riku grimaced as he felt sharp little thorns appear on the vines and poke into him. That smell…they were injecting him with darkness!

"You think you can be a hero and it will make up for all this?" Ansem gestured behind him. Riku's eyes widened as he saw the town on the main island under attack by the Heartless. Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie were running from several Shadows while a Darkside demolished the mayor's home. He even saw his parents running in the chaos while two Shadows bore down on them.

"Your own darkness hurt the friends you had, the family you love, and it will continue to fill you," Ansem said as his words echoed in Riku's head, "No matter what you do you will always cause pain. You will always destroy the light of others,"

Riku struggled to free himself from the vines. "That's a lie," he said, "I made poor choices before, but that is not who I am now. You know nothing about me, Ansem,"

The robed figure chuckled. "You think I'm Ansem?" he asked. "Silly boy. You defeated Ansem a long time ago, and I know you better than he ever could. You see…" The robed figure paused to take off the hood. Riku's eyes widened as he saw who was underneath.

"…I am you," said the golden eyed Riku.

"Are they alright?" asked a female voice.

There was a mechanical whirring. "Of course they're not alright! These three buffoons went into the Crypt. That place is filled with evil," a male voice said.

"If you three hadn't told us where they were who knows what would've happened?" The voice they recognized as belonging to Jack Skellington said. Jason didn't know about the others, but he opened his eyes to see the skeleton talking to three little kids dressed like a devil, a witch, and a skeleton.

The witch asked, "Are they going to be in trouble, Jack?"

"If they opened that place you'd better believe they will be,"

"Hey, I'm right here," Jason said.

"Oh, one of them has regained consciousness," said the male voice from earlier. Jason turned his head to find him staring down a man dressed like a doctor, but he had a snout of sorts and a large mechanical head.

Jack walked over to him, and boy was he furious. "What were you three thinking going into the Crypt like that? Don't you know how bad that place is?" He asked.

"First off, I had no idea what that place was. Second, someone we were chasing went in there, "Jason said while the doctor poked and prodded him. After the fifth poke Jason turned and said, "Will you stop that?!"

The doctor looked offended. "Fine, see if I help you recover again," he said as he turned his wheelchair to look at something else.

"So you have no idea what the Crypt is?" Said the female voice. Jason turned to see the owner of the voice was a ragdoll with red hair and big eyes.

"Let me think: No I have no idea what this stupid Crypt thing is!" Jason snapped. He heard groaning beside him. Jason turned to see Riku and AJ were regaining consciousness.

"Where are we?" AJ asked as he sat up.

Jack's frown did not disappear. "Dr. Finklestein's lab, and you should consider yourselves grateful I didn't throw you out of town like I should've," he said.

"Why?" AJ asked.

"Something about us going into a crypt," Jason summarized.

Dr. Finklestein banged his hands on the desk and turned to face them. "Not a crypt. The Crypt! The tomb of the inner demons," the scientist said.

Riku raised an eyebrow. "Inner demons? Is that what we faced in there?"

Now Jack stopped frowning, but he still looked concerned. "You really didn't know, did you?"

Jason was really tempted to say, "Duh!", but he kept his mouth shut.

"We thought Maleficent had gone in," AJ explained.

"Maleficent? Like the witch Oogie Boogie was working with?" The ragdoll asked.

"Sally, how do you know?" Jack asked.

"Last time I was talking to Sandy Claws he told me about her,"

"Does she have green skin with big yellow eyes and horns?" The little skeleton asked.

"That's her," Riku answered. The three friends noticed the little ones all huddled together like they were afraid.

"If Maleficent is as bad as you say, then we must keep an eye on the Crypt." Jack said.

"I still don't get what's the big deal," AJ said.

Everyone looked at them with grave seriousness.

"There are some things you should know. Halloween wasn't always a time for fun and scares," Jack began to explain, "There are darker things involved, many of which I've tried to keep locked away. Horrors which make all the citizens seem perfectly harmless. Things that are not interested in scaring, but destroying.

"The Crypt is one of these dangers," Jack continued, "It contains a darkness that is scary but dangerous. Whoever is exposed to that darkness is forced to face their inner demons. These demons can continue to haunt people until the end of their days,"

"That's why you were ticked. You thought we were trying to let them out," Riku said.

Jason scoffed. "Well they're still trapped in there and I think the crisis is over," he said.

"You really are ignorant of the situation aren't you?" Dr. Finklestein yelled.

"You may not be in that darkness anymore, but that doesn't mean you've escaped your demons," Jack said, "They are known for destroying a person from the inside out,"

"And that's so bad not even Oogie Boogie wanted to mess with the Crypt," The witch said from the corner.

The kid dressed as a devil added, "And he messed with a lot of stuff Jack wouldn't touch,"

"How do we stop them?" Riku asked.

"The only way I know of is the three of you will have to confront your demons face-to-face. Even then they will continue to manifest themselves, torturing you until you pass on," Jack said.

"So there's nothing we can do here," Riku said, "If we going to defeat them we'll have to keep traveling to do it,"

Dr. Finklestein nodded. "It would seem that way,"

AJ looked confused. "Wait, if no one here wants to mess with the Crypt, then how did we get out?" he asked.

"Oh that's simple," Dr. Finklestein said as he pushed some buttons and a door opened in the wall. Inside was a mechanical creature with lots of tentacles. "My machine used its flawless tentacles to reach in and pull you three out of there,"

And that would be the Crypt. I don't know if I made it scary enough or not. I was trying to use it to create problems the characters are going to have to deal with later in the story.