Marie's Casual wear:
www.swirl3y.deviantart.com/art/I-bring-you-peace-214094964?q=gallery%3Aswirl3y%2F29599925&qo=5

Ryan:
www.swirl3y.deviantart.com/art/That-s-his-name-286861562

Marie's Halloween Town Outfit:
www.swirl3y.deviantart.com/art/Overhaul-Marie-s-Christmas-Town-costume-37 6281638?q=gallery%3Aswirl3y%2F29599925&qo=0

Marie's Christmas Town Outfit:
www.swirl3y.deviantart.com/art/Overhaul-Marie-s-Christmas-Town-costume-37 6281638?q=gallery%3Aswirl3y%2F29599925&qo=0

A\N:
YOU GUYS KINGDOM HEARTS 3 HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED AND IS IN DEVELOPMENT AND OMG I'M HAVING A NERDGASM/FANGASM EVERY THING ABOUT IT IS JUST DGPJRGFOEJFDPODJ CAN'T COMPREHEND.

I don't own Slenderman. Just sayin'.

Chapter Thirty-Seven
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Just don't lose hope

We walked outside the workshop, and saw little footprints in the snow. It was obvious who it belonged, and we started making our way following them. Sora started slowing down and walked beside me. I didn't know what was going on, but he gave me a smile.

"You don't seem as happy to see Santa Claus," he said. I looked away, since I didn't really have an opinion I couldn't say anything. He nudged my shoulder, and I looked at him. He was smiling and his eyes were so blue, and I couldn't help but smile. I wasn't willing to really tell him how I felt, because I didn't want him to start hugging or be all touchy feeling. I didn't like him like that, but that was because my memories were all fuzzy and messed up.

"I guess I'm just not in the Christmas spirit," I said as I gave another smile. He had a slight frown, and I felt bad. I tugged on his sleeve and he looked at me as I spoke. "Tell me about the time you told everyone you didn't believe in Santa Claus."

ଓ

We continued our walk towards the graveyard, and I was feeling better after Sora told me his story. He was trying to prove he wasn't such a kid, and told everyone about him not believing in Santa. It was actually pretty cute, and I couldn't help but laugh after.

Jack stopped us, and told us to be quiet. We all stood behind him, and listened in. we heard those three kids talking and we all quickly ran towards them. They were near a curly hill, and a giant heartless was behind them. I was worried that maybe the heartless would eat them, but when they entered its cage like body, I thought otherwise. Sora and everyone else took out their weapons, and I did the same. It ate one of the children and I was going to panic, but the heartless grew very strong and I wondered if it was getting its powers from the kids.

Most likely.

ଓ

Aura

It was a bitter taste in her mouth to see her, that girl with the red hair. She knew who she was, and she wasn't going to let her ruin her plans. She crossed her arms as she saw Kairi standing out in front of Hayner, Pence and Olette's hideout. She was checking the area out, and Aura wondered about how she got there. Though, she had a pretty good idea who brought her along, but he never confirmed or denied.

"I don't like it," she said. Riku came walking up beside her and looked at Kairi. He didn't know what to say, and Aura scoffed. "If she interferes with my plans—"

"She won't," he replied, feeling a bit frustrated at his friend being targeted. Aura really had no right to be talking about her like that, but the nobody didn't care one bit. She warned him about her personality, and she wasn't going to change that for anyone. Riku sighed. "She knows about Sora and Marie. She wouldn't do that."

"That doesn't always stop a person from getting what they want," she replied. Riku rolled his eyes and Aura caught a glimpse of it. She dropped her arms, and started walking away. She didn't like the fact that she was there, and she cared less that Riku was defending her. Aura was a mean person, and she knew it. Riku was stupid to think he could change her, and he was starting to get really frustrated with her about the whole Kairi situation.

"Try to lighten up," he said as he turned around. Aura stopped in her tracks, and he continued. "You're always so angry or mean. Maybe Roxas or Axel would be here if you were more considerate or nice."

That really hit home, and Aura gritted her teeth together. She had been trying hard not to remember Roxas, and the whole ordeal she had with Axel was a really sensitive one for her. She turned around and glared at the young man before her as she spoke. "And I don't have to deal with this. DiZ can find someone else to do his dirty work, because I'm done with it and I'm done with you."

She created a portal and walked through it. Riku attempted to follow but it closed as soon as he got close. He sighed and felt bad for having said what he said, but there was some truth to it. Maybe he wasn't so stupid for trying to change her, because she really had changed somewhat, but she needed more time to change. He took a deep breath and walked out of the clock tower, and tried thinking of a way to apologize to Aura. Of course, she was at fault too, and he doubted he would get an apology from her.

ଓ

Marie

We were still fighting the heartless and it was taking a while. It was hitting us pretty hard and because of that I was on healing. My healing spells were stronger than Donald's while his spells were stronger than mine, so we were pretty balanced with Sora and Jack on the offensive while Goofy was on the defensive.

"Just a little more!" Jack shouted as he laid one of his attacks for the heartless. I healed Sora a couple of times, and he attacked the heartless while in his form with Goofy. The heartless looked really weak, and with a couple of attacks from Donald, Jack and Sora it went down. When the heartless released the children, they started laughing and even mocked us. Geez, they are really naughty.

"Let's go see if Mr. Oogie is ready!" they said. Jack was beyond surprised when he heard Oogie's name, and he was sure that he was back in town. I thought we got rid of him? He asked us if we were prepared to fight him, and Goofy made a good point when he said we already had enough trouble—we don't need a sack full of insects bugging us.

We made our way back towards the graveyard, and we saw Sally running towards us. Jack asked her what was wrong, and she looked completely panicked. When she caught her breath, she looked at us and spoke. "Jack! Oogie's kidnapped Santa Claus!"

Everyone—especially Sora—all gasped and was worried for the big guy. Sally told us that Oogie was headed for Christmas Town, and Sora told us we needed to go. We all nodded, and quickly made our way towards the town.

ଓ

When we made it back to Christmas Town, we saw black smoke coming from the workshop. We didn't have much time to spare, so we all ran towards the house. Sally also came along, and I was glad. They could've kidnapped her, too.

We ran past the carousal and walked through the door. We looked around to see if Santa was around but no luck. Jack ran past the doors, and we followed close behind. They all took out their weapons, while I looked around. We didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but then we heard a very familiar laugh. We turned around, and saw Oogie standing on a ledge. He jumped down and brutally pushed Sally off the ledge. My eyes widened at the sight, and this guy probably doesn't realize how much he weighs with all those bug in him.

"Jack Skellington!" he shouted. Wow, did he really not just apologize or acknowledge Sally's presence? What a jerk. He started laughing again, and pointed at Jack. "You and I have a score to settle, Jack! Same goes for your little sidekicks!"

I completely ignored this guy's words and managed to jump down the ledge to go and look for Sally. I saw her hopping on one leg, while her other was torn apart. I quickly ran up to her, and she sighed in relief when she saw me. I helped her get to a safer place while Oogie and the boys were talking. Oogie jumped down from the ledge, and we both gasped when he came walking towards our direction. I hurried Sally along, and we hid behind a wall as he approached Santa Claus.

"And why is this roly-poly red guy here? Time to go grandpa!" we heard Oogie say. We looked as he dragged Santa up, and Sally panicked.

"We have to stop him!" she said. I looked around. Just how are we going to do that? Sally thought for a moment, and she looked at my headband and then at her leg. She grabbed my headband, and told me to throw it at Oogie while she would throw her leg. I raised my eyebrow at this—eh, why not. We ran a little towards them, and at the same time we threw our stuff at him. Her leg caused a distraction while my headband smacked him a bit. He staggered a bit and looked down at Sally's leg, while Santa escaped from him.

"Mr. Santa Claus!" Sally called out. Santa came running towards her and we heard Oogie growling. She ran to a safer place with him, while Sora, Jack, Donald and Goofy stopped Oogie. I ran up to them, and Oogie didn't look happy at all. He ran towards the conveyer belt and walked into one of the holes, and then he appeared above us. He pressed a button and all of a sudden the belts started moving. I shouted a bit from the sudden movement, and we started running when we saw spikes at the ends. To our front were holes, and Donald tried running to them. When he did, he ended up on the other conveyer belt. I took out my keyblade, and prepared to think of a way to get off and get to Oogie.

Luckily, presents started coming out of the holes, and Jack suggested we use them to hit Oogie. Donald and Goofy took one end of the belt, while Jack took the other. Sora and I stayed in the middle, and he looked over to me. "I'm glad you're fighting with us instead of being caged up."

I took a moment to think and I remembered last year when I was caged up. It was pretty bad and I remember thinking that I would rather be fighting with Sora than be caged up. I shook my head and looked at Sora as I smirked. "I don't think Oogie likes me anymore."

We both looked up ahead, and grabbed some of the presents as we started throwing them at Oogie. It was a little difficult to do with the conveyer belts moving, but we managed. It was like baseball, and we used our keyblades as bats. Donald did the same with his staff, while Goofy bounced them off of his shield. Jack basically threw them with his long arms, and I never really noticed just how much of a slender man he was. I'm surprised his name wasn't slender-man.

We continued to throw the presents at Oogie, who had a few sneaky tricks up his sleeve. He pressed a few buttons and big fists came falling from the ceiling. Sora and I were almost hit by it, but we managed to jump out of its way.

Eventually one of the presents hit Oogie, and he came falling down on top of the belts. Donald and I took the chance to cast a few spells, while Sora and Jack attacked him physically. He blocked a few attacks, but Goofy came in spinning around and he wasn't able to block that. He ran inside the hole, and jumped back up into a glass box of sorts. The presents started coming out, and they were much harder than before. We decided to use the presents to hit the glass, and after a few hits it started to break.

"Just hit it a few more times!" Sora shouted. We all nodded, and grabbed the presents and threw them at Oogie. I tripped over one of the presents and fell, and I tried getting up but the fact that the belt was moving made it harder to gain balance. I looked behind me and the spikes were there, and I used one of the presents to stall it for a bit. I threw it at the spikes, and it basically chewed it up, but I was able to get up. We threw a few more presents, and after a while the glass broke, and Oogie fell onto the belt.

We attacked him again, and this time he was having a hard time blocking our attacks. Sora managed to slice open a part of him, and the bugs started falling out. I nearly screamed when they started squirming around on the floor, but Oogie closed up the rip. He sighed in relief and then laughed at us. Another rip appeared from his other side, and the bugs started falling out from there. He quickly started grabbing that hole, but then the other one opened. He started screaming in pain as the bugs fell out of him, and I was starting to get grossed out by the bugs. The bugs eventually dispersed, and all that was left was a sack.

A bug came walking towards us, but Donald quickly stepped on it. It made a crunchy noise and I really wanted to scream. Bugs are just creepy.

ଓ

"All right, Christmas is safe again!" Sora said as he looked around. I looked around as well, and noticed that nothing was out of the ordinary. I sighed in relief. Now Santa can get to working.

"Perfect! I'd better get down to business!" Jack said as he walked past us. Donald and Goofy weren't too happy about it, and even told him that he should stick with the spooky stuff. I gave a little chuckle, and then we saw Sally come out.

"Jack... Here, it's done," she said as she handed him red folded clothes. He thanked her, and she asked if he really had to go through with it. I wasn't sure what she was talking about, but then I saw Jack put on the clothes saying he would make a perfect Santa Claus. Just then, the actual Santa came out of the workshop.

"Listen, Jack Skellington. You save me, and Christmas as well. And for that, I've very grateful," he said as he sounded a bit desperate. "But please promise me you won't cause any trouble… and about that suit…"

Jack turned around looking identical to Santa, except a more skeletal looking Santa Claus. Santa told him he didn't want him taking over his job this year, but Jack only told him he wanted to help—mainly because of how exhausted Santa looked from all the preparations. Santa sighed.

"Now listen to me, Jack," Santa said as he looked at him. "Seeing the happy faces of little children when they discover the presents I've brought them makes it all worthwhile, year after year after year."

I frowned a bit at that, because I wasn't one of those children. Santa continued and told Jack that he loved to make children gasp and shiver with fright, and asked if he would like it if someone took that from him. They both had very special tasks, with Santa taking care of Christmas and Jack taking care of Halloween. He told him that he was the master of terror, and that they both had jobs to attend to. Santa quickly ran inside when he said that, since he actually had urgent stuff to do.

"You're right! I am the master of terror!" Jack said as he did a scary pose. He promised himself he would make every year scarier for the children to scream. The mayor came walking by and asked Jack to help for next year's Halloween preparations, since he couldn't do anything without his approval. Jack walked back with him, and Santa wished him luck.

"Well, there he goes," Sora said as he placed his hands behind his head. Santa told us he had a lot to do, what with checking names and preparations, and I wanted to ask if I was on the naughty list. However, Jack started glowing with Sora's keyblade, and a light came from his suit. A keyhole appeared, and Sora did his usual.

"We better get going," Sora said as he finished. Santa told him to stop for a moment, and looked at him.

"I believe there was a friend of yours… who—if I remember correctly—was the one who told you there's no such thing as Santa Claus?" Sora looked at him, and was reminded of that time. Santa told him to give him his very best wishes but Sora didn't know where Riku was, and asked Santa if he knew. "No, but don't give up! Remember, if you believe in Riku, you will find him. Just as you found me."

Sora smiled and nodded, and I noticed Santa looking at me. I gave him a smile, and he started to speak. "As for you my dear, I realized why you weren't on my naughty or nice list—you haven't had a Christmas in over ten years."

"What!?" Sora exclaimed. He scratched the back of his head, and asked how it was possible. I started to laugh a little, and he looked at me.

"Come on Sora, don't you remember? I was in a coma for ten years a year ago, so of course I didn't have any Christmases," I said as I looked at the ground. I sighed, and looked at Santa. "But what does that make me? Naughty or nice?"

"You've been doing a lot of good things, so you are definitely on the nice list," he said. I smiled and thanked Santa Claus. He gave a smile in return, and spoke again. Don't worry, Marie. I know there are a lot of things bothering you, but you have proven yourself to be a strong girl."

I nodded, and it was true I guess. If I wasn't strong I probably wouldn't be here today, or back when I was younger. I did go through a lot, but I never really thought about the seriousness of it all that well. I knew it was bad, and that it was just a series of unfortunate events, but I managed to come out on top. I am strong, but I can't fully accept it. Not until I'm really happy with myself on my identity. I shook my head, and we all said goodbye to Santa. It was definitely nice to be in a place such as Christmas Town since it was so beautiful, but we had to continue with our journey. But before that…

"You guys, can we go on the carousal?" I said as I skipped towards it. I don't know why, but it looked so interesting, and I really wanted to enjoy it. I dusted snow off one of the horses, and mounted it. I looked at the others, who just laughed at my attempt. I couldn't help but laugh, but then Donald had an idea. He used his thunder magic to hit the bottom of the carousal, and it started going around. I gasped when the horses started going up and down, and the three of them quickly climbed on top of the other three horses. We started laughing as it went round and round, and I looked at all of them. Donald threw a snowball at Goofy, who fell of his horse, and then threw one at me and Sora. I quickly got off my horse and started making a snowball to throw at Donald, but he beat me to it. I started laughing and decided to throw one at Sora. He actually blocked it, and started running towards me. I started screaming and ran around trying to avoid him, but he laughed and eventually caught me. He lifted me up for a bit, and when he did I suddenly remembered something Sally told me a year ago.

"I know you won't, but don't lose hope in Sora, no matter what happens between you two. From what I can see, you both seem to love each other dearly, so don't let anything come between that."

When Sora brought me down I decided to hug him. He seemed a bit surprised by the action, but he placed his arms around me. I don't know why, but those words that Sally said kind of brought about some romance in me. Even though I can't remember what I had with Sora, there are words that people say that make me believe in him. I no I won't ever lose hope in Sora, even if I never end up remembering, I won't ever leave his side. As the hug went on, we both felt cold snow hit our face, and we looked over to Donald, who stuck out his tongue as he tried throwing another snowball. Luckily Sora blocked it, and we both nodded as we made snowballs to throw at Donald.

It may not be with my family, but I was really glad to be spending Christmas with these guys, especially Sora. I'm scared of when we'll have to separate, but at least this time I'll have great memories.

Aw, Marie could be remembering sooner about her memories, but even if she doesn't she'll always stay by Sora's side. Aura, on the other hand, is just a tad pissed at Riku. Do you think she's being inconsiderate?

Next world: The Pride Lands!

Dracula X:
Haha, she's not exactly nice, but not at all naughty. :D
Oh yes, I saw the trailers, and I am INCREDIBLY excited!

Grapejuice101:
Nah, she's not lol. XD Aura, on the other hand…

Lvl-ZeR0:
Why thank you! I guess that's true, which is why evil Marie will have an epic death!