Halloween Town really lived up to its name. The setting as a whole was beyond spooky and creepy, defining holiday. All buildings in the town were decorated with bats and carved pumpkins. There were also skeletons lying around, and also gravestones. I found the red and black sky to be daunting. It was like it was died with blood. And some guy named Oogie Boogie lived in this world? That was hard to believe, but he was probably scary looking, too.
I wasn't going to stand out too much during my time in Halloween Town, which was evident after roaming around for a while. Some kind of magic resonated with me as soon as I got on the other side of the corridor. It transformed my clothes into something like a Halloween costume.
My ordinary clothes were traded out for a black dress, the fabric hanging over my ankles tattered. A black spider choker was around my neck. I had a dark red cape over my shoulders. The collar went up to my earlobes and partially hid my face, and the rest of the cape stopped at my hips. It was nice to have to keep my bare arms warm.
Something was over my right eye. Feeling around my face, my fingertips trailed over a soft material. It was an eyepatch. Lifting it up, I could still see out of that eye. So, it was just a part of the costume to add to the spooky theme. And, on top of my head was a pair of... cat ears? I played with them and pulled at them to try and take it off, but no luck. The ears certainly felt real. They were silver like my hair. At least they matched.
"There you are!" shouted Sora as he came running through a squealing gate. And, of course, Donald and Goofy were right behind him. All three of them had changed into Halloween costumes. "I thought we'd never find you."
"Eh?" I blinked my one visible eye a few times. "Sora? I knew we'd run into each other again, but I didn't think it'd be this soon."
"Gwarsh, this sure is a spooky place," Goofy looked around nervously. "I'll bet the people here are scary-lookin', too."
"Don't worry, Goofy," Donald gave him a pat on the arm. "We look spooky, too. If they scare us, we'll scare them right back!"
"You think so?" Goofy asked, still not quite convinced in spite of his spooky appearance. It eventually got into his head that they were kind of scary. He chuckled as he usually did and perked up. "Oh, boy! I can't wait to get some candy."
"Oi..." I sighed and rubbed my forehead. "You guys really are something."
"Yeah?" Sora frowned. He folded his arms and jabbed a point at me. "Well, you're something for running off like that. Care to explain?"
I turned away and shook my head, "It's... nothing that concerns you. Sorry. Anyway, let's go together from here on out. We can find the Keyhole, and I can find the prin- Ahem! I mean... Er. Um. What are we standing around here for?"
"You okay?" Donald asked.
"I'm fine," I excused myself and turned the other way. Might not be a good idea to bring it up with them right now. "Let's just go."
The four of us left through the gate to get to the town square. It was strangely quiet, and none of the world's residents were outside.
I walked around a bit and examined the fountain at the center of the square. Instead of it being filled with clear water, it was a neon green liquid. It glowed, too. More of it was spilling out from the statue, until something clogged and it stopped running. So the fountain was out of order until someone decided to fix it.
Kabooom!
An explosion from nearby rattled the town square, startling all of us. I regrouped with the others and scouted out the scene. A plume of black smoke rose from a building not too far from where we currently were. It wasn't a lot but a fire was probably started.
"I wonder what that's all about," Sora eyed the smoke.
"We'll check it out later, but we've got company right now!" Donald said, whipping out his fancy new staff.
I lowered my head back down from watching the rising smoke and spotted the group of Search Ghosts all around us. They suddenly appeared and without alerting any of us. Hunkering down, I brought out my Keyblade and braced myself for a fight.
The Heartless were staring right at us, but they didn't move. After a few minutes of doing nothing, I approached one of them and poked it with the tip of my Keyblade. Again, it did nothing and didn't respond to the poke. That's funny. Why aren't they attacking? I folded my arms and studied them thoughtfully.
"Looks like they're broken," Goofy pointed out, waving his hand in front of another. "What do we do?"
"The Heartless won't attack us," I muttered. "I guess we can try and figure it out later."
We were going to slip by and continue exploring the town, but then a shadow passed by us to the right. A short man wearing a very tall hat huffed and puffed to get to the top stair at the town hall building. "V-Visitors!" he panted. Pulling up a megaphone, the man with a painfully huge smile caught his breath and cleared his throat. "And now, allow me to introduce the master of terror, the king of nightmares- Jack Skellington!"
I gasped when the Heartless started moving again. They shoved passed us and lined up in an orderly fashion, directing our attention to the fountain. A strange sensation brought chills to my spine when a tall and skinny figure rose from the water. Droplets of the green liquid dropped from his pointy tuxedo collar and fingers. He was all bone- a dead but living skeleton. Jack the skeleton gave his best and spookiest pose.
He sure gave us the creeps, but we clapped at the fantastic entrance.
"Bravo, Jack! Bravo!" the little man said, jogging up to Jack. When he darted around us, I saw a white face on the back of his head. That might have been the creepiest thing I ever did see today. Those ghosts will be a big hit at this year's Halloween!"
"Thank you, thank you," Jack said, stepping out of the fountain. He nodded approvingly, but his big smile turned into a frown. "Their movements still need a little work. It's just not scary enough. I want to strike bone-chilling terror."
Donald nearly fainted when the walking skeleton made a terrifying face, and he clung to Goofy's leg in fear.
"I'm going to consult the doctor."
The two-faced man stood there for a moment, when a thought came to his mind. "Then I'm going to tend to the decorations!" But, before he got to decorating anything, he skidded to a stop in front of us with a wide smile. "Hey, kids! Those are quite the costumes! Welcome to Halloween Town! You know, as the mayor, I must say that Halloween means everything. Jack and the rest of us are always working hard to find new ways to scare people."
"That's... nice?" Sora smiled awkwardly.
"Ah ha ha, yeah," I shrugged my shoulders. "W-What would Halloween be without a little scare? Am I right?"
"You're most certainly right, little miss!" the mayor said. His body, and not his head, spun around in a grand gesture to what I assumed to be everything. "These Heartless folks look great, don't they? This year's theme is The Heartless Halloween! Luckily, Jack found a book that talks about the Heartless."
"What?!"
"There's a book for that?" Sora choked on his surprise.
The mayor was still rambling on about something relating to Halloween while we ran off to follow Jack. A book that contains information about the Heartless... I was surprised that something like that actually existed. In the wrong hands, it could potentially turn out to be a very dangerous thing, I was sure about that.
Sora swiftly opened the door to a laboratory, and we went inside to investigate this unusual situation with the book. The lab was huge and equally creepy to the rest of the town. Weird gadgets and tools were lying around everywhere. Someone was very active in some kind of experiments. And they were doing something right now as we walked inside. I saw an innocent Heartless lying on a metal table.
Off to the side was a pale man in a wheelchair studying the unconscious Heartless. He must have been the doctor responsible for the Heartless and their unusual behavior. The one that Jack said he was going to consult before.
"I don't understand," Jack Skellington said, scratching his skull. He looked frustrated and was searching the bookshelves for something. "Maybe the guidance system was damaged in the explosion."
"Nonsense," the doctor scientist scoffed. "My devices are always perfect!"
"Oh, I've got it!" Jack blurted, pointing at something in a humongous book on the desk. He smiled again and approached the table where the poor Heartless laid. "Why, of course! The Heartless need a heart! Doctor, do you think we can add a heart to that device?"
"Certainly," the doctor said, wheeling himself to the end of the table. "A heart's not all that complicated. Let's get to work."
"To make a heart, first take a container with a lock..." Jack read out loud. The doctor pulled out an oversized and stitched up object that resembled a heart. It even had a pulse, which made my stomach churn.
"Hmm, we need the key to this thing first!" the doc announced and pointed at the sealed lock.
I hugged myself and groaned. The four of us were huddled together at the doorway. Neither of them seemed to notice us standing there. Sora, for whatever reason, had a peculiar grin on his face. He didn't seem at all disturbed by anything that he saw, not even the experiment going on right in front of us.
"I don't think it'd hurt anything," Sora said confidently.
"You're really gonna unlock it for them?" Donald, stupefied, questioned Sora.
"I don't think that's a good idea," I mumbled.
"Why not?" Sora tilted his head to the side. He had his Keyblade out already. "If they succeed, we won't have to fight the Heartless, right? Besides... I want to see the Heartless dance, too! Don't you?"
"Geh, not really." Donald and I shook our heads.
No matter what we said to convince him otherwise, Sora went on to help with the experiment. The lock was undone by the Keyblade's power, allowing for it to proceed as they planned. I stood back with my arms folded across my chest. My eyes never left the Heartless. It had no life in its limbs, possibly a result of that explosion.
"My! That was amazing!" Jack exclaimed, amazed by my friend's simple display of power. He studied the heart for a moment but stopped to look closely at Sora's smiling face. "Uh, and you are..."
"Sora," he introduced.
"Well done, Sora!" Jack grinned. His lanky form walked over to Sora in a friendly manner. "Actually, I'd like you to be a part of this year's Halloween celebration. Your friends look spooky, too, so they can join in on the fun."
"Great..." I pouted.
"Awesome!" Sora's face brightened for a moment. He then pointed at the Heartless. "What's this Heartless doing here, though?"
And how do you even know about the Heartless, I wanted to ask.
"Oh, the Heartless came to town just recently," Jack explained. "What's frustrating is I can't seem to them to dance with me. So the doctor and I are trying to improve the guidance system. He's quite a genius!"
I wasn't sure what this guidance system he talked about was. They might have just been trying to get the Heartless to dance, but playing around with them was definitely a bad idea. Those things were unpredictable and predictable at the same time. At any moment, they could snap and try to take the hearts of anyone living in this world. It'd be a better idea to just get rid of them now, I thought.
"Okay, Doctor, let's continue with the experiment. The ingredients for a heart: Pulse. Emotion."
"Terror."
"Fear."
"Hope and despair."
"Mix them all together, and we have a heart!" Jack said.
They put the heart in place and pulled down on a lever to initiate the experiment. Electricity shot into the Heartless, shocking it into life. It had its arms out in front of it as it sat up. Things were looking up for it to turn into a success, but then the Heartless slumped back down, lifeless again.
"It failed!" the doctor dramatically cried. He rushed back to the book and searched anxiously for something to fix it. "Maybe we're missing some ingredients. Let's try adding memory."
I gagged when he literally scratched his brain.
"Sally! Sally! Good-for-nothing girl! I don't know why I bothered creating her. Dally's got the memory we need. I know she does. See if you can track her down."
"No problem," Jack nodded. "Sora, would you like to come along?"
"Sure!" Sora nodded happily.
"What?!" Donald glared at him, as did I.
What did we just get dragged into? What did I just get dragged into? I groaned quietly and palmed my forehead.
