Halloweentown

"Donald?"

"Yes, Penny?"

"Why do I look like this?"

It was a cute look, all things considered. A purple-and-black lace dress and wide-brimmed hat, it was the kind of thing that she would wear to a Halloween costume party. But it was most certainly not what Penny was wearing when she was in the Gummi Ship, so she had no idea why it would be what she was wearing when she stepped out.

"After we were banished from Atlantica, I didn't want to take any chances looking out of place."Donald folded his arms, wrapped bandages falling loose on grotesque arms.

"Ah, I don't think it's too bad." Goofy said. He failed to notice that a screw was driving into his cranium.

"'Not that bad', we look like Halloween costumes!" Penny said. "The cheap kinds, you get from the Spirit store!"

"Then let's go trick-or-treating!" Katie said, the bells on her pumpkin-themed jester's outfit jingling as she jumped.

Sora and Dani, each wearing a fancy suit with bat-like wings (vampires, perhaps?) echoed the sentiment with a cheer.

Penny rolled her eyes. Actually, the whole place looked like it would fit in a Spirit store. Both the fences around them and the grass were dark and scraggly, and barely looked alive. Lights in the shape of pumpkins lined the streets. A full moon, big enough to be suspicious even if Penny knew this world didn't have a moon orbiting it, sat in a twilight-engulfed sky. Penny glanced at a sign nearby made of brittle wood. HALLOWEENTOWN, it exclaimed in a font that looked like it was trying to run away from the board.

"Well, it makes sense we would look like this, then." Hanna said. She was perhaps the most normal out of all of them, a white hood with dot eyes and monster teeth around the brim of the hood, making it look like it was chomping down on her. Did ghosts even have teeth, or would they have decomposed with the rest of the body?

"That doesn't mean I have to like it." Penny said as she pushed the gate in front of her open.

Penny wasn't sure what she was looking at. She could process a skeleton, towering around 8 feet and wearing quite a nice suit all things considered, a group of Heartless that looked like cartoonish ghosts, and vague movements that were probably supposed to be dancing. None of that fit into her mind, into the place where she could make sense of information. And the longer she stared at it, the more she felt herself go insane.

"Should we come back later?" Katie asked, which was probably more coherent than what Penny would have said.

"Oh!" The skeleton waved his hand passively. "No, no, you're fine. My act just needs work."

The skeleton collapsed on to the bench of the fountain dramatically, crossed his leg, and held his skull up with his hand. "I just don't know what I need. I thought adding the Heartless to the act would work, but they just don't have the...heart I need."

Penny had no idea how she managed to keep a straight face. Actually, she was pretty sure that she didn't, and that nobody commented on her face twisting to contain her unholy levels of rage. "Okay, let's make this quick Mr. skeleton-"

"Ah—Skellington. Don't worry; people make that mistake all the time. Just call me Jack!" The skeleton said.

Penny wanted to scream.

"Jack…we're new here, can you tell us anyone in town who's just...evil? Like...actually evil?"

Jack hummed in thought and got back to his feet.

"Well, I think you're describing almost everyone in town! But if you're looking for someone that would cause trouble, I'd keep my eye away from Oogie Boogie. He hasn't done much since I kicked him out of town, but-"

"Great! Where does he live?"

It was for his sisters.

It was a mantra that ran through his head constantly. He'd like to think that it centered him, but it was doing a bad job at it. He would move the heavens and earth, explore every planet in the universe, if it meant his family was safe.

It was for his sisters.

"You seem nervous. Are you not confident in your abilities?"

"No."

"I assure you, you would not have been brought along if I thought you could not handle it."

"No, you misunderstand." He snapped his fingers, summoning a group of Heartless. Darkness tugged at his heart.

It was for his sisters.

"I am confident in my abilities. That's what makes me nervous."

She chuckled lowly, not so much condescending to him as it was to the world, and vanished into the darkness.

Charlie took in a shaky breath.

"Here, let's take a shortcut." Jack said.

The others watched as he crawled into a conveniently-placed bathtub, pulling his lanky legs together to make room for them.

"Are you joking?" Penny asked.

"No, I'm Jack!"

The bathtub headbutted her in the knee. It did not hurt her leg, just her pride.

"Alright. I give up." Penny said and jumped inside.

It was an awkward fit, but most of them managed to squeeze inside. The bathtub hobbled along, probably even more dragged down by the weight.

She felt something on her hand, and wanted to jump back out. But then she realized it was Hanna's hand, curling around her own for support.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"Y—yeah." Hanna squeaked. She was not, in fact, okay.

Hanna had never been good at scary things, for as long as Penny knew her. Still, it wasn't like she knew what to do for her…

"Do you want to jump out?" Penny asked. "We can probably handle this on our own."

"No, it's okay." Hanna said with a forced smile. "It's all fake Halloween stuff anyway, right? So it shouldn't be as bad."

"She's right, you know!" Jack said. "That's why we celebrate Halloween! So we know how to handle the scary stuff!"

Penny wanted to say Hanna of all people would know the scary stuff, that's why this was scary to her. But it wasn't her story to tell. So she didn't.

Eventually, the bathtub stopped and sat back down.

"Here we are." Jack said as he climbed out. "OOGIE! I WISH TO TALK TO YOU!"

He was doing it for his sisters.

He was doing it for his sisters.

he wAs doiNG it for HIs SiStErS,

he was doing it for-

Darkness overcame him. The mantra faded from his mind. Power surged through him, and it burned. Yet he could not stop. This was the power he needed, to…

To-

His sisters. A bit cut-up and bruised, and wearing cheap costumes, but there they were. Alive. Safe.

In a second, the Darkness relinquished.

"Dani! Hanna!"

Dani picked herself off the mansion lawn.

"Alright. Let's not get onto the roulette wheel next time." Dani said.

Hanna responded by groaning into the ground.

"Hey, do you think we've acquired Goofy's ability to survive any fall?" Dani asked.

"Dani, that is not the time to be asking that!"

"Just curious." Dani shrugged. "Come on, let's get-"

"Dani! Hanna!"

A figure was speeding towards them, shaking on the uneven lawn. A wheelchair, and-

"Charlie!"

"Man, oh man, am I glad to see you two!" Charlie said as he barreled towards them. "Are you okay?"

"Well, we've been trying to fight a potato sacked filled with bugs, but other than that, sure." Hanna said. "What about you?"

"Well, it's getting better now." Charlie said. "If I'm with you, I don't think I need to worry about it too much."

"Oh, really?"

Riku appeared in a flash of darkness.

"I thought we had a plan." The teen said.

Dani and Hanna tensed up, the reunion forgotten. They summoned their Keyblades. Riku brought out his own sword. Charlie sat in the middle, trying really hard to figure out how to diffuse this.

"Hey listen man, these are my sisters." Charlie said. "I'm not gonna fight them."

"They're getting in our way." Riku scowled. "If it weren't for them, then they're would be nothing stopping Sora and I from saving Kairi!"

"What?" Dani said. "We had nothing to do with that! Sora chose to come with us!"

"How do you even know what's going on with Kairi, anyway? Where is she?" Hanna asked.

"Charlie, do you want to save your home world?" Riku asked.

Charlie looked torn. Eventually, he spun his chair to face Riku.

"My home world is important. But I've already almost lost my sisters once. I'm not going to do that again, even if it costs me the world."

Riku flinched backwards, like he was struck. Even Dani was a little caught off-guard by Charlie's words. But Riku collected himself, his face settling into a barely-contained glare.

"Alright."

"'Alright?'" Hanna asked.

Something was up.

"See, we're fine!" Charlie said. "Hey, listen, I'm still happy to help you with Kairi, you know that, right?"

"Of course I do." Riku said, teeth clenched.

Something was wrong.

"Cool! So maybe we can meet up later, get a coffee, talk about metaphysics—"

The Soul Eater sliced through Charlie's chair and emerged from his chest.

Dani felt like her own Heart had stopped. She was frozen in place, too stunned to react. Even Charlie looked like he was too stunned to react. His eyes drifted down towards the sword in his chest, then behind him to the attacker.

"Riku…the fuc—"

Darkness ate away at Charlie's body. A Heart hovered to the sky, and his chair cluttered to the floor.

"If you won't do your job, I'll just have to make you."

The darkness flared and surged. It erupted, knocking Dani back on her feet. When she looked up, a Heartless in the shape of her brother was standing over her.

A scream echoed through Halloweentown. It wasn't the usual type of scream, the kind that inspired bone-chilling terror. No. It was a scream of despair.

"What was that?" Penny asked.

"That, my friend, is the Sound of Ultimate Suffering." Katie said. "Dani makes it now."

Another scream echoed through Halloweentown.

"And that one was Hanna, so we should act quick."

When she was young, Charlie was in a car accident. No one knew what he was doing out on that road, not even Charlie in retrospect. Supposedly, that was a trauma response. It took weeks before they knew he would be okay. It was the first time Dani brushed up against death, against the concept that at some point in her life she would lose the ones she cared about.

That's why Dani loved with all her heart. Because she knew it could end some day.

But she did not want it to end like this.

The creature that was not Charlie lunged for her.

A Thunder spell broke between the two of them.

Penny stepped in, her Keyblade ready. "Are you okay?"

Tears blinded Dani's vision. "No!"

Penny looked like she wasn't quite sure what to do.

"Hey, Katie, why don't you get these two out of here?"

Dani didn't say anything as Katie pulled her to safety. Neither did Hanna, even as Katie tried to heal them and talk to them. She tuned the world around her out, and tried to do anything to wipe Charlie's confused face and shaky gasps from her memory.

Penny was using so much magic around her that she was gliding towards the Heartless that looked like Charlie. It was good, because that thing was fast. It crawled around her on unstable feet that had not been used in years, claws digging through the earth.

She launched a Fire spell to knock it backwards, then skated backwards as far and as fast as she could. A storm of magic bullets shot from her Keyblade. The Heartless flinched as they hit, but didn't stir. It gave one long look at Penny, as if decided what it wanted to do, before opening up a dark portal under himself and slipping away. Penny rushed to get closer before it could fade, but no such luck.

Penny watched the ground for a minute. The battle was over, sure, but the Heartless was still alive. And she wasn't an idiot. It looked almost exactly like Charlie, and it had upset Dani and Hanna a lot. She wondered if it escaping was a good thing. Even she did not want to kill it outright.

"What's going on?"

Sora's voice interrupted her thoughts. She saw the four of them running up to her.

"Bad news. Is Oogie taken care of?" She asked.

"Yeah, we unraveled him." Jack said. Ew. "But what about your friends?"

"I think that was their brother." Penny said, gesturing vaguely to where the Heartless had been. "And I think you should go check up on them. I'm no good with…that kind of thing."

They found the twins on a bench in the nearby cemetery, which all things considered was the worst place where they could be after watching their brother practically die. But it looked like they had gotten most of the adrenaline out of their system now, simply sitting and staring into space. That was probably worse.

"Why the long faces, friends?" Jack said, leaning down to look them in the eye. "You probably had one of the best screams in all of Halloweentown!"

"That's not exactly a compliment..." Penny said and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Nonsense! There's never a bad time to be proud of your scream!" Jack continued. "Why, that's what Halloween is all about! You can't really live without having to face death every once in a while! And once you're properly petrified, you can know what you're made of and face life square on!"

There was silence in the cemetery. Jack straightened himself out, looking quite pleased.

"What is he talking about?" Penny asked.

"No, no, he has a point." Sora said.

"No he doesn't!"

"You're right."

The voice was so quiet at first, Penny was not sure if he heard it right.

"I'm scared. I might be scared to death. I may never see my family ever again! But like hell if I'm not going to fight to get them back."

SORA obtained PUMPKINHEAD

KATIE obtained SKELETON KEY

A long weapon that increases the chances of critical hits.

"You would turn your own friend into a Heartless?"

"Not quite. I could not remove his Heart, no matter what I tried. So I simply changed it instead, made his will bow to mine." Riku said. "It's called a Guardian Spirit. You should look into making one for yourself. Maybe that buffoon, Pete-"

"And who are you to lecture me about the nature of Heartless?"

The boy looked up at her, the Darkness looming in his eyes. Far more Darkness than Maleficent initially thought. She was not quite sure if that was a good thing or not.

Author's Note: It's not just me, right? The Keyblade in Halloweentown totally should have been called "Skeleton Key", right?

In the original draft, Charlie was not a wheelchair user. It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision as I came to terms with my own (mental) disability and because of a lot of discourse surrounding the use of wheelchairs in TTRPGs, but I really like it! I think it makes Charlie a little more unique and it's really fun to figure out how disabled people can move around in a fantasy world where nothing is off the table. It also gives me a chance to delve deeper into what makes these kids so closely knit by giving them a tragedy to bond over.