Spirited Away on Halloween 2: Hirac's Return

Because this is more fun than writing my SD Gundam fic, here's chapter... whichever!

Jack was just about to step in his door when Sally and Barrel rushed past him without warning, throwing him and his ring box to the ground. The jelly ball popped out of the box and rolled along the floor; Jack picked up the box and snapped it around the ball, picking it up without touching it. Stuffing it back in his pocket, he sped to his living room where Sally and Barrel were both lying on the sofa, breathing heavy and shaking.

"What was it!" Sally cried.

"It was the thing that at Lock and Shock!" Barrel shrieked. "I recognized its head!"

"You weren't the only one, Barrel." Jack grabbed Sally's arm and pulled her to her feet. "Sally, did you ever find a thistle?"

Sally, a little dazed, took a few seconds to shake her head.

"Well, hurry and find one. We need all the help we can get." Jack kissed her forehead and pushed her towards the door, Sally obediently following (but not before detaching an ear and leaving it behind to listen).

"Hey, man!"

Barrel's statement caught Jack of guard. He turned around to talk to the boy, but his nose ran into Thisby's forehead and he jumped back into a dresser. "YAH!"

Thisby tried to keep herself from smiling evilly while Pyramus pushed her softly behind him. "The Mayor's stuck in a window."

"G- what?"

Barrel erupted into a rowsing laugh. As Jack stomped past the gargoyles looking for the window The Mayor was stuck in, Pyramus explained, "The Mayor, Thisby, and I are to large to fit through your front door. Thisby and I came through the kitchen window, but The Mayor was too bi-"

"I get the point, Pyramus." Jack opened the door to his tiny kitchen, and there was The Mayor's top half sticking unceremoniously out of the wall. His hat had fallen on the floor, as had his spider tie and ribbon, and he was yelling at the three of them to get back onto his head. "You could have just waited for me to open the back door."

"Jack? Is that you?" cried the panicy public official. "Somebody catch my tie, please, before it gets stepped on!"

Barrel could be heard guffawing from the living room. Thisby reached out a wing and picked up the rampaging tarantula with her two first "fingers", placing it on The Mayor's back. Jack stomped his foot impatiently. "Alright, alright, that's enough! Pyramus, pull The Mayor out of the window and get to my room, we have a problem here."

Jack left almost immediately, heading straight for his old toy chest and one particular book...

&&&

SLAM!

And there it was, the scarecrow with the jack-o-lantern head, his body partially covered by a steriotypical king's robe (red with an ermine trim). The one hand and part of his chest that they could see was made of a dark, grainy wood. He was coiled up into a Napoleonic pose, tipping his crown to whoever happened to be reading the book.

The Mayor jumped, one hand on his panicked face while the other pointed to the picture in the book. "That's the thing!"

"Uncanny," Pyramus noted.

"Something doesn't seem right." Jack said, laying his index finger on the book and tapping it with his middle finger. "I mean, now that I've noticed it, I've been seeing this thing everywhere. In all my books, its engraved in the stonework on some of the buildings-"

"The sun," Pyramus reminded.

"It's part of the sun, for crying out loud!" Jack stood up straight and held his head in thought. "He's everywhere, and I have no idea who the heck he is."

Barrel "hmph"ed. "Was he the king before you, Jack?"

"No, my father was the king before me."

"King Jack Skellington the First, inaugurated September 15, 1587, died again on April 17, 1886," The Mayor recited.

Pyramus, Thisby, and Barrel stared at The Mayor in awe. He blinked stupidly. "What? I'm not the mayor just for my good looks, you know."

Pyramus leaned close to Thisby's head. "Hallelujah."

Barrel erupted in a delighted giggle.

The Mayor ignored Pyramus's rudeness and continued. "King Jack Skellington the Second-" He pointed to Jack. "That's you, inaugurated September 15, 1895 to present date of March-"

Thisby held up one of her wings. "There's a gap."

Jack blinked. "You're right."

A sudden silence passed over the room; even the smarter-than-he-let-on Barrel knew better than to talk in a moment like this.

The Mayor tapped his chin. "Hmph, never thought about it."

"Who was king in the gap?" Barrel asked again, on a role with the good questions.

Nobody answered. In truth, no one really remembered anything from 1886 to 1895, not even what Jack's father had died of. The Mayor recited some birth records that he had memorized of some of the younger HalloweenTown citizens, but no minute details were remembered such as how Halloween was celebrated, whether or not there were bumper crops of pumpkins, or anything. The gargoyles were no help, since they had been asleep since 1801 (right in the middle of Jack's father's reign), and all The Mayor did was recite birthdays.

All Jack could do was stand there and wonder, looking at the well-cloaked picture of the man-eating scarecrow that had attacked his town earlier today. The jelly ball beat like a heart in his pocket, pulsating faster and faster as Jack himself became more nervous. Something was out there attacking his town, and he had no idea what to do. He tried to breathe steadily; if he started to panic, then everyone would panic. A lack of order was the last thing he needed in a time like this. He needed to be strong; he needed to be the rock that his people could stand under. On, he meant. His thoughts were completely scrambled.

Where was Sally? Sally didn't get scared easily (more often than not, it was because she didn't know what to be scared of, poor thing). She was a nice little balance; she was always the calm, level-headed one when Jack was going loco and vice-versa. He looked up; Barrel and The Mayor were also starting to twitch unsteadily in the silence. There was nothing more he could do; he would have to send them home. He moved his mouth to begin to speak, but his fear unknowingly closed up his throat and wouldn't allow him to move.

Pyramus raised his wing. "We should go back to our own houses."

Jack nodded in agreement, his voice unwilling to comply.

Pyramus pointed to Barrel with his wing, his large arms staying stiffly by his sides. "He should be taken to the others."

"I'll get him." Thisby waved Barrel over to her side and lifted him onto her shoulders.

"I'll just, um..." The Mayor began to back away. "I'll go out the back door..."

The Mayor waddled his way away from the the odd huddle of monsters towards the back door, the only door to the outside that he could fit through. Pyramus took Thisby in his arms and nuzzled her nose with his muzzle before setting her loose. She slipped past him on all fours and, still carrying Barrel on her back, jumped through the kitchen door and out the window.

Pyramus clasped his hands behind his back and faced the Pumpkin King. "You're worried."

"I don't know what to do." Jack admitted.

Pyramus stepped past him, his stone feet echoing on the hardwood floor. He picked up Sally's ear from a flowerpot. "Your woman likes to eavesdrop."

"What the-?" Jack snatched Sally's ear from Pyramus' hand.

"I don't blame her." Pyramus explained. "You don't want her to talk to us."

Jack sighed and tucked Sally's ear in his pocket. "She'd worry. She doesn't need to know about stuff like this."

"You don't trust her?"

"I don't trust myself." Jack rubbed his eyes. "I don't even know what that means, just... go home, Pyramus. Step up guards at every town gate."

Pyramus bowed respectfully. "I am at your service."

Jack nodded.

&&&

He looked onto the town out of his window, letting the gentle breeze tease his face. The jelly ball was still beating like a heart under the folds of his coat, but now that he had taken the coat off it was nothing but a little pulsing bump that happened to be tucked into the depths of his closet. The gargoyles began to flock above town, Pyramus leading the wa-

Jack stood up straight. That wasn't Pyramus in the lead. It was a different gargoyle, and the others were chasing it. As the true Pyramus' silouette stuck the rogue gargoyle, a jet of fire shot out from the renegade's head!

"It's back!"

DONE!

Gotta start working on my SD Gundam fic again, no notes now. Later, bye!