DARING FLIGHT
"Aaah!"
"AARGH!"
THUMP. Oogie hit the ground hard, Riks landing on top of him. Riks was now looking into the boogie man's narrow hollow eyes. She heard something pop out of the pipe, and she quickly got out of the way.
BANG.
"AARGH!" the cage that contained a little grasshopper (a Halloween-ish grasshopper to be precise) had hit Oogie right in the head.
Riks, thankful for the distraction, dashed up to the pipe. The bats started for her again, but this time she was determined. She smashed the bats away with her umbrella, and chucked her last water bomb at Oogie Boogie. He cried out in alarm as Riks started moving into the pipe, laughing.
The walls were cold, and she kept scraping her hands on bits of hard metal that poked out. It was dark, and Riks couldn't even see in front of her, and she prayed silently that no more cages would be coming down while she was in there. Suddenly she came to a fork where the pipe split into two. One sloped upwards while the other kept going straight. Riks took the left one which went straight.
She was getting tired, her back sore from bending for so long, and her legs starting to cramp. She walked slower. Suddenly the pipe turned and she was falling down the sloping sides. She could see the end of the pipe coming. Trying to stop herself from moving any farther, she clawed at the sides, trying to grab onto something. She slowed down a little, but was still moving towards the end. Riks pressed her feet against the sides, scraping her knees where her boots didn't cover her. The pipe creaked under her weight as she came closer and closer to the fading light. She shoved all her body against the sides, and prayed that she did not die slowly in pain, but quickly without anguish.
Riks comes to a stop. She was no longer moving or falling, just stopped. Slowly she opened an eye, then two. She could see rolling hills and the town far ahead. Below she saw only the deep menacing black void. Riks had miraculously stopped right at the edge of the pipe, and not a moment too soon, for if she had gone any further she wouldn't be there thinking all sorts of thoughts, like what was the last thing she said to her friends, or hoping that her life had not been a waste.
Crying out in triumph she laughed, glad that she was still alive, and carefully popped her head out of the pipe. To the right she could see pipes and hanging cages that connected to Oogie's mansion, and the bridge. She had to get to the bridge, for Oogie's mansion was built away from nearby hills, a gorge surrounding it. Grabbing onto the top of the pipe, she hauled herself out and clung onto it.
Riks shirt, pants and Converse shoes were gone, replaced by a long flowing cloak; red on the inside, black on the outside. Underneath she wore a greenish grey tinged dress with knee-high boots. It was like a costume that she changed into whenever she came to Halloween. No matter what she would be wearing before, she would always be dressed the same when she came to Halloween.
Riks noticed that the closest hanging cage to her was also the closest to the bridge. She could easily make it from the pipe to the cage, but from the cage to the bridge?
She jumped at the cage, her hands grabbing the criss-crossed bars. She dangled for a moment before pulling herself up, her muscles slightly flexing. The cage swayed dangerously, making it tilt under her weight. Riks managed to the top, and hauled herself up onto the wooden bit that connected it to the mansion. She was not far from the bridge, and above it too. The distance was a bit farther than she had expected, and Riks started to worry.
She couldn't help noticing the void below her, waiting to engulf her body as she fell. She shut her eyes and started to say encouraging things to herself.
"This is Halloween," she whispered. "No one dies here." She inched her way to the very edge of the plank, closest to the bridge.
"It's not that far, I can make it." Her hand was sweating, clinging to her umbrella; her bag seemed to drag on her back.
"No one's going to miss me if I die." She crouched, her heart pumping, arms shaking.
She leaped.
She was falling. The void would swallow her up whole…and then…
She was flying. The feeling made her feel free. So free…
Her eyes shot open. The darkness was still below her, and the bridge was coming closer. Huh? She slowly hovered over the bridge, and Riks felt her hand still grasping something. Her umbrella was open, but she didn't remember…
She was flying! Well, gliding really, but still…
Riks laughed, gazing at her umbrella.
"Now why didn't I think of that?" Her feet lightly touched the unsteady bridge, and with that she put away her prized possession and ran, ran away from the mansion and bridge, towards the towering gate. For on the other side of that gate lay the sleeping town of Halloween.