Jack: Ahh, yes, yet another pair of reviewers.

Sugary: You're still happy about the flood of reviews last chapter, aren't you? Or are you just happy to see me?

Jack: Yes. Anyway, here they are.

Flight815Surviver:
Jack: Nice to see you again!

Sugary: You're a "totally great" reviewer! -cheerleader chants-

Jack: You think I'm "totally great"? C'mere, I LOVE YOU! -huggles-

Sugary: Wow, I never thought I'd live to see the day that Jack would do that to a fangirl. I'm a fangirl, Jack. You never huggle ME like that.

Jack: That's because you don't say nice things about me.

Sugary: Yes I do!

Jack: Name one nice thing that you've said to me over the course of this story.

Sugary: Well, um, there's... HUGGLE ME OR I'LL SIC THE FANGIRL MOBS ON YOU AGAIN!

Jack: Eep! -Huggles Sugary-

Sugary: Schawheet. And thanks for saying that you liked Sharon's punishment. I have people like that in my school as well. It certainly is fun being a writer, isn't it?

Jack: I think I'll get you a shirt next Christmas that says "Be nice or I'll put you in my fanfiction".

Sugary: As for me getting some actual food - I'm thinking Arby's! -packs some money and goes to Arby's-

Nirex:

Jack: Hello again! Sugary just went to Arby's, so she's not here. I'm glad you liked my tactic for dealing with Sharon.

Sugary: I'm baaa-aaack! And I brought ten Arby melts!

Jack: Sweet! -Takes bag, little Arby's symbol goes over head-

Jack: Okay, while Sugary and I enjoy our many Arby Melts, why don't you go on to the next chapter?

Sugary: That takes place in my hometown!

Jack: I'm sure that's MUCH more interesting than watching us eat.

Sugary: Jack, quick question - how can you actually EAT that? You don't have a stomach or anything.

Jack: Well, it's really quite simple. You see...

-Flashback-

Grand Rapids, Michigan, 9:08 PM

"That was great!"

"It was seriously scary."

"I think it's better than the redone one."

It was a chilly and windy night in Grand Rapids, and the three girls were just coming home from the movies. They had finished their trick-or-treating early enough to head down to the local theater and check out the special presentation of the original "Amityville Horror".

Rachel, the girl with the medium-length chestnut brown hair, was thirteen, making her the oldest. She was excellent with computers and could probably reformat a harddrive single-handedly. She even had her own laptop, which, to her great joy, allowed her favorite computer game - Myffed - to be played on it. She also was excited that her parents had allowed her to have a sleepover tonight of all nights, and even let the girls check their own candy, so they were pretty much free to devour as much of it as they wanted. Rachel smiled as she thought of the sugar-high that all of that sugar would produce.

Ashley, Rachel's best friend since Kindergarten, was twelve and was an absolute genius with fashion. She could take an old pair of jeans, cut off and fray the bottoms, add some sequins in nice patterns and have a brand new pair of capris. She had even made her own costume! She was always dressed nicely, although her frizzy brown hair indicated her wild, fun-loving side. Ashley was a bit more serious than Rachel, but still had a great sense of humor.

Jesse, Rachel's other good friend, was also twelve, and if you didn't know her well, you'd say that she probably had ADD. Jesse was an amazing artist, and wore her brownish-black hair almost down to her butt. Some could call her hyper. Others might say that she was crazy. But she always danced to the beat of her own drum, even though it could sometimes get her into trouble.

"Ashley," Rachel began, "You should've seen the look on your face when -"

"Don't say it!" Ashley yelled.

"Oooooooh... Ashley got scared!"

"I heard you scream, too!"

"I don't know," Jesse butted in, "you both looked pretty spooked to me."

"Oh, shut up."

"Bawk-bawk-ba-bawk!"

"That isn't funny, Jesse!"

"Ashley and Rachel are chickens! Bawk-bawk-ba-GAWK!"

"Chickens don't go like 'Ba-GAWK'," Ashley said, rolling her eyes.

"Rachel screamed so loud it hurt my ears!"

"SHUT UP! I did not!"

A sudden rustling of leaves startled the girls.

"What was that?" Ashley asked, obviously trembling in fear.

"NOW who's the scared one?" Rachel said accusingly. The rustling came again, louder this time; more insistant. "Oh my God!"

"It's a monster!" Jesse said in an odd tone. "He's gonna eat us all ALIVEEEEEEEEeeeee..."

The three girls stood there, scared out of their wits, as something jumped from the nearby bushes and yelled "RAWR!" The young women screamed loudly as the figure laughed evilly.

"Awww, is da wittle babies scared?" the figure asked in a voice that seemed strangely familiar to Rachel.

"Oh, God, Trevor," Rachel said, "Leave us alone! You nearly gave us heart attacks!"

Trevor was Rachel's high school Sophomore brother, an annoying kid who could never seem to shut up. His short spiky dark brown hair stuck up at odd angles, and his black T-shirt and black pants only added to the effect of him seeming evil.

"Why should I leave you alone?" Trevor asked, faking sweetness. "I wouldn't want you to get hurt by all the mean, scary monsters out there. I wuv my baby sister."

"I'm NOT a baby," Rachel said defiantly. "I swear, Trevor, someday your parents are going to find all of those porn pictures on your computer, and boy, will they be mad then."

"You wouldn't tell them, would you?"

"Of course not. But I might seriously screw with them if you don't back off."

"Make me!"

"Mom!"

"Okay, okay." He backed off a bit, but not much. "Just be careful tonight. You never know what might happen." With that, he ran off, feigning evil laughter again.

"Trevor is SUCH a weirdo," Ashley said finally. "All he ever wears is black. It simply doesn't do a thing for his skintone. He looks too pale."

Rachel looked at Ashley for a moment.

"And why," she asked, "Do you care about his skintone?"

Jesse grinned eagerly. "Because she LIKES him!"

"Ew, I do not!"

"Yeah, you do!"

"Stop!"

"Ashley and Trevor, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

Ashley sighed. It was no use stopping Jesse when she got in the mood.

"Jesse, do you need help setting up your sleeping bag?"

"No, I'm good, thanks."

"Ashley?"

"I've got it."

The girls were currently setting up their sleeping bags in Rachel's living room. It was far too chilly to sleep outside, as they had planned, and it was also too windy for a bonfire. They still planned to tell scary stories, though, although they wouldn't be able to do it around a bonfire like they had wanted.

"Why don't I make some S'mores in the microwave?" Rachel asked, "Or would you rather just order pizza?"

"Naw, I'm not that hungry."

"Me neither."

"Okay. We can check and trade candy, too." Rachel entered the kitchen and began to get out the supplies.

"Do you want me to go get my Ouija board?" Jesse asked. "Halloween night is supposed to be the best night for... Ouija-Boarding."

Ashley made a strange noise like a laugh and scoff combined. "Ouija-Boarding?" she asked. "That sounds like an extreme sport. Besides, we all know that stuff isn't real."

"DO we? Can we for sure say that ghosts don't exist?"

"I can."

"The S'mores are ready!" Rachel called as she entered the doorway. "Now, what's all thins yelling about a Ouija board?"

"Oh, Jesse thinks that she can contact ghosts with it," Ashley said. "I can't say I believe her."

"Ghosts?" Rachel asked as she set the plate of S'mores down. "Really?"

"Yeah. I've tried it before," Jesse said. "And it worked."

"That's pretty creepy."

"Yeah, I know."

"That's exactly what makes it the perfect activity for tonight!"

"Oh my God, you two are SO gullible!"

Rachel and Jesse looked at her for a moment.

"Why are you being so nasty tonight?" Rachel asked. "Are you scared that something bad'll happen?"

"No!" Ashley dismissed. "No. It's just... I have this gut feeling that something isn't right. Trevor doesn't say things like 'You never know what might be out there.' It's just not him."

"Sure it is," Jesse said. He's weird like that all the time.

"But he's not THAT weird," Ashley pointed out. "What about that evil laughter he did?"

"What about it?"

"He never laughs like that. Never. He fakes it, sure, but it sounded pretty real to me. And did you notice how pale he was?"

"He's Goth, Ashley. He wears black. And you of all people should know that black makes people look pale."

"I don't know..."

"Come on, Ashley," Rachel said. "Where's the logical Ashley I know? Listen to yourself. You sound like you belong in an insane asylum! And I know for a fact that you don't. Jesse's another story." With this last point, she gave Jesse a playful little nudge.

"I suppose you're right... Nothing bad can happen if we're in a group, right?"

"Right," the other two girls responded.

"Now, are we going to eat these S'mores," Rachel asked, "Or are we just going to let them sit there?

Rachel must have dozed off, because around 9:30, she was awoken by violent shaking and the flickering light of a candle.

"Rachel," Jesse said, "Get up. I've got all of the supplies for the Ouija board ready!"

"Wha?" She said, stretching and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Where's Ashley?"

"She's outside already. The board is all set up and I just need to set up and light the candles."

"But won't they be blown out?"

"Glass jars with holes in the lids. That should keep out the wind, yet let them still burn."

"But what if Ashley is right? What if something IS wrong?"

Jesse shook her head. "Rachel," she said, "You've won Myffed about a million times over. Surely you're smart enough to know that nothing can possibly go wrong. Of course I know the Ouija board doesn't really work. I made up that story about using it before and having it work. Now, come on!"

She lead Rachel outside to a stump in the middle of her backyard. The tree had been cut down because it had been dying, and was in danger of falling on Rachel's house.

"Now, the best places to Ouija Board," Jesse explained, "Are places of death. This tree is dead, obviously, so we chose it because it's the nearest area of death we can find." She continued by setting the candles in the jars.

"These candles," she explained as she lit each one and firmly screwed the lid on, "are supposed to guide the spirit we contact to where we are."

"So, what are we going to contact," Ashley said with a scoff, "The spirit of the tree?"

"No," Jesse said, giving her a strange look. "I have Native American blood in me, but I don't believe in everything having a spirit. Now, you see this pointer? We use it to -"

"What are you three doing out here?"

Trevor stood on Rachel's back porch, surveying the strange scene. He seemed calm for some reason, errily so, but Rachel assumed that this was just because he was tired.

"Um, you can go back to bed, now," she said, knowing how grumpy he could get when he was tired. "We'll be quieter from now on."

"Naw, it's okay. Come here for a second."

Rachel walked over to her brother. "Yes?"

He looked down at her and smiled. Rachel noticed that his eyes appeared glazed.

"Trevor," she asked, looking at him suspiciously, "Are you doing drugs?"

"That's stupid. Why would I do that? You know I don't."

"Do I?"

"Do I appear to be high to you?"

"Well, your eyes are glazed, so I thought..."

Trevor chuckled and hugged Rachel. "I'm just tired," he replied. "Trust me: if I were high, you'd know." He let go of his sister and smiled, then walked back into the house.

Rachel was puzzled for a moment. It was nice to recieve a sign of affection from her brother, but Trevor didn't seem to be himself lately. He was right, though - even though his eyes had a strange appearance, he wasn't showing any other symptoms of drug useage. She dismissed the glazed eyes as a symptom of sleep deprivation, nothing more, and walked back to the Ouija board.

"Guys," Ashley said, "I have a bad feeling about this. First Trevor is acting weird. Then he hugs you. And his eyes looked distant to me. He's seriously out of it!"

"Ashley, he's just tired. Maybe he's sleepwalking."

"Sleepwalking does NOT look like that. My little brother sleepwalks, and he -"

"Maybe we should get back to the point?" Jesse asked as she gestured to the Ouija board.

"Okay," Ashley said as Jesse put her hands on the pointer.

"What should I ask it?" Jesse asked. "Ashley, you go first."

"Ask if Jake B. has a thing for me!"

The other two girls groaned. Ashley had had a crush on Jake B. ever since the third grade, and it had only elevated itself over the years. Rachel rolled her eyes as Jesse closed hers and allowed the pointer to travel where it wished.

"Okay, spirits, wherever you are," she said, "Tell us - Does Jake B. like Ashley?"

The pointer gravitated towards 'yes'. Ashley squealed in delight.

"Mmkay, my turn," Jesse said, closing her eyes. "Okay, I need you to answer my question now. What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything?"

The pointer shook a bit, as if the spirit were shaking it head and saying "That girl..." The pointer then moved to two numbers - four and two. Jesse laughed as she looked as the answer the spirit had given her. Apparently, it was a Douglas Adams fan.

"Okay, Rachel, your turn. Ask it something."

"Okay. I want to know if something is wrong with Trevor."

Jesse shook her head slightly, then asked the question aloud.

The pointer immediately shot towards 'yes'. Rachel looked worried.

"W-where is he now?" she asked, taking the pointer from Jesse and holding it to the board with her hands. The pointer began to spell something out, and Jesse whipped out her sketch book to dutifully write each letter down. Eventually the pointer stopped, and Rachel looked at the letters it had written.

I HAVE TREVOR

Ashley, who had not spoken for a while now, asked allowed "But where is he?"

The pointer began to spell out more letters, and Jesse again wrote them down. When she had finished, the letters revealed the text

HE BECOMES ME AND FITS WELL

"Do you mean to say, spirit," Rachel said nervously, "That you've posessed him?"

The pointer pointed to 'yes'. Rachel was so startled that she let go of the pointer.

"But why?" Ashley wondered aloud. Again the pointer moved and spelled out letters.

I HAD TO MAKE YOU TRUST ME

Rachel shivered, partly from the cold, but mostly from fear.

"Why did you want to get close to us?" she asked.

The pointer did not move.

"Who are you?"

This time, the pointer moved without Rachel's hands being on it.

I AM YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE

The girls trembled in fear and huddled closer, afraid to even speak. The candles suddenly went out simeltaniously, and a rustling was heard, making the girls feel jumpy. Rachel fumbled for her flashlight and pointed it at the bushes.

There stood Trevor, staring in the girls' direction.

"Trevor, you scared the crap out of us!" Rachel said. "Do you have any IDEA how -"

"I scared you, did I?" Trevor's voice didn't sound the same. It seemed echoey, as if both he and someone else were talking. "Well then, I must have done a good job."

Trevor collapsed suddenly. Rachel ran over to him, hoping that he was okay. He was mean, but he WAS her brother after all. Ashley and Jesse ran to her aid.

"Trevor, Trevor, get up! Please!" Ashley beat on his chest, hoping to revive him. "Please, this isn't funny!"

Rachel half expected him to sit up, saying, "Yeah, it is," or to grab Ashley's hand suddenly and yell "I have risen from the dead!" But he said nothing. He never stirred. Rachel checked his pulse. It was there, but it was weaker than normal.

"He's probably in a coma," an unfamiliar voice said from behind Rachel. "That often happens after a posession for that amount of time."

All three girls turned to see who had spoken and screamed at the same time when they saw what appeared to be a grinning skeleton.

"He'll be fine," it said in a tone that was undoubtably meant to be soothing. "He might be a bit stunned upon waking up, but that's to be expected."

None of the girls moved. No one even blinked.

"You three were trying to contact the dead. I simply answered your call. It would've been rude not to." The skeleton glanced towards Jesse's Ouija board. "Marvelous things, Ouija boards," he said. "Too bad more humans don't believe ghosts exist." He began to casually pace back and forth in front of the girls.

Ashley was amazed and terrified at the same time. So ghosts and goblins DID exist.

The skeleton paused in mid-stride, then turned to face Ashley, looking her dead in the eye as a sinister smile spread across his face.

"You three don't believe I really exist, do you?" he asked, now looking at Jesse. "You think that this is some dream, don't you? A figment of your imaginations." He strode towards Rachel and took her by the hand, looking into her eyes.

"I assure you," he said finally, "I am as real and tangible as you are."

Rachel shuddered and tried to pull away, but somehow could not move her limbs. So THIS was what being scared stiff felt like.

"Aha!" the skeleton said loudly, causing all three girls to flinch. "You aren an arachnophobic, Rachel. How classic."

"How -" Rachel began as the skeleton continued on to the next girl. But the question "How did you know that?" was confused with "How do you know my name?"

The skeleton chuckeled and gave a quick glance in Rachel's direction. "I can see what you fear most," he said. "Your eyes are the dead giveaway. They ARE the windows through which your soul sees the world, after all, so it's only fitting that I can see through them as well. For instance, you, Ashley, fear the dead. Another classic fear. And you, Jesse, if I am not mistaken, are scared of... chickens?" A confused look crossed his face as he finished this last sentance. "Chickens? Did I misread... But that can't be right! Chickens don't scare anyone!"

He looked into Jesse's eyes again and smiled.

"Well, I'll be!" the skeleton said. "You really ARE afraid of chickens, aren't you?"

Jesse looked embarrassed. "Well, chickens have sharp beaks!" she retaliated. "They chase after people, going like "BA-GAWK-BA-GAWK!", and they just stare at you... with those cold eyes..." she shuddered.

"Okay," the skeleton said, just as confused as everyone else. "I'll just combine them!"

Suddenly, a dozen or so Zombie-Spider-Chickens popped out of the ground. The girls stared at these odd creations for a moment, but this morbid fascination quickly gave rise to sheer terror as the strange arachnid-chicken hybrids chased after them, squawking madly. Jesse was too terrified to do a thing except curl up in her 'Happy Place' and let the chickens peck her over and over.

Rachel, meanwhile, fought back, kicking and yelling at the chicken-spiders. The skeleton noticed that Rachel wasn't bothered by the spider-chickens and snapped his fingers, replacing the creatures with another one. Rachel stared in sheer terror at a black spider as big as herself, then ran screaming around the yard with the massive arachnid close in pursuit.

Ashley looked at her friends quizzically. Spiders, she could understand, but chickens? She grabbed one by the neck and threw it as far away from her as she could. Again the skeleton noticed this and gave Ashley a soul-chilling look before taking his head off and throwing it at her. The attack had been so sudden that Ashley's instincts kicked in and she caught it in mid-air.

"Hey, thanks," it said.

"No problem," Ashley said before suddenly remembering that a disembodied head shouldn't be talking at all and throwing it back at the skeleton's body in revulsion.

The skeleton caught its head and waved at her. Ashley swooned and fainted.

Suddenly, Trevor burst out of the bushes yelling loudly, which made the two remaining conscious girls scream loudly. Lights went on all over the house. This got the attention of the skeleton, who quickly put his head back on and scooped up a forgotten flashlight, handing it to Trevor.

"What are you doing?" Trevor asked.

The skeleton smiled at him.

"Blaming you," it said, snapping its fingers nad suddenly disappearing into the night with his undead chicken-spiders and giant arachnid.

Rachel's parents stepped out into the backyard and turned on the porchlight. Rachel and Jesse were covered in small cuts and shaking in fear. Ashley was still out cold. And to the adults, Trevor was looking about as guilty as a fat cat in a canary cage.

End Flashback

Sugary: Jack? That was YOU who peeked into the window at my friend's slumber party?

Jack: ...maybe.

Sugary: JACK SKELLINGTON!111111oneoneoneonetwo

Jack: Er, I'll see you next chapter, I'm busy trying to fend off this avid, annoyed fanfiction writer! Why, oh why did I have to untie her?

Sugary: Jeez, Jack, first Christmas, now my fanfiction. Is there anything that you WON'T try to take over?

Jack: You said I could!

Sugary: No, I said that you were going to narrate the story. The council and I decided to cancel that act a week before the story started. Didn't you get the memo?

Jack: No.

Sugary: Okay, then it's not your fault... IT'S THE COUNCIL'S! Get over here NOW!

Councilman: -talking on phone- Uh, um... I gotta let you go, Avery, Jack didn't get the memo and now Sugary's mad! Heeeeelllllp!

Sugary: That's the last time I hire YOU as a messanger!

Jack: Uh, I'll see you next chapter! -crash is heard, Jack flinches- I better go help.