Halloween is just around the corner my freakish friends! Updates are going to be a little more frequent from here on out. Next are just review replies, so please skip ahead to the story if you so wish.
Thank you everyone for such lovely reviews!
NeonArt1: I'm glad you like the story. It's your first NBC fanfiction? I'm honored. 4 days? Wow. I'm impressed.
Artistgirl16: I have some issues with moving things along, so more often than not cliffhangers pop up. Glad you loved the last chapter. Can't help but notice you like Tricked Out. Cool. I like it too. Aria is a good writer.
Writerchic36: I'm good at killing people with suspense it seems. I'm also good at killing characters in general. I literally have thought out the deaths of every Undead monster in this story. I might write a couple spin off prequels later.
Shepherd89: Thank you. I try. You guys can't see, but my computer files have on average 5-15 versions of a chapter before I finally go "screw it" and post the "best" one. Sometimes I regret it if I come up with something really cool later, but can't use it without ruining the continuity.
Multyfangirl19: Glad you're noticing the details. That will come in handy later.
Chapter 29
The Human World
The Monsters listened to Little Braid's rambling story, not quite following half the time.
From what he could discern…
Nevermind. This young woman was all over the place.
She seemed to lie a lot. Things didn't match up, like how Little Braid pretended to not remember Anna's name before. And she seemed to be leaving out a few things.
Anna was here…that much was evident to Jack. But Little Braid's strange words and flighty speech were hard to follow.
Little Braid had trailed off into muttering to herself as they walked.
"Turkeys…" she whispered, "We don't worship…I wonder what Anna meant….She seemed to like the pie…but where did it go? It's not like she has a throat. She seemed alright, but that chair couldn't have been comfortable…I still can't believe she ate the grasshopper…but that is normal for you I suppose…"
Jack snapped out of his attempts to unravel Little Braid's story and looked up, the leaves at his feet crinkling as he came to a stop, Sally almost running into him.
"Shrieks above!" gasped Zeldabourne.
None of the monsters were prepared for the wall of warm smells to hit them and assault their fine-tuned senses like mustard gas as they stepped into Little Braid's town.
The overpowering hearty scent of warm cooked turkey, honey, bread, and hundreds of other kinds of hearty dinner food smacked the Halloween Citizens to a standstill.
Sally recognized the smell of Pumpkin Spice at least. They all most certainly recognized that.
Logically, Helgamine recognized cooked meat when she smelled it, but there was no underlying tone of rotten flesh or spoiled vegetables that she was familiar with.
Halloween smelt heavily of candy, slightly rotten flesh, pumpkins, and maple syrup mostly with some variation depending on the weather. It was a lovely smell that they hardly ever noticed. It was as normal as the smell of salty air to someone who lived by the sea.
Quite frankly, the place stank to the human nose as they were reminded on a recent occasion.
But this smell was too…rich…too meaty.
"Uh…you okay?" Little Braid asked cautiously at their shocked faces. That was shock on their faces, right? She couldn't tell.
Nevermore coughed, "What is that? Cranberries?!" The bird made such a funny expression it was like he was tasting the bitter berries for himself. He actually liked cranberries. Straight off the bush of course. Not swimming in a sea of sugar, though the idea sounded tempting. Not quite candy, but close.
Jack hopped a little. "What a delightful smell!"
The witches, covering their large noses, stared at Jack while Sally sighed at his enthusiasm and giggled.
Little Braid blinked. "Uhhh…"
"It's certainly a…pleasant smell," Helgamine admitted, staring sideways at Jack, "But it's a little too strong for my taste."
"It's reminding me that we haven't had dinner yet," Sally quipped, her yarn hair falling into her face a little as she paused to tighten her stitches behind her knees. That fall earlier popped a few.
Jack and the others laughed, even as Little Braid looked more confused.
"I've never been here long enough to appreciate your town. It's more colorful than I expected," Jack said with a grin. "How do you get that bright red! Next to gold too? I dare say it's a luxurious looking holiday you have, Ms. Braid."
Sally took his hand for fear he'd run off singing.
Two Minutes Later
"JACK! Come see this!"
"Is that a turkey?! I've never seen a real one! It's much larger than I expected."
"Well excuse you," a shriveled old Turkey scowled.
"Everyone, please!" begged Sally. She and (surprisingly) Jack were the only ones still sticking close to a somewhat concerned looking Thanksgiving Spirit.
Little Braid for one, wasn't sure what to do when the excited (and curious) other three Halloween spirits ran off in different directions as something caught their eyes.
Jack frowned and impatiently clenched his fist, torn by his curiosity and his worry. What he wouldn't give to explore for himself.
"Ah yes, everyone perhaps we can just…" he started, acutely aware of Thanksgiving Citizens staring from doorways and hurriedly getting out of the way as they came down the street.
Little Braid jolted at a crash as a pie plate slipped off a windowsill when the Gatekeeper pecked for a taste.
"Wh-?-shoo!" a woman snarled harshly as she rushed outside, broom in hand to chase the raven away from the feast leftovers.
"Terribly sorry madam," Nevermore apologized sincerely, flapping a foot in the air to avoid the coming swipe.
She was going to hit him over a pie of all things! What a cow.
The lady sputtered in confusion, broom stiffly raised above her head. Her eyes were wide and her mouth in a thin line.
Nevermore perched on the windowsill, trying to decide if he should offer to clean up or not. On one wing, it wasn't very polite to make an unwanted mess and not clean up. On the other, he wasn't sure he'd have enough energy for their rescue mission if he shapeshifted.
The stunned lady yelped as her broom was rudely pulled from her hands.
"My word!" she sputtered.
Helgamine frowned as she inspected the smooth wood and soft bristles, tracing a long fingernail down the side creepily.
The witch noticed the sharp intake of breath at the sight of her green-grey skin, crooked frame and freakish nose.
"What sort of device is this?"
The woman stared down at the shorter creature, confused as to how the witch was able to reach the broom from her height and too dumbstruck at the sight to be actively afraid. That skeleton earlier already threw away the concept of what should be dangerous or not. Such a sweet girl, once you got past her spindly looks. But still, a witch?!
"….it's a broom," a small voice supplied.
Helga glanced around the woman to see a young pilgrim child clutch the stiffened lady's apron.
He stared, long blond locks obscuring his wide brown eyes, but he didn't seem fearful.
It was throwing the witch off, but she chalked it up to Anna's possible interfering and that perhaps monsters don't look as scary in the quickly fading daylight while your mother is beside you.
"I can see that lad," Helgamine said, her voice no less rasping and witchy, though with a slightly mellow tone. "But how can you fly it?"
The mother's lips pursed, but the boy giggled. This lady was funny, just like the skeleton with the funny voice.
His mother wasn't as amused. Skeletons and talking animals were strange, but…witches?!
"It can't fly! It's for sweeping the floor!"
"Hmmph. Waste of wood I think. If you can't make something multipurpose, I don't see the point of having it." The witch roughly handed the broom off and just walked away.
"Don't mind Helga," the Gatekeeper squawked, as he picked up another large shard of pie plate in his beak and deposited it in a nearby empty bucket. "My humblest apologies about the plate."
He flew off down the street toward a growing crowd.
It was mostly seniors and children.
The lady finally found her voice. "…it's…fine…"
The older men and women were watching Zeldabourne walk around their main square looking at the various shops while the children were shyly trying to approach Jack and Sally.
Jack couldn't help himself and let go of Sally's hand to jog up to the massive tree in the center of town and the old man sitting on the small brick garden wall around it. In the back of his head, he scolded himself. They didn't have ti—Oooh what an interesting tree!
Zelda smirked at the human resembling kids, flashing her creepy grin as she joined up with the others.
Sally's slight slasher grin was creepy in its own right, though the poor ragdoll didn't understand that many of the Thanksgiving children couldn't tell the difference between Zelda's tease and her genuine kindness.
Her smile fell abruptly as one little girl ducked away and behind the corner of a shop.
Sally wrung her hands and quickly went to Jack's side.
"Jack we…"
"Sally! Look at these papers!" He didn't hear her. He threw his arms wide to show off the large tree in the middle of town decorated with odd hand-shaped papers of various colors.
The white and colored paper decorations danced with the sparse bright red leaves in an almost shimmering effect as the wind blew.
"Mr. Ruben here was just explaining," the skeleton gestured to a short, amused looking man beside him. The man's dark leathery skin seemed stretched tight at his deep brown eyes, indicative of many years of smiling. "Every day throughout the year their children, and whoever wishes to, traces their hands on paper, then they color them and add a beak and eyes to make a turkey drawing! Rather spectacular creativity! Though I am curious as to why…"
The old man chuckled. "Your daughter said you'd ask that."
Sally stiffened.
The Gatekeeper snorted while the witches chuckled at the mistake.
Monsters aren't dumb. They were at least aware of how similar Anna looked to the Pumpkin King, especially with the costume style she chose. It was such a silly coincidence.
"Pay up Helga. You bet ten souls a Christmas citizen was going to say it," Zeldabourne whispered before Helga hit her on the foot with her broom.
"And you said those loudmouth drunk St. Patricks were going to spit out assumptions first!" she hissed back.
Luckily for them, Jack didn't hear about the little bet among his Citizens until much later.
Jack flinched momentarily. "Ah…Pardon me…but she's not my daughter."
The old man raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"
Jack ignored Nevermore's poorly concealed snickering while Sally rolled her eyes.
"I'm sure."
"Just checking sir. In my experience, teenagers don't tend to be so rebellious except to their parents." He didn't give Jack the chance to retort, "As for the papers, every day all year we make a hand turkey and write what we're thankful for that day. Then on our holiday, after the Feast, we switch out a human's Thanks, one of the red leaves, with one of our own and bring the human thanks to the Real World."
Sally, distracted for the moment asked curiously, "Then why are there still red leaves up there?"
The man shook his head sadly, "Some humans refused to be thankful for anything, and we're unable to pick off their leaves. Some leaves have been up there for years, shriveling due to a human's refusal to appreciate what they have. Malcontent breeds in their hearts until the leaf dies and the human…well…we're as much connected to jealousy and greed as we are thankfulness and remembrance."
The old man had a funny look on his face as if he was quoting someone.
"I see…"
"Do you?"
Sally nodded.
"You should have seen this morning. The entire tree was all red. It's a rather spectacular show to see everyone working to tear off leaves, then tie the papers on the branches. Your Annalise actually helped."
"…You let her?"
"Well, she ran headfirst into the tree. She was a little too fast to stop. The crash knocked a couple Thanks down. I supposed that counts as helping."
Zeldabourne burst out laughing while Helgamine facepalmed and Nevermore sighed.
Jack huffed. "I take it she wasn't very subtle."
"Scared the daylights out of half our town. I suppose you should be proud. Though I get the feeling we may be a little easier to scare than humans," the man said hesitantly.
Something slipped past his smile. Fear.
Anna and her childish clumsiness may have prepared them, somewhat, but these creatures were still terrified of the monsters. Their wary glances and stiffened speech betrayed them.
Sally interrupted before Jack agreed with Ruben without thinking.
"Is she alright?"
The man eased at the humorous memory and laughed. "Knocked herself out-"
Zeldabourne laughed harder, and Nevermore snorted as he perched on the brim of her hat.
The witches seemed fine with laughing at their charge behind her back, something the bird had an ounce of respect for. The most he seemed to muster up was secondhand embarrassment for the girl.
She had once told him, after a long discussion about the Sherlock Holmes books, that she was very much aware of what a klutze she could be for a monster with supposedly near perfect balance and reflexes (keyword: supposedly). She blamed it entirely on the fear. It was making her "act weird".
Not the vocabulary he would choose, but he got the sense she disliked herself for the injurious tendency to overreact in fright. She had more bumps and crashes than he managed broken bones in a decade.
On a separate note, he was sure Fate was reaching for a record with him. The Gatekeeper had been injured two too many times in the past month, each because of Annalise!
Nevermore absently rolled his wing, still sore from his earlier run in with Jersey. He glanced around for a second before running his sharp beak down his feathers to straighten them out.
"Knocked herself out for a couple hours. But she seemed alright, I suppose. The healers weren't sure what to do, so we just locked her up in the jail to keep her from running off again and waited."
Little Braid slipped in her two cents as she came up from apologizing to the lady with the pie plate. "Some jail. The bars aren't even real."
The man raised an eyebrow at the teenager. "And then this one got herself locked in the room with the skeleton by climbing through the window."
Jack looked at Little Braid questioningly.
"I was interrogating her," Little Braid said crossly.
Zeldabourne wheezed hysterically, and Nevermore cracked whatever composure was left.
Little Braid scowled in insult, not sure what she said that was so funny. She eyed the bird most of all, still assuming it was a Halloween Citizen like the more obvious monsters.
Helgamine maintained her facepalm and muttered something about her sister's maturity.
Jack blinked, willing himself not to react. They were really stretching the context for the joke. Interrogation and torture weren't the same things in the right context. He couldn't blame them though. They were already hysterical about Anna running into the tree.
The image of such a crash made him snicker.
Sally gave him a look.
"Jack. We need to find Anna…"
Jack nodded. They didn't have time to explore Thanksgiving, no matter how much he wanted to. It was the first time he was actually in the town and not meeting the leaders in the outskirts in the woods near the Holiday Doors.
"Thank you, Mr. Ruben, but I'm afraid we must be off," he sighed.
"But Jack-."
"We have to retrieve Annalise," Jack interrupted Zeldabourne. He felt awful snapping at her like that. He wanted to explore just as badly as anyone, perhaps more.
The witch shut her mouth and looked down. She put one hand to her forehead. She had forgotten for a minute why they were even there in the first place. How could she?
Ruben hummed and nodded. "Come along then."
"I know where to go Mr. Ruben," Little Braid reminded him.
"Just seeing you folks off."
The girl sighed and nodded.
As they left, Sally looked back to the town center where a large group of those staying home stuck around to see the monsters go.
One little girl shyly waved goodbye.
Sally smiled and waved back.
Once they were gone someone spoke up.
"That Anna…girl…talked about Halloween citizens being all different kinds of creatures, but I wasn't expecting…"
"Witches?"
"Calm down Mary…this isn't Salem. They're not Real witches."
To any human, the sight of a group of odd, horrible looking creatures emerging from the woods outside a small town in Washington, United States would have make them double take, if not scream in terror.
They probably wouldn't have even noticed the perfectly normal looking human standing among them.
However, when that human witness, whoever they may be, were to look once again at the strange shapes, they would only see empty space. Such is the case with most monsters. You only see them once. They're far too experienced for anything else.
"We parted ways here, then I went back to get you all," Little Braid said, checking her shoulder bag quickly. She pulled out a small stack of red leaves and riffled through them like papers. "I'll take you to where Anna's house is, but she might not be there. I really can't help you look for her. I still have a job to do."
Jack nodded. "I'll follow you."
If Jack gave the other monsters a signal, Little Braid didn't see it.
The little raven and the two witches didn't even say anything before nodding and running or flying off in separate directions.
Little Braid clamped a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming when the witches melted into inky shadows and slithered into the distance, street lambs blinking out for a second when they passed over them. They weren't using their brooms for the moment. Too noticeable.
Jack smirked a little. He was getting worried that Little Braid wasn't afraid of them anymore. She was an excellent actor in any case.
"H-how…"
The girl yelped as Sally touched her shoulder.
"It's just Fading. Nothing to worry about."
"Sally…could you…" Jack said.
Sally nodded, "I'll stay here in case Anna comes back this way."
Jack wasn't too keen on leaving Sally alone, but he knew she could take care of herself to a point.
He went up to her and put his hands on her shoulders gently.
She put her hands on top of his. They touched foreheads.
The nearby teenager made a face and stepped back to give them space. Little Braid looked up at a suddenly very interesting leaf barely hanging on to its branch. It could fall any moment! That leaf seemed very very interesting.
"Please be safe," Jack whispered.
"You be safe," Sally insisted, "Those demons? They want to hurt you and Anna. They don't care about me. If anything happens…"
Jack chuckled brightly, grinning like a self-diagnosed madman, "We'll be okay Sally. We'll just find her and bring her home before those villains find out she's even here."
He sounded so sure.
"What if they already know? The demon in the Hinterlands…" she closed her eyes and let go of his hands to cover them.
"Sally…"
"Remember when you got shot down during Christmas, Jack?" Sally whispered.
Jack nodded, "Of course."
"I don't want to feel like that again."
Jack let go of her shoulders to pull her into a hug.
"Like….like I lost you…" Sally whispered.
"That's not going to happen, my dearest friend."
Sally scoffed.
Jack leaned back slightly and peered at her. "What?"
"Of course, you'll be fine. Being destroyed by an arrogant devil isn't quite dramatic enough for your second death," Sally murmured. "It's very close though. The missile had a better chance."
Jack groaned, "Oh dear, I'm not that dramatic, am I?"
"A bit."
Jack glared at Little Braid while Sally snickered under her tears.
"Hey. You're the ones being all mushy in front of me!" the teen asserted. "This isn't Valentines Day!"
Truth be told, she didn't know much about Valentine's Day except the basics, so it was shot in the dark to say that.
Sally distracted Jack with a short kiss. "Hurry."
Jack nodded, "We're all going home today. I promise."
Sally cracked a worried smile. "You hate promises. Promises, vows, deals. I guess I know why now."
Jack's smile strained a bit, but he composed himself quickly, "Lead on, Miss Braid!"
The Thanksgiving Citizen scoffed and stood up from tightening her boots. "Right. You aren't dramatic. Keep up." She took off running to the nearest street, sliding down a short hill.
Jack raised his eyebrows at the holiday spirit who was clearly uninformed if she told him to "keep up."
Sally retreated back into the shadows of the woods, watching as her friends disappeared from view.
Jack followed Little Braid through the darkened streets for several minutes without a word between them, passing a large building complex in the distance.
They didn't notice the decaying flyers scattered on various trees saying "SOULING RACE: October 31".
"Mr. Skellington?" Little Braid slowed to a jog.
Jack looked down at her. "Yes?"
"Is…Anna…in danger?"
Jack didn't answer immediately.
"I just assumed…" the girl muttered. "I assumed this was just…her running away and you wanting to bring her back."
"That's still what it is."
"But…you said… d-demons…and Ms…uh… Sally seemed worried…"
"Things are a little more complicated than I think you grasped. You needn't worry about it."
"But Anna…"
"Are you friends now?" Jack asked curiously.
Little Braid huffed, "Sort of…"
"She'll be okay. Just stay out of our way, alright Miss?"
Little Braid scowled and glanced back at Jack for a moment, stunned to see he wasn't actually behind her. It took a moment before she caught a glimpse of him darting between the shadows of the trees she ran alongside.
Little Braid relaxed for a moment, and her face dropped to a distracted worry.
She sucked in a breath. "I was assigned to stay behind to greet you because there's something my leaders wanted to tell you. They couldn't stay behind themselves."
"I should expect not. It's your Holiday! I'm terribly sorry you had to give up some of your own time for us as it is."
Little Braid stopped and sidled behind a large tree in case a human came outside their house.
"Anna had to say something to convince the Governor and Chief to let her come with us."
Jack nodded, slipping his thin form into a nearby shadow.
Little Braid's human appearance wouldn't turn too many heads, even with her outdated clothing, but Jack's spindly frame was too dangerous to ignore if he didn't take extra precautions.
Little Braid scowled at him. "Sorry about being so rude earlier…I was trying to guess how you would react if you cared enough about Anna for me to say what she told us."
"Interesting way of going about it. You didn't seem too rude. Did you learn anything, young lady?"
"Not really," Little Braid huffed, "Look, I kind of like Anna. She didn't seem anything like we expected of monsters, so I was a little shocked...but she said…someone from your town hurt her."
Jack glanced down the street. "I see…I have been rather ignorant of…."
"No! You don't understand! She said someone from your town hurt her. Murdered her."
Little Braid stared at his face for a long moment, trying to gauge the skeleton's reactions. She struggled to read his empty sockets and set jaw. But there were other little things she saw. The slight clench in his hands. The way he slumped slightly. She was a bit disappointed honestly. She was expecting…rage…justice? A far more extreme reaction at least.
"…I see…"
"So?! What are you going to do about it?!" Little Braid complained, "If one of your own hurt another, isn't it your responsibility to—"
"Miss Braid!"
The girl snapped her mouth shut quickly enough to bite her tongue and stared at the other Holiday.
Jack's voice sounded a little forced. "My apologies. Thank you for telling me. I will handle it."
"Does it have something to do with the…the demons," her voice dropped to a faint whisper. No one had ever told her straight out that demons were real.
"Please don't involve yourself. Your leaders would never forgive me."
"But!" Little Braid couldn't find the rest of her sentence as the taller creature stared at her chillingly. She merely looked down with a short nod and a tremble in her throat.
His glare turned her spine to ice.
She realized just how drastically the Halloween Citizens were "stifling" themselves. They were purposely trying not the scare her badly before.
"This way," she muttered.
There was a shift in the branches of a nearby tree and Jack sent a quick glare at the offending noise. There was nothing there, though he wasn't convinced there wasn't something there a moment before.
Time was of the essence.
"He's here…"
"…Hurry and find her, then."
"…But sir…that Halloween spirit…"
"He wouldn't be a problem if you had already found the little brat. How hard is it to find a eight foot tall skeleton!?"