He remembered smiling children's faces, but there was something wrong with them. They looked like masks. Then a darkness swallowed him whole, and he was bound up in a sack and carried off, with unearthly laughter rattling in his ears.

"Easter Bunny?"

He thought maybe it was some kind of joke. He remembered when the knot loosened, and he sprang out to open air, but instead of a bustling field of flowers, it was some kind of auditorium of muted colors and the structure was twisted and uneven, like someone tortured the architect.

"Bunny?"

The room was occupied by ghastly creatures, including a skeletal figure with no skin, so he decided to approach the most humanoid shape. It was a hulking figure, who appeared to be dressed as a butcher in overalls lacking a shirt, with a peculiar hat and unblinking eyes. No, that wasn't hat—it was an axe in his skull! Then the butcher's gaping mouth dropped open and he bellowed—

"Bunny!"

The pink rabbit jolted from his thoughts, flinging his paintbrush in the air. Easter Bunny flittered his head about, stuttering, until the paintbrush came down and clonked his skull. He groaned and rubbed his soft head, finally turning to the young, brownish chicken staring at him.

"S-sorry, Spring Chicken. I didn't notice you come in," Easter Bunny apologized. His voice was rather high-pitched and nasally. He put the paintbrush back down on the table in front of himself and asked, "Did you need something?"

"Well, ah was comin' to check on how paintin' them eggs was goin'," she answered with a thick drawl.

"Oh, I just finished a batch," Easter Bunny said as he off-handedly waved to the side, still trying to shake the sinister images from his mind.

"Really now?" Spring Chicken responded with a raised eyebrow. She wore a pair of spring shoes, so she bobbed slightly when she incredulously pointed her wing, "Y'shore there ain't there somethin' not right with yer paintin'?"

Easter Bunny looked again and choked a gasp, suddenly confronted by the nightmarish faces from his thoughts that he inadvertently drew on the eggs. He shuddered a groan, placing his elbows on the table and sunk his fuzzy face into his paws.

Spring Chicken's sass fell away to genuine concern. She patted a wing to his back and gently asked, "Ah'm sahrry, Bunny. Are them nightmares still botherin' you?"

"It wasn't a nightmare, Chicken. It was real."

She maintained a gentle and soothing expression, "Ah know. Ah'm shore it felt very real."

Easter Bunny flinched his head up and looked to her despairingly, "But it was real!"

Spring Chicken frowned a bit. She put her wings on both his shoulders now and looked him seriously in his beady eyes, "An' you've been sayin' that. Now, ah know you ain't a liar, but, Bunny, as far as anyone saw, you done never left your rabbit hole all night."

"But they kidnapped me while everyone was asleep—"

"An' that's why everybody's been keepin' watch every night since. And ain't nobody seen hide nor tail of no intruder. So, ah figger, at the very least, whoever 'nabbed you that night ain't. Comin'. Back."

At each of the last three words she inched her head closer until her beak pressed against his nose. He helplessly stuttered "But" a few times before finally deflating in defeat. Her gaze softened again and she patted his head in assurance, "Maybe it'd be best left as a bad dream anyways. Get some shut-eye, Bunny. Ah'll bring some more eggs tomorra an' we can paint 'em tuhgetha."

"…Okay," Easter Bunny relented. "Thank you, Chicken."

Even though he bid goodbye to Spring Chicken and promptly got himself to his bunny bed, Easter Bunny didn't sleep a wink. Those horrible images stained his thoughts. The fact that no one, not a single person, believed him seemed to make it worse. Surely he didn't imagine it all? He hadn't lost his senses, had he? How could he possibly lead Easter Town if he couldn't trust his own mind?

Easter Bunny sprung from his bed, full of nervous energy. He couldn't sleep, he wouldn't be able to. He decided that he would find proof as to whether or not the nightmare was real. He had to put these demons to rest.

It was the dead of night, but the pink rabbit dressed himself like it was morning. He put on his white sash that said 'HAPPY EASTER' and filled his woven basket with eggs, paint, brushes and ribbons. Easter Bunny slipped out of his burrow, shivering at the dark. He really hoped that Spring Chicken was right.

Now, tracking his kidnappers wasn't going to be easy. The trail had long since gone cold and Easter Bunny couldn't see anything when he was captured. However, he knew every inch of Easter Town, so surely the intruders he never saw before came from somewhere he never went before? He decided that he'd start there, hopping in a direction he rarely went, farther than he had ever gone.


Easter Bunny hopped without pause, even when the cozy night stirred awake into morning light. The rising sun looked akin to a painted egg, and it was usually so pretty to admire. But Easter Bunny could scarce take it in, on account of having trouble keeping open his bleary eyes. He gave a great big yawn with his buck teeth and twitched his black nose. Though his feet were tired, he kept hopping, hoping to run into something eventually.

He ran into a tree. Easter Bunny flopped over, and his eggs spilled onto the ground. Thankfully all eggs were still intact. He blinked in bewilderment at his surroundings.

Easter Bunny was in a forest he didn't recognize. The trees were tall, and they had bustling green canopies, with all their branches high up at the top. He rose his long ears, realizing that, despite it being a forest, there were no birds singing, no deer tiptoeing nor even any squirrels scurrying about. There weren't any flowers or bushes either, just trees. Stranger yet, the particular batch of trees in front of him were in a purposely circular formation. That alone would have been the oddest thing, but these trees had some kind of doors on each of them. One door was shaped like a turkey, another was a heavily-decorated pine tree, the next was a pink heart, then a four-leaf clover, followed by a firecracker and finally—

Easter Bunny's heart dropped to his stomach at the last door. It was an orange pumpkin with a wickedly grinning face carved into it. This was the exact image he kept seeing in his nightmares.

"It's real?" Easter Bunny uttered in a horrified hush, scrapping up his fallen eggs and clutched them close like a child clinging to a teddy bear for comfort.

He and the door stared at each other for quite some time.

Easter Bunny only stirred when he was certain the twisted pumpkin face wasn't going to leap out at him. He placed the eggs back in his basket, not taking his eyes off the door, and he stood. Now, part of him wanted to race back to Easter Town immediately and tell the others what he found. However, another part of him was trying to figure out how his kidnappers got through. Perhaps the tree was hollow, like a burrow. But recalled they had some kind of mobile bathtub, and he couldn't understand how it could have fit through. Curiosity got the best of Easter Bunny, and he decided to peek through the door without entering it.

When he opened the pumpkin-shaped door, it was hollow like he expected, but the tree's inside was also far darker, vaster and more unending than he thought. Easter Bunny decided this was a good time to turn tail and get his friends. He decided this too late.

The moment Easter Bunny turned from the door, the shadows gathered like leeches around him and a chilling wind coiled a chain of autumn leaves around him. Then he was yanked back by an invisible hand and fell screaming into the tree, while the pumpkin door dragged shut on its own behind him. He was swallowed into a whirlpool of orange lights that was sucked into darkness.


The darkness seemed bottomless, and Easter Bunny feared he might fall forever in some kind of boundless gullet of nothing. But then instead of falling downward, he seemed to tumble forward instead, which threw him directly into a pool of crunchy autumn leaves.

Easter Bunny's ears poked out of the leaves first, then his head followed, nose twitching cautiously. He spat out some pale red and orange leaves along the way. It was quiet, and everything was dark as night. Nothing was in bloom, and everything seemed to be in a state of constant decay, like a preserved mummy. The wind rattled, not the refreshing breeze he was used to, but instead it was chilled and sounded more like a whisper than anything. As a rabbit, his eyes were actually pretty good in the dark, yet there wasn't much even he could see. Though, there was a light ahead. It was in the shape of a head, making his stomach drop.

No, it wasn't a head—sort of. It was a pumpkin with a face carved on it, and the orange light came from inside, through the crooked mouth and eyes. The pumpkin was stuck onto pole, making the head of a scarecrow. At the very top, the sign read, 'HALLOWEEN TOWN'.

That clenched it. Easter Bunny wasn't imagining things. At least he could take comfort in the fact that he wasn't going crazy and tell the others what he found.

Easter Bunny turned around to where he assumed the doors were. But there were no doors, just bare trees. He was also surrounded by pumpkins.

He uttered an unintelligible, horrified sound and shot to his feet.

"H-how do I get home?" he gasped. Easter Bunny clutched his ears and tugged down, desperately trying to center himself. "There—there's gotta be a way. They brought me back home! Yes, there is a way. I-I just need to find it."

The wind crawled over him, and he heard a wooden creak. Easter Bunny looked over at a crooked tree, whose branch bent downward, far closer to the rabbit than before. The twigs flexed open like fingers and the branch reached closer.

Easter Bunny made an undignified screech and darted away, farther into the pumpkin patch. Every time he thought he found a safe spot, a pale ghost sprang from the soil like steam or a wolf's howl pierced him as an arrow. He ran and ran, too panicked to think, hoping to just stumble on a good place to stop.

His feet caught on thick pumpkin vines and tumbled. He didn't stop until he slammed against a rather large pumpkin. Turned out the gourd was tougher than he was, and so crashing his face into it promptly knocked him out.


Easter Bunny's head thumped dully as he hesitantly opened his eyes. His bunny bed felt weird, and there seemed to be a draft in his burrow. He opened his eyes fully and saw a ghastly moon grinning horribly at him, reminding him he wasn't home anymore. He was stuck in some haunted pumpkin patch in Halloween Town. Easter Bunny moaned and turned his head over.

He promptly met the unblinking eyes of a hulking, blue-skinned man gaping at him, noses inches apart.

Easter Bunny shrieked and lurched up, promptly clonking his head on a low-hanging branch. The tree rattled as the rabbit groaned and touched his paws to the bump on his head.

"Bunny wake," the man spoke in a slow, meandering manner, as if he didn't know many words. "Bunny came back again."

Easter Bunny looked in surprise at the man standing over him. The rabbit recognized the axe jutting out of the man's skull and realized it was the same butcher he met before. Easter Bunny shrunk against the tree, ears flattening and he squeaked, "Um. Hello?"

The man stared. He rose his big hand and waved it, answering, "Hello."

Questions buzzed through Easter Bunny's head. He had no idea what to say, to ask. Should he just ask how to leave? Will the man let him leave?

While the rabbit internally fretted, the man spoke first, "What's Bunny doing in my pumpkin patch?"

"This is…your pumpkin patch?"

The man nodded, "Uh-uh." He reached over and patted a pumpkin, a bit like patting a child's head, "I make sure my precious pumpkins grow nice an' big."

Easter Bunny blinked in surprise. He didn't expect the butcher to actually be pumpkin farmer. Looking around at the pumpkins and trying to be polite, he replied, "W-well, you seem to do a good job. These are the biggest pumpkins I've ever seen."

The man may have had a blank stare but he positively beamed at the compliment.

Easter Bunny nervously tapped his paws together, realizing the conversation was going more pleasantly than he thought. Maybe he could ask about the way home without any trouble.

"Oh, Bethemoth!" a gentleman's voice called out in a singsong. "Are you here?"

Easter Bunny's head snapped in that direction, recognizing the voice in an instant. From the slope of the hill, a skeletal figure emerged. He towered over them with his spider leg-thin arms and legs, dressed in a black suit that made his stark white, skinless round head stick out all the more.

"Hi Jack," the pumpkin farmer, Behemoth, greeted.

"There you are! Excellent! I was hoping to get some fresh pumpkins for—" Jack's empty eye sockets caught on Easter Bunny, and he did a brief double-take. "Oh? Who's this? You seem familiar…"

Easter Bunny couldn't help but shrink back a bit when the skeleton leaned forward to scrutinize him better.

"This is Bunny," Behemoth answered.

"Why, that's right! You're from one of the other holidays! We brought you here accidentally!" Jack exclaimed. He dropped into an apologetic tone, "I'm terribly sorry for that mix up from before. I do hope you can forgive my carelessness."

The skeleton's pleasant demeanor caught Easter Bunny by surprise and all he could think to say was, "Oh, um, it's…alright?"

"What a relief," the skeleton said, looking genuinely relieved. He blinked and suddenly clacked a bony hand onto his head, belting out a laugh, "Oh! Silly me! Why, I don't believe I've properly introduced myself!"

He moved with the grace of a ballet dancer and managed to stage the yellow moon behind him to give his elegant bow all the more flair, "I am Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town."

"U-um, nice to meet you. I'm Easter Bunny from, well, Easter Town," the rabbit said. He shook Jack's skeletal fingers with his fuzzy pink paw.

Jack gave a lipless smile, "A pleasure to meet you." When they released hands, he asked, "But what are you doing back here in Halloween Town? You weren't taken from your home again, were you?" Jack's concerned expression turned serious and he scowled, "If it's Lock, Shock and Barrel up to their old tricks…"

Sensing that someone else was going to get in trouble on his behalf, Easter Bunny quickly spoke up, "No, no! I, um, came here on my own. I-I wasn't sure if this place was real, so I tried to find it again."

Jack brightened up once again, a shine seeming to enter his empty eyes sockets, "Indeed we are real! Isn't it grand? All of us other holidays, existing right beside each other the whole time!" The skeletal man spun around as he said this when he was struck by an idea. He leaned back down to Easter Bunny and excitedly offered, "Since you've come all this way, how would you like a tour of Halloween Town?"

Easter Bunny nervously fiddled with the handle of his basket. He carefully asked, "Will I be able to go home afterwards?"

"Of course! I'll make sure you're safely escorted back home, I promise," Jack answered, and Easter Bunny felt he meant every word.

Jack's pale, jointed fingers then closed over Easter Bunny's paw, and he pulled him along the pumpkin patch, beaming like a full moon, "Come, come! Let's get to town! There's so much to show you!"

As the rabbit was led out of the pumpkin patch, Jack talked excitedly and practically non-stop. Easter Bunny's ear flicked behind him, and he noticed that Behemoth followed them. Jack pointed out every tombstone they passed. He noted the spiral hills, the popular haunting spots, the lagoons, the places where shadows liked to hide and all of the bat roosts.

They reached a warped shape of a town, and the black iron gates creaked open like they had a mind of their own. Buildings and cobblestone patterns curled like some massive hands had reached down and twisted them. Easter Bunny's fur stood on end when he got a look at the town's residents.

His gaze was filled with the sight of an assortment of monstrous creatures; red eyes with sharp teeth, snake-like fingers, pale-skinned men with pointed fangs, a deviously smiling clown, fish-like creatures that walked on land, and the list went on of horrifying shapes he could scarce take in. All the while, Jack wrangled over a cone-shaped man with a very tall and thin top hat and a ribbon that said 'Mayor'. Jack borrowed some kind of metal megaphone and announced Easter Bunny's visit to everyone.

The rabbit's feeling of dread was made tenfold when all of the residents' unearthly eyes focused on him. Easter Bunny barely registered Jack's words as he told the townspeople to treat their guest politely, provide a warm welcome and to not offer him any rabbit stew. This didn't comfort Easter Bunny nearly as much as Jack probably thought it did.

Regardless, Easter Bunny was led farther in by Jack. It seemed that, since Jack lacked lungs, that meant he could talk without having to take a breath. The skeleton left no landmark unnoticed, pointed out every building, passing resident and the alarming number of guillotines that dotted the town.

Next on their tour, Jack brought them to a solitary building that looked like a metal orb sagged off the top of a circular base, as if the tower had a hunched back. Jack explained this was the lab of Doctor Finklestein, a renowned scientist who helped Jack develop his ideas for Halloween. The door was answered by a large-headed woman dressed in faux-fur, and Jack greeted her as Jewel.

Stepping into the building, Easter Bunny was struck by the smell of chemicals, metal and the taste of electricity in the air. They ascended the spiraling stairs, to the lab that had the most flickering lights. There, the aforementioned doctor was hunched over a table, and he turned his electric wheelchair around to face them. Doctor Finklestein and Jewel looked identical, with the same large heads and protruding frog-like lips, with their eyes behind small black glasses.

"This is our guest, the Easter Bunny from the neighboring Easter Town! He manages a holiday just like us, and he wanted to learn more about Halloween," Jack introduced.

Doctor Finklestein pressed his lips together and made a low hum. His gaze made Easter Bunny feel like he was on a dissection table. The scientist inquired, as if suspicious, "What is this 'Easter' about anyways?"

Easter Bunny fiddled with the basket of eggs and answered, "Well…it's essentially about springtime, new life and resurrection."

Doctor Finklestein loudly scoffed, "New life and resurrection! I handle those things frequently."

He yanked a lever on his wheelchair, bringing himself to a level on the wall. Doctor Finklestein pulled it with a heavy clack. Machines whined to life, electricity filled the room with white-hot hisses. While the electricity coursed through the room, Easter Bunny realized that Behemoth was there too, having quietly followed them. The man had curiously stuck his tongue against a mechanism, which caused him to jolt and his eyes to roll about wildly. But then his eyes simply returned to normal and he settled like nothing happened. Then Doctor Finklestein started laughing victoriously. A skeletal mis-mash of creatures rattled and stirred on the operating table, reaching for Easter Bunny. The rabbit nearly let out a shriek, only for the experiment to slump over and crumple uselessly to the floor.

All the room's occupants stared at the still-body for a moment. The doctor's lip twitched and he snapped angrily at the back of the room, "Igor! Adjust the calibrations! Then run it again!"

Jack, unbothered by the chaos, led Easter Bunny out the room, saying, "Let's leave the doctor to his work."

Leaving the laboratory, Jack had them dart over murky puddles deeper than they looked, wave hello to a group of street musicians who seemed to be fused to their instruments, and pass under a bridge where Easter Bunny wasn't sure if he saw the eyes of dozens of creatures, or a single creature with dozens of eyes. Jack decided they could take a reprieve at the Witch's Shop. And this is what Jack found relaxing, Easter Bunny dreaded to think of what he found stressful!

Upon entering the door, Easter Bunny almost flopped over from the smell alone; it was like a hoard of frogs turned a spice cupboard into a personal swimming pool, using an oily ooze of concerning origin as the water. A pair of witches in pointed hats stood over a cauldron of glowing green contents, and they practically swooned the moment Jack stepped inside, more than happy to oblige with whatever he needed.

Easter Bunny felt a witch's eye land on him as she peered past her own, massive nose wart. She cooed, "And what's this you brought, Jack? It has such a lovely coat and ears…" The rabbit was certain he heard the snip of scissors at the end of the that sentence.

"This is our guest of honor visiting all the way from Easter Town. Think of Mr. Easter Bunny as a dear friend," Jack introduced.

The witches made a unified noise of intrigue and awe. Easter Bunny couldn't help but notice that one of the witches discreetly shoved a glass jar out of sight, and the thing inside might have looked a bit too much like a rabbit's foot.

"Why don't you tell us about what you're brewing?" Jack encouraged.

The witches happily explained, listing ingredients that ranged from snail blisters and owl tongues, all delivered in a cackling rhyme. As politely as Easter Bunny tried to listen, he found it hard. Especially since he noticed that Behemoth had, once again, followed them and curiously moved beside the cauldron. Lacking every sort of self-preservation, Behemoth poked his finger into the glowing swill then stuck his finger in his mouth. The man's eyes briefly bulged, rolling around in an unnatural way, followed by a soft bang inside his mouth, and he hiccupped a plume of smoke. Behemoth simply smacked his lips and shrugged to himself, as if nothing happened.

"Maybe you'd be interested in our wares?" a witch's voice cawed to Easter Bunny, snapping his attention back.

Her sister added, "Yes, yes, we've got plenty goods for little hares."

The witches crowded Easter Bunny with bottles of gleaming and glowing bottles, offering free samples, despite the rabbit's attempts to refuse.

"How would you like to be black, green or blue?"

"U-um, no thank you."

"Or maybe you could grow some fangs, all the better to bite!"

"No, no! I'm alright!"

Easter Bunny finally sprung up and landed by the door. He stuttered, "W-we should be going again, shouldn't we, Jack? I'm sure there's more to see!"

Jack brightened up, oblivious to the whole exchange, "Of course! I've yet to show you the hangman's corner! Thank you for having us," he thanked the witches.

"Come back anytime, Jack!" the sisters called after him.

The tour continued, and, for as many things as Jack had to say about Halloween, he had just as many questions about Easter. He seemed especially fascinated by any differences, like having flowers bloom instead of wither, and using fresh eggs instead of rotten ones.

They didn't get too far, however. Urgent barking filled the air. Easter Bunny expectantly looked at the ground for a dog to come bounding over, only for a ghostly specter of a dog to come flying in.

Jack asked, "What's that, Zero?"

"Woof woof woof!"

Jack tapped a hand to his head, "Melting Man is stuck in the rain gutter? Again?"

"Woof!"

The skeleton sighed and looked to Easter Bunny with a torn look, "I have to take care of this, but I don't want to cut our tour short…"

That was when Behemoth stepped forward, stating, "I show Bunny around."

Jack's surprise immediately turned to elation, "That's perfect! Once you're done exploring the town, let's all meet back at the pumpkin patch, and then I can escort Mr. Bunny back home."

Not sure what to expect, but unable to think of an alternative, Easter Bunny agreed with the arrangement. The ghostly dog barked and led Jack off, leaving the rabbit with Behemoth. They stood for a moment, with the man simply staring at the air for a moment. Just as Easter Bunny thought that maybe he forgot what was doing, Behemoth started walking down the street.

They soon reached a statue of a spider. If it had been Jack, there would have been a twelve-sentence long preamble regarding its history. As for Behemoth, he pointed and stated, "Big spider."

The pair continued farther and he pointed again, "Bell tower."

And so the pattern continued.

"Coffin-maker's."

"Tree."

"'nother tree."

"Interpretive public art piece."

"Road-kill."

"Killer road-kill."

Finally, Behemoth pointed, said "Fountain," and they stopped to rest their feet. The fountain was shaped like a serpent-like creature leaned forward, with a stream of luminescent green liquid spewing from its yawning mouth. Behemoth sat at the edge of the fountain, but Easter Bunny declined, deciding he felt more comfortable hopping around the square. As he explored a bit, he noticed some children playing in their yard. At least, Easter Bunny assumed they were children, with one having his eyes sewn shut and unnaturally grey skin, while the other had a puny body but wings so large they operated like stilts. Even still, they played like children, laughing and running around. Easter Bunny smiled warmly, especially when they noticed him and waved, to which he waved back. Then they picked up a doll, placed it under a miniature guillotine and chopped the head off, and the rabbit's smile fizzled out. The children continued giggling happily as they now passed the head back and forth like a ball. Easter Bunny couldn't help an uneasy sigh. He had a hard time wrapping his mind around the town. Not yet ready to resume the tour, he decided to stall a bit longer by poking around elsewhere.

Easter Bunny then noticed a trail of candy along the ground. He curiously followed it. Now, make no mistake, he was hardly tempted by plastic wrapped treats and lollipops. However, being a professional egg hunt organizer meant that he could appreciate a well-placed goodies-trail when he saw it and he admired the craftsmanship. He did find it odd that there was nothing at the end of the trail, which seemed to be in a bit of bad form.

Then he saw a shadow out of the corner of his eye and he flinched. His ears rose and pivoted. Easter Bunny heard a shuffling and whipped towards it. He only saw a one-eyed cat pawing at some garbage. The rabbit sighed, not hearing anything else, and he turned around.

Three grinning faces stared up at him and shouted, "BOO!"

Easter Bunny shrieked and shot straight up.

Rattling giggles filled the air, while the rabbit found himself clinging upside-down from a curled streetlamp. His trembling only increased when he realized a horrible thing; he knew that laughter. It was them. Easter Bunny craned his neck to look down at his kidnappers, the three masked-children whose crazed smiles haunted him for months, with the mobile bathtub sitting nearby. Their names returned to him like a bile. They met his wide-eyed gaze and their broad smiles widened further, recognizing him.

"It looks like Jack's new guest is our old friend," Lock, the red-devil-dressed boy, commented.

Shock, the girl dressed as a witch replied, "Jack said to treat him nice."

"Give him a warm welcome," Barrel, the other boy dressed as skeleton, added.

Lock grinned further as he asked, "And what's the warmest welcome we could give?"

"Maybe treat him to dinner, maybe a nice stew," Shock answered coyly.

Barrel beamed and declared, "No warmer welcome than inside a boiling pot!"

Easter Bunny whimpered, and the children cackled. The rabbit tried to reason with them, "N-now, I'm just passing through. Please, no need for—yowch!"

His pleas ended in a yelp when Lock had grabbed his pitchfork and poked Easter Bunny's cottontail.

"Just come on down!" Lock prodded.

"Yeah! It'll be fun!" Barrel goaded.

"For us," Shock giggled.

Easter Bunny gulped heavily. He turned his head and shouted, "Help! Heeelp!"

He rose his ears, hoping to hear the sounds of someone coming to his rescue as he shouted. Instead, he overheard someone commenting to their neighbor, "Oo, it sounds like someone's practicing their screams of terror. As they say, 'Prior preparation prevents poor performance!'"

Easter Bunny's ears dropped along with his hope of getting rescued.

The children laughed harder as they continued prodding the rabbit. Their laughter only dwindled when heavy footsteps stopped behind them. They were tense for a moment, thinking it was Jack, but they relaxed upon seeing the vacant stare of Behemoth. They tensed again when they noticed him holding their bathtub over his head.

"What are you—" Lock's question switched to him and his cohorts screaming when the upside-down bathtub clamped over them.

The yelling continued, now muffled and only escaping through the little drain hole. The bathtub shuddered as their tiny hands and feet smacked the inside, to no avail. "Get us out!" "Let us out!" "Ow!" "You stepped on my foot!" "No, you put your foot under mine!" "Quit shoving!" The rattling increased, but now turned against itself.

Behemoth looked to Easter Bunny, unfazed by the hollering children beneath the bathtub, and he asked, "Does Bunny wanna see 'da pumpkins next?"

Easter Bunny blinked for a few moments. His nose twitched and he managed to say, "Uh. Sure."


The walk back to the pumpkin patch was actually quite peaceful. Behemoth already didn't have a lot to say, but he also didn't point out any landmarks that Jack had already mentioned. That meant that Behemoth was paying attention to the entire tour from when it started. When they actually re-entered the pumpkin patch, this changed, and Behemoth had a lot more to say. He pointed out the fresh pumpkins and the old pumpkins, he pointed to the Big Pumpkin Head, then he noted the little pumpkins just starting out. And he addressed every pumpkin by name, regardless of there being hundreds.

Easter Bunny felt an unexpected kinship and held up his basket of eggs, admitting, "I name all of my eggs too. It helps me keep track of where I put them."

Behemoth looked at the eggs and asked, "What are the names of these'uns?"

The rabbit put a gentle paw on the white eggs and answered, "They don't have names yet. I wait until after I paint them."

"Paint eggs?" Behemoth repeated, finding the concept completely foreign.

Easter Bunny rose his ears, "Oh! Here, let me show you."

They found a clear space among the pumpkins to sit. Easter Bunny unpacked his paints and paintbrushes. Then he carefully drew out an egg and carefully rested it on a tree stump. Easter Bunny then set to work, dipping his brush in his paints and then delicately drew a series of pastel dots, lines and zigzags. Behemoth silently watched the paintbrush, never averting his eyes. The pink, light greens and blues stuck out against the dark landscape. Easter Bunny blew lightly against the egg to help it dry.

When the egg was done, Easter Bunny decided to name it 'Neighbor' set it down before Behemoth, who stared with a child-like wonder.

The rabbit smiled more and held out an egg and extra paintbrush, offering, "Would you like to paint one too?"

The man looked very surprised. He then nodded eagerly.

Within minutes, the two were painting eggs side by side. Easter Bunny found he didn't have to tell Behemoth to be gentle with the egg, as the man applied the paintbrush with a surprising delicateness. With his own egg, Easter Bunny decided to paint something with more oranges and greens. As he painted, the rabbit talked about Easter, describing the parades, the egg hunts, the gatherings of remembrance and celebration in congregation, the songs. Behemoth listened carefully and shared more about Halloween in his simple, straight-forward way, describing the nuances of pumpkin-carving and how piles of fallen leaves made great beds and hiding places. The moon hung over head, softer than it was before, and the leaves of the pumpkins seemed to have grown larger. Soon enough, they completed their eggs.

Smiling, the rabbit looked over his new egg and decided, "I think I'll name this one Pumpkin."

It took Behemoth a moment to understand why, and then he seemed pleased when he realized.

"And what will you call yours?" Easter Bunny asked. He noticed that Behemoth's egg was primarily pink and the figure appeared to be a rabbit, if not Easter Bunny himself.

Behemoth answered, "Friend."

Easter Bunny's heart swelled in gratitude.

Not long after, they heard Jack's familiar greeting, but this time, the skeleton man did not come alone. With him was a woman who seemed to be made of patchworks, with stitches across her arms and legs like a ragdoll.

Jack happily introduced her, "This my dear wife, Sally. I figured she should get to see you before we brought you back home."

She smiled sweetly, "It's nice to meet you." Sally then looked purposely at Jack as she added, "I also wanted to stop by the pumpkin patch. I sent someone to get a fresh pumpkin for a pie a few hours ago, but he seemed to have mysteriously forgotten."

Jack chuckled rather bashfully and adjusted his bowtie. As if to change the subject, Jack noticed the colorful eggs and immediately knelt down to get a closer look. He made noises of amazement and carefully picked up an egg, "Would you look at this! It's so colorful! Yet, entirely different than what you'd find here or in Christmas Town."

When he held it up to his skull, it looked a bit like the egg filled his eye socket.

"Christmas Town?" Easter Bunny repeated. The words sounded vaguely familiar, but he never recalled visiting such a place.

Jack answered, "Another holiday town like ours. The leader is quite a nice fellow, even after I had tried my hand at Christmas and admittedly stepped on his toes a bit. But it was all in good fun!" He turned around the egg a bit more, until an idea struck him, and he smiled at the rabbit, starting to ask, "You know, if you're ever interested in taking a vacation one year…"

Sally cleared her throat, raising her eyebrows at him.

The skeleton laughed weakly and gave the egg back to Easter Bunny, "Ah, I'm joking, of course. But certainly, you're welcome to come back and visit Halloween Town anytime."

"Well, thank you," Easter Bunny said. Despite all the scares and chills, the rabbit found there was so much more to the town than he realized. It was with sincerity then that he added to the trio, "And I'd be more than happy to show you around Easter Town."

With a much more boisterous laugh, Jack shook Easter Bunny's paw and said, "We look forward to it!"

After showing Behemoth how to preserve painted eggs, Easter Bunny decided to leave them with him. In turn, Behemoth gave him a pumpkin named Lucy to take home. The pumpkin farmer waved goodbye when Jack finally led Easter Bunny back to the Hinterlands where the holiday doors were.

"Bye-bye, Bunny."


Easter Bunny never noticed how flowery and fresh the air was in Easter Town. After the darker colors of Halloween Town, he saw the vibrant green fields and blooming tulips with fresh eyes. The whole thing would have felt like a dream, if not for the orange gourd that sat in his paws, with a curly green leave tickling his chin. He was excited to return to his burrow, no longer haunted by nightmares, and paint eggs with a renewed vigor.

As he got close to town, he noticed sounds of an uproar and got concerned. What had his community so riled up?

Sproing!

A pair of springs loudly sprung nearby, and a shadow briefly hung over Easter Bunny. He was suddenly tackled into the grass and had Spring Chicken sitting on top of him.

"There y'are!" she exclaimed. "You scared the livin' daylight outta us! Disappearing like that! Ev'body's runnin' around lookin' for ya!"

Easter Bunny was so surprised that he didn't say anything. This got Spring Chicken riled up and she shook him, urging, "Well? Where'd ya run off to? An'…why do you have pumpkin?"

The rabbit's mouth slowly spread into a smile and he answered, "I made some unexpected but wonderful friends."

THE END


CatCrescent: Happy belated Easter! I would've posted this sooner, but then I got busy during the actual holiday and here we are. I found myself wondering how getting kidnapped would've affected the Easter Bunny and here came this idea. I hope you all enjoy and that you had a wonderful Easter Sunday.