Chapter 2: Where Is This?!
The darkness seemed like it was never going to end! Cool air rushed past her ears as she twisted and fumbled around in the air till she was in a fetal position, all while clutching her bag to her for dear life. Her heart felt like it was in her throat and it was so dark that she couldn't see her hands in front of her face or anything below her. How is all this possible! I'm going to die! I don't want to die, she thought in fear. She had stopped screaming at this point since her throat started hurting and she felt like she was going to go insane in the dark.
That is until she felt something small, dry, and thin smack her in the face causing her to shriek. She reached up quickly to grab it and felt it crunch in her hand. Just as she was about to let it go, a soft glow of light appeared beneath her, revealing a dry leaf in her hand. She glanced down to find the source and saw a white dot of light ascending closer. Surveying her surroundings, she saw nothing but darkness and autumn leaves swirling around her in the wind. As the light grew closer, a small wooden sign with Halloween Town written on it slowly rose past her. What is this?!
Suddenly the light brightened the world around her and she was blinded for a second. This is the end! Just as fast as it came, the light disappeared and the wind had slowed down significantly. She had a second to get her eyes used to her surroundings before realizing that she wasn't in darkness anymore or falling for that matter. She was slowly floating down while frozen in her fetal position, a couple feet above a dirt floor with dull sunlight shining down at her through wispy, gray clouds.
Am I dead? Am I in heaven? Hesitantly, she stretched a leg down to gently touch the floor, almost to check to see if it was real. When her toe deemed it solid, she fully stepped on the ground and whatever was making her float, shifted her body slowly forward till she was standing upright. She stared up to see where she was falling from, expecting to see the darkness, but only saw a gray, outcast sky. That's impossible! This is all just IMPOSSIBLE!
"What the hell?! Where…how…I don't…" she stuttered flabbergasted. Her mind was all over the place with questions. She spun around to look at her surroundings and it only made her more confused. She was standing atop a hill that overlooked a giant graveyard on one side and a bridge that led to a forest on the other. Everything was unfamiliar to any place she knew of on earth. The landscape, including the sky was brown, gray and dead.
"Where am I?!" From where she stood, she could see the silhouette of a city in the distance. Maybe I can find some help there! Slowly, she made her way down the hill and toward the graveyard while glancing around cautiously. She brought her hand up to smooth her hair back and away from her face like she always did when, but she pulled it away quickly with a hiss. Looking down at her hand she saw the forgotten dirty scrape from the night before on her palm. She reached into her bag and found a water bottle and a napkin. After she cleaned her cut and had put a band aid on it, she continued walking along the path. She had always kept a box of band aids in her room in case her dad ever got too violent.
"T-this is all too weird!" she exclaimed as she continued onto a path through a pumpkin patch. After a couple minutes of almost getting lost, she walked through an iron gate that lead to the massive graveyard. "This place is freaking huge!" she whispered to herself as she passed by dozens of graves and tombstones. She even noticed a few stone mausoleums with horrifying gargoyles crouching over the entrances. Spider webs that draped over them glistened in the sunlight. Rats and spiders would skitter across the floor.
She walked across a rickety wooden bridge then through another small iron gate that led to more graves. To her left, she could see a giant twisted dead tree with no leaves in the distance surrounded by more graves. To her right was yet another iron gate with a skull shape on top that seemed to lead towards the town. Some civilization!
"This has to be a dream! ...Right?!" She made her way to the gate and was about to walk through it, when she heard a wispy sound. Slowly, she turned around to see a white shape floating in the air. It looked like a dog with a long snout, but made out of blanket. A transparent white dog that was floating in mid-air. A ghost dog. She gasped in surprise and felt frozen to the spot. A ghost?! Shit, what should I do?!
The dog turned its head towards her and barked before floating her way. It hovered before her with what seemed like a happy expression. It was hard to tell since it didn't have a tail, but it looked like it smiled at her. Its black eye sockets just stared at her, waiting for her to acknowledge it. It's…actually kind of cute. Maybe it won't hurt me. She reached out hesitantly to pet it and found that she could touch him. She could feel a cool breeze go up her arm as she continued to pet him. He nuzzled his head into her touch and the tip of his nose began to glow. It was orange and it had the face of a pumpkin on it.
"G-good puppy," she said softly. She looked under his head to see a red collar, but no name tag. From the corner of her eye, she could see a small gravestone. It was in the shape of a doghouse with a cross on the top and it had a dogs head in the opening. It was surrounded by a little gate and it read ZERO above the dog head.
"I-is your name Zero?" she asked it, not really sure if it could understand her. It barked in response and nodded its head.
"You can understand me!" Again it nodded.
"Can you help me get out of here?" It barked and floated through the gate and towards the town. It would stop and wait for her if he went too far. She followed him hastily, happy to see the dog was there to help. After walking for 5 minutes, they finally made it to a strange looking gate that was closed between them and the town. The iron bars were sharp and weirdly shaped. A small stone shack resided on the other side of the gate with a small wooden sign that read, Gate Keeper, hanging at the top.
Peeking through the bars, she surveyed what she assumed was the town square, but was confused at how empty it was. She walked closer to the gate keepers hut and tried knocking on its wall through the bars.
"Hello?! Excuse me! Is anyone there?" she shouted hoping for an answer. When she didn't receive one, she sighed in frustration. How can I get in? Maybe I can climb over a wall or something. Or maybe I could-. Barking interrupted her train of thought and caught her attention. Zero had poked his head out of the gate and motioned his head for her to follow. She walked over to notice a big gap in the middle. Or we can take the easy way. Her cheeks turned pink in slight embarrassment as she climbed through the gate.
In the middle of the town square, there lay a small fountain that spouted out green, sparkly water from a stone beast's mouth. The architecture of the whole town was odd and gray with spikes, curls, and monster faces. It was something she had never seen before. However odd it may be, there still should have been people walking around, but there was no one in sight. There was one giant building that stood behind the fountain with giant columns and a clock near the top. The clock had a spider web design and a countdown bar that said Days till Halloween. According to the countdown, Halloween was only 10 days away. That's right! I almost forgot!
She stepped up to the fountain and stared at her reflection. EW! I look terrible! She set her bag down and was about to reach in to clean up a little when she heard rocks breaking and the ground shaking. She whipped her head to see a dirty, oddly shaped skeleton standing a few feet away from the fountain.
What the hell is that?! It wobbled back and forth almost unsteady then stopped moving when it saw her. It gave a loud roar at her then hunched over and began wobbly walking toward her ready to attack. With a yelp, she stepped back and turned to run, but bumped straight into another skeleton. Eyes widening in fear, she was able to dip out of the way in time as it swiped at the spot she was just standing in.
"Help! Someone! Please!" she shouted. She looked around to find anywhere to hide, but didn't know this town well enough. She also tried to find something to use to defend herself, but all she found was some big chunks of the concrete wall and to her luck a small spear made of a broken iron-gate piece. That will have to do! She quickly ran and grabbed her makeshift weapons. "Bring it on you boney fuckers!" They were pretty slow, but she knew they could sneak up on her if she didn't pay attention.
She charged forward and around them and used their slow speed to her advantage. She got close enough behind one before it turned to plunge the spear through the empty spaces of its body and lodged it to catch onto the bones. She used all of her strength to pull it upward and away onto the ground. She found their bone bodies to be pretty light. While it was still down, she rushed over to its body and used one of the concrete chunks to break the skull into pieces. This proved to be useful as the rest of the body disintegrated into dust.
She looked over just in time to see another skeleton spin its body like a top and push her down. She reached for the spear and quickly got up into a crouch just as it was above her. She used that to her advantage and hooked the spear onto its ribs to pull it down with her then used the momentum to kick it off her. She quickly got back on her feet and stabbed the spear into its skull with all her might. Just like the last, it stopped moving and turned to dust, but ended up getting the spear stuck into the ground. With all the fighting happening she didn't hear more skeletons spawn till she turned and one was close enough for it to swipe at her chest. She barely backed away in time as a claw shred through the cotton on her shirt and left small cuts on her skin.
She stumbled back and looked at the damage for a second then looked up in time to see it about to swipe again. She caught its arm in time and held her stance, pulled back her fist, then let it go. It collided with its head, but not enough to damage it only to stun it. If anything she hurt herself, but she fought the numbed pain away. She instead brought her other hand up to join the one clutching the arm, spun around used her body core to flip the skeleton over shoulder and onto the floor. The concrete block she used before was still there, so she grabbed it before the monster could stand up and smashed the skull in like before.
She raised her hand to hit one more time until bony fingers grasped her wrist. She whipped her head up to see another even more jagged skeleton holding a weapon that looked like a long bone. This thing was bigger and it looked stronger. It lifted her up as if she didn't weigh anything then threw her across the courtyard. She hit the ground hard and rolled a couple times across the stone floor. Her bottom lip was stinging and she was probably bleeding somewhere.
"Augh! FUCK!" she groaned. She rolled onto her belly to get up, but looked up to see 2 more skeletons like the one that threw her raise their weapon. She rolled away both times they tried to hit her, but was now stuck in a corner by the fountain that she couldn't escape. She shut her eyes and curled into herself, bringing her hands up to block her head. The expected attack never came however. There was a sound of a gooey whip, a cracking noise, and a thud. She looked up to see a headless skeleton body fallen on the floor in front of her and the other attacker looking over at her savior standing a few feet away. It was another skeleton, but it was different than the other ones.
The first thing she noticed was it was extremely tall and thin. His head was more round and white while the others were more jagged and dirty. It was also wearing a black and white pin striped suit with a bat bowtie. There was a green slimy thing wrapped around his wrist and the skull of her enemy in his hand. His hand squished the skull into dust and the body followed suit. As her attacker turned to attack him, the clothed skeleton threw the green slime around his wrist like a whip and began throwing the enemy against the ground till it too broke into pieces. Her savior finally looked over at her, his expression softening from anger to worry as he ran over to her side. She tried getting on her knees, but hissed and noticed she scraped through her pants and on her knees.
"Ow! Shit!" she cried out. Her hands were scraped too and she felt some fingers in her right hand were cracked and scratched from that punch earlier. Now that the adrenaline was fading away, the pain was kicking in. Footsteps made their way towards her and a pair of tiny black shoes stood in front of her. She looked up to the giant and gaped at him. He bent over and held out a long arm to offer his hand down to her.
"My goodness! Are you ok miss?!" he asked worriedly. She looked at his bony hand then back at him. Words failed her in her shock so she stuck to nodding. She took his hand hesitantly then he helped her stand up. Her eyes were as wide as dinner plates as she watched him walk over to grab her bag. I must be dreaming…or dead! It's a walking talking skeleton! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?! He strode over and handed her the bag.
"I am terribly sorry for all of this miss! I'm afraid you've come to Halloween Town at a terrible time!" he exclaimed as she took it. She blinked in confusion at what he said.
"I-I'm sorry…where?!" she asked bewildered.
"Halloween Town. You do know where you are, don't you?" he asked arching his brow bone, which should be impossible. Again blinking at his response, she looked around and began chuckling. It sounded too corny and too fake for it to be true.
"Oh man! This is great! This- this is all just a dream! A weird dream or hell maybe I'm dead! This was what my brain or god could come up with! I'll probably wake up any moment now!" she cackled to herself.
"But miss, this isn't a dream. I'm afraid it's all too real!" Her laughter died down as she realized he was serious. They turned their heads towards the sound of unlocking doors. The doors over at the column building opened slowly and creatures from the likes of nightmares began to spill out into the courtyard. With eyes wide, she watched as a werewolf, a fat clown on a tricycle, a Frankenstein girl, a tree with hanging skeleton men, and so many odd and scary monsters reveal themselves.
"Welcome to Halloween Town!" the tall skeleton exclaimed excitedly gesturing to the creatures. I don't believe this. The blood drained from her face and she felt dizzy. The bag dropped from her grip and her heart was beating rapidly in her chest.
"Miss? Are you alright?" Her knees buckled beneath her and darkness swept across her vision. "Miss!" The last thing she saw was the skeleton reaching out to catch her.
Forgive my terrible fight scene.