Happy Halloween!

I'm going on a ghost tour tonight, so if you never hear from me again, you'll know what happened XD

Not completely happy with this one, but I really wanted to do something for Halloween. It has also come to my attention that I'm not that good at writing anything scary :/

Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians

Holiday Spirit

...

It was a completely unproductive meeting, not that that was anything new, and apparently Jack wasn't the only one to think so. Sandy, seated beside him, was happily snoozing away, and Tooth was flittering about on the other side of the room animatedly ordering her fairies in their tasks.

To be fair, it hadn't started out as a waste of time – they'd actually had news this time. Tooth had reported, much to her distress, that the one of the major 'cavity' seasons had arrived, which when translated into something a little more important, meant that it was the time of year when Pitch would be at his strongest (and therefore most likely to try something). Jack had tried to tell them that they had nothing to worry about but before he'd even got half a sentence out someone made a passing comment about holidays and prompted another round of Christmas vs. Easter banter. Jack honestly couldn't even remember what had been said.

After Sandy had dozed off, Jack couldn't bring himself to bother trying to pay attention anymore and had let his mind wander.

"What do you think, Frostbite?"

Jack was snapped back to the present by a slightly irritated Australian-accented, overgrown rabbit.

"Wha?" he mumbled unintelligibly.

Bunny sighed in exasperation. "Which holiday is better?" the glare that accompanied his words practically dared him to say Christmas. Jack almost wanted to just to spite him.

In the end, though, it wasn't a hard decision. "Oh, well that's easy."

Bunny and North leaned forward in their seats in anticipation.

"Halloween."

"What?!" the two holiday icons cried in unison.

"You can't be serious, mate!"

"Bah! Christmas is much more important than Halloween!"

"Well, I'll admit it's not overly important in terms of children believing," Jack granted, "but I stand by my decision."

Bunny was looking at him like he'd betrayed him.

"Hmm, is Halloween today," North pointed out, having seemingly forgotten all about their argument.

"So?" Bunny raised a brow.

"We should do something."

"What are we doing?" Tooth asked, rejoining the group. She gently nudged Sandy awake with her elbow.

"Why?" Bunny gaped. "We've never done anything for Halloween."

"Because we are family and family do things together on holidays; does not matter that is not important one," North explained.

Jack fidgeted awkwardly in his seat. "Uh… I'm gonna have to take a raincheck."

Four sets of eyes settled on him.

"What?" he frowned under the scrutiny. "I already have plans."

"You have plans," Bunny echoed sceptically.

"Yes," Jack huffed indignantly. "Just cause you guys never celebrate it, doesn't mean I don't."

"Um, guys, what about the Pitch problem?" Tooth cut across, trying to bring the topic back on track.

"As I was trying to say before," Jack sent a meaningful glance at North and Bunny, "Pitch isn't going to be a problem tonight, trust me."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Tradition. He may be more powerful tonight than any other night of the year, but he won't be actively scaring kids – he'll leave that to the Nightmares. Trust me; we have nothing to worry about. Just be sure to give them so good dreams, Sandman, and they'll be fine."

Sandy nodded in affirmation.

Bunny opened his mouth to ask 'what tradition' but was cut off as all the lights went out, rendering them all in darkness.

The five Guardians sat in silent stupor for several seconds while the event slowly processed in their minds.

North's 'hmm' broke the silence. "Strange; there should be nothing wrong with bulbs and all wires were checked recently."

A bright golden elf appeared presumably above where Sandy was sitting.

"Is possible."

"Does anyone have a light?" Bunny grumbled.

As if waiting for this exact cue, a line of small blue flame-like lights flickered into existence, leading out of the Globe Room and around the corner.

"I take it back, no light is fine."

"Are those will-o-the-wisps?" Tooth asked.

"Well, you know what they say about will-o-the-wisps," Jack said casually, walking towards the trail with his staff hung carelessly across his shoulders.

"Oi, you wouldn't have anything to do with this would you, mate?" Bunny came to walk beside him. It was phrased as a question but from his tone of voice it sounded like he'd already come to a conclusion.

"You're kidding, right?" Jack looked at him (well, what he could see of him in the dim blue light) with a mix of a deadpan and amusement. "Do you honestly think the wisps would listen to me?"

"Fair point."

Jack wasn't sure, and he had brought it on himself, but he couldn't help but feel he'd just been insulted.

As a group they moved down the hallway, letting the wisps guide them… right into a something thin that clung to them, instantly turning them all into kung-fu masters, which only served to get them more covered and tangled.

"Please tell me this isn't a spider web," Jack groaned, tugging on the hand holding his staff in an attempt to free it from where it was suspended in the surprisingly strong web.

And then the wisps disappeared.

"Just perfect," Bunny's sarcasm hinted to his position somewhere on Jack's left.

"Ugh, my wings are stuck," Tooth complained. "This web is huge!"

"Makes you wonder about the spider that lives in it…" North contributed.

Tooth's tugging increased in fervour.

"Stop breathing on me, rabbit," Jack jerked his shoulder in a futile attempt to free himself.

"I'm nowhere near you, mate!"

"Sandy?"

A dream sand cross flashed in his peripheral vision.

"North?"

"Is not me, Jack."

"Well, it can't be Tooth; I can feel her panicking way over there."

The tugging of the web stopped at this, and Jack could practically feel the look of horror she was sending him.

"Sandy, light!" she cried.

A wave of dream sand sprang to life, spilling gentle light around them and casting long shadows across the walls. Hesitantly, the Guardians (except Jack, who couldn't move his head) lifted their gazes to the space directly above Jack.

There were several sharp intakes of breath.

"Jack," Tooth said quietly, eyes wide. "Don't make any sudden movements."

Jack raised a brow, his eyes darting upwards as he tried to see what had the others so shaken, but couldn't make out anything other than the white of his hair. He turned to Sandy, directing the unspoken question to the only one he could actually see.

The Sandman locked eyes with him, seemingly understanding. Biting his lip, an image began to slowly form above him; a perfect sand-replica of Jack and the position of the thing above him. Jack's eyes widened as the implication sunk in.

"Oh come on," he rolled his eyes. "That's not even a spider!"

Sandy gave him a look to let him know he was dead serious.

"Oh," Jack managed.

The web started moving; they could feel the light tugging of the fine strings. Sandy's heart clenched in horror as the thing began closing the distance between itself and its target.

"Um, guys," Jack said, his voice tinged with worry. "I could probably use a little help right now." He pulled his head forward with all the strength he could muster, gasping in light shock as it tore free from the sticky web. Now partially free, he craned his neck upwards, locking eye-to-eye with what could only be described as a zombie.

Sandy couldn't say he was happy about the development. If anything, he felt it was probably better that the winter spirit had stayed exactly as he had been. Well, not exactly; it was probably better that he was as far away from the thing above him as was physically possible, but in this case he meant that Jack hadn't seen what they had already realised.

The corpse was missing an eye, and most of its hair, several teeth, half of one arm… well, the list went on. Its skin was an unhealthy blue-ish tinge, accentuated by the bleak lighting. It was perched on the web like a three legged spider, apparently not caught up as they were, which it proved as it began slowly dragging itself down towards him.

"Ah, hey," Jack said to it, obviously trying to cover the panic in his voice. "Can't we talk about this?" he gave a hard pull with the arm holding his staff, trying to pry it free, but to no avail. "I mean, technically speaking we're not all that different; you could describe me as a reanimated corpse, too, if you thought about it… We could be considered brothers. Or cousins. Distant relatives?"

The others winced at the comparison.

"You know, except for the whole 'brain eating' thing. And the slow walking. And the missing limbs bit. And I'm not blue. And I didn't come out of the ground. And no acid or anything was involved." He was rambling, he realised, and clamped his mouth shut.

The zombie apparently either didn't care or hadn't understood a word, continue its approach unfazed.

"Or… not," there was a second's pause. "I'm… going to scream now."

One rotting hand stretched out towards him, reaching to grab hold of the boy's head. Sandy couldn't do anything to help without the free use of his hands, and so was resigned, like the others, to watch in trepidation at what could possibly be the end of their youngest member. It was hard to tell, really, what would happen. What Jack had said was true – he was technically a kind of zombie. Would anything change?

Adrenaline seemed to come to the rescue, however, the web around Jack's body freezing so that a single lurch was all it took for Jack to break free. The winter spirit jumped forward, spinning around the second his feet touched the ground and sending a blast of ice at his assailant, effectively trapping the zombie to the web. He then promptly pulled the others free.

"Would someone please explain to me what a zombie is doing here?" Bunny asked, his voice rising in pitch.

"I'd like to know how it got here," North frowned, looking as though he were the least freaked out of the lot of them.

Tooth zipped over to Jack, checking him over for injuries. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine," he replied in a shaky voice.

The zombie struggled to free itself, moaning unintelligibly. Sandy formed a ball of dream sand in his palm and hurled it at the thing. At least with it asleep they could take a moment to calm down.

You know, or not.

They all jumped as deep, echoing laughter reverberated around them, seeming to shake their very bones. The poor light the dream waves gave off spread dark shadows across the walls, which slowly started to morph into proper shapes. Heads, bodies, clawed hands, sinister expressions. The shadows stretched out their lanky arms, reaching for them even as they failed to gain any real form.

A sharp cry had them turning to Jack, who was trying to jump away from a long shadow climbing up his leg.

"Jack!" three voices cried simultaneously, the fourth of their number merely able to express himself in the form of a golden exclamation mark.

Where the shadows crawled, Jack's body began to ice over, forming jagged shards across his skin, his clothes. He turned to them with nothing short of panic, a silent plea for help reflected in his eyes.

Bunny whipped out a boomerang and tried smacking it against the solid frost, trying to break the kid out, but the ice only grew stronger and quicker until in only mere moments it had already reached Jack's middle. The Pooka moved back quickly as the shadows reached out their clawed hands for him, barely managing to escape.

The dark shapes were looming in on all sides, quickly making progress towards them. It would only be a matter of seconds before they shared Jack's fate.

Jack, now only one arm and his head free, slammed the butt of his staff down against the ground, sending out a layer of frost that attacked the shadows, freezing them in place. Then the ice completely covered him, leaving him like an ice sculpture.

"Jack," Tooth gasped out, her eyes filled with tears. "There has to be something we can do!"

Darkness fell again, Sandy's dream sand extinguished. When light returned once more, it was in the form of the wisps, leading them on in the same direction they had been before. Only something had changed.

"Where… where did the web and the zombie go?"

"And where's Jack?"

Bunny's question had them all turning sharply to where the frozen winter spirit had been, only to find there was no sign of him; it was like he had never even been there in the first place. A chilling wind blew, its echo like the moans of the dead.

"Should we keep going?" North asked quietly.

There wasn't really much else they could do, so the four remaining Guardians resigned themselves to whatever fate the will-o-the-wisps had in mind for them.

They ended up in the main part of the workshop, only it was barren of life. The yetis were nowhere in sight, and even the elves were missing. Half-finished toys lay scattered across workbenches, looking ghoulish in the dim. No wait; it wasn't the lack of light that was scary.

They were moving.

Dolls with painted faces pushed themselves upright, their unseeing eyes locking onto them and their unmoving lips seeming to grin devilishly. Toy robots whirred to life, their lights blinking red and their monotone voices all the more haunting in the unsettling silence. Bears, remote control cars, heck even doll houses gained mobility, moving jerkily towards them on legs, wheels, or just shuddering along corner by corner.

Tooth whimpered, dropping to land lightly on her feet beside Bunny, clinging tightly to his arm. Bunny reached up and laid a hand over hers in a silent show of comfort.

"What do we do, North?" he asked, his voice low as they all stepped back towards the doorway.

Before the Russian had the chance to speak the wisps disappeared again and for what seemed like the umpteenth time in the last hour, everything went black.

The Guardians held their breath, not daring to move as they strained their ears for any motion. But as seconds ticked by into minutes, it looked as though the toys were no longer out to get them.

Maybe they were okay?

"Do you think… everything's–" Tooth's query quickly morphed into a high pitch scream as something cold landed heavily on her shoulder.

The lights blared back into existence overhead and the Guardians shielded their eyes at the sudden change.

Two sets of laughter drew their attention. They were no longer alone in the room.

Jack stood beside Tooth, his hand resting on her shoulder as he struggled to regain his composure, practically doubled over in his mirth. Another person, a young man, sat on the edge of one of the workbenches, wiping a tear from one of his luminous yellow eyes.

"Oh man," Jack wheezed, "you should have seen your faces!"

Tooth pulled away, scowling at him. "That wasn't funny, Jack!"

"I thought you said you had nothing to do with this," Bunny snapped.

North and Sandy likewise scowled, but sighed in relief all the same.

"I didn't!" Jack told them, recovering. "But I figured out what was going pretty quick and, well… how could I resist?"

"Almost fooled me, too," the black-haired stranger smirked (although, judging from the glowing pumpkin lantern on his head, it wasn't hard to take a guess to his identity). "Hello, Guardians," he mock bowed. "My name is Jack-O-Lantern, spirit of Halloween."

Still a little shaken from the whole ordeal, the Guardians merely nodded, muttering a return greeting.

"What are you even doing here?" Jack asked, ignoring the occasional glare sent his way (he had a feeling they were going to get him back for this). "You normally don't come out until tonight."

"Eh, it's night somewhere in the world," the Halloween spirit shrugged. "Besides, I had to make sure you were still going to come even with your new shiny promotion."

Jack stared at him incredulously. "Of course I was going to come."

Tooth gasped as the zombie from earlier hobbled into the room, moving steadily towards Jack.

The others turned at her shock, easily identifying what she had already seen. Bunny pulled out his boomerangs; just because it had turned out to be a trick (which he had kinda expected) didn't mean he was going to take any chances. But, to their shock, Jack went over to meet the corpse half-way, raising his hand in high-five.

"Hey, Bob," he grinned. "Great acting back there." He winced when the force of the gesture caused Bob's hand to go flying backwards, landing on the floor with a thud. The Guardians shuddered. "Oops, sorry."

"Shall we go then?" Jack-O asked, looking on in amusement.

Jack glanced back at the Guardians. "Can they come?"

"Sure, why not?"

...

...

The Guardians looked on in awe at Jack-O's pumpkin patch, both admiring the beauty of it all and shivering at some of the decorations (and guests). Who knew that a party like this went on every year and they'd never even known about it.

"Frost."

They turned in shock at the familiar tone. It was tinged with slight hatred, but nowhere near as much as they would have normally expected.

Pitch Black was standing behind them, arms crossed as he looked down at the winter spirit.

"Hey, Pitch," Jack smiled, as if he were greeting an old friend. "When'd you get here?"

"What are they doing here?" the Boogeyman asked, eyes glancing up at the Guardians.

"Relax, will you?" Jack rolled his eyes. "Jack-O said they could come. Play nice – it's a neutral time and you know it. Besides, do you really want to risk Jack-O's wrath?"

Pitch narrowed his eyes, but didn't respond. After a moment he turned to stalk away. "Better be careful, Jack," he said with false care. "I saw Death lurking around earlier."

Jack sighed as he felt his family's intense gazes boring into his back.

"Care to explain?" Bunny asked with a raised brow, exchanging a look with Sandy.

"Well… let's just say that Death doesn't like me very much," Jack replied awkwardly. "Come on, there are some… err… I'm not sure 'people' is the right word… anyway, there's some spirits I'd like you to meet."

Despite the eerie atmosphere and the occasional skeleton lying around (which half the time they couldn't tell if it was a decoration or a guest), the Guardians quickly relaxed in the unfamiliar setting. It was heartening to see Jack so happy, jumping around from one guest to the next, treating them all like they'd known each other for centuries (which they probably had). And, as the night wore on, North and Bunny had to admit (but only to themselves) that maybe Halloween wasn't quite so bad.

Maybe.

Guest Review Responses:

SaiyanPrincess: Ugh homework. Don't be like me and procrastinate too much! Glad you got a kick out of it XD