I find it hard to believe that I posted "Twisted Friends, Loving Brothers" a year ago. Boy does the time fly! Anyways, this story was inspired from a small event that happened last year on Halloween (you'll be surprised how cold it gets up here in Indiana.). Hope you guys enjoy this little story!
October 31.
To any other being, it would seem to be the last day of any other month of the year. But this particular date just so happens to host the night when creatures such as zombies, vampires, and witches roam the earth. At least, that what it used to be. Nowadays, it was the only night in the year that kids, teenagers, and adults can come up to people's houses in costumes asking for candy without being arrested. Either way, such a night had a name: Halloween.
She herself has had mixed feelings of Halloween throughout the years. She loved it, she hated it, and she loved it again. She went Trick-or-Treating like everyone else, and had a bad experience in a "haunted porch". Every year, old friends would come over and they would celebrate Halloween together. This year, she was feeling pretty "meh" about it.
At this point in her life, she considered herself too old to go Trick-or-Treating. She was now among those who gave away candy to all the princesses and grim reapers. Her and her younger brother, who was too old to dress up in costumes as well, were always standing at the door, as they lived in a large subdivision that didn't lack in any Trick-or-Treaters. They were lucky that they bought enough Kit-Kats and M&Ms for the hundreds of kids and adults that came to the door. But everyone stopped ringing the doorbell almost two hours ago. Now she can enjoy the company of her friends and snack on any leftover candy in peace.
Of course now, she had to think about Thanksgiving, and then her mood turned slightly sour. Thanksgiving was never a horrible holiday, except for the fact that stores would always advertise Christmas stuff when the holiday wasn't even a month away. That always got on her nerves, and it would get worse as time would go on. This year was especially bad, as the advertisements had started up before Halloween. First Thanksgiving gets the boot, and now Halloween?! She tried not to dwell on such ridiculousness, and continued playing videogames with her friends and brothers. That is, until one of the adults called out something from the kitchen.
Out of their still-young-minds'-curiosity, they paused their game and ran to the window. What she saw wasn't making her happy. Normally, she would be happier than a little kid on their birthday whenever she saw such a sight out her window. But this was October for crying out loud! This was two months too early! Plus, this was only reminding her of the unnecessary Christmas placements.
"You have got to be kidding me!"
...
She wasn't the only one who wasn't happy with such a surprise.
A house or two down from her residence was a tree line that leads to a small, dense wood. Unbeknownst to any human knowledge, that wood holds seven trees aligned in a circle. Each tree had a door that was shaped like an object. These included a heart, a four-leafed clover, an Easter egg, a firework, a Jack o' Lantern, a turkey, and a Christmas tree. No human could open these doors no matter how hard they tried; only those who lived behind them could, and those doors only open once every year.
On such a night of superstition and eeriness, the Jack o' Lantern door opened to release creatures of endless shapes and sizes. Some looked as if they might have been human once, while others looked nowhere close. Leading this large parade of chanting and singing was their tall, skinny grand marshal. In all honesty, he was more limbs than body; in fact, all that remained of him was pearl white bone. He wore a suit with white pinstripes, a black bow tie that looked more like a bat, and simple black dress shoes. His proper name was The Pumpkin King, but everyone knew him as Jack Skellington.
Jack was excited to present his spooks and scares to the world. He and the other inhabitants of his town were preparing for this night since last Halloween. There were so many ideas Jack thought up that he, hesitantly, had to leave some out. Everything was perfect, and impatiently waiting to show themselves to any unfortunate passersby.
But Jack saw something. Something so shocking, that he froze in his tracks. He gave no warning to his followers, and they all bumped and tripped on one another as they ran into their leader. And yet, somehow, they all managed to stop just at the edge of the forest. Peering over shoulders and leaning to the sides, the creatures stared wide-eyed at the sight, Jack's being the widest of them all.
"What's this?!" Jack cried out in disbelief. Old memories of saying such words when he first saw this scene flooded through his head. The difference was he was curious and pleasantly surprised at the time; here and now, he was the opposite. The skin-killing cold and harsh wind should have brought mischievous and embarrassing thoughts, but it didn't.
It was snowing.
Standing not far from Jack was a stout man with an extreme case of bipolar disorder. He had a ridiculously tall top hat, a grey suit with black and white-striped pants, a spider for a bow tie, and a red ribbon that read 'Mayor'. His face was pale and filled to the brim with anxiety. Out of his pockets, he pulled out a list as long as Jack was tall, and skimmed through it in mere seconds.
"This wasn't on the schedule!" he stated, holding up the list for Jack to see. The Pumpkin King didn't even glance at it; he knew every word that was written on that list, and 'snow' wasn't one of them. More creatures began to panic.
"I can't survive in this kind of weather!" said the Creature Under The Bed.
"My toes are already frozen!" said the Creature Under The Stairs.
"I don't like this!" said the Clown With The Tear-Away Face.
"Mommy! I'm scared!" cried out the Corpse Kid.
Jack tried his best to block out the voices of the townsfolk and think logically. It wasn't normal for snow to appear this time of year, so what was the cause of such an unnatural occurrence? What it the signs of a much harsher winter? Were they further up north or south? As Jack stood there pondering, a piece of debris flew into his face. He removed the garbage from his face and quickly examined it. It was a page from a catalog with Christmas decorations for sale.
Christmas decorations?!
Out of nowhere, a pair of tiny hands belonging to the ornery Trick-or-Treating 'skeleton' named Barrel snatched the page from Jack, and then proceeded to fall from the shoulders of a 'witch' named Shock, and a 'devil' named Lock. This proceeded with a small quarrel until the three saw the contents of the page. They lifted their masks, revealing faces of slightly inhuman coloring, and wide grins grew until they reached their limits.
"You've really done it this time, Jack!" said Lock.
"Everybody is celebrating Christmas, Jack!" said Shock.
"You missed the deadline, Jack!" said Barrel.
As the three Trick-or-Treaters snickered evilly among themselves, dreed began to appear on Jack's face. That was impossible! The Clock Tower in Town Square was never a second ahead, nor a second behind. How could he had missed October altogether?! And if that was the case, why didn't the other holiday leaders inform him of the lack of screams? Speaking of holiday leaders, there was something else Jack had to worry about: Sandy Claws.
He could vividly remember kidnapping the jolly old man, stealing his holiday from him, and promising that he would never interfere again. And that was over two decades ago; the memory of the Pumpkin King was so sharp, that he could recall every little thing that happened on the first Halloween night 20,000 years ago in Europe. The same could be said about the other holiday leaders, and unless there were legends of Sandy Claws having the memory of a goldfish, Jack was in serious trouble.
There was only one thing Jack could do to confirm his worries: search the human world. He patted his left leg twice, which was followed by an anonymous "Yip!" in the sea of creatures. Floating above every head that could be seen by the naked eye, a dog with a sheet-like body named Zero came up to Jack, smiling innocently. Once his speechless companion was at his side, the Pumpkin King turned his attention to his distressed subjects.
"Everyone! Please calm down! Zero and I are going to take a look around to see what exactly is going on! No one leaves this forest until we return!" All nodded their heads in understanding, and Jack set off to figure out this mystery.
Far and wide, hill and dale, and over mountain did he search, and things weren't looking promising for the Pumpkin King. While there weren't any Christmas decorations to be seen, the same could be said for Halloween decorations. It was hard to tell what exactly was going on inside people's houses, as every curtain and blind was closed; and while Jack could just climb through the chimney to peek inside, the risk of being spotted was too great. The department stores weren't very encouraging either, as Jack could see themes of red and green through the shopping windows.
Jack could only draw out one conclusion: he had missed October, and he broke his promise to Sandy Claws. There was no doubt that Jack was spotted by the red-suited man himself by now, and that he was probably throwing a fit as he was thinking about it. There was no other option but to go to Christmas Town and directly apologize for his interference.
...
Knock knock knock!
Jack waited ever so impatiently for Sandy Claws to open the door. As nervous as he was to face him, he just wanted it done and over with so he could try to fix his dilemma with the missed deadline. Without even waiting for ten seconds to pass, he knocked again, this time louder.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
He could hear a muffled voice from behind the door, but Jack couldn't make out what they were saying. Perhaps it was Sandy Claws raging over him breaking his promise. Just as he was about to knock a third time, the familiar creaking of the door opening was heard, and words poured out of Jack's mouth like a collapsed dam.
"SandyClaws,Icanexplain!Yousee,IwasrunningbehindonpreparingforHalloween,whichIhadnoideathatIwas,andIdidn'trealizeituntilIhad –" He stopped talking when he realized who answered the door, for it wasn't the enraged man he was expecting. She was small and large as Sandy Claws, and even wore the same hat, but her hair was grey as storm clouds and held back in a braided bun. Her dress was red with white trim, and boots were as black as the night. She spoke to Jack with the gentle and sweet voice.
"Dear, what the fudge are you caroling out of your pie hole?!"
Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, could only stare blankly at her, blink every once in a while. He did not recall any old lady in every book about Christmas that he read. Who was she? Why was she here? Was she, perhaps, related to Sandy Claws in some way?
"…Who are you?" he asked as polite as he could. The last thing Jack wanted was to make someone else mad at him. The old lady raised an eyebrow.
"Why, I'm Mrs. Claws! You know, Nick's wife?" Jack tilted his head to the side as a sign of confusion.
"Who's Nick? Wait. Did you say 'Claws'? As in 'Sandy Claws'?"
"You must that Jack person my husband keeps yacking about."
As the old lady began to chatter about who-knows-what, Jack was trying to wrap his head around the thought that Sandy Claws was married. How come he never knew about this?! And even bigger question, how much family did he have?! But he didn't have time to ponder about such things. He still had to apologize and explain his behavior.
"Never mind all of that," Jack said, interrupting Mrs. Claws' mindless gobble. "I need to find Sandy Claws!"
"Whatever for dear?"
"He does remember about the time I kidnapped him, right?"
Jack would have never predicted that by saying those words, he had set off a chatter bomb of nagging and Christmas Town swearing left and right. He attempted to intervene three times without prevail until he finally had to yell 'Mrs. Claws!' over her to explain his reason as to why he came in the first place. It felt good to release all of the stress and worry that was building up in him, but he didn't feel completely relieved. Mrs. Claws meanwhile listened with sharp ears and little 'm-hms' here and there. She waited until Jack was done talking to speak up.
"You seem to think that Nick has quite the temper." Jack laughed nervously as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Well, he wasn't exactly happy when we met…"
"And why wouldn't he be? Imagine of someone decided to take over your holiday and sent you to a crazy person who tortured you and planned to eat you." Such a thought never really occurred in his head, but imagining it did make Jack feel worse about the whole situation he was in now.
"Oh what am I going to do?" he said to himself. "There's no way he'll forgive me for this."
"I think you'll find that my husband is rather gracious toward you, but there's no need to apologize." Out of her apron, she pulled out a small planer no bigger than the palm of her hand. She flipped through the pages until she reached a certain spot. "According to my calendar, it's not even the first day of November." Jack couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"So…it isn't the Christmas season?" she ignored his question, he nevertheless gave off a sigh of relief and listened to her ramblings once more.
"I'm surprised that you didn't even think to read a ding-dong newspaper! Then again, Nick shouldn't be planning his route this early in the year. Every time, I tell him 'You can do in December! It's not like the houses change positions every year!' But he has to go and say 'The frosty parents are stealing my job! I have to plan different routes every year so I can get the work done faster!' And that frosty sled of his! Did you know it has a thingy-a-bob that makes it snow every time it flies over?" At that moment, both wife and skeleton had a moment of realization.
"Pickles on a pumpkin stick!" Jack exclaimed. "I need to get the town residents!" And with that, the Pumpkin King dashed off to gather up his subjects and preform his scares to the world. Mrs. Claws however failed to notice his disappearance as she continued to talk her gums off.
"I knew it! I told him 'It's bad enough that you plan your routes in November! By the time Thanksgiving come around, everyone is already in the mood for Christmas! You don't need to do it in October!" But no! 'The adults, Mary! The adults!' And then off he goes, flying his frosty sled, getting people into the Christmas mood, and forgetting to turn off that thingy-a-bob of his! When that mistletoe-kisser gets home…"
...
It was very late into night. All the friends had gone home, and everyone in the house was tired from all the festivities. She herself was more than ready to hit the sack. Feeling more lifeless as a zombie, she switched out her clothes for her favorite PJs, brushed her teeth, said her 'good nights', and went to bed. There was only one little problem.
She didn't feel safe.
All her life, she suffered from an intense fear of the dark. Normally, she would've been ok with her nightlight illuminating the room with a dim blue light. But tonight, it wasn't enough to settle her nerves. She couldn't help but think that there was someone, or something, in the bedroom with her. She finally built up the courage to sit up in her bed and scan her dark room.
To her horror, she saw a darkened figure standing in front of the door. He was too tall for her room, and had to hunch over to fit inside. It was hard to tell, but his face looked similar to a skull, and he appeared to be wearing a suit.
The adrenaline kicked in as she flew off the bed and dashed to the table lamp that sat on her desk. With a simple flick of the wrist, the room was brightened in a tint of yellow. The moment the light flooded the small space, the figure panicked and fled into the closet. She could still see his face through the crack of the almost closed closet door. Despite being scared out of her mind, she managed to give a tired look. There was no way she was sleeping tonight with that thing still around.
"Looks like I still got my Halloween spooks after all."
She swore she could hear the giggles of an undead king coming from the closet.