Through The Hollow

Chapter 9

"Get that over there!"

"We need more bats!"

"Where are the cobwebs?"

Jack stepped out into the daylight. He had been allowed to sleep in if he found it possible during the hustle that came with the day before Halloween. He had been able to sleep nonetheless. Now he was surprised that he had been able to dot it at all. Once he woke up he found that it was extremely noisy outside. The monsters of Halloween town were hurrying around, preparing for the next day.

It was the day before Halloween and Jack was feeling refreshed, ready to help and hoping to meet some new people. Perhaps make a new friend or two. He had been so wrapped up in his work for the longest time and the only people that he really knew where Yulee, Leon and the mayor, although he didn't consider the mayor to be a friend per say. He was more of an acquaintance.

"Good morning Jack."

He turned around and looked down. Yulee was standing there below him with a rectangular object in hand. She had draped a black cloth over top of it just so that no one would be able to see it. Or at least, that's what he thought.

He smiled at the dark guardian. "Good morning Yulee. What have you got here?"

She looked down in her hands and looked back to him. "What else?" Yulee place her hand on the black cloth. In a flash the darkness swept past Jack's eyes and met the ground. Yulee let the cloth fall to the dirt and her friend looked down to see…

Leaves.

They were very roasted looking.

Like they had just been pulled out of an oven.

Jack pointed to them finger his finger lightly. "What are you doing with crispy autumn leaves Yulee?"

"Making them good for autumn. Duh!"

"But…" He thought for a moment and rubbed his chin. There was no explaining what his little friend had just said.

"You didn't think that the leaves turned brown and gold on their own did you?"

"Actually, I did."

"Well that's just stupid. The leaves can't do that on their own. All that ridiculous mumbo jumbo about leaves being able to do it depending on the season is dumb. Nature doesn't work like that. Lots of the time it's the fairies doing it but there's a shortage of leaf duty fairies this year so I have to do it."

"You have to?"

"When you're dead it's not that hard for someone to summon you back and have you do what they want you to do. Only the pumpkin king can't be affected. Anyways… In this case it was my mother. So now I had to do the rest of the autumn leaves that everyone else was too lazy to do before Halloween. I've done them all now though. Want one?" She extended the tray to Jack's confused, skeletal face. She frowned. "Come on Jack. Crispy leaves are tasty! And they have a lot of flavour so you'll be able to taste them. Especially since they're nice and warm."

Jack shrugged. "I have nothing more too lose." He plucked a bright red and gold leaf from off of the tray and popped it into his mouth. Jack chewed a few times and then swallowed. Yulee was right. The leaves were good. He could taste them as they chinked down his bones and then disappeared into the void where all his food went. Jack looked up and around him. Leon was nowhere to be seen. "Yulee, where is Leon today?"

"He's far too busy to come outside and enjoy the day. Tomorrow is Halloween after all and it wouldn't be too good if he wasn't prepared, now would it?"

Jack shook his head.

"Are you all ready for your trip then, Jack?"

"Yes. I've been practising a lot."

"How are your possessions coming along?"

"Much better but I can't do it for as long as Leon can."

"Ya… I still have a headache from when he did it to me. You still haven't told me what he had me do that made you laugh so hard."

"I didn't?" Jack giggled slightly. "Must have slipped my mind." He stepped forward.

Yulee followed him wit a frown on her face and the tray of leaves in her hand. The two of them headed into the town to help with the preparations for the next day. It was going to be a big day for Jack. Leon had promised that Yulee could go with him. Especially seeing as this was his first real encounter with humans of this time period and he was still pretty rusty when it came to conversations.

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Brooke: Beep! Beep! Beep! Short chapter alert! Sorry this chapter is so short. It's meant to be, I assure you. It's one of those tiny chapters that you can sometimes find in a book. These kind of ones always lead up to a very epic chapter.

Zim: In this case it leads up t a series of epic chapters.

Impmon: Ya, you're going onto chapter 15 with this, aren't you?

Brooke: Shhh!

Jack: Relax. They know now.

Brooke: (frowns) I'm gonna kill you guys…