Through The Hollow
Chapter 13
"I'm bored…"
"Me too…"
Yulee and Jack sat on the park bench. The little dark guardian was leaning against her friend's back and he against hers. Occasionally the two would glance up into the night sky, hoping, with everything, that they would be able to see a star glimmering in the soft black that blanketed the world.
No such luck.
The lights that surrounded them blotted out what stars could have been seen. It was a pure waste of time to bother looking for them. But Jack and Yulee continued to waste their time. They would have given anything to see a beautiful patch of starlight in the middle of such a dreary night.
Though Halloween should have been fun and excitement it was not. The children in the area had retreated to their houses long ago. There wasn't much left for the two Halloweenies to do. The people that were out at the same time as them now were teenagers who wished to grab a few morsels for the night. Jack could see a few of them smashing pumpkins every once and a while. Each time that happened he would scare them off with some supernatural trick. Then he would calmly put the pumpkins back. One time, out of the few dozen times he had done it; an old woman had come out to bop him on the head with a broom. It wasn't until Yulee had stepped in and told her what had really happened did she stop.
Jack sighed. "What is there to do on a Halloween night where there are no children to frighten?"
"I'm not sure. The last time I was here the place was crawling with little kids. Now I can't hardly see any. Plus, I don't see anyone in between. Usually there are the children, the freshmen, and then there are the big high school kids. But I don't see any freshmen tonight."
"Freshmen?"
"It's a term that I use for 9th graders and maybe 7th or 8th as well."
"Huh… I wasn't aware."
"You never had those grades in your time."
"True. But you still could have told me."
"Why?"
Jack shrugged his shoulders. He looked up at the sky once more. Still, there were no stars to be seen in the sky. The lights from the ground took up the night sky and possessed the stars so that not one person could see them. The skeleton sighed in unison with the dark guardian as they each looked at their feet in boredom. Jack turned his head slightly so that he could look down at Yulee. "Besides scaring what else is there to do in the human realm?"
"Not too much actually. There's plenty to do any other day but come Halloween and there's nothing."
"There has to be. Think."
Yulee took a little time to think to herself. Jack waited, patiently, on the bench, supporting her as she leaned against him. Yulee snapped her fingers so abruptly that Jack nearly fell over. "I've got it! On Halloween," she said leaping up to face him, "there are always new movie releases. Some of them are the best! Why don't we go and watch a scary movie?"
"What's a movie?"
Yulee went silent. She hadn't ever had to explain what a movie was to someone. She wasn't truly sure herself. She'd seen only a few of the older ones that had come out and so she really had no idea how movies had matured over the years. After all, the movies of old were much different from what she had been hearing about lately. Yulee put her hand on her chin and supported her elbow with her other hand, which, in turn, leaned on the back of the bench. She pouted her face up as she thought about a way in which to explain exactly what a movie was. "Well… A movie is… it's like watching something happen but it is not really happening… get it? Sort of like you're watching something that played out in someone's head but on a much larger screen with lots of children screaming and cell phones going off." Yulee smiled. She was proud of how she had explained it.
"What's a cell phone?"
Her smiled faded and her arms flopped to the side. Yulee grabbed Jack and pulled him along to find a theatre. "Come on…"
---
"So? What should we see?"
Jack looked over the movie choices that hung on the walls of the theatre. He wasn't exactly sure what to pick. He wasn't really sure what was scary and what wasn't. Of course Jack could tell that the movies that didn't even have real people in them wouldn't truly be frightening and Yulee had told him to pick one of the movies that looked frightening. It was a hard thing to do seeing as he didn't know what was what. But he progressed through the ordeal slowly with calm in his actions. "Why don't we try…" He looked at the one to his right. "This one." Jack pointed to it and let his bony finger land on the demented face of a man.
Yulee leaned over to see his choice. "Nightmare on Elm Street? Sounds scary enough. All right then."
"What does the R mean?"
"Huh? Oh, that. We won't have to worry about that. It just means that people under the selected age aren't allowed to see it. We'll be fine."
Jack's left ocular cavity lowered as his other rose. But he followed Yulee with nothing more said. The dark guardian and the skeleton walked over to the booth where a zit-faced boy sat behind a pane of glass. Yulee walked up with her hands behind her back and a smile planted on her face. It surprised Jack to see her smiling so wide. Not through the entire year that he had known her did she smile like that. "Hello," said the zit-faced teenager, less than enthusiastic. "I'm Alphonse, I'll be your movie selector… person… what would you like to see?"
"Can we call you Al?" asked Jack, leaning over from behind Yulee.
Alphonse didn't move. A trickle of something green leaked from his nose and shone, noticeably, in the pale lights of the theatre.
Jack sank back down.
The dark guardian's smile faded lightly.
Yulee placed some money on the countertop and the zit-faced boy glanced down at it, his red hair falling in front of his face. He looked back at Yulee by moving just his eyes. His head remained pointed at the money. "Two tickets for 'Nightmare on Elm Street please."
Alphonse took half of the money and pressed a red button on the side of the booth. They waited as one ticket popped up. Alphonse took it and signalled to Jack who stepped forward to take it. The teenager snorted the green up his nose and then, for no particular reason at all, let the arm with the ticket in it slide under his arm to wipe away what was left. The ticket became coated in a thick blanket of mucus. Jack grimaced as he took the ticket between his thumb and forefinger. "One ticket for the Nightmare on Elm Street."
Yulee frowned as she stepped forward again. "Um, excuse me," she declared, waving her hand at Alphonse's face, "I asked for two tickets… please."
"Read the sign."
"We did."
"Then you should know that this movie is rated R. That means…" he leaned over in his seat as he smiled in an odd manner at Yulee, "that people of your age cannot get in. Please leave the booth or buy a ticket for another movie. May I suggest The Witches?" He pointed to a movie sign with a tall woman clad in purple and a hood with a demon in the background. There was a mouse on her gown and two people, one a boy child and one a girl old person, at the bottom. "But, then again, that may still be too scary for someone as young as you. Maybe you should just go home and go to bed. Don't forget to turn on your nightlight little girl." Alphonse snorted a little bit.
"I assure you. I am perfectly capable of watching the film that I selected. I far surpass the age limit to it."
"No."
"I said…"
"No."
"That's all right Yulee," Jack stepped up to her. "We'll just watch The Witches."
Yulee crossed her arms with a glare of anger plastered upon her pale face. "But I don't want to watch some stupid baby movie that should be…" She trailed off into a mutter as she continued with what she had to say. Then she plucked the rest of her money and popped it into her jeans pocket.
Jack placed the ticket on the countertop and smiled at Alphonse. "We'd like to exchange this ticket for one of the ones for that movie please."
"No exchanges."
Yulee looked up. "What?" She practically tore through the glass. Her claws shoved out again from underneath her long sleeves and her teeth were bared. Yulee leapt towards the glass, no longer on the ground, her temper raised far past what it should have been for such a predicament. Jack had to hold her back as she tried to claw through the glass. The dark guardian glared at Alphonse through the glass as he scrambled out of his seat and, in a panic, fell to the ground. "Listen here you slimy, little worm! You refund my money or I will shred you into such tiny pieces that no one will be able to find anything that looks, remotely, like you." She tore at the glass as best as she could while Alphonse cowered on the floor of the booth.
Jack was finally able to pull the little person away. Her foot had slipped which had, in tern, left her open and weak against his pull. She was yanked away from the booth fast and Jack tore around the corner of the movie theatre, Yulee still in his grasp. He ended up in an ally just beside the complex with Yulee still struggling to break free. She cried out and whined for what seemed like an hour. Eventually her interest in the matter fell and Yulee went limp in his arms. Jack looked at her once and then set her on the ground. Then he rubbed his head. "Geez, Yulee. You really have to work on your short temper…"
"I do not have a short temper!" The dark guardian turned away from him so that she was facing the street. She folded her arms in front of her chest and frowned. Yulee, to him, didn't look happy at all. Not just from being called too young for a movie despite her age but also for being deprived of the right to finish her victim.
Jack frowned and scratched his head in thought. He attempted to figure out a solution to their little problem. One, single thought came to him. It seemed to be good enough to use. "If you still want to get into the movie… why don't you just teleport?"
Yulee's face went blank and her lips seemed to sink down on her countenance. Her arms fell to the side and she fell to the ground. The dark guardian landed on her bottom and thrust her hands up towards her head as she screamed lightly to herself. "You've got to be kidding me! Why didn't I think of that before? I could have saved my money!"
"I didn't think of it either. It wasn't too obvious. Does that make you feel better?"
Yulee's arms fell between her legs and she glared up at Jack, her lips pouted. "You're an idiot… Yes it was… and no, it doesn't."
"Well… we'll still see the movie. I'll just go in the normal way. You can teleport in."
Yulee stood up slowly and stretched her arms far above her head, hands interlocking at the top. She practically stood on her tiptoes as she did so. "Fine. I guess that I can live with that. But don't forget to get some popcorn and drinks… actually… I'll do it. You just go in. I'll meet you in the front row. After all… you want to be able to feel the splatter…"
"S…Spl…Splatter?"
"Yeah…" She rubbed her hand against her top and then blew on her fingers lightly facing the ally. Her black portal appeared before them and Yulee stepped inside. Jack heard her call out: "See you inside!"
"Y… Yulee! Wait!"
She was gone.
---
"Is she gone?"
Jack nodded.
Alphonse sat up in his seat. He straightened his clip-on tie and then motioned towards the doorway into the theatre. "You'll want the Nightmare on Elm Street theatre where it's being played. You'd better hurry; it's going to start soon. You won't miss it because it's practically the only one open. Look for the mean girl when you get in." Then Alphonse turned back into his boring self and wiped away, yet another, dribble of mucus.
The skeleton grimaced and then walked past the booth. He pushed on the door that lead into the centre and was amazed at what stood before him. He was in a large yellow room. There were many varying doors all around him with black velvet coating the rim of each one. Jack found that he sort of liked how the colours went so well together. There was a bar in the centre of the room with machines and two people behind it. There was one girl and one boy. The boy was leaning against the bar. He had black hair with a spot of it that was blonde and looked a little surprised. The girl had plain brown hair tied up in a ponytail with a few strands hanging in front of her dark brown face. She was standing and was backed up against the machines. The poor girl looked utterly terrified. Jack noticed that there was a small tuft of black smoke fading away from the spot in front of the register. Jack, curious as he was, walked over to the bar to see what had happened.
"Um… Excuse me…?" The boy turned his attention from the spot beside Jack and looked at him. The girl was still too scared to move. Jack smiled at him and rubbed his head. "Did you just see anything… weird happen here?"
The teenager blinked once and looked at Jack with a blank, wide-eyed expression. "Yeah, a chick just teleported in here, bought some candy, and then teleported out."
"Oh, really? What did she get?"
"Popcorn… M&Ms… Two drinks… and some Skittles."
"I can't believe you actually served her! She teleported! Teleported! I've said it once and I'll say it again, you're crazy, Ichigo!" The girl at the back was practically tearing her head off. She looked like she was in a complete mess.
Jack nodded to them and then hurried off. He spotted the doorway that had a mean looking girl at the front and then walked over to that. She did, indeed, look pretty mean. Her hair was died dark purple and was short. Her uniform was torn at the top and she had the most horrible scowl on her face. Jack handed her the ticket. The girl clipped it without a word, handed it back to him and then pointed inside, glaring from under her bangs.
The skeleton stepped inside and hurried to the few front rows. He couldn't see Yulee anywhere…
"Jack! Over here!"
"Shh!"
"Oh! Shut up will you! It hasn't even started yet!" Jack turned to see Yulee standing on one of the chairs. She had her hands over her head and the most horrible look of anger on her face again. Jack tensed with nervousness as he crossed to her. "You're worried about seeing the before commercials and credits you old prune! God! You're such a gnome!"
"Don't be so rational!" came a man's voice, of whom it belong to Jack could not see.
"Don't tell me how to react!"
"Calm down!" A different man's voice.
"Don't tell me to calm down!"
"Are you even old enough to be here?" A woman this time.
"YES I'M OLD ENOUGH!!"
"Yulee…" The dark guardian looked up at her friend. "Sit down. You'll get kicked out."
"I can just teleport back in."
Jack eyed her.
Yulee frowned. "Fine…" she said sitting down. "But this doesn't mean that I can't cause a fuss later on…"
The skeleton smiled and sat down next to her. He was glad that she hadn't gone crazy again. The last thing that he wanted to deal with was another fit like the one she had shown at the ticket booth. He raised his finger as the last of the commercials ended and the movie started. It looked bent a little bit. He snapped it back into place and then grabbed his drink from Yulee.
The movie started.
---
Yulee sighed. She leaned back in her chair and looked to the right. Jack wasn't really in his chair. He was leaning forward so much that it was a surprise he could still support himself like that. It was an even bigger surprise that he didn't just fall out of the chair. His ocular cavities were intensely locked on the screen as he watched as Freddie tore away at the life of yet another victim.
The dark guardian had lost interest in the film a while ago. She found Freddie to be far too predictable. He was just another serial killer… but with supernatural powers. Although it made him seem scary he was just the same old guy he was before they burned him. It was just that now he was using more bloodied ways to kill his victims instead of doing it at home where he was limited. Yulee had to give him props for sneaking into their homes but then she just deducted them again because he would have such an easy time getting in.
"Jack, she whispered. "Jack; let's have some fun. Come on, I'm bored."
"Shh…"
"But…"
"Shh…"
Yulee frowned. "This movie is no fun…"
---
Jack stopped his clapping and smiled down at Yulee. "Wow, that was a good movie. Don't you think so?"
"No."
If Jack had had eyes he would have rolled them.
Yulee leapt to her feet, her hands in fists and up by her chest. "I know! Let's have a scare! Right now! It'll be great! There are plenty of people to frighten here so we know that this one will be good! They won't have anywhere to run if we block out the doorway! Watching them run away and scream will be lots of fun! Please Jack! Please! Just one scare! Please!"
"Well… I guess so. Ok then."
"Use that new trick that Leon taught to you."
"The one with all of the ghouls?"
"Yeah, that one!"
"What do you think? Purple with fog?"
"Make them float in from the ceiling and the walls too."
"Right." Jack raised his arms up close to his face and took a deep breath. His eye sockets closed as he relaxed himself. The people in the theatre remained oblivious to the actions of the Halloweenies in the front row. They remained blissfully unaware that they would soon be in so the fright of their lives.
Jack concentrated hard.
His eyes stayed closed as he thought hard to himself. The tenuous task of transforming took a great amount of mind power, much more than possessing someone or stretching. No, to transform he had to concentrate hard on one single thing. Jack pictured the room as he wished it to be. Usually he would have had difficulty doing something so grand in such a large place with so many people. But on Hallows Eve, with Yulee beside him, urging him along with enthusiasm, he felt all that more powerful and all that more capable of doing what he wanted.
---
The doors slammed shut in front of three teenagers exiting the movie theatre. Their eyes went wide for a moment. Then the others behind them approached as the adolescents began to pound on the doorway. Sadly, the door did not move and they remained trapped inside the complex.
"What's the hold up here? Open the doors and let us out."
"We're trying. But they won't open up."
"Let me through I'll… what's this?" The man looked down at his loafers. Something had seeped its way past the sole and had inched closely to his socks. He pulled his foot upwards and frowned as his leg refused to move. "What's going on here? I can't move my foot!" He pulled up hard. His shoe lifted slowly into the air and he was able to catch a glance of what held it back in the dim light of the room.
The floor had been coated in a strange, sticky, substance that engulfed his loafers and made it so that he was unable to move. Slowly, a thick, purple fog emerged from within the carpet itself and began to blanket the floor like the black did the night. The people left in the theatre began to stare at their feet in both wonder and fear. They inched into a huddle close to the doorway, hoping that the doors would open.
Sadly, they did not.
There was a scream as the screen of the theatre lit up again. The people were unable to see it from where they were so, after gathering his bravery; one man stepped out to investigate the owner of the scream. He closed in on the corner of the staircase and peered around to see the screen. What he saw made him sink to the floor in fear, only to be engulfed by something that hid within the flooring.
Ghosts, ghouls, goblins delight, poured from the thin lining of the movie screen. They clawed at the edges and worked their ways outwards towards the real world. Towards the human realm. They moved with the fog that coated the floor and stretched to regain the bodies that they had so lost in the darker realms that they dwelled within. Their heads took shape as their arms curled and their fingers flexed to the air that greeted them. One goblin, as he released his dripping visage from the thin fabric, smiled at the poor woman that stood on the stairwell. She screamed with surprise again and, this time, ran all the way down, only to be greeted by more goblins that bounded out of the ground to tug on the ends of her dress.
The ghosts floated around the room, sweeping through the bodies of the people as they attempted to hide from the horror. Cold chills from fear and death wrinkled through their forms and engulfed them making them shiver and call out in surprise.
Ghouls coated the floors, moving with the fog, and stretched up in front of or behind people to terrorize them or make them squeal with fright. Each horrible entity moved with the hand gestures of their master. The one that had released them from their eternal prison moved elegantly and swayed his hands to the motions he wished them to make. Their death and fear, which they carried with them at all times, coated the citizens of the theatre and had them scream with anxiety.
---
Jack smiled. He was enjoying himself very much. Scaring the people of the theatre was making him feel very good about himself, despite the fact that he was completely and utterly terrifying them. He glanced down at Yulee, not moving his head really, as his arms swayed with the purple, ominous air that he had inserted into the atmosphere.
The dark guardian was close to a few goblins that danced and wondered with their freedom. She led them on to scare a group of teenagers that had been trapped by a ghoul close to the end of the stairwell near the far wall. They danced and panicked the adolescents, having merry fun the entire time. Yulee glanced back at Jack and smiled at him.
He smiled back at his small friend and then proceeded with his fright of the night.
Jack watched as the people hurried to the doors. To add to the drama he coated the walls with vines that reached and threatened to take a hold of them. He found it strange that he enjoyed watching them hurry out of the way to avoid the plants. The skeleton inched them closer to the doors making the teenagers jump back and hurry away as quick as they could.
Jack smiled with Halloween spirit.
"What are you doing?"
His mind snapped back to attention as he looked down at one child. The boy looked far too young to have seen the movie but he also didn't move as the goblins and ghouls continued prancing close to him. The small child had jet-black hair and a face so innocent looking that he could have been the nicest boy to grace the earth. His clothes were black as well, far too large for his tiny body, and he had one red stripe that went across his chest. His eyes shone bright blue in the dim light that the purple air provided.
For the moment Jack's heart remained quiet. He did sink down where he stood at the sight of the child but he stayed where he was and continued motioning his arms.
"What are you doing?" he repeated.
Jack's mind went blank. What am I doing? I've had my fun. Why do I continue in this fruitless effort? For my own amusement? When have I ever been that selfish?
As if hearing his thoughts the child answered: "Never."
Jack turned back to him. Instead of the boy that he had seen before he saw one completely different. This boy had bright blonde hair and eyes purple like the air. His white top stood out with his black overalls. This new child had a very rounded head with a pale face and a wide smile as well as large eyes that gave him a look of innocence, just like the first boy.
Jack's arms fell.
Responding to this the goblins sank into the floor, engulfed by the black portals that would lead them back to their home. The ghouls disappeared into the walls and the ghosts evaporated where they floated. Air began clear again as the fog on the ground loosened and, eventually, lost its grip on the world. The light that had been there before replaced the dark of the room. Vines sank back into the walls like the ghouls or dissolved where they were and crumbled to the floor. The people hurried out the doors as they swung open. Jack watched as they went.
He turned back to where the children had stood but they were gone. He assumed that they had hurried out with the rest of the throng to immerse in the world once more and head home.
Yulee approached him, looking at the soggy ground as she walked up to him, slowly. She stood next to him and looked at her bare feet. They were wrinkled and slightly sore. She looked back up to Jack. His face remained turned. His eyes remained locked on the spot where the children had been. She followed his gaze to see what he wished to look at but found nothing that would have been worth the part. Yulee tugged on his arm.
Jack looked down at his friend.
"What's wrong, Jack?"
"Uh…" He looked to the spot for a moment and then turned back to her. "Nothing. I just thought that I saw someone."
"It's not good to see things you know." Yulee marched out of the room, her hands behind her head and her legs kicking up high. She leaned back as she walked, batting her wings lightly to keep herself from falling over.
Jack followed her out of the theatre, glancing at the spot before ducking out of sight. The sight of those two boys had broken something beneath the surface of his subconscious. His mind continuously looked back to their memory, trying not to forget their faces. That was what he wanted to keep. Visions of their innocent faces. The black child had seemed so strange, tormented even. But the blonde child… no… he looked more so. That child had looked familiar to Jack.
As he continued out of the complex, with his dark guardian friend, he tucked the thoughts of them away for a glance later on.
The police arrived in a few minutes.
By that time Jack and Yulee were long gone.
---
Brooke: Not much to say for this chapter. I think that I really poured myself into this one. At the time I was listening to the song, 'Insanity' by Oingo Bingo with a display of JHTM scans that someone had altered. Anyways, I believe that we have more reviews to take into account for this chapter. Also, I apologize for how late this chapter is. I had a black earlier on and I couldn't break it.
Zim: Yes, yes… Get on with the review pitiful human! I demand to answer the review sent to us by mushi6618!!
Brooke: Glad you liked the chapter. By the way, nice choice on the new name, I like it. Thank you for you kind compliments on my story, I really appreciate them, and you rock for hating Cleo and her posy. In the previous chapter Jack didn't tell her too much, just what she would have needed to know for him to do what he did. (Him being dead, no being from the 'real' world, paranormal abilities, etc.) She was instructed to not go outside because Jack was afraid that he could scare her by accident. Sorry about the grammar. I check this chapter once or twice so it should be good.
Jack: Now we have something to say concerning the review sent to us by Sugary Snicket.
Brooke: No one has to worry about this. Sugary and I have already conversed on this matter and have sorted it out so that all is understood. I was not plagiarizing but it is understandable why such thoughts could come of this story. All has been set aside and all is right in the world again. Anyways, enjoy the rest of the fic.
Also, I'll be appearing in the following chapter. It was an experience that was taken from my past, which I will explain at the beginning of the chapter. Enjoy the site and review please. I enjoy reading your comments.
