New in Town

Aubrey's first trip to Halloween Town isn't exactly a smooth one.

Chapter 2

New in Town

            “All right girls, lights out!” Came the loud call of the night nurse, ringing a bell that barely sounded over her call. Aubrey watched as Dr. McIntire tied a rubber tourniquet around her upper arm.

            “Now, this may hurt a bit.” He warned, pushing the IV into the popping vein in her hand. Sandy watched in amazement as Aubrey’s face remained stoic. “This’ll help you go to sleep easier.” He told her, taping it.

            He walked over to Sandy’s bed, pulling a bottle out of his pocket. He opened it and slid a pill out, popping it in her mouth. “Swallow.”

            She did, opening her mouth to show him that it was gone. He nodded, satisfied, and walked out. Sandy made a strained face, and then spat a wet pill into her hand. Aubrey watched this with an interested look. “How’d you do that?”

            “Lots and lots of practice.” She replied, pulling a box out from under her bed. Tossing the pill in, she set it back down and kicked it under. Aubrey blinked as her vision started to blur. Sandy smiled her face distorting. “Looks like your anesthesia’s kicking in. See you in the morning.”

            Aubrey’s head fell back to her pillow, her eyes closing before she even hit the pillow.

.o0o.

            “Unhh… my head…” Aubrey raised a hand and placed it over her temples. She shivered and reached for her blankets with the other one, her eyes snapping open as her hand ran over what seemed to be hard ground instead of her thin, uncomfortable mattress. She sat up, looking around.

            Dead trees surrounded her, shadows dancing beyond their reaches. The ground that she sat on was hard-packed dirt, devoid of any plant life whatsoever, and a chilled wind blew past the dry branches. Aubrey stood cautiously, turning slowly to look at her surroundings. “What kind of freaky dream is this?”

            Her eyes fell on the center of the clearing she was standing in. A giant tree stood there, its roots weaving in and out of the ground around it. The topmost of the branches seemed to be reaching almost to the sky, and decorating the trunk was a grinning jack-o-lantern, its smile sinister and twisted, bordering on the edge of insane. Aubrey walked over to it, climbing over the giant roots to reach the trunk. She ran her hands over the wood, surprised to feel that it was as smooth as the ground.

            She let out a surprised gasp as her fingers ran over the pumpkin’s nose; it was warm. Pulling her hand back, the nose followed, rising from the bark. “It’s a doorknob.” Aubrey whispered, closing her fingers around it. But she quickly took her hand away. “What am I doing?” She muttered. “This is just a dream, there’s no way that this is real.” She paused, considering this. “But if it’s not real… then it couldn’t hurt to open it, right?”

            Aubrey reached for it again, and then hesitated. “But if I do, I could just be driving myself deeper into my psyche, completely shattering it, and making myself really insane.” She paused. “And now I’m psychoanalyzing myself.” Studying the door, she threw her hands in the air. “What the heck. I’m gonna open the crazy psycho door.” Grabbing the handle, Aubrey twisted it and pulled it open. It gave surprisingly little resistance, opening with hardly any effort.

            Aubrey peered inside, only to see black. There was nothing on the other side of the door.

            Or was there? Were Aubrey’s eyes deceiving her, or did she see movement in the shadows. Instinct told her to run, but her feet remained glued to the spot. Dozens of wispy black hands shot out of the darkness, wrapping around Aubrey’s tiny form, and yanking her towards the door.

            That snapped her out of whatever trance she had been in, and Aubrey began fighting against the hands’ pull, screaming and attempting to pull away. Her hands slipped off the edges of the smooth tree trunk when she tried to use it to stop herself, and she plunged headfirst into the shadows.

.o0o.

            “Is she dead?”

            “I don’t know. She sure looks it.”

            A cold hand touched Aubrey’s throat, searching for a pulse. The hand’s owner let out a surprised yelp when they found one. “She’s still alive!”

            Shuffling footsteps. “Yeah, she’s breathing.”

            A smacking noise. “No duh, Barrel. I just checked for a pulse, you idiot.”

            “I’m not an idiot!” The sound of a fight reached Aubrey’s ears, pulling her back into reality. She opened her eyes wearily, feeling like they were weighted with lead. Her blurred vision saw splotches of black, red, and purple. The voices she’d been hearing were coming from these splotches.

            The purple one smacked the red and black ones, who were rolling around on the ground. “Would you two shut up for one minute?!” Aubrey shut her eyes, praying that whoever these three were, they’d just leave her alone. “We need to figure out what to do with her.”

            A moment of silence. Aubrey risked opening her eyes again, her vision much clearer this time. The ‘splotches’ that she’d seen were three kids who looked her age. But they were all in Halloween costumes. One was dressed as a devil, another as a skeleton, and the last as a witch. The devil crossed his arms. “Let’s take her Oogie Boogie!”

            Aubrey felt herself stiffen at those words. Even though she’d never heard them before, she felt an incredible, intangible terror as soon as the devil spoke them. She focused her gaze on the three. They were standing away from her, and none of them appeared to be paying much attention. Quietly, she started to crawl away.

            But she had barely made it a few feet when she heard a loud “Hey!” from behind her. She leapt to her feet and took off running, nearly slipping on the ground, which was the same smooth substance the tree had been.

            “Get her!” Shock ordered, running after her, Lock and Barrel not far behind.

.o0o.

            Jack laughed quietly to himself as he heard the Mayor calling his name frantically. He really didn’t like to worry the poor man, but he needed a break! Halloween was barely a week ago, and the Mayor already had him planning for next year. Not that Jack hadn’t expected it; this was how it was every year. But Halloween was starting to lose his interest. Let’s face it: Jack Skellington, the all powerful Pumpkin King, was bored. Very bored.

            He lifted his head as he heard a scream. “Leave me alone!”

            “Ha! Not a chance!”

            “Run faster, she’s getting away!”

            “Not for long she isn’t!” Jack frowned. The first voice he hadn’t recognized, but the last three he sure did; they belonged to Lock, Shock, and Barrel. He ran deeper into the Hinterlands. Whatever those three were up to, it couldn’t be good.

            Jack stopped as he saw a small, pale figure burst out of the trees in front of him, frantically looking over their shoulder. So frantically, in fact, that they didn’t see the tall figure standing in front of them and slammed right into Jack’s legs.

            Aubrey fell back onto her but, holding her head. She looked up to see what she ran into, her mouth dropping slightly as her eyes took in the bony form of a skeleton. She turned around as footsteps ran up behind her, shrinking back as the three that were chasing her ran up.

            They stopped, though, when they caught sight of the skeleton. For a moment, nothing was said. But the devil stepped forward, his arms crossed defiantly.

            “Hand her over, Pumpkin puss. We found her first.” Lock growled, trying his hardest to seem scary.

            “Yeah!” Shock and Barrel chorused.

            “We’ve got dibs!” Shock told him.

            Jack crossed his arms. “You can’t call ‘dibs’ on a person, Shock. They aren’t property.”

            Barrel put his hands on his hips. “Doesn’t matter! We found her, and we’re taking her to Oogie Boogie!”

            Lock smacked him in the back of the head. “Shut up!”

            Jack raised an eyebrow. “Oogie Boogie? Not a chance.”

            The trio reached into their pockets, pulling out almost identical slingshots. “Alright, but you asked for it.” Lock warned. All three pulled back on the rubber bands.

            Jack’s eyes narrowed. Taking a deep breath, he let out a terrible roar, one that sent the crows flying from the trees. All three of the trio dropped their weapons in fear.

            Shock glared at Jack from behind her mask. “We’ll be back, Jack!” She cried, grabbing her slingshot and running off.

            “Yeah, what she said!” The boys yelled, doing the same.

            Jack let out a sigh and looked down at the figure at his feet, expecting them to be scared out of their mind. Instead, they were laughing. “Would you do that again?” They, obviously a girl, asked.

            He raised an eyebrow and offered her a hand to help her up. “Weren’t you scared?”

            She shrugged. “Terrified. But that was cool.”

            Jack couldn’t help smiling. “What’s your name?”

            “Aubrey. Aubrey Peterson.” She replied.

            “I’m Jack Skellington. It’s nice to meet you.” He shook her hand. He pulled back, surprised to find that her touch was warm. “Aubrey, you aren’t dead, are you?”

Aubrey shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’m really not even sure where I am or how I ended up here. I thought I was dreaming, but…”

            Jack sat down, motioning for her to do so as well. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

            Aubrey found herself nodding and sitting down next to Jack without any hesitation. She felt like she could trust him, unlike those other three that had found her. And when she opened her mouth, everything seemed to just spill out. Jack listened patiently, interjecting with a question every so often.

            He was silent for a few minutes when Aubrey finished. Then, he looked over at her. “Well, I think that the only way to get you back is to find this door of yours. Do you have any idea where it is?”

            Aubrey shook her head. “I was just trying to get away from those three.”

            Jack smiled at her and stood up. “Don’t worry; I’ll help you.” He offered her his hand again. She took it gratefully, holding onto it as they walked back into the Hinterlands. “Let’s see, you came from that way,” Jack pointed in the direction that Aubrey had crashed through, “So let’s head there first.” She just nodded and followed Jack, her small hand still entwined in his long fingers.

            After searching for almost an hour, Aubrey spotted a flash of orange in the dead, brown-grey trees. “Hey, there it is!” She ran over, letting go of Jack’s hand. He followed after her, examining the door. Aubrey turned the pumpkin’s nose, but she hesitated in pulling it open, and looked up at him. “What if I come back tomorrow night?”

            Jack paused to think. “I’ll tell you what; I’ll send my dog Zero to stay here and wait for you, how’s that?”

            Aubrey nodded and tugged the door open, hopping back through. It shut behind her with a quick snap, leaving Jack no chance to look and see what was lying behind the door. He studied the doorknob curiously.

            ‘I really shouldn’t.’ He thought, reaching for it. He tugged on it fruitlessly. Jack frowned. “Odd.” He muttered, releasing his hold and walking away, back toward town. If it was locked, then how in the world did Aubrey get through?

.o0o.

            Aubrey groaned. “Ah… my head…” She sat up, lifting her hand to her head. She felt a slight tug, and stopped short. Opening her eyes wearily, she saw the blurred outline of the IV tube that Dr. McIntire had placed in her arm. ‘I’m… back?’

            Looking around, she saw Sandy, sound asleep on the bed opposite hers. Glancing at the clock on the table in between them, Aubrey saw that it was barely two thirty. Her eyes started to close, and she fell back to her pillow.

.o0o.

            Sandy yawned as the loud dinging of the nurse’s bell sounded through the hallways of The Towers. She looked over at Aubrey, surprised to see the younger girl already awake and dressed. “When did you get up?”

            “About two thirty. I couldn’t fall back asleep.” Sandy looked at the dripping IV dangling from its stand.

            “But the anesthesia…”

            “Doesn’t work as well as they thought, apparently.”

            Sandy walked over to Aubrey’s bed and sat down. “Is something wrong?”

            After a moment of thought, Aubrey smiled at her. “I’ll tell you later.”