Making Fantasia (KF Prequel): The Nightmare After Christmas

Chapter 4: Oh Holy Fright

Chapter 4: Oh Holy Fright

The burlap monster dipped under the cemetery, as one would dip under a bathtub. He dragged the children with him.

They emerged in a colorless world. Spiraled hills covered the landscape, and they constricted like magical tentacles.

Nessie and Loch were thrown inside an old fashioned coach. The coach was pulled by screaming donkeys, and steered by Coachman who looked like a psychotic, beardless Santa Clause. 

Whip raised high, the Coachman praised the burlap monster. "Fantasia will nightmare tonight, Oogie! Can you taste the fear?!"

Oogie Boogie cackled. His shadow danced around the children.

The coach carried them to a circus tent. The tent was enclosed by lifeless stone statues. A skeleton and ragdoll received them at the entrance, and at first the children were afraid, but the Coachman nicked the minions with his whip. 

"Jack! Sally! Ready the cages! We have company!"

The coach stopped. The donkeys swarmed.

Nessie and Loch were dragged into Oogie Boogie's world. 

Nessie was brought to a stage decorated with animal and human cadavers. Each cadaver was lit by Christmas lights and had a lightbulb in its mouth.

A long chain, suspended from the rafters, was piled center stage. Oogie Boogie clamped the chain around Nessie's neck and held it like a leash.

"Welcome!" Oogie Boogie yanked. "To the Crawloween Circus! Audience – say hello to my little star!"

Cheers blew over the stage. Nessie struggled as Oogie Boogie pulled her toward the edge, prompting an onslaught of obscenities. Hands reached for her bear costume. Shapeless mouths spit at her. Fingers pointed, laughing at her ears.

Nessie clutched her fiddle. The strings vibrated crazily with her heartbeat.

"And don't forget her friends!" Oogie Boogie unveiled two cages. "Stage left, we have the unholy seed of human and fox!"

He pushed a cadaver. The light swung, illuminating Loch, his jaw clamped in an iron muzzle. The audience howled as Loch reached for Nessie through the bars. Calf bleeding he crumpled, unable to support himself.

"And stage right, we have a very special guest!" Oogie Boogie wrenched Nessie to the second cage. Inside was a boy, about her age, with ash-blond dreadlocks and mirrored sunglasses.

The boy raised an arm as they approached, shielding his eyes. "No – don't make me – "

"A royal welcome – " Oogie Boogie grabbed the boy's scruff. "To Smigvard! Magical prophet and nephew – "

He smashed Smigvard's face into the bars.

"— of our beloved –"

He shoved again, breaking the sunglasses.

"--King –"

Blood squirted. The sunglasses fell.

"— Arthur!"

The audience booed. Oogie Boogie fished Smigvard from the cage. The boy's hands were curled over his face, as if he'd been splashed with boiling water.

"Step right up! Boys and girls! Get your fortune told!" Oogie Boogie cupped Smigvard's chin, forcing him to look at Nessie.

Nessie was startled. Smigvard's eyes were lavender. The color was pale and eerie, like a November sky, and they were very much exaggerated by the bloody scrapes on his cheeks.

"I'd introduce you..." Oogie Boogie drew them close. "But Smigvard already knows everything about Nessie's future, don't you prophet? So, tell the audience -- how does my little vixen get her new stage outfit?"

Smigvard craned away, eyes closed. "No - "

"Do it!" Spiders crawled from Oogie Boogie's eyes. "Tell her future, prophet! Or predict which of you will be chopped into my snake and spider stew!"

Smigvard looked at Nessie. His gaze was anguished and apologetic at first, but then it sharpened as he peered into her soul.

"Your stage dress..." he breathed, "Is made of skin.... pink from muscle and blood...it will be the skin of a rabid dog ..."

His head swiveled to Loch. "Or your brother's."

Nessie's sternum tingled beneath her bear costume. She shook her head, horrified by his augury.

"Well..." Oogie Boogie rolled a pair of dice. "The future isn't set in stone."

The dice ticked over the stage. At the edge they turned snake eyes.

Oogie Boogie stepped sideways, detaching from his shadow.

"Let's hope for a fox skin!" He snapped. The audience cheered as his shadow released a trap door beneath Loch's cage.

Loch fell into a tunnel. The tunnel was connected to a maze, and the maze was infested with rabid dogs. Oogie Boogie had created this little attraction just for Loch. He called it the Fox Hole. 

As Loch landed, the dogs began their hunt. They could smell he was injured. They could smell he was afraid.

The rules were simple: survive.

Bets were taken as the audience watched, cheering when Loch was cornered and booing when he attacked. Somehow, Loch survived. He surrendered to his fox brain, relying on stealth and savagery. 

The dead dogs were skinned, and Nessie was dressed in their hides.

Then, she played for the Crawloween Circus. She was the main attraction, a fox girl who could arouse drunken spirits with her magical violin. She was a beautiful spectacle. She was Oogie Boogie's doll.

And like Loch, the rules for Nessie were simple:

No Christmas music. 

If she played Christmas music, her brother would die.