Making Fantasia (KF Prequel): The Nightmare After Christmas

Chapter 13: Do You Want to Build a Scarecrow?

Chapter 13: Do You Want to Build a Scarecrow?

Jon's thoughts were slurred. His cheek was cold. He was laying on something crinkly. His rifle was resting heavily across his back. A damp, sour smell was giving him a headache.

He opened his eyes; the lids felt like they were stapled together.

He was on dry ground. Tombstones, autumn leaves, and pumpkin wedges were heaped around him.

He squinted. The tombstones were blank, nameless.

He shifted. The leaves scraped his cheek– that explained the crinkly feeling.

He pushed up. His elbow sunk into a slimy pumpkin – that explained the smell.

Blearily, Jon recalibrated his memory.   He remembered attacking Santa Clause; hurtling through a magical portal; expecting Oogie Boogie but meeting his grandfather; encountering an astronaut whose golden visor hid her face...

Jon rubbed his neck. As astronaut in the ocean? Strange. And the girl behind the helmet was also perplexing...Jon hadn't much experience with astronauts, but she sounded incredibly young.

He kneaded an eye. What happened next? Oh yes – the astronaut ambushed him. She pushed him into the sinking ship, and instructed him to say...what was it?

"This is... Halloween."

Jon studied the withered leaves and pumpkin shards.

He'd survived the shipwreck somehow. Was that phrase the reason?

It seemed outlandish, but he had just traveled halfway across the planet via a magical snow glob. Why couldn't the phrase be responsible for bringing him here?

And...where was here?

Rotating over a hip, Jon examined his surroundings.

"What the – !"

A monster was standing behind him, arms open, teeth exposed –

Jon flipped his rifle over his shoulder, pressed the butt against his cheek and fired.

He wasted half an amo-link before realizing the bullets were ripping through a scarecrow.

To be fair, Jon had every right being startled. The scarecrow's pumpkin head was grinning hungrily, and it's body was shoved through a post like a stuck pig. It's elongated arms were outstretched as it  leered over the cemetery.

Jon lowered his rifle. Heart racing, he noticed two signs nailed over the scarecrow's head.

The topmost sign was a wooden slat. The words – which looked like blood – read HALLOWEEN TOWN.

The sign below was carved into a crude arrow, and it was pointed toward distant, spiral-shaped hills. That sign read,

"Crawloween Circus."

Jon's mind roared back to life. He'd made it!

Scrambling to his feet, Jon ran toward the spiraled hills just as three voices cackled from the cemetery's edge.

"Hey! Your costume is wicked! Wanna ride?!"

Jon spun, rifle raised. Three gremlins wearing Halloween masks were waving from inside a  – 

Jon blinked --- was a that a walking bathtub?

The gremlins waved zealously.

"You just missed the last group!" One of the gremlins – a girl dressed as a witch – gestured toward the Crawloween Circus sign. "They rode with the Coachman, but you can hop in with us."