Making Fantasia (KF Prequel): The Nightmare After Christmas

Chapter 17: Noel (No Orb)

Chapter 17: Noel (No Orb)

Nessie's magic razed through the Crawloween Circus, but it was Jon's third gunshot that drew blood. The bullet ripped through Oogie Boogie's burlap collar. Had Loch not run into Jon, it would have blasted his face.

 "My bugs!" Oogie boogie clutched the seam splitting up his neck. Slugs and spiders spewed over the fabric as he staggered from his perch. "Stop them! Don't let them escape!"

His eye sockets narrowed on Jon, guiding the children through the chaos. "Bring him to me!"

Once Nessie stopped playing, Oogie Boogie's minions came out of the woodwork. Jon had never fathomed how terrifying it felt to be chased: His surroundings blurred between sudden dead ends, locked doors, and crazed assailants. Jon reacted faster than he could think, pulling Nessie out of danger, shooting clowns before they could recapture Smigvard or Loch, and finally hurling the children through the entrance.

Sally waved frantically from the ticket booth. Beside her, Jack's bones lifted two warning hands.

"Jon wait! Don't – "

"Keep running!" Jon yelled at the children. Heart hammering, he fumbled with the ticket booth chains, searching for the padlock. "Stay together, we'll catch up in a – "

"Well, well, well." A shadow hovered behind the ticket booth. Jon froze as Oogie Boogie appeared, one hand squeezing his jugular and the other jingling the padlock. "What have we here?"

Jon raised his rifle but Oogie Boogie's shadow leapt from the ground and wrenched it free.

Startled, Jon backed into Jack and Sally.

Sloppily, Oogie hefted the rifle, aiming for Jon's throat. "Snake eyes for you."

  Jon didn't have time be afraid.

Sally scooped her dismembered arm from his lap as Jack retrieved his decapitated skull. Together, they hugged Jon's shoulders.

"One day, Jon Hawkins, we'll celebrate Christmas together. But for now..." Jack hurled his skull like a baseball. "Run!"

Jack's skull sailed into Oogie Boogie, biting the hand that was suturing his neck. Simultaneously, Sally threw her arm, and bullets fired crazily as she wrestled for the rifle. Oogie Boogie wailed as bugs bled from his neck.

"Run Jon!" Jack's cries echoed into the autumn night. "Run to the cemetery! Zero will help you! Run Jon! Run – "

A mob amassed, overthrowing the ragdoll and skeleton.

Leaving was the most painful decision Jon ever made.

But, with Nessie, Loch, and Smigvard running blindly ahead for their freedom, Jon couldn't gamble with captivity. He had promised to rescue the children. And unlike his father, it was a promise Jon intended to keep.

"I'll come back for you." Jon growled, boots punching into the ground. Anguished, he left Jack and Sally, and thundered after the children. "On my honor."

The problem, Jon soon realized, was not coming back.

The problem was getting out.

He had no idea how to escape Halloween Town.

The cemetery was key, Jack had alluded to that earlier, but the magical mechanism was a mystery. Without that information or North's portal, they were trapped.

Fleetingly, Jon looked over his shoulder. Oogie Boogie was rapidly pursing. He was riding alongside the Coachman, as Lock, Shock, and Barrell trailed in their bathtub. A bloodthirsty mob followed.

Jon led the children into the cemetery. Headstones flashed by as they darted through, Loch on all fours. The Coachman screeched into the headstones as Oogie Boogie trudged after them, his armada filtering around the graves.

Within moments they were surrounded.

Savagely, Jon confronted the adversaries, but as he prepared to literally fight to the death, a white wisp rose from a small grave inscribed ZERO.

Jon faltered, remembering Jack's assurance that someone named Zero would help them. This Zero was a ghost, airy as a tissue, with a puppy head and bright orange nose.

"Bark!" Zero fluttered over Jon's shoulder, drawing his attention. He zipped eagerly to an astronaut standing amongst the graves. 

Jon's hope skyrocketed. It was the mysterious astronaut who'd deluded him on The Princess!

Emotionless behind her golden visor, the astronaut unbuckled a leg strap. Reaching deep into the pocket, she withdrew a golden orb.

The orb was fluted with swirly, geometric patterns, which the astronaut rearranged like a cryptex puzzle. Once the last groove was set, she twisted the orb into the earth. An electric green light shot from the center, then spiraled into a circular grid.

The astronaut tilted her head. After a brief calculation, she tapped a green sparkle. Three lights crackled from the grid and converged into a green triangle. Like North's snow globe, triangle invaginated, opening a window to another world.

Jon looked through the triangle. He saw an angry ocean churning beneath a black hole. He could smell salt. He could feel icy gales.

It was the Northern Fantasian Sea.

Breathlessly, he looked at the astronaut.

The portal's green light radiated off her helmet.

"Jump." she said. "Think happy thoughts."

Jon seized Nessie's hand. Fending off Oogie Boogie with every stride, he pulled the children through the portal.

They jumped for dear life, then plunged thousands of feet to certain death.