Spirited Away on Halloween
Based on Spirited Away, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the story I wrote on my old Macintosh before deciding to re-write and post it here.
Disclaimer: This is The Nightmare Before Christmas given new roles as Spirited Away characters! Wait, I can phrase that better. Um... This is an alternate reality story, that's it! And in that alternate reality, the character of TNBC follow the Spirited Away storyline! Yeah! Not really a crossover, but it'll be fun to read anyway! I know, my bad guy is going to look like a lot of other people's bad guys, but hey? Whatcha gonna do? You need a few expendable characters. Away we go, get your popcorn.
Sally drove through the park, lost as to where else to go. She had just gotten back from a business meeting, which had not gone well. Due to her shyness, she couldn't quite fumble out the right words, and their potential buyers had left. She was wrapped in her uncomfortable business suit, which fit her like wrapped cellophane. Her thigh boots weren't much help either. Normally, she would be traveling with her dog, Punchy. But, sadly, Punchy, her only friend and basic family, had died of cancer. While most people might look to their parents for solice, Sally had none, so she took her pain to her old, 1984 Volvo stationwagon and drove it off. Sally's boyfriend, Darris, had left her for another girl, on another note. Said, quote, "He had no more bones to break", unquote, on Sally.
Sally pushed back a lock of hair which had escaped the loose bun she kept her unmanagable hair in 24-7. She drove mindlessly through the nature drive in the park, going purely on instinct. She often drove like that; zen driving, she called it. She only really got lost when she said the fateful words-
"Okay, now where am I?"
Yes, Sally said them. She stopped the car, trying to look out of the window to find a directional sign. These didn't even look like the trees in the park, come to think of it. Instead of being stumpy, leaf filled oak trees, this were barren, tall rising... something trees. Some kind of trees, Sally didn't know. Also, the trees formed a bit of a wall in front of her, allowing for the passage of a person to a few animals, but not a car.
"I didn't know there was an area like this is the park," Sally spoke to herself. She stepped out of the car, and followed the road on foot. She moved herself through the wall of trees, looking even more desperately for a sign. She listened to the grass crinkle under her feet, until it got to a point where there was no grass; only dirt. Also, the trees became less dense, letting more space come between them. Sally would occasionally brush her arms off, checking for ticks or other bugs. Her skin tingled, goosebumps forming on her pale peach skin.
As she passed another tree, she noticed the trees formed themselves into a perfect circle. Large drawings adorned each tree: a heart, a Christmas tree, a Jack-O-Lantern, other things like that.
"Holidays?" Sally scratched her shin. "Why would a grafitti artist make holiday symbols?"
Sally tiptoed to the Jack-O-Lantern, examined it more closely, and realized-
"OH!" she laughed. "It's a door!" Her spirits dropped a little. "Wait, a door? In a tree?"
She jiggled the know, making sure there was nothing funny behind it. She then opneed it, and took a quick look inside. A smell hit her nose weakly, and it made her cough. Smells reminiscent of chocolate, rotting meat, steam, certain spices; it did not make a good mix.
Sally reared out of the hole and coughed, getting the fumes out of her system.
She turned as she heard an engine revving, thinking a park ranger had found her.
CRASH! IT WAS HER CAR!
Sally stared at the dirty stationwagon before her, recognizing it as hers from the custom "REDHAIR" license plate on the front.
"How'd that get there?" Sally yelled at the car.
The engine revved, the headlights flashed on, and the car suddenly burst forward!
Sally held her arms in front of her as the car slammed her into the tree. The wind whipped around her, blowing from the bottom up, as if it was trying to keep her from falling inside. Still, she fell, and she hit the ground with a powerful
BANG!
*
Sally got up slowly, her back still aching. She couldn't quite stand right in her boots, but she tried anyway. When her eyes adjusted, she saw a world she had only seen once, in a nightmare.
The ground was gray and dusty, with no signs of life nearby. Tombstone littered the ground around Sally, closing around her like the gate on a crib. They sky was cloudy, with purple traces abounding. It was twilight.
Sally took a fast look at a tombstone
*Here lies the body of Solomon Peas
Killed by a sniffle, a cough, and a sneeze
Peas isn't here; only the pod
Peas shelled out, went home to God
1945-1984*
"Poor guy," Sally remarked. She stood now, and walked past the tombstones, following her nose. She smelled something good, like steak or turkey, some kind of meat. She stopped when she reached a set of gates. The gates were skinny and pitch black, as was most everything in this place. Above the gates, in loopy letters, was written
HALLOWEEN TOWN
"Halloween... town?" She looked past the gates and into the town. Everything was a certain shade of gray, and nothing was really symetrically. Everything leaned one way or the other. The town was built on a circular plan, that could easily be told. But, just past the town, there was a huge, palatial looking, egg-white mansion with stain glass windows and waving banners.
"It's looks like the castle at Disneyworld," Sally remarked. "Only with a little more color."
She took a fast look behind her, just out of curiousity. More tombstones, and a beautiful mountain, accentuated the horizon.
Sally felt drawn towards the mountain (okay, so it was more of a hill). She speed-walked to the sight, marveling at how it curved into a little spiral at the top.
"Look at that!" Sally whispered to herself. The wind blew through her suit. Sally looked to the sky, to look for rainclouds, and instead saw a stagecoach! Yes, a stagecoach, pulled by skeleton horses, flying through the air at unreasonable speeds!
"Hey! WAIT!" Sally screamed. "CAN YOU GET ME OUT OF HERE!?"
Sally turned as she heard a twig snap. What she saw astounded her.
It was... a something. Maybe a skeleton, but it didn't look quite right. It was long and thin, with a puffed out chest. His head was round, like a bouncy ball. He (Sally guessed it was a he) had huge eye sockets, and a gaping mouth. His hands were huge, with long fingers. She guessed that it your fingers were the size of bananas, you wouldn't need all four of them. Despite the fact that his hands were so big, his feet were tiny. He wore a pinstripe suit with a cat bow tie. The bow of the tie stuck out past his shoulders, and they stretched out a bit like wings.
The skeleton reacted in surprise to seeing Sally.
"Hello?" Sally asked in confusion.
Skeleton's face soon turned to anger. He stomped his way towards Sally. "You shouldn't be here."
"Huh?" Sally cowered under the skeleton, which was a long way taller than her.
"You're not supposed to be here! Go, before it gets dark!" Skeleton pointed over her shoulder, towards a little ditch over which a log had fallen, creating a bridge to a mangled forest of dead trees.
"I don't understand!" Sally scuffled back in fear.
Darkness began to creep across the land. As it passed over the ground, Jack- O-Lanterns arose from the dust and opened their mouths, lighting like candles.
"They're lighting the lanterns," Skeleton mumbled in fear. He turned to Sally, and determinately raised his voice. "Go! You've got to get across to the trees!"
"Which way?"
"THAT WAY!" Skeleton pushed her towards the ditch, where she began running. "HURRY! I'LL KEEP THEM FROM FOLLOWING YOU!"
Sally ran over the log and through the trees, trying to find the tree doors she had fallen through. As she ran, white clouds of smoke floated out of the ground rising into the trees and finally blowing out of the forest. Sally kept running until she slammed into a tree. While she was gathering her senses, she took a closer look at one of the puffs of smoke. It had eyes. And a mouth. And hands.
"That's not smoke," Sally choked.
"Whhho were yoou expect-ing? Richhard Nixxon?"
"IT'S A GHOST!" Sally lost her sense of direction and ran the other way. She tried to avoid other ghost which blocked her path, but she occasionally ran into one.
Finally, she made it back across the ditch. She didn't know exactly where to go, so she blindly ran to the left- And tripped on another tombstone.
"This can't be happening," she moped. "This has to be a nightmare.... Wake up, Sally. Wake up. Go away nightmare. Wake up and disappear."
Sally hoisted herself onto her knees, and hung her head. She took noticed of her hands.
"AAAH!" Sally held her arms up to her face. "I'm a ghost!! I can see through my arms!"
Sally rubbed her shoulders in comfort. "Bad dream! Bad dream! Go away!"
Two hands calmy placed themselves on her shoulders. She gasped as she saw Skeleton again.
"Shhh," he hushed. "Don't be afraid. My name is Jack Skellington. I'm here to help you."
Sally shook her head vigorously. "No, no!"
"Hush, now," Jack reached into his pocket and pulled of a carmel candy. "Eat this. If you don't eat the food here, you'll disappear forever."
"Uh uh!" Sally let her paranoia sink in. "That food's poisoned! You're trying to kill me to turn me into a ghost!"
"No, I'm not," Jack growled. "Now, eat it!"
"NO!" Sally pushed Jack away from her. Or, at least, she would have.
Sally was in shock. Her arms had gone straight through Jack's body, and were sticking out the other side.
"Now do you believe me?" Jack said not-too-kindly. "Now, eat it."
Jack fingered the candy into Sally's mouth. She swallowed it without chewing it. It was a disgusting feeling, and she didn't like caramel to begin with, but she was about ready to wake up.
"There, you see? You're solid now," Jack smiled. He grasped Sally's wrist. "See?"
Sally nodded, looking at her arm and not her savior.
"Now, I need you to come with me," Jack tugged up Sally's arm, signalling her to get up.
"Oka-" Sally grunted as she tried to lift her legs, but to no avail. "My legs! They're frozen!"
"Oh no," Jack complained. He held his hand close to her thigh, scaring the daylights out of her. "By the air and water within her, let her bonds be broken, so that she may walk again."
He gave her leg a quick tap, and he stood up again. "Alright, now get up."
Sally bolted into a standing position. "Um, thank you?"
"Come on!"
*
Jack pushed the gate open, Sally clinging to his arm.
"You have to hold your breath as you walk to the mansion," Jack explained. "If not, the Sentry Spirits will realize you're alive, and they'll come after you."
"What about you?" Sally asked.
"I'm dead," Jack answered. "I don't breathe."
"Okay."
"Let's go. Take a deep breath."
Sally breathed in through her nose, filling her lungs until they were about to burst.
"Hold it."
Sally pinched her nose shut. Jack started walking, and they slowly made their way across the town.
About 4/5 of a way through, Sally started to whimper.
"Don't worry," Jack cooed. "We're almost there."
"Mm hmm," Sally mumbled.
As the two approached the mansion, a little boy ran up to them. He wore a red shirt and red pants. His red hair was dolled up in little devil horns. His face even looked devilish. The boy ran to Jack like his life depended on it.
"Jack!" The boy kept coming. "Where have you been? Hirac's furious!"
In saying this, the boy rammed himself into one of Jack's thin legs. The jolt shook Sally, and she accidently coughed.
"Huh?" the boy shuddered. "A human? Alive?"
Jack snapped his arm down onto the boy's forehead, and a ball of darkness encircled him.
"LET'S GO!" Jack jumped into the air and blast along the ground, like he was flying, dragging Sally behind him. He flew until he reach a cellar down, when he finally landed, opened the gate, and pulled Sally inside with him.
A multitude of voices and footsteps rattled above the cellar ceiling, calling out Jack's name, along with some calls of "Master Skellington!" Presently, the two adults were at the very top of the staircase, with miles upon miles of stairs leading down. Sally shivered in fear as Jack covered her protectively. He stroked her hand in comfort.
"Now, I want you to listen to me," Jack instructed. Sally nodded. He held his hand on her forehead, and Sally's normal vision dissappeared, leaving her mind to do the seeing for her.
"Now," Jack spoke with her indirectly. "Follow the stairs down to the cellar, where you will see a group of monsters. Among those monsters, you will find a man they call 'The Mayor'. Talk to him, and ask him for a job. Do you understand?"
"Uh huh." Sally saw the pictures as the words were spoken... she knew exactly where to go.
"Good," Jack withdrew his hand, and Sally regained normal sight. "Now, even if The Mayor says you can't have a job, you must insist. If you don't, our king will turn you into a pig and cook you."
"Your king?" Sally was confused.
"King Hirac, of Halloween Town. He is the owner of the mansion," Jack calmed Sally. "Don't worry, just talk to The Mayor, and you'll be fine. Now, get on your way, Sally."
"Okay, Ja-" Sally's eyes widend, quickly. "How did you know my name?"
"I've known you ever since you were a little girl," Jack calmed her. "Now, get going!"
Jack gave her a hard nudge, so she turned around and looked down the stairs. Sally was starting to get mad.
"Okay, how did you-"
Sally looked to see Jack, but he was gone.
"Know my name?"
Sally gulped and started down the stairs.
Based on Spirited Away, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the story I wrote on my old Macintosh before deciding to re-write and post it here.
Disclaimer: This is The Nightmare Before Christmas given new roles as Spirited Away characters! Wait, I can phrase that better. Um... This is an alternate reality story, that's it! And in that alternate reality, the character of TNBC follow the Spirited Away storyline! Yeah! Not really a crossover, but it'll be fun to read anyway! I know, my bad guy is going to look like a lot of other people's bad guys, but hey? Whatcha gonna do? You need a few expendable characters. Away we go, get your popcorn.
Sally drove through the park, lost as to where else to go. She had just gotten back from a business meeting, which had not gone well. Due to her shyness, she couldn't quite fumble out the right words, and their potential buyers had left. She was wrapped in her uncomfortable business suit, which fit her like wrapped cellophane. Her thigh boots weren't much help either. Normally, she would be traveling with her dog, Punchy. But, sadly, Punchy, her only friend and basic family, had died of cancer. While most people might look to their parents for solice, Sally had none, so she took her pain to her old, 1984 Volvo stationwagon and drove it off. Sally's boyfriend, Darris, had left her for another girl, on another note. Said, quote, "He had no more bones to break", unquote, on Sally.
Sally pushed back a lock of hair which had escaped the loose bun she kept her unmanagable hair in 24-7. She drove mindlessly through the nature drive in the park, going purely on instinct. She often drove like that; zen driving, she called it. She only really got lost when she said the fateful words-
"Okay, now where am I?"
Yes, Sally said them. She stopped the car, trying to look out of the window to find a directional sign. These didn't even look like the trees in the park, come to think of it. Instead of being stumpy, leaf filled oak trees, this were barren, tall rising... something trees. Some kind of trees, Sally didn't know. Also, the trees formed a bit of a wall in front of her, allowing for the passage of a person to a few animals, but not a car.
"I didn't know there was an area like this is the park," Sally spoke to herself. She stepped out of the car, and followed the road on foot. She moved herself through the wall of trees, looking even more desperately for a sign. She listened to the grass crinkle under her feet, until it got to a point where there was no grass; only dirt. Also, the trees became less dense, letting more space come between them. Sally would occasionally brush her arms off, checking for ticks or other bugs. Her skin tingled, goosebumps forming on her pale peach skin.
As she passed another tree, she noticed the trees formed themselves into a perfect circle. Large drawings adorned each tree: a heart, a Christmas tree, a Jack-O-Lantern, other things like that.
"Holidays?" Sally scratched her shin. "Why would a grafitti artist make holiday symbols?"
Sally tiptoed to the Jack-O-Lantern, examined it more closely, and realized-
"OH!" she laughed. "It's a door!" Her spirits dropped a little. "Wait, a door? In a tree?"
She jiggled the know, making sure there was nothing funny behind it. She then opneed it, and took a quick look inside. A smell hit her nose weakly, and it made her cough. Smells reminiscent of chocolate, rotting meat, steam, certain spices; it did not make a good mix.
Sally reared out of the hole and coughed, getting the fumes out of her system.
She turned as she heard an engine revving, thinking a park ranger had found her.
CRASH! IT WAS HER CAR!
Sally stared at the dirty stationwagon before her, recognizing it as hers from the custom "REDHAIR" license plate on the front.
"How'd that get there?" Sally yelled at the car.
The engine revved, the headlights flashed on, and the car suddenly burst forward!
Sally held her arms in front of her as the car slammed her into the tree. The wind whipped around her, blowing from the bottom up, as if it was trying to keep her from falling inside. Still, she fell, and she hit the ground with a powerful
BANG!
*
Sally got up slowly, her back still aching. She couldn't quite stand right in her boots, but she tried anyway. When her eyes adjusted, she saw a world she had only seen once, in a nightmare.
The ground was gray and dusty, with no signs of life nearby. Tombstone littered the ground around Sally, closing around her like the gate on a crib. They sky was cloudy, with purple traces abounding. It was twilight.
Sally took a fast look at a tombstone
*Here lies the body of Solomon Peas
Killed by a sniffle, a cough, and a sneeze
Peas isn't here; only the pod
Peas shelled out, went home to God
1945-1984*
"Poor guy," Sally remarked. She stood now, and walked past the tombstones, following her nose. She smelled something good, like steak or turkey, some kind of meat. She stopped when she reached a set of gates. The gates were skinny and pitch black, as was most everything in this place. Above the gates, in loopy letters, was written
HALLOWEEN TOWN
"Halloween... town?" She looked past the gates and into the town. Everything was a certain shade of gray, and nothing was really symetrically. Everything leaned one way or the other. The town was built on a circular plan, that could easily be told. But, just past the town, there was a huge, palatial looking, egg-white mansion with stain glass windows and waving banners.
"It's looks like the castle at Disneyworld," Sally remarked. "Only with a little more color."
She took a fast look behind her, just out of curiousity. More tombstones, and a beautiful mountain, accentuated the horizon.
Sally felt drawn towards the mountain (okay, so it was more of a hill). She speed-walked to the sight, marveling at how it curved into a little spiral at the top.
"Look at that!" Sally whispered to herself. The wind blew through her suit. Sally looked to the sky, to look for rainclouds, and instead saw a stagecoach! Yes, a stagecoach, pulled by skeleton horses, flying through the air at unreasonable speeds!
"Hey! WAIT!" Sally screamed. "CAN YOU GET ME OUT OF HERE!?"
Sally turned as she heard a twig snap. What she saw astounded her.
It was... a something. Maybe a skeleton, but it didn't look quite right. It was long and thin, with a puffed out chest. His head was round, like a bouncy ball. He (Sally guessed it was a he) had huge eye sockets, and a gaping mouth. His hands were huge, with long fingers. She guessed that it your fingers were the size of bananas, you wouldn't need all four of them. Despite the fact that his hands were so big, his feet were tiny. He wore a pinstripe suit with a cat bow tie. The bow of the tie stuck out past his shoulders, and they stretched out a bit like wings.
The skeleton reacted in surprise to seeing Sally.
"Hello?" Sally asked in confusion.
Skeleton's face soon turned to anger. He stomped his way towards Sally. "You shouldn't be here."
"Huh?" Sally cowered under the skeleton, which was a long way taller than her.
"You're not supposed to be here! Go, before it gets dark!" Skeleton pointed over her shoulder, towards a little ditch over which a log had fallen, creating a bridge to a mangled forest of dead trees.
"I don't understand!" Sally scuffled back in fear.
Darkness began to creep across the land. As it passed over the ground, Jack- O-Lanterns arose from the dust and opened their mouths, lighting like candles.
"They're lighting the lanterns," Skeleton mumbled in fear. He turned to Sally, and determinately raised his voice. "Go! You've got to get across to the trees!"
"Which way?"
"THAT WAY!" Skeleton pushed her towards the ditch, where she began running. "HURRY! I'LL KEEP THEM FROM FOLLOWING YOU!"
Sally ran over the log and through the trees, trying to find the tree doors she had fallen through. As she ran, white clouds of smoke floated out of the ground rising into the trees and finally blowing out of the forest. Sally kept running until she slammed into a tree. While she was gathering her senses, she took a closer look at one of the puffs of smoke. It had eyes. And a mouth. And hands.
"That's not smoke," Sally choked.
"Whhho were yoou expect-ing? Richhard Nixxon?"
"IT'S A GHOST!" Sally lost her sense of direction and ran the other way. She tried to avoid other ghost which blocked her path, but she occasionally ran into one.
Finally, she made it back across the ditch. She didn't know exactly where to go, so she blindly ran to the left- And tripped on another tombstone.
"This can't be happening," she moped. "This has to be a nightmare.... Wake up, Sally. Wake up. Go away nightmare. Wake up and disappear."
Sally hoisted herself onto her knees, and hung her head. She took noticed of her hands.
"AAAH!" Sally held her arms up to her face. "I'm a ghost!! I can see through my arms!"
Sally rubbed her shoulders in comfort. "Bad dream! Bad dream! Go away!"
Two hands calmy placed themselves on her shoulders. She gasped as she saw Skeleton again.
"Shhh," he hushed. "Don't be afraid. My name is Jack Skellington. I'm here to help you."
Sally shook her head vigorously. "No, no!"
"Hush, now," Jack reached into his pocket and pulled of a carmel candy. "Eat this. If you don't eat the food here, you'll disappear forever."
"Uh uh!" Sally let her paranoia sink in. "That food's poisoned! You're trying to kill me to turn me into a ghost!"
"No, I'm not," Jack growled. "Now, eat it!"
"NO!" Sally pushed Jack away from her. Or, at least, she would have.
Sally was in shock. Her arms had gone straight through Jack's body, and were sticking out the other side.
"Now do you believe me?" Jack said not-too-kindly. "Now, eat it."
Jack fingered the candy into Sally's mouth. She swallowed it without chewing it. It was a disgusting feeling, and she didn't like caramel to begin with, but she was about ready to wake up.
"There, you see? You're solid now," Jack smiled. He grasped Sally's wrist. "See?"
Sally nodded, looking at her arm and not her savior.
"Now, I need you to come with me," Jack tugged up Sally's arm, signalling her to get up.
"Oka-" Sally grunted as she tried to lift her legs, but to no avail. "My legs! They're frozen!"
"Oh no," Jack complained. He held his hand close to her thigh, scaring the daylights out of her. "By the air and water within her, let her bonds be broken, so that she may walk again."
He gave her leg a quick tap, and he stood up again. "Alright, now get up."
Sally bolted into a standing position. "Um, thank you?"
"Come on!"
*
Jack pushed the gate open, Sally clinging to his arm.
"You have to hold your breath as you walk to the mansion," Jack explained. "If not, the Sentry Spirits will realize you're alive, and they'll come after you."
"What about you?" Sally asked.
"I'm dead," Jack answered. "I don't breathe."
"Okay."
"Let's go. Take a deep breath."
Sally breathed in through her nose, filling her lungs until they were about to burst.
"Hold it."
Sally pinched her nose shut. Jack started walking, and they slowly made their way across the town.
About 4/5 of a way through, Sally started to whimper.
"Don't worry," Jack cooed. "We're almost there."
"Mm hmm," Sally mumbled.
As the two approached the mansion, a little boy ran up to them. He wore a red shirt and red pants. His red hair was dolled up in little devil horns. His face even looked devilish. The boy ran to Jack like his life depended on it.
"Jack!" The boy kept coming. "Where have you been? Hirac's furious!"
In saying this, the boy rammed himself into one of Jack's thin legs. The jolt shook Sally, and she accidently coughed.
"Huh?" the boy shuddered. "A human? Alive?"
Jack snapped his arm down onto the boy's forehead, and a ball of darkness encircled him.
"LET'S GO!" Jack jumped into the air and blast along the ground, like he was flying, dragging Sally behind him. He flew until he reach a cellar down, when he finally landed, opened the gate, and pulled Sally inside with him.
A multitude of voices and footsteps rattled above the cellar ceiling, calling out Jack's name, along with some calls of "Master Skellington!" Presently, the two adults were at the very top of the staircase, with miles upon miles of stairs leading down. Sally shivered in fear as Jack covered her protectively. He stroked her hand in comfort.
"Now, I want you to listen to me," Jack instructed. Sally nodded. He held his hand on her forehead, and Sally's normal vision dissappeared, leaving her mind to do the seeing for her.
"Now," Jack spoke with her indirectly. "Follow the stairs down to the cellar, where you will see a group of monsters. Among those monsters, you will find a man they call 'The Mayor'. Talk to him, and ask him for a job. Do you understand?"
"Uh huh." Sally saw the pictures as the words were spoken... she knew exactly where to go.
"Good," Jack withdrew his hand, and Sally regained normal sight. "Now, even if The Mayor says you can't have a job, you must insist. If you don't, our king will turn you into a pig and cook you."
"Your king?" Sally was confused.
"King Hirac, of Halloween Town. He is the owner of the mansion," Jack calmed Sally. "Don't worry, just talk to The Mayor, and you'll be fine. Now, get on your way, Sally."
"Okay, Ja-" Sally's eyes widend, quickly. "How did you know my name?"
"I've known you ever since you were a little girl," Jack calmed her. "Now, get going!"
Jack gave her a hard nudge, so she turned around and looked down the stairs. Sally was starting to get mad.
"Okay, how did you-"
Sally looked to see Jack, but he was gone.
"Know my name?"
Sally gulped and started down the stairs.