Tricked Out | Nightmare Before Christmas

Chapter 34: Consequences, Folgen

All credits to the author. I own nothing.

Enjoy!

...

December 13

Nightmare Realm

Just after Ivy jumps into the Nightmare

The world around Ivy was cold and dark, with echoing whispers and only flashes of colored lights to guide her way. She twisted within the nightmare, the colors of orange and blue fading more and more. She pushed forward, squinting her eyes for an image...

...and then the shadowy, static-filled filled form of Anton appeared in front of her. His back was to her, blond hair in tufts as he lay in bed, and part of Ivy felt like falling to her knees and crying at the sight. His chubby cheeks, the footie pajamas she'd bought him for his Geburtstag... the way he was holding a flashlight under the covers of his bed, thumbing his way through a picture book.

Ivy's blood ran cold, and she wanted to cry for an entirely different reason.

Anton wasn't sleeping.

Ivy was hit with the memories of how she'd read under the covers with Anton and taught him how to have a poker face for when their parents asked why he was yawning into his cereal the next morning. She'd loved it at the time, but now? How could she enter his nightmare if he wasn't dreaming? She couldn't afford to wait for him to fall asleep- the kid had more patience that she could ever dream of, and already the winds inside the nightmare world were ripping at her, forcing her away from her brother.

"Anton!" She screamed, hearing her voice echo in the vast sea of inches between them. "Anton, it's Ivy! It's me!"

Anton turned the page once more, eyes lighting up at the colorful dinosaur splashed across the page.

Ivy lunged forward desperately, brushing a hand through Anton's hair. She passed straight through his head, and the boy didn't seem to notice in the slightest. There was a force that seemed to shove her away, and when Ivy grit her teeth and pushed back, a voice echoed throughout the Realm.

"Hey, back off, you cloak-wearing weirdo. Plenty of other kids to terrorize, leave this one alone."

Ivy blinked. The voice was rough, the accent odd, but it reminded her of... Marvel?

What was he doing here?

"Hey!" she yelled, pushing once more. "It's not them, it's Ivy! I'm his sister, let me talk to him!"

There was no indication that she'd been heard, only another strong push that ripped Anton's form to shreds, and Ivy was left flipping through the air, the threads of Anton's colors melting into the mist. Ivy flung her hand out to grab them, only to latch onto a stronger thread.

The new nightmare seemed to be reaching towards her, the sickly yellow and pink latching onto Ivy's arm like a parasite. She was yanked down, distantly hearing the shouts of the Entity, and then-

...

Ivy landed feet first on concrete, taking in the sights around her.

The sky was dark, clouds obscuring the moon. A chain link fence, partially destroyed, bobbed in the slight breeze. There were beer bottles piled high in a collection bin behind a small shack, and countless cigarette butts lining the ground. Ivy glanced up at the walls of the Dip and felt her eyes burn at the first hint of home in two months.

Whose nightmare could possibly be the park, though?

There was a scuffling behind her, and Ivy was instantly on her guard, whirling around with a fist ready to see-