Tricked Out | Nightmare Before Christmas

Chapter 3: Hexen and Ventus

This story's timeline is set before Nightmare before Christmas.

Please point out any mistakes if you find any.

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Ivy woke up the next morning on a metal ramp, with a man in a wheelchair inches from her face.

"Was in Aller Welt!" Ivy screamed, instinctively lashing out at the man.

The person caught her arm in one gloved hand, turning it over, his eyes inspecting it. Ivy winced as it bent painfully, her heart still thudding. She glanced around and felt her hopes die when she realized she was still stuck in Halloween Town.

......

Ivy had given up fighting Jack almost immediately. For somebody with no muscles, Jack's grip was impressively strong. She'd even had to leave her board-still hidden under the Spiral Hill. She made a mental note to get it as soon as she escaped town.

The moon was rising in the sky, and the shadow that had become a face had disappeared. Ivy felt a deep sense of dread as she approached the black gates once again. Jack pushed through the gates with no problem, but Ivy stood frozen for a moment. The same raven from before sat atop the gates, his head tilted at her and his eyes lit in...amusement? Her suspicions were confirmed when the raven began cracking in what sounded like laughter.

"This is not funny," She hissed, giving it her best glare as she was dragged through the gates.

Monsters began to gather in front of Jack, seeking advice from their leader. The moment they saw Ivy, they'd shrink back. Ivy's face grew hot with embarrassment as she heard one child ask, "What in the name of Halloween is that?"

It's mother-some cockroach, Ivy noticed with a shudder, answered. "It's a human, little terror. The ones I go to scare every Halloween."

The monster looked at Ivy with a mix of fear and awe.

Jack stepped up onto a large fountain and overlooked the crowd, finally letting Ivy's arm go.

Ivy was torn between her natural instinct to get away, and her sense telling her to stay close to Jack. Reluctantly, she stayed within Jack's reach.

While Jack explained the basics to the monsters, Ivy was frantically looking around for an escape route. The hair on the back of her neck stood up and she slowly turned her head. A monster with glowing red eyes, sharp teeth, and a strange cone-like spike on its head was grinning at her. Ivy felt a shudder go through her when she noticed it's claws, which the monster was flexing in and out. It saw she had noticed it and ran a purple tongue over it's teeth.

"Boo!" It suddenly said, raising its claws to her face in one swift motion.

When Ivy didn't scream, the creature frowned and poked her forehead. "Aww, that's no fun. It's not scared!"

But Ivy was scared. It was a strange type of horror, one that froze you in place. Her muscles were locked and her mouth was dry. The monster rolled it's eyes and melted back into the crowd.

A buzzing took over in the base of her skull, almost blocking out Jack's words.

She still wasn't completely sure what he has said to them- but she did snap out of her haze when the Pugsley thing that first spotted her said, in a loud voice, "So it's going to stay here?"

Ivy felt the bizarre need to defend herself. The monster's' gazes pierced her, as though she were the one on display. They had the same look of people at the zoo: a curiosity, but a relief they were behind bars.

Am I going to be locked up? Oh God, what's going to happen to me?

The townspeople were evidently wondering the same thing.