Nightmare Before Christmas Read Online Free Page A

it!" crowed Barrel. "He sure is big!"
    "And heavy!" added Shock, panting.
    "Let me out!" rumbled a voice from inside. Suddenly the sack heaved, rolled, and opened. Out stepped a big fat man with white hair and a white beard. His red clothes were rumpled, his red stocking cap was askew, and his very red face was wet with sweat.
    Jack was thrilled. "Sandy Claws!" he cried. "In person! What a pleasure to meet you!"
    Santa Claus was not a young man, but he had lived a sheltered life. He had spent most of it with jolly, hardworking elves and the rest with sleeping children, who were at their most angelic because they weren't awake. Making beautiful, festive Christmas gifts and then delivering them to good little girls and boys had not prepared him for--this.
    He looked around in horror. Ghouls and monsters, one uglier than the next, pressed in on him, their faces twitching with curiosity. Who were they? And this tall, bony fellow, who was obviously their leader, kept beaming at him foolishly. Why? Santa's mind whirled with a dozen unspoken questions.
    "Surprised, aren't you?" said the bony fellow. "I knew you would be! You don't need to have a single worry about Christmas this year. We're handling it. You can have the night off."
    Santa's heart nearly stopped. What was this skeleton talking about? Christmas Eve was the high point of his entire year! He had reindeer to drive! Gifts to deliver! And now he was going to be late!
    "But, I--!" he gasped, nearly speechless with dismay.
    "Think of this as a vacation, Sandy," the bony fellow said. "A chance for you to relax and take it easy." Then he realized what his Sandy Claws costume was missing. He plucked the red cap from Santa's head. "While you rest," he said, "I'll just borrow this."
    Worry, anger, and fear did not help Santa's powers of speech. Before he could manage a reply, the three terrible little children who had kidnapped him were dragging him away. Wouldn't anybody help him? This was a nightmare!
    "No . . . please wait . . . !" he begged. But the trick-or-treaters' giggling drowned out his pleas.
    This is a nightmare! thought Sally the Rag Doll as poor Santa was hauled off. All her fears about Christmas were turning out to be true. It was a disaster. She had to do something. She racked her rag-doll brain. "I know!" she whispered, and slipped away.
    Jack, entranced with Santa's red cap, never saw her leave. The cap, he thought, was just the thing to complete his dazzling Christmas outfit. He adjusted it so it sat at a rakish angle on his. skull, then got ready to climb into his sleigh. Once the Mayor
    finished his farewell speech, Jack could be Off.
    Jack looked up toward the Mayor and blinked. He and everyone else in the crowd looked around in disbelief. A thick white fog had appeared out of nowhere and was swirling through the town square. It was soupy. It was sinister. It was as bone-chilling and blinding as the fog that came on Halloween. And like that fog, it had swallowed everything up.
    "Oh no!" groaned Jack "We'll never be able to take off in this. The reindeer can't see an inch in front of their noses."
    Out of the fog came moans and complaints, a loud monster chorus of disappointment. Christmas was ruined! How could this be?
    Safely hidden by clouds of white mist, one face smiled in relief: the face of Sally the Rag Doll. For it was Sally, of course, who had mixed up a special potion and dumped it in the town fountain. The fog was her creation. Deep in her rag-doll stuffing Sally felt that Christmas could not go on, and she had to stop it. Now it looked as if she had succeeded.
    She peered through the thick fog at Jack. Had he given up?
    No! He was talking to Zero, his little ghost dog, who hovered in the air with his jack-o'-lantern nose glowing. "Zero, with your nose so bright," Jack asked, "won't you grade my sleigh tonight?" Zero's answer was a bark of excitement and a loop-the-loop through the air.
    "I guess that means yes," said Jack with a grin. He turned to