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"You look lovely," Oogie told Elizabeth as she powdered her face in a desperate act to cover her bruises. She had never liked cosmetics, along with most of the other creatures of Halloween Town. Natural beauty was prided among her fellow-citizens, and even then people didn't obsess over looks. After all, it was Halloween town. They were supposed to be scary.
The powder left her looking ghost-like and mal-nourished, but it was better than looking beaten and abused. She leaned her face close to the mirror, making sure she was satisfied with how well the powder hid her bruises. She was. Elizabeth quickly tied up her brown hair with a ribbon and scurried out of her house.
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Elizabeth stepped quietly through the gates of the graveyard. The sun had just begun to set, and the purple and orange sky casts shadows across the headstones making it enchantingly eerie. A tombstone to her right caught her eye. It wasn't particularly large or impressive. In fact, it was rather plain, and witch hazel grew around its base hiding a great deal of the writing.
Elizabeth brushed a few leaves out of the way and traced the two names at the top of the stone slab with her finger. Her parent's names. She sighed, standing up and letting her hand slide across the top of the headstone.
Elizabeth glanced up at spiral hill. She could just make out the figure of Derek at the top. She walked up the side of the hill and sat next to him. He glanced over at her with an akward smile-a mixture of happiness and surprise.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Elizabeth asked, gazing at multi-colored sky.
"Yeah," he nodded gazing at her, then tilted his head to the right. "And I think that cloud over there looks like a cat.," he said quickly. Elizabeth giggled and turned her head to the side as Derek had done.
"It does not!" Elizabeth protested, laughing. She couldn't remember the last time she had simply sat and made pictures with the sky.
"Does so!" Derek defended. He then began to point out the tale, legs and head of the cat he had seen in the clouds.
"I still don't see it," Elizabeth told him.
"Come here," he told Elizabeth, pointing to the area just in front of him. Elizabeth pulled herself to where he had pointed, then turned her head to look at him. "Look up there," he told her, pointing almost directly above their heads. He tilted her chin slightly to the left, and whispered in her ear, "Do you see it?" A smile crept onto her face.
"I see it now," she said, staring at the cat in the clouds, then at Derek. He smiled, then stood up.
"Come on," he told her, offering her a hand. "I want to show you something." Elizabeth took his hand, and he helped her up.
"What is it?" she asked him.
"It's a surprise. Cover your eyes." He said. She giggled and looked questioningly at him.
"Go on! Cover them!" he told her, and she put her hands over her eyes. He started to guide her down the hill when he noticed she was peaking through her hands. She laughed when he shook his head jokingly.
"Fine. I guess I'll have to cover them for you!" he laughed, placing his hands over her eyes. She smiled to herself, feeling him touch her. She felt herself leaning into him slightly as they walked. His body felt so nice next to hers.
"Where are we going?" she asked, stumbling slightly on a rock. Derek caught her, but quickly covered her eyes again.
"You'll see!" he told her, then lowered his voice, "technically, I'm not even supposed to go there, but it's worth it. Just you wait." Elizabeth smiled. Derek shifted his hands so he could block her vision with one hand, and still have mobility of the other. Elizabeth could hear a metal-sounding gate close behind her, and to her surprise the floor beneath her feet started to go down.
Once the floor stopped moving, Derek led her off of whatever platform they had been standing on and took his hands off of her eyes. Elizabeth looked around her at the all too familiar sight. A giant roulette-wheel floor, Burnt out neon, and decks of cards scattered everywhere.
"Wha--" was the closest to a word she could get out. She looked around herself again, feeling her knees grew week at the sight of Oogies lair-A place she had sworn she would never go again.
"Why did you take me here?" Elizabeth yelled, tears welling in her eyes, making her voice crack slightly.
"But....but I thought you would like it!" he said. She couldn't say he was entirely wrong. After all, the first time she had visited Oogie's hide-out she had liked it, though that was before her encounter with the boogieman himself.
Elizabeth dropped to her knees. Her hands were trembling in her lap, and tears fell quickly from her eyes.
"You don't know what's happened here." She told him through gritted teeth.
"Hold your tongue," Oogie told her, and she felt pain start to creep through her body.
"Of course I know what happened!" Derek said, feeling terribly confused. "My dad told me everything about when he tried to take over chris---"
"You don't know anything!" she yelled, balling her fists and making her knuckles turn white. She picked herself up off the ground, and ran for a staircase across the room. Derek caught her before she got very far. She pulled herself out of his grip and ran out into the cemetery. In her hurry, she tripped over a headstone and landed in a crumpled heap on the ground. She pounded her fist on the ground in frustration, but didn't bother to get up again. She propped herself up against the headstone and hugged her knees to her chest.
"Elizabeth!" Derek yelled, running up to her. He kneeled down to be eye level with her. "I'm sorry." He told her. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know that you would....that that place..." he trialed off, running out words. Elizabeth didn't reply. Derek reached up to her cheek and wiped away a few of her tears with his thumb. She looked up at him with a curious look on her face.
A lot of Elizabeth's concealing white powder had rubbed off with her tears. Derek looked over her face, noticing bruises and cuts.
"Is this what you were hiding last night when you wouldn't let me take off your mask?" he asked, concern showing in his face. Elizabeth only looked away in reply.
"I'm sorry," he told her again. "I wouldn't have...if I had known."
"It's alright," she finally whispered back, still not looking at him. Derek stared at Elizabeth. Now that he looked closer, he could see bruises on her chest and arms too.
"What happened to you?" he asked after what seemed an eternity. Again, Elizabeth didn't reply. Instead, her eyes darted around looking anywhere but at him.
"You deserve better than whoever did this to you," he told her.
"Everyone would deserve better," she told him quietly, standing up. Derek did the same.
"I have to go," she told him just as she had the day before. She turned to leave, but Derek caught her arm.
"Wait," he whispered, stepping closer to her. Elizabeth felt her stomach knotting, and oddly enough, she liked it. His hand traveled up her arm and to her face, cupping one of her cheeks. She felt her self tense up as he leaned closer to her, unsure of what to do, but when his lips pressed against hers, her muscles relaxed. She closed her eyes and tilted her chin. Her arms wrapped around him almost subconsciously, pulling him closer, and she felt his hand creeping up the small of her back, sending a pleasant chill up her spine. But suddenly, as if waking from a trance, she pulled away.
"I can't do this," she whispered almost to herself. She looked up into his confused eyes. "I'm sorry," she said, backing away from him. She felt herself taking his hands.
"Promise me you won't go back there. Back to Oogie's lair" she whispered. She then turned and ran.
Derek watched her as she left, feeling heart broken.
"I promise" he whispered, though she was already to far away to hear him
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"You Idiot!" Oogie roared. "You had him eating out of the palm of your hand! You could have killed him tomorrow!" Elizabeth tried to ignore him. She just kept running. "Now it could take another week to regain his confidence! What were you thinking?"
Elizabeth knew exactly what she was thinking. She was thinking of how it felt when Derek had kissed her. She remembered the race of her heart, the flip she felt her insides do, and the ache of her heart when she left. Something she would have to betray to re-gain her freedom.
(A/N: "Without the mask where will you hide? Can't find yourself. Lost in his Touch"--My Last Breath. Evanescence.
I normally wouldn't have posted a new chap so soon, but I it's the only way I can bump this story up from the 2nd page XP)
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