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Chaper VII
"...and what dis you say his name was?"
"Moritcai told me it was Betelgeuse, Mr. Mayor."
"Thank you, Sora, that's all we need to know. You may go now."
Sora had gone down to the Town Hall to report the Betelgeuse incident. He was talking to Jack and the Mayor, who excahnged stern glances with each other at the mention of Betelgeuse's name.
"Are you sure you'll be able to catch him?" Sora asked the Mayor as he was getting up to leave.
The Mayor, instead of bumbling and goofy like he usually was, was very stern. "Yes, Sora," said the two faced polititian, "We'll find this Betelgeuse."
Sora looked a little more releived. "Thank you, guys." And he left the Town Hall.
After the front doors of the Town Hall closed and Sora was out of earshot, Jack turned to the Mayor. "What do we do now?"
The Mayor gave a heavy sigh. "I...don't know..." he finally said. "There's not much we can do if there's IDP activity starting up again."
"Should I alert the citizens?" asked Jack, looking a bit frightened.
"No, no...we may be jumping to conclusions; we don't know what they're here for yet."
"Yes, we do, Mayor! We know they're here for Sora! You heard Sora said Betelgeuse tried to kindap him! But why...?"
Mayor made a low groan; not towards Jack, but to nobody inperticular. After a long period of silence, he turned to Jack again. "What did you say Sora told you earlier today?"
"He thanked me for helping him and some 'skeleton kid' out with Oogie Boogie last night."
"But Oogie's dead!"
"I know...do you think he dreamt it?"
"Sora doesn't know who Oogie is!" Mayor argued. "He was dead before Sora came to Halloweentown."
"So, is Oogie Boogie back?"
"I don't know, Jack...but if he is, why hasn't he attacked any of us yet?"
"Perhaps he's just biding his time...but who--or what--could bring Oogie back?"
"Lock, Shock, & Barrel did it last time. But they wouldn't do it again, seeing all the chaos he caused..."
Jack sighed, sitting down on the stage of the Town Hall where he had told all of Halloweentown about Christmas a little less than two years earlier. "This is gonna be a tough case to crack..."
Sora walked cautiously back home, frightened that Betelgeuse was going to come out of an alley or something and try to take him away again. What had he done wrong? And how did Betelgeuse know his name? Had he and his colleagues been watching him? It was all too confusing. And why couldn't he remember anything? He got angry--VERY angry--at Betelgeuse...then nothing! It was just like...
"THE FIRE!" Sora shouted out loud.
Some passerbys turned to stare at him, and then continued on with whatever they were doing.
Sora ran home, half excieted, and burst through the door. "MORTICAI!" he shouted.
There was a bumping sound and the bed had shifted a little. "Son of a b--" Sora had woken Morticai up, startled him, and he buped his head on the bottem of the bed.
"Sorry!"
"Aaah...that's alright...what do you want?"
"Remember how I told you the reason why I came here?" asked the boy frantically.
"Yeah," said Morticai, recalling, "sure was weird."
"Tell me about it!" Sora said, eager to get on with the story. "Well, I felt the same way when I got angry at Beetle-meyer, or whatever the hell his name was."
"And?"
"I think there may be a connection between the two."
"Am I bleeding?"
"MORTICAI!!"
"Fine, fine! Yeah, it's odd..."
Sora went silent for a moment. "What was I like when I got mad."
The monster under the bed wracked his memory. "Your voice..." he said in almost a whisper, "your voice went really deep...it was kinda scary."
Sora listened intently. "Go on."
"And your eyes narrowed...your pupils were like slits. It's like you weren't even yourself anymore!"
Sora nodded slowly. "Was there fire?" asked the boy, remembering the last time something like this had happened.
"Nuh-uh." said Morticai. "No fire."
Sora felt a little more relieved, but not entirely easy.
Sora didn't sleep too well that night. His mind was more jumbled than a jar or pickles after being shaken up. He kept thinking about Jack not knowing about Oogie, and Betelgeuse and that secret organization he belonged to. What was it called again? "IDP?" Finally, Sora fell asleep, but his dreams were interrupted by voices from the past 24 hours...
"Cause if this was your dream, I wouldn't be here; and it sure isn't my dream, 'cause if it was, I'd be gettin' a HUGE promotion and there'd be sexy ladies everywhere!"
"OOGIE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO THESE CHILDREN?!"
"...If I had saved us, I would've been a hero; someone worth talking to. But fate just couldn't attempt to give a damn about my wants. No sirree. That's my problem."
"Congrats! You guys are my new best friends!"
BAMPF!
BAMPF!
BAMPF!
Sora woke with a start, perspiring and panting. He heard that horrible noise; the one Betelgeuse made when he appeared in Sora's room. Oh, how he'd come to dread that noise. Sora looked around the dark room. Betelgeuse was no where to be seen.
Wait, can he become invisable? thought Sora frantically. "H-hello...?" he whispered dumbly into the darkness.
Sora expected it all to be his imagination and hear nothing, but his call was returned with three soft giggles.
The boy gave a small yelp and flipped the lightswitch on. He only had vision for a split second, but that was all the time he needed. At the foot of his bed were three small creatures in IDP cloaks. Children. They were holding a large, black, garbagebag-like sack. Big enough for someone much fatter and jollier than Sora to fit in. Behind them, a bathtub. Before Sora could say "what's going on here?" or "get outta my apartment!", the three children lunged at him with their sack. Their was a quick scrap, but they had stuffed Sora into the bag, trapping him.
One of them began to speak, and Sora knew in an instant that Lock, Shock, and Barrel had just trapped him.
"You should have more faith in Mr. Oogie's plans, Shock," said Lock in a mocking tone.
Shock groaned, obviously annoyed. "Fine. I was wrong. Are you happy now, Lock?"
"Guys, come on! We have to get Sora back to Mr. Oogie's casino!"
What a night for Morticai to not be here! He was off haunting another bed tonight. "Let me out!" cried Sora. He then received a sharp kick to the stomach through the bag. "OOF!"
"Shut up, Sora!" ordered Shock sharply. "Let's haul him into the tub, boys."
Sora was then lifted (with much difficuly) into the tub by only Lock and Barrel. But soon, they were on their way. Sora felt them go down the three stairways of the Gothic manse Sora had his appartment in. Now, they were outside; the cold November wind blew right through the bag and sent a shiver up Sora's spine. .Everytime he would try to call for help, Shock would give him another kick in the stomach. Sora had to think of a plan to get out of this! He noticed the bathtub he was riding in was very ricketty.
Maybe I can tip it over... he thought to himself. The boy began to rock back and forth with more force each time. He felt the bathtub rock beneath and around him.
Soon, the kids began to take notice. "What's going on?" asked Lock, holding on to the side of the tub.
"STOP IT, SORA!" ordered Shock, kicking the lump in the bag that indicated where Sora was.
He ignored the pain in his stomach and kept rocking the "boat". Soon, with one final hard-forced rock, he had done it! He felt the bathtub tip over slowly, the bag with Sora inside tumbling out and beginning to roll away. He heard the bathtub land on the hard pavement with a CLANG! along with Lock, Shock, and Barrel shouting. Sora continued to roll, hearing Lock, Shock, and Barrel's shouts grow more distant. Soon, Sora's bad hit something hard.
It took a few minutes, but Sora managed to tear open the bag and climb out of it. He looked at his surroundingd. He was in a dark alley that he had never seen before. It was eerily quiet. The windows of the buildings that enclosed the alley were dark. There was a black cat who, startled by Sora's sudden appearance from the bag, screeched and ran out of the alley. He had landed right next to a dumpster. He looked out of the alley. About 80 feet away, he saw the trick-or-treaters. They had gotten their tub back upright and they were now looking for where their sack may have rolled off. Sora gasped and hid behind the dumpster where the little demons couldn't see him. He heard the pitter-patter of footsteps in the alley now. His heart raced. Then, the footsteps were gone. Whichever one of them it was had stopped. Sora held his breath, for fear one of Boogie's Boys may hear it. Then, he heard the footsteps again. They were going back to where they came! Sora was safe!
"He's not back here, Lock!" he heard Barrel's voice yell.
"PHEW!" Sora sighed in relief. His heart jumped when he heard some commotion inside the dumpster. Sora scrambled back from it in surprise.
The lid of the dumpster creaked open and who should poke their head out but a skeleton with an oval-shaped head with a crack in it and one blue-gray eye. "What's all the yelling about?" yawned Tom Betelgeuse Bohnne.
Sora looked up at the skeleton boy and glared at him. "YOU!!"
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