A week passes and the caged trio sigh as the sun rises yet again.
Danny gets up and walks up to one of the bars and hits it again and again with her hands.
Sackkey sighs, “Would you give it up already?”
Danny stopped hitting the bars then sits down “Sorry Sackkey, but, I feel like I should be doing something...”
Sackkey grunted annoyed “Well, melt the bars or
something, your giving me a head ach when you hit it like that…”
Danny looked briefly at Peter and sighs “You think he’s ok?”
Sackkey shrugs “Dunno, I don’t know him, do I? And as far as I know with humans, he’ll be ok…”
Danny looked at Sackkey “You know about humans?”
Sackkey smiled and shook her head “No, but I do know they need blood to survive, as long as he ain’t bleeding, he’s ok.”
Peter sat in a corner of the cage, his head on his chest so that his face wasn’t visible, his clothes were dirty.
Danny looked down at her own clothes, they were dirty too, but they’d been dirty any way…
Danny looked back at Peter, he looked as if part of him had wilted…
Sackkey looked up and tilted her head to one side “I think my dad’s just come up with a plan…”
Danny frowned and looked at Sackkey oddly
Sackkey looked at Danny “Bugs have sensitive
hearing… and he just laughed...” Sackkey paused “Either that or he’s choking…”
Danny hoped it was the latter.
Sackkey thought for a moment then turned to Danny “Can’t your dad breath fire or something? Why don’t you melt the bars?”
Danny shook her head sadly, “Yeah, but I’m not old enough yet, I can’t do it until I’m 16…”
Sackkey frowned “How old are you then?”
“8”
“oh… Same here.”
Danny looked up at Sackkey, startled. “But I’ve never seen you around!”
Sackkey’s grin stretched into a crazy leer
“You wouldn’t have, would you? I’ve been suck in a dark room for all 8 of them, with only a bottle of Red and a pair of glowing dice for company...”
Danny paused “what about your bugs?”
Sackkey turned to Danny and glared at her “They don’t count…”
“Why not?”
Sackkey sighs annoyed “They’re like… Little nagging voices in my head… I’d have escaped from my room sooner if it weren’t for them…”
Danny looked at Sackkey “Why did you leave today?”
Sackkey shrugs “They stopped talking… Nothing to hold me back, so I went.” Sackkey laughs in a cruel nasty way “And look where it leads me!”
Danny pauses then looks Sackkey in the eye “Thanks for trying to help anyway…”
Sackkey nods and looked away, then frowns, puts a hand-tip to her lips and nods behind Danny, then
shuffles into the shadows.
Danny frowns and looks behind her, to see a tall shadow walking around the lair.
* * *
Jack eased slowly down the dark shaft, praying that his soul robber, or the tree it was latched onto, didn’t break. He looked up at the green slime-thing that
lowered him into the darkness, it had been a simple matter for Dr. Finkelstein to upgrade it.
Jack felt his feet softly touch the floor of Oogie's lair and he looked around, it was exactly the same as he’d last seen it, except that the lava pool was now boarded up, and there was now a small square steel cage in the corner, Jack frowned, was it him, or did something just move inside the cage?
Jack moved up to the cage saw the figures inside and his eyes widened “Danny?”
Danny spun around and saw her father “dad?”
Jack grinned then looked at peter “what happened to him?”
Danny shrugged “Dunno…”
Suddenly peter’s head snapped up, his cheeks were sunken, and there was an empty, hollow look to his once beautiful eyes.
Jack stumbled back, startled, then realised it was peter and sighed “I’m so, so sorry…”
Peter shrugs and walks up to Jack “You got to help us out, please…”
Jack nodded and looked around “which lever?” there were over 30 dotted around the chamber in no particular order.
Danny frowned “I… I can’t rember…”
Jack’s eyes went wide once more.
Then a small cough caught jack’s attention, he couldn’t
see the person who had coughed because they’d hidden in the shadows “it’s over there, the red one with the diamond pattern…”
Jack frowned at the person, but pulled the lever, it did indeed raise the cage, but the shadows still covered the speaker.
Danny rushed towards Jack and hugged him “thanks dad!”
Peter nodded in Jack’s direction “thanks.”
Jack smiled and pushed Danny away softly, then showed her the soul-robber, then he pointed to he just visible tree.
Danny’s grin faded “But dad, it won’t reach that far…”
Jack shook his head “The kind doctor upgraded it.”
Danny’s grin returned.
Peter looked at jack as if he was crazy “what is that thing?”
Jack looked at Peter “It’s my soul robber, it can grab and pull things towards me or me towards them.”
Peter frowned “How does it do that?”
Jack paused, looked at the soul-robber and frowned at it, puzzled “I don’t know…” Then Jack rembered about the third person who had told him about the lever, Jack turned to look at the shadows that hit the person, who was still hidden, Jack addressed the person “Thank you for helping… May I ask, who are you?”
The person's shadow stiffened, then it walked into Jack’s sight.
Jack’s eyes went wide “Oogie?”
Danny laughed “No Dad. This is Sackkey.”
Jack looked at Danny “Who?”
Sackkey smiled “I’m Sackkey, the child of the boogie man… I’ve always wanted to say that!”
Jack sighed, then looked at Sackkey “and Jet too?”
Sackkey’s eyes went wide “How did you-?”
Jack shook his head, interrupting Sackkey “Never mind…”
Danny frowned at her father, confused.
Jack turned t Danny “Danny, would you go with Peter please? He won’t know how to use the soul-robber.”
Danny frowned “Why don’t you show him?”
Jack looked sadly at Danny “I need to talk to Sackkey… Work something's out.”
Danny’s eyes went wide “she can’t help being his daughter! It’s not her fault!”
Sackkey backed away from Jack, panicking slightly.
Jack sighed “Danny, I’m not going to kill her unless I have to.”
Danny looked at Peter, then Sackkey “… See you around then…” and with that, she and Peter went up the shaft at great speed.
“DANNY! Not to fast!” Jack yelled to Danny.
During this, Sackkey had been backing away from Jack, she is now standing by a lever.
Jack turned back to Sackkey and saw where she was. Jack sighs “so, you are like your father…”
Sackkey shook her head.
“Then why are you standing by a lever?” Jack asked.
Sackkey looked at the lever, pretending she’s only just realised it’s there, she steps away from it, but not so
Much that it’s out of her reach.
Jack places his hands on his hips and sighs “You really are just like your father, you know…”
Sackkey glared at Jack “I am not!”
Jack slapped his fore-head with his hand, grads it down his face and finally lets it drop to his side “you do now that Oogie said those exact words to me when we were talking about his father.”
Sackkey’s eyes went wide and she stamped her foot on the floor “I am not like him! And I never will be!” and with that she stepped away from the lever, which is now out of her reach.
Jack sighs “Prove it…”
“What?”
“Prove your not like your father…”
Sackkey paused looking at Jack “I moved away from the lever, he would of pulled it.”
Jack paused, nodded “But you protested that you were like your father, like Oogie did.”
Sackkey stamped her foot “I am not like him! He’s evil!”
Jack nods “And how do I know your not?”
Sackkey’s eyes go wide “I’m not evil! I helped your daughter out of the cage, didn’t I?”
Jack nodded, thoughtful “but that was for your own gains…”
Sackkey stamped her foot again “I am not like him! I am not like him and I never will be! Did I attack Danny whilst she was with me in the cage? No! Did I help you find the lever? YES! I AM NOT LIKE OOGIE!”
Jack paused then said “You look like him, act like him and you even sound like him a little…”
Sackkey growls at Jack, lunges at him and pins him against a wall, then hisses, “I am not like my father!”
Jack sighs, the sigh echoes around the dark chamber.
Sackkey throws Jack across the chamber, “I am not like Oogie boogie in any shape or form!”
Jack nimbly leaps to his feet and spins to face Sackkey, who has bunched up her fists and is glaring at Jack.
Jack paused, what to do now, Oogie was never this physical in violence, save a few punches to get you away from him.
Sackkey slowly walks around Jack in a slow circle.
Jack sighs then says “You still haven’t given me a reason why your not like him…”
Something in Sackkey’s head-tip glows a bright angry red. Jack looked at it, then frowned “Are you
glowing?”
Sackkey paused, puzzled, then saw the tip of her head “Stupid dice!” Sackkey mumbles, takes them out then throws the across the room, Jack can only just see that the land on a double 5.
Sackkey turns back to Jack “You want a reason why I’m not like him?!?!”
Jack shakes his head “No.”
“well, huh? What?”
“You given me 2 differences, if not, 3.”
“What did I do?” Sackkey asks, not understanding at all.
“Your dice.” Jack states.
“What about them?”
“They glow, in all my visits down here, Oogie’s dice have never glowed. You also rolled a double 5, which would tell that you have good luck, Oogie wouldn’t know luck if it walked up to him and hit him in the face.” Jack pointed out.
Sackkey paused, confused “What?”
“Your dice are different to Oogie's and you have good luck. Those are your differences…”
Sackkey smiled “So, you won’t kill me now?”
Jack paused “ah…”
Sackkey’s eyes went wide “That’s not fair! I’ve proved myself!”
“But your still his heir.” Jack sighs.
Sackkey backed away from Jack “That’s not my fault!”
“I know it’s not…”
“Good, so, your going to leave me alone, right?”
Jack didn’t have time to answer as a great slab of stone falls and pins him to the floor.
Sackkey’s eyes go wide, and she slowly turns to look towards the person who had pulled the lever.
Oogie laughs “well, well, well, look what the bat dragged in.”
Jack wriggles under the stone, but is unable to get free.
Sackkey slowly edges towards a lever, but stops when Oogie turns to her.
“Looks like you are useful after all. Distracting the pumpkin king like that.” Oogie smiles at Sackkey.
Sackkey bunches up her hands “I wasn’t distracting him for you.”
Oogie leered at Jack, ignoring Sackkey, then walked slowly up to the slab of stone “so, pumpkin king, what you going to do now?”
Sackkey tip-ted over to a lever.
Jack looked up at Oogie “Release me now this instant!”
Oogie just laughs at Jack then leans on the stone,
increasing the pressure on the stone and making Jack gasp with pain.
Sackkey places her hands on the lever then whistles to Oogie. Oogie turns to Sackkey, who smiles. Oogie goes pale, seeing what lever she’s holding.
“This is for all those years in the dark, on my own with only a bottle of Red wine and a pair of stupid glowing dice for company!” and with that, Sackkey pulls the lever.
A great pit of lava opens beneath Oogie, but he leaps just in time and gets away, he pauses by the edge of the pit and turns to Sackkey “You dare to attack me?”
Sackkey’s eyes go wide and she backs away from Oogie.
Oogie straightens up to his full height, then walks menacingly towards Sackkey. “You attack your own father?”
Jack is taking advantage of the distraction by using the lip of the pit of lava to pull himself free of the stone.
Sackkey whimpers her back to the wall of the lair as Oogie advances on her.
“I raised you! And this is how you repay me?” Oogie grabs Sackkey by her throat and lifts her into the air.
Sackkey wriggles and squirms trying to get Oogie to let
go of her.
Jack has finally gotten out from under the stone and is now standing up.
Oogie throws Sackkey towards the lava pit, she slips and falls over the edge, but manages to grab the lip of the pit as she goes over, hanging just millimetres away from the bubbling orange molten rock.
Jack flips forward and kicks Oogie in the face, then turns to help Sackkey out of the pit, however Oogie shoves Jack forwards and Jack narrowly avoids falling into the pit, and flips backwards over the top of Oogie, landing behind him.
Oogie spins round to face Jack, who then moves in a flips Oogie onto the floor, then keeping hold of Oogie's hand, Jack places his foot on Oogie's stomach.
Oogie’s eyes go wide with shock.
“Oogie, what are you planning to do to Halloween town?” Jack asks, still pinning Oogie to the floor.
“Nothing.”
Jack raised an eyebrow “Really?”
Oogie nods.
Jack stops pinning Oogie to the floor “For once your not plotting anything?”
Oogie lunges up and shoves Jack over the top of the block of stone “You on the other hand…”
Jack curses as he goes over the stone then rolls as he hits the ground and onto his feet.
Oogie walks away from the lava, grinning at Jack.
Jack turns on the spot to face Oogie. “Oogie, this has gone too far!”
Oogie leered at Jack “What are you going to do,
pumpkin king? Banish me again? Or perhaps crush some of my lesser bugs?”
Jack placed his hands on his hips “Oogie, I’m giving you one last chance! Do not plan to take over any of the seven holidays.”
Oogie leered, “Haven’t you noticed pumpkin king? More holidays have grown! There are over 5 different holiday groves, each with a different combination of holidays!”
Jack frowned, puzzled.
Oogie laughed “Ohhhhhh! You hadn’t! Jack, more
holidays have come! Here are some new ones you won’t have known about… :
New years eve.
Ground hog day.
Ramadan.
And many, many more!”
Jack paused, “Oogie, those are not new holidays… They just didn't have doors before now.”
Oogie stopped, frowned then crossed his arms.
“how am I meant to know? You banished me to this damp pit years ago and I only have the woods of my minions to go by… And talking of those three…”
Oogie cups his hands around his mouth and yelled “Lock, Shock, Barrel! Get over here now!”
Jack sighed, crossed his arms and tapped his foot on the floor, minutes pass.
Oogie frowns, then lowers his arms.
“If you three don-”
Jack sighs “Oogie, give up…”
Oogie turns to Jack “Oh I don’t think so, pumpkin king!”
* * *
--- oh no, what is oogie going to do? ^^ you'll have to wait and see in my next chapter!
sorry it's so long...---
