Jr.’s P.O.V:
Dad was right about the battle part. We had begun to get our weapons when dad stopped us. “What’s wrong?” I asked, confused. “Here,” he said, “Use this instead, it’ll be more effective.” He tossed us all cans of something. I looked at mine. “Bug spray?” asked Shock. Dad responded “Trust me; your weapons aren’t going to be too useful.” We all looked at each other confused by these instructions, but dad knows more about these things so bug spray it was. And he was right, the bug-creatures dropped like flies. We all handed out cans to citizens so they could fight back as well. We’d really only started though when dad dragged us away saying the town could handle this and that we need to go after Oogie. I asked how we were supposed to do that and dad pointed out that if we follow the direction the bugs are coming from we should find him.
The bugs seemed to thin out as we went. Dad wasn’t sure what that meant, yet he seemed sure we were going the right way; he seemed to know where we were being led. We were in an abandoned part of town, the old center. No one had been through here for at least thirty years. The forest had started growing back as the buildings returned to the earth. And then there it was, looking brand new, The Boogieman’s Casino. We entered cautiously, not knowing what we would find. We went all the way into the game room, though for the most part it seemed they had not tried to fix this room. Most of the old games were gone, and what ones that were left were broken. I looked around and was thinking there was no one in the room when I heard a voice in the direction we had just come from. Sure enough, blocking our exit was Barrel. “You…” I said, but it was Lock who charged. I heard Dad yell ‘NO!’ seconds before I saw it. Out of nowhere a wall of fire leapt up around Barrel and Lock just barely stopped himself before running right into it. Lock stepped back and the wall disappeared. Barrel laughed and I just wanted to sock him. “You really thought that was going to work didn’t you?” he said mockingly. “How?” I wondered aloud. “Just a few tricks I learned. Lini’s not the only one who can use magic…” “Where’s Oogie?” asked Dad. Barrel smirked. “Oh don’t worry he’ll be here shortly. You arrived earlier than he had planned, but of course you are Jack Skellington.” “Barrel why are you doing this?!”Shock broke out.”Why not?” His tone was ice cold. After a moment his smirk returned. “What do you know, here he is now.” “Well, well, well, what have we here…” We all turned around in the direction of the voice, sure enough, there was Oogie looking menacingly pleased. “…two Skellingtons and two traitors.” “Alright Oogie what have you done!?!” Dad said with anger. “In fact, I did you a favor.” “FAVOR!?!” Dad and everyone else looked like they wanted to kill him. “You always tried to get rid of magic, and said the power was corrupting and dangerous. For the most part you did get rid of it. You failed to see the potential.” “This isn’t about magic Oogie.” “Isn’t it? If it wasn’t for your daughter’s interest in it I wouldn’t be back. Such irony…” I was growing impatient. I was tired of talking to this murderer. “Anyway,” he went on, “you’ll be thanking me when you see this,” he grabbed a cord I hadn’t noticed hanging from the ceiling. “the true potential of magic.” He pulled the cord and a secret door opened next to him, someone walked out. I couldn’t believe it, there way no way, and yet…it was her. It was Lini.
