I didn’t know what to think. It looked so much like her, but I had seen Lini die. I couldn’t believe it; it had to be a trick. A look alike, a robot, some kind of fake. And what was she wearing? It looked like Oogie had chosen her outfit, because it was not her style at all. It was very low cut and kinda short and I think was supposed to look like a roulette wheel. And she was wearing a ton of makeup, no, this wasn’t Lini. And yet…Everyone else seemed to be thinking the same thing I was. “No, I don’t know what you’re trying to pull but this isn’t her.” Said Dad. Then she spoke, “I didn’t figure you’d believe it. It’s the outfit isn’t it? Trust me, I didn’t choose it.” Whoa. The way she spoke, it sounded just like her. She made her way closer to us. “Recognize me now?” She walked right up to dad. He scrutinized her closely, and then his face changed. “No…” “Dad?” I asked. “Jr., you recognize me don’t you?” said the maybe-Lini. She looked so much like her. Her eyes…I was speechless. She shrugged her shoulder and I noticed the edge of a tattoo she had gotten (without permission and against my advice). Then I knew. Oogie certainly wouldn’t have known about it and couldn’t have replicated it. Even now I can’t find any words for that moment. Then she went over to Lock. I barely heard what she said to him, but I think she said, “You said you loved me.” His eyes went as wide as I’d ever seen them. So many questions were in my mind right then but the question I remember thinking most was, why would Oogie bring her back if he killed her? Dad must have been thinking the same thing because he said, “What are you up to? What have you to gain from this?” “Oh that’s the best part!” The way Oogie said that, that’s when I knew something bad was about to happen. “You see, I didn’t put her back exactly the way she was…” The maybe-Lini’s face changed into an evil looking smile. “You know, I think this dress is growing on me…” She gave a small laugh and walked closer to Oogie. “Lini?” I heard Lock say. “Sorry to disappoint, but the good life just doesn’t seem appealing anymore.”
Suddenly I got it. What would be worse than seeing your daughter die? Seeing your daughter come back only to, as cliché as it sounds, join the side of evil. It was just Oogie trying to get revenge on some warped, deranged level. He was trying to create the most pain possible. He was going to make us fight her. Barrel walked around and stood in front of us. “And one more thing…” said Lini What happened next shocked me so much that what happened is a kind of blur, but, well, Lini kissed Barrel. While I was going into a coma Lock launched at him; Barrel wasn’t prepared and Lock sucker punched him right in the face. After that I forced to wake out of it because all hell had broken lose. Dad went straight for Oogie. Shock and Lock were trying to handle Barrel. Apparently his magic wasn’t as good as he had pretended it was. I was left to fight her. She fought dirty. I was afraid to hurt her at first but quickly realized I had more to worry about than her. I tried to talk some sense into her, hoping to undo whatever brain washing Oogie had put over her, but it was kind of hard to talk and duck at the same time. I noticed in my peripheral vision that everyone else seemed to be having about as much luck as I was. Dad was making the most progress of anyone. Barrel’s moves were, in fact getting sloppier, but also more dangerous. ‘How did it come to this?’ I wondered. Then he hit Shock. I got distracted then hoping she was okay when Lini knocked my head off. Literally.
Lini’s POV:
My previous distraction was completely forgotten as I watched. It was me, my body anyway. I could feel it, besides, how could I not recognize myself? Oogie had created a souless being. It seemed like he was just trying to make them hurt the most and I couldn’t do anything. How did he do it? How did he bring back my body and not my soul? Even though my knowledge of magic was only rudimentary I knew it would take a very skilled magician to do such a thing. Even my bringing back Oogie was probably just beginner’s luck; or my luck at least. And even that had its glitches. Speaking of witch, I had been curious how that all happened, so I looked into it and found that when dad had put that scrap of burlap from Oogie onto the chest, it somehow got stuck in the book, and when it did the spell altered itself. I didn’t know that it could do this, but if anything had touched the book the spells would change accordingly. Go fig, but I guess they don’t call it a magic book for nothing.
Aunt Em had been helping me with my fact finding; she was really good at it. She said she’d had a lot of practice. I was tempted to look up how Oogie had brought my body back without me, but I had a plan now and didn’t have time. But there was one more thing I had to look up before I acted. I just had to. Aunt Em didn’t say anything when I asked her to help but from the look on her face I knew she thought what I was doing was, well, a bit farfetched. I knew it was but I had to know. In fact I figured I was wrong, that I would see I was wrong and could move on. But what I found shocked me. It was nothing like I had expected.
