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“H-how did this happen?!” Chama asked, the surprise of the situation shocking her enough to force her to sit down to avoid fainting.
“Like I said, meeting, coffee, this!” Jack said, himself sitting down from the shock.
Chama had invited Jack inside, and they were now having the freshly brewed nettle tea to try and calm their nerves. Boris was busy trying to woo Rosie (like he always tried, and now that she was off the Mayor’s collar, it was much easier), while the Mayor just crawled around, trying to find something new to play with.
“This is weird for it to happen out of nowhere.” Chama said, and then realized something. “Unless…”
Taking action, she quickly set her tea down and rushed over to her potion drawer, checking every single potion. When she couldn’t find the one she was looking for, her face fell as she closed the cabinet.
“Yes…this is bad…”
“You know what happened to the Mayor?” Jack asked, placing his own cup down, and walking over to Chama.
“Unfortunately, yes.” Chama said. “I was given an order from Mrs. Finklestein today. She ordered my Liquid Endurance potion, which effects mental youth. A natural residue of creating the potion is the Age Affection potion. It’s got a compound that will change the user’s age, depending how many drops were put in the liquid the user drank. Someone must have snuck into my hut and taken it!”
“Well, is there a remedy?”
“Yeah, but I need some of the Age Affection potion to make it!”
Chama then walked over to her spell book and flipped through the pages, stopping at the spell labeled “Re-Aging”.
“It needs some of the potion to help counteract with the original. That’s why you’re not supposed to use more than three drops on someone. It also looks like I’ll need some Deadly Nightshade and Mistletoe.”
“Deadly Nightshade’s in the graveyard,” Jack said, remembering from when Sally used to poison Dr. Finklestein’s soup. “But where is there any mistletoe in Halloween Town?”
“That’s the problem,” Chama said. “The only place we’d be able to find it is in the Hinterlands, on the Christmas Town tree.”
“The Hinterlands?” Jack said, remembering last year. “But that’s all the way in the middle of the forest! You’d need an extra set of legs to get there that fast!”
“Exactly. But we’ve got someone with twice that.” Chama said, looking at the two arachnids in the corner, and leaning down to them. “Boris, I have a job for you. Rosie can come with you to keep you company.”
The thought of being able to be alone with Rosie automatically made Boris want to do the job, whatever it was.
“I want you two to go into the graveyard and get some Deadly Nightshade, and into the Hinterlands to get some Mistletoe. Do you think you can do that?”
Give a salute and a squeak, Boris quickly grabbed the small back that Chama was holding out for him with his pincers, and scuttled out the door, with Rosie following behind.
“Good luck, you two.” Chama called out, and then noticed what the Mayor had found to amuse himself: the gourds on Chama’s staff. “No! Don’t play with those!”
She quickly scooped the Mayor up, an upset face on her. Now with a lack of a toy, the Mayor’s face quickly switched to his unhappy side, and cried out bloody murder. With the crying filling the entire hut, it was impossible to hear, let alone talk.
“Come with me!” Chama yelled out as loud as she could. “I think I know who stole my potion!”
---------------------------------------
“Do you have any threes?”
“Uh-uh. Go fish. Any kings?”
“Sorry, go fish. Hey, you got any aces?”
“Um…no?”
“You’re cheating again! I know it!”
Lock, Shock, and Barrel were at their treehouse, playing cards with their newfound friend. Even for his age, he was a little cheater. Everything was pretty fun for the four of them, until the door was suddenly slammed open.
“Don’t move!” Chama said, pointing her staff in front of her like a dowel rod. “I know it’s in here!”
“You three are going to be in so much trouble when we find this!” Jack said, trying to hold onto the Mayor as well, who had now fallen asleep.
“J-Jack!” Lock said, in actual fear. “Y-you’re still an adult!”
“Surprised?” Jack said, glaring at him. “You must have poured that potion in the wrong cup. Now, instead of dealing with a baby Pumpkin King, the town has to deal with a baby Mayor!”
He then shoved the baby in the faces of the kids, as Lock nervously pressed his index fingers together, while Shock glared at him.
“You IDIOT!” She screeched out, grabbing his neck and shaking him around. “You said you had this prank under control!”
Lock retaliated by stomping on Shock’s foot, making her knock into Barrel, thus starting a brawl between the three of them. During the scuffle, Jack noticed a young boy watching the three of them fight. He hadn’t seen him before in Halloween Town before, but he looked familiar to him. He was about to confront the child, when Chama suddenly popped up from behind the trio’s walking bathtub, which currently looked like it was in a sleep-like state.
“I found the potion!” Chama said, holding her reward up. “Now we need to just wait for Boris and Rosie to come back.”
As if it was fate, Chama’s spell phone went off, the sound making Lock, Shock, and Barrel pause their miniature brawl for a moment. It sounded like an 8-bit instrumental version of a song that the street band played a lot, and one that Sally had adopted as her own little theme, meaning Chama adopted it as her personal ringtone for Sally.
“Hey, Sally!” Chama said, trying to sound as cheerful as she could, despite the stressors around her.
“Hi, Chama!” Sally replied. There were a few voices around her, meaning that she was in the Town Square. “I was wondering if you’ve seen Jack. I’ve tried to call his house, and when I tried the Mayor’s house, Wraps said he was with you.”
“Yeah, he’s with me…the Mayor is too.” Chama said, and then got an idea. Sally, do you think you could come over to my house soon? And bring some fabric with you?”
“Um…sure…” Sally said, sounding a little confused. “Is everything okay?”
“I’m not sure if you can say that.” Chama said. “If we’re not there when you get there, just let yourself in, and we’ll be right there. Okay, bye.”
“…Bye…?”
Chama quickly hung up the phone, and turned to Jack.
“Well, we can head back to my place. Sally’s going to be there to help us.
“That’s great, but hang on.” Jack said, turning once again to the new kid. “What exactly his your name?”
“Who, me?” He said. “I’m Oogie Boogie.”
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