I usually don't do the whole "write to the readers in bold" thing, but what the heck. Thank you to my first two reviewers. The feedback was wonderful, and it formed the entire basis of this chapter. This is probably the fastest I've gotten feedback on any of my stories, and as a result, it's the fastest that I've updated. Thanks again!
Jack was cold. He was cold fairly often, lately. That was one of the problems with Christmas Town. He hadn't stayed long enough to figure that out the last time he had been here, but it was freezing.
Of course, he wasn't technically in Christmas Town, as such. It was simply that he had known that he would have to get through one of the doors to escape pursuit from concerned members of Halloween Town, and he couldn't resist the temptation.
He hated himself for it. He couldn't seem to resist anything lately. That was his whole problem, really. He had no self-control. He thought back to the events of just a few weeks ago. He could scarce believe that it had been that recent. How had he ever thought that attacking Santa Claus was a good idea? Sally had tried to warn him, he well remembered, and he'd completely ignored her. He wanted to hit himself, but he was worried that if he did, he'd knock his skull off of his head.
Afterwards, he had been thrilled to get back to his old work. In fact, Christmas had given him some fantastic ideas for new haunts and screams. Halloween Town's clown had received more work than he'd had in years as Jack tried to incorporate his new vision of "slightly off" cheer into the Halloween Town tradition.
Sally had been extraordinarily helpful. He'd never noticed it before, but she had something of a natural intuition as regarded people. She could tell when the witches weren't working hard enough, or if the reason Jack was getting drowsy was that earlier the scientist had been sneaking things into his food. When Jack had asked her about these discoveries, she gave him explanations that seemed both elegantly simple and amazingly subtle. It had made him realize that he could count on her for anything.
Soon enough, he saw, he'd have to. For, in all honesty, he had been almost instantly plagued by the old spectre of his boredom, and it ashamed him. He couldn't stop hearing Santa's sarcastic warning before his departure via Boogie's chimney. The tone had been one of anger and disillusionment with the basic good nature of thinking beings. It had been almost as painful to hear as the admonition itself: "The next time you get the urge to meddle with someone else's holiday, listen to her! She's the only one who makes any sense in this insane asylum!" The problem was that he knew Father Christmas was right, intentionally or no. He would get bored, and now that he knew about the doors, he wouldn't be able to resist them.
The results would be nothing if not disastrous. Despite what he and Sally had told them following the incident, most of Halloween Town's spooks still believed that the experiment had been a tremendous success. They, much like Jack, would perhaps never be able to fully grasp what they'd attacked. Furthermore, Jack was their leader, and they weren't used to thinking for themselves. If he wanted to take over another holiday, they'd back him to the hilt. He had realized over the past few weeks that someone as immature and thoughtless as himself could not be trusted with that kind of absolute power. Watching Sally deal with the multitude of crises that popped up every day, he decided that he would at least have the sense to appoint a decent successor.
So he had written his note and quietly told Sally and the Mayor that he would take a short break. They had both been pathetically enthusiastic about the idea. They'd been worried about him, and they both thought that a vacation would do him good. Thinking about it now, his guilt only worsened at the thought of how he'd lied to them. Still, it was for the best. Sally was a far better administrator and a far more devoted public servant than he had ever been. Even when he had still enjoyed his job, he'd had trouble focusing on its less interesting aspects. The Mayor, for his part, would lend an air of authenticity to Sally's rule until the others had accepted her as their leader.
Jack, meanwhile, had headed for the forest. He knew that going back to Christmas Town (or anywhere else, for that matter) could be dangerous. He was a known threat. Still, he couldn't risk capture by solicitous friends, so he decided to try something new: hide outside the borders of Christmas Town.
It was really a brilliant plan. No one in Christmas Town was searching for him, so they'd have no reason to leave their lighted village to find him. Furthermore, anyone in Halloween Town worried enough to mount a search would be certain that he'd never return to the scene of the crime, as it were.
He was freezing, racked by guilt, and alone, but looking over at the little town that had ruined his life, he felt the same warmth and love that he had felt almost a year ago, when he'd come here accidentally. He smiled, then turned to find a deeper snowdrift into which he could burrow for the night.
