-1"And now my friends, we wait."

Lock Shock and Barrel sat patiently in the soil of the graveyard, crunching dead leaves under their feet and roses under their bare arms.

"How long does that Jack fellow have to talk? We have been hiding under these headstones for over an hour!" Lock stuttered as he said this. He grabbed a pebble and through it towards at Jack's skull.

The pebble crashed near Jack's feet, he whirled around and kept his guard up.

"Who's there?" Jack bellowed his head snapping at the pebble's touch.

"No one Jack" Sally's eyes were swelled with tears.

"I'm sorry, lately I've been experiencing some unusual hormones." He let out a great sigh.

"Damn! It didn't work, when is he gonna leave!" Lock turned, his cheeks blood shot red as his face burned with frustration.

"I must go, I need rest to clear my head, besides these old bones are fragile. I need to build up strength."

"Yes Jack. I understand." Sally let a small quiver, her lips trembling as she let go of Jack's hand and smiled.

"FINALLY!" Lock nearly hollered, and Jacks and Sally's heads moved at the same time as they looked off into the distance. Just as they did, Barrel and Shock grabbed Lock's head and flung him to the ground under the headstone they were hiding behind.

"Shut up you idiot! We could have blown our cover!" Shock hissed as she peeked over the edge to make sure Jack and Sally had moved on.

"Yeah you idiot!" Barrel slurped his lollypop as he agreed.

Jack patted Sally's head as he turned with a smile and crept out of the cemetery.

"He's going right for it! Mr.Oogie will be so pleased!" Lock thought as he trailed Jack's every step.

"What's happening to me?" Jack soothed. His skull was so full of questions and he needed answers.

He walked along the dirt path that led to Halloween town where dozens of bats flapped around the gates of the graveyard. Suddenly he fell to the ground clutching his head screaming in pain.

"AHH! DAMNIT!" He screeched as he reached his knees and shook his head vigorously.

"What the hell is happening?" Shock asked the two demons next to her.

"I don't know. Maybe this is why Oogie wanted him." Barrel replied setting down his lollypop.

"God, who knows if he'll pull this kind of crap while were trying to bring him back to Oogie's." Lock crossed his arms and frowned. "Every creature in this dump will hear him."

Jack carried on his act for over a period of minutes screaming while feeling like tearing out his insides. He stopped and blinked rapidly.

"Where am I?" Jack found himself in the monsters trap. The bag closing him up into a tight ball. He tried to stretch but the netting of the bag held him in place.

"Ha, skeleton man is so bliss." Shock tipped her hat and chuckled loud.

"Where are you taking me you nasty trick or treaters?" Jack circled in the bag trying to find a comfortable spot.

"To Oogie boogie of course!" Shock kicked the bag with her foot and Jack jumped and fell back to the ground inside the bag.

"Damn." Jack mumbled under his breath. He was breathing hard sense there was limited space inside the plastic bag. The claustrophobic feeling was too much to bear.

Meanwhile Sally was still in the graveyard trotting around tombstones brushing off the dirt and moss that was growing inside the engraved names. She picked dead withered away flowers from an abandoned garden and tossed them on the dirt beds. The moonlight glowed and made the graveyard look like it would turn bright. It was never light in Halloween town, always dark.

"Oh Jack, what's happening to you? If this goes any further we might have to take drastic measures, I don't want to take him to another holiday and to receive help. That has never happened, ever since the incident fifty years ago with the old pumpkin king no one dares to try."

Sally knelt beneath a grave. Pulled away the weeds and thorns and scratched at the clods of dirt from the name. Then rose and put her hand to her mouth.

"Jack Pumpkin Skellington the first

The first pumpkin king And the most remarkable. Died sadly in the arms of another holiday."

"Jack's father? He is the one from the legend? He died in the first holiday incident? Maybe Jack's father had this disease too, and if we can't fix Jack. Do we trust another holiday? The ones who killed Jack's father?" Sally thought.

Her breath fogged in the dark midnight air. Sally began to cry.

"Why am I crying? I have to go find and warn Jack!"

She broke through the gate and trampled the soil leaving her tiny shoe marks. Letting go of the bouquet of flowers she had come to find, they blew in the wind behind her, landing near the marks her shoes had left behind.