Musically: Okay, the big One-O. Chapter Ten. A decade of chapters. Wow. Thanks for all the reviews, y'all! Now, my personal commentary on each.
Mr. Oogie Boogie: Of course the Mayor does beauty treatment! How else could he keep himself looking so dang HAWT?
Nausicca: I'm still not so sure if I'm going to keep Mayor's Paradise a oneshot or not. We'll just have to see.
Sweet Nightmare: I know, aren't they? I think Victoria may be eating too much snake and spider stew before bed!
And for anyone who wishes to know, I kind of made part of this chapter a songfic. The song's called "I Need Some Sleep" by Eels. Enjoy!
The clock by Victoria's bed buzzed, signaling the new hour. She glanced over at it. Bright orange numbers flashed at her: 12:00 A.M. It was midnight, and she still hadn't gotten any rest. Every time she tried to close her eyes, it seemed that they flicked back open again. Trying to sleep was useless. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and slid off the side of the mattress, trying to be as quiet as she could as she headed over to the door on the far left of the loft.
Victoria twisted the brass knob. The door swung open, revealing towering bookshelves filled with rustic, antique books with hard leather covers that had faded away over the course of two or three hundred years. Tables were lined up against the side of the room. The floor tiles joined together, alternating colors to form a large, expanding spiral that looked like the vortex that she came to Halloween Town in. She crossed over to the middle of the room, standing on the spiral's center. Then she looked to the window. A table was sitting just under it, and a few empty test tubes lay forgotten on its surface. Victoria looked away quickly. Even after a month Victoria remembered Jack's mistake.
She was quick to look away and head towards the bookshelf, remembering her mission. At first Victoria was overwhelmed, not knowing which shelf to start at, or even which book to choose. Then something caught her eye. A large cabinet with several small drawers was sitting at the far corner of the room, and when she opened one of the drawers she saw that it was a card catalog. She didn't have time to wonder who labeled all of these books. She immediately set to work and flung the drawer with the letter 'M' printed on it.
"Monsters, monsters, monsters," Victoria muttered as she flipped through the cards. "Oh! Here it is." She examined the card, and it had several books on the topic of monsters listed on it. Victoria stared at it for a second. She wasn't sure which one to pick, so she decided that she'd just skim over them to see if they had the information she wanted. She'd have to get them all.
Third shelf from the left, top shelf, read the card. Victoria sighed. She'd have to use the ladder, and it didn't look very safe. She tucked the card into her pocket, closed the drawer, and headed over to the rickety old thing, looking at it warily. With caution, she tested the bottom rung with her foot. The olden wood creaked a little, but it didn't break, or even splinter. Jack kept in surprisingly good condition.
Within a few seconds, Victoria had climbed up the ladder and was pulling books off the top of the shelf, all with titles such as "Monsters: Identifying and Finding" and "So, You Want to Identify a Monster And All of Their Subsequent Traits". Once she had cleared the shelf of any monster-related books, Victoria set to work. She skimmed over them for anything on medusas. There were plenty of articles about werewolves, vampires, and zombies, but she couldn't find anything that could pertain to Meddie at all. Then, out of the blue, she found something. It was an entry about how to recognize medusas, which might be helpful on finding Meddie. Maybe.
"One of the most dangerous creatures known, a medusa can easily be identified by a few distinguishing features," Victoria read quietly. She snorted. When she had first met Meddie, she had thought she was an average human. Nevertheless, she kept reading.
"Instead of hair, the medusa has several snakes for hair. These snakes are generally poisonous as one can tell by their pointed heads. One should never get too close to one of these snakes, because when the medusa is agitated they will strike. The poison is deadly and can kill a human in less than a minute."
Victoria gulped. She saw what Meddie's snakes looked like, and she could just picture one sinking their needle sharp fangs into her arm…she shook the image out of her mind. Her eyes continued to scan the page.
"There is a complicated spell, however, that will allow the snakes to look like normal hair. However, the 'hair' will take on the exact coloration of the snakes, whatever the colors may be."
So that's why it looked like she was normal, Victoria thought, but I wonder why it was made of snakes in the dream?
"When a medusa is extremely frightened or angry, its hair will revert to the normal state."
"Oh," Victoria muttered, finding it strange that this book was answering all her questions. She shrugged and kept on.
"The second trait, while hard to catch, is that a medusa can talk to snakes. Many people have reported medusa ordering these reptiles to attack others, just another way that the medusa can cause destruction."
Victoria's eyebrows furrowed. Whoever wrote this thing was being slightly helpful, but his biased view on medusas annoyed her. They had obviously not gotten to know one. She forced herself to keep reading, though.
"Lastly, the feature that can help distinguish a medusa is their silvery-grey eyes. One glimpse of these eyes can turn any living person into stone. There is a cure for this predicament, though."
Victoria's eyes widened. There was a cure? Now interested, she looked on.
"The Staff of Stone, which is used to freeze people into statues by touching one with its tip, is quite rare and hidden in a secret location. However, if one were to find it and reverse its effects, it would be guaranteed to cure anyone victim to this curse."
"That could be helpful," Victoria muttered. She mentally recorded the page number in her mind before heading to the next book. That one hadn't really told her anything that could help free or find Meddie. She spent the next hours poring over books, and a certain song she had heard many times before came to her mind…
I need some sleep
I can't go on like this
I try counting sheep
But there's one I always miss
Little did she know that Max was having a night that was just as miserable. From his spot downstairs on the couch, he stared at the ceiling. A day had passed-or was it two?- since Meddie had vanished, and still he couldn't seem to accept it. Meddie, who had always followed him around, who had always bugged the hell out of him, who had always told him how great of a brother he was, was gone. How could this have happened?
Everyone says I'm getting down too low
Everyone says I just gotta let it go
"You just gotta let it go"
I just gotta let it go
Max tossed over onto his side. He closed his eye sockets, squeezing shut, but they just seemed to open again automatically. It was no use; he couldn't sleep. He rolled over so he was on his stomach (or at least, he would be if he had one). Memories from olden times replayed themselves in his mind, good and bad, all with Meddie somehow involved. He remembered the way she smiled and laughed, and the way she cried and screamed. Could she really be gone forever?
I need some sleep
Time to put the old horse down
I'm in too deep
And the wheels keep spinning round
Quietly, Max got up. He crossed over to the shelves by the wall, careful not to make any noise to wake up the others. The shelves were filled with pictures and such, along with several Christmas/Halloween knick knacks. A lump arose in Max's throat. There, in the center, was a picture of Meddie and him as kids, hugging each other.
"Oh, God," Max choked out.
Everyone says I'm getting down too low
Everyone says I just gotta let it go
"You just gotta let it go"
I just gotta let it go
Numbly, Max walked back to his makeshift bed. He grabbed a cushion from the other end, and he put it under his skull. So many things were drifting through the endless space of his mind. He just couldn't force himself to forget everything…He just couldn't let it go that easily. A silent sob escaped him as he pressed his face into the pillow.
You just gotta let it go
You just gotta let it go
You just gotta let it go
After a few more hours, Max drifted into a dreamless, fitful sleep. The picture hung loosely from his bony fingers.
Victoria closed the last book. She hadn't found out much more than she had on the half-useful article, and already she was beginning to forget the information. She sighed and looked out the window. A pale white moon glowed in the sky, casting down its silvery beams to the ground below. Stars glittered along side it as they danced in the black clouds. Victoria began to wish on all of them, hoping that Meddie would be found safe and alive.
Victoria flinched inwardly. For all she knew, Meddie could be dead right now. Well, at least more dead than Jack or Max. She began to pace around the library, feeling restless, irritated, and unable to get any rest. Victoria knew that Jack and everyone else meant well, but the search party idea was getting them nowhere. Searching the same place day after day was not going to help, and the ones in the Hinterlands were certainly not coming back anytime soon.
Something had to be done. Someone had to take some real action, and someone had to be willing to risk their lives for a friend. Victoria swallowed hard. She knew what she had to do. Without another thought in her head, she exited the library and went into her room, changing into her regular clothes and making the bed. Her mind was screaming, "No! Don't put yourself in more danger! Don't let Jack and Sally worry even more!" Her heart, however, told her different. It said, "A small amount of worry is nothing compared to someone's life."
Victoria went downstairs and was careful not to let any steps creak. Tears arose in her eyes as she heard Jack's snoring, but she pushed them back. She had almost gotten to the door when she heard footsteps behind her. She stopped in her tracks.
"Where are you going?" asked Max, who was standing right behind Victoria. Victoria cursed in her mind. She swiveled around on her heel and saw that his eyes were wide and curious, but at the same time strangely sad.
"I'm going to save Meddie. No one else seems to care that she's gone. These search parties aren't helping, and, well, I'm going to take some action. You can't stop me, Max," Victoria whispered fiercely. Max looked at her for a second, and Victoria felt a horrible pang of guilt.
"I care," Max said, "and I'm going too."
"Oh, Max," Victoria whispered, her voice softening. It was seriously touching to hear that, on Meddie's part, anyways. "Are you sure?"
"Victoria, she's my sister. I can't let her go."
"You're a good brother, Max. Better than good."
Victoria swore she saw a flicker of a smile on Max's face, but she couldn't see much else as he walked up to the door in front of her. He twisted the knob, and the door opened, revealing a star-filled night and the awaiting land.
"Shall we, then?" Max said with a grin. Victoria smiled back.
"We shall."
The two walked into the night, heading for the promising horizon ahead. They savored the sweet moments together while they could.
Musically: You're off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz!
Max: Is she always like this?
Victoria: sigh More than you know...