Musically: (wakes up, yawning) Boy, that was a good nap. What's it been, three days since I last updated?

Victoria: (brushing cobwebs out of hair) TRY FIVE MONTHS. Where have you been?

Musically: Five months? Oh, no! The readers must hate me...to make it up to you guys, I've made an extra long chapter to come after this one. And I will start updating a lot more frequently, I promise. I just had to get used to the high school lifestyle. So forgive me, and enjoy!


The rain beat down relentlessly on Max's weary bones as he pushed through the forever oncoming trees, gasping for breath under the downpour. Victoria was nowhere in sight. Civilization was nowhere to be found. For the first time in his afterlife, Max felt utterly and hopelessly alone. He staggered for a second, and then collapsed, leaning against one of the trees for support. Rough bark latched on to the soaked sleeve of his sweatshirt. Max wrapped a skeletal hand around the trunk while he pounded on it once in frustration with the other. It was a hollow tree, so the sound reverberated through the rain and came back to him in an echo. Max felt his strength tapering. He let his arms slide down the trunk, and they brought the rest of his body down with them until he landed in the mud encircling the roots. A terrible urge to scream, yell, cry, or do something rose up with in him, burning inside his bones. Max fought it. There was nothing he could do at this point.

Despondently, Max hurled another fist at the tree trunk, and the sickening sound of splintering wood buzzed in his skull. An echo answered it. Max lifted his head slightly, listening to the sound. He hit the tree again, this time twice. In response came three solid beats, not echoes at all. Max looked straight in the direction that the noises were coming from. No one was there, at least, not close up. His eye sockets narrowed in suspicion. He slowly got to his feet, tried to brush off some of the mud that saturated his black cargo pants, and knocked on the wood four times. Five more knocks answered him, but this time they sounded closer. Max let a half-smile slip over his face as he stepped to another tree, rapping on it six consecutive times with his bony fist. He heard seven more. He broke into a run, hammering on different trees as he desperately darted to wherever Victoria was. It wasn't long before he had her in sight, gathering her up in a hug.

Victoria was shocked to say the least, but she didn't say anything. She could tell he was frightened; his breathing was rapid, and his eye sockets were wide. Something must have gone wrong along the way, seeing as Max was covered in mud and debris from around the forest. Suddenly, she felt guilty about leaving him by himself. She knew that if the nephew of the Pumpkin King was scared, it was serious.

"Are you all right?" Victoria whispered. Max nodded, reveling in Victoria's sweet, flowery, and rain-drenched scent.

"That was scary," he breathed. They waited a few seconds before pulling away from each other, but Max held on to her hands for dear life. "I thought I was going to be stuck out there forever. It started raining, and I thought…I thought I couldn't find you, and if I couldn't find you, then I couldn't find Meddie, and I--"

"I know how you feel," Victoria said. She glanced down at her shoes for a second, and then she looked up at Max with an expression that would have tugged on his heartstrings, had he had any. "Max, I'm so sorry. I was just so angry about Meddie, and I was taking it out on you. You're the only one who can help me get her away from Oogie before it's too late, after all. I wouldn't want to lose you now."

Max dropped her hands in sheer shock. "Excuse me?" he nearly yelled, completely surprised. Victoria raised her eyebrows in astonishment.

"What? What is it?" she said frantically.

Max shook his head in disbelief.

"You mean…you mean that you knew that Oogie had her? What are you talking about? I mean, Oogie's dead, right? So he couldn't have her, I mean…"

"Max, calm down!"

"What? No! I can't calm down! Don't tell me to calm down! This is my sister we're talking about! Who knows what Oogie's doing to her, if he's alive, I mean, and…" Max stopped, his face suddenly hardening in realization.

"You knew," he whispered. Victoria's eyes widened.

"No, Max, you don't understand, it was just-"

"You know where she is? You know who has her? Why haven't you told anyone? What's the matter with you? Meddie's out there, probably starving to death, cold and alone with that- that sack of bugs, and you knew where she was the whole time?" Max yelled. Tears streamed down Victoria's face, blending in with the cleansing rain.

"No, Max! I didn't know!" Victoria shouted through the storm, "I didn't know where she was! At least, not for sure, I didn't. It's complicated!"

"Start explaining!" Max ordered. Victoria took a few deep breaths to compose herself, tucking a strand of soaked black hair behind her ear.

"I kept having these…these dreams. Nightmares, actually. There were two. Oogie was in both, and he said that he wasn't dead and that he was going to take revenge on Jack for trying to murder him. In the second one, he had Meddie in his lair, but it seemed different. I thought that he was in another place, and since we've already searched his old lair, it means that he's moved on. I was right about that. So, no, Max. I don't know where she is, okay? There is one thing he said to me, though…he said, 'You can look for as long as you like, but they will never be found.'." Victoria told him. Max took all this into consideration for a second, suddenly regretting his outburst. Something didn't quite fit.

"Wait a second," Max said, "If he said that 'they' will never be found, then that must mean that there's someone else there with him!"

Victoria answered, "Why do you think that we went to the Hinterlands, Max? We could have gone further into town or even to the human world. I could have taken you there. Didn't you notice that the Black Team was making a longer trip than usual to the Hinterlands? Oogie has them too. I'm sure of it."

Max whispered, "But…but Harley's in the Black Team! How will we find him, Meddie, and the all the rest?" Victoria grinned, making Max confused and a little bit angry. "This isn't funny, you know."

"I know," Victoria replied, "but while you were lost, I found something. Follow me."


Musically: The next chapter's really long. I had to make this excerpt into an entirely different chapter so it wouldn't be too long to read. Okay, you don't need to review for this one if you don't want to, but get your engines ready for the next one!