Thank you to Wolf Lover 06, mrspencil, TheKatanaMistress, gothic girl, BrotherBearKenai, JackandSally, and TophNickNames for their kind reviews.

It's an extra-long chapter this time, guys, but one with much needed plot points.


Jack blinked at the mummy. "With Dante?" he echoed.

"Betty was talking about a 'furry friend' when we found her in the woods," Tet explained. He looked down at the floor. "From her description, it has to be Dante."

"Blood and bones…" he murmured, falling back against the headboard. "What was she thinking?"

"Abigail didn't see her, but I think she might have pieced it together anyway. She told Betty to keep quiet about 'furry friend,'" Tet added.

"Well, at least that's something," he said, crossing his arms over his ribs. Dante making herself known was the last thing he needed right now. If she strayed much closer to Halloween Town, she was going to get herself stewed and there would be nothing he could do about it. He shuddered. The thought of losing Dante a second time made his ribs ache.

"Mr. Skellington?" Tet said, interrupting his train of thought.

"Jack," he corrected out of habit.

"Sir, I'd like to go out to the woods again."

"What? Why?" he exclaimed, sitting up.

"Because… I need to warn Dante that she was seen. To protect her."

"No. No, Tet, you can't. Going into the woods is dangerous."

The bandages around Tet's mouth tightened in what Jack guessed to be a scowl. "I know, Mr. Skellington, I just came back from the woods."

"I mean going alone," he added. "When you went before, you had Abby with you."

"Someone has to tell Dante," Tet replied matter-of-factly. "And with you stuck in bed…"

"I'm not 'stuck in bed,'" Jack interrupted. He clenched his teeth for a moment then swung his legs out of bed. "And I'm going to go talk to Dante."

"What? But, Mr. Skellington, your leg…!"

"Will heal a little more slowly," he said as he carefully applied pressure to it. He stood up and gave a little wave. "Ta-da!"

"But, Mr. Skellington…!"

"Look, Tet, I'm the only one who knows where Dante lives," Jack said as he adjusted his pants leg over his splint. "It only makes sense that I should be the one to go warn her."

"But, Mr. Skellington…!"

"No more 'but's, Tet. I'm going."

The mummy gazed at him cautiously from beneath his bandages. Finally, just as Jack was about to head out the door, he uttered one word: "Sally."

"What?" Jack asked, his hand still on the doorknob. He turned to face the mummy.

"I'll have to tell Sally that you broke your promise," he clarified. He looked up at the skeleton, his eye begging him to understand. "I promised her, Mr. Skellington. It was the only way she was going to agree to stay at home."

"I see," Jack murmured. He stared at the ground for a moment, his jaw clenching and unclenching. "Well," he said. "I think we both know what we have to do then." He opened the door. "Tell her not to come right away since I won't be home," he added as he closed the door on a very perplexed looking mummy.


Edgar woke to the sound of Jack rapping on his gatekeeper's box. "Jack," he said groggily, brushing a copy of Death and the Maiden off his beak. "What can I do for you?"

"I need you to open the gate, Edgar," he said.

Edgar's eyes strayed to the skeleton's leg. He sat up suddenly, scattering a few books in the process. The feathers around his neck rose. "Say, are you alright?"

Jack ground his teeth. "Open the gate, Edgar."

The gatekeeper looked him over. "Maybe you should go home, Jack," he suggested. "It's too late out to be doing much of anything, especially in the…"

"Open the gate."

Edgar's head twisted to one side so one of his bright black eyes was locked on Jack. Despite the intense gaze, the look was sympathetic. "Jack," he croaked. "I-I already opened the gate twice tonight without permission. I'm afraid I can't risk doing that three times in one night. Now why don't you go on home. I'm sure Sally…"

"Fine," he interrupted. "You don't have to open the gate."

The feathers around Edgar's neck relaxed. He picked up a copy of Crime and Punishment that had fallen at his feet and dusted it off with his other wing. "Here," he said, holding the book out of his box. "I know there isn't death in the title, but there's a great murder in the first few…" He heard the clang of wood and bone on metal and a hiss of pain. He looked up just in time to see Jack slipping through the bars. "Jack!" he squawked, flapping his wings in a distressed frenzy. "Jack!"

"Edgar, I have to do this," he heard from beyond the fence. "And coming after me would only arouse suspicion. So just… Go back to sleep."

Edgar heaved a sigh and looked down at the copy of Crime and Punishment that he'd dropped outside his gatekeeper's box. "I'll keep watch for you," he murmured as he opened the door to his box and scooped the book up with one misshapen, black wing. He glanced past the gate, but Jack was already gone.


Each step was agony on Jack's broken leg. "Sally will have my skull for this," he thought as he reached down to massage his splint and look for the next trail marker. Having spotted the next one, he glanced up. The moon was sinking further and further into the West. He didn't have much time if he wanted to make it before daybreak. He straightened up, steeled himself, and doubled his pace.

It took him an hour, but he finally reached the grove with three white trees. He glanced around the glade, but quickly realized the error of trying to spot the little monster in the open. "Dante?" he cried out.

Silence.

"Dante?" he repeated, a bit more urgently. Now that he was paying attention, he noticed that there were no snapped branches or piles of berries that would usually mark the little monster's presence. He glanced at the notches in the tree trunks. They looked fresh, but not as fresh as he would have liked. His gaze wandered down the trail that he'd never bothered to explore—the one that went to her lake. "Dante!" he cried as he began sprinting down the path, his skull turning every which way as he tried to find her. He felt his bones splinter, but paid no attention to them. "Dante! Oh blood and bones… Dante!"

He stopped when he reached the lake. It was a strange blue color that was a stark contrast to the brown and green water in Halloween Town. For a moment, he just stared at it, captivated by its beauty and its strangeness. "Maybe it isn't safe to drink," he thought. A shiver went down his spine. If Dante had been drinking from it this entire time…

"Dante!" he shouted, desperation breaking through in his voice. He began wandering through the low brush covering this side of the lake. "Dant-!"

"Shut up, bone man!" Dante whispered frantically, popping up over the bushes. Her golden fur was matted and she had a fierce glint in her eyes. "He's still recovering."

"Who?"

"Hyde."

"Hyde!" he exclaimed, earning himself a glare from the tiny creature. He crouched down so he could look her in the eyes and whispered, "Hyde was sacked!"

"Yeah, and so was I, but we're both here," she said with a little flick of her ear.

"Dante, what in the name of all that is terrifying have you done?"

"Your job," she snapped.

At the sound of her voice, Hyde began to moan in terror. Dante's ears fell flat against her head. "Way to go, bone man," she said more loudly. "Now I'm going to have to soothe him to sleep again."

But Jack was still reeling from her accusation. "My… Dante, it's not my…"

"Yes it is, Jack!" A horrified shriek came from the bushes. She quickly darted back into the brush around the lake. Jack heard her saying something in a soothing tone before she came back out.

"Why do you need him to sleep?" he whispered as she floated back up to him.

"Because if he stays awake he keeps groaning like that," she said as his cries began to die away. She looked away, not meeting his gaze. "Gives away our position." She flattened her ears against her head and glared at him. "What brings you here anyway? Have I finally had enough time to 'conjure up some sense'?" she growled.

Jack clenched his jaw as he felt the impact of his own words thrown back at him.

"No… I mean, you have, but I was the one who needed to get some sense," he admitted. He crouched down with a hiss. "You were right. This has to be stopped."

She looked at him suspiciously and flicked her left ear. "What happened to your leg?" she grumbled.

"It's a long story," he replied. At her curious look, he added, "I may have stirred up some trouble this Halloween."

"So you did try to stop the Sackings!" she exclaimed, zooming up to his skull with a look of pure joy on her face. "Oh, bone man, you have no idea how much of a relief that is! I thought I was the only one."

Jack's ribs tightened. "Well… Actually…"

Dante's ears flattened against her head. "It wasn't about the Sackings, was it?"

"No," he admitted. "I-I stepped out of line with my role."

Dante floated to the ground, the fierce look back in her eyes. "What do you want, Jack," she growled.

"I came to warn you that Betty saw you," he said.

"Betty?"

"The little witch who was in the woods?"

Dante snorted. "Oh! Well, of course she saw me! I found her all alone in the woods and watched over her until I heard other ghouls."

"Those other ghouls were Tet and Abby," Jack explained. "Tet knows it was you because I told him that you were out here."

"You did what?" Dante cried.

Jack held his hands out in front of him protectively as the little furry monster gaped at him. "Look, Dante, it was the only because Tet…"

"Do you want me to get stewed?" she exclaimed, not listening to the skeleton. "I thought you were my friend!"

"I am your friend," he replied.

"Then why did you tell everyone…"

"Not everyone," Jack interrupted, crossing his arms over his chest. "Just… Polly, Abby…"

"…That I'm out here!" Dante finished.

"They didn't even believe me!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms to either side in frustration.

Hyde let out a frightened howl. Dante gave Jack a look before darting into the bushes again. When she came back, she gestured towards the lake. "We can talk better down there," she whispered.

Jack nodded and followed the little ghoul's lead down to the edge of the lake. Now that he wasn't in such a panic, he noticed that the lake was at the bottom of a hill dotted with small bushes and tall grass. The sun rising in the east cast everything in a pale red light that made the grass and the trees look almost pumpkin orange. He looked out over the vast blue lake. In the dawn light, the startlingly blue water was tipped with pink where little ripples formed on its surface. The ripples made a soft sound as they lapped against the shore. Across the lake there was a clearing with what looked suspiciously like one of the plants he'd seen in front of houses in the human world swaying in the breeze.

He also noticed a change in Dante. She was faster, quickly darting from shrub to shrub while he simply lumbered through them. Her golden fur was matted in parts and roughly combed in others, giving her hair a wild, spiked look that matched the wild, fierce look in her eyes. For a moment, his mind flashed back to when she was still living in Halloween Town. The ghoul before him now was almost an entirely different creature from the bouncy, lively ghoul who'd had so much trouble with the idea of scaring anyone.

Once they got to within a couple of feet from the water's edge, Dante hovered over a boulder that was just about the right height for him to sit on before floating over to the lake.

"What are you doing?" Jack asked as he eased himself onto the boulder. The little monster seemed to be looking for something in the sky.

"I'm checking to see if there are any ghosts around," she replied. She flicked an ear at the forest. "See the tree line?" she asked.

He looked over at the forest. "Yes."

"How far away are we from it?"

"About ten yards."

"Where do ghosts like to hide and fly?"

"High up… Oh!" Jack said, suddenly catching on.

"Can you see a ghost from ten yards away?"

"Yes, I can."

"Is the ghost going to see you if you duck into this," she said, bouncing off one of the bushes. "The moment you see one?"

"It's not as likely as if one snuck up on you in the forest." He grinned. "Dante, you're a genius!"

"Thanks," she replied flatly. She settled down by the water's edge. "Now what happened when you told a bunch of ghouls that I was out here again?"

Jack decided not to argue the "bunch of ghouls" part of that statement again. "They didn't believe me," he repeated. He placed his skull in his hands. "Well, Tet believes me, but Polly and Abigail just think I'm just making up things in order to make myself feel better since I failed as a tutor."

Dante gave him a look. "But… you didn't fail as a tutor."

He let out a frustrated sigh. "Yes, I know that," he stressed. "But Polly and Abby don't. They think escaping from Oogie Boogie's is impossible."

"Well, it's not," she said matter-of-factly.

He sighed. "Dante, you don't seem to understand. No one's going to fight the Sackings or Oogie Boogie if they don't think it can be done!"

"Is that why you haven't even tried?" she remarked sourly.

Jack glared at her. "Look…" he growled.

"No, you look!" she cried, bolting into the air. "I've been out here thinking up all sorts of ways to try to stop the Sackings. I sent you all those messages and you didn't even…!"

"Dante, what are you talking about?"

"The messages I sent you! Don't tell me you didn't even bother to read them."

"Dante, I have no idea what you're talking about. I never got any messages."

She froze. "But I told Sally…"

"Sally?" Jack interrupted.

"Yeah," she said. "She's been coming out here with food once a week ever since you left. Didn't she tell you?"

"No," Jack replied hesitantly. "No, she didn't."

"What about all those messages?" she exclaimed, suddenly energized again. She zoomed right up to his skull. "She said she'd write them down and give them to you!"

"Dante, I haven't had a word from Sally about you," he replied, his brow furrowing over his sockets.

The little monster swallowed and hovered back down to the ground. "Maybe she lost them?" she suggested.

"How many did you send?"

"It would have been thirty-nine this week," she admitted.

There was a tense moment of silence between the two ghouls as each tried to process this new information.

Finally, Dante broke the silence. "I trusted her," she murmured, tears forming in her eyes.

"Dante, it's alright. She probably did lose them. I'm sure she just…"

"Stop it! Just stop pretending you know everything!" she exclaimed in a sudden fit of anger. "You don't know! You don't know what Sally did with my letters." Her ears flattened against her head and she looked away. "What matters is that she didn't give them to you." She shook her head, as if to clear it, and floated up to skull-level. There was an air of sobriety about her that Jack had never seen before. "I could try to tell you some of my plans now, but you'll probably want to head home pretty soon," she said. "And it'll take you awhile on that leg."

"I can wait for little while longer," he replied.

Dante flicked an ear at him then floated to his shoulder. "There's been one that's been sticking out in my mind," she admitted as she settled onto his collarbone. "If the ghouls of Halloween Town would band together… If everyone said that they don't want this anymore… Then the Sackings might stop. He can't sack everyone. It isn't practical. He needs someone to rule. To terrify…" She paused, a horrified look in her eyes. She blinked and continued, "I know that's nearly impossible. If just a few ghouls said that they were for the Sackings, then the rest could be stewed. It would have to be…"

"Unanimous," Jack finished for her.

"Unan-what?" she asked.

"Everyone. It would have to be absolutely everyone," he clarified.

"Yeah." She glanced at the rising sun. "I can tell you more later. Hyde usually wakes up around now and if I'm not there…"

Jack nodded and lifted the small monster off his shoulder. "It was good to see you again."

She smiled softly, and for a moment she looked like the Dante that he'd known back in Halloween Town. "It was good to see you too," she said. She floated off his palm. "You'd better get home. If you're lucky, you can just tell everyone you went out for a walk early this morning."

He winced as he got up from the rock. "An ill-advised walk, if my leg has something to say about it."

Something like a chuckle escaped Dante. "Oh, it will. Here." She darted into the bushes and returned with a large, white, trumpet-shaped flower. She spat it into his hand. "Eat some of this," she said. "I call them Ghost Bells. Sally didn't tell me their real name. They help with pain."

He folded his fingers over the flower. "Thank you, Dante."

She snorted and flicked an ear at him. "Just hurry back. If you get caught, we'll never get the Sackings stopped."

Jack smiled weakly at her before heading back up the slope towards the path. "Just leave the parts that are closer to town to me," he called over his shoulder.

"You got it, bone man."


By the time Jack had limped back to Halloween Town, he felt like his leg was going to fall into fragmented pieces. He'd eaten all of Dante's flower, but it had only relieved his pain a little. Luckily, Edgar had opened the gate at the first sight of him and had made some idle chatter about how fresh air was good for young bones. That saved him the pain of having to climb through the gate again or hurry his pace as he walked back to his house.

He paused just outside his door, taking a deep breath in preparation for the furious ragdoll he felt sure he was going to encounter once he went in.

He was not disappointed.

"What were you thinking?" Sally exclaimed as she took off the bandages on his leg again. She'd managed to force him back into bed in a whirlwind of activity before he could say a word about Dante. "Of all the empty skulled things to do!"

He hissed as she reset the splint, forcing his bones back into their proper positions. "Sally," he growled from behind clenched teeth.

"Are you just trying to get yourself hurt?" she continued, ignoring him. "Because, congratulations…"

"Sally…"

"You've done it!"

"Sally…"

"Another two weeks of bed rest at the…"

"Sally!" he shouted.

She paused, a roll of bandages poised in her hands, and looked at him. "Yes?" she hissed.

"Why didn't you tell me about Dante's letters?"


For the record, every herb I have the ghouls of Halloween Town eat or drink has some sort of harmful effect on humans. In this case, Dante's "Ghost Bell" is actually "Angel's Trumpet" – a flower known for its poisonous effects.

Reviews appreciated as always!