It must have been too much for me, because the next thing I remember is waking up in Jack's bed. But I felt really strange. Flat, really. I looked down. I was nothing more than a shadow on the covers!
I tried to get up. Amazingly, I materialized and became solid. Jack rose from a chair nearby and came over to me. I saw he had on a sad countenance.
"So what now? Is it reversible?" I asked hopefully.
He shook his head grimly. "Not as long as Oogie's in the real world, masquerading as you. We need him here to switch you back."
"So I'm stuck like this?!" I demanded.
"It would seem so. But let's look on the bright side for now. While we're working on catching him, you get to be like one of us! And Halloween's only a few days away…if all else fails, you can celebrate with us! We've never had a materializing shadow before!"
I sighed. Obviously he didn't see the dilemma here. If Oogie was loose in the real world and can take the shape of anyone he wants, then God knows how long (or soon) it would be before the world came crashing to ground zero. Think about it. Chaos. Panic. Disorder. We had to catch him.
On the other hand, what had that world ever done for me? I'd much rather live here. Being a shadow was fun! And I'd always dreamed of being in the parade.
We decided to wait. That was all we could do. The Mayor and Co. were keeping an eye out for him, and when night came I was out and about. I scared crap and crap alike out of anyone I found after dark. I'd sneak up behind them as a shadow, then materialize and scream. They'd leap, shriek, and run as I cackled. Strange how it sounded a lot more like Jack's laugh nowadays.
I heard a call behind me. Jack summoning the Shadow Queen, of course. I decided to play a trick on old Jack. Concentrating, I morphed and changed my shape into an all-black version of the Pumpkin King himself. Placing myself in shadow form, I crept into his shadow. Then, as he watched, I raised up and materialized as I laughed maniacally.
He was freaked!
I dropped the shape and rolled on the ground, laughing. He was a little peeved, but hey, I was Jaq, after all, and he couldn't stay mad at me. He led me to Town Hall and began to explain.
"We think we've found him. It seems he can't get out of your body. See, when he wants to change, he abandons the body and becomes a shadow again. But since you're in different realities, he's stuck. He'll have to come back here. Or spend the rest of his existence in a girl's body that's stopped aging because of him." He grinned.
I laughed. "It seems he's created his own stalemate."
"It would seem so," one of the vampires added.
I stopped laughing, but I was still chuckling when I asked, "So what do we do now?"
"We wait for him to show up," Jack stated.
We headed home and I got comfortable on the couch to sleep under a knit blanket with a sewn spider on it. My dreams were haunted by shadows and hearty, eerie laughter. I saw visions of Oogie's mansion, and those nasty trick-or-treaters tying me up.