I climbed down the same cage-chain that Jack had, so long ago. Reaching the end, I heard cackling, but who it was, I didn't know. My question was answered shortly.

"So, Jack. Don't feel bad, this time I've got nothin' against you. You're just bait. A pawn, I might say, in my chess game."

I heard indistinguishable noises that sounded muffled. Jack was gagged, I'll bet.

"And when your little friend comes to rescue you, it'll be-…"

"Checkmate!" I cried, leaping through the barred window and perching on an outcrop of rock in Oogie's underground Casino Room.

Jack was bound and, yes, gagged on a raised portion of the roulette wheel floor. A running buzz saw was inches from his face. Oogie was standing next to him, ready to push the saw just a bit forward and tear Jack's head to pieces. He grinned and Jack looked at me in innocence. For the first time I'll ever remember, I saw he was scared. Frightened. The King of Halloween was ready to collapse in fear and Oogie was loving it.

Lock, Shock, and Barrel stood nearby. They held some kind of strange, macabre apparatus consisting of a headpiece, two sets of manacles, and a long electrical cord.

Oogie laughed. "Well, here's your choice. Either you allow my henchmen to assist you into that machine so we can switch again, or Jack's head will be sawdust! Take your pick, Madame."

He grinned. "And I don't regret to inform you that the process will be extremely painful this time around."

I winced. "Will you let Jack go?"

"Of course, miss Jaq. I am a spirit of my word. We make a deal, I hold up my end." He smiled reassuringly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jack, vigorously shaking his head in a very negative fashion, signaling me not to agree. But I never broke eye contact with myself. With Oogie Boogie.

I sighed and sat down in a chair he gestured to, to Jack's dismay. Lock snapped the headpiece on me with a snicker. I growled at him and he jumped back in fright.

"Get on with it!" Oogie commanded them.

Shock came forward and put the manacles on my wrists and ankles while Barrel connected everything with the cable to an evil-looking metal contraption nearby.

Oogie grinned and signaled. Lock giggled and flipped the switch.

What followed was probably the most painful ordeal of my existence. Sucking, pushing, pins, needles, pinching, pressure, stinging. You name it, I felt it. I screamed like I was possessed by the devil. My glowing purple eyes shone beams of light like beacons into the darkness. I may as well have been a lighthouse for all they shone.

But rather than guffaw in joy, Oogie scowled in disappointment.

"Why isn't it working?! If anything, she'd getting more defiant!"

"Dunno, Oogie. Maybe her soul got attached to the form, or something like that," Shock shouted over my screams.

"I've heard about that. When a soul is put in its true form or the form it belongs in, it's supposed to fuse together and can't be removed. Curse it! Now I'll never get my shadow form back! I'll just take care of BOTH of you now and have a little fun!" Boogie grinned.