The Shadow behind the Graveyard

She stopped for a moment in the graveyard to catch her breath only to be yanked up from her sitting position and slapped smartly across the face her hand flew to her cheek and felt it grow red. Finkelstein looked her up and down and snarled.

"You ran away"

"You wouldn't let me out"

"You weren't designed to leave the house"

"And I suppose I wasn't designed to think for myself?" That remark earned another blow to the face.

"Come along you defiant slave"

Sally followed the doctor back to the laboratory where she had spent many miserable days. She didn't know what Finkelstein was going to do but she knew it would be bad. She walked as slowly as she could to postpone the punishment for running away. She had never done it before. She could never work up the courage to, and when she finally had, look where it got her. The pair reached their home. Sally was led into the room at the highest point in the tower and thrown in. All that she was given was a single lit candle. At first all she saw was empty walls, but then she looked closer and realized that the walls had books in them. But one book in particular captured her interest.

"plants and potions to induce sleep, pain or even death" Sally read each page in awe as she learned of all the different ways to harm or calm someone. One page in particular seemed to call out to her. It was a page on Deadly Nightshade.

"…According to old legends, the plant belongs to the devil who goes about trimming and tending it in his leisure, and can only be diverted from its care on one night in the year, that is on Walpurgis, when he is preparing for the witches' Sabbath. The apples of Sodom are held to be related to this plant, and the name Belladonna is said to record an old superstition that at certain times it takes the form of an enchantress of exceeding loveliness, whom it is dangerous to look upon, though a more generally accepted view is that the name was bestowed on it because its juice was used by the Italian ladies to give their eyes greater brilliancy, the smallest quantity having the effect of dilating the pupils of the eye.

Another derivation is founded on the old tradition that the priests used to drink an infusion before they worshipped and invoked the aid of Bellona, the Goddess of War.

The generic name of the plant, Atropa, is derived from the Greek Atropos, one of the Fates who held the shears to cut the thread of human life - a reference to its deadly, poisonous nature.

Thomas Lupton (1585) says: 'Dwale makes one to sleep while he is cut or burnt by cauterizing.' Gerard (1597) calls the plant the Sleeping Nightshade, and says the leaves moistened in wine vinegar and laid on the head induce sleep."

She read the passage over and over and tried to recall if she had seen the poisonous plant anywhere, and then it came to her. There was a patch of it in the graveyard. She could easily slip out one of these days and grab a little bit of it to put in his drink, surely it wouldn't kill him. And even if it did, who would care? No one liked Finkelstien. He wasn't even a real doctor.

She tore the page out and replaced the book in its rightful spot, blew out her candle, and eventually she fell asleep. She awoke the next morning to dragging footsteps on the floor. a moment later she heard Igor knock on the door to wake her up, he mumbled something she couldn't understand, but he unlocked the door and motioned for her to follow him. She was led down to the doctor where she was instructed to do her morning chores as usual.

One of her morning tasks was to take Finkelstein's old chemicals to the edge of Halloween Town….and that would mean passing the graveyard. Surely he would understand if she were only missing for a few more minutes. Just to be sure that it was there. Then she could sneak out tonight while he was sleeping and gather it

She collected the trash and walked swiftly to the edge of the town. If Halloween town had a single dreary place, this would be it, it was foggy, and everything that once grew there had died, or been altered into something wretched. Sally had once feared it, but gotten over that phobia when she learned she must visit that place every day. She quickly threw the chemical waste into the chemical wasteland and left as quickly as possible.

Sally rushed to the cemetery and easily found a patch of the poisonous flower. She noted its location, and left immediately so her presence would not be missed. Unfortunately for her she wasn't paying attention to where she was going and she tripped on someone's foot. The tall skeleton man looked at her with kind eyes and offered her a bony hand. Their eyes locked for a moment and Sally reached for his hand and felt surprising warmth in his skeletal grasp. She allowed herself a small smile as she walked away from the thin man.

Her happiness soon faded as she came into sight of the prison she called home, and that moment with Jack was completely forgotten. She opened the heavy door and was greeted by a series of obscenities assuring her that she was in trouble for taking longer than normal. She was to clean and fix supper as normal but then immediately go to the chamber where she had spent the previous night until further notice.

In her confinement she found her thoughts constantly drifting back to Jack and if it had been anything more than a friendly gesture. And then the warmth she felt, what that had meant, if it meant anything at all…..

- it'll get better I SWEAR, I know this chapter kind of sucked…ok it REALLY sucked….but it'll get better, just keep reading and I'll give you an energy drink-