Author's Note: The reason why this story has a T-rating is because of the language. God (in the prologue), damn (in chapter 2), and bastard (in this chapter) are among those bad words, and it's also rated for the violence in this chapter and later chapters as well. Once again, I don't have any rights to The Nightmare Before Christmas, or Corpse Bride, so don't go reporting against me. The only rights I own are for the characters I created myself, and any items like the Odyssey 3000. So, read on!
Slyther and I were up in the sky, leaving a protesting Sabs behind. I was two miles above ground now, and he already looks like an ant on the ground. I headed west, the direction where Guillotine Square was. Right below me, was Dury, who was running right below me. He may not be able to see me up there, but even though he might be far below me, I could see Dury ripped the watch off his wrist, leaving it on the ground, and turned into a brown bat, flying the rest of the way.
I don't blame him. He doesn't want anyone to know he has anything modern with him.
Well, anyway, Guillotine Square came in sight. The street had a guillotine and a fountain in the middle, and some old, ramshackle houses. But the house that needed the most repairs was a two-room shack with a huge attic. I paid attention to Guillotine Square so much, I didn't see where I was going, and a huge tree was right in front of me.
"Odyssey, we're gonna crash!" I shouted softly so Dury won't hear me. But I said it too late. CRASH! The Odyssey 3000 was stuck in the branches of the hanging tree. It was called that because there were a bunch of skeletons hanging on the branches. The tree was now glaring at me. "Sorry." I said, quickly, blushing and having a look of embarrassment on my face. "Then you'd better get off." the tree said hotly. "Yeah, get off!" the hanging skeletons were shouting, "You're shaking us like mad!"
I carefully climbed down the tree's bark and branches, but I didn't come down quick enough. The tree shook me off, and I landed on the cobble-stone streets with a soft thud. It was painful, but I didn't say anything. I didn't want Dury to find out I was following him.
Now to get out my invisibility potion! I rummaged through my messenger bag. I got out a potion with violet-colored water. That was the invisibility potion. I drank it down. I didn't feel any changes. I rummaged again through my messenger bag for a hand mirror. I couldn't see myself! It's working!
I continued following Dury by running after his bat-like form. He wasn't looking back anyway, so why should I worry about that? Anyway, I was running so fast, I didn't know I was running into the Corpse Bride, who didn't even see me. Oof! The Corpse Bride and I were both on the floor now.
"Sorry about that." I said. "That's okay." she replied, getting up and brushing off her dress, "I didn't see you coming. Do you have an invisibility potion?" "Yes I do." I replied, "But I'm doing this for a reason. I'm worried about someone I know and the only way I can know is there's nothing to worry about is by following him home." But the Corpse Bride, like Slyther and Sabs, didn't like that idea.
"I'm afraid it's not good to do that, she said, shaking her head left to right. Anybody who was watching us right now might think the Corpse Bride was talking to herself, but craziness is a normal thing in Halloweentown. "But what if he really is being beat up every night!" I argued. That was where the Corpse Bride gave in. "All right." she said with a sigh, "I might help you." I gave her the potion, and like me, she became invisible. "Let's try to catch up with him now." I said.
We didn't have to follow any longer. Dury's house was the two-room shack that needed the most repairs. He walked in, panting and tired, not knowing that we were walking right behind him.
"I don't think it's going to work out good." said a worried Corpse Bride to me. I turned my head toward hers. "We're invisible." I said, "Nobody can see us."
Dury turned into his normal form, looked back, and he had a scared look on his face. "Dad, please don't be drunk, please don't be drunk." he was muttering to himself worriedly as he opened the door. We followed him right in.
When Dury closed the door, we could see an angry vampire with a horribly tied neck-tie, a really dirty fur-coat, even dirtier clothes, rotting teeth, jet black knitted gloves without fingers, dark brown eyes that were almost black, a top-hat that has a top that looked like a top of a can that's just opened, and his shoes that are showing his toes. All of us in Halloweentown know him as Tennes the drunken bastard, since 2001, the year Modesty (I mean Dury's sister) died. His real name was Tennessee Linehold. I knew Dury had a fearful look on his face.
Tennes slapped Dury right across the face. It looked very painful. "Where were ye!" he demanded loudly and angrily. I hate it when Tennes talked. Not only were his teeth rotten, but his breath smelled gross, like throw-up or beer. Dury was rubbing his left cheek, the place where he's been hit. "I told you before, dad" he said with his voice quivering, "I was with Sabs and Liz, working on our report at Lake Eire." But apparently, Tennes wasn't listening to a single word Dury was saying.
He punched Dury in the lower jaw, knocking him down to the splintery, unfurnished wooden floor, and he punched him in the chest. Blood was coming right out of the knocked out Dury's mouth!
"That miserable bastard!" I shouted quietly, mad at what I saw, "I'm going to beat up that son of a-" but the Corpse Bride covered up my mouth, and the rest of what I was going to say was muffled up. "Now I believe you." the Corpse Bride said, turning away from the action. Just when Tennes was about to kick Dury, Mrs. Linehold came right in.
Mrs. Linehold was a female vampire with a dark-blue bonnet (with a white patch in the middle), grey eyes like Dury's and black hair, a dress fit for a peasant, sandals, and a black shawl. She saw an unconscious Dury on the floor, with blood coming out of his mouth.
"Tennes, what're you doing to him!" she shouted at Tennes, shocked and angry. "Givin' Dury 'is just desserts for comin' 'ome late, Bernie!" he retorted. "Well, he wouldn't have been late if he had a watch, and he would've had one if you didn't squander all of your work money!" she shouted at him. Tennes turned toward her. Good thing we're invisible. If we weren't, Tennes would've caught us and tossed us out.
Anyway, there was an angry look in Tennes's eyes. "I don't squander me pickins!" he yelled back. "Don't you go lyin' to me!" Mrs. Linehold argued back. They were walking into the kitchen now, and the Corpse Bride and I followed them inside. "You say you don't squander your work money." she said to him coolly, "Whenever it's payday, what do you spend your wages on!" She jerked open a kitchen cupboard.
It was completely full of all sorts of liquor! He had beer, ale, wine, champagne, vodka, tequila, and pretty much other types of liquor, and all of them were illegal in Halloweentown! "What do me drinks 'ave anythin' to do with me money!" he shouted at her. "It's what you spend all your money on, that's what!" she screamed at him, tossing a full bottle of rum over his head. Tennes ducked just when it was an inch away from his fore-head. "And now, thanks to your drinks," Mrs. Linehold continued, "you beat up Dury and pretty much other halloweentowners as well!"
The Corpse Bride began ushering me outside. "I guess we've pretty much seen enough." she said, looking back. Now, Dury's parents were fighting physically, with Mrs. Linehold biting him, and Tennes ripping off her bonnet and yanking her hair.
By the time we were out, I was searching my messenger bag for a blue-colored potion I called an antidote. "I knew it!" I cried out as I was searching my messenger bag for the antidote, "I knew Tennes was beating up Dury all along!" I found the antidote, and the Corpse Bride and I both drank it.
"So, what's your name?" the Corpse Bride asked me when we were back to normal. I looked her straight in the eyes. "My name's Elizabeth McMonster, but the adults call me Eliza, and my friends call me Liz." I whistled for the Odyssey 3000. "Take me home, Odyssey." I told my broom as I mounted it, and just like that, I left the Corpse Bride behind.