CHAPTER 8
PREPARATION

"Sydney, where have you been? Do you know what time it is? And do you have any- wait, what's that? Sydney, is that…a diamond? Where did you get a DIAMOND RING? You stole it! I bet you did. Where else could you have gotten it? Certainly not from a boy, you ugly little thing! You have a face only a mother could love, too bad for you. Michael! Hey, Michael! Come see what the stupid brat stole! The little retard is a thief! Well, I say, I'll teach you a lesson. Give me that ring!"

"No! No! Give it back! It's mine!" Sydney muttered in her sleep. Her mind was replaying the fight with her foster mother, Brittany Cartmen; the very fight that happened moments before she her disappearance, "No, no! It's mine!"

Sydney was tossing and turning on the ground where she lay. Jack gently shook her shoulders, "Sydney, Sydney! You're having a nightmare. Wake up!"

She started turning more violently. Sydney was screaming now, "No! No, you bitch! Get out of my life! Let me go! LET ME GOOOOO!" Sydney was clawing for Jack's face.

He put a hand on her head. His face became stern as he focused. The tiny gap between his palm and Sydney's head glowed a blood red. In a thick, monstrous voice, Jack commanded, "EMPTY!"

Sydney's body gave a final jerk, and the red glow under Jack's palm faded. Sydney's body lay motionless on the ground. Jack spoke again, "Sydney, it's okay now. Wake up."

Suddenly Sydney's eyes blinked rapidly. Her vision was a little blurry, "Ahhhhh…what happened?"

"I got rid of your nightmares. I thought you might appreciate that."

"I do appreciate it, believe me! But…what's that you say about taking away my nightmares?"

"I can take away and put nightmares in peoples heads. It's just one of the many benefits of being the Pumpkin King."

"You didn't happen to put that nightmare in my head, did you?"

"No, I wouldn't dare do a thing like that to you. Nightmares are the worst things you could ever inflict upon someone. It can even be worse than physical pain. I wouldn't ever give anyone a nightmare, unless I really didn't like them, or I was bored. Besides that, what was your nightmare about?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

I never want to talk about the Cartmens! I hope they burn in Hell.

"Alright," Jack rose up to his feet, " Get up, I want to show you something before we leave."

Jack pulled Sydney to her feet. He left Sydney in her spot and advanced over to the skeletal reindeer. Sydney looked around her. She was standing in the bull's eye middle of a circle of trees. There were five trees with a symbol of a different holiday on each one (the Halloween door wasn't there because they were still in Halloween Town).

"Hmmmmm…Jack, what are these?"

"They're doorways to different holiday worlds," Jack replied while rummaging through the reindeer's saddlebag.

"You mean there's more holiday worlds than just Halloween Town?"

"Oh, yes! In fact, I've been to Christmas Town, and Valentines Town when I literally lost my head."

"Have you been to other any other holidays?"

"I would love to, but no. After the incident of '93, the head figures of the other holiday worlds got together and decided to out law all foreigners from entering their worlds. They didn't want anyone to barge in and ruin their way of life. And they did this without my consent! They had this big life-altering meeting with out me, the head figure of Halloween! Even more so, any town resident, besides Halloween Town, has the permission to kill me on sight! That is if you can kill the dead. But they can only do this if I'm found in their holiday world. Who would have thought that those cute creatures could be a pain in the-!"

"Jack, what happened in '93 that caused everyone to hate you?"

"Well…it was a past mistake of mine I'd rather not discuss."

"But what happened?"

"Hey, you have your secrets and I have mine. Lets just forget I ever said anything about it. Now, come here Sydney, I have something to show you."

Jack motioned for Sydney to join him. Sydney was very suspicious of why he wanted to change the subject, but just erased it from her mind.

Then a thought a rose in her head, Incident of '93. Did he mean 1993? Could that have anything to do with-no. No, I'm just paranoid. Wait! Sydney stopped walking. Is this what Oogie Boogie meant by secret-?

"Sydney?" Jack called to her.

Sydney shook herself out of her trance. She decided that her theories weren't worth thinking out now, but at a slower time. Sydney crossed over to Jack where he was now emptying the reindeer's saddlebags. He was depositing the contents on the ground, creating a small pile of odd costumes. Once the saddle bags were emptied, Jack knelt down and went through the pile, tossing clothing every which way.

"Jack, what are you doing?"

"No. No. Not right," Jack mumbled to himself, "No…these costumes are all disguises I'm barrowing from the professor. They should help us get around the holiday worlds unnoticed…ah ha! I've found them!" He held out a costume in each hand. The costumes were a white rabbit and a pink duck. Jack tossed the fluffy pink duck costume to Sydney. She held it out in front of her in disgust.

"Jack, please tell me you want me to throw up on this, because that's exactly what I'm about to do."

"Oh, Sydney, you don't need to lose weight," Jack opened the costume a little, "See? It a one size fits all thing."

Sydney glared at him for his smart-ass remark, "You can't be serious! I mean, look at this thing! It's pink! It's fluffy! It's…it's…it's preppy! I will NOT put this on! You hear me Jack?"

"You wanna' bet?" Jack retorted from a few feet away. He was just pulling up the zipper on his bunny costume that he was now wearing. He had the ear hood on and everything. It was also a little baggy on him, but he still looked like a rail. Jack felt around on the ground for his plastic bunny mask. Once recovered, he placed it on his face. The rabbit ears on his head swayed when he moved, "Well, how do I look?" He did a bunny pose for Sydney, and then turned around to shake his bunny tail.

Sydney's eye twitched and her mouth curled to a disgusted frown. She spoke in a sarcastic tone, "Oh Jack, that's so sexy. Kind of like how I'm trying to kill myself by chocking on my tongue."

"Ask around back in my town. Trust me, it can't be done. Now put on your costume."

Sydney made a sad puppy dog face and whined, "Jack, do I have to?"
"Well…I guess you could wait until right before we go."

"Where are we going?"

"Easter Town. We need these disguises to get in, seeing as how we're banded from it and all," Jack went over to the pile of clothes and rummaged through them some more, "But before we go, we're going to need some protection."

Sydney had an idea. Protection, you say? Oh boy, I can have some fun with this!

"Uhhhhhh, Jack, protection from what?"

"They're for Oogie's ghouls. These guys are tricky to penetrate, but it'll be easier if we can get them alone. Maybe even if we do the same one."

"Well, no condoms for me! But you can sex up as many goons as you like! I wont tell Sally."

Jack looked up at Sydney. His jaw dropped and his eyes sockets were shocked. Jack dropped all the trinkets and gadgets of weaponry that he got from the pile, and had been holding in his arms.

"Oh," Sydney badly pretended like she was surprised, "That kind of protection."

Jack began to stutter, "Wha-wha-yes! Sydney-what the Hell were you thinking!" Jack was blushing bright behind his mask. He was more embarrassed than shocked by what Sydney said.

Sydney laughed, and then said to Jack, "Forget it, Jack. I just wanted to watch you squirm. Please, explain these gadgets of 'protection' to me," Sydney picked up a vial of thick, red liquid and read the label, "Bull, Red. What's this?"

"It's none of your concern," Jack snapped and snatched the vial from Sydney. He was still a little upset form Sydney's joke, "Besides, that's for Diego. It's best not to waste it."

Jack shuffled through the pile of weapons that he dropped. He recovered a silver rod, which he placed in Sydney's hands. It had the size and weight of a hammer, with the purest gloss of silver. Sydney held it in the middle.

"For something so simple…it's beautiful," Sydney said in awe.

"You're impressed now, but you haven't seen anything yet! Try giving it a flick of the wrist."

Sydney held out the rod like a firecracker wand; arm fully extended out at her side with the ends of the rod pointing in front of her and behind her. She flicked her wrist.

"Jack," Sydney said a little disappointed, "nothing happened."

"Try it again," replied Jack, "This time, think of a tool."

Sydney focused on an object in her mind and flicked her wrist again. There was a cartoony-pop noise, and then silver rod turned into a silver screwdriver.

Sydney dropped the screwdriver in surprise, "Whoa! What the crap?" The moment the screwdriver left her hand, it turned back into a rod. Sydney stared at it resting on the ground before her. She asked Jack in a monotone voice, "Jack…what was that?"

"That is your protection, Sydney."

"You mean, my weapon?"

"Well, hopefully you don't plan on sexing up Oogie's goons as well."

"Oh, ha ha," Sydney said sarcastically, "But really, why do I need it?"

"Because," Jack began, "some monsters may not look as scary as me, but they are truly more evil. You can't be too careful who you're up against."

"So, what would happen if I were to…kill one? Would they become ghost in Halloween Town?"

"No, far worse! If you killed someone in the holiday world, you destroy their soul. Without your soul, you're nothing. That's why I gave you a weapon, to defend yourself. Because even you can have your soul vanquished. Be very careful with it Sydney."

"Okay."

Sydney picked up the rod again. She began flicking the rod into different objects. She was very amused.

"Jack, what's your weapon?"

He had his back to Sydney. From behind, it looked to Sydney like he was a adjusting something on his wrist. Jack spun around when Sydney asked him the question and held his right arm out in front of her.

"Ta-da!" Jack exclaimed excited.

He wore a bracelet that was wide in diameter, and spiraled 6 inches up his arm from his wrist. The bracelet looked like a spring-shaped tube with glowing, green gel flowing around inside.

"What does it do?" Sydney asked.

"I was hoping you'd ask," Jack said with a grin.

Jack thrust his wrist wearing the bracelet in the direction of Sydney's duck mask that laid 10 feet away. The spiral bracelet uncoiled itself to stretch toward the mask. When the tip of the bracelet touched its target, it instantly retracted back to Jack's wrist, carrying with it the mask. The bracelet, automatically upon return, wound itself back onto Jack's wrist. Jack handed the duck mask to Sydney.

"Wow! Jack, that was awesome! That bracelet is like a sticky-hand!"

"A what?"

"A sticky-hand. In my world, those are little toys that stupid people pay $0.50 to get out of a quarter machine. They don't last longer than five minutes."

"Hmmmm…" Jack examined Sydney, "Does it look anything like the one sticking out of your pocket?"

Sydney looked at her pants pocket. A green sticky-hands was dangling out.

"Uh…yes, that would be what one would look like, that is, if it were really there!"

Sydney yanked out the sticky-hand, then through it behind her.

"Whatever Sydney, we need to get a move on. Oh, and I almost forgot!" Jack picked up Sydney's disregarded costume. He held it out to her with a devious grin, "Better suit up. No excuses."

"Fine," Sydney snatched the costume from Jack, "I'll wear Barney's business suite," Jack was satisfied, and left to repack the scattered costumes. Sydney muttered under her breath, "Bastard."

"I heard that!" said Jack still walking away.

"Damn it!" Sydney muttered.

Sydney reluctantly put on the duck costume, while Jack packed the costumes away and tied down the skeletal reindeer. Once their task was complete, they met in front of the Easter door.

"Well Jack," Sydney asked, "are you ready?"

"Hmmmm…" Jack replied, "…let me think," Jack looked up with his hand on his chin, pretending to think and going, "hmmmmm…" He did this for several more seconds, then suddenly he cried, "Are you kidding me? I've been waiting for years to do this again!"

Jack threw open the Easter Egg-shaped door. A burst of whirling, enchanted wind almost knocked them back. Jack grabbed one of Sydney's duck wings, "Hold on!" And Jack and Sydney were both sucked in the doorway at once. Sydney was screaming like a lunatic the whole way down, but Jack was laughing and cheering excitedly. They swirled down the whirlwind of the sparkly, green portal, all the way until they were in Easter Town.