CHAPTER 12
Dinner And A Show
Mr. Skeeter stationed Sydney in the center of the stage. They were in an empty dinner theater. It was fancy with tables and tabletop candles. The stage looked especially elegant. It was nothing like the rest of Easter Town.
"Alright Ashliee, I want you to stand right here and sing your little heart out!"
"Any special request?" Sydney asked.
"How about…hmmmm…Happy Birthday? The thing is I'm going to send Mr. Cottontail through that door at the other end of the room. When he comes in, I want him to be surprised and delighted to have such a beautiful voice serenading him a Happy Birthday! Understand?
"Yeah, I got this."
"Good, sing on my signal. Oh, and sing as loud as you can. I mean, really let it out! Mr. Cottontail has gone hard-of-hearing with his years. He's over 200 you know."
"But wont that make me sing worse?"
"No, you'll do fine! Just concentrate on being heard from about ten miles away."
Mr. Skeeter ran backstage; out of sight. Sydney fixed her posture in preparation for her solo.
Sydney's thoughts started up: 'You must always stand up straight for the best quality of sound.' At least, that's what I read in an old songbook, right before I burned it for warmth when I was stranded in Indiana. Possibly, if I get this right, Mr. Skeeter might give me the Easter egg Jack and I came for. Jack would be so proud that I could handle this all by myself! He would really be impressed! Wait, I sound like I really care about what Jack thinks of me…but, do I?
Sydney's eyes drifted around the room.
Hey, if Mr. Cottontail is so important, why is no one here for his party? Are they coming in with him…or is there something else going-?
"SING, ASHLIEE! SING!" Mr. Skeeter shouted from backstage.
Sydney sucked in her max amount of air, threw back her head, and unleashed the loudest, most voice cracked, most awful Happy Birthday song known to man!
From the opposite side of the room, the double doors that Mr. Cottontail was supposed to enter through had burst open!
Jack ran inside, waving his arms around to catch Sydney's attention, "SYDNEY STOP! IT'S A TRAP!"
Sydney didn't hear a thing. Jack could hardly hear himself. Behind Sydney, something crawled under the curtain from backstage. It was vicious, hungry, and swiftly approaching her. The thing opened his jaws, and licked his razor teeth.
Sydney concluded her screeching
song, "-DAY…TOOOOOOO…YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"
"SYDNEY!"
Sydney looked at Jack a few feet away, "Hey Jack, you made it! Did you catch my song?"
"SYDNEY, BEHIND YOU!"
"What?"
Sydney turned around confused. At the other end of the stage an alligator had his head cocked to the side, mouth wide open. Like a scissor effect, he was preparing to snap Sydney in half!
With complete confidence, she reached into her jeans pocket, "I can handle this Jack!"
"But Sydney, I have your-!"
"Alligator, let's see if you can survive the power of my magic, silver-!" She wiped out from her pocket, and held before her…a flower!
"Daisy? But where's my rod?"
Head cocked, and mouth open, the alligator's stubby legs raced toward Sydney. As her only defense, Sydney screamed.
"No!" Jack thrust his wrist in the direction of Sydney. His green bracelet shot out at her, wrapped around her waist, and then yanked her off stage. The alligator had reached her, but his clamp just missed her stomach. The bracelet retracted Sydney into Jack's arms.
"Jack, watch out!" Sydney pointed to the alligator. The beast licked around his jaw and lunged for the pair.
"Oh, somewhere deep inside of these bones," Jack sang, "An emptiness began to grow," the alligator stopped right in front of them. Sydney was hugging Jack tightly around the neck, "There's somewhere out there far from my home," alligator had a dizzy smile and a drunk expression. His eyes were heavy. He lowered his head, "A longing that…I've neeeeeeveeeeer knooooooooooooown..." the alligator was fast asleep.
Sydney whispered to Jack, "That was beautiful, Jack. Did you write it?"
"Yeah," he whispered back, "that was too close."
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" screamed an angered voice from behind the stage curtain. Jack was startled. His bony arms lost hold of Sydney and she fell hard on her butt.
"Oww! Jack, you dropped me!"
Mr. Skeeter shot out from backstage. His head was lowered for a massive head-butt into Jack's chest. Mr. Skeeter ran across the stage, leapt off the edge into the air, and smashed into Jack's coolly outstretched hand. With a headache, he fell the 6 feet onto the floor.
Mr. Skeeter had a dizzy expression on his face and stars in his eyes, "I don't want to go to school, mommy," he said swaying with a drunken tone, "I want to stay home and make cookies with you!"
Jack bent over and picked up Mr. Skeeter by the skin on the back of his neck. Mr. Skeeter made more dizzy moans.
"Jack," Sydney said while getting up, "what just happened?"
"Why don't you tell her," Jack said to Mr. Skeeter. Jack shook the skunk a little, but he was still punch-drunk, "Fine, be that way," Jack turned back to Sydney, " Mr. Skeeter was going to feed you to the alligator. It wakes with hunger to awful music, but sleeps to the opposite."
Mr. Skeeter finally came back to his sober state, and heard every word Jack said, "How did you learn all this, mysterious…bunny-man?"
"Let's just say a little birdie told me."
"DAMN THOSE BIRDS! DAMN THEM ALL!" Mr. Skeeter was kicking and clawing furiously.
"Tell us," Jack went on, "Mr. Skeeter, why were you doing this?"
"You want to know why…I'LL TELL YOU WHY! I as tired of being the assistant to Mr. Cottontail. He was always having me write things, do things, ran errands, and always made me work! It was no fun."
"But you were his assistant!" protested Sydney, "That was your job!"
"Maybe so, but I was tired of it. So, using ancient, Easter magic, I cast a spell on Mr. Cottontail; turning him into…" Mr. Skeeter turned his head toward the alligator.
"You didn't!" Jack breathed.
"Yes, I did! And he'll stay an alligator as long as I feed him. Then, I will rule Easter Town forever!"
Jack responded with a sneer and a threat, "We'll just see about that."
Jack put his free hand on the alligator's head. At the moment of contact, a red light glowed under his palm. In a matter of seconds Jack had told Peter of Mr. Skeeter's plan and what he had done to turn him into an alligator all within a single nightmare. Mr. Cottontail growled through his teeth. He opened his eyes to revel a blood red glare at Mr. Skeeter. Slowly, Peter separated his long jaws. Beads off saliva rolled down his set of upper, jagged teeth. Jack had an evil expression and a devious sneer as he held Mr. Skeeter over the jaws of death.
"Wa-wa-wait! STOP!" Mr. Skeeter begged, "Wha-what are you going to do?"
"You feelin' lucky…punk?" Jack teased.
"Please, don't!"
Jack's voice suddenly became grave, "Listen to me! You don't hurt my friends, and you certainly DON'T GET IN MY WAY!"
Mr. Skeeter whimpered, "Who are you?"
"I'm JACK, THE PUMPKIN KING! And you don't fk with THE PUMPKIN KING!"
"My god! You're the skele-"
Enraged, Jack nearly slammed Mr. Skeeter into the alligator's throat. Skipping the bloody, chewy, crunchy, and messy details, Jack insidiously chuckled at Mr. Skeeter's gory consumption by the alligator. Jack was still laughing when he turned from the satisfied reptile to the mortified Sydney. He chocked on the last of his laughter when he saw her wide eyes, dropped jaw, and stunned expression. She slowly turned to look at Jack, then rolled her eyes back, and fainted. Jack caught her in his arms before she hit the ground.
He gave Sydney a decent shake, "Wake up Sydney. Come on."
"Ohhhhhhh…" Sydney said coming back, "That was so sick! I've never seen carnage like that before. It's nothing like in the horror movies."
"It never is," Jack helped Sydney back to her feet, "You'll be fine. A little childhood trauma builds character."
"Jack, you said you would never inflict someone with a nightmare. This time, you actually commanded the alligator to eat someone. No, devour! Why?"
"No, I said I wouldn't inflict someone with a nightmare, unless it came to it. In this case, it came to it. Plus, I didn't really like him."
"What are you implying?"
"Sydney, no body messes with my friends. Nobody. And lives to get away with it."
"You did that for me? Thank you, Jack. And I'm sorry I almost got us killed. I was trying to do a good job, so that-."
"It's okay, kid. We live, and we learn," Jack winked at her, "Well…that's true for some of us."