CHAPTER 23
Plan B
From the edge of the crowd, Lock and Barrel dragged Sally's limp body to Oogieous.
Diego cried out at this unexpected sight, "What the Hell!" He turned around, searching frantically on the floor for Sally, "How'd you do that? I only turned away for a second."
"That's just how good my kids are," Oogieous gave a small pat on the back to Lock and Barrel on either side of him. They flashed big, cavity-filled smiles.
"Now," Oogieous grabbed up Sally under the arms and held her at his shoulder's height. Her small frame didn't take Oogieous any effort to support, "Things are about to get very entertaining," with one arm wrapped around Sally's chest, Oogieous held his knife to her slim neck, "Diego, come before me."
It wasn't the order that made Diego reluctant to move, but the commander. Yet, he stepped out of the crowd anyway, teeth gnashed.
"Boys," Oogieous went on, "give them their weapons," Lock and Barrel dashed away to their weapons pile. The return was quick. One boy went over to either living Jack or Diego, and in exchange for their virginal swordsmanship, gave them a sword. The blades were light; thin as paper, but more deadly than any plague. Living Jack and Diego held up their weapons with confusion. Diego examined his sword closely to see if this was some kind of a trick.
"What is this all about?" Diego asked Oogieous with suspicion.
"It's a game," he replied, "If you win, Sally lives. If you lose, she dies. Simple."
Diego got a little nervous. His eyes traveled down form his sword to his "game piece".
"How…how do I win?" Diego asked already having an idea of the answer.
Oogieous trailed the blunt side of his knife across the flab of his neck, making a juicy slicing noise from his mouth. Then he pointed the knife at living Jack.
"Whoa!" living Jack stepped back. He started tugging at his collar, "You-you don't mean kill me, do you?"
"You're gonna pay, Timothy Skellington. One way or another," Oogieous said.
"But-but I…" living Jack was shaking nervous, "I didn't think you were-"
Suddenly, living Jack was punched in the side of the head. Diego pulled back his clenched fist from where he had hit living Jack in the jaw. Diego positioned both his hands on the sword handle, and raised the blade high. Diego slashed down, but living Jack's own weapon deflected it. Living Jack used the force of his sword to push Diego away.
"Stop this, Ragsdale!" living Jack commanded.
"Sally's life is on the line here. When it comes down to either you or her, she wins by a land slide," Diego spat back.
Living Jack paused, "…who?"
Yelling with fury, Diego chased living Jack with his sword. Their swash-buckling battle had begun. The metal clinked, and the blood was shed. Oogieous chuckled in grim satisfaction. Everyone in the room was so consumed by living Jack and Diego's, duel that no one saw Sally's right eye peeking through a slit in her eyelids.