Chapter 37
A New Recruit
In Boogie's lair, Lock, Shock, and Barrel stood before Oogie's mighty flame self that burst from the cracks in the cavern floor. Each one was kneeled before him. Lock was the first one to speak.
"Mr. Oogie Boogie, sir, I've gathered two leads on who the Angel of Darkness could be! Two!" Lock spoke enthusiastically.
Barrel added timidly, "Um, Shock and I helped too."
But Oogie just ignored him; he was suddenly excited about Lock's news, "So, who
are they? Tell me!"
Lock answered, "Our very own Sydney Night and Shadow."
Oogie looked a bit surprised at this, "You really mean one of those two are the Angel of Darkness? Sydney and Shadow? Come on! Where's your proof?"
Lock smiled and held his hand out to the fire, "The prophecy if you will."
Oogie groaned. He shot out a few sparks into Lock's open palm, which was immediately shaken off with many 'Ow! Ow!'s, and then he shot out the scroll. The bossy little devil ordered his comrades to unroll the scroll and hold it open horizontally. They obeyed mainly because they were in Oogie's presence.
"Yes, yes," Lock said as he scanned the scroll, "Annnnnnnnd…here we are! The Angel of Darkness will be beautiful, and have a fighter's will. That's our Sydney."
Shock mumbled an objection that was ignored.
"And Shadow is both beautiful with a fighter's will, and she has the body of a monster."
Lock scanned the scrolled for a few more seconds, "Annnnnnnnd…that's it. I think you should find this information most helpful to you," Lock finished with a squint-eyed grin.
Oogie smiled back, true satisfaction was in his evil grin, "That is most helpful. And I have just the plan for the three of you."
Oogie suddenly sucked the scroll back into his flames, and chuckled in his throat at Shock, Lock and Barrel's surprised gasps.
"Alright, back to business, the plan I have for the three of you is to—"
But Oogie completely lost all interest in what he was saying when he saw Shadow's portal unexpectedly spiral open. Inside the green vortex revealed the demon herself dragging out a man by his shirt and coat collar. He was stumbling trying to keep up with Shadow's pace. The attention of everyone in the room was drawn to the sneering woman. She was delighted to show off her catch. Behind her, the portal spiraled to a close, and she threw the man down in front of Oogie. He moaned as he was slammed on his back.
"What's all this about?" Oogie raised a brow bone to the pale man.
Shadow crossed her arms and raised a foot on the man's chest, "Your newest recruit."
At first, Oogie's eyes widened in surprise, then his fire began to crackle with fury, "How DARE you make decisions without my permission—!"
Shadow raised a hand of silence, "Cool down, sir, don't get so heated. You should open the box before you return the package," Shadow lifted her leg from the man, "Get up," she demanded.
The man looked up at her with sparkling blue eyes, and then sneered with his arms behind his head, "Make me."
Shadow sneered back, then kicked him hard in the groin. The man heaved, gnashing his teeth.
With her angel smile, shadow leaned into the man's face, and said in her bittersweet voice, "Do you need any more encouragement?"
He slowly shook his head.
"Good. Now, get up."
Gradually, he rose to his feet. With his palms, he wiped the dirt from his duster. The pain in his most unholy region already evaporated (though, I don't think he'd like to go through that again). His posture was relaxed as he retrieved from his pocket a cigarette.
"Anyone got a lighter?" His effort of trying to keep his cigarette in his mouth killed the sexy tone in his British voice.
Oogie looked him up and down through slit eyes, "And who might you be?"
The man in the duster turned in surprise to Oogie; he'd never seen a talking fire before. He held the end of his cigarette in Oogie's flame, "William the Bloody," he removed the cigarette, replacing it in his mouth. After a few puffs, a cloud of smoke slide out from his lips, "But most people call me Spike."
"Do you have any experience in evil?" Barrel asked. Oogie shot him a warning look.
"Cute kid," Spike replied, "Let's see…hmmm…I killed two vampire slayers, as many humans as I could sink my teeth into, and any other creatures who try to get in my way. Now, would that qualify?"
Oogie was about to ask something else, but Spike cut him off, "Stop, I'm the one asking questions now. #1: What am I qualifying for? #2: Why am I here? And #3: How are you gonna make me behave?"
Oogie replied, "I want to see if you're good enough to work for me, you're here to serve me in any way I can think of, and if you don't, I'll send you right back where you came from."
Spike started gagging on his cigarette, "What! Send me back where I came from! Back to that lonely, crazy little mind! She's psycho! She's fucking loony!" Spike's tone was nervous as he yelled at no one in particular.
Oogie had him right where he wanted him, afraid, "Well then, I think we can strike up some kind of compromise—"
"Wait," Shadow raised a silencing hand to Oogie again (she was well aware of the danger in doing that). The feminine, perfect nose of Shadow sniffed the air. In a single bound, she leapt into the darkness of the cavern roof. There was a short moment of silence that passed awkwardly long for the five clueless creatures.
"What in the blazes is she doing?" Spike remarked bluntly.
Oogie made a motion in his flames that resembled a shrug.
Piercing the air, a muffled scream killed the silence. Sally's echo could be heard throughout the room. From a near by tunnel, Shadow soared above them all, with Sally kicking and screaming in her hands. The seams holding Sally together at the shoulders were beginning to split where she was currently being griped. They flew around in circles and in all odd shapes; no skin off Shadow's bones, but nauseating for Sally.
It was only a matter of time before Shadow got bored, "You have an impressive will, kid. Now let's see if you can land on your feet."
Sally's release left her breath-less; she fell in a rush of silent fear. It had been too long since Sally last felt the rush of falling from a suicide height. And even worse than landing on unforgiving ground, she crashed into vindictive Spike. There was a moment of haze between the two as Sally lay directly on top of the vampire.
When their minds came back into focus, Spike sneered up at Sally, "Hey there cutie. I like it better on top."
Sally slapped Spike hard enough to make his neck twist. When he turned his head back to her, his face became distorted with demonic features. His brow and cheek bones bulged from his face, his eyes were sinister, and his mouth was wide open to sink his razor teeth into Sally's neck. He thrust his head forward for a bite, but he just missed Sally as she rolled off of him. Both stumbled to their feet and assumed an attack position.
"Well, well, well," Spike said looking Sally up and down, "You don't look one bit human—"
He lunged for her. The delicate little rag doll dodged the attack by twirling to the side. Spike stopped and turned back to her, "Then that nasty little chip in my head shouldn't apply to you—"
He lashed out at Sally, once again missing, "The chip that won't allow me to harm humans."
Spike ran up to Sally and did a round house kick in the air. She ducked it, and then grabbed his closest leg, yanking it toward her. Spike came spilling down.
"Bugger," Spike moaned, "You're fast."
Sally's face was mistakenly too close to Spike's feet. He released a kick with his right leg, sending Sally flying backwards. He checked his head to see if it was throbbing.
"No pain," another sneer, "All game. You're definitely not human. Prepare to die—Ouf!"
Sally had leaped on Spike. She landed with her right knee digging into his abs, and her wooden stake driven into his left breast. Spike looked at the chair leg inserted into him with a heavy jaw, round eyes, and his old human face. Slowly, he brought a quivering hand to the splintered stick, but he just couldn't touch it. Sally watched in regret as Spike looked into her with big, puppy dog eyes.
"I'm…I'm sorry" A lump formed in Sally's throat. She had experienced her first kill.
"And I'm sorry," Spike whispered, "that…that you…missed!"
Spike's face became demonic again as he pulled Sally by her forearm into him. With her neck in range, lethal fangs were swiftly cut into her skin. Sally gasped as her body began to ache from the pain. But only after a moment of contact, a searing jolt rose in her neck as Spike pulled away without unclenching his bite. A clump of flesh was pulled away with Spike, which he immediately spat out.
Sally stumbled away from Spike as he pushed her off him. She held pressure over her neck wound. Quickly, Spike sat up and brushed his tongue rapidly with the palm of his hand. He glared at Sally, revolted.
"What's wrong with you?" Spike yelled, "Even monsters have some kind of taste, maybe even blood! But you—you taste like…" Spike reached into his mouth, and then pulled something small out. He stared at it with boggled eyes, "LEAVES! You're filled with leaves!"
Sally reacted by removing her hand from the gouge in her neck. Where Spike expected to see blood pour our, instead spilled leaves; dry, brown leaves.
"Bloody Hell!" Spike spat, "You're disgusting!"
Crack. Sally's heart broke. No one had ever called her disgusting before.
"You…you think I'm…disgusting?" The dreaded lump had formed in Sally's throat again. A seam in her left shoulder began to weaken.
"Vial!"
"No," Sally muttered. Her weakened shoulder seam had lost even more strength,
"You're lying."
"Come on," Shadow demanded. The demon grabbed Sally by the forearm and began dragging her off to her cold, dark cell. Sally didn't resist; she already felt beaten by words.
Oh, Shadow thought, A weakness.
"Move it faster…ugly," Shadow whispered in her ear. A thread in one of Sally's fingers snapped.