Chapter Two:
The Underestimating of Old Acquaintances.
Sally hurried back through town as quickly as her rag doll legs would carry her. In her complete desperation to get to Jack the mirror completely slipped her mind, which, in the long run, hardly mattered anyway. When she finally neared the center she saw him standing by the mayor, they were talking about something that seamed of importance. For once, Sally was not embarrassed to intrude. She didn't even think about it.
"I'm sure we'll be able to get someone to come at least by the end of the week. In the mean time we should keep looking for anyone who may have broken in." Jack was saying to the mayor, who looked quite terrible despite Jack's words of reassurance.
"But what if whoever broke in is dangerous Jack? How are we going to hold them off for a whole week!" Jack was about to say something else when Sally burst into their conversation.
"Jack!" Jack turned from the mayor to look at Sally, the smile he had been about to give her faded from his face upon seeing her state.
"Sally, what's wrong?" He asked, turning entirely from the mayor who looked at both of them desperately.
"Something terrible Jack, I just saw it! I mean…" She was interrupted by the mayor.
"I thought she was suppose to bring the mirror Jack!" His voice was edging on irritation.
"Hold on…" Jack said quickly. "What happened Sally?" He asked her, his face filling with concern.
Sally was suddenly aware of her surroundings. She looked around her embarrassedly. The mayor was looking up at her, in what she assumed was a gaze of impatient annoyance. There were others peering at her with more obvious looks of distaste. She began to fiddle with her fingers. Jack was still waiting for her to tell him what had happened. A bit of a puzzled look had begun to fill his countenance. She edged a little nearer to him and said in a much quieter voice then she had been using a moment earlier.
"I had another vision Jack." His face cleared a little, and for one dreaded moment Sally thought he was just going to blow the whole thing off like he had several months before. Then, with a set look on his face he turned to the mayor.
"Me and Sally are going to fetch the mirror from my quarters. We will be back shortly. In the mean time, keep your eyes out for anything unusual." He gently took Sally's arm and headed towards their house. The mayor stared after them bewilderedly.
"I don't know why they both need to go!" he said angrily, below his breath.
Jack was silent for a while. It wasn't until they we're at the gate to their abode that he began to speak. He turned to Sally, putting his skeletal hands on her shoulders, and looked seriously into her eyes.
"What did you see?" Sally sighed, visibly relieved.
"Cards, Jack." She said simply. He raised his imaginary brow.
"Cards?" He asked softly.
"Yes, hundreds of them, where leaves used to be." Jack seamed to consider this for a moment. He did not at first hand, see any significance in the face of cards.
"Was there more?" He asked, hoping to inspire within his mind, some sort of implication as to what seeing a bunch of cards meant.
"Yes…" Sally said. "There was an odd image on all of them. That of a strange man…with a terrible smile." Something sparked at the back of Jacks mind. Jack grasped for it, but as he seamed to get his bony fingers around it, it flickered and died again. Sally was quiet for a moment, then she added something quickly.
"All of the cards had the word 'Joker' on them." There it was again, inspiration in the depths of Jack's skull. Now it was worse though. Jack now had the same feeling one might have when they have a word stuck at the tip of their tongue, or when they cannot remember someone's name, when that someone is standing right in front of them, and greeting them like an old friend.
An old friend…
Jacks face lit up…then, upon deeper contemplation, a deep shadow seamed to fall across it.
Sally watched this a little nervously. Jack turned away from her. He appeared to be examining the house.
"Jack, what's wrong?" She asked softly. Jack was quiet for a moment, then, in an indeterminate voice, he said something that gave her a chill, which crept up her spine like a great many of Halloween Towns darker and more horrible creatures had the tendency to do.
"Someone's in the tower." She followed his gaze up to the crooked tower that hung like many of the other structures in town, quite impossibly above the house. It was now silhouetted against the pumpkin sun. Although it was day, a ghostly light was just visible above the orange rays.
Beside her Jack began to move to the doorway. Sally followed him quietly. Jack didn't try to make her stay, which she was grateful for. He tugged at the key around his neck, pulling it easily from the string in which it hung.
Sally watched nervously as he opened the door and crossed the threshold. She followed behind him.
When they were inside he closed the door behind them. The room was very dim, even during the day.
"Come on." He said quietly as he began to ascend the stairs, then, on second thought he turned and looked at her seriously.
"But be careful!"
A feeling of dread began to grow in Sally as they got nearer to the trap door which opened up to the tower. Jack had his back to her, and therefore didn't notice. Sally tightened her lips and wondered if she should have said something to Jack about the card with his name on it. She thought that she would tell him as soon as the time permitted it, as it was, now did not seam like a very good time.
It was a pity she didn't tell him when she had the chance.
When Jack reached the door he looked at her.
"Perhaps you should stay here." He said quietly. Sally shook her head.
"I'm going with you Jack." She said, sounding quite certain. Jack nodded, but Sally noticed that he seamed uneasy. She also saw something else there. Something that looked like fear.
"Alright." He said half heartedly. He reached out and grabbed her hand before pushing open the trap door and walking up the few remaining stairs that took them into the small circular room that was Jack's tower.
Since they had been standing outside the lights had been turned off. The room was bathed in shadows. The pumpkin sun showed in through the large windows, and poured along the cold floor. Sally looked around. No one was there, as far as she could see. Everything looked in place. She turned to Jack to say this, but felt the words died in her throat when she saw his face. There was no mistake now, it was definitely fear she saw there.
She gave his hand a squeeze.
"Jack?" She asked quietly. He didn't respond, he just took a step further into the room and stared at a an empty place in the far corner. Sally followed his gaze but still couldn't find anything.
"Jack What are you…" Sally started, she was cut off as Jack spoke. He wasn't addressing her.
"You can stop hiding now. I know your there…I can see you shadow." Jack said to the nothingness. After a moment the floor rippled in the corner. Sally noticed the shadow now, not coming off of anything she could see, but still trying very hard to look like something that was not alive. To her horror it began to rise, turning into something of substance. The darkness scattered from flesh and cloth until a figure had taken the shadows place, literally. The shadow itself could not be seen. When he rose, Sally saw that he had none.
He was a tall man, taller then her, but probably still a bit shorter then Jack, and he was very thin. He wore a purple and black suit that had a double button down the Jacket. The whole thing was topped off with a gentleman's hat that was covered in webs. As he moved closer, stepping into the light, a spider lowered itself on the left side of his hat and began to crawl on his ear. Sally shuddered a little at the sight of him.
He took a few steps towards them. He was wearing the most terrible grin.
"Ahhh Jacky." He said quietly. "It's been a very long time." Sally looked at Jack. Most of his fear was gone now, replaced almost entirely by anger.
"Murdock, what are you doing here, you know very well you were banished years ago." Jack said, his hand fell from Sally's and he took another step towards Murdock. Sally had to keep herself from not letting go.
"Be careful Jack." She said quietly, but her words were lost as the other man spoke.
"Indeed I was, but I was just at a trial, and banished from the World of The Undead, and I thought that on my way to my place of exile I would drop in and see an old friend." His grin widened, which up to that point, Sally would have thought was a logical impossibility.
"You were banished again." Jack said. "It figures, how did you get here?" Jack said, his voice taking on that of frustration. Murdock took a few more steps toward them.
"Well Jacky, thanks to a mistake made by those idiots who run the place and an easy slip from a prison truck, I managed to get here and break down your 'unbreakable' gate." His face was full of amusement.
"I had to Jacky, when I saw who the Pumpkin King was, I just could not keep myself away. We always knew you'd be good, it was too bad we didn't prevent it when we had the chance." Jack laughed bitterly.
"Yeah right, when you two weren't fighting you were plotting at how to get back at each other, you couldn't have worked together if your only hope of survival was doing so." Murdock's lips thinned. Then after a moment it passed and he smiled again.
Sally wondered, momentarily, what they were talking about. She shrank back, part of her wanted to ask Jack about it quietly, but the sensible part of her, which definitely had the upper hand, kept her mouth shut.
"True Jack. I suppose we did hate each other more then we hated you." The other man was saying. "But still, an alliance of that sort would have been interesting." Jack was still smiling, he was also shaking his head a little.
"You were afraid of him." Jack said softly. Murdock's grin fell from his face, turning to that of anger.
"I was not! He was afraid of me! I was always the better one! That's why I was the king!" His words came out in a raised hiss, making him sound quite a bit like a large dangerous snake.
Although she did not understand much else of the conversation, she had picked up that part. That this man had once been the Pumpkin King, was very hard for her to believe.
Murdock seamed to calm down, regaining his composer. He sighed, and a business like look crossed his face.
"Do you know what I've been banished for this time Jack?" He asked casually. Jack didn't answer. He just stared at Murdock warily.
"I broke the law." He said happily. Jack gave him an odd look.
"What sort of law is that?" Jack asked. Murdock turned away from them, beginning to pace. As he did Sally saw something out of the corner of her eye. She looked at Jack quickly. He was motioning to their bed.
"Get the mirror." He mouthed to her. She nodded, wide eyed, before tip toeing in that direction, trying to remain unnoticed.
Murdock was speaking again.
"The law Jack. I broke the law of anarchic demise." He said softly. Jack had been watching Sally's progress, but as he heard Murdock his attention fell abruptly back on him.
"What?" Jack said, looking as though he must have heard what the man had said wrong. Murdock looked pleased.
"That's right," He said. "Impressed?" Jack was staring at him disbelief.
"That's impossible. How could you have? I mean…you follow that rule!" Jack said loudly.
"I did. But I've been making come improvements since I became The Grim Reapers assistant." Jack narrowed one eye.
"What idiot would have assigned you to that?" He asked. Murdock ignored him.
"You remember the law Jack? What am I saying, of course you do. Everyone who follows the law always remembers it. How many are there here? There's you, I know, and two…perhaps three others?" As he turned, Jack averted his eyes back to Sally, then quickly away again.
"Two." He answered. Murdock looked at him curiously.
"I could have sworn there were three others aside from us." He said. Jack smiled a little.
"Well now, there is only two." He said. Murdock narrowed his eyes.
"What do you…" He stopped suddenly. From behind him, he heard an audible creak. Jack swallowed. Murdock turned his head towards the sound, and grinned when his eyes fell on Sally.
"Sending girls to do you work for you, are you now Jack."
Sally Froze, as she realized she had been caught, and cursed herself for being so clumsy under her breath. Murdock and Jack both looked at her for a moment, Murdock with a nasty and pleasant grin on his face and Jack with that of worry.
Murdock's face darkened, becoming less apparent and featureless. A moment later he was gone completely. She looked at Jack. He was staring at her urgently.
"Sally, Run, quickly!" She took a quick step backwards but found it was too late. He rose from the floor in front of her and closed a thin wiry hand around her arm. She struggled against him, but only managed to lose her footing , falling to her knees and crying out softly. Murdock looked at her hungrily, tightening his fingers around her arm.
"And who might this be Jack? Quiet on, isn't she? Well, I'm sure we can remedy that." He gave her arm another tight squeeze.
"Now, girly tell me, what were you…"
That was as far as things went.
Suddenly Jack was beside her. She hadn't seen how he had gotten there, nor was she the only one. Murdock stared at him in surprise as Jack clamped a bony hand around his wrist, and angrily pushed it off of Sally's arm. His face was full of fury and as he pushed Murdock away from her he let out a bone chilling cry of rage. It frightened her a little, but that subsided as he gently pulled her to her feet and took her into his arms.
"Don't you ever…touch her…again." Jack said softly, his voice sounded dangerous
It took a moment before the look of shock on Murdock's face subsided. When it did, the look he gave Jack had changed, and his grin was for now, entirely gone.
"Well," he said softly. "The guard wasn't kidding, no wonder they are saying that you will be on the throne for a very long time. You have changed." Suddenly he looked tired. He began fumbling with something around his chest. As he did he leaned over and pulled Jack and Sally's bed up easily. It flipped over with a show of brute strength. Sally felt Jack's arms drop as he took a step forward.
There was a small trap door similar to the one that entered into the tower, except this one was much smaller…and it had a lock on it. Murdock ignored this, simply pulling it from it's hinges and throwing what looked like a fairly old piece of wood aside.
There were three things inside. One was a large rough bundle of cloth, which reminded Sally of something she decided was better not to pursue. The second was a large leather case, beautifully crafted and covered in both lovely and morbid images, and the third was a small hand mirror. Murdock lifted the latter from the hole, ignoring the other two objects completely. (Which had been a mistake on his part, but perhaps a small one compared to the object he did take from the doorway.) He smiled at Jack, holding the mirror so he could see it.
"Is this the thing she was trying to get Jack?" He stood. "I'm impressed with you, Jacky-boy. Very impressed. I was just going to imprison you and take over this town while you dangled in some small cage in the darkness, but now I see things are going to be a bit more difficult then that. Pity, but I guess it's true what they say about never underestimating someone, even someone you've known for a very long time. Do you know how powerful the two of us could be together, Jack? My skills and yours. We'd be unbeatable." Jack looked at Murdock, his eyes narrowing.
"I'm not interested." He said softly. Murdock grinned.
"Sorry to say this Jack, but that really isn't your choice." He fumbled for the thing around his neck, pulling it from under his Jacket and letting it lay on his thin chest. It was lovely…and terrible. A large amulet, covered in black crystals, all which shimmered like glittering eyes. The picture which was carved in the silvery surface looked like a symbol of some sort. Jack froze, staring at it like he had seen it before, but could not very well place where.
"Do you know what this is Jack?" Murdock asked. Jack was silent. "You don't remember? You've only seen it once. A long time ago, on the day of your birth. Not your actual birth of course…but the other one. The one at the end of your life. Do you remember?" Jack remained silent, still staring at the amulet. Murdock raised it in his hand.
"The Jack must stand aside now, to make room for the Joker. For the Jack, has no power in my deck any longer."
In the next instant a lot of things happened, all of which Sally watched as a helpless observer. The amulet in Murdock's hand came to life, the crystals opened up like watchful eyes, and from them a long silvery mist shot out. Jack took a hurried step backwards to avoid it, but could not. As it entered his chest it took on the image of a claw, which seamed to rip into him. A look of utter surprise flashed across Jack's face as he was flung backwards, losing his footing as he knocked into a chair. Then, as fast as it shot out, it was drawn back, dissolving as it reached Murdock again. Sally stared on in horror, momentarily unable to move. In the chair, Jack was still, giving him for a moment, the illusion of lifelessness. This faded as he stirred a little.
Murdock looked pleased, as he turned, giving Sally a huge triumphant grin.
"Enjoy him while he lasts. It shouldn't be long now." He looked casually down at the mirror before flinging it violently to the far wall, where it shattered loudly, spraying out fragments of glass.
"I'll be back in a couple days." Then, with that, he gave her a little wave and fell backwards, vanishing into the wooden floor. Sally stared at the spot where he had been, then, as she seamed to come back to herself, she hurried to Jack's side.
"Jack!" She said her voice full of fright. His fingers twitched, and he opened his eyes a little. When he saw her he gave her a small reassuring grin.
"I'm alright." He said weakly. She helped him sit up.
"What did he do to you?" She asked nervously. He shook his head.
"I'm not sure." He answered softly. "Anyway, that doesn't matter right now." He struggled to his feet, and stared sadly into the corner where the broken mirror now laid in pieces.
"This isn't good." He said, seaming to regain some of his strength, much to Sally's relief. He walked slowly over to the trap door under their bed and looked in, as thought expecting to find another mirror inside. Instead, he pulled out the large leather case and set it on a desk nearby. He began unfastening it.
"What are you doing?" Sally asked softly, as she approached him.
"Trying to find something that can tell me what I need to know. Listen Sally, I have a job for you." He abandoned the case for a moment as he turned to her, placing his hands on her shoulders.
"I need you to go to town and tell the mayor to gather up all of the residents, and tell them to meet me in the Town Hall. Then, when that's taken care of…" He paused and looked at her regretfully. "…I need you to go find the doctor and tell him to meet me by the fountain." A nervous look crossed Sally's face. She hadn't spoken to the doctor since she had jumped from her window, deciding, on that night, not to return to his house, except for one instance when she had borrowed some fog juice fro a loose floorboard in his wooden floor.
"But Jack…" She said softly.
"I know…" He interrupted her. "I'm sorry Sally, but I need to see him as quickly as possible. I would fetch him myself but I have other matters that I need to attend to. Just tell him that I requested his presence, that it's very important, tell him that…tell him that it is a concern of The Law." Jack turned, his voice lowering. "He'll know what you mean." Sally had begun fiddling with her fingers.
"What are you going to do?" She asked. Jack pulled the last catch on the case, it made a clicking noise as it popped open. Inside was a very old looking leather bound book. Aside from that there were a good many other things, but they did not look quite as important. When Jack spoke his voice had taken on a bitter quality.
"I have to go to the Tree House." He said, sounding very much as though he would rather not. He picked the book up and held it at his side carefully.
"When you get to the doctor's house, ask him to bring any sort of research he may have on the subject, and tell him to hurry." Jack crossed the room, and pulled the trap door that led to the descending stairway. Sally followed him. He had begun to go down the stairs, when she placed a hand on his shoulder. He stopped and turned to look at her, there was a look of sorrow on his face that scared her a little.
"Jack, what's going on?" She asked, determined to get an answer from him. He swallowed and pulled her gently towards him.
"I can't tell you right now, there isn't enough time, but I promise I will when I have the chance." He kissed her and left her side, starting back down the stairs. After a moment of hesitation she called after him again.
"Jack." He stopped. "What was the mirror for?" She asked nervously. Jack sighed.
"Are only way of contacting anywhere outside of town." He said in a low voice, before hurrying down the rest of the stairs and pulling open the front door. Sally watched as his form disappeared into the sunlight.
Alright, I give up. I've said twice now that I wasn't going to update this, and I keep doing it…so, I guess I'll just work on both stories at the same time…which in the long run may turn out to be a mistake…but, oh well, whatever. Well I hope you liked the chapter. Please Review.