Chapter Five:
Something Is Not Right
Sally was sitting in the corner of the doctors kitchen, waiting patiently for Jack and Dr. Finkelstien to return from the laboratory.
She kept switching between fiddling with her fingers and running her hands through her hair to keep herself calm. Jack hadn't said much to her about what Murdock had done to him. All he had said was that it could be serious and that he wouldn't be sure exactly what it would do until it happened. To her own shame, she doubted his honesty.
She was worried about him. He wasn't acting like himself at all. She couldn't quite put her finger on exactly what was so different about him. He seemed…less confident. He had also begun to look quite worried. The whole incident appeared to have left him a bit shaken.
Sally looked nervously towards the door to the lab. She bit her lip. She was trying to be patient, but it was very hard when one was worried about someone they cared about. She was about to get up and check on them when the doctor and Jack came through the door and walked into the room. Jack offered her a small smile, which she returned hastily. They shared a look of equal concern.
Sally stood up and laced her fingers together.
"Thank you Doctor." Jack was saying as they approached her. He had a mournful look on his face as he said it. The doctor nodded, also looking slightly grim
"Come see me again tomorrow. I'm not sure how long it will last. Come as soon as you begin to feel that something isn't right." The doctor said. He cast a brief look at Sally before turning away and heading back towards his lab.
Sally approached Jack and touched his arm. He turned towards her.
"What did he do?" She asked softly.
"He just made up a sort of a remedy." Jack hastily changed the subject. "Let's go home." He headed for the front door.
Sally watched his back nervously. As she did she began to feel a foreboding sense of insight. She had had visions before, and this was not entirely different from those. Standing there, in the darkness of the doctors kitchen she was suddenly sure that something dark and horrible was going to happen in Halloween Town. Something Jack could easily handle on his own…but Jack wouldn't be there, not this time, and without him…they were doomed. After all, she had seen what the people of Halloween Town acted like every day. The way they had acted towards her, the way they acted when they couldn't find Jack even for a few minutes, or when they couldn't keep his attention for the entire time while they were making a big deal out of tiny things. If this small intuitive of hers was correct, they were all in hopeless danger…but more importantly…Jack was in danger.
She followed him out the door. She was close to tears.
As they reached the gate Jack reached inside his coat and pulled out a coin, as he often did when he passed the band. Tonight the song they were playing sounded tragic to Sally. (Although, she supposed it almost always did.) Jack flipped the coin towards the trombone player. It flickered in the light briefly before…hitting the edge of the twisted instrument and falling bitterly towards the ground. Jacks stopped walking and stared at it for a moment, looking surprised. The look would have been comical if it wasn't so terrible.
"It's alright. I've got it." The trombone player said in his nasally voice as he dipped to the ground and picked up Jacks coin. When he rose, Sally saw that he was trying to look pleasant, but a strange look had crossed over his face. The look had spread throughout the rest of the band as well. It looked a bit like confusion, except perhaps, more dreadful then that. After all, everything was suppose to work for Jack, absolutely everything. Jack seemed to dismiss it as he headed through the gate.
Sally followed, as she mounted the steps she heard the band say something behind her, that caused a chill to travel down her spine.
"He's never missed before." One of them said softly.
She closed the front door behind her and began the slow ascension to Jack's tower. Before she got very far she saw Jack sitting in his kitchen.
"Jack." She called to him softly.
"Go on." He answered. He sounded preoccupied. "I'll be up soon." Sally paused, for a moment, just staring at his thin form, before she continued up the stairs.
It had gotten dark in Halloween Town. The large moon, which was always full hung above the town ominously. It seemed to foretell of future hindrances.
Shock hardly noticed or cared about this. She was in a bad mood. Usually, her, Lock, and Barrel lived on spontaneity. They took chances and just did things. Thinking, although playing some part in their plans (Usually only in her part.) was not used in a sense of thinking of consequences or dangers. Still, here she was, very much wanting to go back to Oogie's manor, but not doing it because she had a funny feeling about it.
She frowned and kicked at a small creature that had scurried beneath her foot.
She remembered Murdock. He was an idiot. Although she could hardly remember everything from that time; Jack, for instance, she could recall the man that drove her boss crazy. And if he was anything like he was then, she didn't think Jack should have too many problems with him. Still, something wasn't right. She looked up at the fence, scanning it briefly, till she came to the place where there were still pumpkins hanging.
Before she had left she had reminded Lock and Barrel to sneak up and take the rest of them. They could have just forgotten. She didn't think either of them were very bright, still, the whole situation made her uncomfortable.
Murdock used to hang around the tree house a lot. He had done it just to annoy Oogie Boogie, because he had built the place outside of town and had gone to great pains to get the agitating Pumpkin King off his back. Needless to say, it hadn't worked, but that wasn't the point.
Wouldn't it have made sense for Murdock to first handle Jack and then Oogie Boogie. After all, he was the only one in town aside from Jack who could have put up a fight with Murdock at all. Shock thought it did. She thought that he had perhaps gone straight to the tree house after confronting Jack and after finding that Oogie was no more, perhaps he had just stayed there. If that was the case, she couldn't go back.
On the other hand, Murdock had never really been all that bright either. Not to mention, he had always feared Oogie Boogie, whether he was to admit it or not. Maybe he would have put off a confrontation like that.
Shock sighed. For a moment she stared at the gathering shadows and the strange shapes the moonlight made on the twisted looking buildings.
After a few long moments she made her decision. She would go back, but only for a bit and at the first sign of something strange, she would head back to town. If Murdock wasn't there now, he would be eventually. She would go back just long enough to say something to Lock and Barrel and to grab a few things she may need, then, she thought, much to her dismay, that she would have to go to Jack. She stood up and headed slowly towards Oogie Boogie's manor.
Sally was sitting in dusty chair which sat in front of the window. She was staring outside as the silvery moonlight poured into the lovely cathedral style windows, sending deep shadows running over everything. She was waiting for Jack to come through the door into the room. Her concentration on Halloween Town was abruptly interrupted when she heard Jack coming up the stairs. She sat upright and stared at the trap door in disbelief. She never heard Jack coming up the stairs, ever. She never even heard him when he was in the same room and was coming up behind her.
The door opened and Sally turned away quickly, as though knowing he was coming was something to be guilty about.
When he stepped into the room she turned towards him slowly. He closed the door and looked up, meeting her eyes. He looked deeply troubled. When there eyes met, Jack's face changed to that of surprise, and then concern. Sally didn't understand this until she became aware that she was crying.
Jack stood up to his full height and crossed the room silently. He outstretched one skeletal hand towards her, which she took gratefully and he lifted her out of the chair, and pulled her towards him. Sally buried her face in his ribs as he wrapped her in his long arms.
"I'm sorry, Sally." He said softly. Sally bit her lip and returned his embrace, aware that she was probably squeezing him a bit harder then usual. She had been upset for most of the day and hadn't been mindful of how much she needed to feel his embrace and hear him say that things would be alright. She would believe him, even if she knew better.
"I promise you that things will work out. You don't have to worry." he said. She swallowed and nodded against his chest.
The clock struck nine. Jack sighed.
"I should probably get to bed, I have to get up early tomorrow." Sally sighed against him. He sounded fairly normal again. His voice was full of it's regular confidence. This eased her nerves a little. She pulled away from him.
Jack smiled at her and wiped what remained of her tears from her face.
"Will you come to sleep with me." He said while running his bony fingers through her bright red locks. He was grinning. It made her happy to see this.
"Of course." She said in a small voice. She was smiling now too.
"Wonderful." He said softly. He took her tiny hand in his own and led her towards their bed. She was relieved to notice that his footsteps did not make a sound as he did.
She did not know that it caused him great effort to do this, a thing that usually would have come so naturally to him.
After they were changed into their night clothes and were under their sheets. Sally wrapped her arms around his thin form and felt him do the same.
"Goodnight Sally." He whispered to her as he kissed her forehead.
"Goodnight." She answered. She smiled lightly. For the first time since Jack had begun to act troubled she felt maybe her vision and predictions could have perhaps been wrong. She slept easily that night. Something she would need for many sleepless nights to come.
Jack did not.
He lay awake for a long time after Sally drifted off. He stared at the windows and the walls of his room. For the first time in his life it felt like the room was much too large. The shadows in the corners drifted in and out of his vision. They were shadows that could be hiding anything. It made him nervous. This was a feeling he did not like…something he was not used to.
As the moonlight drifted about his face it revealed his doubtful expression. He was glad Sally was not awake. He didn't feel at all like himself at all at the moment.
When Jack finally did drift off it was close to midnight. He would rise at Four o' clock the next morning and for the last time before things began to get really bad, he would be able to sneak out without Sally noticing. They wouldn't see each other after that for a very long time.
Hurray! It's been a while since I updated this story. I've had writers block for it for a while. Oh well, I think that's over now. I have a clear idea of what's going on and what's going to happen next. Hmm, things don't look too good though do they. I hope you enjoyed this chapter I will update again soon (On all my stories.)