Hahahaha Sorry guys. Torment is my specialty. I'll try to tell you what's wrong in this chapter. But your probably going to have to wait till the end of the story to figure out how it's going to be fixed.

Chapter Six

The Things That Were Taken

Lock was angrily gathering up several dangerous objects, while occasionally casting an annoyed look at a battered mirror, which was one of the many new decorations Murdock had placed inside of their playroom. It wasn't the mirror itself that was causing him so much aggravation, but what it was reflecting back at him. Murdock had decided that because they were now his new henchmen, that they should wear what he preferred, and therefore had made Lock and Barrel give up their costumes, which they had both done grudgingly (Considering they had been wearing them since their dying day.) and put up their masks so that their wardrobe could consist of only the color purple and black.

Lock wasn't fond of the color purple. He assumed that had Shock been there, the wardrobe wouldn't have bothered her too much, it was what she wore anyway. But he was nearly going out of his mind serving their new master and it hadn't yet been a full day. For once, Lock found himself sincerely hoping that Jack would show up soon and put an end to their new masters ludicrous and demented mischief.

Lock took another look at the mirror and lost himself for a moment as he threw a particularly horrendous looking mace at it out of anger. It hit the glass and fell motionless towards the ground. A large crack had formed at the place it had hit. Lock watched in fascination as the crack spread and then erupted into a shower of fragmented glass. His eyes widened. Murdock was not going to like this. A voice behind him made him jump.

"What did you idiots do to this place?" Lock spun around, a look of horror planted on his face.

Shock was standing in the doorway of the Evil Playroom with a strange look on her face. He relaxed when he saw her.

"Where have you been?" He said. He dropped a sharp object that had been clutched in his left hand and approached her. Shock gave him an up and down look and then rose her brow.

"Interesting look for you." She said sarcastically.

"Shut up. While you were gone traipsing around with Jack we were here being invaded by some freakish nut case who's got an attitude that makes Oogie Boogie look mild tempered."

"Murdock." Shock said. Her eyes swept across the room at all of the changes Murdock had made since just the previous afternoon.

"You know about him? Well who in the heck does he think he is?" Lock asked desperately.

"Where's Barrel?" Shock asked, ignoring Locks pleading question, much to his annoyance.

"How am I suppose to know? He's had us doing so many jobs since yesterday I can't keep track of where anybody is!" Lock yelled angrily.

"Well, do you know where Murdock is?" A serious look crossed her face.

"Not right now. I think he's down in the torture chamber…probably re- decorating!" Lock cast a dark look towards the decorations in the room as he said this.

"Great. Then I'll be going." Locks eyes widened as Shock grabbed a few of the weapons and started to head back out the way she came in.

"Hey wait, you can't just leave us here!"

"Your big boys. Take care of yourselves!" She said.

Lock followed her out the door.

"Shock, wait! This isn't fair!" He said angrily as they reached the bottom of the branch that the playroom was propped up on. She spun around.

"Fair? Since when are we fair? I'm getting out while I still can!" She yanked open the door to the cage they used as an elevator and stepped inside. Lock stopped in front of it and gave her a dirty look.

"But what about us?" He said, there was a hurt sound in his voice.

"Oh, don't go getting all helpless and babyish on me! You two can handle your own problems! We have tons of practice at being seditious."

"But this guy is even worse then Oogie Boogie! I mean…I'm starting to think he could even be worse then Jack!"

"Please. I know this guy. He couldn't put up a fight with Jack if he tore both of his arms off first!" She said, while closing the cage door with a bang.

"Well you must be remembering the wrong guy!" Lock grabbed the bars on the cage to keep it from going down.

"Let go, you idiot!"

"Make me!" Shock picked up a large club she had taken from the Play room and swung it at his fingers. Lock yelled in pain and yanked his hands away from the cage when it connected. He took a few steps back and watched in desperate frustration as the cage gave a lurch and went down.

"Shock!" He ran to the ledge and looked down.

"WENCH!" He yelled loudly. His voice then dropped.

"Come back."

Jack was sitting in front of a large window looking over the scenery Sally herself had looked over many times in the first years of her life. He had only been in her room once before and for only a second, but of all of the places in the doctors house her room was the most comfortable to him. This was mostly because it reminded him of her. He sighed.

Things weren't going well. His bones were shuddering, he was becoming more and more clumsy at making his limbs do what he wanted them to, and a strange sense of doubt and misery was beginning to wash over him. The concoction the doctor had mixed up helped a little, but he was given strict orders from the doctor himself to only use it when he needed it, there was only so much of the stuff and he could not go wasting it all at once.

Jack ran his bony fingers over the glass of Sally's old window and wondered briefly if she had awakened yet and what she would think when she saw he was gone. He hated to worry her, but he could hardly bare being seen like he was now, especially by her and staying in his house was dangerous in his condition.

He wasn't any sort of match for Murdock anymore. The only advantage he still had over the maniac was his ability to think logically, and he understood that as the days grew shorter for him and as the potion wore off he wouldn't be able to do even that for too much longer. His only hope was to think up some sort of plan before then. But Jack was finding this increasingly difficult as a great many other things worked their way into his mind.

Jack pulled a small watch from his pocket that was colored a particularly inky shade of black and which reflected the image of an arachnid and looked at the time. In thin spidery letters the clock read back to him; Your time is almost up.

He frowned and let out a quick growl of frustration as he pulled the tiny instrument off of it's spider web chain and tossed it unceremoniously into the corner. He then went to Sally's bed and lowered himself onto it, while cradling his skull in his skeleton hands.

"Things do not look well." He said quietly to himself.

In her sleep, Sally heard a faint whining. As her dreams faded, and the whining grew louder, she became aware of what it was. She opened her eyes and sat up, looking in the direction of Zero's bed. She saw that he was instead, in front of the window.

"Zero?" She said softly. She noted that Jack wasn't in bed and felt a faint bout of unsettlement as it registered with her. It wasn't uncommon for Jack to be up before her. In fact, he almost always was, but with the way things had been going, she knew she would feel much better when she confirmed that he was still there…somewhere inside the house.

Zero let out another whine. Sally stood and went to the window, peering out of it unnervingly.

"What is it?" She asked the dog, who cast her a brief look before darting through the floor. Sally bit her lip and began to change out of her night clothes. Then, as quickly as she could, she opened the trap door and hurried down the stairs.

"Jack?" She said loudly as she did. "Jack."

She called his name while she searched the house briefly. When it became obvious to her that he was not there she lowered herself into one of the wooden dining chairs.

"It's alright. He's almost never home." She said to herself. Beside her, Zero floated up and barked loudly. Sally ignored him.

For a moment she just sat there in silence. She didn't move until she heard the low sound of music playing from outside the house.

"That's it!" She said as she stood. She went to the door, Zero close at her heels and flung it open. At the bottom of the stairs, behind the gate, the band played as they did every day in front of Jack's house.

Sally approached them slowly.

"Excuse me." She said quietly.

The base player stopped first and blinked at her in surprise. The others followed after.

"Yes Miss Sally?" The large base player asked, while half turning towards her.

"Have you seen Jack?" She asked nervously. The band members shared a look with each other. Finally, the trombone player spoke up.

"We saw him this morning, but we don't know where he went?"

"He hasn't been back since." One of the others added.

"What time did he leave?" Sally asked fearfully.

"Around four, I think." The base player said. Sally nodded sadly.

"Alright." She said.

She started back towards the house, then, on second thought, began heading towards town. She thought a walk might calm her nerves.

"We'll tell you if we see him." One of the band members shouted after her. Sally didn't answer.

Barrel walked into the Evil Playroom, clad in a similar outfit to the that of Locks and gave the older boy a depressed look.

"That guys crazy." He said while tossing a bit of rope into the corner absently.

"He just had me gather up all of the rope and thread in Oogie's manner and burn it. Then he said he had something important to take care of and that if we saw Shock while he was out, we should keep her in one place until he gets back."

Barrel sat down against the wall and sighed. He looked at Lock and raised his brow.

Lock was sitting in the opposite corner. He didn't say anything to Barrel when he came in and still wasn't talking, which was bit odd for him. Barrel eyed the broken mirror in curiosity.

"What's with you?" He asked after a moment. Lock glared at him. Barrel recoiled a little.

The older boy was running a piece of the mirror through his fingers. Then, as though the tiny piece of glass angered him, he flung it violently towards the wall that Barrel was sitting against. Barrel's eyes widened and he quickly ducked out of the way from the jagged shard. Lock jumped up angrily.

"Barrel, you ask the dumbest questions! We're being ordered around by some psycho, we're wearing purple, and Shock just ran off and left me here with you! What the heck do you THINK is with me?" He grabbed something else heavy and threw it at the younger boy who managed to get out of the way before it came in painful contact with his head.

Barrel stood up and backed away from Lock who was standing in the corner and looking at him like the whole incident had been his fault.

"When did Shock come back?" Barrel asked, desperate to get the question in, but still trying to avoid Lock in case he decided to fling something else dangerous in his direction.

"Earlier. She split right afterwards, the WITCH!" Lock kicked at something near bye. Barrel relaxed a little.

"Well it's good she's gone." He said after Lock finally started to calm down. Lock raised his brow.

"How is any of this good? This guy is nuts! You've seen him. I don't want to have to spend two more seconds under the orders of this…this…" His words died in his throat. Barrel watched as Locks expression turned to horrified misery. His eyes were set on a place right above the younger boys shoulder. Barrel spun around quickly.

There was nothing there.

He turned back around and stared at Lock in confused terror.

"Lock…what's wrong with you?" Barrel asked.

The older boys face relaxed as he backed up and sat down in an old chair that was tilting slightly backwards because one of the legs had been sawed off (A thing that had happened in the midst of one of the three children's regular disputes.) The boy stared at one of the shadows on the wall and rubbed at his eyes absently. He shook his head.

"I could have sworn he was just here. This guy is freaking me out. I'd rather be locked in a room with Jack and Oogie Boogie after I've made them both angry then be anywhere near this guy."

"That's why it's good Shock's not here." Barrel was whispering, as though afraid he might be heard. "That nutcase was talking to me earlier. Well, sort of. I think he was talking mostly to himself…but he said that he needed to get rid of all of the people who followed this law…or something. He said that if Shock came back, he would kill her." Lock was shaking his head.

"He's crazy. He can't kill Shock. She's already dead."

"He said there was a way. Because of the way she died the first time." Lock stared at Barrel with wide eyes.

"That's stupid. No one can do that…can they?"

"As a matter of fact. They can." Both boys looked towards the sound of the voice.

Murdock was leaning casually on the doorway. Neither of the boys had heard him approach.

"You know, I really ought to teach you boys a lesson about talking about people behind their backs. Calling people crazy isn't nice you know." His grinned stretched across his lips. "Naughty boys ought be punished." Lock swallowed hard.

"You are nuts…if you think you can get away with anything under Jacks watch." The boy said, while backing away from the dark man, who was approaching him slowly. Barrel had hurried to the other side of the room as well.

"Yeah…we've tried hundreds of times…it isn't possible." Barrel added. Murdock stopped, a comical expression covering his face.

He roared laughter. For a moment, both boys were overcome with an eerie chill, which ran down both their spines. He sounded a lot like Jack when he laughed…almost shockingly so. The only difference, was his laughter was not sane or good at all.

"Jack! You think that bone head is going to stop me. I'm way ahead of you. I've already gotten him out of the picture!"

Both boys gaped at him.

"Liar! There's no way…"

"Silence!" He grabbed Lock by his shirt and flung him into the broken glass that rested beneath the mirror.

"I don't lie. That idiot is working on turning into dust somewhere."

Lock sat up and shook some glass from his hair. He stared at Murdock in horrified confusion.

"But…how…how could you have gotten rid of him…how can you kill someone who…"

"Whose already dead? Oh you can't. I didn't kill Jack. I just simply, took his life away." The room was silent for a moment.

"Okay…" Barrel said slowly. Murdock rounded on him. A horrible grin had swallowed his face.

"You see, it's like this. Everything Jack Skellington was, the things that he has achieved over the years, the power that I never dreamed that skinny bony idiot could attain…is mine now. I took away his life force. I took away his talent. And next…I plan to take away his THRONE. Do you get it now?" His face was inches away from Barrels.

"Not really…" The boy said slowly. Murdock backed away a little.

"It's easy. I have Jacks power. He has nothing. Therefore, he can't save you…or this town, and there is no one who can stop me." Barrels eyes widened. Behind Murdock, Locks were doing the same.

"Now…since we are about to embark upon a long and…interesting relationship I believe it is time you boys discover what it is like to be punished by me for doing wrong."

Both boy watched in dread as the mans smile widened almost unfeasibly.

There we go. That's what's wrong with Jack. I decided to update on this story again to let you know what's going on before going to another one. I'm probably going to go to Special Keys For Special Doors next. Thank you for your reviews!