Author's note: I'm SO sorry! I know it's been forever, but school's been weighing me down with band and homework and tests and EVERYTHING! Plus, my computer is on the fritz AGAIN. So here is chapter eleven, and I promise that it won't take this long to update again!

Disclaimer: Not mine, Disney's, blah blah blah.

Jack paused on the bridge over a gap. Sally knelt down beside him, and they heard Tera go, "You're sick."

"She's down there," Sally whispered.

Jack grabbed on to the pole beside the bridge, sliding down into the crevice. Zero flew down beside him, a low growl emitting from his throat. Jack hushed him and paused outside the small, barred window, putting the bony fingers of one hand around a bar and leaning in close. Tera was on a roulette table, her hands tied behind her, and Oogie Boogie was towering over her, a smirk on his burlap face.

"Jack'll save me," she was saying. "And then he'll get you, and you'll never cook anyone again!"

Oogie proceeded to mock her. Jack glanced up at Sally, and then very carefully spread the bars to slip his bone-thin body through them. Zero followed, an almost indistinguishable growl in his throat. He heard a shriek and looked down to see Tera over Oogie's shoulder, struggling, and then being dumped on a table right next to the stewpot.

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Tera looked up when Oogie turned his back. Jack was crouched in the shadows at the top of the cave, illuminated by the eerie orange light of Zero's nose. She let out a relieved breath and a small smile. When he saw she had caught sight of him he held a bony finger to his mouth, and she nodded. She needed to buy time.

"Why did you want me?" she demanded to Oogie Boogie. "Why did you want a mortal so bad?"

"Let's jus' say, for some foreign taste," he said, watching the three blades stir the stew. "Everyone around here tastes the same, and I'm sick of it." He turned to look at her. "And then I thought, a mortal would do rather nicely! I can't remember what a mortal tastes like, it's been so long!" He sauntered up to the table she was on, looking her over with narrowed eyes. "Not like there's much meat on you."

If her hands were free he would have got the one-finger salute just then. She glared at him.

"So I sent my idiot minions to fetch you," he said, "Since it seemed you needed a little help finding the place. But then Jack found you instead. Mr. High and Mighty, the King of Halloweentown. Ha!" Another bug flew out of his mouth.

"But then I realized," he said, leaning in with a wicked grin, "That it jus' might work."

"What might work?" she asked, dreading the answer.

"If you disappeared, Jack'd come lookin' for you," he said. "And if, in your disappearance, you showed up here…well, let's just say, that loyal skeleton man would come straight here. And that works for me! 'Cause I want that crown o' his! And, when he gets here, I'll have a Jack-and-mortal stew!"

She stared at him in horror. He laughed and turned around, and she looked up to Jack, still crouching in the shadows, his face also horrified, but determined. She shook her head to him, but he slowly started to climb down a pipe against the wall.

"You're sick," she gasped again. He peered into the stew and let out a long squeal of happiness.

"It's ready!" he cackled.

With a chortle, he pulled the dice out of the air and began to shake them. Leaning over her, he said, "You ready to play?" As if this was the greatest joke ever, he let out a bark-like laugh. Really, she didn't see how it was funny.

Leaning back, he shook the dice in one burlap hand, then tossed them. They bounced off her arm and landed on the table.

"Eight!" he said, his voice coming out in a high squeal. He grabbed a hold of a lever, and even as she gasped, began to pull it back. With each crank the head of the table tilted higher and higher.

"One…two…three…four…five... six seven eight!" he cried. She cried out as she began to slowly slide down the table, her injured wrist dragging against the wood. She desperately dug her heels in, trying to push herself back up.

Jack, she thought, where are you?

she thought,

Even as the dice hit a skeleton on the second roll, she saw his skull glowing gently as he crouched low and edged towards the table while Oogie's back was turned. He smiled at her, and she smiled back, but then she let out a shriek as the lever was pulled back…

"One…two…three…four…" Oogie grinned maliciously at her. "Bye!" With one last large crank, she found herself falling towards the bubbling stew.

And then a long, bony arm wrapped around her, lifting her off the table. She grinned up at Jack. He set her down and Zero flew over and started chewing at the ropes even as Oogie's bellow of rage shook the cave.