To Senko: I'm glad you enjoy the story. By all means, hate Jeff…actually…I hate him too…I try to update as often as possible, but I have three other stories going on too so I'm sort of trying to go back and forth between all of them.
To all: Thank you very much for your reviews!
Chapter Fifteen:
An Invitation To Dinner
Gregory felt a dropping sensation in his stomach when he saw Violet was standing between him and the school. For Gregory, it was far too early in the morning for conflict. He thought briefly of taking a different way to the building…it would be longer, but from where he was standing, any other way would be safer as well. He was just about to do this when Violet caught his eye.
She had been leaning against a street sign with her arms crossed over her chest in obvious discomfort due to the events of the previous day. When she saw him she straightened and dropped her arms to her sides, then, to Gregory's absolute horror she started to walk in his direction. At this point, Gregory realized, it would be impossible to avoid her. He cursed lightly beneath his breath.
Gregory watched as she approached. He tried to look unruffled, but had a feeling he wasn't doing well. He expected to see some pleasure in her expression in response to his obvious distress, what he saw instead, when she stopped in front of him was weariness and a sort of foreboding that did not fit her demeanor.
"Hey Gregory." Violet said dully.
Gregory rose his brow and took a step back.
"Hi." He returned suspiciously.
Violet rolled her eyes.
"I'm not here to beat you up. I'm just here because of the things you said yesterday."
Gregory looked at her doubtfully for a moment.
"Okay…" He said slowly.
Violet removed a pack that had been hung over her shoulder, she talked in a low voice as she did. Gregory listened, but in a confused, wary sort of way. After a few moments, when he started to finally accept that she wasn't, in fact, there to make his life any more miserable he began to relax.
"I was in my dads den last night looking at this picture he had sitting on his desk for a really long time and I was thinking about how you said that you saw a guy who looked a lot like Viktor…and even if I still think that its impossible and I still don't believe you, I brought the picture just to make sure."
Violet pulled a framed Photograph from her back pack and held it out to Gregory who was looking at her in a very odd way. He looked down at the picture and took it without really knowing why he was doing so and then stared at it for a long moment without really seeing it. When his momentary lapse passed he scanned the picture, wondering, briefly, what he was looking for.
Gregory was a bit surprised when he realized that he could identify everyone in the picture in his hands…at least to some degree. He saw Viktor Skellington, Garetty Wayward, and Brutus Stiltz with no problem…although, Garetty and Viktor looked a bit older in the picture and Brutus looked a bit younger. Gregory's eyes fell on the young boy. He rose his eyebrows, suddenly overcome with strange excitement.
"That's him…I mean…he looks a lot younger…" Violet snatched the picture away from him. He looked up at her a little startled.
"Who is that?" He asked, already having some idea who it was and not sure whether or not he wanted an answer.
"It's Jack Skellington." She said, her eyes narrowing.
"Isn't he dead?"
"Officially…yes…he is, but the only proff anyone in town has of that is the word of the men who were searching for him. He isn't burried here like his father and Viktor."
"Well…" Gregory said slowly. "It's...not official then?"
Violet threw the picture back into her pack and zipped it up hurriedly. She said something heated beneath her breath. Gregory just barely caught it.
"I bet you didn't even go into Pumpkin House."
Gregory glared at her.
"Did too! Just because your too afraid to go doesn't mean that I didn't!" Violet stood up angrily.
"I'd watch it Garret! I can make your life a living hell!" Violet cracked her knuckles loudly.
"Well you wouldn't have to try very hard!" Gregory yelled back. Violet leaned over him with a very livid look on her face.
"If you think I can't do worse then what I have already, then your in for a very miserable awakening Gregory."
Gregory knew that it would be wise to stand down at that moment. He could then, perhaps, get to school in one piece. And that was exactly what he intended to do. It was for this reason that he was so surprised when he realized that he wasn't doing it.
"I doubt that you could do any worse then you already have, Wayward! (He added her last name as an after thought and cringed lightly due to the odd way it sounded on his lips before he continued.) I am so sick of this! I have been having the worst luck, but you know what would really improve my mood. If for once, just one time…I could see you, your brother, and all of your stupid photographs going over the side of your stupid bridge. Maybe if I get really lucky, I'll get to see how you react to losing everything you care about!" He started to walk away, only slowing to add something else to his line of speech. "If you and your brother care about anything at all!"
Violet watched him for a moment, a little taken aback. When she regained her composure, she wasn't sure if she was angry, or impressed. She settled for being a bit of both and hurried after him to stop him before he got too worked up.
Despite his quick pace, it didn't take her too long to catch up with him. She grabbed him by his collar and yanked him back. He obviously wasn't happy about this.
"Will you just leave me alone!" He yelled. She let go of his collar and he stumbled a bit before regaining his step. He straightened his shirt and gave her a dark look.
There must have been something in her face that cooled him off a bit, for when he looked at her his face evened out and he raised his eyebrow.
"What do you want?" He asked, while tossing a longing look towards the school… and safety.
"You said you've been in Pumpkin House…"
"Yeah…so?"
"So prove it. Take me there." Gregory looked at her in surprise.
"Your crazy! I got caught twice last time!"
"Yeah…" Violet said, as though this fact should be obvious. "You were with Justin King…of course you were caught! This time you'll be with me and if it's one thing me and Edward are good at, it's not getting caught at stuff." She said.
Gregory was watching her with wide eyes.
"Why should I do anything you say?"
"Because! You want to figure out what's going on, right?"
"Yeah?" He answered hesitantly.
"Well, so do I."
"Ok…"
"Ok…so come on." She turned and started in the direction of Pumpkin House.
"What…now!" Gregory said in disbelief.
"Yeah, now."
"But I have to go to school!" Gregory said in a startled manner. Violet rolled her eyes and grabbed him by his arm.
"Stop being such a dork and come on. Your skipping today."
Gregory found this news quite unsettling, but thought it was best not to push his luck any further by arguing with her. He only hoped his aunt wouldn't figure out that he skipped. That was the last thing he needed.
It was 9:15 A.M when Jack woke up. He did so groggily and with a fuzzy mind and for a few minutes he was unable to grasp what time it was as he stared at his alarm clock. When he finally woke up enough to read the tiny pumpkin shaped timepiece his eyes widened and he jumped out of bed hastily.
"Oh great!" He yelled loudly as he crossed the room to his dresser and threw open the first two drawers. On the floor, on a faded red cushion, Zero rose his groggy head and followed his master with his eyes.
"Wake up Zero, we're already two hours past the time I was hoping to leave this morning!" Jack nudged the dog with his bare toe as he quickly dressed. The first time he tried to button up the white blouse he had speedily thrown on, he missed two of the buttons and had to do it over. He cursed loudly when he did the same thing a second time.
Finally, when his blouse and dress pants were on, and after he located a dress coat (That he had apparently stuffed in one of his desk drawers when he was half asleep the night before.) He gathered up a stack of papers on the desks wooden surface and exited his room in a hurry. Zero followed close at his heel.
Jack threw the papers in a large portfolio that was sitting in the hall and spun around to face the large mirror that was hanging on the opposite side. He frowned, made an attempt to flatten his unruly black hair, and then quickly gave it up when he found it wasn't working. He peered a little closer to the mirror and tossed Zero a half smile.
"Well, at least the bags under my eyes have lessened a bit." He said quietly, as he bended down and picked up the portfolio.
"Come on Zero." The dog barked loudly in response and followed his master down the stairs. Jack did his regular leaving routine quickly and without much precision due to his impatience, only hoping that it would be well enough to keep the house in decent shape before he returned, which he planned to do before Halloween
He always made Pumpkin Towns Halloween celebration. A thing, which he was technically not suppose to do. For this reason he had to be especially careful when he drove back into town. He always exchanged his car, lending it to one of his friends for the holiday and in turn, taking theirs. He always took the back road into town and finally, he always made sure he had an absolutely unrecognizable costume, a thing, which given his line of work, was a very easy thing to do. His costume was the most important thing. For Halloween, was the only time he left Pumpkin House and actually joined in with the residents of Pumpkin Town in there celebration.
'Kingston that is.' He thought to himself and rolled his dark eyes.
He had to make sure on Halloween that certain people didn't recognize him.
As Jack started to head out of the house he spotted the small tool box laying on his counter. He frowned.
"Oh well. I'll just leave it in the back. Hopefully the child will come back and get it." He grabbed the box and headed out the back door. (He always took the back door, in case Brutus was on his front porch drinking his tea.) As he did, he locked it carefully and set the box gently on the small step.
The sunlight hit Jack as he stepped into his backyard and began around to the door that led to his garage.
"Let's hope Jeff has decided to sleep in this morning." He said casually, to no one in particular as he pulled some sunglasses from his coat pocket and slipped them on. It promised to be a nice October morning.
Luckily for Jack, although Jeff was not sleeping in, he was too absorbed in other matters to notice, for the first time in the last couple of weeks, that Jack's car was leaving town. At around the time that Jack had strolled out to his garage and Violet and Gregory had started towards Pumpkin House, Jeff had stepped up to the Garrets front door and had knocked, while putting on his most pleasant face.
Anne answered, and was very pleased to see Jeff standing at her door. She had been in a fairly good mood since that morning, when Apathy showed up on the front step after being missing for several days.
"Good morning Mr. King. And to what do I owe this pleasure?" She said, while cradling her cat in her arms. Jeff smiled broadly.
"Well, I'm afraid that with so much on my mind, due to this towns annual Halloween celebration, I completely neglected to show you my full hospitality."
"Nonsense. You've been wonderful." Anne said quickly. Jeff feigned modesty and chuckled lightly.
"Still, I would love it if you and your son…"
"Nephew."
"Sorry, nephew, would join me and my family for dinner this evening."
Anne looked very pleased with this offer.
"Oh yes! That would be wonderful! I have noticed that our boys have been getting along." Jeff's grin widened so much that it looked in danger of cracking.
"Indeed. So have I. I know my son would be glad to have Gregory over."
Anne smiled and nodded.
"Wonderful. Would you like to come in for coffee Mr. King?"
Jeff looked past her into her house. There was something strange brewing within his retina.
"That would be very nice. You should give me a tour while your at it. I'd love to see what you've done with the place. Not to mention, I need to be refurnishing my son's room. It would be nice to see what a fine boy like Gregory's done with his."
Anne smiled and let Jeff in. As the front door shut a large black car drove down the street. The only person who saw it go was Brutus Stiltz, who watched it, as he always did, in focused concentration.
There we go, another chapter down. I'm probably going to try to update in a Kingdom Hearts story next (Because it's been forever since I've done so." But I'll be back on my Nightmare Before Christmas stories soon and will have updates, as always, very shortly. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the chapter.
