Chapter Sixteen:

In The Pumpkin House Again

Gregory watched as the Pumpkin House rose into view as him and Violet reached the end of the street. Violet was a little ways ahead of him and he was finding it difficult to keep up with her. He wondered, dully, how far behind he would've been if she wasn't injured.

She started to walk off the road.

"Where are you going?" Gregory asked.

"Back way."

Gregory looked down the street they had been walking on. It appeared, to him, to be completely deserted. He tossed a bewildered look back at Violet.

"Um…isn't this street…always empty, even during the day?"

Violet rolled her eyes. Then, to his confusion, she ripped back one of his long sleeves.

"What are you…" She pulled back his right sleeve uncovering his watch. Then, in order to see the time she grabbed his arm and pulled his wrist to her eyes. Gregory yelled in protest, and then stumbled when she threw his arm away. He caught his balance and scowled at her.

"It's a little after 10:00." Violet said.

"You could have just asked me for the time you know!" Gregory said, annoyance edging into his voice. Violet ignored him.

"What does it being 10:00 have to do with anything anyway?" Gregory asked as he pulled his sleeves back down.

"Brutus is out on his porch every morning at 9:00. He drinks a cup of coffee, then two glasses of tea. At 10:00 he should be just starting on his second glass of iced tea."

Gregory watched her with a raised eyebrow. She caught his glance and frowned.

"What?" She questioned a little testily.

"Why do you know that?" He asked, while giving her a strange look.

"I told you. Me and Edward are experts. Come on." She started to walk again. Gregory followed, occasionally tossing uncertain looks at the looming shape of Pumpkin House, which seemed to grow larger and more ominous as they approached.

As they reached the fence Violet removed her pack and began searching in it. She pulled out a few small instruments, which she placed in the pockets of her jacket.

"Leave your backpack here." She said while kicking her pack off to one side. Gregory took his backpack off and tossed it up against the fence.

He watched as Violet proceeded to climb the enclosure, a thing she did with experience and great agility. Gregory stared at the fence and glared at her as she dropped to the other side.

"You know there's an opening about fifty feet down, don't you?" Violet grinned at him wickedly.

"I know, I just wanted to see how amusing it would be to watch you climb the fence." She said this as she pulled the instruments out of her pockets. His eyes narrowed.

"I hate you so much." He said bitterly. She snickered and turned away towards the house.

"Hurry up Greg." She said as she began to walk away.

Gregory sighed and attempted to climb the fence, he did so without near as much difficulty as he assumed he would, but was still very glad that she wasn't watching him.

When he got over he followed after her to the back porch. She had stopped there and was watching the back door with a kind of apprehension.

"What are you doing?" He asked as he walked up beside her. She seemed to mentally shake herself out of her trepidation and walked up towards the door. Gregory looked off to the side and spotted the red tool box sitting on the far side of the tiny porch. He walked towards it and picked it up. Violets gaze shifted towards his. A look of perplexity washed over her face when she saw the box.

"Hey, isn't that Edwards?" Gregory nodded and handed it to her.

"Why is it here?" She asked. She gave Gregory a suspicious look.

"Justin had it." Gregory returned nervously.

Violet took the tool box and for a moment, stared at Gregory with a sort of resentfulness. He grew a little uncomfortable under the weight of her gaze and was relieved when she opened the tool box and started to look inside.

"Holy crap, what did that scrawny dork do to these?" She said as she pulled out an obviously mangled looking tool.

"He tried to open the door with them." Gregory answered. Violet rolled her eyes. She pulled out of tool that still looked as though it were in its rightful shape and pulled it up to the screen door. Less then a minute later she slid it back and started to work on the lock to the inner door. The door clicked as it unlocked.

"So…" Violet said. "How long did it take him." She pulled the door open.

"A little over an hour…but I'm starting to think the door was already unlocked and we just didn't bother to check it."

"Probably." Violet said.

"How'd you get so good at it?" He asked, a little cautiously.

"How do you think? Edwards even better at it then I am…one of the few things he's genius at…well…the only thing he's genius at…that boy is so stupid." The last part she said under breath and mostly to herself.

Violet looked into the door and fell silent. The kitchen stretched out from the back door and was bathed in shadows. When she didn't seem to move for a while Gregory raised his brow.

"Uh…are you going in?" Violet tossed an annoyed look at him which turned back to a nervous gaze as she peered back into the house.

"Yeah. I was…just making sure that there was no one there." Gregory waited for a moment then proceeded to take matters into his own hands and walked into the kitchen himself. Violet simply watched him for a moment. He was really beginning to think that, like Justin, she would just stay on the back step. Instead, she followed after him, a little guardedly.

She closed the back door behind her and looked around the room.

The grandfather clock in the corner began playing the first two verses of a song, which marked off the half hour. Violet jumped at the sound and looked towards the clock as though she were angry at it for making her do so.

Gregory pretended to not have seen her, for his own well being and continued into the next room. She followed him, while tossing both curious and nervous looks about her.

"What are we looking for exactly?" Gregory asked. Violet jumped again when he spoke. This made him stare at her for a moment in bewilderment. She glared at him and then seemed oblivious to his gaze.

"I don't know...I guess you proved your point, ok? You've been in here before." She answered. She seemed to then be having some sort of inner conflict on whether or not suggesting to leave would be taken as an act of cowardice or not. Before she could make up her mind, Gregory spoke from a few feet away.

"Well," He said, matter of factly. "As long as we're here we should look for a picture or something. You know...to see if the guy really is Jack Skellington."

They entered into the living room. Gregory looked about it knowingly. Violet, who didn't want to sound like she was less brave then he was nodded gloomily.

"Alright. So where do we start?" She asked.

"Well…this and the basement are the only other two rooms I've been in."

"Well how about we stay away from the basement." Violet said. Her voice was shaking a little. Gregory turned and gave her a look of disbelief.

"This place really freaks you out, doesn't it?" He said. Violet's eyes narrowed and Gregory regretted his words immediately when she punched him painfully in the shoulder.

"Shut up Gregory." She said vehemently.

Gregory rubbed his shoulder and said a few choice words beneath his breath. He looked over towards the switch box by the basement door and walked towards it. Violet watched him curiously.

Gregory opened the box and looked at the many switches for a moment, trying to remember which one had turned the lights on in that room. He picked one at random and was satisfied when the over head lights blinked into existence. Violet looked around the room, a bit relieved.

"We should try upstairs." Gregory said. "I haven't been there yet.

Violet looked at the stairs and then nodded.

"You do that. I'll stay down here." She seemed to have regained her composure, and was now speaking once again, with her usual confidence.

Still, Gregory assumed she was staying downstairs to avoid being any closer to the room Hector Skellington died in. He didn't pursue this thought, however. Mostly because he was not stupid, and knew that saying anything further to her about her obvious apprehension would be a very foolish thing to do. (Not to mention, he was a little wary of going upstairs himself, for the same reason.)

"Alright." He said, finally, and started up the stairs.


Jeff had left the Garrets place in a lousy spirit. He had been in a rather good mood that morning, especially when he had easily been able to search the Garrets household (And Gregory's room.) for anything the boy might have found or had been hidden. He did this under the extremely loose eye of Anne, who had not questioned as to why he would be so interested in the contents of her abode.

He hadn't actually been expecting to find anything, but when he did come upon a photo of the towns illustrious previous owner, a photo that could not have possibly belonged to Gregory, his mood was dampened. He pocketed it, assuming that the boy would not think that it was he who did so and left the house in a fowl disposition.

He had been heading home, when he decided that before hand he should stop by the other end of town to make sure Jack had left by then. If he hadn't, he may end up having to have a talk with him about letting children get into his house and acquire certain belongings that children should not have in possession.

He was almost at the house, not paying attention at all to his surroundings when he was addressed by someone in a very falsely pleasant voice. He knew immediately who it was, and cursed himself for being so careless.

"Mr. King. Been taking interest in the Pumpkin House lately have you?" Brutus stood up from his rocking chair, half empty glass in hand. His salt and pepper hair was still quite messy and he was clad in his robe, which covered a worn out pair of slacks and an un tucked work shirt. In comparison to Brutus Stiltz, Jeff King looked quite silly. For the older man was a good head taller then him and had a lot more bulk. Not to mention, even in a bath robe, Brutus was the sort of man who gave off waves of confidence and power.

"Brutus…" Jeff said, while brandishing a sociable smile, which appeared frozen and wrong as it was lit with the crisp morning sunlight. "Your up early."

"It's 10:30 Mr. King. I could hardly call that early." Brutus' smile faded a little. "But I suppose it is a bit early to be walking across town. What sort of business could you possibly have over here?" Brutus leaned on his porch side and gave the smaller man an enquiring look.

"Well…I was just…coming to…talk to the man who owns lot 76…about…you know…the situation involving…my son…and…the Garret boy…" He cleared his throat and looked away from the older man in an awkward manner.

"I see. Well then, I'm afraid your out of luck. He just left this morning. Saw him myself, bout an hour ago." Brutus' grin widened. "Pity you had come all the way up here for nothing."

"Yes…well…" Jeff said, a little annoyed with the smugness he heard in the mans voice. "Actually…that's just fine…you see…" He seemed to think for a moment. "I think I should go up to the house anyway…you know…because the man…the man who owns it asked me to make sure that he remembered to turn everything off… and stuff…you know." Brutus watched him suspiciously as he walked slowly towards the house.

"I'll see you later Mr. Stiltz." He turned and walked at a more hurried pace towards the large domicile. Brutus watched him with narrow eyes. He gazed at the house and then back at the retreating form on Jeff, then, doing a double take, he gazed at the house again. One of the lights were on and in the window, he saw definite movement.

"Hmm. I haven't known ghosts to walk about during the day." He said to himself sarcastically. Then, after downing the rest of his tea and waiting for Jeff to disappear inside the gate he headed towards Pumpkin House in a hurried pace.

Violet and Edward were not the only ones who knew there was a back way into the house. Jack, for an instance knew that way quite well, for he had used it often as a child. Brutus was another man who knew it, and used it now, because he was quite aware of two things having to do with whoever the intruder was inside Pumpkin House. One, was that it could not possibly be any of the upstanding citizens in town, for they would not break into the house, mostly becausethey were far too scared of it to try. And two, if someone had come in from out of town, he would have easily seen them no matter which road they came down.

"Well let's see. Who in town would know enough to avoid me, use the back way, and break into Pumpkin House…I wonder. Of course I could be wrong…I wouldn't think EITHER of them would be that stupid." He said quietly to himself. He got about halfway down the fence and saw both packs sitting on the ground. He rolled his eyes.

"Wayward."

Brutus continued down the fence to the opening that the owner of Pumpkin house had never gotten around to fixing since it was mysteriously torn open. Any other day he may have chanced climbing the fence, he had, after all done activities like such several times in his younger years, due to his line of work, but today, he thought it was best to not risk pulling something, he was, after all, not as young as he used to be.

When he got into the back, he found, not to his surprise, that the back door was already unlocked.

Gregory heard the front door open first. He spun around, facing the stairs and then, not wasting time to see who had come in, ran into the nearest room on the top floor and closed the door. When he was safely behind it he waited and listened to see what would happen.

Downstairs, Violet did something of the same thing, but instead, got to a place where she could easily see the new intruder. To her horror, Jeff King walked in and gave the place a quick look around. He placed a curious key back into his pocket and addressed the silence.

"Hello, is anyone here?" The man called into the empty room. Violet snuck out from her hiding place and crept into a room where she would be better hidden. She closed the door quietly behind her and gazed at it in curiosity and distrust

"What the heck is he doing here?" She questioned softly.

I decided to update on this story at least one more time before moving onto my next. I may update again, but I really should try to write more on my KH story because it'll take me longer to write ( I have a bit less interest in it.)

To Senko: Don't worry, Jack will be back. And when he does return he'll play a larger role in the story, I just needed him gone for now.

I'm glad your enjoying the story, thank you for your reviews. I will update on all of my stories again shortly.