Chapter Twenty-Two
Dinner at the King's
Dawn sat bitterly on the couch, occasionally sipping at a fowl smelling liquid and trying to ignore the thunderous noise erupting around her.
A few feet away from her, Justin was screaming at the top of his lungs. This outbreak of rage was aimed towards his father, who was standing in the doorway with a very set expression on his face. Dawn looked away from the glass and cast her eyes towards Jeff, wondering how he could stand it to just situate himself in the doorway like some stone statue and let his son continue to act like some bitter four year old who cannot have their way.
Finally the man shifted. His look of assurance faded to that of anger. It contorted his features in a way that forced Dawn to turn back towards the window. She shivered.
"THAT IS ENOUGH!" The man yelled. Justin jumped, obviously taken aback by his father actions. "Shut up! I told you they are coming! You will live with it!"
"But dad he was the one who…"
"I don't care! Shut up and go to your room! Get ready for dinner. You WILL be on your best behavior tonight or you will spend the next two months sleeping in the basement!" He rubbed his thin hand across his balding scalp and turned to leave the room.
Dawn watched him go, biting her lip as she did. Justin looked at her in anger.
"You can't let him talk to me like that!" The boy said, while giving her a look that severely undermined her authority.
"You heard your father Justin…" She said, her voice sounding slightly inebriated. Justin glared at her and stomped out of the room.
"Demented little brat." She said softly. She swallowed and leaned against the wall. How did it ever get this bad? She was beginning to fear that she hated her husband and son. Her son? How? How could she hate her own son?
"Not my son…" She said softly. "His son…" Her eyes became expressionless for a moment. She gazed at a half empty glass, then, with a frightening expression printed across her face, she stood and went into the kitchen. She dumped the glass into the sink and started a pot of coffee. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the phone hanging on the wall.
Dawn touched her chest, vaguely aware that her heart was racing and her adrenaline had begun to speed up. Her stomach tied into knots.
'I can't.' She thought. 'I promised I wouldn't.' She cast her eyes away from the phone. Staring fixedly at the coffee pot as it filled with the sweet black liquid.
'Then again…" Her mind argued as the last of the coffee drizzled into the pot. 'Some promises are meant to be broken.' She bit her lip, and feeling as though she were in some sort of dream, reached out and picked up the receiver.
"Till death do us part darling." She said softly and let out a harsh laugh that was cold and humorless. The phone number jumped up to the front of her mind. If it had had a mental image to go along with it…it would have been covered in dust. She dialed the number and waited.
"Hello, Gloomy Studios, can I help you?" A busy voice answered. There was an array of sound in the background.
"Yes…can I speak to Jack Skellington, please?" She asked softly, nearly choking on the words.
"Uh…he is currently in a meeting. Can this wait?" The voice said on the other line.
"No…it's waited long enough." Dawn answered. She was unaware of the figure in the doorway behind her.
"Alright…I'll get him…Hold on one-" The line went dead. Dawn's lips parted in frustrated horror.
"Dawn…what are you doing?" His voice was set just above a whisper. Dawn turned and backed up against the wall as her husband approached her. A chord dangled from his fingers. Her eyes narrowed.
"I'm tired of this!" She screamed at him as he approached her slowly. "You can't keep doing this!" Her voice grew shriller the nearer he got. "I…I won't keep my mouth closed any longer." She said, her voice lowering to a whisper.
"We shall see about that." Jeff said. He threw the chord down onto the floor and grabbed her roughly by the jaw.
"You know what I'm capable of, Donna! You should have never gone into my study…but you did! And now you know! And you WILL keep your mouth shut!" He released her jaw and slapped her across the face.
Dawn starred at the floor in shock.
'So…' She thought to herself. 'We've become this sort of couple.'
Jeff turned on his heel and headed for the door. Dawn rubbed her cheek and rose to her full height. She stared at his back in growing hatred.
"No." She whispered after him. "I won't" He paused in the entryway and looked at her over his shoulder.
"Have you seen the lake lately, darling. It's beautiful at this time of year." His voice had a low and dangerous quality to it. He cleared his throat and left her alone in the dark kitchen.
As soon as he was gone she burst into tears.
"I wish it had been you instead of him…" She whispered into the silence.
Edward glared bitterly at Violets back as she worked at the computer in silence. He picked up a pocket knife and started to play with it absently, occasionally stabbing insects (Or anything he could find to stab…he wasn't picky.) that had unfortunately crawled his way.
"Is this about dad? Is that why your acting so funny?" He said, finally breaking a silence that had lasted a good twenty minutes. "Or about school…because I could have sworn you were over that."
"Shut up Lock, I'm trying to concentrate." She said with an edge of annoyance in her voice. He had been asking her occasional questions since that morning and it was really started to get on her nerves.
"Work on what?" Edward asked in frustration. He stood up. "You've been on that thing all day and I can see any reason why!"
"I'm trying to find someone on your stupid program, so either shut up or go away Edward!" She yelled back at him. He grumbled under his breath and descended the ladder. When he reached the ground he kicked the side of the tree in frustration.
In his room Gregory was gathering up the last of what he intended to bring to the Kings house that evening. He adjusted his collar which was extremely uncomfortable and after a quick glance towards the mirror, cursed his aunt below his breath. The outfit was bad enough WITHOUT the stupid bow tie she had instructed him to wear. He thought about having to face Violet afterwards and shivered. He yanked the bow tie off and threw it on his bed, then proceeded to find something else to wear. His aunt would have to live with it…he had begun to rather like not getting beat up and preferred for it to stay that way.
"Gregory! Come on! We can't keep these people waiting!" His aunt called from the bottom of the stairs. Gregory tucked a few things in his pocket and headed towards the stairs. His aunt watched him descend the stairs with a look of surprise and distaste written across her face.
"Greg…what happened to the nice little outfit I picked out for you?" She said. Her eyes had a scolding touch to them.
"Something happened to it." He said absently as he headed towards the door.
"What happened? That was a new outfit."
"I threw it out the window." Gregory said below his breath.
"What?"
"It ripped on something, come on…I thought you didn't want to be late."
"Oh…but now you look so…I mean…this is the owner of the whole town, Greg. We need to look nice."
"Why?" He asked while raising his brow. His aunt looked at her watch and sighed.
"Well…at least let me do something with your hair."
Five minutes later they were headed to the King's house. Gregory touched his greased back hair in revulsion. Oh well…it was still better then the bow tie.
The King House towered above them as they pulled into the driveway. Anne was staring up at it like she was the luckiest woman in the world. It was quite a bit larger then any of the other houses on that street.
"Isn't it the most impressive house you've ever seen?" Anne asked him excitedly.
"Not really." Gregory said, his voice sounding bored. He was thinking about the Pumpkin House.
"Come on." Anne said, ignoring him. Gregory got out of the car and followed his aunt to the front door drearily. As she knocked Gregory checked his pockets to make sure he had everything.
A moment later Jeff answered the door, smiling warmly.
"Good evening, come in please." He moved out of the way of the door to let them in. Gregory happened to catch his eye and noticed that his smile became strange when it was directed toward him. He looked away and decided that he would try not to look at Mr. King for the rest of the evening. There was something chilling about the man tonight.
Anne, who did not seem to notice a thing, returned his smile with twice the capacity.
"It was so kind of you to invite us, Mr. King."
"Please." Jeff said as he closed the front door. Gregory noticed that he looked up the street before doing it as though expecting to see someone else. "Call me Jeff, Miss Garret." Anne looked absolutely pleased with herself as she entered the dining room behind Jeff.
Justin was sitting at the table when they entered. Him and Gregory caught each others eye. They were both glaring. Jeff walked over to where his son was sitting and nudged him. The boy shot a dangerous look towards his father before standing up angrily and crossing over to where Gregory was standing.
"Hi Gregory. It's nice to see you again." He said through his teeth venomously. He held his hand out. Gregory raised his brow.
"Be polite Greg." Anne said sweetly.
"Wish I could say the same…OW!" Anne had smacked him across the back of his head. "I mean…yeah…you too." He took his hand to shake. Anyone who watched them could tell that they were just trying to squeeze the life out of each others hands. After a moment, Justin backed down, having absolutely no strength in his hands or arms whatsoever.
Anne smiled at Jeff in embarrassment, who was pretending to not have noticed, much to her relief.
"Um…where is your wife…wont she be joining us this evening?" Anne asked. Jeff seemed to grow uncomfortable.
"Uh…well…she's a bit tired…so…no…she wont, but I'm sure she would have liked to." Gregory remembered the woman who he had met the other day. He couldn't say that he was sorry that she wasn't there…she, like the rest of them had seemed like an awful woman…but he couldn't help but notice that Jeff almost seemed pleased that she could not join them. He was trying to impress Anne…Gregory could tell…and that meant that it would be unwise to have a woman who obviously did not like him much (Despite having married him.) around badmouthing him and making him sound like a complete fool.
"Oh…a pity…do tell her I said hello." Although…she didn't sound very sorry, Jeff nodded warmly and looked completely appreciative of her false sympathy. Gregory wondered if he couldn't find something heavy to hit himself over the head with to make all of the false courtesy stop. He sighed and decided to think about how he would go about getting away from all of them long enough to find the stuff he needed to, instead.
"Well…you guys pick a seat and I'll get dinner, shall I?" The man said brightly. He exited the room, and headed for the kitchen.
Gregory tried to pick a seat that was preferably far away from both Jeff and his son, but before he could sit down Anne stopped him.
"Greg…why don't you sit by your little friend." Her voice suggested that it was not a matter for discussion. He sighed bitterly and sat beside Justin, who did not look pleased with the arrangement either.
Jeff re entered the room a moment later with several dishes. He looked as though he would drop them at any moment. Anne seemed to see this and hurriedly stood up to help him.
Before long they were all engaged in a very uncomfortable silence. Gregory kept glancing at the door. At one point he felt eyes on him and he happened to catch Jeff's eye for the second time that evening. The man was giving him a very odd look. He pretended to be very interested with something on his plate.
"So…tell me…have you enjoyed my town so far?" Gregory heard Jeff ask. He looked up and saw that the question was directed towards him.
"Uh…yeah…it's alright." He said awkwardly. He looked away again, this time into the corner.
"Well, I think it's wonderful! We were a little hesitant about moving at first…but I thought it was important for Greg to have a change of scenery…after his parents passed and all…and this place is just terrific…" Anne's voice droned into the background of Gregory's consciousness. He stared fixedly at a picture on the wall behind Mr. King. It was obviously a family picture from several years back, probably from when the King family first moved into town. There was something off about it.
In the picture Jeff stood with his wife, who was holding their son (Who was much younger.) It was obvious that stress and age had stricken the man rather brutally in the last five years, for in the picture he had a full head of hair. The photo was black and white…which meant that it was probably done professionally.
Gregory cast the present Mr. King a quick look before going back to the picture. Him and his whole family were blonde…as far as Gregory could tell…but in the photograph, completely absent of color…there was something wrong with the image...but he couldn't figure out what it was.
He was just about to ask the location of the restroom, so that he might get away from the table when Jeff intervened before he could ask.
"Gregory, Justin told me that you were quite interested in my map of the town upstairs." Gregory blinked in surprise.
"Uh…"
"If that's true then if your finished you should find something I have in the other room extremely interesting." The man grinned at him.
Gregory looked around as though confused. It came to him immediately that Jeff had been planning this. Warning lights flashed off in his head.
"You see, I happen to have some of the original plans from when certain areas of this neighborhood were built." He looked at Gregory expectedly, who glared back at him.
"Oh…that sounds nice…I'd like to see that." Anne said brightly. Jeff's smile froze, but when he turned it towards Anne it was just as charming as ever.
"I wouldn't dream of pulling you away from dinner before your finished. I will show you after." He stood and motioned for Gregory to follow him. Anne had gone back to eating, but did stop long enough to shoot Gregory a very strict look, which told him that he had better follow him. Gregory stood up and headed towards where Jeff was holding open the kitchen door.
As they walked down the hall, neither of them spoke. They stopped when they got to the living room where Gregory had waited for Justin on the day which he first ventured into The Pumpkin House. Jeff motioned for him to sit. He did so cautiously.
The man crossed over to a drawer in the corner and he pulled out a few scrolls of paper. With them, he removed a photograph.
"Here they are." Jeff said brightly. He handed them to Gregory who looked at them with little interest. Jeff was still holding the photograph. And here it came.
"And…although I'm sure you've had to have heard from…someone in town…these men were responsible for…half of the town as you see it today." He handed over the photograph. Gregory stared at it. If he was surprised, it did not show on his face. He looked up at Jeff whose gaze was falling on him heavily.
"That's nice…" Gregory said in a voice that suggested that he couldn't care less but was trying to be polite. He handed the photo back to Jeff, who was looking at him angrily. Having not gotten the reaction he would have liked. "Who are they?" Gregory asked apathetically. Jeff gave him a very dangerous look before answering.
"I think you know who they are…and I'm sure if you think really hard it will come back to you." Jeff said through his teeth. Gregory shrugged.
"I dunno. The guyin the middle looks kind of like that weird looking guy that's in the picture up at the Town Hall."
Jeff's face contorted into something terrible and for a moment Gregory was sure he was going to lose it. He didn't take his eyes away from the man, much to his immense displeasure. Any doubts he had of the man's sanity had all but vanished. He was insane, that was for sure. Finally, Jeff's face cleared.
"Very well." Jeff took the plans from Gregory and put them and the photograph back in the drawer. Before he did, Gregory caught another glimpse of the photo and realized, with some surprise that it was the same one that, a mere day or two before, had been sitting on his desk. He could tell by the writing on the back.
"You should probably get back to the table and finish your dinner." Jeff said icily.
Gregory made sure that they were both in the dining room amongst the company of his aunt when he turned back towards Jeff.
"Um…may I use your restroom real quick?" Jeff glared at him, and for a moment, looked on the verge of refusing it to him…but he happened to remember that he had company and nodded bitterly.
"Upstairs, third door on the left. You might want to hurry…before what's left of your dinner gets cold." There was admonition in his eyes. Gregory thanked him quietly and walked quietly out of the room. When he got out of their sight he darted quickly up the stairs. He had to move quick before anyone noticed that he had been gone for far too long. He pulled a small tool that Violet had loaned him from his pocket and began looking for a locked door.
This chapter gave me some trouble, I hope it turned out alright. Anyways…I thought I would update one last time before going on vacation. I'm heading off to Michigan tomorrow morning. I'll only be gone for four or five days…but yeah don't expect any updates until after. Thank you for your reviews! They inspire me to write!
Also if anyone's interested, I have posted a picture of what Jack looks like as a human on my website (As well as a couple others from other fics.) And if not…well…that's alright…they suck anyway.
Updates soon!
