Chapter Twenty-Three:

The Words Carved In The Floor

Gregory walked down the hallway quietly. When he reached the end, he cast a quick look to the right and eyed Justin's bedroom door. He stopped as the hallway ended and gazed in front of him at a large map hanging on the wall a few feet away. He swallowed and touched the edge of the map gingerly. Then, with one nervous look over his shoulder, he began to peel the map off of the wall.

It wasn't till after the huge map was in his hand that he realized he had been holding his breath during the time he had been working it off of the wallpaper. Quickly, he folded up the large map, then began the tiring task of walking back down the hall and testing all of the doorknobs to see if the doors were locked or not.

As he did this an unsettling thought came to him and he could not help but wonder which room Mrs. King was currently occupying. He frowned and hoped that he would not find her before he found the door he desired to enter.

After he tried several doors he finally came upon one that was locked. Violet had said that a locked door was a good place to start. He didn't have much time, so he hoped that this room would turn out to be the right one.

He removed the tiny silver tool from his pocket and began to work on the lock. After a few minutes, in which he wondered if he could even do it or not, he heard an audible click and let out a sigh of relief. If someone found had him in the hallway trying to pick a lock, there were few things he could say to get him out of trouble. He stepped into the room and closed the door quietly behind him.

For a few seconds, he just stared at what he had found. The room was small. The only window was on the far side. It was half covered with books and several stacks of paper, and therefore only let in a little of the failing sunlight. There was a desk on the wall beside him and a few file cabinets, other then that, the room was flooded in paper.

Gregory sighed and began going through the room and picking up random sheets of dissertation and reading a few lines on them before tossing them back on the desk, or the floor where he had found them. After a few minutes of this he frowned and looked towards the clock. He had already been gone from the table for ten minutes. Pretty soon, someone would look for him.

He began to search a little more frantically. He grabbed some documents from an old Victorian style chair, but after a couple seconds he realized that they were old bills and he threw them over his shoulder. There were a few official looking letters on the desk, but they turned out to be information about Justin's Prep School.

Finally, when he began to see papers that he had already looked through, he moved to the file cabinets. When he pulled the first one open he had been excited for a moment when it seemed to contain information on Pumpkin Town. This thought had quickly been discouraged when he began pulling out documents and finding only things that an owner of the town would have. He found plot diagrams and information on costs, basic information of the people who lived there, like there address and when they moved in. He shut the cabinet door bitterly and fell back in Jeff's chair.

After a moment he looked back at the clock then began to sweep over the room with his eyes. It seemed, to him that there were few places that he had not checked. He sat back in the chair.

"Great…" After a few minutes of complete silence he thought he heard movement from downstairs. He was sure it was just his imagination…but it brought him back in a state of panic none the less. He sat up and began scanning the room desperately.

"Let's see…where would I hide important information if I was a paranoid loser who's hair was falling out." He rose his brow. "Probably in a safe or something, but…" He frowned and stood up. On the other side of the room was a large picture of Jeff. Gregory crossed over to it. He scowled and swung the picture upward. There was a tiny safe behind it.

"Normal people put pictures of their father or relatives in front of safes." He said bitterly. "How am I suppose to get into this stupid thing?"

Much to Gregory's luck...which appeared to come at the right time for once, he didn't need to get into the safe. This came about when he spotted an odd carving under the small safe. It too had been hidden by the large picture. It appeared to be an arrow pointing downward.

Gregory's eyes fell to the floor beneath the photo. He crouched down and brushed a stack of papers off of a floorboard that looked as though it had seen better days. It stuck up unnaturally and the nail holding it down appeared to be bent and sticking out of it half way. Without thinking about it Gregory wedged his fingers into the crack between that floorboard and one of the others and pulled. It came up easily enough.

Unfortunately, there were no papers inside. There was, however a tiny silver charm, that appeared to Gregory to be some sort of medal or something. He pulled it out and examined it.

This honor is presented to

Viktor Skellington

Gregory had just begun to wonder why Jeff had Viktor's medal under his floor when he saw the bit of writing that had been cared underneath where the tiny charm had been.

'Under his desk.'

Gregory stared at the crude writing, possibly carved by someone's blunt fingernail. He cast a curious look behind him at Jeff's desk.

Hereplaced the board and walked slowly over in that direction. He pushed away the chair, sending torrents of dust drifting about the area. Then, crouching, he inspected underneath. It didn't look like there was anything there. He touched the boards. As his hand slipped over one, it rocked a little. Without hesitation he pulled it free and reached in. His hand touched parchment. He pulled several papers from the dark depths and examined them. On the top of the first folder, in large letters was the print; Skellington. H.

That was when he heard the voices, sounding as though they were right outside the door.

"I'm sure he's up here somewhere."

"Well we need to get going!" Gregory's eyes widened as his Aunt's and Mr. King's voices drifted into the room. He tucked the papers away quickly and stood up, slamming the wooden board back into the opening as he did. He pushed in the chair and hurried across the room to replace the painting. Outside, the voices stopped at the door.

"What about in here?" He heard his aunt saying.

"Oh no!" Mr. King said, sounding as though Anne had been on the verge of opening the door. "Nothing is in there. Besides, I always keep it locked."

Gregory tiptoed over to the door and turned the lock. Then, he put his ear to the wood. He sighed in relief as the voices headed down the hall. When they disappeared he turned the lock again and slowly twisted the knob. The door opened a crack. He peered out of it and saw, to his immense respite, that the hall was empty. He left the room and closed the door quietly behind him.

He took a few steps away before he heard the voices again. Gregory made a quick decision and hurried down the stairs. When he got down to the bottom, he darted towards the dining room, only slowing when he reached it. He almost entered it when he realized he still had the large folded map in his hands. In a state of panic, he bended it in half and grabbed his heavier jacket from the coat hanger, tucking it within the fabric. He then pushed the door open and stepped in. Justin looked up at him and narrowed his eyes.

"You've been gone for an awfully long time…you better not have gone anywhere near my room!" The boy said venomously. Gregory rolled his eyes as he sat back down, adjusting the paperwork so that it wouldn't stick out anywhere.

"Trust me, I have no desire to ever go anywhere near your room again."

Justin eyed Gregory's coat oddly and then grinned at the boy.

"In a hurry to leave I see." Gregory folded his coat tighter around the map.

"Yeah…I didn't want to come here in the first place. You make me lose my appetite."

"Funny…by the looks of you, I wouldn't think ANYTHING could make you lose your appetite." Justin said. He grinned wickedly. Gregory was, by now, barely paying attention to him. He could hear his aunt and Jeff approaching and he was trying to develop a believable story to tell them.

"Well…" He said, not looking at the small boy. "At least I didn't have to get my daddy to un stick me from a bench." Justin's response came laced with hatred.

"At least I have a father." Gregory tore his eyes off the door and gave the boy an icy look.

"All you have is your idiot aunt. And I can at least hire people to be my friends." He laughed a little. "If you think Violet Wayward is your friend then your even dumber then you look."

The door opened and Justin looked down at his plate as though he had been examining his dessert the entire time. Gregory looked back at the doorway, momentarily at a loss for words.

"Greg, there you are. Where have you been?" His aunt said with a stern look in her eyes.

"Uh…I got lost. This house is much bigger then ours." He looked away. He had planned a much longer excuse…but he had forgotten most of it and what he remembered he didn't really feel like saying.

"Well, come on. We need to get home. You have school tomorrow after all." Gregory nodded and stood up. He waited in silence as his aunt thanked Jeff and then followed her out the door. He didn't meet Jeff's gaze at all, but felt the mans suspicious gaze burning on his back as he walked down to the car.

That night he went to bed without a word to his aunt.

He gazed at the ceiling with his arms folded underneath his head. He had put the papers and the map on his desk. Him and Violet had agreed that he would sneak out as soon as his aunt fell asleep and meet her with the papers between both of their houses, so that she could hide them more thoroughly. He looked at the time. It was nearing on midnight. He turned over and realized he had made a decision without thinking about it.

He'd give them to her sometime the next day…then he'd be done with the whole thing. For a little while…it had felt as though he were actually a part of the town. He had even started thinking of it as Pumpkin Town. But, as so many people had hinted (or in the Waywards case…had been perfectly blunt about.) him and his aunt did not belong there.

And as much of an idiot as he was, Justin was right. Violet needed him now, because he was doing a lot of the complicated stuff that she couldn't do herself. But when Jeff realized that his papers were gone and everything blew up in their faces…and it most certainly would eventually…she would probably do what Justin had done and leave him behind to take all of the wrap for it.

He scowled. It was sort of funny…he had spent his whole life in situations like this and yet, for a couple days, he had almost completely forgotten who he was.

"It must be this town. Ha." He whispered sarcastically. After a few minutes he drifted off to sleep and for the first time since he had moved in, he had a dream. In the morning he would forget all about it…but morning is like a well placed veil, and the dream would most certainly come back to him in the night again and again, when the veil was removed and the darkness flooded ones senses like a river, laced with unknown horrors.

It was considerably shorter then the first one. Gregory acknowledged this even as he dreamed it.

In the night vision, he was once again by the lake. He was sitting by the water with his back to Pumpkin House. The water was dark, and a foggy mist drifted off the top. The illusion was perfect, as though it were taken right out of a horror film.

"But it is…isn't it…" Gregory said in his sleep. "It's a trick…he's doing all of this."

The dream seemed to last for a long time…but it was exceedingly simple. Gregory watched as the water broke repeatedly and people stepped out. Every time one of them left the water they would walk through the water towards the land and would pass Gregory without any acknowledgment. Sometimes a car broke through the water, carrying several people. It was always the same one…and Gregory had a feeling the people inside were always the same too.

The waves lit up with yellowish light. Gregory turned and stared at Pumpkin house as the light in the attic turned off and on again and again, flashing the corpses with cold yellowish luminosity.

Off and on off and on off and on…

……………………..

-- tired….

Ok…well…there we go, a new chapter. Hehe…if you haven't figured it out, I'm back from Michigan. I got back on Sunday, and I've spent most of the time on my website . I'll try to get to The Law Of Your Anarchic Demise next…but I may have to focus on something Non TNBC for the next day or so. I've kept those people waiting for a bit too long I think.

Actually, one of the reasons I updated this story, is I need the readers opinion on something. Ok…right now I have two diff endings in mind for this story. I'm giving you three choices. I'd like a response before I continue on this fic…because I honestly am not sure what to do. (Trust me…it doesn't ruin any surprises I have in mind at all.)

Ok here they are.

One: Unhappy Ending-In this one Jack, at least, most certainly dies.

Two: Happy Ending- Well…Jack doesn't die….and maybe something awful happens to Jeff…hehe…yea. O.o

Three: We'll all just be surprised and see what happens! (This includes me…)

If Jack doesn't die in this fic, I'll probably either write a short fic in the future, where he does…or a long fic where he dies at the beginning and the rest is like…his experiences before he becomes the Pumpkin King. (This depends on what ideas come to me.)

Please review and pick one. I'll make a decision based on your response.

Thank you for your comments! Updates soon!