Chapter Twenty-Four:
The Missing Skellingtons
Violet was standing outside of the school yard, her eyes alight with dull anger. Her and Gregory had had a previous engagement at midnight the night before. There, in between their houses, she had waited for him for nearly an hour before she was sure he wasn't coming. She decided that he'd better either have a REALLY good excuse for not coming, or that she was going to show him the error of his ways.
Finally, almost fifteen minutes after the school bell rang. (Just as she was beginning to think about turning around and heading home.) she spotted the smaller boy approaching. His eyes, which had been directed towards the ground, met hers. He didn't seem at all surprised to see her.
"I figured you'd probably be here." He said absently as he reached her. She tightened her jaw.
"Where the hell were you last night!" She questioned icily. "I was waiting for nearly an hour!" Gregory shrugged.
"I didn't feel like coming." He said simply as he un shouldered his pack and began removing articles from within it.
Violet was staring at him in a mixture of shock and anger.
"Here." He said, as he removed the large, folded map and a handful of papers and thrust them into Violet's hands. She took them numbly, looking down at them only after her fingers closed over them.
"What is this?" She asked, inquiringly…her anger ebbing off slightly and giving into her curiosity.
"The map of town and a handful of papers I found under Jeff's desk." He said dully as he handed her the silver tool she had loaned him from her brothers kit.
"You got them!" She said, surprised. She looked up at him, her eyes betraying a hint of awe. He didn't notice.
"Yeah. Now I'm done." He said as stepped around her and headed into the school yard.
"Done? What…what do you mean?" She asked, staring after him. He turned.
"I'm done with this whole thing: Done with King, this town, you and your brother, Brutus…everything. I'm done. You have what you wanted, now I'll ask you to please leave me alone."
For a moment she looked stunned by his words. Then, a more familiar look crossed her features.
"YOUR done?" She asked, her voice soaking in venom.
"Yeah. That's what I said." He responded, looking unruffled.
She approached him and for a moment, his defiance fell a little.
"You…YOU got ME into this!" She said, pointing a finger at him. "This was YOUR idea. You were the one who told me about Pumpkin House and it's owner, and the one who blackmailed me to get information out of me, and it was your idea to get that stupid map! Your not leaving me alone to work this out with Brutus! Your going to see it to the end…or I'm going to fill your pathetic life with misery for all ETERNITY!"
Gregory watched her and as he did, he felt what anger and bravery he had acquired from the night before vanish. Violet Wayward was a monstrous girl with a very cruel sense of humor…but she was right…it HAD been his idea, and although knowing this made no difference in his decision, it did make him see that it was hardly right to act as though this whole thing fell on her blame.
He sighed.
"Look…what I meant to say is…this is your town…and Brutus's town. It isn't my town. I may have discovered this…but…I don't what to be involved with something that doesn't concern me…" And I've been me long enough to know that my only purpose in your plans is to put me in all of the danger and, if were caught, use me to disperse all of the blame. He added, only in thought. "I've been all but hit on the head with a sign saying that I'm an outsider since I moved in…so…there's all you need…good luck I guess." He turned and headed into the school building, not bothering to look back.
Violet stood in silence for a few moments before looking at the stuff in her hands a second time. She had all she needed. The map was here…and, although she couldn't see everything, she knew the documents were of great importance. She could take them to Brutus…or…simply keep them and find her own, far more entertaining way of using them. She didn't NEED Gregory anymore. She didn't need him…but without him…this was just another mischievous action that although, would most certainly upset Jeff…would not help in the memory of her father or in the preservation of the memory of Pumpkin Town in the least….this was a fact that would not change at all, even if she asked her brother to help. (Or bullied him into helping, anyways.)
She sighed and folded the papers into a side pocket before heading off towards home. It was almost kind of funny…she had really begun to think of Gregory as something of a friend.
After almost twenty years in the police force, Brutus Stiltz had been reduced to awaiting the progress of two young children. This upset him a little. The town already thought he was out of his mind. What would they think if they knew he was actually HELPING one of the Wayward brats and a kid who had moved in only a few short weeks before. Still…the town was not doing a thing…sometimes you had to rely on the mad side of things in order to achieve the things you felt strongly about.
While he waited, Brutus had begun, for no reason at all, to look at a bunch of old photographs he had tucked away in the attic several years before. He was currently going through box number six, and his third cup of coffee, when he came upon the picture had been looking for subconsciously that entire time.
It was a picture of a young man who was far too thin and much too tall for his age. But more so, it was a picture of a boy with the eyes of someone who has seen a world that many men have the luck of never having to see. Brutus ran his finger over the photograph. He couldn't still be alive…could he? Brutus began to think…what finally came to him was a memory. The memory of the last time he had ever seen jack Skellington
'Jack! I didn't realize you were even still in town! I was almost sure you would head back for your mothers funeral.' For at that time, she had indeed been dead. It was tragic, jack losing both of his parents like that.
He remembered…the eyes, staring into his, bearing such grief and sorrow…too much for a boy of his age. Jack hadn't answered, he had only looked at him. Then, after a few moments in which Brutus had become very disturbed, Jack spoke in the tones of someone who knew that the shadows in the corners had ears and that they were going to whisper all of his secrets on winds that would reach his enemies if he spoke too loudly.
"I hear them talking in the night, Mr. Stiltz. I know they dream of doing me harm. They dislike me strongly, you know."
And with that, Brutus had watched in utter surprise as the boy had begun to cry. Not the hot temperamental tears of the young, but the silent tears of those who barely know their crying. He had never remembered a time when Jack had cried. He always took his sorrows like his father and grandfather. He would grow depressed, but never seem to have the tears to cry in public.
"I have no one…Mr. Stiltz. I only have him…and he hates me." He stood then, absently wiping his eyes. Brutus, who had kneeled in order to talk to him, straightened…and longed for the expertise on how to treat a child in distress. He had always treated Jack as he had treated his father…and that was as an equal, and in return, Jack had always treated him as such as well. Yet now, he was calling him MR. Stiltz instead of Brutus and was suffering an unfortunate yet rare distress of youth.
"I am leaving tomorrow, I think. I'm not coming back." He said, bringing Brutus out of his thoughts.
"Leaving? But Jack…your now the rightful owner of the town." Jack turned and gave the man a sad smile.
"I'm afraid not." He said and walked off without another word. Brutus thought that perhaps in his strange change of character Jack had spoken the untrue words of children who claim to run away. The next day, Brutus would go to his uncles house, just to make sure he was there…and maybe in the time between…he would think of something to say to the boy. Or more appropriately, he would have a word with Alex. Jack seemed to be acting almost as though the past few weeks had deterred his young mind a little.
As it turned out…Jack kept his word. His uncle Alex informed Brutus that Jack had left early to see his mother's grave…since he had missed the funeral. Alex had told Brutus that he had had some unfinished matter back in town and that he would return behind Jack in order to keep an eye on him.
Brutus never saw Jack or Alex again. After a few months Brutus and the residents of Pumpkin Town were not the only ones questioning the young mans absence. Many law men had begun to search for the boy and his uncle to sort out the matter of Pumpkin Town's owner ship.
They never found them either.
After hearing Brutus speak of his and Alex's last conversation, they had questioned the church that had buried the boys mother. In return they found no information of either Jack or his uncle ever setting foot in the graveyard.
Finally, they located what was considered Alexander's current residence. There…they finally found the information they required. But by then, it had turned ill. The boy, they said, had been sick from the moment he arrived. His uncle, who had been away for almost a month, set up a room in the house for him. A room he never left. They said that Alex constantly spoke of his health in silent tones. The boy was delirious, they said. He was depressed, they said. He wouldn't eat or sleep, they said. He was horribly ill, he hadn't any strength, he was wishing himself into fatality…Everyone though the whole thing was very sad.
The only time they ever saw Alex's nephew was at night…when he would sometimes pace his room.
Finally…after many foreboding months, his uncle spoke sadly of how the boy had passed in the darkness. No one had actually seen any sign of the boy's body being taken away but nearly all of the town had said that they remembered the hearse parked in the street in front of the Skellington house like a stain. The oddest thing ever seen on Summer Street. And in the days sunny brilliance, it seemed so wrong. The Hearse had driven off and things had gone back to normal…
For a little while anyways.
Indeed, when the law men had found the town, they hadn't found either Jack OR Alex. Jack, as they heard, was dead, but where was his uncle? From each neighbor they received a similar response. They shook their head, looking as though slightly baffled and then would say.
'Don't know…one day they were living there…the next they weren't. Just up and left in the night…for sale sign in the yard…never said a word about anything.'
To this day The last living Skellingtons had not been located. It was a mystery as strange as all of the others regarding that family.
Three months later, after Pumpkin Town had mourned for the loss of their young owner, the town went up for sale and was bought by a young business man, who, for nearly five years never set foot in Pumpkin Town. And that…was the end of the story…
Until now it seemed.
Brutus stared at Jack's picture.
"Now things don't add up. They never did…pity it took me ten years to realize it. I'm sorry Jack. Personally I hope those kids are right…I hope you are alive…I feel as though I owe you." He tucked the picture in his pocket sadly and stood. He needed another cup of coffee. Perhaps teaming up with Violet and Gregory would NOT mend the town…or bring Jack back…for even with the picture they had showed him…he could hardly believe it, but…maybe it would help to heal the wounds that licked at his soul.
It was October 23rd.
The radio was quiet and full of static as Jack drove silently down a street filled with autumn leaves and the unsettling feel of emptiness. He could see the back of the truck bulking upward under the tarp out of his rear view window. This brought a faint and sorrowful smile to his face. Halloween was near yet again…and he was sneaking into Kingston through the back way with a truck full of Halloween decorations and a new costume to wear to the Halloween celebration so that no one would recognize him.
Perhaps this will be the year when the tradition comes to an end.
He shook the thought from his head. Surely that day would come…but he hoped that it would not be soon. He liked Pumpkin Town. As long as he was there he would make sure that at least Pumpkin House would be suitable for the holiday. A lot of things had come to an end with his grandfathers passing. THIS thing would not be one of them. He would make sure that on October 31st…the people of Kingston still remembered who they really were…deep down in the shadows of their hearts.
He turned on his windshield wipers as it began to rain, and turned down a road that would eventually take him to the Kingston Town limit…which, conveniently rested at the back yard of his own house.
I felt like updating on this story…I just sat down…like…two hours ago and started writing. It's been a while, I know…but I have been working on finishing The Law Of Your Anarchic Demise and starting some other stories. My plan was to come back to this one after I finished The Law Of Your Anarchic Demise…but I felt like coming back to it tonight. So here it is. Please tell me if I have gotten off track.
On another note…go buy Oogie's Revenge if it's available to you! The characters are pleasantly IC and it's a really nice game : ) I find the scenery and set up to be absolutely beautiful and it's AWSOME venturing into parts of Halloween Town beyond those shown in the movie. (Like the residential area…I always wondered where all of those dead people lived )
Ne ways. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thank you for your patients. I will try to come back to this story as soon as I can. (I haven't forgotten it! I WILL FINISH!)
