I apologize for accidentally offending any Native Americans in this and following chapters. I admit that my knowledge of the culture of the Native Americans who shared the first Thanksgiving Feast with the Pilgrims is limited to what I managed to glean from the internet. I don't know that much about the Pilgrims either. I plan to include real historical figures in the story, and I really don't want to do anyone a disservice, but I have to take a little artistic license sometimes. If you have some corrections and are more knowledgeable than me, please tell me so that I can get this right and still have the story make sense. Also, this is a fanfiction. I don't own the Nightmare Before Christmas, and God forbid I own history.

PS. I rated this Teen, right?

PPS. Review! PLEASE! I love reviews!

Chapter 23

Familiars and Familiarity

"Get it open!"

"What do you think I'm trying to do, Jasper?" Anna hissed as she tried ramming the turkey shaped door again.

Zero growled as another pair of white lights appeared in the wood and another shadow streaked across their sight.

Jasper's hackles were raised, and he hissed.

"This," Anna said, freaking out, "Didn't happen the last time I was here!" She had barely had a moment to marvel at the strange doors Zero led her to after a long walk, before the forest darkened within a couple seconds and the animals suddenly lost their cool and growled and spat at the dark.

Anna was the one who didn't expect the innocently funny looking doors stuck in the trees, but none of them expected this attack.

"You weren't this far in," Jasper yowled. His eyes darted around in mad panic at the unseen attacker. He had severely underestimated how hostile the woods would be to them. This was beyond anything he had ever seen.

The Hinterlands was the wood that haunted every human's darkest dreams. It was a fear in itself, and it was not always entirely safe for even Halloween Citizens, but this was ridiculous. Whatever this was, this wasn't the Hinterlands acting up. This was not Halloween!

They needed to leave! This was bad! He had to tell Helga. Dodge! Left! Behind you! Tell Jack! Warn everyone! Something was here!

Intruders! Intruders! Danger!

There was a strange rattling sound near her, and Anna only had a moment before a shadow swiped at her head. She ducked and the creature melted into the air over her. She didn't get a good look at it.

There was a soft creaking, and Anna looked up from the dirt to see the door gently crack outward.

"Come on, Zero!" She grabbed Jasper by the scruff. The skeleton threw him down the hole as he yowled.

She climbed over the rim and was about to jump when something clawed her back, cutting deep gouges into her spine and ripping her favorite jacket to shreds.

This landing hurt.

Anna yelped as the dirt floor dug into her wounds.

It was a short fall, as if she had merely tipped forward from her place propped against the wall of Jamie's house.

She couldn't help it. She wailed, screaming at the ceiling in pain, her voice barely a whisper in the air to the human ears.

This was torture! She didn't need this again. No one could survive this twice. And it was slower this time.

"Stop your wailing, banshee! I didn't lea…" Jack stopped in shock. He was barely out the door when the strange spirit that followed him around shrieked in agony.

Some strange unexplained predisposition made him turn away from the man that stood atop the hill and run the couple steps back into the house at her cry.

How did the girl decay so much in such a short time? He was only gone a second.

She barely looked human anymore. There was a distinct odor of burnt flesh in the air.

Bones in various parts of her body were showing. It was a gruesome sight.

Little additional description is needed.

She was shaking in pain as she gripped his rags, pulling at him like a lifeline.

"It's alright, lass," Jack muttered, "I'm here."

He wondered why she should care if he was there.

Oddly enough, for both of them, she seemed to calm just a little.

He glanced around. He couldn't tend to the girl in Jamie's house. The humans couldn't hear them properly, but they could sense the pain in the air.

Mira was shivering and holding her blanket close.

The spirit's howling couldn't be good for the baby.

"Ah'm sorry, lass. Bear with me." As carefully as he could, he picked up the girl, smearing her blood on his snow white skeletal hands and staining his rags.

She cried out in pain as the cloth stuck and pulled at her burns that weren't too deep, but Jack shushed her.

"Calm down. I need to take you outside," Jack pleaded. Why on earth was he doing this? Who suddenly starts caring for a supernatural stranger he barely knows when he hasn't actually spoken to any other soul in years? All the girl has done is follow him around like disease and almost get him caught.

The turnip lantern's flame flickered as he stepped outside the threshold.

Anna could barely hear Jack over the sounds of someone yelling at her as her vision faded.

"Anna! Wake up, you stupid bone-girl."

Anna grimaced and opened her sockets, spitting leaves out of her mouth, the pain suddenly gone. "What happened?"

Jasper stopped licking her bony face with his rough, hooked tongue.

Zero nudged her hand.

"You're injured," Jasper said stiffly, imagining all the ways Helgamine was going to kill him, keep him as a ghost, and turn his pelt into a hat.

Upside: he'd make a very fine hat.

Anna winced in fear. "How bad?"

The cat jumped up on her chest and sat down.

Anna tried to reach up to push him off but could only manage a little twitch. "Why can't I move?" she demanded, her voice squeaking.

"You're spilling out spinal fluid," the cat said curling up uncomfortably on top of Anna's hard and spacious ribs. "If you were human, you'd be dead from a spinal injury."

"But I can't move. I'm para-."

"You'll be okay. But we're going to have to sit here for a couple hours until you're healed enough to walk. I'll help."

"How?" Anna deadpanned, struggling to glare at him on her chest when she couldn't move her head to see him. She literally couldn't feel anything whatsoever. It was a welcomed relief from her agonizing trips to the past. She was almost tempted to wish she wouldn't heal and would just stay in this unfeeling bliss. But that was ridiculous.

"Magic," said Jasper quietly. "Now go to sleep. It will heal faster if you're not wasting energy."

Zero barked and licked Anna's face.

"Zero will guard us."

"One more question. Where are we?"

"I don't know. I'm assuming we're in Thanksgiving Land, but we aren't near the town most likely. We landed in the middle of a forest. Those leaves broke our fall."

Anna tried to nod before remembering she couldn't. "Ok."

"Now go to sleep!"

Anna rolled her eyes and closed them, "You're worse than Helgamine."

Jasper curled up tighter and muttered something, while Zero flew nearby keeping an eye out.

It must have looked very unusual; an eight-foot-tall skeleton lying prone, half covered by leaves and dirt with a cat on its chest and a partly invisible ghost dog barely in sight nearby, all of them surrounded by gold and red leaf-covered trees.

Jasper listened to the skeleton's faint "breathing." The girl still wasn't used to the fact that she didn't need to breathe and it gave him a good gauge of whether she was actually asleep.

"Dog."

"Yes, Cat."

"Not that I care, but will you be punished for helping her run away?"

The ghost dog twisted around in thought and whimpered. "Jack will be angry. I don't want him angry…but…I think he would be sad if Anna's sad. If My Master is sad, I think that's worse."

"Why would he be sad? Monsters leave sometimes."

"Not like this. Jack doesn't want her to go, even if he said he would let her. She'll be alone in the Real World, and that is not safe. For her."

Jasper was curious. It was dangerous for any Citizen in the Real World alone, but the way Zero emphasized Anna was suspicious. "What so special about her? She's got Jack acting so out of character."

Zero frowned at the Cat and didn't answer.

"Fine. Then why are you helping?"

"Same reason you are. I don't really believe she'll go through with it. I think she'll come home."

Zero was silent for a long moment, and the cat and dog stared at each other.

"What attacked us?" Zero asked.

"That's what I wanted to ask you since you seem to know more than you're letting on."

The dog shook his head. "That was…something else. Different."

"What?"

"It smelt…wrong…So wrong…"

"I know. I don't want to go back that way."

"We might not have a choice."

Anna cringed as the chill outside air bit at her. She looked around, choking off her screaming for a moment.

Wait…she had passed out only a moment. Jack was still holding her. The old Jack…no the younger one. Was she dreaming again? Or was this real? Or both. Oh, she was so confused.

And everything hurt. She started crying out again. Why was she so weak?! Oh God, it hurt.

Jack set her on the bench. He glanced up to see if the man on the hill was still there.

He wasn't.

"Don't do that strange disappearing thing ye do," Jack said.

Anna nodded weakly, barely able to see him. She kept crying, but her howling was replaced with sharp gasping.

He was back a moment later with a wet cloth and bowl of water he stole away from inside without the humans noticing.

Anna hissed at the sting of the cleaning as Jack got to work.

"Cease thy fidgeting, spirit!" Jack muttered.

Anna looked on, trying to be as still as she could. She glared at Jack in resentment. Yes, this was the past, but this will someday be the Jack that is in Halloween. She needed to vent. "I hate you." Immediately, her stomach dropped at those words, and she regretted it.

She stifled the regret and stiffened, glaring at the bone man stubbornly.

Jack looked at her in confusion. "I've done many things I no longer find pride in, maiden. But I remember the faces of those I've wronged, and you are not one such creature."

"Yet."

"I'm sure," Jack said in veiled amusement.

"You're going to remember this, aren't you?" she said mildly through the "discomfort," which was impressive. She was too tired to keep an aggressive posture and gave in to the weariness, relaxing as much as she could in pain. It still hurt just as much as before, but the wailing was exhausting. So she bit her lip and focused on getting through each second. One more second. One more.

The skeleton stared at her. Jack couldn't see her eyes anymore. They were gone (use your imagination), but she seemed able to still see him the same way he could see without eyes himself. Shame. Those green eyes were jewels any woman would be proud to have.

"Thou art delirious."

"No, listen to me," Anna said, trying to keep a childish whine out of her voice, "I don't know why I'm here. But many years in the future we're going to meet again. And you hate me. Ow! Watch it! So, I'm assuming I did something to you here. You might as well hate me now. It might—ow!—save some trouble later."

Jack sighed. "I understand what you're saying. And to be honest, miss, thou art too lucid at the moment to sound insane. But what do you possibly expect me to do with such knowledge?"

Anna sucked in a hiss through her aching teeth as he pressed the cloth to her legs. "You actually believe me? That I'm from the future?"

"I didn't at first—Be still, child!" he ordered. He pulled a frightful snarl at Anna, his teeth sharpening and his mouth stretching to horrible proportions while his eyes narrowed in a scowl.

Anna was startled by his face and froze as she remembered the fight between them.

Jack seemed surprised. "My apologies."

"That was…cool…scary…"

"I'm…sorry?" He didn't understand what she meant by "cool."

"No! That's good. I guess you really aren't the Jack I know yet…"

"Stop speaking in riddles," he asked with a tired moan, cleaning the blood off her skeletal hand up to where there was still ragged crisp flesh. He half expected it to fall apart as he touched it, as a real human's hand devoid of flesh might. But it stayed together like his own, though it wasn't out of proportion like his. And she had five fingers. "Either tell me of the future or don't. Stop dancing around words like an imp."

It hurt her too much to move her hand, but when her fingers twitched away from the cloth, it was apparent that the hand was still alive in its own way.

It was pretty clear this girl wasn't human. No human being would still be alive this long with such worsening wounds. By a warped miracle, anyone would be barely conscious in the state her body was in. And being conscious was not a blessing. He should know. He couldn't help but sympathize.

There wasn't much he could do except clean the dirt and excess blood out.

When he had done the best he could, he took the bloody cloth and dumped the water a distance from the house, burying the cloth and water to deter wolves. He wasn't even sure if her blood would attract predators or if it was even real blood. He could frighten them off anyway. Animals tended to avoid him.

He came back to sit next to her, having had a long moment to consider the situation.

"Why aren't thou afraid of me?" the tall creature asked.

Anna weakly tilted her head toward him. "…Well…I am...You're very scary. But I know you're not going to hurt me."

"Why? If you knew me, you wouldn't say so," he chuckled darkly.

"You're…funny…" she said, turning her head as if to look into the distance in thought, "You care about those close to you. You aim to please at times. But you can be a little harsh…to me…you never even gave me a chance," Anna shifted awkwardly. "What am I doing? This is real. You might remember me saying all this stupid stuff."

Jack leaned back against the house, his frame dwarfing hers. He put up a hand to stop her. "Let me grasp this." He held out his fingers to count. "Ye come from the future. Ye'ave seen days not yet passed."

Anna shrugged. "Some of them I guess," she quipped tiredly.

She tried to shift nervously but winced. It was different now, knowing that this was real, not a dream. She was really in the past, or a past, somehow. Things she said really mattered now. She wasn't sure what to do. She wanted to know how she got there and why, but she figured it was pretty useless to ask the skeleton next to her. He was even more clueless than her.

This was Jack! This was that same tall, elegant gentleman that was courting her friend Sally and that every Halloween Citizen loved. But he was so different now. This Jack had an almost cynical air about him. He didn't seem as…passionate about anything, unlike the other Jack, who apparently loved a great many things a great deal.

He continued, holding out his third (and last) finger. "And something happened between when I left the house and came running back in at thy scream that made you stop believing thou art dreaming. Ye now think thou have traveled to the past to follow me," Jack said.

Anna nodded again.

Jack stared at her. "I've seen many a strange thing in my travels, spirit, but your stories overshadow them all."

Anna looked at him. "You're not going to ask what happened to change my mind?"

"Clearly, my future self was an arse." He said it so matter of the fact that Anna couldn't help but snicker.

The visual imagery of Jack Skellington saying profanity was enough to put her in stitches. Plus, he called himself an ass as if his future self was an entirely separate person.

He grinned at her laugh. "Odd. Most ladies would have slapped me for such language." He turned away to look sideways at her, "What is your name?"

"It's…" Anna tried to say, but it was caught in her throat. She couldn't. She recognized this feeling. It was just like that muting spell Shock cast on her when Boogie's Boys wrecked the Mayor's house. "I can't say. I think I've been cursed to not say my name." That sounded about right. She was still getting used to the concept of supernatural magic and powers, even though she had some of her own.

The skeleton frowned like he didn't entirely believe her, "Who would curse ye?"

Anna shrugged. "Whoever sent me here?" She chuckled weakly. "Heh…I hope it wasn't a future version of myself. That's just weird. When did my life turn from reality to fantasy to sci-fi?"

She didn't want to dwell on it, but the obvious fact that someone had to have sent her here was incredibly disturbing. The idea that someone had a plan for her that she knew nothing about terrified her.

Jack sighed and shook his head confused. She spoke Gaelic almost perfectly, but her use of some words was completely lost to him. "Moving on. What art thou?"

"I think I told you before."

"Ah. A creature like myself." He still didn't believe that. The circumstances of how he got in his state were too unique.

Anna nodded.

"Doth thou have a family?"

Anna was surprised. "Why do you care?"

"Thou seem to know a lot about me. Ah'm merely leveling the field."

"I do," Anna said, her voice shaking from the effort it took to get a few words out without wanted to cry, "Parents. Brother. Sister."

"Are they creatures like thou art?"

"No…" Anna mumbled, "I died and left them behind. I shouldn't have."

Jack raised an eyebrow. Did she really have a choice?

She looked up at him, not realizing her eyes were dripping down her face.

Jack long ago decided not to mention it.

"That's what I was doing when I last woke up here. I was running away. Trying to find a way back home." She frowned, though one couldn't really tell with how messed up her face was. "And I was attacked…" she whispered in confusion. She hadn't thought about it. She was here because something knocked her out, then Jasper had her go back to sleep.

"Running away always seems like a good idea at first," Jack said, more to himself than her, "Then you find you can't stop."

Anna was quiet. "Speak…from experience?"

Jack nodded.

"But I'm not really running away. I'm running home."

"I shall not pretend to understand thy situation, but from my experience, running towards home and running away depends on where 'home' is. Where is thy home?"

"It doesn't exist yet, I think. Not under the name I know at least," Anna said. "Home is Washington."

Jack had absolutely no idea where that was, but he instantly knew what to say. "No. I don't think it is."

The girl started in surprise. "What are you…"

"What about the other place? The place you're running from."

"It's great!" Anna said with a strained grin. The skin on her cheeks pulled painfully. "Mostly. But…" She trailed off, and her eyes fell, but the small smile didn't completely fade as she thought about the fantastic, strange things she had seen.

As she thought about it, it was extraordinary that she knew more secrets about the world in death than most humans could in life. She knew that monsters were real. Holidays were living (in a way) beings. Stories could come to life, like the Gatekeeper. He was literally the Raven from a fictional poem.

"You smile when you think of that place," Jack noted. "I hope to someday find a place like that. But reality is not so kind to me."

Anna shut her mouth. She stared down at the dying grass under her feet and gripped the bench, the irony not lost to her.

"Ye should rest if you can. I plan to stay here for a while until my son's wife recovers from her illness. Or until the babe is born, which could be any day now. I may wander this town in the shadows all winter if need be."

"Is Halloween coming?" Anna whispered, suddenly incredibly tired. She swayed.

Jack looked at her in confusion, but her eyes were closed. "Halloween? Do you mean the Samhain Festival? Er…Hallow's Eve?"

But she was too tired to answer and collapsed her matted burned head on his bony shoulder.

Jack was worried for a moment, thinking she had keeled over and finally died. But the banshee (his most recent theory for what she was) was merely unconscious.

Jack sighed sharply and decided to let her rest, mildly surprise she was doing so instead of disappearing into thin air like she seemed to do so often. In yet another uncharacteristic act of kindness, he guided her head to lay on his lap so that her neck wouldn't be at such a sharp angle.

He laughed at himself, the derisive cackle echoing in the quiet air as he recalled how he would do the same for an exhausted Jamie so many years ago.

Jack O'Lantern glanced toward the door behind which that same boy now sat with his ailing wife. The skeleton's sockets drifted to the top of the hill, half expecting to see that demon again.

He put a bony finger against his chin in thought. What was that creature searching for in this place?

Jack shot awake as the book he was holding dropped to the ground from his limp fingers.

"Jack? Are you alright? Did something fall?"

"I'm fine, Sally," Jack assured with a sigh as the rag doll came into the parlor. He bent over the armrest to pick up the book.

Curse these memories.

Would you do it all over again? Knowing what you know now, knowing what you knew then?

Jack shook the whispering away before he could comprehend the words.

The skeleton wouldn't meet Sally's eyes. They hadn't spoken much since that day when Anna attacked him. Perhaps the timing had been bad, but after she had come home, Sally had demanded that explanation from him.

Well,…she got one.

Sally was angry at him for what happened with Anna in front of the whole town. It takes a lot to make sweet Sally angry.

Their conversation didn't make things better.

What the heck was Jack expecting of her?

He knew it wasn't fair, but Jack was wise enough to know that he needed to trust Sally with that particular secret if he really loved her, even though the idea terrified him like none other.

The last five days hadn't been pleasant. Five days since Anna attacked him and opened up a host of unpleasantries.

Jack, Sally, and Anna haven't spoken to each other in any combination since.

Sally stood in the doorway awkwardly. "Jack?"

Jack ignored her for a moment as he dusted off the book and stood up to put it back in its place on the bookshelf. He rubbed his eye socket on his sleeve tiredly.

Sally sighed and came in all the way in, sitting on the couch across from Jack's chair. "I…thought about what you told me." She spoke softly, as if struggling to put her thoughts into words.

Jack froze minutely, then nodded. "Sally, I understand if you want to leave…"

"What? Of course, I'm not leaving," Sally said hurriedly standing up to come to his side, "Jack, look at me. I may be young, but I'm not stupid. I know you used to be human. You keep making 'since I'm dead' jokes. And I've thought about it before, so I figured you probably had a family when you were alive. It's not too hard a leap to make. And I'm okay with that! It's just the other stuff that's surprising. I can't imagine you doing all those terrible things. Curses? Deals? Demons, Jack?" She clasped both of her hands around one of Jack's. "I don't even really know what a demon is!"

Jack put his other hand on the bookshelf and bowed his head. "Dying didn't straighten me out those first few decades."

"Anna needs to know…"

"Ah. And pray tell, what should I tell her, hmm?" Jack said, letting go of Sally's hand and sitting back down. He leaned on the armrest and looked up at her.

"The truth would be an excellent start."

"And what will everyone think?"

"They'll get over it, Jack," Sally said, sitting on the floor beside the chair, cross-legged, looking up at him. "So what? You're not a perfect Pumpkin King. You expect too much of yourself. I love you as you are now, my dearest friend, not as who you used to be. Everyone loves you for who you are. You're the Pumpkin King! But you're still Jack."

Jack looked down at her. He kissed her on the cheek.

"Thank you for being you, Sally," he murmured. It was difficult to admit, but having Sally by his side knowing the secret he kept hidden for so long made his soul just a bit lighter.

"Of course, Jack. And I'm sorry I've been so quiet these past few days. It's was a lot to think about."

Jack nodded, a small forced grin on his bony lips. "I still have to wait."

"For what?!"

"Anna…she already knows…or she will. Somehow…I can't explain it…"

"This is crazy, Jack."

"I know! I know. Just…" Jack sighed. "I know it doesn't make sense…but I remember when she found out. That… look in her eyes. I can't forget it, no matter the years."

"But if you tell her now…"

"Then she could warn me? Everything I know as history could change," Jack said. "History has its place, my dear. I've had a long time to think about this."

Sally leaned her head on his armrest. "This is wrong, Jack," she pleaded.

Jack bowed his head and nodded. "I know."

Anna's eyes shot open at the sound of two shrill screams and panicked, horrified gasps.

She felt Jasper shift and heard him whisper, "Don't move. Stare straight ahead and don't move." A second later, the cat jumped off and ran away.

"Go get the Chief and the Governor, White!"

"Is that…a dead body?"

"I think so. Stay back!"

"It's a skeleton! How come we never noticed someone out here before?!"

"Well, don't touch it, Little Braid," one voice cried a little hysterically. "Where'd that black cat go? Oh no, these are bad omens." The speaker trailed off into panicky moans.

"I'm not going to touch them. I just want to figure out how a body got here."

Anna tried not to stiffen as the speaker came closer. They were a girl. An Indian Native with brown hair and brown eyes crouched down. She was pretty and looked to be a little older than Anna. Her hair was shorter than expected and tied in a single braid down her neck. She wore a deerskin dress with some designs Anna didn't recognize and thick leather moccasin boots.

The girl tilted her head. "T-they aren't human. No human is this tall."

Anna was expecting more of an accent honestly.

The girl sounded astonishingly modern Midwest American, but not quite.

"Then what is it? Did something—or someone- from the Real World fall in here?"

"I don't know. White! Why haven't you gone yet?"

"I was thinking…"

Anna heard the sound of feet shuffling in the leaves.

"Everyone so busy with Thanksgiving. What if we waited…"

"This is an emergency! We don't know what it is or what it's doing here! What would our parents think if we didn't tell them about a dead human in our world?"

Little Braid ignored the bickering of her three companions and picked up a stick, bringing it close to Anna's face in concern. "It's not human," she muttered.

"What are you doing?" someone, the only other girl, whispered harshly with a squeak in her voice.

"Shhh." Gently the girl Anna could see used the stick to turn Anna's head to the side and cleared a few leaves, looking for an injury.

It took everything not to move and let the stick push her head. Anna was holding her breath, which was understandably easy. Her lungless chest didn't even burn.

Then the stick slipped into her socket, and all bets were off.

"OW!" Anna sat up straight and put a hand to her eye and tearing the stick away with the other hand.

Jasper would have facepalmed from his place under a bush if he had hands.

"AAAAHHH!"

The people screamed bloody murder at the suddenly animate body.

Little Braid gasped and fell backward. She bravely grabbed the dropped stick again and jabbed it at Anna's face, the stick poking Anna in her other eye.

Anna shouted, rubbing her eyes and letting out a pained growl. She stumbled backward, tripping over a branch, and falling into a pile of autumn leaves. She could blink away the pain, but it was reminiscent of getting dirt in her eyes as a human. Thankfully (pun not intended) it wasn't as bad as actually getting her eyes gouged out.

The skeleton rose to her feet shakily and half blinded. She glared down at the Thanksgiving Citizens and, without thinking pulled a scary face.

To her is was just a pained scowl. All she really meant to do was snap at them for poking her sockets, then say, "I come in peace," "Take me to your leader," or something else that sounded less silly.

Unfortunately, something was lost in translation. They took her face as looking demonic and threatening. They screamed again, scrambling away in terror, having seen nothing like it before, Little Braid hurling her stick weapon at the skeleton who managed to duck before her skull has knocked off her neck.

Anna rubbed her eyes and stared at them in confusion, "Wait! I didn't…"

But they were already gone, the frantic voices fading as the four teens ran for their lives.

Little Braid glanced back in terror, but only for a moment.

Anna stared dumbstruck at the suddenly empty forest, mouth agape.

"Not too bad for your first scare," Jasper commented, slightly pleased, "Though it's a shame you ruined the celebration of scaring your first non-citizen on your first Halloween."

Zero floating down from where he had hidden in the trees above. The ghostly pup whimpered apologetically.

"Not your fault. For once," Jasper said to him while licking a paw, "You warned us in time. This deaf skeleton wouldn't wake up!"

Anna blinked and shut her mouth. She was sure this wasn't the right time, but Jasper set it up too well.

"You could say I slept like the dead."

"Shut your damn mouth and let's get out of here before those weird Thanksgiving Spirits come back!" Jasper snapped, too stressed to deal with any stupid jokes.

Zero forced out a nervous, weak barking laugh at Jasper's distress.

"It was over this way!"

Sorry, this is so late everyone. Plus you caught me at the beginning of finals' week. Wish me luck! (I need it.) There probably won't be an update this next week, so drop some nice long reviews so I can be encouraged to pick my momentum up when tests are over.