Me: Interesting chapter, huh, Andromeda?
Andromeda: Well, uh, I, uh, suppose that I, you, ah, that is to say, um, well, thank you. Are you happy now?
Me: I'm alive with pleasure.
Oogie: I'm confused.
Andromeda: Big surprise.
Me: Be nice, Andy. What are you confused about, Oogie?
Oogie: Well, what happened to our deal? Does she keep it?
Me: Keep reading and you'll find out.
Jack and Sally: Is she okay?
Me: Keep reading and you'll find out.
Andromeda: No I'm not! She's a murderer! (points to me.)
Me: Keep talking and I will be a murderer! Just read the chapter!
Andromeda quickly made her way through Oogie's cavern, eager to find the way out. Idiot, she thought scornfully. I can't believe he actually fell for that! That was the biggest load of garbage I've ever given anybody! She smiled devilishly. But I knew all along that the town outlaw would find my proposition alluring.
After a few more minutes, she found the old and slightly dilapidated birdcage that led to Lock, Shock, and Barrel's home. She climbed inside, and was surprised to find that she fit! Andromeda pulled on the rope next to it, and was lifted into the air.
When she arrived upstairs, she discovered the trio inside, all doing different activities. Lock was using a dangerously sharp knife to behead a pretty child's doll; Shock was mixing bleach and carbon monoxide in a black cauldron; Barrel was smearing whipped cream on all of the windows for no apparent reason. When they saw her, they glared at her.
"What're you doing here?" asked Shock coldly, tossing Lock's decapitated Barbie into the cauldron.
"Hello to you too," replied Andromeda coolly. "Oogie let me go."
"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" they asked at once. "OOGIE let you go?!"
"I think so," said the woman sarcastically.
"Wow," said Shock, sounding slightly fazed. "Oogie's never let anyone go before!" She grinned evilly at Andromeda. "He must really like you!" Barrel and Lock howled with laughter at her remark.
"Oh please," scowled the woman. "You can't be serious!" She had to yell over their guffaws. They stopped laughing at her somewhat scary expression. "Just joking," whispered Barrel, staring at his feet.
"Yeah right," retorted Andromeda before storming out. The trio looked at each other. "Do you really think Oogie likes her?" asked Lock with a nauseated expression. The mere thought of Oogie having feeling for a girl he hated disgusted him. Or any girl, for that matter.
Shock shrugged. "Only one way to find out!" She led the way down to Oogie's cavern, Lock and Barrel following in her wake.
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Andromeda walked outside and took her first real breath in almost a day. Sun was shining, illuminating the wet leaves on the ground. Andromeda smiled hugely, glowing, glad to be out of the undergrounds at last. She started walking home, but a curious thing happened: she got lost! Being in a bag the whole ride over here, and never having ventured this far before, she was lost. Andromeda was shaken, mainly because she was slightly afraid to face her parents when she returned home. Her dad was sure to freak out! She was sure of it. Oh, I hope he doesn't send a search party again! she thought. But, the best thing for her to do would be to keep walking, and try and get out………….
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"Jack! Jack! Get in here NOW!!" It was around 10 o'clock, and Sally had gone in to check on her daughter. When she arrived she let out a shriek.
"What?" asked Jack, somewhat groggily. Sally pointed, frightened, to her bed. Jack looked, and was surprised to find that his daughter wasn't there. Suddenly awake, he went over to see her floor. Broken glass and rain from the cracked window. Andromeda was nowhere. But Jack did spot tiny, tinny footprints…..
"Lock, Shock, and Barrel," he mumbled quietly. "What?" asked Sally gently.
"Lock Shock and Barrel!" thundered the pumpkin king, bursting Andromeda's door open and walking away. Sally trailed behind. "THEY KIDNAPPED MY DAUGHTER!!" Sally had tears in her eyes, realizing that this was true.
"Citizens of Halloween!" yelled Jack when he and Sally got outside. "Listen! Andromeda has been kidnapped by the Oogie Boogie man and his henchmen!! Check everywhere!"
Everyone in town gasped. They loved Andromeda very much, and to think of her tied up or far worse in the presence of the burlap sack monster that they hated so much was terrible. Not even in a good way!
"Come on!" yelled the skeleton, and him and many other members of Halloween town followed suit, as Jack began to walk around town.
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Andromeda had been walking for a good fifteen minutes before resting on a stump. She was wondering how her parents had reacted in the past day. As much as she missed them, and knew that it was totally Oogie's fault that she was kidnapped, she couldn't help but feel nervous. Once when she was twelve, she was upset over a remark that her old friend Tennise had made about her hair, and hid in the Forbidden Forest for a little over an hour. Her dad had sent a search party out for her. Since this was a delicate age for her, she was humiliated for about a week. The princess did not want to revisit her past that way.
Anyway, when she felt better, Andromeda got back up. She heard some rustling in the bushes. Afraid, and a bit jumpy from her interaction with Oogie, she cautiously approached the bush. What she saw surprised her greatly.
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"The clown has check the mausoleums, the witches checked the sarcophagi, and the vampires checked by the lake! But no ones found her yet!" Jack was spieling all this off to Sally. It had been a little over 15 minutes, and Jack could not find her. He could not quite except that she was with Oogie Boogie, since he was dead. So all the town was being checked first. But he could not extinguish the sound of Oogie's booming, evil laugh from echoing in his brain…… Sally was in the same state as Jack. Her face was sopping wet with tears. But she usually kept her head better that Jack.
"I know, sweety," she said somewhat thickly, ringing her hands in frustration. She missed her daughter horribly.
"Uh, Jack? Sally?" said the mayor tentatively behind them.
"What?!" shouted the bemused parents.
"I was, uh, just wondering if we should check the Forbidden Forest for her."
"Of course!" yelled Jack, throwing his hands up in the air. "Why didn't we check there before?! Go, go, GO!!" Everyone around them began rushing towards the forest. Jack groaned and turned to face Sally. "I have to check now," he said solemnly. Sally nodded, tears streaming down her face again. Jack began to walk, feeling very murderous, towards Oogie's lair.
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"Harvey? Is that you?" asked Andromeda, addressing the figure in the bushes. He was the corpse child. He was looking back at her with wide, excited eyes.
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"Andromeda? Is that you?" asked Harvey, the corpse child. He was staring into the pumpkin Princesses eyes. "Hey, Sally! Hey, SALLY! I found the pumpkin princess!!" Oooooh, great, thought Andromeda, inwardly groaning. And so the chaos starts……
And start it did. Within seconds, all the members of Halloween town were crowded around the girl. "Make room! Make room!" yelled the Mayor for Sally. She stood there for a few seconds, staring at her daughter. "Oh, Andromeda!" she said lovingly, running to hug her. Andromeda pressed her face against her chest, all sad and scared emotions coming out of her. "I missed you, mom," she said thickly, hugging her mother tightly.
"Me too, sweetheart. Me too."
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Oogie was feeling remorse. That had to be it. The bitter, horrible feeling inside him must have been guilt. Oogie had never felt this way for any other human being before. Andromeda was the first. Lock, Shock, and Barrel had come to ask him about her. He answered that he would never like a piece of scum like her ever, and that if they asked again, they would be the newest ingredient in his snake and spider stew. They left hurriedly. But, here Oogie was, trapped inside his own mind, thinking only of what he did to that woman who was so nice and genially courteous to him. Remorse. It was haunting the boogieman horribly.
No! he said harshly to himself. That you can do better than that little devil! You're the Oogie Boogie Man!!
But, said a softer part in his brain, the part that sounded an awful lot like Andromeda, maybe I don't want to be the Oogie Boogie Man anymore………
His conversation was interrupted by someone entering he room. A trapdoor that led outside opened. Jack Skellington stepped through. He looked furious. But when he saw Oogie, he smiled evilly.
"You're finished, Oogie," he said murderously. "Not just in my town, but for good. You kidnapped my daughter. It's time to pay. One word: TRAPPED!!
Me: Wow, Jack seems mad.
Oogie: I wonder why! Why do you torture me like this?!
Me: It's all part of the job. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that! Review, and you get to see if Oogie dies or not!
Oogie: Whoopee.
Andromeda: (hugging Sally) I love you for bring me back! Thank you, author!
Me: Don't mention it!