Musically: I feel bad for Victoria. Maybe I should tell her that Jack's not dead...

Victoria: What?

Musically: Um, nothing! KEEP RUNNING!

Screams came to Victoria from the tree house. Her vision was now blurry and disfigured from all of her tears, but somehow she managed to keep herself on the right track as she sprinted down to Oogie's lair. She slowed down as soon as she saw the opening in the trunk. It was barred, but the poles were just far enough apart that she could slip through them without much difficulty. Her face was flushed from running so fast. She could feel her pulse slowing down from such a rapid rate, but it gave her quite a headache.

Victoria wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. Another scream came from the torture chamber, and Victoria could immediately tell that it belonged to Sally. She lifted a hand to her chest. Her fingertips pressed down, and the hard imprint of her golden locket gave her the tiniest bit of faith. If Jack was dead, and the whole rest of the town hated her, she couldn't get back to the real world anymore. There wasn't anything to lose.

Within seconds, Victoria was sliding through the bars and entering the lair. Damp air weighed her down, making her sluggish and drowsy. Though the passageway was dark, she could see green mold and slime seeping down from the walls, and bats flittering around the ceiling above her. She ducked down a little more. Squeaking mice scattered when Victoria came close, withdrawing back into the shadows. Soon, a light appeared in the distance.

Victoria raced towards it. She could see Santa and Sally on a metal slab in the middle of the room, and Oogie was moving in front of them while tossing something up into the air. As Victoria edged closer, she could see that it was a pair of dice. A bubbling pit of lava was simmering at their feet, and she could see that they were being set up in a trap. Their voices became clear as soon as Victoria came right up to the rim of the tunnel.

"You wait until Jack hears about this! By the time he's through with you, you'll be lucky if you…" Sally began. She was cut off by the Mayor's voice, which was calling out from above them.

"The King of Halloween has been blown to smithereens. Skeleton Jack is now a pile of dust."

Sally gasped in a mix of shock and sorrow. Oogie laughed cruelly and leaned over Santa, shaking the dice in Sally's face. He tossed them in the air and caught them casually while talking smoothly to her.

"What's that you were saying about luck, rag doll?" he asked. Sally burst into another fit of screams while Oogie chuckled perversely.

"Let them go, Oogie!" Victoria called from the tunnel. Oogie whipped around in surprise, while Santa and Sally looked at her hopefully.

"Well, well, well! What have we here? Little Victoria Dalton, huh? I've been expecting you, girl. Why don't you come in and make yourself comfortable?" Oogie said, holding out his chubby arms as far as they would go.

"I'm not doing anything until you get Sally and Santa off of that thing!" Victoria shouted defiantly. Oogie shrugged and started to walk over to the metal slab where Santa and Sally were, reaching towards the rope that held them. A small feeling of relief entered Victoria. He had actually listened to her! The feeling almost instantly evaporated when she saw Oogie draw out a small, wooden chest from behind the slab and open it.

An emotion that hadn't come to Victoria in almost over a month had returned as she saw what crawled out of the box. A flash of orange, and then another of black escaped the chest. They materialized into two giant, clawed hands after Victoria could see clearly, and the long-lost feeling of fear crept into her soul again. There wasn't even time to scream. The hands launched themselves at her and gripped her tightly, not giving her any time to move.

They lifted her up and pulled her towards Oogie Boogie, who was smiling cockily. The black hand moved just enough so that she could talk, but it squeezed her throat uncomfortably. Still, she managed to choke out a few words to the evil man.

"These are yours?" Victoria spat.

"Uh-huh! Surprised, aren't you? You see, I knew that you would be here all along," Oogie told her. Victoria's glare never faltered, but instead looked him straight in the eye (or at least, where there should have been an eye).

"What are you talking about?" Victoria asked with a strained voice. Oogie snapped his fingers. The hands released their grip on the girl, dropping her to the floor. She got up quickly and massaged her sore throat while Oogie beckoned to her.

"Come here," he demanded. The smooth, smarmy quality in his voice had disappeared, leaving a harsh command in its place. Victoria looked back at Sally and Santa, who were staring anxiously back at her. Her face hardened again when she felt Oogie shove her forwards. Behind the slab was a cauldron that was not unlike the ones the witches had at the Christmas celebration. The image reflected in the water was Victoria. It was Victoria, running from the hands at the graveyard on that fateful day that changed her life. She stared into the water, caught in a kind of trance as Oogie spoke to her.

"You see, Victoria, I've been watching you. You're a little bit different than the people in your world, aren't you? You know it. You've never been real interested in that kind of Christmas joy trash, have you? Never quite fit in with the rest of the crowd, have you? The black sheep. Yes, that's you to a point!"

Victoria turned around to face him. Her face was burning, and her eyes had a fiery spark to them.

"What's it to you?" she said coldly.

"Well, I have been looking for something a little bit different," Oogie replied. Victoria raised an eyebrow in confusion, but then looked down as she felt something tugging at her ankles. She gasped. She hadn't felt the hands tie a rope around her legs; she had been too busy listening to Oogie's hateful words.

The boogie man pressed a button near the slab, making Victoria get swept off her feet and into the air by the rope, which withdrew into the ceiling.

Victoria soon found herself dangling over a different lava pit. She was upside down, and her brown hair was hanging down about a foot from the bubbling magma. Heat rose from the lava, making her sweat slightly. From her point of view, she could see a pair of fat, sack-like legs waddling towards her, and she rolled her eyes.

"Something a bit different for my recipes, that is," Oogie laughed. Victoria could see his big stomach shaking as he laughed, and she tried to thrust herself towards him, to somehow claw through his thick skin. He backed off a little, and brushed a hand by her head. Her white hat fell off her head, plummeting towards the lava below. It sizzled and disintegrated before her eyes, and she unwillingly let out a gasp. Oogie chuckled and turned around to face Santa and Sally.

"There, now. Everyone settled in? Good!" Oogie said mockingly. He threw the dice at a nearby skeleton. The cubes rolled through an eye socket and dropped out from the jaw, landing on a lucky seven.

"Seven! It's Oogie's turn to boogie now," he announced arrogantly. Sally screamed as he reached for the lever. He pulled on it, counting as he did so.

"One, two, three, four…five, six, seven!"

The slab tilted slightly with each turn, bringing Santa and Sally closer to the boiling orange lava.

Santa moaned, "This can't be happening!"

"Help!" Sally yelled, but no one was there to answer her pleas. Oogie retrieved the dice from the table and started walking around, openly mocking his prisoners.

"Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust. Oh, I'm feeling weak…with hunger!" he taunted. He strode over to Victoria, who still eyed him with a hate-filled glare.

"I wonder what humans taste like. Hopefully, you won't be too gamey!"

"Bite me!" Victoria snapped. Oogie laughed mirthfully.

"There'll be time for that later, my darlin'. For now, I have to get rid of the appetizers," he said. Oogie tossed the dice into the air and caught them again, rattling them in his hand.

"One more roll of the dice oughta do it," he reasoned. He threw the dice on the table, and two single dots appeared on the top. Oogie looked them over. A scowl grew on his face as he realized he had gotten a square two.

"What? Snake eyes?" Oogie roared. He pounded a fist on the table, making the dice roll over to form a perfect eleven. A wide grin replaced his frown as he walked over to lever.

"Eleven! Looks like I won the jackpot! Bye-bye, doll face, sand man!"

Victoria turned away as she heard Sally's screams and Santa's protests, knowing that eleven cranks of that lever would send them both to their deaths. As she did, she was faced with the upside down image of Jack Skellington's skull.

"Jack!" Victoria whispered in awe. His Santa suit was gone, leaving his blessedly normal pinstripe suit in its place. A concerned expression was on his face, but Victoria could tell he was just as happy to see her as she was to him.

"You have to save them," she told him quietly. Jack nodded, and he stayed to the shadows as Victoria turned around to face Oogie.

"Stop!" Victoria screamed. Oogie looked up for a split second, just enough time to let Jack sneak into the right place. Oogie cackled maliciously as he cranked the lever to its full potential, making Santa and Sally slide down to the lava. He waited expectantly for the sound of sizzling or crackling, but it never came.

"What the-" he muttered. Oogie pressed a hand down on the slab making it turn the other way. He faltered as he saw Jack appear before him, backing away as Jack came forward.

"Hello, Oogie," Jack said smugly.

"J-J-Jack! But they said you were dead!" Oogie stammered, stepping backwards.

Jack had seemingly cornered the boogie man, but then Oogie smirked and stomped on a nearby button on the floor.

"You must be double dead!"

Steel playing cards rose up from the roulette wheel on which they stood, revealing kings and jacks of every suit. Sally and Santa, who were standing safely in the back of the room, gasped. Knife blades protruded from the cards and began to swing wildly around. Jack gasped and moved quickly to avoid them.

"Woah!" he exclaimed. Oogie laughed raucously.

"Well, come on, bone man!" he said, as he pressed another button. The cards and the knives both sank back down into the wheel, but strange slot machines that were designed to look like cowboys were heading rapidly towards him. All of the three had a pistol that they held at Jack. Oogie pointed at them when Jack faced them.

"Fire!" Oogie yelled. Bullets began to shoot rapidly at the skeleton, who had to jump up onto their arms to avoid getting hit. Jack was tiring, but he tried not to show it. He continued his wild dance routine until Sally screamed.

"Jack, look out!"

Jack whipped around just in time to see an enormous circular saw coming straight for him. He leapt out of the way, and then he watched as it cut off the cowboys' arms. Oogie now realized he was fighting a losing battle. In a sort of desperation, he leapt for the rope that held the lava mixer. It rose rapidly into the air, and he laughed and waved as he began to escape.

Oogie called, "So long, Jack! I might miss out on dinner this time, but there's always the next!"

Victoria could see a small thread dangling from Oogie's arm. Jack seemed to notice it too, because he grabbed it and tugged it. A few bugs fell from the loose thread, and Oogie gasped in terror.

"How dare you treat my friends so shamefully!" Jack bellowed. Oogie shook his head in disbelief as Jack threw the thread into the lava mixer. The thread ripped out of his burlap skin, wrapping around the lava mixer and stopping it completely. All that was left of Oogie was about a million bugs, all of which were rapidly falling onto the floor or into the lava.

"Now look what you've done! My bugs, my bugs, my bugs! My bugs!" Oogie screamed. Soon, all that was left were the bugs that had retreated to the shadows, and one little green beetle that was crawling towards Santa. Santa crushed it with the toe of his boot, and then he came out of from behind the slab to face Jack. Jack seemed to be prepared for Santa's anger.

"Forgive me, Mr. Claws. I'm afraid I have made a terrible mess of your holiday," he apologized.

Santa eyed him suspiciously, and then he grabbed his hat and put it on as he said, "Bumpy sleigh ride, Jack? The next time you get the urge to take over someone's holiday, I'd listen to her!" He jabbed a thumb in Sally's direction. She blushed furiously, and she tried not to meet Jack's gaze.

"She's the only one who makes any sense in this insane asylum. Skeletons and boogie men," Santa muttered.

"I hope there's still time," Jack said. Santa looked at him with an almost offended expression.

"To fix Christmas? Of course there is. I'm Santa Claus!"

With that, Santa laid a finger aside of his nose (like in a certain poem Victoria had once read) and up and out of Oogie's lair he rose.

Sally walked up to Jack's side and laid a comforting arm around his shoulder.

"Don't worry, Jack. He'll know what to do," she assured him. Jack looked at her fondly, but with a strange look of surprise on his face.

"How did you get down here, Sally? And you, Victoria?" he inquired.

"I was trying to, um, well, you know…"

"We couldn't just leave you hanging. Like someone I know!" Victoria said, holding out her arms. Jack nodded and untied Victoria, lifting her out of the way so she wouldn't fall into the lava.

"Thanks," Victoria said as she brushed herself off. Jack turned back to Sally, who was still blushing.

"Sally," Jack whispered, "I can't believe I never realized that you…"

"Jack! Jack!"

The three of them spun around to see that the Mayor and Lock, Shock, and Barrel were standing in the entrance. The children were smiling triumphantly as they told the Mayor that they were right.

"Here he is!"

"Alive!"

"Like we said!"

The Mayor threw down a rope to all of them, and then Jack grabbed it with Sally held close to his waist. Victoria got a hold of the rope as well, and in an instant they were pulled up to the world above. Soon, all of them were in the Mayor's car and on the way to safety.

They all talked happily as Jack and Sally relived the tale of their near death experiences. Victoria, on the other hand, looked out the window as the trees and ground rolled slowly by her. The moon and stars were out to greet her as she looked up to the sky. She gazed at them fondly as she slowly drifted off to sleep.

Musically: You guys need to take her home. Now.

Jack: Are you sure?

Sally: She was so nice.

Musically: Well...okay, she stays for a few more minutes. Next chapter, though, she's out of here!