Disclaimer: I do not own The Nightmare Before Chirstmas, Tim Burton does. I made up Molly but that's about it.
Author's Note: Thank you all who reviewed this fic so far! So far no negative comments. Oh and by the way, I forgot to mention this in chapter one, but this fic is dedicated to one of my best friends and my first Super Duper Helper, Marissa! This is for you Mar, the biggest Oogie fan I know!
Chapter Two: Betrayal of Boogie's Boys
Meanwhile, underneath the tree house where Lock, Shock and Barrel took up residence in, the lair that belonged to the supposedly deceased Oogie Boogie, had a visitor. It was a spider about the size of a golf ball, and it was scurrying around the lethal contraptions down in the foreboding casino like lair. The curious spider stopped crawling when it got near an iron maiden before it was suddenly snatched by a burlap hand. "Ooooh! You'll be a perfect addition to the stew!" a boisterous voice commented with a soft menacing laugh.
The giant, fully restored burlap sack full of bugs began to walk towards where he had a large pot over a fire and tossed the spider visitor into the boiling pot that was filled with a mixture of other randomly found spiders and a few snakes. The innocent spider tried to surface from the scolding hot stew desperately in its attempt to escape, but it didn't take very long for it to give up and sink into the rest of the stew, causing a little bubble after it was fully submerged. Another soft chuckle escaped Oogie as he watched with an unsettling amount of enjoyment. The boogie man then took a wooden spoon and stirred up the boiling contents of the pot before he tasted it. A deep rumble came from his chest in a satisfied sound, "Mmmm! Another perfect batch of Snake and Spider stew!" he declared in triumph, throwing his arms up in the air like he did something that seemed impossible. After several moments of standing in that position, Oogie sighed and let his arms fall down to his sides, while his shoulders dropped as well. "The third perfect batch I've made in the past two days…" he added with a bit of annoyance to his tone.
"We're BAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!" announced the three small children, Lock, Shock, and Barrel in unison after they got off the large old fashioned bird cage elevator that came from down the side of their tree house to the back entrance of Oogie's lair. As his three henchmen came to line up in front of him, Oogie stood with his arms folded over his chest with an impatient look on his face.
Lock and Shock tried not to notice the look on Oogie, while Barrel noticed the freshly made stew. He, along with Lock and Shock, loved it whenever Oogie made stew, and it was usually a reward for them, though the Boogie man had been making it a lot recently. "Ooh! Stew again!" he stated with a wide smile, earning him a smack on the head from both of his cohorts.
Putting on a devious looking smile, Oogie asked as he placed down the spoon and began to rub his hands together in a diabolical way. "So, what news have you three brought me today?"
"Uhhh…" Boogie's boys began to look at each other nervously since they had nothing to tell their intimidating leader.
Lock decided to answer first, "Nothing new has happened in the past day."
"Everyone's still preparing for Halloween." Shock added.
"Can we have some stew?" asked Barrel as he grabbed the spoon Oogie used to stir with and was about to get a taste until Oogie smacked it out of his hand, causing the shortest of the three children to back away and stand with the other two.
"That's what you've been telling me for the past two weeks strait!" Oogie yelled with a frustrated growl. "Does it take the three of you all day to go into town and realize that there's nothing new going on!"
"W-well…no…" the three stuttered, taking a step back, which only caused the Boogie man to advance closer to them.
"Well then…" Oogie began in a soft tone before he yelled, "…WHAT DOES TAKE UP YOUR TIME THERE!"
Before Lock and Shock could tell Oogie a quick lie, Barrel replied, "We go to visit our friend Molly." Right after Barrel spoke those words, Lock, and Shock gave him death glares, since they went into town to not really get reports for Oogie, but to spend time with the rag doll. The three of them greatly preferred Molly's company to Oogie's, since she came up with all sorts of fun pranks to pull while the Boogie man seemed to be in a rut with his own evil plans.
"Oh, your friend Molly, huh?" crooned Oogie with a suspicious sounding interest. "Well then…why don't you invite your little friend, Molly, over to…play?" He asked, emphasizing on the name of the rag doll and the word play with a sickening niceness that almost made the Boogie man nauseous.
Lock, Shock, and Barrel all knew what Oogie Boogie really meant was that he wanted them to bring Molly to his secret lair. No doubt he would make sure that afterwards, they would never be able to visit her again. The only people who ever escaped Oogie's torture chamber were Santa Clause, and Sally last Christmas, and that was with the help of Jack. "W-when did you want to…meet her?" they all asked, fearing that they already knew the answer to it.
"How about right now?" suggested Oogie, though the children knew it was more of an order, despite the way he said it. "Invite her over for a little slumber party…one that she'll never want to leave! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Reluctantly, the children nodded and responded, "Y-yes your Boogieness…we'll go get her as soon as possible." They knew not to question the Boogie man, who might decide to make them into his next batch of stew.
The children did not speak a word to each other as they rode in their walking bathtub until it crossed over the bridge and headed towards town. "I can't believe you had to open your big mouth and tell him about Molly!" scolded Shock as she began to choke Barrel without warning.
As Barrel began to turn blue in the face from lack of air, Lock pushed Shock back to stop her then smacked Barrel around himself. "Now Oogie's gonna kill her!"
With a guilty look, Barrel replied, "I-I didn't mean to! Can't we just…not get Molly?"
"NO!" the other two shouted, causing the shorter child to cringe.
"If we did that, then Oogie Boogie would do what he would do to her, to us instead!" Lock stated with a frown.
Shock then added fiercely to get the point across, "It's either her, or us! Do you like snake and spider stew enough to become part of one!"
Barrel shuttered at the thought of being put into a boiling pot, and thought of how he preferred to watch other things to be thrown into them. "N-no!" With a sigh, the boy then stated, "I'm gonna miss Molly…" The other two malicious children nodded in agreement with sad frowns.
(OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO)
While these events were taking place, Jewel and Molly were sitting down at a table that was placed in the lower level of the Laboratory on the far end where the stove was. As usual, Dr. Finkelstein was eating in the room where he participated in experiments with Igor, leaving Molly to eat alone with Jewel again. "Well, dig in Molly! It's your father's favorite tonight! Worm's Wart soup!"
Molly looked down at the green liquid in the cracked bowl in front of her. The side of her mouth curved downward before she asked her mother, "Can't we ever have something like…Snake and Spider stew?"
This suggestion didn't seem to please her mother, "That's an acquired taste Molly, and you know your father and I hate that stuff. I have no idea why you like it."
With a sigh of defeat, Molly then picked up her spoon and took a sip of soup. No matter what it was she would suggest for her mother, if she didn't like it, then there was no way of it ever happening and it seemed that every idea she had, her mother didn't like. There was a long period of silence between the two creations as they ate, until it occurred to Molly that perhaps her mother would have an idea about Oogie Boogie. Jewel always had an opinion about everyone in the town, which was often critical, including her opinion of Jack. "Mother?" the raven haired rag doll inquired softly to catch her attention. Jewel looked up from her bowl, her eyes focused on Molly completely. "You know everyone in Halloween Town, right?"
"Ha!" Jewel scoffed in an arrogant way, "Of course I do! Being the most social woman of this town, I should hope so!"
"Then you'd know Oogie Boogie, right?" Molly asked, perking up a bit. Since it seemed that nobody wanted this person to be remembered, her mother would definitely know the reason to why.
"Who?" Jewel replied, giving a puzzled look to her daughter.
"Oogie Boogie." Molly repeated, her excitement toned down a little, "You know…right?"
The blonde shook her head, "Sorry dear, I'm afraid I don't know a Boogie character. Perhaps he left before your father made me." Taking another sip of soup, she then added, "You should ask your father, he'll know, he knows everything!" At this comment, Molly rolled her eyes at her arrogant mother who had a superiority complex, since she was sure that her father knew a lot, yet not everything. If he did, then he wouldn't have let Sally slip poison into his food so much in the past.
After Molly finished the rest of her meal silently, she excused herself and began to climb up the metallic railing up to the highest part of the laboratory to visit her father. When she entered the room, Igor was the first one to notice her, since her father had tuned out everything and focused on the experiment he was working on. Igor gave her a smile that would make anyone want to cringe because of how crooked his teeth were. Molly however, was use to his smiles. "Master…" croaked the hunched back assistant to catch the doctor's attention, "…it's Molly."
Dr. Finkelstein stopped what he was doing and turned his wheelchair around to face his daughter. He smiled, "Ah, if it isn't my favorite daughter!" he declared, "Just what brings you up here my dear?"
Molly smiled when her father called her his favorite daughter, since she knew that he actually preferred her to Sally. She had gotten into a lot of mischief, and swindled the townsfolk on several of occasions, but she never poisoned his food. That was what kept her in his good favor. "I got some questions for you daddy, and I think you're the only person who's going to give me answers. Who is Oogie Boogie? What happened to him? Why isn't he in town anymore?"
"Ha ha!" Dr. Finkelstein laughed as he shook his head a little. "My dear, you are quite inquisitive today, aren't you? But that's proof that you're my daughter. Now, it's not really about who Oogie Boogie is, more like, who he was."
"Was?" Molly blinked taken aback a little. "You mean he's…?"
"Yes, the Boogie man is no longer with us." Her father nodded as he confirmed Molly's assumption. "But that's a good thing really. Those no good brat friends of yours, no offense, use to sneak into my lab to steal inventions of mine! Don't know what for. As far as I know, he never really lived in town, and he was dealt with last year around Christmas by Jack."
Molly seemed disappointed at this news, "Oh."
"Any other questions my girl?" her father asked, popping the top of his head open and scratching his brain inside.
"No, it's okay, thank you daddy." Molly replied smiling a little before she turned to leave.
Dr. Finkelstein turned his wheelchair back to his work and responded, "It is not a problem my child. If you have any more questions, don't be afraid to ask."
After visiting her father, Molly went back to her room and flopped onto her bed with a depressed sigh. It was too bad that Oogie Boogie was now not around, it would have been interesting to meet someone new around the predictable world she lived in. Maybe he would have posed a challenge in a game of cards, or perhaps he would have been another sucker for her to dupe. Sadly, she would never know. Something puzzled her though, why would Jack want to do away with a member of their world? Her father never really stated that he did anything wrong, except maybe send Lock, Shock, and Barrel to steal some things from his lab, but that didn't sound like a crime punishable by death. If that was the law, she would have been dead a long time ago.
As she thought to herself in silence, a small tap on her window broke the silence and caught her attention. Sitting up, she looked to her window, where she thought she heard the noise coming from. There was nothing there. Raising a brow slightly, she continued to watch the window until something was tossed at her window again, making a tap identical to the first one. Someone was trying to get her attention outside. Getting out of bed, Molly then walked over to the window and opened it. First she looked around to the sides, then up, then finally down to see her three juvenile friends.
Smiling sincerely down at them, she then realized that it was actually a little late for them to be visiting her; at least it would be to her mother. "What are you guys doing here?" she asked in a hushed voice, trying to speak loud enough for them to hear, yet not loud enough for anyone else inside to listen in.
The trio were standing inside of their walking bathtub smiling up at the rag doll woman they called friend. "Common Molly!" Shock responded, sounding excited about something.
"We got something we want you to see!" Lock added, sounding just as excited.
"It's at our tree house, and you got to come right now!" Barrel stated with a jump.
Molly looked behind her to see if there was a silhouette under the crack of the bottom of her door. When she saw that there was none, she then looked back down at her friends again. "Okay fine, but this better be really good!"
"Oh it's to die for!" Shock replied.
The rag doll had no idea that the death part of Shock's statement was literal, so her smile grew as she closed the window.
(OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO)
In order to get out of the house, Molly told her mother that her father instructed her to run an errand for him to get some more Bone Biscuits to feed Igor. Lock, Shock, and Barrel made room for her to sit inside the bathtub with them, though they got to sit on her legs since there wasn't much room for all four of them. "So what's this great thing you just have to show me right now?" she asked with a chuckle, looking down at Barrel, whom she knew would spill the beans about whatever it was.
"Uhh…" Barrel looked hesitant to answer, and glanced at the other two for help.
"You're just going to have to wait and see!" Lock replied with a grin.
Shock then added, "We think you'll really like it!"
When they reached the tree house, they let Molly enter it first. She looked around inside their playroom, but didn't notice anything that looked amazing. "Okay, so what is it that you wanted to show me?"
The three children looked to one another before Lock pointed at the chute that was painted with white paint to make it look like a monster. "Look into that opening and you'll see what we're talking about!"
Molly gave them a skeptical look, but shrugged her shoulders, not sensing any harm in just taking a look. "Alright." The rag doll then stuck her head into the opening of the chute. Looking around, all she saw was darkness. "I don't see anything you guys!" she stated with a cross look on her face. "Is this some kind of joke?"
"No it's not a joke!" Shock responded. "Keep looking!"
A groan came from Molly, "You've got to be kidding me." She sighed to herself and crawled a little more inside the chute so that part of her torso was inside. Still, all she saw was darkness wherever the long pipe lead to. "You guys, this isn't funny, I'm going home." It was then when she suddenly felt all three of them shove her all the way into the chute, causing her to slide head first through the pipe.
Once she reached the end of the pipe, she fell and hit the ground hard on her stomach. "Oof!" was the response she made to her not so graceful landing before lifting herself up. Once on her feet, she dusted off her dress and straitened it out a bit before she glared at the pipe from where she came from. "LOCK! SHOCK! BARREL!" she shouted up at the now closed off pipe, shaking her fist at it. "WHAT ARE YOU THREE TRYING TO DO? KILL ME!" Not knowing that they had just sent her to her doom, she then looked around for an exit, until she realized what her surroundings were. Green eyes widened at all the things around her. So the three hadn't lied when they said there was something interesting to see.
While Lock, Shock, and Barrel tricked Molly into traveling down the chute to get to his lair, Oogie Boogie had been occupying himself by throwing his red pair of dice around another part of the lair. After throwing the dice for a time that he had lost count of, he looked to see his result, and it was yet again, snake eyes. While the snake emerged from the hole of one dice to slither into another hole on the dice with a mocking hiss, he narrowed his burlap brows with a snarl. Before he had time to curse his luck, he then heard a feminine voice yelling in his torture chamber. With an evil grin, he realized that it must have been that Molly his henchmen mentioned before. Picking up his dice again, he started to walk quietly towards the torture chamber, to get a look at the person whom kept the three trouble makers coming back to town to see her.
Making sure that he was hidden in the shadows, he then peeked inside the room and his empty sockets widened a bit. Here he had been expecting a little girl around Shock's age, but there standing on the roulette table was a rag doll woman. The raven haired beauty was admiring the dangerous contraptions around her that were modeled after things in a casino. "Wow…I can see why he had Lock, Shock, and Barrel steal some of daddy's things…" she said to herself in wonder.
Molly then looked down and noticed she was standing on a giant roulette table for the first time and laughed as she twirled around, giving Oogie a better view of her front and her face as well. The sides of his stitched mouth curled and his snake tongue stuck out of the side a little before he said softly to himself while raising his brows up a few times. "Oooh yeah….Oogie likes!"
The unsuspecting Molly was looking at the three slots men that shot real guns while Oogie was creeping up silently behind her. As he advanced towards her, he continued checking her out until he was a few feet behind her. "Wicked…" she murmured to herself with a grin, causing the Boogie Man's grin to grow more.
"Glad you like it." Oogie spoke softly, causing the rag doll to let out a gasp and jump slightly, much to his delight. When she turned around, her green eyes widened, surprised that she hadn't noticed how dangerously close the glowing neon green burlap sack had gotten to her. Placing his arms on both sides of her body to pin her against the wall, trapping her between the brightly glowing wall of his casino lair and his body, Oogie leered at her with an evil look in his eyes that he hadn't had in the longest time. "Because you…" he began to get his face closer and closer to hers, as his smirk widened, "…are never leavin'!"
(OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO)
Oh no! What's Oogie going to do! How's Molly going to escape the evil clutches of the Oogie Boogie Man! Guess you're going to have to find out in the next chapter! I hope you all enjoyed the second chapter, I've been working on it diligently for a day since we've got a three day weekend. I'd like to thank my two Super Duper Helpers, Marissa and SexySaiyanSakura for helping me with the chapter and even on the chapter title! You guys are awesome, and that's why this chapter came out so well!
I would like to thank the reviewers for the prolog and the first chapter:
SexySaiaynSakura
Marissa
Moonliterider
Jack's Sweetie
Sorry, but I won't really be answering your reviews directly anymore to save space, but I truly appreciate your opinions! Thanks again! Don't forget all you old and new readers to Read and Review!
LaterZ,
Sydney Daimao