Disclaimer: I do NOT own The Nightmare Before Christmas, Tim Burton does. I made up Molly, and Vladimir, but that's it folks!

Author's Note: Sorry it's taken me awhile to update yet again, but life's been busy since I've become a Sr. in High School, and have been taking a class that gives you a job that pays you in school credits (cuz I needed them…) so by the end of the day I've been exausted. But on Friday in my Ceramics class we were watching The Nightmare Before Christmas, and since it's October, and I've been playing Oogie's Revenge some more, I've gotten into the mood to write! Thankies to my special helpers, Raptured Night, and Marissa! On with chapter nine!

Chapter Nine: Cure for Boogie's Bug

When the light of the pumpkin sun shone obnoxiously bright in Molly's face the next morning, she reluctantly forced herself out of bed and onto her feet. For some reason she didn't feel like facing the new day, especially if she had to grin, and bear another date with Vladimir. The only good part about those dates were that it kept her mother happy, and usually she could keep her from asking too many questions when she returned from them by saying that she'd rather not talk about it. To that, Jewel would seem like she understood, and then mentioned something about not kissing and telling being the best thing to keep the gossips away.

Not yet ready to start her day, Molly walked slowly to the door in her half awake daze, and was planning to pull the shade down on the window, until something caught her half open eyes' attention. The gate to the town was open! Suddenly the rag doll was much more awake, and didn't seem to want to crawl back into bed anymore. Actually, she rushed right to her new wardrobe, and with swift hands she began to search through the dresses that were made by Sally's hand, and paid for by her mother. She knew though that if she left the town wearing one of the elegant gowns that she would most certainly catch more attention as she traveled to Oogie's lair, than she would if she wore her regular leather dress. Besides, why would she have to impress Oogie? It wasn't like she wanted to, and he probably wouldn't care what she was wearing. He'd probably be angry with her for not showing up for so long without even a clue as to why she stopped visiting him.

Sighing as she began to change into her normal dress for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, Molly muttered to herself, "I'll just have to figure out some sort of peace offering later, after I explain the situation to him." Then a thought struck her mind, a thought about how she was suddenly so anxious to go see Oogie. At first when she returned, it was partially out of obligation to the promise she made him, and also because she wanted to challenge him to more games. Now though, it seemed without seeing him for so long, it had made her life go back to such a predictable, and simple one. Perhaps now she really was considering him more as a friend, and less of an angry bag of bugs that would come after her if she didn't return to his lair.

Once Molly finished lacing her boots, she practically flew from her room and out of the laboratory, heading towards the gate that opened her world up again to what really made her feel some level of excitement, before she would be trapped in the town again.

The Boogieman had forgotten how much fun it was to be evil, that after last night, he was even more driven to finding out just how he should get his revenge on the Pumpkin King, who still thought he was dead. Thing was, it was easier said than done, especially when the burlap terror was still on an evil scheme hiatus. He was glad when his henchmen came into Oogie's Billiard Parlor, and announced that he had a visitor. Each of the brats held a grin upon their face, so the burlap villain began to grin himself, thinking perhaps it was Vladimir returning for another round of Wheel of Torture. "Someone's here to see you boss!" they all said together.

"Well, by all means, show them in," Oogie replied, and when the children disappeared, and the leather clad rag doll stood in the doorway, he realized that it wasn't the Vampire after all.

Acting as if they had been seeing each other for the past two weeks, Molly smiled at him softly speaking, "Hey Boogie, ready to finally lose at pool today?"

Even though Oogie had been anticipating the return of her daily visits to chase away his boredom, he couldn't help but narrow his eyes at how she didn't even acknowledge her long period of absence. "Oh? Are you sure you even remember what pool is Doll Face?" he asked her with a tone of resentment. He then added in a softer, bitterer tone, "You seem to have a poor memory after all."

"Yeah, of course I remember," Molly replied, obviously getting defensive at Oogie's rudeness. She knew she had no right to be, after all, he did have a right to be angry, but she couldn't help but be a little offended.

A scoff came from Oogie, before he began to cough, something he had been doing since he woke up this morning, but didn't feel concerned about. "Is that so?" he began to say in a raspy tone due to the coughing, but then cleared his throat a bit to speak more clearly in contempt. "I guess that vampire lover-boy of yours didn't distract you too much then. At least you can still remember what pool is, even though that's all you remembered!"

"Lover-boy?" Molly repeated, her nose wrinkled a bit in distaste of Oogie's wording. Then it occurred to her what he meant. Vladimir. She hardly considered using him and the word love in the same sentence. "Wait, who told you about Vladimir?"

Knowing that he wouldn't dare tell Molly about the torture session he had with the vampire the night before, Oogie straightened himself out before telling her cautiously, "I have my ways. I am…" he was cut off from finishing his sentence when the urge to cough again came, and had to pause in order to do so several times. Once he satisfied that impulse, he then continued to say, "…the Oogie Boogie man."

Molly rolled her eyes the way he felt compelled to repeat whom he was all the time, and in her growing frustration with him couldn't help but speak her mind, "I can remember just fine who you are, especially after you say your name about a dozen times a day!"

Oogie scowled as she folded her arms over her chest, as if she had a reason to be upset. She had no right to be sassing back to him! "I figured I should make sure, since it's been awhile. I thought maybe you perhaps, oh I don't know, FORGOT me!"

"I'm here, aren't I? That means I DIDN'T!" the rag doll snapped back in irritation.

"What's wrong Doll Face?" Oogie asked in mock concern, "Trouble in paradise make you remember?" In her response, he hoped to find out in an indirect way if Vladimir had heeded his warning, and left Molly alone.

As the Boogieman began to have another coughing fit, Molly turned her back to him, too angry with him to pay attention to how much he was coughing. She could feel how her stitched lips were beginning to frown, and for some reason, she felt more upset that he was accusing her of not remembering him when she really thought of him every day. However, the doll didn't want to admit such a thing to Oogie. It would only make him more arrogant, or he'd scoff at her, and say she was lying. "I don't even see why I came back here to see you," she replied, frowning a bit more as she spoke.

Oogie glared at her back as she made it seem like it was his entire fault, and when he could finally stop coughing to speak again, he retorted, "I bet I do! Fang-boy wasn't around!"

Turning around to face him, making her raven hair whip around, she questioned, "What do you care about him anyways?"

"I don't," he managed to say between his coughing fit that was getting worse, and longer, with some of his bugs from inside his mouth falling out that he didn't notice right away. "I don't like it when people break deals with me!"

Molly's hair swept forward as she returned her gaze forward, her back still to him. She also hadn't noticed how Oogie had started to cough up bugs. "Well since you seem to know everything about my life, and how busy it's gotten, maybe you'll understand why I won't be coming back!"

At this statement, Oogie narrowed his eyes, hoping his hollow sockets could burn into her back. "Maybe I won't have to care, once I feed you to Betsy like I planned to do in the first place!" he declared, glad that he didn't have to cough to interrupt his threat.

"And maybe I should just go tell Jack everything about you still being alive, and how you tried to feed me to your spider!" Molly threatened back in spite, even though she knew she would never do it.

"I'd like to see you-" Oogie began to say, until he began to cough again, more bugs falling from his mouth onto the floor. He didn't take interest in this though, since he was too preoccupied in his argument with Molly.

Molly also continued not to notice either, since she continued to keep her back to him, upset with him that her greatly anticipated reunion took such a turn for the worst. "You just watch me leave! Good bye!"

As he saw Molly begin to walk away from him with the last word, Oogie couldn't stand it, and managed to croak out, "Wait, I'm not-" but that was all he could say before his horrible cough came back.

"Not what?" she asked harshly, stopping, but still refusing to look at him.

"Fin-shed," he managed to say, but it was barely understandable with how much he was coughing. Oogie narrowed his eyes even more in annoyance since he couldn't say all he wanted to.

"Then hurry up and finish," Molly snapped, trying to hide her hurt feelings with an impatient tone, "the morning is still young, and I could be doing something worthwhile."

Not able to answer because of his now hoarse coughing, Oogie's ire grew more; especially when Molly began to tap one of her small boot clad feet, almost to the point where he wanted to break her foot. When his coughing ceased for the moment, he thought of a better approach. In the time he had spent with Molly, he noticed that she was more prone to showing him sympathy when he made himself seem in need. One could guess it was just in her feminine nature. Whatever the case may be, it could just maybe get Oogie back into her favor, and keep her around without having to ask her to right out, and keep his pride in tact.

"Forgive me for being under the weather," he began, pretending to be hurt in a convincing way, or convincingly enough to make the rag doll turn her attention back to him with a curious glance. Grinning only mentally at how perfect a reaction he got out of her, to not give away his act, he continued to say as gloomily as he could, "But you wouldn't know about that, would you? Maybe you should just leave. I don't feel like putting up with your insensitiveness today."

With her anger melting away, Molly began to walk back to him, her emerald eyes showing a good amount of concern now, as she realized that he really didn't sound healthy. "How long have you been coughing like that?"

Backing away from her, to continue making his act seem genuine, Oogie responded in a dejected way, "Why should you care? It's not like you have been around to know that for yourself!" Now it was his turn to turn his back on her, and began to make it seem as if he was planning to walk into another room of his lair, but really he just wanted to have her stop him, with more concern for him in her attitude.

Oogie almost couldn't help making a grin when he heard her boots tapping sharply against the floor as she followed him. "It's not like I enjoyed those outings with Vladimir," she told him, not wanting to refer to them as dates. "I would have found a way to get out of them if the main gate wasn't locked off for the past two weeks." This caused Oogie to stop moving forward, and she heard him begin to mumble, though she couldn't understand what he was saying. "Didn't Lock, Shock, and Barrel tell you about that?" she asked curiously. When she heard him mutter about feeding those three to Betsy, she had a good feeling that they hadn't, and asked him again, "How long have you been sick?"

Giving a shrug, and trying to make the topic sound casual, since he couldn't very well admit that he got sick after torturing her supposed boyfriend, Oogie replied, "Oh, about a day."

"Didn't think a bag of bugs could get sick," she commented, before looking down and noticing that he had coughed up a large amount of bugs that were scattered around where they were once arguing. "You realize that you're losing your bugs, don't you?"

"No, I'm just on a new diet," he answered sarcastically, even though he also just realized this as well, and didn't want to show much concern over it.

Annoyed by how lightly he was taking his health, Molly gave him a slight glare, "This is serious! You could be really sick! Especially if you keep coughing up what you're made of."

This time Oogie could allow himself to smirk, and managed to keep it even as he coughed once. "Why, Doll Face, I'm touched."

"What caused you to get sick anyways?" she asked, her tone a little less strict, and more concerned for his well-being again.

Oogie was silent for a moment, before he shrugged again, having a feeling that what insignificant thing Vladimir said before he parted wasn't really so unimportant, he answered, "A curse I suppose."

Upon hearing the word curse, Molly's usually partially lowered eyelids receded back to show a look of surprise. "A curse! Which one? Tell me you remember it!" she cried out urgently, as if it were a matter of life or death.

Thoughtful about this, since he really didn't pay much attention to what Vladimir said the night before his skeletal minions tossed him into the Magma Maze, Oogie replied unsurely, pretty much guessing, "Regurg-itis thing?" Scratching his head, to see if it would help his memory, he continued to guess what the curse was. "Or was it regurg-otis?"

Molly began to ponder over some of the curses she heard about from the Witches, and when she heard some of the ideas Oogie was coming up with, she had a good feeling that she knew the name of the one he meant. "You don't mean Regurgitious Organious, do you?" she questioned in a soft, reluctant tone.

"Yeah, that's the one!" Oogie confirmed, "Knew there was a regurg in there somewhere." Although he was relieved to have figured out the name of the curse, it seemed to only further Molly's worry, which in turn, made him worried. Not wanting to show that he was troubled by her upset look, and by her frantically looking around for something, he stated, "I'm sure it's not that big of a deal," then asked hesitantly, "is it?"

Finally, Molly spoke, but didn't really answer Oogie's question, "We have to find a bucket!" she told him, almost in a panic, but she tried to stay calm. She wasn't sure how much time Oogie had to live, and what she needed to go was rush back to town and see if the witches would know, and have the ingredients for the cure to his curse. However, Oogie would need to put the bugs he coughed up into himself again, so they would need to collect all his bugs. Molly knew she didn't have time to do both. Lucky for her, Oogie's boys were peeking from either side of the doorframe, watching as the Boogieman and she quarreled. "You guys, find a bucket, and get all of Oogie's bugs into it, and find another for him to keep the other bugs he coughs up from now on into the second container. I have to go to the Witches' Shop as fast as I can!"

Oogie blinked, as his henchmen scurried around to do as Molly said, and watched Molly walk at a fast pace out of the room. Oogie followed, and asked her again by the door, "Is it?"

"I'll be back!" she replied, as she now began to run towards the hidden exit to his lair that she used whenever she came to see him.

Now alone, Oogie stood where he was, not sure how worried about this curse he should really be. "Is it?" he asked himself, then replied, "Nah, it's not. I'm going to be fine." Despite what he said to himself, Oogie held a worried expression.

It was in the afternoon when Molly finally returned to Oogie's lair, out of breath, with her leather dress having new rips at the bottom, and caked with dirt around where her knees were located under the dress. She was in luck when the witches knew what the recipe for the remedy of the Regurgitious Organious curse, but the problem was they didn't have all the ingredients for it in stock. So Molly ended up having to dig for slugs to collect their slime, and then collect various herbs that she didn't bother remembering the names of. After collecting the ingredients that were missing, the witches then gave her a slip of paper that had the directions on how to brew the remedy, and then Molly ran straight back to Lock, Shock, and Barrel's tree house, where Oogie's lair was hidden below the ground.

Now that she was inside of Oogie's lair again, she placed down the basket, and rested against the turning knob of the giant Roulette table in the torture chamber. Once she got a few seconds' rest, she brushed some of her hair from her face and called out as loud as she could manage, "Oogie, where are you?" She hoped that he was still alive, that the curse hadn't taken full effect, but she also couldn't hear him coughing when she came in, and was worried that it might have been too late.

When her call was replied with by several coughs, and Oogie's now raspy voice responding from the same room she had left him in, "In here Doll Face."

Her boots clip-clopped loudly on the stone floor after she retrieved her basket again, and hurried towards the sound of Oogie's voice, and didn't let herself give a sigh of relief before she saw him sitting down, holding onto a bucket the trick-or-treaters found for him, filled three fourths of the way with his bugs. Between her breaths, she said more to herself than to him, "Oh, good…" Taking about a minute to catch her breath again, she then headed towards the Boogieman's kitchen, now feeling pressed for time again to make the potion, and have Oogie take it. "The brewing of the remedy shouldn't take too long, I just have to heat everything up."

"By all means take your time," Oogie said to her retreating back in a dry tone, upset over the whole ordeal of being cursed, and because he thought she took too long to come back from town.

Once she was in the kitchen, she placed down her basket, and looked back, noticing that Oogie didn't follow her, like she assumed he would. "Come into the kitchen," she beckoned, "You'll need to drink the concoction right away," then she added, "and I'm not going to walk back to you and serve it to you. I'm not your maid after all." She heard him mutter from the other room, but he complied with her instruction, and took a seat at the table, which was set up to seat four, but could seat five if the occasion came up. "Where's a medium sized pot Boogie?" she asked him, a little impatiently.

"On top of the cabinets," he replied, annoyed that she was getting snippy with him when she should have been much nicer to him in his state of ill health.

Molly looked up to find exactly what she was looking for, but the problem was that she couldn't reach it, at least not without some help. "I can't reach that," she responded dryly, looking back at him with her eyelids half closed, expecting him to help.

"Then I suggest you find a way so you can," the ungentlemanly burlap sack replied uncaringly. "I'm sick, remember?" Oogie even conveniently coughed a few times to prove his point, even though he was probably capable to reaching for the pot.

Sighing, and wondering why she even bothered thinking that he would help her, Molly took hold of the back of one of the wooden chairs placed at the table, and dragged it towards the cabinets. Oogie didn't have any step stools, which would have been more suitable for such assistance, but he didn't complain when she used it to stand taller. Now she was able to reach the pot, but just barely. Plus, there were several other tin pots of various sizes placed very disorganized on top of the one she wanted. Rising up on her toes, she then reached one arm out so her fingers could grip the lip around the pot she wanted, while using her other arm to keep her balance. Moving it away as gingerly as she could, she noticed that no matter what, pots would come tumbling down on her. Not having the time to waste trying to avoid the inevitable, she pulled the pot with enough force to free it, but in turn caused the other pots on top of it to fall down around her, two of them even hit her temple and her shoulder, making her flinch and groan in response to the pain she felt.

Her lips formed into a frown when she heard Oogie chuckling behind her at her misfortune, and she even growled after he said, "You know you're going to have to pick those up and put them back later, right?" In Oogie's opinion, it was what she deserved, even though he knew now it wasn't entirely her fault that she had been missing in action for fourteen days. Aside from that, it was rather comical to see all the pots fall on her, in a sadistic sense.

"I don't have to make this potion for you," she stated, threatening him with narrowed eyes. Oogie grinned at her, but had to stop when he needed to cough again, and Molly stepped down from the chair. Moving the chair back to the table, and kicking the other pots that feel with her boot, she then headed towards the stove, placing the pot she had in her hand on top of it, and started one of the burners.

Oogie Boogie watched her as she prepared the remedy for him, silently enjoying that she was going to take care of him, but had no intention of thanking her. After all, she belonged to him; it was her duty to take care of him if he needed it. He shouldn't have to thank her for doing something she should have to do in the first place. Also, it was in a way her fault he got cursed, because if she hadn't been wasting her time with Vladimir, and been trying to loyally figure out a way to sneak out of town, even with the obstacle of a locked main gate, he wouldn't have had to torture Vladimir, and get cursed by him in retaliation. Although if he could be cured, it would have been worth it, since now he had Molly back, and Vladimir's attempt at revenge would have been in vain. It wasn't until the raven-haired rag doll handed him a chipped metallic cup to him that he snapped out of his thoughts, and realized she was finished brewing the remedy for him. He couldn't help raising his brows at the green yellow liquid that had had orange colored steam rising from it. "What is it?" he asked suspiciously.

A sigh of frustration came from Molly before she asked bluntly, "Do you want to be cured or not, Oogie?"

The cursed sack man glared at her for being snappy again, but only muttered incoherently before taking the cup from her hand and began to drink from it. He noticed Molly looking intently at him, the same way gourmet chiefs would as an important person was sampling one of their finest dishes. Sensing that she would want to know how he thought it tasted, he told her, "Hey, not bad." At this response, she smiled, a smile he missed seeing on her since he made her produce that expression with a few simple words. Oogie liked how he could be the cause of her mood, it was an empowering feeling of control he could have over her, despite how much she would state that he didn't have any.

"Good, because you'll have to finish drinking three cups of it in order for the curse to wear off," she told him before taking his now finished cup from him, and began to fill a second one.

"What's in it?" he asked before taking a drink of his second cup of remedy.

After he successfully finished the second cup, and handed it to her for his third, and final one, Molly responded as she filled it up for the last time, "It's a mixture of slug slime, several herbs, and fresh snot." Now she anxiously waited for his response, since snot, even in Halloween Town, was a bit of an acquired taste.

Oogie didn't seem to mind the snot though, "Pretty good, doesn't beat my Snake and Spider stew though, but still, not bad."

"That's good," Molly sighed as she pulled a chair back and sat across from Oogie. She had been a little sleepy when she had woken up, but hadn't gone back to bed when she knew she could see Oogie Boogie. Now she felt exhausted from worry, and from running around Halloween Town. She planted her arms on the table and rested her chin on her folded hands.

Curious, Oogie asked, "So, what brought you back here anyways, Doll Face?" He had no idea how she felt about Vladimir, if she cared about him or not.

"The same thing that always does," she responded softly, since she began to feel drowsier in this position.

"My charm?" Oogie guessed with a chuckle, knowing now that she had come back to see him, wanting to spend time with him.

"Being stuck in Halloween Town with nothing fun to do," Molly responded, giving a yawn.

"Boring huh?" Oogie was now amused, as she continued to confirm that she did enjoy spending time with him, and that he wouldn't have to force her to return to his lair each day.

Molly nodded a few times, "Uh huh. Those outings with Vladimir we so boring; he's even more conceded than you."

"Hey!" the boogieman pretended to be offended, but his grin gave it away, "Nobody's more conceded than me! Then again, nobody has as much reason to be. After all, I was once king of my own holiday." Starting to tell Molly again about his now forgotten holiday, which he had ruled with a tone of great pride, he placed down his cup for the moment. "Yep, Bug Day, perhaps one of the best holidays of all time, or it could have been, if those lousy humans hadn't forgotten about it!" He waited for Molly to agree with him, but when she was silent for several moments, he glanced at her with a glare, "Hey, I was talking." He stopped scolding her when he noticed that she had fallen asleep at the table. Her large doe eyes closed in peaceful slumber, and black lips curved into a small smile, partially open as she breathed softly. Oogie watched her curiously for a bit before finishing his last cup, thinking, 'I wonder if she'll notice if I move her. I've missed using her as my pillow, and sleeping off the rest of this curse would be a nice way to end the day.'

Once he finished drinking the last of his remedy, he then chugged the bucket of bugs into his mouth, knowing now that they would stay inside of him, and then got up to creep over to Molly. She continued to sleep, even when he picked her up carefully to keep her from waking up. Her body moved exactly the way a soft doll would, practically lifeless, and felt like deadweight once he had her in his arms. Grinning in triumph, he then continued to creep towards another room of his lair, the room he used when he wanted to sleep better. It wasn't extravagantly decorated like his other rooms, since he rarely used it, so he barely considered it a bedroom, especially since it lacked even a bed. But the lack of neon decorations kept him from being distracted enough to sleep when he needed to. Oogie placed Molly down on the floor so she would lay on her stomach when he reached this bland room, and then laid down, his head overlapping her lower back, using her as a pillow like he had several times before.

When she felt the familiar pressure of Oogie's head on her back, Molly's eyes fluttered open for a brief moment, but she was too tired to bother saying anything in protest, and let herself fall asleep again.

The sun was setting when Vladimir felt up to stepping out of the Vampire brother's manor, and headed out to see Molly for the last time. 'Oh well, it's not a total loss,' he thought to himself. When he once again found himself being greeted by Jewel, and asked to see Molly, Jewel informed him that she was not at home.

"She left this morning," she told him, "haven't seen her since. Perhaps she's at work, or on her way to see you."

"Yes, perhaps," Vladimir replied, and left to the Witches' Shop, only to find out that Molly was not there either.

"She was here this afternoon though," the Short Witch informed him, "wanting the ingredients for a curse's remedy."

Vladimir raised a brow, "A remedy for a curse?"

"Indeed," confirmed the Tall Witch, "We figured that she wanted it to help you, since we heard you were not feeling quite well last night."

Vladimir left the Witches' Shop after asking for which ingredients, and once the door to the shop closed behind him, he began to walk forward towards the town square with a thoughtful look. He knew now exactly what Molly had been up to that day. 'She went to cure that Oogie Boogie, and most likely saved him from the fate I had hoped him to have,' he thought with narrowed brows. But why? He was perhaps the most obnoxious creature he had ever met; yet she would go to his aid? Whatever relationship the two had, could most likely be easily severed. After all, Molly had quite the demanding mother, whom from what he noticed in his time amongst the Finkelstein women, held the power over Molly's actions. He could not help but smirk, as he began to think out what exactly he was going to tell Jewel, without mentioning Oogie Boogie. After all, the last thing he needed was a repeat of what happened to him last night.

Uh oh, that Vladimir is up to no good again! What exactly is he going to tell Jewel? And the story is only two pages shy of reaching One hundred! Oh well, the next one shall reach that milestone. And in the next chapter, the plot will thicken more after Oogie tells Molly the reason why he was killed last Christmas. Will it be the truth? Or his own twisted version of it? Stick around for the next chapter of The Nightmare After Christmas, and find out!

I'd like to thank the following for their reviews:

Raptured Night

Phantom's Bride

Jack's Sweetie

Beany

Moonliterider

Alena Jamie Aberdeen

Kaitlynn

Queen Freaky

Kiely

Phyllis Joy Wolfe

SomeKindofIdiot

Hearts Aglow

Thank you for continuing to follow the story, and thank you new readers for choosing to take some time to read this fic. Please, I encourage all who read to review, because I like to hear what others have to say about it. I hope to update again as soon as I can, because I'm getting to a part of the story where it gets exciting or it leads up to the excitement.

LaterZ,

Sydney Daimao