Through The Hollow

Chapter 7

Jack sat up in bed again for his day. He was very excited about this day. It had taken her another two months but Yulee had finally convinced the mayor of Halloween town to allow Jack a day off. The fat man's decision had been made for the fact that Jack had progressed much farther than he had first anticipated and he was quite proud. Because of this Jack was allowed one day to wander the town before he had to continue work.

He took hold of his clothes and slipped out of his bed outfit, which he had bought not too long ago. Although sleeping in a birth outfit was comfortable it didn't really seem too practical nowadays. Jack slipped his tuxedo on and walked down the stairs. He didn't much feel that he had any use for eating anymore and he could not longer taste as many foods as he used to be able to. Yulee had given him a strange food that she had taken by quietly slipping into the human world. She had called it a hotdog. He found it strange to eat man's best friend but he did as she said. He couldn't taste the bread at all. All Jack could tell was there were the condiments and he could taste the meat only when it was hot. The mustard, he found, stood out profoundly. He discovered that day that, although he could not taste too many foods like bread, he could still taste the foods that would have stood out to him if he were still alive.

There was a screech at the door. Jack had, still, not had any time to fix the doorbell but it was growing on him with each ring. He found that after two months he could stand it and perhaps only jerked slightly if he was doing something that took concentration like stacking cards or reading. Other than that he seemed to be fine with it.

Jack opened the door and there stood Yulee. She was smiling at him from under her long, black bangs. The rest of her hair was tied up on her head that day and she was, amazingly, wearing a blue t0shirt. It was dark blue but blue nonetheless. Jack had never seen her with anything other than black on. He raised a finger to speak. She raised one in turn and made him stay quiet. "What do you say to someone in the morning?"

"Good morning."

"No." She flew up and knocked him on the scull a few times. He could hear the ringing even though he had no ears. It was like an echo seeing as he was now hollow. "Nowadays people say either 'Hello', 'Hi', 'G'morning', or 'how ya doin?' Got it?"

"I think so…"

"So. Hi Jack."

"… G'morning?"

"Right!"

"I find that to be an awfully strange way to speak. Slurring words like that? It makes me sound like Thomas. He always had a problem with slurring words that didn't seem like it was possible for them to slur. Good Morning. I never thought that it was possible to slur that until I met him. He said that I have good grammar and yet here I am speaking just like him."

"You'll get used to it. Are you ready to go? Leon's coming with us. We're meeting him at the fountain in the centre of town."

"Oh really? Leon's coming?"

"Didn't I just say that?"

"Yes. You did. But I thought that he would have a lot of work to do."

Yulee shook her head. "No. Not really. If you ask me, it seems pretty easy being the pumpkin king. All you have to do is scare people once a year, put on a performance the same day and then it's smooth sailing all through the rest. The mayor acts as though Halloween is the most important day of the year. In my opinion, it's your death day."

"Don't you mean birthday?"

"No. We don't celebrate birthdays in Halloween town. We celebrate death days."

"I guess that only makes sense."

"When did you die?"

"If memory serves… I died on Halloween."

"Lucky! That's the best day to die!"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You say that as if dying is a good thing."

Yulee fluttered back to the ground. She put her legs together at she placed one hand on her elbow and the other on her lips with her index finger rubbing against the side of her small nose. "Well, I don't think that death would really be considered that. It's just that when I was alive I always though that Halloween would be the best day to die. I heard that on Halloween, if you were to die, it was only inevitable that you would come to Halloween town."

"Really?"

"Ya."

Yulee led Jack down the stairs and through the gates of his house to the town square. The streets were busy with monsters and ghouls bustling about all over the place. Quite a few of them stopped when Jack came out with Yulee. They starred at the Dark Guardian and then at the skeleton with a questioning look. They all knew that Dark Guardians were not allowed in the city but the newcomer had gone ahead and done it. Most considered that he did not know the law seeing as he never spoke to anyone. Others went ahead and assumed that he was a troublemaker and had broken the law on purpose.

Jack caught their stares. His shoulders hunched up close to his chin with discomfort. The staring eyes pierced through him hard. Yulee merely continued on to the fountain. She reached it, leapt up and patted the side for Jack to sit down. He shook his head and decided to stand.

Many more stopped moving.

It was like everyone was watching him. Starring at him.

Jack was able to catch a few words of what they were saying. There were two witches speaking to one another in the corner and he caught on to what they said. "… Does he not know that Dark Guardians are banned from the town?" came the voice of the smaller one.

"Regardless if he does or not Leon will be mad at him. He'll probably destroy that dark guardian too. It's a shame. She looks like such a nice one too."

"Yes. It'd be a shame to lose another. Did you know that they're all disappearing from the forest?"

"I heard. What do you think is causing it?"

"I'm not sure, but have you noticed that Maggie isn't around either? She disappeared right after the dark guardians started to. It's all so strange."

"Yes, very strange."

Jack leaned in to Yulee's ear as she flicked the water about with her fingers. "Are you sure that Leon said you could come into town? No one seems to know."

"You were there. You heard him. He said, 'I really enjoy spending time with you Yulee. I don't remember why I ever banned dark guardians in the first place. It was such a ridiculous thing to do. How would you like to come back to town?' and then I said, 'oh, really? I'd love to! The forest is getting way too dangerous,' and then he said, 'yes, I heard that all of your kind was disappearing.' And then I said, 'ya, it was a good thing the mayor came and found me,' then I covered my mouth and then he smiled and said, 'don't worry. You haven't gotten him in trouble. I'm glad he went against me because if he didn't I wouldn't have ever gotten to me you.' Then he rubbed my head and said, 'it's settled then. You come into town this coming Saturday and you and I can walk Jack around the town. He needs it.' And then you said, 'I would really love that sir,' and then he said, 'I told you not to call me sir. I said to call me Leon.' And then…"

"I think I remember now."

"Are you sure? Because I can go on."

"How old did you say you were?"

"Dead or alive?"

"All together."

Yulee counted and added up the numbers in her head. "412."

"Well you act far below your age."

"That's what everyone says…"

"That's what everyone should say." They both looked up to see Leon. The mummy had on a golden chest plate and he had moved his bandana so it was sticking up in more of a point at the back. He smiled at them from behind his bandages and Jack and Yulee smiled back at him. "Hello to the both of you."

"Hi, Leon."

"Hello."

The monsters, ghouls and ghosts in the area starred in disbelief. There was Leon, the pumpkin king, and then there was the dark guardian girl. They were in the same area so close that he could have touched her head but he did nothing. The pumpkin king merely stood there and smiled at her. The newcomer, Jack, stood up and shook Leon's hand in welcome. The mummy took it, patted Yulee's head and then led them through the town for a good day. The crowd that had gathered when silent and then ghosts turned even whiter with surprise.

---

Jack put his hands on the glass and peered into the store. It was small and there were brooms all in the windows. He could see different designs and beautiful patterns that covered the handles. Some had bars and some were coated with metallic additions. Yulee told him that metal brooms were the way of the future but some witches preferred the old ones just the same. It was usually just the teenagers that decided to buy the metal ones.

Leon was standing behind them and peering in as well. He couldn't see as well so he came up right beside Jack and pressed his one visible eye to the glass. He looked in as well. They could all see a figure whipping around in the store. They could tell that it was a witch using magic to move faster.

There was a bang as the shadow smashed against the window and beat a broom on the glass. "Get away! You're fogging my windows!" She cast a spell and the glass popped out of its hinges and flipped so that the side they had been leaning on was facing the inside of the store. The three jumped back immediately at the surprise and watched with interest as the witch moved away. A pink, furry animal with three, green eyes took her spot. It bounded up against the window, stopped in mid air, and rubbed away at the spot they had pressed their faces against and then snorted as it followed the witch back into the darkness of the shop.

Leon laughed. "That a witch for you. So wrapped up in spells that they can't even be polite when their leader comes to take a look in their shop. She's very lucky I'm not my old self or this store wouldn't exit anymore."

Jack and Yulee laughed.

---

The three came out of the sweet shop and Leon casually popped another chocolate-coated bat into his mouth by pulled away at one of his bandages. Yulee licked at her candy apple and Jack drank something that Yulee called 'a can of soda.' He felt that it tasted good and it was a vibrant flavour so he could actually tell that he was drinking something. The part of drinking that always surprised him though was the fact that the drink never spilled onto his clothes after he swallowed. Never. But he counted his blessings and added that as one of them.

Jack thought for a moment. "Leon?"

"Yes Jack?"

"Is it possible for a person to stay in their graves for around 200 years?"

Leon stopped and practically chocked on his food. He leaned down and beat at his chest. Yulee's candy apple went all the way into her mouth and she spat it out onto the ground in a hurry. The dark guardian fell to the cobblestones and sat there with her hands on the ground, behind her back as the pumpkin king straightened himself a little more. Leon looked up at Jack. "W… Why? Did that happen to you?"

Jack nodded.

Yulee looked up at Leon with a worried face and Leon looked back down at her. Jack caught on. "What? What's wrong? Is that bad?"

"Well…" came Yulee's voice, "It's not… completely bad… It's just a little disconcerting. Um… When you died. Like… how did you die?"

"I was shot and then stabbed and then I bled to death."

"Nothing else was used?"

"Well… after I was stabbed I went into the forest looking for the witch that lived there. I used to always help her out because she convinced me that she was a white witch. And she was. So I would always help her when it came to collecting what she needed to a spell or something because she couldn't do it on her own. Anyway. I went to see her and I collapsed in the swamp… and then… um…" Jack rubbed his scull with one, bony finger. "I don't remember much after that. All I can recall is a lot of pain… and then I woke up in the real world but 200 years later."

Leon rubbed his chin. "I don't see how that would put you in there for such a long time."

"Ya," said Yulee, "The only one that could have done that would be the witch you went to see."

"She wouldn't do that. She said that the spell would take a while but I think that I was meant to end up here, in Halloween town because I jumped back in my coffin after some boys dug me up and I fell into the fountain."

"Interesting…" Leon helped Yulee to her feet. "I have no idea what could have done that."

"Maybe you were meant to be a zombie. You know how they're always staying in their coffins too long. Maybe you were just in there so long that you lost your rotting flesh." She giggled to herself.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Well, if you can't think of what did it then that's all right. It doesn't really matter. I just wanted to know if it was a common thing. I guess now I know."

Leon and Yulee laughed lightly. Jack frowned a little but they didn't notice. It hadn't been meant to be a joke.

---

"Goodbye Jack. I hope that you had a good day with us."

"Oh, I did Leon. Thank you very much."

"And what am I? Chop liver?"

"A big thank you to you as well Yulee. I much appreciate what you two did for me today. I had much fun."

"It wasn't much. You'll be at work again on Monday all right? I had the mayor give you Sunday off as well. We have some training for you on Monday at noon all right? I'll come by you at the graveyard." Leon nodded farewell to Jack and then walked down the cobblestone path with Yulee to lead her back to the home she had acquired in the town.

Jack waved goodbye to them. He was about to enter the way to his house when he caught sight of someone out of the corner of his eye. The figure was limping and nearing him. Jack turned his head to the figure.

It was Billy. The zombie that he had met in the graveyard. He wondered why he was limping. Billy seemed fine when he walked away.

"Billy! It's great to see you again. It's been quite a while. Where have you been?" The zombie only moaned and neared closer to Jack. The skeleton raised a brow. "Are you feeling alright? You don't look all right. Is there something that I can do to help you?"

Billy just moaned again and neared closer to Jack once more. His left leg was dragging behind him and his skin, rotted as it was, seemed more torn and limp on his bones than it should have. His shirt was nearly torn off and was hanging by only a few pieces of fabric. He didn't look like himself at all. Not that Jack had known him all that much but he did know that Billy seemed to be a clean person when he met him, despite the fact that he was a rotting corpse.

While wrapped in his thoughts Jack felt a twang of pain that erupted on his arm. He looked down in fret as Billy released his limb. The zombie had bitten him. Jack pulled back with surprise. "I may be dead but I can still feel pain!"

The zombie did not listen to him. He let his head flop to the side and he limped down the street with glazed eyes as thought he had been drained of life. (Excuse the term used.)

Jack starred after him as Billy rounded the corner and headed for the graveyard. What a strange way to behave to the skeleton that had saved him from a long time of solitude in his coffin. Jack rolled up his tuxedo and looked at his arm. His clean bone was slightly coloured but he took no notice to it. He was a skeleton and being a ghost couldn't be worse in the least. He turned on his left heel and headed into his house for a good night of sleep before morning.

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Brooke: All right! Chapter seven up! And I got a new review! So far, me and my friends here want to give kudos to everyone that sent me a review! Thank you all!

Impmon: The first one to thank is the first to send a review, Neon-Dusk.

Brooke: I give a lot of thanks to you. You were the first person to review even though about 140 people had read the first part already. You were the only one out of those people to send me a review and I'm glad for that. Thank you.

Fiendmon: Ok, the next one is crazygurl2010.

Brooke: Thank you. I'm glad that you loved what I had so far. It's always good to hear that someone loves something that you've done.

Jack: Ok, now we have… PacketOfPocky.

Brooke: Thank you for that wonderful review. I was so happy when I got it that I actually hugged someone. Do you know how weird that is for me? I am truly happy that someone that hardly submits reviews did one just for me. It makes me feel so much better inside and I thank you.

Zim: The last review we got is from Just another hopeless romantic.

Brooke: OK, I have no idea what the hell OC means, (pathetic, I know) but yes, Jack does meet Sally in this story. But not for a few chapters. She's still yet to be created, lol. As you can see the concept of why he was in the coffin is discussed in this chapter but it will not be revealed until I get further in. As for what he was doing in the coffin… sleeping. Why do you think Jack always has so much energy? He slept for 200 years and now he's wide-awake and dead! LOL.

Batty: Thanks for all the reviews people!