The next morning came far too early for their liking. The orange sun was beaming obnoxiously through the broken and boarded-up windows of the treehouse and the crowing of a skeletal rooster echoed in the distance. Lock woke up with a splitting headache, his nose felt all stuffed-up and his eyes were burning. Everything seemed to hurt as he groaned and rolled out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom, dragging his tail limply behind him. He looked into the cracked mirror hanging crookedly on the wall and couldn't remember ever looking this awful: his eyes were bleary and red-rimmed, their lids puffy and even more purple than usual. A pathetic little moan came from the tub and Lock leaned over to look inside and found Barrel still huddled at the bottom, curled up on his side and shivering a bit. "I feel sick." Barrel moaned again.

"Me doo." said Lock stuffily, rubbing his temples with his fingertips but then he stopped because it only seemed to make things worse.

"Ged oud of here, I dink I'm gonna hurl." came Shock's voice from the doorway. She sounded just as stuffed-up as her cohorts and looked just as terrible, the dark bags beneath her eyes worse than normal and her pale green skin was nearly white. Not wanting to witness Shock puking her guts out for fear that it might make them barf as well, Lock grabbed the box of tissues off of the counter and left the bathroom as Barrel heaved himself over the side of the tub and followed, dragging his stumpy feet all the way. Lock collapsed on the beat-up old sofa and closed his eyes, breathing heavily through his mouth and trying to will his headache to go away. Barrel didn't even make it as far as the sofa, he just curled up on the living room rug, whimpering pitiably to himself. They heard Shock retching from the bathroom and Lock wanted to plug his ears but his head was pounding and putting any extra pressure against it sounded worse than listening to Shock puking. Barrel stopped hugging himself long enough to rub his eyes - they were itchy and red and his mouth and throat felt dry and gritty, like he had eaten a bucketful of sand. "What's wrong wid us?" he whined after a few moments.

"I bet id was dat stupid Not-Christmas-Down dat made us all sick…" Shock answered from the doorway, walking slowly and stiffly and pinching the bridge of her nose with her fingertips. "Everyding smelled and felt funny dere." She lay down on the ratty old sofa next to Lock, who was trying to blow his nose but having minimal success - he was just too stuffed up.

Barrel let out an enormous sneeze from the floor. "But Jack wend dere and didn'd ged sick." he muffled, rolling onto his front. He spotted a candy bar that had somehow ended up under the sofa but looking at it made him feel even more sick to his stomach.

"Jack didn'd go wherever we wend, he wend to Christmas Down, remember?" Shock corrected him.

"And besides, Jack's a skeledon, dey probably can'd even ged sick!" Lock said angrily, deciding to blame Jack for their predicament. Why didn't he warn them? And not only had the Pumpkin King not told them that the funny-smelling air in that ridiculous pastel world could make them sick, but then he had yelled at them for making an honest mistake. Nobody in this stupid town ever appreciated them, it seemed, and right now the last thing Lock felt like doing was following any orders from stupid old Jack, no matter how scary he could be. "I'b going back do bed." he muttered, balling up his useless tissue and throwing it. "Catching Sandy Claws can waid."

"Me doo." said Barrel. He sneezed again, then followed that up with several hacking coughs.

Shock nodded weakly from the sofa as she pulled the tattered throw blanket over herself. "I'b staying here. I need do be near duh bathroomb in case I need do puke again." The boys nodded back at her before trudging to their respective rooms and collapsing back into bed.

Their illness lasted several days and the children barely left their beds except to check and re-set the traps to send their daily offering down to Oogie Boogie - they couldn't skip that duty no matter how sick they felt or else the Boogie Man would beat them and then they would feel even worse. After the third day Shock felt just barely well enough to heat up a small batch of soup and bring bowls to both Lock and Barrel. She was the oldest, after all, and felt it was her duty to take care of them since they were so little and helpless. The boys accepted the soup gratefully, the warm, nutritious brew giving them strength and soothing their tummies. On the fifth day they sat on the sofa together, sipping the last of the soup and planning their next move.

"Okay," said Lock, now feeling considerably less stuffed-up and mostly headache-free. "Here's the plan: we're gonna go to town and tell Jack what happened, then we'll tell him we're not gonna run his stupid errands anymore! He can't boss us around!" Barrel and Shock exchanged looks: Barrel looking scared and Shock looking exasperated.

"B-but, he's the Pumpkin King!" Barrel stammered. "We can't tell him that, who knows what he'll do to us!" He looked terrified at the very thought.

Shock turned her exasperated face to Lock. "Exactly. We can tell him what happened, but we still have to fetch Sandy Claws. I don't want to get beaten black and green, and besides that do you want Jack and everyone else to think we're a bunch of sissy crybabies?"

"Only sissy crybabies take orders!" spat Lock, even though that would mean the three of them were always sissy crybabies because they took orders from Oogie all the time.

"No, only sissy crybabies chicken out just because they got a stuffy nose!" Shock sneered at him, dabbing at her own nose with a tissue.

Lock frowned at her but he knew that his cohorts were right. He didn't want to imagine what terrible ways Jack might punish them if they disobeyed and he also didn't want Shock to think that he was as weak and pathetic as she and Barrel were, so it was up to him to be strong and lead the way, as always. "Okay, here's the plan:" he repeated. "We're gonna go to town and tell Jack what happened and then we're gonna ask and see if there's anything he can do so we don't get sick again."

"And we should research this Christmas Town a little more." added Shock. "Jack had a bunch of books and stuff at the Town Hall, we should read them and see if it tells us anything so we're more prepared and don't screw up again."

Lock rolled his eyes. Reading was such a boring waste of time. "Okay whatever, you can waste your time with that, I'll be doing more important things."

"Like what?" said Shock, half disdainful and half curious to see what he would actually say.

"You know… stuff."

"Sure." She rolled her eyes. It was just as she'd suspected, Lock didn't have any other important things to do at all. What important things could a bossy, annoying little devil possibly have to do?

"Can we do all this tomorrow?" chimed in Barrel, sniffling a little bit. "I still feel kinda crummy."

"We'll go at the end of the week." said Lock. "That way we're sure to be all better." The other two nodded, then they all finished their soup and headed back to bed.

On the eighth day they finally all felt pretty much back to normal like Lock had predicted, so after a big breakfast and sending the offering down the chute they donned their masks, grabbed their slingshots and headed for town. It felt good to stretch their little legs and walk, finally able to breath in the pleasing scent of death and decay in the open air through their un-congested noses. The Christmas-related activity in town had drastically escalated since the last time the trick-or-treaters were there: everyone was hurrying about, hanging up strings of lights, green wreaths, garlands and other garish decorations. Most of the decorations were truly ugly and the children again wondered what madness had possessed Jack to make him want to do this, but they couldn't help feeling excited by all of the hustle and bustle anyway. The countdown clock on the Town Hall had a sign that read 'X-Mas' hanging in front of the usual 'Halloween' and they noted that according to this clock there were still twenty-seven days left until Christmas. "Plenty of time!" Lock said casually, gesturing towards it. Barrel was watching Harlequin with great interest - the demon had a pile of dead rats in front of him and was smashing them flat with a mallet, and then forming them into a sort of shallow bowl shape and stacking them to the side. Barrel couldn't comprehend why Harlequin would be doing such a thing, but he thought the flat rats looked kind of neat and made a mental note to try and steal one later.

"I don't see Jack," said Shock, standing on her tiptoes to try and see better through the crowd, but to no avail. Just then the fat little corpse kid went waddling past them, holding a box wrapped in orange and black paper.

"Hey kid!" Lock shouted at him.

"You know my name's Ethan…" the corpse kid mumbled, refusing to look directly at them. All the other kids in town were afraid of the Boogie Boys - they were bad news, and Ethan's parents had warned him on many occasions to stay away from them. But ignoring them when they were speaking directly at you wasn't an option, because if you did then they would beat you up or worse. Ethan would never forget the time they had held him down and pulled the stitches out of his eyes. It hadn't really hurt, but it was embarrassing and getting them sewn back in wasn't very much fun.

"Yeah, we know your name, we just don't care!" Shock said meanly, and Barrel giggled.

"Where's Jack?" Lock demanded, putting his hands on his hips and puffing out his chest aggressively.

"Last time I saw him he was by the fountain." Ethan said quietly, still looking at the ground and keeping the gift-wrapped box between him and the Boogie Boys. Luckily that seemed to satisfy them and he let out a sigh of relief when without another word the terrible trio turned away from him and walked in the direction of the fountain.

They did indeed find Jack at the fountain talking to the lagoon monster about something, and the children were glad that there were plenty of witnesses around now that they were returning to Jack empty-handed after more than an entire week - hopefully Jack wouldn't beat them up in front of everybody for not succeeding at their mission yet. Jack wasn't mean like Oogie Boogie was… he had never hurt them before, but he had said that their mission was a top priority so maybe them still not completing it would make him mad enough to hurt them now. Lock took a deep breath and mustered up the courage to speak - as the leader he knew it was his duty to take the fall because Shock and Barrel were just too weak and pathetic compared to him, and they couldn't take a beating the way he could. "Jack," he said in his bravest voice, "We need to talk to you." The Pumpkin King turned away from the lagoon monster to look down at them, and fortunately he was smiling.

Shock stepped up beside Lock, worried that he would say something dumb and get them all in even more trouble then they probably already were. He was always mouthing off and saying stupid things, so as the cleverest of the three of them she knew it was her duty to keep the boys from saying anything that might make things worse. "We haven't caught Sandy Claws yet, but we're still trying! We'll get him!" she said.

"Please don't hurt us!" added Barrel, trying to be brave but still hiding behind Shock's dress a bit.

Jack raised his brow in surprise. "Why on earth would I hurt you?" The kids just shrugged and Jack frowned. It concerned him when they said things like that. He had been suspecting for some time now that something wasn't quite right over at the treehouse, but until fairly recently he had only thought that perhaps Oogie Boogie was just rather neglectful of the children by not teaching them manners, setting good boundaries or feeding them on a regular schedule… but now he was starting to wonder if they weren't being physically hurt as well. Scaring them into obedience was one thing, but Jack had noticed the way they flinched and backed away from him even when he was only being stern and now considering what Barrel just said evidence supporting this troubling theory was starting to stack up. It would have to be thoroughly investigated and dealt with, and soon. In the meantime however, Jack would try to be a more positive adult influence. "I'm not going to hurt you, just keep trying and do your best. But remember: your job is very, very important, so you must succeed." He paused… they already seemed frightened enough so he decided to try flattery, hoping that making them feel special would be just as effective as scaring them. "That's why I chose the three of you to do it, no one else in Halloween Town is as crafty and clever as you are." His words seemed to have the desired effect because even though he couldn't see their expressions from under their masks, their postures straightened up from cowering to proud.

"We will, Jack." said Barrel, now sounding considerably less afraid.

"But there's one problem we have to ask you about," added Shock.

"Whatever place we went to that wasn't Christmas Town made us all sick. That's why we haven't talked to you in so long." said Lock.

"So we want to ask if you know how to keep us from getting sick again when we get to Christmas Town for real." finished Shock.

"Really?" said Jack in surprise. "How sick did you get?"

"Really sick." the three of them answered in unison, then Barrel added:

"Shock was puking!"

"Hmmm…" Jack scratched his chin. It was a strange thing for them to say, but he couldn't figure out any reason why they would invent such a lie. Christmas Town hadn't made him sick, but who knew what was behind the door that the children had gone through instead? Plus they weren't skeletons like he was - hardly anything could make Jack feel ill but he knew that wasn't necessarily the case for devils, witches and ghouls, especially very young ones. He decided to believe them, and tried to come up with the best solution. Finally he decided, "Very well. I am sorry you got sick. Why don't you go see Sally and tell her what happened, and ask her - nicely - to make a protective potion for you to take before you go again? She's very gifted with herbs and potions, I'm sure she'll be able to help. I think you can find her at home at Dr. Finkelsteins' laboratory." The trio nodded in understanding. They hated taking medicine, but they hated being sick even more.

"One more thing," said Shock.

"Yes?" answered Jack.

"Well, since we made such a big mistake by catching Not-Sandy-Claws, can we borrow some of your Christmas books and stuff to look at? To make sure we get it right this time." she said, and Lock had to work hard to keep from rolling his eyes. He had no idea what Shock was expecting to learn from reading a bunch of dumb books, but she was such a stubborn witch that he knew it was useless to argue. Barrel was secretly a bit curious to see the books as well. The excited buzzing of the town was contagious and all of the colorful boxes and decorations were intriguing despite some of them being rather ugly, and he was starting to wonder more what this Christmas was all about.

"Of course!" Jack said happily. Any resident of Halloween Town showing interest in Christmas delighted him, and he hadn't been expecting it from these three which made it extra delightful. "Go up to the Town Hall stage, I have a whole trunk full of books about Christmas and Sandy Claws there! Tell the Mayor I sent you and that it's okay for you to borrow some of them." The kids nodded even though they doubted that the Mayor would believe them when they said Jack had given them permission. But they didn't really care what the Mayor thought and he didn't scare them one bit, so they would just take the books anyway whether he believed them or not. "Is there anything else you need?" The kids shook their heads. "Very well then, off you go!" Jack said cheerfully, and the trio turned away and headed towards Dr. Finkelstein's laboratory. "Be polite when you talk to Sally! If you are rude, I will find out about it!" he called after them, and the kids turned around and gave him a thumbs-up before disappearing into the crowd.

The laboratory was almost as far out of town as their own treehouse was and they had to walk quite a ways just to reach the gates, then they still had a long and arduous trek up the hill to reach the laboratory itself. It was a tall, imposing building made of stone with a large metal dome on top, with several tall lightening rods sticking out of it. It had caused quite a stir in town when the doctor had created Sally and the children enjoyed speculating about all the weird and creepy things he might get up to in there… Dr. Finkelstein was definitely creepy but he didn't scare the kids too much. Sure, he was smart, but he couldn't get around very well in that wheelchair so he'd have to catch them first in order to do anything awful to them. They arrived at the door to find the doorbell far above their heads and out of reach. They couldn't reach the door handles, either, so they couldn't have let themselves in even if it wasn't locked. Lock pounded his fists against the thick doors with all his might, but it barely made a sound so he turned to his companions and said, "Alright, time to make a tower." They got into their well-practiced positions: Shock braced her arms against the door, then Lock clambered onto her back to stand on her shoulders and then Barrel climbed up the both of them like a monkey up a tree. Standing on his tiptoes on Lock's shoulders, Barrel was just barely able to push the doorbell and the deafening ring just about toppled their little tower, but they hung on long enough for him to push the doorbell one more time. After a few minutes the door creaked open and the doctor's assistant, Igor, let them inside.

"What do you waaant?" he asked, glaring at them suspiciously with his single, bulbous, yellow eye. The trick-or-treaters snickered a bit to themselves remembering the time they had managed to sneak a laxative into his box of bone biscuits, and judging by the look on Igor's face he was remembering it, too.

"Jack sent us here." said Lock.

"To see Sally." added Shock

"For medicine." Barrel finished.

Igor studied them carefully for another moment, then said, "Wait heeere." and staggered up the stairs. When he was out of sight the trio looked around to see if there was any trouble they could cause that wouldn't be noticed immediately, but the entryway was completely barren. Shock tried to loosen up a few of the screws in the plate-metal wall but they wouldn't budge, so they gave up and just took some pebbles out of their pockets and flung them against the walls with their slingshots, hoping to make some dents in the metal. It didn't leave any dents, but it did make a cool metallic 'ping' sort of sound that echoed all the way up the tall tower. After what felt like forever, Sally came lurching down the staircase to meet them. They had never really interacted with Sally much except for that one time they had pushed her down the Town Hall steps just to watch the rag doll fall apart, so they thought they'd better introduce themselves and at least pretend to be nice just so she wouldn't give them bad-tasting medicine or even poison them. Most of the time the doctor kept her locked up in the tower, but when they did see her around town she was very quiet, and the kids thought she'd probably be an easy one to play more tricks on… but just because she seemed quiet didn't mean she might not give them something bad-tasting or poisonous so the children took off their masks and tried to look well-behaved.

"Hello, Miss Sally." said Shock in her sugary-sweet tone of voice. "I'm Shock, this is Lock, and this is Barrel."

"Hello, Shock, Lock, Barrel." said Sally, nodding to each of them in turn. "It's nice to meet you all properly." She remembered them pushing her down the stairs very well, but it hadn't bothered her too badly. It was embarrassing to fall apart in public, but it certainly didn't hurt and she always kept her needle and thread handy for just such incidents. Besides, they were just children and deep down she rather envied them their freedom and boldness. Plus they were such cute little monsters that Sally couldn't stay mad at them for one little prank. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

Barrel didn't know exactly what that phrase meant, but he thought Sally seemed kind and also looked rather pretty up close so he smiled shyly up at her and said, "Jack sent us."

Lock knew what the phrase meant and thought that Sally was sort of pretty, too, but he also could tell right away that she was most definitely a weak, push-over sap who would be perfect to play more tricks on once they didn't need her for medicine anymore. "We need you to make us some medicine." he said in his most charming voice.

"Please." added Shock, sweetly. She thought Sally was rather pretty as well - she liked her long red hair and her multi-colored, multi-patterned dress, but decided to reserve further judgment until they'd interacted with her more.

"Oh, are you sick?" Sally asked, sounding concerned.

"Not anymore, but we were." said Lock.

"We went through the wrong door." squeaked Barrel, now feeling very shy indeed. Sally wasn't sure what he meant until Shock clarified:

"We were supposed to go to Christmas Town for our top-secret, top-priority mission but we went somewhere else on accident and the air smelled funny and when we got home we were sick for a whole week. Jack said maybe you can make us a potion to take before we go to Christmas Town for real, so that it doesn't happen again."

"Jack said that you were the best at making potions and herbs and stuff." added Lock, turning on as much charm as a six year old devil was capable of. Sally's cheeks felt a little warm at hearing Jack had said such a thing about her and she smiled a bit bashfully at the children and said:

"Of course, I'm happy to help as best I can. Please follow me." They trailed along after her up some stairs and into the kitchen, and she gestured to a small table with two spindly-legged chairs. "Please, sit down." she said, pulling a nearby three-legged stool over to the table as well and the kids each took a seat. "Would you like a snack?" Sally asked them in a very kind voice.

"Yes." said Barrel. Whatever was in the oven smelled extremely delicious.

"No." said Lock automatically, but when Shock glared at him he remembered he was supposed to be acting well-behaved. "I mean, yes." he corrected himself.

"Please." finished Shock.

Sally smiled and opened up the oven and pulled out a tray full of cookies very similar to the one that Jack had showed them when he told them they'd gone through the wrong holiday door. "I've been practicing making them for Christmas. Tell me if you think they taste okay, won't you?" She put the cookies onto a large plate and set the whole thing down right in front of them, and the children immediately dug in. They hadn't realized how hungry they were until just that moment and the cookies really were delicious. Plus they were shaped like little people so it was fun to bite off the heads and limbs and imagine the cookies screaming in terror. Sally poured three glasses of witch hazel tea and then opened up her herb cupboard. "What exactly happened when you were sick? How did you feel?"

"Awful." Lock mumbled with his mouth full.

"Our eyes got all puffy and itchy, our noses got all stuffed up and our throats hurt…" Shock said between bites.

Lock swallowed his enormous mouthful of cookie and added, "Everything hurt."

"And Lock got a really bad headache, Barrel couldn't stop sneezing and coughing, and I threw up a bunch."

Barrel didn't say anything, he was too busy trying to eat as many cookies as possible before Lock and Shock could eat them all, and they had covered their symptoms pretty thoroughly so he had nothing else to add.

"Hmm… maybe it was some sort of allergic reaction…" Sally murmured to herself, then started pulling ingredients out of the cupboard and icebox and began mixing something up on the stove. The kids had finished their tea and just about polished off the last of the cookies by the time she finished pouring some sort of potion into three little vials. "Here you are," she said, handing one to each child. "Try taking this an hour before you go to Christmas Town. It will strengthen your immune systems so hopefully you won't get sick, or at least not as sick." Then she handed a larger bottle to Shock. "Here is some extra, in case you need to go to Christmas Town more than once. Just take the same dose, understand?"

"Yes, Miss Sally." Shock said sweetly, secretly pleased that Sally had given her the bottle to carry - surely that meant that Sally had correctly picked her out as the smartest, most responsible of the three of them.

"Thanks." said Lock, cramming the last cookie into his pocket for later while Barrel wasn't looking - he was too busy grinning up at Sally again. 'What a moron,' Lock thought to himself. Barrel was almost as big of a sappy weakling as Sally seemed to be.

Sally led them back down the steps to the front door and waved to them as they left. "Good luck in Christmas Town!" she called after them. She was a little bit concerned about why Jack would be sending them there… what top-secret, top-priority mission could three slightly-naughty little children have to do for the Pumpkin King in a foreign land? But she decided to trust Jack's judgment despite her misgivings about this whole Christmas endeavor of his, still hoping against hope that her premonition was wrong.

"She's nice." Barrel wheezed when they finally got all the way back down the hill.

"She's a wimp, that's what she is." sneered Lock, rubbing a stitch in his side. It was really too much walking and too many stairs for one day, and he was starting to feel cranky because on top of that he'd eaten too many cookies.

"Well, wimp or not, let's hope she's as good with potions as Jack said she is." Shock said a little breathlessly. It was getting late and the sun would be setting soon, so the three of them decided to head home. Dealing with the Mayor and reading a bunch of Christmas books sounded like way too much work after all the hiking around they had done already, and so soon after being sick - plus now that they knew they had twenty-six whole days until Christmas their mission felt a lot less urgent. They were stuffed so full of cookies that they didn't bother to try and steal any food for dinner, they just trudged slowly back to the treehouse, bemoaning the fact that they'd chosen to walk instead of taking the tub.