Oogie Boogie's Prisoner (Jack x Oogie Boogie Fanfic)

Chapter One - The Disappearance of Dr. Finkelstein

Jack goes to visit Dr Finkelstein but he does not answer and the door swings open from the hinges. The laboratory , usually well-kept and busy with work, was now empty of the doctor and the room was wrecked. Bugs crawl. On the desk, over the piles of papers; through all the scientific instruments spilled onto the floor, the bugs scatter and fill the space where the doctor should be. Jack thinks until he shudders, then worries until he's gotten idea of what caused such a strange scene. Jack ran. Through the streets of the town, his long legs stretched the lengths of road until he at least reached the end and it was not paved anymore. He traveled further than this; into the land which became barren and sour, devoid of life and the spiraling cliffs are gray and dull and crumbling at their curves. He ran until he was met at last with a tree, jagged and ugly; gnarled roots protruding from the ground as if it tried to escape this miserable place. Dead thorny bushes are the only other life, and in another place they might have had chance to bloom into roses. Bugs crawl all through the landscape; Jack touches a branch and bugs cling onto his boney fingers, not knowing man from branch. Jack shakes them off, then searches for what he came all this way for: Dr. Finkelstein, alive or dead, in distress or in safety- If there is one place that he could be, it would be here. Jack crawls down a crude tunnel and lands in the center of a roulette wheel carved from the belly of a cave which drips of nitrite and smells of vices.

"Oogie Boogie!" Jack announced unafraid, standing on the eight-ball and holding onto the chain that keeps it suspended in the center. He waited. For any response, any instance of shadow that took shape against the wall, any crawling of bugs or hissing snake, Jack was listening.

"Well, well, well..." was the reply. It cackled and teased, "What do I owe the pleasure of your presence, bone man?"

"Where is Dr. Finkelstein?" Jack demanded, looking around to try and find the voice of Oogie Boogie. It came from everywhere: it filled each little crevice of the gambler's cavern and reflected from the walls, the small pebbles rattled and the mechanics seemed to twitch despite being out of service.

"Show yourself" Jack's demands were overwhelmed in strength and intensity by Oogie Boogie's unrelenting cackling.

Jack felt a tapping on his shoulder, it was the feel of a rough lumpy cloth, and it was Oogie Boogie standing behind him. Jack was not scared, and at last the boogeyman ceased his laughter as he was unsatisfied with jack's stoicism.

"What brings you to my lair, boy?"

"You know why I'm here. You're up to no-good, and I won't let you get away with it."

"Ain't I always up to no-good?" Oogie Boogie teases. Jack does not reply, but steps back and off of the eight-ball. Oogie Boogie watches him; his creases of black set carved out from a crudely stitched-together rag, it makes Jack shiver but he hides it- daring not to make any movement, or any sound, that could amuse the monster standing over him.

"So, you want to know about the Doctor?" Oogie Boogie said at last, breaking the silence. "I may be able to tell you, I also might not. What do you have to give in exchange for thisssss~ information?" his snake-tongue hissed.

Jack sets himself straight onto the casino wheel, standing firm despite the worry, and growing agitated with the lack of cooperation. Jack should have known that Oogie Boogie would not give up this knowledge so easily, and now, in the lair of this villain, Jack has to appease Oogie Boogie's twisted humors for the sake of his friend. If, Jack thought, Oogie Boogie even knows, and if he does, will he tell the truth then?

"What is your price?" Jack asked, unknowing yet what Oogie Boogie sought: the villain does not own much beyond the bounds of his casino, and whatever he wants he will cheat and steal to get; there is nothing that Jack can give him that he hasn't already acquired through these ill means.