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

Chapter Nine - The End

The night is slow. Morning feels the same as the nights; there is no difference and not even time upon the clock can distinguish them. Jack cannot see daylight nor can it reach down so far into his crevice to touch him. There was silence, then beyond the door he hears rummaging and heavy movements. The sound of metal scraping and someone groaning, then screaming; another voice yells and surpasses the other in volume and strength. Jack feels for the device. The long tips of his phalanges trail along the button. Silence again. The air is festered and foul.

A knock at the door, gentle but unsettling; Jack startles. It opens and Oogie Boogie approaches. He says nothing and Jack, too, has no words to say. Oogie Boogie sits down next to Jack, the weight of his body pushing down the bed and it forces Jack's straggly body to lean at the divot. He feels the device and it still is undisturbed in his pocket.

"You are unhappy," Oogie said at last. He does not make eye contact.

"Completely." Jack replied.

"And I cannot provide you with happiness."

"Not at all."

"Do you think, under different circumstances, we could have been friends?"

Jack thought for a moment. He looked at Boogie, who spoke softly and lonely.

"Everyone in Halloween Town is my friend," Jack said. "If you lived in Halloween Town and didn't cause trouble, I am sure we would have been friends."

Oogie Boogie smiles. He gets up, still refusing to look at Jack, and approaches the door.

"Wait," said Jack "take me with you."

"I can't do that."

"Please, Boogie,"

There was no reply. The door shut and the key clicked in the lock. Jack ran to it.

"Let me out!" he cried, pulling at the handle that won't budge. "Boogie, we're in agreement! Do you think I don't fear you and what you will do? I'm terrified. Please I can't just sit here alone. Boogie, I'm dependent on you now! You said we could rule together, is that not enough? What do you want me to do? How much more can you torment me?"

There is no reply. The entirety of the world beyond the door is lacking life. Jack feels the device in his pocket. He bangs at the door now, kicking and punching at the hinges. A bone in his finger splinters. He stops and clutches his hand, aching. Another groan meets with his; it, too, is in pain.

"Boogie," Jack gasped, stepping back.

The doorknob moves. The other side of it is clicking and jutting. It is impatient, groaning and failing at the lock. But it opens, and it slowly creaks as it does.

"Doctor!" Jack exclaimed, rushing at once to meet his friend without a proper wheelchair. They hugged. "My friend, thank you, thank you! Are you hurt? How will we ever get to him?"

"I am in terrible pain, Jack. But you can still make it. Don't worry about me, I know you will come back. Go, now, you know what to do."

"Thank you," Jack said, looking again at his friend who is bruised and torn. The top of his head is ajar and Jack pushes the lid back down, it makes a metallic squeak at the hinges.

"The exit is hidden behind the casino, now GO, Jack."

Jack obeys, making at once for the fixture and finding sunlight behind it. A large tunnels opens. Tracks lead out and small scraps of metal litter the floor. He follows it. Jack emerges and squints at the light; his knees shake but he does not allow himself to waver. He presses on. Through the great empty grays of the landscape, dotted by thorny bushes and made up of spiraling hills. It smells of rot and dry air. He passes the skeleton of a great beast half-buried in the grays. He looks at it and the bones, picked clean and worn by centuries, make no notice of his presence. Jack continues on, following the trail of wheels Boogie left. Until his legs are weary and the emptiness seems unending. He has traversed it before many times but it seems longer now. And then he sees grass, dark and familiar and lush. The dead gray dirt is overgrown with flowers. Then the first fence, the little pumpkin patch on the outskirts of Halloween Town, the path which becomes brick road. Buildings rise and seem impossible, as if these grand structures are illusion, but they are real and Jack finally stops running when he meets with the center of town and the water fountain is his oasis.