Oogie

Chapter 4

There I was again; the shadow on the moonlit night. True to his word, Jack had tried to give me more to do this year. Before we were sent out to do our haunting, or in my case, sitting, he had convinced the others to involve me in the manufacturing of some of the equipment that they needed. It was just simple things like fixing snap-trap teeth or carving scary faces into the pumpkins. I was always under close observation, though for they didn't trust me not to tamper with the goods. Same old, same old.

I must admit that I had gotten more chances to do my normal part of Hallows' Eve. Jack and a few of his loyal followers had been chasing the mortal's eyes to me. But, even with the extra few from them, I had plenty of free time to sit and do absolutely nothing. It is a crying shame that the moon was so delicate, otherwise I would have set up some sort of work station here for me to have something to do while nothing was happening. But I couldn't, so there was nothing to do but to watch in envy as the spirits of the night walked among the mortals and hid under their beds in wait for them.

"Trick or treat!" I glanced down at the nearest house to me. A group of four children were gathered around an open door. They were small little things, wearing childish costumes of fairies and pirates biased on their gender. While they were distracted by the old woman in front of them, filling their bags with sweets, none of them noticed the lanky arm uncurl itself from a nearby bush and place an extra item into one of their bags before slinking back into it's hiding place.

Completely ignorant of what was in her bag, the fairy princess thanked the old woman and scampered away with the rest of her group. They stopped at the street curb and sat there, opening their bags to examine their spoils.

"Why is yours so much bigger, Samm?" one of the pirate boys asked.

The girl shrugged and reached into her bag. She pulled out a large lump and immediately screeched and threw it to the ground in front of them.

The pirate boys laughed as the two fairy girls backed away from the motionless head of Jack Skelington. "Cool," one of the boys said. "Someone pranked you good." He picked up the head by the barely attached ear. "Wow. It looks so real."

Suddenly, Jack's eyes shot open as his thin mouth stretched out in a wide grin. He cackled loudly, howling as he swung from side to side, attempting to bite the hand that held him up. The children screamed bloody murder before running off, leaving their bags of candy on their wake.

Jack chuckled as his body came out from the bushes and strode over to his head. Lifting it up, he placed it back onto his neck. He rotated his head around, making sure that it was properly in place before glancing up at me with a small smile. He offered me a curt wave before bending over to pick up the abandoned bags.

I can honestly say that we were both surprised when a group of three children dashed in front of him and took the bags from his grasp. They hesitated for just a split second to stare up at him with wide eyes, which were barely visible through the slits in their assortment of masks. They obviously were frightened by the walking skeleton, due to the fact that their legs were trembling under their own weight, but that didn't seem to deter them from their goals as they turned on their heels and dashed away, abandoned bags of sweets held tightly to their chests.

I must say, that was something new to me. I had never before seen any children, especially ones so obviously frightened, dare to come near any of the night terrors, even with the promise of extra candies. Those were the types that people like Jack could never truly win against.

"I could, though," I muttered to myself. "I could get them real good. I am the only one that can." My eyes followed the three children, scanning over their forms. There was a red child, in a devil costume. He seemed to be the leader of the group, seeing as he was in the front of their pack, pointing out his chosen escape route. Just a foot or so behind him was a tall girl in a witch costume and a small, round child with paper bones attached to his suit, barely able to keep up with the others.