Oogie's Revenge

chapter 5

"I hope Flick will be fine with Dr. Finkelstein," Cherry spoke up as they were heading to the cemetery. "She's weird in social situations, she gets that from her father."

"So, what exactly happened on Christmas that your husband is so sore about?" Jack asked as he helped her up at some points, making idle conversation.

Cherry got inside, as they passed the cemetery and went inside the gates. "Well, after of course, I celebrated my first Halloween away from home, I spent my first Christmas away from home. Late autumn, most of winter and some of spring, I met a girl named Belle and we were held captive in an enchanted castle with a beast under a spell, as well as his servants."

"He made you spend Christmas away from your family?"

Cherry nodded.

"Oh, that must have been awful." Jack frowned, sympathetically.

"You kidnap Santa Claus and that's awful?" Cherry raised an eyebrow, then got back to conversation. "Anyway, during the curse, the servants had turned into moving furniture. Forte was a horrifying pipe organ, if he played too loud he would have the ability to destroy the castle and kill everyone in it. Before the curse, Forte was the court composer, he would always play very dreary music and he wasn't very nice to the other servants, but they would listen politely. The Beast spent more time with Forte during the curse so Forte had the will to play sad songs all the time." Cherry then smirked. "I liked his music..."

"You were a child then and he's over 300 years old..." Jack calculated.

"I know, he made me immortal like him, on my 19th birthday I discovered that I was severly depressed and aggressive after a certain death in my family. I was so depressed I jumped off a cliff to commit suicide, but Forte fell after me and bit me to reveal he was a vampire and now I can't die or age like him."

"How long ago was this?"

"Roughly 30 years ago."

"Oh, I'm so sorry... What about the birth of your children?"

"Thomas was born from a cruel man who attacked me, Forte wanted to be his father figure though and Felicity is both our natural daughter. I think Thomas is jealous that Felicity came from a loving father and shares his vampire powers while I was mortal when I gave birth to Thomas."

"Oh, my," Jack stopped and went to his dog's grave. "Zero's not home. Where could he be?"

"That is odd, I remember him being a very loyal dog to you, Jack." Cherry added as they continued to explore.

They came across an eerie looking tree that appeared to be alive. It was indeed alive and it crept closer and closer to the couple. Cherry wasn't sure how to react to it, but Jack rushed to it like meeting an old friend.

"Jack, you've come back." the tree sounded relieved.

"Hello, Hanging Tree," Jack greeted. "Umm... What happened to your hanging men?"

"Ever since Oogie Boogie and his monsters came to town, my hanging men have been hiding all around the cemetery," the tree explained. "I'm afraid that hanging men aren't very brave."

"I guess we're all missing people." Cherry shrugged.

"I've lost Sally, Cherry's lost Maestro Forte," Jack explained, feeling lost as well as they all did. "You haven't seen them, have you?"

"No, but maybe my hanging men have seen them." the tree replied. 

"I guess we could find them." Cherry said, walking away.

"Yeah, I could really use Zero's nose at a time like this." Jack agreed, following her.

"I bet you'll find Zero in his grave." the tree told them, hoping it would help.