I was about to install all of my gambling devices into my house when suddenly my seams ripped. I groaned.
"Damn, why did I had to grow now!?" I complained as I grabbed my burlap sack and ran to the Doctor's Lab. Little did I know that I would meet Jack Skellington the idiot.
“Hey, Oogie!” The skeleton waved a long arm.
“Oh, it’s you,” was my sour reply. I couldn’t help but think there was suddenly a smell of…stale milk in the air.
“First of all, before I forget, where do you live?” Jack asked.
I, having only expected Jack to inquire what exactly I was doing, replied, “I hit a growth spurt over the lassst few days and the seams ripped.” It took a few seconds for my mind to catch up with the actual conversation. “Oh. Well. Under a tree.”
It was then Sally walked out, almost tripped, and then noticed the two boys. She waved shyly and looked at the sown sacks in my arms.
“…It ripped…? Well…um…father is busy right now. He’s making a new creation to help around…” It was for a slightly sexist reason. Dr. Finkelstein began to think that such a delicate little girl couldn’t help around with his work and so on and so forth. “I think he said he was calling it Project Igor…um…If you want, I can fix it.”
“You fall apart all the time, though. If I let you do it, won’t I just be coming back again a few daysss later?” I thought about it.
“Um…I’m much better now…” Before any more feelings could be hurt, Jack stepped in.
“Well! Why don’t you get some more sacks and then we can go over to Oogie’s place? I’ve always wanted to see it and we can talk here…” Jack inquired.
“And those stupid people behind us won’t ssstare at us anymore,” I finished grumpily. Jack looked up and noticed for the first time that several people were there, staring and whispering. Apparently, they still weren’t convinced. The Corpse Couple hurried away when they saw me glaring at them.
“Okay, let’s go. Get some ssstuff quick and I’ll take you over.” I said, leading the way to the old tree house.
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“It’s a horrible (in the good way) place,” Jack commented cheerfully as he carefully crossed the old and shaky bridge. “It almost looks like a bottomless pit down there.”
“It probably could be. I dunno. I jusss’ found this place as it is. The previous owners tried to make a tree-house up there; you can see it’s half-finished.” I pointed to the tree. Jack looked up and saw nothing, but took my word for it.
“Alright, just slide down here…” I disappeared into a hole in between the giant roots of the tree. Sally followed after a little hesitation, carrying several sacks, and then Jack went down as well. He slid down a slide carved out of dirt that was generally smooth except for one rock that really hurt when he slid over it. As soon as the skeleton was back on his feet again, he brushed off all the dirt on his suit.
“Here y’ are,” I said with a flourish. “’It's ssorta plain though. Nothin’ special. I'm trying to get more things installed.” This morning, I managed to add a not-so-well-made bed that was already threatening to fall apart and a chair near a roulette table.
I had never had guests around, so after saying that, I had no idea what to do. What was I supposed to do anyways? Entertainment? Or something?
“Don’t worry, it’s fine. I like it. It could be a little bit bigger, honestly. Hey, I bet I can help you with that too!” Jack said with please. Before I could stop him, Jack was already walking around, muttering things to himself that sounded like “Yes, there should be a window here, maybe some statues…expand the place to add some…”
“Before making plans, he should really consult me,” I complained to Sally, who just sat down in the only chair and started sewing. “I don’t want any changes. Humph.”
“He may have a little trouble listening to others,” Sally conceded as she started sewing up the rip in the large sack-bag thing. “But I think it’s nice how he’s always eager to help out others…”
“He wantsss to put a fountain down here. Like the one in the town center.” I pointed towards the floor. Sally sighed.
“Okay, so maybe some of his ideas…are sort of…out there…” Sally removed some seams so she could add on a little more so it would be able to fit Oogie. “…but he always means well. He has a good heart.”
“If ya ask me, I don’t think he has any heart. Or any other organs, for that matter.” I muttered. Jack was still planning ideas for my house.
“And we should finish that tree-house up there too!” Jack finished and turned around, grinning happily. “…though this will take a long time…okay, first we should start off simple, huh? Let’s make the window there and expand, and then we’ll start on the tree-house.”
“Have it ever occurred to you that maybe I don’t want you barging in my home and trying to improve it? It’s fine as it isss.” I hissed, hoping that Jack actually listened to me.
“Great! I’ll do the window now! The tree-house will be such a cool place to hang out!” Jack ignored me.
“…I thought so.” With a loud sigh, I let my bugs flow a little more outward so I sank towards the ground. “He’ll stop soon, right?”
“I don’t know. He can be very determined if he wants to,” Sally replied. “I’m finished now, I think. If you hit another growth spurt though it’ll probably rip again.”
“Ha, then I probably won’t have to worry ‘bout that for a while. Growth spurts don’t happen often.” There was a sickening cracking sound. Jack was tearing off some of the wooden boards that served as a wall to get at the dirt.
“I think I need a shovel,” he called back, tapping the layer of dirt that was beneath the wood.
“Right, I’ll get mine.” I slithered to get my shovel
“You had a shovel?” Sally asked after I flowed out somewhere to grab a rather hefty spade from outside and handed it to Jack.
“When I found this place, it was a little sssmaller and I wanted it a little bigger,” I simply replied as Jack started stabbing the wall with the spade with small grunts.
“Now help me into the stupid sack.” I nodded to the finished sack. There was a little bit of grunting as Sally did so. The sack was not as tight as the doctor made it, but I didn’t seem to be sagging at least. “Ah, feels much better." Nice not to have to worry ‘bout where all these bugs go.
There was then a resounding crack and what would be considered ‘light’ in Halloween Town lazily drifted into my room.
“There!” exclaimed Jack from his perch, looking slightly pleased at the vaguely circular hole in the wall he had just made. “Could use some bars, but I can get some later. Why don’t we expand this place a bit now, hm?”
“No. A window was okay, but no major changes in my room yet.”
“But you-“
“I don’t want to go to sleep with walls torn down in my house.”
“…Tree-house?”
“No, my undeground house. Are you a workaholic or somethin’?”
“…I just thought you would like it,” Jack said bashfully.
“Well, I don’t care either way. But we could do the tree-house if you want..." I started to say when Jack leaped with joy. Man, I hated that guy. It took the rest of the day to make to rooms in the tree house. Jack put up some masks and set up a sofa. Sally made a kitchen and a bathroom. I just made a hole from the tree-house to my soon-to-be underground casino mansion. I put candles near the monster-like hole to make it more like a sacrifice shrine. When Jack and Sally left, I sighed.
"Whew, finally they're gone!" I gasped. My vampire bats came back with the stuff I got from Las Vegas. Before long, my casino mansion was complete..for now. I went to the new billards room and started to play pool by myself.
