It was pleasantly warm and sunny in London that day, which was a bit of a rarity. So with the help of a certain not-so-imaginary friend, Isaac was able to finish his chores early and was allowed to go outside and play for a bit. Things started simple enough, the duo were back behind the house playing pirates, when Isaac spotted the neighbors cat sneaking into their garden. "YEARGH! WE GOT AN ENEMY SPY OFF THE STARBOARD BOW!" Isaac yelled, captivated by fantasy and imagination. "Yo ho! Ill gets him Captain Isaac!" Exclaimed first mate Jack in his best hearty pirate accent. Laughing Jack's arm stretched out across the garden and snatched the unsuspecting feline, who began to struggle quite vigorously. "DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY JACKIE, OR ILL MAKE YE WALK THE PLANK!" Isaac antagonized. Jack's grip on the cat tightened, and his arms grew and extended like anacondas wrapping themselves around the wily feline as it struggled for dear life. Jack's arms just kept squeezing the animal, pressing the air out of its lungs. As the once dear house pet's eyes began to bulge out of their sockets there came a loud SNAP! Jack quickly released the creature from his grasp as its lifeless furry husk thudded against the ground. There was hush silence as the two observed the cat's now twisted and mangled corpse. The silence was finally broken by an uproarious laughter... coming from Isaac... "AHAHAHAHA Wow! I guess cats really DON'T have nine lives! AHAHAHA!" Isaac exclaimed nearly teary eyed from laughter. Laughing Jack began to chuckle as well, "Heh heh. Yeah... But wont you get in trouble if your mother finds your neighbor's cat dead in her garden?" Isaac's laughter quickly subsided. "Oh no! You're right! Um... Ill just... throw it back into the neighbor's yard?!" Isaac panicked as he grabbed a nearby shovel and scooped up the broken cat cadaver before lobbing it over the fence back into the neighbors yard. They quickly went back inside and up into Isaac's room.
About an hour later it came. The ear piercing squawk of Isaac's mother shrieking his name from downstairs. Neither Jack nor Isaac said a word as he crept down the stairs alone to face whatever horrible fate was coming to him. Jack could hear much yelling from downstairs but couldn't make out what was being said. After about thirty minutes a teary eyed Isaac ascended the stairs back up into the room. "Well?" Jack asked nervously. Isaac just starred at the ground as he spoke, "I... Tried to tell her it was you who hurt the cat... She didn't believe me... Said you weren't real..." Jack frowned knowing this was all his fault. Isaac used his sleeve to wipe away his tears, "I'm being sent off to a boarding school... I'm leaving tonight... and you can't come with me..." Laughing Jack's face turned to shock, "What?! I-I can't come? Where will I go?" Isaac said nothing but pointed over at the beautiful colored box from where his friend had originated. "Back in there? But I wont be able to get out until..." Jack paused. Isaac looked up as his only friend with tears streaming down his face, "Jack... I promise I'll come back for you as soon as I can!" Jack looked at the box, then back at Isaac. "And I'll be right here waiting for you kido." Jack smiled as a single tear ran down his cheek. He walked over to the box and with a puff of smoke was sucked back in, unable to be free until once again opened.
That night Isaac was sent off to boarding school. For the first time Laughing Jack felt what it was like to be lonely. Even when trapped in his box Jack was able to see the things going on around it, so each day he waited for his friend to return, and each day the room grew older and dustier. Laughing Jack's one purpose was to be Isaac's best friend for life, and now he waits day after day, month after month, to reunite with his special friend. Isaac's parents still lived in the house but never came to the upstairs room. The only time they made their presence known was when Jack would hear them fighting. Still Jack's life became one of solitude, loneliness, and disappointment. As years went by Jack's once bright vibrant colors began to fade into a monochrome blur of pitch-black void and stark white emptiness. Trapped all alone... eternal and hopeless.
13 years passed until the night Isaac's father came home particularly drunk, and got into an argument with his wife as per usual. Things escalated to physical violence once again, however this time, she didn't get back up. Isaac's father had beaten his wife to a dead bloody pulp and was sentenced to hang at the gallows the next day. With both his parents dead this meant that the now 20-year-old Isaac inherited the dusty old house he spent the earlier half of his childhood in. Laughing Jack was quite surprised when he heard his old friend's footsteps walking up the stairs to the attic room for the first time in 13 years, however it was not the reunion Jack had hoped for. Isaac looked... different. Not only was he older, but he also seemed to posses this odd grim look on his face. No longer was he the hopeful and curious young boy Jack first met all those years ago. Jack eagerly awaited Isaac's releasing him from the prison he had waited in for so many years, but still Jack's box sat there untouched and unnoticed on a shelf in the corner of the room with all the other dusty unwanted knick-knacks. Isaac had completely forgotten about his old friend, dismissed as some sort of early childhood fabrication. Surprisingly this made Laughing Jack feel... nothing. He was hollow, 13 years of waiting and disappointment left the monochrome clown void of sorrow and self-pity. Jack remained in his box, colorless and without emotion.
