The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Prince and the Orphan - Fanfic Story 3

Chapter 15

--Jack's POV--

--September 30th, my birthday--

The Panic Room was getting on my nerves so much that I was almost glad to see Father open the door.

I was eager to get out of here.

"I was thinking about keeping you in here longer," Father said, "but then I decided not to. It's boring back home."

"B-b-because you have n-n-no one to beat the h-h-hell out of?" I asked, my voice weak and shaking.

"Just get up," he snapped.

I forced myself to my feet. Father had been feeding me, but only once a week, and I had to drink the sink water which was water from the lake. The lake water wasn't dirty enough to make one sick, but it tasted horrible--worse than the medicine Sally had given me the year before.

I was too weak, but I had motivation--to get out of the Panic Room.

I followed him out of the cell, and as soon as I stepped out, I no longer felt heavy.

I remained silent as I followed Father out of Town Hall, and I kept my head lowered.

I knew everyone in Halloween Town was wondering where I was, especially Sally. But I didn't want everyone to ask where I was all at once, and I didn't even want to tell them.

"F-F-Father?" I asked.

Crap... I'm still stuttering. Am I gonna be stuttering forever?

"What?" Father asked.

"D-d-did you tell them w-w-where I was?" I asked.

"Not really," he said. "I told them you were taking a break."

"F-f-for almost a y-y-year?" I stammered. "I d-d-don't think S-S-Sally fell for that."

"Well, everyone else did," Father said, "and that's all I care about.

I sighed heavily, and when we got home, my stomach suddenly turned to water.

Running as fast as my sixteen-year-old legs would take me, I rushed into my bathroom and fell over the toilet right in the nick of time.

When I finished, I sat up and gulped. I flushed the toilet and coughed.

"A-a-at least y-y-you're out of it," I told myself.

I stood up and wiped my face, then brushed my teeth to rid the smell of vomit in my mouth.

I wasexhausted, so I went into my room and collapsed on my bed.

I felt something hard, big, and square in my pocket, and I gasped when I realized it was my phone.

"Kayla!" I whispered.

--Kayla's POV--

I stared at the invention I'd created as a birthday gift for Jack. It was complicated to make because it was small, but hopefully he'd like it.

It was a communicating device that would allow him to sort of talk to his mom.

I'd done a bunch of a research on Jack's mother, reading whatever I could find (which happened to be a gigantic book that the Pumpkin Queen herself had written), and then I'd read whatever I could find on inventing a hologram device.

I'd put all the info in the device and then I'd created the hologram itself. The hologram looked exactly like Alexis Skellington, and I'd programmed it so Jack could ask the hologram any question about Alexis and the hologram would tell him.

I sighed and pressed the button, and the hologram turned on for a moment, but then flickered and turned off.

"Oh, come on!" I cried.