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Date Posted: Tue, Apr 20 2004, 6:25:11
Author: Godgifu
Subject: Godawful Nightmare Before Christmas

Forgive me if I've already posted this -- I "rediscovered" this story by accident today and though I don't think I've shown it off here, I might be wrong.

<a rel=nofollow target=_blank href="http://www.angelfire.com/biz2/nightmare1/death.html">http://www.angelfire.com/biz2/nightmare1/death.html</a>

Short version: Part of a series in which Jack and Sally are married and have a son named Ezra, and have adopted Lock, Shock and Barrel. Shock looks like she might have been turned into a Sue. The story is that for little Ezra's second birthday, Jack gives him a sword as a present. Ezra ends up accidently getting killed by it. Sadness all around. Jack tries to kill himself with deadly nightshade. Sally gets mad and threatens to divorce him. Shock tries to set everything right. Sally goes back to live with Dr. Finklestein. The ghost of Jack's father makes several appearances. The story has a "happy" ending; not too happy, though, or the series wouldn't be able to continue.

Here are some snippets:

"Here you go, my boy," he said as he placed it in front of Ezra. "This family heirloom has been passed down through generation after generation of Skellingtons, each recieving it on their second birthday. The youngest child is to recieve it, so I guess that would be you. This used to be my most prized possession, but I must keep the tradition alive. I hope you like it."
The lad ripped of the paper, revealing a large brown box. He opened it up, and was immediatley struck by sheer awe as soon as he saw what it was. His father pulled it out for him, showing them all what it was. A small sword, the perfect size for a child. He placed it in Ezra's open hands. "Take good care of it now. It means a lot to me that you do."
The youngster nodded. "Me will, daddy. Me pwomise."

Shock sat upon the curly hill with Malik, nervously drumming her fingers upon the ground. Her boyfirend had an arm around her shoulders, humming to her. He always did that whenever he knew that she was upset over something. And right now, it was pretty obvious what the matter was. He knew all about her fight with Jack, Ezra's death, and her squabble with Sally only last night. He stopped his humming, looking at her face. It was covered with a look of sadness, heavy black rings under her eyes. She hadn't slept too well lately. Taking his arm off her shoulders he moved so that he was knelt in front of her, holding her both her hands in his own. After a minute or two of simply staring at her he finally spoke. "Do you want to talk, my dear? Because I know there's something you're not telling me here."

"Then we can pretend it never happened. Bye the way, I did take the throne after. Sally had to occupy it first but then we talked about it and I changed my mind. That's unless you want it back cause if you do I'll surely hand it over without a hassle." He was silent for a minute while he thought this over. "I really don't know if I should or not. At this point I really don't want to, but if I ever want to prove to Sally that I've changed I must."
"You can't prove that you've changed unless you actually have, Jack," she reminded him. "Take things at your own pace. You know, eventually become the Pumpkin King again but set goals for yourself prior to reaching that level. Because we both know you're not in such great condition to do such a task right now, you need a bit of a break. It probably played a role in this whole suicide thing, eh?"
"Yep," was his reply.

Deep in her thinkings she never noticed a strange shadow approach her, nor hear the slight mechanical hum that went with it. She only turned around when her strange visitor spoke to her. "My my my, Sally. Whatever are you doing alone out in the cold like this without a jacket?"
She lept up and spun to face the person, startled. "It's you," she said. "Dr. Finklestein!"
"In the flesh." The evil scientist sat in his electric wheelchair, which he had created himself.
"How are you, my dear?"
By now she was just freaked out. This had been the first time he had really bothered with her for three years, since she had run away from him. "Okay, what the heck is going on here? Why don't you seem angry at me?"
"It's Jewel, my wife. She taught me not to have any harsh feelings against you, and it's working."

"Listen to me. Don't go doing this to yourself because I know the kind of things it will do to you. Don't ever give up, no matter what the problem is. Never."
She shoved his hand away. "Why can't I? You've after attempted suicide for goodness sakes! Why shouldn't I go ahead and do the exact same thing?"
"Oh, my darling. Never say anything like that again. If there's someone you shouldn't take as a role model, then that's me. Killing yourself won't do any good, I know that now. If anything ever happened to you, Sally, I don't know what what would happen to me. I'd simply be a lonely old skeleton, waiting for Death to come and knock upon his door. You keep me going, give me a reason to continue living in this wretched world. If it wasn't for you, my dear, I probably wouldn't even be here today."
She sniffed. "You're right. What was I thinking? Here I am trying to help you and I'm having a nervous breakdown myself."

_____

Anyway... yeah. This is probably some of the worst characterizations I've seen with this cast -- Jack in particular is normally quite versatile and you can get away with a lot, but here... I don't know what she did, but it's not working.
If I'm correct that Shock is a Sue, then the author is probably about 13 or 14, so this would be a bit more forgivable.

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