SoNP Chapter Seven

A Nightmare Before Christmas fanfiction.

A Heist Happens

“That’s a Royal Flush,” Oogie said smugly as the other players moaned and threw down their hands (their cards, not their actual hands) in despair. The Boogieman just grinned and sat back in his chair as the others unwillingly pushed their chips towards him. This was just too easy. Though even Oogie would be the first to admit he didn’t have the best poker face, these guys were even worse, and it didn’t help them that they were currently drunk and/or hung over. So far, he didn’t even have to resort to cheating. They were just so phenomenally bad. It was hilarious.

“So,” Oogie said, leering dangerously at the drunk guys surrounding the table and pushing his cards towards the dealer. “How ‘bout another round?”

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The police officer paced across the office a few times before stopping again in front of the unhappy-looking teen. He couldn’t see his face under the messy mop of brown hair, but he gave him the professional Intimidating Police Glare anyways.

It seemed to work, despite the fact there was no eye contact – the boy cringed.

“So you didn’t do anything.” The boy didn’t respond. There was just something in the tone of the officer’s voice that told him not to. He started pacing again, his shoes making a small pattering sound on the office floor. “And yet you ran.” He turned back, stopped, and leaned down to the sitting boy, face to almost-face. The brown-haired boy winced again as the officer whispered, “Why?”

A long silence. But apparently the officer heard something. “What was that? Louder.”

“…Wouldn’t you?” the boy repeated softly, then quickly added, “Sir.” The officer stared at him some more before finally backing away. Instead of pacing, he turned around and stared at the door. The boy took this time to glance around the room because the carpet was getting boring.

He could feel the desk behind him, as well as the towering pile of papers that, once in a while, would partly collapse. A quick look backwards told him that all the papers were in the IN box while there was nothing in the OUT one. The chair behind the desk looked very much like the one he was sitting in now. Stiff and uncomfortable. There was a bright light bulb somewhere on the ceiling. After that, there was nothing of interest. Apparently, this guy didn’t read books or have anything to amuse himself with in this room. The nameplate on the desk was hard to read, as it was directly behind him and partly covered by papers. He could only make out ‘Sa   ime .’ The name might have been also printed on the door, but the officer was standing right in front of it.

“…Anybody would run if a policeman suddenly pointed at you, shouted ‘That’s him!’ and started running towards you…sir.”

“Well, that’s because everybody’s guilty of something. I just want to know if you’re guilty of something particular today.” The boy noticeably twitched. “Yes, it involved a certain store…”

“I didn’t do anything,” the boy said angrily, but softly. He didn’t want to provoke the officer, who looked like he could easily wrestle him down. Then again, he had spent most of his life watching TV and playing video games, so probably the majority could easily wrestle him down.

“Yes, we know,” the officer replied, making the boy’s head shoot up.

“But why – “

“We just want to ask some questions.” The officer paused right there, as if waiting for the boy’s consent.

The boy stared at his knees for a while. “…I didn’t know them, okay? I just happened to meet them.”

“Them? It was the work of one guy.”

“Well, I guess, technically…he did say he scared him half to death and I don’t think the others did anything…”

“What others? There was only one guy.”

“What do you mean? I saw three…” The officer turned around and shook his head.

“…What is your name?”

“Billy.”

“Well, Billy, I think you’re confused. We already know about the three earlier, that triggered the alarm in the first place. I’ll have to deal with them later, but you should know that not long after you left, a man walked in, apparently planning a break-in as soon as you left. He had a gun, but since the cashier fainted, all he had to do was take the money out of the register and leave.”

Billy’s mouth shot opened and he remained speechless for a while. “So they just happened to make some guy faint in time for a guy who just happened to choose that very store for some robbery?”

“Well, yes. I think that sums it up quite nicely.”

“And you think I know something about this?”

“Well,” he said quietly, and here, the officer’s stern face actually broke into an amused smile, “Between you and me, the men really needed something to do. But maybe you can still help me.” The officer opened the door and stood to the side as three cops immediately fell over to the ground. The officer didn’t seem very surprised at this.

“Uh, hello there,” one of them said hesitantly. “We were just…ah…about to knock.”

“Ah, good of you to join us, Mr. Collins, Knobb, Teal,” the officer said, nodding to each of them. They hastily stood up. The portly Mr. Collins tried to suck in his gut. “I was just about to call you, Mr. Collins. Do you mind bringing in the TV? And the tape as well.”

“I’ll get right on it!” And the man was off, glad that he wouldn’t have to explain it. It was someone else’s problem now.

The other two didn’t want it to be their problem either. “We’ll…ah, just help him. If you don’t mind. That telly can be really tricky to move. The wheels sometimes stick, you know.”

The only answer was an, “I see.” Knobb and Teal took this as a sign to get out quickly. Billy quickly glanced upwards and saw that the officer was grizzled. He looked as if he didn’t care whether his hair was combed or not, nor did he care that he wasn’t clean-shaven. The boy suspected that if he wasn’t in uniform, he would’ve looked like a homeless, drunk bum.

Eventually the TV was wheeled in on a shaky cart by the three, and they quickly walked out the door again.

“Now,” said the officer, pacing towards the TV slowly, “this is the tape from the security camera of that store…” As he passed the door, he kicked it hard. On the other side, someone said something like ‘ack’ followed by the sound of three men falling over. Billy wondered if he would ever take the police seriously ever again.

The video played and the officer fast-forwarded it to when Billy left. The alarm triggered by The Unluckies stopped after a few minutes (people realized that when an alarm went off, it was exceedingly annoying after only a minute and it didn’t even take a minute for somebody to figure out what was going on) and a figure dressed in all black stumbled in, sporting the highly fashionable burglar ski mask. There was very clearly, a gun in his hand. He shook it around vaguely, then realized that there was nobody to shake it around at and wobbled towards the cash register. Billy could hear him call out, “Uhhh, hello?” tentatively before he looked over the counter and apparently saw the employee because he jumped backwards. After making sure the man behind the counter wasn’t getting up and shouting, the burglar took no time at all emptying the register and stuffing the cash into his sack. Before he left, he noticed something on the counter, and decided to swipe that too. The officer paused the tape.

“And then we arrived,” he said, leaning against the wall. “Well? What did you notice?” Billy squirmed under the expectant stare.

“He seemed very new to the…erm, job.” The man nodded and waited for Billy to continue. “Um,” the boy said, flustered, “Very inexperienced, nervous…”

“Could you tell how old he was?” the officer asked. Billy realized that he probably already knew everything. He was just waiting for him- him, of all people! – to say it.

“Uh, hard to tell…the camera angle wasn’t so good…but he wasn’t old. Not like an adult. He wasn’t in high school either…maybe in betwe-” The boy froze as a thought just occurred to him. The officer merely nodded again.

“College age, inexperienced, nervous…always hated those types,” he said smoothly. “They always end up hurting themselves and whining about it later. The experienced criminals actually know how to shoot a gun and stay quiet after they’re caught. Partly quiet, anyways. Billy, you seemed to have realized something,” he added cheerfully. “Care to tell me what?”

“I...uh…I think you know already…” the boy mumbled.

“Oh, just indulge an old officer, would you?” the man replied affably.

“…College kids just visiting…made a party…”

“Ah yes, you’re saying that some students are celebrating their time away from studying, or whatever it is they do back at their universities, and our bumbling robber here could have come from said party. In fact, he could be drunk. So now we have a stupid, inexperienced, drunk robber with a gun, and that’s a combination of words I really don’t like. So let’s say this guy went to a party and got drunk. Maybe someone planted this stupid idea in his mind about robbing some small store. He goes and robs it. Where would he go now? If you’d like to hear my guess, I’d say that, being drunk and stupid, he’d go back to the party and brag about what he pulled off to his buddies.” Billy nodded mutely.

“You know more about thieves than I do, sir…” he murmured.

“Damn right, I do,” the officer replied and opened the door again. This time, nobody tumbled inside the room in a hilarious manner. “Alright, boys! We’ve got the info we need! Let’s go!” Billy stood up and peered over the officer. He could see the three eavesdropping men among the many officers milling around.

“Um, can I leave?” he asked tentatively.

“You’ll be riding in my car,” the man replied jovially, slapping Billy on the shoulder. Billy almost collapsed. “I still don’t know where to go, so you’ll be giving me directions.” Knobb, Collins and Teal shuffled up to the officer, looking bashfully towards the floor or any other object besides the officer’s face. Before they could say anything, the officer smiled at them and said, “Ah, good. I was about to talk to you three. Good job finding the boy. Without him, we wouldn’t have gotten valuable information. Now that you’ve done your part, we’re going to do ours; have the rest of the night off, you deserve it.” There was the sound of three sighs of relief being held in and the three men nodded and wandered off, looking happy that they were useful and they would not have to confront a possibly dangerous man with a gun.

Billy, feeling that he had just learned something about reverse psychology, mutely followed the officer to the car.

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It only took a quick change in an alleyway and he was a normal college student again. It was amazing.

He had hidden a backpack away here earlier and now stuffed the bag’s contents inside. The gun was tucked into a pocket for convenience, should he ever need it. The burglar walked back out casually, his head buzzing with excitement and alcohol. He did it. He actually pulled it off!

The man tried to act normal, but almost giggled as someone with an umbrella passed him without even a second glance. There was nothing particularly funny, but the whole thing was just so surreal. He had just stolen a bunch of money and was no doubt going to be sought after by the police and here he was, just walking around like an average guy. It was like having a secret identity, someone he could become to do things that he would normally never try to do, such as rob a store. And nobody would suspect him, of course.

The trouble with having a secret identity is that there is always an urge to tell somebody about it, like some trusted friends who would never ever tell anybody else until they tell somebody else.

He walked into the house and immediately headed for the poker table where his friends were looking very sober all of a sudden. There was some new kid over there too, dressed in a sack or something, looking very smug.

“Hey guys,” the robber said, ignoring all those little details. “I’ve got to tell you something.”

“Not now!” one of his friends said testily. “Shit, that was all I had! What ‘m I supposed to do now!”

“He’s cheating. He’s gotta be cheating,” another moaned as he threw down his cards again.

“Hey, d’you see any sleeves?” the sack boy said, raising his arms as emphasis. “You all’re just really bad players.”

As the sack guy chuckled, the robber looked around at his friends, as if just realizing they had all just lost badly. “‘Ere, don’t worry guys, I’ve got lots of money with me.”

The most competitive of his friends, intent on beating the damn smug bastard and winning all his money back, replied, “Lemme borrow some of that, then.”

The smarter one said, “Hey, where’d you get that money?”

At this point, most people would hesitate at even telling their most trusted friends the answer. This thought briefly bounced around the man’s drunken mind, but he still said, matter-of-factly, “I stole it from that store nearby,” without even a second thought. This obviously caused a few stares from his friends, but the man didn’t notice. He didn’t even notice a few of the smarter ones edging away from him or outright leaving, as if his criminality would suddenly latch itself onto them. He did notice the evil stare the sack boy was giving him.

Something in the robber’s head clicked, and he leaned forward towards the sack boy. “’Ey,” he murmured, trying to sound cool, but instead spitting beer-breath towards the boy’s face. “Don’ tell anybody ‘bout what you just heard, ‘kay? Here, I’ll even give you some money, ‘s long as you keep silent.”

The sack kid gave a sadistic grin in return, which the amateur robber found very disconcerting. “I’m not interested in that,” he told the robber. “Here’s something more interesting – Let’s play some cards, and if I win, I’ll call the police. If you win, well...I won’t call.”

“And give us back our money!” Someone at the table protested.

“Fine with me,” conceded the sack boy, his grin growing as he shuffled the cards adroitly. The robber watched the cards dance in those sack nubs in awe, and somewhere inside rose a mounting horror. The robber realized that there was a possibility he would go to jail, just by losing a card game. Of course, if he won, he would be home free. There was also the bonus of winning back his friends’ money, which they would certainly be rather ecstatic about. He only needed to win.

But he might lose.

The thought of losing made his hands shake, and from this fear, a devil arose. The devil whispered things into his ear, planting very tempting ideas in his mind. You took the money, said the devil. It’s yours. Why should anybody threaten you? Why should anybody threaten to take away what is already yours? Don’t be afraid, there’s an easier way out of this…

The devil guided his hand to his pocket.

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“I could use a drink,” Jack suddenly said.

The party, which had mostly been fueled by alcohol, was now starting to slow down as many people suddenly found the lights blinding or the room spinning. Jack and Sally weaved their way through stumbling college students towards a table piled with bowls of chips and salsa and other various things.

During Oogie’s whole game and part of the party, Jack and Sally actually had a pretty good time. Not a lot of people paid much attention to them besides a few incredulous stares, and some of the songs were pretty good. It had been a bit too noisy before, but eventually the loud din diminished to a few grumbles and some moans.

Jack scooped some kind of brown-ish liquid in a cup and took a sip. He resisted the urge to spit it back out and politely set the cup back down. The drink stung his throat badly and was horribly bitter. If he had tear ducts, his eye sockets would be watering. Searching for a way to silently express his dislike, the lanky skeleton settled for simply saying, “Ick.”

“It looks like most people are leaving,” Sally said, careful to not ask asinine questions such as, ‘How does it taste?’

“Okay then,” Jack replied. “Let’s find Oogie and go back home. Some people might be looking for us at this hour.” The two walked around the house, moving closer to the door as they went along, when suddenly there was a sickening BANG. They briefly froze, startled, before they ran towards the source of the sound, as well as did several other curious partiers who were still standing.

Eventually, the group came upon an overturned poker table and several frightened men. One of them was holding a gun, which was now hanging loosely in his grip. They all were staring at Oogie, who was clutching his head and cursing very loudly – far from dead, as the shooter probably didn’t expect.

Oogie shouted more profanities and stepped towards the shooter menacingly, which prompted the shooter to yelp pathetically and shoot two times. Oogie leapt backwards, cursing a lot more and leaking bugs, which understandably horrified the shooter some more.

Jack and Sally rushed up to their friend, shouting his name in concern while he started voicing loud threats towards the terrified man. Then the door burst open, revealing several policemen who piled in. One of them pointed to the shooter and they jumped towards him, but hurriedly stepped back when he started shooting again. The robber, acting on instinct, grabbed Sally and pointed his gun to her head. Above her screaming he yelled, “GET AWAY!” which everybody did, careful not to accidentally startle him into firing the gun again.

The robber quickly took his backpack and pointed the gun at Sally’s head again, inducing a soft whimper from her, and slowly sidled over to the door. He looked around wildly at everybody, so that nobody was ever out of his sight for more than a second, but there was no need. Nobody moved, and the air had a strained quality to it.

“Um, if any of you try an’ come after me,” he threatened nervously before finishing off with a lame, “…the girl’ll get it.” The man backed out the screen door and out of sight.

When the door shut with a sudden bang, the room exploded into shouts of, ‘Was that…?’, ‘It was!’, and ‘But he isn’t that kind of guy, is he?’ Ebullient whispers passed along ridiculous rumors and soon all the false stories started mixing together until the whole situation was like a huge, distasteful Telephone game.

Jack, who had only stood still out of pure confusion, now looked around quickly for the familiar sack. “Oogie? Oogie!”

“What?” came the disgruntled reply. The boy pushed his way through the crowd, the hole in his sack now taped up to prevent any more bugs from falling out.

“Let’s go, we have to save Sally! She must be terrified by now!”

“Look, the guy has a gun, and he already said that he would shoot Sally if anybody, including us, followed him. I wouldn’t worry about it. He’ll probably just dump Sally somewhere and make his escape. Even if he does shoot Sally, it’s not like she’d die or anything.”

Jack stared at him angrily for a few seconds before shaking his head and turning away. “You just don’t get it.” The tall skeleton dissolved into the crowd as he pushed his way to the exit, leaving Oogie behind. The police, too busy trying to settle the crowd, didn’t even notice the door open.

He watched him go and stood there, pondering on his next move. Finally, he sighed. “The moron probably doesn’t even know what a gun is.” And with that conclusion, he slipped out the door just as the police finally got the crowd to settle down.

“Now,” said the officer, “We need all of you to cooperate and answer our questions truthfully. My guys will make sure nobody gets any funny ideas and run out the door. None of you are in trouble,” he added hastily, realizing that he sounded as if they were, “it’s just something that would be helpful. Everybody conscious please wait for us to call you in the interro…the ‘questioning’ room. Which will be upstairs, in a room we can lock. And not the bathroom.” As someone hurried to prepare a room, he turned to another cop. “You’re in charge here.”

The young cop narrowed his eyes. “Where are you going?”

“To pick up a smoke.” The cop just narrowed his eyes some more.

“Sir, didn’t you hear what he said? If you go after him, he’ll shoot her!”

“Yeah, he did say that. Now go start the questioning.” The man realized he had been defeated from the start, shrugged, and made his way up the stairs. The officer went out to get his smokes.

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What, thought Billy as he hid behind a trashcan, am I doing?</i>

He had stayed in the car, since the officer had told him to, and you don’t disobey a man that was taller and stronger than you. He had then heard shots and saw somebody run out, dragging a smaller figure along. Looking closely, he recognized the taller one as the man on the security camera and the smaller one as the female Unlucky.

Immediately, he had opened the door and trailed the robber, hiding whenever he got too close or when the man looked this way and that for a place to run to.

Whenever Billy caught a glance of the man’s face, he couldn’t help but feel…slight pity for him. The expression was of fear, the ‘oh shit what am I gonna do’ expression. The boy tried to comprehend the feeling of being chased as a wanted criminal. Not being able to go home, not being able to hang out with your old friends, having to hide all the time…sounded like a crappy life. Another thing TVs are wrong about, Billy concluded.

He peered over the trashcan and through his mop of sandy hair, watched as the man desperately glanced around, and almost bit his tongue off when a boney hand rested on his shoulder.

He spun around quickly and bumped his nose on the skeleton’s forehead. They both recoiled and gingerly rubbed their afflicted areas. “M-mr. Unlucky?” Billy whispered through his hands. The skeleton boy turned around, looking for this ‘Mr. Unlucky.’

“He means you, moron,” said the sack kid behind Mr. Unlucky.

“Wh-what are you…” Billy started, still holding his aching nose, but then remembered who the criminal was dragging along.

“Yeah, that’s right. Mister Hero Guy over here just had to come valiantly dashing in an’ all, to rescue his girl,” said the sack Unlucky sourly.

“It’s not like that! I mean, we shouldn’t just leave her behind. It’s not right…”

“Yeah, whatever. Now where’s that guy? Now that I’m here, I really wanna beat him up fer shootin’ me…” The look that crossed the Major’s face then was a horribly dark one. It was the look of someone you shouldn’t cross – ever – or he would unleash horrible vengeance upon you. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday.

Billy quickly looked away. “Erm…well…I dunno.” Apparently, during the whole conversation, the robber had suddenly decided to walk away. “…You were shot?! Where?!” he suddenly exclaimed, searching for blood stains on the sack. Major pointed a nub at his clumsily bandaged head, and Billy decided to try to forget he ever asked the question.

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The robber stopped.

He was now in an alley. He had decided that, although he had no idea what the hell he should do now, the first thing was to dump his hostage now that she wasn’t needed.

He pulled her in front of him and made her face the dead end. “Okay. I’m going to let go. You just…stay here for a while. Don’t scream, or call for help, or else…I’ll shoot you…” The petite girl just shivered in response. The robber bit his lip – it didn’t feel right at all threatening a little girl like this. Sure, he had shot someone, but that was different somehow.

But…he would have to think about this later. Right now, he had to run to somewhere safe. As the man turned around, however, a trashcan toppled, followed by curses and queries of someone’s wellbeing. The robber’s nerves went haywire. Had he been found? By who? The police? Was he now cornered? Ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap…

He waited, trying not to make a sound. Then a skeleton walked into his line of sight and he yelped in surprise. The skeleton turned, noticed him standing there, and pointed towards him.

And that’s when he started firing wildly.

Jack leapt away to the other side of the entrance to the alley, out of range, and waited until the bangs stopped. “I think – “ he started, but was interrupted by another BANG.

“…I think I found them,” he finished.

“Oh, I hadn’t noticed,” Oogie replied scathingly.

“Go away!” shouted a voice from inside the alley. As if the owner thought that there was a need for emphasis, he added, “…I have a gun!”

“That was apparent when you started shooting at us!” Oogie yelled back, but made no move towards the alley for he wasn’t very keen on being shot at again.

“Billy?” said another voice. The officer walked up and stared down at the morose-looking boy, ignoring Oogie for the moment. “Didn’t I tell you to wait back in my car?” Billy looked down at his feet and stuttered out apologies, excuses, and whatever else his mind thought of at the moment. “…Never mind,” said the officer. “I guess it’s better to have a few witnesses anyways, even though they’re only a bunch of kids…”

“Witnesses?” Billy repeated.

“Yeah, you’ll understand later, hopefully. Just remember that it’s only a coincidence that I went out for some smokes and heard…four…five gunshots and found that gun-waving idiot…now you two wait here…you wait over there too,” he added to Jack at the other side, “and…well, witness.”

“…What are you gonna do?” Billy asked, since it seemed the right thing to do.

“Just watch.” The officer straightened, walked to the corner, and shouted, “This is the police! Why don’t you come out now, and there won’t be any more trouble?”

There was a pause from inside the alley, and then a hesitant, “I’ve got a gun!”

“So I’ve noticed. Are you or are you not giving yourself up?”

“…No…?”

“Alright then, you asked for it,” sighed the officer, and he rounded the corner.

“He’s gonna be shot, ain’t he,” Oogie hissed, and the three boys peered into the alley to see what would happen next and if the officer would indeed be shot to bits like The Boogeyman predicted.

The officer waited for his eyes to adjust to the surprisingly dark alley. He made a note to suggest putting up more street lights near these things. As soon as he could see everything clearly, he noticed that the hostage was shivering in the corner, scared, but still unharmed. He also noticed that there was a shaking gun pointed right at his head.

“Okay,” he said, putting his hands up in a conciliatory manner. “Why don’t you – “

“If you get any closer, I’ll shoot!” The robber suddenly yelped. The officer frowned.

“Hey, let me finish. You didn’t even hear everything I was going to say.”

“I know what you were gonna say,” the robber replied shakily. “You were gonna say ‘Why don’t you put that gun away.’”

“Good guess.”

“Well I’m not gonna put my gun away! One step, an’ I’ll blow your head off, I swear!” The officer stared down the barrel of the gun for a while, before stepping backwards.

“I took a step. Are you going to shoot me now?” Nobody was very amused by his wit.

“…Just…stay there. Or I’ll shoot!”

“So you keep saying.”

“Yeah…stay there…and I’ll run away. And don’t think of chasing after me!” The officer put down his hands as a grim look suddenly crossed his face.

“Sorry, I’m a policeman.” And he took a step towards the man.

The gun started quaking faster. “Don’t! Stop right there!” Another step. “I…I’ll shoot…” the robber threatened weakly. Another step. And the robber pulled the trigger.

The pistol simply clicked.

I have never been so relieved to be right, the policeman thought, and he tried his best to look unfazed. “Out of ammo, eh?” He tried to give a quirky smile, but found that he was still a little too tense to express anything other than that of stern disapproval. “You don’t have a weapon anymo – “ he was suddenly interrupted by an airborne pistol hitting him on the nose. It was very painful. As he was busy doubling over in pain, he could feel the other man run past him, and though he still wanted to groan in pain, he turned around and managed to pin the robber to the filthy ground.

“Okay,” growled the officer, “now you don’t have a weapon. And if you try to punch me or kick me in the balls, I swear I’ll…” Once again, the officer didn’t have time to finish his sentence because the robber noticed his holster. With an impressive show of desperate strength, the robber managed to push the other man off and grab at the holster at the same time. Both men quickly got up, and once again the robber was pointing a gun.

“G-get away…I’ll shoot if you don’t….”

The officer stared coldly at him again and said, “I’ll shoot. I’ll shoot. Is that the only thing you can say? Well go ahead! Shoot!” The robber stared at him with wide, uncomprehending eyes. Impatiently, the man repeated, “Shoot! You have my gun. You’ve been threatening me. So go on!”

The robber’s arm started shaking again. The devil appeared and whispered more evil things into his ear, tried to cajole him with pleasing images of the future, reached out towards the trigger to push it….

The gun dropped with a clatter and the robber fell to his knees. “…I’m in big trouble…” The officer grinned satisfactorily and walked up to pat the man on the head.

“You would’ve been in big trouble if you pulled that trigger. The way I see it, you’ll be okay now.”

“What are y’ talking about?!” The robber wailed, stuffing his face into his hands. “I’m going to jail! I stole money! I ran away from the police! I shot someone!”

“Yeah, we’ll have to arrest you. You’ll probably be locked up for…a year at most, I’d guess.”

“A year?!” Oogie shouted, now walking into the alley since there was no danger of being shot at. “No way! More than that! He shot me! In the head!” The officer frowned at Oogie for a bit.

“You seem rather sprightly for a dead guy,” he finally said before turning away from the fuming boy. “You did rob a store, and you did fire a gun a lot, but I don’t think you actually shot anyone. You might’ve damaged a wall or a car, but not an actual person. Basically, you threatened a lot, which really isn’t much of a crime. You took a hostage, but,” he looked up briefly towards Sally, who was now standing up and wiping away tears. “She seems to be physically unharmed and doesn’t look like she’s been mentally scarred. You did run away from the police, but then again, everybody runs from us,” he finished with a wink.

“So I’m arresting you for robbing a store. That’s all.” The officer whipped out a pair of handcuffs and fettered the man’s hands together. “Make sure to be an upstanding citizen from now on.”

“That…was cool,” was all Billy could say. He joined Jack and Oogie in the alley as the officer took out a radio and called some other men over. As they waited for a car to come, they comforted Sally. Some apologies were made, and some chatting was done. (“Mr. Unlucky, huh?”) By the time the robber was taken into the car, he didn’t seem all that scared anymore.

Another policeman drove the officer’s car up. When he got out, he said, “The chief’s gonna be angry at you.”

“About what?” asked the officer innocently.

“You know what I mean. Following a guy with a hostage when he told you not to…the chief’s gonna rave ‘bout how the girl could’ve been shot with your ‘reckless actions.’”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said the officer. “I was only going out for some smokes when I heard gunshots and, like I’m supposed to do, went to investigate.” The other man raised an eyebrow before getting into the passenger’s seat.

“D’you want a ride home?” the officer asked Billy.

“It’s okay, I can walk…” he replied, looking a little absorbed in his thoughts. The officer waited for a bit and then started to get into the car. “…That was really brave of you. I don’t think I could’ve stood up to that gun.”

The grizzled officer laughed. “You thought I was brave? That wasn’t bravery. I was just smart.” He took out his gun again, pointed it to the sky and pulled the trigger. It simply clicked.

Billy gawked for a second or two before finally finding the words to say, “…What would you’ve done if he shot…?”

“If he pulled the trigger? Well, I would’ve punched his lights out and dragged his sorry ass to jail myself. His sentence would probably be a bit longer too. Any more questions?”

“Um…what’re you gonna do ‘bout…” Billy looked over his shoulder, then quickly scanned the whole area.

“Those three? They’re gone by now. Snuck off.” The officer said dismissively.

Billy looked at him, bewildered. “But…they…weren’t you supposed to…?” The officer chuckled.

“How ‘bout I drive you home? Then we can talk about holidays…Halloween in particular, and about some weird guy who thought about a weird town…”