Jingle Jack hummed as he toted me along like I was some prize won at the arcade. My face was constantly being pulled into different expressions: excitement, shock, and a spooky pose. Thankfully I didn’t have muscles, otherwise they’d already be sore by now.

  We walked towards a mirror with an elaborate silver frame. “[Spooky Maze]”, he pointed at it, and the mirror changed into a portal. I could see a tiny, dark storage closet reflected back at us. This right here was precisely Jingle Jack’s problem. If Hex had discovered this, he would’ve used it for some parallel ghost realm or something. Instead, it was just the equivalent of some bottomless sack, because Jack apparently had all the imagination of a bank robber. Truly a minor villain.

  We stepped through. On either side were shelves filled with jars. Some of them were labeled and sparkled from regular use, while others were shoved to the very back, dusty and forgotten. More ominous was the jar ahead of us perched on a small table all by itself. It was covered with a cloth, and a pentagram was drawn on the floor beneath it.

  “Count Boogula”, Jingle Jack said to me. “I’m sure you’ll delight the crowd. After all, you know just how to perform. You get people to accept you. It’s what you are”.

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  I would’ve given him a glare, but with my face constantly cycling through different expressions, that was a bit difficult. But I could still talk. “Phoebe will come after you. Your whole sad carnival here is about to come crashing down. And you know why? It’s because none of this… none of these acts, none of these powers… are yours. You just leech off everyone else. Even your name is fake. You’re nobody”. Maybe a little harsh, but you try becoming an ornament.

  Jingle Jack’s smile faltered. “I’ll become somebody, Count Boogula. Just you watch”. I shivered, before he continued on. “I’ll build an immortal legacy! The whole world will know my name! Jingle Jack! Haha! And you will be one of my star performers, like it or not”.

  He set me down on a shelf and unbottled Dabble. “Guard the room, make sure there aren’t any escapees while I’m gone”. Dabble bowed. That could only refer to me. Even if another ghost broke out of their jar, they couldn’t reactivate the portal without [Spooky Maze]. This place wasn’t just a storage closet, it was a prison.

  Jack turned on his heel and left. I looked around the room. “…So… introductions, anyone…?”.