text: Hugs.And.Kisses Like Father,Like Daughter 
   
   
   Chapter 1 
   
  Chapter 1 Remember 
  October 28, 2007 (ooh, the future! insert twilight zone theme ) 
  "AUBREY!" 
  I woke up covered in a cold sweat and my stomach churning. I ran into the bathroom that connected my room to Emily's and over to the toilet. Emily walked in after I flushed. "Aubrey?" She yawned, rubbing her eyes. She started to stretch, but stopped as she saw me clutching the toilet's porcelain rim. "Oh no, not again." 
  I looked up at her. "I told you I couldn't stomach it." My throat was burning from the acid. 
  She sat down next to me. "This is the fourth time in the three weeks." 
  "You think I don't know that?" I snapped. My stomach lurched. "I'm gonna puke again…" 
  She sighed and pulled my hair back. "You need to relax, sis. This stress is gonna kill you." 
  I smirked. "Maybe then I can finally relax." The last syllable was barely out of my mouth when I had to turn away to empty the contents of my stomach. 
  As soon as there was nothing left for me to puke, I stood back up and walked to my room. "You sure you don't wanna come lay down with me?" 
  I shook my head. "No. I'm fine now." I shut the bathroom door and flopped back down on my bed. 
  I had lied to her again. 
  I was as far from fine as possible. Getting sick regularly in the middle of the night, insomnia, not eating much, I was the opposite of fine. I was sick. 
  It had been like this ever since I remembered what really happened to dad ten months ago, i.e. the car crash that Oogie caused. 
  I pulled my necklace out from under my pajama shirt. It was true; I missed Halloween Town and everyone there, especially Lock. Okay, I know I sound lovesick or something, but I can't help it. Lock was the first person I'd met in years that I could relate to. Yeah, there were Jack and Sally, but Jack was always busy, and they were both adults. They didn't have teenager problems; they had adult problems. 
  Mom had enrolled me in the local high school. I was now officially a sophomore, but it was still nothing compared to being a freshman in Halloween Town. Really boring is the only way to describe it here. People tend to avoid , that's not completely true. I've had a couple of boys ask me out, and they were both fairly normal. I turned both down. 
  What can I say? I can't do normal anymore. 
  I'm the crazy psycho girl with freaky eyes. 
  Lock was right: any other guy pales in comparison to one who could use make fire romantic, especially when I used to be close to terrified of it. Besides, he'd taught me how to pull off most of our pranks without getting caught. Well, most of the time. Stealing a bottle of Banshee's Shriek from science and opening it in the next class we had wasn't the best idea the three of us ever had. 
  Then there was Barrel. I didn't see Barrel during the school day, he was in middle school still, but he was really growing up. I don't care what Shock says, he's smart, and he probably could've skipped a grade if he'd wanted. Barrel really likes Shock too. It's SO obvious, but I don't think she even notices the sweet little things he does for her. It's just stuff like making absolutely sure that he's always there waiting for her when school lets out (Shock's locker is closest to the exit, so she always beats me and Lock out.), giving her all of her favorite candy from his stock without arguing (of course, he actually just slips it into hers without her knowing. She's often asked me where all those mini chocolate bats come from.), etc. 
  Speaking of that witch, Shock and me had just started getting to know each other. She was a lot of fun to have as a lab partner. Witches are just naturally good at that kind of stuff. Unlike Lock, who would be if he didn't purposely heat his experiment up so high that it spontaneously combusts and takes half a lab with it. That was the first time, if anyone's wondering. 
  I rolled over in my bed. TGIF much. 
  xXx 
  "Lock, wake up!" Barrel yelled, bouncing up and down on my back. 
  I threw a pillow at him. "Shut up and go away. It's Saturday." 
  "But Jack and Sally are taking us down to the lake! We can collect toads to throw at people." He tempted me. 
  "Just shut up and go away. I don't feel like going." I muttered, placing my other pillow over my head. 
  "God, are you going to do this every weekend?" Shock asked. I looked up to see her in my doorway. "What would Aubrey say if she saw you like this?" 
  I rolled my eyes. "If Aubrey could say something, I wouldn't be like this." 
  She ignored me. "She'd be in here helping Barrel, yelling 'wake up you lazy ass' just like I'm about to." 
  "Fine, I'm up!" I growled, sitting up. Barrel slid off my bed and hit the floor with a hard 'tunk'. Both of them scrambled out of my room so I could get dressed. 
  I sighed. This is not my idea of fun… 
  xXx 
  Shock and Barrel came down the stairs to see the Pumpkin King and Queen waiting. "Well?" Jack asked. 
  "He's up." Shock offered. 
  Jack sighed. "That's better than most days." 
  Lock tromped downstairs in a red T-shirt and jeans. "Can we just go now?" Barrel barreled out the door (no pun intended. Well, okay, yeah there was.), cursing as he fell down the stairs. Sally shook her head and followed him out, making sure the green-haired boy was okay when she reached the bottom. 
  Lock sighed. This was going to suck. 
  xXx 
  "It's Saturday. Why do I need to get up?" Aubrey groaned. 
  Her mother, Rachel, smiled at her. "Well you certainly can't sleep the day away, silly. It's beautiful out; why don't you go to the park or something?" 
  "I'd really rather not, mom…" She muttered, picking at her eggs. 
  Either not hearing or ignoring her daughter, she continued smiling. "By the way, a boy called for you." 
  Aubrey nearly choked on her eggs. "WH-WHAT? Who?" 
  "I believe he said his name was Nathaniel." Aubrey scrunched her nose in disgust. He had to be the most annoying boy in her third period English I class. 
  "What did he want?" 
  "Something about a Halloween Dance… why didn't you tell me that your school was holding a dance, sweetie?" Rachel asked, scrubbing her plate off in the sink. 
  "Because I'm not going. Especially not with him." Aubrey muttered, setting her plate on the counter. "I'm going to the library." 
  xXx 
  Lock chuckled as Shock shoved a toad down Barrel's shirt. He was having a better time than he'd expected. The wind rustled the trees behind him. 'Practice.' He thought. Halloween was in two days, and Lock, quite frankly, was surprised Jack could even find the time to come out to 'play' with them. At the moment, playing involved throwing mud at each other. 
  He sighed again. Normally, he looked forward to Halloween. Not even the thought of the new costumes Sally had been making him, Shock, and Barrel could perk him up now. 
  A handful of mud hit the side of his face, jerking him from his thoughts. He wiped it off and glared at his 'siblings'. Shock was laughing madly, the ball of goop in her hand dropping to the ground. That left only one suspect… "BARREL!" 
  xXx 
  October thirtieth. One day until Halloween. One day until my birthday. It was late afternoon, and I still hadn't gotten out of bed. I had curled into a little ball under my covers to try and keep out the cold, failing miserably. "Ryan, could you turn up the thermostat?" I called. 
  "It's almost at eighty, Aubrey. It's not going any higher." I shivered and burrowed deeper under my blankets. If it was almost eighty then why was the house so damn cold! 'Maybe it's just me.' I thought. It wouldn't be the first time. I couldn't stand the house anymore. I needed to be outside. But I'd gotten sick again this morning and was being confined to my room. Mom and Emily had gone shopping in the Mercedes, which left Ryan's truck and mom's van in the driveway. 
  It was a bad idea, I know. But it was an idea, and I grabbed at it. I shoved open the window, pulled the screen, frame and all, out, and climbed onto the roof of Ryan's truck. I got hit with a flashback of déjà vu, except this time I knew Shock wasn't here to pull the strings. 
  I slid down into the truck bed and jumped over the rails. Ryan hadn't noticed yet. I made a break for it. 
  xXx 
  Somewhere in the 'other world' offices… 
  A small goblin walked into a large, black covered office. "Um… Mr. Reaper?" 
  The skeleton looked up. "What is it?" 
  The goblin held up an hourglass. "You might want to take a look at this." The Grim Reaper grabbed the hourglass. He narrowed his eyes in that weird way skeletons can. 
  "Well I'll be…" 
  Inside the hourglass, the sands that filled the top had started to fall at an alarming rate, already less than half full. "I see. I'll keep an eye on this one." He flashed the goblin a toothy grin. "Personally." 
   
   
   
   Chapter 2 
   
  Chapter 2 
  My Name is Death 
  It was almost two a.m. when the phone at the Peterson house rang. Ryan snatched up the receiver. "Hello?" He paused. "This is." A longer pause, and Ryan's face paled. "Yes. We'll be down right away." He hung up. 
  His mother clutched his shoulder. "Was that Aubrey? Is she all right?" Ryan didn't answer. "Ryan, tell me!" 
  "Just get in the car." 
  XXX 
  "Poor kid. Must've died almost immediately." A police officer murmured. His partner nodded in agreement before going back to question a young man in a blue Corvette. 
  A worn out old truck pulled up, and Ryan, Emily, and Rachel climbed out. Emily blanched at the sight before her. Rachel screamed and started crying again. 
  The phone call had been about Aubrey, but she was far from all right. Ryan turned to one of the officers, and showed him his ID. "What happened to her?" 
  The officer, his tag said 'Brothers, N.' on it, shook his head. "From what we got, she ran out into the road and got hit. The impact sent her flying, and, well…" He gestured behind him. 
  Aubrey was hanging on a tree, one of her arms tangled in the branches above her, the other hanging at her side at an odd angle. Her shirt had a dark stain that blossomed around her chest and traveled down, like it had been dripping. 
  But the first thing Ryan's eyes were drawn to was a large branch through his baby sister's chest. 
  An ambulance pulled up, and a couple of paramedics climbed out. They walked over to Aubrey and, after disentangling her arm, pulled her off the tree with a squelching noise. Emily thought she was going to be sick. After a few minutes of examining her, one of the paramedics nodded. "Time of death, twelve forty-four a.m., October thirty-first." 
  Ryan held both Emily and his mother close. "Happy Halloween." He muttered. Faintly, he heard his mother humming the 'Happy Birthday' song. 
  XXX 
  "You've been causing me quite a bit of trouble, Miss Aubrey." I turned around to see a skeleton in a black cloak. 
  "The Grim Reaper? Can this get any more cheesy?" I asked myself. 
  He frowned. "Watch it, brat." He looked me up and down. "So you're the girl that Jack's been going on about." 
  I blinked a few times. "Skellington? You know him?" 
  The Reaper nodded. "I've been friends with that family for years." 
  "So, erm, Mr. Reaper-" 
  "Please. My name is Death." 
  "Oookay. So Death, where are you taking me?" 
  "Judgment." He told me, grabbing my wrist. "They'll decide where you go after that." He tugged my arm. 
  I didn't move. Death sighed. "Aubrey, don't be stubborn." 
  "Hello? I'm trying to follow." To prove my point, I lifted my leg to take a step, but couldn't put it back down. 
  He growled and pulled what looked like a cell phone out of his pocket. "We've got a problem." 
  A transparent goblin appeared beside me. "What kind of problem?" He turned around. "Oh, hello." 
  "Hi." I said warily. 
  Death motioned towards me with a bony hand. "She is the problem. She can't get to judgment. Aubrey Peterson." 
  "Be right back." The goblin disappeared for a few minutes, then reappeared. "All right, the reason she can't get to judgment is because she's already got a destination." He showed Death some papers. 
  He didn't have eyes, but I could tell he was reading them. "Whatever. Saves me some trouble." The goblin disappeared again. A wicked looking scythe appeared in Death's hand. He grinned at me. "Well, have fun." He slashed the air beside me, and a rip appeared. I turned to look at it, and a bony hand pushed me through. I tried to scream as I fell through the darkness, but didn't have any air. My body throbbed painfully, and I succumbed to the darkness, letting it knock me out. 
  XXX 
  "Lock, it's Halloween. Cheer up!" Barrel said, grinning at him. His new costume was almost exactly the same as the last one, black with a skeleton on it. But the bones looked more real, and some even had little pieces chipped off them. 
  Lock rolled his eyes. "Why? We all know what's gonna happen." Lock's costume too looked almost the same, except it was a darker shade of red and wasn't near as worn out. 
  Shock hit him with her mask. "Stop sulking and have some fun. We aren't supposed to complain how boring it is until AFTER Jack does his thing." Her costume didn't look the same at all. It was still the same dark violet shade, but it jagged black stitches all over it, giving it a slightly creepier look. She pulled her hat and mask on and ran downstairs. "Come on, or we'll miss it!" Both boys followed her. 
  All three sat on top of the fence to get a bird's eye view of the festivities. In the distance, they could hear the song starting. Shock started humming it loudly, mainly to annoy Lock, who said she was tone deaf. 
  "Shock, you tone deaf witch, stop that!" 
  XXX 
  The awards ceremony had started, and Jack was bored again. He almost wished that the trio WOULD try something, just so he could do something other than stand there. 
  Well, he was about to get his wish. A high pitched whistling filled the air, and he looked around for Lock, Shock, and Barrel, surprised to find them sitting on the fence, looking for the source of the noise. Shock nudged both the boys and pointed up. Both followed her gaze and, after staring for a moment, all three jumped off the fence and ran toward the Hinterlands. 
  Jack, in all the confusion that was happening, slipped away after them. He was getting better and better at doing that. He was close enough behind the trio to hear their conversation. 
  "You really think it's her?" Shock asked. 
  "Why else would we all feel tingly at the exact same time?" 
  "Tingly? Lock, is that even a word?" 
  "Shut up Barrel." Lock ordered. "We're just going to check. If I'm wrong, then you can both call me stupid, okay?" 
  "Can we do it anyway?" 
  "NO!" Lock stopped and looked around. "It's this way, right?" 
  "I think so… we haven't been out here in a while." Shock muttered. 
  Barrel was running ahead of them. "C'mon, guys. It's this way!" 
  "Barrel, wait up!" 
  "Slow down idiot!" Jack followed silently, still trying to figure out what they were up to. 
  XXX 
  "Are you sure this is the right way?" I asked Barrel. 
  "Yes, Shock. I know where I'm going, okay? I'm not stupid, okay?" He responded. I opened my mouth to make a comment on that last sentence, but he stopped me. "It was rhetorical. Don't answer it." 
  Lock was looking around. "Am I the only one who feels like we're being followed?" 
  Barrel and I looked at each other. I mouthed 'paranoid.' He laughed silently. "I'm being serious here, guys!" 
  "Lock, no one's following us." I told him. "Everyone's busy with that stupid awards thing." 
  "We're here." Barrel muttered, shoving some branches out of his way. 
  I peered into the clearing. "What is that?" Illuminated by the moonlight was a heap of what looked like feathers. 
  Then the heap groaned and sat up. I saw a flash of white hair, and Lock ran by me. "Aubrey!" 
  Her head turned toward him. "Lock?" 
  XXX 
  Everything was sore, especially my back and head. 'What the hell did Death do to me? Heh. Stupid question.' I groaned and sat up, putting a hand to my head. I felt something sharp. Suddenly, before I could figure out what it was, I heard, "Aubrey!" 
  I turned my head to see Lock. "Lock?" I didn't have a chance to say anything else as he hugged me. 
  "I think he's happy to see you." I turned my head slightly to see Shock and Barrel. 
  The latter grinned. "I'd say very happy." I saw his eyes travel behind me. "Whoa." 
  Lock pulled away. "Barrel, what are you- okay. Whoa." 
  "What?" I asked, reaching behind me. I felt… feathers? I stood up and turned around to look at my shadow. "Holy shit." 
  "You've got wings." Shock said. 
  "So I've noticed." I touched my forehead again. No pain. I poked it. Pain. I looked down at my hands. "Claws. Just what I need." 
  I turned back around and Lock kissed me. I heard Barrel make a gagging noise. "Fangs too, probably." He grinned. 
  I blushed and looked over his shoulder. "Jack?" 
  He walked out of the trees as Lock, Shock, and Barrel turned around. "I knew I wasn't paranoid!" Lock grinned triumphantly, pointing at Jack. 
   
   
   
   Chapter 3 
   
  Chapter 3 
  New body, new powers, new…parents! 
  It was now November first. I was sitting in my old bedroom in Skellington Manor, looking in a mirror. Whatever Death had done, I liked it. 
  My eyes were now blood red instead of the bright pinkish-red they had been. My canines were longer than they had been, but the sun wasn't burning me, and I didn't have a sudden craving for blood, so I wasn't a vampire. My fingers now ended in claws, which were very sharp; I'd tested them on the wall earlier by carving out 'hi' with a few quick scratches. 
  My clothes had changed too. I was wearing a black top that looked suspiciously like the top half of my old ghost costume from last time I was here, only it had one of the sleeves attached to it and the other sleeve/glove thing wasn't even there. The end of the sleeve and hem of the shirt were still ragged and cut up looking though, so… Black jeans and slipper-like shoes finished the outfit, along with Lock's pendant. 
  But the biggest change was the wings. 
  A pair of black angel wings that were most definitely real, with a span that was wider than I was tall, had attached to my back. At the moment, they were folded up so they took up a lot less room. The weird thing was, they felt so natural to me that I fell asleep in five minutes once I'd gotten in my bed. 
  I hadn't tried flying yet. 
  A knock on the door pulled me away from the mirror, and Zero flew through the wood, floating up to lick my face. The door opened. "You know, people may start to think you're vain or something if you don't stop staring at your reflection." Shock said, sitting on my bed. 
  I shoved the ghost dog off of me. "I can't help it. It's kind of a drastic change." I flared my wings a bit for emphasis. 
  "I get it, I get it." She grumbled. All three of my friends had changed a lot since I'd been gone. Shock's wild black hair was even thicker and wilder now, and she'd grown a couple of inches. Puberty had been a lot kinder to her than it had me, 'cause she had more curves in more places. Her costume had ragged black stitches across it, and she was wearing combat boots over her black tights. "Have you tried to do any magic yet?" 
  I rolled my eyes. "Please. You remember last time I was here. I couldn't summon a fly, let alone do any actual magic." 
  "Yeah, but you were alive then." Shock paused to think. "Try this: knirhs sgniw." 
  "What's it gonna do?" I asked warily. 
  "Just look in the mirror and try it." She ordered. 
  I sighed and looked back at the mirror. "I better not blow up or something… Knirhs sgniw." I gasped as my wings shrunk down on my back until they were the size of a small bird's. "Cool!" 
  Shock grinned. "Can't do magic my ass! The reversal spell is wrog sgniw." I repeated her, and the wings grew back to their normal size. "That's just basic stuff. You could probably make them vanish, but I don't know the spell for that." 
  "S'okay, this is cool! Wonder if I can set things on fire…" 
  She rolled her eyes and shoved me. "No way, we've already got one pyromaniac in the house, we don't need another one, especially when they're dating." 
  I pushed her back. "Don't you shove me!" 
  "I'll shove you all I want!" 
  "Ow! You'll pay for that…" 
  "Ooh, cat fight!" Both of us looked at the door to see Lock and Barrel standing there. 
  "Breakfast is ready." Lock said, smirking. Both of us stood up and smoothed our costumes back down. I folded my wings as flat as I could, I didn't want to bother with the spell. Zero followed us down the stairs, barking and yipping happily. 
  As soon as we entered the kitchen, the dog went over and started attacking Jak with kisses, leaving us alone for the moment. "Morning." Sally said. 
  I looked at the clock. It read eleven thirty. "More like afternoon." I sat down as Sally sat a plate down on the table. 
  "PANCAKES!" Barrel yelled, grabbing six of them. Barrel was now about an inch taller than me, which was kind of sad, because he'd been about two inches shorter than me last year. His yellow-green hair was now more like green with yellow highlights. He, according to what all three of them had caught me up on last night, was on the freshman football team, though I couldn't remember for the life of me what position he played. 
  "Save some for the rest of us, will ya'?" Lock muttered, grabbing a couple. Lock's bright red hair wasn't curled up in the front like it used to be, but instead just spiked up a little. He'd obviously gotten it cut to show off the blood red horns that had grown on his forehead. Lock was still almost three inches taller than me, which kind of made me mad, but I'd live with it. His fangs, which showed when he smiled, were sharper than I remembered, but that may have been because one of Lock's actual smiles were pretty hard to come by back when I first met him. 
  Jack and Sally looked the same as I remembered. There wasn't really much they could change; Sally's a rag doll, and Jack's a skeleton. Sally could cut her hair or something, but she looked fine like she was. 
  "Aubrey, I've enrolled you back in the High School, so you'll be starting again next Monday." 
  Barrel grinned. "Oh yeah, we've still got the entire week off!" 
  I laughed and finished my pancakes. "That's fine with me, otherwise I'd be sitting around here all day getting bored." 
  The rest of breakfast was… interesting. Barrel grabbed the last of the pancakes before Lock could, Lock set Barrel on fire, and when Barrel tried to put it out, he ended up soaking everyone and everything in the kitchen… except himself. Shock just poured her milk over his head and ended it. 
  And after everyone had dried off (again, courtesy of Shock) and the kitchen was clean, the four of us bolted. "You feel okay Aubrey?" Lock asked. 
  "Yeah, I'm fine, but I feel weird." I told him. "I mean, I'm dead." 
  Shock shrugged. "It's reasonable. So, what happened?" 
  "I got hit by a car." 
  "What were you doing, crossing the street?" 
  "No, I…" I grimaced. "I jumped in front of it." 
  "WHAT!" Lock yelled. 
  I winced. "It was a really bad decision, okay? I wasn't thinking straight 'cause I'd been sick and sleep deprived for the last week." 
  "Okay, it was a bad idea." Barrel muttered. "But getting hit by a car isn't fatal a lot of the time. How fast were they going?" 
  "Fast. Way above the speed limit." I muttered. "It hit me, I flew back into a tree, and…" I turned away and pulled my top up above my stomach. There was a hole going through straight through where my diaphragm was. 
  "And apparently got skewered." Shock said, looking at the hole. 
  "Cool! Does it go all the way through?" Barrel asked. The three of us stared at him. "Uh, never mind." 
  "Okay, so it wasn't the car." I muttered, pulling my shirt back down. "Well, now that we've figured that out, who wants to go do something fun?" 
  XXX 
  Aubrey's idea of 'something fun' include stealing the mayor's hat, stuffing a frog in it, then filling the rest of it with mud. I knew there was another reason I loved this girl! "I can't see Lock!" Barrel hissed. I looked over. A particularly thick tree branch was in his way. 
  Shock reached down and grabbed the back of his shirt, pulling him up on the branch next to her. "Now shush!" She hissed. 
  Aubrey giggled as I put my arm around her. "Here he comes!" 
  The mayor, hatless, walked into the town square, his upset face facing forward. When he spotted his hat, his head spun to the happy face and he flipped the upside down hat over to put it on his head. All the mud, and the frog, fell out all over his cone-shaped head. 
  All four of us were covering our mouths, trying not to laugh. If we did, we'd get caught. Then the frog, which was still sitting on the mayor's head, let out an indignant ribbit. We couldn't hold it in any longer. 
  We jumped out of the tree and broke into a run toward the woods, laughing our heads off. "Did… did you see his face?" Shock cackled. Barrel nodded, his hands on his knees for support. 
  "Th-that stupid frog! If it hadn't… hadn't…" Aubrey couldn't finish her sentence. She leaned up against me, holding her sides. 
  "Just… be glad that... you don't have… have to breath…" I told her, gasping for the air to form words. 
  After we'd all calmed down, which took longer than it should have, because Barrel started imitating the Mayor, we started back toward town. 
  Once I'd taken a quick look around and seen that the coast was clear, we ran back to Skellington Manor. Jack and Sally were sitting in the living room. We all blanched. "Aubrey, Sally and I need to talk to you." Jack said, surprisingly calm. Maybe we weren't in trouble… 
  "Okay." She followed after them into the kitchen. 
  XXX 
  "What is it?" I asked sitting down at the table. There was still a possibility of me being in trouble for the Mayor's hat… 
  Sally started first. "Well, Aubrey, Jack and I wanted to know if you would be all right with the idea of us adopting you." 
  That took a moment to sink in. "Wait… you mean, as in, becoming my parents?" I asked. 
  Jack nodded. "We had planned on doing this last time you were here, but with the… circumstances…" 
  I paused, looking at the paper Sally had given me. "Can I ask you guy something first?" 
  "Of course." Sally said. 
  "Um… do you guys mind if I call you mom and dad?" The smiles on their faces answered for me, and I signed the paper as neatly as I could: 
  Aubrey Skellington 
   
   
   
   Chapter 4 
   
  Chapter 4 
  The Pumpkin Princess 
  I sighed as Lock, once again, attempted to make the fire under his beaker get hotter than he was supposed to, and Aubrey muttered the cooling spell under her breath. A blast of cold wind blew past the devil and put out the growing flame. He turned around and glared at me, and I, in turn, pointed at his girlfriend. She shoved me. "Shock!" 
  I shrugged. "It's not like he'll try to set you on fire." 
  After class let out, Lock caught Aubrey in the hall. "You're going to pay for that." He muttered, his tail swishing against her legs. She giggled. 
  I rolled my eyes in disgust. "I'm outta here." I told them, going to my locker. It was our first day back, and already I was sick of High School again. Oh well, at least Barrel was here this year and we all had the same lunch so we could plot and crap. 
  It was funny though. Every class we had, (Aubrey had almost every class with either Lock or me) everyone always freaked when they found out it was Aubrey Skellington. We had lunch next, so I headed over to our regular table. Well, technically, it was the regular LSB table, but since Aubrey was back (and it would seem weird to put an 'A' somewhere in there), it was the trick-or-treater's table. 
  Aubrey and Lock sat down next. "I'm starting to regret this decision." Aubrey muttered, laying her head down on her arms. 
  "What decision?" Barrel asked. When he'd gotten here, I had no clue. 
  "The one to let Jack and Sally adopt me." 
  Lock rolled his eyes. "They're calling her the Pumpkin Princess." 
  I bit my lip, but it was too late. A giggle had already escaped from my mouth. "Go ahead." Aubrey sighed. Barrel and I both cracked up laughing. 
  "P-Pumpkin P-pr-princess!" I choked out. "Oh my fucking god that's good!" 
  Aubrey glared at me from between her arms, her eyes glowing red. "All right all ready, you've both had your laugh, now do me a favor and shut up!" 
  Gradually, we stopped laughing. Then I caught sight of the cafeteria doors opening and groaned as I saw who was walking through them. "Lock, put your head down, it's Vida." 
  Aubrey blinked, confused. "Who's Vida?" 
  Lock growled and sank down in his seat. "Vida Areolas. She's head cheerleader on Junior Varsity." 
  Barrel rolled his eyes. "She's the leader of what we have oh-so-venomously named the 'pop' squad, which consists of at least all the preps and jocks in school-" 
  "Save you." Aubrey interrupted. 
  "Save me, and did I mention that she has a HUMUNGOUS crush on Lock?" 
  Aubrey's eyebrows shot up. "Really now?" 
  Lock put a book up in front of his face. "Can we talk about this later…?" He hissed, glancing over the top of his book. 
  But alas, it was too late. Vida had seen us and was walking over, her ever present group of cheerleaders behind her. "Lock, what are you doing?" She asked. Vida was a very odd mix; half-vampire, half-cat demon. Fuzzy ears poked through her straight black hair, and a tail poked out from under her skirt. Green feline eyes surveyed our table with quite obvious annoyance. She was abnormally pale, even for someone who was dead, and had really, really long canines. 
  Lock sat up. "Back problems…" He muttered, his tail twitching under the table. How do I know this you ask? Simple: the tip hit me in the leg. 
  Vida gave Lock a smile, then turned to Aubrey, whose eyes I could've sworn were glowing red a second ago. "And you must be the new girl. Aubrey Skellington, right?" 
  "Yeah." Aubrey answered curtly. 
  Vida sent a look of disgust toward Barrel and I. "Why in the world would a Skellington be hanging out with the lowest end of the food chain?" 
  "Vida, do you like being turned into a slug?" I asked. "Because you should know I don't have a problem doing it aga-" 
  "What can I say?" Aubrey cut me off. "I like hanging out with my friends and boyfriend." She gave Lock a kiss on the cheek. 
  Vida's eye twitched. Barrel was having trouble not laughing. "Oh. I'll see you later then." She turned tail and left, her entourage following her, twittering incessantly. 
  Lock grinned. "I have finally discovered something that will make Vida leave me alone!" 
  Aubrey glared at him halfheartedly. "I believe 'thank' and 'you' are the words you're looking for." Lock hugged her and muttered 'I love you'. Aubrey sighed, pretending to be annoyed. "That works too." 
  I smirked. "That worked almost as well as when I turned her into a slug." 
  "I would've paid to see that. Five seconds and I already hate her." Aubrey growled. 
  "That's longer than most." Barrel commented. "I think you turned her into a slug in, what, three?" 
  "Three and a half." I responded, poking the food on my tray cautiously. It growled at me. "You know, I'm suddenly not hungry." 
  xXx 
  After school, we all headed straight back to Skellington Manor, preferring to avoid Vida and her 'pack' for the rest of the day. Thankfully, we managed to avoid her today and get back to the house. 
  Jack and Sally were waiting in the main room. "Whatever it is, we didn't do it." I automatically responded. Jack raised a nonexistent eyebrow. "Sorry. It's a reflex." 
  "Don't worry, you aren't in trouble, but we need to talk to Aubrey." She nodded and followed them upstairs. 
  "See you in a minute!" She called. 
  Ten minutes later, Aubrey came flying back down the stairs (quite literally), grinning. "Whoa, what happened?" 
  "Sally's pregnant!" 
  I blinked. "Wait, say what?" 
  "How the hell'd that happen?" Barrel asked. 
  Shock and Aubrey looked at him like he was speaking German or something. "Barrel, do you just not pay attention in health?" 
  He blushed. "No, I know about that! What I meant was, Jack's a skeleton and Sally was pretty much built from doll parts. How can Jack get her pregnant?" 
  "Well, apparently, the Grim Reaper can make it so that undead who want to have kids but can't, like Sally and Jack, can have kids. But only once." Aubrey explained. "They went to visit him while we were at school." 
  "So that means you're gonna have a little sister or brother?" Shock asked. If my ears weren't fooling me, she sounded excited. Aubrey nodded. "Cool!" 
  Barrel and I looked at each other. "Run on three?" 
  He nodded. "One…" 
  "Two…" 
  "Thr-" 
  "Try it and we'll gut you both." Shock said, walking out the door before we could move. Aubrey followed her, laughing quietly. 
  I blinked. "Scary." 
  "You said it." Barrel murmured, following the girls. 
  xXx 
  The next couple of months went by rather slowly. School does that, whether it be in living world or Halloween Town. 
  On a better note, Vida now absolutely despised me. One, I was dating Lock. Two, I was pretty much the most high ranked girl in town, and I refused to hang out with her. Three, well, there wasn't really a three, but I'm sure I could make one. 
  School was going pretty well actually. None of us were failing anything, Barrel was trying to work up the courage to ask Shock out on a date, and Lock was… well, Lock. 
  As Shock and I (Lock was probably skipping again) walked into Basic Magic and Potions, Ms. Aurelius, a witch, looked up. "Ah, there you two are. The counselor wants to see you both." 
  Shock and I glanced at each other and took the pink slips of paper from our teacher and walked out. 
  "What did we do this time?" Shock asked. 
  I paused to think. "Well… maybe when we switched the labels for the Frog's Breath and Dragon's Breath?" 
  "Yeah, but that was like two weeks ago." 
  I shrugged. "I don't know, that's all I can think of." 
  "Well, whatever it is, we can probably blame it on Lock." 
  "Shock!" I laughed, not really all that surprised. 
  We reached the door to Mr. Bitter's office and walked inside. Mr. Bitter was a vampire, and therefore had a windowless office and always had low lights. "Ah, Aubrey, Shock. Just the girls I wanted to see." 
  "Whatever it is, I blame Lock." Shock said quickly. I sighed and shook my head. 
  Mr. Bitter chuckled. "No, no. You two aren't in trouble this time. Actually, I was wondering if you knew your grades in Ms. Aurelius' class?" 
  We looked at each other again. "Um… passing, I'd hope." I replied. 
  "Oh, much better than passing. You two are excelling in that class. Therefore, Ms. Aurelius came to me with the proposition of moving you two up to her advanced magic class." 
  "But… that class is for seniors!" Shock exclaimed. "We aren't taking that for two more years." 
  "Ah, let me finish. I can only move you up if you two are alright with it." 
  Shock grinned. "I don't know about Aubrey, but I am." 
  "Same here." I agreed. 
  Mr. Bitter nodded and handed us each a schedule. "You'll start tomorrow." 
  xXx 
  "Advanced Magic?" Barrel asked. "Isn't that for seniors?" 
  I nodded. "Yeah, but Mr. Bitter said that Ms. Aurelius recommended us to be moved up." 
  Lock frowned as he looked over me and Shock's new schedules. "Yeah, but now most of your classes are moved. We hardly have anything together." 
  Shock rolled her eyes and took her schedule back. "Oh, stop whining. Look, we still have History of Halloween, Haunting, and Gym together." 
  "Gym doesn't count. The guys and girls don't even use the same gym." 
  "Yeah, well you still get to see Aubrey in those annoying little short shorts." I blushed heavily and shoved her. 
  "Shut up." I muttered. Lock grinned and put an arm around me, kissing my cheek. 
  xXx 
  After school let out, we all raced outside to get home. Unfortunately, we never got outside. "Vida's waiting for us." Shock told Barrel, Lock, and I as we neared the doors. 
  "Well, what if we went out the back and cut through the Graveyard?" Lock suggested. 
  "Better than trying to sneak past Vida." I muttered. "C'mon, let's go." 
   
   
   
   Chapter 5 
   
  Chapter 5 
  An old friend 
  "Where are we?" Shock asked. 
  Lock looked around. "I'm not sure. I didn't know the graveyard went back this far." Instead of heading straight back to Skellington Manor like we should have, we had hopped the back fence of the graveyard, continuing on that way. We thought it would just lead into the Hinterlands. 
  Boy, were we wrong. It led us into a part of the graveyard we didn't know existed, and neither did anyone else from the looks of it. It was overgrown with dead weeds and grass, and trees even more twisted than what we were used to made it even darker than normal. 
  Aubrey clutched Lock's arm. "Let's go back. This place is creeping me out." 
  I nodded. "I'm with Aubrey. Let's get- ow!" A sharp pain went through my foot. I cursed and grabbed it, hopping around like an idiot. 
  "What happened?" Shock asked. I couldn't tell if she turned around or not, I couldn't really see anything. 
  "I kicked something." I muttered, bending down. I shoved the weeds away from the spot in front of me. My fingers brushed against cool stone. I ran my hands over the square piece of stone, tracing the letters carved into it with my fingers. My eyes widened as I realized what it said. "No way… guys, you've got to come look at this!" 
  Lock peered over my shoulder. "Barrel, it's a grave. We're in a graveyard." 
  "Not the grave, smart ass!" I snapped. "What's written on it! Listen: 'Here lies her majesty Luna Nigh T'mare, Pumpkin King'." 
  Aubrey knelt down next to me, the little moonlight showing reflecting off her white hair. She touched the place just below my fingers, and then pulled her hand back, examining her fingers. "It's wet." 
  "Yeah, I know. The whole things soaked in something. Lock, a little light?" He obliged, a ball of flame appearing in his open hand. 
  Aubrey looked down at her fingers and shrieked. "It's blood!" I looked down at my own hands to see that they were stained red. I fell back with a cry, wiping my palms frantically on my shirt. 
  Shock looked around at the ground. "It's all over the place. There's a whole fucking trail of it!" (a/n: Subtle, isn't she?) 
  A quiet noise, like a sob, made us all shut up. 
  I stood quickly, forgetting the blood that covered my hands. "Did you hear that?" 
  Shock shushed me. "Listen!" 
  Another noise, louder this time. Shock's eyes widened. "Holy shit…" 
  "Now can we leave?" I asked. 
  Lock grabbed Aubrey's arm with the hand the fire wasn't in. "Yeah, let's go." 
  She pushed him off. "Hold on." She followed the crimson trail that stained the weeds and dirt carefully. 
  "Aubrey, it's usually best to walk AWAY from creepy noises coming out of thin air!" Lock called, running after her. 
  "Quiet!" Aubrey ordered over her shoulder. She placed two fingers in her mouth and blew, producing a high whistle. 
  There was a moment of silence, and then, "Aubrey?" 
  I couldn't see her face, but Aubrey's eyes must've been huge. "Sandy!" She exclaimed before taking off at a run deeper into the graveyard. 
  "H-hey! Aubrey, wait a minute!" 
  Shock grabbed my hand. "C'mon! We can't let them get lost in here." 
  I felt my face heating up, but ignored it as I nearly tripped over another tombstone. "Shock, slow down! You're faster then I am!" 
  She looked back at me. "You're a football player, Barrel!" 
  "Yeah, but-" I decided to just shut my mouth at that moment, because I nearly tripped again. 
  We caught up with Lock and Aubrey a few seconds later. "Whoa…" I muttered. In Aubrey's arms was a girl who looked a few years older than us. Tan skin was stretched tight over her frame, and scraggly black hair fell past her waist. A white, hospital-like robe covered her frame, but it was pretty much in rags. Her fingers to her wrists were darker than the rest of her skin, probably covered with blood, and there was a stain of it on her chest. The trail we had been following led right to her. 
  "Sandy? Sandy, come on, wake up!" Aubrey was shaking the girl. 
  Lock put a hand on her shoulder. "Let's take her back to Dr. Finklestein. He'll be able to do something." 
  o0o 
  Lock forced me to let him carry Sandy as we headed back to Halloween Torn. Not that I minded much; she was heavier than I remembered and my strength seemed to be sapped away. Every so often she'd mumble something unintelligible or her eyelids would flutter, but she didn't show any other side of waking. 
  I felt something upon my waist and looked down to see Lock's tail curled around me. "She'll be fine. She's just asleep." 
  I smiled at him weakly, laying my head on his shoulder before going back to worrying about Sandy. 
  About ten minutes later, Barrel's shout of, "Hey, there's the fence!" pulled me from my thoughts again. We followed it to the always unlocked gate, where we shoved it open (luckily, it didn't squeak) and slipped out of the alley. 
  Hardly anyone was in the square, so it wasn't hard to slip over to Dr. Finklestein's door, Shock, Barrel, and I walking around Lock to hide the unconscious figure in her arms. Lock knocked on the door and Jewel opened it a second later. 
  "There you four are!" She scolded. "Jack and Sally have been worried sick-" She stopped with a gasp. "Aubrey, Barrel! You're both covered in blood!" We looked down at our fronts. In the darkness of the graveyard, it had been nearly impossible to tell, but because of the light from the hall, the dark stains were obvious on our white shirts 
  "It's not ours." Barrel responded quickly. 
  Jewel crossed her arms disbelievingly. "Then whose is it?" 
  As Shock stepped out of the way to reveal Lock holding Sandy, Jack and Sally walked out of the lab. Sally took one look at our fronts and ran down the staircase. Almost immediately, she ran over to me, trying to locate the source of the blood. "Aubrey, what happened!" 
  I shook my head, grabbing her wrists gently. "It's not mine mom." I looked over to Lock, whose shirt was also now stained red, and Sally's gaze followed mine. Her hands flew to her mouth in horror. 
  As Dr. Finklestein and Jewel examined Sandy, Jack questioned Lock, Shock, Barrel, and Aubrey. 
  "I'm guessing that the reason you're late has something to with finding Sandy?" He asked, his bony arms crossed. 
  "Well, sort of…" Barrel murmured. Shock elbowed him sharply. 
  Jack saw this and raised an 'eyebrow'. "One of you had better start talking." 
  Lock and Shock both sent glares toward the younger boy, neither made a move to say anything further. The Pumpkin King cast his gaze over all of them, stopping on Aubrey. 
  The girl had her head resting on Lock's shoulder tiredly, and her expression of exhaustion was only disguised by the worry and fear clear on her face. Her eyes pulled away from the lab doorway on the second story to Jack's face for a moment, and then past him to the wall. 
  For a moment, Jack thought she too would stay silent but then she took a breath. "The graveyard." She muttered. "That's where we found Sandy. We were in the graveyard." 
  "What?" Sally asked. "What were you doing at the graveyard?" 
  Lock sighed. "We cut through the graveyard after school to avoid Vida and her friends." 
  'Now we're getting somewhere.' Jack thought. "That still should've had you home hours ago." He reprimanded. 
  "Well, we were going to check out what's left of the tree house, just cause we haven't been able to go back there in a while, but…" 
  "We thought hopping the back fence would take us straight into the Hinterlands." Shock continued hesitantly. 
  "But it led us to another part of the graveyard!" Barrel took up the explanation excitedly. "It was really dark and it looked like no one had set foot in there for… ages…" He trailed off into silence. As Barrel had spoken, Jack's expression had changed from somewhat annoyed curiosity to dark fury. 
  Said skeleton's empty eye sockets blazed. "You four are to stay away from the graveyard! If any of you so much as go near the gate, you will be severely punished! Now go back to the manor and stay there!" 
  The four of them practically ran out of the Laboratory, the door slamming shut violently behind them in their hurry. 
  Sally looked at her husband, somewhat horrified. "Jack! What in the world did they do to force you yell at them like that? They were late, it's not like anything could happen to them!" 
  Jack's expression softened and he took Sally's hands in his. "Sally… I wish I could tell you. But you have to believe me when I say this: it's safer for the four of them if they don't go into the graveyard for a while." Sally still didn't look sure. "But you're right, I shouldn't have snapped at them like that. I promise, I'll apologize to them when we get home." 
  Sally hugged him lovingly. "Thank you Jack." She walked upstairs to the lab where Dr. Finklestein and Jewel were. 
  As she walked up the stairs, Jack turned and strode over to the window, looking out at Skellington Manor. Four figures were rushing through the gates and up the narrow stairs. One, probably Barrel, tripped on the third stair, scrambling to catch up with the others. As the door opened and shut, his vision drifted to the lab doorway. 'I may have to keep a closer eye than I thought on this one…' 
  o0o 
  As we sat in the living room, we were all silent. Shock was helping Barrel clean the blood off his face from the cut he'd gotten when he'd cracked his head on the stairs, and I was sitting on the opposite couch with Aubrey, who was still using me as a pillow. But finally, I had to voice what everyone was thinking. "What the hell did we do wrong?" 
  Aubrey's grip on my hand tightened. "I'm not sure. I've never seen Jack that mad… not at anyone!" 
  Barrel nodded his agreement, being careful not to make Shock poke him in the eye. "Yeah. I don't think even Oogie got THAT look." 
  "He scared the shit outta me." Shock muttered. We all murmured something along the same lines. 
  "Maybe we should just go to bed." I suggested. "I'd rather not be awake when Jack comes home." 
  Barrel nodded. "Yeah, that, and Aubrey looks ready to pass out." 
  Aubrey blushed as we stood up, walking upstairs. After we all said goodnight to each other, and I gave Aubrey a quick kiss, we headed into our rooms. 
  I pulled my shirt off and looked down at it. It wasn't as bad as Aubrey or Barrel's, but I definitely wasn't wearing it to school tomorrow. I sighed and flopped down on my bed after switching off the lights. 
  The same thought kept racing through my head as I closed my eyes: What got Jack so riled up? 
   
   
   
   Chapter 6 
   
  Chapter 6 
  Unanswered Questions 
  The next morning, the breakfast table was silent. The height of conversation was when Barrel asked Lock to pass the salt. 
  After the four of them left, I turned to Jack. "I don't think I've even seen them that quiet." 
  "Me neither." 
  "You really should apologize you know." 
  "I know," Jack sighed, "But I had a feeling that waking them up to apologize last night would have been a bad idea." He kissed my cheek. "Once they get home from school. I promise." He stood up. "I have some business to take care of, but I'll try to be back by dinner." Jack started to walk out, Zero following him. At the door, he stopped. "No, Zero. You stay here boy." 
  Zero floated back over to me, whimpering. I frowned as I laid my hand on his head. My suspicions had just jumped from 'somewhat paranoid' up to 'undoubtedly confirmed.' 
  One: Jack left Zero behind, something that I have never seen him do. 
  Two: Jack never went to meet with the Mayor or do anything related to being Pumpkin King willingly. Usually, he had to be dragged kicking and screaming (not literally, but you get my point). 
  As I scratched Zero behind the ears, my frowned deepened. It wasn't like Jack to keep secrets. 
  .o0o. 
  Concentrating was never Lock's strong suit. And the fact that his mind was occupied with Jack's outburst the night before was definitely not helping. 
  A quick, and really loud, 'smack' on his desk snapped him out of his trance. Looking up, he saw that Mr. Black, the Haunting teacher (a swamp monster), had just slammed a slimy fist down on his desk. "Welcome back Lock. Now, maybe you can answer my question. Who was the Pumpkin King before Jack Skellington?" 
  Lock's mind raced. Of course, the one thing he doesn't copy out of Shock and Aubrey's notes… wait… he knew this! "Luna T'mare." 
  Mr. Black blinked, surprised. "Er… yes, that's correct." Lock couldn't help letting a triumphant smirk creep onto his face. Aubrey and Shock hid smiles behind their hands as their teacher flustered. 
  Alexis Blunt, a werewolf, raised her hand. "Isn't Luna a girl's name?" 
  The teacher nodded. "Luna T'mare WAS female, but the title of Pumpkin King is given to the leader of Halloween Town whether they are male or female." He finished by looking at Aubrey pointedly. Aubrey put a hand in front of her face, embarrassed. "Now, if you'll all turn to page three ninety-seven in your books…" 
  .o0o. 
  "Does every teacher have to single me out whenever the subject of Pumpkin King is brought up?" Aubrey groaned, stabbing the spork she stole from Shock into her sandwich. 
  Barrel pulled the sucker out of his mouth. "Well, maybe it's 'cause you're the Pumpkin Prin-" 
  Aubrey brandished the spork at the younger boy like a weapon. "Barrel, if you finish that sentence, the spork is getting stabbed into you next." She threatened. He stuck the sucker back in his mouth 
  Shock sighed. "Well, at least it's something good to get acknowledged for." 
  Aubrey scoffed. "Feh. What d'you sound unhappy for? It's more fun getting noticed for the crap we pull. Right Lock?" Lock didn't answer. Aubrey turned toward her boyfriend. "Lock?" 
  The devil was staring down at the table, tapping his claws against the gray plastic. 
  Shock punched him in the forehead. "Hey!" 
  Lock put a hand over the spot the witch socked. "Ow! What?" 
  "Jeez, quite spacing out on us, will ya'?" 
  "Sorry." He muttered. 
  "Are you still thinking about last night?" Aubrey asked. Lock nodded with a sigh. "Don't bother. I don't think any of us could figure out why dad freaked." 
  Shock tapped her fingers on the tabletop, much like Lock had been earlier. "Well, maybe there was a reason that part of the graveyard was like that." 
  Lock looked over at her. "Shock, this is Halloween Town. What could've been bad enough to make Jack that mad?" 
  "Mayhaps a giant spider?" Aubrey asked under her breath. 
  Lock tugged her hair lightly. "Shut up." 
  Barrel shook his head. "I don't think that even Jack was THAT mad. Yeah he was pretty pissed, but since Lock's the one who killed it, and actually saved everyone, he went a little lighter on us." 
  "But not much." Aubrey reminded them. "I was there too, remember?" 
  "How can we not?" Shock asked. "Lock threw the axe just before it tried to eat you and Sally." 
  Aubrey glared at her. "Yeah. Thanks for reminding me." 
  Shock grinned. "No pro-" The bell cut her off and she growled at it. "Oh shut up." 
  Barrel sighed and tossed the bare stick that his sucker had been on in the trash. "Let's go; I've already been late twice today." 
  .o0o. 
  "You know, I think this is the first time I've actually WANTED detention." Lock muttered as we walked out the door. 
  "No kidding." Shock and Barrel responded. 
  I shook my head. "I swear, it's still really creepy when you do that." 
  "Do what?" All three asked, grinning. 
  "That!" 
  Lock smiled and kissed my cheek. "Ah, you'll get used to it. In about three hundred years." I rolled my eyes shoved him off of me. 
  "I don't think I'm patient enough to wait that long." I stopped at the gate of Skellington Manor. "I'm going to go over to Dr. Finklestein's and check on Sandy, okay?" 
  They nodded and continued up the walk as I turned and headed toward the lab. I opened the door, wincing as it squeaked loudly. "Hey gramps, you here?" Stupid question, he was almost always in his lab. 
  I didn't get a response. "Gramps?" 
  A familiar figure walked to the top of the stairs. "Aubrey?" 
  My eyes widened and I flew up the stairs (not literally; the stairway's too small for my wings. And they were still shrunk anyway) and hugged them tightly. "Sandy! Oh my god, you're awake! Are you alright?" 
  She nodded, seemingly unfazed by my sudden bombardment of hugging-ness. (a/n: I know… not an actual word… go away)"Yeah, I'm okay, but I really shouldn't be standing according to that lady…" 
  I let go of her and stepped back. "Oh, you mean Jewel? Then you should probably lie back down, you don't need her to get mad at you." I pulled her back into the room she had been in (mom's old room, coincidentally) and sat down on her bed with her. 
  There was a somewhat awkward silence between us for a minute. "So…" Sandy started. "What happened?" 
  "Huh?" Not my most intelligent answer ever. 
  "Well, I'm guessing that you're dead now, right?" 
  I blinked. "Oh, yeah." I lifted up my shirt and showed her the hole. 
  She peered through it and whistled. "Lovely. You get shot or something?" 
  "Staked on a tree branch." 
  "Ouch." 
  "Can't be much worse than swallowing glass." I realized what I'd said and murmured an apology. 
  Sandy waved it off. "Nah, I deserved that. I shouldn't have left you there by yourself." 
  "Damn straight you shouldn't of. My new roomie was n-u-t-s nuts with a capital 'N'. She talked to plastic trees." 
  Sandy laughed. "No!" 
  "Yes! The girl was a certified loon!" I said, making the 'crazy' sign with my finger. Then I got serious. "How long have you been here Sandy? I mean, I know since you died, but where've you been? I looked everywhere for you! And how'd you end up in the graveyard?" 
  Sandy blinked. "What d'you mean?" 
  I stared at her. "Sandy… it's been over a year since you died." 
  "It has?" I blinked. How could she not know that? "I don't know… I don't remember anything before waking up in here…" 
  Stunned, I asked, "Are you serious? Nothing at all?" 
  She shrugged. "Mmm… nope. Nada." 
  I frowned. This couldn't be good. 
  Sandy smiled at me. "But who cares, right? I'm here now, aren't I?" 
  The corners of my mouth turned up into a smile. "Yeah." 
  She hugged me for a minute, then let go and sat back, a sly grin creeping onto her face. "So… how's it going with Lock?" 
  My face was probably bright red right now. "SANDY!" 
   
   
   
   Chapter 7 
   
  Chapter 7 
  Broken Bonds 
  School the next week was weird. Not that it's ever normal, mind you. I mean, we learn how to set things on fire. That's not anywhere near average vicinity of 'normal school curriculum'. 
  But school wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was Sandy. Don't get me wrong, I've only known the girl for like two days really, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna let her get away with pulling a trick-or-treater away from the group! 
  The person I'm speaking of is Aubrey. Ever since Sandy had been up and about, our table had been reduced from four back to three. She wasn't even spending time with Lock. They used to be attached at the hip, but now, it was like nothing had even happened between them. 
  This, of course, meant that our favorite devil was even grumpier than the rest of us. 
  Now, everyone's probably asking, why do I care? I can hear you saying, 'Shock never really liked Aubrey anyway.' And if even one of you makes some crude comment about getting Lock, I'll turn you into a slug. 
  Do you know how boring it can get being the only girl in a group that consists of two other guys? I don't look it, but sometimes I need to talk about girl stuff! 
  In other words: our tight knit group was falling apart at the seams. 
  Gym that next Tuesday was more than a little weird. Vida was, as usual, being a pain in the ass as I walked in to change back into my uniform, but for once, her snide little comments weren't being directed at me. 
  Instead, they were being directed at Aubrey. 
  "What's wrong, princess? Are you too high and mighty for your lowlife friends?" Vida asked, flanked by three of her lackeys; Yuri Blunt, Patty Reilly, and Octavia Kinas. 
  Aubrey didn't say anything, but I saw her grip on her locker door tighten. I frowned. Aubrey may not have been the greatest friend in the world this past week, but she was still my friend! "C'mon, say something!" Vida grabbed a feather on Aubrey's wing and pulled it off, hard enough to make Aubrey let out a cry of pain. 
  My fists clenched. That was the last straw. 
  "Lay off Vida!" I growled, stepping between her and Aubrey. 
  Vida narrowed her eyes at me. "Or what? You can't do anything to me or you'll be expelled, you bitchy little witch." 
  I raised a hand. "You know, I wasn't going to do anything to you, but you just crossed the line." I began to review painful spells in my mind when Vida suddenly found herself sprawled across the floor. I blinked and Sandy was suddenly standing there. 
  She cracked her knuckles. "Your voice is REALLY annoying." 
  Vida held her cheek in shock (a/n: haha… puns galore!). "You… you punched me!" 
  "Yeah, and I'll do a lot worse if you insult my friends again." 
  The cat-vampire scrambled up and ran out of the locker room. Sandy sighed and turned toward us. "You okay Aubrey?" 
  She nodded, touching her wing lightly. "Yeah. It'll grow back." 
  Sandy turned toward me next. "Sorry. That was supposed to be your hit wasn't it?" 
  I shrugged. "Whatever. Saves me the trouble of explaining why I got expelled to Jack." I turned to walk out, grabbing my bag. 
  "Shock, wait up!" I stopped, a little surprised. Lately, all I'd heard from Aubrey the past few days after class had been 'Go on, I'll catch up.' Needless to say, she never did. 
  She ran up next to me, guilt clear in her eyes. "Um, Shock… I'm sorry for being such a bitch lately." 
  Well, that was a little blunter than I expected. I blinked a few times, trying to wipe the surprise off my face. "Whatever." I muttered. Suddenly, I stopped and put her in a headlock. "Just don't do it again!" 
  "Wha-? Hey!" She pushed me off, falling back on her butt. Blowing a stray strand of hair out of her face, she gave me an obviously fake glare. "Meanie." 
  "Ooh, I'm hurt." I said sarcastically. I looked back to see Sandy standing in the locker room doorway. "Are you coming or not?" 
  Aubrey pulled herself up. "You don't mind?" 
  "She just decked Vida. Anyone who does that is good in my book." Sandy caught up with us as I finished. 
  "God, is she always such a bitch?" She asked. 
  Aubrey and I looked at each other. "Yeah, pretty much." We said at once. 
  Sandy looked at us. "That's creepy." 
  Both of us started laughing. 
  A month later… (a/n: it's now sometime in March, just so you all know) 
  I couldn't help smiling a little as Aubrey dragged Lock off to, ahem, quote unquote, 'talk'. I looked over at the other side of the table at Sandy and Shock, who were brooding over a copy of an 'Advanced Magic' spell book. Things had almost gotten back to normal since Sandy had started hanging out with us. Sure, Shock and Aubrey hung out with her a little more than they did us, but they're GIRLS. I don't try to understand them. 
  But I couldn't help worrying a little. Lock, who had confided this to me after making me swear to keep it the utmost of secrets, seriously, he even made me spit-shake on it, didn't trust Sandy. 
  .o0o. 
  "Barrel?" I looked up from doing my homework to see Lock standing in my door. I waved for him to come in; I had a sucker in my mouth. "Can I tell you something?" 
  I sat up and pushed my homework over to my pillow (yes, I was doing it on my bed.). Pulling the sucker out of my mouth, I joked, "Do you really have to ask?" 
  Lock didn't laugh. Hell, he didn't even crack a smile. Instead he shut my door. "You have to swear that what I say never leaves this room." 
  Now I was a little worried. "Yeah, sure." 
  He held his hand up.  
  "Oh no Lock! Don't make me spit swear!" That was SO gross, even for me. 
  A minute later… 
  I wiped my hand on my jeans, scrunching my nose. "I hate when we do that…" After my hand was dry, I looked up at him. "So, what's up?" 
  Lock walked over to my window and stared out of it. "I don't trust her." 
  I got up and looked out. Aubrey, Shock, and Sandy were sitting out next to the fountain, giggling about something. My eyes widened. "Aubrey?" 
  "No, stupid! Sandy!" He growled.  
  I blinked. "Well, why not? I mean, Shock and Aubrey like her… she can't be that bad." 
  "I just don't." He stated again. "I can't help it. Every time she's around, I just get this weird feeling. It… it's like…" He frowned. "It's like the feeling I got around Oogie Boogie." 
  I stared. And stared. And stared some more, until I found my voice again and yelled, "WHAT?" 
  Lock winced. "Quiet!" He gripped the windowsill. "Look, I don't know WHY I get that feeling around her. I just… do." Lock moved his stare from the girls to his hands. "I don't like her. At all." 
  I looked out at the girls again. They were getting up and heading toward Skellington Manor. "Maybe… maybe you're just being a little paranoid." 
  Lock's death grip on the windowsill loosened, and I could see the gouges he'd carved in it with his claws. "Yeah. Maybe." 
  I heard the door open downstairs. "Lock, Barrel, we're back!" Aubrey called. 
  As I grabbed the doorknob, I felt Lock put a hand on my shoulder. "Remember. This never leaves this room." 
  I nodded and shoved open the door. 
  .o0o. 
  I saw Shock make a gagging motion as Lock and Aubrey kissed. Then, she looked down at her watch. "Are you timing them?" I asked, a little grossed out myself. 
  "Mm-hmm." She replied. Then, moments later. "Minute thirty." 
  "Guess it kinda helps when you don't have to breathe." Sandy laughed as they walked back over. Aubrey stuck her tongue out, then turned to Shock. 
  "You need a hobby." 
  "I do not." 
  "You're timing me and Lock KISSING." 
  "It's lunch. I don't need a hobby during lunch." Lock came over and sat down next to me, glancing at Sandy, who was watching Shock and Aubrey argue with a small smile. I frowned a little bit. Maybe it was just because of Lock, but I couldn't help being a little nervous around Sandy. It was something about her eyes… they never showed ANY emotion. Like… like one of those creepy dolls with the freaky glass eyes that look like they're watching you no matter where you move. 
  Okay, so maybe Lock's paranoia was rubbing off on me a little. Okay, more than a little. But he had some really good points. 
  When we got home that afternoon, Sally was over at Dr. Finklestein's getting a checkup and Jack was off doing… Pumpkin King stuff. 
  "I'm so bored…" Aubrey sighed, flopping down on the couch. 
  Lock shook his head. "Not even in the house for a minute and she's already bored." Aubrey stuck her tongue out at him. 
  "She's got a point." Shock said. "I mean, we can't even prank the Mayor because Jack's with him!" 
  "We can't prank ANYONE because Jack could show up anywhere in the town at any time and catch us." I muttered. "It is boring." 
  Lock sighed and sat down in the chair near the end of the couch Aubrey's head was laying at. "God, you guys are mood killers." 
  I looked over at him. "What mood are we killing? There is no mood in this house EXCEPT boring." 
  Sandy pushed Aubrey's legs off of the couch and sat down. "Well… I have an idea… but it's not very good." 
  "It's better than nothing." Shock reminded her. 
  Sandy bit her lip. "It's just something that's been bugging me for a couple of weeks. You know how you guys found me in that old part of the Graveyard? Well, I want to find out how the heck I got there." 
  Lock's gaze changed from bored to shocked and angry. "Are you saying that we should go back there?" 
  Aubrey looked wary. "I dunno… dad said that we shouldn't… and he seemed really mad last time." 
  "Well, it's not like he has to find out." Shock said. "It doesn't sound like that bad of a plan. We can sneak out when Jack and Sally are sleeping." 
  Aubrey started tugging at her hair, something that she did whenever she started to get nervous. "I-I guess, I mean, if dad doesn't find out…" 
  Lock stood up rather quickly. "Aubrey, can we talk? Alone?" She nodded, surprised. They walked upstairs, Lock pulling Aubrey along more than a little forcefully. 
  -Lock's POV- 
  I shut the door to my room before turning back to Aubrey. "Are you going crazy? You do remember what Jack said, right?" 
  "It's just an idea, Lock. Besides, dad's not going to find out about it!" She protested. 
  "Aubs, please, just listen to me. I don't think Sandy get-" 
  "What do you have against Sandy? If Shock or I had suggested it-" 
  "You and Shock are smart enough not to suggest it!" I said, trying to keep from yelling. 
  Aubrey turned away from me, her arms crossed over her chest. "I can't believe this… Sandy was right." 
  Okay, now I was just pissed. "Right about what?" 
  "That you're jealous about how much time I've been spending with her and Shock." 
  I'll tell you right now: I have a temper problem. But I have it under control most of the time. This moment was not one of them. "JEALOUS?" I yelled, not even trying to keep my voice down now. "You know what, forget trying to help you! We're over!" I stormed out of the room, down the stairs, and straight out the door. 
  Aubrey's POV 
  I stood there, shocked, confused, and, most of all, angry. Lock's words rang through my skull like an alarm that I couldn't shut up. "We're over!" 
  Of course I didn't want to end me and Lock's relationship; I loved him. Or, at least, I thought I did. But over the past few weeks… well, let's just say I was having my doubts. 
  I walked downstairs, ignoring Shock and Barrel's questions about what had happened. I looked at Sandy, who seemed eerily calm for just seeing Lock storm out of the house. "Let's go. Tonight." 
  The rest of the day progressed fairly normally. Mom came home and told us it was likely she was having not just one baby, or even twins, but triplets, nearly causing a few fainting fits. Dad couldn't have been happier. He picked her up and danced her all around the room when she told him. 
  Lock came home about an hour after he left, but he shut himself up in his room and would only let Barrel in. He skipped dinner and didn't even come down to congratulate Sally (a/n: There are times when names must be used and not mom and dad. Sorry!). 
  Around twelve thirty, we got going. Climbing out a window isn't particularly hard, considering Skellington Manor has plenty of dead trees around back to use as ladders. Barrel came with us, even though Lock didn't, and we headed toward the graveyard. Shock unlocked the gate easily, it didn't squeak (someone must have oiled it finally) and we slipped through, careful not to disturb any tombstones. 
  The back gate seemed higher than it had the first time we'd climbed it, but it must have only been my imagination because Sandy could lift one leg across and touch the ground on the other side. 
  We headed deeper into the trees, and it gradually got darker as the branches overhead got thicker and allowed less light in. 
  "How much farther?" Sandy asked. 
  I stopped, searching the area with the flashlight I'd hidden in my room earlier. "Um… not much, I think. Shock, Barrel, see if you can find that trail." Both of them started looking for it. Shock let out a triumphant cry after a few minutes and we followed it deeper into the woods. 
  3rd Person, earlier that day 
  "Jealous, Barrel! She thinks I'm jealous! Of Sandy, of all people!" Lock ranted. Barrel grimaced. He'd been listening to Lock rant for a while now, but it usually helped the devil let off steam. Now it just seemed to be making him angrier. 
  'Well you're sure acting like it right now…' He thought treacherously. "I'm sure Aubrey didn't mean it." Barrel said in a futile attempt to calm the older boy down. 
  "Oh yes she did." Lock growled, his tail thrashing angrily as he paced the floor. "She swallows ANYTHING Sandy tells her." He sat down on his bed, still angry. "Barrel, I need you to do me a favor." 
  The younger boy looked wary. "What is it?" 
  Lock looked up, his yellow eyes boring into Barrel's black ones. "I want you to go with the girls tonight. Just to…" 
  "Keep an eye on Aubrey for you?" Barrel questioned. Lock nodded with a sigh. 
  "I might be mad at her, but Aubrey's still Aubrey and I still want her to be safe, alright?" 
  Barrel nodded. "Don't worry about it; you can count on me!" 
  Now… 
  'Sorry Barrel.' Lock thought as he slipped watched the group from his window. 'But I have to make sure.' As soon as the group was out of the Skellington Manor gate and to the fountain, Lock slipped his window open and climbed out. The tree branch groaned and protested as he set his weight on it, but Lock ignored it and swiftly climbed down. 
  As he reached the square, he didn't see anyone. 'Damn it! Did I wait too long?' Lock asked himself, looking around desperately. He caught sight of a flash of moonlight off of something white. 'Aubrey!' They had already made it to the back fence. 
  "I definitely waited too long." He muttered to the air as he ran toward the Graveyard. He followed after them quietly, making sure that he kept the light from the flashlight in Aubrey's hands in sight at all times. Twice he almost lost them, the first time from tripping on an unseen root or rock, the second time by turning and running into a tree branch that gave him a splitting headache, but he luckily managed to catch up both times. 
  Aubrey stopped as the trail turned into a dark stain on the ground. "We're here." 
   
   
   
   Chapter 8 
   
  Chapter 8 
  Family Reunion 
  Aubrey stopped as the trail turned into a dark stain on the ground. "We're here." 
  Instead of searching the area curiously as Aubrey had expected her to be doing, Sandy was looking at her with a calm, somewhat eerie smile. "I know." She walked over, past Aubrey, and knelt down next to the bloodstain, touching it with three fingers. "Do you want to know what else I know?" 
  "Sandy?" Aubrey asked cautiously, taking a step back as her Sandy's body shuddered. Shock and Barrel stared on behind her, unmoving. 
  The older girl gripped her head with both hands, her emerald eyes wide. "No… I won't let you… you can't have her!" 
  Aubrey ran over and knelt down next to Sandy, grabbing her wrists. "Sandy? Sandy, what's wrong? What are you talking about?" 
  Shock grabbed Aubrey's shoulder. "Aubrey, I think we should get out of here." Aubrey ignored her, still trying to talk to Sandy. 
  "Sandy, tell me what you're talking about!" Sandy's convulsing stopped and, quicker than any of the eyes watching could follow, she was on her feet, smiling that calm smile down at Aubrey and Shock again. Shock looked at Aubrey's hands and shrieked. 
  "Oopsie." Sandy giggled, holding up her wrists. Her hand-less wrists. 
  "Ah!" Aubrey let out a shriek as Sandy's hands, which she was still holding, exploded into dust, effectively blinding her and Shock. 
  Shock rubbed her eyes. "I can't see!" She backed up into something soft, which she presumed to be Barrel. That is, until she heard him yell out her name. She pulled her fists away from her eyes and turned around, only to see a blast of blue something-or-other get blown at her. "Sleeping powder…" She managed to gasp as she fell toward the ground. 
  As Aubrey stumbled blindly to her feet, coughing violently, Barrel felt a pair of arms wrap around from behind and lift him off the ground, locking him in a bear hug. He struggled uselessly for a moment before slamming the back of his head into his captor's face. A yell of pain and his release signified that he'd hit target. As soon as Barrel's feet hit the ground, he started running. 'Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!' He thought, shoving through the trees. 
  "Ugh!" Barrel groaned as he tripped over something and his ankle twisted painfully. He looked back to see that his foot was entangled in a tree root, which had coiled up around his ankle. Barrel blinked, and a figure suddenly loomed over him, something large in their hand. Barrel saw them raise the object and bring it down toward his head, and a burning pain laced through his skull before he fell unconscious. 
  Sandy walked over to the still half-blind Aubrey calmly, ignoring the enraged look on the girl's face. "Get away from me!" Aubrey hissed. Sandy didn't seem to hear her and continued toward her. Aubrey growled. "Noitanoted!" She yelled, pointing at the blur that was her friend. 
  The left half of Sandy's face exploded, causing stuffing much like what Sally had in her to fall all over the clearing. But still, she kept walking her straight, slow, path. Aubrey watched in horror as the impersonator disappeared in a blur and arms wrapped around her neck from behind her. "Wh-what a-are you?" She gasped. 
  The thing smiled with what was left of its mouth. "A messenger." She blew strongly in Aubrey's face, and blue powder came with the blow. "Now be a good girl and go to sleep." Aubrey's head fell as much as it could, the muscles limp and useless thanks to her sudden unconsciousness. 
  Sandy laid Aubrey down, sliding her arms under her shoulders and knees, and picking her back up again. "Cay, what's taking Jacob so long?" Sandy asked Shock's captor. Her voice sounded rough and forced now, not anywhere near how it did earlier. 
  "I don't know. Maybe he the brat got away." Came the curt reply. Barely taller than her captive, Cay had dark hair in a short crop a half inch from her scalp, with a black webbed fin shooting out through her short hair. Her green skin was luminescent and scaly in the little moonlight that fell, and her webbed hands were wrapped around Shock's upper arms. Black, piercing eyes looked out into the forest were Barrel had run. Her clothes consisted of little more than what looked like a black bikini, and that in itself was in shreds. 
  At that moment, Jacob walked back into the clearing with Barrel slung over his shoulder like a sack. Taller than even Jack, Jacob towered over the two girls and their captives. His head was free of any hair, and his skin consisted of scraps of cloth and other… 'materials' that were held together with large, crude, black stitches. One of his eyes was missing, leaving only an empty socket, but the remaining was an electric shade of blue. These rested over a hole which one could only assume was where his nose would have been had he possessed one, and a sewn shut mouth. His clothing, which was not in much better conditions than Cay's, was a ragged pair of pants and a t-shirt. And in Jacob's free hand was a makeshift club formed from a tree branch half his size. 
  Sandy glared at him as she walked around to inspect Barrel. "Idiot, you weren't supposed to hurt him!" She growled as she saw the blood trailing down his temple. "If I get in trouble with her for this, you're getting the blame, understood?" 
  "He isn't an idiot, Sandy." Cay called from behind her. 
  Sandy whirled around, being careful not to drop Aubrey. "No one asked you, Cay. I was put in charge, so you two do what I say, got it?" Cay nodded, her eyes narrowing into a glare as soon as the "girl" looked off somewhere else. "Now, we should get going. We don't want to be late." All three grimaced at the thought and walked off deeper into the woods. 
  As soon as they disappeared from view, Lock began breathing again. That giant had passed right by him, SAW him! Lock swallowed his fear and slipped out of the bushes where he had concealed himself, following after the three as quietly and quickly as his trembling muscles would allow. 
  He had been right about Sandy all along! His brief moment of triumphant feelings had been squashed when that… thing had taken Aubrey hostage. And God only knows what those three wanted with Shock, Barrel, and Aubrey. Or who that 'she' Sandy had referred to was. 
  'Focus Lock.' He ordered himself. 'You can't lose them.' Unfortunately, Lock's mind would not focus, so he barely saw that the group in front of him had stopped in time. He scrambled back soundlessly into the bushes. The only thing there was a giant tree that was even taller than Jacob. 
  They just stood there for a moment until 'Sandy' turned to Jacob. "Jacob!" 
  He grunted, which Lock took to meant he was apologizing, and reached up toward the tree in front of them. Grabbing a thick branch, he pulled it down. Lock winced, expecting it to snap. Instead, the ground began to rumble and a hole opened in between the large roots. The two girls climbed down inside, but Jacob paused at the opening. He turned toward where Lock was hiding, and the devil froze. 
  Something that resembled a grin formed on Jacob's stitched shut lips and held up his hand. He opened and closed it twice and turned and went through the hole as well. 
  'Ten seconds?' Lock thought. 'Why is he helping me?' Slowly, he counted to ten, and then he sprinted toward the hole and slid through. 
  Behind him, the ground pulled itself back together with another loud rumble. 
  Lock looked up as what little light he'd had disappeared. 'Damn it, now what am I supposed to do?' He reached both arms out next to him and felt hard, cool stone. Feeling along the walls, he started forward slowly. Ahead of him, he heard voices. 
  "-So important about her anyway?" Cay asked. 
  "Idiot!" Sandy hissed. "This little brat has the other half of the key!" Lock paused. Other half? "And you know we're not supposed to talk about that so shut up!" 
  "Alright, alright. Calm down before you bust another seam or something." 
  "Not funny, Cay." 
  "Jacob thought it was, didn't you Jake?" There was a grunt. "See? Ah, hold on, I'm about to drop her again." There was a pause. "Geez, why'd we have to grab these brats again? We only needed that one." 
  "Well we couldn't very well have them running off to tell Jack! Now hush up; we're almost there." Lock ran into something hard face first. He cursed and clutched his nose, feeling something warm and wet on his fingers as he did. "What was that?" Lock's eyes widened. "Cay, go check it out." 
  "Fine. Jacob, take the witch." Lock cursed again in his head as he heard soft footsteps coming toward him. 
  "Ekam em elbisivni." He muttered, still holding his nose. His body shimmered out of sight as Cay turned the corner, torch in hand. Her black eyes surveyed the space with an unsurpassed scrutiny before she turned and walked back. Lock sighed. "Ekam em elbisiv." He whispered, bringing his body back to the visible plane. Then, concentrating on his nose, he softly said, "Laeh." Lock winced as the bone straightened itself back out and mended together, though he was grateful that the blood flow had stopped. He wiped his hands on his shirt, thankfully he was wearing his costume so it wouldn't be too noticeable. 
  Then, being sure NOT to hit the wall this time, he followed after the now small torchlight. He stopped when the three ahead of him did (not counting those unconscious), watching as Sandy shoved over a rock and pressed down part of the earth below. Jacob glanced over his shoulder and smiled a little when he saw Lock standing there. Lock saw the giant's gaze and held up both hands, fingers out. Jacob nodded and followed after Cay as she climbed the stairs that had appeared. 
  Lock counted to ten, a little quicker this time, and then ran after them. He peered around the first corner to see that the trio had stopped once more. 
  Sandy turned to Cay. "You two take Shock and Barrel down to the dungeons. I'll take Aubrey to Raphael." Cay nodded and turned off to her left, going through the large doors there. Sandy continued going forward. 
  Lock froze up. Who was he supposed to go after? Was he really still mad enough at Aubrey to abandon her? But going after her meant losing Shock and Barrel… He watched as Sandy kicked open the doors at the end of the hall in front of her. Well, it wouldn't be too hard to remember where that was. 
  After a long glance at the doors that Sandy had gone through, he turned and ran down the stairs after Jacob and Cay. 
  "Raphael." Sandy said coolly, kneeling down before the stiff, formal throne in the middle of the room. On it sat a man, perhaps in his late thirties, dressed in all black; loose, silken pants, a tight long-sleeved shirt, leather boots, and cloak. He was thin, though not to the extremes Sandy was, but you could see his high cheekbones, and his eyes appeared to be a bit sunken in his head, but you could see the wiry muscle underneath his tight shirt. His hair was dark black, though there were a few streaks of silver in it, contrasting with his abnormally pale skin, even for a resident of Halloween Town. His eyes glowed red as he looked up at the girls. 
  "Good job, Sandy. Leave her here." Sandy nodded and laid Aubrey down on the floor, then stood and turned to leave. A scream echoed through the room as a ball of black energy hit her square in the middle of her back. It ate away from where it hit, leaving nothing of the body left. A small, sapphire ring set in gold fell to the floor, and, of its own accord, rolled over and into the pocket of Aubrey's jeans. 
  Raphael stood and walked halfway over to the unconscious angel's form. "Nkeawa." 
  Aubrey's eyes fluttered open and she sat up, putting a hand to her head. "Unnh… where am I…?" 
  "With me, Aubrey." Aubrey's head snapped around and she stared at Raphael for what seemed like an eternity. Then, she scrambled up and ran over to him, throwing her arms around his chest. 
  "Dad!" Raphael smiled and wrapped his arms around her. "I though I'd never see you again…" 
  "Shh… it's alright, Aubrey. I'm here now." He soothed, his eyes glittering oddly in the light of the room, which seemed to be radiating from nowhere. He pushed her away and looked over her. "Look at you, all grown up." 
  Aubrey's smile could not be wavered. "Well, it's been twelve years since you've seen me." 
  Raphael nodded. "And it is so good to see you again. Though, I must ask, how in the world did you end up dead?" 
  Aubrey pulled her shirt up to show him the circular scar below her ribs. "I, uh, got turned into a shish kabob on a broken tree branch." 
  "I see." He slid his hand into his pocket. 
  Aubrey's smile fell and she bit her lip. "Dad, I know about… about the night you died." Aubrey didn't notice her father stiffen. "I know it was Oogie Boogie who caused the crash and made you drive over the edge of the cliff. Mom tried to make me and Emily forget, but Emily found out and reversed it." She paused. "And… and I know it was because Oogie wanted the key to Living World that my soul holds." 
  Raphael began to laugh. "Ah, poor, simple little girl." He pushed part of her bangs out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. 
  Aubrey looked at him, confused. "What do you mean?" 
  Raphael's laughter died down to a quiet chuckle. "The key isn't IN your soul, child. The key to the Living World IS your soul!" He pulled her into his chest with his free arm. "But don't you worry your little head about it. It won't be for much longer." He pulled his hand out of his pocket, revealing a glinting dagger clutched in his fist. Aubrey saw the glint of the silver blade seconds before her father plunged it into the scar that was the cause of her death. 
  Aubrey looked up at Raphael's face, confused. "Dad…?" She whispered before collapsing to the floor, her eyes closing. Raphael looked at the fallen form before him for a moment before snapping his fingers. A heavily armored cat demon walked in. 
  "Take her to the dungeon." He smirked. "Chain her up with her 'friends'." As the guard walked out, another figure walked in. Raphael smiled. "Vanessa." 
  The girl smiled. "Hi daddy." 
   
   
   
   Chapter 9 
   
  Chapter 9 
  Misplaced Affection 
  Lock nearly cursed again as he lost sight of the torchlight that Cay was carrying. The stairway they were walking down had so many twists and turns it was more like one of Oogie's labyrinths than a staircase! A soft orange glow cast flickering shadows from around the turn ahead of him and he sighed in relief. He was going to have to stay closer, dangerous or not. 
  Finally, they reached a large, circular room that had several pairs of, here, Lock grimaced, shiny new steel shackles hanging from thick metal nails high up in the wall. Jacob handed Shock to Cay, who chained the witch up. Shock's toes didn't even touch the ground. Cay grunted as she reached up to close the second shackle around Shock's wrist. 
  A large hand reached above her head and snapped it shut. Cay smiled up at Jacob. "Thanks Jake. You go chain up the boy, and then let's get out of here." 
  Lock winced. That smile was the same one he had always strived so hard to get from Aubrey. He sunk back around the corner as he heard chains jingling, then the two walked out. Lock waited until they had turned the opposite corner before bolting into the room. 
  The room seemed to be alight from some invisible, ethereal source that radiated from everywhere. Lock grimaced; the light only made the room seem worse. He walked over to Shock and patted her cheek. "Shock?" He whispered. "Shock, wake up!" 
  No reaction. Lock frowned and pinched her thigh. Her eyes flew open and Lock had to clap a hand over her mouth to muffle the loud curse that she was about to yell out. "Be quiet!" He hissed. 
  Shock glared at him but nodded. Lock pulled his hand away. "That hurt!" Shock growled. 
  "Hey, it isn't my fault you're a deep sleeper." He walked over to Barrel and did the same, pinching his arm instead of his leg. 
  Barrel, who was used to this kind of treatment from Lock and Shock, woke up less… violently than Shock. "If I'm bleeding, I'm going to get you." 
  "Sure, sure. Just let me get you down first." Lock muttered, reaching up to fiddle with the cuffs around his friend's wrists. 
  "L-Lock?" Barrel asked in a quavering voice. 
  "Shut up and let me concentra-" 
  "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Lock whipped around, losing his balance and falling against the wall behind him. 
  Standing in the open doorway was a mirror image of Aubrey, only in place of Aubrey's white hair and ruby eyes were ebony black hair and eyes. Lock glared at her. "Who the hell are you?" 
  The girl giggled. "Ooh, you said a bad word." Lock raised an eyebrow. The girl started walking into the room. "Sandy said there were three of you; I was starting to wonder if she lied to me." She stopped in the middle of the room, swinging her arms like a five-year-old. "My name's Vanessa. What's yours?" 
  Lock decided that this girl was definitely insane and it would definitely be best to play along with whatever little game she was playing. "Lock." 
  Vanessa's eyes lit up. "Oh! So YOU'RE my little sister's boyfriend." 
  All three's eyes widened. "Little sister?" Barrel asked. "Wait, you're Aubrey's sister?" 
  Vanessa's smile widened. "She's my twin, actually. Of course, she never knew." 
  Lock glared at her. "Where is she?" 
  "Oh, I can't tell you that." She giggled again. That was getting REALLY annoying. Vanessa's eyes traveled up and down Lock's form. "Though I must say, she's got really good taste. You're cute." Vanessa smiled. "I'll make a deal with you. If my daddy finds out about this, not only will YOU be in trouble, but so will they." She gestured behind him at Shock and Barrel. 
  "What's the deal?" Lock growled. 
  Vanessa walked over to him. "Dump Aubrey. Be my boyfriend, and I'll keep this little rescue attempt under wraps." 
  Barrel and Shock looked like they'd just been told Lock had to cut their heads off. "Lock, you aren't seriously going to listen to her, right?" Shock asked. 
  Barrel looked over at her. "Of course he's no-" 
  "Shut up, Barrel." Lock growled. If he could've, Barrel would've drawn back away from him. Lock looked back at Vanessa. "Fine." Vanessa grinned. "But on one condition. Show me Aubrey first." 
  "Why?" Vanessa asked, pouting. 
  "If she's not okay, there's no deal." 
  Vanessa sighed. "Well, I don't know where she is, so I really can't do that." She paused. "Stay here." She walked out, and returned five minutes later. "Found her." Vanessa smiled at Lock and clapped twice. The wall opposite of Shock shimmered, and a figure appeared there. 
  Shock gasped. "Oh god…" 
  Lock stayed silent, staring at Aubrey. Her hands were bound directly to the wall, spread apart in a 'v' shape over her head. Her ankles were chained together with a heavy steel ball hanging from the chain and just barely resting on the ground. Her shirt was all but destroyed, missing from just below her ribs down, and the pale skin was stained red from the blood that was still oozing from around the dagger stuck in her chest. Behind her, her wings were spread to their full lengths, a silver nail hammered into the middle of each to keep it that way. 
  Barrel glared at Vanessa. "That's not right! She's your sister, why would you do that to her?" 
  Vanessa smacked him. "Shut up!" She glared at Aubrey. "She has something I need." 
  Lock's fists clenched. "No…" Vanessa turned around, her eyes narrow slits. 
  "Come on. We had a deal." She grabbed Lock's wrist. 
  The devil wrenched his hand out of her grasp and ran toward the locked up angel. "Aubrey!" He choked and fell back as Vanessa's arm looped around his neck. 
  "Tegrof reh." She whispered in his ear. Lock's struggles stopped and he stood still for a moment. Vanessa pulled her arm from around his neck and took his hand. "Come on Lock. Let's get out of here." 
  Lock blinked and his gaze passed over Aubrey. "What about Shock and Barrel?" 
  "I'll have someone unlock them a.s.a.p." Vanessa assured him. 
  Lock looked at his friends, who were utterly taken aback, unsurely. "I don't know, maybe I should stay…" 
  Vanessa pouted. "Please, Lock?" 
  "I guess…" He muttered, letting her lead him out. 
  Barrel looked over at Shock, horrified. "What just happened?" 
  Shock's head fell to her chest, tears starting to blur her vision. "She used a memory spell. Lock doesn't remember a thing about Aubrey. Instead, all he remembers is Vanessa." 
  "But… shouldn't he remember that she wasn't in any of those memories? School? When he killed Oogie? 'Cause he sure as hell didn't do it to save her!" 
  Shock shook her head. "No. Memory spells are the most difficult form of black magic that there is. It actually alters the memories so that even if Aubrey was in it, it erases her and then bends and twists the memory to make sense." 
  "But… there's got to be a way to reverse it, right?" 
  Shock looked up at him, and Barrel saw the tear tracks on her face. "Not unless we can find the spell book she got it out of. You can't make up a memory spell on the spot; you have to get it out of a spell book. And the only way to reverse it is to use a white magic spell." 
  "Um, Shock, you suck at white magic." Barrel reminded her. 
  She glared at him. "Thanks for the reminder. And anyway, I don't know any white magic spells other than laeh." 
  Barrel looked over at Aubrey. "So, basically then… we're screwed?" 
  Shock let out a sigh. "Yeah, basically." 
  "Jack, I can't find them anywhere!" Sally cried. Jack wrapped his arms around her. 
  "It'll be all right, Sally. We'll find them." There was a loud knock on the door and the Vampire Brothers burst in. 
  "Jack, you have to come outside!" The eldest pleaded. 
  "It's an emergency!" The other three told him. Jack let go of Sally and ran outside. 
  He gasped as he ran out onto the porch. Towering above the Graveyard was a huge castle, about as dark and evil looking as they came. "Oh no…" He turned to the Vampires. "I'll handle this, don't worry." He ran back inside. 
  Sally stood up as Jack ran into the living room. "Jack? What's going on?" 
  "Sally, I promise I'll explain everything, but we have to hurry." He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the staircase. 
  "Jack, where did that castle come from?" 
  Jack closed his eyes as he led Sally up to their tower room. "Sally, there was a reason that I got so angry when I'd heard the kids had found that part of the graveyard. It… it's been a secret, passed down from Pumpkin King to Pumpkin King." He paused. "There are some evils so great that they must be dealt with." 
  "Jack?" Sally asked. 
  He continued, ignoring her question. "Halloween Town is made up of, if you'll excuse the phrase, the living dead. But there is a way to make the dead STAY dead. This condition is called Eternal Sleep, or 'perma-death'. It can only be initiated by the reigning Pumpkin King. 
  "When my mother was still King, the Skellington's were guardians of the key that connected Halloween Town to the Living World." 
  Sally gasped. "The one that Aubrey…?" 
  Jack nodded. "The very same." He opened the door to their room and walked over to the far wall. "When I was still a kid, the key was stolen by three of Halloween Town's best pranksters. The Lock, Shock, and Barrel of their time. We caught two of them, but the third got away, managing to use the key and escape into the Living World." Jack pushed in a piece of the wood paneling on the wall. A piece of the floor slid away, revealing a spiraling staircase. "His name… was Raphael Peterson." 
  Sally had to stop and think for a moment. "Peterson… you don't mean that he was…" 
  Jack nodded and took Sally's hand again as they started down the staircase. "Aubrey's father, yes. I didn't even realize it until Dr. Finklestein told me that… well, you remember when we were first thinking about adopting Aubrey? When she was still alive?" Sally nodded. "He ran some tests and found out that Aubrey's soul wasn't deteriorating slower than the normal rate because of her will power. It was because Aubrey was already half dead." 
  Sally gasped for what seemed to be the fiftieth time that day. "Does Aubrey know?" 
  Jack stopped as they reached a large, steel door at the bottom of the stairs. "No." He pushed it open. 
  Sally looked around. The room was large, and looked much like the living room of Skellington Manor. "Jack… where are we?" 
  "A sort of safe house that my grandfather built to protect my mother and I if something ever happened. We've never had to use it until now." Jack turned around to face Sally, worry clear on his face. "Sally, I want you to stay down here until I come back to get you. It's too risky to leave you out in the open where someone could…" 
  Sally cut him off, putting a finger over his lips. "I understand, Jack." She hugged him. "Be careful." 
  Jack smiled and kissed her. "I will be." He ran out, pulling the door shut behind him. He ran up the staircase quickly, his long legs letting him take three at a time. Jack slid the trapdoor shut and the indentation in the wall disappeared. Walking into the living room, he looked down to the floor, where Sally was below him. "I love you, Sally." He whispered before walking out the door. 
  In the square, everyone moved out of the way of their Pumpkin King as he walked hurriedly toward the Graveyard. The gates creaked open as Jack neared them, slamming shut as he walked through. Jack weaved through the tombstones until he reached the back fence. 
  Taking a quick glance over his shoulder, he nodded at the town and stepped over the steel fence. 
  In his throne room, Raphael began to grin. "Cay, Jacob." With a shimmer of the air, they appeared in the middle of the room. "His Royal Pumpkin Head has left town. You know what to do." 
  Cay nodded as Jacob lifted her up onto his shoulder. "We'll get her." Another shimmer, and they were gone. 
  Vida was sulking. She was sulking because… well, does someone really need a reason to sulk? Actually, yes, but that isn't the point. 
  The cat-vampire mix was sulking because of three reasons: Lock, Aubrey, and Sandy. All of which were obvious reasons. She sighed and sat up, pulling her fingers out of the cold fountain water. She shivered. Something was making her hair stand on end. Vida looked around, trying to figure out what was wrong. 
  A large hand covered her mouth and lifted her up, and that's when she realized it. It was far too dark for ten in the morning. But there was nothing wrong with the sun. The sun was being blocked out by something, or someone, very, VERY large. 
  "Vida!" Corpse Kid, though it was more like Corpse Teen now, yelled. This alerted the rest of the somehow oblivious square to the fact that Jacob and Cay had just appeared in the middle of Halloween Town. 
  Cay sighed. "Put her down, Jacob. We'll get you a pet after this is all over." Jacob nodded and set Vida, who had now passed out, on the ground. Cay pulled a bright silver amulet out of her pocket and held it high above her head. It flashed brightly, covering Halloween Town in its light. When it faded, it revealed the denizens of Halloween Town, all with the blackened eyes of someone under a puppet spell. 
  With a grin, Cay jumped to the ground. "Find me the Pumpkin Queen and bring her here. Now!" All of the citizens turned toward Skellington Manor and walked, floated, or oozed toward it. 
  In the safe house, Sally was busy with her own problems. She had paced the room twenty-six times, unstitched and re-stitched her left hand twice, and contemplated opening the door and running after Jack more times than she could count. She sighed. "All this worrying is going to drive me crazy." She stood up and walked over to the door, resting her hand on the handle. Biting her lip, she turned it and began to pull it open. She groaned from the effort. Jack had made it seem so easy! 
  'Well, Jack is a lot stronger than I am.' She thought, managing to make the door slide another inch. After another few tugs (and nearly losing an arm), the opening was just large enough for her to slip through. She climbed the staircase and ran into another problem. The trapdoor was shut. 
  At that moment, Sally said a word that she would've never dared to say around any of her family or friends. Feeling along the smooth wood, her hands pressed down an unseen switch and the door slid back, letting her out. With a smile of satisfaction, the ragdoll climbed out into the bedroom, and, after sealing the door again, went downstairs. 
  Straight into the arms of the hypnotized Behemoth. "Let go of me!" Sally cried, struggling in his grasp pointlessly. After all, Sally really had no muscle, and muscle was pretty much all Behemoth was made of. But she continued her fruitless struggling until she was dragged out to the fountain where Jacob and Cay were waiting. 
  "So, this is Sally Skellington." Cay muttered, mainly to herself, as she examined the Pumpkin Queen. "Not much to look at." She noticed the bulge in Sally's stomach, and felt a twinge of guilt pass through her mind. "But I'm not here to judge. Grab her Jacob." The giant took the Queen from Behemoth, wrapping a fist around her torso. "Be careful." Cay warned in a low whisper, too low for Sally to hear. Jacob nodded and lifted Cay back up to his shoulder. The air shimmered, and all three disappeared. 
  SC: Okay, let's see if I can sum this chapter up: Shock and Barrel are in chains, Aubrey's being crucified for her twisted daddy and sister's evil schemes, Lock is yet again the victim of hypnotism, Jack is off to kick some serious ass, or so he thinks, the whole of Halloween Town has been put under a mass puppet spell, and Sally has been kidnapped by Cay and Jacob. And to top it all off, I leave you all at a cliffhanger! Don't you just love me? 
   
   
   
   Chapter 10 
   
  Chapter 10 
  Sibling Rivalry 
  -Jack's POV- 
  It wasn't hard to get to Raphael's Palace; he'd laid out the path for me. The trees had been turned apart to let me through, and many had been torn out by their roots to block any other paths. I stopped as the dirt under my feet turned to wood. A drawbridge? "Getting a little theatrical, aren't we?" I called into the air. But really, I didn't expect a reply, at least, not until I got further inside the castle. 
  I walked across the drawbridge and shoved open the doors. A pair of masked guards stepped in front of me. "His Majesty is waiting for you in the throne room." The first said in a flat voice. 
  "Please follow us." They both turned on their heel and started to walk off. I followed after them. What choice did I have? Trap or not, either I followed or got lost. 
  Eventually, we stopped at another pair of large wooden doors. The guards pushed them open and I walked through. I glared at the figure sitting on the throne. "Raphael." 
  He, on the other hand, found my anger amusing, and grinned. "Ah, Jacky! It's been to long!" 
  "It's Jack." The doors slammed shut behind me. I didn't flinch. 
  "Oh, so you finally ditched the nickname after mommy dearest banished us!" Raphael spat. "We were your best friends, Jack! And you didn't even stick up for us!" 
  "I trusted you when I showed you the key!" I roared. "And then you, Cay, and Jacob stole it!" I muttered a few words under my breath, and a bolt of lightning destroyed the throne. I smiled, a sense of repulsing satisfaction, until I heard a laugh from in the smoke. 
  "Nice try, Jack, but you missed." I rolled to the side as a pillar of flame consumed the spot I'd previously been standing in. A hand wrapped around my neck and lifted me up. "Normally, simply snap your neck, but I'm enjoying this far too much." 
  "Enjoy this!" I hauled my arm back and punched him in the face. I felt another revolting wave of satisfaction as I felt the bone crunch under my fist. He dropped me, clutching his nose. 
  He sneered at me from the ground, blood leaking from between his fingers. "How eager to fight are you? Eager enough to risk the life of your wife and unborn children?" 
  I froze. "What have you done to Sally?" Raphael laughed. I ran over and pulled him up by the front of his shirt. "What did you do, Raphael?" 
  "Nothing." A female voice behind me drawled. "Yet. Long time no see Jacky." I turned around to see Cay hopping off Jacob's shoulder. 
  "Jack." I growled. My eyes traveled to the giant's fist to see MY Sally, unconscious. "Sally! Put her down, Jacob!" 
  Jacob shook slightly, glancing at Cay for support. "You don't have to do anything Pumpkin Head says, Jakie." She soothed, managing to cast a glare in my direction. 
  "Still making all his decisions for him Cay?" I asked spitefully. 
  She glared at me, full-on this time. "Thanks to your dearest mummy's spell, Jacob permanently lost his ability to say anything and his brain is almost gone. He's like a toddler again." I heard a twinge of sorrow in her voice. 
  "I'm sorry Cay." I muttered. "I never wanted you two dragged into this mess." 
  She glared at me. "Well we were!" She wrapped her arms around herself. "Do you have any idea what it was like down there? Hell couldn't have been so bad." 
  I winced. "Cay…" 
  "Don't try to butter me up now, Jack. You're about twenty-five years too late." Cay growled. "Now surrender or I'll have Jacob tear Sally into pieces and kill your kids." 
  I sighed, defeated. I didn't have any choice now. I glared at Raphael, a broken shell. "You win." 
  Raphael grinned, moving his hands from his now healed nose. The dried blood did nothing for helping him look sane. "You have NO idea how long I've waited to hear you say that. Cay, take Sally down to the dungeon. I'll deal with Jack myself." Raphael snapped his fingers and thick stone chains shot out of the wall behind me, pulling me back and holding me tightly against the stone. 
  I glared at him. "If you hurt her-" 
  His expression grew serious. "I give you my word that Sally will not be harmed." Jacob and Cay walked out, but not before I saw Cay take Sally from Jacob and carry her much more safely. I let out a sigh of relief. As long as Sally was okay… 
  Raph walked over, the insane grin back. He raised a hand up to my arm and grasped my wrist. "You know, Aubrey is such a marvelous girl. She's really grown up." I winced as he pulled my entire left arm off; it didn't really hurt, considering I had no nerve endings, but it still creeped me out that he had just purposely pulled off my arm. "So… powerful. And her soul really turned out beautifully. An angel." He smiled lovingly, like he actually meant what he was saying. But if I knew Raph as well as I thought I did, he had an ulterior motive. "It's such a shame that I have to remove the key for my plan to work." 
  My eyes widened. "Raphael, you can't take the key from Aubrey. She'll die!" 
  He paused in his dismantling of my arm to look up at me. "You think I don't know that? In fact, Jacky," He grinned, "That's what I'm counting on." 
  xXx 
  Vanessa growled. "Marvelous? Powerful? She's nothing compared to me!" She took on a deeper voice, imitating her father. "'Her soul turned out so beautifully. An angel.'" She paused, and a grin formed on her face. "Lock, you wait up in my room. I'll be there soon." She kissed his cheek and walked off toward the dungeons. 
  xXx 
  "Barrel will you stop pulling on those chains? They aren't going to come loose." Shock sighed. 
  Barrel gave her a dry stare. "Well I don't see you coming up with any ideas." 
  Shock sighed again. "That's because I don't have any." She looked towards the arched doorway. "Someone's coming." 
  "Oh, brilliant deduction." Vanessa drawled, clapping sarcastically as she walked in. "Don't worry; I'm not here for you two." She walked over to Aubrey, glaring up at her. "You think you're so fucking special, don't you? Let's see how 'special' daddy thinks his little angel is when she loses her wings." Vanessa's fingers curled around the handle of the dagger protruding from her twin's stomach and pulled it out. Aubrey flinched and gave a moan. 
  Vanessa backhanded her across the face. "Wakey, wakey! I want you conscious for this." Aubrey's eyes fluttered open and Vanessa smirked nastily. "Good." She walked around to Aubrey's left side and raised the dagger, bringing it down on the protrusion that connected the black feathered wing to Aubrey's back. 
  If Aubrey hadn't been awake before, she was now. She screamed as the steel cut through flesh and muscle and Vanessa began to saw through the bone. She thrashed as much as she could, which wasn't much, as the blade sawed through the marrow, finally coming out the other side. Tears poured down Aubrey's face and blood stained her back the same dark crimson as her stomach. Her muscles spasmed uncontrollably as Vanessa slowly walked around to her other side. 
  "N-no… please…" Aubrey managed to choke out through her pain. 
  Vanessa ignored her and made quick work of her remaining wing, and the unmistakable smell of blood that had filled the room strengthened. Shock and Barrel closed their eyes this time, turning their heads away but not able to block out their friend's screams of pain. 
  Finally, it was done. The black wings hung on the wall, no longer a part of the girl hanging in front of them. Aubrey could do nothing now but make small, whimpering noises and cry. Her body was convulsing in pain, and blood was now running down her wrists and ankles from where the shackles had cut them. 
  Vanessa twirled the knife in her hands, a contented smile on her face. Blood was spattered across her front and over her cheeks and forehead. As she looked over her work, her eyes fell on the crimson pendant hanging around Aubrey's neck and a sinister gleam took over her eyes. "Since you and Lock are no longer an item, dear sister," Vanessa reached around Aubrey and unhooked the necklace, and it fell to the floor, "You'll no longer need this." She bent down and picked it up before walking out, the bloody knife still in her grasp. 
  It was several minutes before Aubrey managed to stop the small, pathetic noises issuing from her and calm her quaking muscles somewhat. But the tears refused to stop flowing, much like the blood that was dripping from the two mutilated stumps resting on her shoulder blades and the newly reopened hole in her stomach. "Aubrey?" Barrel asked quietly. "God, I'm sorry." 
  She shook her head. "It… not your f-fault…" She gasped. 
  Shock growled. "That witch is gonna pay for this." 
   
   
   
   Chapter 11 
   
  Chapter 11 
  Reverie 
  -Aubrey's POV- 
  Speeding into the horizon 
  I was soaked to the bone, freezing cold, and tired. It had been hours since I'd ran from the house, and the sun not long after I'd gotten out of my neighborhood, bringing in a freezing rain, not icy enough to be considered sleet, but trying none the less. 
  Dreaming of the siren 
  Pain coursed through my burning leg muscles as I kept walking, no longer able to run. The only good thing about the sun setting was that it wasn't blinding me anymore. I had no idea where I was going. At first, I'd thought about going to The Towers and finding the tree, but then I remembered that it was gone. So I'd just been wandering stupidly for hours and hours. 
  Wishing for broken glass on the highway 
  My ears were sore and cold, and the ringing silence wasn't helping my headache any. I had long since realized I was lost, and had taken to following the highway, hiding behind something whenever a car would pass. But I hadn't seen one for hours. I glanced down at the glowing watch on my wrist. Eleven thirty-seven. 
  It could be so easy 
  Shivering, I looked up and down the road. What I wouldn't have given for a car. I would've rather been taken home and suffered there rather than suffering out in the cold and wet. With a sigh, I kept walking. Why I didn't just turn around and try and find my way back, I didn't know. It was like something was pulling me along, refusing to let me turn back. I stopped rubbing my arms to clutch the necklace that was trapped under my soaked shirt. 
  I don't know what made me think of Lock and made me pull the necklace out to stare at it, which I'd developed a habit of doing lately. 'I'm not going to see him again until I die.' If I wasn't afraid of them freezing, I would've let the tears stinging my eyes fall. 
  The rhythm 
  I turned around to see pinpricks of light so small that at first, I thought I was seeing things. Then I heard the low rumble of a car engine. 
  Rhythm of an engine 
  I climbed over the guardrail and felt the rough stones that lined the roadsides under my feet. 
  Always makes me empty 
  'I could flag them down.' I thought. 'Go home.' 
  I see the headlights coming at me 
  Then I felt the cold metal of the necklace in my hand, and I felt… empty. 'Or… or I could…' I looked at the oncoming headlights. 
  And I can't help but wonder 
  They were getting closer, and now I could see the outline of the car. I could hear the pounding base even through the windows. The tears poured freely down my face as my sense of reason battled with my heart. 'Lock wouldn't have wanted you to kill yourself.' I berated. 
  'But Lock isn't here, is he? Don't you want to see him again?' 
  "More than anything." I whispered to the air. 
  'Then run. NOW!' My feet took flight and the stones flew as I scrambled onto the hard pavement. 
  Flying 
  The brakes screeched, but it was too late. They had been going to fast, and the road was too slick. I felt my ribs cave in as the vehicle slammed into my side. 
  Flying in slow motion 
  Everything seemed to slow down as the force lifted me off the ground and sent me flying back. 
  Wind through my hair 
  I saw the horrified faces of the occupants of the car in perfect detail, felt the pain lacing through the left side of my chest with every breath I took, felt the cold wind whipping my hair up around my face, and felt the hard rain pouring down on my scalp and arms. 
  And ripping through the scene that's made of the wreckage 
  The wind was knocked out of me as pain tore through my chest and back I couldn't breathe. Why couldn't I breathe? Something was wrong with my neck too. I couldn't lift it. But it wasn't broken, because I could still feel everything hurting. 
  It is not a secret 
  My vision was red and fuzzy; the blood vessels must've burst. I blinked many times to try, and fail, to fix my eyesight. But it seemed that every time my lids closed, they got harder to open. My body was going numb, and I felt, scratch that, I WAS suffocating.  
  Speeding 
  Then it hit me; the feeling that my mind was being torn out of my body and being pushed in at the same time. I was going to die. I was dying. 
  Into the horizon 
  I managed to lift my head and look at the cloudy night. It was probably just my oxygen-deprived brain playing tricks on me, but it seemed like the clouds were just disappearing, leaving a clear, starry night. 
  Dreaming of the sirens 
  As my head fell back to my chest, my vision was going black. My head was ringing again; if I had survived, I would've had a serious concussion. Maybe even brain damage. My muscle control evaporated, and I felt… not hurt, not even particularly upset. 
  Wishing for broken glass on the highway 
  I felt free. I turned around as I sensed someone behind me. "Hello Aubrey." 
  It could be so easy 
  Only it wasn't the Grim Reaper standing there. It was my father- 
  -My third birthday… the cliff… Oogie's shadow… 
  -with a knife in his hand. 
  -Sandra stole a plastic knife from the kitchen and cut herself with it. 
  -He plunged it into my stomach, and pain shot through me. "No…"- 
  -The car… the tree… 
  -But then it wasn't my father. It was Lock holding the dagger's hilt, pushing it in deeper, intensifying the pain- 
  -So much pain… like my heart was being torn out… 
  -driving it deeper and deeper through my body until it came out the other side- 
  -No… stop! Wake up! 
  -driving my mind into darkness. And Lock was laughing. No. Not Lock. Oogie. Shock. Barrel. Jack. Sally. 
  Me. 
  And then the dagger was gone. It was pulled out. The shadows surrounding me started to vanish, and I could feel my body; my limbs stiff, something heavy pulling me down so bad it felt like my legs were going to be pulled out of their sockets, but I was still being held up by something cold and hard across my wrists. 
  My head snapped around as something, or someone, hit me hard across the cheek. "Wake up! I want you conscious for this." I groaned and opened my eyes a little, my vision still blurry. 
  The figure in front of me said something else, it wasn't nice, I could tell that much, before disappearing around my side. My eyes opened wide as I felt the steel that had been in my chest bite into my wing. I screamed as the flesh was hacked away in painful chunks. I screamed as I felt the bone being sawed through like wood, only much more painful. I screamed until I couldn't gasp in the air to scream anymore. Then, the knife vanished, stopped cutting through my limb, and left my body feeling strangely… uneven. I realized then that my wing was no long my wing. It wasn't attached to me anymore. 
  The figure walked in front of me again, going to my other side. I knew what they were planning to do, and I fought. But what good would my fighting do when I could barely move? The pain came back, harsher this time, and I couldn't stop screaming again. 
  Finally, the deed was done. I let my head fall to my chest, too tired and numb to do anything else. I didn't have the air to sob, so my body settled for little whimpering noises that I couldn't have stopped if I'd tried. 
  The figure's footsteps stopped again, in front of me. "Since you and Lock are no longer an item, dear sister," I felt cold fingers against my chest, "You'll no longer need this." I felt something pulling against the back of my neck, then felt a snap, and realized that my necklace was gone. 
  The silence was overwhelming for a few minutes. Then, I heard, "Aubrey?" It was Barrel. For some reason, the fact that my friends had just seen this act made me cry even harder. "God I'm sorry." 
  I managed to remember how to shake my head. "No…" I gasped out, barely loud enough for even me to hear. "It… not your f-fault." 
  I heard a growl, obviously Shock. "That bitch is gonna pay for this." 
  I blinked a few times, the tears clearing from my eyes. I could see again, at least. Pulling my head up, I looked around. Shock and Barrel were chained up to the walls in front of and next to me, and both seemed to be in okay condition, save the fact that Barrel had blood dripping down his left cheek. 
  "Who-" I coughed; my throat was sore from screaming. "Who was that?" 
  Shock and Barrel looked over at each other. Shock sighed. "Her name's Vanessa. She's your twin." 
  I stared at her. "I don't have a twin." 
  "Yeah, well she sure looks a lot like she could be." Barrel told me. "The only difference is that her hair's black." 
  I swallowed, then winced. That hurt too. "She was talking about Lock… where is he?" 
  Neither of them spoke. 
  "Shock? Barrel?" 
  Shock looked up at me, sympathy obvious in her black eyes, even from across the room. "She… Vanessa, I mean, cast a memory spell on Lock. He doesn't remember you anymore." 
  If my heart had still been beating, it would have. "Great. This can't get any worse." 
  "No, but I think it's about to get better." A familiar voice said from the doorway. 
  xXx 
  Lock looked up as Vanessa walked into her room, slamming the door behind her. "Something wrong?" He asked. 
  She smiled at him. "Actually, I've never felt better." She tossed something silver onto her bed before walking over to her vanity chair where Lock was sitting. "Scoot." 
  He got up and walked over to her bed, sitting down. Vanessa's room was decorated much like you'd expect a rich, spoiled, five-year-old to be. There were quite a few stuffed animals, most of which were bigger than Lock, and a huge four poster canopy bed. Only instead of the frilly pink that a child would've preferred, everything was black lace and spider webs. Except for one wall, which was covered by the huge mirror that reflected the entire room and that Vanessa was staring into. 
  Lock rubbed his eyes as the room started to blur again. He blinked as the decoration, no, the entire room changed, showing him another darkly decorated room. The mattress below him was softer, more… familiar, almost, and the stuffed animals vanished. The ribbons hanging from the walls disappeared, replaced with gray paint, with the random spider web placed here and there. The huge dresser vanished, and a small table appeared next to the bed. A picture frame rested on the smooth, flat top. He stared at it. He, Shock, and Barrel were in it, but his arm was out, like it was supposed to be wrapped around something… or someone. 
  But then he blinked again, and the strange room disappeared. He shook his head and let himself fall back on the bed, his hand brushing over cool metal. Lock looked over, picking up the object. He began to stare again at the bright crimson stone as his mind flew off again. 
  "I wanted to give this to you at least once since Barrel had to do it for me last time." 
  Lock put a hand on his throbbing head and sat up, looking at Vanessa. 
  Except it wasn't Vanessa. 
  The long black hair was gone, replaced by silvery white hair in a short crop, framing a face almost just as pale. The crimson and black mini dress was replaced by a black sleeveless top and jeans. A pair of feathered ebony wings unfurled from her shoulders. 
  "Lock, stop spacing out." He blinked and the stranger was gone, and Vanessa was staring at him like he had gone nuts. 
  "Sorry." He muttered, tucking the necklace in his pocket. 
  She shook her head, turning back to the mirror. "Well, whatever. Like I was saying, I need to recharge for a couple of hours. Make sure no one moves me, okay?" 
  He nodded, his claws still playing with the jewelry in his pocket. Vanessa slumped over in her chair, and the mirror glowed for a moment. Blurry at first, an image formed. 
  I'll give you one guess what that image was. 
  Vanessa sighed, reclining on the reflection of her bed in the mirror, which was absent of Lock. "I really wish daddy would hurry up and get my body fixed." She looked over at Lock, who had a faraway expression. "Lock!" 
  His head jerked up. "What?" 
  "I thought I said to stop spacing out." 
  'Getting a bit bossy, aren't we?' Lock thought. "I'm just tired." 
  Vanessa lost her cold glare and giggled like a toddler. "Well then take a nap. Duh." 
  Lock flopped back on the bed and closed his eyes, the image of the girl he saw burning into his closed lids. He frowned slightly as sleep began to overtake him. 
  'Who are you…?' 
  xXx 
  -Twenty minutes earlier- 
  "Alright Jakie. She's good and tight; now let's go. I think we've earned some 'us' time, don't you?" I heard a grunt and footsteps faded from the room. Opening one eye, I looked around. It was empty. I waited until the footsteps had completely faded before I began to work. My wrists were chained close together; close enough that even my little fingers could reach the seams on my left wrist. Of course, reaching them wasn't the problem. The problem itself rested in undoing my seams. 
  'Note to self: never redo the stitches so tightly.' I thought, pulling the last one free. I dropped slightly, held uneven. My hand scurried over to my ear and pulled out the needle there, offering it carefully to my mouth. Taking it in my teeth, I slowly transferred it up to my still attached hand. My left hand hopped back onto my wrist, balancing carefully. I'll say this about my detached limbs having a mind of their own; they certainly seem to know what they're doing. 
  After a few failed attempts at putting myself back together, I decided to go with Plan B. As soon as my other hand was off, I fell to the floor, landing in a heap. I sat patiently while my left hand sewed the right back on, then I proceeded to reattach it as well. I walked out of the room quietly, looking down the dark hallways, trying to figure out where to go. 
  Then I heard it; the scream that echoed through the hallways. I ran in the direction that I thought it came from. The screams stopped and started again, before stopping completely. I kept running, my bare feet silent on the stone floor. 
  I heard footsteps coming toward me, and I froze. Not a great idea, which I quickly realized. Glancing around, I jumped back around the corner I'd just turned, praying that whoever it was didn't have to come this way. The footsteps faded, and I braved a look around the corner. No one was there, so I made a break for it. 
  "…talking about Lock… where is he?" I gasped. That was Aubrey's voice! "Shock? Barrel?" 
  "She… Vanessa, I mean, cast a memory spell on Lock. He doesn't remember you anymore." That was Shock. I sped up. 
  Turning, I saw an opening in the dark stone wall. "Great. This can't get any worse." 
  I stepped into the doorway. "No, but I think it's about to get better." Three heads shot up toward me. 
  "Sally!" Shock and Barrel yelled. Aubrey didn't say anything. I looked over at her and gasped. 
  "Aubrey, your wings…" The sight of what had been done to Aubrey, my DAUGHTER, infuriated me to no end. 
  "Yeah… they've been amputated." She chuckled, but it turned into a cough. 
  Anger welled up in my chest. "I'm going to get you three down from there, and then we can talk." 
   
   
   
   Chapter 12 
   
  Chapter 12 
  It took a couple of minutes, but soon Sally had all three of us down. I sat back and watched Barrel carry Aubrey over, trying to work some feeling back into my hands as I did. He set her down carefully, she winced anyway, and then came and sat on my other side. "Are you two all right?" Sally asked us. 
  I nodded. "My hands are asleep, but otherwise yeah." 
  Barrel nodded, touching the cut on his forehead softly. "This doesn't hurt; head wounds always bleed a lot." I smirked a little. He would know, as often as he trips and cracks his head open on those stairs. 
  Turning to Aubrey, I held my hands out. "Let me see your back." She nodded and scooted around so she was facing away from me. I nearly gagged at the sight of the damage that had been done; not only were her wings gone, but Vanessa had missed a few times, and the skin above both of Aubrey's shoulder blades was gone, barely covered by the torn cloth of her shirt. I closed my eyes and put my hands on her back, actually gagging as my hands pressed against the blood-soaked skin. "Laeh." I muttered. 
  Opening my eyes, I saw that the bloodied stump ends had new skin on them, and the wounds above them were gone. "Good, now your chest." 
  Aubrey smiled at me. "It's good too. You got 'em with one spell this time." She held out her wrists to show the cuts there gone as well. Sally knelt down next to me, needle in hand. She went to work on sewing up what she could of Aubrey's shirt while we talked. 
  "Now what do we do?" Barrel asked, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I mean, I guess we have to save Lock again, right?" 
  I chuckled as I cleaned off my hands. "He does always seem to be the one who gets hypnotized, doesn't he?" 
  "The dangers of dating me." Aubrey muttered. 
  Barrel and I glanced at each other. We recognized that tone; it was the 'this-is-all-my-fault' tone. Sally broke the thread she was using off, done. "Aubrey, this isn't your fault." 
  "Yeah, if it's anyone's fault, it's mine." I told her. "I'm the one who helped pressure you into going back to the graveyard with me and Sandy." 
  Barrel sighed and looked at the ground. "Lock's gonna be SO mad at me when we snap him out of it." 
  Aubrey and I both looked at him. "Why?" 
  "Because the only reason I came is because he wanted me to keep an eye on Aubrey." She blushed a little, but there was a small smile on her face. 
  It faded, though, in a matter of seconds. "I should've listened when he told me something was wrong with Sandy." She mumbled. She suddenly seemed to remember something and looked up at Sally. "Mom, where's dad?" 
  Sally shook her head. "I don't know. Raphael did something to him. He's down here… somewhere." 
  Barrel groaned. "Great. If this guy can take down Jack, what the heck can we do?" 
  Again, Sally shook her head. "No, he couldn't. He used me as leverage to get Jack to surrender." 
  I nodded. "So if we can find Jack, we have a chance." I snapped my fingers and an orb of light appeared in front of my face. "Dnif Jack." It started to fly off, hovering at the door for someone to follow. "It's a tracker spell." I explained to Sally. "It'll lead you straight to Jack. He should be able to conjure one up to find us again." She nodded and stood up, following the floating orb out the door. 
  "What about us?" Aubrey asked. 
  I paused. "We need to find a way to help Lock, so we need a more powerful spell." 
  After a moment, Aubrey nodded in realization. "A spell to find a spell." I nodded and held out my hands. She took them. "Do you remember the words?" 
  "Well enough." I replied, closing my eyes. "Do you?" 
  "I think so." I heard her take a breath. "Ready?" 
  I nodded, even though she couldn't see me. "Wohs em eht yaw ot taht hcihw I tnaw ot dnif." We chanted in unison. Light flared through my closed eyelids, and when I opened them, there was an orb about the size of my fist glowing bright red in between my face and Aubrey's. 
  "You've gotta love advanced magic." I laughed, standing. After pulling Aubrey up, I laid a hand on the orb. "Find a way to break the spell on Lock." 
  The orb paused for a moment, and then floated out the doorway. "C'mon Barrel!" I yelled, running after it. I heard him scramble up and run out after Aubrey and me. 
  "Are you sure this will work?" He asked. 
  "Nope, this is the first time we've tried." Aubrey confessed. "But it worked when Ms. Aurelius did it." 
  "Then why did both of you have to do it?" 
  I rolled my eyes. "Because finding an inanimate object, like a spell book, is harder than finding a person." 
  Aubrey nodded. "If someone inexperienced tried to cast that spell on their own, they could drain all their magic away. It was just a precautionary measure." She added after a moment. 
  The orb led us up several sets of stairs and ended up backtracking about four times because of dead ends. Hey, even magic has its faults. Finally, it began to grow lighter, and the three of us could finally see again as we left the dark, torch-lit corridors. It led us down three twisting hallways, no dead ends this time, and we were about to turn down another one when Aubrey stopped us. 
  I grabbed the orb and pulled it close to my chest to dim the crimson glow as footsteps neared us. A voice followed soon after, passing to close for comfort but not noticing our presence. I recognized the girl, sort of, as the one who'd grabbed me when we were ambushed. "She's playing in the throne room again. Raphael's got to keep her on a tighter leash or something, especially with her new 'boyfriend' around." The girl shook her head. "God this is fucked up. Vanessa, ordering US around. Never thought I'd see the day I was getting bossed around by a fucking teenager… well, we don't want to keep her royal pain in the ass waiting. Come on Jacob." 
  Aubrey looked at me desperately. I knew that she wanted me to say it was okay for her to follow them, but… I wasn't supposed to be the leader! That was Lock's job. 
  Oh. Right. Lock's not here. So why am I next in line to be in charge? 
  'Well it could be the fact that you always tried to undermine Lock's authority.' I thought to myself bitterly. I sighed inwardly. "Go." 
  She smiled at me before turning and running after them, her bare feet soundless on the carpeted floor. I let go of the orb and it continued to float ahead of us. 
  Several hallways and a few close calls with the guards later, it finally stopped in front of a blank wall and didn't move. I let out some very colorful curses before kicking the wall. This was stupid and only resulted in me hurting my foot. Barrel, however, seemed to think the wall was extremely interesting. "What are you doing you idiot?" I asked from the floor. 
  "There's something behind this wall." He muttered, his hands roaming over the bricks. He paused, then pushed the one the orb was floating over. It slid in under his touch and the wall moved away. He grinned at me. "Told you." He offered me his hand. 
  I took it and let him help me up. We walked though the door and it slid shut behind us. "Where are we?" Lights flared at my words, momentarily blinding me. When my eyes adjusted, I saw rows and rows of books. 
  Barrel grinned at me. "It's a library." The orb whizzed past his ear, flying through the shelves of books. 
  I realized that my hand was still in Barrel's and pulled it out, fighting off the blush rising to my cheeks. "Don't just stand there, stupid. It's still looking for the counter spell!" I ran off after it, letting Barrel catch up to me. 
  xXx 
  I followed behind the two silently. The girl had been there when Sandy, or whatever that thing was, had captured me. Which meant the guy must have been too, because there was no way that the girl or Sandy could've carried me or Shock and Barrel. I was so caught up in her thoughts, I barely noticed as they stopped, and I ducked around a corner to avoid being spotted. 
  A door creaked open and footsteps started and stopped. I peered around the corner, listening. "You're late." I winced. That was the voice from earlier, the person who'd cut off my wings. 
  "It's a big castle. What do you want?" 
  "Where's my dad?" 
  "Busy." 
  "Where is he?" 
  "…I can't tell you that." 
  A crash. "I want to see him." 
  "He said he'd come and see you when he was finished." 
  Silence for a few minutes. "Fine. You can leave." I went back around the corner, pressing my back against the wall. The two passed by me without so much as a pause and I let out a silent sigh of relief. I slipped over to the doors. I looked in through the crack between the wood, thankful that the doors weren't completely shut. 
  "Calm down Vanessa." Lock's voice floated from out of my range of sight. "Cay said he'd come see you once he's done, didn't she?" 
  "Yeah, but she'll say anything to make me shut up." My eyes widened as I saw the girl that the voice belonged to. Barrel was right; this girl looked exactly like me except that her hair was longer and black, and she had a thing for sluttish minis. She was sitting on the throne dad had been sitting in earlier, her legs draped over one of the armrests and her back against the other. Black leather boots reached up to her knees, and patterns of red swirled over her black dress like blood. 
  Lock finally walked into my line of view. "Well, then go look for him in a little while." 
  I heard footsteps behind me but didn't move fast enough to stop the hand that had grabbed my arm from pulling me up. A webbed hand covered my mouth. "What are you doing here?" Cay hissed. "Damn it, if Vanessa finds you-" 
  "Cay?" The girl, Vanessa, called. "Is that you?" 
  She bit her lip and looked down at me. "I'm really sorry about this." She shoved the door open and dragged me inside. "Yeah, it's me. And look I found outside." 
  Vanessa smiled down at me, her black eyes flashing dangerously. 'A puppet spell?' I thought, remembering the effects of the one Shock had cast on Lock. 'No, her eyes aren't totally black.' 
  "You can leave." Vanessa dismissed Cay. I watched her over my shoulder. She stopped at the door, casting me an almost apologetic look before walking out and shutting the large door behind her. I turned my attention back to my… twin. "Well, well, well. How in the world did you get out?" 
  I stayed silent. 
  Her eyes narrowed. "I asked you a question!" 
  "Go to hell." I spat. 
  She smiled at me with a sickeningly fake innocent sweetness. "Aw, are you still bitter about your wings little sister?" 
  I growled, my lips curling back into a snarl. "I'll kill you!" I lunged at her, only to fall to the floor in an ungracious heap as Lock's fist slammed into my stomach. I clutched my abdomen, fighting for the air to speak. "L-Lock…" I looked up at him, a tear rolling down my cheek. I scanned his face for anything, anything that would show that he felt bad, that he recognized me. 
  Nothing. Not so much as a flicker. I let my head drop, preferring for my tears to fall on the floor than be watched by that bitch on the throne. 
  xXx 
  Sally stumbled over a loose stone as she followed the tracker spell Shock had cast. She'd been walking for what seemed to be forever through the dark halls. She sped up a little as the tracker did. It had only led her down deeper into the dungeons, where even the torches were gone. But the little orb's white light was bright enough to illuminate the corridors considerably. 
  Abruptly it turned. Sally did as well, and it put her in a rounded room much like the one she'd found Shock, Barrel, and Aubrey in. But she didn't see anything; no doors, no other halls, and certainly no Jack. Then something in the corner caught her eye, standing out against the dark stone. Walking over, she picked it up. After a moment of examination, Sally realized what she was holding and her eyes widened. It was one of Jack's fingers. Spinning around, she saw the rest of Jack's bones scattered about the room. Looking around she located his skull sitting in a corner, its eyes closed. Well, most of his skull at least. His jawbone was missing. 
  She ran over and picked it up, shaking it gently. "Jack…" She whispered. The empty sockets snapped open. She smiled. "Don't worry; I'm going to put you back together." Glancing around, she spotted his jaw and picked it up, placing it back in its rightful spot. 
  "How did you get down here?" Jack asked. 
  Sally smiled at him again. "Having detachable parts comes in handy sometimes." She sat down, holding his skull in her hands. "Did Raphael do this?" 
  Jack looked solemn. "Yes. He tore me to pieces, and then threw me down here. I was so worried about you Sally." 
  Sally kissed his cheek. "You don't have to worry now." 
  "My chest's over there." Jack motioned with a struggled nod to the opposite corner of the room. Sally turned to see that indeed, Jack's torso was sitting there, his pinstriped shirt still on it. She walked over and placed his head back on his neck. 
  "Better?" She asked. 
  Jack rolled his head around a couple of times. "Much." Sally nodded and began to pick up his pieces and put them back together. 
  Within fifteen minutes, Sally had reassembled both of Jack's arms, save his left hand, and had started putting that back together. "Sally?" 
  She looked up from pushing his ring finger back in its socket. "Yes Jack?" 
  "Thank you." She smiled at him and went back to piecing him back together. 
  Ten minutes later, Jack was back on his feet. He bent down and grabbed the last of the four ribs Raphael had broken out of spite and slid it under his shirt. He flinched a little as he felt it mend back into place. "Good as new." He proclaimed, doing a little twirl to prove it. "Whoops!" He cried, falling over. Sally caught him, standing him upright. If Jack had skin, it would've been red. "Thanks." 
  Sally shook her head, smiling still. "Not a problem." 
  Jack smiled down at her before getting serious. "Let's go." He laid a bony hand on the tracker and muttered a few words under his breath. After a moment of deliberation, it flew out of the room. Jack bent down and scooped Sally up in his arms before running after it. 
  xXx 
  Vanessa chuckled as Aubrey laid on the floor, tears trickling down her face. Her face lit up as her fingers played with the handle of the dagger still in her boot. She pulled it out, examining the bright blade. The blood that should've stained the steel was gone, wiped away by some unseen force. 'We'll have to fix that.' Vanessa thought with a chuckle. "Don't worry Aubrey. You won't have to worry about anything in… a…" She trailed off, her eyes traveling from the heap that was her sister on the floor to the boy whose feet the heap was lying at. 
  "Lock, come here." Vanessa crooned. He looked down at Aubrey once before walking over. 
  "What?" 
  Vanessa grabbed his wrist and placed the dagger's handle in Lock's hand and closed his fingers around it. "Do me a favor and take care of that problem, would you?" She asked sweetly, smiling at him. 
  Lock looked down at the gleaming blade in his hand. "Sure." 
   
   
   
   Chapter 13 
   
  Chapter 13 
  Remember Me 
  "Shock!" Barrel yelled. "I found the book!" He held up a thick book with a black, leathery looking cover. A series of complicated spirals that seemed to be made up of a snake biting its tail decorated the center, painted in gold. 
  The witch stopped searching the shelf she had nearly emptied of books and ran over. "Find the spell." 
  "What should I look for?" 
  Shock groaned and grabbed the orb that was hovering around the book and shoved it into the black cover. It snapped open in Barrel's hands, the pages glowing red. They began to flip to higher and higher pages, stopping almost a quarter of the way to the end. Several lines of text were shining blood red. "All right." She bent the corner and shut the book, standing. 
  Snapping her fingers, a white orb, much like the one she'd conjured for Sally earlier, appeared in front of her. "Dnif em Aubrey." The orb began to fly off. "Let's go." 
  After chasing the telltale light for a while, Barrel spoke up. "Hey, should we be going up?" 
  Shock looked at him. "What… what do you mean?" She panted. 
  "Well, we just went up a staircase." 
  Shock swallowed hard. "They could've… gone this way. I'm… not really… sure…" 
  "You all right?" Barrel, being a football player, was used to running for long periods of time. But so was Shock. That's pretty much all they ever did when they were younger; ran from Jack, ran after each other, ran from Halloween Town to the Tree House, etc. 
  "Fine." She snapped, turned away from him. Barrel turned his vision back to the orb in front of them. 
  That's when it flickered. Barrel was a bit surprised, but figured he was seeing things. 
  But then it flickered again, and again, and again, until it flickered out completely. Barrel turned at the soft thump next to him, skidding to a stop. "Shock!" He scrambled over and knelt down next to her. "Shock, what happened?" 
  She turned her head weakly and motioned at the book. "The book's draining all my energy away. I can't carry the damn thing any further." Shock let out a small cry of protest as Barrel lifted her up onto his back. 
  "Hold on." He bent down and grabbed the book off the cold floor. "Any chance you can conjure up one more tracker spell?" 
  Shock snapped her fingers weakly. An orb, much smaller than the previous ones, floated in front of his face. "This is the last one. I'm out of energy." She muttered the spell under her breath before leaning her head against his shoulder tiredly. Barrel blushed slightly at the somewhat intimate (in his mind) contact. This was probably one of the first times Shock had touched him for a long period of time without him being in pain as a result. Barrel shook his head slightly; this was most definitely NOT a good time to start thinking about his feeling for Shock. 'Just keep your eye on the tracker.' He ordered himself, running after the light. 
  .o0o. 
  Aubrey let out a shriek as the knife in Lock's hand came inches from slicing her stomach open. She had long since realized that talking to him was pointless, he wasn't listening anyway, and had since lost the extra energy required to make her lungs take in the air to form words. Now, she was just trying to keep out of reach of that knife. Dead or not, if Lock attacked her with that thing, she was going to fall down and her chances of getting back up were slim. 
  She stumbled, and her chest hit the hard, unforgiving floor painfully. She groaned as felt claws grab her shoulder and flip her onto her back, and something sharp and cold was pressed against her throat. Aubrey's eyes shot open to meet gold ones. 
  Lock smirked as the girl's eyes shot opened, but then he froze. Her crimson eyes were stricken with fear, and the wings were gone, but otherwise it was her. The girl he had seen earlier in Vanessa's room. 
  He growled in pain and fell back as Aubrey's foot made a firm connection with his stomach. After putting some distance between them, she shoved herself up. Raising a hand to her throat, Aubrey felt something warm and wet come off on her fingers. Grimacing, she pulled her hand back. Blood was smeared across the pads of her middle and first finger, and she could feel it trickling down over her right collarbone. 
  "Great." She muttered. Taking a quick look at Lock, who was still doubled over in pain, Aubrey told herself that she was going to have to apologize for kicking him so hard later; she bolted for the door and tugged at it for a moment before realizing it was locked. Risking another glance at Lock, Aubrey saw that he was getting up, and he was NOT happy. 
  "Aubrey!" Her head, as well as Vanessa and Lock's, jerked up to the balcony to see Barrel standing there, Shock on his back and a thick book clutched in his hands. 
  "Took you long enough!" She yelled. Lock was slightly confused now; Barrel knew the girl? "What's wrong with Shock?" 
  Shock lifted her head, smirking. "I'm allergic to white magic." Barrel set her down, leaning her against the wall, before flipping the book open. 
  Aubrey's eyes lit up. "Please tell me that's what I think it is." 
  Barrel nodded, his eyes scanning the glowing words on the page. He looked up as Aubrey shrieked. Lock had thrown the knife, embedding it in the door next to Aubrey's head. "Hurry!" She pleaded, running to the opposite side of the room, barely dodging Lock's claws as she did. 
  Vanessa stared up at the balcony, trying to see the book's cover. Too late did she realize what it was, and her angry yell could do nothing; Barrel had already started the spell. 
  "I invoke thee; powers of water, fire, earth, and air to lift the veil of lies and let he accursed see truth once more." Barrel stared at the page for a moment, then turned to Shock. "Now I see why you like black magic." 
  Shock groaned. "Say it two more times!" Barrel repeated the words twice, then looked down at the floor below him. Lock had Aubrey pinned up against the wall, the blade in his hand poised to carve a hole in her chest. Tears poured down Aubrey's face as she attacked Lock's wrist uselessly. The skin on his wrist and the back of his hand had been nearly ripped apart by Aubrey's claws, but Lock hadn't even batted an eye. 
  "Shock, it didn't work!" Barrel cried. 
  The witch pulled herself up and stumbled over, using the railing and Barrel to support herself. For a moment of terror, she stared as the blade dove closer to Aubrey's ribcage, but at the last second Lock's wrist turned, and the dagger flew back, embedding itself instead in Vanessa's chest. A choked noise came out of her mouth before her body went slack and her head dropped to her chest. 
  Lock removed his hand from Aubrey's throat, catching her as her knees buckled. "Sorry about that Aubrey. I didn't want to risk Vanessa casting another memory spell on me." 
  Aubrey just stared at him for a moment before she threw her arms around Lock's neck and cried into his shoulder. Lock wrapped his arms around her in return, letting her tears soak his shoulder. "I should've listened to you." She whispered. "I'm sorry." 
  Lock pushed her away and stared at her. "You really think that I'm still mad at you about that? Geez, Aubs. Shock's the one who holds grudges, not me." 
  "Hey!" Came the protest from above them. 
  Lock smirked at her over his shoulder before turning back to Aubrey. "Besides, you were right. I was jealous." 
  "I knew it!" 
  "Shut up Barrel! You're ruining my moment!" Lock growled. Aubrey giggled slightly, wiping at her eyes. Lock looked back over at her and smiled, brushing away a piece of hair that had fallen in her face. 
  Shock's yell of surprise made him freeze. "Lock, Aubrey! Vanessa's still alive!" Both of them looked toward the throne to see Vanessa's body gone. 
  "Over here, lovebirds." Slowly, Lock and Aubrey turned to the opposite wall to see Vanessa standing there, her hand over a large button that had seemingly come out of nowhere, save the fact that one of the dark stones from the wall was laying at Vanessa's feet. "Well, now that I have your attention… bye-bye." She waved at them with her free hand, pushing down the button with the other. 
  A low rumble filled the room, and then the floor underneath three pairs of feet collapsed. Aubrey let out a scream before Lock grabbed her and pulled her into his chest. The scream was not because she was falling, oh no, it was because, as they began to fall, Aubrey had caught a glimpse of the gleaming edges of the serrated steel spikes that lined the pit far below them. Lock's futile attempt at trying to save her was going to fail miserably, because if they landed on one of those spikes, both would be impaled, and it would be over. For good this time. 
  A feeling of warmth that started in her leg seeped up her body and to her brain. Without even realizing what she was doing, her mouth was open and forming the words that her mind was supplying. "Nruter ym sgniw ot em!" 
  A noise that sounded suspiciously like something tearing filled Aubrey's ears, and pain shot through her back. She felt the muscles in her back strain, also painful, as she and Lock's descent slowed to a controllable speed. 
  That, of course, didn't mean that either knew how to control it. 
  Ungracefully, she and Lock slammed into the ground, landing in a tangled heap. Aubrey pushed herself up and rolled over to side, making sure not to touch and of the spikes surrounding them. "Well, that could've gone better." She muttered. 
  Lock looked over at her and grinned. "Not by much." 
  "What do you mean?" She asked, confused. Lock reached up and tugged something behind her. "Ow!" 
  Lock held up a long black feather. "Look familiar?" 
  Aubrey jumped up and looked behind her. "My wings!" Her newly re-grown wings were more demonic looking than her last pair, though they could still be considered almost an angel's. The wings were torn, their span had grown almost three feet, and, though still covered in feathers, looked much more appropriate for Halloween Town. 
  Lock grimaced as he saw blood on his fingers. "Yeah, but you might want to let them dry out a bit before you try to fly." He told her, standing up. She reached back and felt the wet feathers, a similar look coming onto her face. 
  "Speaking of bleeding..." She gasped. Lock looked down at his other hand, which was still bleeding from numerous lacerations. 
  "Crap." 
  Aubrey smiled apologetically. "Sorry about that." 
  He shook his head. "Don't worry. Laeh." He muttered. The skin sealed itself together, leaving unmarred skin. 
  "I'm sorry about kicking you too." She added after a moment, flexing her wings slightly, trying to re-accustom herself to them. "These feel funny." 
  "They look different." Lock told her. 
  "How different?" She asked curiously. 
  Lock walked around behind her. "Well… for one thing, you've got four of them." 
  "I have… what?" 
  "Four. As in two pairs. But this pair's still small, about the size of my hand" She felt a slight tug. 
  "Hey, are you two planning to sit down there all day?" Shock's voice echoed from above. 
  "Just a sec!" Lock yelled. He spun Aubrey over to him and pressed his lips up against hers. When he pulled back a minute later, Aubrey was smiling and had turned a light pink. "Okay, so now that that's out of my system, how do we get out of here?" 
  Aubrey smiled at him and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Hold on." Lock held on tighter than she expected. But what could he say? He knew that smile all too well. It was the same one he got whenever he was about to do something that was really going to piss Jack off. 
  They landed on the balcony next to Shock and Barrel moments later. "Never do that again." Lock told her, stumbling back. She smiled sweetly at him before turning worriedly to Shock. 
  "Are you sure you're okay?" 
  Shock nodded, her face still a very pale shade of green. Well, paler than normal anyway. "Oh yeah, I'm fine. Now I'm just a little dizzy." She frowned. "And I have almost no magic." 
  "Well, you aren't the only one." Aubrey laughed. "That little trick with my wings drained me. And I didn't have much magic to begin with." 
  "Then I suggest we find Jack and Sally and get out of here." Barrel said. 
  "Jack and Sally are here?" Lock muttered. But he conjured up a tracker spell nonetheless and everyone ran after it. 
   
   
   
   Chapter 14 
   
  Chapter 14 
  Rematch 
  Sally clung to Jack's neck as he ran through the twists and turns of Raphael's dungeons. Something was nagging her at the back of her mind, but she couldn't put her finger on what. That's when she realized it. Jack wasn't going up; he was going down, heading deeper into the dungeons. "Jack?" 
  "Hm?" 
  Sally paused, thinking about how she was going to word the question. She decided to go with the direct approach. "You didn't send the tracker spell after the kids, did you?" Jack didn't reply. "Jack?" 
  The skeleton slowed to a steady walk. "No, Sally. I didn't send the tracker spell after the kids. I sent it after Raphael." 
  Sally frowned slightly; she wasn't exactly happy with the fact that her guilty suspicions had been proven correct once again. But the next question slipped out before she could stop it. "Why does he hate you so much?" 
  Jack closed his eyes, his mouth twisting into a sad frown. "It wasn't always like this. We used to be friends; Raphael, Cay, Jacob, and me. But… something went wrong." 
  He was hiding something, and Sally knew it. "Something?" 
  Jack sighed, speeding up slightly to keep the glowing orb dancing ahead of him in sight. "The Boogeyman." 
  "Oogie?" 
  "No… well, not really. It's hard to explain. He got a hold of Raphael, Jacob, and Cay, and… well…" He paused. "My mother destroyed him after she sent Cay and Jacob into Eternal Sleep, and accidentally created Oogie in the process." The orb braked suddenly, stopping in front of a pair of plain, steel doors. He set Sally down, moving in front of her. 
  The doors slammed open with a whoosh of hot air. "Come on in, Jacky." Raphael's voice floated out in a cackle. 
  Jack turned to Sally and kissed her forehead. "Stay here. Please." He walked through the doors, and they slammed shut behind him. Sally wrung her hands together, as she had a habit of doing when she was nervous. 
  "Be careful Jack." She whispered. 
  .o0o. 
  Jack didn't jump as the doors slammed behind him noisily. Instead, he observed the room that Raphael was hiding in. It was smaller than the throne room, not by much, and had a square, arena-like platform in the middle of the room with a stone bridge leading to it. Around the room's edges was a long drop, leading down into a moat of boiling lava. "Getting a little overdramatic, aren't we Raphael?" 
  Raphael smirked at him from his spot in the middle of the Arena. "Now, Jacky, I think that YOU, of all people, should appreciate a few over-the-top theatrics." 
  "We're going to have a fair fight this time, Raphael." Jack growled. "You don't have any leverage against me this time." 
  Raphael shrugged. "Are you trying to make a point here, Jacky?" 
  Jack's eyes narrowed. "Yes. We're going to fight, I'm going to win, and then," The corners of Jack's mouth tugged up into a smile, "I'm going to kill you." 
  Raphael put a hand over his chest. "My, my, Jacky. This is quite a new side of you. I thought you hated getting your hands dirty." He smirked. "Or is sending your mommy not good enough?" 
  Jack snarled and ran at Raphael, his fist missing the other man's face by inches. Raphael's expression turned from one of contempt to one of fear as he realized just how serious Jack was. He regained his bearings and aimed a punch at the skeleton's rib cage. Jack danced back, just out of reach. 
  It continued like this. One would attack, and the other would dodge and retaliate. And if they didn't dodge, they counterattacked just as the other attack hit, throwing both back. 
  It was after one of these attacks that Raphael began to change strategies. Instead of attacking Jack straight on, he baited him, aiming his attacks low and hard. Jack leapt back from a near blow to his skull, grimacing. 
  Raphael smirked at him. "It seems that the battle has turned in my favor, Jack." 
  'Not Jacky?' The Pumpkin King mused to himself. 'He's getting serious. I guess that means I'd better up my game.' Closing his eyes, he felt a burning start in his chest, spreading outwards until it consumed his entire body. 
  Raphael watched as fire consumed his opponent, disappearing in a matter of seconds to reveal Jack… but not Jack. The pinstriped tuxedo was gone, replaced by a dark maroon shirt and tan pants. His hands were no longer bone, but almost looked like straw or wood, and a pumpkin sat in his skull's place. "You wanted the Pumpkin King Raphael, and you've got him." Jack growled; his voice was harsher now, and much darker. He raised a hand in front of him, fire dancing around it. "Prepare to burn." 
  .o0o. 
  "How much farther can it be?" Shock growled, running after Lock's tracker. 
  "Hopefully not much!" Lock called back. Barrel looked over at Shock worriedly. She was lagging behind, quite a bit actually, and he thought that she still hadn't gotten her energy back. He slowed down a little so that he was in pace with her. 
  "You all right?" He asked under his breath. 
  Shock nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine." Barrel let it drop and sped back up, catching up with Aubrey. Shock bit her lip. Since when did she feel guilty about lying to Barrel? And why was she so… ugh, happy that Barrel was concerned about her? Did she…? No. She did not, could not, like Barrel. Not like that anyway. 
  "Mom!" Aubrey's sudden yell brought Shock back to reality as she slowed down next to the rest of the group. 
  Sally turned, surprised. "Aubrey! Your wings…?" 
  Aubrey hugged Sally tightly. "Yeah, they grew back. But we can talk about that later; where's dad?" 
  Sally motioned to the doors behind her. "In there. With Raphael." 
  Aubrey's eyes narrowed and took on a slight red glow as she walked over to the doors. After examining them for a moment, she turned around. "Lock, Shock, Barrel; get over here and help me with this." 
  All three looked at each other. For a second there, Aubrey sounded almost like Jack. They all ran over and put their weight into shoving the doors open. "Come on you stupid doors…" Lock growled, digging his heels into the stone floor. 
  After another few minutes, all four had collapsed on the ground. "Why… won't it… move?" Shock panted. 
  Barrel shook his head. "We were all pushing randomly. If we combine strength, we should be able to get it open." Lock, Shock, and Aubrey looked at him. "What?" 
  Aubrey smiled at him and ruffled his yellow-green hair. "Athletic and smart; that's a first." She stood back up. "Alright; let's give this one more try." 
  Lock pulled Shock to her feet and placed his hands on the door. "On three?" 
  "One…" Barrel started. 
  "Two…" Shock muttered. Everyone's muscles tensed. 
  "Three!" Came the unanimous cry. All four shoved at the steel door, sweat trickling down their foreheads. A loud scraping sound of steel against stone filled five pairs of ears, and the doors flew open… 
  …just in time to see Raphael send his fist into Jack's jaw and send him flying backwards. "Jack!" Sally gasped, her hands covering her mouth. 
  "Dad!" Aubrey yelled. 
  -Earlier…- 
  Raphael leapt to the side, rolling dangerously close to the edge of the arena as a fireball flew at the spot he was previously standing in. Blood dripped from his busted lip and a cut above his right eye, while burns shone on his chest where Jack's fire had eaten away at the cloth of his shirt. Thankfully, Jack had run out of energy and had been forced to turn back to normal. 
  Speaking of whom, Jack wasn't faring well either. Raphael had torn a large hole in the left shoulder of his shirt, and that was all, thankfully, and there was a thin, almost unnoticeable gash about two inches long from the bottom of his left eye socket. 
  A loud noise from behind him made Jack hesitate for a moment, and then he heard the sickening crack of Raphael's fist connecting with his bottom jaw. The Pumpkin King flew back, landing painfully at the edge of the stone bridge. 
  "Jack!" 'Sally?' Jack thought blearily through his pain. 
  "Dad!" 
  Raphael looked up, surprised to see Aubrey standing in the doorway. But what surprised, and angered, him more was that she ran over to Jack's side, not his. Lock and Barrel ran over, pulling Jack to his feet, while Shock examined the crack in his cheek. With a quick word, it vanished, leaving no trace of any injury. 
  Raphael took a step forward, his eyes blazing with fury. "Aubrey. Come here." 
  The group froze. Aubrey turned to look at Raphael, her eyes narrowing slightly. But she didn't move. Raphael growled. "Didn't you hear me?" He snapped. "Come here. Now." 
  Jack put an arm around Aubrey's shoulders. "She doesn't have to do anything." 
  "She's my daughter, and she will do what I say!" Raphael roared. 
  "You are not my father." Aubrey hissed. 
  Raphael froze, and then looked at her with an emotion resting between shock and utter rage. "What did you just say?" 
  "You aren't my father." She repeated. "Jack is." 
  Raphael's fingers twitched, and his hands balled into fists. He let out another roar and a violent wind whipped through the room. 
  "Hold on!" Jack yelled, wrapping his arms around Sally and the four clinging tightly to each other. When the wind died down, Raphael was gone. 
  "What the hell was that?" Lock asked to no one in particular. 
  Jack growled. "Transportation spell. He's trying to run." He stepped away from Sally, looking at her remorsefully. 
  She didn't look at him. "You're going after him, aren't you?" 
  Jack nodded slowly, kissing her cheek before turning to the kids, his expression now stern. "Stay here." He ordered before running out of the room. 
  .o0o. 
  Raphael threw open the doors of his throne room, barely stopping himself from falling into the pit of spikes. His eyes immediately fell on the tattered and torn figure of Vanessa, impaled on one of the bikes. A scowl crossed his face as he jumped down, landing neatly in between two the pointed implements of sharp and painful DEATH(!). Walking over, he examined the lifeless body, frowning deeper when he didn't see what he was looking for. 
  He looked down as his foot set down on something cold and metallic. Lifting his foot, Raphael smiled, lifting the knife. Wind whipped through the room and he closed his eyes as a slightly uncomfortable tingling overtook his body. When he opened them, he was standing in Vanessa's room. 
  Walking over to the closet, he flung the door open to reveal a limp figure slumped over in an elegant chair- almost a throne. He looked down at the dagger's hilt, popping a glowing red, ruby-like jewel out of its setting in the hand guard. 
  Tossing the dagger away, Raphael knelt down in front of the figure, pressing the jewel over their heart. Slowly, it sunk through the dusty clothing and into their chest. A moment passed before the figure's head slowly rose, revealing ebony black eyes. Raphael smiled. "Welcome back, Vanessa." 
   
   
   
   Chapter 15 
   
  Chapter 15 
  True Intentions 
  "Mom? What are you doing?" Aubrey questioned as Sally started toward the door. 
  Sally smiled at her over her shoulder. "If Jack thinks that I'm just going to sit here and do nothing, he has another thing coming." She walked over to the door and slipped through the barely wide enough crack. "Stay here." Her voice floated back into the room. 
  Shock frowned. "We really should listen to Sally…" 
  "No we shouldn't." Lock corrected. "Because we have a serious revenge complex, remember?" 
  Barrel laughed. "Right!" 
  "Well let's go then." Lock said, walking toward the door. The other three got up and followed him out. 
  "Which way did they go?" Aubrey questioned, huddling close to Lock. Without a tracker spell, the dungeons were just creepy. Shock blushed and looked over at Barrel as Lock grabbed Aubrey's hand and conjured up a tracker spell, smiling over at her. The younger boy was conveniently looking everywhere but the couple in front of him and Shock. 
  "Dnif em Jack." Lock muttered. The tracker set off, and the four followed. 
  "This seems to be becoming a habit." Shock muttered. 
  Lock looked over his shoulder. "What do you mean?" 
  "Us, having to track down Jack. Wasn't it normally the other way around?" 
  Barrel laughed. "You have a point there." 
  Aubrey tilted her head to the side, frowning. "Do you guys hear that?" 
  "Sounds like a fight." Lock muttered. 
  "You would know." Shock chuckled. Lock glared at her before braking sharply. "What?" 
  "The tracker spell's confused." 
  Aubrey's eyes widened. "He sent out a dummy!" 
  "A what?" Barrel questioned. 
  "A dummy." Shock repeated. "It's a duplicate of someone's magical signature, which is what the tracker spell searches for. Jack made one to throw us off." 
  "Why do you think we sent it after him and not Sally? She doesn't have a magical signature." Shock sighed and waved her hand over Lock's tracker. It stopped zipping between directions and held still. 
  "Well, at least we still have light." Aubrey said before grimaced slightly. 
  "What's wrong?" Lock asked. 
  Aubrey shook her head. "I'm still so tired… like I don't have any energy." 
  Shock frowned as well. "That shouldn't be happening." 
  "Lecture us later, oh-mighty-ones." Barrel said sarcastically. "Let's go; follow the sound of fist fighting!" 
  -Lock's POV- 
  It didn't take long for the four of us to find Jack on the first floor, and it didn't take long for all of us to get very confused. Jack was fighting what appeared to be Vanessa, only… way older. "What the…" I murmured. Aubrey's grip on my hand tightened as Jack's fist connected with Vanessa's face and there was a very audible 'crack'. Vanessa fell to the ground, clutching her nose and moaning. 
  "Dad!" Aubrey let go of my hand and ran over to Jack. 
  Jack looked surprised to see us. "Aubrey? I thought I told you to- oh, never mind." He sighed. He looked over at us. "Is everyone all right?" 
  "For the moment, Jacky." We all looked over to the throne room doors to see Raphael walk out. 
  "Aubrey." Jack nodded toward us. She ran back over to me, and I gripped her hand tightly. 
  Vanessa looked up through her fingers before scrambling over to her father. "I lost, daddy. I'm sorry!" She sobbed at his feet. Raphael pulled her up, shushing her calmly. 
  "Don't worry about it sweetheart. You've done everything I needed." He smiled at her and a sick squelching reached our ears. 
  "D-daddy…?" Vanessa gasped before cups of blood poured out of her mouth. She fell to the ground, motionless. Raphael's front was covered in blood, and in his hand he held a bloody sphere, randomly flecked with pieces of Vanessa's insides. I felt my stomach churn violently. That was disgusting enough, but to do it to your own daughter? 
  Raphael flicked bits of the gore off of the object in his hand. "Messy little business, isn't it Jack?" He questioned. 
  Jack gasped. "Raphael… please tell me that's not what I think it is!" 
  He grinned at Jack. "Oh, but it is, Jacky. The Skellington Key to the Living World!" He held it up triumphantly, leering over at Aubrey. "And now for the last piece." 
  Aubrey let out a cry of pain and fell to her knees. "No!" I yelled, charging at Raphael. His fist made a firm connection with my gut, and I doubled over. Pain laced through the side of my chest as he kicked me, sending me sliding halfway across the room. 
  "Aubrey!" Shock shrieked, and I managed to look over. Aubrey had fallen to the floor, and she wasn't moving. I ignored the pain in my side and my gut and scrambled over. Aubrey's eyes were dull and glassy, and there was a hole in the middle of her chest, where her heart should have been. Not a bloody hole, like what Vanessa was sporting, just… a hole. 
  The orb in Raphael's hand pulsed brightly, shining with a light that froze and burned at the same time. "It is complete!" He cackled. 
  Jack ran at him, fire consuming both arms up to his elbow. "Don't you dare!" But Raphael had already put his hand to his mouth, swallowing the key. Energy literally battered all of us, sending us shooting another few yards across the floor. When the light died down, I saw that everyone, including me, was chained against the wall. 
  Well, everyone except Aubrey and Vanessa. 
  "Raphael…" Jack growled from somewhere to my left. "You bastard!" 
  There was a smack, which I assumed meant Jack had just gotten hit. "Watch your language, Jack. I'm in charge now." 
  "You killed your own daughters!" Jack yelled. 
  "What is family in the quest for power?" 
  "Monster!" Shock yelled next to me. 
  Raphael walked over to her, and his hand closed around her windpipe. "What did you call me, child?" He hissed. 
  "Leave her alone!" Barrel ordered from my other side. Raphael looked over at him, then, after a moment, released Shock. She gasped for air, sucking it greedily into her lungs. 
  "Why, Raphael? Why kill Aubrey and Vanessa? Why give them the key if all you were going to do is take it back from them?" Jack yelled. 
  The bastard actually had the nerve to smile, like this was the question he'd been waiting Jack to ask. "Ah, simple, really. You see, Jacky, after I had the key in my possession, I knew that Cay and Jacob would have to be sacrificed in order for me to get away. So, I double-crossed them. It was one of my worse plans, true, because I neglected to realize that they would do the same to me by ratting me out to your mother." 
  Raphael turned away from us, clasping his hands behind his back. "I remember it so vividly; fleeing through the Hinterlands in terror, praying that I could get away, maybe get back to the Tree House and regroup." 
  "The Tree House?" Shock, Barrel, and I gasped. 
  He looked at us over his shoulder, grinning madly. "What, did you three think that you were the original pranksters of Halloween Town? No, no, no. Cay, Jacob, and I were the first Boogie's Boys, before old Oogie Boogie came into play. We worked for the first, the true Boogeyman." 
  "I always knew that he put you three up to it." Jack muttered. 
  Raphael laughed, like this was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. "Him? Oh Jack, Jack, Jack! Do your really think for one moment that that idiotic shadow could've dreamed up that plan? No, it was I who planned the entire thing." He smirked. "Your mommy always told you that she was the one who killed him, didn't she? Well, mommy dearest lied. I'd killed him weeks before, relaying fake messages and plots and schemes to Cay and Jacob. And the best part was that they actually believed me." 
  "But why, Raphael? Why do all of this?" Jack shouted. 
  "Why, Jack? For the absolute power, of course!" He laughed, throwing his head back. "I made a door in the Hinterlands and slipped through to the Living World. I had only planned on hiding out there until I could master the key's power and return to dethrone the Skellingtons and take over. But…" He trailed off. 
  My eyes fell on Aubrey and Vanessa. "Things didn't go as planned." I muttered, not really conscious of what I was saying. 
  Raphael's eyes closed. "No. My plan was proceeding perfectly, but then I met Rachel. I forgot everything that I'd planned, my schemes, my plots, everything. We started a family. 
  "That's when I realized it. If I still had the key at Halloween, the one night where the entire town was free to roam the Living World, I would be found, and quickly. I had to place it into a living vessel. One that would be able to mask the key's power. I chose my newborn son, Ryan. But it didn't take long for me to see that the sheer power of the key was killing him. He grew ill, and I took the key back. 
  "After a few years, I tried a different method, giving the key while the baby was still in the womb. Rachel's pregnancy had… complications, nearly killing her and the baby. Emily was born as though she was asleep. Her eyes were closed, and she wouldn't scream like most babies. I took the key back." 
  Raphael was silent for a moment. "It was then that I realized that the key was just too much for any one living person to handle. I needed more than one host. So, when Rachel found out she was having twins, I did the same as I had for Emily, only splitting the key into two separate pieces. 
  "It worked, but not as I expected." His gaze drifted over the two motionless bodies. "Vanessa was stillborn. Aubrey was born healthy, but she physically looked as if she had been long dead. I knew that Vanessa, as a mere infant spirit, would not survive long. I had to act, and quickly. I used the magic I had left to send her soul to Halloween Town, bypassing judgment. Then, I used a warping spell to make her body grow at two times the normal rate. 
  "I hoped that, somehow, Vanessa would learn to use the key's powers on her own, and manage to find us. But three years later, I realized how foolish this notion was. Oogie Boogie, who seemed to have somehow inherited the residual memories of his predecessor, took revenge on me. I had promised him a key, and he was going to hold me to it. That explosion would have only killed Aubrey, had I not forced her and Emily out of the car. Instead, it killed me. 
  "Or so everyone thought. I wasn't really dead, but the living body I had created to house my soul was. I returned to Halloween Town. Imagine my surprise when I found Vanessa waiting for me. She somehow recognized me as her father." He paused, his gaze boring holes into the wall beside us. "Her body is twenty-five years old, but her mind has not matured any farther than the age of twelve, thirteen at most. That is my fault, I suppose." 
  He actually sounded like he felt guilty for doing this to them, for a moment. "But after growing so rapidly, Vanessa's body was weak. She needed a new host. This is where Aubrey's friend, Sandy, came into play. After so much time with Aubrey, some of the key's power must have affected her. When she died, she was sent to my doorstep. Immediately, I began to try to use her for my experiments. I successfully transferred her soul into a blank homunculus with a spell on it to control her. 
  "But that's where everything went wrong. Sandy's body wouldn't take to Vanessa's soul, and it backfired, ravaging her real body. I had to improvise, quickly, or Vanessa, and her half of the key, would die. Of course, by now, I had remembered all of my old plans and dreams and had begun forming new ones, and Vanessa was a vital part of these plots. So, I transferred her soul into a mirror, and eventually, into a homunculus that she could control, but only part of the time because of her weakened state." He turned and grinned at us. "Everything else simply fell into place." 
  I growled. I had heard enough, and boy was I pissed. A strange pulsing started in the middle of my forehead, and it spread all over my body. I gritted my teeth painfully as it began to feel as though fire was flowing through my veins. 
  Then something wet tricked down my arm. I looked up to see that the chains holding my wrists were melting. I concentrated harder on that pulse. The chains practically liquefied, and I dropped to the ground. Reaching up I grabbed Shock and Barrel's chains, melting them as well. Raphael, whose back was still turned, hadn't noticed us yet. 
  Glancing at my friends, a wordless agreement passed between us: 
  This bastard was dead. 
  The three of us charged, and we managed to hit him once, obliterating his shirt with a combination of my fire, Shock's magic, and Barrel's pure brute strength. But that's about all we managed to do. The skin underneath the cloth had remained unmarred, and Raphael was pissed. With a nod of his head, he sent Shock flying into Barrel and into me if I hadn't ducked. 
  I jumped up to charge him again, but quickly found a hand wrapped around my throat. I ripped at Raphael's fingers, stopping when he tightened his grip. He locked his eyes with mine, a snarl on his lips. "I should just kill you now, boy." He hissed. "But I have a world to take over, so it will have to wait. 
  What happened next is a little blurry. What I do know is that Raphael tossed me into a wall (not the one he'd used Shock to smack Barrel into) and a burning pain laced through my head and back before I blacked out completely. 
  When I came to, Shock and Barrel were getting Sally and Jack down. I tried to sit up, to help them, but I had barely twitched my finger and it felt like a hundred swords were cutting into my back. I let out a cry of pain, which diverted all attention to where I was laying. "Lock!" Shock and Barrel yelled, and I heard them run over. 
  Then Shock gasped, and I knew something was very wrong. "What?" I rasped, and then winced. My throat hurt. A lot. 
  "Lock… I think Raphael broke something… a lot of somethings…" That's when I realized that she was talking about my back. "Barrel, help me turn him over." I felt two pairs of hands begin to lift me, and I let out another scream of pain. The hands disappeared. 
  I heard light footsteps and realized that Jack and Sally had come over. "Oh no…" Sally whispered. 
  "Shock, can you do anything?" 
  "No… this is nowhere near as bad as anything I've ever done, not even Aubrey after Oogie tried to kill her. I could see the wounds then… if I tried to heal Lock, even if I had enough energy, I could fix something wrong and make it worse." She paused. "But Barrel might be able to." 
  "What?" Barrel asked her, surprised. "Shock, I can't use magic." 
  "Barrel, you're the best white magic user I've ever seen. If you can't do this, no one can." I think that, had I opened my eyes, I would've probably gagged, so I kept them shut. 
  "All right…" Barrel said hesitantly. I felt his hands on my chest and heard him mutter, "Laeh." Warmth fell over my body, and the pain in my back and head faded away. Barrel pulled his hands back and I felt Jack lift me up, back onto my feet. I looked at the wall that I was lying beside to see a five inch hole in it. 
  I grinned down at Barrel, who seemed a little shell-shocked. "Well, looks like we've got ourselves a mage, eh Shock?" After realizing that this was a compliment, Barrel grinned. 
  "Lock, Shock, Barrel." Jack said sternly. Our joking demeanors fell like dead flies and we turned to him. "I'm going after Raphael." 
  "We're going with you." I said before he had a chance to protest. 
  Shock walked up next to me. "Yeah. Aubrey was- is- our friend." 
  "Besides," Barrel added as he appeared at my other side, "We'd just follow after you anyway." 
  Jack smiled at us, proudly if I wasn't seeing things, and turned to Sally. "Sally…" 
  She smiled. "I know Jack. I'll be all right here. Go get him." I had to look away as they kissed, an ache passing through my chest. Shock put a hand on my shoulder. "We're going get him, Lock. And then we're going to fix up Aubrey." 
  Barrel put his hand on my other shoulder. "Trick or treaters stick together forever, right?" 
  I couldn't help grinning at them both. "Right." We turned to the hole Raphael had blasted in the wall. "Let's get this pig." 
   
   
   
   Chapter 16 
   
  Chapter 16 
  It's Over 
  Lock, Shock, and Barrel ran were several feet behind Jack, dodging and weaving through the Graveyard and then the Hinterlands trees like the experts that were. "Where's he going?" Lock called to the skeleton ahead of him. 
  "It would take too much time to create a new door to Living World, so he's headed to the clearing where Aubrey destroyed the first door, to resurrect it." 
  "How much time will that take?" Shock asked. 
  Jack closed his eyes, sighing. "Not nearly enough." His eyes snapped open as a pillar of light shot up far ahead of them. "No… he's already started!" 
  He was somewhat surprised as Lock, Shock, and Barrel raced past him, heading straight toward the pillar. They disappeared out of his sight, into the trees. Jack groaned. He knew that they were trying to help, but Raphael was just too powerful for them! Hadn't they realized that earlier when he tossed them around without even trying? 
  But then again… Lock had seemed different when he was going against Raphael, more powerful almost. If Lock could do that, then maybe Shock and Barrel… Jack smiled to himself, despite the situation. If anyone had a chance at beating Raphael, it was them. 
  Speaking of whom, the trio had just about reached the clearing where the door had stood once upon a time. They cleared the last ring of trees to see Raphael standing in the center of the pillar, which had shot through the hard, dead earth in the spot where the ashes of the old door still surprisingly sat. 
  Lock growled and took a step forward, but a tug on his arm stopped him. "Lock," Shock whispered. "Look at the light." He looked at her curiously, but did so. He saw that, as Raphael's chanting filled the air with more and more force, that the pillar of light no longer glowed uniformly white but changed color constantly from white to gray to black to a marbled white and black. 
  "What's happening?" Barrel asked. 
  "I don't know." Lock whispered back. "But I'm stopping him, right now!" Lock charged into the pillar, his shoulder connecting squarely with the middle of Raphael's back, knocking him out of the pillar. 
  Raphael knocked Lock off of him with a burst of energy, sending him into one of the dead trees surrounding the clearing. "You! You just don't know when to give up, do you boy?" He raised a hand in front of him, and a sword appeared in it. "Apparently, almost killing you isn't enough. Well, I certainly won't make that mistake again." He raised the blade, and moved to bring it down on Lock's neck, but was rudely interrupted by being tackled again, much like he had earlier, only twice as hard. 
  "Lock, get up you idiot!" Shock yelled, fighting to keep Raphael pinned to the tree next to the floored devil. 
  Lock shook the fuzz from his head and scrambled over, his elbow going into Raphael's back to hold him. 
  "I was only going to kill you boy!" Raphael spat, his eyes wild as blood trickled down his forehead. "But now none of you will receive any mercy!" 
  "Glad to know." A voice from behind them commented coldly. "Now I won't have to pretend to show you any." 
  "Jack!" Lock, Shock, and Barrel exclaimed. 
  Raphael laughed. "Ah, Jacky! Here to finish me off, are we? Or are you going to chicken out again, like last time?" 
  "I've grown up since then, Raphael. I won't let you get away this time." Jack said, his eyes narrowing. 
  Raphael just laughed. "You didn't have the guts to stop me then. And every chance you've had to kill me, you've hesitated. Why should I believe you now?" 
  Lock, Shock, and Barrel hardly had a chance to blink before Jack had taken Raphael out of their grasps and was holding him up by the neck. "You threatened to kill my wife, and you killed my daughter. Now, look really hard, and tell me that I wouldn't kill you." 
  Raphael's black eyes scanned Jack's eye sockets, and his face paled. "Jacky… Jack, please! You know how I get once I start on something. I- nngh!" He choked as Jack's hand plunged into his chest, pulling the key out. 
  Jack dropped Raphael to the ground. He looked up at the Pumpkin King, clutching his now bleeding chest. "Jack…" 
  Jack punched Raphael hard in the jaw. "Goodbye, Raphael." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I, Pumpkin King Jack, sentence you, Raphael Peterson, to death after death. An eternal sleep from which you shall never wake, and your soul will remain in cold darkness for all of eternity." 
  Raphael twitched and screamed as Jack spoke, white mist flowing from every pore of his body. Shock recognized what was happening immediately, remembering when Oogie tried to take her own soul. But it was happening so much more quickly than it had with Oogie, maybe because Jack was actually using magic to do it and Oogie never really had any magic to speak of. The mist took a vaguely humanoid form for a moment, just before it was sent flying toward the graveyard with a noise that sounded eerily like a scream. 
  "Is… is he dead?" Barrel asked. Jack nodded, his hands falling to his sides. The four stood in silence for several minutes before a low rumbling reached their ears. 
  "What the hell?" Lock exclaimed. 
  "The castle!" Shock pointed over their heads, and everyone turned around. In the distance, Raphael's castle faded away into nothing. 
  "Aubrey and Sally were still in there!" Barrel yelped. All four rushed back to the graveyard. 
  "You don't think that they would've…" Lock trailed off as they reached the area where Raphael's palace stood moments before, seeing nothing but dirt and rock. 
  "Jack!" Sally cried, running out from the trees to their left. 
  "Sally!" Jack met her halfway, hugging her tightly. "Thank god you're all right." He pulled away and looked down at her, confused. "But where's Aubrey?" Sally looked behind her. All gazes fell to the tree line as Cay and Jacob walked out, the latter carrying the unconscious Aubrey. 
  Jack glowered at them and moved to raise his fist, but Sally stopped him. "No, Jack! Cay and Jacob helped me escape. They want to help." Jack looked between his wife and two ex-friends twice before lowering his arm. 
  "Aubrey's dead. How can they help?" Lock asked from behind Jack and Sally. 
  Cay shook her head. "She's not dead. Not yet, anyway. Raphael was wrong; the key wasn't Aubrey's soul. Her soul is still in her body, but he was right about her needing the key to survive." 
  "That doesn't make any sense." Jack said skeptically. 
  Cay sighed, putting a finger on her temple. "It's hard to explain. It's… Aubrey's soul and the key have been living inside her in harmony for so long, that they've become codependent on each other. And the more Aubrey used the key's power, the more they… fused, I suppose is the best word." 
  "But she's only ever had half of the key." Shock protested. 
  Cay nodded. "That's true. But now, I don't think that anything less than the whole key could save her, if even that." 
  "Try, Cay. Please." Jack begged. 
  She nodded and held out her hands. "Give me the key and I'll try." Jack hesitated. Cay stomped her foot irritably. "God dammit, Jack! Aubrey's your daughter, and if that hole in her chest seals up she'll die! We have minutes, maybe. So either trust me, or never see her wake up again!" 
  Jack handed Cay the glowing sphere. She cupped it carefully in one webbed hand, and then turned to Jacob. "Set her down, Jakie." The giant did so before stepping back. Cay knelt down next to Aubrey, slipping her free hand under her back and supporting her into a somewhat upright position. Closing her black eyes, she chanted inaudibly under her breath, pressing the key to the almost sealed hole in Aubrey's chest. It resisted at first, but then the skin opened, and the key all but fell in with the tear closing behind it. 
  "Did it work?" Sally asked hopefully. 
  Cay looked over Aubrey's body, which remained motionless. "I… I don't know…" She bowed her head. "I'm sorry, Jack." 
  The words had barely left her mouth when Aubrey coughed and opened her eyes, groaning. "Aubrey!" Jack exclaimed, lifting her up. 
  "Hi dad." She muttered, blinking the sleep from her eyes. "Did we win?" 
  Jack smiled and kissed her cheek. "Yes, we won." He set her down and, after making sure she wasn't going to fall over and hugging her tightly, let go. Sally hugged her next. 
  "I'm so glad you're all right." The rag doll whispered. Aubrey hugged her back, smiling. Sally let go suddenly, and looked over at Lock, Shock, and Barrel. Aubrey stepped back and smiled at her three friends. 
  They just looked at each other for a moment before Aubrey finally said, "Well, do I get a hug or what?" 
  Lock (duh, who else?) ran over and hugged her, picking her up and twirling around before kissing her. Shock and Barrel averted their gazes, both blushing pink. Finally, Barrel looked over at Shock. 
  "Um… Sh-Shock?" He stuttered nervously. 
  She looked at him, her face still pink. "Yeah?" 
  Barrel shuffled his feet nervously, and started twiddling his fingers. "Um, well… I-I've wanted to tell you this for a long time, but, um…" 
  "Would you just shut up and kiss her already?" Lock groaned, his arms still around Aubrey, who giggled. 
  Barrel blushed crimson and looked over at Shock who, smiling mischievously, grabbed the front of Barrel's shirt and pulled his lips to hers. "Dominatrix." Lock muttered quietly. 
  Shock threw one of her boots at his head before turning back to Barrel, who had a goofy grin on his face. "Nice shot." 
  "Thank you." She said, kissing him again. 
  Aubrey, who had finally stopped laughing at Lock, smiled slightly. "Were we like that when we started dating?" 
  Barrel and Shock broke apart and unanimously responded, "Yes!" 
  Lock rolled his eyes and tossed Shock's boot back at her. "That hurt, you know. Hey, what's this?" He reached into Aubrey's pocket and produced a ring. 
  Aubrey frowned. "I don't know. I've never seen it before." 
  Jacob's eyes widened and he tapped Cay's shoulder. "What, Jakie?" She asked, confused. He pointed at the ring. "You've seen it before?" He nodded. 
  Lock cursed as the ring began to glow and burn his hand, dropping it to the ground. The gemstone shattered into dust, and the dust flew around Cay and Jacob, completely concealing their bodies. 
  A moment later, it flew back, revealing Cay and Jacob, but differently. Cay's shredded clothing was gone, replaced by a short black halter top and black capris. Her crew had grown out to the fin protruding from the middle of her back. 
  "Cay…" A soft voice said. All eyes turned to Jacob. 
  Cay gasped. "Jakie…?" The patchwork skin was gone, replaced by the smooth, white-blue skin of most Halloween Town's residents. Shaggy blonde hair fell down to his shoulders and in his bright blue eyes (note the plural). A crimson t-shirt and blue jeans fell over black tennis shoes. The heavy black stitches still pierced his lips, but now loosely enough to allow him to talk. She touched his cheek carefully. "But… how?" 
  "It's broken." Everyone turned around to see… 
  "Sandy!" Aubrey cried, running over to her. She stopped halfway though, her eyes cautious. 
  Sandy smiled at her. "I guess you don't really have a reason to trust me. But it's really me this time, Aubrey." 
  "Prove it." 
  The older girl paused, then smiled brightly. "My knight in shining armor turned out just to be a loser in aluminum foil." 
  Aubrey squealed and hugged her tightly. "It is you!" She stepped back after a moment, looking over her. "But…" 
  "Raphael couldn't control me, not to capture you." Sandy explained. "That ring was the spell he was using to control me, Cay, and Jacob. I tried to break through at the last second, but I wasn't strong enough." 
  "That's why I tried to save you." Cay explained. "If Vanessa or Raphael ordered either of us to do something, we had to do it. Whether we wanted to or not. That's why I tried to get you out of there before Vanessa heard you." She smiled softly. "I might be a bitch, but I'm not a heartless one." 
  Jack coughed slightly. "I think it would be best for all of us if we got out of here and back to the manor." 
  "Um, hold on." Cay said, pulling an amulet out from under her shirt. Snapping the string that held it, she handed it to Jacob. He grinned at her and smashed it. 
  "We, uh, kind of put the town under a mass puppet spell. Sorry." She shrugged. Jack shook his head, smiling wryly. 
  "C'mon, let's go." 
  -The next day- 
  "I'm gonna miss you." Aubrey said, hugging Sandy tightly. 
  "You can always come visit me. Hell, you'd BETTER come visit me." Sandy laughed, hugging her back. It had been decided that, since Sandy would have been sent to the Underworld if not for unforeseeable circumstances, she had to go there and couldn't stay in Halloween Town. 
  "Grim should be here any minute." Jack told them, smiling sentimentally as his daughter and Sandy said their last goodbyes. 
  "Jack, why did we have to come?" Cay asked from behind him. 
  Jack smiled back at her. "Well, I certainly can't let you and Jacob stay here. If I did, I'd have to send you back into E.S. Somehow, I convinced my thick headed brother to take you two with Sandy." 
  Aubrey looked over at him. "Wait a sec, the Grim Reaper's my uncle?" 
  "Yes, I am. Why are you so surprised?" Said skeleton asked, appearing next to her. 
  She put her hands on her hips. "YOU said that you were just a 'friend of the family'." 
  Jack sighed. "Grim…" 
  "Oh, I was just teasing her Jack." The Reaper laughed. "Now, who is it that I'm taking?" He looked behind the Pumpkin King. "Hey, I remember you two!" 
  "You should, I just talked to you about them last night." 
  Grim laughed again. "All right, all right. Let's get going now." He tapped the end of his scythe on the ground and a large, elaborate door appeared next to him. "Oh, wait a sec." He pointed his scythe at Cay and Jacob. There was a 'poof' noise, and much more human versions were standing in there places. 
  Jacob looked at Cay. "You look weird without fins." 
  "And you talk too much without your mouth sewn shut." She retorted, walking toward the door. She paused with one foot through. "Hey, Jack!" 
  "What is it?" He asked. 
  She grinned. "I'll make sure to tell BJ that you said hi." Jack groaned as she slipped through the multi-colored portal in the doorway. Jacob smiled at the skeleton and followed her through. 
  Sandy looked at Aubrey. "Guess this is it. See you." 
  Aubrey nodded, and walked back over to Lock, who wrapped an arm around her waist. 
  Sandy paused, looking back at them. "Oh, and Lock?" 
  He looked up, surprised. "Yeah?" 
  Sandy smiled evilly at him. "You break her heart, and I'll rip yours out." 
  "Sandy!" Aubrey protested. 
  Lock chuckled and squeezed Aubrey's waist. "I wouldn't dream of it." 
  Sandy nodded. "Good." 
   
   
   
   Chapter 17 
   
  Chapter 17 
  Epilogue 
  -Halloween, 2008- 
  "Mom, can I please just go now?" I begged. 
  My mom smiled up at me. "I'm almost done, Aubrey. Just stand still for one more second." She tugged one last time at the strings of my top, and I was thankful that I didn't have any breath to have choked out of me. "There. All done." 
  "Finally! Thanks mom!" I ran out of the room and down the hall, knocking on three doors as I passed them. "You guys are SO not allowed to bitch at me to hurry up when you aren't done yet!" I called, heading for the stairs. 
  "Language." My dad warned as I leapt down the stairs. 
  "Sorry." I apologized, walking over to the couch. "There's the babies!" I cooed, kneeling down in front of my three baby siblings. I kissed all three of them on the forehead. Mom had the babies on May 13, which was "coincidentally" a Friday. 
  First, there was Jonathan Frederick Skellington, Johnny for short. He looked more like dad than mom, all bones except for the top left half of his chest and his left arm. 
  Next in line, there was Edward Jason Skellington, Eddy or Ed for short. He looked more like mom, except his right arm was bone from the shoulder down. 
  Lastly, there was the youngest of the Skellington triplets, Mercy Alice Skellington, Mercy for short. She was completely mom, only paler and skinnier and she, like both the boys, had empty sockets in place of eyes. 
  "Okay, let's get going before Aubrey starts with the baby talk." Shock groaned from the staircase. Shock loved her costume. It was a short, dark violet mini dress that came down just a few inches below her butt, with black and violet striped tights that came up three quarters of the way of her thighs, a spiked fringe at the top, and her clunky 'ugg' boots. But it was the sleeves that were the coolest; they were flowing, black flames, with each individual flame outlined in gold. And, of course, her hat, which she'd magically resized so it would fit. Her wild hair was… somewhat less frizzy, but still stuck out like mad because it was just so damn curly. 
  "Like you're one to talk." I teased, standing up. Of course, as much as Shock loved her costume, I loved mine more. It was a collared, long sleeved white shirt with black corset on top, stopping just below my chest. A short, vest-like attachment covered my the area between my shoulders and my neck and hooked onto the corset, with a pair of straps that hooked around my upper arms like bracelets, pulling the sleeves tight there before letting them loosen up above and below. Coming out from underneath the corset was a flowing black cape-skirt, which blended almost perfectly with my tight jeans and, heh, ugg boots. Shock and I go shopping together, what can I say? The back of my shirt was, of course, open for my wings, my main pair and the one that was still growing in, which were as long as my arm now. 
  "But they're just too cute not to baby talk." Barrel complained, his arm around Shock's shoulders. Barrel's costume was more for Shock's sake than his own, though I think he secretly liked it. 
  It was mainly a black tank top with a stiff, Chinese style collar and black jeans tucked into black boots with two dark green straps around the top. Two wide green belts were buckled around his waist, covering the bottom of his shirt and top of his jeans. An emerald sat at the base of the collars, in the middle where they met. And did I mention the cape? 
  Oh, the cape. Shock had the TOUGHEST time getting Barrel to wear the cape, but she won in the end (as usual). It had a collar like the tank top, and attached to his tank top just around the emerald. It consisted of two winged layers; one that fell to just past his elbows and the other fell to his ankles. The top was black, while the underside was, surprise, green. 
  Yeah, I know. It was hilarious as hell for the rest of us too. 
  Lock rolled his eyes. "You ready to go?" Lock's costume was better than Barrel's, mainly because I let him pick instead of picking for him. A low cut red vest over a black muscle shirt that tucked into black jeans, and his combat boots. Okay, those I picked out, but that's only because his tennis shoes looked stupid. 
  I nodded and walked over, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Let's go wreak some havoc!" 
  "Don't kill anyone." Dad warned, almost teasingly. 
  "Who?" Barrel asked innocently. 
  "Us?" Shock continued. 
  "Never!" Lock finished. I sighed. Never too old to finish each other's sentences… we walked calmly out of the house, our pace speeding up as we passed the gate, and we were all out sprinting by the time we reached the graveyard. Halloween, the one night of the year that every citizen of Halloween Town could go to Living World and scare the shit out of some poor, innocent humans was the biggest night of the year and goddamn, we were going to enjoy it! 
  "Which one, which one?" Barrel asked excitedly. 
  "Oh, who cares?" Shock groaned. "Just pick one so we can get going already!" I look around the graveyard, my gaze stopping on a large statue of a crucified angel. I hated that statue. 
  "That one." I pointed. The other three shrugged and ran over, tugging it open. We hopped through, emerging in a cemetery somewhere in Living World. 
  "Where are we?" Lock asked. 
  "Who cares?" Shock replied. 
  "Good point." He replied, hooking an arm around my waist. 
  Shock rolled her eyes. "Let's just go already." 
  I moved to step forward, but Lock's grip tightened. "You two go ahead. We'll catch up." I recognized the evil smirk on his face all too well and shook my head, motioning for them to go. 
  Barrel, apparently, got Lock's hint and grabbed Shock's hand, pulling her off. "We have scaring to be doing." I complained. 
  "In a minute." He replied, kissing me. I sighed happily, wrapping my arms around his neck. There were times where I loved Lock's hopeless romantic side. Then I remembered what night it was, and what we were supposed to be doing. 
  I pushed him away. "Lo-ock…" I whined. "Let's go. I wanna go scare people." 
  He rolled his eyes, pretending to be annoyed. "Fine. But you owe me a kiss later." 
  "Gotcha." I chirped, pulling him along. "Where did Shock and Barrel go?" 
  "Who cares?" Lock sighed. "We can do this way better on our own. I mean, you're the Pumpkin King's heir, and I'm, well, me." 
  "Yes, your Mr. Modest." I laughed. I stopped as the crowded streets met my eyes and a smile broke out across my face. "Who first?" I asked excitedly. 
  Lock looked around the crowd, then back at me. "In honor of your birthday, you pick." My smile widened and I looked around, my eyes falling on a group of four teenage boys, probably about our age, picking on a group of younger kids, just old enough to go out on their own for Halloween. My eyes narrowed. 
  "Them." 
  Lock followed my gaze. "The jerks?" I nodded. He grinned evilly. "Nice pick. Let's go." 
  The group quickly grew tired of teasing the kids and headed off to a worse looking part of town, probably to a party. Lock and I quickly found a shortcut to get ahead of them (aka: the rooftops) and put a plan into action. "Sgniw raeppasid." I muttered, my wings fading away as I spoke. 
  "I still don't like using you as bait." Lock muttered. 
  I kissed his cheek. "Oh, stop being jealous. I don't even like them. Besides, they're perfect targets. Now go get ready." I shooed him off. He rolled his eyes and went to go, ah, get ready. 
  Peering around the corner, I saw the boys making their way down the street. I grinned. All I had to do was lead them to Lock. I stepped out into the street, and their line of vision. I heard a couple of them whistle, and purposely sped my footsteps in the proper direction. They did as well, then started running after me. 
  'Silly boys.' I thought with a laugh. 'You're going to regret this.' A hand brushed my arm as I passed a dark, spooky alleyway (hey, if we were going to be cliché, we were going to do it right) and I turned into it. I pulled my wings back into reality and hopped up onto the roof nearby. 
  Peering over the edge, I saw the boys walk into the alley. "Hey, babe, where'd you go?" 
  "Yeah, we just wanted to party!" Another hooted. A third howled. Oh, were they going to regret that. 
  A low growl rumbled through the air. "Wh-what was that?" One whispered. 
  A huge monster, with bright red skin and huge, curling horns stepped out of the shadows. Smoke trailed out of its nose and mouth, and a crown of fire floated between its horns. I grinned and grabbed the items I'd hidden earlier, pulling on the black cloak and cheap, plastic scythe I'd… erm… borrowed from a store. My wings tore through the cloak (also cheap, now that I think about it) just before I hopped down behind the frightened group, who had been paralyzed by fear and a little magic. 
  I scuffed the edge of the magic circle I'd drawn in the dirt earlier, and the spell broke. Lock (for that is who the monster was) let out a loud roar and they scrambled for the alley mouth… which is where I was standing. 
  Now, if you'd just seen a huge monster that could probably swallow you whole, then a figure in a black cloak, with a shadowed face and scythe, you probably would've had the same reaction that these idiots had. One screamed and promptly fainted, and the rest ran past me, screaming bloody murder. 
  "I don't remember that being part of the plan." Lock observed as he returned to normal. 
  I shrugged, pulling the cloak off. "I was improvising. Uncle Grim's really gonna get me for that one." 
  "He'll be flattered, I'm sure." Lock said, stepping over the unconscious body on the ground. 
  "I can't believe you got your shape shifting down so quickly." I told him incredulously, quite impressed. 
  He grinned at me. "Hey, I like that class. I tried to get you and Shock to join…" 
  "I thought you liked how I looked." I replied, shoving him playfully. Lock just smiled and kissed me as we walked off. 
  We headed back around four hours later, about eleven thirty. The rest of the town was heading back as well, which we saw once we reached the Halloween Town graveyard. Music was filling the air, and the shadows on the gravestones were stirring. "The song is starting, come on!" I urged as we weaved in and out of the graves. 
  "Boys and girls of every age wouldn't you like to see something strange?" The shadows called. 
  "Come with us and you will see this, our town of Halloween." The Siamese butcher shadow called. (a/n: Seriously, they're holding a butcher's knife. And if they're not, they should be. And I'm seeing things) 
  Ghosts flew up through the ground and from their graves. "This is Halloween, this is Halloween!" 
  "Pumpkins scream in the dead of night!" Behemoth's wailing pumpkins sung out. 
  "This is Halloween, everybody make a scene! Trick or treat 'till the neighbors gonna die of fright!" The ghosts took back over. "It's our town, everybody scream in our town of Halloween!" 
  The creature under the bed took over. "I am the one hiding under their beds; teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red!" 
  "I am the one hiding under their stairs, with fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair!" The creature under the bed sang. 
  "This is Halloween, this is Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!" The vampire brothers took over. "In this town we call home, everyone hail to the pumpkin song!" 
  Even from our place in the graveyard, we could hear the Mayor on his megaphone. "In this town, don't we love it now, everyone's waiting for the next surprise." 
  The corpse chorus was up next. "Round that corner, there's a man hiding in the trash can. How he's waiting to pounce and hear you-" 
  "Scream!" Harley yelled, with a metallic clatter sounding after him, signifying he'd jumped out of the trash can. 
  There was a loud crash, which meant that Harry had just broken through a wall. "This is Halloween!" 
  "Red 'n' black!" Harley sung. 
  "Slimy green!" The melting man jumped in. 
  "Are you scared?" Harry howled. 
  Hazel and Zoë swooped over our heads, giving us a look that clearly said get to town. "Well that's just fine! Say it once say it twice, take a chance and roll the dice! Ride with the moon in the dead of night!" 
  We passed through the gate as the Hanging Tree stomped into the square. "Everybody scream! Everybody scream!" 
  "In our town of Halloween…" The five Hanged men chorused as he finished. 
  Clown rode up on his unicycle, scaring some of the younger citizens. "I am the clown with the tear away face! Here in a flash and gone without a trace!" 
  A shadow rose from the ground next to the fountain. "I am the who when you call 'Who's there'?" 
  A gust of strong wind blew through, making an eerie howling noise as it passed through the trees and blowing everyone's hair gently. "I am the wind blowing through your hair!" 
  The four of us looked up at this point and saw (instead of the deceased Oogie Boogie) a shadow that covered the moon's entire surface, showing fangs and eyes only. "I am the one that goes bump in the night, the air filled with screams of children's fright!" 
  "This is Halloween, this is Halloween! Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!" 
  "Tender lumplings everywhere, life's no fun without a good scare!" C.K., Drake, and Ra sang, even though they were way older now. 
  "That's our job but we're not mean, in our town of Halloween!" A few of the parents sang. 
  Now the entire town was out in the square. "In this town," 
  "Don't we love it now?" The Mayor sang. 
  "Skeleton Jack might catch you in the back and scream like a banshee make you jump out of your skin! This is Halloween, everybody scream! Won't ya' please make way for a very special guy?" 
  The crowd parted as the pumpkin patch scarecrow, my dad in his costume, was wheeled in. "Our man Jack is king of the pumpkin patch! Everyone hail to the Pumpkin King!" Everyone grinned as the scarecrow began to dance, swallowing the torch that had been over its head. "This is Halloween, this is Halloween! Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!" On the last 'Halloween,' dad jumped from the platform into the fountain. 
  I took a deep breath and walked up to the fountain. "In this town we call home, everyone hail to the pumpkin song." I sang clearly as dad rose from the fountain. Everyone cheered as he stepped out of the water, bone dry (a/n: Haha! Bad puns!). 
  "You sounded wonderful." He whispered to me. 
  "Thanks." I smiled, pleased. I hated singing in front of crowds, and for something as important as our town song, I had been really nervous, even if it was just one solo line. 
  -Lock's POV- 
  Soon, the Awards Ceremony was well under way. Aubrey, Shock, Barrel, and I sat toward the back where we could talk quietly. Mostly, we just made fun of the awards, because the same people won them every year. "The award for most blood sucked in one evening goes to-" 
  "The Vampire Brothers." Shock sighed. 
  "The Vampire Brothers, with the lake leeches earning an honorable mention. The next award goes to…" 
  And so it continued. Finally, we got down to the last awards: solo and couple scare. "And the Best Solo scare goes to…" 
  "Jack." The four of us sighed. 
  "Jack!" Cheering rose from the hall as dad walked up to the stage to take the trophy, just like every year. "Jack, would you do us the honors of reading the last award?" The Mayor asked. 
  The four of us looked at each other, confused. He and Sally always won the award. So why was he reading it? Jack smiled as he opened the envelope. "And finally, the Best Couple Scare goes to…" 
  "Jack and Sally." Barrel muttered. 
  "Lock and Aubrey!" My head and Aubrey's shot up. Jack smiled back at us and motioned for us to come up on stage. Glancing at each other, we stood and made our way to the stage. "Congratulations." Jack smiled, handing us the trophy. We both blushed and walked back to our seats amidst the cheering crowd. "I have one more announcement before you all go." Jack announced, and those who had begun to stand sat back down. "As you all know, I have put off choosing an heir for… well, a very long time." Titters of laughter rose throughout the room. "I've finally decided that the next heir to the Halloween throne will be my daughter, Aubrey." 
  The room broke out in cheers yet again as Aubrey blushed happily next to me. 
  Not long after, the four of us found ourselves sitting in my room, talking. "So, an award and a crown all in one night." Shock poked Aubrey's leg. "You'll be the talk of the school on Monday." 
  Barrel groaned. "Crap, I forgot about that." 
  Shock laughed. "Ah, we all know you like school Barrel." 
  "You're such a geek." I teased. I looked over at Aubrey, who hadn't said anything. She was staring at the wall with a distant expression. "Mini-chocolate bat for your thoughts." I held the candy in front of her face. 
  She pushed the candy away. "It's nothing." 
  "Every time you say that, something comes and attacks us." Shock told her flatly. 
  Aubrey bit her lip, instead of laughing like I'd expected. "I… you guys know how you explained to me about how Raphael got put in eternal sleep?" We nodded. "It's just… I never remembered dad doing anything like that to Oogie." 
  Shock, Barrel, and I looked at each other. "He… Oogie couldn't come back again… he couldn't, right?" Barrel asked, looking from me to Shock and back again. 
  "No way." Shock said finally. "Oogie only survived last time because one of his bugs must've escaped. Lock burned them all to a crisp." 
  I almost corrected her, almost said that I just THOUGHT killed all of Oogie's bugs. I hadn't been paying attention to whether or not any escaped. And he'd had that hole in his side… "You're right." Aubrey sighed. "Even if they had, Oogie would've made a move by now." 
  I nodded. "Yeah. No way Oogie's coming back." 
   
   
   Publication Date: December 7th 2011 https://www.bookrix.com/-hugs.and.kisses