Ahh, the smell of graveyard dirt after a storm, sweet and calming.
I was currently crouched on top of one of the tombstones near the pumpkin patch. Chills ran up my back as the wind blew under my trench coat.
I had worn my trench coat since some time after the "Sandy Claws" incident. Ever since then the old man had been bringing cold weather to Halloween Town in the "winter" months. Come to think about it, it's been roughly six or seven years since that happened. Yeah, I was either nine or ten at the time, now I'm sixteen so-
"BOYS! I have a new thing for you all to do." I flinched at the bellowing voice in the back of my mind. Jack beat Oogie, but the old geezer was far from dead, and still ordering us around.
"LOCK! Get a move on! This meeting has to take place sometime this century!" God, he was an annoying bastard.
"Alright, alright. I'm coming," I called out to the air. It was annoying, but Oogie couldn't hear our thoughts. At least there I could cuss him out to my heart's semi-content. I guess I'd never really be "content" with that bastard around. I jumped off the tombstone and into the trees leading towards the hinterlands and then to the top entrance of the treehouse. The three of us had grown far too big for the old bird cage anymore. Unfortunately, even though we'd all gotten more skilled with age, I was the only one who couldn't get here in a flash. Shock had a teleport spell, Barrel could levitate and faze trough objects, and me, I could jump high and run fast. Helpful, but not when trying to meet up with an impatient Boogie man.
As I came out of the long pipe I saw the others were all there, in Oogie's old casino room.
"Good to see you found the way back Lock, now we can get down to business," Said the shadow on the wall that was Oogie's current state. Pretty pitiful actually. Once a fearsome Boogie man, now, nothing but a shadow on the wall. Of course, a shadow that fed off of our energy, and that of some random bugs or animals we brought.
Barrel was leaning against the inside of the giant roulette wheel while Shock was near the center tapping her foot in annoyance. I sat on the edge with one leg tucked to my chest and the other hanging down over the edge of the wheel.
I looked up, damn, that was a bad Idea. Oogie was smiling, and not the 'something-went-the-way-I-wanted-smile'. No, It was his patient pending 'pedophile-Cheshire-cat-I'm-going-to-do-something-evil' smile, joy. Suddenly, the center of the roulette wheel opened up to reveal the hot magma beneath. The colors swirled until it showed the image of three human girls huddled around a classroom table.
"Boys, I need you to go to the human world to get these three and bring them to me,"
"Why?" Shock asked. Her voice wasn't quite as nasally as when we were kids, none of us really had that any more. Hell, some people who didn't watch us grow up would probably think we were completely different people. Shock had become more depressed, a lot her spells or potions would blow up in her face, but at least her cooking wasn't as bad as her spells. And no guy wanted to go out with a depressing, easily angered witch. That includes Barrel and I. Besides, we all grew up together, under the same roof. If we weren't all different creatures, I'd think we were siblings!
Barrel kept to himself more and more over time. I feel like it was Shock's fault and mine that he's like this, we never really paid much attention to him. At least now when he talks, everyone is surprised and actually listens to what he has to say. He still has some kind of candy on him at all times, usually a lollipop or a sucker but there's the occasional twizzeler or tootsie roll. He did mostly repair stuff or mechanics nowadays, to pass the time. It was kinda scary when some of the town girls looked at him through the window of the repair shop. He worked there part time.
And me, well I've been getting more and more aggressive. The fire didn't help. I could create fireballs or light things on fire now, good for lighting the jack-o-lanterns, not so much when I suddenly get mad and set random things on fire. I'd gotten a lot of lectures from the mayor about that, thankfully Jack would usually come and excuse me by saying I "couldn't control these new abilities". I hate to say it, but he's right. That's why my room was below the casino room, near the ground floor, all the rooms down there were made of metal and wouldn't burn down. Get red hot and occasionally melt, yes. Burn? No. I didn't stay at the treehouse much. I usually just walked around town and gathered information for Oogie and collected all of his "food". Yep, life was pretty boring.
And now Oogie's gonna make us go through some half-baked scheme to get his body back. This oughtta be fun. Not.