Author Note: Usually origin stories for Lock, Shock and Barrel don't really interest me much, I think because I've never really been on board with the idea of them being dead or having a previous life as humans, which usually seems to be the direction most authors choose for them. There's nothing wrong with that interpretation, but me personally, in the movie I always imagined the residents of Halloween Town to be representations of creatures, symbols, folklore and traditions that humans associated with the holiday… almost like anthropomorphized concepts, and Lock, Shock and Barrel represent the tradition of trick-or-treating. I felt that they probably always had ever since the tradition began, and probably never got any older than they were shown in the film as they are prime trick-or-treating ages. They say that they have always been and will always be birds of a feather forever, which I took to mean that they had been children for a very long time and that they would always stay in this state of perpetual childhood for as long as the trick-or-treating tradition exists.
I chose the early 20th century (around 1910 or so) as the time the trio came into being since from what I can tell by my extremely rudimentary research it was roughly around that time that trick-or-treating became a real thing in many places. I'm imagining that during their infancy and early childhood years the concept and tradition of trick-or-treating is in it's beginning stages, not quite fully established and widespread, but beginning to form and grow, just like Lock, Shock and Barrel themselves, that their development corresponds with the development of the trick-or-treating tradition. Once they get to the ages they are in the movie, the tradition has been fully embraced in the human world and the kids stop growing, don their costumes and masks and begin symbolizing all trick-or-treaters from there on out. So when the lovely guest and huge supporter of mine, rathernotmyname, suggested I write a story about their earlier years it inspired me to try and flesh out these vague ideas of mine. So thank you, as always, my dear reader, and I hope everyone enjoys my take on it.
Creatures came to Halloween Town in a variety of ways and stayed there for a variety of time spans. Some, like Jack, had been there ever since the idea of Halloween had been birthed from the minds of humans and it seemed unlikely that he would ever die until Halloween ceased to exist or he was somehow crushed into dust. Others such as small animals like the bats, rats and bugs were born much like their human-world equivalents: through mammalian reproduction or hatching eggs… and also like their human-world counterparts they often ended up perishing at the hands of creatures higher up on the food chain than themselves. Other creatures and townspeople just sort of appeared as the folklore, meanings and traditions of Halloween were created and expanded by the humans, and just before the early 20th century three new residents appeared in Halloween Town.
The first was a tiny baby witch, pale green with just the faintest fluff of dark hair, found one night in the garden outside of the older witches coven headquarters. She lay sleeping peacefully beneath some deadly nightshade leaves and nearly frightened Helgamine out of her skin when she pushed them aside and discovered the infant – it seemed that the little witch was off to a good start in the scaring department. The new arrival was announced and celebrated at a town meeting that very night, and everyone was delighted because it had been a very long time since a new witch had come to Halloween Town.
One year later, the second arrived in a rather dramatic fashion: a fire broke out randomly in the middle of the town square and it was odd because nothing actually seemed to be fueling the flames… but when the residents extinguished the blaze they discovered a tiny baby, stark white with a red devil's tail and two thick curls of red hair on the top of his head. He wailed loudly until another devil picked him up and held him aloft for all to see and the town celebrated his spectacular arrival right then and there. Demons knew how to make an entrance, Lucius bragged, and everyone else had to agree.
The last new arrival came one year after that when a pale, chubby, bald little baby was found in the cemetery, tucked safely amongst the tombstones and clumsily shoving fistfuls of dirt and whatever else he could reach into his wide mouth with his pudgy little hands. He cooed happily when he was picked up and cradled by another ghoul, and a big celebration was held that night with plenty of food and dancing because three new arrivals in the span of three years was very special, indeed.
The babies were raised amongst their fellows for the first few years, each group eager to teach their young wards the tricks and duties of their species, but before too long it became apparent that these particular babies weren't quite suited to their jobs. As they got old enough to crawl and eventually toddle around, none of them showed any inclination towards the traditional behaviors befitting their kind: Shock – so named by Helgamine due to the fright she had given her upon being discovered – was uninterested in potions or spells and by the time she was three years old she still hadn't developed the ability to fly on a training broomstick, which was highly unusual. But she was incredibly sneaky and the witches had their hands full trying to prevent her from sabotaging everyone else's potions and spells. She laughed naughtily as she pulled the twigs loose from brooms and tossed them into the fire beneath the cauldrons, set all of the frogs, lizards and bats free or dumped herbs out of jars and stomped on them with her little black leather booties.
The little devil had gone without a name for the first two years of his life because none of the demons could agree on one, but eventually they went with Lock because one of the very first skills he developed was picking them - a talent he had accidentally discovered by putting a stick in a padlock out of sheer boredom and wiggling it around experimentally until it made a satisfying click. He was so proud of this achievement that he did it every chance he could and whatever he found behind the lock he immediately destroyed with a wicked giggle. The demons wouldn't have minded this destruction so much if only Lock had used his fire to do it, but by the time he was two he still had yet to ignite a single thing. He laughed and clapped excitedly whenever a fellow devil snapped their fingers and set something on fire, but he never did it himself no matter how many times he was shown and encouraged. He did, however, become quite proficient at stealing and fighting and he would frequently start fights with creatures much older and larger than himself, which wasn't very dignified devil behavior - devils were supposed to charm others into doing things, not pummel them.
Barrel got his name thanks to his round little shape and endless capacity for eating, and because the other ghouls thought it sounded as cute as he looked. It was typical for ghouls to have a hearty appetite, but it wasn't typical for them to prefer food that was seasoned and cooked over raw, rotten meat. He was particularly drawn to sweets and once while in town when he was just one year old, his guardian put him down for only a moment and he crawled over to a basket full of candies and ate half of them – wrappers and all – before he was discovered and scolded. They kept trying to get him to dig up the soil with his wide hands and feet to unearth worms and dead things to eat, but he just rolled around happily in the dirt instead and then cried with hunger until they fed him something from the market that no self-respecting ghoul would prefer. He was a good-natured, lovable, easy baby besides that, but his strange appetite and unwillingness or inability to forage for his food was a source of great embarrassment and inconvenience for all of the other ghouls.
Several months before Shock turned four years old, Lock three and Barrel two, the witches, devils and ghouls called for a town meeting. They had been commiserating with one another nearly the entire time the toddlers had been there, fretting over their strange behaviors and venting their frustration about their troublesome wards. After several very stressful Halloweens spent trying to keep the children in line they were finally all at their wits end. "They're not normal!" the eldest witch announced, and everyone nodded in agreement. Even townspeople outside of the witch, devil, and ghoul communities had noticed this.
"What are we supposed to do with a ghoul who won't eat carrion? We can't be leaving the graveyard to go to the market and waste time fixing up meals all day, he'll eat that expensive fancy food until we're broke!"
"And whoever heard of a devil that can't start fires? He's a disgrace to demonkind!"
Jack winced a bit at the harshness of their words, but he had to admit that he'd never seen anything quite like this even in all of his many, many years as the Pumpkin King. The three children were sitting on the floor in the aisle, blissfully unaware of the discussion and happily playing together until Lock roughly shoved Barrel, who landed against Shock and started crying. Shock pushed Lock right back but before the situation could escalate further each of their caretakers picked them up and separated them - but then Lock and Shock started crying, too, because they didn't like being apart. Everyone had noticed that the three of them were unusually close despite their infantile bickering, which worked out well for their caretakers when it came to trading off babysitting duties and play dates, but also led to long, hysterical temper-tantrums when it was time for them to go back to their respective homes. Finally the individuals holding the children were forced to leave the hall so the meeting could continue free from their deafening screams.
"Everyone, please!" said Jack, raising one bony hand to quiet the disgruntled, murmuring crowd. "I realize that Lock, Shock and Barrel don't quite seem to be following the typical development that we expect of them…"
"That's an understatement!" someone yelled, and Jack frowned and continued:
"But surely there is a reason they are here, just like the rest of us. Rather than them failing as a witch, devil and ghoul, perhaps it is we who are failing them by not figuring out what their purpose is." When Jack said 'we' he actually meant himself, for as the Pumpkin King it was his duty to keep tabs on everything Halloween, but these kids had him stumped and he could only hope that their purpose would become clear in time. "I'm sure that eventually we will know what roles they are to play in Halloween, we just need to let them grow up a little bit more."
"Well, what are we supposed to do with them in the meantime?" one witch angrily demanded, and all the other witches, devils and ghouls nodded. "That little brat is constant trouble, she's always ruining our potions, spells and broomsticks and she's going to ruin next Halloween for us again if you don't do something about it!"
"And you demons can't keep your little brat under control, either, he's always breaking things and starting fights with the other children, especially my little Ethan!" chimed in Bertha the corpse, and the whole group of demons looked at her angrily. They knew it was true, that Lock was embarrassingly rowdy for a species that was supposed to be all wicked charm and persuasion, but it was still an offensive thing for her to say.
The ghouls stopped short of calling Barrel a brat since he really was quite good-natured, but the fact remained that he couldn't dig up his own food yet and wouldn't eat what he was supposed to, and he was simply too needy and time-consuming because of it. How were the other ghouls supposed to do their jobs of lurking around in the cemeteries scaring humans if they had to pack a bunch of strange food and feed him all the time? It simply wouldn't do and one of them shouted, "And we can't take care of Barrel anymore, he's completely helpless! He must be slow in the head, there's no other explanation for it!" Soon the whole hall was muttering about how all three of the children were probably slow in the head, even though in reality Shock had proven to be quite clever and Lock seemed to at least be of average intelligence. The jury was still out on Barrel, but he was still very young so Jack felt that calling him 'slow in the head' was a bit premature in addition to being just plain mean. Jack raised his hand again and the room fell silent as he quickly tried to think of a solution.
"Well," he said diplomatically, "I think that perhaps the best thing to do is to place them with one individual or family so that their negative impact on Halloween is minimized. Is anyone willing to volunteer?" He knew that this was probably a completely pointless thing to ask, that the odds were exceedingly low that anyone would volunteer to take on three extremely difficult little children. He was certain that it would fall to him to assign the duty to someone, and he didn't relish that thought. He would happily take them in himself, but there was no way he could realistically do it because as the Pumpkin King he was just too vital to Halloween and it would be a disaster to take his time and attention away from his duties to raise three very young children. But before he could decide who to stick with the job a deep, booming voice came from the very back of the room:
"I'll take 'em in, Jack. Those kids are trouble, and I like 'em just fine that way. Besides, keeping kids in line is part of the ol' Boogie Man's job. They ain't nothin' I can't handle." Jack looked over the crowd and saw Oogie Boogie taking up an entire bench by himself, his burlap face twisted up into an amused expression. Jack was surprised that he had attended the meeting, for it wasn't often that he participated in town affairs on not-Halloween. The Boogie Man had been in Halloween Town for nearly as long as Jack himself, the long-standing embodiment of terror and threats that parents made against their misbehaving children to scare them into obedience. Jack felt a little uncomfortable at the idea of Oogie taking in the toddlers… he was known to be capricious and especially coarse around the edges, not to mention a compulsive gambler. But he was correct in his assertion that his Halloween duties had a large focus on scaring children, so perhaps he was a reasonable choice for the job after all, especially since the three children in question were showing more and more naughty tendencies as time went on – especially Lock and Shock. Plus now that Oogie had volunteered it would be downright rude for Jack to refuse his offer and force the task on someone unwilling, so despite his reservations he decided to accept, making a mental note to himself to keep an eye on the situation and step in if things seemed to be going poorly.
"Thank you, Mr. Oogie Boogie, that is very gracious of you." Jack said politely even as the crowd glanced at one another out of the corners of their eyes, not quite sure if Oogie was the best choice… but none of them wanted to get stuck with the three little monsters so nobody said a word.
The very next day the children and all of their belongings were delivered to his lair: a series of catacomb-like chambers below a great pit in the ground beneath a huge, gnarled tree. It was quite a ways out of town but the townspeople didn't mind this distance one bit because it would help keep the little troublemakers out of their way. Oogie directed their former guardians to smallish side room where they placed Shock and Lock's little beds and Barrel's crib, as well as their toys and clothing and a little potty that was small enough for Lock and Shock to use without falling in it, as Barrel was still in diapers. They had also brought a sturdy cage big enough for all three of the children at once – padlocked from the outside so that Lock couldn't reach it – but Oogie claimed he didn't need it so they took it back, and then their former caretakers left them there. The witches were glad to be rid of Shock and the demons felt relieved to be free of Lock, but the ghouls felt just a tiny bit sad about giving up Barrel… but again, there was simply no way he could stay with them so they placed him in his crib and turned away, ignoring his happy babbling and the way he reached out to them with his chubby little hands.
"Well now, kiddos!" said Oogie Boogie cheerfully once they were alone, looking down at the toddlers with his hands on his hips. "Ol' Oogie's gonna take good care of you, and we're gonna have fun." The trio craned their little necks to look up at him, and they started to feel afraid because he was the most enormous thing they had ever seen and now that their usual guardians were nowhere to be found everything was suddenly a bit too scary. Barrel started to cry, and Lock immediately followed him. Shock's lip quivered for only a moment as she tried to keep from crying too, but her efforts failed and soon she was wailing right along with the boys. "Oh, now we can't have that!" Oogie said, and he picked Barrel up out of his crib with a gentleness that belied his size and brought him right up to his face. Barrel instantly stopped crying out of sheer terror, but then Oogie smiled and started babbling at him in a soft, goofy tone of voice and very gradually the tiny ghoul's sniffles quieted and a shy grin started to spread across his face. Soon he was giggling and then he burst out into full-throated belly-laughter when Oogie tickled him beneath his chin. Lock and Shock noticed and stopped crying too, then Lock stood up and very cautiously took a step towards the Boogie Man, who bent down and scooped him up with his free hand. Shock stayed where she was, carefully assessing the situation. "There now, that's better!" Oogie said, and he chuckled when the little devil reached out and curiously grabbed his rough burlap face. He put the giggling Barrel back in his crib and held his hand out to Shock, who was still looking at him suspiciously but starting to feel a little jealous of the attention the boys were getting. "Come on over here, princess, I won't bite ya'." he said encouragingly, and she finally stood and took a few tentative steps towards him and he picked her up as well. Barrel reached out from his crib, hopping up and down and wanting to be held again so Oogie leaned close enough that he could climb out and nestle himself next to Lock in the crook of the Boogie Man's enormous arm. "There ya' go, kiddos." Oogie said, bouncing and rocking them gently. "Ol' Oogie's always wanted to have a little henchman or two, and I think you three'll do just fine."
To be continued