"Uh oh!"Alyss murmured. Jack hugged Sally when he approached. "Sally dear! I missed you!"Sally giggled. "You see me everyday Jack."Jack knelt down and faced Alyss, who was trembling a little. "Why, who is this little child?"Sally said, "Oh! Her name is Alyss Heart. She came from the human world I think."A surprised gasp came from the crowd.
"The human world?"Said the Harlequin demon.
"How peculiar!"Mr. Hyde said.
"How strange!"The corpse kid cried.
Alyss brushed her feet against the cobblestone sidewalk. She was getting really shy with all the attention. Jack stood up and called, "Call the two witches! They can grasp her real identity!"The two singing witches came. They measured Alyss, positioned Alyss and even circled her. Finally they said, "This girl is not normal. We can sense traces of banshee blood in her veins. She also seems to have a skeletal heritage!"Jack, Sally, and Alyss's eyes widened. The witches continued, "We also sense some witch powers and devilish blood in her body."Alyss, being so surprised at finding her real heritage, fainted from the ordeal.
"Alyss?"
"Owww, my head…"Alyss murmured. She sat up in bed. "Where am I?"She asked Jack. Jack replied, "You're in Sally's room. Now, I have got a question for you: How old are you?"Alyss thought a bit and said, "Eleven."Jack smiled. "I knew it. You have to meet Boogie's Boys. They're around eleven too."Alyss jumped up, startled. "BOYS?"Jack slapped his forehead. "There's ONE girl in the group. They're only three, so don't worry a bit."The Mayor suddenly burst into the room, his happy face smiling at Alyss. "Alyss! I hope you'd like to hear the plans for next Halloween!"Alyss nodded happily, and the Mayor set down the plans on the bed. When they were nearly finished going over the plans, rocks and bones pelted the Mayor. He switched to his sad or angry face and looked behind him. He became scared and said, "What are YOU doing here?"
Alyss looked behind him. "Who are they?"The red devilish masked person said with a boy's voice, "Jack sent for us..."The sad green masked person continued with a girl's voice, "Specifically..."The grinning masked person said with a childish boy's voice, "By name."They removed their masks as they said their names.
"Lock!"
"Shock!"
"And Barrel!"Barrel licked his lollipop.
Jack stood up and ushered the three kids outside. The Mayor put a finger to his lips, and Alyss understood. He tiptoed to the door, his megaphone to the door. Alyss listened with him.
"Now, you three must be nice to Alyss when she comes to live in your clubhouse."Jack was lecturing the three. Lock's voice said a little angrily, "What's that supposed to mean?"A slapping sound was heard, and Lock cried out in pain. "Idiot, it means that she's gonna live in our clubhouse with us."Something solid hit the floor and Alyss supposed it was Barrel's lollipop. Lock stuttered. "WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY?"Alyss and the Mayor heard Jack sigh and scream angrily, "SHE'S GOING TO BE LIVING WITH YOU FOR GOODNESS SAKES AND I WILL NOT TOLERATE YOU BEING YOUR REGULAR NAUGHTY SELVES DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"Alyss fell down from the invisible sound waves. The Mayor helped her up as Jack and the three came back inside. Alyss could see Lock was clearly angry while Shock was smirking. And Barrel was clearly oblivious to anything, sucking on his lollipop. Alyss didn't have a good feeling about this. True enough, Lock suddenly started to choke Shock. Barrel tackled Lock while Shock tried to get his hands off her neck. Alyss suddenly had mixed emotions. Her skeleton side told her to get one of her ribs and bang all three of them on the head. Her devil side told her to breathe fire at them. Her witch side told her to cast paralyzing spells as them while her banshee side told her to scream at them.
Luckily she chose the banshee side to listen to at the moment.
Alyss positioned herself, getting ready to scream. Barrel, being exceptionally good at detecting such happenings, dragged the Mayor and Jack out of the room. After that, all H-E-double hockey sticks broke loose. "WILL YOU BOTH SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT UP!"She screamed, her banshee voice echoing through the room. The sound waves broke the windows, and every resident in Halloween Town heard the screams. They all dropped everything they held and ran to the Skellington Manor. The force of the sound waves were so strong, they acted like a strong wind, blowing Lock and Shock away. Lock grasped hold of a pillar nearby, and Shock found a random lamppost in the room. They both held on, the sound wave blowing so strong, Lock's hair got messed up and Shock's skirt ballooned, which made it possible for Barrel to see her underpants. He turned bright red. Turns out, the pillar Lock had grasped was behind Shock's, so he could see Shock's underpants too. He laughed, singing, "I see Paris, I see France, I see Shock's pink underpants!""AIEEE!"Shock screeched, trying hard to cover her underpants. The Mayor held his megaphone in front of Barrel's eyes. Jack's jaw dropped lower than H-E-double hockey sticks. "Jack I….what's hap-pen-ing?"Sally came to Jack, and she was blown away by the sound waves still echoing around the room. She knocked over the Harlequin Demon, who knocked over the Wolfman, who knocked over the Corpse Mom, and so on. When Alyss calmed down, Barrel was still staring at Shock, who turned scarlet and hid behind Sally. Alyss looked as if she came through a fight. Then Jack clapped. "It's perfect for next Halloween!"
Shock recovered from her initial shock at seeing Lock and Barrel staring at her underpants. She entered the Manor. Shock found Jack and Sally in the living room with Lock and Barrel. Cheeks burning again, Shock ran past them, only hearing an inaudible "uhhhh…"as she brushed past them, only stopping to look for Sally's room. Sally's room, Sally's room….she thought, looking at the labels. So many doors! Finally Shock came to a room labeled as 'Sally'. She opened the door to find Alyss, a little tired from the ordeal. She was clutching her head wearily, as if having a headache. Shock said, "Alyss?"Alyss looked up to see Shock. Alyss shook her head, and then she turned away from Shock. The young witch felt a pang of guilt, since she knew she and Lock were the cause of Alyss to scream. Shock sat beside Alyss, who twitched, but otherwise didn't say a word. Shock said to Alyss, a little gently, "Alyss, I'm so sorry I fought with Lock and made you scream. I was provoked."Alyss sat in a kneeling position, her blond hair covering her face. It was then that Shock saw the rainbow iridescent tears rolling down Alyss's pale face. Shock knew those tears. A witch, whether she was black or white, had iridescent tears. The tears were iridescent because it was a droplet of her very life. If she was a black witch, the tears were sapphire blue. If she was a white witch, the tears were emerald green. If she was a combination of both, which are extremely rare, rainbow tears occur. Shock gasped in realization. Alyss was a black and white witch! And she was DYING!
"JACK! SALLY! JACK! Sa…sa…..sa…."Shock panted as she ran back downstairs to the two. Lock and Barrel were almost out of the door, but they stopped along with Jack and Sally. Sally said, "What's the matter Shock? Has something happened to Alyss?"Shock gasped a few breaths before continuing. "A…Alyss….witch…crying…rainbow tears…..iridescent…..dying…."Shock collapsed onto the floor. "Oh my."Sally carried Shock to the couch. "Now, tell us again what is wrong with Alyss. Clearly and slowly."Shock took a deep breath and said quickly, "."
"The who the what the when the why the how?"Lock, Barrel and Jack said simultaneously. Sally sighed. She said, "What Shock meant to say was… Alyss is dying. We must go up the stairs right now and make her stop crying or else she will die of loss of liquid in her body by crying rainbow iridescent tears since she is a black and white witch-a very unique witch-so we need to go up there right now, at once, immediately."Lock realized the situation Alyss was in. He didn't know it, but deep inside him, past the evilness and craziness, he had affection for Alyss, even though he only met her today. He felt a connection to her, like all devil boys should to devil blooded girls. He ran up the stairs and found the door to Sally's room ajar. He went inside to find Alyss on the bed, so pale and weak that Lock felt guiltier by the minute. He noticed the tears Shock said. It was in a fine puddle on the floor, never evaporating, never drying. A light bulb clicked. He gathered the tears into a nearby glass container. Then he made Alyss sit up, or at least he tried to. Alyss was lifeless like a doll. He propped her up on the bed, then quickly opened her mouth and tipped the container's contents in. He waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, Alyss started to stir.
Jack, Sally and Barrel rushed up the stairs. Shock stayed on the couch, tired. She mulled over her life in the past four years. Shock thought, my life is perfect. I have two best friends. One of them is my true, how can I say this, love. Nothing can separate us. Absolutely NOTHING.
Alyss stared blankly at Lock as he danced crazily around the room. Lock was being a complete idiot in front of her. Lock noticed her staring at him, and he stopped, turning a light shade of pink. Suddenly Jack, Sally and Barrel burst into the room. "Alyss!"Barrel cried, hugging her. Sally held a hand to her heart. "Thank goodness you're OK!"She said. Jack said gratefully to Lock, "Thank you Lock for sa-"But when he turned to thank Lock, he disappeared.
Lock's POV
I ran.
It was really quite obvious that I should run.
My best friend Barrel was hugging Alyss.
Shock-who was somewhat crushing on me-was just so innocent downstairs, without knowing that I liked Alyss more than her. I mean, I am twelve, Alyss and Shock were eleven, and Barrel was ten, but so what? It just pained me to like Alyss when the person I lived with during practically half of my life was just lying down on the couch tired and asking to help the one who would be taking away her love.
I felt torn.
I quickly ran past the townsfolk, running towards the clubhouse. I slammed the door of the cage elevator and quickly ran to my room. I'm thinking of starting a new life. Turning over a new leaf. Changing my name, probably. Logan Greene. That sounded nice. Breathing heavily, I went over to my cabinet. I opened it to find a hurricane of red clothes bursting out. I'm guessing Shock didn't do my laundry today. I dug my way out of my clothes and finally made it. Rummaging through my clothes, I saw one outfit that wasn't red. I took it out. It was a black t-shirt with a fire design on it. Coupled with it was a pair of pants with a fiery design on the left and a blood red sleeveless hooded jacket. Perfect.
I ran to the door, locking it, padlocking it, and bombarded it with furniture, just in case someone came in. I removed my old red devil shirt first. It felt weird to remove my favorite old shirt. Next I removed my red pants. Then I put on the black t-shirt. It also felt weird to wear something new. I put on the pants, then I realized my next problem. My tail. I wanted to chop it up, but decided against it. I decided on just letting it hang, but suddenly it fell off like a scab. It twitched and burst into flames. The only thing left of it was a pile of ash. Ignoring it, I put on the jacket and put on the hood. It felt different. Very different. I decided to dye my hair black. I removed the lock, padlock and furniture from the door and ran quickly to the bathroom, searching for Shock's bottle of hair dye. Where does that girl keep her hair dye?I thought angrily, searching through the mass of bottles. Shampoo, shampoo, conditioner, hairspray, WORMSWORT?I pulled out the bottle of Wormswort. "So THAT'S where Barrel hid the Wormswort."I said, putting it back. I gave up, slumping on the wall. Then I noticed a loose floorboard. I opened it to find bottles of hair dye. "AHA!"I cried out victoriously. I pulled one out, then I saw it was filled with RED hair dye. Throwing it back, I picked up the next, to find it filled with GREEN hair dye. Frustrated, I rummaged through it to find two bottles of black hair dye, one was full, the other almost gone. I took the full one and carefully dyed my hair. The hair which once stood up like devil horns fell, leaving my hair a little messy.
It suited me.
Then I found the old pair of green contacts someone gave me. I never planned on using these, but it had to do.
Goodbye, Lock.
Hello, Logan Greene.
