Cobwebs Tend to Begin on Halloween

I don't own anything but my OC's.

Chapter 3

Before Barrel even knew it, weeks had passed since his pondering about their new team-mate and he was almost complete. They had his torso, his neck and head and one arm and one leg. Barrel watched as Lock placed the last two ribs in the boy's chest. The trio had stolen some fabric from Shadow's Tailors and Shock was currently making clothes for their creation. With the other stuff they'd stolen, they'd made their creation the hair Barrel was talking about. It wasn't at all what Barrel was expecting when he suggested it. It was spiky and stuck up at odd ends, coloured black with a white outline. Though, in a way, it suited him.

Oogie stood with his hands on his hips. "There. Almost complete! Jack won't know what hit 'im!" He let out a laugh, which was stopped when his eye sockets caught the sight of something. "Hey…Why has 'e only got one arm and leg?"

"Uh, well, Mr. Oogie, sir," Lock said, entwining his fingers together and tapping his thumbs against one another. "We kinda…ran out of parts…"

Oogie's eye sockets narrowed even more. "Would d'ya mean 'ran out of parts'?"

"Well…We don't have any more parts, which means he doesn't have a arm or leg…"

Oogie's eye socket twitched. "Well," He turned so his back faced his minions. "This is brilliant, huh?" He asked rhetorically, his voice unusually soft. "Our creation, the thing that'll take Jack down, doesn't have an arm or leg!" He suddenly turned to them, scowling. His tone became angry. "How're we supposed to take down Jack when our secret weapon only has one arm and one leg?"

The three huddled together, scared. Shock put up a hand. "I-I guess we could…find some more…limbs…?"

Oogie calmed himself. "Well, hop to it!"

The three nodded and ran toward the exit.

Travelling in their bathtub, Lock sighed. Barrel drove the tub and Shock leaned against the side. "Where're we supposed to get spare limbs?" Lock asked. "We already checked Dr. Finkelstein's place! An' all we found were these!" He gestured to the sack, which laid, slumped over, next to him. Inside were a variety of arms and legs, but all of them were too long or too short for their creation.

"C'mon," Shock said as she jumped out of the bathtub. "Let's check on foot."

Lock followed, then Barrel. They trudged around, hands either behind their backs or in their pockets.

As they walked, they kept their heads down. Suddenly, Shock let out a cry of surprise as the ground on which she stepped on caved in. Lock and Barrel turned. "Shock?" Lock called. "Where are you?"

"Down here!" Her voice echoed. The boys glanced down the ditch. Shock sat on some stairs, adjusting her hat. "Come look at this!"

The boys looked at each other and shrugged then jumped down. Shock was already heading towards the big, double doors. Her hands went to her hips as the boys joined her. "How do we open 'em?"

Barrel puffed out his little chest and marched up to the doors. He thrust his arms out, palms facing the doors, and exclaimed: "Open Sesame!"

"That's not gonna work, dummy-" Shock began to yell, but paused when they heard a loud creak and the doors opened. Lock and Shock turned to Barrel, wide-eyed.

"Dude." Lock said in disbelief.

Barrel stared at the open doors in shock. He didn't expect that! The three children walked into the golden room. A coffin sat in the middle of the room, on top of two steps. Several candles on candlesticks surrounded it. Cobwebs hung in the corners of the room. Lock, Shock and Barrel wandered into the room. "Woah…" Barrel muttered in awe.

"Hey! Wonder who's in the coffin!" Lock exclaimed, running over to it. Lock went on tip-toe to try and reach it, but found he couldn't. "Shock! Give me a boost!"

Shock crouched in front of the coffin and Lock climbed onto her back. He placed his feet onto her shoulders, holding onto the top of her hat. With all his strength, he pushed the coffin's lid away a little, enough to peek inside. Using all the strength in their legs, Shock and Barrel jumped up and latched onto the coffin's side.

Inside, laying on the padding, was a skeleton. Its hands were pressed to its chest. "Woah…" Lock whispered. "Wonder who it is…"

"It says here." Shock pointed out, noticing the name scratched into the surface of the lid. "M…Ma…It's all dirty and scratched, I can't read it!"

Barrel jumped down from the coffin, noticing the little box beside the coffin. He walked over to it and gently opened the lid. Inside, sat a pumpkin mask. It was small, but looked important. Carefully, Barrel lifted it out. He held it to his chest and turned-

Just as Shock climbed into the coffin.

"Shock! What're you doing?" Barrel asked.

"Hey, Oogie sent us to get limbs, so that's what we're doing!" Lock exclaimed. "Besides, he's dead! He don't need 'em!"

"Could be a girl!" Shock's voice called.

Lock rolled his eyes.

"Uh…G-G-Guys…?"

"What is it, Barrel?" Lock asked, keeping his eyes on Shock as she detached the arm and leg from the body.

"L-L-Look…"

Lock turned and his eyes immediately widened. "Uh…Shock?"

"What?" Shock poked her head out, the arm and leg in her arms. Her eyes widened.

A large, purple spider climbed down from its web, its abdomen big. Its many green eyes were narrowed as venom dripped from its fangs. It hissed at them.

"Uh…" Lock started.

"Um…" Shock muttered.

"Run!" Barrel screeched.

The spider hissed and scuttled toward them. Shock tumbled out of the coffin as Lock jumped down. Barrel held the pumpkin mask tightly as he ran towards the doors.

"Guys!"

Lock and Barrel turned back.

Shock cried out and reached for them as the spider pulled her towards it, a thick piece of web wrapped around her ankle. The boys looked at each other. "Help!" Shock screeched.

The boys panicked. What could they do? They couldn't let her die! Lock reached into his pocket and felt something. He picked it up and threw it at the large arachnid.

The spider stopped its pulling as the wrapped up toffee bounced off its abdomen. The web around Shock's ankle snapped and she scrambled up, the arm and leg clutched in her hands tightly. She ran over to the boys and shot passed them, up the stairs.

"Help me close the doors!" Lock ordered to Barrel. They grabbed hold of a different doorknob and pulled. The doors began to slowly move. The spider charged at them, hissed and clacking its fangs together. Eventually, the doors shut. They heard a loud thud! as the spider hit the doors, not expecting them to close. The boys panted and followed Shock up the stairs.

As they emerged from the ditch, Shock muttered "That was scary!"

"Yeah," Lock agreed. "C'mon, let's get back to Oogie."

"What were you thinking?" Oogie asked. "None of these are the right size!" He threw an arm down.

"There's a couple more you need to try, sir…" Shock muttered nervously. She held out the arm and leg they had nabbed from that skeleton in the coffin. Oogie snatched them from her and held them in front of the places they would usually attach on to. Holding them above the boy's joints, he could see they still weren't the right size.

"These aren't good either!" Oogie exclaimed.

"T-They're the closest things we could get, sir!" Lock said.

Oogie sighed. "Fine. We'll use these. Barrel, what're you holding?"

Barrel gulped and held out the mask. "I-I found this in the chamber…I thought we could give it to him…Like our masks…"

Oogie took it from him and examined it. He held it over the boy's face. "It's too small to fit his face!"

"Just put it over his eye socket then…" Lock shrugged. "Like an eye patch…"

Oogie placed the mask over the creation's eye socket. A ring of bright light developed around the mask. "That was weird…" Oogie muttered. He tried to pull the mask from the boy's face, but it wouldn't budge. "What the-?" He asked and tried again. "It's stuck!" He tried to pull it again. "Oh, well…Don't matter…" He muttered, giving up. He turned to them, a wicked smile upon his stitched lips. "We're almost done, kids." He picked up the arm. "We just need to attach his new limbs and we'll be done!"

The children grinned evilly at each other.

"And then, we'll bring him to life and train him to hate Jack! And then Skeleton Jack will be a pile of dust!"

The children looked to each other and walked around in a circle, waving their arms. "Pile of dust! Pile of dust! Skeleton Jack will be a pile of dust!" They chanted in unison.

Oogie let out an evil laugh.

Author's note:

Mav: THOSE LITTLE GITS! NICKING MY LIMBS LIKE THAT! I'LL KILL 'EM, THE LITTLE BRATS!

Me: *Holding him back* Calm down, Mav! It's part of the story! Roll with it!

Mav: *Calms down* Still! I wish the spider got 'em, the little buggers!

Me: Shush, now, Mav! At least we got to update quickly this time.

Mav: True that. So, what will become of Oogie's creation?

Me: Will it be useful?

Mav + Me: Find out next time!

Mav: *Turns to you* Do you guys, like, hate me, or something? You're all saying I ain't getting paid for this! It's because I don't star in this story, isn't it?