Chapter VII
"In Our Town of Halloween"

We all screamed and fell over.
"Don't be frightened!" the skeleton said with a happy grin. "You little guys new here?"
Shock stood up and glared at him. "What's it to ya?"
Jack stood back up and crossed his arms and looked at us like we were the most peculiar little things he had ever seen. "Now, exactly who are you?"
"Lock!"
"Shock!"
"Barrel!"

Shock still glowered at him at him. "And just who the heck are you?"
"Yeah!" Barrel and I said simultaneously.
Jack face became mind-numbingly terrifying in the spirit of Halloween. "I'm…JACK!" he roared as his voice carried across the moonlit cemetery. All eyes were on him. "THE PUMPKIN KING!"
Even Barrel, who I thought would be somewhat amused, jumped back in fear.
Jack laughed heartily. "One last scare…it's past Halloween and…that's all for this year."

Jack strode past us with a grin and he kept on walking. "Thanks for finding my dog!" he called back as Zero zipped past us and followed Jack.
I was dumbstruck and I ran after Jack and pulled his coattails. "What do you mean, 'your dog'?" I yelled at him.
"I raised him from a puppy!" Jack said.
I looked at Zero's collar and it was red. My dog's collar was blue.
"I bought him at a shop." Jack explained.
I let go of the coattails. "I'm sorry." I murmured as I tried to hold back tears.

Jack kept walking and I, deep in lamentation, wandered back to Shock and Barrel.
"What's wrong?" Barrel asked me sincerely when one tear got through.
My words kept breaking. "It's not my Zero." I choked.
"My friend had a dog named Zero once," Shock told me as she put her hand on my shoulder, trying to make me feel better. "It's probably just a common dog name."
I guess I had to believe her. I cheered up a little bit and wiped the tear that had quickly gotten to my chin. "Wanna go exploring?" I asked them.

They nodded and we pranced off in the direction that Jack went, even though we couldn't see him anymore. Shock thought up this weird little tune as we bounced along.
She began to sing it. "La la la la la la, la la la la la! La la la la la la, la la la la la! We are all exploring, this is really cool—" she stopped so she could think up some sort of rhyme. "Oh!—whenever Barrel goes to sleep he always starts to drool!"
Barrel glared at her. "No fair!"
I sniggered.
"Fine!" he told her. "Now I've gotta say something about you." He cleared his throat. "We're in Halloweentown; a place with chills and fright! Shock is such a wimp that she'll be scared all day and night!"
I blinked and opened my eyes again to see both of them on the floor and Shock beating on her half-brother. I had to admit that Barrel's rhyme was much better than Shock's. I honestly didn't want them to spoil their fun so I tapped Shock's shoulder and screamed.
"TAG! YOU'RE IT!"

Shock rocketed off her brother and bulleted after me. She was faster than I thought she was, keeping up with me the whole way. She kept trying to grasp the sewn-on tail on my devil costume to try and trip me. We chased each other around for fifteen minutes or so until we ran into Halloweentown Square. We stopped and stared at all the monsters going back to their crooked homes after a night of terror.
"Wow…" we all whispered in unison after all was bare.
Barrel had run away from us and was dancing on top of a winged serpent made of stone that was connected to the fountain. "Look at me, guys! I'm riding a dragon!"
"Get down from there, idiot!" Shock commanded.
"Make me!" he called back. We then heard that horrible voice again.
"Well, well, well! What have we here? Three little brats, huh?"

We turned and saw Oogie in all his burlap "glory", if you can even say "glory", ooze through the bars and stride across the square over to us. He scooped us up in his arms and went back out the gates. We screamed for help but no one bothered to answer our cries. Perhaps they were scared of Oogie Boogie?