Trouble Lurks In Every Corner

Part 10: Where am I going to go?

Lailie looked around the corner of the stairs. She watched as Jack entered the house, followed by Sally. She rushed into her room as they turned to go upstairs.

"What am I going to do, Lock!" She asked quickly.

"Tell them the truth. I dunno," Lock responded, shrugging.

There was a knock on the door. Lailie's head turned.

"Lailie, are you in here?" Sally asked, opening the door and peering in. The room was empty, but the window was open and a black and purple envelope was on the bed. Sally walked all the way in, followed by Jack.

"What do you think this is, Jack?" she asked, sitting down and picking up the letter.

"I dunno… Let's open it," Jack said, taking the letter and opening it. He had a hard time reading it, as did Sally, because it was mostly written in symbols. It read:

°·.·°×W®i±±ÊÑ wi±h Å pÊn,×°·.·°× ×°·.·°×§eålÊÐ wi±h Å ki§§,×°·.·°× ×°·.·°×If yoÚ lØvÊ mÊ,×°·.·°× ×°·.·°×PlÊå§Ê ÅÑswÊr thi§,×°·.·°× ×°·.·°×DØ yØÚ lØvÊ mÊ?×°·.·°× ×°·.·°×Ø® dØ yØu Ñر?×°·.·°× ×°·.·°×YØu ±Øld me ØncÊ but i fo®gØt.×°·.·°× ×°·.·°×SØ ±Êll mÊ Ñow, ×°·.·°× ×°·.·°×Ånd ±Êll mÊ ±®uÊ,×°·.·°× ×°·.·°×SØ i cån §åy I lØVÊ YØÚ TØØ×°·.·°× ×°·.·°×Øf åll the peØple i've êvêr me±,×°·.·°× ×°·.·°×You're the ØÑe i'll Ñêvêr fØ®gê±.×°·.·°× ×°·.·°×Ånd if i diê bêfØ®ê Ú dØ, ×°·.·°× ×°·.·°×I'll gØ tØ hêåvêÑ and wåi± for you×°·.·°× ×°·.·°×But if Ur Ñر ±hê®ê Øn juÐgmêѱ dåy×°·.·°× ×°·.·°×i'll kno Ú wêѱ ±hê othê® wÁy×°·.·°× ×°·.·°×I'll givê ±hê åÑgêl§ båck ±hêi® wiÑgs×°·.·°× ×°·.·°×Ånd ®isk thê lØss of êvê®y±hiÑg×°·.·°×

"Jack… I don't get it," Sally said, looking up from the poem.

"I don't either… it's too hard to read," Jack said, squinting and holding the paper up to his face. Sally pushed him playfully and took the poem away.

"I MEAN I don't get the letter. Look at this, it's got "I Hate You" written all over it!" This time Jack pushed Sally, who laughed.

"Oh, I didn't notice!" He said sarcastically, taking the poem back. They giggled.

But where there is laughter, there is crying.

Lailie had hidden in her closet to make sure her parents read the note, plus she couldn't have made it out of her room on time. Her heart nearly skipped a beat at the tones her parents were using, her already troubled mind sinking even deeper into what was a possible depression. As she listened to her parents giggling on about it, she finally knew for sure that they didn't like her; that they never wanted her in the first place. She started to wonder sadly about what she was going to do. She didn't want parents who hated her. She wanted sweet parents who actually cared about their daughter, and didn't treat her like an old rag that needed to be disposed of.

She heard her parents leave and shut her door. They were still giggling a little, which hadn't made Lailie feel any better. She pushed open the closet door and walked out, tears streaming down her face.

"Lailie…. I'm sorry. I guess you were right….," Lock said, looking up at Lailie from her shoulder.

"I-It's not Y-Your fault Lock…..," She sniffed, looking at the window. "I-I thought I sh-shut this…" She closed the window and latched it, then wiped her eyes off on her sleeve. Lock looked at Lailie, then smiled slightly.

"Well… I still love you," he said, resting his head on the side of her cheek. Lailie blushed slightly and ran a finger through his hair.

Mace sat in the bushes in front of the Skellington Household, pondering what was up with the letter he was reading. He picked up the Black and Orange envelope it came in and looked at the front for the first time.

"What ... the….? Wait.. Maybe this is supposed to tell me where she is so I can find her…," he muttered to himself, looking back at the letter. He read through it again. "It looks like it was written for her par-"

"Hi Mace."

He looked up.

"Hi Kipcha."

Kipcha was a lean girl who was about 5'6". She had waist length black hair that was up in a high ponytail, and wore a dark red tank top that showed her stomach and semi- baggy pants with long chains trailing from her pockets and are tucked into combat boots. A Dark Blue crescent moon tattoo was placed on her right hip, but her pants covered most of it.

"Whatcha doin'?" she asked, leaning over to look at the letter.

"I'm trying to figure out this letter." Mace says, looking over at the she-wolf in human form with an annoyed sort of look. "And I'd prefer it you stopped trying to read over my shoulder." Kipcha grinned at him, showing off small fangs.

"Oh? Why? Is it a letter to that one girl you're obsessed with?" she asked teasingly, prodding his stomach with a finger.

"Shut up."

"Is it?"

"No. It's a letter from her."

"Lemme see it." Kipcha grabbed the letter from Mace's hands and started to read.

"Hey!" Mace jumped to his feet and growled, grabbing at the letter. Kipcha held out her hand and stopped Mace just beyond arms reach.

"You sure this was for you? It looks like it was for someone else," she stated, still reading. Mace growled and clawed at her, but failed to even touch her.

"Where'd you find this?" Kipcha looked over to Mace, who was panting from tiredness.

"On her bed. I just figured it was for me."

"You loser."

"HEY! I'M NOT A LOSER!"

"Well, if you weren't you'd notice this was for her parents. If you look close enough, right here, it says 'Your sad daughter'."

Mace gave a soft growl at his long time friend in the pack. "I haven't actually read all of it yet before you snatched it out of my hands." he retorted, managing to push her down onto the ground and grabbing the letter back. "Just great. What if her parents read my note?"

"You left her a note? OOO!" Kipcha stood up and batted her eyelashes mockingly at him.

"Shut up," he growled, pushing her back on the ground.

"Hey!" Kipcha curled her upper lip in a snarl and tripped him with a round house kick aimed at his legs. She stood up and rested her left foot on top of his chest.

"Be glad I've not told the rest of the pack about your infatuation with the Pumpkin Princess," the she-wolf said with a demonic grin.

"Yeah yeah……" Mace hissed, tapping his fingers on the ground impatiently. They're heads turned when they heard someone leave the house. Mace's eyes sparkled as he watched Lailie run down the pathway to the gate.

"Zat her?" Kipcha asked, blinking.

"Yep. Isn't she pretty?" Mace asked with a grin.

"Whatever…"

"Sh! She's talking!"

"Nn! Why won't this open!" Lailie said, trying to unlock the gate with her key. Mace's happy face disappeared when another voice chimed in.

"Well, maybe Jack and Sally changed the locks after you were kidnapped," Lock said, jumping onto the padlock and examining it.

"Maybe…," Lailie responded, looking at her key and sighing. Mace growled warningly, looking like he was about to explode.

"What's HE doing with her?" He fumed, staring at the little red figure on the padlock. Kipcha looked over at Mace's face and snickered softly.

"Moron," She said in a mockingly affectionate tone. "You poor poor love-sick fool." She shook her head and patted him on the shoulder. "Good luck. And do come home, hmm? Everyone's been wondering where you've been, since the last time you showed your face was over three days ago." At that the female faded into the ground with a few whisks of smoky black trailing after her. Mace growled and melted into the ground, slinking through the shadows back to the Realm of Shadows to think of an idea to get rid of Lock.

"Maybe you could climb over?" Lock suggested with a shrug.

"In a dress? No way José," Lailie said, crossing her arms. Lock sweat dropped and laughed uncomfortably at the expression on Lailie's face.

"Well, you could always pick the lock," he suggested.

"Good idea. I have a hair pin," Lailie said, pulling a bobby pin out of her hair and picking the lock. It fell off the chain with a loud clink and Lailie grabbed Lock and stuck him on her shoulder. She quickly exited the gate and hid behind a bush, watching her front door open. Jack walked down the pathway and looked at the padlock and chain lying at the base of the open gate. He picked them up and looked around curiously, doing a double take when he saw Lailie quickly fold her wings onto her back. He put on a very serious expression and walked over to the bush, pulling back the branches quickly to see who was there.

Nothing.

He examined the bush carefully, but didn't see anything so he put the lock and chain back on the gate and went back inside.

"Whew, that was close!" Lailie sighed, materializing behind the bush like someone was chipping away rock. Lock's eyes seemed to swirl from dizziness and he fell over off Lailie shoulder. She looked over.

"You ok?" she asked, picking him up and looking at him.

"What… was…. That?" he asked, shaking his head like he was shaking off water.

"I dunno… I just said to myself that I wanted to be invisible and I was…"

"That's odd…"

"Yeah. Well, no time to chat, we need to get going." She got out from behind the bush and started down the street.

"Um… where are we going?"

"I dunno….."

"Well, we need to find someplace."

"We could always go to the human world."

"Why?"

"I need to get a good laugh. Maybe we could scare a bunch of humans."

"Ya know, that's actually sound pretty fun!"

"Then to the human world it is!"

w00t! There's the end of part 10! I would like to thank meh friendy, WolfDog21 (who owns Kipcha) for helping me out A LOT on this part. I would also like to thank UmbrellaSamurai for the inspiration for the next part with a little scary rhyme she put in her story. Part 11's dedicated to you guys!