The Skellingtons

A/N: Hey everyone! Gee, don't you love it when random inspirations suddenly strikes? It must have been because it was Halloween last week and I watched TNBC the other day…Hooray, holiday season!

I had been neglecting this story for a while because I really wanted to write a chapter based on TennesseeGirl123's lovely suggestion, but I didn't know how I wanted to go about it. Then inspiration suddenly hit me and so here's Chapter 11 in TWO PARTS! I haven't written a chapter this long before so I decided to split it up. I will post both parts at the same time, though, so you can read the whole thing at once.

Big thanks to TennesseeGirl123, Poohdog, GodlyJewel, and CJS51703 for reviewing Chapter 10. Thanks again to TennesseeGirl123 for giving me this amazing suggestion, and, as always, I love reviews and if anyone has any more suggestions for chapters then I'd love to hear 'em! :)

-PenPaperParadise

Chapter 11: Threat (Part 1)

Most people in Halloween Town believed that after the events of that one fateful Christmas Eve, Oogie Boogie was gone for good.

Most people.

Lock, Shock, and Barrel, however, knew that their master was not gone for good because he never could be gone for good. He was the scariest being in Halloween Town, after all! Well, according to the three trick-or-treaters, at least. Everyone else thought the blessed Pumpkin King Jack Skellington was the scariest, but Lock, Shock, and Barrel believed otherwise.

And someone as scary and powerful as Oogie Boogie couldn't be completely destroyed by something as simple as pulling the seams out of his cloth body.

Jack Skellington believed for certain that Oogie was destroyed because he had seen him squashed with his own two eye sockets. Sally and Sandy Claws had seen it too, and that fact was good enough for the rest of the Halloween Town citizens to believe Oogie was finally – finally – gone from their town for good.

But what Jack Skellington didn't know was on that night, after Lock, Shock, and Barrel had hoisted Sandy Claws, Sally, and him to safety and returned with him to town, the trio went back to Oogie's lair and searched for any evidence that he was still alive. They scoured the dungeon and, sure enough, they found one remaining green Oogie bug that had not been incinerated or stepped on. They carefully put it in a little cage and kept it safe until they could figure out what to do with it.

The other citizens in town believed the trick-or-treaters had turned a new leaf because they suddenly started being a lot more helpful to everyone. Whether it was because they no longer had an evil master to tell them otherwise or they were simply scared of Jack, it wasn't clear; but most people did not question their sudden kindness and they chalked it up to the holidays giving them a more generous spirit.

Secretly, however, the mischievous trio had all agreed to act nicer to provide a cover for their plans to resurrect Oogie Boogie. If anyone became suspicious of them, their plans would be foiled and they would have to start from scratch. Though they couldn't quite shed all their mischievous ways, to avoid suspicion they made an effort to be nice to win the trust of the citizens.

As they eventually discovered, resurrecting an undead denizen in an undead town was no small feat, and it was many years before the trio could harvest the fruits of their labors (which wasn't necessarily a bad thing – they didn't really age in Halloween Town, after all). After scouring all the libraries and book stores in town (as well as in a few other holiday towns), they discovered a spellbook that described a spell to bring back the dead. It took them years to acquire all the ingredients necessary to mix the potion, and after nearly a month of precise brewing, the potion was ready at last.

"How are we going to feed it to a bug?" asked Barrel incredulously once Shock had announced the completion of the brew.

The little witch rolled her eyes at him. "Don't you think I thought of that, you dummy? Here," she snapped as she handed him an eye dropper. "This'll work."

"I hope you're right…"

Barrel soaked up some of the potion into the eye dropper and held his breath in anticipation. Lock set the cage containing the Oogie bug onto the roulette table and stepped back. Barrel stepped forward and, swallowing nervously, stuck the eye dropper through the bars of the cage and fed it to the little green bug.

At first, nothing happened.

Shock opened her mouth to say something and then the bug started to twitch violently. It shook and shook and the trick-or-treaters jumped back in surprised.

"Take it out of the cage!" shouted Shock and Lock rushed forward to do so. But then the bug started to grow and grow, bending the flimsy metal of the cage and breaking it open.

As the bug swelled in size the trio inched backward more and more, and in a matter of seconds there was a gigantic green bug squealing and squirming on the roulette table. Before any of the children could decide what to do with the giant bug in the middle of the room, the bug exploded into a thousand, tiny other bugs of different shapes and sizes. They all started crawling around the room frantically and then they scurried back onto the roulette table and started piling on top of each other. The bug pile got bigger and bigger and eventually it started to take shape – into a shape that Lock, Shock, and Barrel were all too familiar with.

"Grab the sack!" Lock ordered the other two, and they picked up the hand-made burlap sack that they had sewn into Oogie's familiar shape. "And grab the needle and thread! We got work to do."

xXx

Despite the warm welcome Lock, Shock, and Barrel had received from the townspeople, Jack still didn't trust the three thick-as-thieves trick-or-treaters. Which was exactly why he had reservations about letting his eight-year-old son Nick go and play with them at the graveyard, for which Nick had just asked him permission. Of all the Skellington children, Nick was the closest to the trio (which was probably because of their shared common interest of pranking others), but Jack never condoned them doing any malicious pranks. However, Nick was drawn to the mischievous children all the same.

"But Dad!" whined Nick. "You've let me play with Lock, Shock, and Barrel before!"

"Yes, but either your Mom or I has always been there to supervise you four," Jack explained to his son calmly. "And I don't think you're old enough yet to go to the graveyard by yourself."

"Eve's been to the graveyard before and she's only one year older than me! Besides, Lock, Shock, and Barrel said they really really want me to come to the graveyard today."

Jack sighed. One of his policies about being a father had always been "pick your battles" and he had a feeling he'd lose this one.

"I'll let you go to the graveyard with Lock, Shock, and Barrel –" Nick instantly cheered– "but only if Eve or James goes with you."

"Aww Dad…" Nick complained. "James is off with his friends so that means I'll have to go with Eve, and she doesn't like the graveyard much…Do I hafta?"

"Yes. Now go tell her that I said she has to go with you. Check in with me before you leave, alright?"

Nick sighed. Well, this is better than not going at all…he reasoned internally.

"Okay," he said sullenly, and trudged up the stairs to go find his older sister.

xXx

"Let's play tag!" said Shock and the other children murmured in agreement.

"Do you want to play, Eve?" Nick asked, and his sister scoffed.

"No thanks. I'll just sit by this tombstone and read since I'm forced to stay here and watch you kids."

"I didn't force you…" muttered Nick. "If you want to leave, you can go."

"And get yelled at by Dad for letting you out of my sight? No way," she said with finality, sitting down against a tombstone as she pulled out a book.

Nick huffed in frustration. "Alright, well we are going to go have some fun. Right guys?"

"Right!" the trio said in unison as they bounded away.

The four friends ran off to go play tag on the outskirts of the graveyard as Eve settled down with her tattered copy of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. She glanced up for a second as she watched the children scattering around, and then rolled her eyes as she looked back down and became engrossed in her book.

She finished the chapter she had started and glanced up again. There was no one in sight. And no sound of the children laughing and playing tag. Panic suddenly struck Eve and she leapt up, throwing her book to the ground and raising a hand to her eyes to scan the area. Aside from a couple of ghosts floating around, her four charges were definitely not in the graveyard and Eve's heart filled with dread.

Determined to find them before anyone else (namely her parents) knew they were gone, Eve first ran to the graveyard gate thinking they had gone into town. She tried to look as calm and collected as possible as she searched for them in case anyone who saw her asked questions, which thankfully they did not. But her search led her nowhere; the kids were not in town.

Then she travelled back to the graveyard and tried to think of where they were.

Maybe they're just playing hide-and-seek? She pondered. But then the person who was "it" wouldn't be hiding too…Maybe they're just trying to prank me. Yes, that's it – they just hid really well so I wouldn't find them.

Once she got to the graveyard, Eve searched behind every tombstone and statue in the graveyard. She shouted Nick's name as well as the names of his three friends, and still she could not find any of them.

She was just on the edge of the graveyard, near the Hinterlands, when she thought she heard a sound. It was an echo of a voice, distant and ethereal, which sounded like someone shouting or talking loudly. She listened intently after she heard it, but the sound did not repeat itself.

Eve scanned the horizon and only saw the big, ugly silhouette of the old treehouse that stood on the outskirts of Halloween Town. She had been told by her parents that it had been abandoned ever since a denizen named Oogie Boogie was destroyed, so she never really thought much of it (even when her parents forbade her and her siblings from going anywhere near it). But Eve remembered how often Lock, Shock, and Barrel liked to ignore the rules…and though Jack had ordered all the townspeople to leave the old treehouse alone, perhaps the temptation to explore it would be too real for her brother and the trick-or-treaters…

Throwing caution to the wind, Eve strode over to the treehouse to look for Nick.

The treehouse stood as a towering, misshapen silhouette against the backdrop of the town. It sprung up from a sinkhole in the ground and there was a narrow, rickety bridge that connected it to the pathway, which in itself was imposing. But the most imposing part of it was the treehouse itself – a dilapidated and distorted old house that perched upon spindly branches which nearly sunk to the ground because of its weight. All in all, it was clearly not a place for children (even undead ones).

Which is exactly what Eve was thinking when she approached the scary building, practically fuming as she wondered how Nick could be so stupid that he would actually want to go inside that rickety old place. She advanced toward the old bridge and peered down at it, seeing how rickety and unstable it looked. Swallowing, she gingerly stepped onto the first plank, adding her weight onto it little by little in case it collapsed, but it did not. She did this with every step, not wanting to fall into the sinkhole, and eventually made her way to the other side. She was on the treehouse property now and she had to tell herself not to be afraid.

Once she got to the other side, she looked up and realized there was no direct path to get to the treehouse. There was, however, a cage attached to a rope that disappeared into the floor of the house above. Seeing no other way to get up there, Eve cautiously stepped inside the cage and looked around for a second, trying to figure out how to pull herself up to the treehouse entrance. Then the cage started pulling itself up to the top and went right through the floor of the treehouse, which had a trapdoor so she ended up inside one of the rooms of the treehouse. Eve leaped out – happy to be out of that creepy elevator-like cage – and looked around.

It was a dark room with various instruments of torture lying around – chains, pliers, cages…Though she had seen scarier things being a citizen of Halloween Town, this room no doubt gave her a bad feeling which made her shiver.

Then she heard the sound again – a wailing that made her insides grow cold. This time she recognized the yell and knew instantly that it was her younger brother.

For a split second she almost called out his name – but then decided not to in case Nick was in danger and she needed to sneak him out without being seen. She knew Nick wouldn't scream like that for no reason so he must be there against his will.

"Help!" she heard Nick cry out again. This time she could hear the direction it was coming from and her attention turned to a wall that had a big drawing of a face with a hole for a mouth. Nick's voice was definitely coming from that hole in the wall, and as she approached it Eve looked inside and saw it looked like a chute.

Should I go down there? she wondered to herself. It could be dangerous…

But her brother was in danger! Ignoring the shiver of fear that rippled through her, Eve climbed into the chute and went tumbling down, down, down…until she hit something solid.

A little disoriented for a second, Eve realized the chute lead her into a separate room which was a lot bigger than the previous one. She was about to look around the room to get her bearings when she heard a familiar voice say, "Eve?"

Eve sat up on the table she had landed on – a roulette table? – and glanced around to see her brother peeking out from behind an iron maiden at the edge of the room. She rushed to him.

"Nick, are you okay? What happened?"

Nick shook his head. "I don't really know. I was playing tag with Lock, Shock, and Barrel and then they chased me all the way over here. I think they had planned to bring me here. They kept saying they wanted to explore the old treehouse and then as soon as we got inside they pushed me down a hole in the wall and I fell in here. I haven't found a way out so I just started shouting for help."

"And you haven't seen them since?" she asked incredulously.

"No. I don't know where they went. But I keep hearing voices and whispers so I think they're around here somewhere. That's why I was hiding."

"Well…It's going to be okay, Nick," lied Eve, altogether unsure of their situation. "We're gonna get out of here. We'll find a way. I know it."

Nick sighed as he looked at his older sister. "I hope you're right. But I don't think –"

He was cut off by the sound of a deep, chilling laughter and a swollen, stitched-up being approached them from out of the shadows.