Chapter
XXV
"Mind Games"
I carried the artificial brain
behind me to keep it from staring from me. We tiptoed silently down
the dark streets of the gothic nightmare, Halloween Town,
occasionally stepping in a puddle.
"We better be quiet if we
don't want Finklestein to catch us out this late." Shock reminded
us as we drew nearer to the observatory. "He probably thinks we're
in our room sorting our candy, or something."
"Well,"
Barrel interrupted. "You're forgetting about—"
We slid
out of an alley and into view where the Finklestein home. And Sally
was standing in the doorway (This is where Barrel's sentence was
cut off)!
"—Sally."
"WHERE IN THE WORLD WERE
YOU?!?!" the rag doll screamed.
We didn't say anything.
"THE
DOCTOR AND I WERE WORRIED SICK!"
Finklestein was behind her,
scowling at us.
"What're you gonna do to us?" Shock asked
as innocently as she could.
Sally sighed. "I…I dunno…"
she breathed. "We'll talk about it tomorrow. Just go to bed…"
We scrambled up to our room faster than you could say "we're
screwed". Luckily I had hidden the creepy brain behind my back,
avoiding Dr. Finklestein's or his "daughter's" gaze.
"MAN!"
Barrel said in relief the second we shut the door. "That was
close!!"
"You're tellin' me!" I said, exasperated.
No
one said anything for a few minutes.
I heard commotion
downstairs. I pushed the door open ever so quietly. In my sight were
Finklestein and Sally. They both went in their rooms.
"What do
we do now?" Shock asked me when I shut the door.
I turned and
smiled at her. "We do nothing." I replied. "We just wait for
Finklestein to fall asleep and then we move in."
So, we sat
in silence in the dark for forty minutes. "Okay, let's go." I
finally said.
We scampered down the ramp to Finklestein's room.
Barrel opened the door without it even making a creak and we snuck
into action. With the brain in hand, I tiptoed up to the old doc's
bed and was about to open the hatch on his head, when I slipped on
the sheet that was on the floor and I landed with a clunk.
"HUH?!
Wha?!" the doctor was awake.
"Shit!" I heard Shock mutter.
In the meantime, Barrel had disappeared from sight, along with
the brain.
"What the heck are you children doing here?" he
growled.
I peaked behind the disgruntled doctor to see Barrel on
the bed, silently opening the hatch.
The last thing we heard
Finklestein say before the switch was "where's that other kid,
sleepi—"