Chapter XXXVI

'A New Beginning'

I woke up to silence; creepy, awkward silence that deeply frightened me. There was also blackness; I could see nothing at all and something was jabbing me in the back. Was I dead? No, I was in a humongous pile of trash and I dug my way out wearily. I felt like I just got hit by a truck. When I reached the surface, Mega Oogie (thank goodness) and Jack were gone.

'We won.' I whispered, bone-tired. When I got no response, I realized that Shock and Barrel had disappeared. 'SHOCK?! BARREL?!' I got up to look for them and a humongous pain shot up from my leg. It was probably broken from when all that trash fell on me. I was lucky that was all that happened. I dug for them slowly for what seemed like hours but there was no sign of either of them. When I was just about to give up, Shock burst out of one of the holes I had made.

'Lock, are you okay?' she asked me.

'I think my leg's broken, but I'm fine. You don't look so good.'

All over Shock's body were scrapes and bruises that would take quite awhile to heal. She was still luckier than me. 'I think I'm alright. Oh, your forehead's bleeding.'

It was true, the left side of my forehead was covered with the sticky, warm, red stuff. I hated the sight of blood ever since I saw my dad's when he died, let alone my own. To think that I was the one thinking up those dastardly plans when we were planning to kidnap Sandy Claws.

After a little while, we found Barrel under another pile. He was unconcious, but okay. Someone up there liked us After he awakened, we walked around (me, being supported by a stick we found) for a way out.

'Look!' Barrel finally called. He was pointing to a stone pumpkin with a white light emitting from it.

'Should we go in?' I asked.

'It's the only way that looks like it leads to somewhere else.' Shock answered.

We stepped into the pumpkin and we were on the stage in the Town Hall.

'What the heck just happened?' Barrel asked, confused.

'It was probably some kind of portal.' I explained.

The three of us walked outside to Town Square and, of course, Jack was surrounded by adoring townsfolk near the fountain.

'Citizens of Halloweentown,' Jack Skellington announced, 'I, as the Pumpkin King, am pleased to anounced that Oogie Boogie has been successfully destroyed!'

The townsfolk cheered wildly.

'It was tough,' Jack continued, 'but I finally managed to pull it off!'

'HE managed to pull it off?' Shock whispered to us angrilly. 'What are we? Chopped liver?'

'Well, well, well!' said the Harlequin Demon mockingly. 'If it isn't the little Oogie bringer-backers!'

We bowed our heads down in shame.

'What do you suppose we do with them?' the Devil asked the others.

'Let's lock them up!' the Clown shouted.

'Let's bury them!' said the Corpse Kid.

'No matter what we do,' Dr. Finklestein called out, 'they need to be punished; they ruined my library!'

'Who cares about your stupid library?!' snapped the Hanging Tree, 'They almost destroyed Halloweentown!'

The Hanged Men nodded in agreement.

Jack walked over to us and faced the citizens. 'Why punish them?' Jack asked.

The townsfolk, including us stared, puzzled, at him.

'They were obviously FORCED to work for Oogie!' Jack explained to them.

The three of us smiled sheepishly; we all knew very well that we were never forced. For the first time, I realized that this was of our own free will.

'Don't get me wrong,' Jack continued, 'Oogie may not be as intimidating to us as he may be to three little children like Lock, Shock, and Barrel, here.'

'Then what DO we do with them?' asked the Wolfman.

We were wondering the same thing ourselves.

Jack thought for a moment. 'Why, I'll take them in!' the skeleton exclaimed.

Everyone gasped.

The Pumpkin King turned to the Mayor. 'As long as it's okay with you, Mayor.'

The Mayor's anxious face was on and we whispered to himself nervously. 'Will you keep them out of trouble?'

'Most definately!' Jack said. 'I'll come over to the Town Hall tomorrow to sign adoption papers!'

I looked at my friends and they looked back at me.

With all the awkwardness, we completely forgot to inform the townspeople that we defeated Oogie and not Jack. The Pumpkin King took us back to his home and he let us stay up to about eleven but then put us to bed on his living room couches. Before he turned the lights off, he crouched down, looked at us and said with a smile.

'Thanks.' he said softly.

'For what?' I asked.

'For helping defeat Oogie Boogie.' he clarified. 'Don't think I didn't see you way up there!'

'Why didn't you tell everyone that we helped out?' inquired Barrel.

Jack sighed. 'I knew this was coming.' he muttered to himself. 'It's a little complicated; you see, the Citizens of Halloweentown need someone to look up to; a hero! As fate would have it, being the Pumpkin King, that 'someone' would be myself. They need a leader to guide them and tell them what to do. That's why they helped me take over Christmas last year; if I wanted it so, it must be the right thing to do. The town really just isn't ready for you accused-villains to be the ones that saved the day.'

'We understand.' sighed Shock, disappointedly after a long pause.

Jack saw our faces of failure and felt guilty. 'I'll tell you what,' he whispered as if someone was eavesdropping, 'I WILL tell them some day. I promise.'

We grinned slightly and so did Jack.

'Now,' he grunted as he stood up. 'Off to bed! We have a big day tomorrow with all of the adoption papers and whatnot. Oh, and we've got to dip you all in the fountain to heal those injuries of yours.' He tucked us in and went up the stairs and turned off the lights so theat the only illumination in the room was the moonlight shining brightly on my face. 'Goodnight. If you need me I'm going up to my study to try anf find out the true meaning of Christmas.' He closed the door to his study and all was silent.

'So this is how it ends?' I asked the darkness.

'Uh-huh.' Shock replied.

'Yup.' Barrel pipped.

'The three of us and a happy ending and a friendly new guardian?'

'Uh-huh.'

'Yup.'

'And through all our peril and hard work, we sill managed to fail because Jack got all the credit.'

'Uh-huh.'

'Yup.'

I was quiet for a second. 'I love you guys. You're my best friends.'

'I love you, too, Lock.' Shock said quietly. 'Friends 'till the end.'

'I love you both.' whispered Barrel. 'Friends forever.'

I smiled quietly to myself in the darkness. 'We won.' I whispered almost inaudiably and I drifted off to sleep.