Woooh the forth chapter! I got a Lock bobble head for Christmas so I have
him next to my computer. ^^ *looks at Lock* oh I just love him so much!
*hits his head, and it starts to bobble* WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE look at him
go! I really hate taking Lock out of character, but it must be done a
little for the plot of this story, but I will try to keep him the little
devil he is for the majority of the story. I tried to sneak a little of
that in this story, I hope its enough, feel free to tell me if you still
don't think he is in character enough and I will try my best to redeem my
self ^^;; I hope I am doing good with this story because I thought up a
cool plot and everything, and when I hear I let people down I feel bad...so
I'm trying sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hard to make every one happy with
this story.
The streets of the real world dead quiet for night time, even if these were the suburbs of a large city. Back in Halloween Town, the night was very much dead, but not quiet. The silence was unsettling, it would make it harder for him to sneak around. Lucky for him, all his years of being a sneaky little town menace would pay off.
Apart from being quiet, the real world was so generic; every house looked almost like the other. He wondered how he was to find his sister, but there was this small feeling inside of him that seemed to almost be guiding him along. Lock had no idea what greater force was doing this to him. He wasn't sure to curse or be thankful of its presence. Either way, when he tried to think of his sisters where a bouts, a name would pop into his mind, the Collage of William and Marry. He figured that's where he needed to go.
Dawn was approaching and Lock realized he had no place to be, jumping into this was such a bad idea. He wished he was back home with Shock and Barrel without a care in the world. He had only been in the real world for about 5 hours, but that was still the longest he had ever been away from his friends. A sound suddenly wrenched him from his thought of his friends. He looked for the source of the low droning sound and saw that it was in fact a car.
"Weird..." He said aloud to no one. It wasn't that Lock had never seen a car before, there were a few in Halloween Town, but they ran so smoothly and the engine gave of a low rumbling and not a clanking sound. This one was rather different in other ways too. On the roof there seemed to be lights and the car was black and white with writing on the sides. As the car got closer, it caught Lock in the head lights. The occupant inside the car slowed the vehicle. He was in a uniform, complete with a hat and badge. Lock new better then running although he wanted to out of the fear he felt, but he knew his short legs would not take him very far. It then finally hit Lock who this man was. He was some kind of human law officer.
"Hey you, kid!" Said the cop, rolling down his window. "What are you doing roaming the streets at 3 AM? And *why* are you dressed like that?" He asked lock with a rather inquisitive look on his face.
Lock was not sure how to reply to the officer, he couldn't exactly tell him the truth for obvious reasons.
"I...uh....Well I'm looking for my sister." He said, finding the cop staring at his teeth. The man didn't know if his eyes were going on him, but he could swear this boy had fangs.
"Oh w-well, is she lost?" He stammered still looking at Lock, staring into his unnaturally yellow eyes.
"No," Replayed Lock bluntly, "I just can't find her. Now if you would just leave me alone I could go back to looking for her."
"Now see here boy, I guess you didn't know there is a curfew in these parts. Children are not supposed to be out at this hour without an adult. Do your parents know you're out here all alone?"
"I have no parents, now would you please let me go?" Lock's voice was sounding irritated and impatient.
"No boy, I need to get you home, if you have no parents who do you live with?" sad the cop, who was now out of his car and was advancing toward Lock.
"Not that it's any of your busyness, but I live with my friends." He said with a sigh, he knew he was wasting valuable night time needed to travel.
"Hey boy, you need to take a better tone when talking with an officer. Do you have any adult figure where you live?" In the pale light of the moon Lock could almost see the cop's face turning slightly red.
"Nope." Said Lock in a cool tone, realizing if he talks the right way, he could really get this pathetic human really mad, all fear he had felt before was completely gone. "Where I live I don't need to live with an adult. I used to have one who lived in the chamber below, but he was killed." He said the last part with a grin, but was in no way happy about Oogie Boogie's death, he just wanted to mess with the mortal. It was an old favorite game he shared with Shock and Barrel.
Upon hearing this, the cop's eyes widened. "Where do you live?" the question had been a demanding one, one that said 'you better tell me or I *will* hurt you' this gave Lock even more reason not to cooperate...
"I can't tell you...it's a secret" Lock said both sarcastically and truthfully, flashing a wild fanged grin. But it soon proved to be a mistake.
"Ok! I think I should take you back to the station. Put your hands up where I can see them." His tone was furious. But Lock was still not threatened.
"No," Lock replied swishing his tail coolly.
"I said put your hands up where I can see them!" Said the cop who was now wielding a gun. Lock knew it would do no damage because he was dead, but it would make a rather annoying wound that would take three times as a mortals wound to heal. He was thinking about giving in to the cop when suddenly a baseball flew out of nowhere and hit the cop in the head. "What the--?" He said looking around confused holding one hand to his head where the ball hit. Then another thing zoomed past lock hitting the man in the other side of his head. From the looks of it, it appeared to be a shrunken head. "Who's doing that!?" yelled the man furiously. Insane giggles came up from some where in the darkness. Lock spun around to see none other then Shock and Barrel pop out from the bushes. They had with them a large trick or treat bag, the same they used to kidnap Sandy Claws. Lunging at the man, they forced him in the bag. He fell to the ground, wriggling around, and letting out muffled yelled of anger.
"What are you guys doing here?" Lock demanded. "How did you find me?"
"We followed you, you just left us without warning. Lock we are your friends you know, you really freaked us out, you seem too...normal." explained Barrel.
"Yeah," piped in Shock, "you weren't acting like yourself at all, you looked like you were actually thinking for once in your life." She gave Lock a playful punch. Lock smiled in return, he had really taking his friends for granted in the past few days. He really missed being his old carefree self. But perhaps the time he was going to spend in the really could prove to be fun now that he was with his friends.
"I'm sorry I ran off like that." Lock in the past was rarely sincere with his friends, it was just not their style. He figured he got the message across so he switched back to playful Lock. "Now, what do we do with this guy?" He said giving the bag the cop was in a good kick. "He is really big, should we just leave him here?" Shock and Barrel smiled at him, and Shock took her fingers up to her lips and whistled. Out of the bushes came none other then the walking bath tub. Locks eyes lit up upon seeing the tub, his feet hurt from walking. The tub could take him where he needed to go. The three decided to take cop and him and stick him in the back of his car. Lock decided it was time to tell his friends everything.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
His friends stared at him blankly, not knowing if their companion had gone completely insane or not. The sun was now slowly coming up over the horizon, and the early commuters were already on the road. The three had to head to a small patch of woods for the time being.
"So, is that what has been making you act so crazy lately?" Inquired Barrel.
"Yeah, that's it," He explained, "I need to find Sarah so I can put these feelings to rest, I figured the guilt would go away once I find her and tell her everything is going to be ok." He lied. He just didn't want his friends to see him so...caring.
"Jack sure is mad you left without him, he could pop up at anytime looking for us you know." Shock warned him, but the warning was not a welcomed one for Lock.
"So...where are you planning on staying while you're looking for your sister?" Barrel asked, his eyes fixed on the other side of the road, as the cop was still wriggling in the back seat of his car.
"I'm not sure..."
"Uhg, leave it to Lock to jump into to things without even thinking." Shock exclaimed, rolling her eyes.
"Oh shut up!" Was the only comeback Lock could think of. He was too tired to really retaliate.
The sun was now up shining brightly. It was a little too bright for Lock, Shock, and Barrels liking, so they continued to stay in the shade of the trees. They passed the time by making small talk about almost anything. The reminisced about time long since past, joked about how cool it would have been if Oogie Boogie really got to eat Sandy Claws (because he was too cheery all the time...and it was too weird for them) They talked about how much they missed Boogie's snake and spider stew. They laughed as Barrel catch some bugs to snack on, but fell out of the tub reaching for a beetle flying past his head. Lock had not felt so relaxed for such a long time. He enjoyed just sitting and talking with his friends.
As the day dragged by, they did however start to get rather bored. It wasn't in their nature to be inactive. They were fidgety and kept kicking and rolling on to each other. In result of this I few fights broke out, with the pulling of hair, and the smacking with masks, they were in three words, back to normal.
"I'm so booooooooored!" whined Shock, "I can't stand just sitting here! I need to do something! I don't care how bright it is! I need to get out of this tub!" Shock leapt out of the tub, stretching.
"What do you plan on doing Shock, its daylight, we're dead, we just might stand out a little... normally I wouldn't care, but we are a little outnumbered." Barrel said, in a sarcastic voice, hopping out of the tub himself.
"Ooooh I don't care! Can't we just explore a little, we never get to come here anymore, and I want to make the best of it. Now come on, let's look around." Shock commanded.
"I guess you're right, we can't just sit here all day talking, but what about the tub?" Said Lock who climbed out of the tub himself.
"Oh, it will be fine, now come on!" The little witch grabbed Lock and Barrels hands dragging them out of the shelter of the woods. It took a good twenty minutes for their eyes to adjust to the light.
"We sure have gotten a lot of funny looks, you would think they could be a little more polite, don't you think Shock?" Said Lock in a voice loud enough for the passing people to hear.
"Yes Lock, I think it's very rude of them, what do you think Barrel?" Said shock, trying to hold back her giggles.
"Yes, but I say we really give them something to stare at!" Barrel took out a couple of stink bugs from his pocket, the kind you can only find in Halloween Town that are 3 times more potent then the once found in the real world. From his other pocket he pulled out a small shrunken head that would scream then you pulled its hair. Barrel tossed to stink bugs to the ground and squashed it under a bare webbed foot. The smell was enough to gag a maggot, but the three of them breathed deep, loving the smell. The people around them coughed and choked trying to run to escape the smell. The trio fell to the ground with laughter.
"Lock, I can't believe you used to be one of them!" Commented Shock, looking around at the people covering their noses as they passed and shook their head.
"Yeah," agreed Lock him self, "Neither can I..."
A/N Sorry I left off at a weird place, I really couldn't put much more in this chapter for it to really flow with the rest of the story...Thanx for all you r reviews! I'll update soon.
The streets of the real world dead quiet for night time, even if these were the suburbs of a large city. Back in Halloween Town, the night was very much dead, but not quiet. The silence was unsettling, it would make it harder for him to sneak around. Lucky for him, all his years of being a sneaky little town menace would pay off.
Apart from being quiet, the real world was so generic; every house looked almost like the other. He wondered how he was to find his sister, but there was this small feeling inside of him that seemed to almost be guiding him along. Lock had no idea what greater force was doing this to him. He wasn't sure to curse or be thankful of its presence. Either way, when he tried to think of his sisters where a bouts, a name would pop into his mind, the Collage of William and Marry. He figured that's where he needed to go.
Dawn was approaching and Lock realized he had no place to be, jumping into this was such a bad idea. He wished he was back home with Shock and Barrel without a care in the world. He had only been in the real world for about 5 hours, but that was still the longest he had ever been away from his friends. A sound suddenly wrenched him from his thought of his friends. He looked for the source of the low droning sound and saw that it was in fact a car.
"Weird..." He said aloud to no one. It wasn't that Lock had never seen a car before, there were a few in Halloween Town, but they ran so smoothly and the engine gave of a low rumbling and not a clanking sound. This one was rather different in other ways too. On the roof there seemed to be lights and the car was black and white with writing on the sides. As the car got closer, it caught Lock in the head lights. The occupant inside the car slowed the vehicle. He was in a uniform, complete with a hat and badge. Lock new better then running although he wanted to out of the fear he felt, but he knew his short legs would not take him very far. It then finally hit Lock who this man was. He was some kind of human law officer.
"Hey you, kid!" Said the cop, rolling down his window. "What are you doing roaming the streets at 3 AM? And *why* are you dressed like that?" He asked lock with a rather inquisitive look on his face.
Lock was not sure how to reply to the officer, he couldn't exactly tell him the truth for obvious reasons.
"I...uh....Well I'm looking for my sister." He said, finding the cop staring at his teeth. The man didn't know if his eyes were going on him, but he could swear this boy had fangs.
"Oh w-well, is she lost?" He stammered still looking at Lock, staring into his unnaturally yellow eyes.
"No," Replayed Lock bluntly, "I just can't find her. Now if you would just leave me alone I could go back to looking for her."
"Now see here boy, I guess you didn't know there is a curfew in these parts. Children are not supposed to be out at this hour without an adult. Do your parents know you're out here all alone?"
"I have no parents, now would you please let me go?" Lock's voice was sounding irritated and impatient.
"No boy, I need to get you home, if you have no parents who do you live with?" sad the cop, who was now out of his car and was advancing toward Lock.
"Not that it's any of your busyness, but I live with my friends." He said with a sigh, he knew he was wasting valuable night time needed to travel.
"Hey boy, you need to take a better tone when talking with an officer. Do you have any adult figure where you live?" In the pale light of the moon Lock could almost see the cop's face turning slightly red.
"Nope." Said Lock in a cool tone, realizing if he talks the right way, he could really get this pathetic human really mad, all fear he had felt before was completely gone. "Where I live I don't need to live with an adult. I used to have one who lived in the chamber below, but he was killed." He said the last part with a grin, but was in no way happy about Oogie Boogie's death, he just wanted to mess with the mortal. It was an old favorite game he shared with Shock and Barrel.
Upon hearing this, the cop's eyes widened. "Where do you live?" the question had been a demanding one, one that said 'you better tell me or I *will* hurt you' this gave Lock even more reason not to cooperate...
"I can't tell you...it's a secret" Lock said both sarcastically and truthfully, flashing a wild fanged grin. But it soon proved to be a mistake.
"Ok! I think I should take you back to the station. Put your hands up where I can see them." His tone was furious. But Lock was still not threatened.
"No," Lock replied swishing his tail coolly.
"I said put your hands up where I can see them!" Said the cop who was now wielding a gun. Lock knew it would do no damage because he was dead, but it would make a rather annoying wound that would take three times as a mortals wound to heal. He was thinking about giving in to the cop when suddenly a baseball flew out of nowhere and hit the cop in the head. "What the--?" He said looking around confused holding one hand to his head where the ball hit. Then another thing zoomed past lock hitting the man in the other side of his head. From the looks of it, it appeared to be a shrunken head. "Who's doing that!?" yelled the man furiously. Insane giggles came up from some where in the darkness. Lock spun around to see none other then Shock and Barrel pop out from the bushes. They had with them a large trick or treat bag, the same they used to kidnap Sandy Claws. Lunging at the man, they forced him in the bag. He fell to the ground, wriggling around, and letting out muffled yelled of anger.
"What are you guys doing here?" Lock demanded. "How did you find me?"
"We followed you, you just left us without warning. Lock we are your friends you know, you really freaked us out, you seem too...normal." explained Barrel.
"Yeah," piped in Shock, "you weren't acting like yourself at all, you looked like you were actually thinking for once in your life." She gave Lock a playful punch. Lock smiled in return, he had really taking his friends for granted in the past few days. He really missed being his old carefree self. But perhaps the time he was going to spend in the really could prove to be fun now that he was with his friends.
"I'm sorry I ran off like that." Lock in the past was rarely sincere with his friends, it was just not their style. He figured he got the message across so he switched back to playful Lock. "Now, what do we do with this guy?" He said giving the bag the cop was in a good kick. "He is really big, should we just leave him here?" Shock and Barrel smiled at him, and Shock took her fingers up to her lips and whistled. Out of the bushes came none other then the walking bath tub. Locks eyes lit up upon seeing the tub, his feet hurt from walking. The tub could take him where he needed to go. The three decided to take cop and him and stick him in the back of his car. Lock decided it was time to tell his friends everything.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
His friends stared at him blankly, not knowing if their companion had gone completely insane or not. The sun was now slowly coming up over the horizon, and the early commuters were already on the road. The three had to head to a small patch of woods for the time being.
"So, is that what has been making you act so crazy lately?" Inquired Barrel.
"Yeah, that's it," He explained, "I need to find Sarah so I can put these feelings to rest, I figured the guilt would go away once I find her and tell her everything is going to be ok." He lied. He just didn't want his friends to see him so...caring.
"Jack sure is mad you left without him, he could pop up at anytime looking for us you know." Shock warned him, but the warning was not a welcomed one for Lock.
"So...where are you planning on staying while you're looking for your sister?" Barrel asked, his eyes fixed on the other side of the road, as the cop was still wriggling in the back seat of his car.
"I'm not sure..."
"Uhg, leave it to Lock to jump into to things without even thinking." Shock exclaimed, rolling her eyes.
"Oh shut up!" Was the only comeback Lock could think of. He was too tired to really retaliate.
The sun was now up shining brightly. It was a little too bright for Lock, Shock, and Barrels liking, so they continued to stay in the shade of the trees. They passed the time by making small talk about almost anything. The reminisced about time long since past, joked about how cool it would have been if Oogie Boogie really got to eat Sandy Claws (because he was too cheery all the time...and it was too weird for them) They talked about how much they missed Boogie's snake and spider stew. They laughed as Barrel catch some bugs to snack on, but fell out of the tub reaching for a beetle flying past his head. Lock had not felt so relaxed for such a long time. He enjoyed just sitting and talking with his friends.
As the day dragged by, they did however start to get rather bored. It wasn't in their nature to be inactive. They were fidgety and kept kicking and rolling on to each other. In result of this I few fights broke out, with the pulling of hair, and the smacking with masks, they were in three words, back to normal.
"I'm so booooooooored!" whined Shock, "I can't stand just sitting here! I need to do something! I don't care how bright it is! I need to get out of this tub!" Shock leapt out of the tub, stretching.
"What do you plan on doing Shock, its daylight, we're dead, we just might stand out a little... normally I wouldn't care, but we are a little outnumbered." Barrel said, in a sarcastic voice, hopping out of the tub himself.
"Ooooh I don't care! Can't we just explore a little, we never get to come here anymore, and I want to make the best of it. Now come on, let's look around." Shock commanded.
"I guess you're right, we can't just sit here all day talking, but what about the tub?" Said Lock who climbed out of the tub himself.
"Oh, it will be fine, now come on!" The little witch grabbed Lock and Barrels hands dragging them out of the shelter of the woods. It took a good twenty minutes for their eyes to adjust to the light.
"We sure have gotten a lot of funny looks, you would think they could be a little more polite, don't you think Shock?" Said Lock in a voice loud enough for the passing people to hear.
"Yes Lock, I think it's very rude of them, what do you think Barrel?" Said shock, trying to hold back her giggles.
"Yes, but I say we really give them something to stare at!" Barrel took out a couple of stink bugs from his pocket, the kind you can only find in Halloween Town that are 3 times more potent then the once found in the real world. From his other pocket he pulled out a small shrunken head that would scream then you pulled its hair. Barrel tossed to stink bugs to the ground and squashed it under a bare webbed foot. The smell was enough to gag a maggot, but the three of them breathed deep, loving the smell. The people around them coughed and choked trying to run to escape the smell. The trio fell to the ground with laughter.
"Lock, I can't believe you used to be one of them!" Commented Shock, looking around at the people covering their noses as they passed and shook their head.
"Yeah," agreed Lock him self, "Neither can I..."
A/N Sorry I left off at a weird place, I really couldn't put much more in this chapter for it to really flow with the rest of the story...Thanx for all you r reviews! I'll update soon.