The wind howled past Lock's head as he slowly descended through the dark cemetery. He had done so many times before, but this time seemed different for some reason. It was as if he would never pass through here again.
A chill ran through his body like an electrical current. The familiar shadows looked alien to him now. They weren't the dark silhouettes he recognized. They gave off a sort of aura that made him…scared. For the first real time in his life he was scared.
The wind brushed a couple of tree branches up against his back, making Lock jump three feet off the ground. He spun around and nearly screamed again, for this tree seemed to be giving him a look of sorrow and pity. The dying plant seemed to talk to him, saying, "You mustn't go. Run far away and live life!"
As hard as the small devil tried to ignore these warning cries, he couldn't bring himself to do so. The tree kept starring at him, the look on his face growing more and more woeful. Lock couldn't stand the look on the tree. He turned away and ran.
As his feet carried him through the cemetery faster, he tripped on a nearly invisible log and fell hard on the cold ground. His face was buried in the dirt infested with death, which made him cringe. He pushed himself up and tried to regain his composure.
'This is stupid.' He thought. 'I'm a trick-or-treater. I live in Halloween Town. I've been surrounded by the haunted and dead ever since I was born, and now, all of a sudden, I'm freaking out? It's just stupid.'
He dusted his red suit off and placed his crimson devil mask over his face. This gave him a feeling of power, knowing that whatever was out there couldn't see his real face. Maybe even he could scare off whatever was scaring him.
Fear, after all, is an illusion. It can be proven by many scientists, but none can prove it better than Dr. Finklestien. He had used Lock's good friend, Barrel, in a series of experiments to prove just how fear worked. In the end, poor Barrel was scarred for life, never able to leave the laboratory in fear of…anything.
But the experiments were successful. The doctor proved that fear is driven by the victim's past. Barrel, for one, was born into a world of terrifying things, but since he was raised to believe that these things were good, they didn't frighten him. The doctor flashed images into Barrel's mind, horrifying visions of people being brutally murdered or a possessed clown with terrible facial features. These made Barrel giggle a bit. But Barrel did have a fear when he was a child: the color Sky Blue. So, for whatever reason he had, once the Doctor flashed an image of a Sky Blue ghost, Barrel went crazy! He was driven to near insanity, destroying many things in the laboratory, where he would stay for three more years. Barrel died just a few days before Lock decided to test his limits.
That's where he was now, just outside of Oogie Boogie's old lair. The wind continued to howl tremendously, as if telling the devil to retreat and never return, but Lock pressed onward.
Was he scared of anything? The doctor said everybody was frightened of something, but Lock couldn't think of what. The only thing that made him antsy was Jack Skellington, and that was only when he made a horrible face. But Jack was the Pumpkin King. Everyone was scared of him, even Oogie.
'Oogie Boogie…' Lock thought back. 'That ol' bag of bugs.' He remembered just how he died very vividly and it wasn't until just now it got him worried. Oogie Boogie was one of the scariest and strongest in Halloween Town and he died. If it could happen to Oogie, what stopped Death from happening to him?
He saw the secret entrance he used to take so many times in his past. The secret entrance only he, Shock, and Barrel used to know. The entrance to Oogie's lair. It was remarkably empty now, the bats flown away, the skeletons rotted away to nothing. Lock slowly walked through the passageway and swallowed hard. The tunnel was much darker than he remembered and it took his eyes far too long to adjust.
He felt his way down the hall with his hands against the dry, yet somewhat slimy, walls. His feet rubbed up against something that made the boy shiver. It felt vaguely like the remains of a burlap bag but…Lock didn't want to think about it.
He continued traveling down the dark, narrow sewer-like tunnels until he got to a larger room. It was bigger than he remembered, shadows cast by invisible light sneaking up all around him. They were playing with him. They would make noises on one side of the room, then pop up on the other. Lock hated this. He needed to run away, but knew he couldn't.
He noticed to his right a window where the moonlight used to pour in. There was no moon out that unforgiving night, and Lock wished the window would disappear. As he continued to walk around the forgotten palace, he noticed something on the ground. A lot of small, crunchy things, actually. He peered down at the floor and felt vomit emerging past his throat.
They were the dried-up exoskeletons of thousands upon millions of dead bugs.
Lock couldn't take this anymore. He proved himself enough for one night. He began his climb back up to the tunnels when suddenly:
"Lock, my boy…" a cryptic voice called out. "You've come back…"
The devil spun around, throat in a knot, lungs gasping for air. He felt his fingers twitching, his stomach churning, yet his mind drew a blank. He felt danger and, worse yet, fear. Undeniable, uncontrollable fear.
Lock didn't respond to the voice. He didn't care to know who it was or what it was going to do. He simply wanted to escape from this torturous prison. He bolted up the latter leading to the tunnels, but when he got up there, there was no tunnel to be found.
Lock's eyes shifted in every direction. Could he have gotten lost? Was it possible his mind was playing trick on him? He didn't think. He didn't have time. Fear was growing and it was going to kill him.
"Now, why are you running away, Lock…?" the voice called out again, this time seemingly louder. "Is it to find your friends…?"
'Shock…' Lock thought to himself. She would help him. She would understand. She was a smart one, smarter than Barrel or even he could ever dream of being. He darted around the lonely rotunda, searching for an evasion out. He saw the old playing table with cards and die still present. However, there was a dash of something splattered on a few of the cards. It was red and stained and…
A skeleton came crashing down on top of the poor boy. As hard as Lock tried to scream, no sound emerged from his throat. A sinister chuckle came from the darkness that seemed to be closing in on him.
"I don't think your friends came help you now, son…"
Lock struggled to get the bones away from him, but he had no luck. The musty, rotting skeleton, with flesh still peeling off, clung to him like a leech. The devil took another look at the bones and stopped struggling for a moment. He noticed a tall, black hat placed upon the skull, which had an all-too familiar green mask placed on it. Lock inhaled sharply and felt tears building up in his eyes.
'SHOCK!' he screamed in his head. The skeleton soon fell, quite effortlessly, from his body and onto the cold ground.
'She's…gone,' he thought, as he fell to his knees. 'Shock and Barrel…both of 'em…gone just like that.'
He jumped to his feet. He felt his heart pounding and his lungs empty. His throat was dry as bone and his vision was cloudy because of all the tears. His limbs felt numb as he ran for his dear life, which seemed so short now. Adrenaline rushed through his small body, which seemed to get bigger as shadows continued to swallow him whole. This was the moment he'd been dreading ever since the byproduct of Finklestien's experiments. This was his fear.
He ran as fast as he could through the large room, dashing this way and that to try and find a way out. He didn't have that kind of luck. He could feel the very walls themselves close in on him. He slammed his goose bump-infested body up against a damp, cobweb-covered wall. He was trapped.
Soon all the shadows disappeared and all Lock could see was…nothing. There was no light. There was no hope. There was just blank darkness. Lock could feel something getting closer to him with every breath he took. He cherished every one. The air was getting thicker, or at least that's what his mind led him to believe.
He soon felt something against his neck. Something very prickly and light. It was nothing more than a mere spider, but Lock's mind was still consumed by fear that it didn't matter. He was not simply scared anymore. Nor was he terrified. He was dying, that's how scared he was.
He soon had a strange feeling of something…something being right in front of his face. So close he could reach out and touch it. Lock held his short breathes and waited. This was it. He felt Death itself starring him down in his face. He twitched and gulped many times. He was going to die.
'So this is it then, huh…?' he asked himself. 'This is how it's all going to end. I always wondered how it would happen but…I never imagined so--'
"BOOGIE!" A face suddenly flashed in front of his. A face of shear terror and fright that Lock didn't have time to scream. The very sight of the burlap face, covered with cobwebs and dead bugs, had killed him instantly.
The evil creature removed the mask from his head and grinned happily. Starring down at the sight of the dead devil guaranteed one thing: Nobody would attempt to kidnap the Easter Bunny ever again. The pink "bundle of joy" picked up the body and studied the mask. He then removed an egg from its pouch and painted the little devil's face on it. Smiling, he placed the egg next to the ones with the Skeleton and Witch faces and happily hopped away.
Read and review please! Being my second oneshot, I would appreciate some feedback. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!