The shadow figure crept down the hallway leading the demon-boy to…where ever they were going…
Lock looked around him at the hallway. He had never been allowed down here. He had been allowed to roam freely on the upper levels of the catacombs, where all the shadows congregated and lived, if they lived by his definition. Occasionally Lock had been granted an interview behind a screen with the leader of the shadows, but that strange specter had disappeared back down into the lower levels where Lock was barred from going.
The walls of the underground tunnel were blackish stone, lit with every now and again with wall sconces that burned with green fire. In the green patches of light, Lock could see the walls carved with one continuous wall mural carved into the rock.
On it were scenes of people, more specifically the citizens of Halloweentown. Lock recognized various people from his school history books that he had thumbed through in a fit of boredom in detention. As they walked further down the catacombs, there were more and more figures that began to look vaguely familiar to him. Yeah…they were starting to look real familiar…like those three little figures right there…
Lock stopped dead in his tracks.
It WAS them, him, him and his friends, when they were little. Lock stared at the three figures. Every detail was perfect, right down to Shock's hair and his own bitty tail as it had been back then. Lock stared in wonder and confusion.
"Better hurry, boy…" Lock jerked back, he hadn't realized he had come so close to the wall. "Zentalis asked for you specifically. Best not keep him waiting." Lock faced the shadow that had stopped to wait for him, not even turning back when he talked to him.
"How…?" He began, but the shadow started moving again.
"Don't ask questions, boy. If Zentalis chooses to reveal things, he will reveal them. As he always has. Now keep walking." Lock scowled after him.
'Bitchy ghosts…" Lock thought as he walked on. He let his gaze trail over the carvings. He saw himself and his friends encounter all the things he knew had happened. He even saw them capturing Santa and bringing him to Jack. He saw everything that had happened after that fateful year as well, Shock's rejection of the coven, Barrel's shame at being replaced as Jack's apprentice, Fink's birth…the fight that led him to find Elle two years ago.
He saw his past leading on and on until he saw himself being led by a smoky figure…led to…
A door. The carvings on the wall ended and there was a door. The shadow stood, or rather floated to one side of the door, waiting. Lock looked at the door and did a double take.
On a hook in the middle of the door, just in front of Lock's head hung his red devil's mask. Lock had sworn he had thrown that out years ago…no wait, hadn't he watched the damn thing burn? He reached out and took it off the hook and pulled it back to look into its empty eyes.
So hypnotized was he that he did not see the hook melt into the door. Then the door began to swing open and he turned to look inside. He walked hesitantly through the darkened portal, looking around trying to peer through the gloom that enveloped him.
Suddenly the door slammed shut, throwing Lock into total darkness. He turned around and reached his hands out to touch the door, but he only felt a cool air touch his fingers. Then a blue light began to glow from behind him. It intensified in a flash until he could see everything around him. He was standing in the middle of an immense domed hall. The door through which he had walked had completely disappeared. In fact, there were no doors at all in the hall.
The only thing that was in the room was a huge fireplace that burned with a swell of electric-blue fire. The fire emitted no heat, and burned in complete silence. The whole room was oppressively silent, and Lock was beginning to get freaked out. He turned to examine the room one more time…
When he turned back to the fireplace there were two chairs facing the blue inferno. Lock began to worry about his sanity. He stood for several minutes staring at the chairs, the mask hanging forgotten in his hand.
"Well, at last we meet face to face, Lock. I'm sure you've been looking forward to this."
Lock stiffened and crumpled the mask a little.
"Come on then, let's have a look at what you have there." Lock walked towards the silky voice hiding behind the chair. He stopped between one of the chairs, suddenly hypnotized by the blue flame. He stared at it in awe as a white hand clad in huge rings and long dark green nails extended gracefully from behind the chair to receive the mask that Lock offered him in his trance. The hand accepted it and pulled back.
"Sit, will you." It was a command, not an offer and Lock, still entranced, obeyed.
Amber eyes examined the mask with precision as the cold hands ran over the devilish grinning face.
"So, even though you tried to hide yourself with a mask, the devil still came through."
The man leaned forward to peer at Lock from around the arm of the chair.
Lock never could remember exactly what he had seen when the man looked at him, but he would never forget those eyes. The amber eyes burnt like flame and pierced him straight to his soul. The hair that framed the white face could have been nothing else but dark blue, but Lock couldn't remember how it was arranged and only later did he vaguely remember that thin gold bangles were spliced into the hair, though he couldn't remember what they looked like or what they were made of. The man was dressed in deep green, but that was all Lock could remember from that first encounter with Zentalis.
"Lock do you know why I found you out?" Lock, now only slightly entranced, shook his head no. The man sighed and smiled. Lock shuddered.
"No one has ever understood your full potential Lock. Not even that ridiculous master of yours, Oogie Boogie. No one, that is, until I found you." Lock shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
"You see Lock, no one had a place for you, no one wanted you. You were alone. I say were because as soon as you found your way to us…well you were home." Zentalis pressed his fingertips together.
"You showed promise from the minute you stumbled into our little group. You were willing to go above and beyond everyone else to gain your powers and as a result, anything else you wanted." He turned to Lock.
"Do you still remember what I showed you? That one night?" Lock nodded in silence.
"The future, boy. Your future." They sat in silence for a while. Lock finally screwed up the courage to speak.
"Everything you showed me has come true." Zentalis' eyes flickered. "But…"
"But you wish to know how the rest of what I showed you can come to pass?" Lock nodded. Zentalis closed his eyes and smiled into his hands.
"The girl…you wish for the girl." Lock swallowed and his face tinged red. Zentalis stood and walked towards the fire, clasping his hands behind his back.
"If you truly wish for this, I can make it come to pass. Everything that has already happened did so because of my influence on you yes? The son of Jack Skellington," He spoke this name with a cold hiss, "He ran after I told you to cajole him into joining the Halloween festivities. He found your girl and they have seen each other every Halloween since yes?" Lock nodded.
"And now you want assurance that the rest of what you saw will come to pass." Lock nodded again, and began to stare at his feet. Zentalis smiled secretly into the flames.
'And now it begins.' He turned his head slightly toward Lock.
"This time it might be more difficult to arrange, Lock. We might not be able to do it this time…"
"But you have to!" Lock jumped up out of his chair, his voice bursting with desperation.
"Have to, Lock?"
"I have to have Elle! That prissy-boy Fink doesn't deserve her! Everybody loves him-"
Zentalis had him right where he wanted him.
"So why can't you have some one who loves you?" Lock was stunned into silence.
"Do you want her, Lock?" Lock nodded dumbly. "Would you do anything for her?" Lock nodded again.
"Then you must do something for me, and I will make sure that she is yours." Lock sat back down and stared at the blue flames again. Silence echoed in the hall.
"Do you want her?" Zentalis asked again. Lock remained silent. Zentalis sighed. And walked back to his chair and picked up the mask.
"It's your choice, Lock. You can have her, or you can let him have her. Your decision."
He threw the mask into Lock's lap and turned back to the fire. Lock held the mask in his hands.
"You can't escape the devil, Lock. It's what you are, and what you were born to be. That's why you joined us, and that's why you will help us now. We get what we want, Lock, with or without your help." Lock stared into the empty eyes of the mask.
"And…and what do you want?"
"Halloweentown, Lock. It belongs to the Necromancers. The people of that town drove us out decades ago and now it's time for us to take it back. If you help us to do this, Lock, I will make Elle yours." Lock gripped the mask.
"My friends…Shock and Barrel. I want them to be safe. And Fink! Don't hurt Fink." Zentalis nodded.
"Fair enough, the boy doesn't pose any threat." He turned to Lock. "Very well, then, Lock. It is done. Welcome to the inner circle of the Necromancers." The mask's eyes suddenly flashed with orange light and Lock was trapped. Zentalis walked into the fireplace and turned to smile as Lock became consumed by the dark energies he had placed in the mask. Then he was engulfed in blue flames and disappeared.
Lock couldn't see anything but the burning eyes of the mask, his brain was pounding and he could almost hear his screams as something wormed its way through his mind. Something dark and terrible was peering into him and he couldn't escape. All his thoughts about his life, Shock, Barrel, anything and everything he had ever thought was being examined.
Then suddenly all was silent in his head. He blinked once, twice, and began to breathe easier. He grinned and tied the mask onto his face. His eyes twinkled red with devilish glee as the fire stared to die rapidly.
"Now I can get what I want."
The room plunged into darkness, taking Lock with it. His last words echoed into the deadly night.
"No one can stop me."