Disclaimer: I do not own The Nightmare Before Christmas
Jack Skellington, and Trying Trust
Shock's POV
"Well, it's comforting to know you think so little of us." Lock said as he approached Barrel's flank. "Gives us the goal to surprise you one of these days."
My friends stood in front of the beige sack man, who was more than ready to seal our little agreement: he had told us information Jack failed to even hint at, and as payment, Barrel suggested we catch bugs to sustain the Boogie Man. The towering ghoul eyed me, and my friends turned their heads.
"Shock?"
I gazed at the ground, then lifted my eyes to meet them. "I'll do it." I said with a nod and walked up to them.
"Fantastic." Oogie chuckled. "Now, if you don't mind, maybe you little cockroaches could get me a little pick-me-up right now?"
"Fine." I snapped slightly, "But, we're leaving after this." I shifted my eyes around his little casino-styled lair. "I'm not too fond of being underground for so long."
"You got it!"
The three of us wandered off while the Boogie Man did his own thing. Barrel and I followed behind Lock as we looked around. "I'm not seeing anything." Our slicked-haired friend said.
"No duh." I replied, still glancing over the area. "How 'bout you, Bar-" I was cut off when I had turned to see him placing his lollipop in a cage. I rolled my eyes. "You idiot, do you honestly think there's anything here to-"
"Sh!" He hissed as he waved at us from his position behind a box.
Lock and I looked at each other before hiding as well. Peaking out, we waited until a small grasshopper scurried here and there, until finally making its way close to the trap.
"Well, I'll be." Lock whispered as his and my eyes widened in surprise. "Didn't expect Barrel to get the first catch."
"Didn't expect Barrel to give Mr. Oogie Boogie the offer of us doing this in the first place!" I hissed to him.
"Sh!" Barrel whispered again.
We turned our heads when we heard the light clanking of legs on the metal, followed by a slam and a cry in shock.
Barrel climbed on top of the box, lifted the cage and removed his lollipop through the bars. "Dinner is served." He said proudly before giving his black and orange treat a lick.
"Wow." Lock said as we approached him. "I'm impressed."
"We didn't think you had it in you." I smirked.
He chuckled. "Well, not everything is as it seems."
That reminded me of what I had to do back in town. "Come on guys, let's give this to Mr. Oogie Boogie and head back to Jack's."
With a nod, we all did so.
"Ooh!" The sack man cooed when he saw the three us approach him, the large cage in Barrel's arms. The large ghoul smacked his lips and rubbed the ends of his arms together as we placed the prey on the gambling table in between him and the three of us.
"Freshly caught by yours truly!" Our tubby friend boasted with his hands on his fat hips. Lock and I rolled our eyes.
"I knew I hired the right henchmen for the job!"
"Henchmen?" I flinched and hopped onto the table to get up close and personal with this ghoul. "Now, listen here." I ordered, pointing at him closely. "I just agreed to help feed you, as did my friends. By no means did we agree to do any other kind of 'service' for you."
"Shock, keep it down." Lock whispered warily, slightly afraid of what Oogie Boogie might do to us.
No. I needed to speak my mind.
"Y-yeah, Shock." Barrel's voice shook slightly as he cowered, too. "N-now's not the time for you to b-be brave. Thing's're different here. . ."
Snarling, I straightened up and held my glare. "Enjoy your meal, Mr. Oogie Boogie."
Hopping down, Barrel and I followed Lock out of the lair. However, as we did so, chills crawled up my spine when I overheard Oogie a distance away from us.
"Hm." He pondered with a smile. "Mr. Oogie Boogie, hahahaha, I can get use to the sound of that."
Shuddering, I continued onward with my friends. There was only one problem, though . . .
"Hey, does anyone know how to get out of here?" Barrel asked and we all stopped.
"No." Lock admitted, biting his lip and looking down.
He and I looked up at the light from the outside emanating a long distance above. "Surely, there must be some way." He deducted as he marched around our surrounding area.
"Well, obviously there's one," I retorted, "if Mr. Oogie Boogie is able to make his way into town." Though, part of me dismally thought he just appeared via the shadows. If that was the case, we lacked that ability.
Lock gave me a look before looking around some more.
"Hey, that reminds me." Barrel said, "Since when did you start calling him that?"
"I don't know!" I snapped, "Now, shut up and help us look!" After saying that, I huffed away into a dark tunnel. Hugging myself, I was alone with my thoughts.
I don't know why I started calling the ghoul that. . . I kept telling myself that, but deep down I knew. Deep, deep down, there was a part of me that actually wanted to stay with the sack man. It was almost like Jack's reluctance to give us an answer, regarding his relationship with Oogie, completely severed my respect and trust for the Pumpkin King.
I sighed. Hopefully my talk with Jack will sort all of this out.
Then, I bumped into something. "Huh?" I could barely see through the darkness, but I reached in front of me and felt a mysterious item. Processing it for a moment, my eyes widened when I found out what it was. "Lock, Barrel! There's a rope ladder over here!"
"We're coming!" I heard my tubby friend's voice echo as I faintly made out his and Lock's feet quickly padding their way over to me.
"Shock, where are you?" Lock called.
"Over here, you idiot, just follow my voice!"
"Yeah, how could we miss it?" He muttered.
"I heard that."
Finally, I could make out their bodies as they zeroed in on me. "It's right in front of me. I'll head up first, but be careful."
Their silence indicated a nod in response and, one by one, we began our ascent.
It was a difficult climb, and there were a few moments when one of us would slip and the other two would cling for dear life, or, help the other. Not like it really mattered if we fell. I mean, I still can't believe we're living our afterlife. However, dismissing that thought, we finally made it to the top and climbed our way back onto the beautiful, grey earth of Halloween Town. Only, we weren't necessarily in the town.
"Where are we?" Barrel asked as we scanned the area.
"Hm." I said, then looked up and a sinking feeling made its way inside of me. "Right outside of Mr. Oogie Boogie's place. Quick, let's get out of here."
We scurried our way back into town, not stopping to answer questions or the like, and pressed onward to Jack's home. We closed the tall gates behind us, to separate the excited townspeople, before scurrying up the stairs to the front door, and going inside.
"Zero! Jack?" We called as we ran up the spiral staircase. However, when we made it to Jack's room, we did not find the skeleton man; only Zero.
He barked and darted over towards Lock, Barrel, and me to greet us warmly as he spun around and weaved between us. We laughed as he did so.
"Zero, do you know where Jack is?" Lock questioned.
He barked a few times, then looked out the window.
"Will it be later?" Barrel asked and the dog barked once more.
"Guess that answers our question." I said with defeat as I plopped down on the floor. Zero could hint I wasn't feeling so up to it, so he pressed his cold, vacant body up to mine. "Thanks, Zero." I smiled and attempted to pet his head.
"Well, what do we do now?" Barrel wondered.
"Do you want to deal with the townspeople's questions?" Lock challenged, earning a frantic head shake, "Then I suggest we stay put here, until Jack comes home." And that we did.
We waited hours, and barely did anything at all but stare up at the tall ceiling. Finally, after a whole lot of nothing, we heard the front door open and close.
"Zero, I'm home!" A few moments later, we all sat up quickly as the Pumpkin King made his way up the stairs. It's rather safe to say he was not expecting to see the three of us standing in line, and our arms folded. "Well, hey kids." He said, a hand on his pelvis, and the other rubbing his skull. "Where have you been?"
"We need answers, Jack." I demanded and he flinched.
"Excuse me? Answers for what?"
Here we go. I took a breath and exhaled.
"Why didn't you tell us you hated Oogie Boogie so much?" I flinched and glared at Barrel. "Sorry." He said to me.
"Whatever do you mean?" Jack almost chuckled.
"Admit it," Lock chimed in, pointing at him, "you even said so yourself the first time we were in town, that you didn't want him near us!"
"So, we want to know why!" I finished.
He stared at us for a while with wide eye sockets. "He's just a trouble-maker, that's all."
That really wasn't the best thing to say in reply. "Well, so are we!" We all shouted, putting our masks on.
I felt hot tears threatening to escape from my eyes. "That's what made our past lives so rough! Nobody wanted us around, because of all the pranks we pulled!"
"Listen, Shock," he said gently, raising his hands to calm us down, "I never said there was anything wrong with trouble-makers. Here, they're more than welcome."
"But, you said Oogie was a trouble-maker when we asked questioned you just now!" Barrel exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell us you sentenced him to stay locked up in his tree?"
Jack narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. "Sentenced him? What in the world are you kids talking about?"
"He said so himself that's what you did to him!" Barrel continued, "All because you got jealous that he was doing a better job scaring kids, than you were!"
"I would never even fathom such an action!"
"But, you're explaining yourself, now! After we went to find the answer for ourselves!"
"You kids never asked why I didn't trust him." Jack urged, trying his best to reason with us and calm us down at the same time.
"Do you think you could have taken in the fact that we we're both mentally and physically exhausted from our coming here and entire change in, like, everything!" Lock shouted, tossing his mask onto the floor.
"Lock, please-"
"No!" I screamed, throwing my own mask to the ground, and silence came over the room. Barrel removed his mask, and Zero whined as he cowered behind Jack's desk beside our basket bed, under the window.
All eyes, and eye sockets, were on me now. My gloved-fists were clenched tightly and I held my dark glare. "Jack," my voice was trembling with rage and distraught and my tears continued to threaten my eyes, "you could have told us, on our way to your house, why you didn't trust him."
"But, Shock, I was focused on getting you three away from the excited townspeople. I knew how tired you must have been, and I knew you did not need all of those questions pressing on you the day you got here." He put his hands on his chest as he gently stepped closer to us, but we stepped back and cluttered together. "I care about you kids."
"You could have still given us some knowledge, so we knew why to avoid him" I growled.
"Shock."
I turned my back to him and folded my arms. Closing my eyes immediately gave the tears permission to escape. Lock and Barrel comforted me for a moment before pausing. I could tell they were glaring at Jack, with toyed emotions reflecting in their own eyes, as well.
"Kids. . ." Jack said and he crossed the room the come right up behind us. Ignoring what Barrel and Lock were shouting at him, his long arms wrapped themselves around us and brought us close to him. I gasped, panicking. I was never, ever shown this type of gesture before in my life, let alone afterlife, and my breath began to hasten drastically.
"Shock, calm down!" Barrel cried, as I began to full-on hyperventilate and attempt to push Jack's limbs away.
"Let me go! Let me go!"
"Jack!" Lock began to push at his arms, as did Barrel. "Let us go!"
"No." He said firmly, yet with a touch of care to his tone, and his embrace only tightened around us. "You kids are hurting. By what I've picked up over the few days you've been here, and living with me, you never knew anyone, other than yourselves, whom you can trust. I admit it, I should have explained my reasons to you kids sooner than later, but I felt as though there was never a good time to do so.
"It makes me sad that it's come to a situation like this when I must, but at least you kids will know." He took a breath, before releasing us and turning me around to look at his face, a sympathetic smile stretched across it. "The reason why I don't want you around Oogie, is because of the mischief he causes." He held up a finger when we opened our mouths to protest. "Your type of mischief is on a different scale than his."
He smiled more as he stared at my tear-stained face, then looked at Barrel's and Lock's distraught, scared faces as well. "You kids, only prank to your pleasure and don't mean any harm. Oogie, on the other hand, has caused distress in this, here, town here and there. I warned him to ease up, so that nobody would get hurt, but he became way in over his head over time. . . I just want to keep your kids' innocent intended ways to stay the way they are. Halloween Town can use some of that after the crazy things Oogie has done."
The three of us stayed quiet. It was true: we were basically broken. There was never anyone in our lives who we could trust, nobody but the three of us. Even Barrel had it rough. He first became drawn to Lock and I when we had pranked his house on Mischief Night. Barrel had a knack for pranking, as well, and we soon became the best of friends; but, with Barrel's mom so over protective, and his father the chief of the police department, our close-knit friendship was rather hard to maintain.
But this man. This, skeleton man. He showed us a world to which we had no knowledge of. A world where we are accepted. A world where we could just be ourselves and live our lives. A world where we could actually develop a trusting relationship with other people. . . It was all so much to take in so suddenly and after so long of the complete opposite.
"Jack." I said quietly, my head bowed so my hat's rim could hide my tear-stained, pale face.
"Yes, Shock?"
I paused for a minute or two and my lip quivered slightly. "I'm sorry." A sole, final, tear trickled down my face.
"Me, too." Barrel looked down, too, his countenance the same as mine.
"Me, three."
Jack smiled warmly at us, and his empty eye sockets were filled with understanding. "Don't mention it." He gave us another tight hug, and we, for once, leaned into it.
I felt like such a jerk for the ordeal we had put this kind, skeleton man through. He was truly good-hearted and only wanted to keep us safe. Yet, we treated him so . . . I won't even finish that thought. For now, I was going to take in all of the good that we have. I know Barrel and Lock will do the same. From now on, we were going to be more open to others and be wary of the judgments that we make of others. That was to be the only thing different about ourselves. We would still be the same old little pranksters we always were, and that would never change.
However, one thing intervened in us living the lives we normally would. . . And that would be our bargain with the Boogie Man. . .
Honestly meant to update for Halloween, but that clearly didn't happen. Hope you all had a fantastic Holiday! And I wish you all a Happy New Year! :)