Ch 4 The Day After

Note: After a few months of procrastinating, I finally decided to work on this again! I have a problem… Anyways I was having trouble writing as little as I already did write so… Yeah.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters….

The trip back to the tree house was a little blurry in the minds of the three minds of the children. Though that night, each had a very strange dream. All of them quite ridiculous, Barrel's had been that he, Shock, and Lock had kidnapped a strange pink rabbit type thing. Thinking it was Sandy or something like that. While Shock's, ridiculous as it sounded was of the three of them going to a strange place filled with snow. There were strange creatures with pointy ears everywhere, and then the three of them had kidnapped a big fat man. Lock's dream was by far the oddest of them all; they obeyed some sack -like creature, filled with bugs. Filled with bugs! What was that about?!?

Upon awakening, they had discussed these dreams, laughing at the strangeness of each of them. "I think the bug sacks name was Loogy, or Ollie." Lock muttered after a moment of thinking. He still seemed unsure, but after about thirty-seconds he dismissed the feeling. It was just a silly dream after all. "Ollie? An evil bug-sack named Ollie. We must fear him so!" Shock joked looking at her two friends. Looking to Barrel she asked "So what was the rabbit's name?"

"I don't know, but it was pink and fluffy… Like a pillow!" The smallest boy exclaimed with a happy nod. But after this there was an odd silence each thinking of the funny dreams they had. "Well let's go into town and what's been going on lately." Shock finally broke the silence, standing from the spot she had been sitting. "Good idea." Lock agreed standing as well. Barrel followed suit a smile looked to be glued to his face.

They soon entered Halloween town and something didn't feel right. Something felt missing, but what was it? "Morning." Said a voice that sounded quite pleased. It was the mayor; of course it was the mayor, who else was literally two-faced? The mayor was happy, obviously. "So how was your night?" He asked curiously as he neared the trio.

"Delightful" Chimed Shock

"Quite nice," Commented Lock

"Weird," Barrel chuckled with a smile.

"Good, good" The mayor smiled, muttering something about congratulating the doctor. With that he turned to leave with a simple goodbye.

The three stood there watching him head towards Finkelstiens tower. Some reason they didn't seem all that curious, something telling each of them it would be rude to follow, and being rude wasn't a good thing in their book. It was a bad thing right? No… Wait yes…Yes it was.

After a moment they continued walking, Barrel trailing behind just a bit and occasionally Shock would walk a little off to the right, while Lock to the left. A puzzled look crossed Locks face as he saw Sally walking quickly towards them. "Hello!" She said in her kind voice. "You left these the other day." Barrel, Lock, and Shock looked at what she was holding. "Oh thank you so much Sally!" Shock exclaimed taking the witches mask from the girl, giving her a quick hug. Lock smiled taking the red devils mask as he too thanked her, though without a hug. Barrel carefully slipped his own mask over his face "I knew something was missing" His voice full of happiness as he gave Sally a hug. Sally stood there her face blank, unsure what to think. Not exactly expecting thank you's and hugs. Apparently, besides the three children, Sally had been one of the few, who had not known of what had happened.

Eventually the living doll smiled softly waving goodbye before walking off, they all waved back standing there before continuing on their way. Everything seemed right, though after about a minute, something seemed wrong. Something odd. "I think we should go see Jack" Barrel muttered after awhile of walking. "Excellent idea!" Shock smiled looking back to her skeleton dressed friend. Lock smiled as well. The memory of what had happened to Jack was a little fuzzy, but he had been standing on a grave, and though he had been usually very well balanced, he fell. At least that's what they thought.

The trip to Jack's house seemed to take forever, at least for the two boys. They stopped along the way Shock picking a few withered flowers along the way. Thinking it would make the Pumpkin king feel better. After that they were nearly three-fourths of the way there when the flowers in Shocks hand fell to pieces. Frowning she insisted they go back to find more. Barrel and Lock simply smiled and nodded, not trusting themselves to speak.

Back at the spot she had found the first flowers, Shock frowned, they were gone. But she had left a few behind not wanting to take them all. Perhaps someone else had simply taken them and gone off. She frowned seeing a single flower, but it was white with a yellow center. That didn't seem right. Sighing she left it where it was, walking back to Lock and Barrel. She simply shook her head and they sighed. Beginning to walk towards Jacks house, no flowers. Oh well, he'd understand. Arriving at the gate to Jack's house they glanced towards the musicians not to far away. They just stared up at the house, eventually going up the steps and knocking. They didn't really want to hear the screaming door-bell oddly enough.

The tall skeleton man opened the door, looking tired. His normally wide open sockets, were mere slits, which was odd seeing as his head was a skull, and bone did not bend easily. But being Halloween town there was a lot of things that weren't what one would call normal. The Pumpkin King's head looked completely healed! The crack gone, fast healer… "We just wanted to see how you were doing." Lock said looking up at the tall King. "We were going to bring flowers but…" Shock trailed off looking down at the ground. "So how are you?" Barrel questioned.

Opened his mouth to say something, though closed it, scratching his head in slight confusion. "Ah yes, excuse me." Smiled Jack stepping aside to let them in. "Please come in. I'm doing fine by the way, I was just sleeping."

"Oh that's good," Shock smiled walking in hesitantly, Barrel followed after her, Lock walking into the house last. "So what have you three been up to today?" Jack asked taking a seat on a chair, gesturing for them to sit on the sofa. "Nothing actually." Lock commented. Barrel continued after him, "Though we ran into Sally today and she gave us back out masks!" Jack nodded with a slight smile, while Shock stayed silent, nodding politely. There was an awkward silence, and Jack seemed to be hesitant to say anything. Lock shifted uncomfortably on the sofa, Shock pretended to be looking at the palm of her hand. It looked quite interesting. While Barrel stared off into space a moment before he finally said "Well I guess we should get going. Sorry we interrupted your sleep." Leaving no time for Jack to say anything the trio let themselves out. Walking down the steps and out the gate in a heart beat.

Shock let out a breath she'd been holding from the door, glancing back thankful to see Jack had not come out. It seemed as though Jack was just acting. Maybe she was just being paranoid. "What's with all these flowers?" Barrel questioned no one in particular staring at a white flower with a black center, a few feet away was a similar flower, though the inside was yellow. "There was one when I went back to pick flowers too!" She exclaimed. Though by that time Lock and Barrel were already following the line of flowers. The centers continued alternating between yellow and black.

The odd thing about the flowers was once the trio passed them they wilted, died, and then oddly enough disappeared completely. Shock followed the trail intently, while Lock stared at the ground in thought, absent mindedly following. While Barrel looked at each of the flowers as they passed, watching each disappear into nothing. He suddenly stopped while the other two continued, staring at a flower her was about to pass by. "Barrel come on!" Lock said trying to keep the impatience out of his voice.

"Hold on a minute, I want to see something," The skeleton dressed boy stared at the flower just in front of him, while his friends sighed and stayed where they were in front of it… After about a minutes, when nothing happened at all he sighed, and continued walking. The flower disappearing as he passed it by.

The trail of flowers led them to the graveyard, where it continued on and on, passing spiral hill. Then it abruptly stopped at a single blank grave. The three glanced at each other in confusion. They were about to walk away, deciding to go back to the tree house when they heard a voice, "I'm glad you are so curious." Lock, Shock, and Barrel spun around to see a boy, who looked fourteen, perhaps fifteen sitting atop the grave. He seemed to be see-through and a dull green glow was about him. His hair went to the bottom of his neck, and got shorter as it neared his ears. It looked to be a light grey color. His eyes were a bright blue, though seemed dull. Odd really, bright, but dull, almost empty. He wore what looked like simple pants and shirt, though the color gone, and they were completely white.

"Shoe" He held out his hand to Barrel, who tried to shake it but his hand passed right through the boys. "I thought that'd work" Frowned the boy, whose name was apparently Shoe. "Anyways your names?" He asked casually.

"Lock"

"Shock"

"Barrel" The three said with as much enthusiasm as they could muster, which wasn't all that much at the moment. The ghost boy's eyes closed a moment. "Lock?" He muttered sounding confused a moment. "Ah yes" He pulled a few pieces of paper, that seemed quite solid from his left pocket, his eyes scanning over them a moment. "Might I talk to you alone a moment?" His blue eyes glanced to Barrel then to Shock. The two trick-or-treaters sighed walking away, though were still within sight when they stopped. "Thanks!" Called Shoe, standing up on the grave and waving. After a moment he sat back down and looked to Lock. He lifted a green glowing hand and set it down upon Lock's head, amazingly enough it didn't pass right through the boy, instead rested atop the little devil boys head. "Stupid doctor," He growled taking back his hand and looking at the confused boy. "What was that for?" Lock asked a slight, very slight, glare creeping onto his face.

"I just had to check something." He handed Lock the papers, "You may not see any importance to those just read them, and I'll explain what I need to." Shoe stopped as Lock cautiously took the papers and began to read. While Shoe began to speak.

All the while Barrel and Shock watched from afar, wondering exactly what the strange ghost boy was saying.

My Note: This chapter was…Odd… At least I think, anyways I officially claim Shoe as my character. His name was just the first thing that popped in my head. And don't worry this story isn't really all about Lock, he's just the first to speak with someone a bit strange. All of them do it eventually! Well, I hoped you liked it!