-1Ch 5 It gets a Stranger

Barrel and Shock stood where they were for what seemed like five hours, when really it was only one. Well a little less actually. Though it went against their 'better' judgment, they began to walk towards the ghost boy named Shoe, and Lock. "It's just really hard to explain," was the first thing they heard once they were in hearing range. The voice not their devil friends but the other boys. Barrel shot a puzzled look towards Shock, who merely shrugged.

Shoe ran a hand through his silvery hair and glanced about, blue eyes landing on Shock and Barrel, and he was silent. Staring blankly at them for a moment. Lock turned around as well, still holding the pages the strange boy had handed him. "Um, thanks for letting me borrow you're friend." Shoe muttered still sitting on the grave, smiling ever so slightly. "Well, see you." The fifteen year old ghost boy stood on top of the grave he had been sitting on and jumped to the next, then the next, and so on. Not once touching the ground.

The trio stared at each other in confusion. "So what was that all about?" Questioned Barrel, glancing in the direction the ghost had gone off in. Lock simply shrugged silently. Shock didn't seem to accept this answer so she asked more specifically than Barrel. "Exactly what did you talk about?"

"It was weird…" Lock muttered quietly. "He said," The devil boy paused trying to remember exactly what the boy named Shoe had said. "He doesn't remember much, but says I remember someone he forgot, that he thinks he's supposed to find. Or something like that. Anyways we should get back to the tree house." Lock successfully had 'changed' the subject. Shock and Barrel nodded in response, silently following their friend dressed in red. Out of all three Lock seemed confused the most. Little did they know, just what would happen the next day…

Shock woke first the next morning, followed by Barrel, Lock last to open his eyes. "So what are we doing today?" Barrel asked no one in particular. The two with rhyming names were silent. "Has it always been this dull?"

"I don't think so," Muttered Shock, "We just can't think of anything, and Jack seems a bit uneasy around us for some reason." She was staring at one of the walls, trying to think. Lock simply nodded in agreement, and then rubbed his eyes sleepily. There was an awkward silence before anyone spoke up, and it was Barrels. "How about we just I don't know walk around or go about in the tub or something?"

"Sure, sounds fine to me, maybe we'll find something to actually do…" Muttered Lock, still sounding a bit sleepy. Then he walked off to find the tub. Shock and Barrel were silent as Lock left, both a little tired but not overly so. "There must be something we can do besides walk around." Barrel finally said after perhaps two minutes. "Maybe we're just having some sort of fun block or something," Shock suggested. Barrel shrugged, glancing about. Where was Lock? Shock seemed to have the same thought as she looked out the window, "What the…In the world is he doing?" She exclaimed. A look of annoyance crossed her face.

Lock was outside the tree house, sitting in the bathtub as it walked very slowly away. Though he seemed almost asleep inside, his head resting on the side of the tube. The other two quickly rushed out and towards the tub. "Hey idiot wake u-" Shock paused taking a breath as she caught up with the tub, Barrel right behind her. Lock sat up almost instantly, "What?" He muttered looking standing and nearly falling down because the tub was still walking. He looked at Barrel and Shock, who were still jogging along next to the tub. "Oh…Eh…" He pulled the tub to a halt looking at his friends. "Sorry," He murmured helping the other two into the tub.

"It's alright," Barrel smiled as he sat at the back of the tub, looking up at the sky. "I suppose it is," Shock said, though shook her head slightly. The tub started to walk again and she muttered a sorry to Lock, apparently for calling him an idiot. Name calling was rude after all…

They traveled in the tub for what seemed like hours, Lock seemed fully awake now, Barrel occasionally glancing up at the sky, and Shock staring off into the distance. "Hey! What's that?" Shock asked suddenly. She was pointing towards an average sized tree just outside the forest; something seemed to be dangling from the opposite side the only thing that they could see was what looked like black locks of hair. The tub turned heading towards it.

Upon getting closer, amazingly enough the hair was attached to a head! Though it wasn't black as it had looked like from afar, but a dark blue. They stopped the tub, quickly jumping out of it, to see a life size marionette hanging from the tree. It looked like a girl, early teens perhaps, perhaps fourteen. She wore dark brown pants, from the knees down there were a few tears. She also wore a plain white shirt. Oddly enough, the marionette was not wearing shoes. Though that would explain the wooden shoes, which nearly looked normal sitting by the base of the tree. Her skin, well it looked more like paint, was dark, but on her left hand from her ring finger to her pink, and all the way down to the wrist a pale wood could be seen.

Strings were attached to her head, left hand, and feet. The strings going up into the tree. Though her right hand oddly enough, just hung loosely. After looking awhile Barrel pointed out a silver chain bracelet and necklace the girl had on. The bracelet was on the left hand, small charms dangled from it, each alternating between a Jack-o-latern and a piece of candy. On the necklace however were only two simply charms. A devils tail and a witch's hat.

The three whispered to each other a moment, about how strange this seemed. Especially the necklace, when the marionettes head looked up. This didn't really surprise them, living in Halloween town strange things like this were normal. The girl marionette had black colored eyes, and the painted on skin on one side of her face, mainly from her right eye to her ear. The odd was that in her white, wooden teeth was what looked like Barrels Lolly, being held by the stick. "Can you hlease take tis out?" She asked suddenly, her mouth not moving, but her eyes looked towards the Lolly Pop.

The trio looked at each other a moment, a silent conversation being had by their eyes. Eventually Shock went towards the tree and climbed it. The girl was hanging too high for any of the trick-or-treaters to reach. The small witch child soon reached a branch and sighed irritably, she was still too short to reach the marionettes head. "I can't reach it!" She called to Lock and Barrel. The two boys sighed climbing the tree as well. "That's what we get for being short," Chuckled Lock once he was on the branch besides Lock.

"So how are we supposed to help?" Questioned Barrel looking at his comrades. "Hull my head uf." The marionette said quickly. Though the words weren't exactly said correctly, they could still understand it. Lock spotted the hand piece that had her strings connected to it; he carefully made his way over to it. He lay on his stomach, reaching down to grab the nearest string, and yanked it upwards. Unfortunately it was the wrong one and her right foot was raised. "Try again!" Shock said and couldn't help but giggle slightly.

Lock grumbled something that sounded like, "It was the closest one." or something like "I know that!" Perhaps he had said both. He crawled forward a bit and grabbed another string, pulling. The girls head raised towards it slightly, the rest of her body going with it. She was surprisingly light. Though not light enough for just him to lift. "Shock, Barrel, mind giving me a hand?" He asked now kneeling, still holding the string, careful not to touch the hand piece. Not wanting it to fall. The other two trick-or-treaters carefully made their way towards their devil friend. Where the hand piece was positioned, the branch had thinned a bit, meaning it wasn't the best place to be standing.

"Ready?" Asked Shock, she was holding onto Barrel, who in turn was holding onto Locks shoulders. They nodded and all three pulled. The string was brought up, along with the girl. The devil boy removed the Lolly, just as she had asked, though this caused him to lose his grip, and the marionette to fall back down. She swung back and forth lightly her head tilting backwards. She seemed to smile "Thanks, I didn't really want to drop it. Not if you wouldn't mind, can you push the hand piece down?"

The trio did as they were asked like the good children they were. The marionette girl fell to the ground, unmoving. The hand piece had landed on top of her left hand, which was now holding onto it and pulling slowly onto her back. Once it was, somehow securely fastened, she stood looking up at the three in the tree. "Thanks!" She smiled, which looked a bit odd for some reason… Her right arm still hand limply at her side, swinging slightly. "So, who are you three?" She asked as she picked up her shoes.

Note note: 'Allo I really hated writing this chapter because it didn't seem to work to well in my mind. But her it is…