I don't own TNBC, leave me alone.
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Chapter 5
An old friend
"Where are we?" Shock asked.
Lock looked around. "I'm not sure. I didn't know the graveyard went back this far." Instead of heading straight back to Skellington Manor like we should have, we had hopped the back fence of the graveyard, continuing on that way. We thought it would just lead into the Hinterlands.
Boy, were we wrong. It led us into a part of the graveyard we didn't know existed, and neither did anyone else from the looks of it. It was overgrown with dead weeds and grass, and trees even more twisted than what we were used to made it even darker than normal.
Aubrey clutched Lock's arm. "Let's go back. This place is creeping me out."
I nodded. "I'm with Aubrey. Let's get- ow!" A sharp pain went through my foot. I cursed and grabbed it, hopping around like an idiot.
"What happened?" Shock asked. I couldn't tell if she turned around or not, I couldn't really see anything.
"I kicked something." I muttered, bending down. I shoved the weeds away from the spot in front of me. My fingers brushed against cool stone. I ran my hands over the square piece of stone, tracing the letters carved into it with my fingers. My eyes widened as I realized what it said. "No way… guys, you've got to come look at this!"
Lock peered over my shoulder. "Barrel, it's a grave. We're in a graveyard."
"Not the grave, smart ass!" I snapped. "What's written on it! Listen: 'Here lies her majesty Luna Nigh T'mare, Pumpkin King'."
Aubrey knelt down next to me, the little moonlight showing reflecting off her white hair. She touched the place just below my fingers, and then pulled her hand back, examining her fingers. "It's wet."
"Yeah, I know. The whole things soaked in something. Lock, a little light?" He obliged, a ball of flame appearing in his open hand.
Aubrey looked down at her fingers and shrieked. "It's blood!" I looked down at my own hands to see that they were stained red. I fell back with a cry, wiping my palms frantically on my shirt.
Shock looked around at the ground. "It's all over the place. There's a whole fucking trail of it!" (a/n: Subtle, isn't she?)
A quiet noise, like a sob, made us all shut up.
I stood quickly, forgetting the blood that covered my hands. "Did you hear that?"
Shock shushed me. "Listen!"
Another noise, louder this time. Shock's eyes widened. "Holy shit…"
"Now can we leave?" I asked.
Lock grabbed Aubrey's arm with the hand the fire wasn't in. "Yeah, let's go."
She pushed him off. "Hold on." She followed the crimson trail that stained the weeds and dirt carefully.
"Aubrey, it's usually best to walk AWAY from creepy noises coming out of thin air!" Lock called, running after her.
"Quiet!" Aubrey ordered over her shoulder. She placed two fingers in her mouth and blew, producing a high whistle.
There was a moment of silence, and then, "Aubrey?"
I couldn't see her face, but Aubrey's eyes must've been huge. "Sandy!" She exclaimed before taking off at a run deeper into the graveyard.
"H-hey! Aubrey, wait a minute!"
Shock grabbed my hand. "C'mon! We can't let them get lost in here."
I felt my face heating up, but ignored it as I nearly tripped over another tombstone. "Shock, slow down! You're faster then I am!"
She looked back at me. "You're a football player, Barrel!"
"Yeah, but-" I decided to just shut my mouth at that moment, because I nearly tripped again.
We caught up with Lock and Aubrey a few seconds later. "Whoa…" I muttered. In Aubrey's arms was a girl who looked a few years older than us. Tan skin was stretched tight over her frame, and scraggly black hair fell past her waist. A white, hospital-like robe covered her frame, but it was pretty much in rags. Her fingers to her wrists were darker than the rest of her skin, probably covered with blood, and there was a stain of it on her chest. The trail we had been following led right to her.
"Sandy? Sandy, come on, wake up!" Aubrey was shaking the girl.
Lock put a hand on her shoulder. "Let's take her back to Dr. Finklestein. He'll be able to do something."
o0o
Lock forced me to let him carry Sandy as we headed back to Halloween Torn. Not that I minded much; she was heavier than I remembered and my strength seemed to be sapped away. Every so often she'd mumble something unintelligible or her eyelids would flutter, but she didn't show any other side of waking.
I felt something upon my waist and looked down to see Lock's tail curled around me. "She'll be fine. She's just asleep."
I smiled at him weakly, laying my head on his shoulder before going back to worrying about Sandy.
About ten minutes later, Barrel's shout of, "Hey, there's the fence!" pulled me from my thoughts again. We followed it to the always unlocked gate, where we shoved it open (luckily, it didn't squeak) and slipped out of the alley.
Hardly anyone was in the square, so it wasn't hard to slip over to Dr. Finklestein's door, Shock, Barrel, and I walking around Lock to hide the unconscious figure in her arms. Lock knocked on the door and Jewel opened it a second later.
"There you four are!" She scolded. "Jack and Sally have been worried sick-" She stopped with a gasp. "Aubrey, Barrel! You're both covered in blood!" We looked down at our fronts. In the darkness of the graveyard, it had been nearly impossible to tell, but because of the light from the hall, the dark stains were obvious on our white shirts
"It's not ours." Barrel responded quickly.
Jewel crossed her arms disbelievingly. "Then whose is it?"
As Shock stepped out of the way to reveal Lock holding Sandy, Jack and Sally walked out of the lab. Sally took one look at our fronts and ran down the staircase. Almost immediately, she ran over to me, trying to locate the source of the blood. "Aubrey, what happened!"
I shook my head, grabbing her wrists gently. "It's not mine mom." I looked over to Lock, whose shirt was also now stained red, and Sally's gaze followed mine. Her hands flew to her mouth in horror.
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As Dr. Finklestein and Jewel examined Sandy, Jack questioned Lock, Shock, Barrel, and Aubrey.
"I'm guessing that the reason you're late has something to with finding Sandy?" He asked, his bony arms crossed.
"Well, sort of…" Barrel murmured. Shock elbowed him sharply.
Jack saw this and raised an 'eyebrow'. "One of you had better start talking."
Lock and Shock both sent glares toward the younger boy, neither made a move to say anything further. The Pumpkin King cast his gaze over all of them, stopping on Aubrey.
The girl had her head resting on Lock's shoulder tiredly, and her expression of exhaustion was only disguised by the worry and fear clear on her face. Her eyes pulled away from the lab doorway on the second story to Jack's face for a moment, and then past him to the wall.
For a moment, Jack thought she too would stay silent but then she took a breath. "The graveyard." She muttered. "That's where we found Sandy. We were in the graveyard."
"What?" Sally asked. "What were you doing at the graveyard?"
Lock sighed. "We cut through the graveyard after school to avoid Vida and her friends."
'Now we're getting somewhere.' Jack thought. "That still should've had you home hours ago." He reprimanded.
"Well, we were going to check out what's left of the tree house, just cause we haven't been able to go back there in a while, but…"
"We thought hopping the back fence would take us straight into the Hinterlands." Shock continued hesitantly.
"But it led us to another part of the graveyard!" Barrel took up the explanation excitedly. "It was really dark and it looked like no one had set foot in there for… ages…" He trailed off into silence. As Barrel had spoken, Jack's expression had changed from somewhat annoyed curiosity to dark fury.
Said skeleton's empty eye sockets blazed. "You four are to stay away from the graveyard! If any of you so much as go near the gate, you will be severely punished! Now go back to the manor and stay there!"
The four of them practically ran out of the Laboratory, the door slamming shut violently behind them in their hurry.
Sally looked at her husband, somewhat horrified. "Jack! What in the world did they do to force you yell at them like that? They were late, it's not like anything could happen to them!"
Jack's expression softened and he took Sally's hands in his. "Sally… I wish I could tell you. But you have to believe me when I say this: it's safer for the four of them if they don't go into the graveyard for a while." Sally still didn't look sure. "But you're right, I shouldn't have snapped at them like that. I promise, I'll apologize to them when we get home."
Sally hugged him lovingly. "Thank you Jack." She walked upstairs to the lab where Dr. Finklestein and Jewel were.
As she walked up the stairs, Jack turned and strode over to the window, looking out at Skellington Manor. Four figures were rushing through the gates and up the narrow stairs. One, probably Barrel, tripped on the third stair, scrambling to catch up with the others. As the door opened and shut, his vision drifted to the lab doorway. 'I may have to keep a closer eye than I thought on this one…'
o0o
As we sat in the living room, we were all silent. Shock was helping Barrel clean the blood off his face from the cut he'd gotten when he'd cracked his head on the stairs, and I was sitting on the opposite couch with Aubrey, who was still using me as a pillow. But finally, I had to voice what everyone was thinking. "What the hell did we do wrong?"
Aubrey's grip on my hand tightened. "I'm not sure. I've never seen Jack that mad… not at anyone!"
Barrel nodded his agreement, being careful not to make Shock poke him in the eye. "Yeah. I don't think even Oogie got THAT look."
"He scared the shit outta me." Shock muttered. We all murmured something along the same lines.
"Maybe we should just go to bed." I suggested. "I'd rather not be awake when Jack comes home."
Barrel nodded. "Yeah, that, and Aubrey looks ready to pass out."
Aubrey blushed as we stood up, walking upstairs. After we all said goodnight to each other, and I gave Aubrey a quick kiss, we headed into our rooms.
I pulled my shirt off and looked down at it. It wasn't as bad as Aubrey or Barrel's, but I definitely wasn't wearing it to school tomorrow. I sighed and flopped down on my bed after switching off the lights.
The same thought kept racing through my head as I closed my eyes: What got Jack so riled up?
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SC: Yeah! Okay, so I only got one review, and that was from madz (so it really shouldn't count) but this story has an already planned out plot line, and Puck's catching all the wrong plot bunnies, so this is what gets updated.
Puck: Not my fault I can't tell what stories the plot bunnies go to…
SC: How can you not! The ones for this story are freaking zombies! The CoaS ones are wearing hitai-ates, you need to catch some more of those, by the way, the Next Gen ones shoot out goddamned PSI Blasts and set everything on fire, and the UD, UA ones… look like regular bunnies.
Puck: I'm a cat! I chase after rodents! Bunnies are RODENTS! I can't help which ones I see first!
SC: Whatever… just stop catching the zombie bunnies… I'd really like more than one review this time please!
Ja ne
SC