Disclaimer: You should be glad I don't own Nightmare Before Christmas, it would go nowhere if I did.

A bright light stung Barrel's eyelids and, against his conscience, opened his eyes to see the rays of sunlight glaring down at him. Completely dumbfounded, he sat up, rubbing the back of his head, noticing a stinging under his ashen fingertips. He glanced around, eyes shining gold in the bath of the sun. Noticing he hadn't been moved and that he was alone, he started to laugh hysterically, as if he was a child again.

"Really?" He questioned himself, "They just left me here? They've got to be the lamest villains I've ever heard of." With that, he fell back into the laughter of a child who just learned a swear word. Just laughing made him feel like a boy again, and it was that he basked in. The adolescent's laughter faded and eventually died, but that wasn't enough to wipe the wide grin off his face. Unlike his cronies, he missed the days they were children, barely coming up to Jack's knees. They were so cheerful back then, it made him wonder what had happened to change those good days. Shock went crazy, that's what, he said in his head, giggling at his own joke. For a few minutes, he was unwilling to get up, sitting amongst the blades of dew-covered grass, glad he was wearing black pants. Noticing his precious lollipop had slipped out of his pocket, he picked it back up and shoved it back in. It was then that he wondered why on earth it hadn't run out yet, but he quickly reminded himself he liked it better this way. Finally, his stood up on his bare, three-toed feet and started walking in no direction in particular. Lock, Shock, and him had figured out years ago as children that he had a natural sense of direction, so he assumed he hadn't lost that handy characteristic through puberty. Or, at least, hoped.

Barrel hummed a little tune, only realizing a few minutes later it was a song him and his friends had sung, formulating their plot to kidnap Sandy Claws. It was bright out, he could only guess he had been out for a few hours, granted it was early morning. He paused, shifting through his other pocket for a moment, before pulling out a pair of horn-rimmed shades he had stole the previous year off of the vampires. He slid the temple arms into his vivid lime green hair, and almost literally stubbled backwards in surprise. Truth be told, he had never put on a pair of sunglasses himself, and it was odd. At least he could still see, even if his vision was darkened. Examining the world in this new, darkened light, he started walking again, glancing around. BAM! A harsh stinging met his face, and he looked forward to see that he had run into the rough bark of a pine tree. He grumbled, embarrassed and blushing, before putting the shades back in his pocket. His face was scraped, he could feel that even without touching it. But upon hand contact, he pulled his hand away, feeling cold liquid, and saw blood on his fingertips. He sighed. The teen could almost hear Shock's voice in his head, scolding him, telling him what a klutz he was. Noticing a weird prickling on the back of his neck, he reached back to feel something pulsing and slimy.

"Ew..." Barrel said, scrunching his small, button nose in disgust as he pulled away a caterpillar, whom had clearly felt, in its opinion, that hiding under his hair was a soft and clever hiding spot. It was a cheerful bright yellow and green, and crawled on his hand innocently. Barrel carefully picked the small creature up with his other hand and placed it on a lush, green leaf. He wasn't as totally heartless as his comrades, unlike Shock, who would've rather drowned it. No, if it hadn't done anything to him, why kill it? He just suspected it reminded Shock of when she was alive, and, considering she never talked much about it, her life hadn't been all that great. It certainly explained her attitude, if his suspicions were correct. Perhaps he should ask her one day, he thought, but quickly thought better. She'd probably just get pissed off and slap him. Oh well, that was Shock for you, like it or not. (It was probably more sensible not to.)

Only a minute or so later did he think of how out of character it was for a villain to leave its ex-henchman back where he was originally and not even get and information from him. Oogie must be loosing his touch, Barrel thought, or is just more pathetic than we thought as kids. He smiled, knowing he was probably right about the latter.

It took Shock a good two or so minutes before Shock finally reacted to Lock kissing her. Her cheeks seemed stained a rosy pink, put eventually she reached up and ran her fingers through his vibrant scarlet hair, and upon finding his grown horns, wrapped her fingers around them, before returning the kiss. They stood, lip-locked for a moment, before Shock was brought back down to earth by his pointed devil's tail tightening around her leg, like a python to its prey, cutting off any circulation she could possibly have, given she was, in fact, undead. To that she gave a strangled squeak and pushed him away. She would never tell the boys, but she had a strong fear of living snakes when she was alive, and it had stuck with her ensuing her death. She didn't mind them, as long as they couldn't move anymore than a rock could.

To her relief, the devil boy didn't ask anything about it, just looked thoughtfully at her. Her relief was short-lived however, overpowered by a feeling of dread, seeing that his face was splitting into a wide grin, pointed teeth glinting.

"Ha! That proves it! You like me!" Lock said triumphantly. Oh, boy, she thought, here we go. I'll never here the end of this. As if to prove her point, his tail let go of her leg and he started to jump around, saying in a sing-song voice, "You like me! You like me!"

With every word of his immature chant, her cheeks grew pinker and pinker. She tried to ignore him, snatching her hat back up, about to put it back on but paused, looking at her cohort. She reached into the hat and pulled out her broom, whacking him in the head with it, before returning it to her hat and putting it back on her head.

"Ow," Lock whined, "what was that for, Shocky?"

Resisting the urge to punch him for calling her that, she replied, "For being a brainless jackass."

"Aw... that's not very nice, Shock."

"Good, maybe it'll kill your ego."

"What ego? I'm awesome!"

"My point exactly," Shock nodded, turning and walking the way they were originally. He stood there for a second, then decided to follow.

Only a few minutes passed before he spoke again.

"Hey, Shock?" He asked, flicking a spider off his arm.

"What?" She snapped.

"I'm bored," Lock replied, not fazed in the least bit.

"Find some way to entertain yourself."

The devil looked around at the trees, eyes glazed over with boredom. He thought about lifting the back of her skirt up just to tick her off, but his conscience advised him against it, reminding him that she had a scalpel in her pocket. It'd be funny to have another thing to tease her about, he thought, but I like my head not sliced open, thank you very much. He sighed, and resorted to picking at a loose thread on his sleeve.

"Girls are so confusing," Lock said as-a-matter-of-factly. She simply glanced over her shoulder at him, scowling. "Really, Shock, first you're mad at me for not kissing you, and then you're mad at me for kissing you! Geez!" To this, she said nothing. "You girls have such mood swings!"

"You're rambling to yourself," Shock replied coldly.

"No, I'm not, you're listening," He nodded.

"Why do I hang around you two?"

"'Cause you love us," He replied, "but mostly me."

"Urgh!" She shrieked, clenching her fists. "Do have the damn sense to just drop it and leave it alone?"

"Nope, it's too much fun to aggravate you."

"Oh my god! I'm going to go insane with you around!"

"Nah, too late."

"Ugh!"

After a good half an hour or so of nothing but walking, Barrel only began to notice how staving he was. Taking out his lollipop, he examined it to make sure he wasn't about to lick a bug or a blade of grass, before licking it as he walked. It was just candy, he was that intelligent, despite what Lock and Shock thought, and it wasn't enough to ease his hunger, but it was the best he could do for now; he was nowhere near a village anymore so he couldn't steal any food, that was clear. He wondered what his best friends were up to as he walked, thoughts being interrupted every so often by his stomach complaining arrogantly. He heard footsteps to his right, and groaned inwardly. Was that shapeshifter still following him? If so, she wasn't doing a very impressive job of concealing herself anymore. Barrel slid his beloved lollipop back in his pocket, and heard the footsteps quicken to a run. He turned, only to be tackled in a hug, black curls and the familiar scent of black peppermint obscured his vision.

"Barrel!" Shock squealed, Lock a few feet behind her, "We've been looking for you for days! You sniveling idiot! Why'd you go into the human world? We missed you!"

Barrel blinked in bewilderment. He had never seen Shock this happy to see one of them; they must've really missed him. He awkwardly hugged her back, patting her back.

Lock watched his friends hug, and felt a little pang of jealousy, nagging him at the back of his mind. He was happy they found Barrel, he was their best friend too, but... it occurred to him that he enjoyed having all Shock's attention on him, just him and her, even though most of the time she was pissed off at him. Why didn't Shock ever hug him? He knew he was overreacting, that Shock had just truly missed their green-haired friend, but it made him wonder: if he had gone missing, would she do the same to him? His tail swished back and forth, his jealousy peaking as she kissed Barrel on the cheek, his ears blocking out every sound other than his own thoughts. He walked away, ignoring the other two completely as they broke away from hugging each other.

"What's with him?" Barrel asked.

"Who knows? He's been acting odd lately." Shock replied, fists on her hips.

A/N: That has got to be my best disclaimer ever! XD And it was only one sentence, too! (writes that in my record book) Sorry guys, I really have no excuse for not updating this time. I'm just... lazy. XD Oh, the suspense! I'm so mean. As always, please review, and cookies/cupcakes to those who reviewed for the two previous chapters!

~Inferno Shock

EDIT: I found and fixed a typo. It's supposed to be "snakes" not "spiders". XD