To Walk Among The Dead - Hugs.And.Kisses (easy readers txt) 📗

don't care anymore. This is going too far." He shoved up his grinning skull mask, showing the genuine worry on it. "What do you want to know?"

Aubrey looked up at him pleadingly, tears sliding down her face. "What is Oogie planning to do with me?"

"He's going to kill you, Aubrey. Your soul is the thing that holds the key to the door. You saw the condition Oogie is in. I-I think he's been feeding off the animals around here. I've been finding a lot of dead animals around the entrance to his casino."

Aubrey tried to comprehend what Barrel was telling her. "So... if he absorbs my soul, then he'd be..."

"He'll probably be completely rejuvenated and have the ability to go between worlds whenever he wants." Barrel finished.

Aubrey shook her head. "But I can only come at night."

"That's only because you never physically found the door before now. You could only go through at night because you were asleep and your body didn't need your spirit."

"I see." She murmured. "But... what about Lock? What's wrong with him?"

"Shock has him under a puppet spell. She's got complete control over him." A tear leaked down Aubrey's face. "Don't worry. There's a way to break it."

"Then why don't you do it if you know how?" She demanded.

"Are you nuts? If Shock even thought I was saying the reversal, she'd slugify me!"

"Then what was the point of even telling me that?"

Barrel put a hand over her mouth. "Sshhh!" He ran over to the door and opened it slightly, listening for footsteps. When he heard none, he went back over to Aubrey. "Listen, I've got an idea. Oogie always, and I mean always, asks his prisoners if they have any last words. The reversal words are 'All hail Jack Skellington the Pumpkin King.'"

Aubrey nodded. "Something that would never get said around here."

"Exactly. Oh, and I think this is for you." He pulled a small box from his pocket and placed it in her restrained hands.

"Barrel! Get down here!" Shock yelled.

"I've got to go." He ran out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

With quite a bit of difficulty, Aubrey pried open the box. A bright crimson, oval-shaped stone set into a silver pendant of the same shape fell to the floor. "Oh Lock..."

After another five minutes of fumbling, and dropping it three times, Aubrey managed to lock the clasp around her neck. She held the stone tenderly, letting the sun reflect off it. In the sun it seemed to be burning, flames dancing through the stone in the light. Aubrey smiled. Trust Lock to try and make fire romantic... and succeed. She looked down at the slip of paper that had fallen to the floor and picked it up, reading it. Tears filled her eyes again and she crumpled it up in her fist, dropping it to the floor.

She looked out at the pumpkin sun, leaning up against the wall despairingly. It was going to be a long day.

xXx

I don't know when I fell asleep, but I woke up to Barrel nudging me softly. "Wake up, Aubrey, before Shock comes in here to wake you up her way."

I opened my eyes. The Playroom was dark, the only illumination coming from the torch in Barrel's hand. I tried to push myself up, but my muscles protested painfully, pins and needles paralyzing my calves. "My legs are completely numb. I can't move them."

Shock walked in as I finished my sentence. "Ugh, pathetic. Lock!" He walked in behind her. "Help her downstairs." He pulled me up and carried me out, bridal style.

'I could do it now.' I thought. 'I could say the reversal now and get out of here.' I looked over Lock's shoulder at Barrel. Should I do it now? I mouthed.

Even behind his mask, I could see his eyes widen. He sent a quick glance at Shock and shook his head. I understood completely. She was too close to be safe.

Looks like I was going to have to wait.

I hate waiting.


Chapter 7

Chapter 7

'I can't believe he's making us take her down there personally.' Shock thought. Why they couldn't just dump Aubrey down the tube and get it over and done with was beyond her.

"I want her in perfect condition," Oogie told her. That meant no shoving her through the makeshift pipe that they hadn't used since the Christmas incident. Well, except for that on time she and Lock shoved Barrel down as a prank.

She looked back at Lock, who was still carrying Aubrey. Shock may have hated keeping that brat in one piece, but she still harbored a fear of Oogie Boogie from when she was younger and almost nothing would get her to go against his orders.

Younger... she had used the term loosely since her death. When had the three of them actually started growing up? They'd stayed the same age they'd died at for... however many years it had been. It was just like that; she and Lock were always seven, and Barrel was always six-and-a-half.

It was only after Aubrey had come that things had started changing. The first obvious sign was when they couldn't all fit in the elevator at the same time. Then their costumes, which they'd had for forever, didn't fit right and they'd had to get Sally to make them new ones. Lock's voice had started changing, boy was that funny, and then she'd started... liking him. Liking him less in a sisterly way and more as... as just a girl.

Her thoughts pulled themselves together as they reached the door of Oogie's casino. She knocked twice and it slid open.

It had been three years since any one of the trick-or-treaters had set foot in Oogie Boogie's game room, but it was the same as they remembered. Creepy, and even creepier in black light.

Oogie walked out of the shadows, took Aubrey from Lock, and unchained her hands before shoving her onto the roulette wheel. She landed painfully on her arm, then stood and glared at him.

His grin just widened. "Any last words?"

Aubrey smirked. "Glad you asked: All hail Jack Skellington the Pumpkin King!"

Shock turned to Barrel angrily. "Traitor!" She socked him in the face, jumping on him and knocking him to the floor.

Lock shook his head a few times. "Wha...?"

"Too little, too late!" Oogie cackled, wrapping his hand around the lever that would activate the power. He never did pull said lever, for as he began to pull back, he found himself being rammed in the side by everyone's favorite devil.

Lock jumped down onto the roulette wheel. "Are you okay?"

Aubrey nodded. "I'll be fine."

"Good." He pulled her over to the drainpipe that led out of the casino and boosted her up.

Once she was in, Aubrey turned around. "Give me your hand. I'll pull you out too." She leant over as far as she could, trying to reach Lock's outstretched hand. Their fingers barely brushed each other.

"Almost... there..." Lock grunted, the muscles in his arm strained to their limits.

"I don't think so!" Oogie roared, finally pulling himself over to the controls and yanked the lever down toward him. "Nobody betrays the bogeyman!" The wheel started turning, throwing Lock off balance.

"Lock!" Aubrey yelled.

"I'll be fine, just go get Jack!" He ordered. She bit her lip and nodded, climbing up the pipe.

xXx

I burst out of the elevator before it even reached the ground. Falling straight down five or six feet is a lot faster than I realized. Pain laced through my left arm; I'd landed on it again. I ignored it and got up, running off toward Guillotine Gate.

I ran through the gate as the mayor started handing out awards. I found Jack easily; he was standing offstage. I ran over to him, shoving through the crowd. "Aubrey? What's wrong?" Jack asked as he caught sight of me.

I must've looked worse than I thought. "Jack, there's no time, we've got to go-"

"Aubrey, I can't just leave. It's Halloween! I'm sure whatever it is can wait."

"No it can't!" I told him, pulling his hand again. "Oogie's back and he's got Lock trapped on in the game room!"

Seconds later, I was on Jack's back and he was running top speed toward the tree house.

xXx

Lock wasn't faring well. One of the buzz-saws that occupied the roulette wheel had just made another pass over him and nearly clipped off his tail. 'Aubrey, hurry up.' He thought, dodging a round of bullets from the cowboy robots.

Shock watched in horror as a bullet clipped Lock's shoulder. Enough was enough. Hurting Lock definitely qualified as one of the 'almost nothing's that could get her to betray Oogie Boogie. "Leave Lock alone!" She jumped onto Oogie's back, pulling him away from the controls.

Barrel, who was over in a corner recovering from Shock's wrath, ran over to help. "Yeah, you tell him Shock!" He yelled before biting Oogie on the leg.

"Aargh! You little brats!" He pulled both of them off with ease. "If you two are so eager to join Lock in his doom, you should've just said so." A sly grin returned to his face. "On second thought, I'm famished." Both of their masks had fallen off, so Oogie could see the terror on both their faces. "Ladies first." He threw Barrel into the wall head-first, resulting in immediate unconsciousness.

Oogie started to inhale and Shock screamed. Faintly, she could see a weird white vapor coming off her body and going into the bug-man's mouth. Her screams grew softer and softer as more and more of the mist was swallowed and her energy faded. "Put her down!" Oogie turned around to see Jack and Aubrey standing there.

"Ooh, it's big, scary Jack. Back off, bag of bones." Oogie growled.

Jack took a step forward. "I said put Shock down, Oogie."

He shrugged. "You can have her when I'm through with her." He turned back around.

Aubrey growled and pulled a torch out of the wall. "Maybe Jack wasn't clear enough. Put Shock down NOW!" She slammed the unfortunately unlit torch over Oogie's head. He let out a howl of pain and dropped Shock, falling unconscious himself. Aubrey helped the witch sit up. "Shock? You okay?"

"Why... why are you helping me?" She muttered, her head dizzy.

Aubrey shrugged. "No one deserves what Oogie was planning. Besides," She smiled. "Girls need to stick together with idiots like Barrel and Lock around." She gasped. "Oh my god, Lock!"

Jack ran over to the control box and pulled the 'off' switch. How did he know it was the