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

off lever? Simple: it was labeled 'off'. Oogie wasn't the brightest bulb in the bunch.

Aubrey jumped down, back onto the wheel. Lock was lying on the floor, holding his bleeding shoulder. "Are you okay?" She asked, helping him stand.

"Yeah." He winced and clutched his shoulder. "No."

"Move your hand." She ordered. He did so, and she sighed in relief. "Good, it's really shallow." She hugged him, making sure to avoid his shoulder. "You're an idiot, I hope you know."

He tugged her hair with his uninjured arm. "So I've been told." He looked down. "Are you crying?"

"Yes. I was really worried about you Lock!"

"I'm fine Aubrey. My shoulder hurts like hell, but I'm not going to die again."

She sniffed. "Yeah, I know. I have stupid human emotions to deal with, remember?" Lock had no answer to that statement that didn't make him sound like an idiot or a sap, so he stayed quiet and hugged her back.

Jack climbed down to the wheel. "You four need to get out of here. I'll deal with Oogie." He boosted both of them off the wheel, then started pulling himself up. It's good to be tall sometimes.

Before he could get all the way up, the wheel started spinning at top speed, and one of the cowboy's guns caught Jack's leg and pulled him back down. "Jack!" Aubrey cried, turning around.

Lock grabbed her arm to stop her from jumping back down. "Aubrey, jumping down there won't help anyone. Shock, can you get the controls?" No response. "Shock? Barrel?" He turned around to see Shock lying next to Barrel, unmoving. Oogie, however, had disappeared.

Aubrey clutched his arm suddenly. "Lock?" She whispered, her voice quavering.

He whipped back around to see Oogie Boogie standing behind him, grinning insanely. Oogie slapped Aubrey away and grabbed Lock by the throat. "No one betrays the boogeyman!" He growled, one of his hands slipping over Lock's mouth.

Lock bit down on Oogie's hand, sinking his fangs deeper and deeper until he could feel the bugs inside the bogeyman's hand crunch between his them. Oogie let out a howl of pain and rage before dropping Lock to nurse his wound. The devil glared at him and Oogie's other arm started to smoke, then burst into flame. Oogie ran around the room like some sort of odd, ugly, featherless bird until Jack, who'd finally climbed off of the roulette wheel, slammed his fist into Oogie's face. "That won't keep him down for long." Jack warned them.

Lock grabbed Aubrey by the shoulders. "Aubrey, listen. Get back through the door to your world and destroy it."

"How?" She asked. "There's no way I can do it myself."

He stood up. "Look at the back of the necklace. I'll help Jack wake up Shock and Barrel and stall Oogie."

"Right." She nodded and stood up as well. "Um, Lock?"

"Yeah?" He turned to face her and Aubrey pressed her lips against his.

"I love you. Good luck." She turned and ran up the stairs, leaving a surprised Lock standing there. Until Jack's voice calling for him to help wake up Shock and Barrel reminded him that he had a job to do.

He ran over to Barrel. "Barrel, wake up you idiot!" No response. Lock paused to think. "Barrel, Shock just stole one of your spider-berry suckers."

Barrel sat up so fast that Lock barely had time to move back. "Gimme my sucker!" He blinked and looked around. "Er... where are we?" His eyes fell onto Oogie's stirring form. "Never mind, I remember."

Jack was pulling Shock up when Oogie stood suddenly. His eyes narrowed into slits as he gazed at the four in front of him. "You think you can stop me?"

"I've done it once by myself, Oogie." Jack reminded him, though it sounded more threat-like than reminder-like.

Oogie let out another growl and slammed into Jack faster than the three trick-or-treaters had ever seen him move. Jack flew up against the wall with a loud 'crack', and fell to the ground. All three stared in shock.

Before they realized what had happened, he had Barrel by the scruff of his neck. "Hey! Put me down!"

Shock lifted a hand up. "You heard him."

Lock copied the motion. "Put him down."

Oogie laughed. "Ooh, I'm shaking."

Shock glared. "Not a bad idea." Her lips moved silently and the ground under Oogie started to crack apart.

"What!" Oogie yelled, starting to lose his balance. His grip on Barrel loosened enough to let him slip away and run over to hide behind Lock and Shock.

"When did you learn to do that?" He asked.

"What do you think I do in my room all day, think up new ways to torture you two?" She asked.

"Yeah." Both boys answered at once.

She shook her head. "Boys are so stupid." She looked back up. "Hey, where'd Oogie go?" At least, that's what they thought she was about to ask. She only managed to get out the "Hey, where'd-" Before she was thrown into the wall and landed on top of Jack.

Lock and Barrel looked up at Oogie, who was standing in Shock's previous spot. "Surprise." He chuckled, grabbing them and slamming their heads together. He dropped the limp boys next to Shock and Jack. "Now, to finish what I started." He slammed a large, red button topped decorated with a skull and crossbones.

"Self-destruct countdown started. Ten minutes and counting. Nine minutes fifty-nine seconds. Nine minutes fifty-eight seconds. Nine minutes..."

Oogie chuckled. "If you'll excuse me, I've got bigger fish to fry." He walked over to the stairs and disappeared up them."


Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Aubrey ran through the tree house, back up to the Playroom. 'A weapon. I need a weapon.' She thought as she shoved the stubborn door open. The fight down below echoed through the pipe on the left side of the room. Aubrey could barely hear Shock's 'tsk'. "Boys are so stupid." A pause. "Hey, where'd-"

"Surprise." Oogie laughed. Aubrey heard Lock and Barrel let out a cry of surprise, then silence. "Now, to finish what I started."

"Self-destruct countdown started. Ten minutes and counting. Nine minutes fifty-nine seconds. Nine minutes fifty-eight seconds. Nine minutes..."

Oogie chuckled again. "If you'll excuse me, I have bigger fish to fry." Silence greeted Aubrey's ears. Then, a cackle floated through. "Aubrey..."

"Shut up!" She growled, her fingers curling around a spiked mace. She smashed the pipe into the ground. 'Oh, brilliant Aubrey. Now he knows you're still in the Tree House!' She berated herself. 'How do I get out of here?' Aubrey's eyes fell onto the cooked window on the far side of the room. The thick chain that raised and lowered the elevator hung outside it, swinging loosely.

'I must be insane.' She thought, attempting to shove the window open. Then she noticed the nails hammered into the frame. Swinging the mace hard, She shattered the window, reaching out and grabbing the elevator chain swinging outside it with her free hand. She glanced at the mace, then the chain, then back at the mace before tossing it behind her and gripping the chain with both hands.

"This is such a bad idea." She muttered to the air before warily climbing out and sliding down.

xXx

'Lucky the elevator was down.' Aubrey thought, running through the forest. Behind her, she faintly heard the sound of the elevator being raised. Her fear sped her up, the entire left side of her body screaming in protest. She ignored it and kept her fast pace, reaching the tree in record time.

The doorknob turned easily and she jumped through, landing, quite painfully, on her knees. She scrambled around and pulled the amulet out from under her dress, then flipped it over. There, carved in small, flowing script, were two words.

'Dragon's Breath.'

Aubrey unclasped the necklace looked from the bright stone to the door. Carefully, she pointed the gem at the tree. "Dragon's breath."

A jet of flame shot out of the pendant, covering the tree in flickering orange and white fire.

After a minute, Aubrey realized that the tree wasn't burning. The fire had consumed the branches and everything three feet above the door, but the fire just crackled around the trunk, sitting there as though the tree were fireproof. Her mind racing, Aubrey tried to think of a reason for this phenomenon. Then, she smacked her forehead. "The trees are connected. To get rid of the door, both have to burn." She groaned, staring at the pumpkin's grin. It seemed to be taunting her. "I have to go back through."

Aubrey reached through the flames, crying out as the flames seared her hand, and gripped the doorknob. Tears rolled down her face and she bit her lip as the metal of the knob made her skin sizzle painfully but turned it nonetheless and shoved the door back open. Flames licked at her as she jumped through, landing in a pile on the other side. The cool air was a relief on her skin, but she couldn't sit and enjoy it for long; she had to finish it.

She shoved herself up and made sure that the pendant was still firmly in her hand before raising her arm, wincing painfully as the burned skin stretched, to aim the pendant once again. "Dragon's brea-" Something clapped over her mouth before she could finish the 'breath', rough fabric scrapping her lips. She was forced to stand up, then was lifted off the ground

"I can't let you do that Aubrey." Oogie chuckled, wrapping his other hand around the necklace in her hand and pulling it out of her hand and throwing it to the side before moving it to her neck and gripping it. Aubrey followed it with her eyes, the ever full moon illuminating its path as it bounced away. She thrashed angrily, doing all she could to make him drop her. She pulled and kicked at Oogie fruitlessly, until something that felt like a strand of hair brushed her arm. A loose thread!

Aubrey wrapped it around her finger as Oogie pinned her against the door. "Don't hold your breath." He chuckled as he tightened his grip on her throat. She couldn't breathe, only make little choking noises. It was now or never.

Aubrey tugged on the thread, and the seams in Oogie's right side came undone. He dropped her in an unceremonious pile to stop the bugs from escaping. She had to move fast. Hard to do when you're injured.

She dove for the necklace and her fingers closed around the chain. Pulling it into her hand, she flipped it over and aimed at the grinning pumpkin. "Dragon's breath!" The jet of fire hit the jack o' lantern's crooked teeth dead on, and the flames climbed up the dry, dead wood