Welcome To Your So Called Insanity by Hugs.And.Kisses (popular romance novels TXT) 📕

Hinterlands, chuckling as he unwrapped the candy in his hands. "This'll teach Shock to break my plunger." He said, popping the mini-chocolate bat in his mouth. He grimaced as he swallowed. 'But she's gonna re-kill me when she finds out I ate all of her chocolate bats.' He shrugged. 'Oh well. Maybe I can blame Barrel.'

"Ugh, where did those stupid birds go?" Lock looked up. He knew that voice… Lock walked over to the trees and peered around one. Aubrey was standing in the clearing just beyond the tree line, searching the sky. She let out a little huff of frustration and stomped her foot. "Great, now I'm lost. Now what?" She glanced around again, and Lock ducked back behind the tree. After a minute, he heard, "Eenie, meenie, minie, mo!" Lock peeked back out to see Aubrey pointing in the direction opposite the one he'd been coming from. "That way it is then." She sighed, walking off.

Lock turned to leave, but stopped as the trees behind him creaked and moaned… without wind. Lock whipped around, and saw that the trees were actually arching their branches TOWARD Aubrey. Lock remembered that Shock had a bag of Tree Poison. Nothing to do with poison, really, but it did make the Hinterland trees very… well, homicidal. A perfectly harmless little prank to pull on people that were already dead… but deadly for someone living!

'That stupid girl's going to get herself killed!' Lock thought. Then, he shook his head. 'Why do I care? Good riddance!'

Lock froze in place, mid-step, as a scream ripped through the forest. It was only too obvious whose. Before he even realized it, Lock had turned around and sprinted down the path.

It took less than ten seconds for him to locate Aubrey. A tree root had curled up around her legs and waist, and was slinking higher like some demented bark-covered snake. Sharp branches were lowering towards her, ready to lift her off the ground, which would've just left her with a few scrapes, if the thick root (roots by this time) hadn't been anchoring her firmly to the ground. If the branches grabbed her now, they'd rip her arms off.

Aubrey was so busy trying to break free of the tree roots, which were stronger than she had expected –more like steel than wood- that she hardly noticed Lock until he'd stomped on the roots slinking around her body and pushed her to the ground. Stars exploded in her vision as her head slammed against the ground. A whimper escaped her lips, but immediately ceased as Lock clapped his hand over her mouth.

"Shut up!" He hissed. "Do you WANT to get killed?" She shook her head. "Than be quiet and hold still." Lock looked over his shoulder. The trees seemed confused. Their prey had seemingly disappeared. The branches retreated to their usual positions, and the roots sunk back into the ground. Lock let out a sigh of relief, then…

"AAAAHHH!" Aubrey let out a shriek as the trees attacked Lock, viciously ripping into his back and arms. It all came to a sudden halt nearly a minute later as the trees stiffened into their usual looming positions, unmoving.

Aubrey quickly scooted out from under Lock, her eyes widening as she saw the tears in his back. "Holy shit…" She whispered.

"That bad?" Lock asked, groaning as he tried to get up.

Hesitating, Aubrey knelt down and pulled one of Lock's arms over her shoulders. "Let me help."

Lock looked up at her, startled. "What?"

She flashed him a soft smile. "You just saved me, so I figure this is the least I can do." She slid her other arm around his chest. "Okay, this is probably going to hurt." She warned, pulling him up with a grunt of effort. Lock winced as he stood up.

Once Aubrey was sure that Lock could stand on his own, she pulled her arms away, wiping of the blood from Lock's back off of her arm with her jeans. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, of course. Just peachy." Lock answered sarcastically, supporting himself with one of the trees that had just pummeled him.

He let out a yelp as he felt something wipe his back, going over one of the cuts painfully. He turned around to see Aubrey standing behind him with what looked like a washcloth in her hand. "What are you doing?"

"Seeing how bad the cuts are." Aubrey retorted. "I don't care if you're already dead, it can still get infected." Lock knew that was true; god only knows how many times one of Boogie's Boys had to go to Dr. Finklestein because they'd let an open wound fester to long. "Now turn back around."

Lock did so, and Aubrey went back to wiping away the blood, apologizing every time Lock so much as winced.

"I'm telling you, someone set it off." Lock froze. That was Shock's voice!

"Yeah, but can't we just wait to hear about it later? I mean, it's already obvious who did it, so why get ourselves actually caught?"

"Barrel, you're such a wimp." Lock grabbed Aubrey's wrist and shoved her down underneath a tangle of roots that protruded from a nearby hillside.

"Stay here." He hissed. She nodded, having heard Shock and Barrel's voices as well.

"Lock?" Shock asked incredulously. "YOU set off my trap?"

The devil winced as he shrugged. "Yeah, what of it?"

"God, you're such a moron! I told you which part of the woods it was!"

Lock snorted. "Forgive me for forgetting which of the EXACTLY IDENTICAL trees you cursed."

The witch threw her hands into the air. "Ugh! Stupid boys…"

"Hey!" Barrel protested, running to catch up with her. "Shock, wait up!" Lock didn't let out the breath he'd been holding until both of them were out of sight. He walked over to Aubrey's hiding place and helped her out.

"You were going to that tree, right?" He asked. She nodded. "C'mon then." He started walking off. Aubrey didn't move. Lock turned around. "Do you want to get out of here or not?"

Aubrey hurried to catch up with him.

"There it is, see?" Lock pointed at the tree, which was sitting peacefully in its clearing as usual, having no idea what had just happened to its user. Because, well, it's a tree. Lock turned to walk away.

"Hey, Lock?" He stopped and looked over his shoulder at Aubrey.

"What is it now?"

Aubrey's gaze fell from his face to the ground and then back to his face. "Thanks. For doing all that for me today." She said before turning and running off toward the tree. Lock watched in a stunned silence as she pulled the door open and climbed through.

She had thanked him. Lock had never had ANYONE thank him for anything, ever. And, of all the people, it was AUBREY. The girl who he prided himself for hating more than he did Shock. The girl who'd given him a black eye with her delicate little artist hands (instead of tripping him onto the floor with his own tail like Shock and Barrel did). He turned back toward the Tree House.

"You're welcome." He muttered as he walked off.


Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Dead, not Blind

-Aubrey's POV-

All I could think about was why; why did Lock, of all the people, risk getting hurt to save me? Lock hates me. We've made that fact very clear: Lock, Shock, and Barrel hate me, and vice versa. It's an unspoken, mutual agreement, and Lock was TOTALLY ruining it.

I suppose that I wasn't doing much to reinforce it. I said 'thank you,' but what else could I do? I mean, he had just SAVED MY LIFE. Isn't thank you what you usually say when someone does something nice? Ooh, Lock and nice. There are two words I don't usually use to describe each other.

Sandy wasn't much help either. She just smiled at me all weird and when I asked, all she said was that I would 'find out in due time,' whatever the hell that means.

So that night, when I got to Halloween Town, I wasn't really paying too much attention to the clearing until I heard, "Hey, brat." I whipped around to see Lock standing there, and I immediately began looking for Shock and Barrel, dropping into a crouch so I could do that 'fight or flight' thing. Hey, this wouldn't be the first time they ambushed me…

Lock gave me a weird look. "What… what are you doing?"

After another moment of searching, I straightened up. "Alright, I give. Where are they hiding?"

"Where're who hiding?"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, stop playing dumb. Shock and Barrel. You three are practically attached at the hip."

"They aren't here."

I blinked. This was new. "Don't tell me you came here to fight me all by yourself."

If I wasn't seeing things, then Lock was turning slightly pink. "Look, I'm not here to fight!"

After a moment of consideration, I relaxed. About an inch. "Okay, I'll bite. Why are you here then?"

Lock seemed relieved that I believed him. "I'm taking you to Halloween Town. Shock used that spell on the trees again, and I don't feel like risking my tail to make sure you don't get killed again."

"Then why not just let me?"

"'Cause…" Lock paused, blinking. Art mine eyes deceiving me, or doth I see a wee bit of a blush on Lock's cheeks? Yeah, don't ask about the Shakespearian speech, I don't know either. "'Cause if you get killed, Jack'll return the favor to me, Shock, an' Barrel." He answered finally.

"Oh." I said, feeling a little disappointed. Wait, what the hell? Stop it Aubrey, stop it RIGHT NOW! "Well, um, can we go then?"

Lock grunted and walked off, leaving me to chase after him.

Soon, it fell into a pattern. I got used to seeing Lock waiting for me at the tree, to lead me down the 'safe' paths of the Hinterlands, and I even eventually stopped thinking that he was just leading me into a trap. It was kind of weird… but also kind of nice, you know? I mean, yeah, it's LOCK, but it was still nice to have someone my age to talk to in Halloween Town.

…even if it was one of my mortal enemies.

"Hey, Aubrey?" Lock asked suddenly as we were walking through the trees. He had dropped the 'brat' title a couple of weeks ago.

I looked over and up at him. I'll admit, I still kind of resented that he was a couple inches taller than me. "What is it? Are we going the wrong way or something?"

"No, I… I need to tell you something. You know how I've just been doing this because Shock was hexing the trees?"