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

Chapter 9

The Spider Incident

-October 31, 2002-

"Sally, come on! They're gonna start the song soon!" Aubrey called, hopping up and down at the bottom of the stairs. Sally walked down the stairs and the girl let out a delighted squeal. "Ooh, Sally, you look so pretty!" Sally's usual patchwork dress had been replaced by a crimson corset with a tattered skirt with an overskirt of black spider webs. A shawl of the same dark material rested over her shoulders, accenting the red ribbon choker around her neck decorated with an obsidian spider. A silver ring with a gleaming black gem sat on her finger.

Sally smiled, embarrassed. "You really think so?"

Aubrey 'humph'ed. "Sally, I may not act like it a lot of the time, but I AM still a girl, and I do have some sort of a fashion sense buried up here somewhere." She tapped her head. "And it is screaming 'pretty.'"

Sally smiled again and took Aubrey's hand. "Do you think Jack will like it?"

Insert eye roll here. "Sally, Jack would like it if you were wearing a burlap sack. The man is totally in capital l-o-v-e love with you." Sally giggled slightly. "Now come on. Hazel promised me a ride on her broomstick before the song starts, and I've wanted to ride that thing since I was eight."

"Shock, hurry up! We're missing out on trick or treating!" Lock hollered up the staircase of the Tree House. He growled and turned around, crossing his arms and tapping his foot impatiently. "What the hell is she doing up there?"

"Girl stuff?" Barrel asked. But the words had no sooner left his mouth than Shock came running down the stairs, something oddly box-like in her hands, and flew past the boys without the slightest pause. Lock and Barrel glanced at each other briefly before following after her, just in time to see Shock toss the box over the edge of the Tree House.

"Shock, what…was… that?" Lock began to ask, stopping as there was a loud rumble from below. The two boys ran over to the edge and peered down below, smiles spreading over their faces as they realized what Shock's 'surprise' was.

"And they award for most scares in one night goes to Jack!" The Mayor announced, making the crowd burst into cheers as their Pumpkin King took the stage.

"Thank you, everyone. This has been one of the greatest Halloweens of the yet!" Aubrey let out a laugh as another cheer went up. Jack ALWAYS said that. As Jack continued his speech, she looked around, a strange noise reaching her ears. It sounded like a spider's scuttling, only… bigger. And louder. And getting very close. Looking around, she couldn't see anything, but her paranoia proved to be true when someone let out a scream.

Everyone turned toward the graveyard to see a giant, arachnid-esque figure approaching, and rapidly. And it was only getting bigger by the second.

"Everyone get out of here!" Jack ordered, and the citizens scrambled for the gates. Sally ran up next to Jack on stage.

"Jack, what is that?" She asked, horrified.

The Pumpkin King turned to her. "Sally, get Aubrey and hide in the manor. Go!" Sally nodded and ran down the stairs, grabbing Aubrey's hand.

Aubrey followed, stopping as they reached the gates of Skellington Manor and three high-pitched giggles reached her ears. She looked back as Sally tugged her up the staircase, gasping at what she saw.

A giant black spider had stepped over the graveyard gate, its bulbous black eyes surveying the empty town square. Pincers as long as Jack was tall clicked as it let out a loud hissing noise. It stood as high as the town hall, the roof of which Lock, Shock, and Barrel were now sitting on, laughing madly. "Where'd everybody go? We just wanted to introduce 'em to our new pet!" Lock cackled.

"Yeah! Jack, meet Fluffy!" Shock screeched with laughter. "Fluffy, meet your lunch!"

Lock looked over at Shock. "Uh, Shock? Isn't that taking it a bit far?" He asked her quietly.

Shock pulled off her mask, giving Lock a look that clearly read 'you're kidding, right?' "Don't tell me you're going soft on us, Lock."

"Course not!" He protested, crossing his arms. "It's just that if Jack survives, we'll be in a lot of trouble."

Shock grinned over at him evilly. "That's why we'll make sure he DOESN'T. The only thing that I've trained Fluffy to do is kill Jack."

"Great." Lock muttered, the enthusiasm of Shock and Barrel's delighted cheers and cackles lacking in his voice. His eyes flickered from Jack, who was dodging blows from the giant spider's front two legs, to the stairs of Skellington Manor, where a white blur was running up the steps with unheard of speed with Sally behind it.

"Aubrey, what are you doing?" Sally asked as she stumbled up the crooked steps of Skellington Manor behind me.

"I'm helping Jack! I know he told us to go and hide, Sally, but he can't fight that thing alone!" She called, running inside and up the stairs. Nearly tripping on a loose floorboard (Jack could at least fix up SOME of them!), she stumbled into her room and pulled open the top drawer of the bedside table. Reaching inside, she pulled out a simple, wooden slingshot and a small sack that bulged full of whatever ammo was inside it. Speeding back to the staircase, she leapt onto the hand rail and slid down, flying off and landing in an ungraceful- and quite frankly painful looking- pile.

After moaning for a moment about her now scraped elbows and knees and hands and head, Aubrey stumbled up and raced for the door. She was surprised when she didn't fall head first down the stairs and break her neck or something. Jack was always warning her about that… Oh, right. Jack. The idiot she was supposed to be helping.

Speaking of our skeleton king, he was playing a game of tag with Fluffy. He was also wondering why SHOCK of all the corpses, would name a pet spider Fluffy. But that was at the back of his mind. At the front was the fact that this spider was destroying his town and trying to eat him.

"Hey, ugly!" Jack nearly tripped. That would have been disastrous. THE one and only Pumpkin King, tripping over himself? Shameful. Which he really shouldn't have been worried about, because he recognized the voice that dared to insult a giant-spider-that-was-ten times-her-size, and he knew EXACTLY what was coming.

It was times like this that Jack really hated being so incredibly perceptive.

But, thankfully, the spider didn't recognize any of the human language except for 'kill', 'maim', 'rip', 'tear', etc. Oh, and 'lunch'. So, it was still set on chasing after its supposed-to-be next meal… until something small and pebble-like smacked one of its bulbous eyes.

Fluffy reared back, letting out a high-pitched noise somewhere between a roar and a shriek. Scuttling around, it looked for the source of this unaccustomed pain, getting its answer as another rock smacked another one of its eyes. All twenty or so of them focused on the little figure in white standing in the archway leading to Skellington Manor.

Aubrey dropped the slingshot (and the pebble she was loading into it) as the huge arachnid focused its numerous eyes on her. 'Great job, Aubrey. You've got its attention, but NOW WHAT?'

Needless to say, Aubrey was somewhat surprised when a hand grabbed hers and began to pull her away. "S-Sally?" She asked, confused.

"I'm not just going to sit back and do nothing while you put yourself in danger, young lady." The rag doll told her sternly, smiling none the less. The smile faded as a large shadow passed over their heads and Fluffy landed right in front of them. Both let out a shriek of surprise, and Sally pulled Aubrey closer, holding her protectively.

Fearful tears streamed down Aubrey's face. 'Oh god, I'm so sorry I brought you into this, Sally…' She thought, hugging the rag doll's waist tightly. Fluffy's pincers opened wide and it began to bend down toward them…

Only to stop as a blur of red appeared from above the two girls and buried something that made a vile noise in between the spider's main two eyes. Blood spattered across both Sally and Aubrey as the insect fell, its legs twitching spasmodically as it let out a high keening. Aubrey's gaze flickered from the handle of what appeared to be an ax that stuck out from the dead spider's head, to the one who put it there. "… Lock?" (a/n: who ELSE would it be?)

The devil opened his mouth to say something, stopping as Jack stormed over and grabbed him by the color. "You have a lot to answer for, Lock." He growled. "All THREE of you." Jack looked over at Shock and Barrel, who were struggling in his other hand.

Lock looked away from them, Jack and his friends, with an expression that was akin to shame. "I know."

Jack blinked, surprised, but was quickly all business again. "At least you admit it." He muttered, releasing Lock and grabbing Barrel with his free hand and pulling the two toward Skellington Manor.

A light hand touched Lock's shoulder. He turned slightly to look at Aubrey. Taking her wrist gently, he removed her hand. "Sorry." He muttered, walking dejectedly after Jack.

"The three of you will stay here until I can decide on a fitting punishment." Jack told Lock sternly. The devil sat dismally on one of the many spare beds in one of the guest rooms in the Manor, staring down at the floor, with an utterly torn look on his face. Jack began to shut the door, stopping when it was almost closed. "I expected better of, at the very least, you, Lock." He said with a soft sigh, shutting the door. Lock flinched at the click of the door being locked.

With a sigh, he laid back on the bed and closed his eyes. Lock had a feeling he was going to be here for a while…

What felt like hours later, though it could've just been minutes, there was the sound of someone fiddling with the doorknob outside the room Jack had shut me in. It opened after a moment of silence, and boy was I surprised to see not Jack standing there, but Aubrey.

We didn't say anything for a moment, and the silence was so tense you could've cut it with a knife. "Aubrey, I-"

"Please tell me you had no idea what Shock was up to." She cut me off with a soft plea.

"I didn't! Well, I did, sorta, but I had no idea about the giant spider!" I immediately offered up, knowing how incredibly PATHETIC my excuse sounded. "You believe me, right Aubs?"