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

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She looked away from me, her crimson eyes guilty. "I… Lock, I don't know who to believe any more."

I hopped off the bed and went over to her. "Believe me! We're friends, remember?" I grabbed one of her hands. "We… we are still friends, right?" I asked, looking at her face. "Right?"

Aubrey swallowed, hard. "… I'm not sure." I dropped her hand. First Shock and Barrel- hey, I know those two. I just got us all in some seriously deep shit. They were more likely to send me back into the grave then call me 'friend' anytime soon- and now Aubrey. How could this get worse?

That's when I saw the slingshot in her hand. "Here." She said quietly, her voice hoarse, extending her hand toward mine.

"Keep it." I said flatly.

"I can't." She told me, her voice wavering. "Jack won't let me."

Jack… wouldn't… let her? I turned back around to see Aubrey focusing her gaze on the floor, and her shoulders were shaking. "Is that why you said we aren't friends?"

Aubrey nodded slowly. Oh, well, I felt a little better. Great to know that Jack hates me enough to ban me from being friends with people. Could he do that? "Can you even ban someone from being friends with people?" I repeated aloud. "I don't think that's legal."

There was a slight giggle, and Aubrey looked up at me, wiping tears off her face. "Like you would know."

"Hey, I've broken plenty of rules. I don't think that's one of them." I grinned at her slyly. "So… does this mean we can be friends again?"

Aubrey nodded slightly, biting her lip but smiling nonetheless. Woohoo, points for me!

A minute later, we were sitting on the bed, Aubrey telling me what was happening outside. Apparently, I'd been locked up for about forty-five minutes. "Jack's just got a meeting called together. He wouldn't let me in."

"Figures." I muttered. Aubrey would've stood up for me, at least. "How'd you even get in here? Jack locked the door."

She grinned, almost mimicking my earlier one, holding up a white key. "Skeleton key." She said.

"Ooh, bad pun."

"Jack gave it to me a while back. Guess he just forgot. I almost did too, 'cept it was underneath the slingshot." She looked down at the floor. "Lock… I'm probably not gonna be able to see you any more after this."

I nodded. "Yeah, I know." I nearly jumped out of my skin when Aubrey turned and quite abruptly hugged me. Hugs were not something I was used to. Hell, physical contact that wasn't painful was something I wasn't used to. After sitting there like a retard, I carefully wrapped my arms back around her. We sat like that until the sound of the front door creaking open below us made us jump apart.

"I have to go." Aubrey whispered, walking over to the door and shutting it. I heard the lock click shut, then light, barely audible footsteps running down the hall.

"Aubrey?" Jack's voice called faintly.

"In my room." She responded flatly. I heard Jack's footsteps coming up the stairs, then a door click shut. Voice conversed for a few minutes, Jack's switching from sympathetic to angry quite a few times, while Aubrey's stayed firmly mechanical. She deserved an award for this little act…

Finally, Jack said something about taking her home, and after their footsteps faded, there was nothing but silence.

I sighed and flopped back down on the bed. The afterlife really sucks…


Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Final Decision

-November 1, 2002-

"Lock!" Aubrey cried as she tumbled through the door- it would still be a few years before she could actually come through that thing without falling all over herself- and saw the devil-costumed boy waiting for her. She hugged him tightly, letting go and holding him at arm's length before he had a chance to respond. "You're alright." She sighed, relieved.

"Still in one piece, anyway." Lock said with a slight chuckle.

Aubrey attempted to smile and failed miserably. "What'd Jack do to you three?"

Lock grimaced behind his mask and pulled it off as he sat Aubrey down. "We've been banished. We can't leave the Hinterlands, otherwise we'll be severely punished." He said these last words as though he was already imagining the 'severe punishments' already.

"But that's not fair!" Aubrey protested. "You saved me and Sally, and you didn't know about the spider!"

"Yeah, well, the witch trials weren't fair either. Anyone close to the 'witch' went down with 'em, remember?" Lock told her blandly.

"That isn't gonna stop me from giving Jack a piece of my mind." She growled, her fists clenching. Lock couldn't help laughing at this tiny, fine boned little mortal girl taking on the Pumpkin King, the Master of Fright, the Knight of Nightmares. Though for some reason, he did have a feeling that she might actually get through to him.

"Aubrey?" Speak of the skeleton devil himself, Lock thought. Jack stepped through the trees, smiling. "I thought I heard…" He stopped abruptly as his eyes fell on Lock, narrowing into a glare as he reached forward and grabbed Aubrey's pale wrist and pulled her away.

"Ow! Jack, let go, that hurts!" Aubrey protested, squirming and pushing at his hand. Jack ignored her, not stopping until they'd reached Guillotine Gate.

He released the child and turned to face her, angry and serious and quite scary. Well, quite scary to anyone who hadn't seen this expression a thousand times, granted that it had never been directed at her. "Aubrey, you can't see Lock anymore. Ever."

"What?" She asked, as though she wasn't hearing him right. "What do you mean I can't see Lock anymore? We're friends!"

"I told you last night, I forbid you from associating with him anymore!" Jack yelled, his voice raising, catching the attention of several passing citizens.

Aubrey glared up at Jack, her pink-red eyes tearing up. "You can't tell me what to do, Jack. You're supposed to be my friend, not my dad! (a/n: Oh, the irony!)" She screamed right back, running off toward the graveyard. Jack just closed his eyes and turned around, making his way back to Skellington Manor. Citizens stepped out of his way hurriedly, not wanting to risk their King's wrath.

Well, all except one…

"Jack, what's wrong with Aubrey?" Sally asked, catching the skeleton at the gate to the Manor.

Jack looked away from his fiancé. "Nothing, Sally." He lied quietly, pulling his arm gently out of her grasp before pushing open the gates. "She's just working some things out."

'Working things out' was a very light way of putting what Aubrey was doing. Sitting on the top of Spiral Hill with her knees hugged to her chest with hot, angry tears spilling down her cheeks, Aubrey had never felt more angry at her soon to be ex-friend. In fact, she almost never felt angry at Jack. Except for that Christmas incident, she hadn't ever, EVER, been mad at Jack.

"First time for everything." She muttered, wiping tears off her cheeks.

"Lots, actually." Aubrey jumped up to see Lock standing behind her. "You're the first mortal to ever actually get to Halloween Town, there's another one."

"What are you doing here?" She asked, looking around to make sure that there were no stray ghosts around that could tell Jack.

Lock shrugged. "Can't stand hearing girls cry, I guess."

Skepticism flashed through Aubrey's worry. "What about Shock?"

Lock rolled his eyes. "Alright, cute girls then. Besides, the day that Shock cries is the day I put on a pink leotard and hop around doing ballet."

Aubrey flushed slightly at Lock's comment. "You… you think I'm cute?"

He blushed a furious red, almost more so than his hair, as he realized what he said. "Well, you're cuter than any of the girls here." He quickly covered, though the damage had already been done.

She smiled and hugged him. "Thanks Lock." She whispered softly, and Lock couldn't help smirking as he hugged her back lightly.

"Don't get used to it."

Aubrey laughed as she pulled away from him. "I wouldn't dream of it."

I decided that going back to Halloween Town wouldn't help my temper any, and Lock was hell bent on staying away from the Tree House, so the two of us walked back to my tree's clearing and sat and talked about how unfair Jack was being and how stupid this was and other random stuff (we actually started debating on what tree in the Hinterlands looked deadest for a few minutes.) until the sun began to peak through the cloudy night sky.

"See you tomorrow?" I asked hopefully, one leg already hoisted over the door's edge.

Lock paused to think about this. "Maybe. Not if Jack's waiting for you though."

"Definitely not." I agreed. I smiled at him. "He can't stay mad forever, Lock. I'll make him see reason."

"Yeah, right. Like you could actually take down bonehead." He scoffed, but he was smiling anyways. "See ya'."

"You too." I said, turning and jumping through the portal back to my body.

Jack couldn't stay mad forever. Besides, how could it possibly get any worse?

The End

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Publication Date: 12-04-2011

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