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

something happened to her? She jumped again as she heard a siren drawing close to her.

"The king of Halloween has been blown to smithereens." The Mayor's voice echoed through the area. "Skeleton Jack is now a pile of dust."

Tears welled up in Aubrey's eyes. "No… Jack… oh, this can't be happening…" She sat back down, burying her face in her hands. Her resolve hardened as she stood back up, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I've got to help them!" She looked at the rope warily, and then leapt onto it, clinging tight as it swung back and forth. Aubrey's eyes lit up as a plan hatched in her mind. Swinging back and forth on the rope, she leapt off at its highest point, landing on the other side of the chasm. She swung her arms as she stumbled backward, toward the edge of the ravine, but regained her balance and ran toward the tree house.

'Oh, this is such a bad idea…' Aubrey thought to herself as she began to ascend the crooked staircase inside. Carefully, she opened the door, and, not seeing any of the trio, slipped inside. "Now, if I were Lock, Shock, or Barrel, where would I leave something that could be useful against Oogie?" She searched the room quickly, and not finding any doors or weapons, ran up the next staircase.

Aubrey froze as she heard three very familiar voices laughing. She crept up the rest of the stairs and walked over to the door that she could hear the voices coming from. Crouching outside, she listened closely.

"One… two… three… four, five, six, seven!" Aubrey gasped as she realized that the voice she was hearing could only belong to Oogie Boogie. She pressed her ear against the wood, not hearing the creaks and moans it gave as she did so. Sally shrieked, which was soon followed by a moan from old St. Nick himself.

"This can't be happening!"

Someone, probably Lock, chuckled. "Yes it can, old timer!" Aubrey rolled her eyes. Yep, that was Lock.

Oogie laughed again. "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust. Ooh, I'm feeling weak—with hunger!"

Now, at this moment, the creaking and moaning of the door turned into a loud 'crack', which signaled that the rotten piece of wood had finally fallen off its hinges and with it, Aubrey.

Lock, Shock, and Barrel jumped around to see what –or who, as the case was- dared to intrude into their tree house. "You!" Shock cried as the dust cleared and she saw Aubrey lying there.

Aubrey's eyes widened and she attempted to push herself up. Instead, she let out a pained cry as a sharp pain shot up her leg and made her realize that part of the doorframe was pinning her right leg to the ground. "Oh no…"

The trio in front of her grinned. "Oh yes." Shock hissed gleefully, grabbing a mace off of the wall. Aubrey stared at the spiked head with fear. They were seriously going to kill her! Of course, they had planed on feeding her to Oogie the first time they had met…

Lock and Barrel didn't seem to sure of Shock's plan. "Uh, Shock? I know that we really don't like Aubrey, but don't you think that this is a little extreme?" Barrel asked, pulling the sucker out of his mouth. "I mean, if we kill her, won't Jack get more than a little mad?"

Aubrey sighed and flopped back down on the floor. "No. Even if he had been paying attention to me lately, he's dead too. He got blown up." She realized that, as soon as those words had left her mouth, she had lost her one and only chance at freedom.

Shock voiced this fact quite well. "Do you realize how stupid you are to have told us that?"

Aubrey shrugged. "Go ahead."

The three of them stared at her. "What?"

"I said go ahead. Kill me. My life honestly cannot get any worse right now. I mean, you guys turned over Santa Claus to Oogie Boogie, who's probably about to eat him as we speak, Jack's dead, Sally's about to be dead, and I live in an insane asylum in the real world, so please. Kill me. You'd be doing me a favor."

Lock, Shock, and Barrel looked at each other, confused. Normally, people would be begging for mercy at this point. But this little human was ASKING to die? Something wasn't right here. Shock quickly shook off her confusion and raised the mace over her head. "Whatever gets you out of my hair."

"Hello, Oogie." All four froze as Jack's voice drifted out of the pipe.

"You said he was dead!" Lock hissed at her.

"Hey, I was just relaying what the Mayor was spouting off." Aubrey realized how stupid that sounded, but it was true. Then, under her breath she added, "I don't know how you three DIDN'T hear it."

"Jack? But they said you were dead!" Aubrey smiled at them smugly, her expression clearly reading 'I told you so'. "You must be double dead!" A loud whirring echoed up the pipe.

Lock smirked. "Jack's dead for sure now. No way can he survive Oogie's roulette wheel."

"You obviously don't know Jack very well." Aubrey smirked. "If he can survive a missile, how hard do you think it'll be for him to trounce Oogie?" Lock and Shock looked at each other nervously, while Barrel stuck his lolly back in his mouth. "And, if I remember correctly, Jack specifically ordered you three to leave Oogie out of this, didn't he? He'll be pretty pissed when he finds out you didn't."

"What are you suggesting?" Lock asked, his arms crossed.

Aubrey propped herself up on her elbows. "Well, if you went to Halloween Town and told everyone that Jack was alive, maybe, maybe, he'll forget that fact. I can't really speak for him, in all honestly, but it should be enough to get you guys off the hook."

"What about…?" Barrel pointed toward Shock. More specifically, the mace she still held. She quickly dropped it.

"Take me with you and I won't even mention it." None of the three looked to happy with that suggestion. "You'll need me to come with you anyway. Do you really think that anyone in town's gonna believe you three?"

They pondered this for a moment before Lock and Shock went over and pushed the crossbeam off her leg. "Thanks." She muttered, carefully standing and placing weight back on her leg. She winced, but didn't fall. "So…" Aubrey started. "A temporary truce, then?" She held out her hand.

The three nodded and shook her hand in turn. "Now let's get going!" Shock ordered, running out. Lock and Barrel followed her, Aubrey chasing after them.

When they reached the playroom at the top of the tree, Aubrey asked, "We're not taking the bathtub, are we?" Lock and Shock grinned at her over their shoulders, and Aubrey gulped.

"Hey, Shock." Lock whispered. "Will it hold all four of us?"

She thought about it for a moment. "It should. It carries like seventy pounds of weapons and us whenever we use it." She shoved Barrel into the tub and hopped in herself, followed by Lock and Aubrey. The bathtub lurched, throwing those not experienced riding in it forward, i.e. Aubrey, while those who were experienced (and therefore holding onto the rim) snickered. She pushed herself up, her face flushed, and settled herself at the end of the tub farthest away from the trio.

"Hey…" Aubrey started as they exited the tree house. "Why do you three work for Oogie?" She noticed that all three of them grew very still and quickly tried to fix whatever it was she had said. "I mean, if it's personal or something, you really don't have to tell me, it's just that… you guys seem so loyal-"

"We are NOT loyal to that…" Lock started, stopping abruptly. Aubrey raised an eyebrow but let the subject drop. They rode in silence for a long while, until they reached town, where the Mayor was just climbing out of his car, his sad face turned forward.

"Mayor!" Aubrey yelled, climbing out of the tub. He turned, looking surprised.

"Aubrey? I'm sorry, but I'm really not in the mood to talk-"

"Jack's still alive!" Lock, Shock, and Barrel interrupted. Murmurs passed through the crowd. Jack? Alive? But that was impossible!

The Mayor shook his head. "Jack was blown to smithereens."

Aubrey shook her head. "No, it's true! He's fighting Oogie Boogie right now! We have to hurry!"

After a moment of consideration, the Mayor seemed to realize that if Aubrey was agreeing with Lock, Shock, and Barrel, then Boogie's Boys were telling the truth (for once) and waddled back to his car. The four kids followed, Aubrey sliding into the passenger seat while Boogie's Boys hopped onto the roof.

The return trip to the Tree House was much faster than the trip to Halloween Town had been, considering the Mayor's car had quite a bit more speed than the bathtub.

"Well?" The Mayor asked as they arrived, stepping out of the car.

"He's down there." Aubrey pointed down the crevice. Aubrey turned to the trio. "How do we get down there, exactly?"

The three glanced at each other, then nodded and slammed down the lever next to them. Slowly and with much protest, a rusty, spiked cage that doubled as an elevator lowered to their level. "You and the Mayor first." Lock told Aubrey.

"Not a chance. What's there to stop you from cutting the rope and killing us both?" The white haired girl questioned.

Shock looked at Lock. "I hadn't thought of that… she's good."

Lock rolled his eyes. "Fine. Shock, go with the Mayor. Barrel and I will go with Aubrey."

The witch grumbled for a minute before stepping into the elevator with the two faced politician. It lowered, and then stopped. Lock waited a minute before pulling the lever back up to reveal an empty elevator.

Barrel stepped inside, but Aubrey stayed put. "Are you coming?" Lock asked.

"I'll stay here." She said after a moment.

Lock shook his head, his eyes rolling behind his mask. "Whatever. Then pull the lever to get us down." He ordered, running into the cage and pulling the door shut. Aubrey walked over to the rusted lever and pushed on it. It stuck, but after a moment it gave way, and the elevator lowered.

'And Lock made it look so easy.' She thought, staring at the lever. Going over to the rift, she sat down and listened, but failed to hear anything. After a couple of minutes, she jumped as the elevator began to raise itself. "Jack!" Aubrey cried excitedly as the skeleton, along with Sally was brought into her vision. He hopped off the top of the cage-like travel system and, after helping Sally down, was promptly hugged by Aubrey.

He hugged her back, then pushed her away and knelt down to her eye level. "I'm sorry, Aubrey. I should've listened to you."

"Duh." She said, smiling to show that she was only teasing, then hugged his neck tightly. Jack smiled and picked her up.

"We need to go back to town." Sally said. "Everyone still thinks your dead, Jack."

"Not anymore they don't." Aubrey smiled. "How else do you think we could've gotten the Mayor out here?"

Jack raised a non-existent eyebrow. "'We'?" He echoed, looking from Aubrey to Lock, Shock, and Barrel. His eyes narrowed. "You three are in big trouble…" He looked from the trio, who looked terrified, to Aubrey, who kind