As we were all looking in the town square, elsewhere, little did I know at the time, Shock caught back up with Lock and Barrel and was arguing with them about what she was forced to do.
‘I can’t believe they made me do that. Me! The meanest kid in the Town!’
‘Hey! I’M the meanest kid in town!’ Lock argued with her.
‘What? I’m the one who comes up with all the ideas!’
‘Oh yeah, well I’M the one with the best weapon.’
‘A TOILET STICK is the BEST WEAPON!?’
‘Hey guys! Come quick!’ Barrel yelled from the top of spiral hill.
Shock and Lock broke up from their argument and ran up to the top of the hill to see what Barrel had found.
They stopped for breath as soon as they got to the top.
‘What’s that?’ Questioned Barrel.
Lock and Shock looked beyond the iron fence into the abandoned cemetery.
They all saw a boy dressed in blue wandering around just beyond the fence.
‘Is that a human kid?’ Lock wondered.
‘It’s gotta be.’ Said Shock.
‘But it’s not lying down like the last one.’
‘But it IS a kid. An ugly looking one.’
‘Hey, even if it’s not a human kid, I’ll bet Oogie’s getting tired of bugs on the menu.’ Said Shock.
The three of them pondered for a few seconds.
‘Let’s get him!!!’
Lock, Shock and Barrel charged down the hill towards the human boy they saw.
The boy looked in their direction as they came charging.
‘Chor! Who are you fellas?’ He said curiously in his little London cockney accent.
But obviously Lock, Shock and Barrel weren’t here to chat. They were here to kidnap.
They sprung out with the trick-or-treat bag and snatched hold of him.
‘Oi! What ya doin’ to me?’ He spoke from inside the bag.
He stuck out his head from the end of the bag.
‘I’m Benjamin O’Brien. Who are you guys?’
‘Shut it, shorty.’ Said Lock as he tied the bag tightly and made Benjamin‘s head disappear back into the bag.
The terrible trio then packed the bag, with Benjamin inside, into the walking bath tub.
Lock, Shock and Barrel then climbed in and rode off across the bridge.
Meanwhile, I was still with Jack and Annie, searching through the town and calling out Benjamin’s name.
‘Benny boy! Where are you?’ I yelled out.
‘We’ve have your bear, Benjamin!’ Annie cried. ‘Please come out, wherever you may be!’
Annie looked towards the gate that led to the cemetery.
‘Perhaps we should further our search?’ She suggested.
‘Good idea.’ Jack agreed.
‘Emma, you’d better come with us. The rest can keep searching in the town.’
Annie opened the gate and ran straight through.
However, as soon as she turned the corner, she stopped in her tracks.
She gazed out at all she could see.
‘What is this place?’ She gasped.
‘No need to be afraid, Annie. This place isn’t dangerous. Except for the terrible trio.’ I said.
Jack noticed the expression on her face.
I thought she was shocked and frightened by what she saw, but Jack had seen fright far many more times than me, (he did have a living of scaring people out of their wits).
He knew that Annie was not frightened, she was fascinated.
‘Jack, look!’ I called out as I discovered something lain on the floor.
It was a dark blue slipper. It was Benjamin’s slipper (one of them anyway).
‘Benjamin wouldn’t just leave it here. I knew it! they’ve found him already!’ I panicked ‘Jack, come on!’
But Jack was still with Annie, wondering why she was so stunned at the sight she gazed upon.
I must admit, even I’d never seen Annie like this before.
But nevertheless, we had a mission.
‘Jack! We’ve got to get to Lock, Shock and Barrel! Who knows what their gonna do to Benjamin!’ I decided to run on.
‘Come on, Annie, I’ll show you around Halloween Town later. Right now we’ve go to find Benjamin.’ Jack encouraged Annie to snap out of it.
‘Halloween Town?’ She sighed and wondered.
‘Come on, we’d better catch up with Emma.’
Jack took Annie by the hand and ran with her to catch up with me.
Meanwhile, in other nastier places…
‘Oi, where are we goin’?’ Benjamin asked from inside the bag.
‘No were special.’ Said Lock. ‘Just somewhere where you’ll never see the light of day again!’
They all chuckled as they pulled Benjamin out of the bag.
Benjamin found himself as what was called the “Evil Playroom”. Lock, Shock and Barrel’s hide out.
They held Benjamin up to a large tunnel that went into the wall.
‘A wide!’ Benjamin cried in glee. (Little did he know).
‘That’s right, a ride.’ Said Shock deceivingly and sarcastically.
‘And it’s gonna take you to a very special bag of bugs.’ Said Barrel.
‘Mr Oogie Boogie!’ The three of them called out together as they shoved Benjamin down the tunnel.
‘Whee!’ Cried Benjamin as he disappeared down the tunnel.
Bumping a little as he went down, he finally reached the end.
He fell out of the tunnel and into a shadowy room.
The room was dark with fluorescent and neon objects all over the place.
‘Ooh.’ Benjamin gazed, fascinated.
But then, a large shadowed figure came up behind him.
‘Well, ain’t you a shorty!’
Benjamin looked behind him at whoever just spoke.
He stared gormlessly at first, unsure what to think or say to the giant talking bag of bugs that stood above him.
‘You’re fat, ain’t ya?’
‘Urh?’ Oogie Boogie seemed surprised that this kid had a lot of guts to say something like that.
‘Enough messin’ around. Where’s your heart, kid?’
Benjamin practically ignored him as he crawled to two dice cubes that were on the floor.
‘Shiny toy.’ He said.
‘You ain’t goin’ no where, kid.’
Oogie grabbed Benjamin by the scruff of his top.
‘Why are you so fat?’ Benjamin questioned.
‘Man, you got gut’s, kid.’ Said Oogie, as he turned Benjamin towards him.
‘Now where’s that heart, sonny boy?’
Benjamin threw the dice at the face of his new friend and hit Oogie right in the eyes.
Momentarily stunned, Oogie dropped Benjamin.
Benjamin bumped to the floor but it didn’t stop him from crawling away.
‘That’s it! I tried reasoning with you, kid, but I guess I’ll have to take extreme measures!’
Oogie pulled one of the leavers in the room.
A cage fell from the ceiling and landed on top of Benjamin, trapping him.
The rest of the lair began to light up as all the traps and contraptions all over the room were activated.
Benjamin saw a spinning wheel across the room with numbers on it.
He saw three toy men with guns covered with hearts diamonds, clubs and spades.
There were chains all around the room with bats hanging from them.
Skeletons and skulls.
Snakes and spiders.
‘Shiny toys!’ Benjamin cried.
‘What do they do?’ He asked.
‘You actually wanna find out!? Ah ha!’ Oogie placed the caged Benjamin on the spiked round table in the middle of the lair.
He spun the table and sent Benjamin spinning as well.
He then pressed a glowing button with a picture of a gun on it.
‘The ride ends, shorty, when you give me the heart.’
The toy men holding the guns slid forward and their guns lowered.
All three of them fired multiple shots at Benjamin.
The table stopped spinning.
The cage flew off.
But Benjamin seemed unharmed. It would appear that not a single shot hit him.
‘What the?’ Oogie puzzled.
‘Why…would…I…wanna…end…the wide?’ Spoke the dizzy Benjamin.
‘Well it’s not over yet, kid!’ Oogie hit another button.
The toy gunmen withdrew. And another weapon came into view.
A floating bullsaw came close to the cage where Benjamin remained unharmed.
The saw started to spin.
‘And this time it’s gonna hurt!’ Said Oogie as the blade came closer and closer to the cage.
The saw the swung back and charged towards Benjamin.
The bullsaw spun straight through him!
Yet Benjamin was still unharmed.
‘Grrrrr!” Oogie grumbled.
The blade came back for another shot.
But just like last time, it went straight through Benjamin and did not hurt him.
The bullsaw swiped back and forth, again and again.
‘All right! That does it!’ Oogie Boogie approached the biggest leaver in the whole lair.
With a mighty force, he pulled down the leaver.
The massive circular platform in the middle of the room where Benjamin was stood rose up from the floor.
The gunmen came back. So did the bullsaw. But many more weapons came from all over the lair.
A metal arm with three blades came down from the ceiling and landed just above the floor.
A swinging axe hung from the other end of the lair.
And giant metal playing card kings came up from the floor and surrounded the platform.
‘Alright, ya little squirt!’ Oogie yelled. ‘Let’s see ya get out’a this one!!!’
The three blades began to slowly turn.
The gunmen lowered their guns.
The king playing cards drew swords.
The bullsaw was about to go for another shot.
And the swinging axe was about to be dropped.
‘Last chance, ya little pipsqueak. The heart!!!’
‘I don’t got it, fat man.’ Said Benjamin.
‘What? No heart?’
Benjamin nodded with a smile.
‘Ha. You better be tellin’ the truth, little man!’
‘Yep. And without it I can’t heal people.’
‘What!?! Heal people!? What kind of a deadly power is that!?!’
‘It’s not deadwy. It’s helpful.’
Now he knew that Benjamin’s power wasn’t destructive, there was no point in putting his heart back and obtaining the power.
‘Then that does it! There’s plenty more little twerps out there where you came from!’
Benjamin ignored him just continued to smile, unaware of the danger he was in.
‘You had ya chance, kid. Say ya prayers!!!’
With that, the three blades began to rapidly spin.
The gunmen fired.
The bullsaw charged.
The swords rapidly swatted.
And the axe came hurtling towards Benjamin.
‘Ah ha, ha!!!!” Oogie Boogie loudly chuckled.
The blades chopped at Benjamin.
The guns fired.
The axe swung.
Every weapon in the lair was attacking him.
However, just like last time, the deadly weapons had no effect.
They just simple went straight through him as if he was a ghost.
Benjamin ignored the blades zooming through him and crawled over to the platform where Oogie Boogie was standing.
‘Man! What kind of a kid are you?’ Oogie puzzled.
But Benjamin was too distracted to answer.
He could here a noise that wasn’t part of the swarming of weapons.
He turned his head to a rapid clicking noise he heard coming from a spinning wheel with numbers on it.
He began crawling over to it.
He then sat himself down and stared.
‘Hey, what you looking at?’ Said Oogie.
‘Eight.’ Said Benjamin.
Oogie pulled the leaver back up and shut off all the weapons.
‘Eight what?’
‘Eight.’ Benjamin pointed to the wheel.
Click, click, click, click, click, click…
The rapid clicking began to slow down.
Slower and slower until the wheel stopped spinning.
And at the top, where the arrow pointed down onto the wheel was the number eight.
Oogie Boogie was astonished.
‘I told ya.’ Said Benjamin.
‘Hey, how did you know that?’
‘I don’t know that.’
Oogie Boogie spun the wheel again.
‘Do it again.’
Benjamin listened to the clicking.
Click, click, click…
‘One and five.’
The wheel slowed down until it stopped again.
The number at the arrow was fifteen. (A one and a five).
‘I’ll be jiggered!!!’
Benjamin, board of the wheel, crawled over to the other side of the room.
‘Now just hold on a second.’ He grabbed Benjamin before he could get far enough away.
‘Let’s try out that little move you got with a different style.’ Said Oogie, shaking two dice in his hand.
Elsewhere, (actually, where I was), we’d been able to pry information out of Lock, Shock and Barrel. Well, just Barrel actually.
We now knew that Oogie Boogie was back. And we also knew for sure that Benjamin was in Oogie’s lair.
‘What on earth could he have done to him! Oh, what if we’re to late!?’ I panicked. ‘I know Benjamin has invincibility, but I’m still worried if this, “Oogie Boogie” is as bad as you say he is.’
I stopped as I got to the front of the mansion.
We could hear a cackling coming from somewhere below the bridge.
‘Let’s make this stealthily, kids.’ Said Jack. ‘Annie, you stay here so you won’t get hurt.’ He suggested.
‘Is that an order, your majesty?’
‘I’m afraid so, Annie.’
‘Then I shall obey, your majesty.’
‘Jack.’ Jack corrected.
‘Alright then. Emma, you come with me. Here’s what were gonna do…’
(Back in the lair)…
‘Ha, ha! I don‘t usually bet this much, but you, kid, are one heck of a lucky charm!’ Oogie Boogie chuckled.
Benjamin watched as the card dispenser dealt the next hand.
‘There’s no As left.’ Said Benjamin.
‘There’s no sevens left and no fives left and no Js left and no twos left. There’s only three threes left and three eights left and two tens left and one K left and one Q left. All the fours and sixes and nines are left. That’s it.’ Benjamin finished. ‘I like counting.’ He added.
Benjamin then lifted up his head as he heard something else.
He turned round to where the noise came from and crawled in that direction.
‘Hey, where do you think you’re goin’, squirt?’
Benjamin continued to crawl.
He looked up at the bars on the wall where the noise came from.
‘I spared ya puny little life! You’d better do as you’re told or…’
‘Emma!!!’ Benjamin called out, blowing my cover as he saw me and Jack at the only entrance to the lair.
Oogie looked up as saw us too.
‘Jack?!!!” He yelled.
Jack dropped down from the ceiling in front of Oogie Boogie.
‘Nice of you to DROP by!!!’
I climbed down the wall as quietly as I could, trying not to be seen again.
‘You’ve go some bugs coming back here!!!’
‘I’ve got no time for fighting, Oogie! Give Benjamin back!’ Jack ordered fiercely.
‘You want him? Come and get him, bone head!’
Oogie reached out and slammed his hand down a red glowing button.
The part of the ground Oogie and Benjamin were standing on rose up from the floor, escaping from Jack.
‘Ooh.’ Said Benjamin fascinated at the shiny button Oogie just pressed.
He quickly crawled over to it and pressed it.
‘Don’t!!!’ Oogie yelled.
The floor then lowered back down again.
Benjamin crawled on to a ledge as the platform was going down.
‘Benjamin!’ I saw what had just happened, and Benjamin was heading for another shiny button.
‘Don’t touch that, ya little…!’ But Oogie was a little too late.
Benjamin slammed his hand down on the green square button on the wall.
The floor split up into rings and began turning in alternative ways.
Benjamin then saw a leaver on the wall.
‘Benjamin, don’t! You might do something!’ I tried to warn him, but my efforts were useless.
Benjamin jumped up at the leaver, grabbed hold of it and pulled as he fell back down.
The bullsaw became active.
‘Chor!’ Benjamin cried.
‘Nice toys.’
The bullsaw was soaring backwards and forwards, spinning round and round in the middle of the lair where Jack was standing.
Jack was even more agile than I thought, ‘cause he easily dodged it. But Oogie on the other hand wasn’t so lucky.
His luck of not getting hit ended when the bullsaw trimmed the top of his head.
‘Urh!!!’ He cried.
Jack saw an advantage.
‘Benjamin, you like these toys? Try to find more!’ He called out to the happy little Benjamin.
‘Yes, Benjamin. Press some more buttons.’ I encouraged him.
‘No, you little squirt! Don’t you dare!!!’ Oogie yelled.
But Benjamin went with what Emma was telling him.
He crawled over to another glowing button and pressed it quickly.
The axe blade came swinging across the lair.
Jack leaped out of the way as the blade swung.
Oogie was too fat to be agile like that. He fell flat to the ground and ducked out of the way of the blade. It swung straight over him.
He then got up from his quivering.
‘Ha!’ He said with the fact that the blade hadn’t hit him.
Chop!
The blade swung straight back.
‘Ahh!’ Oogie screamed.
The axe blade had sped behind him and sliced a slit in his backside.
‘Argh!’ He said as he sat flat on his bottom to stop his bugs from falling out.
I crawled down onto the ledge where Benjamin was sat.
‘Come on, little guy. Let’s get you out of here.’
I picked him up from the floor and carried him with one arm.
Jack was already up at the bars where our only exit was.
I hurried over with Benjamin still resting in my arm.
Jack held out his hand and helped me up and out of the lair.
‘This ain’t the last time we’re gonna meet, Pumpkin King!’ Oogie Boogie yelled.
‘I’ll be back! Just you wait, Jack! I’ll be back!!!’
