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Burnt was drawing, since she had died she spent all of her nights doing this, hence she was getting to be very good. Something hit the glass of her window, she went over opened the shutters and looked out, Jessica and Carlos stood outside; Jessica flew up to her and sat on the frame of her window.
“Me Carlos and some for our friends are going out to tell stories around the camp fire, we wondered if you and your brothers would like to join us.” Burnt debated for a moment, she didn’t know Jessica that well, but she doubted that her and her friends would hurt her and her brothers.
“I’ll wake them up, but how do we get out of the house without Bonejangles finding out?”
“Me and my brother can lift you out of this window, if that’s ok” Jessica’s voice was low, but burnt could still hear every word she was saying “also, it’s hard to get out of the gates without being noticed, a lot of people are still out at night” Burnt nodded then smiled and said
“Thank you”
“No problem”
“Give me five minutes” said Burnt, her single brown eye shining with excitement
“You have them” with that Jessica leaped down from the window ledge, she landed silently and cat like, turning just in time to see Burnt’s brown ponytail disappear.
Burnt went down the corridor, wishing her high heeled shoes were less noisy, she was wearing a grey sleeveless dress over the top of a white shirt, which luckily for her blended in with the house, she dived into Smouldered’s room, he stood up with an confused expression upon his face, he was wearing a black and white suit, red converse and red tie, his eyes and hair were brown like his sister’s and brother’s but his hair was short and with a side parting. Burnt put a finger to her mouth then whispered.
“My room NOW”
“Why?”
“Just do it” Smouldered knew better than to disobey his sister so whilst he went to Burnt’s room, Burnt went into Singed’s room, and pulled at his orange no-sleeved jumper, he sat up, ran his fingers though his messy brown hair,
“What?”
“My room now” Singed pulled on his orange converse then hurried out, he was more adventurous than his brother, and normally could guess when one was about to occur. Once Jessica and Carlos had airlifted them down they ran over to the lab were they woke up Electrona and Volto, they now had hair wings and tails of electricity, Electrona wore red trousers, black and white striped t-shirt with a waist coat over it, Volto wore jeans and a grey hoodie. The final stop was at Oogie’s house but they didn’t make it the full way as Beatlan and Arachcana met them halfway there, Beatlan wore green arm bands barely visible against his green skin, he also wore a red shirt, both him and Arachcana wore jeans, they also both had antenna, Arachcana had red skin and blonde hair along with a purple and black t-shirt, both had tails with wasp stingers on the end and insect wings.
Everyone assembled they ran over to the gate, again Burnt, Smouldered and Singed were lifted over the fence whilst the other six flew.
After about five minutes of walking through the graveyard and edges of the hinterlands, they finally entered a large clearing, not much different from the one that had the holiday doors in. Everyone gathered firewood and Jessica set it alight. By the time everything was ready, midnight was fast approaching, they sat down and for a while sat still, finally Jessica spoke.
“Well, here we are again, as you know by now, every so often we have story telling nights, whether they be real or not doesn’t matter, and as you can see we have three new people here, so try not to scare them away please, my uncle would murder me” everyone laughed, Jessica had a knack for getting the reaction she wanted. “So…who wants to tell the story?” Burnt looked around and said,
“I will” Instantly everyone but her brothers smiled.
“Go for it” Jessica loved stories, no matter who told them. So did the others but Burnt’s brothers had other ideas.
“Burnt, no please” Singed looked at his sister, this was one adventure he never wanted to relive.
“Singed, come on, it’s a good tale” Singed slumped; it was Burnt’s trump card saying that.
“Fine” Burnt grinned then to everyone’s surprise began to sing.
[i] It was a long time
In a happy place
Things were going strong
Then our parents went crazy
And things started to go wrong
They hurt us
Made things worse
Then burnt the house to hell,
And at the same time you see,
They killed us as well.
We don’t know why
We did nothing wrong
We are glad to get rid get rid of them
As this has been going on quite some time
And now we will never have to see them again. [/i]
*FLASHBACK*
Suddenly everyone found themselves in an old house, somewhere in the countryside; the room they were in was obviously the kitchen. The room was tastefully decorated, with wooden furniture and wild flowers. There were three children in the room, it didn’t take long for anyone to see that they were the alive and 7 year old versions of burnt smouldered and singed.
“Burnt, where are you?” the word burnt was said differently than the rest of the sentence, probably because Burnt didn’t want anyone to know their real names. The woman entered the room; she had brown hair blue eyes and wore a smart dress. She was obviously their mother.
“I’m here” Burnt smiled and ran to her mother, going around the beautiful table in the immaculate kitchen. Burnt hugged her mother, her mother laughed so did burnt, then the laughter turned to crying as the room spun burnt was a lot older and hugging Smouldered, she was crying. Singed was at the door, jamming it shut, so their parents couldn’t get in. The kitchen was a mess, the wood was chipped and rotted, fragments of plates and bits of food lay everywhere.
The door was being beaten, over and over again, a rhythmic drum, insults flew through the air like birds. The voice was drunken and slurred, finally the beating stopped with one final hit, defeated by Singed’s barricade, but the voice carried on. It was no longer loud, no longer having to compete with the sound of fists.
“Let me in children”
“NO!” Burnt shouted back, anger becoming stronger than her fear in one second
“Let me in children, let me in or you get hurt, let me in or you get broken…”
For half an hour no one spoke, and then finally the voice that had once been their fathers said “let me in or you get killed” when no one replied he said “Have it your way”. There was a sound of a match being lit and the barricade, the barricade blocking the only way out, went up in flames.
Fire went in all directions dried out wood going up in flames in seconds, the children just stood there, admitting defeat, the toxic gasses emitted from the fire rendered them unconscious and the world went black.
When the black fug cleared they were in a bar, the three, now very dead children sat slumped in chairs, looking like they do now. Spiders ran all over them making their clothes newer and better. Burnt woke up first, the spiders scuttled away, she opened her eyes and,
“NEW ARRIVAL” despite being in a totally new place Burnt smiled, she had never felt this welcome.
Soon Smouldered and singed began to stir and they too felt strangely at home in this alien place.
The next hours went at a blur, so many people wanted to know what happened to them and burnt would always say what had happened with courage and made the whole story seem more magical, eventually she was standing upon a table, everyone looking at her in wonder. Smouldered and singed just stood in the back of the bar. They didn’t want to hear this, didn’t want to hear of the story, and didn’t want to have to re-live it again.
The story ended and burnt got down from the table, applause following her. A skeleton with a bowler hat strode over to her; he shook her warmly by the hand saying
“The names Bonejangles and you would be?”
“Er…I don’t like my name anymore”
“Totally understandable, I mean after hearing that tale I wouldn’t want my original name either. Those your brothers?” said Bonejangles pointed to Smouldered and Signed.
“Yeah” Burnt whistled, not a plain normal whistle, the kind with tune, the boy heads’ snapped up. Burnt signalled with her head for them to come over, they got up from the bar and walked over to were Burnt and Bonejangles were standing.
“Yes?” Singed tried to be all ‘why am I here’ but failed. Bonejangles shook Smouldered and Singed’s hands. He then said.
“So you need some new names?” the trio just nodded.
“Well, considering fire is a big part of your tale, Burnt, Smouldered and Singed?” He said pointing as he went.
“It works”
“Sounds good”
“I like it” Bonejangles smiled, “considering you have no place to go, how’s about you stick with me?” It was pretty evident that part of Bonejangles was screaming WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING YOU FOOL? DO YOU WANT TO LOSE ALL THE ‘STREET CRED’ YOU HAVE? But it was also evident that the other part of him was gagging that part so all was well.
“Really? Well ok” Burnt smiled, and as she walked out of the bar she knew that this was a brand new beginning and something old beaten up and dusty had finally gone.
*END FLASH BACK*
The circle sat in silence.
“Wow” Beatlan spoke and the others soon followed.
“Thanks, then we came here when Jack invited us then we snuck out of a window and told a story to you lovely people” Laughter erupted around the circle.
Meanwhile back at the Skellington manner, a skellington woman with short brown hair, darker brown bangs, purple eye shadow and dusty red demon wings. The dress she wore was short in cyan blue and dark blue, red leggings, purple cape with and red collar she held a staff in her hand and a turquoise tail with a barbed triangle ending snaked out behind her knocked upon the door.
Jack answered it, rubbing the sleep from his sockets. They open wide.
“Annabelle?”
“Hi brother, may I come in?” Jack nodded and stepped back.
“What brings you here, at” Jack looked at the clock “three in the morning?” Jack then peered up the stairs “I’m surprised Jessica and Carlos hasn’t come down”
“They aren’t here, they are sitting round a campfire, after sneaking out of the house like all Halloween town children do, listening to one of the most amazing stories I’ve ever caught ten minutes of”
“Oh, So what brings you here?”
“The demon council, they have a message” Jack looked confused, Annabelle had once come to him, she had thought it unfair that Carlos was to be ruler of Halloween town when he was younger than Jessica. But he had stood firm and Annabelle had eventually backed down.
“About?”
“Jessica. The runes spoke Jack” the runes never spoke NEVER they always remind silent, the fact that they could talk was legend.
“But they never speak” Jack looked at his sister, she must have got it wrong, then he remembered. When it came to things like this Annabelle was never wrong.
“I know but they have now and they said,” Annabelle paused, she was 10 years younger than jack, only just 16 but she already had more responsibility, she was one of the highest leaders in the demon council. She knew everything about it anything she didn’t know, she was probably due to find out in five minutes.
“They said?” Jack prompted his sister, though when he heard what she had to say he wished he hadn’t.
“They said she is to be the demon empress, leader of all demons and ruler of the demon council” the room fell into silence.
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DUN DUN DUN!
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