Sk: I am back, and in a writing mood. XD!!
Michael: Whoo.... great...
Sk: <_< You DO know you were classed as hot by readers, ne?
Michael: .... eh?
---
Kelly smiled gently, floating behind Jack. She wrapped a pair of slender, transparent arms around the miserable skeleton's ribs, resting her head on his shoulder. "Aww, cheer up, Jack. Eet's goeeng to be alvight. I promeese."
"Don't make promises you can't keep, Kelly." Jack sighed, tilting his skull in the opposite direction to her hauntingly infectious smile. The corners of her mouth drooped and her eyes softened as she stared at the skeleton before melting through him and in front of him. He shuddered, but simply turned away, not even warning her against repeating her actions. She sighed and sent a worried look at the Hanging Tree, whom shrugged.
"Oh, what ees vrong?"
"Oh, nothing." Jack growled sarcastically. "It's just that my only son has probably started working for my arch enemy, and my only daughter is probably running head first into almost certain death. But no, there's absolutely no reason to be worried or angry..." His voice dropped to a whisper. "Or scared."
Kelly floated closer, her hand on his shoulder. "Now, now, no need vor sarcaseem, Jack. I deedn't realize Baylee vas een dees too!" she explained, now actually a bit worried. "Vhat eef he eends up hurteeng heemself? Or somevone eelse?"
"I don't know." Jack sighed gently, his shoulders drooping and his head hanging. The Hanging Tree let out a gasp, before looking around.
"Have either of you seen Casey?"
"He vas talkeeng to your younger daughter unteel Chelsea came back down. Odder dan dat, I haveen't seen dem."
"I haven't either." Jack added, looking up. "You don't think..." he started, his voice now becoming worried again. Kelly whimpered, before the three heard a voice calling out across the Spiral Hill.
"Sakura! Sakura, where are you?"
Willow walked down the crest of the hill, obviously having just exited the dreaded Hinterlands again. She gasped softly and looked up at her father, whom had his arms folded angrily, the Hanged Men whispering to each other. "Willow?"
"Um... hey, daddy..." she smiled innocently, looking up and smiling, clasping her slender hands of twigs behind her trunk. She sighed and looked away as her innocent act didn't work on the experienced tree, and her boughs drooped lower than usual. "Okay, I'm sorry, dad." she sighed, looking back up to him. "I just... couldn't find Sakura, and I was worried about might have happened to her. She's a silly little sapling, you know that! She could get herself into all sorts of trouble."
"What?" Hanging Tree ask, his eyes growing wide. "You mean you don't know where Sakura is either?"
"No. I only went into the Hinterlands to look for her. I was worried. Where do you think she could be?" she asked softly, looking up. Kelly gasped and pulled a terrified backward somersault, before pointing at the Treehouse.
"Do you tink dey could have gone een dere?" she asked, before pointing to the chasm that reached below the rickety old bridge. "Or down dere? Probably down dere."
Jack's eye sockets grew wide as he contemplated the thoughts. "If they did, they're in big, big trouble. There's a lot of lava down there, and fire breathing horses."
"What!?" Willow cried, a terrified gasp reaching the air. "No! She wouldn't be that stupid! We have to go get her!"
But as she moved to run to the entrance, her father grasped her hand in his own twiggy fist. Jack shook his head and looked back at the chasm. "I'm very sorry, Willow, but we can't risk you or your father going down there in any case. And we can't risk going down until we know that Lock, Shock and Barrel are taken care of."
Kelly looked away and sighed as Willow began crying into her father's bark, with the Hanged Men trying to comfort her all at once, getting into a fight and finally getting told to shut the hell up by the Hanging Tree, whom then proceeded to comfort his daughter himself. "Vhat a dark day vor Halloveen Town eet ees today..."
---
Caroline lifted her head as she heard someone getting thrown into a cage. She blinked sleepily, having fallen asleep after Bayley had left. She gasped as she saw a rather short figure standing there, with pasty white skin and covered in freckles.
"Anne!" she cried, kneeling up. "Explain to me what you are doing to me and whoever is in these cages this instant!" she ordered angrily, her eyes now a crimson purple. She had just realised that there were two more cages, but she could not see into them, as they were on the opposite side of this huge room. Anne turned her pitch black eyes to the girl, narrowing them.
"We're being told to keep you prisoner until the Pumpkin King comes. Then we're going to get rid of him and his pesky brother, and then you three are next." she growled, turning her back. Her shiny ebony hair was slung over her shoulder exposing a pair of peculiar bony bumps on her back, near her shoulder blades. Caroline gave her a quizzical look, before turning to the cage. Inside was a young cherry blossom tree, with a saddened yet angry and pained face adorning her trunk, and her arms folded, whilst smoke trailed from her fronds. There was a young vampire in front of her on tiptoe, reaching up and picking off burnt leaves and dead flowers. The poor tree winced every time the boy picked something from her branches.
"Ow... ach... ow.... ouch...."
"Don't vorry, dey're nearly all out now." the vampire smiled, picking away at the charred greenery. Caroline gasped, standing up with a little difficulty. Her left leg was very horribly bruised with a few cuts, and painful to move, thanks to the struggle she had put up to Maree kidnapping her.
"Casey? Sakura? Are you two stuck down here too?"
Casey turned around, plucking yet another leaf away. Sakura kicked him. "Ouch!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, Sakura." he apologized, bowing, before running over to the bars, reaching through the bars to grasp the niece of the Mayor's hand. "Caroline? Ees dees vhere you have been hideeng dees whole time?"
"I haven't been able to leave." she sighed, looking away and tightening her slender fingers around his clammy hand. "I can't open the door, and my leg is too sore. Not only can I hardly walk on it, but my uncle would spaz."
"Most definitely!" Sakura gasped, staring down at it. "I am so sorry this has happened to you, Caroline! We came down here to look for you, but then I got blasted with a fire plume, and Casey had barely put it out, before Anne found us and forced us here. Do you know what they were talking about?"
"No..." Caroline sighed apologetically, thinking. "But I know that if we bust out of here and escape, Maree, Anne and Bayley are the ones that will get punished. They don't care about us at all, they just want to get to Mr. Skellington."
"Vheech vone?" Casey asked, looking up at her. Caroline blinked.
"Both of them."
---
Chelsea gasped as she tripped, crying out softly as she hit the ground. Michael ran back and lifted the young ragdoll into his arms, handing his staff to Kris. The Christmas Town citizen was not exactly enticed to holding the weapon, what with it's jagged glass spikes at one end and ripped pieces of metal at the other, but being polite she didn't object. "Chelsea, are you okay?" her uncle asked, staring down at her. She smiled and wriggled out of his arms softly, onto her own feet.
"I'm fine, uncle. You don't need to worry about me." she whispered, looking back. They were surrounded with lava, but there were plenty of colourful elevators and grapple hooks and the like. A snicker was heard. Kris spun around, holding the staff before her.
"Who's there?" she called out, her emerald eyes darting from left to right. She whimpered and looked around, handing it back to the Tomb Keeper.
"You'll have to worry about me, though!" a voice chortled. The three swung around to the lava again, to see someone on the spider web elevator. Michael snarled and clenched his free hand into a fist as he narrowed his eye sockets. The young man smirked at them, his dark, nearly black eyes glinting with an orange gleam from the glow of the lava below him. His tied-back hair was still rather tidy, as when Chelsea had first met him, but there were a few strands that had pulled astray of the spider wed hair tie. His arms were folded and he was standing in a casually playful stance, ready to move if needed. Michael snarled, moving in front of his niece protectively.
"Get out of our way, Barrel." he snapped, now holding the staff with both hands. Barrel feigned fright, purposely ruining his little act by laughing.
"Ooh, I'm so scared of the Tomb Keeper!" he cried in full mockery, dancing about on the spot. "Oh, please, someone come and save me for the mean old Tomb Keeper! I'm frozen to the spot in fear!"
"I'm warning you!" Michael roared, raising his staff, obviously wanting to swipe the brat off his feet. Another smug voice laughed from behind.
"What about me, Michael? You forgotten about me? I knew you would, you lousy idiot."
Cask snickered again, his hands on his hips. His forest green eyes also had the orange glow of the lava, but his were considerably colder and much less friendly than his younger brother's. Draped around his chest was a grey tee shirt, obviously showing that he was attempting to hide his naturally frail frame. From his hips hung a pair of black shorts, and he was standing in a pair of white sneakers. He leapt down as Michael spun around and threw an arm around Chelsea, pulling her into his chest. Kris whimpered, more shocked than afraid, as these two were human, like she was. The difference was, she was alive, and they were not. Barrel jumped down also, grinning evilly, and advancing at the same pace as his older brother. "Come now, Michael. Wanna play a game with us?"
"Leave us alone, you little freaks!" Michael snarled angrily, holding his brother's daughter against him. Cask laughed cruelly at the Skellington brother.
"Nice of you to notice." he shot back, grinning. Michael glared daggers at him. Barrel blinked and stopped as he saw the look in Chelsea's eyes. There were beginning to tear up and shimmer, as he could see the pain in them. He blinked, suddenly feeling very guilty. There was something in that ragdoll's eyes that bore into his mischievous soul and reached his conscience. He shook it away, and grinned, leaping toward Michael and latching onto his back.
"Gotcha!" he grinned, as Michael automatically let his niece go and began trying to shake the former trick-or-treater off from his shoulders. Barrel hung on for dear life, narrowly dodging the rather well aimed swipes from Michael's staff. Cask smirked and jumped up, grabbing the staff with both hands and beginning to tug on it playfully.
"You leave him alone!" Kris cried angrily, jumping over. She snarled and grabbed his shoulders angrily, as Chelsea watched on with horror at the scene. The cheery woman held as tight a grip as she could on the man, but he smirked and thrust himself backwards suddenly, throwing her off with ease in her moment of surprise. She cried out with pain as she hit the ground hard, bounced and then rolled limply across the rock. Chelsea gasped and began to help her up as her hand hit the lava. Barrel looked up at the scream of pain from Santa's granddaughter, but he needn't had worried about being thrown off, as Michael looked up also, and for that few seconds, stopped struggling. Chelsea gasped and wrapped her arms around the woman as Kris knelt there, hissing in pain and holding her hand to her chest, tears of pure torture and pain streaming down her face.
"Well, it doesn't look like you need this right now!" Cask smirked, ripping the staff from Michael's grasp. Michael gasped angrily and looked back as Barrel pushed him to the ground, snickering. The brothers leapt away, making their way through the maze of magma with ease. Michael growled angrily and looked back.
"Chelsea, you look after the poor girl while I get my staff back from those buffoons." he snarled, before chasing after them, nimbly leaping the gaps that lava flowed through. Chelsea nodded, shaking the look that Barrel had given her from her memory and concentrating on her new friend's wound.
"Don't worry, Kris... The burning will stop soon, I'm sure of it...." she whispered, smiling at her. Kris smiled through her tears an nodded, before looking up.
"Shall we go?" she asked softly, smiling. "I mean, we need to catch up with your uncle... and who knows... those idiots might come back to finish us off."
"Okay." Chelsea smiled, helping her up. "Although I doubt they would... I hope...."
---
Sk: There you go! n
__n o_O Still in writing mood. Off to Chapter Ten I go! n_n
Barrel: So you do see us again.
Lock: At least... they saw you and your stupid brother again.
Shock: Oh, don't worry, they'll see us again. n_n
