A week after the elections, I was walking through town with Sally to check the progress of my first Halloween. We had become inseparable since I had come out, and everyone became familiar with the apparently "respected" Pumpkin King with his loyal and silent sidekicks, Sally and Zero. We were almost the law enforcement of the town. And that came to be after the little... incident... in Dr. Finkelstein's lab.
I had been standing outside the door to his lab, waiting for Sally, Zero zooming around patiently at my side. When I eventually knocked, after waiting for, oh, say, a minute or two, Dr. Finkelstein came through the door.
"Sally can't come out..." he said, looking straight ahead. Dr. Finkelstein was a little man in a mechanical wheelchair, a beak-like nose, and eyeglass-covered beady eyes. I hadn't spoken to him since I became Pumpkin King, and he probably didn't recognise me. I had grown a few inches and adopted my father's old style, a pinstriped suit with a bat-shaped bow. So, generally speaking, I wasn't the same, timid little Jack Skellington he had seen all those months ago.
He looked up at my smiling, expectant face, and I waved slightly. "Jack Skellington! What a pleasure to see you, my boy! My, have you grown!" he said, and moved aside. "Come in, my boy, come in!" I strode inside the roomy, done shaped laboratory.
"So did you come for Sally?" he asked me, wheeling around to one of the many destroyed experiments.
"Yes, Dr. Finkelstein." I said politely. "But, might I wonder, what happened here?" As I asked, a scowl crossed the doctor's face.
"Those infernal pranksters." he grumbled, and wheeled over to another experiment.
"Pranksters?" I asked. I thought I had known almost everyone in Halloweentown by now, thanks to the Mayor.
Lock..." the doctor attempted to pull up a glass dome. "Shock... and Barrel." I walked over and lifted the dome easily and placed it on the pedastal.
"Lock, Shock, and Barrel?" Hm... the names sounded familiar, but I wanted to make sure.
"My, my, you are a curious one." Dr. Finkelstein mumbled. "The devil, witch, and skeleton."
The names still didn't bring up any faces, but as soon as Dr. Finkelstein and gotten together everything, three young children slid down the banister.
"You three!" The doctor yelled, shaking his fist. The children laughed and kept running.
I stood in front of the door to block the exit. "Now, I don't know who you three are, or what you want with poor Dr. Finkelstein, but if you want to keep torturing him, you're going to have to answer to me." The three skid in their tracks and bumped into each other.
"They're Oogie's boys, Jack!" Sally called down to me, standing at the top of the staircase. The children started giggling again, and the little witch came up to the front of the group.
"Mr. Oogie told us to come here." she said, twirling her hair and twisting her foot in what she may have hoped was an adorable fashion.
"Specifically!" The little devil came up behind her, leaning on her shoulder.
"By name!" The skeleton was last to talk, licking a large pink and yellow swirled lollipop.
"Lock..." The devil said, bowing. "Shock!" The witch curtsied. "And Barrel!" the skeleton bit his lollipop in half, and I stood there the whole time, tapping my foot impatiently.
"Well, why in haunt's name would he send you here, of all places?" I asked, crossing my arms.
"He just told us to." The witch, Shock, shrugged. The other two nodded eagerly.
"Well, I suggest you three tricksters go back to him." I said, and when they hesitated, looking at the newly attached experiments, I rolled my... eyes, I guess?... and pulled down the corners of my mouth, screaming. They shrieked and left.
Sally and Dr. Finkelstein were staring at me for a second, then the doctor started clapping his hands. "Great job, my boy. You do have a bit of your father in you."
I felt my forehead cinch together as I wondered whether this was a compliment or not. Then, after a moment of consideration, I nodded and smiled.
I had finally gotten my scare.
