Black Butterfly

Lock (March 15th)

Spring settled into Halloween land, or at least as much as it could. They didn’t exactly have seasons around here, but some months felt warmer than others, especially when the pumpkin sun was out in full. Over the last couple days, the trio had the added heat of exertion to make them sweat, even with Barrel doing most of the heavy lifting. They were repairing the tree house, and they were almost done. Lock felt particular gratitude for that last part. The tree was large enough for all three of them to use during the construction process, especially since Shock slept inside the casino more often than not. The problem came from the damn noises that pair made. Every squeal, scream, giggle, and laugh from below caused the devil-boy to shudder in queer waves of worry, jealousy, disgust, and sadness.

Days like today made the decision to move out here worthwhile, though. Seeing as the town liked Barrel most out of the three, and Shock swore only a direct order from the Boogeyman himself could get her to set foot inside that place again, the largest boy had gone to negotiate for more materials. Generally that involved trading odd jobs for whatever they needed, so he would be gone until the afternoon. Of course, even Barrel steered clear of the Corpse family… Oogie Boogie was probably asleep. Lock and the half-witch were alone up here. He occupied himself with nailing the last board into the front porch, and she worked on finishing the walls and preparing to start the roof.

He shot a glance at her over his shoulder. She stood on tiptoe, stretching to reach as far as possible. With her secret out, she didn’t hide so much on warm days, and her arms were bare to her shoulders. Not the most typically erotic skin to see, but her usually conservative style made him feel like he’d spent his whole life in an all-boy’s school and had just caught a glimpse of a pretty nun’s ankle. He wanted to touch that bare shoulder so badly. Of course the purple and red streaking her pastel-mint complexion reminded him that Oogie Boogie had touched that and so much more. What a lucky bastard…

When she stopped to fan herself with her hat, his eyes darted to the ground in front of him. He heard her sigh and groan. She did that a lot nowadays, and he could guess why, but he didn’t look up. It irritated her if he or Barrel asked too many questions.

“Oh, before I forget, Oogie says he’s cooking tonight,” she said.

“What?” Lock turned around, but she was looking up at the spot she’d been working on. He tried not to notice the way she absentmindedly rubbed her right elbow. “Why?”

“Said he wanted to talk to all of us.”

“About what?”

She finally looked at Lock, smiling a little. “If he’d told me, don’t you think I’d relay the message?”

“I guess.” He watched her kneel by the bucket of water they’d brought up and reach behind her to twist her hair back. The resulting flinch made the corner of her eye twitch, but she was getting good at masking it. Summoning up his courage, the devil boy joined her and reached for the blue-black waves. He expected her to snap at him. The brief flicker in her eyes said she almost did, but she must have changed her mind because the flare disappeared. She let him hold her hair out of her face while she cupped some water in her hands and drank. Lock resisted the urge to run his fingers through it. That probably would piss her off. “You think it might be some kind of mission?”

“Could be.” She shifted to sit on her hip with her legs tucked behind her. “He’s making a big enough deal out of it.”

“It’s about time. I thought having him back would be more fun than this.” He was reluctant to release her hair, but it felt beautiful sliding out of his fingers.

“Oh, he’s still plenty of fun…” She mumbled, biting her lip to hide a smile and looking at an invisible point in the air to her left.

“Uh huh.” Lock crossed his arms and his tail curled over at the end. “Sounds like you two are having a great time down there, honey baby sugar tits.”

Her cheeks turned pink. “We are not that loud, and he doesn’t call me sugar tits… that much…”

“He may not be that loud, but you scream like a banshee.”

“I’ll make you scream like a banshee.”

Oh, how Lock wished that were true. “Whatever, baby.”

Shock frowned and yanked his tail. Lock yelped rather loudly indeed. “Quit being a jealous twat.”

He pouted, hugging his tail to his chest. “I’m not jealous.”

“But you are a twat.”

“No!”

Giggling, Shock stood up and straightened her skirt. “When Barrel gets back with the tin sheets, someone needs to have the frame for the roof done.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. And I’m not going to climb around up there.”

“That is a problem,” Lock teased.

She grabbed his tail threateningly. “Get your butt up there.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Shorter than both of them, now, and she still acted like the boss of the whole operation. It was kind of funny. Not that Lock minded. Besides, her position with Oogie Boogie lent that role enough legitimacy. Even before she… Lock nipped that thought in the bud and focused on his balance instead.

XXX

The trick-or-treaters sat on the floor in front of Oogie Boogie’s chair. Lock felt like a kid waiting to hear a story. There was even a book called True Fairytales sitting on the flat rock next to their buggy master. Barrel was preoccupied with his stew, and never looked away from his food while eating. Lock remained hunched over his bowl, but his eyes kept straying to Shock, stretched out on her stomach and propped up on one elbow. Watching the Boogeyman sideways, she brushed some hair behind her ear, but the back of her finger continued on and traced her jaw to her chin. Lock glanced at Oogie Boogie to see that his eyes were on her and his mouth was turned up at the very corners.

Lock bit back a grimace. “So what did you want?” He hoped none of them could tell half of his motive for asking was to get the Boogeyman to stop looking at Shock.

“Straight to business, hm?” Oogie Boogie chuckled. “All right. I think it’s time for a vacation, and the upcoming holiday seems like the perfect time to do it.”

Vacation? Lock blinked. How was the Boogeyman supposed to take a vacation? Wasn’t he trapped here? Maybe Lock had been wrong about the journal…

“There’s a holiday coming up?” Barrel asked.

Oogie Boogie looked annoyed by the interruption. “St. Patrick’s Day.”

“Oh. Where are we going?”

“The City of Lights.”

“Huh?”

“Barrel, if you don’t quit flappin your jaw, I’ll remove it.”

Despite his size, the half-ghoul shrank from the icy tone and stared into his bowl.

“Before we can go, I need you three to run a little errand for me.” He opened the book. “Have you ever heard of leprechauns?”

Even Shock looked rather puzzled at that one, and Barrel didn’t dare open his mouth. All three of them peered at the picture he held up for them. It looked like a cross between an elf and a troll. Pointy-eared, humanoid, and almost jolly in appearance, with aged, green skin and a large belly. It wore a dark green, tattered waistcoat with rust-colored leggings and shiny, brown shoes.

“Take a good look. I need you to go to St. Patrick’s land and get me one. And no funny business.” He gave Barrel a pointed look. “Don’t talk to it, don’t listen to it, don’t touch it after you bag it. Remember whatever it offers you ain’t worth the payback for disobeying me. And I will know if you disobey me.”

The three of them looked at each other. What on earth would that weird creature offer them? Since Oogie Boogie had taken the time to make the threat, it must be something tempting. Maybe it was the reason he wanted one in the first place? Lock hoped Barrel would ask, but the other boy remained cowed by the earlier reprimanding. The book snapped shut before Lock could check the spidery print around the picture for a clue.

“Catching it won’t be hard. Once you see one, it’s trapped as long as one of you keeps watching it. Put it in an iron cage and it won’t be able to escape at all. It’ll try to trick you into letting it out, but don’t trust anything the devious little bastard says. You leave tomorrow morning. I’ll give you written instructions and supplies then.”

After he stopped talking, Lock got the hint that he didn’t intend to tell them any more at this time. He thought about pushing for details, but decided he’d find out tomorrow. It sounded like fun, though. More fun than when they kidnapped Santa all those years ago. Maybe this would be an actual challenge; something to keep his mind off Shock and Oogie Boogie’s affair, if only for a few hours.