Butterfly Complex

A/N: Hey, got it done early. And finally we get to the point of this experiment. Man, I wish I could let you guys know what Oogie’s thinking during some of these parts, but I decided to stick with Shock’s perspective, so I can’t. Maybe if I do a sequel some day. I did have other ideas that I didn’t have time to use.
As for the song business, every fic I write has at least one song that sort of goes with it. This one’s song is Fever for the Flavor by Hot Action Cop. I had a very clear image of Oogie seducing Shock with it. However, I couldn’t make Oogie singing it in the fic work. I’m saying this in case anyone wants to look into the song on his/her own time, because I found it quite amusing.

It took more than a week, but eventually the snow thawed and Shock found herself back in the Boogeyman’s lair. He’d just crawled back into the sack through a hole she’d opened up in the shoulder seam. At the moment, she occupied herself with the unenviable task of sowing it closed, standing on a fallen iron maiden so that she could reach. Worms and other nasty bugs—that would have loved to bite or sting her under other circumstances—wriggled under and through her fingers. She had to take every stitch slowly so she wouldn’t stab one. Good thing she liked bugs, or the large spider that had tried to escape up her arm earlier would have been that much worse. Finally, she tied off the thread and leaned over to break the extra off with her teeth. She tried not to flinch when her cheek brushed his shoulder. “There.”

He examined her handy work in a broken chunk of reflective, green glass. Then he giggled, a strangely sinister sound. “Look out, Jack, the Boogeyman’s back.”

Shock stood there, running the extra thread through her fingers while he cackled gleefully. “Uh. Is there anything else today, or…”

He stopped and turned to her. “You in a hurry to leave, babe?”

“Not- no. I mean, I do have to get back before someone starts looking for me, but…”

“So what’s the rush?” He asked, sweeping her off the iron maiden and setting her on the ground.

“No rush,” Shock shook her head. “No rush at all.” He stood close enough for his belly to touch her. If his arm hadn’t been creeping around behind her, she would have retreated a few steps. Unsure of where to put her hands in such a position, she crossed her wrists in front of her chest, fiddling with some strands of hair. “Why, what do you want?”

“How long has it been?” The hand on her side moved lower.

“Six years and… some number of days.” The hand stopped at her hip. It sent shivers up her spine.

“Have you figured out which side Lock and Barrel are on?”

“I don’t talk to them much anymore.” She looked down to one side, her voice low.

“Why not?” His free hand ghosted up her arm.

“Drifted apart. I don’t know if I can trust them anymore. Especially Lock, I think he’s gotten too smart for his own good.”

He uncrossed her wrists by nudging her hands to either side, but she didn’t resist. “And Barrel?”

“Follows Lock around like a dumb pet,” Shock said with a wary smile. The touch assured her this wasn’t some weird dream, but she had no idea what he was thinking. He could be very dangerous. A thought that made her heart beat harder. Dare she pull away? Did she want to?

His hand landed on her cheek and moved to her neck. “So they haven’t changed much. That just means if we can get Lock, Barrel will follow.”

“I don’t-” She stopped when she felt the hand on her shoulder under the edge of her sleeve. Shock jerked sideways so quickly, he didn’t have time to tighten his grip on her waist. “What is all this, anyway?”

“What is all what?”

“For one, I already told you how long it’s been…”

“I forgot. Coming back from the dead’ll do that to yah.”

Not sure why she did it, Shock shook her head.

“Come on, babe,” he said, taking a step toward her. “Are you gonna go through all that trouble to bring me back and then run away?” Other than crossing her arms, she only stood and stared. He kept walking until he was close enough to grab her shoulders. “Where’s the sense in that?”

As his arms closed behind her, Shock knew she should run, but her legs wouldn’t listen. “What do you want?”

Oogie dipped her abruptly and his free hand pushed her skirt up her thigh. “I want to see how much you’ve grown.”

His eyes were narrowed, his smile wide and hungry. Enough talk. His exact intentions no longer mattered. Time to flee. Instead of breaking away—he’d probably expect it this time—she went completely limp and collapsed out of his grip. Without looking at him, she leaped to her feet and ran, pumping her legs as hard as she could. His physical form was awkward and slow, but he didn’t need to pursue her. She wanted to get as far as possible before he pulled out the wind tunnel trick.

Purple light dazzled her eyes as the darkness disappeared in front of her. The spikes silhouetted against the glow made her come up short and stumble into a sharp turn. Spots of light danced in front of her vision, but she didn’t stop. Even when she stumbled onto the tracks of the slot machine gunmen and heard them come to life, she kept moving. Just as she reached the other side, the shadows shifted and rose in front of her. No time to go back the way she had come before the guns went off, so she dove onto the roulette wheel instead. The guns popped and the bullets pinged off the floor behind her.

Gasping to catch her breath, Shock looked over her shoulder at the shadows, but they were motionless once more. As she turned back to see where Oogie had gone, a light came on above her and the wheel started moving. Tired, but too scared to care, she made a lunge for the edge. The panel under her flipped up sideways and knocked her off balance. She tried again, but the same thing happened. By then she’d looked up and realized Oogie stood too close to get past on the edge. He smirked, holding her gaze as he pulled the lever to stop her in front of him. Still panting, Shock made one more attempt at escape, scrambling for the center of the wheel instead. He caught her as she climbed off the other side of the platform, spinning it abruptly so she was back on his side. Before she could slip away again, he grabbed her wrists hard enough that it almost hurt.

“I don’t have time for this!” She protested, jerking at his grip. He could be surprisingly strong for something that looked like a giant pillow.

The cajoling tone disappeared, replaced by a more frustrated and angry one. “Well, babe, you ain’t getting out of here until I tell you how, and I ain’t gonna tell you how until I get a little cooperation.”

His scowl made her shrink. A fed-up breath puffed between her clenched teeth. “There’s not much to see.” She gave another jerk at her wrists, but his grip held firm.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” was his answer.

Shock gave up on struggling. He had a point about not knowing how to get out. Besides, she knew what was really bothering her. “How- What are-?” She half asked, resisting the urge to let her eyes flick down. She’d been half aware for years that Oogie had lecherous tendencies. She didn’t quite understand what he might, er, do about it. And sometimes he’d flirt with his victims while he killed them. As attached to him as she felt, Shock very much would rather end this encounter now.

“I have my ways,” he chuckled. “But first I gotta see if there’s anything worth doin to, right?”

Clenching her teeth—trying to look annoyed but really hoping to keep herself from shaking—Shock turned so he could unlace her dress. He had to part her hair over her shoulders to reach it. His hands against her neck almost felt good. “Don’t rip it,” she mumbled, because frustration and cynicism seemed to be the only power she had left in the situation. He didn’t indicate if he heard or not. Glad that her hair could hide her modest breasts, she pulled off the sleeves, turned, and sat on the edge of the platform to kick the dress off her legs.

His mouth widened into a hungry leer as he rubbed her thighs. “Tasty.”

Shock flinched and Oogie chuckled. One jerk on her hips and she found herself on her back with him leaning over her. With is body pressed between her legs, she could feel things moving inside of him. As much as she liked bugs, having them writhing against her crotch was just… weird.

“And you told me there wasn’t much to see.” He brushed her hair aside and pinned her wrists. “You little liar.”

Something particularly solid, maybe a snake, squirmed inside him and she jumped, squeezing her eyes shut and attempting to close her legs. A feat she failed to accomplish due to his proximity. She heard hissing and felt something scaly slither across her chest. Curiosity almost made her look, but it was probably just his ‘tongue.’ The sensation was new. She almost wanted to press into him and-

Pain shot through her right breast and her eyes flew open. Tiny red droplets beaded from the punctured skin. Her eyes drifted to the reptile waving back and forth in front of her face. She whimpered and the thing struck again, sinking fangs into her other breast, biting hard and holding this time. Hot tingles spread across her skin as the venom pumped into her. Shock screamed and arched her back, trying to buck him off, or get the snake to let go, or get the leverage to free her wrists. When he did let go, she didn’t bother to find out why. She flipped over to drag herself away again, hyper aware of the rough wood against her skin.

The pain of another bite flared through her lower back and—after a tug on her hair stopped her from getting any farther—again in the back of her leg. This whole situation was almost exactly what she’d expected to happen. The poison filled her like it was peeling back her skin to expose her nerves. She couldn’t help gasping when the burlap arms dragged her into a backwards hug.

“Feelin lucky tonight, Shock?” Oogie chuckled, fondling one of her small but perky tits.

“Oh, no…” The tingles intensified at the touch and her nipple hardened. It hurt to move, so she didn’t fight, letting him lift her and carry her despite the rock forming in her gut. He dropped her on her back across a wooden block with large, jagged, tooth-like ridges. It was only as long as from her shoulders to her upper thigh. There were four chains attached to the floor at the four corners of it, and he shackled them to her wrists and ankles. Above her, she could see another block similar to the one she lay on. “What is this?” Her voice touched with panic.

“You said you’d play.” He pulled a lever and the chains retracted part way into the floor, pulling her arms and legs over the edges and pinning her securely. “So let’s play.”

Her eyes darted back and forth between the sinister device hanging over her and his approaching form. He grabbed a spoked wheel over the top of the hanging wooden block and leaned close to her face.

“Feel free to scream.” He laughed as he straightened up and spun the wheel hard.

Shock did scream as the wooden teeth descended a few inches and stopped.

“Hm…” Oogie frowned. “Doesn’t usually stop there. Must be rusty.” Then the nasty smile came back. “Doesn’t matter. We’ll just make this more interesting.”

Despite the pain in her joints, Shock closed her eyes and wrenched against the chains with all her might. She heard the clatter of dice and her heart pounded faster, but her hands weren’t quite narrow enough to slip out of the shackles. The metal around her wrists felt heavy and oddly cold. The roughness brought on by its decay stroked her wrists sharply, like the rough wood scratching her wriggling back. As the awareness of these two sensations settled in, they almost distracted her from the task at hand. Oogie’s voice counting, each number punctuated by the squeal of metal being forced to move, made her open her eyes again. The thing above her had moved six inches closer. “Why are you doing this? Stop, please!”

“Oh, please, Mr. Boogeyman. Please don’t hurt me,” he mocked, hugging his fists to his chest, and then laughed again.

“I helped you come back!” She screamed, frustration attempting to hide the fear twisting her stomach into a heavy knot.

“Seems like a pretty stupid choice in hindsight, doesn’t it?” He rattled the dice and tossed them again. “And it looks like it’s lucky seven.”

“No…” Shock moaned. Each squeak from above made her breathe harder. She kept squirming, too. Even though she’d proven the impossibility of escape to herself, she couldn’t stop. She was about to die, and all she could think about was the tight feeling of being restrained, and the way the dread burning in her belly heated her blood in spite of the chilly tingles from the venom and the air…

Instead of counting this time, he said, “Round and round and round it goes. When’ll it stop? When it crushes your bones!”

Only an inch or two left. She wasn’t great with probability, but she knew enough to realize that the odds of him rolling a two meant she was completely fucked. Shock had never been this frightened before, and she couldn’t believe her own body’s reaction to it. Of course as a resident of Halloween Town, she had to enjoy scaring, but this was just… Swallowing the lump in her throat, she forced herself to focus.

“Third time’s the charm, honey,” Oogie grinned, rattling the dice and tossing them to his other hand.

“Wait, wait, wait… I want to make a… a deal, uh, wager…”

The Boogeyman chuckled and leaned an elbow on top of the torture device. She flinched when the metal creaked, but the thing held together. “You sure you want to do that?”

“Please! I just…”

“You wanna bet your life I’ll role something smaller than a four?”

“I-”

“Too late!”

He threw the dice somewhere out of her line of sight. She realized with a sinking sensation—that much to her irritation only made her hotter—that he would most likely say it was any number he wanted, and she wasn’t in a position to argue the point. But it was too late. When he turned to face her again, she searched his expression for the answer. “What was it?”

He came over and grabbed one of the spokes.

“What was it?” She demanded, on the verge of hysteria.

“Snake. Eyes.” Each word was punctuated by a turn of the wheel. “Lucky girl.”

Sandwiched between the wooden blocks, but not in an entirely uncomfortable way, Shock gasped. The tingles flowed away from the pressure and they returned with a vengeance. A rough hand touched her knee, and she cried out, startled. As it whispered up her inner thigh, though, she heard herself moan. A very soft sound, almost inaudible, except that it was the only sound in the cavernous room. His grating chuckle, that sounded almost silky, followed it.

“But there’s one more thing you gotta do for me, babe.”

In her current state, she didn’t have time to think it was odd that she wanted what he was teasing her with so badly. “What?”

“You need to feel out Lock and Barrel, find out which side they’re on, but do not tell them what happened here. This is our little secret.”

“Sure…” The hand was gone. Before she had time to think anything beyond that, she felt something thin and whip-like tickle her inner folds. It pressed deeper, getting thicker as it went. Snake tail? His tongue’s tail? Didn’t matter, it felt like exactly what she needed. When the tip hit her cervix, it coiled back on itself. She groaned, and found she could barely move at all, pinned in such a fashion. All she managed was a shallow pant and a helpless cry, clenching her fists. It knotted and unknotted inside of her, tickled, stroked, withdrew, and plunged deeper in unpredictable patterns. Hot liquid threaded through her abdomen, her chest, and trickled out of her pores until her panting hit a peak and her throat closed around the next breath. Shock jerked and shuddered in the limits of her bonds. Then she went lax, feeling cold and rather dizzy.

The pressure lifted slowly, and then her limbs were free. She lifted her hands in front of her face to look at the red marks on her wrists, but didn’t dare touch anything yet. After what seemed like a long break, Oogie pulled her off the wooden slab, and her dress was suddenly in her hands. Preoccupied with blinking away the black, spidery strands of a head rush, Shock put it on mechanically. Her underwear and shoes were next. Afterward, the freezing darkness whisked her up to the exit. The sense of weightlessness didn’t help her disorientation, and neither did crawling through the small tunnel.

However, the idea that she didn’t know what time it was and she had to hurry nagged at her and drove her toward her cape and out into the woods. She didn’t put the cloak on, half because she forgot to. Flashes of heat kept rolling over her, making her sweat uncomfortably. Despite the cold spells in between, she decided she preferred the crisp air on her neck and arms. It kept the heaviness at bay. She couldn’t fall asleep now. She had to get back…

The moonlight glittered on the frosted pumpkin patch at the base of the spiral hill. Like the stars had fallen out of the sky. Planted seeds that would sprout and throw more glitter into the air, and maybe that’s where the stars came from. The ground shifted under her feet and she fell. “Shsh…” Ignoring the vortex of sparkles around her, she crawled for the waiting arm of the hill, practically dragging herself up the thin, steep slope. Not an issue otherwise, but tonight she almost toppled off a couple times.

At the top, she fell sideways and didn’t bother to get back up. She flopped over spread eagle to face the stars. The ground under her back felt warm. Was it pulsing? Breathing? Was the coarse, gray grass actually the hair of some beast? No one knew what the hill was or where it had come from. It just existed—a helpful, quiet, neutral bridge between Halloween Town and the Hinterlands.

Shock rolled over and let her arms flop around the curves on either side of her. Like a small child hugging a portly grandfather. She rubbed her flushed cheek on the cool ground and sighed contentedly. The grass molded around her, sinking under her hands, making stripes across her vision. Or were those really there? Swimming darkness, dripping, running together, fanning out…

She heard a boy cry out and running footsteps, but didn’t look up. From here, the grass felt much softer than she’d ever realized. Such a nice hill…

“Shock!”

Large arms hooked under her armpits and pulled her up, leaning her back and cradling her. She squinted at the face—round and pale like the moon—studying her.

“Maybe we shouldn’t move her,” someone else said.

“Too late now,” said the moon face.

He lifted her to her feet, supporting her with one arm, and then a thinner face filled her vision.

“Shock, can you hear me? Are you okay?”

She blinked, swaying, opened her mouth, and puked. Then the world flipped over and went black.

A/N: There’s still one more scene after this that kind of wraps up the story, so don’t walk away yet. Chapter 4 is short, but it’s coming.