Black Butterfly

A/N: I’m not sure what possessed me to make an attempt at conveying the leprechaun’s voice, instead of letting everyone assume like I do with Oogie, but it’s a small part and I’m not sure how to change it now, so bear with me… Also, now is a good time to start paying attention to chapter titles, to avoid confusion.

Shock (March 16)

She wished they still had the bathtub. Then they wouldn’t have needed Barrel to carry the cage and they could have left him at home. The extra warning Oogie had given after the other two went up echoed through her head all night. Even now, she heard him whisper in her ear, We haven’t had to play the punishment game in a while, and you don’t wanna know where I’m stickin that poker if you screw up tomorrow. Bless his heart, but Barrel wasn’t the brightest jack-o-lantern in the pumpkin patch. If it came down to a battle of wits and temptation, like Oogie kept implying… Then she felt guilty for being suspicious of poor, loyal Barrel. So loyal, he often avoided taking sides when her and Lock argued. He would do his best for the team, but she couldn’t stop thinking …you don’t wanna know where I’m stickin that…

“This is the one, right?” Barrel asked.

Lock unfolded Oogie’s instructions. “Yep, the four leaf clover.”

The three of them approached the green holiday door and stood in front of it. A cluster of mushrooms sprung from the base of the tree, but they didn’t look like any kind Shock recognized.

“Wonder what it’s going to look like,” Barrel mused.

“Should we leave the cage or take it with us?” Shock asked. “If they see us with it, it might scare them.”

“They couldn’t see it in the bag, and it might be hard to get one back here without it,” Lock said.

“They’re only three feet tall. If we could get Santa into the tub, we can carry a leprechaun… Besides, Oogie said as long as one of us watches it, it can’t escape.”

“Does that count blinking?” Barrel asked.

The other two looked at each other. They didn’t know. “Fine,” Shock sighed. “Bring it along.”

Lock put a hand on the shiny gold knob, turned it, and pulled the door open. “Bonziiiii!”

As he jumped into the dark maw, he faded into thin air, his voice getting farther and farther away, faintly echoing. Closing her eyes, Shock jumped in after him, and she didn’t open them again until she felt grass under her hands. The amount of vibrant green that filled them when she did made Oogie’s neon casino seem dark by comparison. Lush trees and grass that only seemed brighter against the cloudy sky. Somewhere through the bushes, she heard a stream.

Sitting on his knees beside her, Lock mumbled, “Wow…”

Barrel popped out of thin air and landed on her other side with a soft thud. The sack with the cage inside slipped out of his fingers and bounced with a loud clatter. The sound helped her shake off the surprise and she sat up to find her hat. “So we just start walking and hope we find one?”

“We could cover more ground if we split up,” Lock suggested.

“How would we find each other again?”

His tail twisted into something resembling a question mark and he tapped one long nail against his sharp teeth. “Good point. After you, then, fearless leader.”

Rolling her eyes, Shock decided to look for and follow the stream. Back in Halloween land, she found all kinds of interesting things around the lake. As they walked, her hat kept catching on low branches until she finally took it off. An hour passed, maybe more, with nothing but the thick green brush, the burbling water, and the occasional rustling sound or birdcall. Combine that with the sensation of being watched, and anyone from any other world might have been frightened. The trio, however, simply grew tired of the environment’s redundancy. Shock couldn’t even find any exotic bugs to watch. Though her ears disagreed, her eyes told her the forest was devoid of all other life. Nabbing Santa and even that bunny creature had been so easy, she figured this would be a snap, too. Fantastic. She huffed a strand of hair out of her face.

At least the scenery finally started to change. The trees pulled back from the bank until following the stream became considerably easier. She stopped to twist her hair up under her hat, interrupted when Barrel ran into her from behind. “Hey, watch it.” She glared over her shoulder, but he gazed at something in front of all of them. Looking up and past Lock—who kept moving forward, but at a slower pace—her lips parted and her eyebrows went up. The tree line ended abruptly at a vast field of grass, dotted with clumps of small purple and white flowers. In the sun, she could see the thin veil of mist dancing over the water that continued beyond the forest border, unfazed, shimmering with refracted light.

“Now should we split up?” Lock asked.

Aside from the rolling hills, it would be harder to lose sight of each other out here. “All right. We can meet up on top of that cliff.” She pointed at a hill with half of its face sheared off. The tallest bluff she could see close by. “If you find anything, take it up there. Barrel, keep an eye on it and be ready.” He still had the cage, after all. Then they all fanned out across the field.

Shock turned away from the river and made her way up the gentle slope of a hill. Bees circled the flower clumps. Something that looked like a rabbit with longer legs hopped by. As she neared the apex, she noticed that odd piles and stands of rock jutted out of the ground, dotting the countryside below, but she couldn’t see any houses, much less towns. Had they gone through the right door? Then again, why would any holiday world be empty?

Behind her, Lock continued along the general direction of the river, and Barrel investigated the rock piles on its opposite side. Considering they were the only place anything could hide around here, Shock decided to follow suite. As she descended the other side of the hill, a whorl of wind gusted up under her hat and plucked it off her head. She chased after it, but every time her fingers brushed it the wind yanked it away again. Things continued that way until her foot hooked something hidden under a clump of clovers and she tumbled to the ground face first. Growling, she got to her knees, ripped out two handfuls of greenery, and threw them.

When her brief tantrum passed, she started to stand, but a twinkle in the dirt caught her eye. Bright gold. Working a finger under the edge, she pried it up and rubbed it clean with a thumb. A golden four-leaf clover. Four-leaf clovers were supposed to be lucky, right? She rubbed it on her dress and held it up to the sun, grinning at her reflection. Oogie would love this. As she lowered it to stash it in her pocket, the mirrored surface caught a flash of movement behind her. Jerking around, she jumped and covered her mouth. Her hat sat on the ground less than a foot from her. The sound of running feet and frantic whispers made her whip around again, this time to face the closest clump of rocks. One large one stuck up and out at an angle, creating a sloping platform. Shrubs clustered around the base of it, and she could have sworn they were still moving. Or was it the wind? Warily reaching for her hat and tightening her grip on the clover, she tiptoed over, craning her neck to see what might be in there. She was scarcely close enough to reach out and brush the branches aside when two red-breasted birds exploded out of the leaves. Shock stumbled and, embarrassingly, let out a startled yelp, but she regained her composure quickly.

I really hope no one saw that, she thought, looking around for her cohorts. Lock was nowhere to be found, but she could see a large, dark silhouette running up the side of the home base hill. When Barrel got to the top, he waved one arm wildly. Seeming to decide that didn’t appear urgent enough, he set the bag with the cage down and waved both hands over his head, hopping a little. If words were coming out of his mouth, she couldn’t tell, but his actions were clear. Forgetting the birds, still clutching the clover and her hat, she took off running to meet him. Don’t let him do anything stupid. Don’t let him do anything stupid. Please, please…

As she watched, he stopped jumping and turned to look at the bag. After a bit he knelt next to it and reached for the ties at the top. No! Shock poured on more steam. She crested the hill between them and spotted Lock, about a quarter of the way up the bluff already. The half-ghoul paused whatever he was doing to look at him, but the half-witch didn’t slacken her pace. The cage came out of the bag, and from here she could make out that Barrel had indeed caught something.

By the time she reached the bottom, Lock and Barrel were both at the top, arguing vehemently. About halfway up, Barrel bent to open the cage. Gluing her eyes on the leprechaun, Shock shouted, “What the hell are you doing?!”

“He says he can grant us both three wishes,” Barrel called back. “Anything we want. But we have to let him out because-”

“Oogie specifically said-”

“He never said anything about wishes.”

It felt strange yelling at Barrel while looking at the leprechaun, but she wasn’t going to bank on either of the boys watching him if a fight broke out. “He said don’t talk to it or interact with it. That covers making wishes and you know it.”

“I’ll cut yeh in on the deal, lassie,” the leprechaun grinned at her. “That’s nine wishes for the price of one.”

“Oh, be quiet,” Shock growled, fumbling around until she grabbed Barrel by the shirt.

“Anything yeh want,” the leprechaun said. “Doesn’t that interest yeh at all?”

“What interests me is not pissing off Oogie.” And that was true. She couldn’t think of anything else. Always present, whispering against her neck, a hand on her shoulder. Nudging her along with his whims.

“Perhaps some of me gold. A lovely lass such as yehself deserves something sparkly.”

“I don’t want-”

“Right. All yeh want is tah make this Oogie fellow happy. Quite admirable indeed. I hope he’s as loyal to you…” He gave her a sly look.

“Oh, what do you know?”

“I know what young lasses in your position really want.” A singsong note to his voice this time. “And I can see that yeh get it.”

“All right, you,” she pointed at the leprechaun, “shush. You,” she pointed what she guessed to be Lock’s general direction, “better watch him.” On her side or Barrel’s side, she figured Lock had no motive to free the leprechaun either way. As soon as she was sure he had it under control, she turned her fury on Barrel. “What’s wrong with you? He ordered us to bag it and bring it straight to him, ‘no funny business.’ Did you forget?”

“But he’s all the way in Halloween land. How’s he gonna find out?”

Shock threw up her hands. “He always figures it out eventually! You know that.”

“But how-”

“All right. Say we do make the wishes. What if we use up the wishes, take the gold, and then find out that’s what Oogie wanted him for? Or maybe the scrying liquid actually works.” One of the potions Finkelstein had busted her for taking. “It doesn’t matter how. What matters is what he’ll do about it.” She saw the shift in Barrel’s eyes as he contemplated that.

Not even to deter Barrel would she mention the special threat the Boogeyman left for her, but she did the next most personal thing. Due to Lock’s sometimes irritating concern, she never confessed that Oogie actually hurt her at times, maliciously, as opposed to playfully. Didn’t matter now. She’d deal with Lock later, if necessary. Shock put one foot on the cage and pulled her skirt past mid-thigh. No fresh burns of late, but numerous scars told their own nasty story. The half-ghoul’s mouth drooped, fear and doubt like two heavy weights at its corners.

Satisfied, Shock turned to the other boy, to see if she had to convince him as well. Lock stared at her, more specifically her leg, stunned and slack-jawed, paler than usual. The leprechaun wasn’t anywhere to be seen. She almost screamed, but kicked the empty cage instead. Lock’s eyes snapped into focus, first crinkled with confusion, and then wide with realization.

“I- I-” He stammered, his cheeks a shade away from matching his hair.

“Never mind that. Just find the stupid thing, before it tells the others what happened.”

As the two boys looked around, and then moved off in opposite directions, Shock felt another strange gust ruffle around her ankles, fluttering the edge of her skirt. Breathy laughter tickled the air near her ear. She whipped around in time to see something shimmery—like a heat wave—whisk past Barrel in the direction of the slope. “There he is!”

“Where?” Lock turned.

“Right there!” She was already running after it. How could he have missed it? It passed right in front of him. A slower runner than Lock, she finally lunged randomly at the air current, but fell short. The impact sent the golden clover flying from her pocket. It flipped in the air, catching the light and throwing it onto the invisible, retreating form. The leprechaun lit up—a floating light shape void of detail. Must have been enough, because a red flash later, Lock tackled it as it rematerialized. A rattling sound behind them told her that Barrel had gone back for the cage.

“Let me go, yeh little brats!” The leprechaun snarled, dropping any pretext of friendliness.

Lock scowled. “Who are you calling little?”

It almost made Shock laugh. Seemed like an absurd thing to zero in on considering the larger context of the situation. However, she stayed focused on their target until they had him secured in the cage again. Then she fetched her clover.

“What is that?” Barrel asked, slinging the sack over his shoulder. Inside of it, their captive cursed at him.

“A present for Oogie,” she grinned, pocketing it. Then she frowned at the bag. “Can’t you keep him any quieter than that?” When Barrel only shrugged, she shook her head. “Whatever, let’s hurry.” It would seem the talisman she held had some kind of useful power, anyway. Perhaps lucky enough to get them home without any more problems.

With the frantic action finished, Lock had gone strangely quiet. She’d expected her comment about the present to set Lock off teasing her again. Or with the way he’d been so stunned at the sight of her leg, she expected some kind of sour look. The one that said he still disapproved of her choice, even if he stopped mentioning it. Then again, his stare hadn’t exactly been a shocked, angry, or worried kind of stunned, like when he realized why she’d been tied up naked in the casino. No, more like the time they’d gone to that candy store in the human world and he’d discovered popcorn and root beer flavored jellybeans. That kind of stunned. A happy kind…

Shock blinked. When they fought, she only called Lock jealous because it got under his skin. She never stopped to think about why… No… no that’s silly. Even if he had meant it like… like that, she saw him look at more than a couple girls around town before. It was probably just a teenage boy being a teenage boy. Even so… probably best to forget the whole thing. Oogie could be a real possessive prick, too. Better not open that can of worms. Shock threw out the riot act she’d planned to read the devil-boy at home and thought about Oogie and his plans instead.