The antique shop backed up to an old building, falling apart at the seams with a hole in the foundation. I wandered around it while my grandparents looked through the decades-old, overpriced china and furniture, while I clung to the silver pocket watch they had bought for me. I was still exploring when I heard a faint sound that was decidedly not the ticking of the watch.
There was singing inside the foundation. Singing! And it was other children. I recognized the two sharp, nasally boys' voices. There was one missing. The shrill girl wasn't there. I knew the song, though I couldn't believe I was hearing it. I joined them, filling in the missing voice.
You're so stupid! Think now, if we blow him up to smithereens...
The change was tangible. The boys were closer and the air grew thick and dark.
The song continued despite this, and I sang the girl's part without thinking about what was happening. I saw two shapes moving in the hole in the old building and scrambled back, frightened, but it was two other children.
Two boys, who had been- and continued- singing. They weren't made of clay, and their faces weren't cartoonish, but I still recognized what had become the pointed face of Lock and the round-but-still-somehow-skeletal features of Barrel. I reached up, touching my own face, suddenly realizing that my nose was more than a little beaklike, for a ten-year-old.
They were real. But why was I playing the part of Shock? For the song I was singing to even exist, shouldn't there be a third child? I frowned, waiting for the next part of the song I would participate in--
I wish my cohorts weren't so dumb!
I was having fun. Real, actual, genuine, honest-to-goodness fun singing with these two, who I thought weren't even real, with the nagging worry of where is the real Shock?? in the back of my mind.
The lines were long here, but I knew them. I knew the song. I could sing any of it, it didn't matter that it was Shock that was missing, it could have been Lock or Barrel and I would have known what to say.
There wasn't much left in the song, and soon, it ended. Lock, Barrel and I stood in silence for a moment, looking at each other at a complete loss for words, when I finally opened my mouth and said the first thing on my mind, "How are you real?"
Lock shrugged, "That poem had to come from somewhere."
Barrel nodded, "Remember: Ever wonder where holidays come from?"
"Well yeah, but... I dunno. A claymation musical set in a magical world of Halloween isn't really something you'd think would be true-to-life."
Now Barrel shrugged, "Neither would finding kids singing under a hundred-year-old building."
"But here we are!" Lock cackled, waving his mask at me.
"Shock is missing."
The boys shook their heads, "No, not really." Lock said, "Well, she is, but not like... missing."
"More... faded."
"What do you mean?"
The boys looked at each other and asked in unison, "Do you want to come with us?"
I thought my eyes would fall out, they got so wide, "What do you mean, go with you? Under there?"
"Come on, you've gotta know were that leads! And we need you! You're Shock, unless you say no." Lock came up, his face barely an inch from mine.
"No, I'm not! That's confusing! I've seen a movie with Shock, how can I be her?"
"Don't ask us!" Barrel said, "We're kids, too."
"I be it lasts forever." I said, biting my lip, "Being a kid, if I go with you."
The boys nodded, "But you know..." Lock said, "You're supposed to."
"How do you figure?"
"Did anybody see you leave the shop?"
I thought about this and realized that.. no, they really hadn't.
