Oogie's Revenge

chapter 12

A few hours passed since Forte had left with the guys. It was a very long time. Sure enough they would be back soon after dealing with Oogie Boogie who was trying to steal all the holidays in the holiday forest to make himself the ultimate holiday king and outshine Jack as the Pumpkin King. There came a knock at the door. Cherry seemed very excited and was eager to see her son and husband again, btu she opened the door to see tricky little Lock, Shock, and Barrel.

"Oh, it's you." Cherry seethed at them.

"Cherry, we're very sorry what we did to you and Jack earlier!" Lock said.

"Yeah, it was just trick-or-treating with a lot of tricking!" Shock added.

"We didn't mean it, honest, Cherry!" Barrel finished.

"I don't believe any of you," Cherry glared at them, sharply. "I never liked you three punks and you three need to get sacked immeditately and go die in a chasm in the layers of Hell like Dante where you belong!"

"You can trust me, Cherry, I wouldn't hurt nobody!" Barrel piped.

"I don't care, you three go away wherever you came from and I'll wait for my son and husband to come back with Jack!" Cherry folded her arms.

The trio backed up to leave.

Cherry saw them leave, then gripped Shock's shoulder. "On second thought, you three stay here. I don't trust you three alone, unsupervised."

"Uhh... We should get back to our treehouse!" Lock cried.

"Uh, yeah, it's very late, Cherry, we need to get some rest!" Shock added.

"Since when do we sleep?" Barrel asked, which made the witch and devil hit him on his head. "Ow!"

"That's it, you're staying with me." Cherry pulled them all in.

Felicity was watching them come in, wearing her nightgown, cotton white socks, and hold her handed down teddy bear. She hadn't seen Lock, Shock, and Barrel much, but something about the three of them made her skin crawl. Felicity saw them come inside with her mother and she hid to the side as they came in, against ther wills.

"Now, what's wrong with you three?" Cherry asked, sitting in a chair next to the fireplace while they sat in a bigger chair across from her together. "Why do you always do what Oogie tells you to? Aren't your parents ashamed of you?"

The trio eyed each other, nervously, then back at her, sadly.

"I need to rest." Cherry stormed off, leaving them by the fire.

Felicity watched her mother leave, then went in the chair, to see them.

"What're you looking at, freak?" Lock scoffed at her.

Felicity winced at the insult, but beared an angry expression. "Maman is probably right. Are your parents not ashamed of the wrong-doing you do in Monsuier Skellington's town? They are probably outright furious with the three of you, égoïste bâtards?" Felicity knew profanity was wrong, but she was too angry with them to care like her parents and Jack, and frankly, almost all of Halloween Town."

The trio flinched at the word 'parents' again. 

"Um... Listen, kid... We don't have parents..." Lock admitted, sounding like he struggled to say that for a long time.

"What?" Felicity was taken aback.

"We don't have parents..." Shock echoed the devil's sentence.

"You do not?" Felicity asked. "You are orphans?"

Lock, Shock, and Barrel nodded.

"Then, who is in charge of your treehouse?" Felicity asked, remembering that they lived there instead of a home like a normal child.