The Nightmare Before Christmas: Safe And Sound - Fanfic Story 4

Chapter 14

Skelly and I entered the lair. Shock, Barrel, Bliss, Answer, and Teresa were gathered in the main room.

Skelly and I exchanged glances, and we smiled.

"What?" Shock asked.

"Would you like to do the honors?" I asked.

"We're engaged!" Skelly squealed.

Shock and Barrel bolted out of their seats.

"You're what???" they cried in unison.

"You heard her," I laughed.

"You guys!" Shock said.

"That's amazing!" Barrel exclaimed.

"Congrats," Bliss said.

"Thanks," I said.

"Lemme see it!" Shock said to Skelly. "Show me the ring right now! Lock, I had no idea you were gonna ask her!"

I shrugged and smiled shyly as Skelly showed Shock her ring, which was a real diamond ring, mind you.

"I'm so happy for you guys," Teresa said.

Answer smiled.

Skelly smiled, too.

Shock hugged me tightly.

"It's gonna be weird without you here," she said.

"Don't get ahead of yourself," I laughed. "I didn't even plan out asking her in my head so how do you expect me to plan out the wedding?"

Skelly laughed. Clearly, proposing had cheered her up.

For now.

--That night...--

Barrel's POV:

Here we were again.

I was nocturnal, and that fact was getting to me. And that fact was getting to Answer, too.

She was tired, and I knew she wanted to sleep; but no matter how many times I told her to go to bed, she refused.

"Answer, is something wrong?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"Then why won't you go to bed?" I asked.

"I don't want you getting hurt again," she said. "Magnus knows, and if we're gonna take this risk, things need to change. I didn't protect the other guys when I knew I had full capability of doing so. I'm not making that mistake again. Magnus has always gotten under my skin, and every time she does that, I go crazy in result of anger. I had no intention of protecting anyone. I just acted in my rage. But this time, I'm going to act out of protecting you."

I let the words sink in, then I nodded.

I wondered exactly what she meant by 'Magnus getting under her skin'.

I assumed that I would find out soon enough.

And then, Magnus walked into the room.

"Hey, lovebirds," she said.

"What do you want?" Answer snapped.

I gulped when I saw that Magnus had a knife in her hand.

"What I always want," Magnus said. "Haven't you learned, Answer?"

Answer stood up. She had a dark, nasty glare on her face.

Magnus tossed the knife in the air, then caught it, and then in what seemed like a millisecond, it was flying towards me.