Stone Cold Revenge, Hugs.And.Kisses [bill gates books recommendations TXT] 📗

grew from his back. The branch was strong enough to hold both of them so Shock dismounted and crept carefully towards him.

"Are you ok?" she asked quietly. The demon flinched; then unfolded his wings slightly to shake his head no. "What's the problem? Are you hurt?"

The demon was silent. His wings opened wider and his head came up. Tear trails where running down his green face from yellow reptile eyes. "There were only two of us out there," he gasped, holding back more tears, "Just me and him." The boy looked at Shock desperately, "Where is he? I didn't see him down there."

"Who? Who isn't down there?" Shock asked concerned with the goblin's ranting.

"My best friend, Charlie. Where is he? He.. he has to be here! There were two of us out there." He turned his back to her, going back under his wings to hide his sobbing.

In an instant Shock knew how the goblin boy had died, a long cynical butcher's knife stuck out of his back.

"Has to be here… two of us… easy target. First me… then him… right? Someone else… there had to be… someone else."

Shock's heart broke for him. She sat down next to him and put an arm around him, carefully avoiding the knife. He was so skinny, like he hadn't eaten in his whole life. Her arm fit all the way around him. "Shhh, everything's going to be ok. It's ok. What's your name?" The demon's crying started to subside.

"Marco," he said weakly.

"Marco, that's a good name. It means guardian."

Marco wiped a few tears away, "Really?"

"Really. My name is Samantha, but I never liked it. So everyone calls me Shock now."

"Everyone? There are others here?" Marco asked quietly.

"Yes, I'll introduce you to them. But as a first step we have to get that knife out of your back," when Marco flinched again Shock reassured him, "Don't worry, I know how to heal this kind of wound. Just close your eyes, ball your fists, and stick your tongue out."

"Why do I have to stick my tongue out?" Marco asked.

"You don't, it's already done," Shock smiled and showed him the knife she pulled out while they were talking; "Now there's going to be a scar but other than that you're fine. Step two is getting out of this tree. Can you fly with those wings yet?"

"No," Marco said eyeing his newfound wings, "I climbed up here when the snake chased me."

"Oh well, you'll learn eventually," Shock whistled for her broom again, "What did you do to it anyway?"

"Nothing, I woke up then I saw the other two and when I tried to wake up the gypsy the snake crawled out and chased me."

They both climbed onto the broom and joined the three on the ground, who had been listening intently. The jester was rubbing his head tenderly and the gypsy seemed to unplugging her ears. Violet was petting Mr. Snaky on the head.

"Everyone all right?" Shock asked.

They nodded in unison. "Are there really other people here?" the gypsy asked.

"Yeah, a whole town full of them," Violet said as Mr. Snaky curled around her fingers.

The jester turned to Shock, "Are they all… like us?"

"Yes," Shock said, "Everyone in this world is dead, even me and Violet here. But that's not something to be scared of. You have been chosen to do an important job."

"What's that?" Marco asked.

"To make Halloween happen, every year this world makes sure that the Mortal World has Halloween."

"Where are we?" they asked in unison.

"A wonderful place, a special place where the dead can start again, where it's Halloween everyday. Come on, I'll show you."

She motioned the new arrivals to follow her out of the woods. They talked together about their families and what they liked doing. Chester went on about him having grandparents that had lived as carnies and how he thought he was meant to perform. He even did a few cartwheels just for the fun of it. Geisel talked about her great-grandparents and how they survived the Holocaust. She said the coin on her necklace was a lucky gypsy coin she had gotten from her grandmother. Violet told them about her plants and the tree house.

The conversation then turned to Marco, who had remained quiet while the others were talking. He quickly pointed out his wings and talked about that until Halloween Town came over the horizon. While the other children stared in awe and wonder, Marco gave it a sideways glance before looking down at his feet.

Shock put a hand on the demon's shoulder and pulled him aside, "Marco, you know if there's anything you'd like to talk about, you can talk to me."

Marco looked over his shoulder at his fellow arrivals, "It's just that… I don't really have a story. My mom died when I was born and my dad was never around for more than two days. The only person who was there for me was… Charlie."

Then it was decided, she would have to find him, "Marco, if he really means that much to you, then I will try my hardest to find out what happened to the both of you."

"You'll find him?" Marco said, eyes hopeful.

"If you want me to, but remember Marco, sometimes people are never found. Charlie might be one of them."

Marco's eyes fell for a moment, "But that doesn't mean I shouldn't try. Even if you don't find him, I at least need to find out what might have happened. Just so I know something."

The others had stopped staring and were running down the hill towards town. Marco took the opportunity to shed a few more tears and Shock took the opportunity to give Marco a hug. Much to her delight, Marco hugged back.

"Don't worry Marco, it might take a while, but everything's going to be ok."

Lock was bored out of his head. Shock was meeting the new comers while he was stuck lifting boxes of Halloween decorations in the town's square first thing in the morning. The Mayor wanted them moved around because he couldn't decide how they should be stored for next year. After this he would be stuck taking the Christmas decorations out of storage. Most of the time Lock thought that the Mayor just liked bossing him around without getting his house filled with frogs the next day.

The boxes weren't light either; but that didn't bother Lock so much. He just wished someone would help him, which wouldn't happen anytime soon because when people found out Lock had to help with storage work, everyone else had stopped. They didn't like being bossed around by the Mayor either. Lock leaned against the fountain, watching as the Mayor kept spinning his head from happy to sad and writing things down on the plans for the Christmas celebration two months away. While Lock was slowly losing his mind, he saw Shock coming down the street with the new arrivals in town. He went to say hello and was greeted like a celebrity.

"You made that huge house all by yourself!" Geisel said.

"It's so cool," Marco said.

"Do we really get to live there?" Chester said.

"Uhhh I guess; if the Mayor already gave us permission."

Just then the Mayor noticed their arrival. "There you are Shock. Glad to see you've accepted my terms. Ah, what fine new arrivals we have," the Mayor said, "I hope you all strive to be exceptional members of our town and-"

Lock stopped listening around there and started whispering to Shock, "What did he mean by terms?"

"I hate to admit this but the Mayor is getting smarter. He knew I wanted this so I had to cut a deal with him. Today's my first day on the job."

"Shock you didn't," Lock said sadly.

"I had to. There was no changing his mind. Besides, I promised myself I'd make it up to you for the deal you made with Jack."

"You didn't have to make it up to me, I wanted to do it."

"And I want to do this. You're obviously not seeing the bright side of this. Think about who we're leaving at home, alone, without supervision."

"What about Barrel and Kevin?"

Shock gave one of her famous wicked grins, "Exactly."

The Mayor was still going on about being a good citizen, not knowing or caring that the kids had stopped listening and where just spacing out. A loud honking racket pierced the air bringing them all back to their senses. The Mayor's black hearse drove down the street, without a driver. The mayor ran yelling after his blaring hearse. The kids started laughing like crazy. Barrel and Kevin showed up then, with mischief written on their faces.

"And that dear pupils is how much fun you can have around here with just two bricks, a lock pick, a piece of tape, and some string."

Marco recovered from laughing first, "You know, I think I'm going to like it here."

"Same here," Geisel and Chester said at the same time, causing them to giggle again.

"Good, I was afraid that we were becoming model citizens. I mean, you don't look like the hooligans of tomorrow," Lock said.

"We are too!" CJ said, "I've got in trouble for cheating on my spelling test and eating everything in my classmates' lunch bags before they even got to recess."

"Ha! You were caught," Gisele said smugly, "I on the other hand got away with convincing the kid who sat next to me to give me his answers to the math test and taking other kid's lunch money."

All eyes turned to Marco, who looked a bit nervous, "Uh… I um… break locks?"

"That's it?" Gisele said.

"Hey, don't be like that," Shock said, "Picking locks is a very useful talent, got me out of jail more than once."

"Really!" the kids said, including Violet.

"Yeah, long story, I'll tell you later. But for now…" Shock trailed off as The Mayor came stomping towards them, having caught up to his run away hearse.

"Cretins! Do you think this is an acceptable for legal guardians to behave?" You could almost see the steam coming out of his angry-sad face.

Shock tensed, Lock stood a little straighter, and Barrel and Kevin braced themselves as thought they were just waiting for the beating that Shock would inflict.

"Follow my lead," Gisele whispered to her new arrival peers, her face then turned into the picture of innocent concern, "Oh my gosh Mr. Mayor what happened to your car?"

The flustered Mayor did a double take before answering, "What happened? They happened! Everything was peaceful in this town until those ruffians showed up! They-!"

"Hey, wait up," Gisele interrupted, "What makes you think that they did that?"

"I know they did it!"

"Can you prove it?" Gisele asked. The other kids caught her drift and started to ask questions too.

"Did you see them do it?" Chester asked.

"No, but I-"

"Does your car have evidence of forced entry?" Marco asked.

"The lock was OK, but-"

"Did you compromise the scene so that searching for fingerprints will be useless?" Violet asked.

"Yes! Wait, what?"

"Do you have an mechanic?" Chester asked.

"The Werewolf usually-"

"Do you even have insurance?" Violet asked.

"Uh-"

"Forget it, how good can a hundred-year-old hearse