Lock had barely started to crawl into the window when Carmilla zoomed past him. He stuck out his tongue - not that the young vampiress would see when she was already soaring out of the ravine - and reached for the rope ladder leading up to the bridge. He felt a gentle weight land on his tail and shot Lillith a small smile before he continued his ascent. The nip on his tail sent another faint tinge of gray to his cheeks, though it faded almost as quickly as it came.

"Oh, you're in [i]that[/i] kind of mood tonight," he said, a smirk on his lips.

Lock curled his tail so Lillith could comfortably hang from it, then climbed onto the bridge. He kept his tail as still as he could as he walked, which said a lot, given his excitement.

"I know just the place."

He headed for the cemetery, which wasn't too far from the outskirts of town. In fact, the infamous spiral hill could be seen from the tree house, and the graveyard's back entrance wasn't too far from their home.

Down in the lair, Barrel just shrugged and kept playing the drums. He actually had good beat and rhythm, and the cacophony from the drums even sounded almost like a song on their own. He just didn't always like playing the notes in front of him.

"Sounds good," Barrel called after her. "Hope you don't mind ghoul-lash!"

It was quick, easy, and he could make a lot of it - which given his appetite, would ensure there was some left for the others. A perfect meal for after practice.

~~~

There were several places around town that the trickster trio liked to go when one of them needed solo time away the tree house. Some of those places were shared, while others, one of the group preferred over the others. Lock's favorite places were the alleyway behind Town Hall and several nooks and crannies around the residential areas where he could easily smoke and toss the cigarette into a sewer grate, much to the annoyance of those who lived in the underground sewage slums. The sewers themselves were Barrel's favorite, and they were so massive, it was often difficult to find him in the same spot twice, though he had a few favorite places to linger down there. Shock was more varied. The ravine below the tree house had a little cavern that was perfectly dark and gloomy. Some of the tombstones in the graveyard offered decent shelter for a young monster not wanting to be seen. There was a hidey-hole in the pumpkin patch among some particularly thick vines that were difficult to pass. She even sometimes went to the Hinterlands, down a small path just inside the forest that lead to a lake.

Today, Shock decided on a harder-to-reach place. There was an elevated gazebo that marked a centerpiece in the residential area, where a deadly bone serpent lived and periodically came out of its acid pool to snap its jaws at anyone that passed by. With some careful navigating, Shock pulled herself up onto the roof of the gazebo and sat on the edge where she could observe the streets and the citizens below. She heard the serpent below her, frustrated that it knew someone was there, but couldn't reach.

Good. Let something else share her frustration.

Shock watched the Corpse Family pass by, with Corpse Kid ooo-ing at the serpent, his mother keeping him on his leash and promising that they could feed it on the way back. The Mayor's hearse drove by several minutes later, undoubtedly headed to Jack's house for whatever they were planning this Halloween.

Heh. Come to think of it, Jack's yard might be a good place to cool off in the future. The crevice behind the house and underneath the front steps would [i]definitely[/i] be a place no one would expect her to be. So long as no one saw her go in, and if she didn't do anything to draw attention to herself, even her brothers wouldn't think to look there.

But she had a good spot here, where no one would notice her unless they looked out the windows of the taller buildings around the area. And even if they did, she wasn't doing anything wrong.

[i]Yet[/i].

Shock reached into her boot for an old standby: her slingshot. Only her brothers had been truer friends, and right now, the urge to cause trouble, to make someone else miserable for five minutes, overcame her. A search of her pockets turned up some small, round bone pieces. Shock glanced down to see who was passing by now: the Cyclops. With a grin, she surveyed the area and made some quick mental calculations and trajectory, then carefully aimed her slingshot.

The bone piece rocketed into a nearby roof, ricocheted back to the gazebo, knocked into a lantern on the way down and pelted the Cyclops right in the eye.

"Aaarrgh!"

Shock grinned and laughed, letting her voice echo from the buildings around them. The Cyclops heard her, and even looked up in her direction, but he [i]definitely[/i] couldn't see her with his hands over his eye to try to wipe away the pain.

"You nasty brat!" he cried.

Shock settled herself, then walked to a different part of the gazebo's roof so no one else would see she was there. She felt a little better, admittedly, but she was still peeved at Lock. It wasn't even about the lead position, not really, even if she worked hard to maintain it. It was that her little brother let her hated rival get one over her, and that simply wouldn't do.

The band was better before Carmilla. Lillith was a damn pushover to convince Lock to let her twin join in. And she suspected he let her just to make his girlfriend happy.

Shock put the slingshot away and traded it out for a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. The nicotine did nothing for her, being undead, but the sensation of smoke and the feel of something even a little dangerous in her hands often helped her mood.

~~~

A large old crypt covered in dust and spiderwebs stood as a secondary centerpiece in the graveyard after the spiral hill. Lock scoured the area, knowing Sally liked to come here sometimes - and he [i]definitely[/i] wanted to be alone with Lillith for this.

"Hey...can we talk?" Lock asked as he walked down the coffin corridor, since at least this part was empty.

He moved his tail to better be face-to-face with the bat on the end of it.

"Well...more like, can you talk to Carmilla? I need her to stop pestering Shock. I can't deal with her outside of practice."