TNBC – Fanfiction #1

The Skellington Family (Part One – Ch. 1-6)

Holly Becker

Chapter One – A Bundle of Joy

“Are you sure you feel well enough to be outside Sally?”

“Yes Jack, I’m fine.”

Jack opened the front door of their house and carried Sally, who was 9 months pregnant

with their first child, down the stairs and then gently set her down on her feet. She wrapped her

arms around one of his and they started their usual walk around town; it helped both of them

unwind and they loved being in each other’s company. As they walked, they admired the

perpetually autumn weather and leaves as well as the Halloween decorations that were always up

year-round. After a while, they decided to sit and rest at the town fountain.

“JACK! JACK! Oh there you are! I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”

The mayor came running up to them with Halloween plans stuffed in his tiny arms as

usual. His worried face spun around to his happy face once he saw Jack and Sally sitting

together at the fountain.

“Ah! Good morning Sally! How are you today?”

“Good morning Mayor. I’m fine, thank you.”

“How’s the baby?”

“Oh, due anytime now…”

“How exciting! You two must be so happy and proud.”

“We are,” Jack and Sally answered together then laughed.

“Fantastic. Oh but Jack! We must finalize this year’s Halloween plans! After all,

Halloween is only 24 hours away!”

“Uh, well I…” Jack glanced worriedly at Sally.

“It’s okay Jack, I’ll be fine. You go with the mayor and take care of Halloween business.

I’ll go pick up some things for dinner tonight then relax at home. Okay?”

“Okay…If anything happens, send someone to get me and I’ll be there in a blink

alright?”

“Alright,” she giggled, “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

They kissed and parted ways. Sally sighed dreamily as she watched her beloved walk

away with the mayor to discuss Halloween. She then turned and walked toward the witches’

shop. She walked in and jumped when the ‘welcome bell,’ which was the sound of a cat

yowling, sounded off throughout the store.

“Welcome to Witches’ Shop! The best bargains in town!”

Sally turned and saw Hazel, the taller one of the two witch sisters, at the counter and smiled.

“Hello Hazel.”

“Oh hello Sally! Come in! Come in! It’s so good to see you out and about. How are

you doing today?”

“I’m fine. I was wondering if I could maybe pick up a few things?”

“Of course! Of course! Say, where’s Jack? It’s not very often you two are apart.”

“He’s with the mayor discussing plans for Halloween.”

“Ah yes. Only one more day until the fun begins! What would you like today dear?”

“Umm…two jars of worms, some newt eyes, two sun-dried toads, and a small jar of

spiced cat whiskers please.”

Sally paid, thanked Hazel, and then headed back to Jack’s house, which was her home as

well. She slowly made her way up the stairs and through the front door. Zero flew down the

stairs from the second level excitedly to greet Sally as he usually did.

“Hello Zero! Jack is still with the mayor discussing Halloween so it’s just me.”

“Ruff! Ruff!”

Sally walked into the kitchen and put away the groceries she had bought. She started to

make dinner, but suddenly she felt very dizzy and hot. She wobbled to the sink and breathed in

and out slowly and deeply. Zero floated to her side and whimpered softly and worriedly. Sally

suddenly vomited into the sink, started to sweat, and turned even paler than usual. She stumbled

into the living room and sat down carefully on the couch. Zero followed close behind her and

hovered near her very worried. Suddenly Sally felt her water break and started to go into labor.

“Z-zero…uuuuh…Z-zero…go get Jack…h-hurry…”

Zero immediately flew through the front door (literally) and rushed off to find his master.

After a few minutes of frantic searching, Zero spotted Jack still talking with the mayor. He flew

over and started pulling on his master’s coat tails desperately.

“Zero? Zero, what’s the matter boy? What’s gotten into you?”

Zero whimpered and whined and continued trying to pull Jack toward the house. As Jack

looked at Zero’s distraught face and observed his actions, he remembered that Sally told him she

would relax at home after shopping. He figured something must have happened and was

suddenly panicked.

“Mayor, I have to go! I think something has happened to Sally!”

Jack then rushed off, with Zero leading the way to the house. He burst through the door

and looked around frantically.

“Sally??”

“O-over here…”

Jack ran to Sally’s side and held one of her hands in both of his. She was covered in

sweat and panting as if she had just run a marathon. Her eyes were glazed over and half closed

in pain. Jack felt his heart shatter to pieces seeing her like this.

“Don’t worry dearest. I’ll get you to Dr. Finklestein right away.”

Jack ran as fast as was safe while carrying Sally in his arms all the way to the doctor’s

manor. Once Sally was safe in the doctor’s care, he waited for 12 agonizing hours just outside

the lab’s door. Finally, the heavy metal door opened and the doctor wheeled himself out to greet

Jack.

“Congratulations my boy; you and Sally have a healthy little girl.”

“Can…can I see her?”

“Of course.”

The doctor wheeled himself to the side to let Jack into the room where Sally lay.

“Hey Sally…how are you feeling?”

“Good…just a little…tired…Come see our baby.”

Jack walked up to her bed and knelt down with one arm resting around her shoulders.

Sally was holding a tiny little bundle in a large, fluffy blanket that looked like a giant spider web.

She gently moved the blanket to reveal the baby. Jack beamed with joy, adoration, and pride as

he looked down at the tiny baby looking back up at him.

“She’s…she’s beautiful.”

The baby looked a lot like her mother: her skin was pale-blue with stitches running down

the middle of her forehead to the top of her nose, around her joints, wrists, neck, waist, and on

the sides of her mouth; her hair was red-brown; her arms and hands were skeletal; and her large

eye sockets held two orange, glowing balls of light that served as pupils.

“What should we name her?” Jack asked as he gently took the tiny thing, blanket and all,

into his arms.

“How about…Opal…like the birthstone of October.”

“That sounds perfect.”

Jack played with one her hands with his index finger. Opal caught it and curled her little

fingers around it, which made Jack and Sally smile warmly at her. Just then, Dr. Finklestein

wheeled into the room, a little ways away from where Jack and Sally were at the bed.

“So? Have you two decided on a name?” he asked with a smile.

“Opal” they answered together.

“Very well,” the doctor noted, “‘Opal’ it is…”

He wrote up a birth certificate for the baby:

Name: Opal

Sex: Female

Height: 18 inches (1ft, 6in)

Weight: 2 pounds

Birthdate: October 30 (10:30 pm)

Birthplace: Halloween Town

Mother: Sally Skellington

Father: Jack Skellington

The town citizens were very excited as they took their seats for the town meeting Jack

had called. They had been anticipating the birth of their new Pumpkin Prince or Princess. They

slowly came to a hush as Jack walked up to the podium with Sally at his side in a wheelchair

holding Opal in a blanket.

“Alright everyone, I have big news today: Sally and I are officially proud, new parents!”

The whole crowd cheered and clapped with joy. Various creatures and monsters started asking

questions.

“Is it a boy or girl?” asked one monster.

“A girl,” Jack answered.

“What’s her name?” asked another.

“Opal,” Sally answered while she held the baby close.

“May we see her?” the witch sisters asked in unison.

At first Jack and Sally looked at each other nervously, not sure if Opal was ready to meet

so many strangers at once, but then smiled slightly and agreed to let the people meet her.

Everyone gathered around, but tried to not crowd the poor tiny thing, as Sally moved the fluffy

blanket out of Opal’s face. The whole crowd ‘aaaaw’ed as they got their first look at the baby.

Opal looked around at all the strange faces surrounding her with big, curious eyes, a little

spooked at first.

“She’s adorable!”

“What a darling little thing!”

“So sweet…”

Opal continued to look around at the smiling crowd and smiled back. After a while, the

proud new parents left, Sally in her wheelchair with Opal in her lap and Jack pushing the

wheelchair to their home. Jack left the wheelchair at the bottom of the stairs and carried Sally,

who was holding Opal, up the stairs and into the living room to gently set her down on the

couch. He sat beside her with one arm wrapped around her shoulders as they both looked at their

new baby girl. Zero floated down the stairs, barking happily and relieved to see his mistress was

feeling better. The little ghost dog hovered near the baby, curious to find out what this strange

little thing was.

“Hey there Zero,” Jack greeted his ghostly canine friend. “This is Opal, the newest

member of the family.”

Zero barked happily and started to lick Opal’s face, which made her smile and squirm a

little. She suddenly noticed Zero’s glowing jack-o-lantern nose and was immediately entranced

by it. Her eyes went wide with wonder and she batted at it like a cat playing with a toy. This

made Zero back away a little and made Jack and Sally laugh.

“Looks like she already wants to learn about Halloween,” Jack noted with a smile.

“Well, she’ll be learning from the master.”

Jack laughed and took Opal into his arms, which shifted her attention from Zero’s nose to her

father’s face.

“I can’t wait to teach you all about Halloween, my little Pumpkin Princess.”

Opal blinked, smiled, and continued to stare up at her father, unable to comprehend what

‘Halloween’ was yet.

Jack and Sally spent the rest of the night in their home bonding with their little baby.

Eventually, Opal drifted to sleep, so Jack and Sally put her in her crib in the room they had

added to the house. Exhausted themselves, they went to bed and fell asleep.

Chapter Two – Preparing for Halloween

Morning came and the whole town was excited for the Halloween celebration that night.

Jack and Sally were still lying in bed, sleeping in each other’s arms. Around 10 o’clock, they

heard a shriek ring out through the house. Immediately they woke up and rushed into Opal’s

room but found her sound asleep. They looked at each other with confusion until they heard it

again and figured out that it was their doorbell. Sally carefully picked up Opal so she wouldn’t

wake up and followed Jack to the front door (they had fallen asleep in their clothes). Jack

opened it and sure enough, it was the mayor.

“Good morning you two and happy Halloween! Jack, we still need to---aaaaaw…I’m

sorry, I didn’t interrupt the little baby’s sleep did I?”

Jack and Sally looked to Opal still asleep and balled up in her fluffy, spider web-patterned

blanket and smiled.

“No, she sleeps pretty soundly.” Sally answered while she shifted the fluffy bundle to her

other arm.

Opal stirred, yawned, and curiously peeked through the blanket. Her half-opened eyes

scanned around her sleepily. When they fell on the mayor, she was suddenly wide awake and

very curious. She stared at the short, chubby, smiling man and started squirming to let her

mother know that she wanted to be set down. Sally set her down and she started to squirm

toward the mayor (since she couldn’t walk or crawl yet).

Jack laughed and said, “I think she wants you to hold her Mayor.”

“Oh, uh, may I?”

“Sure.”

The mayor carefully picked up Opal like she was made of glass and held her in his arms.

“She sure is a cute little thing.”

Opal touched the mayor’s spider tie, which woke it up and made it crawl onto her and in

her hair. Instead of shrieking, Opal just shut her eyes tightly and squirmed a bit at the odd

feeling of the spider’s legs. After a while the spider crawled back to its place and settled back

down. Jack, Sally, and the mayor smiled at Opal with all her cuteness.

“I think she likes you Mayor,” Jack noted with a smile, “Now uh, you were saying we

still had some business to finish?”

“Oh yes, I almost forgot,” said the mayor as he handed Opal back to Sally, “We have to

make sure everything is in order for the celebration tonight. Last minute things, you know?”

“Oh, right. Sally? Do you think you and Opal will be okay for a little bit while I’m with

the mayor?”

“Sure, we’ll be fine. Try to hurry back though; we’ll be missing you while you’re gone.”

Jack smiled and kissed both of them goodbye. “I shouldn’t be more than an hour or so.”

They waved goodbye while Jack walked away with the mayor and Sally took Opal back into the

house. She closed the door behind her and smiled lovingly at Opal.

“Daddy will be back home soon sweetie. Until then, we’ll sit and relax here together.”

Zero hovered near-by as Sally set Opal down on her blanket on the floor.

“Zero? Do you want to play with Opal for a little bit while I make her formula?”

“Ruff! Ruff!”

While Sally walked into the kitchen to make the formula, Zero happily flew over to

where Opal was laying on her back and hovered above her. Once again, Opal was entranced by

Zero’s nose and smiled as her little hands opened and closed at her sides in want. Zero slowly

dropped down closer to her level and nuzzled her cheek with his nose, which made her smile

more and squeal happily. In the kitchen, Sally poured fresh bat’s milk into a little bottle then

warmed it up in the microwave.

She walked back into the living room, picked Opal in her blanket up off the floor, and

then sat in the rocking chair with her snug in her blanket in the crook of Sally’s arm. She held

the tip of the bottle to Opal’s mouth and she started to suck from it instinctively. Sally continued

to hold the bottle for her and slowly started to rock them back and forth as Opal continued to

drink.

Around noon, Jack came home and walked into the living room. He found Opal and

Sally in the rocking chair: Opal fast asleep and Sally half asleep with an empty bottle on the

small table near one of the chair’s arms. He smiled lovingly at the heart-warming scene and

quietly strode over to the chair.

“Hey Honey, I’m home,” he whispered so as not to wake Opal.

Sally blinked several times to wake up and looked over to Jack who was kneeling beside her and

smiling.

She smiled back and whispered, “Hi Dear. Did everything go alright with the mayor?”

“Mhm. Everything is in place and accounted for. Now we just wait for nightfall,” he

whispered with an eager, slightly devilish, expression. He looked down at Opal, smiled warmly,

and gently stroked the top of her head. “Someday you’ll be the Pumpkin Queen of

Halloween…”

“Hard to believe when she’s still so small,” Sally laughed.

“I know. But I’m confident that she’ll be a great queen someday…Still…I almost wish

she would stay this way forever…our little baby…”

Jack and Sally sighed as they smiled at Opal who was dreaming peacefully, swaddled in her

spider web blanket.

* * * * * * * * * *

Sunset was nearing and the whole town was ready to bring the thrills and chills of Halloween

to the awaiting human world. Sally smiled as she handed Jack’s pumpkin mask to him to

complete his Pumpkin King attire.

“Good luck Pumpkin King….”

“Thank you my lovely Pumpkin Queen…”

Before Jack put his mask on, he kissed Opal’s forehead and ruffled her hair. “Wish Daddy luck,

sweetie.”

Opal smiled back at her father and gave a cute little squeal. Jack then kissed Sally, put on

his mask, and walked to the front of the crowd gathered at the town’s gate. As they all watched

the sun set, the gate rose slowly with a menacing groan. Sally covered Opal’s would-be ears in

preparation for what was coming. When the sun finally disappeared behind the horizon, Jack let

out a loud, horrific, and inhuman scream to signal the beginning of Halloween. The rest of the

citizens also roared, shrieked, cackled, and yelled as they all rushed out beyond the gate and far

into the graveyard (where a portal to the human world was hidden), led, of course, by Jack.

Sally, along with a few other creatures who weren’t particularly good at scaring people,

happily stayed behind to tend to things at home. For Sally, of course, that meant looking after

Opal. She walked to the town fountain and sat on the edge, holding Opal close to her heart and

looking up at the stars that were just starting to appear. She felt more at ease knowing that Lock,

Shock, and Barrel had gone to the human world with the others in order to trick-or-treat and pull

pranks. She didn’t hate them; she just never liked being out on the streets by herself with

Halloween Town’s three most infamous trouble-makers lurking about. She was especially wary

of the troublesome trio now, with Opal being just a tiny infant.

Sally felt Opal start to fidget and heard her start to cry. It occurred to Sally just then that

Opal had never really been outside during the dark of night. It must be pretty scary for a little

baby like her… Sally thought to herself. She held Opal closer to her heart, rocked her back and

forth gently in her arms, and started to sing.

“I sense there’s something in the wind

It feels like love that is so warm

So please don’t be afraid my dear

Mama’s here to wipe your tears

So just relax here in my arms

Worry no longer and drift off to sleep

Hear my heartbeat and dream sweetly in peace

You are safe here with me

You do not have to fear the dark

Look up and see the shining stars

Listen and hear the crickets sing

The night is a beautiful thing

Let it hold you my sweet baby

It will not harm you

Only cradle you

So do not cry

Dry up all of your tears

And calm all of your fears…”

Opal was now fast asleep, swaddled in her blanket, warm and safe in her mother’s arms,

the flowing water from the fountain behind them providing soothing background noise.

Chapter 3 – First Day of Her First Year

As time went on, Opal continued to develop and had gotten used to Halloween Town’s

spookiness very quickly. She saw it as her beloved home now instead of the strange and

menacing place she was born in. A year had come and gone and now Opal was a little more

toddler-like rather than baby-like; though of course she still had much more to learn and

experience, which Jack, Sally, and even the Halloween citizens were happy to help her with.

“Ah! Ah! Mama!”

Sally looked up from the tear in one of Jack’s coats that she was mending. Opal, who

was sitting on the floor in front of her with Zero beside her, was pointing to something up on one

of the shelves on the wall. Sally looked in the direction her daughter was pointing and saw that it

was aimed at a stuffed animal: a vampire bear with a menacing, sharp-toothed grin. It was one

of the many toys the Halloween citizens made for Christmas and that Jack tried to deliver years

ago. Sally smiled reminiscently at the toy, which was about as big as Opal, walked over to it,

picked it up off the shelf, and gave it to her. Jack had salvaged a few toys from his crash during

the whole Christmas fiasco and had given them to his precious little girl. Opal loved them all,

but none more than her bear, whom she had christened “Charlie.”

“Mmmmm…” Opal sighed as she squeezed the bear tightly.

Sally smiled as she sat back down in the chair to complete her sewing. After a while,

Jack returned home from a meeting with the mayor concerning last minute preparations for

Halloween tomorrow night and walked into the living room where Sally, Opal, and Zero sat.

“Hello family!”

Sally smiled at his cheerful greeting. “Welcome home darling.”

“Daddy!”

Using one of Sally’s legs for support, Opal brought herself up to a wobbly standing

position (she wasn’t quite accustomed to using her legs yet). She scurried over to her father and

hugged his leg (she came up to about the middle of his shin). Jack smiled and knelt down to hug

her back.

“Hey sweetie! Were you a good girl for Mama while I was gone?”

“Ah!” she nodded.

Jack laughed and said “Good. I have something for you.”

“Ooh?” Opal cocked her head curiously.

Jack often came home with some little thing for Opal. Sometimes it was a colorful

autumn leaf, others it was a small harmless creature such as a mouse or a spider, still others it

was a piece of candy. He took one of Opal’s hands into his and put a lump of some hard, light-

green substance into it. Opal had never seen something like this before; she sniffed it curiously.

“What is that stuff Jack?”

Sally watched as Opal gnawed on it and tried to pry off a piece with her teeth. It

stretched a bit and finally a chunk snapped off into Opal’s mouth.

“Taffy?”

“Yep.”

Opal chewed it as best she could and suddenly met its sourness. Her mouth puckered and

her eyes shut tight in a wince as she rapidly shook her head as if to shake the sourness away.

“Mmf!” Jack and Sally chuckled at her cute little reaction to the taffy.

“I’m sorry dear. Is it too sour for you?” Jack asked.

Opal answered by prying off another piece and chewing it happily. Jack and Sally

laughed again as she gave the same reaction.

“Oh yeah. Jack, I finished mending the tear in your coat.”

“Thank you Sally. You take such good care of me…” he smiled warmly at her.

Sally giggled as she blushed and handed him the coat. Suddenly Jack felt a small tug on

his coattails. He looked down and saw Opal holding up a piece of paper with something very

colorful drawn on it. He smiled as he knelt down and took it from her. It was a big orange jack-

o-lantern with a bright yellow smile and yellow triangles for eyes drawn with crayons.

“This is beautiful sweetie! Did you make this all by yourself?”

“Ah!” she nodded excitedly.

Jack smiled “We’ll put this up on the wall. Thank you sweets.”

As Jack started to stand back up, Opal caught his sleeve to stop him. “Ah! Ah!”

“Hm? Oh, you have another one?”

Opal nodded with a smile and proudly produced another piece of paper. Jack took it and

was immediately shocked and a bit concerned. Sally, who had been standing next to Jack, saw

this picture and was also worried. This drawing featured three children dressed up as a devil, a

witch, and a skeleton. Jack wondered if it was just a coincidence…after all…Opal had heard of

trick-or-treaters dressing up for Halloween…Still…Jack couldn’t help but worry about the

troublesome trio getting too close to his little girl.

“Uh, this is very good sweetie. Did you see three kids dressed like this today?”

Opal smiled as she nodded and then pointed to a window that faced the Town Square.

Hmmm…So she saw them from the window…, Jack thought to himself. He picked her up and

carried her in his arms as he walked over to the window with Sally following at his side. They

looked outside and, sure enough, found the three trouble makers down in the Town Square

‘TP’ing the Hanging Tree.

“Ah!” Opal pointed toward the three children.

Jack and Sally frowned, not wanting to think of what might happen if Opal ran into those three.

“Opal…stay away from those three kids, alright sweetie? They will only get you in

trouble,” Jack warned with a stern look on his face.

Opal looked up at her father and smiled innocently. Jack’s expression softened as he

smiled back and walked back to the couch with Sally and sat down with Opal in his lap. Opal

took the taffy her father had given her out of her pocket, brushed off the pieces of lint, and

started sucking on it, wincing at its sourness as she did.

**************

Afternoon slowly turned into late evening while in the Skellington manor, a special

celebration was unfolding. Today, Opal was officially one year old and Jack and Sally had

planned a little party for her. Every Halloween citizen was eager to see the little Pumpkin

Princess and celebrate her first year of afterlife. Opal had come to recognize many of the

Halloween citizens from all the times Jack and Sally brought her along on their usual walks

around town and through the cemetery and pumpkin patch (carrying her of course). Since the

house was obviously too small to accommodate the whole town, the party was held outside. It

was a perfect evening for an outside occasion: the weather was comfortable, the bugs were

minimal, and the sun was setting beautifully behind the horizon.

Everyone enjoyed the party and enjoyed seeing Opal grown from a small baby into a

little tyke. They offered birthday gifts and many of the children who had come happily played

with Opal, teaching her many different Halloween games. As the party drew on, Jack and Sally

kept an eye out for a certain trio of pranksters who were not invited. The party eventually came

to a close with no sign of them and the Halloween citizens waved goodbye as they wished Opal a

happy birthday one last time for the night.

“Well that was fun, wasn’t it sweetie?” Sally asked Opal as they walked back inside their

home.

“Fun! Fun!” Opal exclaimed as she flapped her arms excitedly (by this time, Opal had

learned how to mimic certain words she heard).

“Would you like to open your presents now or wait until tomorrow?” Jack asked with a

smile.

“Ah! Ah!” Opal flapped her arms again as she glued her bright gaze to the black,

orange, and grey colored boxes Jack and Sally had carried inside.

“I guess that means ‘now’,” Sally giggled as she set Opal down on the floor in front of

the couch.

Jack and Sally placed the gifts around Opal so she could easily reach them and then sat

down on the couch to watch her. Sally rested her head on Jack’s chest as he wrapped his arm

around her to hold her close. They both smiled as Opal started to scratch away the paper of her

first gift, which was from the witches, with her small, claw-like, skeletal fingers.

When she opened the box, a fat, green frog about the size of her head jumped onto her

face, which knocked her flat on her back. At first Jack and Sally were worried that Opal had

been hurt, but she just laid there blinking, still trying to process her gift. The frog then decided

to hop off her face and onto her stomach, allowing Opal to sit up a bit and look at it.

“Rrrrrrrrrrbit…*thwip*”

The frog had shot its sticky tongue out and stuck it right on the center of Opal’s mouth. It reeled

its tongue back in, leaving Opal to wipe away the sticky goo.

“Pbbbbt! Peh! Peh! Pfleh!”

Jack and Sally laughed at the humorous scene as Opal moved the frog from her stomach

to the top of her head, where it was content to stay. Opal started to open another box, this one

being from the vampire brothers. When she opened the box, Opal cocked her head and had a

confused look; she stuck her head further into the box in hopes of seeing the gift better.

“What is it honey?” Sally asked, smiling at her daughter’s display of curiosity.

Opal lifted the box above herself, still unable to see what was inside, and suddenly a

small black gown fell out and completely draped over her (as well as the frog on her head) like a

sheet.

“Ah?” Opal started swiveling around blindly, trying to figure out why the lights had

suddenly gone out.

“Hang on sweets, hang on…” Jack laughed as he extended his long arm out to pull the

gown up off her.

He set it next to her while she looked around blinking bewilderedly (the frog meanwhile

remained unphased). She looked back to the black gown and poked it experimentally, earning

amused laughter from her parents. Jack and Sally continued to watch her open her presents and

laugh at her funny reactions to some of them.

In the end, she received a frog from the witches, a black gown from the vampires, a

crescent moon-shaped comb from the werewolf, a dark wooden flute made by the three

Halloween band members, a doll from the Corpse family, a bag of small striped lollipops from

the Harlequin demon, a bunch of rocks with spooky designs and colors painted on them (which

Jack thought were strange Easter eggs at first) from the Hanging tree, some sea shells and

conches from Undersea Gal, a jack-o-lantern shaped nightlight from Creature under the Bed,

some scary story books from Creature under the Stairs, some chocolate-covered spiders from the

mayor, a steel chain belt from the demon, and a mask from the clown with the tear-away face.

Opal ate, tried on, and played with her various gifts all night. She really liked the sounds

the conches and the flute made when she blew into them. As Opal continued to play, Sally

glanced up at the clock hanging on the wall.

“Goodness! Is it really that late?”

Jack looked over at the clock too. “Whoa, 12:30?? It’s way past someone’s bedtime.”

Jack and Sally stood up, stretched, then Jack picked up Opal while Sally picked up

Opal’s gifts (though she had decided to wear the black gown to bed) and carried her to her room.

Sally set the presents down on the floor near Opal’s crib and plugged in her new nightlight for

her. Jack laid Opal down and started to cover her with her blanket.

“Ah! Ah!” Opal rebelled against the soft fluffy blanket and pointed to her presents.

“No no sweetie, it’s time for bed now. You can play more tomorrow, okay?” Jack

crooned.

“Ah! Ah!” Opal just wasn’t having it though; she still had a lot of energy and wanted to

play.

Jack smiled and decided to use one of her presents against her. He picked out the

wooden flute from the pile on the floor, pulled a chair up to the side of her crib, sat down facing

her, and started to play it. It was a rather slow, soft, and soothing tune that had a sort of Native

American feel to it. Opal smiled as her father continued to play. After a while, her eyelids

started to become heavier and she started to slightly sway back and forth as the song continued to

gently caress her. Jack smiled slightly as he watched her slowly sink down from standing to

lying on her side. After about three minutes, Opal lay defeated, curled up in a ball, sucking on

her thumb, and fast asleep. Jack finished the lullaby then gently pulled the blanket over Opal

and kissed her head.

When he turned around to quietly leave with Sally, he was surprised to see her sitting on

the floor and leaning against the wall with her eyes closed. He smiled, amused, and quietly knelt

down at her side.

“Am I really that good, darling?” he whispered to her.

Sally stirred, slowly opened her eyes, and smiled at him. “Yes, you are. Especially when

I’m already half asleep on my feet…”

Jack laughed softly and kissed her forehead. “Maybe we should go to bed then and get

some rest.”

“Sounds good to me.”

They stood up, walked out quietly, and headed up the stairs to their bedroom. After a

quick change into their night clothes, they crawled into bed, and fell asleep in each other’s arms

as they usually did.

Chapter 4 – A Past Nightmare Resurfaces

A zombie rooster signaled the arrival of morning as it usually did, though Jack and Sally

remained asleep. Opal however had woken up and now wanted to play. She slowly and

carefully climbed down the side of her crib and grabbed Charlie, her favorite vampire bear, to

walk around. She wandered aimlessly through the first level of the house, picking up this and

that and playing with it for however long it kept her attention.

Suddenly, the doorbell sounded and a shriek rang through the house, startling Opal. She

yelped in surprise and scrabbled up the stairs into her parents’ room. She leaped into their bed

with such force that it startled both Jack and Sally, which in turn woke up Zero as well (who had

his own doggie bed on the floor). They looked around and saw Opal balled up and quivering in

the thick blanket between them.

“Opal? Sweetie, what is it? What’s the matter?” Sally asked while she stroked Opal’s

head gently.

The doorbell sounded again and another shriek rang through the house.

“Aah!” Opal tried to bury herself further into the blanket.

“I really should change that thing,” Jack laughed.

He got up, changed into his normal attire, and went to answer the door. Meanwhile Sally stayed

with Opal in the bed to comfort her.

“It’s okay sweetie, it was just the doorbell. You should be used to that by now, silly.”

Brrrrrang! Eeeeeeeeee!

“Yes, yes, I’m coming!”

Jack opened the door and was not surprised to see the mayor standing there, arms brimming with

Halloween plans.

“’Morning Jack! Happy Halloween!”

“Good morning Mayor and happy Halloween to you too.”

“Jack, there are some last minute things to go over for tonight’s Halloween celebration.

We haven’t much time to waste!”

“Oh, yes, of course. But first I have to settle a few things here before I leave, it will only

take a few minutes.

“Of course! You see to things here and we’ll meet at the town fountain when you’re

ready.”

“Sounds good. I’ll meet you there.”

As the mayor left, Jack closed the door and headed back inside. Sally had gotten dressed

and was currently trying to persuade Opal to eat her crushed pumpkin bits.

“Was that the mayor again?”

“Yep. Seems it’s time to, once again, go over last minute details for tonight’s

celebration.”

“Again?” Sally giggled, “Doesn’t everybody have the whole thing memorized by now?

After how many centuries?”

“I know,” Jack laughed in agreement, “But it’s the routine.”

Jack smiled as he watched Opal continue to refuse her food. He sat down in a chair next

to Sally facing Opal.

“You don’t want to eat your breakfast, sweets?”

“Uh-uh,” Opal shook her head with a stubborn look on her face.

Jack smiled as he got an idea.

“But Opal…The pumpkin used in this was a magical one.”

“Ah?” Opal cocked her head slightly and blinked, wondering if she heard correctly.

“That’s right. If you eat all of it, it will help you grow big and strong like Mama and

Daddy.”

Opal’s eyes widened slightly and she looked down at the lump of orange mush. She

scooped up a small bit of it with her hand, looked at it closer expecting to see something

extraordinary (though found nothing), and put it in her mouth anyway. Magical or not, she liked

the taste and happily continued to eat. Sally smiled and kissed Jack on the cheek, always loving

his cleverness. He smiled at her and kissed her back.

“Well, I’d best be going. The mayor’s probably wondering where I am now.”

“Alright. We’ll see you later tonight then.”

“I’ll be back before you know it.”

He kissed Opal and Sally goodbye then left through the front door to meet with the

mayor. Sally looked back to Opal who was still eating away and smiled lovingly. After Opal

had finished, Sally cleaned her face and hands with a damp cloth, then took her into the living

room and set her down on the floor in front of her. First, she played peek-a-boo with Opal for a

while, then she tickled her, after that she decided to teach her a few things about Halloween.

She took out a book that had pictures of many different monsters and creatures of the

night. Of course Opal recognized these creatures, but didn’t actually know a lot about them. So,

as Sally turned the pages, Opal pointed to the monster described on that page and Sally told her

about it.

“….That’s a werewolf. They howl at the full moon at night….That’s a witch. They

make potions and fly around on their broomsticks….That’s a ghost. They come through walls

and floors and say ‘boo’….”

When Sally turned to the next the page, Opal squealed with delight at the familiar image of a

skeleton.

“Daddy!”

“That’s right sweetie, Daddy is a skeleton.”

“Mama?” Opal asked while pointing at the skeleton picture.

“No sweetie, Mama isn’t a skeleton…”

Sally flipped through the book until she found a picture of a ragdoll.

Opal giggled happily at the second familiar picture. “Mama!”

Sally smiled and continued showing Opal the pictures of the Halloween creatures in the

book. Sally was impressed with how quickly Opal absorbed information. Though she couldn’t

speak in full sentences yet, she did know quite a few words such as ‘hello’ (though she

pronounced ‘l’s as ‘w’s), ‘goodbye,’ ‘mama,’ ‘daddy,’ ‘Halloween,’ ‘zero,’ ‘monster,’ ‘scare,’

‘please,’ and ‘thank you.’

Jack returned home after an hour or so with the mayor and sat down beside Sally on the

floor with Opal between them and the Halloween book in front of them.

“What are we reading?” he asked with a smile.

“The Book of Halloween Creatures,” Sally answered.

Opal turned her attention away from the book and looked to her father with surprise; she

had not heard him come up behind them.

She smiled brightly as she exclaimed, “Daddy!” and hugged him.

Jack smiled and hugged her back. “Hey sweetie! Have you been learning a lot while

Daddy was gone?”

Opal excitedly flipped to the very first page of the book and started reciting the names of

the monsters on each page, as if to proudly display her newly gained knowledge.

“Werewoof….witch….ghost….Daddy….vampyah….mummy….zombie….Mama….”

Jack and Sally chuckled when Opal changed skeleton to Daddy and ragdoll to Mama.

They sat and listened to Opal name the various monsters and creatures in the book, impressed

with how many she remembered despite a few hesitations. When she turned to the next page,

she cocked her head to the side, looked to her parents and made a confused ‘huh?’ sound; the

page that should have been there had been torn out.

Sally looked to Jack, equally confused, and saw he looked rather serious. He knew very

well why the page was missing for he was the one who had torn it out; the missing page depicted

the Oogie Boogie man. After Jack defeated Oogie that fateful Christmas Eve night, he erased

any trace of Oogie’s existence.

“Never mind that page sweet heart. Just go on to the next.”

Opal cocked her head a bit again, blinked, and did as her father said. As she continued

naming the creatures on the page, Jack quickly whispered an explanation to Sally.

“I didn’t want reminders of ‘him’ floating around, especially in our home…”

Sally’s face turned as solemn as Jack’s and she nodded in agreement. They both turned

their attention back to Opal and couldn’t help smiling again as she continued to list the creatures

of the book.

**********

As the sun started to set, the whole town started to gather at the gate. In the Skellington

manor, Jack stood looking out of a window in his usual Pumpkin King attire minus his mask. He

smiled menacingly as his eye sockets took in the Halloween atmosphere, raising his eagerness.

“Aaaaah, there truly is no night quite like Halloween night…”

Sally stood near the wall by the doorway behind him smiling dreamily, admiring her

husband, her king. Something about his mood, his grin, and his voice now gave her chills. Jack

gracefully brought his long arms up from their resting place on the window sill as if to embrace

the sky itself.

“The winds howl, the trees moan, the moon shines brightly in the raven-black sky…”

Sally gasped as he turned to face her, his expression still full of dark eagerness and

anticipation. Her eyes widened and she froze in place as Jack slowly walked toward her, still

smiling darkly.

“And, of course, my favorite part…scaring people…”

Sally now was slowly walking backward as he slowly continued forward, mere inches from her.

“I absolutely love everything about scaring people…I love slowly walking up behind

them, making soft noises, sending chills up their spine…”

Jack slowly ran his fingertips in a line up the length of Sally’s back, making her shiver

involuntarily and give a shuddery sigh.

“I also love to chase them into a corner where they can’t escape me…”

Sally found that her back was now flat against a wall and Jack had both of his hands on the wall

on either side of her shoulders.

“Their breathing heavy and labored, their hearts racing wildly, their eyes trapped in

mine…”

Sally felt like she was ready to pass out. She squeaked with utter surprise when Jack

suddenly took her into his arms, swung her around, and dipped her low.

“Then finally…when they’re so close to breaking…I grant them mercy and…make

them…scream!”

“Mm!!” Jack suddenly locked his mouth with Sally’s and crushed her body to his.

Sally’s eyes fluttered closed as she became weak and limp his arms. After a minute or so

Jack straightened them back up and slowly released her, still smiling down at her.

“…I-it’s no wonder…w-why you’re the Pumpkin King, Jack…Y-you’re very good at

it…too good…”

Jack laughed softly as he gently pulled her close in a loving embrace.

“I just do my best at what I love to do…” He gently combed his skeletal fingers through

her hair.

“Mamaaaa....Daddyyyy….”

Jack and Sally walked out through the doorway toward the direction their daughter’s

voice was coming from. They saw something stumbling and waddling toward their general

direction from down the hall. It was Jack’s pumpkin mask.

“Mamaaaa....Daddyyyy….” Opal’s muffled voice tried once again to reach her parents

through the mask that completely engulfed her tiny form.

Jack smiled as he scooped up the mask and found Opal sitting in it as if it were a large bucket.

“Daddy!” She exclaimed happily upon finding her father (or being found by her father as

it were).

“Hey silly, what’re you doing in there?”

“Play! Scare!”

Jack and Sally laughed at Opal’s cute response.

“I’m afraid you’re a still a bit young to do much scaring, sweets. When you’re older, I’ll

teach you. Now then, are you going to let Daddy have his mask?”

“Ah!” Opal nodded happily.

Opal squirmed out of the mask and into one of Jack’s waiting arms.

“Thank you darling.”

Jack put his mask on then surprised Opal by tickling her with his free hand. She giggled,

squealed, and thrashed about while her parents walked down the rest of the hall and down the

stairs. Jack ceased his tickling, opened the front door, and walked out into the cool autumn air

with his ragdoll love at his side.

“Ah! Jack! There you are!” The mayor waddled as fast as he could toward the

Skellingtons. “We were starting to worry we wouldn’t have our Pumpkin King to lead us

through the night tonight!”

“Ha! That would never happen, Mayor, you know that. I just got a little…distracted.”

Jack looked down to his little girl resting leisurely in the cradle of his arm. She looked up at

him, then over to her mother, then smiled contently as she started playing with her own feet.

“Ah yes, she’s still just as cute as she was as a baby,” the mayor laughed.

Opal seemed to suddenly realize something and started looking around her and down at

the ground. When she wasn’t finding what she wanted, she started to whimper in distress and

fidget.

“What is it baby? What are you looking for?” Sally asked their fretting child.

“Charlie! Charlie!”

“Charlie?” the mayor asked.

“Her bear,” Jack explained.

“I’ll go get him,” Sally offered as she rushed back into the house.

She returned moments later with the bear in question and handed it to Opal, who hugged it

tightly to her chest.

“Mmmmm…”

Jack, Sally, and the mayor smiled at Opal’s relieved happiness.

“Look Jack, the sun’s setting. You’d better get up there before they start without you.”

Sally teased.

“Whoops! You’re right! Here love, you take Opal.”

Jack handed Opal to Sally and kissed them both on the head (as best as he could through

his mask). The gate started to open with its menacing groan as Jack made his way to the front of

the horde. Just like last year, Sally covered Opal’s ears as the sun dropped even lower behind the

horizon. Once it disappeared completely, Jack let out a loud, inhuman scream and led the rush of

various monsters, creatures, and demons out of town toward the human world.

“Bye-bye,” Opal waved her little hand in farewell a moment or two after the crowd

disappeared into the graveyard, just as they had done last year.

Sally smiled at Opal’s cute little gesture and walked over to sit at the town fountain. She

loved listening to the water flow behind her as she gazed up at the stars. Opal sat in her lap and

hummed no particular tune as she played with Charlie.

“Yoo whoo! Sally dear! Over here!”

Sally looked around for whoever was calling her and found the Corpse mother along with

the mothers of Bat Boy and Mummy accompanied by their children. She smiled and stood up,

still holding Opal in her arms.

“Hello ladies. None of you are going to the human world tonight?”

“Oh no, we’ve got some chores we’re behind on,” the Corpse mother responded.

“Actually, if it’s okay with you Sally, we were thinking it would be a good idea to let the

kids play together,” the Bat mother chimed in.

“Sure, I think that’s a great idea. Would you like that sweetie?”

“Play! Play!”

Sally smiled and set Opal down on the ground. Corpse Kid, Bat Boy, and Mummy

walked up closer to her as Opal sat smiling with Charlie in her arms.

“Hi, I’m Corpse Kid.”

“I’m Bat Boy.”

“And I’m Mummy.”

“Ah! Opal!” she said, delighted to meet three new playmates.

“You wanna play Hide-and-Shriek with us Opal?” Corpse Kid asked.

Opal nodded happily and swiveled around toward Sally and gave Charlie to her for safe-

keeping. She then struggled to stand up but ended up flopping onto her stomach. “Oof!”

Opal looked up at her mother who smiled gently at her and knelt down at her side.

“You can do it sweetie. Try again.”

The three other children also stood around her and encouraged her as she steadily worked

her way up to a standing position. Opal smiled triumphantly and took a few wobbly steps to

walk with the three boys. After a while, she got the hang of it and was able to speed up their

pace.

“Have fun kids, be careful. Oh! And stay in town!” Sally called after them as she

watched them wander away.

The kids laughed as they played happily, hiding in various places in town. Opal was

getting to know the layout of Halloween Town very well through their game. It had been a

couple of hours now and Bat Boy was ‘it’ while Opal, Corpse Kid, and Mummy scrambled for

hiding places. Opal laughed excitedly as she searched for the perfect spot. She stopped in front

of the town gate and stared at it in awe of its massive and menacing form. The gate, sensing a

body near-by, opened automatically, which made Opal jump back a bit. Opal’s adventurous

side, passed down from her father, took over and wandered out of the gate.

She continued to explore and suddenly came upon a large, strange-looking tree house that

had a cage elevator. She smiled at it and scurried off to it. She squealed with delight at the fun

ride up the elevator gave her, which brought her up into the tree house itself. She opened the

cage door and walked into the rather messy room that was the home base of Lock, Shock, and

Barrel (luckily the three pranksters were not home).

Opal walked around the room looking at this and that. She became unsettled when she

came upon the trio’s plethora of sharp and dangerous weapons. She whimpered as she tried to

go back the way she came. Instead she came upon a strange chute that had some candles around

it like a shine; intrigued, she peered down the chute. When she tried to look further down into it,

she lost her balance and fell in. She was scared at first, but quickly mistook the chute for a fun

slide and squealed with joy.

When she reached the end of it, the bottom opened up and spat her out from the ceiling

into a large dark room onto a strange turn-table. Opal looked around, trying to make sense of her

surroundings. All alone in a strange dark room, she was starting to become scared again.

“M-mamaaa?...Daddyyy?...”

Suddenly, the room slowly lit up with eerie, neon lights and Opal could hear the sound of

shaking dice and ominous, pulsing music. When it hit a minor chord, two doors swung open and

two red dice rolled out and hit one of Opal’s legs. When a large dark shadow came over her, she

spun her head around and looked up at the massive form looming over her.

Well, well, well

What have we here?

A little girl, huh?

Oooooh I’m really scared!

So you’re the runt everybody’s talk’n about?

Aha ha ha!

You’re jok’n. You’re jok’n!

I can’t believe my eyes!

You’re jok’n me! You’ve gotta be!

This is the Pumpkin Princess?!

She’s puny! She’s scrawny!

I don’t know which is worse!

I might just split a seam now, if I don’t die laugh’n first!

Mister Oogie Boogie says ‘there’s trouble close at hand!’

You’d better pay attention now, ‘cause I’m the Boogie Man!

And if you aren’t shak’n, there’s something very wrong!

‘Cause this may be the last time you hear the Boogie Song!

Woh oh

(woh oh)

Woh oh

(woh oh)

Woh hoh!

(Woh! Woh!)

I’m the Oogie Boogie Man!

(He’s the Oogie Boogie Man!)

Opal was very confused and frightened; she had never seen this creature before. He was

very big, fat, stitched together somewhat like Sally, and he seemed to know who she was. Opal

whimpered and scooted away from the unfamiliar monster to the opposite edge of the table she

sat on.

“Guh huh huh huh! What’s the matter little runt? Does big bad Oogie scare you?”

Oogie grabbed one of the spikes lining the edge of the table and whipped it around, sending poor

Opal into a fierce and dizzying spin.

“Waaaaaah!!”

Back in Halloween Town, the three boys had hurried off to their mothers to tell them that

they couldn’t find Opal. Sally, along with the three other mothers, started to frantically search

every nook and cranny for Opal. The band members noticed the women’s distress and asked

them what the cause for it was.

“It’s Opal! She’s gone missing! Have you seen her anywhere??” Sally panicked.

“Well I could be wrong, but I thought I saw a little girl wander off through the town gate

quite a while ago,” the saxophonist answered, scratching his head.

“That must have been Opal! I’ve got to go after her! Thank you so much!”

With that, Sally ran through the town gate to look for Opal. She decided she would

check the pumpkin patch first, since Opal adored jack-o-lanterns. Meanwhile, Oogie continued

to torment Opal in his underground casino lair. She frantically dodged blades, bullets, and all

other kinds of weaponry Oogie had in his lair, receiving small cuts from times she wasn’t quite

fast enough.

“Aaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha! That’s right run! Run like the scared little mouseling you are!

Ha ha ha ha!”

Opal cried and whimpered as she desperately searched for a way out. Finally she noticed

the long cable holding up a giant spinning three-clawed device stirring a vat of boiling hot soup

of some kind. She saw that it attached to a spot in the ceiling she could escape through. She

quickly made her way to the device and climbed on top of it to start shimmying up the cable.

“Oh no you don’t! Get back here!”

Oogie started to shake the cable furiously, which only made Opal climb faster. Finally

she reached the top and squirmed through the hole and ran as fast as she could away from the

tree house. Meanwhile, Sally was still in the pumpkin patch desperately searching for her little

girl. She sank to her knees, buried her face in her hands and started to sob.

“Oh what kind of mother am I?! I’ve lost my baby girl forever!”

Suddenly from the distance, Sally could hear something, a voice, coming closer.

“MAAAMAAA!!”

“Opal?!” Sally turned toward the sound and saw Opal running full throttle in her

direction, tears flooding from her eyes.

“Opal!!”

“Mamaaaa!!”

Opal threw herself into her mother’s arms and buried her face in her shoulder, sobbing.

Sally kissed the top of Opal’s head over and over and cried along with her.

“Oh Opal! I thought I lost you! I’m so glad I’ve found you! Are you okay? Let Mama

look at you.”

Sally pulled back a little and saw that Opal had some cuts on her face and body and some tears in

her clothing.

“Sweetie what happened? How did you get so cut up?”

Opal was too distraught to answer and only continued to cry into her mother’s shoulder

and shake with terror and stress. Sally hugged her tightly to her chest and rocked back and forth.

After a while, she picked Opal up and cradled her in her arms as she walked back into town

through the gate. The three mothers Sally had been with were relieved to see that Sally had

found Opal and were immediately worried with how injured and terrified Opal looked.

“Oh dear! What happened? Is she alright?” the Mummy mother asked.

“I think she’s okay, but she’s too shaken up to tell me what happened,” Sally answered.

“The poor little thing looks like she’s scared half to death…” said the Bat mother.

“I’m going to take her home right now so she can calm down…”

“Good idea. Hope she gets better soon…” said the Corpse mother.

“We’re so sorry Miss Sally. We shouldn’t have played Hide-and-Shriek…” the children

apologized in unison.

“Oh no no kids, it’s not any of your faults. This was just an accident. Opal will be fine,

don’t worry.”

After bidding farewell to the mothers and their children, Sally took Opal home and sat

down in the rocking chair with her. She slowly rocked back and forth, gently combing her

fingers through Opal’s hair, and softly hummed a soothing lullaby.

**********

After the big Halloween finale in Town Square, Jack, along with the other monsters,

returned home.

“Sally? You home?” Strange…She usually stands in the crowd to watch the finale…

Jack walked into the living room and saw Sally sitting in the rocking chair still holding

Opal, whose face was still streaked with tears and was sniffling. Confused and worried, Jack

quickly made his way over to the chair and knelt down to Opal’s level.

“Hey sweetie, what’s the matter? Why are you crying?” He tried to console her by

rubbing her back.

“She was playing with some new friends, but then she wandered off and got lost. She’s

still pretty shaken up; she won’t tell me what happened.”

“Did you run into the Field of Thorns honey? You’re pretty scratched up…”

“…A-ah…” She pointed meekly at her paper and coloring supplies.

Jack handed them to her and watched along with Sally as Opal shakily drew something

on the paper. When she finished, she showed the paper to her parents and both of them were

utterly shocked at what they saw. The picture was of a big, green, almost star-shaped monster

with an unsettling grin; no doubt it was Oogie.

“Impossible…” they whispered together.

Opal curled back up and nestled closer to her mother as both Jack and Sally continued to

look at the Opal’s picture. Overwhelmed with shock, rage, sadness, and pity, Jack immediately

took Opal into his arms and hugged her tightly against his chest.

“Oh sweet heart! I am so, so, so very sorry you came across that monster!”

Opal buried her face in Jack’s chest and started to sniffle more as she gripped the collar of his

coat.

“He will pay dearly for this…” Jack growled darkly as Opal continued to cry softly into

his chest.

Bedtime came around and Opal refused to sleep in her room alone even with her jack-o-

lantern nightlight. So, Jack and Sally moved Zero’s doggie bed into her room close to her crib in

an attempt to provide her with some comfort; after a while she did fall asleep. A few hours later,

a blood-curdling scream rang through the house, and for once it wasn’t the doorbell. Jack and

Sally rushed downstairs into Opal’s room and found her asleep in her crib trying to run for her

life. Sally picked Opal up, which made her cry and struggle even more, and tried to wake her up.

“Opal! Opal, sweetie, wake up! You’re just dreaming! Wake up, sweetie, wake up!”

Opal jolted awake and panted heavily as she looked around. Once she realized the one

holding her was her mother, and not the giant scary monster from her nightmare, she buried her

face in Sally’s shoulder and started to cry.

“Shh, shh, it’s okay Opal, you’re alright. It was just a bad dream sweetie, it wasn’t real.

Mama and Daddy are here, you’re safe.” Sally herself was on the verge of tears as she tried to

console Opal.

“I think it would be best to have her sleep with us tonight…” Jack suggested through a

shattered heart.

“Yeah…I think that’s the only way she’ll get any sleep…”

So, Jack and Sally, followed by Zero, took Opal up the stairs and laid her down on the

bed between them. Embraced by both parents and covered with their thick blanket, Opal felt

much safer and slowly fell asleep. Her parents, relieved Opal was finally calmed, soon followed

suit, and drifted to sleep holding their baby close between them.

Oogie, Jack thought vehemently, if you ever come close to my baby girl again…you are

as good as mulch!

Chapter 5 – A Blooming Flower

Before anyone knew it, 4 months had come and gone and Opal was now a very intelligent

little girl. She still adored jack-o-lanterns, but Jack and Sally would not allow her to actually

carve them since they did not want her handling sharp knives at her young age, so she just drew

designs on them with her yellow crayons (to simulate glowing candle light). She had also

learned how to speak in full sentences and even how to sing and dance. She would often start

humming or singing while at home or while out in town with her parents.

Some nights, she would sit on her window pane and sing a haunting song that would

carry through-out the streets of Halloween Town

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2RFcrreoE8); the citizens, as well as her parents, loved

these little concerts. Various monsters and creatures would ask Jack and Sally if Opal would be

willing to sing a sort of “official concert” for the whole town in Town Hall sometime, but Opal

was too shy to sing in front of such a crowd, so everyone contented themselves with her

nocturnal mini concerts instead. Soon enough, another talent would become apparent in Opal…

“Alright sweetie, ready to go?”

“Yes Mama!”

Opal came running to her parents’ side all bundled up in a thick coat, a hat, a scarf,

mittens, and heavy boots. It was the day after Halloween and Jack and Sally wanted to take Opal

to Christmas Town and show her the bright, colorful, cheerful holiday that brought them together

years ago. They themselves were dressed in thick winter wear and were looking forward to

seeing the festive little town and Mr. and Mrs. Claws again.

Around noon, the three of them left their home and Jack informed the mayor of their

departure and how long they expected to be gone. They waved good-bye and started off toward

the Hinterlands. Opal looked over toward the tree house that served as Lock, Shock, and

Barrel’s home base and clung tighter to her parents’ hands. Jack and Sally looked down at Opal

then over toward where she was looking and saw the reason for her discomfort and frowned.

Jack paused and lifted her up onto his shoulders, which made her giggle and squeal happily, then

continued walking. As Jack and Sally walked, Opal started to sing happily

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm2IQ0y2J0Q&feature=related), which made them smile.

Finally they reached the circle of trees with the holiday doors carved into them. Jack

took Opal down from his shoulders and held her tight in his arms as he and Sally entered the

Christmas door. When they arrived, they set Opal down to let her get used to the snow. She

stood for a while just marveling at this new, bright, sparkling, white stuff. She walked forward a

little and then looked back and was surprised to see footprints behind her. Thinking she was

being tailed by some unseen force she ran frantically to her parents and hid behind their legs,

peeking around nervously. Jack and Sally laughed and kneeled down to her level.

“It’s okay sweetheart. It’s just your tracks in the snow. Look.” Jack pressed his hand

down in the snow and lifted it to show the impression it left.

Opal took baby steps out from behind her parents to closer inspect the dented snow. She

bent down and experimentally poked her finger in the snow then withdrew it. She smiled as she

saw the small hole left in the snow. She gleefully poked more holes in the snow around the

original. Her parents stood up as she scooped up some of it to look at it closer then put it in her

mouth. She smiled at her parents who smiled back at her. As Opal continued playing with the

snow, Sally glanced over at Jack and saw that he was completely occupied with watching Opal.

She snuck a little farther away and bent down to quickly make a good-sized snowball.

“She sure is curious…and adorable…don’t you agree Sally? Sally? Where did you---

OOF!”

Suddenly a snowball hit Jack square in the back, making him stagger forward a bit. He

turned around and saw Sally laughing playfully. He smiled mischievously and bent down to

make an even bigger snowball.

“So it’s a snowball fight you want, eh love?”

“Uh oh…”

As Jack threw the snowball, Sally ran behind a near-by tree laughing, causing the

snowball to explode into the face of the tree, leaving a white lump stuck to that side. Sally

peeked around the side of the tree and smiled teasingly at Jack.

“Missed me…”

As Jack knelt down to make another snowball he saw Opal standing by his side.

“Can I play Daddy?” Her face was animated with bright excitement at this new game her

parents seemed to be playing.

“Yeah, help me get your mother,” he whispered with a smile.

Opal squeaked with surprise when a snowball flew out of nowhere and hit Jack’s

shoulder. He laughed as he threw another snowball at Sally, this time hitting her arm. Opal

gathered up as much snow as she could and formed it into a ball like her parents had done. She

tried to throw it, but it landed only a couple of feet away from her. She frowned and Jack smiled

as he took her with him behind a large snow bank.

He handed her a snowball and said, “Here, take this and sneak over there and hit Mama

with it.”

Opal smiled eagerly as she took the snowball from her father and started to spider crawl

toward the tree Sally was using as a shield. Opal snuck up behind Sally and splatted the

snowball against her leg, making Sally gasp and look down; Opal giggled and clapped with joy.

“You silly little sneak,” Sally laughed.

Opal laughed and clapped some more, delighted with this fun new game. Sally ducked to

dodge a snowball from Jack. She smiled at her daughter who was still beside her.

“You want to surprise Daddy, sweetie?”

After a while, Opal ran back to Jack behind the snow bank with a smile on her face.

“Welcome back soldier, did you get Mama?”

“Yeah!”

“Good job. Here, help me make some more--oof!”

Opal suddenly slapped a snowball against Jack’s back. She started laughing as she

jumped onto his back to cover his eyes with her hands. Jack started laughing as well and

stumbling around blindly.

“Oh no! A double agent!”

Suddenly Sally ambushed him from the front, wrapping her arms around him and pinning

his arms to his sides. With all hope of balance lost, Jack fell down on his side, taking his

daughter and wife down with him. Jack and Sally continued to lay there in the snow laughing,

while Opal crawled on top of her father and sat on his stomach, smiling triumphantly.

Jack smiled back and surprised Opal by suddenly hugging her tight to his chest and

rolling around in the snow (though being very careful not to crush her). Opal squealed and

laughed and Sally laughed too as she watched them roll around. Jack eventually stopped and

released Opal, laughing as she staggered around trying to walk in a straight line. He stood up

and put his arm around Sally as she walked to his side.

“Woo…Think I made myself a little dizzy too…”

“You’re always so energetic, Jack. It’s fun to watch you and Opal horse around.”

Jack smiled and hugged Sally in a loving embrace.

“Mama! Daddy! Can we go over there with all the pretty colors??”

Jack and Sally looked over to where Opal was pointing and smiled as they looked down

on Christmas Town. As always, there were many colorful ornaments, decorations, and happy

elves playing games or making toys.

“Alright sweetie, we’ll go over there.” Sally smiled.

“Yay!” Opal ran excitedly toward Christmas Town.

“Hold on, honey! Wait for Mama and Daddy!” Sally cried out.

In Opal’s haste, she tripped and started to roll down the long steep hill, which caused her

to become encased in a huge snowball. It continued to barrel toward the town until it finally

crashed into one of the candy cane poles holding up the town’s sign. Jack and Sally ran to catch

up to the giant snow pile.

“Opal? Are you okay sweetie? Are you in here somewhere?” Sally worriedly searched

the snow mound for her daughter.

Finally Opal popped up from the top of the mound and shook the snow off her head.

“That was fun! Can I do it again Mama? Please? Can I?”

Jack and Sally laughed and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Let’s not and say we did, sweetheart,” Sally sighed as she extracted Opal from the snow.

As they walked further into town, they were first met with confused apprehensive looks,

but once the Christmas Towners recognized Jack and Sally, they smiled and even waved at them.

Two little elf boys ran up to the couple and greeted them happily.

“Hello Mr. and Mrs. Skellington!”

“Are you here on vacation again?”

“A short visit yes, then we’ll be heading back home to Halloween Town,” Jack answered.

“Well it’s always nice to see you two.”

“Who’s that little girl with you?”

“This is our daughter, Opal,” Sally smiled.

“Aaaaw, congratulations!”

“Hello there Miss Opal.”

Opal looked to her mother nervously; Sally smiled and said, “It’s okay sweetie, say ‘hello’.”

“…Hullo…”

Sally set Opal down so she could talk with the elves. She cautiously and curiously took

baby steps toward them to get a better look. She removed one of her mittens and experimentally

extended her hand to touch one of their exposed hands. She gasped and immediately pulled her

hand back in shock; they had living flesh! Jack and Sally chuckled at her surprised response.

“It’s okay Miss Opal, we won’t hurt you.”

“Here, you want a candy cane?”

Opal took the strange red and white stick, thanked the elf, and licked it. She smiled at its

delightfully minty taste and started to suck on it. The elves offered to show the Skellingtons,

particularly Opal, around Christmas Town and they accepted. They first showed them their

Christmas tree with its many colorful ornaments, shimmering silver and gold garland, and of

course the bright star on top.

“Ooooo…” Opal walked around the huge tree, admiring its decorations.

Jack and Sally as well as the elves laughed as Opal made faces in the reflective

ornaments (luckily they weren’t nearly as scary as Jack’s; otherwise the ornaments would have

shattered). The two elves then showed Opal some Christmas songs, which she happily sang

along with. She was a little flat, but otherwise did very well for a first-timer. As they were

walking, Opal spotted a valley that cradled a snowy field, which had many reindeer standing in

it.

She excitedly made for the valley, un-noticed by her parents. She slid down one of the

steep hillsides and walked up to the herd, marveling at these strange and fascinating new

creatures. She was suddenly overcome by her mischievous instinct to frighten and yelled

‘BOO!’ as loud as she could; it was a big mistake. The panicked herd started to stampede madly

toward Opal, forming a terrifying wall of slashing hooves and sharp antlers. She gasped and ran

as fast as she could, trying desperately to stay ahead and out of the way.

“MAMA! DADDY!”

Back in town, further away from the valley, Jack and Sally noticed that Opal wasn’t with them

and started to panic. Just then, another elf came running up to them, panting desperately.

“Hey! Down in Snow Valley! A stampede! A little girl’s down there!”

“Opal!” Jack and Sally gasped together.

They immediately followed the elf to the valley and saw the stampede and Opal at the front

running for her life.

“Oh God! Opal!” Sally clasped her hands to her mouth in sheer horror.

Jack slid down the side of the hill they were standing on and started running alongside the herd;

at the front, Opal was struggling to out-run the huge creatures.

“Opal!!” Suddenly, Jack dashed in from the side and whisked Opal into his arms.

Now caught between steep, icy hillsides left and right, Jack was trying to out-run the herd

when they suddenly came to a huge cliff. He turned around to see the stampede heading straight

for them. As he tried to catch his breath for a good, frightening scream, Opal whimpered as the

wall of antlers came closer.

Terrified and desperate to make the scary creatures go away, Opal sucked in as much air

as her tiny body would hold and let it all out in what she hoped would be a loud scream; what

happened instead shocked her, Jack, and Sally. Instead of a loud scream, Opal released a

massive ball of flames from her mouth. This sudden inferno caused the deer to whiplash back

and run away from where Jack stood with Opal in his arms; they were saved. After a moment or

two, Jack sank to his knees in relief and hugged Opal tightly to his chest and rubbed her back as

she shivered and whimpered.

“Shhh, it’s alright Opal, we’re safe now, calm down sweets.”

“Jack! Are you two okay??”

“Yes Sally, we’re fine…”

Jack looked back down at his daughter who was still shivering from shock but was otherwise

fine.

“I’m very proud of you baby, you were very brave. How did you do that?”

“I-I-I d-don’t kn-know…I-I t-tried to s-scream…”

Jack stood back up and gently combed his fingers through Opal’s hair as he walked back to

where they had entered the icy valley.

**********

After reassuring the elves, multiple times, that there were no hard feelings about the

incident, Jack and Sally returned to Halloween Town. They had made sure to introduce Opal to

Sandy Claws’ reindeer that were much tamer and very friendly, so she would not be traumatized

by them. Opal actually loved Christmas Town and all it offered and asked her parents if they

could go there again sometime; Jack and Sally promised they would.

Jack and Sally couldn’t get the image of Opal breathing fire at those deer out of their

minds. They decided to visit Dr. Finklestein to seek answers.

Diiiing! Doooong!

“The door is open!”

Jack and Sally opened the heavy metal door and walked inside the huge manor that had

once been Sally’s home/prison. The doctor’s new assistant, Jewel, greeted them happily.

“Hello Jack! Hello Sally! How have you two been?”

“Good thank you, and how about yourself?” Sally smiled.

“Well to be honest, these past few months have taken quite a toll on me and my dearest.”

“Oh? Why’s that?” Jack asked with a perplexed look.

“Aaaaargh! Blast it! Let go, you infernal pile of scrap metal!”

Jack, Sally, and Jewel rushed up the ramp toward the room the doctor’s voice had come

from. Once they arrived at the top, they could see the doctor struggling against something

further down the hall. As Jewel rushed to help her creator/husband, Jack and Sally stood in

absolute shock of what they were seeing. Robotic arms as well as wires were stretching out of a

room, entangling themselves around the doctor’s wheelchair and had apparently drained the

chair’s battery. Jack handed Opal to Sally and rushed over to help Jewel pull the doctor free.

“Wh-what is this?!” Jack was even more surprised to see what the limbs and wires were

attached to.

On the other end of this tug-of-war was what appeared to be an unfinished robot. It

looked somewhat like a human: it had a head, neck, and torso resembling a young human male,

though its left eye was that of a robot. From its shoulders came long, slender, robotic arms that

had long blade-like “fingers” and were curled around the sides of the doctor’s chair. From the

bottom of its torso were several long, free-moving wires, some of which were also presently

entangled around the doctor’s wheelchair. From its back came many long wires that attached to

the ceiling, suspending the robot in mid-air as well as four bird-like legs (which served as arms

and had four clawed “fingers” to each “hand”) that slowly rose and fell, opened and closed as if

unsure what to do but not wanting to hang idly.

Jack and Jewel managed to pull the doctor free and out of the robot’s reach. Jack looked

back into the room where the robot rested and saw that it wasn’t attacking them or even trying to

reach them, it just stayed there and observed them with a blank yet somehow longing and

inquisitive look. He also saw that there were many spare metal parts lying around in the room,

which the robot seemed to fiddle with absent-mindedly with the metallic bird legs coming from

its back.

“What is that thing Doctor?” Jack asked, never taking his gaze from the robot gazing

back at them.

“*sigh* It’s my newest project that is proving to be quiet troublesome. Whenever I come

close to it, it takes hold of my wheelchair and drains its electricity! I have considered just

shutting it down many times, but I just know I’m close to a break-through!”

“W-what are you trying to accomplish with this robot, Doctor?” Sally joined the group,

giving wide birth to the room which harbored the robot.

“Well, I was hoping to make it capable of speech, emotion, and thought. Right now, it

doesn’t speak that I know of, it doesn’t seem to show much emotion, and as for thought…”

He looked to the robot that was still idly fiddling with some metal parts.

“It seems to keep trying to make things from those spare parts in its room. It is quite a

perplexing thing…I just can’t seem to make much progress, especially with it constantly robbing

me of main mode of transportation!” the doctor shook his head in frustration.

Un-noticed by Jack, Sally, the doctor, or Jewel, one of the robot’s long, tentacle-like

wires slithered behind Sally and wound itself around Opal and slipped her right out of Sally’s

surprised arms. As it calmly retracted back into the room, Jack and Sally rushed after it only to

be stopped by a sudden web of wires woven in the doorway.

“No!! Give her back! Please!” Sally begged the robot as she tried to reach through the

wire web.

Jack tried to pull the wires out of the way but they wouldn’t budge.

“Wait! Look! It’s not hurting her. It’s just…looking at her,” Jewel said.

The robot brought Opal closer to its curious eyes and very delicately stroked the side of her face

with the tips of its blade fingers.

“Hullo. My name is Opal. What’s your name?”

The robot merely continued to stare at and poke her, confused how soft she was in contrast with

how hard itself and the doctor’s chair were.

“You’re not going to hurt me are you?”

“…No…”

“Oh! Doctor! It just…” Jewel gasped.

“I don’t believe it…The robot finally interacted intelligently…”

“Can you put me down please? You’re scaring Mama and Daddy.”

The robot blinked then did as Opal asked and set her down in front of it.

“So is this where you sleep?”

“Sl…eep?...”

“Yeah, sleep. You know, like this…”

Opal laid down on her side in front of the very curious robot, curled herself into a ball,

and sucked on her thumb with her eyes closed as she often did when she went to bed. The robot

tilted its head slightly as it tried to process this new information. Opal then stood back up and

smiled at the robot. The robot mimicked Opal’s face and smiled back.

“This is incredible! I have never seen it interact this much! Not only has it spoken, but

now it has smiled as well!” the doctor beamed.

“I guess…all it really needed…was a friend…” Sally smiled.

“Seems Opal was the perfect friend: she has her father’s courage and her mother’s kind,

caring heart…” Jewel mused.

Jack and Sally smiled as they watched Opal continue to make friends with the robot.

She walked around the room looking at a few of the robot’s misshapen creations; the

robot turned its body to follow her as she walked. Opal picked up one metal clump that looked

like a bunch of metal crab legs attached together in a messy ball of limbs. She tilted it in all sorts

of directions and looked up at the robot who was watching her from above.

“Where’s its head? And its body?”

“…Head…body…”

The robot then delicately took the clump of legs out of Opal’s hands with one of its metal

bird legs. With another bird leg, it picked up a metal ball that had but one un-operational eye.

Opal watched as the robot reassembled the legs and ball using its multitude of tentacle wires and

clawed, metallic limbs. It placed the finished product in front of Opal and observed her reaction

as if seeking feedback; she picked it up and looked at it. The ball now had the six crab legs

protruding from underneath it and looked much more like a strange bug.

“That’s better!” Opal smiled sweetly at the robot.

The robot smiled sheepishly and put the backs of its two bladed hands together as the

wire web in the doorway loosened. Jack and Sally tried to gently move the loosened wires out of

the way so they could enter the room. The robot suddenly whipped its head toward the doorway

and grabbed Jack and Sally with its wires and slammed them up against the ceiling, holding them

there firmly.

“No! Don’t hurt them! Please!”

The robot shifted its attention back to Opal’s pleading face.

“Please let them go!”

The robot tilted its head, looked back up at its two captives, and slowly brought them down. It

set them down next to Opal and looked at her to analyze her reaction.

“Thank you.”

Sally immediately scooped Opal up into her arms. “Are you okay sweetie?”

“Yes Mama.”

The robot started to extend a few of its wires toward Sally curiously but Jack suddenly smacked

them aside.

“Don’t you touch her!”

The robot made a strange noise that sounded like a fax machine and a blender going off

at the same time. The wires in its back brought its body up toward the ceiling as its metallic bird

legs opened and closed furiously below it. Once again, it tried to slowly bring a few of its wires

closer to touch them and again Jack smacked them away. The robot made the same strange noise

and pulled its wires back.

“Jack, Sally, it’s alright. I think it just wants to see what you feel like, as it did with

Opal,” the doctor explained from the other side of the wire web.

Jack’s eye sockets narrowed as he wrapped his arms protectively around Sally and Opal.

The robot hesitated for a moment before it extended its wires out toward them. Jack and Sally

stiffened as various wires touched their arms, legs, and backs. The robot tilted its head and

withdrew its wires, apparently having gathered the information it was seeking.

“Opal…Jack…Sally…”

“It…it knows…our names?” Sally asked, a bit unsettled.

The robot smiled as it had done with Opal. Opal smiled back at it and turned to her mother.

“Mama? Can I be down now? I wanna play with him some more!”

“Oh I…I don’t know sweetie…”

“It’s okay, he won’t hurt me. Please Mama?”

Jack and Sally shared a brief unsure look but decided to set Opal down. She walked a

little closer to the robot who gently picked her up with some of its wires and brought her closer

to its face. Opal stared at the robot and suddenly was hypnotized by its glowing left eye. Her

eyes became half-lidded as the robot’s eye scanned her, head to foot with a flat, red beam of

light.

When the light turned off, Opal snapped out of her trance and the robot made a sound like

it was analyzing or computing data. Just then a sheet of paper started coming out of its mouth

like it was printing something. When it was done, Opal took it and the robot gave her back to

Sally.

“Look! He gave me something!”

Jack and Sally looked at the sheet of paper and saw that it was a data sheet completely about

Opal:

Name

Sex

Height

Weight

Age

Place of Birth

Mother

Father

Strengths

Weaknesses

Special Skills

Jack and Sally were especially interested in the last item listed and were shocked at what they

were reading:

Special Skills : Singing – Father & Mother

Dancing – Father & Mother

Fire manipulation – Father

“‘Fire manipulation’?” They asked together.

“…Oh of course! Jack! She got it from the Pumpkin King side in you!”

“…You’re right…I can only manipulate fire in my Pumpkin King form…”

“That would definitely explain how she was able to breathe fire at those reindeer earlier

today…”

“That it would…”

“Mama, Daddy look: he’s making robots too.”

Jack and Sally looked up from the sheet of paper to see the robot was indeed making

three robots. Each one shared physical traits of Jack, Sally, or Opal.

The tallest one had only the right side of a skull, the left side was a network of many thin

wires that held a robotic eye, its torso was about the size of Jack’s, its left arm was long and thin

with claw-like fingers that could bend and curl, its right arm was even longer and had blade-like

“fingers” just like the original robot, its legs were that of a metallic spider, and from its back

flowed many wires that moved freely.

The second tallest had a female figure, its face was eerily similar to Sally’s except both

its eyes were robotic, both its arms were long metallic crab-like legs, from its back came four

other metallic crab legs, which held the rest of it above the floor.

The last one was rather tiny. It looked just like Opal except its right eye was robotic and

its hands were thin, metallic claw-like fingers that could bend and curl.

Jack and Sally gasped and quickly backed away from their crude robotic counterparts,

suddenly even more protective of Opal. Dr. Finklestein couldn’t believe his beady eyes; his

robot had just created three other robots, true they were much less than finished-looking and

polished but operational none-the-less. The doctor’s robot then connected some of its wires to its

three creations and emitted an electric pulse.

Jack, Sally, and Opal watched as a flurry of blue sparks ran along the long wires from the

original robot down to their three look-alikes. They glowed for a moment then the glow faded as

their robot eyes lit up; at this point Jack and Sally (holding Opal between them) had backed up

against the wire web in the doorway.

“D-doctor, what’s going on? Can you tell us?” Sally asked desperately.

“I-I have never seen it do anything like this before…its creations were always tiny,

insignificant, and unoperational…but now, somehow, it has figured out how to make not only

one, but three robots akin to itself!”

As the three robots started to advance toward Jack, Sally, and Opal, Jack swiftly stepped

between his family and the robots with a dangerous expression. The three robots stopped in their

tracks and tilted their heads slightly. The tiny one modeled after Opal took a tiny step forward

and stopped to look up at Jack, who glared back.

“…Mama? Can I be down now? I wanna try something.”

“No, no sweetie, we don’t know how safe or dangerous these robots are…”

“Please Mama? I promise I’ll be careful.”

“……Okay…but stay behind Daddy…”

Sally set Opal down and watched nervously as Opal walked closer to the robots but

stayed behind Jack’s leg. Mecha-Opal continued to stare at Opal as she calmly took a breath and

started to sing a part of one of the haunting songs she sometimes sang at night from her window

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptzb_s83jdU&feature=BFa&list=PL0EBCC71E64040569&l

f=plpp_video).

When Opal finished, Mecha-Opal sang the part back; it sounded like Opal’s voice, but it

was a bit warped and electronic-sounding, like Opal’s voice played through a synthesizer.

Delighted, Opal sang the second part of the song and again Mecha-Opal sang it back when Opal

was finished. When they finished the fourth and final part Opal smiled at Mecha-Opal who

smiled back at her.

“…We would like to leave now, if you please.” Jack picked Opal up, fearing one of the

robots would try to capture her like the first one had done.

The doctor’s robot only tilted its head slowly and narrowed its non-robotic eye.

“Please Sparky? We can maybe come visit you sometimes.”

“‘Sparky’?” Jack asked.

“He needed a name. And there were a lot sparks coming from him earlier.”

“How sweet. She gave the robot a name…” Jewel smiled.

The robot, Sparky, smiled warmly at Opal and happily moved its wires out of the

doorway. As Jack and Sally were leaving with Opal, Sparky decided to speak up again.

“Wait…”

Jack turned around to face the robot’s room. “Yes?”

“…You…will…return?”

“……We will…try.”

Sparky looked down and started to fiddle with some metal parts as Mecha-Jack, Mecha-

Sally, and Mecha-Opal surrounded their creator/master on all sides. It was a rather pitiful and

sad sight, seeing the robot with no other companions besides the fellow robots it just made, but

Jack and Sally had no intention of letting it keep Opal or themselves. Jack, Sally, Doctor

Finklestein, and Jewel all left for the lab, far away from the robot’s room after the doctor locked

the room up.

“I am very sorry about all that Jack and Sally. I never imagined that blasted robot would

attack.”

“It’s okay Doctor; I’m just glad no one was hurt.” Jack held Opal closer to himself and

smoothed the hair out of her face.

“Um…we did have a question when we came here, but I guess your robot already

answered it.”

“Oh? What might that be?”

Jack and Sally then explained the whole Christmas incident with the wild reindeer to the doctor.

“Hmmm, very interesting indeed…Opal has never breathed fire before?”

“No, this was the very first time.”

“She seemed rather surprised when she did,” Jack recalled.

“Well I would say that this fire breathing is perfectly normal and, as that robot diagnosed,

inherited from you Jack my boy.”

“But why has she never done it before now?”

“Perhaps she doesn’t know how to access or control this power yet. It’s probable that she

simply can’t access it unless she is very panicked and left with no escape or other option. I

suggest that you two help her harness this power so she can control it and not bring harm to

herself or others.”

“Of course, we’ll work on it right away,” Jack said determinedly.

“Thank you very much Doctor.”

“You’re welcome. Feel free to come back if you run into any problems.”

With the sun setting, Jack and Sally left the doctor’s manor and returned to their home.

Jack, Sally, and Opal removed their now-too-warm winter clothing and went into the living room

to relax and reflect. Opal sat on the floor playing half-heartedly with Charlie while her parents

watched her from the couch. She suddenly turned to face her parents and looked up at them with

nervous, sad eyes.

“Mama? Daddy? Am I in trouble?”

“Of course not sweetheart! What would make you think that?” Sally asked.

“…Grandpa said I might hurt people…I don’t want to hurt people…” Opal started to tear

up as she thought of all the nice Halloween Towners she had come to love.

“Now, now sweets, don’t cry…” Jack picked up Opal from the floor and sat her in his

lap. “You are not going to hurt people. Grandpa was just suggesting that we help you figure out

this whole fire breathing business you’ve come across.”

“…I’m scared Daddy…”

“That’s why we’re going to help you sweets, so you don’t have to be afraid.”

Opal looked down at her hands in her lap and fiddled with her fingers nervously. “…Should we

start now?”

“We don’t have to. If you feel like you’re ready, then we can try.”

Opal thought for a minute, remembered what happened with the reindeer, and nodded.

Jack hugged her and got up from the couch, holding her in his arms. Sally followed close behind

Jack and closed their front door before they headed to the pumpkin patch. Darkness had fallen

and the jack-o-lanterns were the only things lighting up the night with their menacing grins. Jack

found a nice open spot, set Opal down, and knelt down beside her.

“Alright sweetie, let’s start by trying to repeat what you did in Christmas Town.”

Opal looked down at the ground and bit her lower lip trying to remember. She then

looked up determinedly at the moon, took in as much air as she could, and let it all out. Instead

of the massive fireball she was hoping for, she let out a scream that made a large flock of bats

rush out of the near-by trees. The sudden noise of the fluttering creatures made her gasp and

back up into her father.

“It’s okay honey, don’t be afraid,” Jack laughed as he hugged her. “That was very good!

Look at all those bats you scared!”

Opal looked up at the night sky that was now littered with squeaking bats and giggled.

She began to run around flapping her arms and trying to mimic the bats’ sounds, which made her

parents laugh. She stopped at the bottom of Spiral Hill and looked up at it in awe. She climbed

through the bars of the small fence in front of her and started to run up the hill as her parents

stopped in front of the fence and smiled.

“This brings back memories…” Sally smiled.

“Yes…very sweet memories I will never forget…” Jack pulled Sally close against him

and titled her face up to look at him. “Our first kiss…”

Sally smiled up at him, wrapped her arms around his shoulders and shared in loving kiss.

Opal had reached the top and was looking around at the huge pumpkin patch she loved so much

with a smile. She could feel something whelling up inside her, something very powerful and

close to love and pride in one. At the bottom of Spiral Hill, Jack and Sally broke their kiss and

looked up at their daughter standing at the top, glowing eerily against the full moon, and smiled.

“She just loves this place…” Sally sighed happily.

“With all the jack-o-lanterns around, I’m not surprised…” Jack laughed.

Opal continued to look around at the huge pumpkin patch and still felt a strange surge of

power building up inside her. Suddenly, she smiled eerily, raised her arms parallel to the ground

with her palms up, tilted her head back, inhaled deeply, and let out a huge stream of glowing fire

accompanied by a terrifying scream. Her hands also burst into flames and her eyes were

completely filled with glowing orange light.

“Opal!!” her parents rushed up the hill to their daughter.

Before her parents could reach her, the fire died down, Opal’s eyes returned to normal, and she

swayed meekly before collapsing to the ground.

“Opal! Opal, are you alright sweetie?? Can you hear me?” Jack gathered Opal’s limp

form into his arms and cradled her against his chest.

Sally knelt down next to Jack and started gently stroking her head. They were both

relieved when Opal moaned softly and her eyes fluttered opened. She looked around confused

and looked up at her parents’ worried faces.

“Mama? Daddy? What happened?”

“Well, we’re not very sure baby, but you just breathed fire.”

“Even more than you did in Christmas Town,” Jack smiled, strangely proud of this.

“Do you feel okay Opal? You’re not hurt are you?”

“No I’m fine.” Opal gently released herself from her father’s arms so she could stand on

the ground.

“Maybe we should stop and go home now,” Sally suggested.

“I’m fine Mama, really. I want to keep trying.”

“No, I think your mother’s right sweetie; you’ve had enough for today. We can continue

tomorrow if you really want to and if you feel ready.” Jack picked Opal back up and cradled her

in his arms as he and Sally walked back down the way they came.

As Jack and Sally walked out of sight, Lock, Shock, and Barrel watched them, smiling at what

they had just witnessed.

“Did you see that?” Barrel asked his cohorts excitedly.

“Pft! Duh we saw it! That’s quiet some power she’s got…” Shock smiled.

“Just imagine what Mister Oogie Boogie could do with that!” Lock grinned evilly.

“He could take over Halloween Town!” Barrel chimed in.

“Then we could do whatever we wanted without being punished!” Lock nodded.

“I think our mission is clear then, boys…” Shock put her hands together. “We gotta

kidnap Jack and Sally’s precious little fireball!”

Meanwhile, with Jack and Sally, they continued to walk in the pumpkin patch toward the gate.

Opal started squirming and whining.

“Wait! Can’t we stay a little longer? Please? I wanna play still!”

“What do you think Sally?”

“Well…alright, but only for little bit, and you have to stay where we can see you, okay?”

“Yes Mama!”

Jack set Opal down, who then began to run here and there, looking at various jack-o-

lanterns. Jack and Sally smiled as they leisurely followed her through the pumpkin patch,

holding each other’s hand. She decided to make a fort out of the smiling pumpkins; she decided

to sing as she worked (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lL-

bWfX_Qg&feature=autoplay&list=PL0EBCC71E64040569&lf=plpp_video&playnext=11).

She started by forming a ring of them around her, leaving a gap for the entrance/exit. Then she

started to stack a bunch of them on top of the base ring, forming them carefully to leave gaps for

windows.

After a couple of hours of play, Jack and Sally noticed that Opal had not come out of her

jack-o-lantern fort in a while. They walked over to the orange structure, looked down through

the non-exsitant roof, and smiled. Opal was lying on her side, thumb in her mouth, and fast

asleep; the warm, orange glow of the jack-o-lanterns’ lights made Opal seem even sweeter and

innocent than she already was. Sally reached down through the ring of pumpkins and carefully

picked up the tiny, sleeping princess they guarded. Jack and Sally then walked back to their

home, put Opal in her crib, tucked her in, and then went to bed themselves.

Chapter 6 – The Pumpkin Princess Retaliates

Four months had passed and now it was morning; Opal woke up the instant she heard the

zombie rooster crow. She climbed out of her small bed (she was too old for her crib now) and

rushed upstairs into her parents’ room. She climbed up onto their bed and started to jump

excitedly.

“Wake up! Wake up! It’s morning!”

Both her parents moaned and sat up, rubbing their eyes.

“What’s all the fuss over?” Jack yawned.

“It’s morning! Can we go to the pumpkin patch again Daddy? Please? Please?”

“Hang on baby, we all need to eat breakfast, get dressed, and take care of our chores

first.” Sally smiled tiredly at her energetic daughter.

“*moan* okay. But then we can go to the pumpkin patch?”

“We’ll see,” Jack smiled.

Opal jumped down from the bed and ran out to her room to get dressed.

“*sigh* I wish I had half her energy sometimes…”

“I don’t know Jack,” Sally laughed, “you’re usually pretty energetic already.”

Jack smiled, got up from the bed, and yawned as he stretched. Once Jack and Sally had

changed out of their night clothes and into their regular attire, they walked downstairs and smiled

when they found Opal playing tag with Zero around the house. Sally caught Opal in mid run and

swooped her up to place her in her chair in the kitchen. After they all had finished eating, Jack

kissed Opal and Sally good-bye and left for his daily meeting with the mayor. Sally suddenly

noticed that she was low on thread.

“Opal? I need to go to the Witches’ Shop to get some thread; do you want to come with

me?”

“Yeah! Can I bring Charlie?”

“Sure.”

After Opal grabbed said vampire teddy bear, she and Sally left for the shop. Sally had

left a note on the kitchen table for Jack, which read:

‘Jack if you come back and we are not here, we left for the Witches’ Shop to get some

thread. Be back soon. Love you – Sally.’

Opal followed close by her mother’s side, clutching onto her bear companion, as they

walked through town toward the shop. Various monsters and creatures smiled and waved at

them (unaware of Opal’s new-found and potentially threatening power) as they passed by.

Finally Opal and Sally reached the shop and entered; Hazel, the taller witch sister, greeted Sally

and Opal as they came through the door.

As Sally and Hazel started to chat about something Opal neither understood nor was

interested in, she started to look around the shop a bit. She knew to be careful and not touch

anything so she just looked at the various bottles stacked on the shelves. Suddenly something

shiny just outside the door caught Opal’s attention. Her troublesome curiosity took over again

and she wandered out of the shop to get a closer look at the mysterious object.

Every time she came near it, it would pull away from her, causing her to chase after it.

Finally she chased it behind the town fountain and snatched it in her hand. When she opened her

hand however she saw it was nothing more than a candy wrapper with some string tied to it.

Then she saw a shadow come over her and as she whipped around to see what it was, she was

suddenly covered by a large, black, plastic bag that had small orange pumpkins on it.

Back at the shop, Sally paid Hazel for the thread and was about to leave when she noticed

that Opal wasn’t there. She looked around and asked Hazel if she had seen Opal, she answered

no. Sally then went outside the shop and started calling for Opal. As she walked around, she

stepped on something and looked down to see what; it was Opal’s vampire teddy bear, Charlie.

Sally instantly felt sick to her stomach as she knelt down to pick up the bear; she knew Opal

would never just leave it on the ground, something bad must have happened. She immediately

ran to find Jack.

Meanwhile, Lock, Shock, and Barrel rode off in their four-legged bathtub with their

kidnapped prize struggling in their black bag. Once they reached their tree house, they dragged

the black bag into the cage elevator, then into their room and untied it. Opal shook her head and

looked around wildly trying to figure out what happened and where she was now. She gasped

when she was met with the grinning faces of three evil-looking children dressed as a devil, witch,

and skeleton.

“Wh-who are you??”

“That’s the least of your worries,” Shock sneered.

The trio of pranksters then started to drag Opal toward the chute that lead to Oogie’s lair.

Opal remembered this chute and what waited for her at the end of it. She started struggling

desperately against the three, but they were stronger than her and managed to shove her down the

chute. She screamed as she slid helplessly down the chute into the underground casino-themed

torture room where her worst nightmare resided. When she landed on the strange turntable, the

same eerie neon lights from long ago lit up and she heard the sound of shaking dice accompanied

by evil laughter.

“Aha ha ha ha ha! Well look what the bat dragged in! It’s been quite a while, eh

Pumpkin Princess? Ha ha ha ha!”

Opal started to shiver and whimper as she stared up at the monster from her nightmares.

Back in town, Sally was still running to find Jack. She finally found him with the mayor

in Town Hall.

“Jack!” Sally ran desperately to his side with tears flooding from her eyes.

“Sally?! What’s the matter? Where’s Opal?”

“That’s just it Jack! I think she’s been kidnapped!”

“What?!”

“I found this behind the town fountain.” Sally tearfully held up the vampire bear.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find her.” Jack held Sally close as she continued to cry.

It was now afternoon and Jack had gathered the whole town together for a very important town

meeting.

“Alright everybody listen up!” Jack announced to the crowd. “Opal has gone missing and we

think she may have even been kidnapped.”

The whole town growled in anger at whoever would do such a thing.

“We are asking you to help us look for her. Remember, time is of the essence. Thank

you…”

The citizens formed search parties, one group searched the town, another searched the

pumpkin patch, and another searched the graveyard. Jack and Sally searched the outskirts of

town and even in the other holiday lands starting with Christmas Town. Unfortunately, neither

of the Clauses had seen her, so Jack and Sally went to Valentine Town, Thanksgiving Town, St.

Patrick’s Town, Easter Town, and Independence Town, but no one had seen her. They returned

to Halloween Town and sat on top of Spiral Hill to gather their bearings.

“Oh Jack...we’ve looked everywhere. Where else could she be?” Sally started to cry.

“Now now love, don’t cry. We’ll find her.” Jack held Sally in a comforting embrace.

Sally’s tear-filled eyes wandered around the pumpkin patch and fell on the tree house of

Lock, Shock, and Barrel. Her eyes widened when she noticed fresh tracks leading to the trio’s

four-legged bathtub, which sat beside the cage elevator.

“Jack…There is one place we haven’t looked…”

Jack followed her gaze to the tree house. “Oh God no…”

Jack and Sally got up and rushed toward the tree house, praying that their worst fear

wasn’t true. Meanwhile down in Oogie’s lair, Opal was faced with her worst nightmare. She

tried to channel as much of her courage as she could and stood up on the table with her chest

puffed and her face threatening.

“Y-y-you better leave m-me alone…”

“Ha! Or what?? You’ll drown me with your cry-baby tears?”

Opal took in a big breath and tried to produce a huge fireball; unfortunately all that came out was

a rather pathetic squeak.

“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Was that supposed to scare me?! Or maybe you were trying to

make me laugh to death! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

Opal took a few breaths to calm herself then tried again, but once again only a squeak came out.

Oogie sneered and grabbed her by the front of her dress and lifted her up high. She

struggled desperately and vainly to free herself of his grip. Just as Oogie was about to swallow

Opal whole, Lock, Shock, and Barrel came into the room, smiling evilly.

“Wait Master Oogie, you mustn’t eat her,” Lock insisted.

“Oh? And why not?” Oogie loomed threateningly over his three little henchmen.

“Be-because she has a special power that could easily help you beat Jack and take over

Halloween Town…” Barrel said while he and his two cohorts cowered together.

“Is that so…” Oogie turned his attention back to Opal with an evil smile.

Opal whimpered and continued struggling against his grip.

“So, what’s this ‘special power’ of yours, girly?”

“I’m not telling!”

“That’s okay; I can force it out of you.”

Oogie then tied her up and suspended her from a hook attached to a long rope. He then

turned a crank, which lifted Opal high off the floor and moved her above a pit of angry snakes.

“Now then girly, you’re gonna give me this power of yours whether you want to or not!”

Opal started to scream as Oogie slowly lowered her closer to the snake pit. Jack and

Sally, hearing their daughter’s scream, rushed down into Oogie’s underground lair and were

absolutely horrified when they saw Opal hanging above the snake pit.

“Op--!”

Jack quickly covered Sally’s mouth before their presence was given away.

“We have the element of surprise. If we’re careful, we might be able to get Opal back,”

Jack whispered while he cradled the side of Sally’s face in his hand.

Sally put her hand over his, took a deep breath, and nodded. As they snuck around,

Oogie continued to threaten Opal.

“Now you listen here Pumpkin Brat! You’d be smart to stop giv’n me so much trouble

and start giv’n me this power of yours!”

“No!”

That’s my girl… Jack smiled proudly at his daughter.

“Have it your way. I’ll just squeeze it out of you.”

Oogie lowered Opal into the snake pit. Opal wasn’t particularly afraid of snakes, being

the daughter of the most frightening being in Halloween she loved many scary and creepy things.

One snake in the pit however terrified Opal now. It was huge, its body was covered with black

and orange stripes, and it had many very sharp teeth in addition to its two long fangs. It quickly

wrapped around Opal and started crushing her.

“Ahk…M-Mama…Da-Daddy…” Opal choked out desperately.

“Ha! Your mommy and daddy can’t help you now, you little brat.”

“Wrong, Oogie!!”

Oogie turned around and was surprised to find Jack lunging at him. He tackled Oogie to

the ground and roared furiously above him. Opal looked up to see what the noise was and saw

her father and smiled meekly.

“Da…ddy…”

“J-J-J-Jack…heh…l-long time no see…”

“Shut up Oogie! Let my daughter go! Now!”

“Oh I…I would love to Jack…but you see…she was just about to help me become the

new king!”

Suddenly dozens of chains dropped from the ceiling and wrapped around Jack, dragging him off

Oogie and suspending him in mid-air.

“Jack!” More chains dropped down and lifted Sally up as well.

“Guh huh huh huh! Well now, this is more like it! The mighty Pumpkin King and his

pathetic ragdoll at my mercy.”

Oogie got up and walked smugly in front of them as they glared at him from above.

“The view’s not too bad either…” Oogie grinned as he inadvertently looked up Sally’s

dress.

She gasped and blushed a very deep red as she tried to pull her dress down more.

“You…you leave M-Mama and Daddy alone…” Opal tried to yell from the snake’s coils.

Opal could feel her body warming up as she shook.

“Or what, little missy? You’re in no position to be making threats. Crush her more!

Squeeze her power out of her!” Oogie’s snake tightened its coils around Opal, causing her to cry

out in pain.

“No!! You leave her alone!” Sally cried.

Jack roared furiously and thrashed wildly.

Suddenly, Opal’s eyes widened and filled completely with glowing orange light; from her

mouth and hands, shimmering fire started to blaze brightly. The snake loosened its grip and

dropped Opal while still surrounding her with its long, striped body. A menacing grin spread

widely across her face as the fire in her hands burned more intensely.

The snake now backed away from her in fear; Opal took in a big breath and released a

powerful wave of flames that badly burned the snake and sent it slithering back down the hole it

came from. She climbed up the rope that had lowered her into the pit and stood in front of

Oogie, eyes and hands blazing, and growled.

“Gah! You-you stay away from me!”

Opal cocked her head to the side slightly, unaware of her present appearance. She

walked forward, which made Oogie scramble backward. Opal decided to use Oogie’s new

fearful state to her advantage.

“Let Mama and Daddy go!”

“Tch…I will not be bossed around by some little brat! Take this!”

Oogie stomped on a button in the floor shaped like a spider, which caused the floor and

many surrounding blades to spin. Opal remembered these spinning blades and felt something

inside her snap. She swiftly dodged blade after blade while keeping her blazing orange eyes

fixed on Oogie. Finally she passed all the blades and stood in front of Oogie, who backed away

in panic.

“St-stay away from me you little freak! I mean it! Get---AAAAHHH!!”

Oogie accidently backed into one of his own spinning blades, which started to slice him.

He quickly backed away from it and Opal followed him off of the spinning floor. Opal watched

blankly as dozens of bugs started to flood out of the tears in Oogie’s burlap sack body. It was de

ja vu for Jack and Sally who watched the familiar scene from above.

“My bugs! My bugs! My buuugsss… my buuugsss…” Oogie grew weaker and smaller

as more and more bugs drained out of him.

Finally only one bug remained, which tried to escape but Opal stomped on it before it

could get far. With the master defeated, the floor and blades stopped spinning; the chains

dropped to the floor, releasing Jack and Sally; and Lock, Shock, and Barrel bolted for the exit

before they could be punished. Exhausted, Opal collapsed to the ground as her parents rushed to

her side. Sally picked Opal up and held her tightly against her chest as Jack knelt down beside

her and gently stroked the side of Opal’s face.

“Opal! Opal! Please honey, say something! Open your eyes! Please!” Sally’s eyes

flooded with tears as did Jack’s.

“…..M…Mama?...Daddy?...” Opal’s eyes, which were back to normal now, slowly

opened.

“Oh Opal! Thank goodness!” Sally hugged Opal closer and started to gently rock her

back and forth.

“Mama!” Opal clung tighter to Sally and closed her eyes in relief as she smiled contently.

Before they left, Jack made sure to destroy all the traps and weapons in Oogie’s lair.

“There…That should do it…” Jack looked around satisfied and joined Sally who held

Opal in her arms and left.

(Continued in Part Two)