Jack Skellington heard the distant ringing of an alarm clock and begrudgingly left the comfort of slumber.
Raising himself up, he slapped a thin hand on the snooze button and rubbed the crust from his eyes. He took several moments to blink wearily and take in his surroundings.
The same old apartment. The same old dresser. The same old dirty mirror.
Yep. Everything was where it was supposed to be.
Satisfied by his routine inspection, Jack nodded and practically dragged himself out of bed.
Standing to his full height, he bumped his head on the ceiling and cursed as plaster dust rained down. He had always been very tall, and his tiny apartment was not a good accommodation.
Rubbing his short blond hair of any dust, he stretched his long arms and let out a massive yawn. It reverberated around the apartment and reminded him for the thousandth time how strange it was. It was more like a shriek or a scream.
He had once had to apologize to the couple living upstairs for waking their young daughter and making her think there was a monster in the building.
Yes, there was no doubt that Jack was a strange guy. He knew it himself all too well. He was ridiculously tall, which was further pronounced by how incredibly skinny he was. Seriously, no matter how much he ate he just never put on the pounds. His bony face had very black, deep, sunken eyes and a very thin mouth. Coupled with the fact that his skin was incredibly pale, it irritated him to know that he looked like a walking skeleton.
But, there was no changing it. Constant eating never worked and he had sworn to never enter a tanning salon again. Not after... the first time.
Shivering at the horrible memory, Jack shed his pajamas and trotted over to the bathroom door. He ducked his head through the doorway as he walked in and got the water running for his shower.
Now came the most nerve-racking part of his day. Since the entire apartment building shared a water heater, there was no guarantee that he would get a warm shower in the morning. If you were the last person to get up, then you got an ice-cold shower. And if there was anything he hated, it was a cold shower.
He nervously bit his lip and debated his options. Should he just jump right in and hope for the best, or ease himself in and try and get used to it? It was driving him mad.
He decided eventually to just go for it. Bracing himself, he threw open the curtain and jumped into the watery abyss.
Ice-cold.
He could tell it wasn't going to be a promising day.
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After his less-then-pleasant bathing, jack wrapped himself in a towel and made his way over to the closet. Throwing it open, he perused through the wide assortment of outfits he had specially laid out. Jack was especially proud of his sense of fashion, and only a fool would call it something other than impeccable.
He waved a bony finger through the air as he examined each outfit and tapped his chin thoughtfully. He always took special care in choosing his clothes, and quite literally lived by the motto, "dress to impress."
Because if he had to look like a corpse, at least he was a well-dressed one.
Finally choosing a black pinstripe suit with tails and a matching bowtie, he examined himself thoroughly in his customized length mirror. Straightening his tie, he gave himself one last touch.
On his nightstand he kept a very special fragrance, labeled nightshade. Jack was very fond of the scent and always gave himself a spritz of it before he left the apartment. He was very well known for the scent and it always announced his presence when he entered a room.
Giving himself two squirts of the perfume, his grooming was complete. Grabbing his keys, he left his apartment and took long strides to the elevator. It was opened for him by an ancient elevator operator who adjusted his glasses and blew dust out of his nose.
"Where to, sir?" the old man wheezed.
"Ground floor, please." Jack said politely.
Even though Jack took the elevator downstairs every day, the old man somehow always forgot about him. It was somewhat frustrating to have to remind him every day, but Jack was used to it.
Getting off at the lobby, Jack gave a quick hello to the landlord and several other tenants before exiting through the front doors. Taking in a deep breath of the crisp morning air, Jack smiled and adjusted his bowtie.
Setting off, he began the days work for his job; vice mayor of Halloween town.
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Jack walked through town with his arms clasped behind his back and surveyed everything before him. The little shops. The restaurants. The little odds and ends that defined Halloween town.
He loved it. He really did. He had lived in the town his whole life and always remembered wanting to work for the town when he got older. He had worked hard to get his position, and it payed off. He got the job he always dreamed of.
However, it had not been an easy road. Many of the people in town didn't like him very much. He assumed it was his appearance, which was scary and gaunt. Children tended to stay away from him. Still, that didn't stop the kids from making up stories that he was actually a zombie.
He didn't blame them, though. He would have done the same thing in their shoes. It was natural and human nature to fear the strange.
That aside, Jack reached the town hall and ascended the marble steps to the grand oak doors. Opening them, he strode inside purposefully.
The security guards who had been lounging about snapped to attention and sweat nervously as he walked by. Only when he disapeared into his office did they all relax and go back to playing cards.
Jack was well known for his habit of locking himself in his office for hours to do paperwork, and did not like to be disturbed. He preferred the company of silence and solitude, and made sure everyone in the town hall knew it. That, of course, did not stop certain individuals from completely disregarding his preferences and bothering him anyway.
The mayor burst into Jack's office and slapped him on the back, hard.
"Jack, my boy! A fine day, is it not?" he exclaimed with a wide grin on his portly face.
Jack's eye twitched from the slap, but he calmed himself. It wasn't that the mayor was a bad guy- far from it, in fact- but he was sometimes... a bit much.
"It certainly is, sir. I was just working on some-"
"Hah! Working! I figured you'd be doing that." the mayor interrupted.
Jack raised an eyebrow but stayed silent.
Like a switch suddenly being flipped,the mayor got a serious look on his face and moved his arms around him in a wide sweeping motion.
"Jack... took a look around you and tell me what you see."
Jack was put off by the odd request but humored him. Letting his eyes sweep around the room, he turned back to the mayor and shrugged.
"Uhm... papers?" he said cautiously.
The mayor got excited and slammed his hand on Jack's desk, making him jump and lean back.
"Exactly, my boy! Papers! Papers everywhere! You've got work coming out the wazoo! It's unethical! I simply cannot allow you to take on this amount of paperwork by yourself, Jack. It can't be good for your health." he said forcefully.
Admittedly, he did take on a rather unorthodox amount of work, but it was hardly anything to get passionate about. He only did it for the benefit of the town. He just had to reassure the mayor that he wasn't straining himself in any way.
"Mister mayor, I can assure you that I am not putting any sort of strain on my-"
"What you need is an assistant, Jack. Someone to lighten your workload."
That was simply ridiculous. Jack was not someone who needed help for anything.
"But sir-"
"No butts, Jack." the mayor interrupted once again. "I'm getting you an assistant, and that's final." he said with a confirming nod of the head.
Jack's eyes widened as he felt his private office life slowly crumbling to ruin.
"Wait, mister mayor, please-"
But it was too late. The mayor had already dashed out of the office and left Jack with his mouth still open in mid complaint..
Shoot. Jack knew that once the mayor had made a decision, no matter how sudden and rash it was, there was no changing it.
groaning and rubbing the bridge of his nose, Jack tried to see the positives of his new situation but couldn't find any. The way he saw it, he was just going to have someone invading his sanctum and messing up the atmosphere of his office.
He could only hope that whoever the eccentric mayor hired wouldn't be as bad as he was expecting them to be.