Nightmares of the Romantic Kind

Chapter 1: October Blackthorne and Mai's Premonition

Me: Hallo, mein fruend! I'm back and due to writer's block, I have yet to add to my other story. But I got a brilliant idea and my new obsession with the Nightmare Before Christmas led me into writing a story! YAY! I'll explain everything in the story, so…hopefully it all won't be that confusing. I don't own NBC, but I do own the plot and the original characters.

Halloween Town had never been the same since Jack had tried to take over Christmas. Every Christmas, there was snow and a strange and scary Christmas attempt. At least for the Royal Pumpkin family, it was Jack's obsession and a 'had to' routine--and that was the scene Mai, Matt and Jamis had been born into.

Mai was Jack's first daughter and Matt's twin. She was a rag doll with dark red hair that fell just below her shoulders, but she usually kept it in a clip or into pigtails. Her stitches were NEARLY identical to her mother's, and in fact, she was quite a bit like Sally. Her disobedience, hate for being trapped in a situation, pessimism, and eye for the future was definitely from Sally…but her quick boredom for routine (and she did hate Halloween at times), her obsessions for new things, and her obliviousness to bad things—at times came from Jack. But the qualities that came from no one were her fierce protectiveness of her mother and uncontrollable temper, not to mention her dramatic approach to every situation. Mai wore a dark purple ragged dress with black silk ribbons and her silver slippers. Nothing like her twin…

On the other hand, there was Matthew, Matt for short, who was Jack's clone but as tall as his mother. He wore a blood red pinstriped suit like Jacks with a spider pin instead of a cat's face. He was extremely calm when it came to things that Mai would panic about, and his slyness was quite developed—most likely a trait from Sally. He wasn't very close to Jack opposed to Mai who idolized both parents, but he did care for the women in his life a lot. Syn Blackthorne, for example, who was Mai's best friend, was the love of his life and 2nd in line to be Pumpkin Queen if something happened to Mai.

Lastly, there was Jamis…the last son Sally gave to Jack, a silent rag doll who tended to want nothing to do with Halloween and everything to do with Christmas. He had messy dark red hair and his scars were like Mai's. He wore a long sleeved jacket at all times that hid his hands and had a few inches to spare and baggy black pants with black boots. He was extremely resourceful and supported his siblings and parents no matter what. Like his sister he had a very temperamental side, but rarely showed it and he took much interest in Oogie Boogie. Ever since he had a dream the infamous creature made out of bugs would come back, he became obsessed with collecting information on him and would go through periods of extreme paranoia.

It was that Halloween when everything unraveled, though. (Mai and Matt's 15th one and Jamis's 13th.) A week before, Dr. Finklestein was in charge of the 3 Skellington children since Jack and Sally had taken a trip to—"GOD KNOWS WHERE! And they left us here to ROT in a lab! I haven't been out in days and it's killing me!" Mai exclaimed to her brothers. Jamis took a sip of tea and turned a page in his book and Matt just glared at her.

"Mai, if you hadn't poisoned the doctor with deadly nightshade on day one, we might have been able to wander around a bit."

"You shut up, Jamis!" The princess snapped, staring at the dreary town below sadly. She opened the bared window and looked down below questioning herself on if she wanted to jump or not, and then she turned to Matt. "Do you guys wanna go back home?" He scoffed.

"Not a chance. At least here there's something to do, whether it's tedious or not." Mai huffed out a sigh and stared down at the ground below.

"If I jump, will you tell Fink when he wakes up?" Jamis shook his head, taking another sip of his tea and Matt just stared at her as if she was the stupidest rag doll he had ever spoken to.

"Mai, if you jump, there's no telling how many pieces of yourself that you'll loose."

"I can sew them back on. Plus, I'm a princess…I have a right to know about my kingdom!" And with that said, she climbed on the ledge of the window and jumped.

Elsewhere, Syn Blackthorne tasted the brew that she had cooked up, smiling at the pleasant sugariness of what was seemingly a cake mix. "October, this tastes great! You should try this! Mai will have to as well when I see her next!"

"Isn't she the princess? So tell me, how did YOU become friends with a stuck up brat of Jack's?" The witch whipped her head around to look at her brother. October looked like Jack except for two scars across his eyes and he wore a black shirt with a torn orange collar and black pants. He barely left the house and typically didn't like the royal family. His background was pretty unknown to everyone, but they knew he came from the same village as Jack had.

"October, Mai isn't a brat! She's very kind and a great friend and she really cares about Halloween Town!" Syn, on the other hand, had long carrot orange hair and beautiful green eyes. She wore a black dress and black hat, all outlined in pink. She was a failure as a witch and barely got any spell right, a klutz, as Mai referred to her, and sort of an outcast. Everyone thought that was why October protected her with all he had, but little did they know Syn wasn't a Halloween child at all. "And she's in the doctor's lab; I can't imagine how restless she is at the moment. Especially with her parents gone."

"She'll get over it. You never even knew Mom and Dad. I only knew them for 4 years that I barely even remember." They both fell silent. Both hated the subject of their past, namely October. There was so much darkness and barely any light that everything seemed grim and there wasn't a reason as to why they lived in Halloween still. Was it hopelessness, attachment…or the fear of moving away from protection? "I'm going out for a while." October announced, standing up and almost slammed the door before walking to the spiral hill.

And as fate seemingly intended, that was exactly where Mai was headed. And as paranoid as she was about being caught, she walked with her head held high. "ZERO!" She sped to a sprint and raced to Zero's head stone. "Zero! Come here boy!" Before she could reach the ghost, she slowed down at the sight of someone standing on her hill. Someone who looked very much like Matt. VERY MUCH. "Matt! You decided to follow me and…" She trailed off when the skeleton turned to her. "You're not Matt…HI! I'm Mai Skellington; I don't believe we've met!" Zero floated up beside her and she travel all the way to Spiral Hill. "I apologize. I mistook you for my brother. He looks very much like you."

"Mai, huh? Syn speaks of you often." October raised a brow at her enthusiastic kindness and social-like qualities. "She's my sister."

"October! She mentioned you a few times! Many good things! Finally I meet you! This is my dog, Zero, by the way. He's very friendly but protective. That's a good thing since I'm a princess and there's Boogie's Boys to worry about, not to mention Oogie himself! Also, how old are you? What's your favorite color? Did you know my brother likes Syn?" Mai couldn't stop herself from talking. She had become so fascinated with meeting someone completely brand new that she went on and on. It was a brief moment of happiness and escape from her protected and guarded life. A moment of freedom.

"16…orange…and no…" October couldn't help but snicker at her lively innocence.

"It must be nice to be able to come out here and be free. I miss my parents…but I'm barely on my own. I always had some accomplice that my parents extremely trusted. That's why I was left with the doctor when they left town for awhile." Mai sighed and rolled her eyes, looking up into the moonlight. "I'm sorry. I complain too much. But it's true!" October studied her cautiously. Syn had found someone she could relate to, and the wind had carried yet another girl into his life. Just what he needed…Jack's daughter to protect.

"MMMMMAAAAAAIIIIIIIII!" Mai's face became blank and she swallowed thickly.

"Oh no…I had better go before I get in anymore trouble! I'll see you around! BYE OCTOBER!" With that said, she ran off into the darkness.

"YOU'RE JUST LIKE YOUR WRETCHED MOTHER! POISONING ME AND RUNNING OFF! YOU'VE DONE THAT FOR THE LAST TIME AND YOU JUST WAIT UNTIL YOUR FATHER HEARS ABOUT THE 20 ODD TIMES YOU'VE ESCAPED!" Mai scowled at him, sitting on Sally's old bed.
"You always say-" SLAM! The princess couldn't want to kill Dr. Finklestein more, not only for locking her up and sealing the window shut, but cutting her off. "That's disrespect to a higher authority, DOCTOR." She could almost hear her brother's voices telling her that they told her so. She scowled even more.

After about 10 minutes, Mai spotted a full bottle of something and out of pure curiosity she walked over and uncorked it. Pink smoke drifted from it and it formed the shape of her father and a girl with curly locks. The girl held close to Jack and when the figure of her mother appeared, the scene disappeared. She stared in horror at what she had seen…Jack Skellington was having an affair? Since when? She dared herself to answer the question and out of fear that her mother would do something that would devastate everyone, she began to devise a crazy plan to make sure nothing happened. And the first thing that came to her mind was Valentine's Day.

Me: YAY! Chapter 1 is over! Tell me what you think! In Chapter 2, you meet the woman in Mai's premonition and I bring Boogie's Boys back with a lot of twists turns and surprises!