A Change of Holiday

By: Wafflecat

A/N: Hi! I took a break from IZ fanfiction, and decided to make a couple of TNBC fics. Who knows? If you all like them, I might make this section a bigger devotion than Zim ^_~. R & R, please?

Disclaimer: All of the TNBC characters belong to Tim Burton. Milk, Eureka, Kellogg, and Muzik are © me ^_^

Synopsis: Something is amiss in Halloween Town. Milk, Jack Skelligton's youngest daughter, is beginning to loose her eyesight. He begins to wonder why, when everyone in the town begins to loose their abilities. While this is happening in Halloween Town, Christmas Town is having their own problems. None of the elves remember how to build the toys, and even Santa himself is beginning to forget the meaning of Christmas. Muzik, one of Santa's rather annoying helpers, is forced into going to Halloween Town to ask the king if he knows what's happening...

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Ch. 1: How It All Began

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"MI-I-I-I-I-I-LK!!!"

You're probably wondering 'Why in the world is the first words in this fanfic 'MILK'?!' Well, just to make sure my dear readers aren't confused, Milk is the youngest child of Jack and Sally Skellington. You may be thinking 'Why is she named milk?' or 'Do I have any milk?' If you are thinking of the second response, I suggest you get yourself a nice, tall, glass of Vitamin D, sterilized milk. Or maybe you're like some people, and believe that all of the dairy companies are together in one big hoax to accomplish world domination.

But back to the story.

Milk, being the curious young girl she was, pestered around her sister's bed, occasionally picking up several pieces of parchment that would fall beside her. Her long, brown hair slightly dragged across the floor as she inspected it carefully. Her skin was a pale blue, long lines of stitches going around several areas of her arms and legs. Her large, brown eyes studied the floor a little bit more before she stood up. She wore a small, black dress, ending a little bit above her knees. Black stockings ran up to her thighs, small black boots tied to her feet. As odd as it may seem for *most* little girl to have, a large, black cap sat on her head, twisted back so that the rim hovered behind her. A small spider sat atop the hat, giving off a nice bouncing effect whenever she walked.

One should wonder 'How could a skeleton and a rag doll ever reproduce?' Well, no one else has ever asked the question a loud, so the author shan't spend her time on explaining the ordeal.

Milk heard the yell again. The slender figure grabbed a hold of Milk's collar, and turned her around. Milk looked up to see her rather aggravated sister, Eureka.

Another odd thing about this family is the appearance of the children. Named after her father's favorite word, Eureka took much after him, as eyeless as a skeleton could be. A large mane-like piece of cloth encircled her neck, completely black. On each tip, a large, round bell laid, rattling every time she shook her head. Eureka often admired her father, reading all of the books in their personal library. She loved Shakespeare, and wrote her own poems, but often liked too be left alone.

"Milk...why are you in here?"

Milk wined loudly. She flipped up the black comforter that covered Eureka's bed.

"I can't find Zero. Earlier, I was playing with him, then he ran off back into the house. I've been searching for HOURS..."

Eureka's face turned soft. "Did you ask Mom or Dad?"

Milk shook her head. "No..."

"Then why DON'T you, instead of destroying my room? Shouldn't you be in bed anyway..."

Milk glared at her sister. "Fine..."

She turned around and headed for the door before walking headfirst into the wall. It's not a very pleasant feeling whenever you walk into a wall, especially when you're trying to stomp out of a sibling's room, supposedly angry.

"Wha?!"

She turned to the side, and head through the doorway, less disoriented. What had happened was very odd, since the doorway was right in front of her...

Milk walked down the dark hallway, trying to figure out where her parents' room was. The Skellington mansion had many extensions added onto it, ever since Eureka was born. The rooms branched outward into the sky on the one, thin tower, looking very unstable.

Before I go on, I must tell you about the carpets. They're very sensitive of their feelings, and aren't all that easy to walk on, unless you particularly nice to them. Milk, being in the desperate mood she was in to find Zero, ran across the carpet as fast as she could to reach the top of the tower. The carpets must have been in an ugly mood, for they curled up under her feet just as she got to the end of the hallway.

She fell with a soft thud, a low snickering coming from behind her.

"Where are you going?"

She looked around for the familiar voice. Jack looked down at her, a large grin plastered onto his face.

Milk pouted. Jack could clearly see that the small girl wasn't in the mood for anything humorous.

"I can't find Zero. Or anything for the matter," she added, waving her right hand in front of her face. "I can barely see my hand in front of my own face!"

Jack pulled his daughter up to his shoulder, and began to walk back down the hallway. The carpet immediately uncurled itself, allowing the tall skeleton to come to the door at the end. He opened the door, and walked across the room to sit down in his chair. He reached over to the bookshelf beside him, and pulled out a large book labeled "Ozzy Osborne: Murderer, or Self-Proclaimed Bat Master?" He set Milk on his leg, and held the book out in front of her.

"Now tell me...can you read this?"

He flipped open the book to a random page, and pointed at the first line. Milk squinted.

"Urrm....uhh...."

"..."

"N-no."

Jack looked over at her rather suspiciously. He shut the book, and pushed it back into the shelf.

"Go to bed now. I'm going to try to figure this out by tomorrow."

Milk nodded, and jumped out of his grasp. He watched her run out of the room before a loud thud echoed through the hallway, along with a low cry.

Jack leaned forward, and set his chin in his palm. He had once seen this happen to the town once, but that was at least 300 years ago. It had only happened since there were fewer humans celebrating Halloween. They also began to ignore all of the creaky noises that were under the stairs, and forgot all about the long, slender shadow that was behind them. It took a little rule-breaking to get the humans afraid again, sometimes even going as far as harming them. It was impossible for their world to go into disorder again, not with all of the paranoid people out there. Was it really happening, or maybe Milk's blindness was temporarily? ____________________________________________________________________________________

Kellogg grinned. He stood before the mirror, and adjusted his bat-tie. The pinstripe suit he was wearing fit him perfectly, all the way down from his white skull to his small boots. He looked around the room to make sure no one was coming. He twisted his mouth into the most gruesome grin he could get, and let out a loud shriek. He stared into the mirror as long as he could before returning his face to its normal state. He let his shoulder slump; his expression replaced with a pitiful frown.

"How can I go out on Halloween night like this?"

Kellogg tore off the tie, not bothering to see that it had flown out the window. No matter. Jack had hundreds...

Unfortunately, the young prince didn't notice the sharp tie fly out of the window and bounce off the heads of unsuspecting passerby's.

He walked around the murky room, occasionally stopping to look up at the high ceiling, wondering if he could get an answer there.

Halloween was only seven days away. Not that he hated the holiday; he was the prince, what could he do? The entire holiday just seemed to fill him with dread ever since the first time he went out on scaring duty. How long ago was that? About seven years?

The Mayor agreed to assign him to a human-- a small child, at least eight. He was slightly offended at the time that he was assigned to someone older, but went along with the plan. His father and the Behemoth showed him what he should do, and how, but it was all useless in the end when the child had practically hugged and squeezed him to death. Who had ever heard of the soon-to-be Pumpkin King who was loved by his victims because he looked cute?

Kellogg looked out the window. The bright, pumpkin-shaped sun's rays stretched out over the spiral hill, a small orange glow surrounding the tip of the curl. He didn't realize how late he had stayed up. He decided to stay in the room until morning, a perfect way to avoid the nightmare he liked to call his sisters. It would also buy him some time to get out of the suit before his mother, or even worse, his father to see him in...

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Muzik looked around. Sparkling, white snow surrounded her, going up as high as her thighs. Merry Christmas songs filled the air, along with the smell of fresh-baked goods. She was standing in the middle of a lane, lit up with the bright colors of green, red, yellow, and white. Her heart suddenly began to pound with fear; the fear of having to leave her town to the very horrible Halloween Town.

As soon as Santa was released, he explained to all of his helpers about his capture, and how the residents of Halloween town had tried to do their job, and actually deliver presents. The whole charade ended up a disaster, but nothing could get in the way of Santa.

Unfortunately, something odd happened after Santa corrected the disorder. One by one, elves began to loose their eyesight, until only a few dozen were able to see in front of their face-- and one of those elves just happened to be the very awkward Muzik. Not a being a very appreciated member of society, it wasn't very hard for her to see why Santa sent her to go meet the Pumpkin King, and not another elf who could still had decent eyesight.

The small elf continued walked down the lane until she was up a tall hill that overlooked the bright town.

"Goodbye, Christmas Town..."

Muzik slid down the hill, the noise behind her slowly fading away. She jumped up, smoothing out her red costume. The dress included sleeves that went a little bit past her wrists. Her red and white striped stockings protected her legs. Her large, curled shoes thudded on the wet ground as she continued the journey.

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After notes: Yay! I finished the first chapter. One would expect a pre-teen to have enough time to write as much as she wanted to, but it doesn't work for me. The only real time I can write is late at night; I still don't have a lot of time even then. Oh well. I'll try to get the second chapter up soon...that is, if you like it ^^; Oh yes. Sally WILL be in the second chapter!

Sorry C! ;-; I was too anxious to post the fic to wait until tomorrow to post it ^__^ For give me? x_X;