It was a seemingly average night in Halloween Town, the moon was full, the air was chilled and all was quiet.

Well, it only seemed like an average night, a group was gathering in the town square.

One of them was a mummy named Badru, a corpse boy named Mortimer, a bat demon named Seth, a rag doll named Molly Skellington, and the daughter of Dr. Finklestein, Samantha.

They had known each other since birth, and had been great friends for the 16 years they were alive, but on that particular night, they had only one mission.

"Are you guys sure we should be leaving town like this? I mean, if my dad were to find out, I would get in a lot of trouble." Samantha stated timidly to her friends.

"Oh would you relax, Sam? We're going to be fine," Seth reassured.

"Look, the guys been dead for years, I should know, I was 4 when it happened," Mortimer explained.

Yes, their mission tonight was to get into Oogie Boogie's lair. On a whim, they decided to venture to the long abandoned lair of the Boogieman.

"I don't know, Mort," Badru questioned, "Lock, Shock and Barrel did disappear after his death, they went back into their tree house, and no one ever saw them again." he added in an ominous voice.

Molly scuffed, not fazed by his attempts to scare Sam and her, who were not alive when Oogie was around, and therefore had only heard stories about him and wild accusation. She was never afraid, for her father had told her that he had killed Oogie himself many years ago when he tried to take over Christmas.

"It's just a bunch of rotten baloney." Molly said in her usual confident tone, though Sam, the timid one in the group, was not so sure,

"But my father told me there is a possibility of him still being alive." she said quietly, fidgeting with her hands.

"Oh yeah, and how's that?" Molly questioned, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Well, my dad said that Oogie Boogie lives off the fear of human children, and as long as children are afraid, he'll keep coming back."

The group fell silent, for they had heard this from several of their parents, that he was still alive, and that he was just waiting for another set of victims.

Molly, determined to continue, began to walk toward the gates of the town.

"What are you doing?" Mort called in a whisper,

"Well I'm not going to let some dumb legend scare me." she pushed lifted up the gates, "Anybody want to join me?"

The group looked at each other, then hunched under the gates, out of town. Molly slipped under the gate and led them passed the hills and the thin dead trees, to a small tree, and on top of that tree, sat a tree house, too large for the tree to hold. One by one, they each entered the birdcage elevator to get into the tree house.

"Hello?" Sam called, "Is anyone here?"

They all waited for an answer. All they heard was the eerie echo. They began to search the tree house for clues to the trio's disappearance.

"Where do you think happened to them?" Mort asked while searching the dusty moldy kitchen.

"I don't know." Seth replied while lifting up some old paper's with childish doodles. "Maybe they left."

"To where exactly?" Molly questioned.

"I don't know."

"Guys! I found it!" Badru called.

The rest of the group rushed over to Badru's call. They all stood and stared at the metal chute. The monster painting wasn't very inviting.

"So," Molly said, "How are we going to get down without bruising ourselves?"

They all stood there and thought. Suddenly, Badru's face lit up,

"I know!" He took the tip of one of his pieces gauze and unraveled it to yards of fabric. He tied the one end of the gauze to a torch on the wall. He then positioned himself on the slide.

"Here goes nothing." then he pushed himself down the chute. They waited until they heard him calling, "Come on guys! Just hang on to the gauze." They all looked at each other.

Molly stepped up. "I'll go first."