Star Skellington's Christmas Wish
-By Laura L.
Author's Note: After more than eight months in progress, I'm proud to unveil the story of my most dear of original characters: Star Skellington. I made a little drawing last Thanksgiving at Disneyland of the child of Jack and Sally Skellington with a Santa cap that was too big for her tiny skeleton head, and soon I became inspired to give that character her own story. One that, I hope, will find its way into the hearts of those who stumble upon this story as much as it, (and Star herself) have burrowed into my heart. I have my little sister Franki to thank for keeping me motivated on this project and helping me add so much that I was missing, a friend on this site named Taylor Moore who showed interest in this story as well as in my "Little Shop of Horrors" fictions, and a friend from named ghostwolf13 who has been excited about this project since I first mentioned it. Most of all I'd like to thank my Grandmother who was my idol as a writer throughout the fourteen years that she was part of my life, just as she is now in heaven.
Chapter 1
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Once upon a time in the land of Halloween, there was a Pumpkin King named Jack Skellington and his rag doll queen Sally. They loved each other dearly and were overjoyed when they at last had their first child, a little skeleton girl they named Star. All throughout Halloweenland that day there was demented celebration, for one day their tender lumpling would become the new ruler of Halloween.
But things didn't go exactly the way that the Halloween townspeople planned, for Star grew to be just little different. Though she looked ghastly with her skeleton body, ragged reddish brown hair, and large gaping eye sockets, Star wasn't really a very scary monster at all, which was strange from her royally terrifying ancestry. She was considered so odd in fact, that the townspeople often murmured things like: "There's something wrong with that girl" or "What must her family think?" when she waved or walked by them.
And indeed it seemed that something was wrong with Star. Both her siblings that came after her were true heirs to Halloween. Her little brother Tim could contort his face like a freak show attraction and her baby sister Noel could scream louder and more sharply than a blow horn, but she could barely make a frightening glance or rattle ghostly chains to tingle the spines and chill the bones of little children on Halloween night.
Poor Star always felt separate from the rest of her kind without even a tiny shred of terror in her soul, but deep in Star's undead heart lived a secret that she would never admit: that she loved Christmas more than anything in the world. The light and warmth of the holiday was the most beautiful thought to her in the world of thrills and chills that she had been raised in.
Jack and Sally were the only ones who knew of Star's differences, but they still loved her more than all of Halloween itself, and always tried to give her words of guidance.
"You are not strange Star, you're our daughter and that's all that matters to us." Jack often said to her.
"Don't listen to what the other monsters say about you, my darling." Sally would tell her. "They can only see what you lack, but we can see everything that you are."
Star didn't quite understand what her mother and father meant in those words, but in some small way it made her feel better.