Sarah took in a quaking breath. This was it. She was in her room, all the lights were off, her music was especially loud.

That way, no one would hear the gunshot.

She glanced around the gray walls and drab furniture for the last time. Her eyes caught the mirror. She wondered what her mother would have seen. She would see a beautiful girl, someone who would make a place for themselves in the world. She would have been seeing a lie.Sarah saw a pale girl, with brown locks, dark eyes, and depressing clothing. Someone who was too pathetic to live. That's what everyone told her. Her eyes clouded over slightly as she thought about everything that she had been through.

"You're such a failure."

"Why do you even come to school? It's not like you'll learn anything. You're too stupid to even speak!"

"Come on! Cry already! Cry like the baby you are!" Sarah didn't make a sound as she was kicked harshly over and over in the ribs.

"Forget it. Leave the freak. Maybe we'll get lucky and somebody will finish her for us."

"Freak!"

"Idiot!"

"You're not even human! No normal person would look as disgusting as you!"

The image in the mirror shifted. She saw the monster everyone had described. She saw something that wasn't human. It was disgusting, worthless. Un-deserving of even the oxygen keeping it alive. Better people than her could use that air. She took a steadying breath as she looked away from the mirror. She lifted the gun to her head. She was ready. She was going to do this. She had suffered long enough. Her hand tightened in preparation to pull the trigger. Suddenly though, the door opened. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked to see who the intruder was.

"Sarah it's time for -"

"D-Dad?" She choked out as she lowered the gun. Her voice was soft and raspy, from underuse. She hadn't spoken for years, after all. She hadn't seen her father for years. But her hand squeezed involuntarily.

The gun fired.

Brown eyes widened as the bullet ripped through her side and her small body jerked through the air and fell to the floor. The gun met the floor with a dull thud as it landed beside her. Blood soaked slowly into the carpet and her clothing, staining everything it touched red. She heard her father screaming, yelling, perhaps even crying. She had never seen or heard him cry. Except that one time…that one time… But it was muffled. Covered with a veil of pain. She hurt, so bad, so much more than before. It seemed as though nothing would get through to her, nothing could penetrate the fog in her mind.

Her music did though.

Requiem For a Dream…one of her favorites. Her father had introduced it to her. She remembered when he was around, when they would search YouTube for music together. Before it happened. The song sounded sad…quiet. It would switch between sad, and desperate. It was almost apocalyptic. The way it was written, it was like you might have been watching everything you love get destroyed. You would weep when it was over, be filled with pain…but then it started all over again. The song was nowhere near over, but it began to fade from her hearing. It eased its way out, and the pain began to leave her too. Her breaths were coming shorter. She was losing precious oxygen; oxygen she had thought she didn't deserve mere moments ago. Her hands, which had been clinging to the rug desperately, trying to hold on while her mind couldn't, began to relax. Unclench. Sarah could barely see the silhouettes of frantic paramedics, all scrambling, trying to help her. But it was too late. She felt her self slip away, with the last of the music, and the last of the pain.

And then she died.

~X~X~X~X~

Falling. Falling, spiraling, sinking down, down, down. Into a darkness. Blacker than a void. A darkness that even the most fearsome of creatures shied away from. The only thing breaking the never-ending expanse is Sarah. She falls, but remains still. The blood covers her clothes still, and she does not breath. She is dead. But her soul is still living. The shadow she is surrounded in is silent, but for the music that fills her ears. She can hear it. But she does not know what it is. Maybe she would have recognized it at one point in time. Maybe not. But the music is gone, abruptly, as another presence enters the darkness, and speaks.

"You take your own life?" A voice, deep, booming, and as vast as the place she resides in echoes through her skull. "A life is something that you get only once. Something to be held dear, and close to your heart." Sarah's finger twitches. "You, a mere child, believed yourself knowledgeable enough to decide whether or not life is worth living." Her heart spared a few beats. "You were wrong in your decision." Her lungs expand as they are filled with air. "And you need a lesson." Her eyelids flutter silently. "You will learn how to truly live your life…in a world that is of the dead." She gasped, her heart suddenly racing, her eyes wide, and her chest rising and falling quickly. She had been given a second opportunity. And that was when the music returned. Loud, encompassing. Filling the blackness. Filling her up. For a moment, just a brief moment; she remembered what it was to be happy.

And then her body was slammed harshly into the hard, cold, unforgiving ground.

She lay, dazed, the world spinning around her. She was confused. No memories of her time in the darkness remained. Nothing but the music. But, she realized with a start, that was gone now too. Memories of her attempted suicide raced back toward her, crashing into her like a tidal wave. After having been supposedly dead, it was a shock to realize that she could feel again…feel her heartbeat. The densely packed ground. She could see the leafless trees above her. The sky, a deep navy blue, stares and a full moon twinkling back at her. But she could feel the pain too. She clutched desperately at her stomach and gasped. Am I alive, only to die again…? She was met with faint singing, so silent it was nearly inaudible. It grew louder, slowly…

"Boys and girls of every age, wouldn't you like to see something strange?"

"Come with us,"

"And you will see!"

"This out town of Halloween!"

And then her world was once again black.

~X~X~X~X~

Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween, was taking a walk through the Hinterlands. The gangly and skeletal undead gentleman was restless, and found himself without sleep. Feeling not at all tired, and full of energy, he had bounded away, taking no notion of where he was going. Jack wanted to think. Halloween was going to have to be absolutely horrific this year! He felt that same empty feeling deep in his bones. The one that had almost caused him to ruin Christmas a few years back. He slowed in his quick stride, and sighed to himself loudly.

"If I don't make this the absolute worst Halloween we've ever had, I don't know what I'll do! It seems like even after that Christmas fiasco with Sandy Claws, Halloween isn't a horrendous as it used to be…" Jack sighed again. "There's never anything new, no inspiration, it it's almost as if we've run out of ideas. It's the same thing every year. Year after year…" He placed a bony hand to his round skull in defeat, leaning against a tree. "Will there even be a Halloween worth celebrating this time…?" He wondered aloud. Suddenly, a streak of red caught his eye. Curious, the skeleton straightened, and stealthier than a ghost, he crept toward it. His face lit up in wonder at what he had found. Before him lay a ghastly creature. Her hair was knotted in a mess, and her clothes ripped and torn, painted with her scarlet blood. Dirt mixed with the liquid to make an absolutely horrid bleak color, covering most of her pale skin.

"Amazing!" He gasped, leaning down close to her. It was only then that he realized something.

She was bleeding. Bleeding out of a deep wound in her stomach. And she was human. Jack, for the moment, put a stopper in his curiosity. He carefully lifted her up from the ground, and began a quick stride back towards the town. This girl was in need of help, and she needed it immediately.

"Doctor, I sure hope you know how to fix humans. But…at least, maybe this Halloween will be terrifying, after all."

A/N-Ah, and so, I have finally edited the first chapter. The one I had up really was atrocious, but I thank any and all of you that enjoyed it. Know that I will be attempting to update more often, but, they will still most likely be fairly sporadic. There is now a list of my stories and when they may be updated on my profile. I will try to keep you all well informed of things that are going on. Thank you for reading, please tell me about any typos or things that could be improved upon in a review or PM. I would appreciate it greatly.

-Piggie

Embrace the Madness. It's all we have left.