Note: I do not own The Nightmare Before Christmas or any characters, plots, etc. related to the film.
Chapter 1Sally sat silently at the window, absentmindedly running her fingers through her long, red hair. The tower bedroom of the Pumpkin King Mansion had a gorgeous view; all of Halloween Town lay before her. If she glanced to the right, she would see her former home: Dr. Finklestein's lab. Oh, how she despised that place. Just the sight of that rounded building made her stomach tighten and her fists clench. For you see, Sally was once a prisoner, arguably a slave, in her own home. According to Dr. Finklestein, she was created for the sole purpose of serving him. Sally hated it whenever someone referred to her as "Sally Finklestein" or the "Finklestein Girl." She would actually prefer "Rag Doll" to these names; she didn't wanted to be linked to her creator in any way.
Sally. She thought it such a simple name. Dr. Finklestein once told her that he just picked any old random name just so he could give her a title. Nothing special, just Sally. But oh, when Jack said her name, it sounded like music. It sounded like Sally was a synonym for perfection or love. Jack made her feel like a totally different person. No longer was she the trapped slave to a mad scientist! No, when she was in his arms, she was a queen.
A queen. The Pumpkin Queen.
Just uttering the title aloud made Sally's heart stop with excitement. Imagine being a queen to Jack's king! The very thought made Sally's mind race a million miles a minute. Of course, Jack and Sally had been living together for nearly a year now. With a grin, Sally remembered how the townspeople had talked when she first moved in. She knew what they were thinking . . . "Jack and his girlfriend must be having a grand old time up there!" But they were wrong. Being the true gentleman that he was, Jack had never even came close to the topic of . . . intimacy. After all, Jack's gentlemanly and debonair ways prohibited him from even bringing it up with Sally, and Sally knew why. She was timid by nature, and she knew that Jack wouldn't ask her just because he wouldn't want her to say yes just because he wanted it. No, if Sally and Jack would ever become intimate, it would be after they were married. If they ever got married.
Sally never doubted for a minute that Jack loved her; his love was apparent in every moment of the day. She saw it when he smiled sleepily at her over breakfast, when he came home from Halloween planning with a smile on his face, sweeping her into his arms with a long, passionate kiss. She felt it when he kissed her goodnight: a long, lingering kiss that left Sally breathless. But, somehow, Jack did not seem ready for marriage. Sally assumed he enjoyed the freedom being an unmarried man brought him. He could spend the night in neighboring holiday towns if he needed to do business there and he could work until the wee hours of the morning without having to explain to an annoyed wife where he had been for so long. Sally didn't mind the wait, but she couldn't push the image of herself walking down the aisle, dressed all in white, out of her mind.
One year . . . Sally and Jack had been together for one year. It seemed like such a short time, but yet a lifetime. Sally couldn't imagine life without him. With a shiver, Sally recalled the last Christmas Eve, how she and Santa had nearly died at the hands of the dreaded Oogie Boogie. Jack had snatched them out of danger just in time and destroyed Oogie himself, all the while dodging the deadly attacks of Oogie's roulette machine. What if Jack had taken a wrong step while dodging the blades? Sally imagined that things would have turned out very differently.
With a shudder, Sally suddenly remembered the feeling of Oogie's slimy hands on her bare skin. She had let her unattached leg act as a distraction while she freed Sandy Claws, but having Oogie Boogie touch her and look at her with such lust was repulsive. But that was one year ago. Sally, Sandy Claws, Jack, and all of Halloween Town were safe from that wretched tyrant.
Far below, Sally heard a burst of song. Glancing down into the street, Sally spotted Lock, Shock, and Barrel, riding around in their walking bathtub, singing a verse of "Kidnap the Sandy Claws."
"'Cus Mr. Oogie Boogie is the meanest guy around!
If I were on his Boogie list,
I'd get out of town!"
Strange, they kept on repeating the same verse over and over again. It sounded almost like a war chant.
"How very odd," Sally wondered aloud.
