A/N: This is my first fanfiction, so be nice please ^.^ This involves the characters from the Nightmare Before Christmas but does not revolve around them. They do however, have a large part in the plot ;) This first bit before the actual story is just a little background on what a vassal really is. Enjoy:)
Every year, we have days that honor the emotions of human beings; holidays. Christmas is joy, Valentine's Day is love, Thanksgiving is gratitude and so on. But what about the emotions that lay in the shadows of one's heart? Fear, grief, anger... a rememberence of death?
Halloween.
The time when the dark emotions that lay dormant in the human heart come forth.
Each holiday has vassals; souls taken from eternal rest to carry out duties that seem to fit the soul's time on Earth.
So how does one become a vassal of fear...of Halloween?
My name is Fauna Mangle. Well, that's the name I was given when I got to this hell hole.
Literally.
I don't remember much of what happened to me before I 'awakened' here, in Halloween Town, but I do know one thing; I wasn't always like this.
A broken girl, with half a soul. At least, that's what it feels like. Like half of me is here and another is somewhere…else. I hope that wherever my other half is, that place is full of sunshine. Real sunshine. Not small beams of light trickling through dark, ominous clouds or emitting from a spooky ball in the sky.
I am a servant in the name of Halloween, one of the holiday's many ghoulish vassals. Upon arriving, no one has told me what being a vassal entailed, but only said that I would find out after I had 'adjusted' to my new life. I have only been here for a few months and to be honest, it is starting to feel like a constant downer.
The other ghouls, witches, and zombies live(so to speak) to scare the mortals in the human world.
I don't. I could care less. Maybe it is because, as Doc put it, I am one of the Fallen, a scarce kind of vassal.
My broken wings stirred at the thought. I sighed, glancing down at the mass of dusty grey emerging from my back. I frowned slightly at the patches of missing feathers, revealing broken skin and bones. There were parts of my wings that were just pure bone. I sighed again.
I didn't ask for this life.
I shook my head at the thought. I don't think anyone here asked for it.
Looking up at the moon, I realized that Sally would be wondering where I was. I hopped off my perch on the tombstone and slowly started my way back to the skeleton man's home.
As I walked along on the cold, dead ground my mind wandered back to when I first arrived here…