OHOHHOHO my first Nightmare story yus! In case you've never seen the movie, Jack's a skeleton and Sally's a ragdoll. And you should totally watch it, btw.

Sitting on Spiral Hill with Jack was wonderful. Most of the time.

But for Sally, it was getting harder and harder to be able to stand sitting with him. They'd been together for quite some time now, a little over a year. It had been, definitely, the best year of her life.

Then he asked her to move in with him.

He started off by mentioning it in passing, almost as a joke as he stroked her hair one late night.

"You know, I hardly see you anymore, Sally," he'd said, looking down at her.

"Mmm," the ragdoll had replied. Her master, Dr. Finklestein, had begun to notice that the door was unlocked when he got up in the morning, and noticed that she did his bidding slowly and groggily. He'd accused her of sneaking out again, and of course she'd denied it, but he was bound to figure it out soon.

"Maybe we should move in together," Jack said lightly. Then he laughed and kissed her forehead.

As the weeks passed, however, he began to like the idea. He brought it up more and more often until finally it was basically all they were talking about all night long.

"Jack, I told you," Sally said tiredly. "I can't move in with you, at least not right now."

"But why not?" Jack pressed.

"I already told you why," she answered, her voice sharp. Jack looked down. His eyes were drooped and sad; the depressed expression broke her heart.

"Sally..." he began slowly. "Are you trying to tell me something? Do you not want to see me anymore?"

Sally sat up quickly. "No! No, of course not. I love you."

"Do you not like Zero?" He said, half-joking and trying to lighten the mood.

"No, I love Zero."

"I really want you to move in with me, doll," he said, looking at her again with his begging, hollow eye sockets.

"I know, pumpkin." She moved closer to him.

He wrapped his bony arms around her soft waist. "Can't you just sneak away - permanently?"

"Jack!" Sally exclaimed. "He'd definitely try to find me!"

"Yes," he countered. "But I'm the Pumpkin King, so I am - technically - the boss of him. So he couldn't take you back if I told him he couldn't."

He was right, of course. Jack was the idol, the commander of Halloweentown. No one dared say no to him; except for Sally. Sally was an exception. But she didn't disagree with him much. She just kept him from getting into trouble.

Sally giggled and shook her head. "I can't argue with that logic," she said.

"So you'll move in with me?" Jack's face lit up.

The ragdoll gritted her teeth, realizing she'd given away a hole in her argument. "Let me think about it," she said weakly.

Jack beamed. "Oh, please do!"

OOO

"Did you think about it?" the Pumpkin King exclaimed the next night, scooting over excitedly so she could sit with him.

Sally rolled her eyes, smiling at him. She had gone home soon after she'd agreed to consider moving in with Jack, and barely slept as a result of obliging. She'd tossed and turned the rest of the night into the wee morning hours, thinking about what he had said. It was true - that Dr. Finklestein could not force Sally back into his home if Jack told him no. She'd been so restless thinking about it that she found a piece of scrap parchment and a pen and written up a list of pros-cons of moving in with Jack.

PROS:

-getting to see Jack early in the morning and all day

-being in the same house as Jack all the time

-doing whatever I want and not having to do chores

-most likely I won't have to poison Jack so I can go outside...

CONS:

-Finklestein would be MAD

The pros, obviously, outweighed the cons. She loved being around Jack and while she would always love the doctor to a certain degree because he was technically her father, years of being locked inside a tower could not just be forgotten. She was sure Jack would never do that to her unless she was in danger.

So she'd made her decision. Hesitantly, she turned to him and said, "Okay."

Jack gawked, obviously not prepared for this answer. "You'll... move in with me?" he peeped.

"Yes," she said.

He jumped up, grabbed her by the waist and kissed her, obviously overjoyed. She staggered back a bit, startled.

"Oh, that's fantastic!" he cried. "I can't wait, doll!"

"Me either, pumpkin," Sally said with a smile, regaining her balance.

OOO

Sally dangled her legs from her bed, listening intently as her master went to bed. She heard his snoring an hour later and gulped nervously. Jack was waiting outside. She had to hurry.

Quickly she grabbed her small sack of things she wanted to bring (she didn't have much of anything, anyway) and opened the door, tip-toeing swiftly down the long staircase. She got to the end, stopped, and listened again; making sure no one had heard her.

Nobody had. No one came down to yell and scream and lock her back upstairs.

She sighed with relief and then took a deep breath, smelling the familiar scent for the last time and glanced around the place, catching a final look of her (former) home.

Done with being nostalgic, she tore open the door and hissed into the cool night air, "Jack?"

"Sally," an excited voice replied. Sally looked back one last time and then shut the door behind her.

"Over here," Jack said. She looked around and saw him bent down awkwardly, trying to hide himself. She ran over to him.

"Where'd you get that dress?" he asked her. Sally was wearing a simple, long black dress with a hood. Jack had never seen her out of the normal ragged dress she usually wore - he'd thought about what she looked like without it, of course, but never had he seen her with other clothes. Or with no clothes.

"I made it," she said. She had, earlier in the day. She'd purposely made the doctor mad enough that he locked her in her room as punishment. Then, once she'd finished and hidden the dress, she begged for forgiveness through the door so he'd unlock it. That was quite embarrassing, but being with Jack was very much worth it.

Jack bent down again and picked her up bridal-style, covering himself - and her - with a cloak he'd brought. The cloak and the dress she had made were designed to disguise them against the black night sky. She tucked her feet under herself and put her hood on as extra protection as he raced toward his home.

OOO

Sally didn't mean to fall asleep. But the walk (or run? She wasn't sure which Jack had done) was apparently somewhat long, and as it was past the usual time she went to sleep, she nodded off.

Jack woke her up, cooing to her that they were "home". He placed her down and opened the door.

She gaped. The house was brightly lit and - well - humongous.

This wasn't the first time she had seen Jack's house. She'd spent many longing nights staring out her window at the rickety-but-cozy-looking home, wishing she was there with him. It was, however, the first time she had seen the inside of it.

Zero, Jack's ghost dog, was already at her feet, barking. Jack shushed him and ushered her in.

"What do you think?" He whispered, putting his hands on her shoulders.

"It's... it's, ah... wow."

He laughed. "So you like it?"

"You have the nicest home I've ever seen!" She exclaimed, taking down her hood and shaking out her long red hair.

"I have the nicest home you've ever seen?" Jack was smiling. "Don't you mean we?"

Her heart leaped. "Yes."

"Well, come on," he said, taking her hand. "I need to give you the grand 'Welcome Home' tour, don't I?"

"Please do," she giggled, letting him lead her away.

While he showed her around, Jack put on a goofy, tour guide voice, announcing each room like it was legendary and putting emphasis on every little thing it contained. By the time he wrapped up the tour, it was very late – almost morning. The sun was just slightly peaking out behind the hazy clouds that always floated around Halloweentown.

"So, what do you think? Do you think you'll enjoy it here?" He asked her as they descended the staircase together.

"Yes! It's a very nice house. I think I'm going to like it," she looked up at him. The corners of his mouth turned up.

"I hope so, Sally," Jack said, pulling her in close and kissing her head.

And that's that! Sorry I haven't been around lately.

There are two versions of this story – like I said on my profile, but I don't know if anyone reads it – this one, and a more lemony version. The lemony version is a LOT longer – 10 pages! – and I won't upload it because it's so long and I didn't really like how it turned out. The plot didn't go the way I wanted it to, because I wasn't sure how to put in a scene I really wanted to. =( Oh well. Maybe I'll revise it later. I'm too tired atm. =P

Thanks for reading! Please be nice if you review. Constructive criticism is welcome, of course, but flaming is not.