DISCLAIMER: These characters aren't mine in any way shape or form. The idea is all that is mine. And Morticia. Besides those, Halloween town, Jack, Sally, Dr. Finklestein, Lock, Shock, and Barrel all belong to the genius that is Tim Burton.

Chapter One

The snow outside fell steadily while the two creatures, rag doll and skeleton, looked outside at the most beautiful scene they had looked upon in all their years. The rag doll, Sally, would have been alive for one year that next summer. Though she was young, she was clever and quick, even more so than the skeleton standing next to her. The pumpkin king, Jack Skellington, was more of a one-track mind guy and sometimes got caught off course. Some things he didn't see immediately, like Sally did. That was why he loved her. She completed him. She had saved him and got him out of trouble many times this past Christmas, and he was thankful. Not that he hadn't ever saved her, though; he had saved her from Oogie Boogie and, in her eyes, saved her from Dr. Finklestein. He had rescued her freedom.

"Jack," she whispered, touching him lightly on the arm. He glanced down at her in a thoughtful manner. She looked up at him and whispered, "Remember when we first met?" A smile stretched across her sewn face and quickly spread to his skeletal one.

"Yes, of course I do. How could I forget?" he said, turning his tall, lanky body towards hers. "I remember it like it was yesterday…" he said, jokingly. She laughed. He loved it when he made her laugh. Her eyes lit up and her smile widened even more. "Really, I remember it well. You were sneaking out of the doctor's house and you bumped into me. It was quite funny." She sobered and looked up at him. She stood on her tiptoes and he bent down for a kiss, but she veered off to the side of his face to where his ear would have been and whispered, "Was it snowing?"

He stopped smiling for a second, and then the memory came flooding back to him. It was early November, and it was just below freezing. The snow was light and it seemed to dissolve on his bones immediately after contact. For Sally, he had noticed that the snowflakes seemed to melt into her sewn skin. The snow was inside her; she was the snow. Her beauty captivated him at first site.

"Yes," he said, reliving that night, "Yes, it was." She pulled back from the side of his face and kissed him. She took his hand and led him outside, into the snow. He was reliving the moment again; he had a memory…he remembered…Sally started dancing in the snow, twirling about as it slowly began to sink into her skin. For a split second, she started to look like someone else. Her face flashed and she looked different, and yet, familiar at the same time, as if he knew the person that she had momentarily been. But as soon as it started, it stopped. She was Sally. He almost doubted that he had seen any change in her at all.

She noticed his hesitation. Was he remembering something? He always had trouble remembering…he remembered nothing about who he was before he died at all, and Sally thought this would jog his memory a bit. A bit of snow made anyone more magical at heart. Maybe this would open up his mind. She continued twirling about, and when he didn't join in, she grabbed his bony hands and started dancing with him in the snow. A grin slowly spread across his face and the expression was gone. He was his old self. Though, he never really did change from his old self in the first place. She shook her head and continued dancing. Nothing was odd about him anymore, which was for sure. He was Jack. Jack Skellington. She was Sally. Just plain Sally. They were both ordinary people here in this town, and there was nothing more to put it. They just kept dancing to the silent rhythm of their hearts.

The town had thanked Jack for rescuing Sally and coming back, and now he was the town hero again. Jack had never really wanted to be the hero for anything other than being himself, so this was actually an accomplishment. The other times he had been praised were to congratulate him on scaring some children, which he really didn't put any heart into at all. Though, after this year's fiasco, he had some new ideas that would really make them scream. And, by God, he was really going to give it all his might. Still, the festivities were over, and it was time to clean up the town and prepare for Halloween next year. Sally had been living with Jack in his tower ever since Dr. Finklestein had gotten a new maid/wife (which was only a couple of days ago), so she helped him clean up Jack's decorations from his brainstorming binge last Christmas. She took down some Christmas lights and began thinking of what she would be doing right now if Jack hadn't fallen in love with her. Well, she'd still be under the control of Dr. Finklestein's, that's for sure. She wouldn't be taking down Christmas lights at all. She actually still might be out on the streets. Who knows, she was with Jack now, and it was all the better.

"Can you imagine if I never killed Oogie Boogie, how different our lives would be?" Jack asked, cutting through the silence as he took down some ornaments on his tree. Sally sometimes wondered how Jack always knew what she was thinking.

"Yes," she said. She was about to add all the things she just thought, but she then realized, if Jack had never shown up at Oogie's in the first place, Sally would be a pile of goop. "I'd be dead," The rustle of movement stopped behind her as she realized that Jack hadn't thought about that.

"You're right…you'd be dead," Jack said solemnly. Sally turned around and looked at him. He was just standing there, with a frosty Christmas ball in his bony hand, looking serious. She walked up to him and pulled the Christmas ornament out of his hand and set it in the box.

"You saved me, remember?" she kissed him lightly on the lips (well, where his lips would be...) and pulled back. "You needn't worry about a thing." She smiled at him. It seemed to take him a while to smile back.

Jack just realized that he could have lost Sally many times. When she ran away, when she was locked up in Dr. Finklestein's tower, when she was down in Oogie's lair…he realized how fragile she was. If Oogie were still alive, he would probably go after Sally to get to him. Fortunately, he didn't have any more enemies. Oogie was dead; Lock, Shock, and Barrel were master-less, so they weren't as evil as they were, and they certainly wouldn't ever want to go after Jack. There weren't any more enemies in Halloween town. It was a very friendly place.

If Sally ever died, Jack wouldn't know what to do. Sally was his other half, she knew everything about him, and she was trying to help him remember his past. He couldn't remember what had happened to him in his past life. He guessed it had something to do with an electrical chair, but that was about it.

"Are you tired, Jack?" Sally asked. He had been silent for a moment.

"Yes, a bit. The last few days have been hectic. What, with taking over Christmas and all," He smiled; finally, a smile.

"Well, maybe you should get some rest," She suggested. He shook his head and motioned to all of his decorations.

"I have to get all of these down before tomorrow morning," Sally loved it how he was so diligent.

"Alright, we won't stop till morning," Sally said firmly. They worked silently for a few minutes, and then Jack spoke up again.

"Speaking of Oogie, do you think he might have had a gambling problem?" Sally looked up at him, not sure if he was kidding or not. Jack was grinning wide.

"Oh, Jack," Sally said, laughing, "of course he did. He was down there for what, a few years? Actually, I have no idea…" Sally was at a loss at this new feeling. She usually always knew what to do and had all the information and knew about everything…now, all of a sudden, she didn't.

"Well, to tell you the truth, he and Dr. Finklestein were business partners for sometime before Oogie even built that place," Jack said. Sally was taken aback. Dr. Finklestein and Oogie Boogie? Partners? "I think they were working on engineering stuff or something. I know that Dr. Finklestein was in charge of all the scientific material, but Oogie was in charge of all the electronics. I don't know exactly what company they were working for or what the cause was, but they bought the old shack down by the pumpkin patch that Lock, Shock, and Barrel live in now. They both retired after a couple of years, and then went their separate ways. So Oogie only lived down there for a couple of years. I guess Lock, Shock, and Barrel kept him company. But I wasn't always sure why he became an alcoholic."

"He sure did have a problem with that, didn't he?" Sally asked, eager to learn more.

"Yes, he sure was. I think he couldn't cope with the fact that he was made out of bugs or he had singing skeletons in his dungeon. He sang quite a lot down there, too. That was probably the alcohol, too." Both Jack and Sally laughed.

"I never knew that Dr. Finklestein had an old partner," Sally said.

"Oh yeah, they were partners years before you were made. I think after the doctor was left alone for about two years with only Igor to keep him company, he began to make you." Jack said.

"How do you know all this?" she asked.

"Everybody knew it, we just all forgot, I guess..." there it was, the topic of forgotten things. Sally immediately noticed this, and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You'll remember someday. I promise. We'll find a way."

"I hope so."

Dr. Finklestein sat hunched over in his wheelchair near the wall, looking at the frost gathering on the windows. This annoyed him; he couldn't see the snow outside. He wanted to call to his new wife, Morticia, to bring him outside – but she couldn't. She had a knife in her skull.

Her problem was that she was acting too much like Sally. She cooked the same as Sally did, she spoke the same way Sally did…he had made Morticia different for a reason, not to be just like his old failure of a servant. Sally was so perfect in every aspect except being a servant, what was the thinking? Nobody could ever replace her; her charm, her beauty…stupid Jack Skellington. He had to dispose of Morticia; she was no use to him anymore.

He needed more servants. Igor wasn't helping. He was just bringing plans and eating dog biscuits. All he was doing was making the dog biscuits low in supply and wasting paper. If he had multiple servants, that would be acceptable, but who?! Who could surpass Sally? She was the goddess of all servants.

Stupid Jack Skellington. He stole Sally away from him. Just like he stole Oogie away from him. Sure, Oogie and he had lost touch over the years, but that still didn't mean that Jack didn't hurt him by killing Oogie. Oogie had good servants too. What were those brats named? Lock, Shock, and Barrel. That's right. They were acceptable substitutes. He could use them for many things. Many…tests.

"Igor!" Dr. Finklestein called out into his mansion. The call echoed for a bit, then the slow wheezing and dragging noise of Igor filled his ears. He spun his wheelchair around to face him.

"Yes, Master?" he wheezed.

"Go fetch me Lock, Shock, and Barrel. You remember the old shack by the pumpkin patch that we used to live in?" Igor nodded, "Good. Go get them as soon as you can, and tell them that their old master's partner is willing to give them work again." Igor nodded and was off to fetch the trick-or-treaters. Dr. Finklestein rotated his wheelchair back to facing the windows, and watched Igor step out into the freezing cold and start his journey.

His gaze traveled over to the Skellington house. He cursed it under his breath. That whole tower was ugly and degraded the whole town. His mansion was much nicer than Jack's skinny old tower. How was he the pumpkin king anyway? How could he get to have so much power, when he didn't have to do anything at all? All he accomplished was being the tallest person in the town. Pumpkins are fat. Skeletons are skinny. How could a skeleton be the pumpkin king? Who cares if he was "heir to the throne"? His parents weren't even in Halloween town, let alone rule here.

Jack couldn't even remember his past. Well, the doctor did. It wasn't pretty. A fire flashed behind his eyes, making him blink. A scream echoed somewhere in the back of his mind, a cry for help. He closed his eyes. He couldn't do anything; his legs were broken…laughter, all around him…a burning sensation all over his skin…the doctor opened his eyes. It was still snowing. He hated thinking of Jack. Thinking of Jack meant thinking about his past. Jack was apart of his past. It wasn't his fault that he had given her the wrong medicine…it wasn't his fault that she had died. But of course, Jack wanted revenge, and when Jack Skellington wants something, he always gets it.

But Jack died, in the end. The electric chair was his timeless end. Unfortunately, Jack chose the same fate, as Dr. Finklestein had, to go to Halloween town and live for eternity instead of going to hell. The odd thing was that Jack didn't remember his past. The doctor did. He wanted to forget so badly, but he couldn't. Jack got it easy, yet again.

The doctor wheeled himself away from the window. All this thinking was making him sick. He didn't want to think about Sally, or Jack, for that matter. Thinking of them just reminded him how dull his life really was. They were probably having a grand time, up in that ugly skinny mansion, taking down Christmas tree ornaments…Dr. Finklestein looked around his own mansion. The only decorations in the house were the bones of the rejected reindeer he had built for last Christmas piled in the corner at the edge of the room. He wouldn't clean those up, Igor would.

That stupid son of his. Igor was just a failure at life. He had burned along with him, so many years ago…he could literally remember it like it was yesterday. He thought back to all those years ago, before Sally even existed, when he was partners with Oogie Boogie. He closed his eyes yet again, and remembered once more.

"Oogie, would you pass me those blueprints of the forest?" the doctor asked, looking down at the blueprint he already had, one hand extended for the new blueprints. Oogie complied, and handed him three stacks of blueprints, one part of the forest etched onto them in precise detail.

"These are the forest in detail, but these over here show an overview of the forest as a whole," Oogie explained as he handed the doctor the new blueprints.

"I see," the doctor said, carefully looking over the plans, his glasses about an inch away from the paper, "we need to work on this gap right here," he said, pointing a stubby finger at one point in the design.

"Alright. I'll get to work on it. You work on the scientific aspect of it, I'll work on building it," the doctor nodded. Oogie went off, humming a jazz tune.

The door opening behind him interrupted Dr. Finklestein's thoughts. It was Igor, with the three trick-or-treaters.

"My, that was fast," the doctor exclaimed.

"I was gone for a while, sir," Igor said, nervous, "you must have dozed off."

"Yes…I must have," the doctor said. He motioned for Igor to leave, and that left Lock, Shock, and Barrel alone with the doctor.

"You have a proposition for us?" Lock asked.

"Yes. You will work for me now. Be my butlers, my chefs, and my maids. Do everything to me, as you did for Oogie."

"Oogie never let us…" Shock tried to say, but was cut off.

"Silence. You will do these things for me or I'll send you back in the cold." The trio looked slightly insulted.

"Fine. Then we'll live in the cold, it's not that bad…" Lock said.

"We wouldn't want to work for you anyway," Shock added.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that if I were you…" the doctor said.

"Oh yeah? What can you do to us?" Lock said, grinning at Shock. At that moment, Igor dragged the body of dead Morticia across the entryway and out the door. Her face, which looked so much like Dr. Finklestein's, was twisted into a surprised "oh!" and her red lipstick, which contrasted against her pale skin, was smeared across her cheek from falling on her hand and smudging it. The knife in her skull slowly dragged across the floor, making a slow scraping sound. Her purple dress crinkled as she was tossed out into the snow and thrown into a hole pre-made for her. Igor began digging three small holes next to it. The doctor looked at their terrified faces and smiled.

"You will work for me, and do what I say, or you will get the same fate as dear Morticia," he whispered.

"Yes, sir." The trio replied.

"Good. Now, we have work to do."