There! I did it! I FIANALLY finished this chapter! It's… long. Four pages actually. I managed to make an outline for this story, so I no longer really have any excuses for not updating. I guess that means you're free to throw rocks at me… Also, I intend to condense the chapters before this AFTER I finish the story. Five chapters is too long an introduction. I hope you enjoy this chapter, I'm proud of it.

Jack looked about him despairingly. The cemetery where he was forcibly knocked to his senses that night weeks ago still bore the sooty scorched marks of his arrival. The twisted sleigh he had driven had been carted off to some junkyard, or perhaps for scientific study. That was the first sign to Jack that something was wrong. He was certain that the toys would have frightened away anyone who would have dared enter the graveyard.

If they were still there, that was.

Sally inspected the burned marks on the walls and tombstones. "It's a wonder you survived, Jack!"

Jack smiled. "Yes, well, I am already dead."

Sally smiled back. "Yes, I suppose so."

Jack swept the yard of the dead one more time with his eye sockets. "Well, they're definitely not here." He said, blowing air through his nostrils in annoyance. The air whistled as it passed through.

"Are we going to look for them?" Sally asked, already knowing the answer.

"We have to." Jack replied. "Those toys shouldn't stay in this world."

Sally wondered briefly what Jack planned to do about the presents when he intended for the children to keep them. She chose not to bring up the subject.

"Where are you going?"

Jack looked behind him. "I'm going to find them." He said firmly. "Perhaps you should head back."

"I'm not leaving you!" Sally cried, walking quickly toward her beloved.

Jack smiled again. "I thought you might say that."

The two left the graveyard, and the dead entered the world of the living.

Ele did not meet Aelphious Dirge personally. Not entirely sure what to do after capturing the toys, she had locked them in her bedroom closet. She then went immediately to the nearest library and began searching the Internet for Aelphious Dirge. She E-mailed him regarding the toys, and was sent back a two-word response.

Proove it.

So Ele immediately packed off the Cycloptic Bear, and a letter stating that she had other playthings, in a first-class parcel destined, for the Dirge residence. She received notice that the promised money had been deposited in the requested account, and a request for the others. Ele immediately sent them away, and received the same notice that the money had been deposited.

Ele saw a load lift off her parents, but she saw a puzzlement take its place. They were not ones to accept charity, and Ele had not let them in on her scheme. As it was, they were anonymous deposits, and soon they seemed to have stopped worrying about it.

This was all three days before Jack and Sally arrived in her world.

The first mistake Jack and Sally made was to walk the streets in the open.

As it was not Halloween, they received many odd looks. A few people ran off screaming, which caused Jack to puff (or come as close to puffing as a skeleton could) with pride, instead of him realizing that this would not be helpful at all.

"Jack? Jack, I think we should get off the sidewalk." Sally said nervously.

"Nonsense! We can't go gallivanting in the road, can we?"

"It's not that, Jack. It's not Halloween, it's not right for us to be out here in the open. We should wait until night or something."

Jack sighed and looked around him, until he realized that there was a ten-foot radius of empty space around him and Sally. The people ahead of him looked back nervously, then shuffled ahead quickly. People behind him dragged their feet, annoying those behind them who couldn't see what they were wary of.

"Perhaps you are right…" Jack replied, and quickly slipped into an alleyway.

The alley was dingy. Although a perfectly good dumpster stood with it's back pressed to the wall, trash was strewed across the ground. Near illegible graffiti were scribbled on the walls.

It was also a dead end.

Click.

The sound was nearly inaudible, but Jack heard it. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"That click!"

"What click?"

"It came from back here!" Jack strode toward the dumpster, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Peering behind the dumpster, Jack found a boy, crouching over something.

He was about fifteen, with bowl cut black hair. His back was turned to Jack, so the Pumpkin King could not see his face. However, the boy was wearing a gray hoodie with the words "…but my aim is improving" and black jeans that overlapped his shoes.

"Sally! Come over here!" Jack whispered excitedly.

"I can hear you, you know." The boy said.

Jack blinked. "Oh. Right."

The boy stood and turned. He had a blank face, and looked at the skeleton and the rag doll through questioning brown eyes. He had a rather feminine nose, if you can imagine one, and long, thin lips. A single brown dot rested beneath his left eye. The front of his hoodie said "I missed you…". He held a lighter in one hand.

The two stared at each other for a few seconds while Sally shifted uncomfortably, unsure of what to do. Finally the boy spoke. "I recognize you."

"You do?" Jack said, surprised.

"Yeah. Weren't you the guy pretending to be Santa awhile back? I think I recognize you from that picture in the newspaper. It was pretty blurry and all, but hey, it's not like there are a lot of tall, skinny skeletons frolicking around town now, is there?"

"No, I suppose not… what do you mean "newspaper"?"

"I mean the Coffee News."

Jack responded with a blank look. "You mean the mayor doesn't just ride around and announce everything?"

The boy laughed. "Hell no! If he did he'd probably be tossed in the nuthouse!"

"Oh."

Sally nudged Jack. "What?" he whispered.

"The toys!"

"Oh! Right. Um… Mister?"

"Andrew."

"Mister Andrew…"

"Just Andrew's fine."

"Alright, Andrew. Yes, I was attempting to run Christmas that one time, but it was kind of an accident. Anyway, I'm looking for some of the toys I was giving out. They're a little more dangerous than I intended and-"

"Toys?" The boy broke into a grin. "Yeah, I know about those! My sister has them."

Jack smiled. "Truly? Wonderful? Do you think she'd give them back to us?"

"Probably. I know she doesn't like them. She had this real look on her face when she brought them home. She swore me into silence, but since you're the skeleton Santa-"

"Jack. I'm Jack, the Pumpkin King. And this is Sally."

"Right, whatever. I'm sure she'll be thrilled to give them back."

Andrew turned toward the dumpster. Jack again glimpsed the words "I missed you…" before they were replaced with "… but my aim is improving." A proverbial light bulb went off in Jack's head. "Oh!" he exclaimed, laughing at the joke.

Andrew looked back at him, with an expression all but shouting "What the hell?"

Jack's laughing died down, and an embarrassed look spread across his face. "Oh. I just… your shirt…"

"Right." Andrew nodded, understanding, then turned back to the dumpster. He clambered up onto the dumpster and started up the ladder. "Follow me."

"May I ask one more question?" Jack requested, as he easily climbed up onto the dumpster and began assisting Sally.

"Shoot." Andrew replied.

"Shoot?" Jack asked, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Go ahead."

"Oh. Well, what was the clicking noise?"

"Huh? Oh." Andrew turned and raised the lighter before Jack's face. He snapped his finger down the igniter wheel and pressed down on the button. A small flame darted up, casting light into Jack's eye sockets and illuminating the insides of his skull. "One of my friends told me if you keep spinning this wheely-thing here the flame grows higher. I was testing it out here because if I tried it our inside, Ele would kill me."

"Ele?"

"My sister. You'll like her, she's pretty nice."

Andrew led Jack and Sally up the ladders to his window.

Just having the toys out of the house were not enough. Ele had become extremely tense in the few days she had them, and it had carried on after they had been sold. Thus, her brother climbing through the window with the Master of Fright directly behind him was not the cure for her nerves.

With a shriek that would put a banshee to shame Ele rolled off the couch and grabbed the nearest thing on hand- a baseball bat she had placed beneath the sofa. "ANDREW! BEHIND YOU!" She screamed, swinging her weapon like a neanderthalic warrior.

"Wait-" Andrew was thrust aside in his explanation, and moments later the wooden bat collided with Jack's skull.

The oddly round orb that had once been Jack's head popped off and sailed across the room. The sightless body stumbled forward, and Sally, who was by then standing at the window, screamed. Jack's body continued to wander helplessly about the room, yet still retaining a fearsome quality to it. That, coupled with Sally's high-pitched scream pounding in her head caused Ele to do the one thing she could force through her brain; she swung again.

This one connected with Jack's abdomen, forcing him backward where he landed painfully on his tailbone. Ele would have continued to pummel Halloween's hero if Sally hadn't leapt at her. With a lover's rage she pushed Ele down, and the bat rolled out of reach. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Sally screeched.

Ele struggled with the rag doll, while Andrew searched for Jack's head. Finally he found it, and quickly passed it on to Jack, who jammed it on his neck and took stock of the situation. Stumbling to his feet the Pumpkin King, aided by Andrew, pulled the women apart. Ele had red marks on her arms where Sally had gripped her, and both sets of stitches connecting her arms to her shoulders were loosened.

Both girls glared at each other, breathing heavily, while Jack and Andrew stood awkwardly behind them.

"Ele, I'd like you to meet Jack, and his girlfriend, Sally."