Some more time passed, and the door was conveniently forgotten about. The Mayor had been organizing a committee to organize a clean-up, and also figure out how to fix things, but an annoying raven had continually distracted him whenever he was planning to organize it. Moving inside didn't change things – the creature lurked at windows, attacked walls, even occasionally got inside with him. The Mayor discovered that the raven left him alone whenever he was working on anything other than the Door, though, so he decided to just let it fix itself – Jack had said so himself that it wasn't an emergency, and no problems had happened so far. He never seemed to care that the raven had four red eyes; it was just another odd creature of Halloweentown.

Jack didn't notice – the door was of least concern to him at the moment. Reading through Lenora's papers, he'd discovered that humans were experimenting more with deeper and less understood sciences at the facility. Of course, he could only infer based on the few papers he had, but if Lenora was just one among hundreds of others, they had to be at least somewhat similar. That was how experimentation worked. What he had seen there had changed some of his ideas, too – people were becoming more audacious with what they would try to accomplish, science or otherwise. That meant that the meaning of what was scary was changing, too. What was once restricted to Dr. Finklestein's expertise was starting to be examined in the human world. That meant Halloween was going to have to get scarier. Of course, that was always a plus in Jack's world – but that also meant they were going to have to know what they were up against (fearfully speaking, that is). Lenora's files had said she was a failure, but the reasons he found seemed trivial to Jack; 'not enough intelligence,' 'over-sized wingspan,' 'not very resilient…' She was still small, after all; some things had to be learned over time.

Zero worried about his master and friend. This wasn't as bad as his Christmas kick had been, but he was getting forgetful about things like checking up with Sally and the Mayor.

One afternoon, an incessant knocking finally got his attention. "Hm?" Jack mused as he got up, "I wonder who that could be…?" Usually Sally answered the door, but he remembered that she had left to the Witches' Shop for more supplies. The Mayor tended to use the doorbell and ramble simultaneously rather than just knock.

When he opened the door, he was met by a female version of the Wolf Man. "Miss Sandy," Jack greeted the town's teacher of the young ghosts and ghouls, "How are the children? Horrifying, I hope?"

"Yes, the scaring lessons are going terribly, most everyone's making progress." She replied a bit distractedly, "But I came here to talk to you about Lenora, Jack."

"What about her?"
"Well," the teacher began, "you know how she isn't exactly the scariest creature around, and she takes fright rather easily..."

"Yes; I thought you were helping her with that."

"Oh, I'm trying Jack! I truly am, when I can; she doesn't take to it very easily… But, the main thing is…" Miss Sandy tried to find the right words, "Well… Lenora's skipping classes, Jack."

Jack looked astonished. "What? Really?"

"I'm afraid so; at first I thought maybe she just didn't feel well, but then I overheard some of the children talking about seeing her around town and such. I've waited at least a week to see if she'd come back on her own, but it doesn't seem like it. I thought you ought to know about it if you didn't already, Jack." She finished.

"No… I didn't." Jack replied, still a bit surprised from the news. "I'll talk to Sally about it… Thank you, Miss Sandy."

The teacher nodded, then left. She passed Sally with a bag coming home. They nodded at each other as they passed. Sally saw Jack at the door and continued over to him. "What was Miss Sandy wanting, Jack?"

"We need to have a talk with Lenora…"


"Hey, look;" one of the monster kids said, "it's Chicken girl!"

Lenora was sitting inside the entrance to the Pumpkin Patch, by some of the small growing vegetables. She was somewhat used to the nickname by now – almost no one called her by her real name. The small group of creatures came over to her.

"What's up, Chicken girl?" The bat boy Brodie said coolly. Lenora blushed a tiny bit, but not long enough for anyone to notice.

"Not much…" she answered timidly.

"Didn't see you at school today." The mummy boy Nathan added, sounding more sincere than the others, who were really just looking for something to do.

Lenora looked up at nothing. "Yeeaah…" she mumbled. She really didn't like the school. She had been told that school was a place to learn good things, like how to be scary and stuff, which was nice enough, but… Lenora always ended up being the test subject, just like back at the Hospital. (That was what they'd called it.) Plus, she could never be scary herself, even if she really tried to; everyone would just laugh or look pitifully at her attempts. She found it much easier to just avoid the place and the guaranteed humiliation (and often physical pain of either bruising or her heart about to explode from fright). She wanted to get along with the other kids, but so often they just scared her and went off laughing.

"What are you doing in Behemoth's turf?" a wolf girl, Helen, added, "He helps out with the pumpkins, ya know."

Lenora tensed a little; Behemoth was a massive hulk, and the ax in his head just made him that much more intimidating. He didn't even have to try to be scary. He didn't act too terrible, but she'd only seen him a few times; she didn't know if he was actually nice or not.

"Yeah," a zombie kid added, "he goes through the pumpkins and tests to see if they're ready for making Jack-o-lanterns. I've seen him do it sometimes."

"And you know what he does if they are ready…" Brodie left the sentence hanging. The wolf girl chuckled darkly. Lenora didn't like the sound of things, but her curiosity raised up hesitantly.

"…What does he do?" She asked in a small voice.

Brodie brought one hand up above his palm, then made an exaggerated chopping motion.

"Smash!" Helen exclaimed gleefully, "pumpkin guts all over the place!"

Lenora wasn't entirely sure how Jack-o-lanterns were made, so she had no idea if what they were telling her was true or not. She looked around nervously.

"Yeah," the zombie kid continued, "I'd be careful hanging around here. Never know when he might mistake your head for a pumpkin."

"Well," Nathan tried to speak up, "her head looks mostly different than a pumpkin. More like a… a dead flower, or something."

"Yeah, but you see," Brodie explained carefully, "Behemoth's not all there in the head; the ax probably has something to do with it. What his eyes and brain see can get mixed up pretty easily."

An uneasy silence followed. Lenora was pretty anxious by now. Heavy footsteps got all their attention, coming from deeper in the patch. Lenora's breath caught in her throat; was he coming their way? After a moment of listening, it was indeed headed in their direction.

The other kids scattered faster than autumn leaves in the wind, but Lenora felt frozen in place. Oh, don't smash my head in like a pumpkin, she thought, please! She saw the shadow begin to show up, and a voice caught her attention from the other direction.

"Lenora!" It was Nathan. "Run! Er, fly! Move!"

She finally awoke from her petrified state, and immediately jumped off her perch and ran.

By the time Behemoth made it over to the entrance, there was no sign that anyone had been around. That was a little odd, because he thought he'd heard children not a moment before…


"Are you sure that she meant Lenora?" Sally asked worriedly.

"Well, I haven't exactly had time to ask the girl myself," Jack replied, "but there aren't many other children with the characteristics she has. And you have to admit that… she doesn't seem to be taking to scaring very easily."

Before Sally had much time to think about it, the door slammed open and shut. Lenora sped past, too quick to really see properly, then skidded into reverse and ran into Sally's arms. She wasn't crying, but she was huddling as close as she could get, and Sally could feel her heart beating frantically.

"I'm not a pumpkin, I'm not a pumpkin, I'm not a pumpkin…" Lenora repeated to herself.

Sally looked quizzically at Jack. He shrugged his bony shoulders; he didn't know anything about Lenora's fright, but it did prove his point. Sally smoothed Lenora's ruffled feathers to calm her down. "Shh, you're fine." Sally murmured, quieting the girl's mumblings. Jack waited patiently to the side; she usually calmed down much faster when Sally was around. After a while, the whimpering and squishing stopped.

"Alright, what happened?" Sally asked calmly.

"…They told me Behemoth would smash my head in." Lenora sniffed.

Sally patted her head. "Now, you don't believe that, right?" Lenora didn't say anything. Sally made her face her. "I'll tell you, it's not. You can't believe everything the other children tell you."

Lenora nodded, as though she'd heard the same words many times before. She'd forget them at times, but Sally's voice always made her feel better.

"Speaking of the other children…" Jack spoke up. Lenora nearly had another spasm attack; she hadn't noticed him in the shadows. Jack continued, "We hear that you haven't been around school for a while."

Lenora looked at the ground semi-guiltily, avoiding eye contact with either of them.

"Lenora…?" Sally proded.

"Well…" Lenora started, then looked pleadingly at Sally, asking silently to not have to explain. Sally, though she appreciated how evidently cute Lenora looked, was already on her way to mastering the maternal just-keep-talking look.

Lenora sighed before going on. "It's not like I'm learning how to be scarier… The others are so much better at it than I am."

"Miss Sandy is willing to work with you," Jack started, Sally nodding concernedly.

"But it doesn't help!" Lenora whimpered, "They still scare me, get me every time, wait for me when she's not looking!" Sally hadn't known the harassing was that bad for her. "I'm just not scary." Lenora said deplorably before leaving to her room, not looking at either of them.

Jack was mildly surprised – that had really been the most Lenora had talked to him almost directly since they'd met; she usually just answered his questions and somewhat avoided him most other times. He didn't know it was because she was still more scared of him than anyone else in town, not helped by the fact that the other children mocked her for living with the scariest citizen in Halloweentown, but not being scary herself.

"Jack…" Sally began worriedly, "Should we go talk to her? I mean, she seemed awfully upset about it…"

Jack sighed and took her hand. He was used to forming diplomatic relations among the citizens' quarrels, not in his own home. "I'm not sure dear; perhaps we should let her be for a while."

Sally silently consented, though she still looked troubled. Oh, the joys of parenthood.

"I just want to help her feel better, feel the spirit of Halloween, you know?" Sally thought aloud.

"Of course." Jack assured her. "Speaking of which, there's still a bit of planning to do, and I was planning myself on going out for a bit in a few days…"

"Oh, Jack;" Sally said, slipping her hand out of his, "So soon? But don't you have things here that need to be taken care of? Like with the Mayor? He seemed rather concerned with the arrangement of that last wagon." The last time he had 'gone out,' Sally had gotten some pretty bad vibes about it. He'd then come home late and was still even now more a bit distracted than usual.

"Dear, the Mayor can handle himself for a while; he's done so before." Jack argued, "Besides, there are more ways than one to skin a cat. The Mayor's even discovered a few of them."

"Can't it wait at least until after the town's test-run next week?" Sally protested.

"Well…" Jack evaded.

"Surely nothing should distract you from helping prepare the town for Halloween." Sally continued. "I could even help. Maybe… maybe I could help get Lenora to be a part of it."

The children usually were just some added voices as a group to the festivities, as they had yet to learn the more complicated parts to play in. As Jack's 'child,' even if adopted, it was expected that she might take a bit more prominent role. That was going to be difficult if she didn't even participate, which was the usual punishment for skipping duties, in her case school.

Jack rubbed his skull in deliberation before finally giving in. "Alright then, you've convinced me." He smiled as he looked at her."You're rather good at that, you know."

Sally smiled as well, relieved and hopeful that he would forget about his outing. She slipped her hand back to his and held it tightly. She wouldn't ever forgive herself if something happened to him.


Poor Lenora - she got stuck in the wrong Holiday world, huh?

Thanks to kreugermyerslovergirl for helping me with some ideas 'n stuff. Hopefully will have more time to write on this thing soon.

deviantart (Imaginary-Shadow) is the place for all the good pics! I should hopefully be uploading some of Lenora soon. :3