Important: Alright readers! Here is chapter 14 but, it's a two-parter. The original chapter turned out to be more than twice as long as my normal chapters are and I didn't want to have to make you guys read that much lol! So I apologize if this chapter seems a little boring but that's because it's half of the real chapter 14. Also, I plan to post the second part around Wednesday so be on the lookout for a fast update!

Anyway, that's the end of my little author's note so on with part 1!

A few weeks had passed and it was now the dawn of the twenty-first of October, ten days before Halloween. On that particular morning, Amelia finally had a quiet, sound sleep the night before. But when she would awake, the peace would be shattered from something she never expected.

"Amelia," Jack whispered to her sleeping form, "wake up."

"Nnn…" She moaned a little in protest but reluctantly, she blinked her eyes open. They widened in surprise as she found the Pumpkin King's face merely inches away from hers. A bright red blush spread across her face.

"Wah!" she shrieked in surprise and suddenly found herself falling. Thankfully, she landed safely on her bed that was just a few feet directly under her. "Wha? What!? Wait what!? What just happened!?" she looked up to the tall skeleton man confused, still a little flushed, and hoped that he would provide some answers.

As always, Jack smiled his signature grin from would-be ear to would-be ear.

"Happy sixteenth birthday Ami!" she shouted enthusiastically. "And judging by the fact you were floating above your bed in your sleep, your full powers have arrived!"

"Oh is that all?" she was still in shock. Suddenly, a thought struck her.

"Wait…how did you know today was my birthday?" she quirked an eyebrow in suspicion.

"I uh," Jack had momentarily forgotten that she didn't know he had followed her the night she sang on Spiral Hill and overheard her state when her birthday was. "Well," he cleared his throat as he avoided eye contact. "Santa Claus!" he suddenly shouted.

"Huh?" she looked at him dumbfounded.

"Yes, yes! You see, a while back before you came to Halloween Town this summer, I realized I didn't know when your birthday was! And since I didn't know if you were the type who hated their birthday or not, I just asked good ol' Sandy!" he beamed.

She rolled her eyes.

"You know, you could've just asked me. I'm not that type of person." She then absentmindedly glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner of the room. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"It's a quarter till ten! Why did you let me sleep in this long!?" she threw her covers off as she sat up and started to get out of bed, but a bony hand on her shoulder prevented her from doing so.

"Ah, ah." He shook his index finger disapprovingly. "You can stay in bed as long as you like. It's your birthday!" he smiled and removed his hand, "What better present could you give to yourself than a relaxing day off?"

"But the Mayor will have a panic attack if I'm not around to double check things." She protested.

"Double checking for the hundredth time you mean?" he arched an eyebrow and crossed his arms.

"Well…I just want to make sure everything is going to go well for the big celebration. It's only ten days until Halloween you know!" she pointed out.

"I know you've been around the Mayor much too long." he chuckled, "Don't you worry. I'm going to take care of everything today. You can trust me." He beamed as he placed his skeletal hand over his would-be heart. "I am the Pumpkin King and I have been doing this for far longer than you've been alive."

"But—"

"Ah."

"But!"

"Ah."

"But I!"

"No Amelia." He spoke with a certain sternness which could only belong to that of a true ruler. "Today is your day, and you need a break."

Of course, everyone in Halloween Town knew that when Jack spoke with that tone of voice, his word is final.

He walked over to her door to exit but turned to face her once more, "And don't you worry about the Mayor, or anyone else for that matter. I'll handle everything and you just enjoy your most well-deserved day off." With another one of his signature grins, he then exited the room to leave the young sorceress in peace.

"Well," she finally said after she had stared blankly at the doorway for a few moments, "Sleeping in past eleven won't kill me." She giggled and got back underneath her covers for another relaxing slumber.

When the birthday girl finally did get out of bed, she found that she didn't have much to do while she was alone in Jack's house. Since she didn't plan on going outside for a while, she wore her normal human clothes which consisted of blue jeans, average run-of-the-mill tennis shoes, her hair done up in its normal ponytail, and a black t-shirt with a smiling jack-o-lantern on the front.

The first thing that came to mind to cure her boredom was to play the piano in the practice room down the hall. She hadn't set foot inside after she had sang the unintentional duet with Jack. So since she was eager to sit down and practice, she walked to the room at a brisk pace, but with a skip in her step from happiness. As she opened the door and stepped in, she realized something she had never noticed before.

"No way…" She breathed in surprise when her gaze fell upon her reflection in the wall of mirrors. "This is…This is where that crazy dream took place! I can't believe I didn't recognize it until now!"

She looked up and there was the exact same chandelier as pictured in her bizarre dream. The only thing that was different between the two places was the black-painted piano nearby.

"I dreamt of a place that actually exists? That's never happened before…" she said as she walked over to her favorite instrument and glided her hand along its precisely carved edge.

"Oh God I hope I'm not psychic!" she blushed furiously but then shook her head to banish the unwanted thought. "I'll just practice now…get my mind off of things."

She sat down on the wooden bench and lifted the cover on the piano. Lightly, she placed her hands upon the keys and gracefully began to play a slow, dream-like song. It had no words, only beautiful notes, lovely chords, and a gorgeous rhythm. As the song began to come to a close, her movements were slow, light, and on the last note she gently struck, its sound softly faded into a serene silence. A small smile graced her lips as she placed the key cover back down and stood up from her seat.

Whimpers and whines where heard from a spectral mist that appeared out from the piano. It was the little ghost dog with the bright, jack-o-lantern nose with a happy smile upon its face.

"Zero!" She grinned in delight, "Did you like the song?"

The transparent canine nodded his head and barked joyously. He then flew back and forth over the front of the musical instrument and looked up to the young sorceress.

"Oh, you want me to play again?" she asked.

Zero bobbed his head up and down excitedly and then floated over to the top of the piano to watch.

"Alright." Amelia giggled in amusement.

She sat back down and lifted the key cover. Her hands hovered slightly over it as a look of slight puzzlement overcame her features.

"Hmm…What to play…" she then grasped her chin in thought, "Oh! I know you'll like this one!" she placed her hands in the correct position over the keys and began to play, and sing, a very familiar tune.

Boys and girls of every age,

Wouldn't you like to see something strange?

Come with us and you will see,

This our town of Halloween.

This is Halloween! This is Halloween!

Pumpkins scream in the dead of night!

This is Halloween! Everybody make a scene.

Trick or treat 'till the neighbor's gonna die of fright!

It's our town, everybody scream!

In this town of Halloween…

She continued to sing as her fingers danced across the keys, playing out the theme song of the famous holiday in which they lived in. Her ghostly companion watched with a grin of enjoyment and tilted his head from side to side in time with the beat. For the rest of that morning, Amelia played and sang many familiar tunes and was continually encouraged and motivated by her ever-loyal friend. Zero was sad when she stopped, but her fingers had started to cramp and that was a clear sign that she needed to take a break. Once her hands had recovered, she spent the most part of the afternoon drawing the spectral canine, much to his delight. She completed several pencil sketches of him, including one of when he had fallen asleep in his basket with a candy-cane under his chin. Why the Halloween Town dog had something Christmas related, she wasn't sure but she was fairly certain it had all to do with Jack and his strange fetish with the winter holiday. Because the young ruler wanted to enjoy the most out of her day-off, she chose to be lazy the last of the afternoon and into the evening with the pleasure of a rare, long, peaceful nap. When she awoke, the Pumpkin King had returned from the day's errands but was hardly tired at all, quite the opposite of what poor Amelia felt when she came back from her hectic, every-day schedule.

"How did everything go today?" she asked Jack when he walked into the living room.

"Everything went…" he paused, put his hands on his hips, and eyed his heir to the throne, "You're not wearing your normal sorceress get-up."

"Well," she scratched her head, "I hadn't planned on going outside today so I thought I'd wear some of my normal clothes."

"Ah, I see. Well to answer your question, everything went splendid! Exactly as it should and I'm certain we'll have no troubles at all this Halloween." He proudly reported.

"That's great news!" she beamed in joy, and relief.

"By the way," he held his hands behind his back and walked just barely past her, "I ran into Alucard today."

The princess's eyes went wide as she gulped in slight fear.

"It seems as though you two are still an item, is that true?" he asked as though it was a perfectly normal question.

"Erm…yes." She poked her index fingers together for she had hoped she would've been able to avoid this confrontation.

"Amelia, over a month has passed since you decided you would end things with him." He turned to her with a stern expression and crossed his arms, "You know that's not good at all."

"Yes." She lowered her head a little as she stared down at her feet, ashamed. "I made a promise to you and I intend to keep it." She then looked up to him with a certain seriousness that even took him slightly by surprise, "You have my word."

He closed his eyes and smirked, proud of what she had said and how she addressed the matter.

"Good." He opened his eyes as he continued to smile down at her. "I know I can trust you." He ruffled her dark blonde hair to break the stern atmosphere.

"Hey." She giggled and playfully batted his hand away as a grin of her own spread across her face.

Uh oh, Amelia is stalling! But she just swore that she wouldn't break her promise. What will happen now? Why can't the second part be here already!? Well don't worry! I guarantee that it will be here sooner than you think! As long as I get reviews lol! Don't worry, either way it'll be here in a few days! Keep a look out! :D