Dream a Little Nightmare

By: Laney Sanchez

Note: I've forgotten the disclaimer for the past five chappies, so here goes.

In a dream I had, I visited Halloween Town

Everything was perfect! Normal had gone upside down!

I chatted with Jack and danced with ghouls!

Life was dandy! It was a place without rules.

However, one little item of information left me hurtin'

The whole story of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" belonged to Tim Burton. =(

There you go. Disclaimer ala Poem. However, I own Poe and the "girl", as she has not been named yet

Lastly, thanks go to Amp for the lovely review! I only wish I could write like you! =O

I'm glad you think Poe is darling. He clearly has a lot of his father in him, wouldn't you say? ^.^

( \/ ) Chapter 6 ( \/ )

o A Wish Fulfilled? o

            The darkness had become somewhat of a nuisance to Poe Skellington. It would have been one thing if his father had been with him, but the fact alone that his father had mysteriously vanished, made him very uneasy. He hoped more than a ghoul without their grave that his father was okay.

            Poe allowed a disgusted moan to escape past his mouth, and began to prod the darkness some more with his hands. He felt for something, anything, that would prove useful. Then, it was as if Lady Luck had decided to cut him a break. His hands fell upon something solid, sturdy and smooth. He allowed his hands to run up and down the object before moving them side to side. His hand fell over a new object. This object was small, yet round and rather cold. He gripped it and wiggled it back and forth. To his surprised, it revealed a door, which opened with a small creak from the hinges.

            Poe pushed the door open a bit further, giving him an eyeful of what lie in front of him. The place he had stumbled upon was certainly interesting. He couldn't tell if it was a room, or a junkyard. Perhaps it was both? All around were what appeared to be clothing. Here and there were pants and shirts. Perhaps in this world, it was a custom on Halloween to scatter clothes about? Poe chuckled softly. Now that just seemed silly.

            Upon closer inspection, other items lay on the ground as well. Small, shiny cases with vivid, colorful pictures on the front. Poe reached down and picked one up. It appeared to be created of some sort of glass. He turned it around, eyeing it's square shaped figure. He held it by the edge and read along the line. The words made absolutely no sense to him at all. Then, much to his surprise, a single flap fell open and it opened up down the center. He held it open and marveled at it's contents. Inside was a round, silvery object, which made beautiful rainbow colors when the light hit. It was truly magnificent to eyes that were accustomed to blacks and grays.

            Poe closed the case and decided to keep it with him. It'd make a nice little souvenir for later. In a corner of the room, lay a pile of fuzzy objects. Poe didn't bother with any of them just in case they decided to come to life and pick a fight. On a nearby little table, stood a vase. Inside the vase was the most curious object he had ever encountered. With two fingers he delicately picked it up by it's thin green stem. It was a flower, but a most unusual one. It wasn't in a form of decay, or gray or even a pumpkin blossom. It was a magnificent shade of red that simply made his eyes dance. However, on the stem was a small, rectangular object. He ran his thumb over it, and to his surprise it lit the red petals aglow.  Poe allowed a small gasp to escape from his mouth. He could hardly believe his eyes. Had his wishes and dreams come true?

            Poe set the small flower back into the vase. His skull felt so full. Full with all the little, yet wondrous things he had discovered within the last few minutes. Then again it was full with questions galore. How had this happened? Was it even possible? What if he was dreaming? That had to be it. Perhaps he had fainted when he had walked through the door. Poe considered this until the thought of fainting in front of his father made him feel a little indignant. He was never known for fainting and besides that, he would never dream of doing so in front of his father.

            "Then what happened?" he asked aloud in a soft voice. It was then, that a small noise, not a crash or a bang, from below the room, made Poe snap out of his reverie. It had been his experience (especially when living your life in Halloween town) that odd little noises were better left alone. Usually, it was a ghoul just practicing their scares. On an occasion or two, it had been those little heathens, Lock, Shock and Barrel. However, now that just didn't seem to be a possibility and Poe's curiosity was rapidly getting the better of him.

            He gracefully, yet slowly, crept across piles of clothes and various other items until he left the room. Now he was in a hallway, rather bland, with gray carpet and white walls. The only thing between him and the noise, was a flight of stairs. For a very brief moment, he felt his common sense kick him in the back of his skull. What if this was some sort of trap? It seemed unlikely. After all, who in Halloween town had a vendetta against the Skellington family?

            "Well, this clearly isn't Halloween town, now is it?" he thought to himself. That was that. His mind was set. He'd never know unless he went downstairs. Besides, his options were severely limited at that point in time. He could either stand there forever, twiddling his fingers and toying around with the interesting objects he'd found. Or, there was the option of just going downstairs before whatever it was that made the noise came upstairs.

            "What to choose…?" he muttered softly, and began to descend the staircase.

            Her dreams were always so weird. Most of the time they were simply places, people and things that she knew of mashed together in no particular order. Other times, when they did make sense, they scared the hee-bee-jee-bees out of her. What if they were to become real? She sighed and ran a hand along her forehead to find that it was slightly clammy with a cold sweat. She struggled to remember two things at once that had decided to plague her mind since she had awoken. The first, being, what had happened. She remembered her little crying fit and the Halloween that had been lost to her. She felt a sharp, steady stab of pain to her chest that adhered itself for a few lingering moments. She quickly pushed the thoughts away and moved onto her second order of business that was bothering her. It was her little dream she'd had. In the dream, she was calling out to someone. There were so many faces yelling things at her. The voices came from all sides. Top, bottom, left and right. She couldn't place what they were yelling, because it had all blended into a gigantic blur, like someone had turned on a reality blender and pushed frappe'. She remembered holding out her hand, crying, and then-

 A skeletal face staring back at her.

She blinked, once. Twice. Then one more time just to be sure her eyes weren't being funny on her. She stared at the face, and the face stared back at her. No, it wasn't a face. It was a skull. She slowly closed her eyes. It was okay, because it was obvious that this was still her dream. It was that simple. She giggled lightly. To think she had thought there was a real skeleton staring back at her with…interest? "Right, this is the part where I find out that Creepers has grown to a height of six feet…" she said softly, failing to keep the amusement out of her voice.

She slowly opened her eyes once she had vindicated her initial surprise. It WAS a dream, and nothing more. She smiled pleasantly. "Why hello there six foot Creepers!" she chortled with a cheesy grin. "I suppose you're here to tell me of my impending doom," she said with a brief giggle. As she wiped at her eyes, something caught her line of vision. At her side, lay her favorite little skull doll. The same doll she had purchased herself after seeing that it's little face always made her smile.

The same skull doll she had affectionately dubbed, "Creepers."

She didn't bother looking over, for she knew very much now, that this was not a dream. She had a skeleton staring back at her and it was very much real.