Author's Note: Ding dong, the bug is dead! That means everyone can add to their stories, even me! Once again, The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of the spiffiest films ever. It came from Tim Burton's brainmeats as a poem, so it has a right to remain spiffy. Its spiffy music came from Danny Elfman, who is a master maestro. It was brought to the public by Disney and Touchstones Pictures. They were pretty spiffy once, but now, not so much. Now, the uber-spiffy Capcom is making a game based on the film and its characters. There, both the disclaimer and my fascination with the word "spiffy" are over and done with. Story time! (Re-edit comment: Spiffy spiff spiff! I just love that word.)

"Homicidal kids you say?" Doctor Flaherty asked Billy. "How do you know they were homicidal?"

"Oh, they were, Doc," Billy said as sweat began to appear on his forehead, "but I'd rather get to them after I tell you what happened before that."

"That's fine with me."

"Ok. When I was thirty-two, I got stuck taking care of my sister's kids again. They were too old to trick-or-treat, twelve and fifteen mind you, so they threw a party. Now, Doc, you know as well as I do that I was never too good at Halloween parties."

"I suppose not."

"With my sister leaving me to chaperone, she might as well have canceled the damn thing. Mr. Unlucky showed up right in the middle of it and I nearly tore the house apart trying to get rid of him. I kind of ruined the music, the food, the games, and anything that made the party a party. It ended way before schedule. The kids went home all disgruntled, but not before egging my car on the way out. My niece and nephew stopped talking to me for a while after that too. They said they became really unpopular in their schools."

"What a pity. Do they speak to you now?"

"Yeah, but they think I'm crazy."

"I see. Well, carry on."

"The year after that, I was visiting my cousin up north, he and his wife had a baby. Everyone in my family was going, and on Halloween too. It's like a cosmic joke on me."

"Where does your cousin live?"

"New York City. Nice place to go, just not when you're on the run from Mr. Unlucky. I spent the whole night jumping from cabs to subways and then some. Then, he cornered me on one of the bridges, I forget which one. Anyway, I jumped into the river and the cops dragged me out. I was in the hospital with pneumonia for a week. I made it on the news as some suicide case. People sent me flowers and stuff, even Cassandra stopped by."

"Your former love?"

"The very same. She scolded me for not telling her I was in town, then wished me better luck before meeting up with that beatnik husband of hers. It was their anniversary."

"How ironic."

"It's like Mr. Unlucky's rubbing everything in my face. Let me tell you, those little hellions he brought along weren't much better."

Billy- Past

There was no way in hell Billy was leaving the house today. Halloween had been nothing but trouble for him since he was fifteen years old. Every horrible thing in his life that ever took place happened on October thirty-first. Billy knew today wasn't going to be any different. He took every precaution he could take, from calling in sick to work to furnishing his home with bulletproof glass. Nothing was going to get him this time, nothing. At least, that's what he thought.

"This is pathetic, even for me," Billy said to himself as he lay plopped on the couch watching TV. "At least Mr. Unlucky isn't here. Maybe he finally got the clue," he finished as the doorbell rang.

Over the years, Billy developed a reputation for being 'The Crazy Guy who Hates Halloween'. Thus, children in his neighborhood stopped trick-or-treating at his place for at least five years. So, Billy was very troubled when he heard the doorbell. He carefully got up, walked to the front door and looked through the peephole.

Billy could make out three children on his doorstep. The one in the center had a very large, pointed hat, so he couldn't make out the face. Billy guessed it was either a little witch or wizard. One he could make out clearly was the one on the left. A boyish figure clad in red with what seemed to be a tail had to be a devil. As for the one on the far right, Billy could only make out black and white. He looked to be some kind of ghoul, maybe even... no. Billy was not even going to think the word 'skeleton' today.

"Hello?" Billy asked as he opened the door.

"Trick-or-treat!" the three exclaimed.

"Sorry, kids. I don't have any candy."

"WHAT?" exclaimed the boy who was dressed as, yes, a skeleton. "No candy on Halloween?"

"Man, no wonder he's in trouble," the devil boy said.

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing you have to worry about, yet," the witch told him as the three walked inside.

"Hey, you can't just come in here!" Billy exclaimed as the door shut.

"Don't worry. They're with me," Mr. Unlucky said as he leaned against the door, shutting it with his back.

"Oh no. I am NOT going to let you all just waltz in here and take my soul. You get out right now. All of you."

"Or what?" asked the devil boy.

"I'll call the cops on you. Then you'll be known all over the country, the world even! No one will ever think I'm crazy again."

"You don't have candy on Halloween. You are crazy."

"GET OUT!"

"We can't go without you," said the girl as she took off her mask. "Jack said so."

Billy's mouth dropped wide open. When the other two children took off their masks, he knew for sure he wasn't just seeing things. The faces of the children matched their masks down to the final details of nose and eye shape. These were no mortal children. Billy did the first thing that came to mind in this situation, he ran to the phone to call for help. However, by the time he got there, an axe had cut it in half.

"Sorry, we can't let you get everyone else involved in this," said the devil boy.

"Lock! What did I tell you about weapons?" Mr. Unlucky asked.

"Don't bring them unless necessary?"

"You let them play with weapons?"

"Oogie Boogie does. It's a long story I'm sure you'll enjoy hearing along with everything else," Jack said. "Did either of you two bring weapons as well?"

"Well, you know how the living people are, Jack," the witch said with a hint of a snicker.

"Besides, Lock said we could get his soul better if he was dead," said the skeleton boy.

"I knew it! You ARE after my soul!"

"No, I'm not. Lock, Shock, Barrel, you three will either listen to me or go home!"

"Sorry, but Oogie Boogie wants a real soul as a treat this Halloween, and we all know how he gets," the one known as Lock said. "Let's get him guys!"

Billy watched as the three children appeared to grab weapons from out of nowhere. He saw knives, guns, bear traps, arrows, small bombs, and at one point heard a chainsaw. Billy ran upstairs screaming and locked himself in his room only to find he wasn't alone. It turned out that Mr. Unlucky was hiding from the trio as well.

"Those three! I knew I should have checked their pockets."

"Find your own hiding place!"

"I'm terribly sorry for all of this. I should've have known they were up to no good when they volunteered to come with me this year," Mr. Unlucky said as a bomb was heard going off downstairs.

"Who are they?" Billy asked, amazed that he asked Mr. Unlucky a question that actually contributed to a rational conversation.

"Lock, Shock, and Barrel, the best trick-or-treaters in existence. Such a shame they to work for Oogie Boogie though. They are getting no guidance from him."

"Do I look like a shrink to you? Get the hell out of my house," Billy said, regaining his usual anger.

"Not until you have heard what I need to say," Jack said as the soundof the television being chain-sawed in half overpowered his voice.

Billy saw this was going nowhere. His house was being destroyed by three murderers in training who were practicing for him. Mr. Unlucky was still babbling about that thing he wanted to say and Billy knew what he had to do. If he and his house were going to survive this Halloween, he had to make a deal with the skeleton.

"Hey, shut up for a minute," Billy said to Mr. Unlucky. "I'm more than willing to listen to you, but not with those kids rehearsing to tear me limb from limb."

"I guess not."

"So, if you take those hooligans back to wherever you came from, I'll listen to you the next time you show up. No freaking out, I swear."

"Alright then," Mr. Unlucky said as he held out his right hand, which Billy shook in agreement. "Allow me to-"

However, Mr. Unlucky was interrupted by the door being blown up. As the smoke cleared, the trio appeared at the doorway wearing identical malicious grins. They teamed up and tackled Billy with weapons in their hands. Billy was cut up a bit before Mr. Unlucky could grab all three of them, but he was relatively fine. It was when Mr. Unlucky had the three in his custody that he began to worry.

"Remember our deal, Billy," the skeleton said as he disappeared with the three sullen children.

Billy could fix the damage in his house. It was his nerves that needed help. He had arranged to meet this character the next year. No only that, but anything Mr. Unlucky wanted, Billy had to supply, or else. This was perhaps the worst thing Mr. Unlucky had done to William Colby. Instead of just one day, his shadow loomed on Billy's thoughts every single day up until they would have their meeting. Billy would go insane, unless he got help.

Billy- Present

"That's why I'm here, Doc," Billy said. "It's almost time. I'm supposed to meet him in a few days. What am I going to do?"

"Meet him," Doctor Flaherty said.

"What?"

"You made a deal with Mr. Unlucky, Mister Colby. It's never a good thing to back out of a deal, unless it's with the Devil himself."

"But what if something bad happens?"

"Billy, maybe you need to hear what Mr. Unlucky has to say. It might reveal something you've been trying to hold back for years. You need to wake up and live a better life than one in fear."

"Talking to a skeleton will help me do that?"

"In your case, it may be so."

"Well, thanks for listening, Doc. It really helped my nerves."

"You're welcome. You let me know what happens with you and Mr. Unlucky."

"I will, Doctor Flaherty," Billy said as he got up, shook the man's hand, and left the office, passing Rosie on his way.

"About time. It's past closing time anyway," Rosie said.

"I hope I did him good, Rosie."

"You do everybody good, Doctor. Now you have to get home, and so do I."

"I suppose we do. Let's lock up."

Uh-oh. Something's brewing. What does Jack just have to reveal to Billy? Will it involve soul taking? Can it be that maybe, just maybe, this is all in Billy's mind? Only one way to find out, and that's by reading the next chapter. Oh, and I send a huge thank you to the person who pointed out the typo. I fixed it, and thank you for letting me know about it.