Author's Note: Happy Saint Patrick's Day, everyone! I hope everyone had fun in their green today. I want to add to it with a brand spankin' new addition to the story. First off, Tim Burton, Danny Elfman, Henry Selick, Disney, and Touchstone Pictures are the people and companies behind the original film. Capcom is currently working on a follow-up to The Nightmare Before Christmas that will let us play as Jack. Speaking of the devil, I think it's about time we found out who he was. (Re-edit Comment: I loved coming up with all of the bohemians for this chapter. Such a shame I could only use them for so little time. Oh well.)

Some people are never quite happy with what they have. Even if he or she excels in most of the things he or she does, there is always something else calling to them. Jake Skelly was one of those people. He lived a life anyone in the 1960's would have envied- living in New York City with a group of artists and bohemians and waiting for his call to stardom. That call did come, just not from the source he expected it from.

— Henry Cadaver

October 25th, 1966

A warehouse is not the kind of place one would normally expect to find life bustling and flurrying about. Then again, there was nothing normal about this warehouse. For one thing, it had been abandoned years ago and had only just been remodeled into a kind of communal pad for a group of artists not known in Manhattan yet, but they were all convinced one of them would get a big break. Their warehouse was large and very spacious with enough room to fit anyone who happened to join the group. It was also located in Chelsea, a neighborhood that just seemed to attract talent. And mail. A lot of mail came into this warehouse today, which was quite unusual.

"Whoa, a whole stack," said a girl wearing a paint-stained smock as she walked to the door of the warehouse with a mail slot and noticed the mentioned pile on the floor. "I hope these aren't all bills," she continued as she picked them up and began to seek the recipients of the mail. Fortunately, one of them found her first.

"Mary!" exclaimed a girl with a short haircut and a folder dropping pieces of paper. "Is that today's mail?"

"You're excited about this one, Laura," said the artist as she began to pick out envelopes.

"I've been waiting for The Lounge to mail me. They can't have a feminist poetry slam without me, can they?"

"I guess not," Mary said as she picked out an envelope that had The Lounge's address and gave it to Laura.

"Yes!" Laura exclaimed, dropping her folder, which completely let go of the pieces of paper inside. "Oh no! That's my new work!"

"I'll help you pick it up."

"It's ok, I'll take care of it. Go give everyone else their mail, it looks like a lot of yeses in there," Laura said as she started picking up poetry papers. "Oh, and watch your step. Jake's been leaving his gym mats around again."

"I swear, it's like he has his head in the clouds sometimes."

"Sometimes?"

Mary giggled at Laura before she resumed her search. There was the Beatles cover band affectionately known as the Roaches. Mary gave their lead singer, a dead ringer for Paul McCartney, a letter informing them of their next gig. Then there was Amir, the snake charmer. He was supposed to entertain for a Indian banquet in the Plaza. Mary was about to give him the letter when he had his cobra snatch it out of her hands. She gave him a good smack on the head for that and went on to find the others.

There were Ricky and Lola, Cuban magicians who were scheduled to perform at a Bar Mitzvah, at least, that's what their letter said. There was Pierre, the mime; his letter informed him of a performance in Central Park in two days. Vadin the fire eater got a ticket to Bali for a fire eating festival. Adrian had his own upcoming poetry night, in the Apollo Theater of all places. Mary had her own letter inviting her to a gallery and asking her to mingle with critics. All that was left was Jake's.

She looked everywhere for him. Mary checked his area, room if one could call it, and found only that the pair of rings hanging from the ceiling were still swinging back and forth. He had been there alright. Mary figured that if Jake wasn't on the rings, he was probably on the roof of the warehouse. She climbed all the way to the top, and that's where she found him.

Jake had fallen asleep as he lay down on the rooftop, staring at the sky. He was still in sweat pants and a t-shirt from what Mary assumed was his earlier training. His black hair was a mess, probably from the workout and the sleep, and his arms seemed to make a nice pillow for his head. Mary took this all in for a second before she called out his name.

"Jake?" Mary asked, receiving only a snore in reply. "Come on, Jake, wake up." Jake didn't budge, not until Mary told him what she had. "I have a letter for you. It's from the Broadhurst Theatre."

"Oh, really?" Jake asked slyly, opening one of his brown eyes slowly.

"Get up, lazybones," Mary said with a smirk on her face.

"I'm not lazy," Jake said as he got himself up. "I had a great workout today. I sang most of the score from West Side Story."

"Shouldn't you be working on your routine? You know, the one that could get you into the Olympics if you actually trained for it?"

"You know gymnastics is only a way for me to pay the bills. Same with your waitress job over at the Broadway diner."

"But you're actually good in the air. You're less of a klutz twirling around on your rings than walking."

"And I'm even better at singing and dancing. Speaking of which, can I have that letter now?"

"Say please, Jake Skelly."

"Please, Mary, Keeper of the Mail?"

"Here."

Jake tore into that envelope as if he had not eaten in weeks and the paper was a steak. He almost ripped the letter in half before he could read it. Mary watched Jake's eyes dart from left to right before he lowered the paper from the rest of his face, revealing a wide grin. This was good news, very good news. So good that Jake crashed into the staircase door before remembering he had to open it to get downstairs and tell everyone the news.

Mary knew Jake's behavior down to the very last detail. In less than ten minutes, he would call the entire troupe together and announce his news. In a few days, he would come back, dejected by another rejection, and go back to his rings and routine until the next audition for a musical came about. Poor guy never seemed to think being a natural athlete was enough for him. Mary seemed to think so; then again, Mary thought very highly of Jake, not that he noticed, unfortunately.

By the time Mary caught up with Jake, she saw how right she was. Everyone was in the warehouse common room. The Roaches sat together and discussed writing their own original songs one day while Laura and Adrian read each other poetry. Ricky and Lola sat together on a gym mat with Pierre pretending to sit in the air behind them while Vadin and Amir tried to outdo each other with snakes and fire. They all circled around Jake, who waited for Mary to settle herself next to Laura and Adrian before he started.

"Sorry to take you all away from your work, but I have really big news," Jake started.

"Here it comes again," one of the Roaches mumbled.

"Now, I bet you're all wondering where I've been during the day. See, I've been sneaking out to the Broadhurst Theatre to sing and dance my way to stardom. I've been practicing new songs and learning choreography, and mooning some people occasionally."

"Mooning people?" Mary asked. "Jake, where is this going?"

"Well, I'm sure you've all heard about the new musical opening up at the Broadhurst. It's called Cabaret. I'm one of the top choices for the narrating role of the Emcee. It's between me and someone named Joel Grey. This letter is for Joel and I to go in for one final audition, in front of the producers and writers themselves. One of us will be the understudy, one of us will be the star."

"He doesn't have a chance, Jake," Laura said.

"Knock 'em dead," Adrian added.

"I haven't told you the best part yet. The audition's on Halloween."

"Man, you live for Halloween," Amir said. "Isn't that your lucky day?"

"Has been for twenty-six years, I doubt that'll change now."

"Ricky, lend him one of your tuxedos," Lola said to her partner.

"No, I couldn't," Jake said, looking a bit uneasy.

"What will you audition in, gym clothes?" Ricky asked as he got up. "I'll find you one right now. Excuse me, Pierre," he told the mime, who got up from his 'chair' and let him pass.

"Jake, why don't I show you something," Mary said to the fidgety gymnast.

"Take your time," Jake said before coming in close to her right ear. "As long as I don't have to wear a tux longer than I have to."

"I think you'd look nice in a tux. You always want change, don't you?" Mary asked him quietly as they walked away from the celebrating group.

"Yeah, but until they invent a suit I can do back flips in, I'm not going to be too happy about wearing one."

"You can be so stubborn," Mary said as she led him to a canvas covered in cloth.

"Is this your new one?" Jake asked.

"It sure is."

"Ok, you have to let me see it now."

"Promise not to laugh."

"I swear."

With an apprehensive sigh, Mary took off the cloth. The painting was of a beautiful landscape. It was very green, as if Jake had just stepped into a forest. The sky was filled with puffy clouds, which cast shadows on some areas of the painted forest perfectly. Jake was taken aback by how pretty it was. Mary definitely knew what she was doing when it came to art, that was for sure. However, before he could compliment Mary on her work, Ricky had returned with the tuxedo. He dragged Jake away to try it on while Mary helplessly watched and covered her painting again.

"There, perfect!" Ricky exclaimed as Jake stood in front of a mirror with the tuxedo on. "Lola, he looks like a movie star."

"Si, muy guapo," Lola said as she peeked at Jake. "That means very handsome."

"Are you sure?" Jake asked as he noticed how his arms and legs seemed to be longer than the sleeves and pant legs.

"You say that because you're not used to it," Lola said as she gave Jake a pair of gloves. "Here, these always add a nice touch."

"I appreciate this, really, I do," Jake said as he got a close look at the gloves. "Lola?"

"Si?" Lola asked.

"Why do these gloves only have four fingers?"

"Que?" Ricky asked as he snatched the gloves. "Lola, these gloves are defected."

"They are?" Lola asked as she grabbed the gloves and saw that they only had four spaces, one for the thumb and three for fingers. "Esto es muy raro."

"Yes, very strange," Ricky said before looking at Jake. "Sorry about that, of all the gloves I picked out I got defected ones. I must have missed that detail when I bought them."

"It's alright. I think I'll go gloveless anyway," Jake said with a slight chuckle.

"You'll make it work. Lola, I think the sleeves and pants need extensions for him," Ricky said.

"They do. Well, better change so I can fix that up for you," Lola said to Jake before turning to Ricky. "And you should double-check the gloves you buy for your tuxes."

"Si, amor," Ricky said, blushing.

Jake changed out of that tux as fast as he possibly could and left to search for Mary. He never got to tell her how beautiful her painting was. Speaking of that painting, he came across it not long after he got out of the tux fitting. It was covered with the cloth again, and Jake decided to lift it up for another look. He got more than he bargained for.

For one thing, this was a completely different painting. It was of a tree trunk with a grinning jack o'lantern on it. Jake was about to put the cloth back on it had the jack o'lantern not opened like a door. If that wasn't strange enough, a figure came out from that tree trunk. It was a pale blue man who appeared to be dead for quite a long time. Jake dropped the cloth on sight of him and was going to call for Mary until the figure in the painting began to talk to him.

"I thought you liked art," he said.

"Whoa, am I freaking out?" Jake asked himself.

"No. I'm just visiting you."

"Do I know you?"

"Not yet."

"Not yet? What do you mean by that?"

"What do you think it means?"

"Stop messing with me. I'll call for Mary, she'll paint over you, if you exist."

"Oh, I exist," the corpse man said before switching the subject. "You live with strange people, don't you?"

"How do you know that?" Jake asked, feeling more scared by the minute.

"I know a lot of things, Jake. If you think where you live now is strange, just wait until Halloween," the corpse man said.

"What's going to happen then?" Jake asked.

"You'll see."

"Tell me!"

"Jake?" Mary's voice asked.

"Mary, you've got to see this," Jake said as he turned to Mary.

"I've seen it already, Jake. I kind of painted it," Mary said as she walked towards him.

"No, I'm talking about-" Jake started before looking back at the painting.

It was the same landscape from before. There was no tree trunk, no jack o'lantern, and certainly no dead man. Maybe the incoming pressure from the audition was actually getting to Jake. He even laughed at himself to calm down. Talking dead man from a painting? Jake smacked his forehead and sighed, that was too much even for him. When Mary asked his what was funny, Jake stopped laughing and told her he was just thinking of something Ricky had said during the tux fitting. Mary was about to leave when Jake remembered why he had looked at the painting again in the first place.

"Mary, you did a really good job. Can you save that painting for me? I want to buy it when I get famous and hang it in my house."

"You don't have to pay for it, Jake. I'll give it to you," Mary said.

"I promise, when I'm a star on Broadway, I'll get you in scenery. We can work together."

"I'd like that," Mary said as she started to walk away.

"Rooming with Laura tonight?" Jake asked, noticing she wasn't heading to her room.

"Yeah. The ceiling in my area caved in again. This place is a mess."

"We'll fix it up one day."

"Or move to different houses."

"We'll keep in touch though, right?" Jake asked.

"Of course," Mary said as she looked at him for a few moments. "Go to sleep, you're getting philosophical."

"Alright, alright," Jake said as he made his way to his area, passing Vadin on his way.

"Hey, Jake, congratulations on your audition," Vadin said, blowing out a spurt of fire. "Let me know if they need pyrotechnics."

"I will, Vadin," Jake said. "Are you ever going to teach me how to do that?"

"After I get back from Bali, I promise," Vadin said.

"I'll hold you to that," Jake said as he kept walking.

When Jake got his room, he fell back on his mattress and stared into the ceiling, emptying his mind. Well, he would be if that dead man would stop appearing in his thoughts. Who was he? Then again, Jake wasn't altogether sure he wanted to know. He turned over and looked at the script for Cabaret he had left next to some sporting magazines and books. No. He was not going to let some imaginary dead man keep him from going to that audition. Jake Skelly was a dreamer, not a coward. The world was going to know his name, he would make sure of that.

Present

Everything seemed to be going well for Jake. His roommates were like his family and supported him in all he did. He was up for a large role in a Broadway musical set to premiere. Even if that didn't work out, Jake could have made it to the Olympics simply on what his body could do. Jake was very talented, but only meant for one thing. However, it was in a completely different existence than the one he knew.

— Henry Cadaver