Author's note: Warning for cursing in this chapter. I typically don't swear myself so I often feel the need to apologize for even the mildest of language. Just because my characters say something doesn't mean I do. Keep that in mind, please.

And I'm really sorry for not updating like I should, on any of my stories (sorry FNAF: Warehouse fans). Like the other half-million writers on this site, I blame school. I love learning and I value my education; however, that doesn't mean I completely love all the work that goes into it.

Chapter 5

Welcome

The gatekeeper liked solitude. He didn't often socialize with the other monsters in town.

He liked his neighbors but it sometimes got tiring seeing the same faces (or lack of, in some cases) every day for multiple centuries. He was perfectly content with staying in his little shack reading a book.

Books were relatively plentiful in Halloweentown and it was pleasant to "meet" new beings through the stories. Granted, he wasn't actually talking to the characters, but still. It was like meeting new people whenever he wanted! There was an odd joy to living vicariously through fictional characters.

Such interesting people...

Heh… The irony…A bird who was a bookworm. Or was he a bookworm who was a bird? Did it matter?

He wasn't antisocial by any means, just simply not interested in talking about the same thing every day. That's not to say he didn't like a conversation when someone stopped by.

Thankfully, All Saints Days were always slow. It gave him time to catch up on his recent book before starting a new one he managed to snatch from the Real World. However, he couldn't concentrate on it properly.

Why? Because Jack had asked him to keep an eye out for the new arrival.

How exciting. Someone new. And he would get to meet her first if she came through the front gates.

He hadn't gone with the rest when the bell tolled. That would be deserting his post. But he did overhear some of the monsters when he let them back in.

A Skeleton. Personally, the gatekeeper was hoping for another Beast, like Glen, Sabine, or himself. However, a Skeleton was intriguing. There weren't many in town—

…

The gatekeeper stopped short at that thought.

Actually, it was strange…but as he thought about it, there weren't any skeletons in town besides the Pumpkin King. How had he never thought about it? The Hanged-men weren't actually skeletons and couldn't function properly without the Hanging Tree for very long. It was hard to tell at times, but they were really made of painted wood. Living Puppets similar to Sally, which is why they got along with the Ragdoll so well.

The gatekeeper absent-mindedly reached up a shiny black foot to scratch his beak with a claw while flipping the page, pretending to read once again. He glanced outside and looked back down again.

He did a double take so fast his neck almost made him a Mayor copycat. That would be annoying to fix, never mind slightly painful. Broken necks tend to do that…

How long had she been there?!

The new arrival was outside. She was standing so still and her stick-like form blended into the landscape so well that the gatekeeper almost didn't see her. She actually startled him (not scared of course!) well enough that he almost fell out of his chair.

He liked to lean back dangerously on two of the legs.

Thankfully for his Halloween Citizen pride, she wasn't standing right outside his window. He'd never hear the end of it if an untrained newcomer managed a (little) shriek out of him.

She stood down the bridge-like path that lay between the graveyard and the town. She was pacing nervously and kept glancing toward the gate.

The humanoid bird monster frowned. His sharp bird eyes could see that she was limping, rather badly at that. Yet she trying to ignore it? Doesn't she know walking around like that is simply asking for it to get worse? After all, everyone knows dead people shouldn't feel pain so when they do, they should most definitely PAY ATTENTION TO IT! Honestly...

The gatekeeper watched, careful to keep himself out of sight.

The skeleton looked back toward the graveyard which housed the entrance to the Hinterlands she must have just come from. She then looked back at the town gates nervously, weighing her options.

She shuffled for a second then hesitantly turned around and started walking away. She only got a few steps before halting and looking over her shoulder at the feeling of someone watching.

The gatekeeper ducked, suddenly feeling inappropriately adolescent as if he was a child caught stealing candy. He cursed himself (sanely keeping any of his magic out of it—that would be a mess) and counted to three before peeking out again.

She hadn't seen him.

It took Anna a lot less time than she expected to calm herself down.

She was still freaking out, of course. After all, how would anyone react after waking up as something they knew they are not?

Whatever she was now, it wasn't human.

"Just breath," Anna muttered to herself as she continued to pace along the path. Physically, breathing didn't even seem to do anything. At all. Nothing is the slightest. But it was helping psychologically.

What was she supposed to do now? After walking for what seemed like hours through those strange woods, she managed she get her panic under control in time to realize that the weird orange sun was getting higher. She had been able to walk in a straight line just because she could keep the sun on one side of her, but it would be harder to tell whether or not she was going in circles if it got right above her. She could get completely turned around and not even realize it.

Whether by pure luck or God actually keeping an eye on her, just as she was starting to be concerned about the noises coming from the dark shadows in the trees behind her, she stumbled into a wrought iron gate. Painfully. Can bone bruise?

She hopped over the almost laughably short gate and hurriedly stumbled her way down the visible cobblestone path.

She didn't really take the time to look at the scenery but she did pass a weird hill. Was it a hill? It reminded her of the top of a frozen yogurt cone. What was frozen yogurt?

It wasn't long before a town came into view.

Such an odd macabre collection of shapes. It was all jam packed together to make a cartoonish mash up of creepy shadows dangerously balanced atop a hill surround by a circular canyon. There was a bridge of land that connected the hill to the surrounding landscape.

….Nope...

Anna squashed the itching impulse to investigate the town in lieu of her newfound paranoia. She needed to figure out how to deal with these new emotions before she made any potentially stupid decisions. Still, there was a weird need she felt, an instinct telling her it was more dangerous to walk away.

Meanwhile, the bird-man watched her dilemma from afar.

When the skeleton made a couple more glances and stepped closer toward where the Hinterlands were, he decided that was enough.

Jack gave him clear instructions. "Let her come in on her own free will, but don't allow her to go back to the forest." There was more, but that was the gist.

Sneaking out the door that faced the town so she wouldn't see his movement, he quickly darted to the nearest wall, passing a dozing zombie band.

James, the sax player, cracked an eye open and looked at him wearily.

"What's digg'n birdy?"

"I'll dig you another grave if you keep calling me that," the gatekeeper murmured. With a single motion he jumped high up on the wall, shape shifting and shrinking down. He landed on the perch as a normal looking raven, complete with a distinctly less humanoid body, sharper beak, and pinprick beady eyes.

"Caaww. I'm going to ask you to move to another wall freaks. New arrival's here. It'd be best if town square was empty for a while." He flapped his wings with emphasis, lifting into the air about a foot before coming to rest back on the wall.

"What's with the wardrobe change?" Jimmy, the tall accordion player, asked with his baritone voice as he roughly nudged the bass player, Jim, awake.

"I need to get her into town and given how this morning went, Jack doesn't think she'd react well to monsters yet."

James scoffed then grinned in the friendly-yet-somehow-malicious way only a Halloween Spirit can, "Well the lady'd better learn."

The gatekeeper chittered in agreement. Taking a few second to make sure the band was moving out of sight, he flew off. He passed over the gates high in the air, but not before making a detour peck at Jack's study window insistently. He did not stay to check if he was noticed.

It took barely half a minute to fly to the new arrival.

Anna saw the shadow he cast on the ground and looked up in surprise. She hadn't seen a single animal since she'd woken up in that place. She stared at him for a moment. She seemed to be doing a lot of staring recently, not that she really had any past memories to compare an idea of "recently" to.

Her eye sockets followed him as he flew overhead.

The gatekeeper landed on a wall next to her and ruffled his feathers.

"Caw!" he rasped.

Anna furrowed her brow. Animals usually didn't come close to people like that, especially wild birds.

She turned away, looking at him out the corner of her black eye socket, not that the gatekeeper could tell, and continued walking away from town.

She jumped when the raven suddenly flew in front of her and landing right where she was about to step. It looked at her with big emotionless eyes.

Anna frowned.

She couldn't deal with this now.

"Gah!" she shouted, throwing her arms up lightly, afraid of accidently throwing them out of her arm sockets and down the chasm on either side of the bridge, "Go away! Shoo!"

The bird looked very unimpressed somehow.

"Raaarh!" she yelled taking a step toward the weird bird in another attempt to scare it off.

The raven's chest puffed out sharply before deflating. Almost as if it was sighing in exasperation. Or disappointment.

Or both…

Anna didn't like the idea of being judged by a bird, of all things.

Anna was sure she was imagining it, among numerous other things, but she could almost see the bird smirk and roll its eyes at the same time. It was ridiculous, but of all the emotional and sanity-destroying things that she was suffering, an intelligent bird seemed the least of her problems.

"Leave me alone," Anna said, giving up much sooner than she wanted to. Her voice was dulled. She was so tired… And she still didn't know where to go. She didn't want to go back into those woods but the town she had found was suspicious. Too convenient. Far tooconvenient. Especially after seeing that skeleton. Was that a whole town of them? Did she get kidnapped or something? Hallucinating?

She skirted around the raven.

It turned its head to watch her but didn't move its feet at first. When its neck could turn no more, it hopped around to face her as she passed.

"Stupid bird," Anna muttered but it came out as a shaky whimper much to her displeasure.

"I wouldn't go that way," a voice suddenly said from behind her.

The teenager jumped nearly two feet in the air clapping a bony hand over her mouth to stifle her cry.

She landed hard on her bad ankle and collapse to the ground with a pained shout. And a hissed swear.

Or two…

"O-oh dear..." the gatekeeper muttered in concern. He didn't mean to cause harm. That was never the intended outcome of a scare, intentional or otherwise.

Anna looked around for whoever had snuck up on her, her eyes darting around warily, though someone outside her own head would only see her sockets and brow arches moving. She zeroed in on the gatekeeper but he only tilted his head and squawked.

The skeleton was trembling slightly now, but forced down a breath and glared at the bird.

"Was that you?" she accused, really not expected an answer.

She didn't get one.

"Didn't think so," Anna muttered and got to work picking herself up.

The gatekeeper watched warily. He tilted his head.

"What?" Anna said. "Did you just say something or not?" She winced and gripped her foot, looking shocked when a small bone fell off into her hand.

The raven hopped closer, eyeing the bone and suddenly puffing up his feathers anxiously. He swallowed.

Anna tested her weight on the foot and grunted in pain. She gingerly sat back down.

Okay, forget the gentle route. She was going to hurt herself much worse if she didn't get to town soon where someone could keep an eye on her.

"…Yes..."

The skeleton froze. Very slowly she pulled her eyes up from her foot to stare at him with wide eyes.

The gatekeeper—

"AAH!"

-braced himself…yeah. That's what he did. Not jump a foot in the air.

"Bird talk…you… I can't…no.. WHAT?!"

"Yes yes. I'm a talking bird. But let's get past that for a moment. Are you okay?"

"I WHAT no…bird—the heck going…I'm crazy! YOU'RE A FREAKING TALK—."

"Shut up." He snarled with the terrifying, biting tone he spent decades perfecting.

Anna yelped then shut her mouth as the breaths she had been forcing herself to take caught in her non-existent throat. Her teeth clicked together sharply at the force of her jaw. That's fine; words didn't seem to be working for her anyway.

The gatekeeper waited for a second before speaking again. "Let's try that again. Forget I'm a bird for the moment. Are you okay?"

Anna blinked but answered hesitantly, "…It…kind of hurts…" She murmured out the words like a whimpering child.

"I would think so," the gatekeeper said, "Proper dismemberment takes practice."

That just added to Anna's confusion. "What are you? Um, w-who are you?"

"Never mind that! Where do you think you're going?"

The skeleton looked at him with squinted eyes as if she wasn't sure if she was actually talking to a bird.

"I don't…know…," she admitted slowly, "Home I think?"

Well, that was somewhat depressing.

"Well then you're going the wrong way," the gatekeeper pointed out. "The town's this way." He gestured over his shoulder with his beak.

The skeleton looked behind the talking bird dubiously.

"That's…home? There?" Anna asked, nodding toward the macabre looking collection of structures.

"It can be if you'd like," the gatekeeper said even though the skeleton really didn't have much choice.

"And you live there." It was a statement, not a question.

"Yes. And there's someone who could help with that pesky little appendage of yours. It hurts, doesn't it? Come with me."

The skeleton shifted and clicked her teeth together again. "Well I don't know what else to do," she whispered.

"Would it help if you got some answers? I might have some if you're willing to hear them," the gatekeeper said. He flew up onto a rock so that he was eye level to her.

The skeleton crossed her arms and looked at him suspiciously. "I-is t-there a particular r-reason I should listen to a talking crow?"

"Raven," the gatekeeper corrected a little snappishly, "And I don't see anyone else around here."

"I saw someone else earlier," Anna said reservedly, words now working properly, "A-and just because I don't see anyone else doesn't mean I should just trust you. I usually don't talk to strangers or animals, and you're both."

"Doesn't change the fact that I have answers," the gatekeeper pointed out, "You can still decide whether to trust me or not after you hear what I say." He held up a wing like a finger. "However. There are some other people who would like to meet you and they'll have better answers than I can give."

The skeleton turned toward him, "I don't know if this is some kind of trick."

"Don't worry. The treats come in equal quantities of the tricks," the gatekeeper joked.

The skeleton pursed their lips, not understand the joke, "I can't know if you're…going to eat me…or something."

The gatekeeper couldn't help it. He laughed. And he laughed hard.

"O-oh! That's a good one!" he coughed, "Miss, you're more likely to eat me on any given day."

"Sounds feathery," Anna muttered.

"It would be. No offense but you're not exactly appetizing yourself, being all bone. I'd rather stick to mealworm pie."

Anna grimaced, "You said you had answers. Where am I? This doesn't feel like something I could just come up with completely in my mind."

"You're not hallucinating. This is real. Somewhat. And this place is called Halloweentown."

"Hallow-?" Anna shook her head.

"I promise; someone will have more answers if you come back to town with me."

"I still feel like this is a trap of some kind." The skeleton glanced at the bone in her hand.

"I'm sorry you feel that way. But I assure you, you can leave anytime." He looked at her pointedly. "But not until after we get a look that foot of yours looked at. Can you walk Miss?"

"Yes…sir…" Anna said and slowly got to her feet using the rock as support. The way the raven had spoken struck a chord with her.

She thought that it would be easy for someone who wished her ill will to say she could leave whenever she wanted; however, the fact that the bird had set a boundary of "not until after we get a look at that foot" had added a sense of truth. Rather backward logic but it made sense to her.

She accidentally dropped the bone from her foot.

"Pick that up," the bird monster said not bothering to be polite in that instance. It was important. He gestured to the bone that was knocked off her ankle. "You need it."

Anna didn't seem to like being told what to do but she complied, gripping the small piece in her hand. She tried very hard not think about what exactly it was she was holding. At least it wasn't her jawbone, though perhaps that would hurt less.

It was slow but the gatekeeper flew with Anna toward to the town. He flew in circles in the air in front of her to keep himself moving, all the while answering some questions she had.

"Who are you?" Anna asked.

"I'm the gatekeeper of the town. I let people in and out when they want and keep track of who might be outside."

"That's how you found me?"

"Well, my post is that little shack right there," the Raven flew ahead to land on the guard booth for a second before coming back.

"Oh. H-how did I get here?"

"Er…that question's a little more complicated. Someone else should answer that in town," he deflected.

Anna frowned, "I'll h-hold you to that."

The gatekeeper noticed she was still nervous and confused. He waited for her next question.

They didn't speak again until they were almost at the gates.

"I don't know how I got here but….when I woke up…"

"Yes?"

"There was…someone else."

"That'd be Jack. He went to find you earlier," the gatekeeper explained.

"Jack. He's a….a…"

"Skeleton?" the gatekeeper prompted.

Anna looked at him. "And what am I?"

"A skeleton. You're a Skeleton monster."

"A monster?" Anna's eye sockets widened.

"We're all monsters here Miss."

"…." Anna was completely silent as she tried to process what that meant, "I don't understand."

"We're here!" the gatekeeper said enthusiastically when they stood right before the gate, not hearing Anna's last mumble. "Welcome to Halloweentown!"

Anna jumped back when the wrought iron gate rose with a clanking sound.

She looked over to the guard booth the bird had pointed out earlier to see the little raven standing on top of a lever he used to raise the gate. His weight pushed it down.

"Well? Come on then," the gatekeeper said, flying out the booth's window and toward the strange fountain in the center of the town square.

Anna stared after him before steeling herself and ducking under the half-opened gate.

That was weird. Why was it his job if he could only open it halfway all the time because of his weight? Surely, they would put someone much larger in charge of a job like that.

Anna limped toward the fountain, tripping over badly paved cobblestone a few times. Stupid unwieldy-near-weightless body.

The first thing that struck her was just how small the fountain was. The pool wall barely came up to the middle of her shin and she could reach the top of the statue with her hand. Actually, everything seemed out of proportion to her. Even the bird seemed smaller that he should be.

The raven, Anna was feeling the inclination to give him a name, squawked loudly to get her attention, his loud, spine-tingling call obnoxious in the silent town.

Anna froze, thinking someone was going to come out of the houses. No one did. She wasn't sure whether or not she preferred if no one showed up. It was unsettling. The quietness.

"CAW!" the bird 'shouted' again, more insistently this time. He hopped on the rim of the fountain harshly, his sharp little talons making a sharp clicking sound on the stone. "Come. Here, please. Caw."

He cringed. Dang it. He hoped his transformation would be slower and let him keep his voice longer. But he was tired from scaring all night. He didn't have enough power to keep his voice intact. The timing was terrible. He needed to tell the skeleton what to do. Where the heck was Jack?

Anna tilted her head in confusion but a quick glance around and she was sitting herself down on the edge of the fountain, wondering what that weird bird was going to do next.

"I can't believe I'm taking orders from a bird," she thought.

However, all he did after making sure she was watching him was lean down and peck some glowing green water.

She tilted her head, confused and in physical pain, but no longer overly nervous.

The gatekeeper noticed this, pleased that he wasn't sensing much of an undercurrent of panic from her.

"You thirsty. Have drink."

"Um… are you alright?" the girl asked, the bird's suddenly broken English confusing her further.

He tried to say "fine" but it came out as a screechy rasp that just worsened the bewilderment.

There goes his voice.

Now if only he could get her to take care of her ankle before anyone came out and got too excited about seeing her.

He couldn't blame anyone if they got enthusiastic about meeting the new monster. New arrivals were few and very far between. In fact, the gatekeeper himself was practically bursting at the seams trying to resist introducing himself properly.

It was too late for that anyway. He could say bye-bye to his voice until he got some proper rest.

She looked at the water with a lost expression. She didn't understand that he wanted her to drink the fountain water. The spell the witches put on it gave it magic healing properties. It would likely be better for her to splash some water on her foot but he wasn't sure how to mime or tell her that without tipping the skeleton's fragile state of calm. Or tipping himself into the water.

He hopped again and bent down to drink an exaggerated gulp of the slightly slimy water.

"I'm…not thirsty…" Anna murmured, still trying to wrap her head around…everything. But for the moment she was focusing on the sentient bird who suddenly was unable to say anything she could understand. Was he messing with her? Testing her?

The bird pecked the water again.

However, Anna wasn't sure about drinking anything that glowed. "Seriously. I think I'm fine."

The bird let out a noise that sounded somewhat like a groan and looked at her.

Anna frowned again. She didn't like that look. She didn't know what it meant but-

SNAP!

Before Anna even had a moment to process it, the raven had jumped up and flown over her head before dive bombing straight into the ground. Hard.

The skeleton surged to her feet in horror (yet another strange emotion for her). She didn't get far as her balance caught up and she stumbled.

The bird just killed itself! He broke his own neck! What even…

Then much to a very surprised Anna's confusion, the bird flopped around for a second before scrambling to his feet. His head hung from an obviously fatal angle. Almost upside down.

Anna's eye sockets were almost impossibly wide as the black bird sloppily flew up and dived again, straight into the fountain.

"Wait don't…" the word tumbled out as Anna turned toward the fountain to rescue the bird and tripped. She fell against the fountain wall and clacked her chin against the stone painfully.

She pulled herself up with a wince and got a front row seat to watch the water immediately around the floundering bird glow brighter and with a silver hue before there was a sick crackling sound as the raven's neck knit itself back together.

All the while the bird only looked excessively annoyed. Not in pain.

Anna rubbed her chin and blinked as the bird stared at her pointedly.

"Do you want me to help you out?" Anna whispered, still horrified by the display.

The bird nodded.

"Er. Okay. That was…very strange." Anna commented as she gingerly reached into the water and pulled out a waterlogged ball of blueish-black fluff. "I take it you were trying to tell me the water will make my foot better?"

The raven didn't even give her a response. Instead, it hopped off the wall, completely fine, and began walking toward the gate, trailing water and heavy wings behind him. He stared sullenly ahead as if she had purposely made him break his own neck and get wet.

Where did he leave his dang book?

"Something I said?" Anna said. Should she follow him?

"Hee hee. That was a show," a voice laughed behind her.

Anna shuddered and glanced up, way up, to see the same skeleton she ran from earlier. She tried to scramble to her feet, the slight dredges of panic from before rising to the surface.

Quickly Jack leapt down from the top of the fountain where he had been perching without the bird or Anna's notice and squatted to her level.

"Alright that enough miss!" Jack said sternly. "I'm not going to hurt you." He put a hand on her shoulder to keep her from getting up. "Please. Let me help."

"Y-you," Anna stuttered. When the heck did she get a stupid stutter?! She swallowed, "What are you? Where I'm I? What just happened?"

Wait. Why was she asking? Didn't the bird already answer those questions?

"If you please, one question at a time," Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out a crystal vial. Keeping one hand on her shoulder lightly, he reached over her and dipped the vial into the water, filling it.

Anna swallowed, her eyes wide, "What…what happened to me?"

Jack didn't answer immediately, "Here." He handed her the vial. "Did you lose anything?"

"I don't have anything." Great. She was confused again.

"Any bone pieces. Did anything fall or break off," Jack explained, not unkindly.

Anna hesitated, then slowly opened her hand to show the other skeleton the bone that got knocked off her ankle.

Jack pointed to a place on her foot and gestured for her to place it there, "Good. Now pour the water over it. It might sting a little. I'm not really sure."

"Sting" was an understatement. It burned, like a cooling burn. But it hurt enough that Anna whined a little. After a second the burn subsided along with the previous pain.

"Are you alright young lady?" Jack asked.

Anna nodded and bit her lip, making scratching noises with her teeth, "Thank you…sir. My question?"

Jack sighed, "First, what's your name?"

"…Anna. Annalise Grisholme," she muttered, dread filling something where her heart should have been, "I'm…I'm not alive anymore am I?"

"No," Jack admitted, "I suspect you knew that already."

"I was walking…and…I had a lot of time to think," Anna said. "And it…it made the most sense…."

"Well!" Jack said, suddenly standing up, "No use moping about it Miss Grisholme. I'll introduce myself now if that's alright."

Anna blinked, caught off-guard by the sudden switch in the personality of this weird man…skeleton. "O-okay?"

"My name is Jack Skellington and it's a pleasure making your acquaintance Ms. Grisholme." He offered his hand like a gentleman and shook her hand politely.

Anna half expected him to kiss it…That would be weird.

"Just Anna is fine," Anna said, "Where is this place. T-this isn't...Heaven. Right?"

Please let it not be…

Jack laughed, "I should hope not. Though I supposed to some it is a Heaven of sorts. But no Ms. Anna. This is another place for very special people when they die. A second chance. Of sorts."

"Oh," she looked down in utter disappointment. Then what did she do wrong?

"Nothing."

"…Did I say that out loud?" she whispered.

"Yes. But you needn't worry my dear! You did absolutely nothing wrong. And if Heaven is where you were expecting to go, then you'll be pleased to know you will go there eventually. Just not yet. However, there really isn't reason to rush. This is a rather splendid place. I'm sure you'll grow to like it here."

"What makes you so sure?" It may have been a rude thing to say, but Anna was too tired to bring herself to care.

"You wouldn't be here otherwise dear."

"Ah."

Jack waited for a minute, but when it seemed she had nothing more to say-for the moment at least-he decided it was best to move on.

"You must be tired, Miss Anna."

"Maybe. Is that possible?"

"Very. Let's find you somewhere to rest shall we?"

The skeleton man offered the skeleton girl a long bony hand and lifted her to her feet.

After having a moment to calm down, Anna seemed to remember how difficult it was to judge the effort needed to move a near weightless body.

"Woah!" she gasped as she pitched forward from the momentum. Her feet gave out from under her and she fell.

Luckily, Jack expected this and caught her by the armpits.

"Easy there. Easy there. Don't try so hard." He held her up as she struggled to put her legs underneath herself again.

"I-I swear….I c-could've sworn I just spent a few hours walking around. I-I had this down."

Jack chuckled. "Word of advice? Try not to think too much. And give yourself time to adjust. I'm sure you'll remember after a bit of rest. Take it slow. There you are! Excellent!"

She wobbled a bit but otherwise standing rather well.

"One step at a time now, miss. Follow me."

"O-okay."

"Splendid job! Keep going."

She was walking again, though now frustrated as to why it was harder than before. She gripped Jack's arm tightly, feeling the bone underneath his clothing.

She didn't know this creature. This man. She didn't want to trust him very quickly. But at that moment she didn't have anything else to lean on. Literally.

After making sure she could walk in a straight line without much thought, she let her focus shift.

"Where are we going Mr. Skellington?"

"Just Jack, please. And we are going to the witches' shop."

"Witches?!"

Jack didn't seem to notice her concern and continued. "Yes. As I recall, they have an extra room I feel they would be willing to let you stay in for the time being. At least, until we can figure out your permanent accommodations."

"Uh okay. What would permanent accommodations be?"

"Well, most likely someone would offer to let you haunt with them. Roommates, so to speak. Later on, we may actually build you a house of your own if you wish. After you've grown accustomed."

"Haunt?"

"Pardon?"

"You said 'haunt'. What did you mean?"

"Well, we can't exactly 'live' anywhere now can we?" Jack grinned.

Could he do anything but grin?

"I-I'm still not entirely sure…"

"Sure about what?"

"…This isn't a dream?"

Jack was silent for a long moment as they turned off the main street and down a cul-de-sac.

Anna feared she had angered him. Such a bizarre feeling. Fear. There was something horribly unfamiliar about it, but the longer she was awake the more…understandable it felt.

"You needn't be so worried Ms. Anna."

The teenager blinked and glanced downward in embarrassment.

"This isn't a dream. And neither of us can change that fact I'm afraid. However, I think you might feel better adjusted after some rest. I understand you must be exhausted. Speaking of, here we are!"

Jack stopped in front of a two story building so suddenly that Anna accidently walked a few steps ahead of him before she could follow his lead.

She found herself edging behind him as he strutted up to the door and opened it without even knocking.

"Wait! Shouldn't you knock?" Anna gaped at him.

Jack laughed –a strange, somewhat pitchy cackle that seemed very characteristic of a skeleton—and shook his head.

"My friend, if everyone knocked before walking into a store we'd never get anything done!"

…Word to live by…or, rather, "haunt."

It was then Anna noticed the wooden sign hanging from a rod above their heads and the "WE'RE CLOSED! GO AWAY AND TAKE YOUR NONSENSE WITH YOU!" sign hanging from the door.

Jack held the door opened for her and closed it once they were both through. A tiny bell rang above the door.

"Ow." Anna hissed as her skull lightly bonked against the door frame. It appeared she was a bit too tall for the room. That was new and bizarre.

"Are you alright?"

"Ye-," Anna cut off as she got a look at Jack. He was taller than her! He was slouched to keep his head from brushing the ceiling, by habit apparently, as there was actually just enough room for both of them to stand straight without a problem. His stance was obviously precautionary and it spoke about many other (painful) encounters with shorter things. It was…funny.

Jack looked surprised at her involuntary snort of amusement and cracked a knowing smirk to put her at ease when she straightened in mortification.

"Jack! Can't you bloody read the damn sign!? Wha-." The creaky female voice stalled as the owner entered from behind a curtain that separated the store front from the rest of the house in the back.

The tiny witch (in Anna's eyes) stared for a moment, then turned on her heel and shouted into the house with a voice disproportionate of her stature.

"Helga! Jack brought the newcomer! Get the pot! We need to get dinner started now! We have all the ingredients!"

"What?!" Anna squeaked as she jumped behind Jack in panic. Was the witch speaking of her?!

The two monsters stared at her for a long moment.

Then they both burst into raucous laughter.

…

Anna wasn't having the best of days.