Disclaimer: i don't own rights to NBC.

Chapter Eight

The New Pumpkin King

"Order! Order everyone please!" The Mayor banged his hammer on the table, desperatly trying to quiet down the anxious residents.

"Order!" In his excitement, he felt the stools spindly legs slide out from beneath him. The ground came rushing up to meet him, and with a terrifying crash which echoed thorughout the hall and silenced the chattering, he hit the stage floor. Now feeling rather flushed, he uprighted himself and his stool, and climbed back on.

"Terrible news folks!" he cried out. "Terrible terrible news!"

"What is it? What is it?" chimed the witch sisters.

"Our beloved Pumpkin King. He who leads us and guides us very Halloween. Jack Skellington...is gone!" With a dramatic cry of despair, the Mayor threw his quill in the air and fell forward over his meetings book, sobbing. A gasp of horror ripped thorugh the Town Hall and each resident burst out with angry cries.

"Where is he?"

"What do you mean he's gone?"

"What shall we do?"

Calming himself, the Mayor sat up, unaware of the ink dripping down his pasty cheeks. "No one has seen him for days! He has left us!"

"That's not true!" Sally could contain her frustration no longer and her voice cut off the Mayor's wails. As heads turned towards the back of the Hall to look where she was perched in the Hanging Tree, Sally felt a burning sensation in each of her cheeks. All eyes were on her.

"J...J..Jack wouldn't leave us. He loves this town." Heads nodded in agreement. Spurred on by this, Sally lept deftly down from the Hanging Tree's branch and wlaked up to the stage. "Something must be wrong. He would never leave his role of Pumpkin King without making sure we had someoone to take his place.And it hasn't been days Mayor," she added, turning to where the fat man sat writing what she was saying, "it has only been two nights. But even that is long enough. He'd never leave you in charge that long on purpose. We must go looking for Jack."

"But what do we do in the mean time?" asked the Clown with the Tear Away Face. "We need someone to lead us."

"You're right." agreed Sally. Turning again to the Mayor she asked, "What does the Town Charter say?"

The Mayor's ink stained face lifted from the pages of the minute book long enough for him to reply. "I don't know. I haven't looked at the Charter for 100 years, no-one has. We haven't needed to. Jack knew what needed to be done and when."

"Well where is it? Go find it. Read it."

"It's out the back, in the Records Room." With this, the Mayor slumped back down onto the page.

"Fine. I'll get it." Sighign, Sally headed over towards the curtain that seperated the Town Hall from the Records Room. On her way past the Mayor's seat, she muttered "Pathetic little man."

Jack was back in the room he first woke up in. His chians had been shortened and now the bowl of water was further out of reach. Dust was tickling his throat. He'd long given up tyring to reach the water. Which ever position he tried sitting, the bowl was always juts out of reach, and if he stretched to far, jolts of pain shot thorugh his arms and shoulders as the chains held him in place. Standing up, Jack wandered over to the window. Though his view was limited by the size of the window, Jack could just about see the edges of Halloween Town behind Spiral Mountain.

The shock of seeing his "heir", as Oogie put it, still hadn't worn off and he wondered if the Town was missing him yet. Or, more importantly, if Sally was misisng him. He longed to see her and hoped whatever plan Oogie had, it left her out of it. The sound of a key rattling in the door snapped Jack out of his thoughts. Turning round, he saw Shock entering his cell. She eyed the bowl of water on the floor.

"Not thirsty Jack?"

Holding his head high, Jack refused to answer.

"Then you won't mind if i take the bowl away then?"

"What do you want Shock? Surely you haven't come just to taunt me have you?"

"Oogie's ordered me to bring you some food." She held the plate she was carrying in the light and Jack could see it was crawling with bugs. "These are Oogie's favourites." she smiled slyly at him as she placed the plate on the floor. "Don't sneer Jack. If they're good enough for Oogie, they're certainly good enought for you." She allowed herself a small giggle before leaving the cell and locking the door behind her. Hungry though Jack was, he hadn't stooped low enough to eat bugs just yet.

"Besides," he muttered to himself, "they're out of reach."

Sally pulled out the last drawer in the rusted filing cabinet and flipped hopelessly through the files.

"Where is it?" she muttered under her breath.

She'd been searching for the Town Charter for over two hours now and there was still no sign. It didn't help that this room wasn't really a room. It was more like another hall, full to the rafters with filing cabinets, desks and cupboards, all full of scrolls dating back thousands of years. The room was so full that the records for the past ten years had been stacked against the wall. And none of them were in any order.

"Dammit!" Sally slammed shut the drawer, sending clouds of dust billowing thorugh the air. Coughing. she turned to the rows of cupboards. There were seven of them in total, each strecthing the length of the hall. And in each row there could hve easily been 15 cupboards. Sighing, she reached for the spider shaped handle of the first door. As she pulled out the first stack of scrolls and carried them over to the Raeding Desk, the door creaked open and in waddled the Mayor.

"Sally?" he called out into the gloom, "Sally?"

"Yes Mayor? I'm over here, in Row One of the cupboards."par par The Mayor lit a rusty lamp and carried it over to where Sally sat, elbow deep in yellowed, old scrolls.

"What's taking you so long my dear? The residents are restless."

Sally glowered at the little man before her. "What's taking so long? Finding the Town Charter among all this is taking so long! Why haven't you ever organised this place?"

"There's been no need to. Until this year we've never had to refer to the previous year's Halloween statistics to set our targets. Jack's always rememebred what they were and how to better them."par

"But what about the Town Charter? Didn't you ever think that one day you might need it?"

"Oh I know where that is". Huffed the Mayor, waving his hand dismissively.

Sally dropped the scroll she was reading. With a sudden lunge, she letpt of the chair, grabbed the lantern and shone the light into the Mayor's face. "The where is it? I'm rapidly losing patience with you Mayor. Jack needs our help and here i am, wasting two hours looking for somehting when you knew eher it was all along!"

The Mayor's face spun round and his miserable eyes looked up at Sally. "All you had to do was ask! Of course I know eher it is. It is the most important scroll in all of Halloween Town! Do you think that i would really lose it? If you would please stop shinging that light in my eyes I will go and find it."

Slumping back in her seat, Sally apologised and gave the Mayor back the lantern. He disappeared into the gloom and came back a few minutes later wheeling a step ladder. Sally watched as his large bulk tenderly climbed the spindly steps and wondered how they seemed to support him.

"Look, it was here all along." Grinned the Mayor, holding the lantern so Sally could see the frame that was hanging off the wall. Inside the frame, protected from the dust by glass, was the Town Charter.

"Silence everyone! Order please!"

Back in the Town Hall, The Mayor wished once more that the whoever made his chair had made it a bit more sturdy.

"Order please!" Straightening his spider tie, the Mayor began to read from the appropiate section of the charter.

" Paragraph Nine, Section Thirteen.

The role of the Pumpkin King is a great honour, however, if

the holder of this role no longer wishes to have this responsibility

then he must provide Halloween Town with an heir.

This heir must have once been a blood relative

and willing and able to take over this highly demanding role

and must harbour a deep love for our Horrible Holiday.

The Town itself will decide on whether or not this heir is worthy of the title

of Pumpkin King.

If no heir is found or provided, the Town must nominate and elect a new

leader, from the residents of the Town.

Once this new leader has been offically crowned Pumpkin King,

then the blood line of Pumpkin King shall begin again.

By Order of Jasper. J. Skellington,

First Pumpkin King of Halloween Town.

Witnessed and Signed by Mayor P.White,

First Mayor of Halloween Town."

There wasn't any sound in the Town Hall when the Mayor had finished reading. Each of them was thinking about who to nominate for the role of Pumpkin King. Sally, back sitting on the Hanging Tree's branch, wondered if Jack had any family members left who could continue the Skellington blood line. As far as she was aware, he was the last. He never mentioned anyone else.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of Halloween Town. There is no record of anyone else on the Skellington Family Tree after our dearest Jack. Therefore, we have no option but to stick to the law of the Chertser, drawn up thousands of years ago, and elect a new leader from one of us here today. We must think about the qualilities that Jack possessed and decide if anyone you know of possess simialr qualities. If you believe you know of someone who could handle the responsibility of the Pumpkin King..."

A sudden large crash sounded at the back of the Hall. Many residents screamed and the witch sisters flew into the safety of the rafters. When the screams and the cries of the corpse kid died down, everyone slowly turned to look at the doors. The Mayor crept from where he had hidden behind the curtain.

Standing in the moonlight was a silhouette Sally immediatley recognised.

"Jack?" she whispered. par par The figure walked slowly towards the stage. Several gasps of astonishment echoed thorughtout the excited residents.

"Jack?" The Mayor timidly crept towards the edge of the stage. "Jack! Welcome back!"

The skellington stopped and gazed down at the Mayor. It's eyes flashed red as it grinned evily. Slowly, the Mayor began backing away, towards the curtain. "J...J...Jack?"

"I am not Jack you stupid little man!" Bellowed the skellington. It's loud, booming voice cut thorugh the silence in the Hall. Turning towards the residents, it spoke again. "My name is Jerod J. Skellington. I am Jack's heir." He paused briefly to let this news sink in. "And I am your new Pumpkin King."

A/N: ok...please let me know what you think of this chapter...and the name i chose for Oogie's fake evil Jack. I spent hours and hours deliberating over what to call him. And i know Jerod is David Bowie's characters name in Labyrinth, but i really couldn't hink of anything else! Read and review please.