The casino was not in a very nice part of town, but then again, this wasn't a nice town to begin with. The bright lights and pastel paint of the exterior was a cheery facade that was quickly removed once one stepped into the main hall: the inside was dark with neon paint and blacklights had replaced any normal lightbulbs. Patrons gambled at tables or slot machines, unaware of the dark dealings that happened behind closed doors. The casino was owned by a gangster, called Augustus the Nighmare, and he was notorious for handling his own dirty work.
Augustus had enemies. And the enemies were always dealt with. But he was getting old, slipping into habits. It would be his downfall.
"Come on," the crime lord said, spreading his arms open as he sat behind his desk. "You kill me, you won't get paid."
The man holding the gun sneered.
"That's why I got to those boys holding your accounts. I'm gonna get my severance pay and then some once you're gone."
"And once that runs out? My heirs won't hire you back."
"You and your power," the gunman spat. "You think you're untouchable, but you're not: I'm going to put a bullet in your head and you are going to die."
Before Augustus could say anything more, his attacker pulled the trigger.
"Dad, it's just a short meeting about my job for Halloween," Jack protested.
"A Skellington always looks his best when the Pumpkin King calls for him," Marcus said. "And Hauntor Boogie is very particular about appearances."
The young skeleton muttered something very unflattering about the boogieman, but fell silent when his father gave him a stern look. Jack was being dressed in an old brown suit with a simple necktie. The clothes were too big for his skinny frame, but it was all they had for him in terms of formalwear—he had grown out of his last suit.
It had been two years since Jack's arrival in Halloween town and Marcus marveled at how things had changed: his son had been settling into his new life rather quickly, though he was a little uncoordinated with all the growth spurts he'd been having. It had been just a metaphorical moment ago that Jack was a child and now he was quickly getting ready for the first haunting.
"Well, this is a good as it's going to get," Marcus sighed, rising unsteadily to his feet. Jack turned around and looked in the mirror, frowning at his reflection.
"I look like I'm drowning in fabric."
"Mr. Boogie knows our state of living. He'll be impressed that you even tried."
The younger monster made a face. He and his father lived comfortably, but they almost never had the time or money to obtain new things: working in the pumpkin patch was time-consuming and meticulous. For someone of his age, it was a difficult reality to live with when he saw all the things that other townsfolk had that he didn't.
The ancient clock chimed and the old skeleton sighed, the breath whistling in his ribs.
"Time for you to go."
The old leaning tower near the edge of town was not a very welcoming building: it was unaesthetic and in a state of disrepair. It's current owner, Hauntor Boogie, hardly used it other than for his office space. Jack felt very small standing at the gate, but swallowed his fear and moved up to the doorstep where he rang the bell.
"Enter."
Through the door and up the stairs the young skeleton went. Up to the very top of the tower, where the Pumpkin King sat at a desk, looking over several blueprints for the upcoming Halloween.
"Hello sir," Jack said.
"Mister Skellington. You're a little early," the large sackcloth creature commented, not looking up.
"My father said it was worse to be late."
"Well, Marcus and I might not see eye-to-eye, but at least he understands that much."
Jack knew the Boogieman was understating the situation: his father had come into conflict with the Pumpkin King on more than one occasion. Hauntor Boogie seemed to think that because Marcus was a pumpkin farmer, his opinion was naive and would never be the correct course of action. This frustrated the old skeleton to no end and his large quantity of patience seemed to shrink drastically when it came to the ruler of Halloween.
"Do you know why you are here?"
"Yes sir. It's my first Halloween Haunting assignment this year, and I need briefing."
"Very good. As the Pumpkin King, it is my job to organize the different monsters into groups and give them specific tasks. For your first year, you won't be given too difficult a job—"
The bell screamed, making Jack jump and the Pumpkin King look up from his notes.
"Who's there?" he boomed, his voice easily carrying. "It had best be an emergency—I'm in the middle of a meeting!"
The voice of Doctor Finklestien came through the door and up the stairs, faint with distance.
"Hauntor, you need to get down to my lab! It's happening!"
The Bookieman immediately stood up and moved down the stairs, throwing open the door to glare down at the mad scientist while Jack peered down the stairs curiously.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yes," the doctor hissed. "Do you take me for a fool?"
The larger monster didn't answer as he raced down the steps and out of the gate. Dr. Finklestien sighed in exasperation and looked through the open door at the curious white face looking down at him.
"What are you waiting for boy?" he barked. "Get out here and help me get back to the lab. I don't want to miss this."
"What is it exactly?" Jack asked as he came down the stairs, taking two at a time.
"The next Boogieman is arriving."
By the time the young skeleton and the Mad Scientist made it to the lab, they found the door flung open and no sign of Hauntor Boogie. They went up to the lab and found the Pumpkin King standing in the middle of the room, staring intently at a small ball of light that was near invisible in the light of the Jack-o-Lantern sun. The orb seemed to be flitting over a series of cages stacked in the corner of the room.
"What's that?" Jack whispered. "What's it doing?"
"It's a human soul," Dr. Finlestien explained in an equally hushed tone. "It's looking for the proper body to anchor itself to."
The light hovered over one of the cages before it suddenly zoomed across the room and hit the small body of a dead bug lying on the floor. The insect jolted before it began frantically wriggling in what was probably panic.
"You two, leave," the pumpkin king ordered harshly , moving forward and capturing the bug in his stuffed hands. Jack immediately retreated, a little intimidated at the sudden change in the boogieman's voice, but the scientist was far slower to do so as he wheeled himself out the door.
"Throwing me out of my own lab," he grumbled. "One of these days, I'm going to tell Hauntor Boogie exactly what I think of him!"
"I still don't understand what just happened," the young skeleton remarked, helping the mad scientist roll down the spiral walkway.
"You just witnessed the beginning of a monster's life. Be grateful: I've been in this town for a long time and that was the first Arrival I've ever witnessed."
"So..." Jack tried to wrap his mind around that as he shook his skull, "that bug...it's just now alive? Like the spiders that roam the pumpkin patch?"
"By the Devil, what has Marcus been teaching you boy?!" Dr. Finklestien exclaimed. "Insects and animals, they make it to town through unknown means. Monsters have to have human souls to anchor them here and give them intelligence—however little that may be. The creature that just Arrived was a boogieman: the core creature he chose just happened to be an insect."
"Core body?"
"A boogieman isn't just air under the sackcloth: he's made up of all kinds of creatures, usually related to the body where their spirit resides. This means it is rather difficult to destroy one as they protect their core creature rather zealously."
"So this new boogieman," Jack began, "will be a bag full of bugs?"
This question made the doctor laugh before he confirmed those suspicions.
"But you must not let Hauntor's heir know that you understand what he is under the cloth," the scientist warned. "An angry boogieman is not one to trifle with. They may be lazy, but they never forget an insult and are far more twisted by nature than most other monsters dream about."