The window was open when Phrixos woke up again. He blinked in the light, unravelling his arms that had been wrapped around his sides. Had to get out of that habit now.

The room's other occupant was gone, and, luckily, it was a Saturday morning. He got up; working the stiffness out of his limbs, sleeping against the wall had to stop too.

Checking for his bag, Phrixos found it in the same place as last night, next to the bed. He pulled open the zipper, revealing its contents. Pausing, he brought out a hardback blue book, his journal. It hadn't been touched since he arrived at the asylum, and it shocked him to read his entries again, it all seemed so simple in writing. But he couldn't drift on these memories too long. Time to update. He fished around for a while, looking for a pencil. Finding one, he got ready to write on the paper, but stopped suddenly. What could he write?

Hi, just got out of the asylum, in school, oh and by the way, I think I'm gonna have a fit.

Yeah right. Not after the last entry, something about his science project on plants, of all the…

He needed something subtle, yet strong enough to explain his situation.

Phrixos pondered a while longer, then smiled slightly and began to write. His pencil hovered uncertainly sometimes, but never for long. He always had been original in school. Better start making use of it.

A soft knock on the wooden door. Phrixos looked up, his eyes wide in shock. He'd forgotten his room-mate.

"Erm…" he started, but the door opened before he could finish.

A girl, the same age as him or younger, deep red-auburn short hair, large brown-caramel eyes, quite small but not so lean, with small square glasses. She blinked a few times at the by huddled in one corner of the room, then smiled.

"Hi, I guess you're Jack."

Phrixos rolled his eyes, not here too.

"Phrixos. Why does everybody call me that?" he muttered quietly. The girl laughed and answered.

"Laura told me to call you that until you told me otherwise. So, Phrixos?"

He nodded, stuffing the journal back into the back with disastrous results. Paper went flying up, his pencil case fell out one side and he heard the zip strain to hold all its contents.

"And you are…"

She came over, and looked at the overloaded black bag.

"Kemina Johan. Help?"

"What?" he asked stupidly, now pushing it to try and close the ever open zip, not looking at Kemina in the slightest. Suddenly, it exploded. Or at least, it seemed to.

The side split, and everything inside was pushed out the rip, spreading across the carpet floor. Phrixos moaned and rubbed his eyes, annoyed. Not now, please just leave me alone.

"You okay?" she asked, leaning over to look at him.

He shook his head slightly, but sighed and opened his eyes. Kemina was picking up most of the stuff, a neat pile here, and the two pencil cases there. Woah, she was neat. Neat freakish.

"Sorry about that," she said, reading his mind and blushing. "I've got a habit of clearing things up. Crazy huh?"

Phrixos cracked. He started giggling at first then, laughed, before leaning back against the wall. He instinctively wrapped his arms around his sides again, before looking back up at his room-mate, who was currently staring at Phrixos like he had two heads.

Yep, thanks Laura, dump me with the lunatic.

Halloween Town was all a fluster. Jack Skellington hadn't been seen in over a day, and the town's mood had changed from busy to worried. Only 29 days to go, and the Mayor had to still go through his plans with the Pumpkin King. He had started to write them out countess times, just in case Jack wasn't there before Halloween. You never know, he said, something might have happened to him.

Jack, meanwhile, was wandering endlessly through the cemetery, entering the old and forgotten crypts in need of something. Or fruitless searching, he sat down in the arms of an angel headstone, housing the words,

Lina Suzi, died 1998, cause of death: Skellington.

This didn't cheer him up one bit, yet brought his duties back in a flash, he was needed in Town. But he couldn't go, not just yet. Too many places he hadn't looked in, not enough time.

One more day passed, and a yawning Pumpkin King set to work at in the old cemetery, home to the infamous Spiral Hill. It was afternoon and the sun hung in a clear sky, when Jack found her. In one of the deepest crypts, an old woman, with wiry white hair and a face hidden beneath thousand of wrinkles, sat at a rotten, wooden table and snoring loudly.

He strode over, and tapped her on the shoulder lightly. The old woman jerked a little, but didn't wake up. He pushed her arm, same reaction. In the end, Jack ended up screaming in her ear, to which her answer was,

"Waa…h? Who's there? You…you come in 'ere an' I'll give you such a …oh, it's …erm…" she stuttered, not knowing his name,

"Jack Skellington."

"Ah yes! Ha, Jack Skellington, you're the…erm, the…"

Jack rolled his eyes, or rather his empty sockets.

"Pumpkin King."

She smiled, her face crinkling up like old cloth, and her beady black eyes peered from her face like beetles.

"Jack, it's been long, long, long time since I saw you, look how much you've grown!"

This left him stumped, as the last time he had seen her was, well, last Halloween. But that didn't matter right now.

"Yes, Libitina. I need a favour."

"Ah, for you, anything, you know. I'll be of whatever assistance I can, these days!"

She then muttered under her breath,

"Unless it has to do with those…those Boogie's boys. Those little…"

"No, Libitina, it doesn't have anything to do with them. It has to do with…well…the Caber boy." He finished, averting his eyes. Libitina knew all about Phrixos, she was the one that advised Jack to leave him in the Human World to protect both his mother and Halloween Town.

"But Jack, the Caber boy?" she asked uncertainly. "I thought we thought it was best to-"

"I know!" he shouted uncharacteristically. He cursed then said on a far lighter tone,

"I know. But something happened. The Towners know about…Phrixos, I couldn't stop them"

He slumped down onto another chair beside Libitina, his back arched and his knees bent in front of him because of its tiny legs. She could only have been 3 feet tall, though. The woman patted his arm sympathetically, smiling again.

"It's alright. I'll do what I can for him."

Jack turned to face her, his skull expressionless, blank. But then he smiled grimly, and sighed. Being Pumpkin King isn't easy, and he showed it now. Libitina got up, not becoming any taller in standing up, and hobbled over to another room in the crypt. It seemed that she had given it extensions, or at least built it that way for living. Her frail and tinny voice rang out and echoed on the stone walls,

"I'll make some tea."