All right, inspiration hit me after I was scrolling through Tumblr and while I was watching The Nightmare before Christmas.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Nightmare before Christmas, nor the theories brought about in this story

*Warning this may be triggering to some people*

Their Time Was Now

Sheryl's POV

"Bobby!" I screamed from where I stood next to Lloyd on the snowy shore. Our eyes were wide as we stared, frozen, in horror as the scene unfolded before us. The massive storm continued to rage on: ominous thunder rumbling, white lightning brightening the dark grey sky, rain pelting down on everyone at the site, and the waves of the freezing cold water rolling.

"Bobby! Grab hold!" Cried an officer as he and a small team waded in a little boat toward a small, rotund boy. A floatation device was tossed to him as he thrashed about in the bitter cold lake, with massive chunks of ice drifting on its surface.

Our short-haired, five-year-old friend struggled immensely to keep his head afloat, but as he did so, water poured into his mouth making him cough. "Come on!" The emergency team shouted from the top of the hill behind Lloyd and I. "Let's go, go, go! Get that boy to shore!" What the hell did they think the officers were trying to do!?

"Bobby!" Lloyd cried next to me, then grabbed my arm shaking me. "We have to help him, Sher!"

"What're you, crazy?" I snapped, snatching my arm out of his grasp, "We'll die out there! Let the officers handle it!"

"Yeah, and look where that's getting all of us!" He shouted back. Our hair and clothes was plastered to our drenched bodies and we glared at each other, before I took a breath and we returned our attention to our struggling friend.

Bobby was losing his strength with each passing moment making it virtually impossible for the rescue team to bring him in. His eyes closed but he still tried with all of his remaining might to keep his head from going under in the raging storm. Lloyd and I watched helplessly from the shore. Things weren't supposed to go this far, not in the least.

All we intended on doing today was some harmless ice skating. Joke was on us this time and the ice was not frozen through entirely. Lloyd and I were able to scramble to safety, but Bobby was not so lucky. We tried to reach for him, but the growing storm caused the waves to push him further and further away from us. I never thought the day would come when I would thank his overly-watchful mother spying over us and immediately calling her husband followed by the rest of the emergency protocol.

"Sir!" I was ripped from my thoughts when one of the officers in the boat called out to the chief, who was now swimming over to Bobby. A moment later, he grabbed onto the floatation device.

"Son!" His breath was ragged due to the immensely cold water he was wading in, fighting to keep his own head above as the waves were not ceasing. Bobby cracked his eyes open and struggled to turn his head to face him.

"D-Dad." He said weakly.

"It's okay, son! It's okay!" The chief extended one hand towards him while the other held fast to the floatation device. "Just take my hand!" Before either of them could make a move, another wave sliced between them, sending Bobby under. "Bobby!" The officer screamed and I felt my heart lurch as I threw my hands to my mouth, my eyes widened and were brimming with tears.

"Bobby!" Lloyd echoed with equal fear in his voice, which rose to the sky only to be drowned out by the loud thunder which shook the world around us.

It pained me to imagine Bobby's small body being tossed around in the dark, cold, merciless depths like a mere ragdoll. The officer was panicking even more, screaming his son's name and trying to push away the water to find him. He began dunking himself under, blindly groping underneath him, but was ultimately hauled back onto the boat by the rest of his team. They struggled to restrain him and finally succeeded, and were then brought back to the cold, grey shore where Lloyd and I, as well as the rest of the emergency response teams, stood.

After a while, the officers managed to bring their chief into the safety of the ambulance where he was treated from the shock and cold as best as the paramedics could in the current situation. Lloyd and I were left on the edge of the shore, where we stood from the moment the ice began to break. Above the rain continued to pelt us, the thunder and lightning slowly fading away, yet the storm of vocals from the top of the hill shadowed in darkness did not cease as easily.

"It's because of those rotten children that this happened."

"They're the spawn of Satan, I swear!"

"It's Christmas Eve and, on this night, a young, innocent boy was murdered because of their foolishness. Let alone, he was the chief's son!"

I just continued to stare at the water lapping at the earth under my black, soaking, muddy shoes. My long, wavy, black hair stuck tight to my purple jacket due to the rain, and water dripped from every inch of my body. Beside me, Lloyd was no better off. Huge droplets hung from his slick, red hair and trickled down his long face. His red coat was drenched and it was nearly impossible to distinguish his red and white sneakers under all of the mud that was caked on them.

"This is all their fault and no one else's." I heard one more woman mutter before the vehicles and crowd departed us.

There we were. Just the two of us: Lloyd and I. Just two seven-year-olds who had just lost their only other closest friend. It was always just the three of us. Sure, we made trouble, but we didn't necessarily mean any harm by it. It was just some fun, little mischief is all it was! But, from here on out, things were going to be different. There was no going back now.

"Come on, Sher." Lloyd said softly as he turned. "Let's go home." After a moment, I followed his lead.

We walked for what seemed like ages, back to the little treehouse we called home. The world around us had not changed in its monotone colors of grey and black since the three of us set foot on that ice a mere few hours ago. A mere few hours ago that everything was completely different than it was now. Out of the three of us, Bobby was the only one who had a family. Mine abused and deserted me when I was about four, and Lloyd's family just up and left him one day when he was even younger than that.

As we walked along the street with our heads bowed, black curtains were drawn in the grey houses, and lights dimmed out. They all knew what we had done. News spread fast in this town, it always did. Neither of us spoke the entire trip. Our eyes were too fixated on the wet pavement under our feet and our minds were too preoccupied by the horrors we had just witnessed. However, Lloyd and I finally made it to our little, grey, wooden treehouse in a moderately-sized black tree, which stood in the midst of a forest near Bobby's home.

We slowly climbed up the ladder and took our place in random spots under the shelter. Lloyd placed his hands behind him and leaned against the wall while I took a seat to his right on the shaggy, light grey carpet we had placed in the center of the tiny walled-in area. The thunder slowly drifted off into the distance and the rain lightened significantly but still, neither of us uttered a sound. We just continued to gaze at the boards under us and I traced a finger, which poked out of my black gloves, in circles on the damp, dull wood. I just couldn't believe it . . . that we had lost a friend whom we'd known for forever.

"Damn . . ." I looked up, startled at Lloyd's sudden voice while he snarled at the floor. "Why'd he have to die. . ."

"Because we're just a bunch of good-for-nothing, mischievous kids who are good for nothing but trouble." I replied looking down.

"We didn't mean anyone any harm, though! Especially to lil' ol' Bobby!"

"You don't have to remind me of that, Lloyd!" I glared at him, "I know that damn it!" He sighed and looked away and I did the same. "Numbskull." I muttered under my breath.

"What did you say?!" He growled before launching himself on top of me. We rolled around on the boards, clawing at each other's' clothes and hair and scratching ourselves in the process as we snarled and fought. Finally, he grabbed a good, firm hold of my long hair.

"Ow! Ow! Okay, okay, okay! Let go, you jerk!" I screeched.

He did so and we sat across from each other, catching our breath. "Look, I'm sorry." He forced himself to say as he looked down, his elbows supported on his kneecaps.

"Yeah, right." I wiped my mouth with my drenched sleeve. "We've always fought since the day we met."

"Yeah, and once Bobby tagged along the day after, he tried to break us up." He snorted mockingly, "And look how well that ended up." His eyes drifted away, "Just ended up in the midst of our bickering."

It was quiet between us again, only the sound of falling rain outside, and the occasional dripping into our treehouse, broke the stillness. Although it was merely minutes, the time seemed to stretch on for hours until I broke it, "What was so wrong with a little fun?" I pouted, hugging my soaked, shivering self.

"Nobody in this town knows how to loosen up." Lloyd added with an equal grumble.

"Only time they all tolerate us a little more than others is Halloween."

"Too bad that can't be all of the time. . . At least, then, our tricks would be a treat for most people."

"Yeah." I was silent for a few more moments before sighing. "It's all my fault that Bobby's gone . . ." I could easily tell by seeing the way Lloyd moved through my peripheral vision, that he was taken completely by surprise.

"Hey, don't say that, Sher."

"But it is! It was my dumb idea to have him go out on the ice first!"

"Nobody is at fault here."

"Then, if you're going to say that, at least give yourself some of the credit, too." I retorted, meeting his warily comforting eyes with my own blazing ones. Lloyd was far from use to comforting anybody. Growing up, he had no one to show him proper human communication. Then again, I was no better off. Only Bobby had it best out of all three of us. And, now, he was gone.

Lloyd's eyes were cast over with their familiar glare and he tightened his fist, "Hey, I'm trying to be a good friend in helping you out in the best way that I can!"

"Well, you're sure doing a fabulous job with that!" We stared each other down for a few moments before relaxing.

The two of us took our places on the cold boards again and sat in silence for another long while. The rain continued to fall and trickle into our tiny shelter until I couldn't take it anymore. I got up and approached an old mirror we had propped up against the wall, and took Bobby's baseball bat that he always kept here and smashed the glass.

"Whoa!" Lloyd immediately sprung to his feet and ran over to me, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, what're you doing? Knock it off!"

I whirled around and he leapt back when he saw me holding a large shard pointed at him. "No. Bobby's gone and it's our fault. I'm not living with this guilt anymore, I can't do it!"

"Easy there, Sheryl." He said cautiously, "You don't know what you're doing. I'm in the same boat as you in this situation. We can get through this together."

I shook my head vigorously. "No, you don't understand! I am not about living a life where I am just stuck with you! It will never be the same way again!"

"Hey! Listen to yourself! Is this what Bobby would want?!"

"Bobby's not here, Lloyd! He's dead!" I placed the glass up to my neck, "And I'm gonna join him. I'm not about to keep on living in a world where absolutely nobody wants us around."

"Sheryl, knock it the hell off!" He seized my arm and we began to tussle again.

Back and forth, left and right, trying to pry the glass out of my cut-up gloved hand. Little did we know that we were coming closer and closer to the beams surrounding the deck-like area around the shelter. As I began to tilt backwards, Lloyd continued to press against me and we cried out and fell into the mushy, wet, cold, snow. However, the tree we had our small, almost inexcusable place to call home, was perched on a hill, and as we tumbled through the slush, we continued to fight over the shard.

Finally, we stopped at the base of a hill behind the tree we had our treehouse in and Lloyd continued to fight me. Having absolutely enough, I screamed and kicked him off of me with all of my might. His head struck a tree across from me and he fell into the snow, unconscious, before a mound of white coldness from the entangled branches above him came down to bury him almost completely. I sat there, panting heavily and shivering even more. My clothes were still drenched from the rain and me being stuck in the middle of a snowy forest in the dead of winter only made matters worse. With large clouds escaping my mouth, I took one last look at Lloyd; his dirty soles were barely visible underneath the giant snow mound.

My eyes, then, caught something at my feet and I noticed a black wire that had been weighed down by the snow and ice. I looked around to spot the telephone poles just outside of the forest. I exhaled, another cloud of my breath dissipating into the cold winter air, and cut it with the glass shard. The electricity was incredibly intense and I only flinched for a moment before I shut my eyes tight and screamed as I felt it coursing throughout my body. The shock was so overbearing that it was only a matter of moments until I fell into darkness.

Lloyd's POV

My breath was ragged and my body convulsed. Wh-wh-where am I? Wh-wh-why is it so c-c-col-ld? I cracked my eyes open to see nothing but white. It hurt so much to breathe, let alone move, but I forced myself to. I struggled immensely to break through the surface and managed to drag myself out of the snow mound with solely my arms; I had lost all feeling from my waist down. The pain was excruciating and I flopped onto my stomach, breathing heavily as the cold seeped deeper into my body. Raising my eyes, I saw a pair of black boots in the snow; their possessor buried under the snow from the knees up. "Sh-Sh-Sheryl." I forced out, my eyes wide, and I tortured myself even more by dragging my numb body over to her lifeless form.

With one arm, I brushed the snow off of her and jumped inside when I uncovered her face. I felt a powerful shock course through me upon touching her, but my body was becoming too heavy from the cold to react. There was a cut live wire in her black-gloved hand and her glassy eyes stared up into the dark grey sky. Sheryl . . . By this point I lost absolutely all feeling throughout my entire body and collapsed alongside her. My eyes began to close and darkness began to overcome me. Heh. Guess we'll both be joining you now, Bobby. . . I guess . . . our time had finally come . . . I guess . . . our time . . . was now.

So, yeah, pretty dark for a first chapter, but the theories for this movie tie into the mainstream of this story. I do hope you all enjoyed this! This is my absolute favorite movie and cosplaying this trio for Halloween actually sparked my love for these guys.

So glad to have come up with a story for them, so I hope you enjoy! Stay tuned and please Review telling me what you think! Thanks for reading and I apologize if this fanfiction ruins your perspective of this movie.