Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas doesn't belong to me. It belongs to, well, Tim Burton, as well as Danny Elfman, Henry Selick, and all the other wonderful masterminds who took part in this movie. However, all original characters that will appear are mine, so at least I own something :P
A/N: This is the first chapter in the rewritten versions of some NMBC fics I had up. Like I said in my profile, I've never really been happy with them. Let's hope this has a different result, ah? If this fic has any resemblance to any other Nightmare fanfics out there, now or ever, I apologize, it was not my intent to copy any other's work. Heck, I even changed the name of the main human character that appears in the beginning, to avoid confusion (and other stuff) between my story and another's (who knew we'd both choose the name Lynn? xD) That being said, enjoy!
The Nightmare Chronicles Chapter 1 - Chosen
"And in other news today--"
"--Order now for only--"
"--a kangaroo and a wombat. Marsupials also--"
"--are joined together at the hip."
Sigh.
Another boring Saturday, filled with empty time, and reruns on TV. One Kelli Leighton sat on her couch, a twenty-something woman with dark blonde hair and hazel eyes, and a remote in one hand. She quirked an eyebrow, looking at a documentary on Siamese twins, before flipping to another channel.
"Closeout prices on all jacuzzis and swimming pools!"
Littered around Kelli's apartment were various hints and clues to her life: sketchbooks with full sheets and more paper stuffed inside, pizza boxes with notes written on them, stacks of manga and Dean Koontz novels, and a Math textbook from a year ago. A bowl of questionable fruit rested on the table, next to a portable CD player. There were few pictures of friends or family. Looking around, one might guess that her life was somewhat solitary. A glance at her drawings would tell of her love for darker things, with sketches of moonlit landscapes and nightmarish beasts. That would fit in pretty well with her favorite holiday, which one might be able to guess by a glance to the fridge, where there were pictures of beloved childhood jack-'o-lanterns and costume shots. But would this person who would look around the apartment be able to tell that Kelli was single, perhaps even alone, by choice? That she never fitted in wherever she was, and was still looking for a place to really call home? Maybe. But I bet you anything that no one would be able to tell just how closely related Halloween was to everything about her.
Kelli switched the TV to another channel, and sighed softly. She glanced at the game console on top of the TV and was considering playing it, when the phone sounded. She answered it after three rings.
"Hello?
"Kelli! You're at home!"
"Well duh, Greg," Kelli sighed. "What'd you call for?"
"Great news! I just got tickets to the concert tonight! Do you wanna--"
"Greg, you know I don't like crowds. Besides, I have work to do tonight."
"What for? You don't have a--"
"Greg," Kelli said sharply. "Just...I'll be busy tonight. Go take Karen or something; she's your girlfriend."
"Fine, you party pooper. Have fun." Ignoring the sarcastic tone in the man's voice, Kelli hung up the phone and tossed it onto another part of her couch.
"Just the thought of that crowd makes me shiver," Stretching, she stood and walked to her bedroom, unaware of a pair of beady, insect eyes watching her from the top of the game system.
---
A light blue blanket rustled in the dark. Wisps of blonde hair brushed across a twisted face, as Kelli tossed and turned, her dream world deep in the grips of a nightmare.
Behind tightly close eyelids, she raced across grey, cracked ground, which was like some immense rocky plain that stretched out as far as the eye could see on all sides. Behind her, a swarm of screeching locusts blotted out the sky, seeming to eat it up as they went. No matter how fast she ran, the bugs seemed to draw ever closer.
Suddenly, the ground and insects vanished, letting Kelli drop, drop, down a thousand miles, maybe more. She tried to scream, but had no voice, the shadows enveloping her seeming to swallow the scream before it could form. Green light burst all around her as she came to an abrupt stop, an evil cackle ripping through the air around her. A skeleton on a noose dropped down, its small body seeming frail on the rope. The jaw clattered down to let out words from the day's conversation, now horribly twisted and mangled. Kelli fell to her knees, clutching her head as the garble words became louder and louder, a stinging symphony of rejected requests in an alien language.
Then, all was quiet. Cautious eyes blinked open, and Kelli stood up. What was once impenetrable darkness around her was now a thin, grey forest against a yellowed sky free of clouds, with a sun shaped like a jack-'o- lantern. Though the trees were emaciated and poor looking, at the same time they were somehow lovely. Kelli found herself walking in deeper, as if drawn forward. She stopped after a few steps, as a shadow fell over her. Turning, she was met with what, according to her first thought, was another tree. But staring a moment longer, she saw it was a skeleton, the earlier impression of the forest describing the figure even better: sickly slender, but somehow elegant, beautiful. Its stitched mouth parted as it spoke, the voice smooth and deep, quite pleasant indeed.
"You seem...lost."
"Lost?" Kelli repeated, not thinking it odd at all to be talking to a tuxedoed skeleton.
"Are you happy?" the bone man asked. "In anything."
"Well...my drawings make me happy." A smile spread on the rounded skull.
"Everyone needs something that makes them happy," he said, folding one bony hand under his chin.
"Who...who are you?" Kelli questioned. For some unknown reason, the answer sent shivers up her spine, in both dream world and real.
"Why, I'm the Pumpkin King." Still smiling widely, the tall figure turned and started walking away, still keeping up the image of unequivocal polish, distinction. Kelli took hurried steps forward.
"Wait!"
"Don't worry, we'll meet again." With that, the skeleton vanished among the trees, leaving Kelli along...and awake.
Her eyes blinked once, twice, and she sat up, the blanket falling away from her lavender pajama shirt. She put a hand on her chest, practically feeling her heart fluttering under her fingers.
"What...what was all that?" she whispered in the dark. No answer came. Somewhere in the depths of her mind, a voice said to ignore it, that it was just another dream. But with each cry of "Leave it be", another voice shouted that is was something more, and nothing simple. Kelli sighed, laying back on her pillow, staring up at the ceiling.
"A nightmare, then to something nice...but confusing." Remembering the lanky skeleton, her heart beat faster still. "Well, he said we'd meet again. Maybe I'll have the answers then." Turning over on her side, Kelli smiled as she drifted back to sleep.
---
"And just what do you call that?"
"A place that I've seen in my dreams."
"...Mmhmm."
Kelli sat at a restaurant table, leaning over her sketchpad, pencil in one hand as she shaded something. A chocolate-haired man watched, leaning over a bit without removing his arm from around the waist of the dark-skinned beauty at his side.
"Pretty bad dreams, if the forest is THAT dead."
"Greg!" Kelli said sharply. The man laughed.
"I think the drawing looks nice," complimented the woman.
"Thank you, Karen," Kelli said, casting Greg a look. She closed her sketchbook and stood up. "Anyway, I need to be heading on."
"So soon?" Greg piped up. "You're not even staying through lunch?" Kelli just shook her head, apologized, and left.
Outside, the June sun beat down on the sidewalk, slowly roasting the people walking up and down the cement snake, with little breeze to provide relief from the heat. Kelli walked, looking at the page before the penciled forest in her reopened pad.
Empty eye sockets of a skeletal man stared back at her from the white paper. The shading was light, adding to the look of life in death. Each thin pinstripe of his clothes had been faithfully preserved. There were notes on the skeleton and the dream encounter on the page, and the words "The Pumpkin King" was off to the left side. Kelli sighed and closed the sketchbook again. She looked up, wondering something aloud.
"Why can't I get him out of my head?"
---
Kelli walked across the grassless earth, her hands brushing up against every tree she passed, just to touch it. Her feet stopped only when she felt they should.
Ahead of her on the etched out path was a short scarecrow on a stake, its height perhaps no more than that of a young teen. Its head was bowed, chin resting against a smallish mound of a chest. A slightly tattered straw hat hid any features, except for realistic looking, sandy blonde hair that fell around its shoulders. It was dressed in clothes of dusty reds and golds, with torn and ripped ends. Its arms were outstretched and tied to a typical scarecrow cross. Limp fingers peeked out among bits of straw, from the ends of the shirt sleeves. Brown stitched cloth shoes rested rather awkwardly on the ground. Kelli was about to approach it, when the skeleton walked up from seemingly no where. He rested a hand on the scarecrow's shoulder.
"You like her?"
"It's....she's...very interesting looking," Kelli admitted. The skeleton man grinned a skeleton grin.
"She's brand new," said the Pumpkin King. "Has a lot of potential. But..." He walked around to the front of the scarecrow, tapping his chin. "Something's missing."
"Like what?"
"I'm not sure," the tall skeleton sighed. "She's got the hat, the outfit, the straw...the stitchings are right..." He placed a long finger under the scarecrow's chin and lifted up, craning her head back. Kelli was surprised to see that the face under the hat was almost human-like, maybe even pretty, albeit with ghoulishly grey skin and threaded lips. Her eyes were open but empty, their smokiness holding no spark. The skeleton let her head down, gently.
"Perhaps she just needs life."
"Life..." Kelli softly repeated. She found herself regarded with depthless eye sockets, which looked somehow concerned through their emptiness.
"Are you happy?"
"You already asked that," Kelli replied.
"I know, but I'm asking it again. Look at your life. Are you happy?"
"I..." Looking down, Kelli folded her hands over her chest. "I don't know..." Looking up, she realized she was alone with a gasp. "Hey! Wait!" Her voice held no echo in the expansive area. With a soft sigh, the woman let her shoulders drop. "You could have at least told me your name..." She turned and started to leave, as a gentle wind whispered past her ears.
".........Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King........."
"Wait, what??" Kelli exclaimed. The breeze died out without another word. The last thing Kelli heard before she woke up was the caw of an unseen crow.
---
"Two nights in a row I've seen that skeleton man." The refrigerator was opened, then shut. "Two nights in a row I've been left with more questions than answers." A bottle opener was plucked from a drawer. "And apparently, according to the wind, he is..." The kitchen counter darkened as Kelli leaned against it, the back of her head against the cabinets above. "Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King." She decapped the drink she held. "Why does he keep asking me if I'm happy?"
"Maybe because he's an idiot." Kelli nearly dropped her drink at the sudden statement.
"Who's there?"
"Someone of consequence if you don't play your cards right," said the voice. Kelli glanced out of her kitchen, but the rest of her apartment was empty. The unknown visitor spoke again, in deep, gravely tones.
"I reiterate, that bonehead Jack is an idiot. Being happy, belonging..." The words were drawn out and mocking. "That's what's important to him. A bunch of drivel, if you ask me."
"Drivel?"
"Fear is what's important! Making people die on the spot just because there was a rumor you were close! THAT'S what's important!"
"But..." Kelli softly began. The unseen speaker began again.
"Alright, look sweets. If you agree, I can make you the most hellraising terror the world has ever known! You hate humanity, right? Prefer to be alone rather than with anyone else?"
"Well..."
"Then get back at humanity. Terror can get you all the loneliness you wish." Those words ended in a definitive hiss. "Roll the dice and take a chance!"
"I..." Kelli said softly.
"You're not getting another opportunity." Hissed again, but with much more malice. "I don't choose just anybody to have the chance to become something truly scary, rather than only a poser, like that skeleton..." There was a momentary growl, before the question was posed. "So are you coming? Or not?"
"I-I..." Kelli stammered. She gulped faintly, her hands clenching around her drink. "This is all too fast! Until I understand anything that's going on, I'm going to have to decline--"
"Nobody disrespects me!" the voice boomed. "I offered you the chance of your puny life! You don't know what you're missing, or how much you'll pay for siding with that annoying....Jack."
"Siding with...?" Kelli repeated. She shrieked when there was a sudden head-splitting squeal at her side. The neon green bug on the counter found itself squashed under a glass bottle bottom when the whole drink was brought down reflexively.
"You'll pay," the thick voice snarled. "You can bet on it." As the last words faded, Kelli gulped hard.
"Why do I get the feeling I'm going to be dead soon..." A sudden breeze kicked up as the last word escaped her mouth, seeming to surround the young woman. She fell backwards, wondering if this was death itself, when darkness clouded her vision, and she felt no more.
---
"Oh dear," stated a worried voice. "This has escalated into something nearly out of control!" someone fretted. The only reply was a worried yip. Jack's coat tails rippled as he whipped about, looking at his misty sheet of a dog. "Zero, if I don't do something fast, we may lose her!" Zero whined and flipped once in the air, before flying up to nuzzle his owner. Thin shoulders sagged as the Pumpkin King sighed. "I'm going to have to go after her, to keep something truly bad from happening." Zero barked again, watching as Jack turned and headed for the door. The skeleton paused just before stepping outside, turning to look over his shoulder.
"Guard the house while I'm gone, boy." His faithful dog gave a short bay, and seemed to grin. Jack, satisfied, turned and sped outside, closing the door behind him just before his long legs carried him down two, three, four steps at a time as his pace hurried. The squeak of a gate announced his departure from his home to everyone in the square, and several gave cries of "Jack!" as he smoothly raced past. But the bony figure ignored it all, intent on the forest that lined one edge of the town. The gatekeeper hurried to open the doors in time to let him out; even so, Jack had to duck a bit. But this didn't slow him down; in fact, once outside the walls of town, he broke into a run, strides reaching twenty feet or more. Several eyes watched their king head for the forest for some unknown reason, but only one pair, belonging to that of a ragdoll, watched with sadness.
---
Kelli ran through the gnarled trees, her arms pumping, legs trying their hardest to carry her away from the fright that followed her. This was a dream, only a dream! No, a nightmare! Only in her nightmares could a zombie horse dripping with worms be galloping after her, exposed muscle and bones alight with unnaturally red fire. Only in her mind could she race through the forest she'd seen only twice before, where she had met the Pumpkin King, not knowing that in fact he who pleasantly haunted her thoughts was drawing closer. But then, so was the horrible horse, its green eyes gleaming as its bone hooves thundered in the dirt. Kelli leapt over a fallen tree, continuing to tell herself this wasn't real, even as her back grew warmer and warmer from the nearing beast's bright flames, even as the rotting stench of death curled the hair on the back of her neck. But human legs have weak points, and hers gave out too soon, sending her crashing to the ground. She scrambled for the refuge of a cluster of trees nearby, but never made it before the horse was upon her. One hoof pinned down a leg as it leapt, and it leaned over the girl, teeth gnashing. It threw back its head, shaking a mane of maggots, sending many raining down on its frightened prey.
"I warned you about disrespecting me! Now you will pay!" it roared. The flames seemed to pull together and the entire beast shifted with bone crunching noises. Kelli's eyes remained wide as she watched in horror. The breath stopped in her throat as the forest and sky seemed to melt around her, whirling and blending into one disgusting mass of an undeterminable color. The ground opened up underneath her and with a screeching laugh of "Come for some fun!" her tormentor dropped, his eyes now hollow and evil as he vanished into the shadows of the chasm. The edges of the hole widened, and Kelli got to her knees and tried to crawl away, as trees and ground were sucked into the void. Her eyes stung with tears as she clutched at the ground, trying to keep her grip.
A wiry hand grabbed her wrist and pulled, nearly bringing her arm from the socket as the rescuer whipped her away from the edge of the growing hole. She found herself suddenly on her feet, staring into empty sockets that, by now, she knew so well.
"You know, that's twice I've saved you."
"Jack!"
"Let her go, bone man! She's mine now!" A voice from the depths of the pit.
"No time to explain," Jack said hurriedly. He took a few steps back away from the nearing edge, taking the human with him. "Choose now. Do you want to return to your existence as what you are now--" Two more steps back. "--or do you want to be happy."
"Happy...?" Kelli muttered. "You can do it?"
"Just trust me, I'll explain it all later!" Jack exclaimed. He watched as wisps of darkness began to lick at the lips of the chasm. "Come with me or go back. It's up to you!"
"Whichever she takes, Jack, I'll still be after her!" shouted the nightmare underneath.
"True," the skeleton whispered. His back hit a tree, as the hole crept closer. "But you'll have nothing to fear if you come with me. I swear it."
"Why? Why is my happiness with you?" Kelli asked. She glanced down as the rim of the widening gap closed in.
"Because you've been chosen." He glanced at the confused hazel eyes staring up at him. "Again, I'll explain later." The ground seemed to roar, with the void as its mouth. Kelli squeezed her eyes shut, before nodding once.
"I'm with you, Pumpkin King!"
"Splendid," was the single word reply. The woman found the breath ripped from her as she was suddenly turned and shoved forward, away from the danger. A thick tree materialized from no where, its squat but round door opening up to swallow up Kelli as she stumbled. Soon both she and the Pumpkin tree were gone. The hole had become still.
"You can't protect her for forever, Jack. Chosen, yes. Free, no."
"This isn't over," Jack growled.
"Oh, of course not." A dark chuckle rang out from underground. "Everyone fears the boogie man..."
---
One bony hand ran a cloth over a dingy mirror, cleaning away some of the old dirt from the cracked surface. Jack turned to glance to the one standing there, before moving away. The person with him blinked several times, as if she couldn't believe her reflection.
It had been two days since the encounter in the forest, four days since the first dream. And already she was someone else. The exact vision of the scarecrow she had seen out on the path, right down to the smallest bit of stray straw. The skeletal king folded his long arms, smiling.
"So...?"
"Wow..." was the only thing the newest Halloween fright could utter. She touched the brim of the hat, the curve of her cheek, the tattered bottom hem of her shirt. Sparse bangs shifted slightly as she looked up towards the taller figure. "You still haven't explained everything to me yet. All I know is that I've been brought here to be given a new life...pardon the pun. You haven't said why."
"In due time," Jack said, his hands going to his waist. Or rather, around it. "When you're ready, we'll get everything situated with the Mayor, and make you an official citizen."
"Okay," the scarecrow nodded. With a soft sigh, she turned back to the mirror, looking herself up and down with grey-blue eyes, though there was more smoke than sapphire, so to speak. Her eyes. She smiled, and those eyes seemed to light up, the spark of life great within. Yeah. This felt right. This felt good. She readjusted her hat, her smile widening.
She was happy.
And so I've told my tale
Hope you've had so much fun
Sit tight for now, I'll be back soon
This thing's only just begun!
A/N: Okay, so I took the bad little poem (mostly) from the end of a chapter of the original version of a chapter in this fic series :P But it was my own, so I could, nyeh! Anyway, don't mind the fact that I'm bad at beginnings... I actually, truly like this chapter on the whole, though I could nit-pick it to hell and back. Anyway, leave a review if you wish, the next one will (hopefully) go up soon!