Author's Note/Disclaimer: Here's a project that I've been wanting to try for a long time now. This is basically "The Nightmare Before Christmas" told from Zero's point of view. It's my second real shot at first person, so it's still experimental. Let's hope I can get some updates going so that this story is really on its way for December. It's a lot of fun to be writing it. I do not own any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Tim Burton and Touchstone Pictures (or at this point, Disney). Thank you all, and enjoy!

*S. Snowflake

From the Eyes of a Ghost Dog

Chapter One: Through My Eyes

I haven't taken much interest in stories in the past, since I'm a dog. This will be a change. You see, this isn't just any story, it's my story. I guess it's tough to be bored with the story that way. What? You haven't ever heard a story told by a dog? Well, I think that's pretty sad. We animals have a lot to talk about, especially us dead ones. Oh, so you've never spoken to someone who's dead either? Where are you from anyway? Valentinestown?

I'm getting distracted. If I've frightened you, I'm sorry, but I am a ghost dog, and this story is through my eyes. It's about my master, the skeletal Pumpkin King of Halloween, who found another holiday called Christmas, and then he… oh, so now you've heard of my story? Well, you must have heard someone else's version, since you don't seem to remember me.

What's my name? Zero. Ring a bell?

I've gotten distracted again. I'll begin my story, but perhaps it's a bit further back in time than you might know about…

* * *

My master Jack wasn't always the tall, frightening king that people know him to be. Once he was just a little ghoul, barely more frightening than a baby vampire bat. His little, bony body was brittle, and it chattered in the cool fall wind. His skull that now frightens many souls throughout the world was small and round as a pumpkin with huge, wandering eye sockets. I was not much different, maybe a little smaller and furrier. And I remember I was afraid of cats because they were so much bigger than I was.

Anyway, those were sad and happy times we had. They were sad because my master and I were both orphaned and alone with no family. We were loners and wanderers. They were happy times too, because we had each other through all the loneliness. From the moment I met Jack I knew that we were inseparable. We would play games like Hide n' go Shriek and make sounds that go bump in the night together. We were just kids; anything but scary, but it was fun all the same.

"Zero?" Jack asked me one day in the Pumpkin Patch.

I perked up my ears and floated around him a few times to let him know that I was listening. Jack always liked it when I did that.

"Zero?" he asked again, "Have you ever wondered what other places, worlds even, are out there, boy?"

I tried to think about what he said, but I couldn't find the words to say anything. I just stared at my curious little master.

"I mean, there's got to be something out there. Beyond the spiders and bats… and all that, Zero. There's just got to be, right?"

Back then I thought that Jack was just imaginative. I smiled at him, pretending to believe what he said. I didn't like thinking outside the box, but I knew that Jack had peculiar thoughts about those things. He was such a curious, funny fellow in his youth.

Little did either of us know then where our destinies would eventually lead us. What a story was about to unfold!