"Jack?" Victor repeated, a bit better. "Why am I here? Last thing I remember, I was hiding from some kids with a sack and obvious confusion about what holiday it was." There was a hint of fear in the man's voice. You really couldn't blame him really for being frightened. He had every right to be. Who knows what Oogie had or still has planned for the pale human?

"I'm afraid you are being targeted by a very dangerous man because of me. Oogie Boogie." Jack said, a depressed look coming over his face then one of irritation. "He found out I was watching you and put two and two together..." For a moment the Pumpkin king had forgotten the two just met in person there for he did not know of the skeleton's spying. One might even call it stalking.

"Wait, what?" The other asked looking over his surroundings carefully. Jack pretended not to hear him and the human raised a suspicious eyebrow."What was that last part?"

"You're being targeted by a man whose killed before." The skeleton smiled helpfuly then after the other turned, still on the edge of considering running, the skeleton realized this was his first time truly smiling and not just to please someone into leaving him be, like the mayor or some other monster who wanted to make sure he was ok.

"How to scare, a Jack Skellington novel. Why would you write a novel on scaring?" Breath blew on his ear and he jumped, spinning around to see Jack smirking at his terrified expression.

"That's why. Here in Halloween Town, that's everything and why I'm the Pumpkin King." He stood proudly.

"Oh, I remember this old trick my neighbor played it on me using ketchup and a fake knife. Scared me half to death and ended very badly for him. I ended up almost burying him alive." Jack laughed imagining it like he was there, watching a small pale child barrying another out of fear of being held responsible for his 'death'.

"It was not funny It almost gave me a heart attack when he finally panicked and stopped his trick just as I laid him in the shallow grave I made."

"You made a grave? How old exactly were you?" The Pumpkin King couldn't hide his amusement in his voice.

"Ten and in a week I would have been eleven." Victor flipped to the next page, obviously interested in the gags and tricks.

"We should introduced you to the others. You are going to be here for awhile." Jack said. A questioning look was thrown his way. "You're being hunted by a man who has a grudge with me and probably intends to eat you like his bugs. It's not safe for you at your home. You'll stay here until Oogie discides to show himself in the open and he'll have to since those children were his only servants to do as he wished. He'll definitely want to pay back the favor."

And I'll kill him when he does, Sally. The skeleton thought. A sad look he didn't even notice came onto his face.

"Are you alright?" The pale man asked, seeing the look on the Pumpkin Kings face.

"Huh?"

"You seem to have something on your mind. Care to share?" Victor asked.

"Nah, come on Mayor will announce you as a guest...,"

"Wait, you mean there are monsters that want to scare me into a heart attack and you want me to just go right out there and allow that." Jack smiled and nodded before grabbing the man's hand and almost dragging him out the door, a petrified look on his pale face as the citizens they passed watched.

"They won't hurt you." The Pumkin King chuckled, entertained by the other's panic. "May try to eat your legs but nothing too life threatening." That got a meep and Victor recoiling his limbs to keep any of the creatures here from eating him. Chuckling to himself, Jack spotted the Mayor who was staring at him like it was the first time they ever met.

"J...Jack?" The two faced fat man asked sceptically.

"Mayor, please call a meeting I want to introduce Victor to everyone." He said; the man in question was shuddering as a black cat decided he looked fun to play with and came closer purring. Hesitantly the human petted it; somewhat of a smile came when it leaned in and didn't try to take his limb.

"When?"

"Immediately."

...

"Victor will be here for as long as It takes to bring Oogie Boogie down! We need to set up guards to watch out for him and alert the citizens if he dicides to make a appearance. Together we will stop him once and for all!" The crowd errupted in cheers but Victor hid behind Jack, not taking his chance of his limbs being devoured.

He didn't trust them. It took awhile to trust the Land of the Dead citizens. He didn't just look and say 'Well hey there lets be friends' probably why he didn't have any friends as a child. No trust; you had to earn that. Jack was getting his fun out of the man's fear even though he had told the other that he had only been kidding about his legs being eaten; seemed that Victor didn't trust easily.

The crowd dispersed and only then did Victor come out from behind as he turned, a face only an inch from his stared him straight in the eye of a goggle-wearing scientist. He screamed, jumping back and ended bumping into Jack causing them both to fall. Jack and Victor groaned the human getting off him quickly.

"Sorry." He apologized helping the skeleton up.

"A bit jumpy aren't you?" The doctor asked, opening his head and scratching his brain.

"It's hard not to be with people popping out of nowhere." The man said, for some reason not as afraid of this guy as the rest. Maybe because he relatively looked human.

"I didn't come from nowhere. I came from a trap door." The other countered.

"Rude to scare people." New tactic.

"This is Halloween Town. We're all about scaring." There was a settling silence before Victor extended his hand. Doc did the same and they shook. The Pumpkin King gave a confused look wondering what just happened.

"Nice to meet you."

"Same here; I was wondering who the fellow that set Emily free was. I see she was lucky to have you, if only for a little bit. I hear they ripped the guy who killed her in two." The Doc said.

"They did, then set the pieces on fire." Victor said to this the other lauphed.

"Wish I could have been there." The doc said, then turned to Jack. "You may want to inform the dead Victor is here unless you want a panic to spread over them." The Pumpkin King nodded in understanding, the human seemed to be like family to them and if a member of the family needed you, you helped in any way you could.

"And you...," Doc went back to Victor. "Perhaps you could do a few te..."

"No thanks Doctor we want to keep him alive, not half dead." The skeleton fake laughed shoulders tensing at the thought of Victor on a lab table for what Doc called 'safe tests' which were actually worser then what he called 'dangerous tests' the name to confuse people into agreeing, thinking it was no big deal tkll there spleen was removed then the pain began.

The doctor, shrugged turning his wheel chair and riding off.

"Let's go back to my house I'm sure you don't want to wait for someone else to scare you into a heart attack today." The Pumpkin King took Victor's hand and they went off; Jack ignoring people's stares.