Cobwebs Tend to Grow on Halloween.

I don't own anything but my OC's.

Chapter 1

The crowd were all cheering and singing as their Pumpkin King was being pulled along on the wooden horse, clad in his scarecrow costume. Everyone parted as they let the horse come through.

Skeleton Jack might catch you in the back,

And scream like a banshee,

Make you jump out of your skin!

This is Halloween

Everybody scream!

The Pumpkin King reached out and plucked a lit torch from a witch's hand.

Won't you please make way for a very special guy?

The Pumpkin King lowered the torch into his mouth and swallowed the flame. He seemed fine, despite being on fire. In fact, he was dancing upon the horse.

Our man Jack is king of the Pumpkin Patch

Everyone hail to the Pumpkin King now!

The Pumpkin King lowered himself and breathed fire upon some of the town's people, making them recoil and scream in fright. The horse made its way towards the town's fountain, where the Pumpkin King jumped, did a flip in mid air and landed in the water while everyone sang.

Corpse Kid and Mummy both made their way to the fountain, leaning in to try and spot the Pumpkin King.

In this town, we call home

Everyone hail to the Pumpkin Song

Suddenly, Jack Skellington rose hauntingly out of the water, hands to his chest. His scarecrow outfit was gone and he now wore his trademark pinstriped suit and bat bow tie. His tie, flattened from being too long under water, puffed up slowly as he rose. Jack stretched his arm out for the crowd as they cheered.

Jack stood on the brim of the fountain and allowed everyone to clap for him.

The Mayor came running through the crowd as Jack stepped off of the fountain, smiling to himself. "Great Halloween everybody!" Mayor exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air.

"I believe it was our most horrible yet! Thank you everyone!" Jack joined in, gesturing to the crowd around him.

"No, thank you, Jack! Without your great leadership-"

"Not at all, Mayor." Jack waved a hand at him.

"You're a scream, Jack!" one member of the town congratulated him.

Jack grinned his skeleton grin.

Once the Mayor had announced the contest, Jack snuck away from the crowd. He sighed as he hid behind a wall and began to make his way to the graveyard. He passed the band and dropped a coin into the hat in front of them.

"Nice work tonight, Bone Daddy." one of the musicians called.

"Yeah, I guess so." Jack said. "Just like last year, and the year before that…"

Jack walked through Halloween Town's gates. He sighed again and walked through the graveyard, hand to his chin in thought. He paused and tapped his leg. Zero, his ghost dog, rose out of his grave and followed his master.

Jack leaned against a gravestone. Jack had already been through these conflicted feelings before. When he discovered Christmas. A part of him was tired of being the Pumpkin King, master of fright and demon of light. The other part of him knew this was job and talent so he should be proud of it, enjoy it.

Jack let out a frustrated yell. Zero whimpered out of fear.

Jack turned to his ghost dog, feeling guilty. "I'm sorry, Zero." He apologized, patting the dog's head.

Zero smiled, the best a dog can, and spun around.

Jack smiled.

Suddenly, there was another whimper. A much louder whimper. Coming from behind another gravestone.

Jack's eye sockets widened. Was that another Halloween Town member? He must've frightened them too. Jack, carefully and slowly, walked over to the source of the noise. "Hello?" He called. "Are you alright?"

Zero followed him over.

Jack looked behind the gravestone and saw…nothing. "That's strange, I could've sworn I heard something…"

Zero flew ahead quickly.

"Zero? What's wrong, boy?" Jack asked.

Zero stopped when he reached another gravestone, shaped like a square. It stood tall, tilted slightly. Zero sniffed something and barked, calling for Jack.

His master obliged and walked over.

Behind the square tombstone was a boy. His knees were pulled to his chest, his face buried in them. The boy's hair was black with a white outline and stuck out at odd ends. It reminded Jack of Sora's hair. Jack could tell, by looking at the boy's hands, that he was a skeleton…with hair. The child was wearing what was left of a white, torn shirt and black trousers. Small, frayed bat wings poked out of rips on the back of the shirt. His shoes were just torn pieces of leather. His sobs were muffled.

Jack knelt down beside him.

"Hello," Jack greeted softly, trying to sound as kind as possible.

The boy looked up and scrambled back, screaming. "Help!" He cried out.

Jack held out a hand and paused. This child looked like him. His face. But he had a small, jack-o-lantern mask on his right eye socket (As in the boy's right, Jack's left). "It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you."

The boy stopped his cries for help and wiped his eye socket. "…R-Really?"

Jack nodded. "You're not from around here, are you?"

The boy shook his head.

"Where're you from?"

The boy shrugged.

"Where're your parents?"

"D…Don't know…"

Jack's face saddened. This boy was here, all on his own. No wonder he was so scared.

"How did you get here?"

The boy shrugged again. "Heard singing and chanting…Ran."

Jack sighed and looked at his feet. He heard their Halloween celebration.

"What's your name?" Jack looked back him and asked.

"Don't know…Can't remember…" The child shook and clutched his head, beginning to cry again.

Zero rubbed his nose against the boy's arm. The child looked up and stared at Zero.

"This is my dog, Zero." Jack introduced his pet.

The boy held out his hand hesitantly and patted Zero's head. Zero licked the boy's hand.

The child began to laugh.

Jack smiled. At least the child was beginning to calm down. By the sound of his voice, the boy was at least seven or eight years old. But what was he doing here? Did he stumble upon the holiday doors?

Jack glanced back at the child, who turned to him after finishing his laughing.

"What's your name, Mister?" the boy asked, tears still streaming down his face.

"My name is Jack Skellington." Jack gestured to himself. "I'm the Pumpkin King."

"Oh…They were singing…about you…" the boy realised.

"Yes, they were."

"But you're not a scarecrow! You're a skeleton."

"That was just a costume."

The boy nodded. He placed his chin on his knees. "I wanna go home…"

"I'm afraid neither of us know where that is." Jack said.

"I'm scared…" The boy admitted. He began to shiver in the Autumn wind.

Jack began to pity this boy. Here he was, all alone, shivering and wearing hardly any clothes.

"Why don't you come back with me?" Jack asked.

"No…I'm not going back to that scary place…" The boy said, recoiling a little.

"I'm afraid it's the only safe place you could go."

Jack thought about Christmas Town. This child would be safe with Sandy Claws. This thought was swept from his mind. No Halloween citizen belonged in Christmas Town. Least of all someone who looked like the Pumpkin King.

The boy pondered this for a second. "O-Ok…"

Jack held out his hand, which the child took and was pulled to his feet.

The Pumpkin King held the boy's hand while they exited the graveyard and made their way towards Jack's house, Zero at his master's heels.

…

Jack and the child managed to sneak across the town without running into anyone. Jack didn't need more compliments and he certainly didn't need anyone frightening the new little terror. As strange as that sounds.

The boy glanced around the town in terror. The buildings were all dark and twisted, like something out of a child's comic book; just scary.

They finally arrived at the Pumpkin King's house. Jack quickly got out his keys and opened the door, then gestured for the youngster to enter. He did and Jack followed him.

The skeleton boy looked around at his surroundings. This house seemed even scarier then the whole town put together.

Jack walked up to the child, who seemed to be looking up at the stairs. "Are you alright?"

"Fine, Mr. Skellington." The boy replied, looking up at Jack.

Said skeleton chuckled. "Please, no formalities, just Jack."

The boy nodded and smiled.

God, it looked like Jack's smile.

"Alright then, Jack."

Jack gestured to the living room door and the boy strolled towards it, listening to Jack saying: "I'll give you a tour of Halloween Town tomorrow then we'll buy you some new clothes."

The child nodded again and glanced down at his current clothes.

They entered the living room and the child sat on the couch.

"I'm afraid I don't have any pyjamas you could wear," Jack said. "But I do have some blankets." With that said, Jack turned and rummaged through a chest of draws.

Zero floated over to the child and sniffed his face. The boy giggled.

Jack turned to him, holding two moth-eaten blankets. "Here we go!"

The youngster chose this opportunity to lie down. He lay his head down on the crimson, plush pillow and allowed Jack to cover him with the blankets.

The child yawned and Zero moved towards his basket.

Jack walked over to the door, fully aware that the boy was already fast asleep.

"Goodnight, my boy." Jack whispered before turning out the light and heading towards his own room.

…

Jack lay awake in bed, thoughts swimming through his mind. How could anyone just abandon this poor child? Who had a stone, cold heart worthy enough to pull such a stunt?

Jack shook his head. It was now his duty to take care of the boy, whether he liked it or not. The good news was, Zero seemed to like him, as did Jack. The boy was just shy, is all. But Jack couldn't keep one question popping up in his skull. Why did the child look like him?

Author's note:

At last! I am able to write my Nightmare Before Christmas fanfic! As you can tell, yes, the Christmas fiasco has indeed happened. Just a quick side note, Sally has not been created yet. Reasons will become clearer later on in the story. And yes, Jack has met Sora, Donald and Goofy. I can probably say that you will like little Cobweb. For some information on him, go to my profile. Review please!