This is based off a dream I had once, so I thought it's be cool to make it a fanfic.
A couple days ago I had chapters one and two all typed up, and I hit upload, but unfortunetly I had the "preview first" checkbox checked, and hit upload, thinking I sent it in. I closed the internet window, thinking I had it all sent, and later came back to my computer to find that it wasn't "pending" or anything. (darn!) I got some advice from a few more experienced members, and now I got it all figured out. So here it is, my first fanfic, hopefully just as good as my first (misplaced) copy.
Chapter 1
I woke from a restless sleep, after having a nightmare. My bed felt lumpy beneath me, and my sheets felt rougher than usual. I pulled them off, noticing that I was wearing a long nightgown, when I swore I thought I had put on Tinkerbell T-shirt and some lounge pants before I went to sleep ...
I saw a faint, pink-ish light streaming from a crack behind some dark curtains, and when my eyes adjusted, I saw that this wasn't my room.
I got up and walked over to the dresser, seeing some pictures on it, hoping that the pictures might tell me who's house I was in.
The pictures were like any household's: one of a married couple, and two separate ones of two different children.
But it was who was in the pictures that startled me.
The one of the married couple was of two characters i coild always reconize: Jack and Sally, from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Sally was dressed in an elegant, lacy, spiderweb gown, and Jack in a clean-cut tuxedo. They looked happy, and the same as they do in the movie.
One of the children pictures was of a ragdoll little girl of about 7 or 8, with dark red hair, and a black-and-white pin-striped dress with a bat bow (like Jack's) in her long hair.
the toher child looked like a mini-Jack, only a softer face because of his youth. he was dressin in dark blue instaed of black pin-striped suit, and he wore no bow-tie.
But other than that, he did look just like a younger-version of Jack.
Something caught my eye on my left hand - a golden ring with ivy carved into it.
My wrist looked sewn on, and my hair (even in the dull light) shimmered red.
I was in Sally's body.
This has to be a dream! I thought, knowing that all this only came from Tim Burton's imagination, and that it was not real. It's not real, not real at all ...
I'm dreaming ...
But I can't be dreaming, I just woke up.
So what was happening, and was I really here in Halloween Town?
The floor was stone and hard under my feet. And it felt cool. I pinched my arm. I didn't feel a thing. And yet i could feel everything else around me ... so i must be awake! This must be real!
I pulled open the dark curtains, letting in the light. The sun was and orangey-yellow, and resembled a Jack-O-Lantern; just like in the movie.
I really am here, this place really is real.
Suddenly there was a knock at my door.
I walked over to it and opened it, afraid of what I'd find.
The little girl from the picture stood before me.
Something in my head told me that her name was Melinda.
"Mommy?" she asked quietly. "I was playing and I fell down. When I did - "
"You arm ripped off again?" I finished, noticing that her left arm was missing.
She nodded.
"Here, honey, let me fix it up for you. Come sit on the bed, and I'll sew you up as good as new."
I felt behind my ear, expecting a neelde there like when Sally jumped out the window in the movie.
It was there.
And the thread in my dress was there, too.
While I sew, I played dumb.
"Melinda, I can't remember - where's Daddy, again?"
"He's helping the mayor set up next Halloween. Daddy said that it'll be the scariest yet!"
For some reason, this didn't surprise me. I remember in the movie the mayor coming just the morning after Halloween want to set up plans for the next, and desparately needing Jack's help. 'Jack, please, I'm only an elected official here, I can't make decisions by myself!'
"There, all done. And where did your brother run off to?"
"Playing with Lock and Barrel. And i was palying with Shock. We were trying to dress they boys up all girly, so we were running around and chasing them, but we all knew we wouldn't really do that to them; it was only for fun."
I nodded, then asked: "Is that how you fell? When you were running around?"
"Yeah ... " she looked down, and nervously twisted up her hands.
"Melinda, is there something you're not telling me?"
For some reason, i had a strange mother instinct, like i knew everthing, and like she was really me daughter.
"Well ... w-well, Lock kind of p-pushed me down a little, and so I kinda fell down onto a r-rock, and that's kinda why my arm r-ripped off."
"Melinda, you can't let him do that to you! I'm going to go talk to him ... "
She stopped me, and cried: "But it wasn't his fault, he didn't mean it! It was an accident. He apologized," she said protectively.
I gave her a curious look.
"You like him, don't you, hon?"
"N-noooooooo ... " But the corner of her mouth lifted into a small smile.
I laughed, and she giggled a bit, and I told her: "It's alright, I won't tell. Just go and play," I gave her a small nudge, to get her going. She skipped off.
I shook my head, thinking somewhere: psh, kids. So young and simple and innocent.
Suddenly, and I don't know how, but somewhere in my mind I heard my alarm from my room go off, telling me to go to school. And i saw myself hit it in confusion, not sure what was happening. And I heard myself gasp, surprised and confused as to where I am and what I'm doing.
Then I understood why. Why i knew this, and why i knew how to be like Sally:
our subconciouses were still in the correct bodies, meaning that Sally had my subconcious, and I had hers; and that since our subconcious are connected to our brains, I still know what's happening there, and can literally tell Sally where she is and who's body she's in.
Only problem is: i'm stuck here, and she's stuck there, and we have no way of knowing how to get our bodies back, and how to get back into our own worlds.
_________
Chapter 2
It's been four days now. I've been stranded here for four days. But i'm kind of evjoying myself, making the best of it, sort of like a mini-vacation from my human life.
I haven't seen Jack at all.
And it's about 1 week until Halloween.
But a few days later, when it was about 3 days from Halloween, I was out on a dock on the Lake. I had my - er, uh, I mean - Sally's toes in the water, and I was thinking about how to get back. I could do what I saw Jack do in the movie after he got blow up - when he went down into the moseleum and then ended up in the cemetery in Halloween Town, you know? I could try that ... but I have no way of Knowing how I'd get to my Town's cemetery, or how I'd switch back when i got there.
Suddenly, Jack sat beside me.
I jumped, startled.
"I've been looking everywhere for you, Sally."
I stared at him, speachless, unsure at what to do or say.
"Where are Chistian and Melinda?"
This was a direct question, so I had to anwser.
"They're with Lock, Shock, and Barrel. You know how they like to all stir up trouble." I laughed nervously, trying not act like Sally and not Rose (which is the human me).
He nodded. Then smiled. "I've missed you, I haven't seen you in days!"
I wasn't prepared. He just did it: He leaned over and kissed me.
I pulled away, because it wan't right, I wasn't Sally.
He frowned, confused. "What's wrong?"
"Jack ... I-I ... I'm not Sally."
________
Chapter 3
"What are you saying? Of 'course you're Sally."
"No, no ... 18 days ago I woke up in Sally's body. My name is Rose, and I'm only in 8th grade, and I live in the Human World. I don't know how to get back, and I don't know how to switch back. All I know is that I'm here, and I'm in Sally's body, living her life, while she's off living mine."
He was still frowning, still confused. "Where did you get these crazy stories?"
"They're not crazy! I really am not Sally!"
"How can I believe that?"
"Because ... because, I don't know anything about our life together, and I don't know any of Halloween Town's citizen's names. And I don't even know the name of this Lake. Plus ... why else would I be saying any of this if i really wasn't Sally?"
He shook his head, but still said, "Fine, you're not Sally. So then where is she?"
"In my body, in Illinois, in the United States."
"Then let's go get her."
* * *
We were running through Halloween Town, Jack and me, trying to get to the Witches's house, because they have the magic we need to switch Sally and me back. After Jack had conviced the Witches that the Sally before them wasn't Sally, and that we needed something to change the real Sally back, they agreed to help and gave us the potion we need that they found in their spellbook.
"What do you think changed me and her in the first place?" I asked the Witches.
Witch 1 (the short one) replied: "Who knows, but it had to have been some kind of magic."
Witch 2 (the tall one) added, "Perhaps someone cast a spell on you or Sally, making it so that you switched."
"Whichever it is, I'm just glad we have a 'anidote' for it." Jack said matter-or-factly.
"So she and I just gave to drink half this bottle each, and we swicth back?" I asked, trying to get it all straight so that I don't mess up.
"That is correct," the Witches said in unison.
"Then off we will go. Thank you, ladies," Jack repklied, and then we were off.
_________
Chapter 4
"So how do we get back to my town?" I asked Jack curiously, as we ran through the cemetery. We had left Melinda and Christian in the hands of Dr. Finklestein and his wife, since they are almost like Sally's parents.
"We go through a portal in the moseleum."
"How does it go where we want it?"
"You just have to ... " Jack opened the doors to the moseleum, and walked down some stones steps. It was colder down here than it is outside. After walking a few minutes, we came to a swirling, glowing portal of light blues and pinks and yellows.
He grasped my hand. "Now, think of your town's cemetery, every detail you can think of. Even all the biuldings around it. Think hard, get a picture of it in your mind, and slowly start to walk into the portal ... "
I saw it, and held it the best that I could. "I got it," I wispered.
"Then here we go ... "
The next thing i knew, we were in the dark. Jack let go of my hand and walk forward, then opened a door. Light poured in, and i saw it: our cemetery. I ran out, running until i came to the gates, and hoped over them. I noticed that the sun was setting in Halloween Town, and that it was not as low here.
As if reading my mind, Jack said: "Two hour time difference."
I nodded, then strarted running to my house, not carinf who saw me.
Jack was behind me, and I could see the outline of the poition vile in his inside pocket of his jacket.
Inside my mind, i tried to send a telepathic message to Sally, saying: we're somming, Sally, be ready. get my parents away somewhere, let us in through the back door, help us save me and you ...
It was funny, running when my body was only pieces of flesh and leaves. I felt no out-of-breathness, my heart didn't beat any faster than usual (if they was even a heart there?!), and my legs didn't cramp up. It was so easy to run, that I went faster, and then u came to my house within about 15 minutes.
When we got to my house, I went around back and looked through my glass patio door.
Sally heard me. She was in the kitchen, and she whirrled around. I heard a muffled "Jack!" and she hopped up out of her seat and opened the door.
"For some reason I heard you, and I got your parents downstairs with a movie, saying that I'd join them soon. Do you know how to switch us back?"
"Yeah, this potion should - "
Jack produced it, and showed it to her.
"- change us back. You need to drink half, and so do I. I don't know how long it will take to change back, but we should."
"You're not sure? What happens if we don't change back?!"
"I ... I don't know. But it's worth a try."
She looked unsure, but took it and swallowed down half the vile, then handed it over to me.
I drank the rest, and then ... nothing.
"Uhmmm ... M-maybe ... maybe if we slept on it?"
She nodded, but you could see the hope gone from her eyes.
_________
Will we change back? How long will it take? What happens when all those people saw me and Jack running through town? find out soon ...
