Chapter 1

…Halloween Town…

He wasn't sure how long he'd been walking. It must have been one, two, maybe three hours. He had lost count. He always lost count when he was walking through the forest, which he frequently did. He didn't know why but the silence and the peacefulness that the woods provided always comforted him. But he knew he'd have to start heading back soon. It was starting to get late and the social workers at the orphanage would be pissed if they found out that he had left again.

A small breeze blew through his hair, sending chills behind his back. You think why he always leaves the orphanage so much, cause his eighteenth birthday was today everyone forgot he means everyone not even the owners of that place remembered.

Realizing that he was digressing, he snuggled into his coat and looked up in order to scan his surroundings. He was confused when he didn't recognize anything. There were trees, yes, but all of the leaves had fallen off and were now sleeping on the ground whereas next to the orphanage, all of the trees were still littered with yellow and brown leaves. There was also not a path insight. Usually, when he took off on one of his little adventures, he had always stuck to following a path that he had made himself so that things like this would never happen. With one last look around the area, he let a sigh escape his lips.

Great. He was lost.

Not letting the panic sink in just yet, he continued to walk straight. Hopefully he would recognize a certain landmark or tree that would lead him back to the orphanage or, at the very least, a road. After a few minutes, he felt his heart rate begin to increase. His hands began to sweat even though it was pretty cold outside. He knew that if he didn't find something, or someone, soon than he wasn't going to be able to remain calm for much longer.

When he looked up again, he stopped. There, a few feet in front of him, was an opening in the forest. He had never noticed it before in all his times of exploring the serene forest. A thought crossed his mind and, almost instantly, a smile lit up on his face. Maybe from that opening, he would be able to see something that looked even remotely familiar. It was on a slight hill after all.

He broke into a small sprint, completely unaware of the eyes watching him from the shadows. When he got to the center of the opening, he tripped and fell onto the cold ground below. With an annoyed groan, he forced himself back up to his feet.

Stupid tree branch.

Slowly, he dusted himself off with his hands. It was then that something caught the corner of his eye, and he looked up to see a tree with a red heart painted on the front. The painting was large and was probably long enough that if he stood next to it, it would be slightly shorter than him. He turned to the tree beside that one to see a painting of a turkey on it. It didn't take him long to realize that each of the trees that surrounded him in this opening had a painting on it. Besides the two that he had already looked at, there was one with a four leaf clover, an Easter egg, a Christmas tree, and…a pumpkin?

He leaned forward and touched the painting of the pumpkin with his hand. It was more like a jack o-lantern though since it had dark eyes and a sinister smile on it. A small cough from behind him brought him back to reality, and he pivoted sharply to see a tall woman dressed in blue jeans and a purple shirt with a friendly smile plastered on her face. Her black hair was tied into a ponytail at the back of her head.

"Are you lost, small child?" the stranger asked politely.

The youth addressed as 'small child' inwardly groaned at the name but nodded nonetheless. He couldn't exactly say that he trusted this woman but, at this point, he had no other options. "Yes I am but I'm not a child. I'm seventeen you asshole. My name is Chester," he said.

"Oh, I'm sorry. ," the woman apologized quickly. "You just look so young. My name is Holiday."

'Holiday?' Chester repeated to himself. 'That's a queer name.'

"It's nice to meet you," the short youth responded nicely. "But can you please tell me how to get back to Orange creek Center."

The woman raised an elegant eyebrow. "Orange creek Center? The orphanage?"

Chester turned his eyes to the ground and nodded. He hated other people knowing his 'situation' and prayed that this woman wouldn't pry. He was relieved when she began to talk again but not about the orphanage.

"I'll tell you how to get there," she said and then turned to look at all the paintings on the trees. Now, it was Chester's turn to raise an eyebrow. A puzzled frown came to his face as he waited for the woman to tell him what she had said she would. However, it seemed like she had completely forgotten that he was even there. He was about to speak up when her voice cut through the silence like a knife.

"You know, Chester. There's a story behind each one of these paintings," she said softly.

"A story?" Chester inquired curiously.

The woman nodded, her light gray eyes shimmering gently. "Would you like to hear this story?"

Chester bit the inside of his lip. He was so confused at this point. He just wanted to go home. Or whatever you called that place where he lived. "If I do, will you tell me how to get back?" he asked.

"Of course," she replied.

Chester sighed but nodded regardless. "Alright then."

The woman smiled and suddenly her eyes became slightly darker than before. And then, in a voice that sounded completely different than the one she had been using up until this point, she said: "Twas a long time ago, longer now than it seems, in a place that perhaps you've seen in your dreams. For the story that you are about to be told took place in the holiday worlds of old."

With unimaginable grace, she walked towards one of the trees; the one with the pumpkin on it. Then suddenly, she pulled at the side of the painting and the entire painting of the pumpkin opened like a door. She beckoned Chester to come look. Out of pure curiosity, the smaller complied and peered over the opening in the tree only to see a long, dark tunnel spiraling downwards. He looked to the side when he realized that the woman had begun to speak again.

"Now you've probably wondered where holidays come from. If you haven't, I say it's about time you've begun," she said and, before he realized what had happened, Chester was shoved inside the tree and was tumbling down into the dark abyss below him.

…

It had felt like eternity, really, the amount of time he had been falling. His throat was so sore from screaming that he had completely ceased to do so. Even though, in reality, he had been falling for about thirty seconds, he had forced himself to believe that he would never stop falling. That was why it was such a surprise when he hit a soft surface beneath him with a loud thud.

With eyes shut tight, he groaned in pain and proceeded to rub the back of his head. While it was true that the soft material beneath him had kept him alive, it still hurt like all hell. He had been falling at a fast pace after all. He heard murmurs around him but didn't exactly have the strength to open his eyes. When he did, he screamed out due to the fact that the first thing he saw was a glowing scarecrow above him.

He quickly backed up until he was in a corner and that was when he realized that the scarecrow wasn't leaning over him but was rather just leaning over the carriage he was in.

Wait…carriage? He looked down. Full of hay?

"What are you supposed to be?" a high-pitched voice said and Chester turned his eyes to the side to see a young girl with blond hair and green eyes staring at him curiously. Another hoarse scream escaped his lips when he noticed how pasty and colorless her skin was. She looked like she was…dead.

"Can you stop doing that, you're bothering the other kids," she said.

Chester looked around at these 'other kids' and would have screamed if the blond girl didn't place a hand over his mouth. "Why do you keep screaming?"

If Chester could talk, then he would tell her why he kept screaming. For one, after what felt like hours of falling in complete darkness, he wound up in a carriage full of hay surrounded by small creatures that looked either dead or disfigured. He believed that was a good enough reason to keep screaming.

"What's your name?" she asked suddenly.

Chester looked back at the girl and swallowed. With all the courage he could muster, which wasn't much, he stuttered out: "C-Chester. W-who are you? W-where am I?"

The girl laughed. "Why, you're in Halloween Town of course," she replied as if the answer was obvious.

Chester shook his head. "Halloween Town?"

The blond nodded. "My name is Jessica. I'm a witch. What are you? Why'd you fall from the sky?"

"I don't know, I was…wait! What do you mean a witch? What's going on!" Chester shouted causing a few more glares from the other 'children' in the carriage. The sudden movement that he made when he screamed caused the sleeve of his jacket to roll up a little bit and Jessica immediately took hold of his wrist. Rolling up the sleeve a little bit more, she gasped when she saw stitching going around his entire wrist. Chester was obviously just as surprised since he screamed out again.

"You're a doll!" Jessica said with small excitement. "Dolls are so rare these days! You know, come to think of it, I've never seen you in Halloween Town before. Are you new or something?"

Chester didn't respond as he snatched his wrist out of the girl's grasp and examined it himself more closely. He wouldn't believe it if he wasn't staring at it. A large line of stitches encircled his wrist as if…as if the stitches were the only things keeping his arm and hand together. Further inspection of his body led to the discovery of several more lines of stitches; one around each shoulder, his torso, his ankles, both wrists and, most importantly his neck. Chester was seconds away from passing out when a thought came to him.

A dream! He must be dreaming! This all was just some sick, delusional dream. Or a nightmare for better words.

Without a second thought, he grabbed a section of his arm and pinched it as hard as he could. He cried out when a burst of pain went through his body. Well, he cried out anyways. Whether it was from the pain or the realization that all that was happening was real was undecided.

"It's going to begin!" Jessica yelled out excitedly catching Chester’s attention.

"What's beginning?" he asked indifferently from his little corner, having accepted his dismal fate.

"The hay ride," she replied crawling over and taking a seat next to him. "It takes us through all of Halloween Town. Most of the younger kids do it. It's really fun. You came on a great day."

"Why? What's today?" Chester asked, pulling his knees to his chest and resting his head on his legs.

She gave him a queer look before replying: "Why, it's Halloween."

The moment those words escaped her lips, the carriage gave a small jerk, and the person at the head of the carriage, who Chester had just realized was a skeleton, turned around and smiled: "I ask that you keep your arms and feet in the vehicle at all times. Now if there are no questions, please enjoy the ride."

"Is something wrong, Chester?" Jessica asked when she noticed the color completely draining from Chester's face. The other replied with a small shake of his head. "No, of course not. Why ever would something be wrong?"

Jessica ignored the obvious sarcasm and quickly motioned for Chester to look over the railing with her. Hesitantly, he crawled beside her and looked out into the night. His heart sank when he realized that they were in a graveyard. The vehicle began to pull forward and a terrible gasp escaped Chester's trembling lips when shadows of ghouls and ghosts appeared on the tombstones. Several of the ghosts flew over them causing all the children on the truck to clap with Chester as the exception.

"Boys and girls of every age, wouldn't you like to see something strange? Come with us and you will see, this, our town of Halloween," they said in unison and then completely vanished only to reappear a few inches away from the vehicle and fly in between the tombstones. However, one of the ghosts floated over to Chester and whispered: "This is Halloween, pumpkins scream in the dead of night."

One of the kids on the ride, who looked like a vampire, laughed at this and added: "This is Halloween, everybody make a scene. Trick-or-treat till the neighbors gonna die of fright."

Everyone cheered loudly and Chester would have passed out from fear at that very moment if Jessica didn't grab onto his arm. "Don't worry," she said. "It's not that bad."

Chester nodded and, assuming that it was over, sighed in relief. However, he knew that he was sadly mistaken when the carriage pulled into what looked like the city square. It was completely deserted along with terribly dark and quiet. Chester blamed himself for not expecting anything when a man jumped onto the center of the carriage and glared out into the small crowd of children but had, of course, focused in on him. The man's blue eyes were hollow and his white, spiky hair added to his threatening appearance.

Chester gasped when the man walked up to him and placed a finger underneath his chin forcing Chester to look up at him. A sinister smirk creped onto his face and, in an instant, his eyes turned a dangerous bloody red. With a low and deadly voice, the man said slowly: "I am the one hiding under your bed; teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red."

Chester screamed out when someone else appeared beside him. This time it was a bulky, bronze man with wild black hair and dark purple eyes. He leaned down to Chester's ear and said amusingly: "I am the one hiding under your stairs; fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair."

In a blink of an eye, they both disappeared and Chester's frightened scream got drowned out by all the clapping when three vampires covered in black floated out of a house beside them. They approached the carriage but luckily didn't get in. "In this town, we call home, everybody hail to the pumpkin song," they said with deadly smiles revealing sharp fangs.

"Look, it's the mayor!" Jessica shouted out and everyone turned with smiles on their faces. At this point, Chester's complexion had gone completely white but he still managed to turn around and see a tall brunet with ice blue eyes draped in a black trench coat. He wore a black hat and tie to match. Besides from his eyes covered with what looked like black powder, he seemed human.

The mayor took out a microphone and said with a small smirk: "In this town, don't we love it now? Everybody's waiting for the next surprise."

The arrival of two witches, one blond and the other brunette, didn't go unnoticed by Chester. Especially when they flew past him, nearly cutting his head off in the process. The blond one smiled and said: "Aren't you scared? Well, that's just fine."

"Say it once, say it twice, take a chance and roll the dice. Ride with the moon in the dead of night," the brunette laughed and then they both took off on broomsticks.

They all turned to see a haunted tree with a sinister smile walk toward the carriage with several skeletons hanging from its limbs. Chester so scared the he could no longer scream. That's why when the skeletons began to talk to him, he didn't react.

"Everybody scream! Everybody scream! In our town of Halloween," they said.

A clown drove past the carriage and smiled. "I am the clown with the tear-away face," he said and then ripped off his face as if it was a door revealing a hollow interior. And then, right before disappearing, added: "Here in a flash and gone without a trace."

Suddenly, a blond youth with amber eyes appeared next to Chester and whispered softly: "I am the 'who' when you call, 'Who's there?' I am the wind blowing through your hair."

And within a second, the boy had become transparent and a breeze blew past Chester, making shiver in fear. When he saw everybody looking up, Chester looked up as well to see a large shadow on the full moon. The shadow began to talk to everyone below but Chester couldn't help but feel like it was talking to him directly when it said: "I am the shadow on the moon at night filling your dreams to the brim with fright."

The shadow vanished and, almost immediately, bats came flying towards him which he immediately swatted away. He hated bats.

"It's Joe and Brad!" one of the disfigured children screamed out happily.

Chester looked back to the center of the carriage and noticed two teenagers sitting in the middle who had not been there before. They both looked like nicer versions than the two boys that he had seen before. One was pale with soft brown eyes. He had several stitches over his body similar to the ones on Chester. And the other, was tan with lavender eyes and platinum black hair. He had a pair of fangs sticking out from his upper lip.

The tan boy smirked at the kids and said: "Tender lumplings everywhere, life's no fun without a good scare."

Then the paler one quickly added: "That's our job but we're not mean, in our town of Halloween."

They both pointed to the center of the square where the mayor was opening a gate. Everyone immediately turned their attention to a hunched monster, who was dragging a wooden horse by a rope, out of said gate. On the horse was a scarecrow with a pumpkin for a head. Chester, along with the others, were forced off of the carriage and onto the center of the square. Chester was shocked when Joe and Brad took his hand and leaded him to the front of the crowd but he didn't resist. He didn't want to get them angry.

"This is Halloween, everybody scream!" people, if that's what you want to call them, from the crowd shouted.

Chester noticed the red haired boy that had turned into a ghost standing next to mayor. He took the microphone in his hand and said: "Won't ya please make way for a very special guy?"

Chester didn't know what he was talking about at first. However, a moment later, the scarecrow sitting on the horse suddenly jumped up and ripped a flaming knife out of someone's hands in the crowd.

"Our man, Mike, is king of the pumpkin patch. Everyone hail to the pumpkin king," the crowd chanted excitedly.

Chester gasped when the scarecrow swallowed the torch whole. Immediately afterwards, flames lit up its entire body. Without any warning, it dived into the water fountain next to Chester and everyone leaned up against the edge to peer into the water.

Brad and Joe looked at each other and smiled. Then they turned to Chester and said: "In this town, we call home, everyone hail to the pumpkin song."

That's when the figure stood up from the water. He was no longer wearing a scarecrow costume with a pumpkin on his head. No, now he was dressed in an old suit with a black tie. Black powder covered his eyes and, when he opened them, he revealed a stunning dark empty holes , his and where just skeleton bones ,He had Black hair like Joe . Chester didn't know how long he had been staring but the sudden sound of clapping had brought him tumbling back to reality.

"It's over!" Joe shouted with a smile as he glanced at the clock that hung above the entire square. It had just struck twelve o' clock.

"We did it!" Brad added happily.

"Wasn't it terrifying?" A creature that looked like a dead werewolf growled out.

Two ghouls beside the wolf nodded. "What a night!"

"Great Halloween everybody!" The mayor announced.

"I believe it was our most horrible yet," the handsome man who had appeared from the fountain said. "Thank you everyone."

"No, thank you Mike," Brad praised. "Without your brilliant leadership—"

"Not at all! I couldn't have done it without Mayor Phoniex!" Mike said and the mayor just nodded in agreement.

"Always the modest type, aren't ya?" the blond boy said addressing the mayor with a playful grin. Mike smiled at the two and then turned around to see the two most beautiful witches in all of Halloween town approaching him.

"You're such a scream Mike!" the brunette witch giggled.

"You're a witch's fondest dreams!" the blond one agreed.

"Jessica, Rachul, please, I'm not all that great!" Mike said sheepishly.

Phoniex immediately noticed the way that Mike began to back up into the wall behind him. "Wait everyone!" the Phoniex demanded, catching everybody's attention. "We haven't announced prizes yet."

With that, everyone turned back to focus on the mayor, and Mike, knowing that this was Phoniex’s way of telling him to get away now, immediately dashed around the corner. "First award goes to the vampires for most blood drained in a single evening," he heard Phoniex say in the distance.

If he wasn't so focused in getting away then he wouldn't have almost collided with two of his closest friends.

"Hey Mike! Great show this year!" Brad congratulated politely.

"Thank you. You two did great as well," Mike replied with a smile. He then looked down to see the most beautiful being he had ever seen in his life. And then the most breathtaking angel-like Brown eyes that would make anyone's heart stop.

Joe noticed his friend's gaze and smiled. "OH! I forgot. This is Chester . He's new here."

Mike nodded. "Hello Chester," he said charmingly, addressing the little one in Joe’s grasp. "Did you enjoy the show?"

Chester didn't respond. He couldn't move and could barely breathe. All he could do was stare into those alluring, crimson eyes. For a moment, he had forgotten about all the unbelievable shit that had happened to him over the last hour or so. Hearing the other's silky voice address him, he tried as hard as he could to respond. However, his response came out more like this: "I-I…you're a-a-."

And then everything went black. Well, it was only a matter of time till he passed out, right?

What Chester didn't know is that Mike had caught him in his arms and had picked him up in a bridal position. "What's wrong with him?" Mike inquired suspiciously looking at the angelic boy in his arms with possessive eyes.

Joe shrugged but then slowly said. "Well, if I didn't know any better, I would say that he was…scared during the show."

"Scared?" Mike laughed. "No seriously, what's wrong with him?"

"I'm serious Mike. He's different. I don't know why, but something's definitely off about him," Joe responded.

Mike chose to ignore his friend's ranting for now. "Well, where does he live?"

Joe looked to Brad who sighed. "I haven't seen him before. Neither has anyone else that I've talked too."

Mike sighed but nodded anyways. "Alright, I'll just put him in my guest room till he wakes up," he said but then added to himself: 'Besides, I think I would like to know more about this boy.'

The three exchanged a few more words before Joe and Brad took off. It didn't take long for Mike to get to his house, it being the biggest one in Halloween town besides that of the mayor's. When he had gotten to the guest room, he placed the unconscious boy down on the bed gently and covered him with the blankets. Mike didn't know why but, for some reason, he felt…drawn to this boy. There was just something about him. Something fascinating and beautiful.

Mike didn't know what came over him, but in his mindless obsession over this youth, he bent down placed a small kiss on the soft, petal-like lips.

"Goodnight little one," Mike said and, ignoring the burning sensation in his cheeks, he walked to the door and flicked off the lights. "May your sleep be filled with the darkest nightmares."

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to be continued dun dun DUN!!! 8l