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Mayor: How horrible our Christmas will be!
Jack Skellington: *No.*
[the Mayor switches to his upset face]
Jack Skellington: How *jolly*!
Mayor: Oh. How *jolly* our Christmas will be
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Tim Burton
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This is going to sound slightly stalkerish, but I can't help but notice youβve decapitated Jack Skellington and put him on your ears." "What can I say?" Yvette shrugs. "I like bones." "So do I, actually, because our skeletons support a massive interconnected muscular structure and without them we would be blobs of flesh. Also we wouldn't have middle fingers to flip people off with. Are you in Room 14B?" Yvette's eyes widen. "Yeah, so you're -" "MY ROOMMATE!" I screech. A passing guy winces and flips me off. I loudly inform him he has his skeleton to thank for that.
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Sara Wolf (Brutal Precious (Lovely Vicious, #3))
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Oh, somewhere deep inside these bones, an emptiness began to grow.β ββ βJack Skellington
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Charity B. (Skeleton King (The Dirty Heroes Collection #9))
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Jack pulls me back into his arms, as if he could absorb the pain and take it from me. And I know, I would do it all over again: I would leave Dream Town and never return a thousand times just to be here with Jack, to touch his face, to feel his ice-cold lips on mine, to have a life with him in this town. To stand beside him as Pumpkin Queen.
This is the life I want. The one I'm willing to sacrifice everything for.
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Shea Ernshaw (Long Live the Pumpkin Queen: Tim Burtonβs The Nightmare Before Christmas)
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He kisses me again, folding me in his arms--the place I want to stay for a thousand years. When I first discovered Dream Town, I wasn't sure where I belonged, where my true home was. But now I know. Sometimes home is a town, a house with four walls. Other times, it's two hollow eyes in a skull, a skeleton without a heartbeat. It's here---not in Dream Town or Halloween Town---but in Jack's arms.
Folded against this hollow, skeleton chest is where I belong.
I let the tears stream down my face, I let them bind us together, salt and water and fabric and bone. Woven parts of ourselves that become one.
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Shea Ernshaw (Long Live the Pumpkin Queen: Tim Burtonβs The Nightmare Before Christmas)
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Your curiosity will kill you, Dr. Finkelstein once told me. Maybe he was right. But instead of killing me, it's taken the man, the skeleton, I love.
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Shea Ernshaw (Long Live the Pumpkin Queen: Tim Burtonβs The Nightmare Before Christmas)
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He wipes away the tear streaming down my cotton cheekbone to my chin and looks at me like his own chest is about to fracture. And for a moment, I'm certain they should just bury us both here, at the center of the graveyard. Married and died on the same day. Unable to contain the unspeakable, awful, wondrous emotion breaking against our eyelids.
The dreadful residents of Halloween Town applaud, tossing tiny dwarf spiders at our feet as we leave the cemetery, and the warmth in my chest feels like bats clamoring for a way out of my rib cage. Trying to break me apart.
I am now Sally Skellington.
The Pumpkin Queen.
And I'm certain I will never again be as happy as I am right now.
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Shea Ernshaw (Long Live the Pumpkin Queen: Tim Burtonβs The Nightmare Before Christmas)
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The guilt is a double-edged dagger, twisting inside me, breaking threads and tearing me apart.
Can the fool of a story also be the hero?
Doubtful.
But I have loved Jack for too long to let him be fated to a life worse than death. A life spent in a nightmare he can't wake from. I would cross a thousand thresholds into a thousand different worlds for him.
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Shea Ernshaw (Long Live the Pumpkin Queen: Tim Burtonβs The Nightmare Before Christmas)
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After all, I'm Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King. And you're Scary Sally, the doll who can single-handedly frighten away an entire town just by using her head." He bared his teeth menacingly. "They have no idea who they're dealing with."
A chill spun down Sally's back as she caught the fierce look on Jack's face. It was the kind of swagger he usually reserved for Halloween night, and she had always been enthralled by it. That confidence! That conviction! That look that told her he seriously believed he could achieve anything--- if he just put his mind to it.
And maybe Sally could, too.
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Mari Mancusi (Sally's Lament)
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But first I have to sew my leg back on. Properly this time, so it doesn't come apart again." She reached for her leg, her hands still shaking from residual adrenaline after their near escape. She hoped she'd be able to thread her needle.
Jack placed a hand over her arm. "Allow me," he said, and Sally's eyes widened as he carefully aligned her lower leg with the stub of her knee.
"I can do that---" she started. But Jack put a finger to her lips.
"I know you can," he said, meeting her eyes with his own. "But right now your hands are still trembling from trying to help me up and I don't want you to hurt yourself. So why don't you just rest for a second? Allow me to make myself useful for once." He wagged a playful finger at her. "You don't get to save the day every time, you know."
Sally tried to laugh, but it came out more like a choke as grateful tears began to well in her eyes. A part of her still wanted to argue, to insist she could do it herself. But then, Jack already knew that, didn't he? Even in the darkness she could see his confidence in her, reflected in his dark eyes.
Sally had always hated when Dr. Finkelstein had sewed her back together. It made her feel weak. Helpless. Yet another thing he didn't trust her to do on her own. Another way to retain control.
But Jack wasn't trying to control her, she realized. He was trying to help her. And wasn't it nice, sometimes, to lean on another? To trust that someone cared enough to do the job right?
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Mari Mancusi (Sally's Lament)
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If you want people to believe in you, you have to know your own worth.
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Mari Mancusi (Sally's Lament)
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Did I hurt you?" he asked worriedly.
She shook her head wordlessly. It did hurt a little, of course--- it always did. But so much less than when Dr. Finkelstein would carelessly jab his needle into her cloth, without caring how she was feeling or even if his stitches would hold for the long haul.
But Jack was different. Meticulous. Gentle. And instead of feeling uncomfortable, she felt a strange warmth settle in her stomach.Soon Jack finished, giving her a shy smile as he tied off the last stitch. And from the look on his face, she realized he'd felt something, too. Maybe it wasn't exactly the same. Maybe not as strong. But something.
Which made her feel even warmer.
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Mari Mancusi (Sally's Lament)
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All those times she'd watched him waltz into town on Halloween night in all his pumpkin glory--- she'd always been so impressed. He'd been like a rock star to her, larger than life.
But he was also just a simple guy, it turned out. With hopes and dreams and desires, just like everyone else.
And she liked that Jack. Maybe even more than the illustrious Pumpkin King.
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Mari Mancusi (Sally's Lament)
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Oh, it is good to be home," he declared. And Sally agreed with him. There was so much she loved about Christmas Town. But Halloween Town was pretty great, too. And it was okay, she decided, to like both for what they were. If she learned anything from this adventure, it was that one thing didn't have to define you. You got to define yourself--- in any manner you saw fit.
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Mari Mancusi (Sally's Lament)
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So you really think these all represent different holiday lands?" he asked, pulling open the door with the large bird on it. "What do you think this one could be?"
"A holiday to honor turkeys?" Sally guessed. Though somehow that didn't sound quite right.
"Maybe," Jack mused. "But why would anyone want to honor a turkey? They're such dumb birds. Really, the only good thing to do is eat them." He closed the door, then headed over to the tree with the heart on it. "This one's probably Dissection Town," he decided. "They spend all year long harvesting organs, and one day a year they gather together to eat them."
Sally made a face. "Or maybe it's Love Town?" she suggested. "And their holiday is filled with lots of romantic proclamations?"
Jack looked disappointed by this idea. He moved on to the tree with the four-leafed plant. "Garden Town," he pronounced. "They're completely vegetarian. And they hate turkeys with a passion.
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Mari Mancusi (Sally's Lament)
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Oh, Jack," she whispered, leaning longingly against the gravestone. "I know how you feel."
Suddenly there was a shift beneath her--- the gravestone crumbling under her added weight. She cried out in surprise, trying to move, but only managed to lose her balance in the process. She was flung from her hiding spot, tumbling forward into a wide-open space.
And when she managed to look up again?
She found herself staring straight into the eyes of Jack Skellington.
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Mari Mancusi (Sally's Lament)
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We could try something else..." she suggested, not wanting to bruise his ego along with his backside.
But Jack only shook his head, his dark eyes glistening. "Are you kidding?" he cried. "I'm not letting some silly ice skates defeat me!"
Of course you won't, Sally thought fondly, watching him scramble to his feet again, wobbling a bit but somehow managing to stay upright this time. Jack didn't let anything defeat him. It was one of the things she'd always admired about him.
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Mari Mancusi (Sally's Lament)
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Jack."
"Last name?"
"Let's leave it at Jack," he said.
"Unfortunately, the online form insists on a last name before it will allow me to move to the next page." I held up the tablet to show him the screen. "How about Jack Spratt? Jack Frost? Jack Sparrow? Jack Horner? Do you have a beanstalk? Do you kill giants? Have you built a house? Are you nimble?"
"How about something not fantasy-based?" With a soft chuckle, he moved closer to study the screen.
"Jack Dawson? Jack Skellington?" I tried to ignore the heat of his body, the warm breath across my cheek. "Jack-Jack Parr? Jack Torrance? Jack Pearson? Jack Reacher? Jack Ryan?"
His laughter, deep and rich, filled the room. "You know your Jacks."
"I like movies. I'll watch anything so long as I'm not watching it alone. Sharing snarky comments is all part of the fun."
"I think doing anything with you would be fun." His smile made me smile. I couldn't stop it. Were we flirting? Was that a flirting smile? Was I flirting with a thief?
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Sara Desai (To Have and to Heist)