When Emily opened her eyes, she was momentary confused. She sat upright in the bed and looked around her. Suddenly, all of the events of yesterday came crashing back to her. It made her feel very dizzy. She fell backwards on the bed and rubbed her face with her hands.

"Oh yes," she said sadly. "I'm not home."

Then, her thoughts went back to a particular skeleton whose bed she was in.

"Jack..." she smiled as she spoke his name out loud.

Emily slowly sat up and looked around again. A strange, orange glow was streaming in from the window. Carefully and quietly, she got out of the bed and made her way over to see the light source. She saw what seemed like the sun, only it was a large jack-o-lantern that looked like as if illuminated all of Halloween Town.

She could see all the oddly shaped buildings that Jack had pointed out the night before.

"Oh, good. You're awake. Good morning."

Emily turned to see Jack's head poking through the bedroom door.

"Good morning."she replied. "Just admiring the view." Emily mentally added, Of you.

Jack fully entered the room.

"Well, if you're ready, we could go see the Doctor." Jack said.

Emily felt torn. Part of her missed home. But part of her wanted to stay here...with Jack. She took a moment to collect her thoughts. She took a breath.

"I'm ready."

"Let's go then." Jack said as he led the way down the steps and out of the house. Zero floated alongside his master.

Emily stayed behind the two of them so she could look around the town that was basking in the orange glow of the sun. The fountain was spewing green ooze as they passed. Emily wondered what the liquid could possibly be, but was not going to find out. Zero wandered over by the fountain, then something caught his attention and he went off in another direction. Remnants of the festivities of the night before were still around the town. Lights hanging from ropes that seem to connect the houses to the building right in the middle of town. Even with the sun up, you could still see the lights were shining.

"Here we are," Jack said, causing Emily snap out of her daydream-like state. "This is Doctor Finklestein's laboratory."

Emily looked up at the building through the bars of the fence. It looked like someone started to construct a round tower, but gave up halfway through. On top of the almost tower, there was a round sphere with a ring around it. Above the sphere, there looked like another addition, but Emily could not be sure what it was. The sphere was placed at an unusual angle, she thought.

"Follow me." Jack reached out and pushed the gate open.

Emily took a deep breath. You have to do this. You need to get back home. She straightened herself up and walked up to the gate with Jack.

Jack led the way. He talked to Emily and kept asking new questions about her home. Emily answered all his inquiries. Even though he did not have them, Emily could swear that Jack's eyes were lighting up.

They reached the front door and Jack knocked on it. There wasn't any response. After a few more tries, Jack just opened the door and proceeded to enter. Emily followed suit.

"Doctor?" Jack called out. His voice seemed to echo in the emptiness of the room.

"I'm up here, m'boy." replied a voice from up a very large staircase.

Jack followed the sound of the voice and Emily after him.

"Doctor, I have someone I want you to meet." Jack announced as he got to the top of the steps.

"Oh really?"

Emily could hear something whirling and looked to see what was making the noise. She saw a man in a chair with wheels that moved on its own. The man was bone-white. His mouth made her think of a duck's bill. He wore small black goggles. The man had black, elbow-length gloves on and wore a white coat.

"Hello," she stepped out from behind Jack. "My name is Emily." she said cheerfully. She offered her bony hand for him to shake.

"I'm Doctor Finklestein." the man replied as he took her hand and shook it. Quickly, he let her go. "What can I do for you?" He reached for a stick that was on the handlebar and pulled it towards him. The chair started moving backwards. This struck Emily as strange. She had seen some unusual things, but not a chair that moves without someone else pushing.

Emily told the story of how she came to be in Halloween Town. During the story, the Doctor would nod his head. Emily would cast a glance in Jack's direction every now and then, but he was walking around the area.

"Interesting." the Doctor said when she finished.

"What do you mean?" Emily asked.

The Doctor seemed to muse about what ever he found interesting.

"Come with me." the Doctor told both of them. He turned the stick and the chair turned as well.

The Doctor rolled through the room and Emily and Jack followed behind him. Emily looked around as they walked. There were a number of tables with sheets over them. Strange, lumpy shapes showed under the sheets.

"I was working on something last night and it may have something to do with all this." he wheeled over to one of the covered tables. "You see, I wanted to have an assistant."

The Doctor stopped next to a table. He pulled the sheet off to reveal a woman laying on the table. The woman seemed as if she were sleeping. She had long brown hair. Her skin looked as if it had been sewn together. She wore a patchwork dress, many different patterns put together to make it. On the floor next to her, Emily could see some dried out leaves on the floor.

"Her name is Sally." the Doctor said.

Thank you for being so patient with me.