Madeleine Mallory wasn’t spooked by the croaking noises. In fact, she hopped out of her bedroom window to investigate, and discovered a noisy, ugly-cute ball of feathers in an abandoned nest. She kept the fledgling warm, chopped up worms for him and called him ‘Nekro’. Nekro - being so young, and being a raven - couldn’t really pronounce her name. So he called her Malady and remained devoted to her, even when he grew to be an impressive and ominous-looking adult.

Malady blossomed, quite literally, into one Hell of a Glamour Ghoul. The stitch-work tattoos and talon nails were intentional. The co-ordinating green skin and the undead status…less so. Malady still can’t remember exactly what happened to her, but she has an uncomfortable feeling that it should have been fatal. Then Nekro descended, pecking at her limbs until the strange numbness started to subside. He eventually resorted to putting worms in Malady’s mouth. That did the trick.

The Mallory family mausoleum has had a makeover, and Malady has taken up residence there. The pumpkin nightlights make the old place cosier. Nekro comes and goes, but he kind of lives with Malady now. And, mysteriously, Malady just…kind of lives.

It didn’t take Malady long to adjust to her…transformation. The new green skin set off her tattoos very nicely. She didn’t mind the short-term amnesia, as it swept away the issue of dealing with what would surely be Oogie memories. She was also delighted that she could now understand what Nekro said. Well, mostly. Yet one small thing about her new life mystified Malady; the darting pink lights that sometimes haunted the graveyard after twilight. Cyber faeries? Candy-neon fireflies?

Nekro found a pink glow-stick and brought it directly to Malady as a present. This piece of evidence ruled out faeries. ‘That was a crazy idea, anyway’, said the tattooed zombie to her talking raven.

A small fluttering bat and a spiky haired urchinette popped up at the mausoleum gates. ‘Hi!’ said the spiky pink girl. ‘Nice tattoos. Your bird has one of our glowsticks. Can we have it back, please?’

That was how Malady met Magenta. Magenta decided that her new friend should keep the lost glow stick, and brought lots more to brighten up the mausoleum. Malady was soon persuaded to visit the Nocturne Club, and the glamour ghoul discovered that being undead couldn’t stand in the way of a hectic social life.

But Malady and Nekro still share special evenings alone, reminiscing about growing up together, admiring their talons and tattoos, and eating worms.