Ghoul had always been plagued by nightmares. He couldn't remember ever having a decent nights sleep; on the occasions that he was so exhausted he couldn't force himself to stay awake any longer, he'd wake up screaming. Some of his nightmares were blurry and unfocused, so all that he could remember about them was how terrified he was. But most of them were as clear as crystal, images frozen in time that would haunt his mind every waking hour. No one knew about these nightmares, except for Woof, who would concernedly sit by him as he tried to force the images out of his mind, a fruitless task.
Yes, only Woof knew, and if he'd had his way, that was how it would have stayed. But of course, there were some things that you couldn't control. Fate was one of them. And Fate seemed to have quite the penchant for screwing him over.
The Jokerz slept in the candy factory. It wasn't the most favorable place to sleep, but Ghoul preffered it to the street. He had purposely chosen a tiny room as far away from the others as possible—a tiny storage room at the back of the factory, to be more precise, the rotting equipment in it tossed into the ever growing trash heap that had begun developing after the Jokerz had moved in.
In one corner was a makeshift bed he'd made for himself—nothing grand, just a slightly rotten mattress and a few blankets. Nothing much, but again, more preferable to the street. In the other corner was an old desk that he had salvaged from the upstairs offices, with help from Woof, of course. The desk was covered in as much working or repairable computer equipment as he could find in this dump. The room was pitiful, but comfortable. It felt more like home than his parents multi-million dollar mansion ever had.
Unforetunately, one of the many drawbacks of sleeping in a place like this, especially when you had chronic nightmares, was the worsening of those nightmares. Something Ghoul wouldn't have thought possible. But ambience seemed to be everything.
Suffice to say, none of the Jokerz had a very good nights sleep the first night they stayed there.
The screaming woke everyone up immediately.
Even Bonk, who slept like the dead, was woken up by the nightmarish sound. Confused as to what was going on, they all migrated to the main room, where the production line used to be before the Joker gutted it.
"Where's that other guy?" Chucko asked. Chucko had never been very good with names, not that Ghoul had gone out of his way to introduce himself to anyone.
"And that dog thing?" Bonk asked. Bonk wasn't smart enough to be good with names.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Dee Dee?"
"That we should go see how Ghoul is doing, Dee Dee?"
No one else really had any ideas and, despite it being 3 AM and everyone being exhausted, they didn't want to go back to sleep. So they made their way towards the forgotten corridor where Ghoul had set up his room, yawning and being generally slow and annoyed.
When they got to the tiny room, Ghoul and Woof were both there. Ghoul was sitting up on his makeshift bed, his head in his hands, completely still and silent. Woof was standing concernedly by his side.
"Aww, did widdle Ghoulie have a nightmare?" The Deed's asked at the same time. Chucko and Bonk matched their cruel laughter. Woof turned and growled at them, causing them to jump back.
Ghoul looked up at them, glaring. He was blushing, although it was hard to see through his discolored skin, as most things were.
"Get out." he growled. They ignored him and stood there, laughing again after recovering from the surpise of Woof's anger.
Ghoul normally had a cool temperment, but there were times when he lost himself. This was one of them.
"Get out!" he yelled. As though responding to some unspoken command, Woof leapt at them. The Dee Dee's screamed and Bonk and Chucko ran as his powerful teeth and claws sailed towards them.
When they had cleared out, Ghoul made sure to soundproof his room.