Once Again, it's Jackle

Chapter 1

The Magic Pickle Fairy

Claris found herself in a round room. It soon was concluded in Claris' head that she was dreaming. The room looked familiar though. The floor was checkered and was patterned with Spades, Clubs, Hears and Diamonds. There were boxes in the middle of the room along with the edge. At the other side was a guillotine which was kind of freaky. Claris defeated Wizman, the ruler of Nightmare, and haven't had nightmares since. Was she having one now?

There was laughter. It was slow but loud. Also caught some familiarity, it was from one of the nightmare she defeated. It couldn't be the fish… Oh, it was Jackle.

Eyes appeared in front of her, "long times no see."

Claris just stood in silence. Her eyes were wide and there wasn't much to say. "Um, yeah."

Teeth appeared next and laughed, "You don't remember me, don't you?"

"Of course I do. You're one of my nightmares, gave me quite a fright when I was little."

"Oh, right, I was created based on your fears," Jackle's cape and headpiece finally appeared, "you were so cute when you were little."

Claris was now seventeen. She didn't find that to be an adult standard as of yet. Claris still thought that she was cute since Elliot reminds her of that all of the time. Claris flipped her hair, "I'm always cute, what do you mean?"

Jackle's pupils kind of gotten smaller and his mouth rounded. This was kind of odd seeing how hir teeth were pretty sharp. "Well, yeah, you are, but you aren't a child anymore."

"Don't be so sure," Claris told the nightmaren, "I don't know what I'm doing after high school."

"What about becoming a famous pop singer?" Jackle asked.

It was Claris' turn to laugh. It was so loud that it echoed across the nightmare-scape. "No, duh, there are thousands of girls who want that dream and only a few that become famous like Britney Spears."

"Then I guess I did my work well," Jackle joked, "even if there were three years where I couldn't give you nightmares."

Ever since defeating Wizeman, Claris haven't gotten any nightmares. Claris mostly was visited by NiGHTS and did fun stuff with hir. It was cool seeing Elliot in her dreams as well. Claris needed a snarky comeback, "well, you haven't seen reality now have you?" She stuck out her tongue.

Jackle laughed hirself, "I like you; we should meet again. Good morning."

Claris woke up to the alarm. She didn't want to wake up yet… Yet she smelled bacon and coffee, so it was probably fine to go to the hard reality that Claris had to live through.

Claris went downstairs to see a plate of bacon and eggs. She saw a small envelope on the table. It was from Appleseed Arts. Claris knew about the small envelopes from colleges. That meant awful stuff.

Claris opened the envelope. She read it through then sighed. At least it was a bacon day.

Claris sat in the lunchroom alone. She had to figure stuff out, but she was graduating next semester. Guess she needed to fill in some applications for work. She saw Elliot looking around with a tray in his hands. Claris jumped up and down yelling out at Elliot that she was there.

Elliot placed his tray table in front of Claris with a big smile, "I got into College of Wooster!"

Oh, great, Claris' day couldn't get any worse. And it did. Claris was for sure happy for Elliot. But College of Wooster was in the middle of nowhere in Ohio. Twins Seeds was in a city Massachusetts. Those states are very far away from each other. "That's awesome! That's a high standing school isn't it?"

"Yeah, and they didn't seem to care that I didn't know what to major in. The only issue is that it's so expensive."

"What about Twin Seeds University?"

Elliot shrugged, "I haven't gotten a response from them yet. They have a better reputation, but I'd never get into their Division I team. Wooster is Division III, which I could get into their team easily. I also want to be a Fighting Scott."

"Well, a Fighting Scott sounds a lot more epic than the Twin Seeds Towers," Claris joked. She did want Elliot to keep on playing basketball. Granted, he isn't good enough to be a professional. Just like Claris isn't good enough at singing to be on Broadway. Yet Elliot still plays in the court and Claris has a band. Claris just doesn't want to prevent Elliot from playing basketball just because he'd be far away for it.

"So how are your college applications going?" Elliot asked as he took a bite from his grilled cheese sandwich.

Claris looked down, "Awfully. Art schools just want students with good grades and SATs even if they are schools of visual arts."

"How are your grades on Art classes?" Elliot asked.

"The only A's I have," Claris answered, "But apparently Appleseed wants me to be good at writing and math along with art. They seem to want perfect people."

Elliot rose an eyebrow, "yeah, doesn't make any sense."

"I have to wait for the Art Institute of Twin Seeds, but it's looking grim."

Claris played around with her pastels and shading on her sketch pad for an hour after dinner while she thought about getting on AOL to chat with friends. Claris yawned. She was kind of afraid to fall asleep since Jackle now wants to bond. When Claris woke up that day she was fine with it. Yet then she remembered the torment as a kid. She was often scared of sleeping as a child because of Jackle. Kind of like the monster in the closet. And ze suddenly wanted to become friends? Claris shook her head around. At the same time she might dream about Nightopia and NiGHTS, which she quite enjoys.

This isn't like she was going to Nightmare on Elm Street it; she had to go to sleep. Claris put on her jammies and went to bed.

Luckily Claris found herself to Spring Valley. She saw NiGHTS floating around the dreamscape. Claris looked down at her clothes, which were her school uniform. Ever since meeting NiGHTS, Claris' dreaming became much more lucid. Claris changed her clothes to street clothes of jeans and a cute white shirt. Much better!

NiGHTS flew over to Clairs, "where's Elliot."

Claris shrugged, "Probably playing Sonic again. You know him, he can play for hours."

NiGHTS giggled, "Oh, I know Sonic. I often do my faster flying as he runs."

Claris nodded her head, "yeah, of course." NiGHTS kidded of course, ze was a jester after all. "So, have you ever contacted any of the other nightmaren ever since Wizeman's defeat?"

NiGHTS looked up, "er," then ze took a deep breath, "depends on what you mean."

"Spit."

"I've talked to Reala a few times. You never met hir, but ze's another first rank nightmaren. Just because we are in different sides doesn't mean we can't be friends. Also, I've been helping other kids defeat Wizeman. You haven't defeated Wizeman for everyone, just yourselves."

Claris's eyes grew wide, "that makes a whole lot more sense. I knew that some of my friends' dreams seem to disturbing if Wizeman was defeated." Claris closed her eyes, "I guess Wizeman is a personal enemy that kids need to defeat themselves."

NiGHTS' eyes looked around the dreamscape, "and Wizeman has gotten better at defeating me."

"Well, how many kids have you helped defeat Wizeman?" Claris became curious, there was stuff to this world she didn't know.

NiGHTS sighed and looked down, "Two"

"Elliot and I?" Wow, Claris couldn't believe it. She was lucky to fight this entire battle. Because of NiGHTS she was able to gain confidence; not only in her singing, but also her acting and drawing. NiGHTS was the one who made her realize she was talented. Claris just hoped that they at least got something out of meeting NiGHTS. But Claris need to get to her point, "How about Gillwing, Gulpo and Jackle?"

NiGHTS' eyes just looked straight at Claris, "Jackle a few times. Ze is a second rank nightmare, so I don't really talk to them. Jackle is… different though."

"How so?"

"Jackle is very effective, one of Wizeman's greatest creations. You're very special Claris, you're a perfect Dreamer. Not much has scared you before Jackle was created. Jackle might as well be a first rank nightmaren."

"And, what has ze said since you rebelled?"

"We played cards, ze dealt some tarot fortunes. Jackle is really good with fortunes. Although, when you were mentioned Jackle did ask about your age and grade."

"Why?"

"Something about knowing if you're a grown up yet."

Claris tilted her head around, "Almost, I guess."

"You're eighteen and a twelfth grade."

"No, I'm seventeen." Claris clarified. Kind of made sense now, Jackle wanted to meet Claris when she grew up. Too bad the legal age of being an adult was eighteen because that's too close for Claris' maturity.

It was the Saturday the next day. Claris grabbed a newspaper and looked at the classifieds. She better start looking for work in order to start growing up.