Jay twisted in his sleep. He opened his mouth to try and scream. Nothing came out. Sweat started forming on Jay's head as he started thrashing at everything in his reach. Slowly, the young man stopped moving. With his eyes still shut tight, Jay woke up. He took a few breaths before opening one eyelid partially. He expected to see the creature from his nightmare above him. The long bony arm would be stretched out to grab Jay's neck. It's other hand holding a knife, the skin from the hand peeling and falling off. The creatures burnt and bloody body would be covered with a ripped, ragged, black cloak with red stains.

When nothing appeared in front of the frightened ninja, Jay opened both his eyes. His head and arm were hanging off the bed. The blankets were wrapped around his legs, keeping them tied together. Jay shifted his head back to his pillow and untied his legs from their prison. He looked around the shared room. Everybody else was fast asleep, or so he thought. Kai lie awake, listening to his brother's quick breaths.

Jay was parched. He sat up with his eyes fixated on the open door. 'I just need to walk out that door and down the hallway. That's it. That's all.'

Jay continued to stare at the door. His nightmare ran through his head again. He had walked down the alleyway, trying to hunt the creature that haunted him. Cole's voice came through his earpiece, orders on what to find out about the creature. Jay felt the creature's presence behind him. The weapon in his hand was thrown out by some unknown force. Jay attempted to speak, to scream, but his voice was caught in his throat. It felt like the was choking on something but could still breath. Jay lost focus at the unfamiliar feeling of being speechless. The creature held Jay down. Thinking fast, he started kicking and hitting whatever he could, trying to make some noise so he could alert somebody. No sound came from the metal trash and lids. The creature pulled off his hood.

A small squeak emitted from Jay's mouth as he tried to stop the replay. He reached under his pillow and pulled out the keychain flashlight that have had recently purchased. Jay pressed the small button on the side and pointed it to floor next to his bed. Jay stared at the illuminated spot. His mind projected an image of an arm. This arm was gray with burnt skin and blood. The fingers were long and bony with long pointed nails at the end. The hand opened and closed, as if trying to grasp something that wasn't there. Jay knew that if he put his leg over the side of the bed, the hand would grab him, drag him away and probably kill him.

'No. There is nothing out to get me. I'm safe. I'm perfectly safe.' Jay swung his legs over the side of his bed. As soon as his feet touched the cold wood, he broke into a small run, not caring if he made any noise.

Kai sat up as Jay left. He quietly followed the younger male. Jay closed the door as he entered the kitchen. Kai peered through the little window, thankful that Jay had turned on the lights. He watched as Jay filled his cup, looking over his shoulder every few seconds. Holding his flashlight as if it were some sort of weapon, Jay sat down at the small table, his back turned to the door. Kai carefully opened the door.

"Jay. You okay?" Kai's voice came out at a whisper, one that Jay couldn't hear. Kai placed a hand on Jay's shoulder. Jay's heart practically leapt out of his chest. Acting on adrenaline, Jay sent an electrified fist straight to Kai's face. Kai fell backwards, one hand over the mark that Jay left.

"Oh my... Kai, are you okay?" Jay rushed to his friend's aid, tears were threatening to fall from his eyes. "I am so sorry. I didn't... I'm really sorry. I'm so sorry, I - "

"It's okay. It's okay, Jay. I'm fine, just a little shock, nothing big. Hush, hush, it's okay. I'm okay." Kai attempted to calm Jay down. His actions were fruitless, as Jay continued to fret about hurting his brother.

"No, it's not okay I hurt you. I was... There were... My mind... Tricks... Not... Real... It's... Monsters... Imaginary... I'm... So stupid..." Jay fell back into the chair he was sitting in. He buried his head into his crossed arms. The rest of his sentences came out muffled and a mess. Kai stood quietly and watched as Jay's shoulders jumped up and down in rapid movements as he cried. Something inside Kai flipped, like a light being turned on, and in an instant Kai had his arms wrapped around the crying boy, whispering in his ear soft 'it's okay' s and 'just let it out' s.

After a few minutes, Kai decided to attempt getting a conversation started. "Why are you in the kitchen anyway?"

"I w-was th-thirsty." Jay pointed to a blue cup, which had fallen off the table when Jay had jumped to punch Kai. Kai picked the cup up, thankful that it was one of the plastic ones from when Lloyd was a child that none of the ninja ever bothered to throw away.

"Why were you so scared when I touched your shoulder?" Kai grabbed another plastic cup from the pantry and filled both up with ice. He handed the blue cup to Jay, using his power to melt the ice so the water was nice and cold.

"It's easy to overpower somebody if you grab their shoulders." Jay took a sip of his water. "I read about it somewhere."

Kai nodded in understanding, although inside he was wondering where Jay got such a piece of information, since he never knew Jay to read nonfiction books, or read at all. He took a bit of ice in his mouth and chewed it for a few seconds before it melted. "Why would something attack you though? The only people on the Bounty are friends. And Ronin, but he's getting a ride back to his hometown. He wouldn't dare try anything."

Jay froze, the edge of his cup resting on his bottom lip. He slowly lowered the cup back to the table, his entire body trembling. "W-well ye know, s-some enemy of some sort could have s-snuck aboard -"

"The security system would have gone off. Jay, I'm not an idiot. I know about the nightmare you had. You were practically attacking your bed. What's really wrong?"

Tears formed in Jay's eyes as he thought about all the nightmares and "hallucinations". Kai immediately fell to Jay's side, his arms wrapped around him like an older brother protecting his younger sibling. Which is exactly what Kai was doing. The more Jay sobbed, the tighter Kai wrapped his arms around him. Eventually, Jay's breathing slowed and the sobs were reduced to hiccups. "All better now?" Kai asked.

Jay nodded his head softly. "I-I'm sorry Kai. It's-s j-just..."

"No, shush, it's all right. You don't need to talk. It's okay. I'm sorry from asking."

"No, I want to talk about it. Maybe then it'll go away." Jay took a few breaths and a couple sips from his cup. "Okay, so about two months ago I started seeing these, monster-creature-things. But the thing is, I didn't actually see them. If I stare at a certain spot, I can see people or animals or creatures in my head. So it's like I'm seeing two different screens at the same time. Kind-of like when you're little and you see your imaginary friend but you don't actually see them, you just make them up in your head."

Kai nodded his head in understanding. He sat down in the chair next to Jay and tried to wrap his head around a few words. 'Two months! He's been like this for two months!'

Jay continued with his monologue when Kai offered no words. "The nightmares only started about a month - five weeks ago. I'd get so scared that I wouldn't leave my bed until the morning because I was convinced that the monsters would get me."

"That explains the excessive sheet washing. I just thought you were spilling some oil or something from one of your inventions."

Jay's cheeks blushed to a dark red. "Y-yeah. I purchased this flashlight," Jay held up the blue keychain flashlight for Kai to see, "so that I would feel safer when I got out of bed at night."

The two sat in quiet for a few minutes. Jay drank -chugged- the water from his cup. Once it was empty, Kai passed his cup over to Jay, which he also chugged. "What if we boarded up the bottom of our beds?"

Jay shot Kai a puzzling look. "What do you mean?"

"To help with your nightmares and stuff. If we board up the bottom of our beds then the boogeyman or whatever can't crawl out from underneath them."

"But we put stuff under our beds. Where are we going to place that stuff?"

Kai gave a shrug. "We'll put in drawers under our beds then. At night we'll close the drawers so that the monsters or whatever can't come and get you."

Jay just stared at Kai. Different thoughts were running through his head. The longer he thought about Kai's plan, the tighter his chest felt. Jay's body went ice cold, except for his chest, which was burning like a sinner in hell. His heart felt like it was tied up with some rope and his brain was pulling it tighter and tighter. Kai's protective instincts perked up when Jay's breathing became short, quick breaths. He grabbed Jay's cup and filled it up with more water, practically slamming it down on the table next to his now shaking friend.

Boarding up the beds would be nice. But what will the others think? Cole and Lloyd will laugh at me and call me a baby. Zane will just tell me that I'm being an idiot. Nya... No wonder Nya had thoughts about dating somebody else. I'm just a cowardly idiot. Jay was shocked out of his internal thoughts when Kai placed a blanket around his shoulders. He turned around to face his brother and was greeted with a hug.

"Kai, please stop hugging me. You're too warm."

Kai pulled away from Jay. "Sorry. It's just... I can't stand to see you like this. You're my brother, and brother sharpens brother." Kai lowered his voice to a whisper. "I think. I'm just really tired and have no actual idea about what I'm saying."

Jay gave a small smile. He finished off the water in the cup in front of him and stood up, his flashlight in one hand and his other holding the blanket around his shoulders. "Let's go to bed then. Sensei is going to come into our room in," Jay glanced over at the clock on the oven, "four hours. We don't want to be tired during sunrise exercises."

"Yeah, true. Hey, um, Jay?"

"Yeah Kai."

"You're flashlight. Do you want me to hold it, or maybe use my powers?" Kai pointed to Jay's hand, which was turning white at the knuckles from how tightly he was holding the flashlight.

Jay gave a friendly - but quivering- smile to Kai. His hold on the flashlight tightened -if that was even possible-, his index finger tapping against the on button. "No thank you Kai. I think I got it."

"All right, but you're going to the bathroom before we head back to bed. I don't want to have another load of laundry to do tomorrow."

Jay's cheeks blushed a darker red than before. "I-I'm not going to pee the bed Kai. I promise."

"Don't care. I don't want to take any chances." Kai put the cups in the sink for Zane to wash when he woke to make breakfast in the morning, not caring that he would get yelled at.

Jay said nothing as Kai pushed him out of the kitchen and into the hallway, turning off the light as he left the room. The blue ninja huddled closer to his friend as they were engulfed by darkness. He turned around in all direction, shining his flashlight in every crook and nanny. When Kai opened the bathroom door, Jay shined the flashlight into the darkness and quickly turned the light on. After a quick argument with Kai over whether or not Kai should have the flashlight in case the monsters come (Kai insisted he could use his powers, but Jay wouldn't have it, so Kai folded and held onto the flashlight) Jay finally used the restroom. Before walking out, he looked into the mirror, a mistake on his part.

He was just checking his reflection, seeing how bad the bags under his eyes were. His brain was on autopilot, and his eyes were bouncing back and forth like a tennis ball instead of focused on his reflection. Jay's eyes froze when he shall the reflection of the shower, the curtain drawn so you couldn't see the tile behind. His brain was playing tricks on him again, since he kept thinking of the shower curtain being pushed to the side as something stepped out of the shower. The thing kept changing forms, since Jay's brain couldn't figure out what scared him the most. Finally, it settled on a copy of Jay. Jay's eyes widened as he put the pieces together. There was a tale that if you saw your double, it was a sign of death. Shaking his head, Jay tried to get the thought out of his head. He turned his attention to the other side of the mirror. The door behind Jay cracked open a little bit. Jay froze in horror, his breathing was speeding up again. A million and one thoughts were running through his brain, his stomach started to feel uncomfortably warm, like some little men had started a fire to keep warm and planning on stabbing him for the inside out. He continued to swallow the spit in his mouth, although it felt like swallowing a ping pong whole.

The door continued to open, Jay could clearly see a hand, a normal looking one. Whatever was opening the door could clearly see Jay's face through the mirror, and stopped moving. Jay closed his eyes and bent his head down, preparing for an attack.

"Jay? It's me, Kai." Jay opened his eye and looked back at the mirror. Sure enough, Kai was standing in the doorway, one hand on the door and the other held out toward Jay, the flashlight trapped between his index and middle fingers. "Jay are you okay?"

Jay turned around to face Kai, relieved that it was his friend and he wouldn't get hurt. "I'm fine Kai. Thanks for asking," Jay lied through his teeth, his voice neutral but with forced words. "I was wondering if we could not mention what happened tonight to the others.

Kai looked unconvinced. He was sure that Jay wasn't telling him the truth, but decided not to pry so that he wouldn't be a sobbing mess again. "I won't tell the guys. I promise."

Jay let out a sigh at these words. He wouldn't be able to stand it if the others found out that he was slowly going insane. Unfortunately, his relief was short-lived. "But I'm going to tell, Sensei. He has a right to know about your mental health, especially if it could interfere with something during a mission."

"Fine," Jay stated, his voice filled with the same annoyance and reluctance a teenage girl would give her parents. "Anything else you want to spring on me unexpectedly?"

Kai gave a sly smile. "I'm carrying you to your bed."

Jay barely had time to react before Kai swiped him off his feet and placed him over his shoulder. Kai turned off the light to the bathroom, but didn't bother using the flashlight. Jay was going to put up with a fight, but instead choose to bury his head into Kai's hair, so that he wouldn't have to look into the darkness, because you know what they say, out of sight out of mind.

The walk back to the bedroom was short, although it felt like an eternity for Jay. Once they entered the room, Kai placed Jay on his bed before grabbing something from underneath his own. After he found what he was looking for, Kai walked back over to Jay, who had burrowed himself under his covers completely except for his head. "This is Roderich. He's going to keep you safe from the monsters by fighting them off while you sleep."

Kai held up a teddy bear. It was dressed in somewhat fancy clothes that had obviously seen better days, since they were held together with different color stitching and the sleeves were different lengths. One of the eyes had fallen out was replaced with a button that was lying around, since whoever repaired the bear felt it wasn't necessary to bother matching anything. The fur of the bear had worn down and was not as fluffy as it had once been.

Jay hesitantly reached for the bear, convinced that just breathing on it would cause it to break. Once he placed his hand around one of the arms, Jay pulled the bear in for a tight hug, surprised at how durable the stuffed animal was. Kai placed Jay's flashlight back underneath his pillow. He pulled the blanket back up to Jay's shoulders, since it had fallen down when Jay reached for the bear. Jay's eyes drooped a bit, the lack of sleep finally catching up to him. He watched mindlessly as Kai walked over to Lloyd's bed, where the owner of the bed was sleeping, his torso and head hanging off the bed and resting on the wooden floor, while his feet were propped up against the wall. Kai bent down to help Lloyd fix his position, since he was worried about the young man getting a back-ache in the morning,

"Don't touch me," Lloyd grumbled. Kai was taken aback by the phrase, since he was positive that Lloyd was in a deep sleep. Ignoring his request, Kai picked up Lloyd's limp body and placed it in the correct sleeping position. "I said don't touch me."

Before Kai had a chance to move, a fist collided with his face, hitting the cheek opposite the one Jay punched. Kai's eyes grew wide at the action. He backed away a few steps. Lloyd gave no indication of caring or knowing about what just happened and rolled over so his back was facing Kai. Jay gave a small chuckle. "Try explaining that in the morning."

Kai turned to shoot a glare at Jay, but he was already asleep by the time Kai turned around. Rolling his eyes, Kai made his way to his bed, where he was careful not to lie down on his sides for fear that he would hit one of the two bruises now forming on his cheeks. Soon after lying down, Kai fell into a peaceful sleep, all the worries he had disappearing from his mind for a few hours.