Fred Ran.

Thunder was booming menacingly above him, a final warning if he ever heard one, a final warning (which as ever) he ignored. Clouds rolled over the land, darkness seemingly emanating from them and covering the land in inky blackness. The usual pink hue of the sky darkened to a murky purple then midnight blue, colours melding and bleeding together as if the sky itself where bruising.

Hysterical laughter ripped itself from his chest as he scrambled up a hill that seemed to have sprung up out of the landscape before him, fingers and toes digging into soft earth as he rasped air into his aching lungs. He could feel the darkness behind him, encroaching over the land; coming for him. Another laugh, strained and grunting between gritted teeth as he flung himself over the peak of the hill and skidded on the heels of his shoes down the near vertical face.

Lightning lit his surroundings as he landed at the base of the hill, his momentum flinging him forwards into a roll. He felt the earth at his back and watched his legs fly silhouetted against the bruised sky which was still darkening as he watched from where he lay, the midnight blue decaying into an unsettling black. His chest rose and fell painfully fast as his lungs tried to regain control of the air rushing between his numb lips. Fred knew he should run but couldn't find it within himself to move, his limbs felt tingly and light like they would float off without him at any moment but heavy and leaden at the same time. Fred couldn't wrap his mind around anything that was happening as darkness crept over the rest of the hill and began its descent down towards his prone form; all he knew was that this was bad. Very bad, She was back and she was going to wreak merry havoc against those who had frolicked in her absence.

He tipped his head back and bellowed out one last string of laughter as the darkness slipped easily across his face, he laughed as long and loud as he was able, until his lungs ached for air and his sides stung like someone was unstitching them, his ice blue eyes wide and wild, flashing like the lightning flying through the sky above.

The last thing Drop Dead Fred knew of anything before the darkness forced its hands across his eyes and snuck it's tendrils into his mind was a plea, nothing spoken aloud for the hysterical laughter would allow nothing more past his lips, but a scream in his mind, a desperate cry that would ricochet around the walls of his world, bleed into children's nightmares at night and haunt the sleep of those that held him dearest without ever knowing it was his words they heard whispered desperately in the corners of their minds.

'The Priestess has returned to the temple! Run, Run, run if you value your mind!'


Screaming jerked Elizabeth from her sleep, her body becoming energized as she realized it was coming from the room across the hall from where she laid, the tiredness that had been trying to lull her back under by lingering in the recess of her mind and the tips of her limbs became dispelled when she threw back her side of the coverlet and cool air rushed over her body.

"Wass'up?" The slurred voice came from the bundle of cover across the mattress, the bundle shifted, a lump further down the bed rising then disappearing altogether.

"It's ok." She spoke softly, resting her hand on the largest lump beneath the covers, feeling the heat emanating from the person beneath through the coverlet. "I'll go." A mumble then silence told Elizabeth he had never really woken up properly in the first place, unsurprising considering this was the first chance he had gotten to sleep properly for nearly two weeks.

Another scream from across the hall prompted her once more and she hurried from the room, not switching on any lights knowing this place well enough by now to make her way across the hall without disturbing the rest of her sleeping household any more than they already where.

She pushed the already unclipped door open and slipped into the room where her son's screams had subsided to hitching sobs that pained Lizzie's heart.

"Jake?" She called softly as her hand sought out his light switch; Jake fell silent, or tried to. Lizzie could still hear his breath hitching in the darkness, when her fingers finally found the smooth plastic dial she twisted it up to full, illuminating the room she was so familiar with. It was a typical five year old boy's room, toys strewn seemingly permanently across the soft coffee coloured carpet no matter how often Lizzie tried to encourage him to tidy them away (or more often than not resorted to doing it herself), the soft blue walls that same as they had been painted when it had been discovered she was expecting a boy.

"Momma?" Jake called, sat on his bed, the covers thrown to the floor beside it, most probably during the throes of his nightmare, his little face red and tearstained, brown eyes mirrors of Lizzies own still shined with an unshed sheen of tears.

"Oh, Jacky." Lizzie pushed the door to behind her and crossed the room to where her sons' bed was pressed against the wall opposite the built in wardrobe and sat down on the edge of his mattress, bending down and pulling Jakes covers from the floor and setting them at the bottom of the bed before pulling him into her arms, his small hitched breaths still verging too close to sobs for her liking. "Hush, its ok sweetie." She smoothed at his flyaway blonde hair as she tried to soothe the aftermath of his nightmare. "Was it the nightmare again?" She asked, now rocking him slightly in her grasp, knowing it calmed him quicker.

Jake nodded into his mother's chest, hands clinging to her as the nightmare remained vivid in his imagination, the same one that had been plaguing his dreams for the last few weeks and disturbing the households rest. Jake could never remember everything that he had seen and heard while he was dreaming but he knew it was always alarmingly vivid to him while he was there and each time he was glad to wake up and be away from that horrid place and the darkness that didn't seem to belong.

"It's only a dream." Jake heard his mother whisper, still stroking his hair. "Nothing there can ever hurt you. I won't let it." Lizzie pressed a kiss to his hair and continued to rock ever so slightly where they sat knowing asking her son about the nightmare would get them no-where, he wouldn't speak about the nightmares. Whether this was because he didn't remember or he simply didn't want to she didn't know. She just wished they would stop, wished with all her heart her son could just rest at night like all other children and not be afraid to close his eyes and sleep. She always felt so useless when he screamed himself awake and cried himself back to sleep, stuck holding him and trying to soothe his troubled mind with no idea of what was causing it or how to stop it when it was all inside his own mind.

She found herself wishing she could reach into his mind and pull all the bad dreams from his imagination, pluck them from his nights like bad apples from a tree, she wished it was her having the nightmares in place of her son, she wished many things in desperation and fatigue.

After a while Jakes sharp, gasping breaths calmed to even breaths and his eyes, heavy with sleep had lost their angry red edging. Lizzie continued to hold him a while longer, until his breathes where starting to become shallow puffs of air and his fingers loosened their grip on her nightdress and fell into his lap signalling he was sleeping once more.

"I wish I knew what to do." Her voice felt thick in her throat, pressing a kiss to his cheek to lay him gently back in his bed and righted his covers, tucking them gently around his shoulders and into the bottom of the bed, between the mattress and the base board. Once she was sure he was settled Elizabeth decided, to be on the safe side she would stay with Jake for the rest of the night. The window seat in his room was padded thickly and had a ridiculous amount of cushions thrown over it making it relatively comfortable and easy to settle on. Tonight was hardly the first night she would spend sat as a sentinel watching over her son, wrapped in the woollen blanket she kept underneath the seat; it was the only way she knew to make the nagging feeling of uselessness subside a little.

She let a sigh escape her and rested her head against the window, from the corner of her eye she could see the moon peeking through the branches of the tree that stood lonely in the front yard, a tyre swing hanging stiffly in the breezeless night air where once upon a time, not so long ago on a summer afternoon she remembered watching a mischievous little girl (who wasn't really all that little anymore and happened to be sleeping peacefully down the hall) string her babysitter up with a precarious looking contraption that was technically way beyond the girls capabilities of setting up all by herself. Lizzie could still remember when Natalie stopped playing with Drop Dead Fred, could remember the little girl explaining that she didn't need Fred to play with anymore and he had left to help other kids who needed him more than she did. Sometimes Lizzie couldn't help thinking that maybe she had been more upset about Fred leaving than Natalie had been.

Smiling to herself Lizzie watched ghosts play on the front lawn until she slipped asleep and into her own precious memories just before daybreak.