A first person narrative. Set about a week after KND: Rebirth. This will tie into the sequel to KND: Legion's Shadow.


He was a boy, a scared, frightened child. He'd been bullied on multiple occasions and had also developed multiple phobias from a variety of traumatic experiences. He was my friend, John C. Fright. From day to day as I attended school, during and after class, he'd be picked on but a majority of the student body. They'd labeled him with hurtful names and went as far as harassing him over the schools announcements at the beginning of class.

Later on, I could tell he was slowly breaking. It wasn't until High School that I'd picked up on what he'd been doing to himself. He was a chemist to an extent; it was what he used to get away from it all. I found syringes one day when he, Kayla, and I were hanging out. At first I'd thought the obvious, drug use. I didn't confront him, I'd made the decision not to, It was his business not mine.

In reality, a few years back, he'd found himself a vial of nightmare toxin. He'd used his expertise with a chem set recreate the formula. I hadn't found this out until it was too late. He'd been injecting himself with the toxin in small doses, using its affects to force himself to live some of his greatest fears. The process had in fact made him less afraid of most of his fears, this became more noticeable during one of the many times where he'd been bullied.

One day, this day today, he'd walked into school on October 31st, wearing a ghoulish outfit. It was a stitched up burlap sack/mask that resembled that of a rotting corpse. He used a noose to tie the mask closer to his face and also wore a long hat and black jacket. It was now that I figured it out.

I had shown up to school wearing something similar to KNDefense armor, it hid my 'Sandman' outfit perfectly. I changed quickly, placing my gas mask and fedora atop my head. I approached John and confronted him.

"What are you doing here?" he asked me, his voice a raspy whisper.

"You tell me who you are and why you have nightmare toxin on you, then I'll tell you why I'm here" I said angrily.

"You may call me 'Affright', Mr. Sandman." He said. He pulled out a hand held device and place his thumb on a red button. "I have suffered greatly at the hands of this school's student body, please Sandman, do not interfere. Your gas mask will leave you unaffected, you will be unaffected as several devices I have set up ahead of time will release an air based version of the toxin."

"I can't let you do that." I raised my gas gun.

"I'm sorry. But I've come so far not to get my revenge now." he said pushing the button. It was then, at that moment. My friend was gone. Bullying had driven him to this, I won't blame him, but he had a choice.

And so do I.

I squeezed the trigger of my gas gun.