Swan was not sleeping well, in spite of being entwined in his love's arms. Juliet Starling lay in bed beside him, blonde locks lazily falling over the pillows. The Goth boy beside her twitched then grew suddenly still.
Had they been in San Romero, they might have slept better. Unfortunately, they were still in Derleth. Though the witch's curse had recently lifted, Derleth was still quite sinister…and dark magic does not simply go away so easily…
It was Juliet who awoke.
And where she woke up wasn't Derleth.
It was a dark, cold, unloving city. It looked familiar, but it didn't seem like any city she knew. She'd never been anywhere so horrible…except maybe the Narrows in San Romero…
For whatever reason, she was wearing her cheerleader uniform.
"That's totally weird…I wasn't wearing this when I fell asleep."
The city was a mess of burning trash, scattering papers, cold wind, twisted metal, and a purple sky. Dark, cold tenements decayed under neon signs and streetlights. The green around her was impossibly dark, twisted, and covered with thorns.
Juliet shivered, her scanty uniform not nearly enough to keep her warm.
"Swan?" she called out.
"Swan?" was the response of the echo back at her.
She pulled out her phone, but it showed no bars, and the words "NO SERVICE" appeared on the screen.
"Ugh! This is so totally lame!"
Juliet walked a few more blocks, oddly nervous. She realized her chainsaw wasn't with her, and that made her a little uneasy. While she could do well with anything available, she preferred something she was used to. Instead, she grabbed a length of pipe lying on the ground.
Good thing too, because at that very moment a nearby radio crackled to life and a twisted, static-warped version of "It's Raining Men" started blaring.
Juliet leapt back in surprise…just as a gang of masked lunatics dropped from the roof above 'her.
Her grip tightened around the pipe as the lunatics danced in time to the music, their blades gleaming in the streetlights. One slashed out, nicking Juliet's leg, causing her to shriek.
The masked men laughed, and Juliet thanked whatever power was listening that it had only managed to cut through her stocking. She swung the pipe hard, shattering the mask and skull of one of the psychos. Beneath the mask was a decayed face with glowing eyes. Zombies.
"Okay, Juliet." She reassured herself. "They're just zombies. Nothing you haven't faced before."
A knife swung towards her, but she parried it with her pipe, landing a well-timed kick as a counter. She quickly made short work of the remaining zombies with a series of baseball swings, finishing by impaling the last zombie with her now-broken, useless pipe.
"Ugh, that pipe broke after like, no use. Somebody seriously needs to improve public housing standards."
The street stretched on, long and deserted, until Juliet found a giant stone head at her feet. She looked up, and lightning flashed.
She gasped, realizing just where she was.
San Romero High School.
Or rather, what would have been San Romero High School—the founder's statue was decapitated, and the school itself was a warped, twisted, industrial nightmare.
She gulped before pulling open the front door.
Inside, the school looked horribly familiar…it was bombed-out and burning, much like it had been that fateful day ten years ago. Juliet shivered. No matter how many times she held Swan, this day still festered like an open wound in their memories. She waited for the bodies of dead students to appear. They did. She waited for the zombie horde to spring out and attack.
It never did.
Instead, she found a locker, half open, and an arm sticking out.
"Damn it…why…" the voice from the locker moaned.
She raced over, yanking the door open…
"Swan?!" she exclaimed.
Only, it was a much younger Swan. He looked like a freshman; his hair was a mess, and his makeup was less heavily applied. An ugly bruise was forming on his cheek, and he wore a slightly different suit, with a white waistcoat.
Well, it had been white. Blood had dripped onto it.
"Juliet!" The younger Swan exclaimed, blushing. Even his voice was younger—it didn't sound the like the world-weary sigh Juliet was used to hearing. "Quickly! Before they come back…don't let them see you with me…you'll get kicked off the team for sure!"
Juliet reached in and gently helped her love's younger self out of the locker.
"Why'd you do that?" The young Goth asked, shivering.
"Because I totally love you, Swan! Or at least, will. You've got a few years before we actually hook up."
Young Swan offered a vaguely hopeful smile.
"Thank you, Juliet…but this is where it gets worse. You'll be laughing at me soon."
"Oh em gee, Swan! Why would I ever do that?"
At that very moment, a group of cheerleaders and jocks appeared. A quarterback leered at Swan, glowing red eyes behind the visor of his helmet. A batter raised a bat studded with nails. The cheerleaders held barbed-wire pom-poms that mutilated their hands even as they smiled horribly. Thei measurements were physically impossible, but that only added to the horror of the situation—it was so unreal.
There was a sound of laughter from the crowd. Shouts of "freak" and "loser" rang through the halls as Young Swan began to shiver.
"Aww, are you gonna cry, Swan?" One nightmarish cheerleader moaned.
Before Juliet could react, the demon quarterback tackled Swan, his spiked shoulder pads tearing the locker doors behind his prey.
"Ow..." Young Swan cried, tears flowing down his cheeks.
To Juliet's horror, the batter swung down on Young Swan's legs, shattering them.
"Stop it!" Juliet yelled at them.
The cheerleaders leapt on Young Swan, fingers growing claws as they proceeded to strip him, leaving him bloodied, naked, and humiliated.
Young Swan curled up, crying. Juliet rushed to his side.
"You monsters!" Juliet screamed at the crowd. "Don't you see what you're doing to him? Can't you even feel what he's going through?! "
"You'd take his side? You don't deserve to wear that uniform!" One girl shouted back.
Juliet glared.
"If that's what it takes to wear it, then you can keep it!" she shot back, taking off her outfit and throwing it at them. She didn't care if she was topless now. It didn't matter. Swan was worse off. She sat down beside him and pulled him close.
"Swan…it's me. Please…don't cry…"
Just then, something else happened. From the end of the hall, another Swan appeared, with glowing eyes.
"Go on, Swan!" the new Swan yelled, "Kill those motherfuckers!"
Young Swan shook his head. "No…that's not right…even if they're mean…they can't all be like that."
The other Swan laughed.
"You're denying who you are. You're a killer. You're gonna change this world. Make every single fucker who thinks they're better than you pay for what they did. Make them worship you! I'm you! The shadow! The REAL you!"
"No! You're not me!"
Juliet swore she'd heard Rosalind going on about something similar to this after being at an anime convention but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
The other Swan suddenly sported an eye patch, a shredded coat that looked like feathers, and bloody wrists. He began to laugh.
"I'm going to kill them all," the evil Swan laughed, "then I'm gonna kill you!"
Juliet stood up. "Like, not if I have anything to say about it!"
Young Swan's eyes brimmed with hope…and then lightning flashed. The cringing, naked figure was replaced by the Swan she knew and loved.
"Alright! Enough of you! I'm tired of you haunting me! I'm not like my mom and dad! I'm not a suicidal fuck-up! I'm NOT a crazed sociopath! I'm not like YOU! You might be part of me, but that's all you are! A memory! Just like high school, just like all this nightmare shit! I had a bad life, sue me. But that doesn't give me the right to take it out on people. I'm loved now, and I'm sorry for everything I've done. So you know what? You can leave. You can go. Take your bad memories with you, because you don't belong here!"
And with all his might he kissed Juliet, who reappeared in the black-and-red outfit she'd worn to the reunion.
The evil Swan had vanished. In its place was a cringing demonic jester, barely breathing.
"Palliakos." Swan snarled.
The thing shrugged.
"Joke's on me." It said, simply, before burning up.
After a stunned silence…
"What the dick just happened, Swan?"
Her love sighed.
"You got transported to my nightmares, Juliet. I guess a remnant of Palliakos was able to somehow remain in my magically empowered subconscious."
"Ew, I hate that Freddy Krueger stuff."
"Me too, Juliet."
He kissed her warmly, and soon they both awoke, safe in each other's arms.
"Oh Swan, I had the worst nightmare…but at least you were there for me…"
"I was going to say the same thing, Juliet…"
They kissed, before noticing they were surrounded by the entire Starling clan.
"Uh…"
Gideon sighed.
"Look, we thought you two weren't gonna wake up, so…"
Rosalind giggled.
"Tee-hee. You're so funny when you sleep, Swan. But also kinda cute. Like you're a small animal curling up for protection."
Swan sighed, but didn't argue.
The girl of his dreams had saved him.
From that night forward, Swan never saw those hellish halls again. Instead, he saw only one smiling, hopeful thing.
Juliet Starling.