Hey you guys, I'm sorry about what happened to my first chapter. Just some technical difficulties, but it's all good! I'm sorry that I haven't been keeping to my 1000 word a day pledge, but I just started training for my first job. I get to work with little five year olds, you guys! I feel sort of like a Guardian, myself! And thanks so much for the reviews, they made me feel appreciated~

"You're the Boogeyman, aren't you?"

Pitch just stared blankly at her for a moment, his mind racing to process the question. "W-well of course I am. Who else would I be?" From among all the children who had written him off, this one blessed child believed, knew who he was. Sophie seemed to consider this, looking him up and down with a very thoughtful expression. With a little thought, she seemed to accept the information she had been given. "My big brother says you're a bad guy." The comment made him flinch ever so slightly. He had always been thought of like that, hadn't he? Of course, he had done countless unspeakable things over the thousands of years that he had lived, but he wasn't so set on revenge and destruction, now that he had no means to ever achieve it.

He would gain power again, but it was in his best interest to keep to himself for now. "But," Sophie's little voice drew him out of his thoughts. "If you're a bad guy, then you wouldn't have saved me." Oh, the little girl's logic was so innocent and so very black and white. Pitch chuckled softly to himself as he stood. He was far from being a good man. As he began to walk away, he felt a light tugging at the hem of his tattered robe. Looking down, he found that it was Sophie, looking up at him with wide eyes and pouting lips. "Don't go away, okay. Jamie won't play with me anymore and mommy's really busy now." Pitch, for the briefest moment, saw a great loneliness in this child, a loneliness that he was all too familiar with.

"What about your father?" The second the words left his mouth, he could tell it was a mistake to say them. "I don't know. Daddy hasn't come home for a while, and mommy says he won't come back." She looked down at her feet and Pitch stopped. Again, he turned and knelt in front of her and cleared his face of most emotions. For some reason, he felt like he had to watch over her and keep her safe. The feeling that came over him was familiar, but he couldn't remember how or why, and it was distant in the back of his mind.

He made her look up at him, his gold-silver eyes boring into her green ones. "I will not go away." For now, he was still telling himself it was because she was his only source of strength, but the odd feeling in his chest told a different story. Sophie began to smile again, then held up a hand, pinkie sticking out. "Pinkie promise?" Pitch's serious expression morphed into an annoyed one, making her giggle. "Must I?" "Yes." He sighed heavily, slowly putting out a hand with his pinkie out, mumbling under his breath. "… I pinkie promise…" She curled her chubby little finger around his much longer, thinner pinkie finger and he did the same.

Sophie squealed happily, making Pitch cringe at how high her voice went. She let go of his finger and skipped ahead a little ways ahead of him down the path, giggling and laughing all the while. What had he just gotten himself into? At the very least, this summer would prove to be an interesting one…

The night after he had promised to stay with Sophie, he was disturbed from his rest under her bed by the sounds of a slight scuffle going on. When he peaked out, he saw that she was dragging a small plastic table and a few small chairs around it-also plastic-into the middle of the room. She was also pushing heaps of toys to one wall along with a jacket and some shoes. In three of the five chairs, she propped up a pink unicorn, a blue pegasus, and a small white horse sitting between the legs of a larger black horse. There were two empty chairs waiting. Sophie was now setting out some brightly colored plastic plates and cups, then a tray piled high with a wide assortment of cookies. There was a teapot by the tray that was filled with either milk or water. She smiled, proud of her work as she brushed some of her unruly hair out of her face.

Confused, Pitch crept out from under her bed. "Sophie, what are you doing?" the little blonde jerked her head up, grinning when she saw him. "It's a tea party!" she said quietly, so as not to draw the attention of her mother and brother. She giggled and ran up to him, taking on of his spindly hands into both of hers. "Come on, come on!" the little girl bounced up and down and began trying to drag him over to the little play table. Once Sophie had gotten him to stand by the table, she bounced over to one of the remaining chairs, plopping down before looking up at him expectantly while pointing to the last chair.

At first, Pitch protested rather vehemently about participating in something as childish and feminine, but then Sophie pulled the puppy eyes. Her eyes went wide and began to shine with fat, unshed tears and her lower lip stuck out and trembled ever so slightly. "Wh-oh fine. Just don't cry." He huffed, holding up his hands as he moved to the tiny plastic chair. It took him a moment to try to get comfortable in it. Pitch's long legs nearly came up to his chest and he had to hunch down a little with his hands resting on his knees. He looked like a giant compared to everything else. This seemed to placate the little girl when he sat down, so it looked like he would be sitting there for some time. .

"Would you like another cookie, Mr. Boogeyman?" Sophie asked, holding out the tray to him. This must have been the sixth or seventh time she had offered him cookies, and she had expected him to take more than one sometimes. He had declined once, and she had pulled another teary face. So, Pitch was practically force fed cookies and milk. He sighed, nodding slowly. "Yes, please." He reached for yet another cookie, watching as Sophie tried to pour him more milk.

Needless to say, Pitch never wanted to even see another cookie by the time Sophie put away her tea set and stuffed animals. His embarrassment wasn't over yet, though, as he soon found out when Sophie brought out a bottle of sparkling pink nail polish. Just as before, when he refused to go along with what the blonde girl wanted, she threatened to cry. So he was roped into getting his nails painted, too. Well, at least no one would be able to see him like this, though it still dealt a blow to his pride.

By the time Sophie was done, he had sparkling pink nail polish painted sloppily over his nails and parts of his fingers. "There. Now you're all…" here sentence was broken off by a large yawn. "… All pretty…" Well, it was no wonder the child was tired; she had stayed up until midnight to play with him. Pitch knelt down and scooped her up in his arms, gently cradling her in his arms and against his chest. "Alright, it's time for good little girls to get into bed and go to sleep." He murmured, more to himself than to Sophie. The Nightmare King walked to the bed, carefully setting Sophie in it. He pulled the covers over her little body and up to her chin, a smile fighting to flicker over his face. By the time he straightened up and stepped back, Sophie was out like a light, Sandy's golden dream sand snaking into her room and over her head.

The image of that played over her head was of her and Pitch, walking hand in hand. He had no desire to taint this dream…

Pitch took another step back, tensing when he felt his foot hit something on the ground. He turned and looked down to see what he had accidentally kicked, and sighed when he saw what it was. There, a few inches from where it had previously been, was a pink plastic tea cup that had been forgotten when Sophie was cleaning up from the tea party. "Silly girl…" He sighed and bent to pick it up off the ground, looking it over once he stood. There was really nothing special about it physically; it was just a cup, but it held a pleasant memory from tonight. Pitch decided to keep it.

This was far from the last time that Sophie would want to play with him. Almost every single day, Sophie dragged him outside to play little games. One day it would be dolls, another it would be hide-and-seek, and sometimes they would go out to dance. The more they went out to dance, the more Sophie wanted to watch, often commenting on how 'pretty' his dancing was. Today was another dancing day, though Pitch had an idea that might appeal to the child. "Sophie, would you like to learn how to dance?" He held out a hand to her, showing off a small smile-but it was partly a smirk. She looked up at him from where she had been jumping around on the roots of a large tree. "Learn dancing?" Slowly, the girl hopped over to Pitch, looking up at him with a questioning expression. Then a bright smile spread over her face. "Ask me again, with fancy talk!"

After a moment of puzzling over the request, he chuckled and knelt down in front of her gracefully, holding out his hand to her again. "Lady Bennett, would you care to dance?" Sophie squealed and put her hand in his. When he stood, he had to hunch over to keep their hands joined. He took her other hand as well, then instructed her to stand on his feet so he could dance for her but making it so that it would feel as though she were doing it on her own. Once Sophie was balanced on his feet and her hands were locked securely in his, he began to step around, murmuring 'one, two, three' quietly. His back would probably ache later from staying bent over like this, but for some reason, Sophie's giggles and bubbly laughter would make it worth the trouble later.

Even though there was no music playing that they could dance to, they both managed to dance just fine. He felt almost like a father, and that same familiar but distant feeling washed over him again. The shadows had loosened their hold over him significantly if he could enjoy this. For a brief moment, a thought crossed his mind, one that hadn't come up for a very long time. Who had he been before he became the Boogeyman, if he had even been anyone at all?

After that day, Pitch and Sophie spent much more of the summer afternoons out under the huge old tree. They danced for hours, and sometimes Sophie would bring out little picnic baskets for them to share once they were too tired to dance anymore. When they didn't want to dance, they would go for walks around the neighborhood and by the forest. She never seemed to stop laughing. For the first time in his existence, Pitch felt like he truly belonged. He was… Happy here with Sophie, and he didn't think something like this would have been possible. And it was all because of one little girl.

But all too soon, the hot days of summer began to recede and grow shorter, cooler. Summer was gradually giving way to Fall, and with Fall came the looming idea of school. Of course, this brought back Sophie's fear thrice over, and there was only so much that Pitch could do about it now. Sophie would have to go to school in a few weeks. Pitch tried to get her ready for it, so maybe she wouldn't be quite so upset. The closer the first day of school came, the more deep set and sickening the fear became.

"Here now, it won't be so bad. If you'd like, I can walk with you there and wait for you at the end of the day." Pitch knelt down in front of Sophie, straightening out her jacket and the straps of her backpack. "And should you ever need me, you need only call for me, and I'll be there." He stood again, taking one of Sophie's hands in his. He just wanted to be able to assure one child this one time. On the way to school, Pitch walked on one side of the girl while Jamie walked on her other side. Even with Pitch's reassurance, she was still quite obviously scared. She dragged her feet the entire time.

Once they got to the school, Pitch stopped at the door. He couldn't go inside that school when there were so many children who didn't believe. As she walked up the steps, Sophie glanced back, smiling nervously before running through the double doors.

For the entire day, Pitch waited and waited for Sophie, taking out the little pink cup to hold it and remember. When Sophie's school finally let out, she bounded up to him. "Guess what, Mr. Boogeyman?" She smiled up at him, and he couldn't help the smile that crossed his face in response. "What?" "School here isn't so scary. It was fun." For once, he had never been so relieved that a child wasn't afraid. But this wasn't just any child. No, this was Sophie Bennett, the little girl who believed in him.

That was how the days went by after that. Pitch would walk Sophie to school, wait for her to come back, and then listen when she told him all about her day. Afterwards, he would help her with the worksheets she brought home, then play with her after her dinner. They played all day on the weekends. This new peace with the school year lasted the duration of the Fall season, though Pitch became increasingly wary as winter drew near. Jack Frost would be coming around soon, and he knew all too well that Jack had strong ties to Jamie Bennett, Sophie Bennett's older brother.

Then came the day that he had been worried about, the day of the first snowfall of the year. Pitch had simply been wandering about when Jack Frost attacked him out of nowhere. He barely managed to dodge a blast of ice, and when he looked up, there was Jack, staff aimed at him and eyes narrowed. Pitch simply stared at him for a few seconds before he bolted. Though he had long legs and he was running at top speed, Jack could still fly faster than he could run. Without realizing it, Pitch ran toward the school. "Oh no you don't!" he could hear Jack yell from behind him before another shot of ice hit him, sending him to the ground.

Pitch tried to scramble away, but it was no use. He looked up to see Jack Frost standing over him, the crook of his staff pointed down at him and only a few feet away. The boy looked like he had the intent to kill, if his current behavior and the murder in his eyes was anything to go by. Could he even be killed? Either way, Jack's next attack would undoubtedly be painful. How ironic that as soon as he had something he wanted to hold onto, it was ripped away. "You can't kill me, Jack. Fear can be weakened, but it can't be killed. Besides, without me, the balance of the world would be tipped too far in your favor. It's already happening, and I've only been subdued." He paused when Jack lowered his staff slightly. "If you kill me, what will happen to the children? Without fear, they won't think twice about crossing a busy street, approaching a wild animal, or going too close to deep, fast flowing water or other dangerous places. I am necessary." At that, Jack just laughed, but there was no mirth in his voice. "Yeah right. You're no more necessary that my snow is in the summer." "Oh, but I am, Jack. Without learning from fear, children will start getting hurt, start getting killed, even, because they'll believe that the Guardians will save them every time something bad happens. And guess what will happen when you can't come and save that one child out of the billions that will call out for help? They'll stop believing. They'll give up on you when they think you've given up on them, and it will all be your own doing, not mine. So go ahead and take your best shot. I dare you."

He could almost see the cogs turning in Jack's head as he thought over what Pitch had just said. It wasn't enough, it seemed, because Jack just took his aim at Pitch again. "You're lying. You always lie. Even if what you said is true about the kids, at least it would be a world without you in it. You aren't needed and you're wanted even less." Pitch knew those would be the last words he ever heard. He could feel the shadows writhing under his skin; hear their screaming inside his head. Pitch stared evenly up at Jack with doleful golden-silver eyes as the power crackled through the staff. This was going to be it, then. Jack was going to try to kill him, and he had no choice now but to let it happen.

The last thing Pitch saw was a flash of blue. The last thing he felt was cold, but then a strange warmth pulling at his arm. The last thing he heard was the desperate screams of a little girl, her sobs as she called for someone. He could just barely make out what she was saying between her slurred cries and the fuzziness of his own mind. "Daddy! Daddy! …addy! …y! ..."

Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter, and the support and understanding for the accident of the last chapter. It makes me so happy to know that people like the story. I tried to make it a little longer, but I hope it doesn't seem too rushed. I tried to draw out the summer in the whole chapter with a little chunk of Fall, but I ran out of things for them to do. Please give me some suggestions if you have any, and thanks again. As always, please R&R~