As promised, here's the second chapter.

This chapter will begin to slowly build the theme that I had in mind for this story. I'm not gonna reveal it just yet, but it will be explored thoroughly. I promise!

Hopefully, it won't disappoint!

Thanks to anyone who reviewed the first chapter. It means a lot more than you may think :)

Chapter Two -
The Deteriorating Night

Later that evening, the Gru family were gathered around the kitchen table eating dinner. Or burgers to be more precise. They hadn't done much, all they did was visit the park and watch TV after getting home, but each one of them had seriously enjoyed their day.

Gru was very tired at this point. The lack of sleep and the running around at the park weren't combining very well. But he was still beyond happy. Sitting there around the table, chatting to his family, was one of the best activities in the world to him. And he wasn't gonna let some silly tiredness stop him from having fun.

After everyone had finished their dinner, they all went out into the back garden to enjoy the final hours of light. Edith and Agnes played in their little sandbox that Gru bought especially for them, while Margo simply sat there staring at the sunset with a glass of lemonade. She was feeling a very warm feeling of happiness as she sat alongside her mother and father.

She felt like she was beginning to let go...

Meanwhile, Gru was beginning to find staying awake a challenge as the mood lighting from the sun was beginning to make him feel drowsy. Lucy noticed this and chuckled.

"Why don't you go off to bed early, honey?" She pondered to him. Gru considered it for a second, before remembering what he thought a little while earlier.

"No way." Gru said firmly. "I'm haveeng wayyy too much fun to go to bed."

Lucy smiled and shrugged as she got back to staring at the sunset. Gru figured that he just had to get active to wake himself back up. At that moment, the oppurtunity to do so presented itself.

"Hey, Dad!" Edith called over, with a menacing smile on her face. "I bet I can beat you in a race around the garden!"

Gru's legs were still aching a little after his very energetic day, but he didn't dare refuse her.

"Oh, you're on!" He yelled back, getting up out of his seat and walking over to the back wall of the house. "De first to get to de back fence and back wins!"

Edith smiled, jumped up out of the sandbox and jogged over to where Gru was standing.

"You're gonna get creamed, old man." Edith playfully replied. Agnes found herself getting caught up in the fun, as she ran over to the two and began to count down.

"3...2...1...GOOO!" Agnes screamed as the two raced forward. Gru instantly felt the pain in his leg argue with him to sit down, but he ignored it and carried on running. One thing he hadn't realized about his 9-year old daughter, was just how fast she really was. Edith had stormed ahead and had made it to the back fence before Gru had even made it halfway across the garden.

She ran back, passed a tired and shocked Gru, stuck out her tongue to him and made it back to the back wall.

"I'm just that good." Edith proudly proclaimed as she leaned up against the wall, taking in the victory. She looked over to Gru who had only just made it to the back fence. He was desperately gasping for air and was starting to feel a pain grow at the back of his head. He figured that forcing himself to get active was probably not the best of ideas. He strolled back to the garden table and chuckled in defeat.

"Yoo were right." Gru said, hiding the pain that he was feeling in multiple locations. "I got creamed..."

He made it back just in time to watch the sun disappear. He held onto his wife and cherished this moment. The girls looked up at it and took in the view as well.

This really was the perfect day...

Later that night, the girls were running around their bedroom, finding activities to do in every corner.

Agnes had spent the past hour pretending she was a unicorn, who had the task of saving the world. Just like her father...except without the unicorn part.

Edith was simply colouring. Before realizing that her destructive side wasn't being catered to, and got up and kicked over the house of blocks she built the night before.

Margo was sitting in her bed reading a book about teenage vampires in love. She felt herself connect more and more with the characters in the book as she read on.

As the clock clicked over to 9:30pm, Gru entered the bedroom to announce that it was bedtime.

"Come on den gurls. Lights out." Gru blurted. As he was expecting, the girls gave a collective groan. This happened pretty much every night, and Gru knew exactly how to handle it.

"I know. I know. But we don't want to be tired for tomorrow now do we." He exclaimed, expecting to see the girls give in. But they didn't.

"Please can we stay up for just a little while longer." Agnes pleaded, giving Gru the puppy dog stare. Gru was beginning to get accustomed to this and didn't let her wide eyes affect him, even if they never ceased to soften him just a little.

"No, no, eet's very late Agnes." He replied softly, as he knelt down and put a hand on her shoulder. Margo and Agnes gave in and began to get themselves tucked in. Edith however wasn't done arguing. She wasn't one to give up without a fight, and Gru knew that.

"It's not that late." Edith quickly replied. Gru was already tired enough with the long day he had had. He was developing a bit of a headache and was in no mood to let her beat him.

"Eet's very late for a leetle gurl dough!" Gru exclaimed. Edith could hear the frustation building in his voice, but that only fueled her rebellious spirit.

"It would be too late if we had school in the morning!" She pointed out. Gru found himself stumped at her logical response. She did make sense. There wasn't any need to get up at 7am anymore, since there wasn't any school to get up for. Thus there wasn't any need to go to bed early. He looked at her for a few seconds, before feeling his frustrated gaze soften. After seeing this change in expression, Edith knew she'd won.

"Okay, fine den. I'll let yoo have another hour." Gru said, before turning to leave. However, before he could do so, Agnes jumped out of bed and began tugging on Gru's leg.

"Can you play unicorns with me?" She energetically asked, bouncing up and down. Gru was about to refuse, before he remembered the reason why he was excited for today in the first place. It meant he got to spend more time with his family. Why would he turn this opportunity down?

"Of course I weel." He said, with a comforting voice.

Before he knew it, he was lost in Agnes' imagination. And even though he was a middle-aged man, he couldn't help but feel enthralled as his youngest daughter swept him off to a million different locations and stories.

Agnes was beyond happy playing with her father. When she looked up at her, Margo couldn't remember the last time she saw her youngest sibling as happy as she was that night. Margo couldn't help but warmly smile when she saw Agnes's little adoring face light up...

The hour he had spent in the girls' room flew by. Finally, as the clock reached 10:30, Gru had to put the girls to bed, even if he was having a tonne of fun. This was very late for them now.

"Okay, den gurls. Now eet really ees time for bed!" He exclaimed. He prepared himself for the arguing that would surely follow, but nothing of the sort happened. It seemed like the girls had finally had enough as well, and the three of them got into bed without any hesitation. Gru went over and gave them each a goodnight kiss before walking over and turning the bedroom light off. As the light quickly faded, Gru felt a lot of weight in his head, that he hadn't even realized was there, lift away. He stepped out into the hallway and felt a pounding pain hit him very hard, as the light in the hall flashed in his eyes. Gru had to steady himself to this unexpected event, before he heard the strangely loud voice of Lucy in the background.

"Gru!" She shouted. "Fancy watching a movie with me before bed?"

Gru needed to reject her proposition and head to bed. He was very fatigued and his head was screaming with pain. However, he always had trouble refusing someone he loved.

"I'll be there een a meenute." He loudly replied, as he trudged down the hallway and down the stairs towards the living room. He held onto his head in the hopes of the pain lessening. But it wasn't...

Lucy was enjoying this movie a lot! The plot was brilliant, the actors were fantastic and the characters were completely believable. She was so engrossed in the movie, that she didn't even realize that she hadn't given the girls a goodnight kiss...

Gru wasn't enjoying himself on the other hand. The room was very dark and the TV was the only light source. Every time he glanced at it, his head would sting and his eyes would burn. He didn't pay the pain any attention, and he just passed it off as being overtired. I mean, it was now approaching midnight.

As the movie credits finally began to play, Gru found himself sighing with relief inside. He didn't dare sigh on the outside though, because he could see how much his wife was treasuring this moment as they snuggled up on the sofa, and wanted to avoid offending her.

Gru got up as fast as he could, which wasn't very fast, and found himself lightly jogging to the door.

"Wow. Slow down Gru." Lucy said after noticing the unexpected pace her husband was presenting.

"Sorry." Gru responded through a large yawn. "I'm just very tired and my bed ees calling."

Lucy began to notice Gru's shattered face for the first time that night. For a moment, she felt as if she was talking to a sleepy child.

"Oh. Well go answer those calls! I'll be up in a minute." She replied, before walking over and switching the TV off.

Gru didn't waste any time. He attempted to dart out of the door, but could only manage a timid stroll. The same painful feeling from before hit him as he transitioned from the dark living room to the bright hallway.

Gru was beginning to get worried. He had worked himself tired many times before, but never before had the light hurt this much to look at. Gru squinted his eyes just enough so he didn't feel the pain as bad, but just enough so that he could actually see where he was going, and began to make the journey to his room.

After getting into his bedroom and finally managing to get into his bed, Gru snuggled his head down into his pillow, expecting the headache to lift. However, the pain refused to go and his head continued to throb as he laid there. He closed his eyes and allowed his brain to go to sleep, which the pain was making increasingly difficult, and after about a minute, Gru drifted off.

Lucy walked into her bedroom slowly. She looked over to Gru, who was fast asleep, and smiled. She was finding him surprisingly cute. She carefully got into bed, where she was met by the soft comfort of her mattress.

As she laid there, she played the events of the day over in her head. The way she was greeted by her family, the time they spent at the park, the gleeful conversations they had and the happiness she felt throughout all of it. She felt a huge feeling of love build up inside her. Love that she never had the opportunity to give to anyone else before...

Before she allowed herself to sleep, she rolled over and kissed Gru's head.

But now she did have someone to give that love to...

Even though Gru had now been asleep for thirty minutes, he was in no way relaxed. He was having an unscheduled stress dream. He couldn't really explain what was happening in the dream, but he could see that everything wasn't good. The character that he portrayed in his dream had a small mind, even though they didn't admit it. This character was feeling helpless. This character was feeling afraid. This character was feeling pressured. Even though he felt a connection with this character...this character wasn't Gru.

The dream ended up becoming so intense that Gru found himself waking up gasping for air, as if he had been for a long sprint. He turned to face Lucy, who was thankfully still fast asleep. He was afraid that he scared her with his abrupt return to consciousness.

As he smiled down at her sleeping body, something was slowly becoming apparent to Gru as his mind began to wake up more. His head was hurting twice as hard as it was earlier, and the pits of his stomach were stinging in discomfort. As he laid there for around ten seconds, cringing in pain, Gru felt as if he was going to vomit.

He jumped out of bed and ran out of the room to get to the bathroom quickly. Thankfully, he made it to the toilet before he spewed. After about a minute of vomiting, Gru found his vision was becoming very blurry and hazy, and every small sound sounded like a thumping drum.

He sat beside the toilet, trying to comprehend why he felt like this. He had been ill dozens of times before, but he had never experienced these strange symptoms. As the seconds passed, he felt the pain in his head get even bigger. The sting he felt in his stomach was finally beginning to fade, which reassured him that he could finally leave the bathroom without fear of vomiting. He decided it would be a good idea to go down to the kitchen and take a few painkillers to ease his headache. He flushed the chain and got up to leave.

As he slowly and painfully trudged downstairs to the kitchen, Gru felt his heart rate elevate. His heart was starting to beat very, VERY hard. This was the hardest Gru had ever felt his heart beat. He struggled to open the doors to the kitchen, and even struggled to flick the light switch.

As he made it halfway across the kitchen, Gru felt his head become light as a feather. He started to feel a blinding pain like he had never felt before. He wanted to scream in agony, but his voice-box failed to operate. Every step he took sounded like a giant thud. His vision was now just a complete blur and his heart was practically beating out of his chest.

The last thing Gru could remember before everything went black, was his head practically float away...

So yeah...that chapter turned quickly.

Everything is getting confusing, I know, but keep reading. The next few chapters will answer any questions that you may be asking yourself...

...but will probably end up giving you more questions than answers ;)

I've been working hard on the story over the past few days, so the next chapter should already be up! I know...my treat :)

Prepare yourself for Chapter Three, it get's pretty deep...

Please review! It would help me out a lot. Thanks everyone :)