The Nightmare Returns

A/N: Well, I hope the second chapter was better than the first.

Faith was in the girls' bathroom, brushing her hair. She tried hard not to think about what happened yesterday. It probably meant she was starting to lose it.

She was focusing when the light above her started to flicker. Frowning, she looked up. Odd.

But looking back in the mirror, she swore she saw something there. Not an actual shape but instead of light particles, there seemed to be dark particles.

Then she shrieked. She felt someone had pinched her on the bottom!

She turned, half blushing, half furious. No one was there. She sighed, ran a hand down her face, put the hairbrush down on the side and went downstairs.

Mike was in the office, looking at the pile of papers May-Li had set beside him. They were all printed off online, going back to the sixties. "May-Li, what are you doing?" he asked.

May-Li, lifting her head up from the computer, looked at her. "Oh, you know you said the attack happened and you had to move? Well, I was looking online at similar attacks."

Mike groaned. May-Li went on. "There's one from the eighties in the Highlands – these girls were found to all have suffered heart attacks at the same time. The eight-year-old was missing; no one ever found her. There's also one from the sixties –"

Mike put his hand up. "May-Li, I think we need to talk."

He sighed. "May-Li, this…really affected the kids. Harry, he was the only one who wasn't here when it happened; he started wetting the bed again. Rick was in a state for weeks and Lilly – she started seeing horrible drawings over the walls in the days before it happened – she freaks out if she ever sees a goat now."

May-Li asked, raising an eyebrow, "And you? What about you?"

Mike struggled to find an answer. "All I remember is when I was in the garden. I noticed the children starting to get tired so I went in the kitchen to get a coffee. I just sat at the table and fell asleep. Next thing I know, I'm on the den floor and then the window's on fire. And I look round and everyone is struggling, crying. And I…" he looked down, "I truly felt we were going to die. I felt I'd failed them."

May-Li stammered, "I…can't imagine how hard…it must have been for you."

Mike licked his lips and drummed his fingers on the desk. "They feel like my kids. It was like watching your own kids die and you couldn't help them."

He didn't want to admit it but he still had nightmares about that night. And whenever he tried to comfort the children whenever they woke up in the middle of the night, somehow, it seemed like he was trying to comfort himself. It had been the worst experience of his life.

***she stood right by the door. Not fair. This was a pretty room. When she'd been alive, she'd had to share a room with Zoe. And Zoe snored. This girl had a room to herself.

Fall frowned, leaning by the door as she saw the girl eat a chocolate cookie. She had pretty hair, too. Fall had stupid blonde waves. This girl had long dark hair. She wanted that hair.

Jody turned to the door. Strange, it felt someone was there. She just carried on eating and reading her book.

Then her head jerked to the side, someone pulling her hair. A voice lisped in her ear, "I want your life!"

Jody screamed. Suddenly she felt the invisible hand let go of her hair as she heard Mike running up the stairs.

"Jody, are you all right?"

"No," she sobbed, "someone pulled my hair. And I couldn't see them." Mike looked at the hallway. He hadn't seen anyone come up. He just wondered who could have hurt Jody.

At the attic at Harrison Orphanage, Fall appeared panting. Hank turned to her. "Fall?"

She answered, "I pulled…pretty girl's hair."

Hank groaned. "Fall, listen, OK? I know it was hard enough resisting going back to their place, but Larua, God knows where he is and we need to obey him. I don't think he'll be much longer but he told me to be in charge."

Fall pouted.

"Why?"

Hank told her, "Because…I don't know, because he thinks I'm mature." Hank sat down cross-legged, groaning. The afterlife was so hard sometimes. Technically, this was between life and death, none of them were one hundred per cent dead, but sometimes, just looking after a bunch of kids was hard work.

It was like when he was alive – everyone expected him to be mature because he was a teen. There were so many things he wouldn't be able to do. Drive a car, pass his A-Levels, even reach fourteen! But at the same time, everyone, Mr Middlestone, his social worker, his teachers, and now Larua, had seen him as mature simply because he didn't display his emotions. Could he help it that when he was little showing his emotions was a sign of weakness?

Hank just wanted to make things better for himself. He seemed to find problems everywhere. Excitement when Larua said a new child would be coming last November, disappointment when she never arrived. Glee when Larua said that there was still a chance to kill everybody, annoyance when it was taking a long time. And now, Hank just wanted the between-lives to get a little better for them.

After all, he and BB and Floss and Fall would have a long time in the between-lives; Mark and Milly less so and Jacob was due to reach the afterlife in just under a year. He'd want them to have…possibly changes of scenery. Things to do. He hadn't watched TV in five years.

"OK guys," he said, standing up and clasping his hands together, "I remember Larua discussing his powers and what powers we get if we stay here long enough. So, here's what we do."

May-Li was looking at the picture Lilly had given her. This was a picture of the goat head that she kept seeing on Elmtree's walls. It just…looked so odd.

She didn't and it. And no one else in Elmtree was to know it. But soon, the biggest tragedy to ever strike the orphans would come very soon.

A/N: Please review?