Chapter 3

Tim's memory came rushing back as he looked at Greta Louhi. The long stringy hair, the red lips...but most of all the white eyes. Her eyes were dead. No life in them. No color. It was those eyes that he had seen in his rearview mirror. He saw in a flash what had happened...and he repeated the same movement.

He lifted his hand, his tattooed hand, pointing it directly at her. A lilting laugh passed her lips.

"I don't think so. Not this time. Let's see how you do without a physical form to fight in...and I don't like the look of your hand."

In a motion much like a puppet being controlled by a puppeteer pulling the strings, Greta raised her hand, her fingers distorting into claws.

"What are your nightmares, knower?" she asked.

Against his will, all Tim's deepest fears loomed up in his mind. Then, a shaft of dark light burst out of her hand. Following some instinct he didn't even understand, Tim clenched his fist as tightly as he could. The light swirled around him.

Then, he was being sucked down in a whirling vortex, down, down, down...

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

There was a heavy thump from the room. Then, nothing.

Tony was fighting against whatever power was holding him in place and so he nearly fell over when whatever it was suddenly vanished. He staggered forward, missed the doorway and then ran back and looked inside.

There was a lot to see, but his attention was all on Tim. Tim was lying on the floor. His eyes were wide open staring blankly, his right hand was raised up in front of his face but was again clenched into a tight fist. He was breathing heavily, as if he was terrified by whatever his sightless eyes were seeing. Then, Tony noticed it. Blood on the floor beneath Tim's head.

That thump. Tim must have fallen straight back without any attempt to catch himself.

Finally, Tony looked up. There was a woman sitting on a chair, looking for all the world like a queen surveying her domain. Only this woman was not the ruler of any earthly world. She must be Greta but what was she?

"What have you done?" Tony demanded, standing up and drawing his gun.

She laughed.

"Shoot me if you think it will help. Can a dream be destroyed? Can thoughts suffer wounds?"

"Thoughts?" Tony asked.

She smiled and her white eyes widened until they seemed to take up half her face.

"He is mine unless he can escape Death."

"What?"

"He has escaped once. But he is not in this world...and his power cannot help him. I have taken it."

Tony felt stupid, but he could only seem to repeat her words. "Power?"

Greta's smile didn't change. She stood, but very awkwardly, as if the body was not fully in her control. Her eyes never blinked.

"He is a knower. He has that power, but not where he is now. You cannot know if it is not real."

Tony felt a burning on his own chest where that tattoo was located and knew his gun was not going to help in this situation. Instead, he bent over and tried to pick Tim up.

"Well...wherever he is...we're not staying here."

Greta laughed. "If you can find your way out, you may leave...but can you fight his fears?"

Then, with a sudden smooth gesture, completely at odds with her previous movements, Greta swept her arm around in a circle and then spun her whole body. A violent wind sprang up out of nowhere and swirled around her.

She vanished.

Tony turned around and around, looking for her and then shivered at a presence just behind him.

"How can you fight someone else's fears?"

He turned.

Nothing there...and no door either. The door had disappeared. Trapped.

The window? Tony ran to the window...but when he looked out, it was pitch black. Not like at nighttime, but as if he was in a cave in the bowels of the earth. No light at all. He turned around and ran back to Tim.

Tim was still in the same position. Still breathing heavily. Still bleeding. His hand still in front of his face. His eyes still open and unseeing.

"McGee! McGee! Wake up!"

No response. In fact, Tim's body was so stiff with tension that Tony wondered if he'd even be able to get Tim out of the house at all.

"Tim!" he shouted and shook his friend.

He might as well have been yelling at a stone. Tim was far beyond hearing. Then, there was a presence behind him. Tony turned. ...and nearly let out an unmanly scream. All he saw was a faint outline...and those large white eyes.

"Will you fight his fears or will he?"

The voice echoed in the room...and then, the outline faded. Tony turned back to Tim.

"Fight his fears? What does she mean, McGee?" he asked. He knelt down beside the inert figure. "Look, I'm not a knower. I'm just along for the ride here. I don't know what to do, Tim!"

Suddenly, Tim took a deep breath and let it out in a bloodcurdling scream.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim hit the floor. Hard. The floorboards rattled and he felt dazed for a moment. Then, he rolled over onto his back and realized that he was no longer in that room, no longer seeing those eyes. He was...somewhere else. Wooden floor. Dusty air. Light in the room, but darkness all around him.

The sound of whispering echoed through the room and he looked around. No one was there. Then, the whispering grew louder, but there didn't seem to be any words being spoken, just an incessant susurration.

Then, there was a voice, louder than the whispers. Female.

"'Do you know the terror of he who falls asleep? To the very toes he is terrified, because the ground gives way under him, and the dream begins.'"

"Friedrich Nietzsche," Tim whispered. He sat up and looked around "Who's there?"

"Are you ready for the answer to that question?"

"Who are you?" Tim shouted.

The whispering grew still louder, and almost against his will, Tim felt his heart rate increase. He got to his feet and looked around. Nothing, but the whispers...he didn't know why, but he was sure they were evil.

"Look behind you."

Terrified, Tim forced himself to turn around.

And he screamed.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

After the scream, there was nothing. Tony had hoped that it was a signal that Tim was waking up...but no. The scream led to nothing.

"Who is doing this?" he demanded.

"You are not ready for that answer. If you will leave him behind, you may go."

Tony whirled around. The door had reappeared. There was light outside.

...and Greta's outline (along with her horrible eyes) was hovering in the doorway.

"I can't leave him."

"You cannot save him. Will you fight his fears?"

"I won't leave him behind."

"This is your final word?"

"Yes!"

"Then, try, human. Try to save him. You will fail."

Tony turned back to Tim and knelt down.

"It is not wise to turn your back on your enemy!"

Suddenly, Tony felt a presence behind him. He turned and this time he did scream. Greta was there. Her eyes as white as ever, but her face was blood. Not bloody. Her eyes stared out of blood. He sprang backwards.

Greta only laughed and vanished from sight, her pleasant (yet somehow evil) laughter echoing in the room.

Tony breathed heavily for a few moments and then swallowed and crawled back to Tim.

"McGee? Please?"

Nothing.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim turned and began to run, fleeing from the dark spector. He fled from the lit room into the dark hallways. He ran and ran...and then came to a stop. At the end of the hallway was a white shape. It was large. Very large. It began to walk toward him. Slowly but never ceasing.

"Leave me alone!" Tim shouted.

He started lift his hand, but then he looked at it. Blood poured out of his palm where his tattoo had been. It wasn't just a little bit. It was torrents of blood. He looked at the spector. It was getting closer and closer. The closer it came, the more terrifying it was. About twenty feet from him, it suddenly burst into flames. Its arms reached out, fire dripping like water from the tips of the fingers.

Tim screamed again and ran away through the halls, searching for somewhere he could be safe, even for a moment, somewhere he could hide.

"You cannot hide from me."

The voice was loud but not shouting. It saturated the air around him. Tim felt like a child, scared of the monsters under the bed.

He turned into a room. It was dark, but the whispering seemed to be absent. Tim took a step forward and suddenly, he began to fall. He was falling endlessly. There didn't seem to be a ground below him.

...but then, there was a burst of light far below him. It rushed up toward him...or he fell down toward it. Either way, he was wrapped in the light. He felt like he was suffocating in the light. It was burning him.

"No! No!"

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tony lifted Tim's head and tried to stop the bleeding. He knew that head wounds often looked worse than they really were, but he still didn't want to leave Tim bleeding on the floor. Then, he took hold of Tim's hand and tried to force it down away from his face. Tim's eyes were still open, but Tony noticed suddenly that his eyes seemed to be losing color. They were pale.

"McGee...Tim, please...I don't know what to do!"

Then, he looked at Tim's hand, still clenched tightly. He didn't know if this was the right thing to do, but he started trying to open Tim's fist. He couldn't believe how tightly Tim had managed to keep his fist clenched.

"Come on, McGee. Relax a bit!" Tony said.

There was no response. Tim was still breathing heavily through his mouth.

Tony struggled to open Tim's fingers. He didn't know why he was doing this, but he felt like it was the only thing he could do.

Finally, he succeeded. ...and he kind of wished that he hadn't. As he pulled at Tim's fingers, he wondered what Tim himself was experiencing.

Then, without warning, Tim's fingers flew open...and blood started to pour down his hand...but instead of dripping onto the floor like Tony would have expected, it traced strange patterns down Tim's arm.

It reminded Tony of the weird stuff Tim's tattoo would do when it came alive.

"The tattoo...is bleeding," Tony whispered.

There was something, an idea, forming in his head. He couldn't quite figure it out yet, but it was close to the surface.

"McGee..."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

The light disappeared.

Tim hit the floor. Hard. He rolled over and sat up.

The dark spector was there.

He knew who...or what it was.

He stood up.

"No," he said.

The spector smiled.

"You cannot say no to Death."

"Watch me."

He heard a laugh. He turned around.

White eyes. Cold smile.

"I am watching. Will you fight your fear?"

"I don't understand!"

"I know."

Dark light burst out of her eyes and swirled around in the space. Death did not move. Tim threw up his hands to ward off the attack.

The force of the light threw him back...and again he was falling into a pit.