Orion's crystal hooves clanked against the cement of the roof he landed on. Angel had chosen a building close to the center of the town to start her night. She slipped off of the Pegasus's back and reduced him to crystals with a wave of her hand.

She gazed out at the sleeping town, feeling the peaceful silence. Hopefully this time, she would be luckier than the other nights. She didn't bother to turn to acknowledge her other servants, who landed behind her. "You know what we are looking for. Make sure to visit the house of a child that has just lost a tooth. And be on the lookout for dream sand."

She finally turned to face them, focusing on the two females. She addressed to the tall woman with the dragon wings. "Fury, you go find a tooth and follow one of the tooth fairies. Surely they have a nest where they keep the teeth."

Fury smiled a crooked, broad smile, her long sharp fangs shining in the moonlight. "They won't notice me before I return to report." She flexed her claws of her abnormally long fingers and scratched the roof with her eagle feet to emphasize her words.

Angel nodded, turning to a human-sized eagle with the head of a woman, long curly hair framing her face. "Harpy, you accompany Fury. Make sure she doesn't get caught."

Harpy's response was a flap of her long wings and a soft eagle cry. Fury walked up to her and threw an arm around Harpy's feathered neck, her jaw-length hair being hidden by Harpy's long one. "Do not worry, mistress. We won't fail you."

Angel nodded with a small smile and watched them fly away. She looked over her shoulder. "Reaper, with me. Horseman, distract any unwanted attention."

Then, she wrapped herself in black crystals and left the roof to reappear in a child's room from the shadows.

The moment she saw the sleeping child, she was reminded of her first night as a spirit. How she had longed to see her daughter and how she found out the truth. It wasn't fair.

Why? Why my child? Why not this one or another one?

Why indeed? The bitterness that followed her for so many months was coming to the surface just now, because of her first time watching a sleeping child. Why did her child have to die so young? The child in front of her was older than her daughter, at the age of eight. Her daughter was only five years old. Why did she have to die? Angel had sacrificed herself to save her daughter, only for Elly to die shortly afterward? It shouldn't have happened. She should have been there to help her baby. But no, now she had to watch other children live their lives while her baby was buried in a cold cemetery.

It made her void of emotion and sick to her stomach.

"I almost don't see the point." she muttered to Reaper, who had reformed beside her. Her loyal servant looked at her in confusion.

Taking her eyes from the girl in the bed, she walked around the room while dragging her fingers over the child's things. "Why am I here? Unseen, destined to do what I can without even taking some credit. Why should I even try? It's not like I have any reason to live, even as a spirit. Whatever I do..."

She stood in front of a drawing hanging from the wall, the girl's family portrayed on it. She brushed the tip of her finger softly over the child and the father. "...it's always the same."

She scoffed at her own thoughts, willing herself to stop feeling. It was true, she had no reason to live. But if she were forced to live like this, then she would make a purpose for her. She would make a reason to live. She turned to leave from the window. "I'm talking nonsense again. Come on Reaper, we'll go to another ro-… Reaper?"

Death himself was standing at the foot of the bed, his back turned to it as if he weren't interested in the asleep girl. His gaze was focused on a specific corner of the room, engulfed in shadows. He was staring intently at the darkness with his unwavering gaze as if daring whatever was hiding inside it to make a move. His hold on the massive scythe was so strong that had he any skin on his knuckles, they would have turned white. Even the ends of his cloak had stilled in place instead of their slow floating movement. To have death himself be restless about something was, to say the least, unsettling.

But not for Angel. Had she been herself before her death, she would have certainly felt her body getting drenched in sweat, or she would even have gulped nervously. But, losing everything changes people.

She slowly approached her creation and stood just behind his shoulder, simply to be safe. Her hand came to touch his shoulder. "Reaper, what is it?"

The skeleton was ready to make a motion with his hand when he snapped his head up and looked frantically around, searching for something. His expression was one of surprise Angel had never seen before. Calmness wavering the tiniest bit, she looked around the room, not knowing what she was searching for. Whatever Reaper had seen it was very dangerous if his so out of character behavior was anything to go by.

She had scanned the whole room with no results when her eyes fell on the sleeping child. She didn't know how she hadn't noticed earlier that the girl was whimpering in her sleep.

Raising an eyebrow in confusion, she looked more carefully around the girl, searching for the cause of her distress.

Why is she so nervous? Is her dream so awful that-

Then it dawned on her. She was so stupid for not realizing this sooner... There was no golden light, no golden sand above the girl's head. She wasn't having any good dreams. What was really happening, though, she couldn't know. The darkness was thick enough to hide whatever was making the girl so distressed.

Angel covered the distance between her and the bed, coming to stand by the side of the headboard. Her eyes widened upon seeing the normally golden sand above the child's head, being a totally different color than it was supposed to be.

The sand was black.

The spirit held herself back from touching the nightmare. No matter how fascinating it appeared to be, she wasn't about to disturb its job. A few looks between the nightmare and the child gave her the time to put two and two together. After all, rumors were spreading around the spirit world as fast as in the mortal one.

The Boogeyman was back.

Angel hadn't heard his name, if he had one, that is. Maybe that was the reason she wasn't unnerved by her discovery. Or maybe because she had never seen the extent of his power, neither the man himself.

Or she simply liked it.

Seeing this kid, this girl, having a nightmare...put a sinister smile on her face. She had completely forgotten the morning's events. The only thing she could think about now was the torture of this soul.

My baby is dead...Why? Why the other brats get to live and my Elly doesn't?

Why do I have to suffer alone, with no family for eternity? Why endure this torture for as long as I live?

I haven't done anything to deserve this. And I am sure neither have you, little girl. But...it's a cruel world, isn't it?

Why not suffer with me? None of you believe in me, you all ignore me to the point I suffer.

Well, you deserve this nightmare then.

The crazy smile was stretching so much on her face that her cheeks ached. She knew she hadn't gone crazy yet, but she would be damned if she said that seeing others suffer with her, even for different reasons, satisfied her.

As the nightmare continued its job, she brought her hands up and slowly clapped. She clapped and laughed, a chilling, abnormal laughter. Her eyes gleamed in sickly pleasure, the slow clapping echoing like the cracking of a whip around the silent room.

Angel's actions stopped all at once when a golden blur passed by the window. It took her a moment to get over her momentary surprise, before she dashed at the window, looking out at what she recognized as the famous wisps of golden sand. Her eyes narrowed and her lips formed a smirk at the sight.

"At last..." she murmured under her breath, turning to address her loyal companion. "Reaper, stop staring at the closet and follow me. I don't get a chance like this often."

The black crystals gathered around her feet before she jumped out of the window, transforming into Orion beneath her, who snorted loudly and flew away with her.

Reaper hesitated in front of the closet he had sensed the threat hiding in, his eyes momentary darting to the window Angel had jumped out of. Knowing better than to disobey his mistress, especially after her previous display of sadistic satisfaction, he made his decision quickly. He floated up to the window, glanced warily one more time at the closet and slipped out of the window, following his mistress.

Moments after his departure, a shadow slipped out of the closet's cracked open door, slowly moving to the girl's bed. From the darkness of the room, a figure made of shadows emerged in front of the whimpering child. Two eclipses trapped inside the eyes of the shadowy man examined the nightmare of the child in mild curiosity and amusement. Slowly, a pale grey hand came out of the dark, brushing a long finger against the black sand with fatherly tenderness.

"Mildly interesting." A voice like silk, adorned with specks of a British accent echoed around the walls of the bedroom. "A new addition to our little group, with a unique taste for nightmares. I'm strangely at a loss."

The man's memory recalled the haunting figure who had accompanied the intriguing woman. The figure who had sensed his presence and silently kept him from attempting anything towards its mistress. Although the rare substance of its existence and the kind of weapon the shadow was very familiar with weren't things that went unnoticed, what really caught the man's attention were the cloaked figure's eyes.

Those glowing purple eyes, with no irises or pupils, much like the eyes of his nightmares. He could never forget the first time he locked eyes with that exquisite shade of purple. The night he was freed from his endless torture by a creature carrying the eyes of bright amethyst.

The eclipses in his eyes turned their focus on the window. "Was it you, who chased away the nightmares, my dear?"

The silence that answered his question brought a small crooked smile on his face. "I guess I'll have to find out."

Meanwhile, a few blocks away, Angel was seated on Orion's back and gazing up at the golden wisps of sand. She couldn't deny that the sight was beautiful. She tentatively reached up with her hand and touched the wisp closest to her. A golden puppy jumped out of the sand, barking happily and hopping around her in a playful mood before dashing towards its appointed child. The spirit sighed, almost melancholic.

Reaper popped into her peripheral vision, tilting his head questioningly. She glanced at him, then at the golden wisps and motioned with her head. "Go. You know what to do."

She watched as Reaper shot up in the air and followed the traces of golden sand until he was out of sight. Taking in the peaceful town around her for the first time that night, she turned Orion towards the woods and let him carry her high in the sky.

As the pegasus followed its mistress commands through the reins and slowed down from a gallop to a calm trot, she took the rare chance to look at the face of the night from such a close proximity. The beauty of the bright stars shined in her dark colored eyes, calming her tortured soul. She always liked the night better than the day. It was the contrast between the darkness of the sky and the light of the stars that fascinated her the most. The only time when dark and light, evil and good, could exist together in perfect harmony. The absolute balance of the world.

Those rare moments of peace were interrupted by a sudden, harsh wind that whipped her hair across her face, blinding her. "What-!?"

Pushing her hair out of her face, she glanced around to see where had that come from. Orion pointed out the cause with a stomp of one of his hooves in the air. Following his lead, Angel looked up to see a figure gliding through the clouds. It was a teenage boy with brown pants and a blue hoodie. White snowy hair and no shoes. A staff in his hand.

The tips of her lips curled upwards. She had found Jack Frost, just like that?

How lucky I am tonight...

She guided Orion behind a cloud and watched from behind it. The winter spirit soared through the sky some more before diving to the earth below. Reaching a frozen lake, he skated effortlessly on its surface with his bare feet, his staff leaving a trail of beautiful designs behind the boy.

Angel smirked at the sight. It wasn't hard to guess that this lake was a very important piece of Jack's life as a spirit, maybe even his own home, even though the legends she had sent to the Pole had already informed her that the white-haired brat had a room of his own in Santa's workshop.

So, Frost has a soft spot for Burgess? Very convenient.

And risky too. Her home was well hidden in the woods, but that didn't change the fact that it was very close to Jack's playground. The risk of the winter spirit finding out her hideout was very high.

Seeing the boy standing by the lake to admire his work gave her the opportunity to come up with her next move. Silently, she guided Orion to the woods, just a few feet away from the lake and dismissed him. Then, she casually walked out of the woods and towards the lake, pretending not to have noticed the winter spirit. Just so she wouldn't look suspicious, she sat on the cold from the melted snow ground and simply gazed at the lake.

Finally, Jack seemed to notice her. "Huh? Taking a midnight walk miss? While I have no problem with that, you will most likely catch a cold without something warmer."

She turned to acknowledge him with a polite smile. "I appreciate the concern, but I am good, honestly."

Jack jumped back in surprise, eyes widening. "Wait, you can...see me?"

Angel held back a smirk. Apparently, the young spirit had originally thought that she was a mortal woman. "Don't act so surprised, dead people like ourselves usually stand out."

She could tell by his expression that he was even more surprised than before. "You mean...you're a spirit, as well? I thought it was only us."

She raised an eyebrow, feigning confusion. "Us? There are others?"

Finally, his easy-going smile brightened his face. "Of course, there are. Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth fairy, the whole group is real. We are called Guardians, protectors of children more or less."

The right corner of her mouth curled upward. "And, I'm guessing you are...Jack Frost?"

"The outfit gave me away, huh?" he said, spreading his hands to reveal more of his clothes. Angel decided to stand up since Jack seemed to be at ease with her and the cold ground was bothering her backside.

Crossing her arms over her chest and tilting her head to the side, she gave a sideways smirk. "More like the fact that you've been standing on the frozen lake this whole time barefoot."

He laughed and flew over to her, standing on top of his staff. "You're funny. You should meet the others, they could use some fun in their lives. Besides, I can't do that all by myself."

She frowned, genuinely this time. " That's because you are the funnier of the group, I presume?"

"Sort of. My center is Fun, so I am the one who brings fun to others." He saw her frown deepen. "I know it sounds weird, I had the same look when North, Santa, explained it to me. Basically, every spirit has a power and a center, something like the deeper meaning of your power's existence. I bring winter, which is fun for the kids, so my center is fun. Same goes for the others. Bunnymund's center is Hope, North's is Wonder and so forth."

Angel took a moment to think the new information through. She wondered how she had never heard that before. "Let me get this straight...I understand all your centers, so Sandman's center is dreams and Tooth fairy's is...teeth?"

"Close enough. The teeth hold the memories of their owner, so once their tooth box is full, it's the perfect memory album. I was able to remember my mortal life by a look in my tooth box."

Jack's explanation struck her like lightning. Her friendly face fell into an expression of utter shock as the gears in her mind turned to make the connection. She hadn't known before that teeth hold memories. Had she known from the beginning what Jack had told her... Had she known that the teethbox shows the memories of the person the teeth belonged to...

If I get my memories, I will know exactly what happened that night. How the fire started...

...And if I get Elly's and Mark's memories...

I'll learn how they died.

"You okay there?" She snapped out of her thoughts at the sight of a hand being waved in front of her face. Looking to the side, she saw Frost staring at her with a worried expression on his face, no longer standing on his staff. She quickly tried to smile. "Sorry, I was momentarily surprised to hear that about the teeth. If that's true, then I will be able to see my memories as well?"

His smile returned full force. "Sure, you will! You want to remember how you died, right?"

She slowly nodded. "Yes. I have a few flashes about it, but not even a clear picture of it."

The winter spirit floated in midair. "No worries! I'll take you to Tooth to give your tooth box!"

She quickly shook her head. She had heard more than enough by now and she couldn't risk going to the Tooth palace as a friendly neighbor. It was time to end this. "No need to rush, Jack. I'm sure she is very busy, especially this late at night. I'll go tomorrow. And I hope to see you there as well."

He nodded. "Be sure about that! But, wait, how are you going to find the place?"

She turned around and started to leave. "I have heard rumors better than geographic directions. I will find it."

She was almost inside the woods when he spoke again. "I didn't catch your name!"

She smirked to herself as she entered the woods. "You will, next time."

After walking a few feet away from the lake, she conjured Orion and quickly got on his back, urging the Pegasus into a full gallop, not risking to fly and have Jack see her. She bent low to avoid the tree branches since the horse was so big that if she decided to stand straight on it, she would gain some good bruises from the trees.

It wasn't long before they reached a small river falling from a mini version of a waterfall. Orion wasted no time and shot towards the center of the waterfall and to the entrance of a cave right behind it, his wings providing a form of a shield from the water for his mistress. Once inside the cave, they ran until the hard-rocky surface of the cave walls was replaced by thick layers of black crystal. That was the main entrance to her home.

The main room was bigger than the globe room in North's workshop, twice, maybe thrice as big. The walls were covered entirely in black crystal, while from the ceiling were hanging enormous crystals resembling stalagmites. In the center of them, moonlight was falling from a small, single hole right on a human-sized crystal globe with the sparkling lights representing the faith of children.

The rest of the main room was even more beautiful. Straight ahead from the globe were stretching several bridges connecting the platform, on which the globe stood, with the furthest wall of the cave, on which were carved colorful portraits of every legend and myth was ever heard. Each bridge ended on a different portrait, creating a complicated set of bridges. Twenty feet under the bridges was the natural cave floor, no crystals on it. Right and left from the platform were a pair of crystal staircases leading to four separate small houses in the shape of crystal pieces, containing two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Not that they were needed to a spirit, but Angel wanted to feel as close to her mortal past as possible.

She got off of Orion and sent him off to the other horses hiding between the crystals. Rubbing her temples with a sigh, she walked over to the globe, flicking her wrist to move a few crystals on the ceiling and reflect the moonlight so as to enlighten the room a bit more. She ran her eyes over the lights of Europe, lost in her thoughts.

The knowledge of the teeth's abilities was an information she hadn't thought of at all, though she couldn't deny its value. With the boxes of her family, she could finally calm her soul by finding out what really happened to her husband and daughter.

Come to think of it, I am a widow. Awful word.

Is there a word for a mother who has lost her child?... I don't think there is.

A word for both maybe?... I can't think of any word to describe a mother without family except from...

Dead.

Yeah, that's the right word...

A loud screech had her turning her head towards the entrance of the cave to see Harpy and Fury flying inside the room. Fury landed on top of the globe in crouched down position and let out a loud beastly cry that echoed around the cave walls.

"Fury, stop showing off." Angel deadpanned, rolling her eyes.

Fury flinched, a sheepish smile on her face. "Sorry mistress. I couldn't help myself."

Harpy flew up on a crystal of the ceiling and gave a small screech of her own. Fury got the message and turned to address her mistress again. "We found the Tooth Palace, mistress. It's inside a mountain, southwest from here."

Angel nodded, a small smirk forming on her lips. "Good job. We will be sure to pay Tooth a visit very soon."

Fury bowed her head and flew over to Harpy just as Reaper entered the cave from the hole in the ceiling. The skeleton landed gracefully in front of her and kneeled before her, showing clearly more respect than the two females now resting on the crystal above.

A short mental communication between the two informed her that Sandman lived on a cloud of golden sand right above the center of Europe. She nodded, her smirk widening. "I expected nothing less from you, Reaper. I will keep the information in mind."

As Reaper bowed his head and left, Angel made a mental list with all the information she had collected.

Teeth boxes can show the memories of the person the teeth used to belong to. The Tooth palace is in a mountain, southwest, Sandy's castle is on a golden sand cloud above central Europe, North's workshop is at the Pole and out of the way, I already know that Jack has a room there plus he likes to visit Burgess' lake.

So, the only one that remains is...

A loud growl echoed around the walls as a big hellhound ran inside the cave, stopping right in front of Angel and bowing its head. Behind it, half a dozen more hellhounds followed the first's example. Angel petted the leader's head. "What have you found?"

The answer she received was ears dropping back and a small whimper. She frowned, her hand slipping off of the crystal surface of its head. "Nothing? How could you say that?! It's been months now!"

Seeing no other reaction from the leader hellhound, she started pacing up and down the platform, her anger boiling slowly inside of her. She had sent the hellhounds to find the Warren at the same time with a bunch of other legends who had been sent to search for North's workshop. Within two days, she had the location of the workshop and time to form a plan about how to use the information, but there had been no news of the hellhounds till now. And the worst was that they had returned barehanded, figuratively speaking.

Her anger caused the crystals on the ceiling to shake momentarily with a loud rumble. She spun to face her servants and slashed the air with her hand. "This is unbelievable!"

The hellhounds flinched, their ears dropping even more as she walked closer to them. Her temper was making both them and the rest of the myths uneasy, even a little afraid. She stood in front of them, her eyes sparkling with barely contained anger.

"Eight whole months and you haven't found it yet?!" Another ramble of the crystals above. "It can't be invisible! Are you sure, you've done a good research?"

Seeing the suspicion on her face, the leader hellhound rushed to explain.

Yes, we looked everywhere, to houses and forests and mountains and rivers and to all the holes.

Angel perked up. "Holes?"

The hellhound nodded. Yes, holes. No matter how small.

"Holes!" She slowly turned to the globe, smiling at a raven that had sat atop of it and scratched under its beak with a finger. "Did you hear that Munin, dear? All this time, they were looking for a small bunny."

She couldn't help herself. Having seen exactly how Bunnymund looked like, she just couldn't help it. She laughed.

She closed her eyes, threw her head back and burst out laughing. Her laughter bounced off the walls of the cave, ringing around the room louder than church bells. Her servants relaxed immediately and laughed along with her, filling the room with all sorts of screeches, cries, neighs and other sounds. Even the hellhounds were barking happily.

Angel bent forward and wrapped an arm around her stomach, still laughing her head off. No one really noticed when her laughter abruptly stopped as she peeked through her thick hair at the hellhounds with narrowed eyes.

"FOOLS!" she roared furiously, throwing her fists in the air. All the noise was cut short, with the exception of a collective whimper from the hellhounds, who leaned away from her with a flinch, tails between their legs.

"Useless! Out of my sight, NOW!" her scream followed an attack of black crystal waves that hit the herd viciously, sending the hellish dogs in different directions. Angel kept throwing waves of her power at the hellhounds, no matter how much they tried to run away from the platform and search for a cover inside the cave.

Only when all of them had managed to get cover and stay out of her sight did she release her final blow on the cave floor with a growl. Complete silence followed after, giving the cave a dead aura.

Sighing the last bits of her anger away, she dragged herself towards the globe and conjured a throne to throw herself into. She rubbed her eyes with her thumb and index finger, feeling tiredness crawling inside her system.

"How pathetic...My own creations humiliated me." A faint clip-clop approached her throne slowly, making her look up. The Headless Horseman had returned from the town, having made sure that she and the other myths had returned safely without the unwanted attention of the Guardians.

"Horseman..." she sighed, giving him her hand which he took after climbing down from his stallion. "You are my last hope."

The Horseman kneeled in front of her, still holding her hand. "Search to the ends of the earth, for a bunny bigger than a human, with blue-grey fur and two wooden boomerangs."

Her servant stood up immediately and got on his stallion. Angel shot her hand towards the exit of the cave just as the stallion started galloping away. "Go! And don't disappoint me."

Silence fell once again around the cave. Angel leaned her head on the back of her throne, contemplating whether some sleep would help with the tiredness she was feeling. Looking around at the crystals of her ceiling, she spotted a raven peeking at her from behind a crystal. She slowly raised her hand.

"Munin, come here. Come on, my beauty, don't be afraid. I am too tired to do anything either way." Her soft tone won the bird and it flapped its winds to sit on her knuckles. Angel brought a finger to the raven's head and ran it softly down the bird's neck, watching it close its eyes and rub its head against her fingertip.

"Do you think this place is lonely too?" she mused.

The Nightmare snorted at the sight before turning away from the hole it had been spying from and galloping towards the deeper parts of the woods. Unknown to it, one of the hellhounds had smelled it and was swiftly following behind. When the Nightmare disappeared inside a hole, the hellhound stopped in its tracks and slowly climbed down the hole, staying close to the exit just in case.

The Nightmare galloped into a great room with cages hanging from the ceiling and to a tall man standing in front of a globe. The man's silky voice chilled the air even more as the horse reported. "How interesting."

The hellhound growled lowly and shot out of the hole, heading back to its mistress.


I decided to use lyrics or titles from songs for chapter titles. Starting with this, the chapter title is the title of the theme song for chapter 3 of my story. It's called A Shot In The Dark, by Within Temptation.