Hayley didn't come out the next morning.
"D'you think something's wrong with her?" Monty asked, worriedly, at the park, when Jamie showed up without the girl and with no explanation. "Maybe she's sick? Or something?"
"We could go and check," said Cupcake, in her deep, hoarse voice.
"I thought maybe she came here without me," Jamie said, glancing around at the park. He was worried, definitely worried now – Hayley always came. Without fail. And what was worse, Tara wasn't here either.
"C'mon, Jamie." Pippa placed a hand on his shoulder, and he sent her a smile. "Let's go check on her."
"Wait," said Claude. "We're going to their house?"
Caleb chuckled. "I think Claude likes Tara," he said to the others.
Pippa's jaw dropped. Monty stared at him, eyes wide. Cupcake had to hold back a laugh. And Jamie had to stop his face from twitching into a grin as the pink-haired, dark-skinned girl flashed into his mind.
"I do not!"
"You do too," said Caleb. "You totally like Tara."
"I think she's a bit old for you," said Pippa, good-naturedly.
"Yeah, about six years older," Jamie grinned.
"Shut up, guys," said Claude. His face was undeniably red. "You're not helping."
"So you do like Tara!"
"Aren't we supposed to go and check on Hayley?" he said, hurriedly. "What if she's really sick?"
At that, Jamie's entire face changed, and without another word, he hurried out of the park.
"I made you some hot chocolate."
Tara stood in the doorway, looking over worriedly at her younger sister, still curled up on her bed, shivering.
"Thanks," Hayley muttered, and Tara moved over, perching herself on the bed next to her. She looked pale and drawn, and she was shuddering in her blanket, dark shadows under her usually clear eyes.
"Drink up," Tara commanded. "I'm not leaving until you do."
Slowly, carefully, Hayley raised the mug to her lips, and swallowed down bit by bit of the warm, comforting chocolate.
"Nightmares?" the older girl asked, gently, as Hayley passed her back the mug, and she placed it on the bedside table.
Hayley nodded.
"How bad?"
"They were terrible," Hayley whispered. "I mean, you know I don't usually get so affected by nightmares. But this was – this was horrible. There was darkness, and shadows, and they were grabbing me and dragging me sucking me in – "
"Hey," Tara murmured, in a low voice. "Hey. It's okay."
Hayley curled up in her blankets even more.
Just then, the doorbell rang, loud and shrill, throughout the house, followed by a hammering at the door.
"I think I know who that is," said Tara, rising to her feet. She sent Hayley a wry smile. "I'm about ninety-nine percent sure Jamie has a crush on you, you know."
"What? Jamie?" But Hayley's cheeks were flushed pink, the smallest of smiles on her face, before she forced it down. "Don't be stupid!"
"I see things," Tara told her, and with a laugh she left the room, taking the stairs down two at a time.
"Tara, did something happen to Hayley?"
"Is she sick?"
"Is she okay?"
"What happened to her?"
"Slow down, kids." Tara leaned against the doorway, eyeing the crowd of children at her door. Jamie was at the front, looking especially worried, with Monty right behind him. "Hayley just didn't feel so good this morning. Nightmares." Turning around, she called out, "Come on in, I'll show you to her room."
When she heard no footsteps behind her, she turned around, frowning slightly.
The six kids were all still standing in the doorway, looking at her with a horrified expression on their faces.
"Did you say nightmares?" Jamie asked, his eyes wide.
"Um, yeah. Is something wrong?"
The next thing Tara knew, Jamie had rushed past her up the stairs, stumbling through the only open doorway that was Hayley's room.
"It's not possible," Cupcake was saying, as the rest of them entered the house, shutting the door behind them. "We just defeated him more than a year ago. Didn't they say that he took that long to get enough power again since the Dark Ages?"
"But nightmares that keep you to your room?" asked Caleb. "How bad can nightmares get?"
"Maybe we should tell Jack," Pippa said.
"Wait, hold up." Tara cut in front of them, blocking their way up into the house. "What are you kids talking about?"
They exchanged a look, and then Pippa finally looked up at her, her eyes dark.
"The Boogieman."
"You're messing with me," Tara said, once she'd sent Monty, Pippa and Caleb up to Hayley's room with more mugs of hot chocolate. Cupcake and Claude had elected to stay with her downstairs. Cupcake, she could understand – while Cupcake was closer to Hayley in age, Tara had always gotten along better with the girl than Hayley had. Tara wasn't so sure why Claude stayed with them, on the other hand. "The Boogieman?"
Cupcake nodded, darkly. "He sends out Nightmares so that we can't sleep at night," she said. "So that all we feel is fear and so that we're all scared."
"It was really bad," said Claude, and he shivered slightly, even in the warm house; sometimes he could still remember the nightmares that made him shoot up in his bed at night, twitching. "Pitch Black isn't a joke."
"Pitch Black," Tara repeated. "But how come only Hayley's getting the nightmares, then, and you kids are all okay?"
"Maybe he doesn't want to let us know that he's back," said Cupcake, bringing the hot chocolate to her lips once more. "We did defeat him the last time."
"But this is ridiculous." Tara frowned. "It could just be a bad dream."
"A bad dream that makes her feel unwell enough not to get up from bed?" Cupcake challenged.
"She's not exactly the strongest person I know."
"But have her nightmares ever been this bad?"
A long pause.
"No," Tara admitted. "But I still think it's kind of stupid. If it's really the Boogieman, she can't be the only one. Maybe she just watched some horror movie last night, or something, I don't know."
"He'd want to make us suffer more," Claude said, suddenly. "Pitch, I mean. He'd want to give us nightmares since we helped the Guardians defeat him the last time."
"And he didn't send you all nasty dreams." Tara sipped at her hot chocolate. "Hayley will be fine. You'll see. She'll be out of bed in no time."
Cold, calculating yellow eyes glinted.
"Well, there's a girl who's certainly assured of herself," a cold, hollow voice whispered. "But then again – she isn't, is she? Acting so sure of herself, so sullen and moody, so happy around the children…but she really isn't, is she? So scared, so afraid of everything – "
A low chuckle.
"And such a connection to Jack Frost," the voice continued. "And a teenager, as well! Oh, my…"
The darkness seemed to grow.
"I wonder, now…" the voice said thoughtfully, with the slightest hint of malicious glee. "Oh, yes, I wonder…"
Hayley was, to say the least, embarrassed when Jamie came racing into her room.
She let out a yelp and dragged her blankets up to her chin.
"What are you doing?"
He looked slightly uncomfortable when he realised he'd just raced into her room.
"Um," he said, scratching the back of his head, "Tara said you had nightmares. And you weren't so good. And I, uh, came to check on you, because, uh, I know how bad nightmares can get. But, uh, I can go now, if you want – "
"No," Hayley said, quickly. "No. It's fine." She took a deep breath, and looked over at Jamie, who was still standing uncomfortably by the doorway. I'm about ninety-nine percent sure Jamie has a crush on you, you know.
No. Tara was just being annoying and stupid, like how she got sometimes.
"Can you stay?" Hayley asked, quietly.
"Of course I can." Jamie looked slightly stricken, and dragged one of the beanbags near the window over to the bed, where he dropped down on it. He looked up at her. "Tara – Tara said you had nightmares?"
"Yeah." Hayley shut her eyes, and shivered again. Even with her old lamp on, the minute she'd started falling asleep, the darkness seemed to surround her again, to pull her in even deeper than before. "Sorry, it's stupid, I don't even know why I'm still in bed – "
"Were they really bad?" Jamie asked, and he was looking up at Hayley with those big brown eyes and goddammit why was Jamie so damn nice?
"Yeah." Her hand tightened around the edge of the bed. "There was – there was darkness, and it was bad, Jamie, it was so, so bad – "
"Hey," Jamie said, and he grabbed her hand and smiled up at her, in that comforting smile that he always gave. "It's just a bad dream. Just a nightmare."
"Yeah," Hayley murmured, as the sound of footsteps thudded outside her doorway, and Monty, Pippa and Caleb stuck their heads in. "Just a nightmare."
"What do you mean, you don't want her to spend so much time with them?"
Night was falling around the house, darkness creeping up on the sky above. Outside, the light was fading, the sun long gone. It was peaceful, and quiet.
Inside the house was a different matter entirely.
"Tara." Sarah sighed, and placed a hand on the chair in front of her. Across the kitchen, her eldest daughter was staring at her, eyes narrowed. "I know you mean well. But I really don't think spending so much time with those kids is in Hayley's best interests – "
"Yeah? And who's determining her best interests? You?"
Sarah's eyes grew sharp. "I am your mother – "
"So what? What's that supposed to mean? You spend all your time in your bloody office! You don't know the first thing about Hayley or what she needs!"
Tara's face was flushed, her pink hair coming out of its ponytail as she slammed a plastic plate down on the table. "You think that you know us just because you're our mother?" she demanded. "You don't know anything about us! Hell, you still insist on making cheese and toast for her! While the gesture is appreciated, don't you even know that your youngest daughter hates cheese?"
"Don't you dare take that tone with me, young lady – "
"What, so I can let you dictate who Hayley spends her time with? Jamie Bennett is a good kid, and he's probably the only reason that she's so happy with this move!"
"And I suppose he's also the reason she stayed sick at home today!"
"Oh, you think that spending time with Jamie caused her to spend the day in bed? For God's sake, he came over to make sure she was okay! The kid wouldn't leave until I kicked him out!"
"Your sister can't afford to spend all her time playing. You know she's not as smart as you, she has to start studying soon – "
"It's the fucking holidays!" Tara shrieked. "We just moved here, goddammit, and you want her to start spending her days indoors, studying? Are you just trying to come up with excuses to keep her inside the house or something?"
"Don't you swear in front of me! I'm trying to look out for Hayley's best interests! She needs to start studying – "
"Hell, we've seen the books, we're perfectly capable of doing the damn subjects!"
"Don't talk to me like that!"
"What, like this? Hell, are you even just trying to come up with excuses so Hayley's locked inside the house, without any fucking friends, or something? You think she's Rapunzel in her fucking tower or something? What is wrong with her going out to play?"
"I don't even know this boy or any of his friends!"
"You didn't care before this! You've always trusted my judgement on her friends, and Jamie Bennett, as I've probably told you a million times before, is a good kid!"
"Well, I'm starting to have doubts about your judgement, miss! You think you're seventeen, you can act as if you own this place, as if you don't have to listen to us anymore?"
"I'm not even acting like – hell, I do listen to you! When you actually make sense! Have you considered it's maybe just you not even trying to listen to us?"
Tara didn't wait for a reply. She spun around and walked out into the hallway.
"And where do you think you're going?" Sarah shrieked, following the girl out.
"Away from this goddamn house!"
The door swung open, darkness pouring in, and slammed shut in Sarah's face.