OK first of all, I'd like to thank ObsidianLove for her six phenomenal reviews to this story. I'd actually all but given up on this one because of how busy I am with my other story, The Boogeyman tries to understand Fanfiction, but now I'm tanned, I'm rested, and I'm ready to give this old story a wedgie again!

he he. !) Sorry, I was channeling Joker there for a minute.

But seriously, I'm ready to take a quick break from the Boogeyman and start again on this one, fresh anew, and Obi was a big part of why. All of why, actually. Thank you Obi.

To I can not think of a pen name, (Great pen name by the way) don't worry. The ToothxPitch is coming.

"Pitch you gotta go faster! They're right behind us!"

Pitch whirled, sending a shower of nightmare sand at the scuttling mass behind them. "I'm going as fast as I can!" he shouted, jumping into another shadow. The feeling of insubstantiality rushed over his body and he felt his individual molecules and atoms separate and break apart as he traveled through the world-shadows. It was like jumping into a whirlpool. The feeling was completely unbeatable and he would've enjoyed it more, had a hoard of murderous spiders not been after him.

He appeared in some unknown location, spit out like a nasty-tasting vegetable by a ten-year-old, and checked behind him. Yep, they were still coming after him. Thousands upon thousands of black, grey, giant and miniscule spiders charged through the shadow-portal and towards him. There were giant bird-eating spiders, Black Widows, tarantulas, wolf-spiders, daddy long-legs, orb spiders and every other spider on the face of the earth besides. They came in a writhing, furious mass, eager for blood.

Pitch looked around. There was nothing he could do! Fight? Not much of an option. Hide? They'd find him. The only way was through another shadow-portal. He found the nearest patch of darkness and was about to step into it when something screamed behind him.

"WAIT!"

Pitch turned and saw Anna running towards him, still in the city he'd just come from, battling her way through the spiders who reached up with their venomous fangs as she hurtled herself towards him. Each time she took a step she phased through a spider and that sent a ripple of distortion through her ectoplasm body. The way she was running now made her look like a patch of sunlight reflected off of water, wavy and unfocused.

Pitch called her name, but through the mire of hissing and scuttling, she couldn't hear him. The spiders were closing in. He knew he would have to go, and go soon! She may have the advantage of being dead and not being able to feel them, but if he got bit by even one of those monstrosities then he would be paralyzed for sure and taken back to the North Pole where they would try and punish him, and he had no intention of doing that.

Spiders were already coming through the portal and into his current location, but he couldn't close it! Not until Anna came through!

"PITCH!" she called. She was getting closer, but he knew she couldn't make it. The spiders were too fast! He could feel fear, sharp and strong against the rank odor of spiders, coming off her in huge waves. Could ghosts feel fear? Apparently so.

Pitch allowed himself a brief glimpse into her fears and guilt struck him like a blow in the stomach.

She was afraid of being overwhelmed by the spiders. He could see images of her cowering in a corner as thousands of the creatures swarmed over her body and spun their tomb around her. She was crying.

Pitch gritted his teeth. Of course! That stupid nightmare. Why had he been so cruel? WHY?

Then he saw another image. One that mimicked their situation now. Her, running, the spiders hissing, but with one crucial difference.

He was stepping through the portal and leaving her.

"PIIIITCH!" she screamed again."GOOOO!"

"NO!" he called. "I WON'T LEAVE!"

He threw another bout of nightmare sand at the spiders that had come through and about a hundred of them fell unconscious. A hundred, out of the ten thousand that were still with Anna. Not much.

"PITCH! GET OUT OF HERE!"

Pitch's mind was racing. She was afraid he'd leave her, but she wanted him to go? Was she telling him to save himself?

Anna was ten feet away! She could make it! She could! She ran faster and harder than ever before, her feet actually leaving the ground as she ran and floating at least five inches above the ground, away from the spiders. She ran and ran! Would he leave her? No, Pitch wouldn't! Her mouth was telling him to go, save himself, but her brain said Don't leave me! Please! Don't leave me!

She had always been alone. Sick, tired, never allowed out of her room for fear she'd catch another disease, friendless, except for those kids whose parents made them come bearing flowers and balloons to 'pay their respects' as if she was already dead! Always wishing for her to get well but never actually meaning it. All she ever wanted was to be a normal healthy child. To be loved. To have a friend. Now the only being who had ever been her real friend was about to be murdered by spiders!

Anna would've laughed bitterly if she hadn't been using each drop of ectoplasmic energy in her body to run. There was someone out there with a sense of humor.

"PIIIIIIIITCH!" she yelled one last time. The spiders were getting too close to him. She wasn't going to make it!

Then the spiders overtook her and, with one last look, Pitch stepped through the shadow-portal, leaving her alone.

"Pitch NOOOOOOOOOO!"

XXXXXXXXXXX

Several hours earlier. . .

"Anna? Anna?"

Pitch was trying to hold her arms but his hands kept going right through them. He cursed under his breath and tried to remain calm. Until now he'd never fully appreciated being able to make physical contact with another being. Even when he'd been written off as a bad dream in the end of the Dark Ages he hadn't cared about not being able to touch the children he scared. Being seen was more important than being able to feel, wasn't it?

"Anna? Can you hear me?" he asked again, gently. If he shocked her or surprised her now, her ghostly energy- which was called ectoplasm and was currently on autopilot since she was in a dream-state and had no control over her powers, could send out a kind of electric pulse strong enough to send him flying. He'd dealt with ghosts before, and had been pretty beaten-up by a few, but never had he seen something like this.

"I. . . Hate. . . Grimm. . . Reaper." she said again. Her speech was slurred, like she was drunk and she swayed, tilting towards the left.

Pitch tried to keep her from falling over but his arm went right through her and she fell onto the bed with a soft *thud*. Pitch sighed. And all he could do was shout.

"ANNA! WAKE UP" he yelled as loud as he could. To heck with her energy!

Anna winced slightly and tried to turn her head, but she didn't react any more than that.

Pitch stood up and walked to the other end of the room, knowing he couldn't do anything was killing him! He couldn't shake her awake, and shouting would only damage her eardrums.

Pitch paced back and forth along the cave wall, keeping well away from her so that if she did wake up, he wouldn't be in the line of her fire if she shot anything nasty using her powers. As he paced he wondered what was wrong with her.

"She's not violent, that's a good sign. But why are her eyes closed?" he asked himself. "And why did she say-"

But before he could finish his thought, Anna sat bolt upright and screamed.

"PITCH WE'VE GOT TO RUN!" she stared around the room, her eyes were wide and Pitch could see a glimmer of fear in them.

"Anna, Anna," Pitch said, striding over to her and trying to take her hand but going through her once again!

"Damn! Anna, you've got to calm down." he told her. "You were-"

"I was in a freaking trance is what I was in!" the girl said angrily, glaring up at the ceiling for some reason. "YOU HAD NO REASON TO DO THAT!"

Pitch was startled and he leaped away, stumbling backwards until he felt solid rock behind him. "I didn't do anything!" he protested.

"Oh, not you." she said absentmindedly, then she glared up again. "The bloody freaking REAPER!" She hurled the last word at the sky so loudly that Pitch was sure he saw some pebbles detach from the ceiling and come down.

Pitch blinked. "The Reaper? As in the Grimm Reaper?"

"Yeah, that-" and Anna proceeded to describe the Grim Reaper in very colorful words that Pitch was sure a twelve-year-old shouldn't know.

"Um, Okaaaay." Pitch said when she was finished ranting. "Why do you dislike the Grim Reaper now?"

"He freaking hijacked my body and took me to some weird place where they were watching my death on a blue ball, then a Leprechaun got into an argument with the Tooth fairy and Father Time and a Skeleton tried to intervene but he didn't do much. Then a giant spider with a woman's face and fangs said she'd send her kids after you and then I ended up back her. How, I have no clue."

Now, to a normal person, this might sound like the person speaking might need to check into a clinic and seek professional treatment.

But, then again, Pitch was not a normal person. Not even remotely. He understood the things Anna was saying fully. He just couldn't make sense of why the Grimm Reaper would do such a thing.

"So, Grimm took your soul on a ride and sent you to Santoff Clausen," he said slowly, translating her words into something he could fully understand. "Where I assume Thyme called a spirit-meeting, they watched your death and then Patrica got in a fight with Toothiana and Thyme. About what?"

Anna shrugged. "Something about my death. She was convinced that you'd killed me on purpose and the Tooth fairy and Father Time were trying to tell her that you didn't."

"Huh." Pitch said. "And then. . . you said a skeleton intervened?"

"Yeah." Anna said. "I thought he was a bit scary."

"A bit scary huh? Must be Skellington." Pitch murmured. When he caught Anna's confused eye he said, "Jack Skellington."

Anna's eyes lit up. "OH! You mean from A Nightmare Before Christmas? I LOVE THAT MOVIE!"

Pitch groaned. "Yes, everyone loves that movie."

"What? you don't like it?"

"Do I like the fact that I'm being portrayed as a sack of bugs who gambles? No, I do not."

"Oh, that's right. Oogie Boogie." Anna said, then she sniggered. "He he. I can just imagine you dancing around your cave singing the Oogie Boogie song. He he."

Pitch growled. "How you go from 'rocking back and forth while having a vision' to 'annoying me' so fast is beyond me." he grumbled. "Now, what else did you hear?"

Anna shrugged. "Well, there was the spider woman-" she froze, staring at him with wide eyes again. Wide, and fearful eyes.

"Oh god Pitch, we need to get out of here!" she said jumping up and running over to him. She tried to grab his hands in hers but they went right through!

Pitch blinked. "Get out of here? Why?" he asked, perplexed.

"They're coming!" she said anxiously, trying to grab onto his hands again. "And- why- can't- I- touch- you?!"

Pitch laughed. "Welcome to my world. You're a ghost, Anna. You can't touch anyone or anything."

Her eyes widened. "WHAT?!" she screeched. "You mean I can't eat or drink? Can I sleep? Can I-"

"Calm down!" Pitch said quickly. "Eating is something the living do, not ghosts. Drinking is the same. Sleeping. . ." he paused. "I'm not so sure that you'll need to. But honestly, it's worth it for you to exchange trivial human necessities for moving objects with your mind, phasing through walls and flying!"

Anna blinked. "Oh, yeah. Right." then she remembered something and began to panic again. "We've got to get out of here! The spiders are coming!"

Again, Pitch was perplexed. "What spiders?"

"THE SPIDERS!" she said exasperatedly. "The daughters and sons of that freaky woman with the fangs! We've got to get out of here before-"

Pitch held up a hand to stop her. "Slow down!" he ordered. "Firstly, what freaky woman with fangs? You'd be surprised but I know several."

Anna sighed. "She was big and she had the head of a woman but the body of a spider! She had black hair, and FANGS!"

Pitch blinked. "Okaaay, I think I know who you're talking about. Arachne, Goddess of spiders."

Anna blinked. "Goddess? Oh great, now there's a goddess after you!"

"How do you know she's after-" Pitch began, then Anna gave him a sarcastic look and he stopped. "Alright, I get your point." he conceded.

"Yeah, she's after you alright." Anna said. "And we've got to get the heck out of here before she comes! I dunno about you, but I really don't want to deal with any more spiders." that last sentence had a bit of a steely tone to it and Pitch was momentarily confused before he remembered.

Pitch winced. Of course. That nightmare he'd sent her before she'd died.

"Oh, yeah I'm sorry about that." Pitch said sincerely. "I only-"

"No time for that!" Anna said. "We gotta go!"

Pitch sighed. "Listen, Anna. Arachne is just a giant bug with a serious dental problem. There isn't much she can do to me."

Anna rolled her eyes. "Pitch, it's not about her hurting you. It's about her daughters and sons chasing you down and hog-tying you with spider-silk, then taking you to the Guardians to kill you!"

Pitch winced again. Like he needed to reminded of that. "Anna, don't be dramatic." he said, trying to sound weary but coming off more like apprehensive. "They won't-"

"Pitch Black if you even try to lie to me I will pound you, be damn my lack of solidity!"

Pitch raised an eyebrow. "Now where does a child learn language like that?" he asked mildly.

"I WAS ABOUT TO TURN THIRTEEN TOMORROW!" Anna bellowed.

Ah. A child on the cusp of teenager-hood. That explained a few things. Pitch surveyed the girl, looking her up and down. He'd thought she was younger. Her hair was long and, now that he looked at her face more closely, he could see one or two pale bumps on her face that looked like zits.

"Quit looking at me like that!" Anna ordered. "It's creepy."

"I was just-"

"Never mind!" Anna interrupted. "Just forget it! We need to get out of here!"

Pitch sighed. "Not that again," he moaned. "Anna, I have absolutely no concerns about-"

Before Pitch could finish- and he was getting really annoyed about being interrupted so much, there was a strange noise coming from the entrance of the room.

Pitch and Anna both raised their heads to listen, each keeping completely silent. The noise sounded far away, but it carried far. It was like the tap tap tapping of tiny feet. There was another sound amongst the tapping. Sort of like a whispering, but louder.

Heshhhhhhhh heshhhhhhhh heshhhhhhhhhh

"What is that?" Anna asked in a whisper, cocking her head to the side.

"I have no-"

And then it happened.

A huge wave of... things erupted from the bedroom doorway. The wave was making the same heshhhhhh heshhhhhh heshhhhhhhh sounds and the tapping was growing louder and louder.

"THEY'RE HERE!" Anna screamed. "Pitch, get out of here!"

"It's just a few bugs," Pitch said, trying to reassure both her and himself.

"GET OUT OF HERE!"

Pitch's eyes were drawn to the scuttling mass and he realized she was right! The creatures were spiders, and the heshhhhhhing and tapping sounds were the noises of their hissing and scuttling! Pitch felt his face pale. Spiders were one of the most feared beings on the face of the planet and they used to be such kind little critters to him. Now, he just felt revolted at the sight of them.

"There's nothing-" he began.

Before he could finish- (and this was the seventh time he'd been disallowed to finish his sentence,) a huge spider lunged at him and Pitch felt fangs sink through the fabric of his pants and down to his skin. The fangs bit down, had, pinching the flesh and sending a jolt of pain up his leg.

"Hey!" he said, shaking the spider off his pant leg. "What-"

"I told you!" Anna crowned, dodging a flying spider. "They can bite you! And if they bite you, they'll paralyze you! Then they'll wrap you up like a dead bug and take you to the north pole or wherever! You need to get out of here!"

Pitch watched as the hoard of spiders scuttled towards him. They were almost at his feet! He stepped back, a little worried now. "OK, OK, I get your point." he said, disappearing into a near shadow and reappearing on the other side of the room. He watched in astonishment as the wave- which was quickly turning into a tsunami, of spiders scuttled towards his room. There were thousands of them!

"Anna!" he called, hoping that the spiders weren't attracted to sounds. "Anna, you can phase through the walls to get to me! You don't have to go through the spiders."

Anna tried to call back, but the overwhelming tsunami of spiders drowned out anything she was trying to say. He saw her foot sticking out of the wall, then it was pulled back in through the wall. Then another body part- her head this time, poked through the wall. He could only see up to her nose. Her mouth was still in the rock.

"'Itch! Get 'e ou' a 'ere!" she said, her nose and eyes working furiously.

Pitch walked forward and scrutinized her upper head. "I'm sorry, Anna, but I can't do anything. I can't touch you."

The spiders were a heaving mass and they were still heading towards his room. it was like a flowing river of hairy bodies, scuttling right in front of them. They didn't notice him and he stood about a foot from the nearest spider which quickly scuttled off towards his room. Pitch followed the wave of spiders with his eyes and he discovered they were coming from a giant spider-web in the middle of his living room. They were being spewed out of the web- which was obviously a kind of portal. He tried to look past the solid wave of spiders to see where they were coming from, but he couldn't see a thing.

"'en GET OUT! 'ave youself and 'et me deal with this!"

Pitch shook his head, tearing himself away from the river of spiders. "I can't do that." he said flatly. "You're my friend."

Anna's eyes widened. "F- friend?" she said, her head freezing in it's attempt to push through the wall.

Pitch sighed mightily. "Yeah, I guess I might as well accept it. I'm stuck with you, so I might as well make the most of it."

Anna raised her eyebrows. "Meaning?"

Pitch sighed. "Meaning I'm not going to leave you in the lurch." he said.

"But you're not doing anything useful!" Anna yelled angrily, her head thrusting out all the way to her upper lip. "And if you get paralyzed and carted off, there's nothing I can do about it!"

Pitch rolled his eyes. "Anna, you can do something about this!" he said. "Just take a deep breath and focus your energy. You can pass through the wall just like passing through water."

"Oh, and you know so much about phasing," Anna snorted.

"Actually, I do." he replied flatly. "I've been teleporting, phasing through solid walls and such things for several hundred years. Now I'd even say I'm an old hand at it."

Anna scowled. It made sense. "Then kindly give me a hand out of here!"

"Sorry deary. Remember, I can't touch you." Pitch said, giving a wink. "What I can do is coax you out. Coach you. It'll only take-"

Pitch was interrupted -ONCE AGAIN!- by the noises of the scuttling spiders. This time, they weren't scuttling past him. They were scuttling towards him!

Pitch cursed. How was he supposed to wriggle out of this one? There were only a few options he knew he could take. One: Take a shadow-portal and hope that Anna would somehow find him. Two: Stay and fight. Three: Figure out a way to get her out of the rock and then fight his way out with her. None of those seemed particularly sensible. He needed to get out of here and even though he was a little annoyed by her he wasn't going to leave Anna behind, so that only left one option.

"OK, change of plans." Pitch said, quickly crossing over the wall and phasing through it until he could see all of Anna's face. Her eyes were wide with fear and he felt a pang of regret in his stomach. He could feel himself feeding off of her fear and it sickened him. "I'm going to have to cheat a little. Hold you're breath!"

Then he remembered ghosts didn't breath and he felt silly.

"Pitch, what do you-"

"Keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for you!" he ordered, summoning a strong tendril of Nightmare sand and causing the sand to wrap itself loosely around his left wrist.

Anna's eyes widened as the tendril snaked through around the rock and through the doorway to his room and towards her flailing arm that was still sticking out of the wall on the other side.

"Anna, stop struggling! It'll only make this harder!" Pitch commanded.

"What are you doing?!"

"Saving us!" he shouted, then the tendril of nightmare sand finally wormed it's way around her flailing wrist, connecting them by a strong length of sand.

The sand tightened around her wrist and she stared through the wall in wonder at it. It was touching her! The sand was holding fast to her skin!

"Now hold still and close your mouth!" Pitch ordered, calling up another wave of shadows to engulf the spiders. The inside of the rock- which was already black, became even blacker and she could only see two single solitary globes of golden light. The lights dissapeared for one moment, then they reappeared and Anna realized, with a start, that they were the eyes of the Boogeyman!

"Pitch," she tried to say, but her voice was dead-silent.

"Keep quiet." A voice from right beside her said. It was Pitch's voice and she tried to turn around, but he wasn't there. She turned back and saw that the eyes had disappeared. "It's hard enough aiming myself without you trying to talk and messing up my concentration!"

Anna kept her mouth shut but inside she wondered what the heck was going on? Where was she? The darkness around her was blacker than the night of the new moon and she felt scared. Where was she? Where was Pitch? Anna reached for something to hold onto to anchor her, but she could feel nothing. It was like she was floating in a no-gravity chamber! There was no floor beneath her and she kicked out with her leg, waving it up and down. nothing stopped her.

Anna raised her left hand and tried to look at it, but the blackness was too complete and she couldn't even make out where her hand was. She lowered it, then raised her right hand- which she'd been propping herself up with, even though she didn't need to, and was amazed when she didn't fall backwards. She just stayed there, with her leg hanging limply as if over a rock or cliff and her hands raided. She looked like she was doing a sit-up with one leg slack.

"This feels really, really-"

"I'm trying to concentrate!" Pitch's voice boomed in her ear, making her wince. "So please zip it and stop moving!" He paused and Anna stayed perfectly still. "Unless you want to arrive without a nose or head, that is." he added slyly.

"Ha ha."

"I'm serious!" Pitch said. "You keep distracting me and you might not all come together."

Before Anna could form a plausible comeback, however, the black world around her began to fall apart. She tried to scramble away, but the air went right through her fingers and she couldn't push herself up or back. In the end, after three failed attempts to get away from the blackness dripping down the walls to her, she just sat there and watched.

Anna watched in amazement as the farthest edges of her sight began to drip down through the blackness, like water droplets or paint. The droplets were small, but they collected and ran together to form bigger droplets and, like an eraser fixing a misspelled word, the blackness was scraped away. Beneath the blackness were grey shapes that slowly came into focus as the blackness ebbed away fro her sight. Houses, towers, buildings, even a large cathedral in the distance. She blinked. Some of these buildings looked familiar, but they were still too fuzzy to be recognizable.

"Where are we?" she asked, assuming that it was safe for them to talk now that they weren't in whatever freaky black place Pitch had transported them to.

"Paris." Pitch said from right behind her. "Now, if you wouldn't mind getting off me, if you please,"

Anna looked down and saw, to her astonishment, that her butt was firmly planted in the center of his chest. She was on her bottom with her hands bracing firmly against the pavement. Her feet were buried in his lower regions and she was glad her hands weren't in his face, literally.

She tried to scramble back up but her hand slipped and she fell down again, smacking her head against the concrete with a sickening *splat* instead of the crack she'd anticipated.

"Need I remind you that you're still a ghost?" Pitch said peevishly. "Yes, you can walk on solid ground and sometimes even go into buildings without falling through the floor, but if you hit the street hard enough you will go through."

"Duly noted." Anna said. She could feel her head sinking through the concrete as they spoke. it sent a chilling feeling through her body. "So what do I do?"

Pitch debated about this for a minute, then decided to get up, passing right through her as he did so. He looked down at her and she had the very vivid image of a golden-eyes hawk ready to swoop down on prey. She was scared.

Pitch blinked. He could feel the fear coming off of her again, not about the spiders or even about being dead and sucked through the ground. She was afraid of him, of all things!

Why? Pitch wondered. Then he realized how it must be from Anna's perspective. She was on the ground with no way to help herself or save herself, should he choose to leave her- which he wouldn't do in any case. Not that he was growing attached to the girl. He'd only just met her after all, but he didn't want to take the chance that she would figure out a way to come back on her own and haunt him for not helping her when she was in trouble. Besides, he reflected. he owed her for warning him about the spiders.

"Anna," Pitch said, trying to sound as gentle as he could. "I'm not going to leave you. Just relax, take a deep breath, and push yourself upwards. Not physically though." he said hastily as Anna's arms flailed. "Don't even move your body!"

Anna obeyed and laid her arms down again.

"No, you must use your mind to get you out of this one." Pitch said. "This was what I was trying to teach you before those loathsome spiders found us." He paused, then sank through the concrete. Anna blinked, surprised. Then she feared for one single instant that he might've really left her. Left her all alone. . .

"I haven't left." Pitch said, appearing again. "I'm just showing you how easy it is."

"Yeah well I'm a newbie at this!" Anna snapped. "Can't you do something?"

Pitch sighed. "Alright." he said, holding up his left wrist so that Anna could see it. "Seeing as how I already used this trick and it didn't do anything too damaging, I should be able to do it again."

Anna frowned. "What-"

But the words were forced back down her throat as Pitch gave a sharp yank on his wrist and Anna felt herself being tugged from the concrete's solid grasp. Gravity propelled her towards Pitch and she tried to slow herself down to stop from crashing into him, but the Boogeyman neatly side-stepped the ghost and she went pinwheeling. Until Pitch yanked on the Nightmare sand chain around her wrist to keep her from smacking into a wall.

"Pitch!" Anna yelled angrily. "What did you do?"

"I saved you from an eternity of sitting in concrete for the rest of your afterlife." he said smugly."You're welcome."

"Thanks a heap," Anna said, leaning against a wall to stop herself from teetering and then eventually falling on the ground. Unfortunately, she forgot she was a ghost yet again.

"Anna," Pitch said tiredly, bowing his head and pinching the bridge of his nose. Anna's right arm and the right side of her head was impaled in the wooden wall. "You obviously haven't learned a thing."

"I just forgot, OK!" Anna said angrily. "I didn't realize being dead had so many drawbacks."

"Drawbacks?" Pitch repeated, raising his head to stare at her intently. "Anna, you haven't even begun to discover all your powers yet and it will take you decades to master them all."

"Decades?" Anna gasped, staring at him.

"Yes indeed." Pitch said. "Centuries even. There are some ghosts who have been dead for two thousand years and more and they still can't do the basic levitation."

Anna gaped.

"But more of that another time. What I'm saying is, you shouldn't expect perfect results right out of the gate, and neither should I. I apologize for forcing you to try and get yourself out of the concrete." he paused, moving the word 'apologize' around on his tongue. "I should've remembered you're just a young ghost. Not even a day old."

Anna would've blushed, had she not been dead and her veins unable to send blood through to the muscles in her cheeks. "Th- thank you Pitch."

"Here," he said, pulling her out of the wall with a gentle tug of his wrist.

Anna smiled gratefully and brushed her white dress off. "Again, thank you." then she noticed the Nightmare sand ring around each of their wrists. "What's this?" she asked, shaking her wrist. "A friendship bracelet?"

Pitch snorted. "No, Anna. This is not a friendship bracelet." he said, disgust audible in his voice. "This is a sand-chain."

"And it's purpose. . .?" Anna asked quizzically.

"To keep you from falling through walls." Pitch replied. "Go on, go through the wall again and see what happens."

Anna obliged, stepping through the wall to her left- the exact same one she'd previously stepped through, and was pulled back by a yank on Pitch's chain. The invisible cord that connected the two rings pulled her out and she stumbled back, pinwheeling for balance once again.

Once she got her balance she shot the ring on Pitch's wrist a withering look. "So things thing is like a leash?" she said, obviously disliking the set-up. "And I'm the dog, on the leash?"

Pitch shook his head. "No, you're more like the energetic toddler in the swimming pool who likes to jump in an inner-tube and float away. The chain is the strong piece of rope to keep you from floating away that is tied from the toddler's inner-tube to the mother's hand or in this case, mine." he didn't look all too enthusiastic either.

"Great. You just lowered my status from Dog to Toddler."

"This is just a precaution." Pitch said. "If you get into trouble or get stuck in a wall, I can yank you out." he illustrated by yanking on the invisible chain once more.

Anna felt herself get yanked towards him and she pulled against the bonds in the other direction. "I guess it doesn't work both ways?" she asked.

"Nope." Pitch said smugly. "This way I can always keep an eye on you."

Anna rolled her eyes. "OK, dad."

Pitch visibly winced. "I'm trying to help you!" he said peevishly, turning away. "You came to me, remember? If you don't want me to help you master the powers of your afterlife, then I will snap my fingers and you'll be free to float into as many walls as you like!"

Anna rolled her eyes. "You are such a drama-queen." she muttered.

Pitch froze, then he slowly turned around to face her. "Excuse me?"

"You're excused." Anna said without batting an eyelid.

Pitch ground his sharp teeth.

"Oh, and in case you were wondering if I stuttered, I didn't. You. . . are. . . a. . . drama queen." Anna said slowly and clearly.

Pitch was surprised, although he didn't show it. Anna obviously wasn't afraid of him any more, or else she wouldn't be insulting him. Still, he didn't have any comeback for that one.

Anna smirked. "Obviously you don't have a comeback, so I'm going to continue. You are a drama queen and nothing that you say will change that. Not only are you a drama queen, but you're a stubborn and- if I may be frank,"

"Oh yes, feel free to put aside your usual tact." Pitch drawled.

"I will. You're also a bit of a Nightmare's ass."

Again, Pitch had no comment.

"And you're over-protective, and pushy,"

Pitch frowned. "Over-protective?"

Anna smiled. "And worse of all. . ."

Pitch inwardly groaned. Here we go.

"Worse of all. . . you saved my life."

Pitch blinked. The silence was deafening. "Saved your-" he repeated.

"Yes, you saved my life," she said, smiling warmly at him. "despite my already being dead, so I guess you saved my afterlife."

Pitch was completely stunned. Not only was she managing to insult him once again and complimenting him at the same time. . . but he wasn't sure how to respond. Pitch Black had never ever gotten a compliment in his life and it was kind of surprising that he was getting one now.

"Keep your mouth open like that and you'll soon be housing doves." Anna said, smirking.

Pitch closed his mouth with a *snap* and continued to stare at her blankly.

"Aaaaaaand now you're in shock. Great. Fantastic."

Pitch snapped himself out of it and stood silently with his hands clasped behind his back, trying to figure out what he was supposed to say.

Anna evidently was very good at reading expressions because she said, "You don't have to say anything. I understand, Pitch. I really do. And I'm incredibly grateful that you've decided to let me tag along. It's probably going to save your life."

Pitch was still staring at her. On the outside he was completely frozen. On the inside, however, his mind was reeling.

Why was she being so. . . he didn't know the word for it really. She was teasing him, but she wasn't being mean about it, and she was thanking him for helping her and letting her tag along, even though he killed her. And then, when he was trying to help her, she was afraid of him! This girl's mind was completely boggling.

"Anna," he said after a long long while of silence.

"Oh good, so you can speak and what I said hasn't made you swallow your tongue." Anna said snarkily.

Pitch allowed a wry smile to crease his lips. "Yes, I am still capable of human speech Anna."

"Good. Because there is something I should mention and even though you don't need to speak to understand it, it would be a bonus."

Pitch frowned. "What?"

"There's another giant wave of spiders after us."

Pitch whirled around and, sure enough, he saw a giant river of arachnids scuttling, jumping and hissing straight towards him.

"Oh darkness," Pitch said.

"You might wanna use one of those nifty little shadow-portals right about now." Anna suggested mildly.

Pitch snapped is fingers and a patch of darkness made by an overhanging cloth roof of a sidewalk cafe grew larger and larger.

"Some on!" Pitch said, heading towards the portal and in three swift strides he was there, jumping through it.

The sand-chain around her wrist tugged and Anna felt herself being dragged along after the Nightmare King.

"Hurry!" Pitch's voice said from the shadows.

"I'm coming!" Anna shot back and broke into a short run. She was at the shadow-portal and she tentatively stuck her foot inside, then she looked back.

THE SPIDERS WERE GAINING ON THEM!

Suddenly a hand shot out of the portal. A thin grey hand clasped around the ring of sand at her wrist and yanked her through.

"PIIIIIIIIITCH!" Anna yelled as she was pulled through.

Pitch's only reply was, "Next stop, Barcelona!"

XXXXXXXXXXX

And that was what had happened for the next twelve hours. Them jumping from city to city, only to be caught by a river of very angry spiders. Then went to Barcelona, Spain; Munch, Germany; Amritsar, India; several states in the US and even Greenland for a few seconds, but the spiders were there too. Big, hulking wolf-spiders with shaggy coats thick enough to warm a small child.

Finally they ended up in New York City, Chinatown; the spiders there were relentless. They chased them down alley and up man-made hills. They could never stop to breath- not that either of them needed it, and they couldn't rest. Pitch actually needed rest. More than that. His powers were draining and he needed fear to keep himself alive. Honest, real fear.

Of course there was plenty coming off of Anna, but he didn't tap into that. That would be like a slap in the face to her and would completely betray her trust in him.

Pitch ran and ran. Anna kept up and the ring around her wrist helped mightily, keeping her at least a feet behind him at all times.

"Pitch you gotta go faster! They're right behind us!"

Pitch saw the spiders behind them and saw Anna start to lag behind. She was either growing weak, or the ring was.

"ANNA!"

Anna looked up. She was at least twenty feet away!

"PIIIITCH!" she yelled."GOOOO!"

"NO!" he called. "I WON'T LEAVE!"

I won't leave you, he thought.

"PITCH! GET OUT OF HERE!"

Pitch's mind was racing. She was afraid he'd leave her, but she wanted him to go? Was she telling him to save himself?

"PIIIIIIIITCH!" she yelled one last time. The spiders were getting too close to him. She wasn't going to make it! "Pitch NOOOOOOOOOO!"