(2 weeks earlier...)

Billy twisted and turned in his bed, frantically moaning and whispering 'No' over and over in his disturbed sleep. After a while, he woke up with a loud scream and jolted up in bed, panting wildly and gazing around his dark room with fear. He clutched his bedsheets and pulled them up to his chin, shivering with fear. His shock all but increased tenfold when he heard his bedroom door creaking open.

"W-who's t-there?!" He gasped.

"It's just me, Billy."

It was Grim.

"Grim! I-I'm s-scared!" Billy whined.

"I know, I could tell," Grim closed the door behind him and went over to the trembling child, sitting down beside him: "Were you having nightmares?"

Billy nodded and sniffled, his eyes filling with tears: "I-I h-had a horrible d-dream!"

"Do you want to talk about it?" Grim asked gently.

"I...I saw this big scary monster...H-He was so scary! A-And he b-broke into my house a-and k-killed mom and dad! A-And I c-couldn't stop him!" Billy broke down crying, sobbing as the dream was still so vivid in his mind.

"Oh come now Billy, it was only a dream," Grim pulled the boy into a hug and patted his mess of orange hair comfortingly.

"I-I k-know but...it-it looked so r-real!" Billy cried.

"Well, that's what nightmares look like," said Grim: "But they're still just dreams, and once you wake up its all over."

"Y-you won't let a-anyone like t-that hurt us, right?" Billy asked.

"Of course not, child," said Grim: "I'm not the grim reaper for nothing, you know."

"Thanks Grim...you're the best!" Billy squeezed him into a tight hug, grateful that he had such a good friend to keep him safe.

"Don't mention it," Grim was beginning to get shy: "Here, why don't you try going to sleep?"

"But-but what if I have nightmares again?!" Billy asked fearfully.

"Well then, how about I tell you a story?" Grim suggested.

Instantly, the boy's mood changed to one of utter excitement.

"Ooh! A story! Okay!" Billy clapped his hands joyfully.

Now Billy lay in his bed, a deafening silence filling his room. He stared blankly up at the roof, sometimes hearing the occasional sleepy mew from Milkshakes in its basket.

"Oh Grim...where are you? Did you really do all those things to hurt us? You were such a good friend!" he murmured.

Turning around on his side, he gazed sadly at the numerous self-made crayon drawings that plastered the walls. Each one depicted him and Grim, and occasionally Mandy, playing with eachother, holding hands and skipping together, happy with their precious friendship...

And now it was broken, just like his heart.

Unable to bear the pain any longer, poor Billy burst out crying, sobbing unhappily into his pillow. How he wished things would be the way they were! If only there was someway things could return to normal!

"Grim..." he whispered: "Please...please be my bestfriend again!"

As soon as the first light of dawn broke through the blood red skies of the Underworld, Boogey immediately began plotting that day's torture session for his 'dear friend'. And soon, he had come up with an excellent idea.

Flicking the secret switch on the wall behind one of the paintings, the door to Grim's cell slid open and he went inside. The reaper hadn't slept at all. He lay defeated and broken on the ground, his arms chained above his head. By the looks of it, he had been crying.

"Aawww, hey there Grimmy," Boogey cooed: "What's the matter?"

Grim refused to give him the satisfaction, but Boogey grabbed his chin and forced him to look at him.

"Don't tell me you were crying?!" he asked with mock shock: "How awful! Are you missing your friends that much?"

"What's it to you?" Grim mumbled.

"Oh it's everything to me! You see I control you, and I need to know just how badly you're suffering!"

Grim shot his captor a murderous glare, but Boogey just sneered.

"You know, it's not fair on those two for me to get all the fun. I've come up with a plan...You see, thanks to the fact that your body is detachable, I am going to lend some of your parts to Jack and Nergal for them to be able to torture you as much as they please!" the demon burst out laughing as Grim clenched his teeth with rage.

"How dare you reduce me to a mere puppet?!" he spat.

"Oh I'm sorry, where you ever anything more than just a 'mere puppet'? My bad, sorry," Boogey cackled.

After the arrangements had been made, Boogey unleashed Jack and Nergal on Grim to do with him as they pleased. Well, some things could be better off left unsaid...But in short, Jack took both his feet and his pelvic girdle to subject them to teasing torture, which appeared to be his speciality. After playing with them himself, he finally gave them to the Jabberwockies to lick and suck on.

Nergal on the other hand, went for the painful aspect. He took his arms and ribcage and tortured them beyond hope. He dipped them in hot wax, singed them over the fire, froze them in the ice for two hours, whipped them raw, electrified them until they were black, and scraped the marrow off with a sharp knife.

Meanwhile, Boogey had his own fun. He had reserved the honour of keeping Grim's head, which he gagged to stop the screaming and hooked up to a screen to watch all of his memories, whether they were depressing, humiliating, happy or personal. He watched him being ridiculed in front of his classmates, scolded by his mother, shunned by his father, humiliated by his bullies, and of course, abused by Billy and Mandy, in the playful sense of the word of course.

But there was another, a personal memory, one which involved a pretty young girl with long, inky black hair and glasses. Curious about her, Boogey flicked through Grim's personal thoughts and found that she was quite the main figure in his mind!

"Interesting...is this your love interest?" He asked, more to himself since Grim couldn't speak: "I like her...I think I'll have her for myself..."

Dusk was claiming the sky, and people were returning home after a long day. But Francesca just sat there on one of the benches in the park, staring gloomily at her knees. She missed Grim so much, if only they could make things right again!

Suddenly, she saw the long dark shadow of a creature approaching her on the ground. Raising her head, she saw a green demon, from the Underworld no doubt. At first she just stared at him, then asked: "Who are you?"