Hey guys, glad to see you again! I know, I know I haven't been updating this one as much as I should, but I promise that once I get the Boogeyman over with, I'll focus on my other stories. Writer's word of honor, no virtually crossed fingers.

Oh, now I have to do that whole disclaimer deal. Yeah, yeah, I don't own Rotg. You have to rub it in?


"Ok, try again." Pitch said after the fifth time Anna hadn't been able to get out of a wall.

"Ugh! This is so hard!" she whined. The front of her head was poking out like a party mask on the wall and the rest of her was inside the wall.

"I know, but soon you'll be able to do it in no time." Pitch said encouragingly. "Think how well your flying has improved!"

Anna rolled her eyes. "Just pull me out. I need a break." she muttered.


Mwuhahahah! I bet you guys thought that I would go straight to Tooth again, Eh?

Well, I would, but I've kind of lost my train of thought for that piece. I swear I'll have the next chapter of Tooth in the vision by the end of the week.


Pitch sighed and nodded, yanking on the cord of Nightmare sand that he had made reappear around her wrist after the first cord was broken. Anna gave a yelp as she was pulled out of the wall and came stumbling towards him. He put out a hand and gently stopped her and she nodded grateful before flopping down on his cot.

"Man this is hard work!" she said, absentmindedly fiddling with a piece of metal. Pitch nodded and sat down beside her.

"Anna, being dead isn't all sunshine and rainbows." Pitch said, smiling. "It's actually a lot of work. Trust me, I've met plenty of dead. Just because you've got an abnormally fast access to your powers, doesn't mean you can use them all correctly. I'm still wondering how you can do that, by the way." he added, turning to look at her.

She slugged him gently on the arm and smirked. "Hey, I'm just that amazing." she said, waving her hand dramatically.

After learning the extent of her powers, Pitch had decided to keep his promise of teaching Anna how to control her powers. She had shown a measurably good skill with flying, but her ability to phase through walls and use her own energy to affect physical things around her was slight at best and often resulted in getting her hands stuck in wrenches or bolts she'd tried to pick up. Luckily, Pitch knew how to get them out and had helped her whenever she'd needed it by using Nightmare sand to phase through her hand and yank them out.

In this way and, using several trials, they had learned that Anna's solidity had limits. She seemed to only be able to touch Pitch and certain objects around her, objects she'd touched in her life. This severely limited her mobility, but she managed. Pitch had explained to her about the deathly laws, the laws set down by the Grim Reaper that all ghosts had to follow, one of them being you can only touch spirits and things you touched in life. The same rule applied to ground you've stepped on, seats you've sat in, etc etc. It was a weird law, but a useful one. It meant that Anna, instead of using all of her energy to fly, could walk around her house without sinking into the ground, like she did when she tried to go anywhere she hadn't in life.

First, they'd practiced her flying. Pitch had automatically seen her talent and they'd swiftly moved on to haunting, the ability to focus your energy and manipulate your surroundings. This was a skill Pitch excelled at, but Anna failed quite miserably at. Pitch had told her good job and that they would try again later, and now they were working on the powers of phasing and teleporting. Apparently, the fancy pop-up job Anna had done had taken all the week Pitch had been out to prepare and she was getting slowly better. Very, very slowly.

"So," Anna said, turning to look at him. "How many powers do I have?"

Pitch shrugged. "I have no idea. Most ghosts have a few powers and drift from place to place, forgetting who they are and what they were brought here to do. I've heard of a couple that have more powers than the normal flying and Haunting, like the glowing and the spooking, but I really don't know for certain."

Ana smiled. "I can't wait to spook some poor mortal." she said, rubbing her hands together.

"Human." Pitch corrected. "There's a difference."

Anna shrugged and slugged him on the arm again. "So, genius," she said while Pitch was rubbing his arm and wincing. She hit hard! "What are we going to do once you have your strength back? I don't think your caves are an option."

Pitch shrugged. "I don't know that either." he admitted. "but yes, the caves are out of the question. And it will take some time for me to regain my powers, so I suggest we focus on you for the time being."

Anna moaned. "Blah." she said. "I'm tired, Pitch!"

Pitch gave her a look. "Anna, being tired is a faculty for the living." he said firmly. "Just like sleeping and eating and breathing. You'll soon get over it. And then I won't have a minute's rest." Pitch muttered under his breath.

"Say that again?" Anna asked sweetly.

"I said, and then you'll be the best!" Pitch said without missing a beat. He smiled at her. It was a gentle, proud and slightly parental smile. "Really Anna, you're doing fine." he said, putting an arm around her. "Much better than I would've hoped. We just have to get that Haunting up and running and get you properly phasing. You'll be a great ghost."

"And then I can help you I case the Guardians find you and try to hurt you!" Anna said happily, jabbing at the air with her right fist. "Ha! Hya! I'll knock their lights out!"

Pitch turned to her and said, in a voice of deathly calm, "Anna, I don't want you going near those Guardians. They're thick-headed fools and, if they see a ghost with me they'll jump to the conclusion that Grim is helping me, which he is. Then they'll start fighting among themselves and I won't get a chance to clear my name. In short, if they do come looking for me, I want you to fade, run, or do anything you can to make sure they don't see you. Don't talk to them or fight them or anything. North may be Santa Clause, but he's probably dispatched more ghosts in his day than cookies."

Anna listened to this little speech silently. Then, when he was done, she nodded solemnly. "I promise." she said.

Pitch nodded. "Good."

"But if they capture you, I will come and get you out." she said firmly and Pitch didn't argue. If the Guardians did catch him, there wouldn't be time for Anna to break him out.

XXXXXXXXX

Several hours later, Pitch had allowed Anna to stop for the day and Anna had allowed Pitch to follow her upstairs for a bit. The stuffy garage/basement was not ideal living conditions and Pitch needed fear to keep himself alive, so Anna had said they could wait until dark, then go out to the houses of certain children who had teased her in school because of her condition and because of how weak she was.

One girl had even hit her and Anna had spent a year in the hospital because of it. Her parents had tried to get the child put in juvenile hall for her assault, but the girl had been ten years old and from a richy family who was friends with the judge who tried the case. Nothing had happened and eight-year-old Anna had lived in a hospital, not knowing if she would live or die, for a eleven months until her parents had been allowed to take her home. Needless to say, Pitch had not been pleased when he'd found this out.

"You mean this girl," Pitch said slowly as they both hovered over the bed of Elisha Martino, the perpetrator of Anna's injury all those years ago, "this fifteen and a half year old girl, beat you up when you were eight years old?!" He was seething and almost itching to release a powerful nightmare on this girl as soon as possible.

"I was eight, she was ten." Anna said, staring down at the sleeping Elisha. She had black hair that was greasy and tangled from tossing and turning in her sleep.

"Still, two years." Pitch said, looking at the child with disgust. "She was two years older than you and you had a life-threatening heart condition!"

"It wasn't life-threatening until a year ago and all she did was knock me around a bit." Anna said dismissively. "Now can we get to the Haunting? I'm getting antsy being out in the open like this."

Pitch nodded, making a mental note to ask her about this later. From how passionately her parents had argued her case, it had been much more than being knocked around a bit. "Alright." he said, summoning a handful of nightmare sand and giving the girl a quick nightmare that would leave her sweating and wishing she could call for her mommy and daddy, but she would be unable to open her door or call to anyone. He would give her the worst nightmare any human girl ever had. The one where you couldn't wake up, because you're already awake.

He started with something small, the girl's fear of heights. A completely irrational fear, in his opinion. Now, the fear of falling, that was something different altogether. That was a sane and sensible fear that should be encouraged. First he had her falling from a cliff, keeping her falling just long enough to freak her out but not to kill her. He'd learned his lesson about killing children, though technically this girl was not a child anymore, being over thirteen.

After she fell, he escalated her fear into a near-panic. She was screaming in her sleep and, just as he senses she was about to reach her breaking point, he snapped his fingers and the girl sat bolt-upright in bed, screaming with her eyes wide open. She screamed for a while and, when she finally realized that it was nothing more than a Nightmare, she let out a relieved sigh and said those exact words. "Whew. Just a stupid Nightmare." and then fell back against her black pillow.

Pitch smiled evilly and raised his hand for a count down. Five, four, three, two, one. "You're cue." he said. "Show me your best."

Anna smiled evilly and let out a bone-chilling wail, then a low moan. "Eliiiiiiii-shhhhhaaaaa!" Anna moaned, allowing herself to drift over to Elisha's bed and bend down until she was right in her ear.

Pitch sniggered as the girl sat bolt-upright again and stared where Anna was floating an inch above the floor. She still couldn't see her, because Anna hadn't allowed herself to be come visible yet.

"W- who's there?" Elisha said in a squeaky voice, clutching the covers.

"Meeee, Eliiiiiiiishaaaaa." Anna moaned, floating over to the foot of Elisha's bed, jumping up and sitting down on it with her legs crossed. She smiled and waved her hand. The shutters that were open and letting the moonlight shut with a sharp crack and the girl scurried back under her covers with a shrill, "Go away!" hysteria laced her words and Pitch found himself silently applauding.

"Oh, but I can't go away." Anna said, smirking. Her young face was beginning to deteriorate. Whither by her own efforts or from tiredness, Pitch wasn't sure. Bits of skin were floating off her cheeks, revealing bone and flesh beneath. "Not just yet. Eliiiiiiii-shaaaaa, Eliiiiiiii-shaaaaaaaaaa!"

Elisha started to cry. "W- w- who are you? W-what do you want?!"

"Look at me, Elishaaaaa." Anna said, nudging her with her foot slightly.

Elisha peeked over her covers and, when she saw a young girl, about eight years old in a pair of ragged jeans and a baggy green sweatshirt sitting cross-legged on the edge of her bed and giving her a cold look, she found herself unable to breath. Terror crept up her throat and she just stared dumbly at the girl. Her eyes were blackened severely and her face was pale. She did not look happy, and yet she was smiling. No, not smiling Elisha realized. Grinning. Her eyes widened and she gulped. Oh god, this was a ghost!

"Ah, so you see me." Anna said, affecting a spooky voice that certainly did not belong to a little girl, but Pitch could see it was working from the shaking of Elisha's shoulders. It was good work so far, something definitely worthy of a disciple of the Nightmare King. The deteriorating skin was especially good. Pitch decided to take a seat on the girl's swivel-chair and watch more closely.

The girl nodded slowly. She was obviously petrified. Pitch could hear her fearful thoughts whirling around in her head. Is she going to kill me? Is she going to hurt me? Who is she?

"Good." Anna said, making him pull out of the girl's mind and focus back on what was currently happening. "Now, sit up!" with her words, Anna waved her hands and the girl's covers were yanked off of her and thrown to the floor. Underneath, she wore a baggy T shirt and a pair of fuzzy pajama bottoms with an orange cat all over them. Pitch snorted. The girl was a typical teenager.

"Please," Elisha said, staring at her with wide, terrified eyes. Pitch could smell the intoxicating fear coming off of her in waves and he ate it up, steadily at first, then ravenously. He hadn't tasted proper fear in a long time and he had to move back a little bit to keep himself from going overboard. "Please, whoever you are, little girl, please leave me alone!" she whispered.

"Now, Elisha, why would I do that?" Anna asked, allowing her form to flicker. Nice touch, Pitch thought as he felt the girl's fear crank up a notch. Pitch smiled and allowed himself to tap into her fear, diverting it to him and returning some of his strength. The girl's fear was sky-rocketing with each word Anna spoke and she must've sensed this, because her next words sent the girl's fear down a few notches to be replaced by confusion. Pitch rolled his eyes. He knew that Anna had to keep her fear on an even level, just to make sure she didn't die, but in all honesty, he didn't care if she did die of fright. She deserved it for what she'd done to Anna.

"We used to be such good friends!" Anna said, leaning forward with an innocent smile on her face.

"F-friends?" Elisha repeated, looking confused for a second. Her fat face scrunched together and she pursed her lips. "I d-don't-"

"You remember." Anna said, detaching her normal form for a second and leaving the child staring at Elisha coldly to glance at Pitch. "Your cue, Booger. Give her a quick Nightmare about me!"

Pitch folded his arms. Apart from being called 'booger' he didn't have the power to attempt that kind of nightmare crafting yet. Plus the obvious problem. "She's awake. I can't." He stated plainly.

Anna rolled her eyes. "Thanks for leaving me high and dry here, jerk." she muttered, then she pushed herself back into her glamor-body. "Cast your mind back," she said, speaking to Elisha. "To when we both were children." she leaned closer to the terrified girl. "Remember this face, this hair, this smile, these clothes." she paused and put a hand on her own heart, pushing through her glamor's skin and pulling out a weakly beating human heart. It glowed softly and with each beat, the heart glowed less brightly. "Remember this heart that you nearly made stop."

Pitch folded his arms. He had to admit, he was severely impressed. Not only was she inspiring fear in this girl, but she was doing it with class and style. The little details like her greasy hair and bruised eyes were good too. Anna was definitely making the most out of being a ghost.

"I- I don't remember you! I'm sorry!" Elisha begged, putting her hands together in case it would placate the angry spirit of the little girl. "Please, tell me! Who are you and what do you want with me?"

"My name is Illana, Elisha." Anna said, smiling evilly, showing sharp teeth. "And the only thing I want from you is your fantastic, delicious FEAR!" she howled the last word like a primordial beast and lunged for the girl, but the girl dove for the other side of the bed and fell to the ground in a terrified heap. She scrambled for the door and Pitch switched the lock with a lazy flick of his nightmare sand. Elisha hammered on the door and screamed, but Pitch had protected her room to keep the sound silent and her parents away and not spoil the fun.

"They can't help you," Anna said, floating above the floor and over the bed until she was on the same side, staring straight at Elisha. "No one can help you, Elisha. Just like no one helped me when you hurt me."

Elisha turned around and backed herself up against the wall. "Please, don't hurt me Illana!" she begged, utterly petrified by the angry ghost who had her at her mercy. "Please! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to give you those black eyes! I was a kid, a stupid bully! I won't ever do it again!"

Pitch's eyes widened. "You mean she really gave you those black eyes?" he demanded, standing up and glaring at the teenager sniveling and cowering against the door.

"Yep. And a couple of broken ribs and a bruised sternum, according to the doctor." Anna said, peeling out again and staring at him. "It hurt like hell and we were very lucky the ribs didn't puncture anything.

Pitch felt his eyes blaze and his body quivering with indignation. "And they just let this girl get away with it?!" he spat, glaring down at her. How could this be?! Didn't people try to protect young children from abuse like that?!

"Oh yeah. Human justice sucks." Anna said, then she slipped back into her glamor-body and bent down until she was on level with Elisha. "Elisha, you hurt me. You could've killed me."

"I didn't mean to!" she sniveled.

"I know, but you did. I spent a year of my life in a hospital because of you, and I could do the same-"

"Uh, no, actually. You can't physically hurt her." Pitch interrupted, then he realized that he was defending Anna's attacker and he said quickly, "But you can scare her as much as you like."

Anna's head rotated until her face was sticking out of the greasy hair of her eight-year-old self. "Shut up!" she hissed, then she rotated her head again until she was back in her glamor-body. "-to you." Elisha's eyes went wide and she opened her mouth again to beg, but Anna cut her off before she'd even spoke a syllable. "I could," she said, leaning close. "But I won't."

At first, Elisha's face had confusion written on it. Then, as understanding filtered in that she wasn't going to die, her blotchy face broke into a relieved smile. Pitch could still see that she was terrified, but at least she thought she was going to live. "Oh thank you! Thank you!" Elisha said. Pitch could hear her fears slowly dissipating as she realized that she wasn't going to die.

Pity, he thought snidely.

Anna stared at the girl coldly, without pity in her eyes. "But, if I am to leave you in peace, there is one thing you must do for me." she said.

"N-name it!" Elisha said, obviously relieved to be spared but still apprehensive about the ghost's last wishes. Pitch could feel her fears returning to cloud her mind like so many butterflies. He leaned in, wondering what her play was. They hadn't discussed this on the flight over.

"I want you. . ." Anna began, smiling her horrid smile again, to make sure Elisha got the message. "To go to my funeral. I want you to tell my parents how sorry you are, and I want you to mean it." she said, emphasizing her words by turning down the temperature drastically. "I want your parents to donate five thousand dollars to pay for my funeral and if they don't, if you don't," Anna backed her up against the door again and leaned in until they were nose to nose. "I... will... be... BACK!" Pitch saw that Anna was creating insects in her mouth and allowing them to crawl out of her mouth, making insect noises and crawling around like you'd find in a corpse.

"I'll do it! I'll do it, I swear!" Elisha said, closing her eyes and turning her head away, shuddering at the corpse-like ghost that was now in front of her. The fear was back and it was more plentiful than ever. Pitch could feel it, coursing through her veins and he walked almost as close as Anna to feed on it like an emotional vampire.

Anna pulled her head away from the girl's face and said, "Remember, five thousand dollars." Then she must've had another thought because her eyes brightened and she leaned in again, this time putting her hand out and bracing her arm against the door. "And I want you to say something at my funeral. Something about me. Something kind."

Elisha squeezed her eyes shut again and turned her face to the side, disgusted and terrified of the insects in the girl's rotten mouth. "Whatever you want! I promise!" she squeaked.

Anna nodded and pulled back. "Good. Because if you don't, I'm going to haunt your family line for as long at it exists. And Elisha," she said, catching Elisha's slowly opening eyes as she turned to go. "I do mean it."

Elisha bobbed her head up and down furiously. "I understand. I'll get them to give your parents the money. I swear on my grave!" then she winced. "Oh, sorry." she said, almost apologetically.

"Swear on my grave instead," Anna said, laughing and fading into the wall backwards. "I'll be watching. Oh, and Elisha. . . this is our little secret."

Elisha nodded furiously again and the last thing she saw of the little girl was a finger against her lips and a pair of shining child's eyes, daring her to disobey. When the ghost left, Elisha immediately turned around and flung the door open with a strangled cry, taking off down the stairs and Pitch heard the sounds of tripping, stumbling and screaming as the girl fell down the stairs to the main house and to the light.

Pitch watched her run and smiled as Anna came flying back into the room. "Oh my gosh, that was great!" she chortled.

"I have to agree, that was rather good." Pitch said. "I enjoyed the bugs on your breath."

Anna turned a loop-d-loop in the air. "Yep! I remembered that from the live action Grinch Stole Christmas and decided to do it because I thought it would be cool." She smiled. "And I thought it would scare the living daylights out of her." she said. "Speaking of which, how are you feeling?" she asked, punching him on the shoulder lightly.

"Better than ever." Pitch said honestly. "You did an excellent job."

Anna beamed and Pitch noticed she was glowing slightly. "Um, Anna? You're Bio-luminescence is showing." Pitch said.

Anna gasped and looked down. "It is?" then she realized Pitch was just telling her she was glowing and she looked up at him, giving him a glare. "Oh you." she said, giving him another punch. "Not funny."

"It was from my perspective." Pitch said, chuckling. "Now, let's get out of here. I really don't want to run into Sanderson or any of the other spirits that pay nightly visits to the children of the world.

"OK." she said, nodding. Was it Pitch's imagination or was she floating a little closer to the ground than normal? "That Haunting actually wore me out." And so saying, she fell to the floor, out cold.

Pitch just stood there, staring at the unconscious ghost for about ten seconds, then he snapped into action. He ran over to her side and dropped to his knees. "Anna?" he said, grabbing her shoulder and shaking her frantically. "Anna!"

Anna didn't respond and Pitch tried to shake her awake again, but with no success. He rolled his eyes. "OK, maybe I was wrong." he admitted through gritted teeth. "Ghosts can get tired." he sighed and looked down at her. Her mouth was open and rather loud snored were coming from it. He smirked and closed her mouth with a thin, gray hand. Her mouth just flopped back open again and the snores continued. Pitch rolled his eyes.

"Am I seriously going to have to carry her all the way back to my lair?" he asked the ceiling, staring up as if there were some kind of vast cosmic force that could provide an answer for him. There was, but he wasn't feeling particularly talkative this night.

Pitch recognized the silence as by way of an answer and e groaned, muttered several cursed, then, with a momentous effort, pushed his hands beneath Anna's body and picked her up slowly and steadily. For a ghost, she was heavy!

When he straightened up he glared at her sleeping face and momentarily thought about dropping her, just to see what would happen- this was the Fearlings in him talking, of course. Anyone with a doctorate of physics, or who has just read the Everlost series, knows that if you take a ghost and drop it from even a small height, then can sink all the way to the bottom of the earth. Not pleasant. -but in the instant he thought this Anna opened one eye and blearily said, "Daddy."

Pitch's heart melted like butter and, with a silent growl that she was going to owe him for this, headed back to her house with the sleeping ghost in his arms.