A/N: WARNING. This chapter is rather dark. If you get scared easily, please do not read.


And if you do read, please tell me what you think of it! Thanks!

Owen looked at Hayley's eyes with an interment with a light on the end of it.

"How are you feeling?" Owen asked Hayley.

"Like I've been attacked by and alien." Jack laughed.

"I see you've taken X-rays." Hayley said.

"Yeah."

"And?" Jack said.

"well, you're lucky. You almost broke your elbow."

"Almost being the operating word?" Jack asked.

"Yeah. You were lucky. And you have a very small fracture on your skull." Owen added. Hayley sat up.

"What are you doing?" Jack asked as they all made to put Hayley back down.

"I'm ok." She said innocently.

"No, you have a fractured skull, your not ok." Jack insisted.

"Theres nothing you can do about it anyway." They all looked dumbfounded at her reaction. She gave a slight smile.

"You wouldn't happen to have any residual cellular energy laying around would you?" She asked. They all looked blank.

"Oh well, I guess I'll have to do it the long way." She sighed a little. She looked at Owen, then Jack, realizing the damage that the alien had made on them. Her slight run of sarcasm left immediately.

"Im sorry." She whispered. Jack pulled her into a hug.

"Its not your fault." He whispered back.


"Ok, lets find out what this thing is." Jack announced, taking charge.

"Tosh-" He said, about to tell her to do something, but she cut in.

"On it."

"How do you know what I was going to say?"

"-I can read your mind." There was a sudden silence. Usually when someone says this people would laugh, but being that rather recently, she was given a necklace by an alien that allowed her to REALLY read their minds, they weren't sure if she was joking or not. She looked at all of them, then cracked a smile.

"Joking." She said. Everyone snickered. She got to work, looking for how the alien got to earth, perhaps through rift activity, and if she was lucky, what the thing was. Though Owen would be mostly looking for that as well, she figured.

"Owen, I want you to look for what this alien is, any clues to how we could help it." Jack said. Tosh smiled to herself. She was right.

"Ianto, help Owen and Tosh." He said.

"Gwen, Hayley, with me."

Jack led Hayley and Gwen down to the cells. He was a few strides in front of Hayley and Gwen. Gwen walked faster and caught up with him.

"Jack what are we doing?"

"Hayley can see the alien, maybe she can communicate with it, find out what it wants, why its here."

"Do you really think thats a good idea? That thing scares her. It attacked her."

"Its the only way to find out exactly why its here. This alien isn't in our database, I know that."

"Then why did you have Owen look for it?"

"Some blind hope. Maybe it is in the archives, but I highly doubt it."

"Well, maybe theres a different way."

"There isn't." There was some silence between them.

"But-"

"-Do you really think I don't want the best for her? Don't you think I know the type of situation we're in? That thing can penetrate our main base. It can get in and out of here as easily as if it waltzed in the front door. If there are more of them out there, then we could be in serious danger. Lets hope not, but we got to find out how much danger Torchwood is in." there was another pause between them.

"Fine, but if she gets too scared, we get her out, ok?" Gwen said.

"Of course."

"Jack, why are we down here?" Hayley asked, a little tentatively.

Jack stopped and turned to her. He knelt down on one knee so he could be at her level.

"Hayley, I need you to talk to this alien, see if you can find out why its here. Can you do that?"

"But what if it gets out?"

"It wont. We have the cell on maximum security. Its trapped." He explained.

"And we will be there with you." Gwen stepped in. Hayley looked at her, then at Jack.
"Ok." She said.

They walked into the cells. They went to the cell that their most recent capture was in. Hayley stood next to Jack. They looked at the cell with the alien in it, only visible to one person in that room. Hayley looked up at Jack. Jack nodded and gave a little smile of reassurance.

"Its ok." He said. Hayley looked at the cage, and took a few small steps closer.

The alien looked at her. Its big threatening eyes looked at Hayley, but she did not turn back. They stood looking at each other for a few moments. All of a sudden, Jack and Gwen heard a loud bang on the glass wall. Hayley jumped back quickly and grabbed jack's hand. The alien had jumped at her, but was blocked by the wall.

"little girl. Pretty little girl. So scared. Scarred. Haha." Hayley stepped toward it again.

"If your going to speak, speak to everyone. Not just inside of my head. Or are YOU too scared?" Hayley said, with a surprising amount of strength and intention. There was a few seconds of silence.

"oh. Pretty little girl got courage." The voice seemed to echo around the cells. Jack and Gwen looked around. To them, it seemed to come out of no where.

"Tosh, are you getting this?" Gwen whispered into her communication system.

"Yeah, we can hear it. I'm recording it as well." Tosh said back.

"Thats better." Hayley said.

"Now we can speak as civil beings." She said. This seemed to get it a little angry.

"We are not civil beings. You have imprisoned me! We are not equals." It scowled.

"Oh? You are the one who engaged first. You are the one who attacked first. Who entered here without authority."

"I have authority." It scowled.

"By who!" Hayley got louder.

"By the Daleks!" It yelled. Jack's stomach turned over.

"The what?" She asked. Jack did not say anything.

"haha. The little one does not know of them? But surely the man does. Oh yes. I sense his fear. Oh yes. Oh yes." It said.

"But do not worry. Yet. For they are long far. Yes. They are long far away. They will not be coming yet. Oh no. I have what they want." Hayley did not let it scare her. She didn't even know what the thing it mentioned even was.

"And what is that? What do you have?"

"I have conformation. I have information on what they want."

"And what information do you have?"

"I have information on the species. The one they want. The being that does not know how to bring them to an end and yet could. The one who can win over the mythical other being. The only one they fear. A storm is coming. The on-comming storm." It laughed. Jack had a look on his face that neither Hayley, nor Gwen had seen. It was fear, and excitement, and more.

Hayley decided to pursue.

"Why did you come here? What are you?" Hayley asked.

"My name is Bodmuth Dernster Ene. I am the monster under your bed. I feed off of your dreams, leaving you with your worst nightmares, then I feed off those too. Your fear." It laughed.

"little girl. The little girl has such unique dreams. So colorful. So different. So tasty." Hayley drew a breath in.

"And when they are left with nothing but fear and nightmares, they die, and I feed off the energy." It laughed again.

"Why cant we see you? Why can only Hayley see you?" Gwen asked.

"Only children can see me. They are the only ones whose eyes are open. Whose minds are not closed off. Blocked. And I can hide under the children's beds without being disturbed. When adults look under their kids beds, they see nothing. They are corrupted with the veil they call reality, but the veil blocks off so much. So much." It laughed again.

"Oh." Hayley said to herself.

"What?" Gwen asked.

"It feeds off children, only children. It is the monster under the bed. Which means, its been killing children." She explained.

"Oh no, I do not kill them all the way." It said.

"What?"

"Just until I get enough energy. Just until they are left with only nightmares. And everything else, except their nightmares is not real. And sometimes I get the rest of the energy after they decide to leave for good."

"You mean if they kill themselves?"

"Yes. I do not get my hands dirty."

"You are filthy" Gwen said. She practicly spat the words at it.

"What species are you?" Hayley asked.

"I am a Minghtare."

"Are there any more of you?" Jack asked, finally talking.

"Oh yes."

"Are they here?" The Minghtare didn't answer.

"Are they here?!" Jack asked louder, coming closer to the cage.

"Answer me!" He yelled. The Minghtare laughed. A great booming laugh that sent fear through everyone. A moment of great tension.

"they are not here." It said to Hayley, in her mind, thus keeping the tension and fear in the room.