"Hello, hello? Anybody out there? Cause I don't hear a sound. Alone, alone... I don't really know where the world is but I miss it now..."

So hi, I'm here again. Alive and well. You probably thought that I had stopped writing this already, I don't blame you, I myself thought that too... until I noticed a small message on my inbox two days ago. Someone had commented on this forgotten work and it made me almost laugh. But then it made me also kinda sad. I had stopped writing this because it had become harder and harder to believe when the snow had melted and the countless tests and exams had eaten my free time. But now I've decided that I want to give you something more and that I won't stop here. You deserve to hear the rest of the story and even if I don't know how long that will take, I hope you'll have patience and stick around. Brace yourselves, the summer vacation is coming... which means more free time and that means more chapters. I started writing this last summer, I might as well end this on this summer... who knows? Thank you for reading my story, whoever you are, I love you. ;)

The first thing I noticed was that I was crying, even though I had tried so hard not to do that earlier. The tears in my eyes had spilled over and it made me angry. My hands were shaking and clinging onto something very hard, but I couldn´t focus my thoughts enough to care. I couldn´t get up. My father´s words were still echoing in my head and breathing felt almost impossible. What I had seen hadn´t been a nightmare, I´d have given almost anything so it would have been just that.

Instead, it had been a memory.

I remembered that night really well. It happened some time after I had turned eleven. My mother had once again sent me to my room when she had felt that the conversation between her and father was starting to turn too heated. It was a precaution she had used many times. Such a silly and small thing to do really, but she had probably hoped that my father wouldn´t bother dragging me all the way from my room. She had seriously thought that it would help, and I couldn´t blame her, it had worked so many times before.

I had no idea about the reason they were shouting to each other that time, I usually didn´t, but it seemed like mom had once again crossed the invisible line my father had drawn in his mind.

And because of that I couldn´t go to school for the next day.

I couldn´t go to school for a week.

And what did they say to the teachers?

"She's sick."

It had been the first time he hadn´t really even cared if other people would see what he had done to me. He had been blinded by his meaningless anger, his crazy need to control us. All that mattered to him was that my mother would see everything clearly and remembered so not to talk back to him. And the worst thing was that it had worked. Even now she would remember that lesson when she'd look at my face.

I let my right hand ease its grip from whatever it was holding and raised it just above my left eye. There, in the corner of my brow, I could feel a narrow, almost invisible scar. It was faint and nearly impossible to see from a distance, but my mother had always noticed it.

Always.

That was one of the reasons I usually hid my face behind my hair.

I knew that she had tried to hide it from me, but even if it was just for a mere second, her pained expression hurt me too. We never spoke about it, we didn´t have to... and we didn´t really want to either. It was much easier to pretend that nothing had happened.

I had almost forgotten this mark my old life had left in me…

Even if the scar was almost invisible, it would always be a part of me, I couldn´t wash it away or pretend that it wasn´t there any longer. There was no way for me to run from the life I had tried to escape.

I felt the anger rise in my mind. I had been so happy and proud when I had defeated just a little nightmare. It had been just a dream. How arrogant it had been to think that nothing could come into my way after that.

In reality I had been just a kitten who had thought she´d became a lion.

But that wasn´t what hurt me the most.

After all this... my fear for him was still alive, I was still afraid of him…

I sat there for while and waited until I could breathe normally again, and when my hands had stopped shaking I finally turned my eyes to see what I had been squeezing.

I gasped from realisation and jumped up.

I looked at the wrinkles I had made on Pitch´s cape and stumbled a couple steps further away from him. My cheeks were still wet from tears when I turned to look at his face, but I couldn´t meet his eyes. He didn´t look at me either. He gave me the time to pull myself together, but his expression didn´t show any emotions.

There was no way I could have told what he was thinking.

I wiped my tears quickly to my sleeve and prepared to face his look.

He sighed.

"Don´t be ashamed, Lilith. I know that fear is a strong emotion, even an overwhelming force. You can not escape it, just like you can´t escape those memories you hold from your life before. You also can´t choose not to be afraid, for feeling fear is a part of your existence. You are bound to that rule. However... I am sorry that I used your fear. "

I faced his golden eyes. Once again I could see the sorrow and pain he had within him.

He said that he was sorry, but now I felt something else awakening in me. It was a doubt, it was a warning, it was something that I had felt right away when I had met him for the first time too.

"You did that? You showed me that memory?", I whispered and backed away from him. "Why?"

Pitch´s voice was emotionless: "Like I told you, fear is powerful. I needed to stop your powers from getting the hold of you... and I did. "

Even though the distance between us was slowly growing wider and wider I still felt that I should get further away from him. My feet kept moving but I wasn´t really the one making those commands. I didn't even know who was controlling my movements at that moment. I shouldn´t be here…, I heard my own voice in my mind. This was crazy.

"You used fears... against me? How is that even possible? You said that fear is part of my existence… that I am bound to it… But yet you used the fear within me yourself. Aren´t you bound to your fears as well, like me?", I asked, trying to understand his words.

To my surprise Pitch chuckled to my question. It seemed to amuse him.

"I am, yes. But unlike you, I´m not just bound to them." Pitch said and looked at the shadows the cages threw on the walls. I looked at them too and he smiled almost sadly. I saw how the shadows moved, how they lurked slowly nearer Pitch, longing to get closer to him.

He looked at me again.

"Child, Can´t you see? I am the fear itself. I am not just one with the shadows but the one who makes them… The Nightmare king. "

I couldn´t say anything. I could not think any words powerful enough.

Except "You´ve gone crazy. Go see a doctor." of course.

Yes, I could have said that... but I didn´t dare to. The things I had seen so far, the miracles Pitch had told me about and the way my senses responded to him, giving me louder warnings by every second my eyes met his, convinced me that he wasn´t lying. All this, plus the fact that I had tamed the wind, something no one had ever done... What wasn´t possible in this world anymore?

Why would he lie to me…? And in the other hand... why wouldn't he? Everything felt twisted and wrong, nothing made sense anymore.

I felt how a silent unbelieving chuckle rose from my throat and cracked the wall of silence between us for a moment. I couldn´t stop staring.

My saviour was the King of the Nightmares. He had caused pain and fear to people.

Even to me. I knew for sure that he had created my nightmare in the woods and showed me my father, that he had brought one of my memories back to haunt me. And if he truly was the king who ruled the nightmares… there was the possibility, no, the certainty that he had also given them all to me. I wanted to scream.

Was it because of frustration or fear? I did not know.

Hadn´t it been enough that I knew what fear was? Why did I also have to know who it was?!

Oh, The Guardians had indeed been either really brave or really dumb... they had hunted the fear itself.

Pitch took my sudden silence as horror.

"Was this too soon? Are you frightened of me?", he asked with a wide smile as he tilted his head, and something in his voice made it almost sound like he was daring me to deny it. I would have gladly done so, said that nothing had changed and that I saw him just like before, maybe even added something cheeky after that... But my chuckle was still the only voice I had let out after his reveal. My lips didn´t let any other words come out, they didn´t allow me to lie.

Even so, a one childish question slipped daringly past them:

"Did you steal my dreams?", I blurted out.

Pitch looked at me for a moment in full astonishment and after a couple seconds he bursted into a loud laughter:

"So you think that I stole your dreams?", he said with a wide amused smile "Oh you silly girl, how does one steal something that´s not there? You didn´t have any dreams full of beauty and wonder for me to twist or steal. You had absolutely nothing. Even I myself was surprised. Such a lovely case to hold even the most wondrous dreams, but even so, your mind remained empty."

"So you thought that giving me nightmares would be better than letting me see my empty dreams?!", I shouted furiously. Maybe he hadn´t stole anything from me but I still couldn´t understand his actions.

I felt betrayed.

My anger seemed to surprise Pitch and his smile died out completely. His expression was now made of stone, it was cold and lifeless. Like this he indeed looked like the Nightmare king he was. He could have stepped right from a storybook before me, his page surely the darkest in the whole book, filled completely with the black and grey crayon colour.

"You don´t know what it is like...", he started, but then he quickly stopped and tried again…

"I saw you when the others didn´t even know you excisted. What should I have done?! I wanted- I needed to do something, anything! So yes, I gave you nightmares, the only thing I had to trade. I knew that you couldn´t be fixed with fear alone… but if you had only seen me…", he spoke between his teeth.

I saw that he was struggling to find the words he was looking for and after a while he gave up. His face was turned down almost like he would have been the one who was hurt. His hand hid his golden eyes. Then I heard another bitter chuckle from him.

"It doesn´t really matter does it… " he said and smiled wryly.

"You must hate me now, don´t you? I must seem like a monster. Did your parents perhaps tell you about me? Did they warn you about the terrifying Boogeyman? ", Pitch asked, sudden curiosity lifting a little his intimidating tone.

Now I noticed how far Pitch actually was from me, but my legs didn´t stop. They kept carrying me slowly away from him like he would have been a dangerous beast I shouldn't anger by quick motions.

I felt like I should run but I couldn´t look away from Pitch. My eyes were caught in his and he didn´t let me go.

I took a shivering breath and answered him:

"They did tell me about you…" I said silently "But I never believed in you."

Pitch´s smile disappeared and his eyes seemed almost fiery. His perfect mask broke and now I saw more than he had wanted to show me before.

Bitterness and anger burned in his gaze and all I wanted to do was to hide, to go somewhere those eyes couldn´t reach me.

I backed away even more, much quicker this time. I was scared.

But then, as quickly as it had appeared, the look was gone. For a moment I caught a brief flash of worry on his face when his eyes widened as he looked behind me.

"Lilith, stop!", Pitch cried, but he was too late.

My next step didn´t hit the ground. For a moment I was completely weightless.

Then I fell. I saw how the cliff started to get smaller and smaller as I spinned through the air, but I couldn't scream or even shriek. My mind was a mess of confused thoughts and incredulous questions and I couldn´t make any sense to them.

A man I had just met, a man I had believed to be my saviour was a monster.

I didn't know who I should have blamed, him for betraying my trust, or myself for giving it to him.

"Wind... Carry me away...", I sighed, suddenly being more tired than I had ever been.

I closed my eyes and let the wind decide where it would take me.

That is how I left him.

And so the story continues...

I've got another shorter chapter in store for you, so you don't need to await another five months for an update...

Seriously, I'm sorry. Thank you for reading! :3