Hey guys.

Well, we're up to the 20th chapter of this thing. It's so sad, but the fun parts don't start happening until the 22nd chapter, but at least I made it this far. I'm really appreciative of the fact that you guys are still reading the story, despite my long absence. It really makes me happy to know that people still care about the story and that fact also gets me hyped up to write the next chapter.

Let's hope that Ruby can handle the situation in this one. This chapter does only concentrate on her point of view, but it's a needed chapter. Sorry if you guys wanted more of the proxies. I'll incorporate them into the next chapter. Don't worry.

Anyway, better head off and start the next one.

~Ciao

Ruby Johnson's Account

I could hear them arguing from downstairs. Jack and Jeff were yelling at each other like they were sworn enemies or something, and Masky had been trying to calm them down until a moment ago; he had gone silent all of a sudden, so I assumed that he had left them to their business and given up. Jeff had snuck in from somewhere and no one knew where he was for about an hour; Jack had asked him to look out for me, just in case I decided to go visit Freddy by myself and got hurt in the process, but instead, the murderer went out to a secret location and attempted to sneak back into the house like nothing was wrong. The most likely scenario is that he went out for a kill – I can't believe how casually I can talk about death nowadays because of those three – and had gotten some kind of release from it after our little situation in the dream last night and just came back, but didn't expect to be caught.

While all of this was going on, I was laying on my bed, wondering why this whole situation with killing that damned dream demon was taking so long and why I couldn't simply do it by myself anymore; every time someone else went into the dream with me, bad things kept happening, whereas, by myself I managed to hold up a fight and get through the dream alone and living. I may not have killed him before they asked me to help them in their mission, but that was because I wasn't trying to kill him back then; all I saw those dream as were a break from reality, where I could release some steam and beat the hell out of someone. It wasn't as if I couldn't defeat him alone. I just hadn't attempted it yet.

If Masky just told me some weaknesses of his or a way to kill him – which he clearly doesn't know as of yet – I could do it by myself. I had no idea why the three of them always wanted to make sure that I was 'protected' in those dreams; I had survived just fine for the couple of weeks before they arrived and I could still get out of those nightmares alive without their help.

Then, they could all finally leave my house and I could find a way to make up with Pat and get my life back on track. Not talking to him every night or walking home with him every day after school was becoming a small torture for me. He was an aspect of my life that was constantly there and was always kind and caring, but now he was gone and went out in a screaming rage. I had never seen Pat so angry before, or so disappointed in me.

Keeping secrets from him was something that I never wanted to do in our friendship. I trusted him with everything and anything that I could think of, but this wasn't just something that I needed to keep from him – after all, if I told him everything, the boys would get into trouble with their mysterious boss – but he would never have believed me in the first place. I mean, if I told him that proxies from the Under-Realm came to me – Jeff being one of them – and needed my help to kill a dream demon, who also happened to be trying to kill me in my nightmares, he would never be able to keep a straight face. Telling him would have caused more trouble and confusion then it was worth.

But…being without him hurt more than I could ever imagine.

It was never so apparent that I loved Pat until the moment that he left me. I knew that my feelings for him were stronger than that of everyone else in my friendship circle; I felt like I loved the others like brothers and sisters more than in a romantic way, but for a long time, I felt the same way about Pat. I wasn't really sure when these feelings became more than simply love between friends, but I guess that I wasn't conscious of it when it happened.

"I guess it must have not hit me until now…" I mumbled to myself as I sat up on my bed, my feet touching the floor. "What a terrible time to realise…"

"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" I heard Jeff shouting and jumped slightly at the sudden uproar. "I JUST WENT OUT FOR A FUCKING MINUTE! GET OFF MY CASE!"

"AN HOUR ISN'T A MINUTE, JEFF!" Jack yelled back, clearly losing his patience with the killer.

I sighed at their argument. "If my neighbours tell Dad about this noise and complain to him when he gets back, this isn't going to be good…"

I got to my feet and walked out of my room, hoping that they would listen to me when I told them to be quiet. I didn't want any disruption to my neighbourhood while the proxies were here and they knew that, so them arguing like a divorced couple wasn't the best way to be solving anything at this point. We only had until my dad came back from his business trip to kill Freddy – this was like an unspoken piece of knowledge that we all shared, since they couldn't be as close to me as they were then with day in the house as well – so, we couldn't have anyone finding out about Jack, Jeff or Masky before or after Dad got back. It would cause so much turbulence in both my life and the proxy's lives.

I reached the staircase and began to walk down it, witnessing the fight for myself now. Jeff was dressed in his normal white hoody, jean combo, while holding the pug mask, which he must have used to blend in outside, as he did whenever he went out of the house. Jack had his hands on his hips as he screamed at his fellow proxy, clearly not ready to deal with his attitude today. Masky, being the timid man that he was, was simply in the corner, with his arms crossed, watching the fight play out, knowing full well that he wouldn't be able to stop it. The masked man would just have to wait it out until the two got fed up with their yelling or I jumped in; I assumed that the latter was what was best, since we all knew that Jeff could argue for hours, just to hear his own voice. None of them noticed me standing on the stairs, probably because they were too into yelling at one another, which didn't surprise me all that much.

"DON'T TALK TO ME LIKE I'M A CHILD, YOU BLUE, SLIMY FREAK!" Jeff hit the wall with a closed fist and began to scream as though his life depended on it. "I'M NOT YOUR GODDAMN RESPINSIBILITY AND I'M DEFINITELY NOT YOUR BITCH! DON'T BOSS ME AROUND LIKE ONE!"

"WELL, MAYBE I WOULDN'T HAVE TO BOSS YOU ABOUT IF YOU WOULD JUST CO-OPERATE AND DO AS YOU WERE TOLD!" Eyeless Jack retorted.

I knew that me simply speaking wouldn't stop this argument; I had seen this a million times over with my friends; when two people were trapped in a fight that none of them would win, the best thing to do is always to snap them out of it – almost as if they were in a trance. As much as I would love to stop Jeff's insufferable shouting and screeching by knocking him out with a vase, Dad would kill me if | damaged any of his things. I figured that the best thing to do would be to out-shout them both.

I inhaled carefully and tried my hardest to stay calm as I prepared to yell. Jeff continued his bitching as I prepared my scream.

"WHY DO YOU GET TO DECIDE WHAT I DO ANYWAY?! YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME! I'LL COMPLAIN TO SLENDY IF YOU DO THAT AGA-!"

"BE QUIET!"

All three of the proxies instantly stopped what they were doing and final glanced over to me, standing there in my baggy shirt and shorts, looking more irritated then I think they'd ever seen me; my frown was one that I had not pulled since Mark attempted to kiss me on the cheek in the school library when I was trying my best to study for my maths test the next day – although, that frown ended with a punch to the face and I wasn't planning on hitting anyone of the boys before me…except maybe Jeff. I felt the tense force of my brow and the hatred fuel up in my eyes. These guys were in trouble.

"You guys do realise that I have neighbours, right?" I asked sarcastically. "If you're all trying to stay undercover, then why are you drawing so much attention to yourselves? If my neighbours tell my Dad about this night, questions are going to be asked."

Maskyhesitantly proceeded to join my rant. "That's what I was trying to tell them, but they wouldn't listen to me! Jeff, Jack…you can't be making such a racket like this. Ruby's right. No one can give her father any suspicion that something was amiss in his house while he was away."

Jack scoffed. "I'm just scolding him because you won't Masky. He went out without permission and won't say where he was. If he's done anything bad around the city, then our cover is blown anyway."

"What the hell do you mean by that?!" Jeff exclaimed.

"You know what I mean…" Jack was clearly not happy about Jeff sneaking out, but more than that, he seemed to have come to the same conclusion that I got to moments before coming downstairs. "If you've killed someone, people are going to know that we're here. You have a signature way of killing, remember? And humans are not as stupid as you think! They'll know that we're here…and then you'll have to explain to Slenderman why we were chased out of the town by a bunch of murder-hating ass-holes with pitch-forks and didn't get to finish the mission!"

"I wasn't killing anyone!" Sweat dripped down Jeff's brow as his paper-white face became slightly pink; this arguing was probably getting tiresome for him, but I couldn't help but keep the conversation going. I didn't care how exhausted he was. We needed answers.

"It wouldn't surprise me if you did." The three proxies looked over to me, standing above them on the staircase. "You don't exactly seem to have much control over yourself nowadays…why is it so hard for you to believe that we would think that you went and killed someone after last night?"

Jeff flinched. "I told you! We were in a dream! Freddy took over me!"

"That's not what I'm talking about!" I shouted back. "You came to my room, ready to kill me! The only reason that you didn't was because Masky stopped you!"

Suddenly, all of the colour from Jeff's face disappeared and he was, once again, left with his colourless, pale exterior – except this time, it was from shock, not because he had a naturally a white face. Jack hesitantly swallowed some saliva and glanced at Jeff. "Jeff…? That's not true, is it?"

The killer couldn't say anything. He simply stood there, knowing full well that he couldn't argue back – for once.

I continued. "It's true. And now, so that he could get his desire to kill me out of his system, he went and killed some innocent bystander…didn't you?"

"Shut up…" He mumbled under his breath.

"Huh?" I asked, confused. He knew that I must have been right, so why was he still arguing with me about it?

"You don't know anything!" He snapped back. "I didn't kill anyone! I was actually doing you a favour, you ungrateful, little shit!"

I was taken aback. This was the first time that Jeff yelled at me while sounding as though he was genuinely upset, rather than angry; the way that his words spewed out of his mouth caused me to question my judgement and wonder whether he was telling the truth or not. Before I could question him any further however, he stormed off and made a b-line towards the kitchen.

"Jeff?!" I called after him, but Masky put his hand up to stop me.

"Don't worry, Ruby. We'll find out what he meant and we'll make him apologise for speaking to you in such a manor." His gentlemanly attitude would never ceased to amaze me; even in the most stressful of situations, Masky was always calm and collective.

"Besides…" Jack inputted. "He won't sulk forever. We'll get an answer as to where he was eventually. He'll have to give up at some point."

Masky nodded in agreement. "Yep. I agree. So, for now, Ruby, why don't you go and relax in your room. We'll find an answer to this mystery and will come upstairs when we make progress."

I jolted. "Wait, you're actually going to let me be alone for a while longer?"

"Just make sure that you don't fall asleep on us." Jack walked towards the stairs and flicked my nose, causing me to move back slightly; there was a warm feeling in my chest, which must have come from the knowledge that Jack and I were friends again. It was nice to know that he could be playful with me once more, without hesitation.

I nodded. "Okay, I won't."

Once I reached my bedroom once again, my back landed on my covers once more and I continued to stare at the ceiling with dead eyes; a dreaded feeling of guilt filled up my body as I remembered what Jeff had said. I know that he said that he hadn't killed anyone – which I was starting to believe, since with his ego, he wouldn't be denying it, but bragging about it, no matter the consequences – but I had no idea what he meant when he said that he was doing me a favour. If he really was doing a favour for me, then I couldn't figure out why he would have to leave the house to do it; what would have been a good favour for me would have been him watching me like he was supposed to and making sure that I didn't fall into the razor sharp clutches of Freddy Krueger by surprise.

I sighed heavily. "Why doesn't he ever just explain himself? It would make his life so much easier…"

The mission had reached a point where my faith in the boys was slowly disintegrating away; it seemed as though the rules that Masky had put into effect, such as not leaving me alone so that I didn't fall asleep without one of them being around, were disappearing and were being replaced by arguments and disputes between the three of them. The only reason that I joined this mission of theirs was because I wanted Freddy out of my dreams for good, just in case I got hurt one day beyond recovery, but now, the job of killing that monster didn't even seem worth the effort that it took to complete. I had lost the boy that I loved, my social life was leaving me behind in the dust, I was trapped with these proxies fighting around me until Freddy finally died and I couldn't ever remember being this stressed before.

At moments like this, I would usually call Pat and tell him all about my troubles, knowing that by the end of the conversation, I would be laughing and reminded as to why I loved him in the first place…but now I couldn't even do that. He was lost to me and there was nothing that I could do about it.

Tears formed in my eyes while I tried my hardest to not let them fall down my cheeks by rubbing them away; never before had I cried over a boy or even someone who wasn't a part of my family. Pat was the first person that made me feel such happiness, such joy, such excitement…but also such sadness. By not talking to me, he really has shown me what it was to cry. I needed him more than he would ever know, but for now, I would have to keep my distance and hope that he still cared about me when the proxies left the Human World and went home.

I could only hope.

*BEEP* *BEEP*

"Huh…?" I turned to my bedside table and stared at my ringing phone, wondering who would be calling me at such an hour. I figured at first that it must have been either Shaun or Dad checking up on me, despite the fact that Dad usually didn't call me until he left his business trips and was on his way back home, and Shaun had already seen me days before, so the likelihood of him calling me was quite low. He would have been too busy seducing some girl in his office by this time at night to call me.

Curiously, I picked up the phone, feasting my eyes upon the one name that I was so desperate to see more than any other in the world.

"Pat?!"

Before I could even contemplate this miracle before me, I answered the phone excitedly, with happy tears in my eyes now. My heart jumped for joy and my face was simply a bright beckon of smiles and joyful sobbing.

"Pat! Is that you?!" I answered.

"Ruby? Are you okay?"

It was him.

The same low-toned, concerned, caring voice that I had been longing to hear for the last couple of days; this was the Pat that I had come to love, not the one that yelled at me for keeping secrets from him. The shock of knowing that I was speaking to the very same boy that I adored more than anything in the world almost caused me to not speak, but I had to gather up the courage to say something, even if it was something small that didn't make any sense.

"Pat…" I mumbled. "Pat I'm so happy to hear from you…"

I could hear a small sigh, almost like a sigh of relief, from his side of the phone. "Ruby…I'm…happy to be talking to you too…"

All of a sudden, the sincerity of Pat's voice touched my heart, but not in the way that I was expecting; it felt as though someone had grabbed my veins, stopping the blood from rushing to my heart and causing the organ to throb from lack of sustenance. For a second, I had no idea why I felt like I was in so much pain, but then I realised the reason.

"Pat…Why did you not speak to me for the last two days…?" I sobbed as I asked this question.

There was a moment of silence before my love replied. "I…I'm sorry, Ruby. I just wanted to know the truth…but I lashed out and I'm really sorry about that…"

A smile appeared on my face and the pain in my chest subsided. I always knew that Pat had a bit of a quick temper when it came to me and things that I did – for example, when Craig, a boy who used to be in our school, asked me to go to the pool with him and I said yes, since I thought that it was an innocent trip. Pat lost it and decided to threaten Craig and told him to stay away from me with his 'perverted ideas' – but it was always a great relief when he apologised and told me that he was just trying to protect me. The only difference between this time and all of the others was that he was trying to find something out from me and I didn't know why it was so important to him to find out who Jeff was.

"What do you mean, 'know the truth'?" I asked innocently.

"Well…I was worried about the fact that you were hanging around this Jeff guy so much…." He replied reluctantly, clearly finding it difficult to explain everything to me. "I just…he just scares me and I don't know what connection you have to him. Although, I guess that he's not that bad…"

I blinked. "What makes you say that?"

"Well…he came to the school earlier and told me to call you and make sure that you were okay. Sam was there and saw it too. I think those two might actually get along."

Instantly, I felt absolutely terrible about what I had said to Jeff and knew what he meant when he said that he was doing me a favour when he snuck out of the house; he must have felt bad about what had happened in the dream and wanted to make it up to me somehow. He might have been a murderous proxy, but he actually did care about some humans when it comes down to it.

"Oh…" I mumbled, in shock by this new information. "Yeah…he really isn't that bad, huh?"

"Yeah…so, what is he to you anyway?" It was obvious that Pat wasn't going to give up until he knew about who Jeff was to me and why he was spending so much time with me all of a sudden. I inhaled and tried to keep myself calm as I debated an answer to his question in my head.

"He's a friend…well, more of a companion…"

Pat paused for a moment. "Well…what does that mean?"

There was a part of me that still wanted to spew out everything and not spare a single detail about who Jeff was and why he was in my house, but I had to hold my tongue for the sake of the proxies and their situation with their boss. It was sad, but I would have to hope that Pat didn't become angry again and understood that I couldn't really tell him anything immediately.

"Look, Pat. Jeff's in a bad situation at the moment. He has to be around me for a while and he made me promise to keep it a secret as to why he's here. I want to tell you. Trust me, I do, but I'll either have to wait until he leaves or he says that I'm allowed to say something."

My eyes shut tightly, praying to the God that I didn't even believe in that the guy on the other end of the phone call wouldn't become angry at me again and would simply take what I said and accepted it without question. I knew that the likelihood of Pat not getting annoyed with me again was very low, but I had to do this. Not speaking to Pat for another few days or even weeks would be the ultimate torture, but Jeff had to keep his presence under wraps for now. After what he did for me, I couldn't just tell anyone his secret. I owed him that much at least.

Pat began to speak, allowing for my ears to receive the verdict of my statement. "Okay…I understand."

I jumped slightly at his answer. "You do?"

"Yeah…" He responded with. "If it's really that secret, then it's not my business to be trying to find out anything, right? He isn't running from some drug dealer that he owes money, right?"

I chuckled slightly. "No. He isn't."

"Good. He seemed like he was on drugs or something with how pale he is." I couldn't help but to burst out into a huge laughter from this comment; if only he knew that Jeff's completion was from the fact that he wasn't even human. That was shock him even more than the proxy running from a drug dealer by a long mile. "It's good to hear you laugh…"

I smiled. "It's good to be able to laugh…"

I genuinely meant that. Ever since Masky, Jeff and Jack arrived at my house, making jokes, laughing and generally having a good time was almost impossible to do; everything was a matter of life or death in this world of dream demons and other worlds, so I wasn't able to relax for even a second. It felt amazing to be able to laugh out loud for once…and with Pat.

"Well…I should probably leave you to your night. It's pretty late. Will you be coming into school tomorrow?"

I thought about it for a moment. If I did go, then Masky would have to assign someone to watch me for the day, but I'm sure that Jack would be happy to do that. "Yeah. I should be in. I just didn't feel well today and yesterday."

It was obvious that I was lying and that Pat's outburst was the reason why I was off school those two days, but I wanted for Pat to not feel as bad; I guess that he must have gotten what I was doing because he didn't say anything about it afterwards.

I continued. "The others will be in too, right?"

"Yeah, but Lilith and Liam might take a day off. They're having a date night tonight and they might end up going back to Liam's place and…well…not wanting to get up tomorrow."

I could hear the embarrassment in Pat's voice and giggled. "Yeah…I can imagine."

"Well…I'd better go."

"Yeah…" I chuckled slightly. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

As I hung up the phone, my brain was filled with thoughts.

Jeff had actually gone out of the house, without Masky's or Jack's knowledge and fully aware that he could have gotten into very deep trouble with his boss for doing so, simply to help me out. I honestly didn't believe that Jeff would be into helping out other people in such a way, but that must have been a misconception due to his bad-boy attitude. He did have a good side.

The only problem with this occurrence was that he still tried to kill me in the dream. I knew full well that he was under Freddy's thumb, but he wasn't under Freddy's control like Jack was when he was trying to kill me, which was making it very hard to forgive him so easily. If I knew that he wouldn't do this again, then maybe it would be a bit easier to forget the incident.

"Wait…" I mumbled to myself.

I had an idea.