Chapter 25
Colin shoveled a spoonful of wiggly red Jell-O into his mouth with the little white plastic spoon that came with his meal. His parents had agreed with the doctors when they suggested leaving the boy under their care for a night to make sure everything was all right with him. They were shocked to come into his room early Sunday morning to discover the boy was awake. They couldn't explain it, but there was never any real predicting for when a person might come out of a coma. His parents were beyond overjoyed when they saw their son, hugging him and kissing him with tears in their eyes. A real touching scene. A Kodak moment.
His parents were currently talking with the doctors and signing papers for his release and all that other adult stuff that mortals had to do. The Dream Trickster yawned in boredom just thinking about the dull mundane things that humans did day in and day out. At least their dreams could be quite interesting, and their nightmares tastier. Colin seemed to catch the motion of the ghost raising his hand to cover his mouth.
"Are you going to be around? Like always? Like some sort of guardian angel?" Colin questioned after swallowing his Jell-O. "But you don't really look like an angel. Can demons be guardians? Because with the horns," he put his hands to the sides of his head and pointed his fingers upwards like he had done in the dreamscape, "you look more like demons."
"We're ghosts," the Nightmare Jester said bluntly. He floated next to the Dream Trickster while sitting with one leg crossed over the other.
"You're about as subtle as a hammer to the head sometimes, you know." The Dream Trickster frowned at his fellow dream ghost. "What would you do if saying something like that terrified the boy?"
"You're not as scary anymore," Colin admitted in a small voice with his head bowed as he scooped up another square of his Jell-O. "You kept me safe when those scary things tried to get me."
The Dream Trickster glowered when the Nightmare Jester glanced toward him with a smirk. "You got lucky," he mumbled, his eyes narrowing in annoyance. Then he turned back to the boy and tried to mimic the way the half ghost spoke to him during the dreamscape. "We'll make sure those scary things can't hurt you again."
"Well, we can't stop all fears." The Nightmare Jester ignored him when the Dream Trickster shot another glare at him. "Fear is a part of growth. You can't wipe out every fear he has. You'll only make another mess like you were doing before."
"It's okay," Colin said, drawing the Dream Trickster's attention back to him. "I think," he frowned slightly, not fully confident with what he was saying, "I can be brave."
"Well, if you ever feel like your nightmares are too much, just remember us, and we'll come to help you." The Dream Trickster smiled at the boy then turned to glare at his fellow dream ghost. "You have no complaints with that, do you?"
The Nightmare Jester sighed as if it was such a chore to agree with anything the Dream Trickster might say. "I suppose that's reasonable. After all, it is part of our job to skim off fears as needed for people. You can't coddle him though." He stared firmly at the Dream Trickster like he was waiting for an argument. "He's not yours to constantly fret over, and you can't be distracted from your job to take care of him all the time."
"I wasn't going to," the Dream Trickster grumbled, feeling more like a scolded child than the ancient ghost that he was. Voices could be heard as people neared the room. "And that sounds like our cue to leave." He glanced toward the boy and smiled. "See you in your dreams sometime." He waved then turned invisible. The Nightmare Jester bowed his head to Colin, who gave an enthusiastic goodbye as the dream ghosts vanished from his sight.
The Dream Trickster lingered for a moment, watching as Colin's parents entered the hospital room and hugged him and told him that he would be able to come home today. A smile pulled at his mouth. Then he phased through the wall of the hospital, following the Nightmare Jester.
"I suppose we should get back to our job," the Dream Trickster said, almost sounding bored with the idea. They never really interacted with sleepers, and it was an odd yet satisfying experience. Though they had the ability to manipulate dreams, it wasn't something they were supposed to do except under certain circumstances, and speaking with the sleepers in the dreams was bound to be against some rule unless a dire need arose. His gaze drifted toward the ghost beside him, and he frowned. "I suppose this is goodbye then."
"I do believe there's one last piece of information you need to share with a certain half ghost."
The Dream Trickster pressed his mouth thin as he glared back at the Nightmare Jester. "You say that like I was planning on not telling him."
The Nightmare Jester stared blandly back at him. "Can you blame me for not quite trusting you after all you did in an attempt to wake the child? I admit that I'm rather surprised that your plan worked, but it was still reckless and you made a mess of innocent lives while fumbling around for a way to fix your original mistake."
"You don't get to act all perfect," the Dream Trickster pointed out with a glare. "You've been seen too. And I apologized for what I did. If I'm going to have to put up with you lording this whole thing over me for the rest eternity, I'll be glad to part ways and never see you again."
"I wasn't trying to lord it over you," the Nightmare Jester argued. "I just hope you've learned from this and won't make the same mistake in the future."
"Well, I won't. So if that's satisfying enough for you, goodbye." The Dream Trickster flew off through the sky, heading away from the hospital. He was almost a little annoyed when he sensed his fellow dream ghost trailing behind him. "You don't have to keep constant watch over me. You have your own job to do."
"I've considered what the half ghost said." The Nightmare Jester caught up to him, flying alongside him. "If we had communicated more often from the beginning, we may have avoided this whole thing. You could have explained the situation to me, and we could have come up with a solution that didn't involve recklessly stealing away sleeper's dreams."
"Would you have thought of using the half ghost to access that deep level of consciousness within the boy to wake him?" The Dream Trickster's mouth twitched, almost smirking at the annoyance in the other ghost's expression because the Nightmare Jester wouldn't have come up with that idea.
"Would you have thought of it if I hadn't made contact with the half ghost first?" This time, the Nightmare Jester was the smirking one as the Dream Trickster scowled. They touched down at the back of the high school, which was clear of any bothersome students or faculty. "I've never had to try this trick out before. Shouldn't be too hard to pass as human though, right?"
"I imagine it's not too different from altering dreams," the Nightmare Jester said, shrugging.
"And you know so much about that." The Dream Trickster smirked as he leaned closer to the other ghost. "After you paid a visit to that doctor lady and did a little manipulating to make her think that the half ghost being brought in the other night was merely a figment of her imagination. Too many hours and late night shifts and on call emergencies are really taking a toll on her after all."
"It was a favor." The Nightmare Jester kept his gaze away and his expression neutral. "He helped us out, after all. It was only fair to help him out by making the people that were involved in looking over him after you dragged him into the realm of dreams think he was never actually there. I even twisted their dreams slightly so that each one of them remembers him looking differently."
"Yeah, yeah. You're the genius." The Dream Trickster rolled his eyes. Maybe he was just a little frustrated about that fact. If it was the Nightmare Jester that made the mistake that landed Colin in the coma, he probably would have done a lot better job of finding a way to help the boy without making a mess of everything. His mouth thinned as he glared at Mr. Perfect. "Let's get on with this then."
It took him a few tries before he managed to alter his appearance enough to pass as a human. He didn't quite like it. It felt strange masquerading as a human. He adopted clothes like what he saw in the dreams of the teenagers nowadays, dressing in a white hooded sweat shirt and blue jeans. His hair remained at the its same length, just past the shoulder, and same style with it slicked back, but the color was different. Instead of the usual white, his hair was now a dirty blond. His eyes were no longer red and gold but brown and hazel.
The Nightmare Jester managed his transformation after the Dream Trickster, who had to smirk smugly at that fact. He smoothed down the black and gray argyle sweater he now wore over a white collared shirt. His hair remained the same as his ghost form, needing no change, but he adopted the same brown and hazel eyes to replace the unusual color that his eyes naturally were.
The Dream Trickster grumbled but led the way into the high school. It wasn't hard to track down the half ghost, as the Nightmare Jester could still sense him quite easily. The hall was crowded with other students, and the two dream ghosts weaved their way through it until they reached where the half ghost stood with his friend. The Dream Trickster tried not to show his frustration with having to move among the humans, but it would be a whole lot easier to hold a private meeting with the half ghost in their natural forms.
"Uh, who are they?" asked the man standing with his arm around the half ghost's shoulders when they approached.
"I think," the half ghost said slowly as he looked them over, "they're the dream ghosts. Nighty and Dreamy."
"You're still going with those names?" The Nightmare Jester sighed tiredly.
"Yup." The half ghost grinned at them. "Oh, and since you've probably forgotten, I'm Danny." Annoyance flickered in his blue eyes like he knew they weren't referring to him by name. The Dream Trickster looked away guiltily.
"So which one do I have to blame for ruining the end of our date?" the jock questioned, frowning as he glanced between the two ghosts standing before him. "They don't look like ghosts."
"They're disguising themselves," Danny explained. "Ghosts do it sometimes when they want to blend in and not be recognized as a ghost. Ember did it before. And Spectra."
"What? Seriously?" The jock stared at him in surprise.
"Yeah." Danny winced. "And that one's the Dream Trickster," he whispered not too subtly to his friend as he pointed out which one he meant. "He's the one that caused everything."
Aqua green eyes narrowed at him, and the Dream Trickster glared back at the human. "He does kind of look like the ghost I remember from the park," the jock said. "Though he's missing the mask and horns."
Danny lifted his eyebrows as if remembering something. "Why do you wear those masks?"
The Nightmare Jester shrugged. "Gives off that mysterious aura."
"More like creepy aura," the jock muttered.
"Whatever," the Dream Trickster grumbled. "We didn't come here for a social visit or to talk about why we are the way we are. We've always had the masks. That's just the way we are. Why does there have to be any deep meaning to it?"
"So it's not to hide some hideous scar!" Danny grinned as if proud to have that mystery cleared up. Then he turned serious as his brow knitted. "If this isn't a social visit, why are you here? Oh no! You don't have another problem that I need to help you solve, do you?" His shoulders slumped, and he wore an exhausted expression.
The Nightmare Jester shook his head. "I wanted to return this to you." He held out something in his hand that looked as if it could fit over his ear like some sort of listening device or communications unit. "Since everything has been resolved now, I don't think we'll need to stay in contact with each through this anymore."
"Wait. You had that this whole time?" The Dream Trickster frowned, mouth pursing angrily. "We could have just contacted him to come out and meet us?" His eye twitched at the smirk that crossed the other dream ghost's face.
The jock and Danny eyed the two of them for a moment before Danny finally took the device back from the Nightmare Jester. "Is that it?" the half ghost asked with a curious furrowing of his brow. "Because you could have done that at any time. You didn't have to come here especially just for this."
The Nightmare Jester nudged him, and the Dream Trickster elbowed him back out of annoyance. "Actually," the Dream Trickster growled out with narrowed eyes at his fellow dream ghost before he turned to Danny, "there was a small issue I wanted to mention to you. It has something to do with the dreams I took. I may have," he tapped his index fingers together as he looked away, "destroyed one of them; therefore, I am unable to return it to the sleeper."
"What?" Danny demanded, anger flashing in his eyes that nearly shifting to green. He started toward the ghost, but his friend held him back, seizing hold of the half ghost's arms.
"Before you get angry and start a scene in front of everyone in school," the jock said, and his words seemed to give Danny pause, "perhaps you should let him explain further." He glanced toward the ghost. "Whose dream did you destroy exactly?"
"Uh," the Dream Trickster said, trying to recall, but names weren't something he bothered to remember in most cases with sleepers. He glanced about the hall, certain that the sleeper was someone within the school. After some searching, he found the one whose dream couldn't be returned. "That one." He pointed his finger toward a man, muscular and broad shouldered like any jock that played football and wearing a letterman jacket. The sleeper carried a box full of supplies as he followed after a woman with pink clips in her long ebony hair.
"Oh," Danny said, relaxing his posture as the anger petered out of him. "Calvin's dream was destroyed?" He glanced toward his friend briefly. "I suppose I can let you off on that one. It's actually better that you took his nightmare. He's probably in for a much better life now."
"How come you didn't do anything to his nightmare before?" the jock questioned, and he held that curiosity of someone who couldn't ignore a puzzle right before his eyes. "Why did you let him keep that fear of being scared of showing his true self to people instead of helping him by skimming it away?"
"We make judgment calls," the Nightmare Jester explained, and the Dream Trickster sighed, wishing he could explain things as well as his fellow ghost did. "We view dreams and have to decide whether the nightmare warrants us to skim some fear away or not. But we're not omnipotent. We don't know how things will turn out if we let one nightmare alone and skim from another. Sometimes we make mistakes by not acting sooner." He glanced toward the Dream Trickster, who bristled, ready to snap back at him if he said anything negative about him. "I'm just glad that in this case our mistake seems to have done more good than bad."
Danny sighed as he leaned back against the jock with a relieved expression on his face. "I'm glad for that too. I would be really mad at you if you destroyed someone else's dream. Especially if it was a dream and not a nightmare."
"I'll be sure not make any more mistakes like that in the future," the Dream Trickster said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I apologize for dragging you into all of this."
Danny shook his head. "Everything turned out in the end. I'm just glad we could wake the boy from his coma."
The Nightmare Jester eyed the half ghost before his eyebrows lifted in surprise. "Seems like I won't be getting too many delicious meals from you now."
"Sorry." Danny grinned, clearly not sorry at all. "Perhaps you ate enough of my nightmares to give me the confidence to tell them the truth."
"Perhaps." The Nightmare Jester didn't look all that disappointed to lose out on Danny's nightmares. "Well then." He clapped his hands together. "You have mortal things to deal with, and we should return to our jobs now." He nodded to the half ghost and his jock friend.
The Dream Trickster gave a wave then followed the other ghost back to the nearest exit of the high school. "What was the whole point of posing as humans for this?" he asked once they were alone outside. "It was completely unnecessary."
The Nightmare Jester shrugged. "Why does there have to be any deep meaning in it?" Having the words thrown back at him didn't set the Dream Trickster in a very good mood. "We've existed for quite a number of centuries now, and we've seen much through people's dreams and nightmares. But we haven't really experienced a whole lot for ourselves, have we?"
"I suppose not," the Dream Trickster agreed with a frown as he folded his arms.
"Perhaps I just wanted a new experience." The Nightmare Jester smirked, and the Dream Trickster snapped his gaze away with a flustered feeling. "Let's meet again sometime soon." He saluted his fellow ghost before taking off into the sky to perform his task of observing people's dreams.
His mouth pursed, and his hands squeezed around his biceps. "Oh, fine," the Dream Trickster grumbled in defeat. He would find the Nightmare Jester again, but for now, he had his job to perform.
panfan87: Yes~ 8D That's certainly a load off Danny's mind. No more worrying about the reactions of the people he cares most about. 8D
Some Weird Chick: Even when it's warm out, I usually prefer to do stuff indoors. XD;; I really don't like bugs. D: Plus too much time in the sun irritates my skin and I get an itchy, bumpy rash that isn't fun to deal with. D8 Poor Kwan thought he would have a heart attack too! D: He was so worried. *pets him* I think Dash may have wanted to give Kwan a slap too. XD;;
darkloveforfanfiction: Not quite yet. XD I still have one more chapter to get out, I think. 8D
HawkeyeLover: Danny's so happy~ His parents still love him. Kwan isn't turned off by the fact that he's half ghost. Everything's all happy again. 8D Haha, not quite yet on the ending.
Guest: Yay reveals! 8D
midnight: Oh so much better~ =D Danny blushing green in ghost form is just adorable~ Danny having freckles is cute. Danny having freckles in ghost form that glow when he blushes, omg, stop being cute all the time, Danny! D: I can't take your cuteness! Maybe the green ghosts turn a darker green? Or maybe their blushes glow! XD *shot*
vampireharry the 2: It's always nice when things work out. 8D Thanks! =D
Just Will: Danny would certainly like that. 8D A nice cuddly Kwan pillow~ I want one. D: It'll be nice for Danny. Especially after all his fears and worries about what would happen if his parents found out. He can finally relax about it all. *hides under the blankets* I only know Freddy Kruger by name. I've never gone anywhere near touching those movies. Scary and I don't do well together. orz This was actually going to be a Danny PoV chapter, but I couldn't resist getting to play with the dream ghosts just one more time before the end. 8D;; And they're still bickering like an old married couple. Haha. orz