An odd chill filled the air as the boy slept, snuggled neatly under his blanket. He shivered when he felt a coldness touch his forehead and his eyes opened slowly. Nothing was there, his sleepy eyes staring at the dark ceiling of his room. He shuffled to his side, pulling the blanket over his head.
The next morning an emergency meeting was called. The students all gathered in the Great Hall with sleep in their eyes and curiosity forming in their minds. "Our latest monster, is a night hag" the headmaster declared and the students began to murmur between themselves. Nathan frowned, looking over to Wade and Dana beside him, they too looked very confused. "A malevolent spirit trapped in the astral plane that can only communicate with us through dreams" he explained and the frown cleared from Nathan's face, gaining an understanding of what exactly a 'Night Hag' was.
"Or in this case, nightmares" he added and more mutterings.
"So, like, Freddy Kruger?" MG asked, Nathan's eyes moving over to the Vampire.
"In the sense that whatever happens to you in your nightmares also happens to your outside of it, yes" explained the headmaster.
"Wait" Nathan raised his arm and the headmaster looked at him. "If it can only communicate with us through our dreams and nightmares, how can it hurt us outside of it? Shouldn't it be not able to do that outside of dreams?" he asked.
"Some Lore says that a night hag can harm us outside of our dreams. But whatever it does to harm us is done in the dream" he explained. He then looked to the general collection of students. "But the good news is, we're safe. As long as we stay awake" he stated and a hush fell over the students. "Now I've arranged for evacuation shuttles to take us to the Lockwood Mansion, which Sheriff Donovan was kind enough to open for us" he declared and the students looked at him. "Those of you who want to go over, talk to Mr. Williams and Ms. Tig. Anyone who wants to stay and fight it now is your chance" he stepped back from the podium. "However, exam week will continue as scheduled, wherever you are" he announced a few groans left the students. "I know. I'm sorry. I can't exactly call the state accreditation board and tell them that we're canceling the exams because of monsters" he stated, "we'll get through this, I promise" he added before dismissing the meeting.
"Are you going to evacuate? After the exams of course," Wade turned to Nathan and then Dana. "I know I am"
"Same" the blonde declared. "Can't have son Hag ruin my beauty sleep" she then looked to Nathan.
"I'm staying" he answered, getting eye rolls from them both. "I'm kinda curious to see what this Night Hag looks like"
"That and you have a complete hero complex going on" Dana pointed out.
"I do not!" Nathan declared but neither of his friends looked even a bit convinced.
"Nathan!" Hope came over to the trio and all attention shifted to her. "Come with me please" she requested. Nathan bid farewell to Wade and Dana before going with Hope. "You're staying right?"
"Yes" Nathan nodded his head, "you need my tracking skills?" he asked this time Hope nodded. "I can try but I need to do my research on this thing first" he explained.
"I'll help you then" she offered and Nathan gave her a smile. "So, meet me in the library after class" she stated and walked away before Nathan could answer. The boy shrugged and made his way to class as he had planned.
History while one of his favorite topics was doing wonders in keeping him awake. His eyes slowly drifted to a close before he forced them to open again. He shook his head and took his water bottle out, drinking a good amount before looking back to the board. The words seemed to swim in front of him and that made a groan escape his vocals. He rubbed his eyes and bit down on the insides of his cheeks, trying to use the pain to keep him awake.
And then suddenly day had shifted to night and the room became empty barring the furniture, himself and the veiled woman stood before him.
"Bring it to me!" she hissed, reaching her hands out and floating over to Nathan. The boy in question found himself rooted to the spot, eyes wide as he watched her come closer. Just as she was close enough to touch him, something seemed to push her back. A shadow seemed to stand between the Night Hag and Nathan, semi-transparent and humanoid in shape. Something about it felt familiar as if he had run into it before. Before his bathroom and before now.
The boy woke with a start, almost falling out of his chair. His classmates were all staring at him and he gave them an apologetic smile. Class ended with no other developments but the lecture. Nathan walked out of the room with a frown on his face. He stopped outside the classroom and thought about his dream. He could not move in there and it felt a lot like sleep paralysis.
"Jen" Nathan called out to the short curly-haired blonde witch who was sat behind him. The witch turned around at his call. "During class, was I struggling or anything? Like fidgeting even?"
"Not that I remember" Jen informed him. "You were calm, almost way too calm if you ask me" she informed him and walked away. That only seemed to confuse Nathan further. He made a beeline for his room and found it empty. Wade may have already evacuated. But Nathan did not think about that. He went to his bed and turned his laptop on.
He wasn't exactly aware of how long he had been doing his research. But it must have been a long time because Hope came barging into his room. The boy looked up to find an unimpressed auburn-haired girl looking at him with narrowed eyes. He looked at the clock before giving Hope an apologetic smile.
"I'm guessing your research kept you here" she stated and moved forward to sit down beside him. "What have you found?"
"A whole lot of everything but nothing at the same time" he sighed. "The Night Hag is associated with sleep paralysis and is quite common in various mythologies in different areas of the world" he turned the laptop towards Hope, showing her the document, he had created on it. "Each mythology portrays the hag as some form of a demon or the other and that it comes in like a nightmare. But there's one thing that is bugging me about it"
"Which is?" the girl questioned.
"Sleep paralysis itself has the effect where someone affected by it can't move in their sleep. But the movement they do in their sleep or try to, they do it outside of their sleep. But I didn't"
"You've been attacked?" Hope asked, the worry coming to her easily. "Are you alright?!"
"I'm fine" he assured the girl with a smile. "But that's not important. I did not mimic the movements I was trying in my sleep. Which makes me question whether it's a night hag we are dealing with here"
"Landon seems to think the same thing" Hope muttered and Nathan gave her a questioning look. "He was visited by our lady of the veil too" she explained. "He says he isn't sure what exactly it is but he's doing his research, trying to be as helpful as possible"
"He didn't evacuate" he frowned.
"He didn't" she agreed. "What else have you found?"
"DnD" he shook his head. "We need to face this with what little we know. Unless the library has other books we can use for more" he shut his laptop and put it aside. "How much do you know?"
"Pretty much what Dr. Saltzman said and you, Raf, and Landon telling us" she explained. She looked over to his study table and her eyes widened just a fraction. "How goes your research into your coven?" she asked, turning back to look at him. "Don't look at me like that, I had a peek at your diary back when we were stuck in the gym" she defended at his look.
Nathan scoffed, shaking his head and then looking at the diary on his table. Silently he summoned the diary to him, catching it when it flew to him. "Take a look I suppose then" he stated.
"You've gotten good with that" Hope muttered and accepted the diary with a small smile. She opened it, immediately narrowing down on the symbol. She flipped the page and read the notes Nathan had made. "Your mind's your greatest weapon? Where did you get that one?"
"The Necromancer mentioned it to me" the boy explained and the girl stiffened.
"You're going to trust the Necromancer on this?" the femme asked, nostrils flaring in anger.
"As villainous as he is, he knows something about my coven" Nathan explained calmly to her. "When I showed him that symbol he became flustered. Said how I have been a thorn in his ass for ages" he explained. "And then right when we were leaving after you came out of his mind, he grabbed my arm and said that to me" he added.
"He is manipulating you" Hope stated with narrowed eyes. "He's telling you what you want to hear and will use you to his advantage to do what he wants. Tell you that your coven would want you to do this or do that"
"Hope" Nathan interrupted her with a frustrated huff, "I'm not an idiot. I'm not gonna follow him into doing dark magic or shit like that. The last thing I need is looking like a botched plastic surgery patient" he rolled his eyes. "I'm careful but that there feels like something that would relate to me somehow. And I must explore every avenue for it"
Hope looked like she did not like it, but she did not speak up against it. Instead, she closed the diary and handed it back to him. "I'm going to see what else we can find" she muttered and walked out of the room. Nathan watched the shut door with a frown, gently smacking his hand with the diary. He had no intentions of blindly following the Necromancer's words. But this was something that felt like he wasn't lied to about.
Nathan left his room a bit after Hope did. There wasn't much he could find on his own anymore. The internet while a wonderful place of information, had its own share of misinformation. Plus, there were things that Nathan found the internet did not have the right information for. Like how vampires could glitter in the sun. He blamed twilight for that. So, for further research, he decided to hit the library, read up on what the school had on this hag. And he remembered Hope mentioning Landon to be there.
When Nathan arrived in the library he found Landon there, stood beside Hope and both of them looking awkward.
"Did I just walk in on a moment here or something?" he asked, pointing between the two with his index finger. Hope shook her head and walked away while Landon stood his ground looking very proud of something. "You found something, didn't you" Nathan stated, a smile forming on his lips as well.
"We're not dealing with a Night Hag" the curly-haired boy declared and Nathan did a mental cheer. He knew it wasn't that simple. "It's an Oneiroi, a shape-shifting dream demon from Greek Mythology" he explained. Nathan stared at him for a moment before looking down at the stacks of books on the table.
"So, we have one demon disguising itself as another demon then" Nathan muttered, looking through the books to see what exactly the demon was, other than what Landon had told him. "And it's disguising itself because if we knew what it was, then we'd know how to deal with it"
"Bingo!" Landon exclaimed with a grin.
"You, my friend, are one hell of a researcher" Nathan grinned back. But Landon's grin fell slowly.
"I wish I could do more than that" he muttered, earning a raise of an eyebrow from Nathan. "Look, I'm good at being a bookish nerd, that much is obvious. But that isn't enough. I want to be able to support Hope and this school. I want to stay in this school and want to be useful to them"
"The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr" Nathan stated and Landon was looking at him weirdly this time. "What that means is that a scholar, someone who can do the research to help people has a place higher than a fighter. Because in the end, the scholars make the plans while the warriors execute them" he explained.
"I get that, but I want to be able to fight as well" Landon sighed with frustration. "Like research like this is fun! But I want to be out there, standing beside Hope and helping her in the battle" he declared.
"Well, then you best start training for it" Nathan stated with an amused smile. "Physicals first, considering you suck at stamina. Then build up your strength. God knows you need some meat on you" he added with a snort. "Tell you what, from tomorrow you and I, we start the training. I wouldn't mind getting a bit active myself" he suggested and Landon gave him a wide smile.
"Thanks, man" the curly-haired boy came around and hugged his friend, who hugged him back.
"A black-winged what?" the Vampire representative questioned, looking at Landon and Hope like the two were talking in a whole other language he had learned just a while back and had limited mastery over.
"Shapeshifting dream demon" both of them replied in unison, sharing a look before turning to the rest. "I know it sounds bad" Hope began, "but now that we know what the creature is, we can fight it," she said with the utmost confidence.
"How the hell are we supposed to kill a dream demon?" Rafael asked, looking at Hope.
"Leave that part to me" the girl answered. "But since I can't fall asleep without compromising the location of the urn, I need someone else to pull it out of the dream plane and into our waking reality" she explained her plan.
"And how the hell are we supposed to do that?" Kaleb questioned, still not looking entirely convinced.
"So, Freddy Krueger. Like I said" MG stated. "If it's anything like the movies, we just grab and pull"
"Yeah, okay" Kaleb looked to Hope again. "Is it too late to the, uh, evacuation bus?" he asked, not sounding like he was joking.
"No" Hope sighed. "Look, I'm not going to ask all of you to stay for this. It has to be your choice"
"I'm not leaving if Hope doesn't" Landon walked over to his girlfriend.
"And we know the answer to that, so.." Hope looked to the rest.
"I mean, I already made my decision" Nathan gave a shrug of his shoulders. "I'm in"
"I'm not leaving Landon behind" Rafael spoke.
"I'm a founding member of the Super Squad" MG stood with a smile. "So, I can't bail"
They all turned to Kaleb who scoffed at the rest. "Y'all gonna get yourselves killed" he stated with another scoff. Then he sighed seeing none of them react. "But if MG stays, I stay. No child left behind" he explained.
"In that case, it's naptime" Hope addressed them all and Nathan snorted.
"A few years ago, I would have jumped in excitement" he muttered and followed Hope with the rest. Hope took them to the Gym where they bed beds for themselves out of the things they brought from their rooms on the way. Arranged in a circular pattern Nathan already got himself comfy under the blanket, letting out a soft content sigh.
"You look comfy" Rafael stated, crouching beside his head. "We are going to go in to fight a dream demon you know"
"I do" Nathan informed him. "But to do that I must first sleep. And for that to happen, I have to find my comfy position. Which I just found" another content sigh left his lips and he sunk into his bedding. "Listen, Raf" he looked up to the wolf, "I know I don't need to say this, but whatever you see in there is not real. But whatever happens to you in there, you'll feel it once you wake up too. So, be careful, okay?"
"Yeah, man" Raf smiled and placed his fist on his forehead, "you too" he muttered before looking up and then looking away again. Nathan followed his gaze and found Landon and Hope talking.
"You like her right?" he asked and Rafael looked at him with a slightly widened eye. "It's kinda obvious. But he's also your brother's girlfriend" he pointed out.
"I'll get over it" Raf muttered before walking away. Hope approached right after.
"You look very comfy" the tribrid muttered, looking him over with an amused glance.
"You could join me. There's room for two" he joked and received a roll of the femme's eyes. "You sure you don't want back up out here? I can assist"
"I'll be alright" she shot a glance to Landon. "But, I'm worried about Landon. Can I ask you to look after him?"
"Hard to do when I'll be asleep and in my own little dream space" Nathan muttered, an eyebrow raised in question.
"I'll connect both of your dream planes, so you can travel to his" Hope mumbled. Nathan frowned and gently grabbed her hand, gaining her attention.
"That might scare the Oneiroi away," Nathan told her softly. "Don't worry, Landon will be just fine. Trust in him" he stated. Hope gave him a look before nodding her head gently.
The tribrid got off her bed and walked around the room and everyone got settled into their beddings. Time seemed to pass slowly but sleep did not come for them right away. It might have been hours before Nathan found himself drifting off.
His eyes opened to the sign of complete darkness. The only light in there seemed to be emanating from under his feet, forming a ring of light under him. He heard whispers all around him and felt movement. The sound of heels clicking against the ground alerted him of someone approaching. He looked forward and to his surprise found his mother stood there, looking exactly as the day she had left him. Barring the sad expression.
"I knew I should have gotten rid of you all those years ago" the woman sneered and Nathan felt a sting in his heart. "From the day you've come here my life has gotten so much better! I knew I should have cut you off. Maybe then I would have my love and had a happier life!" she screeched, making Nathan wince.
A steady breath left his lips and he looked at her with nothing but pure hatred. "You're a lie" he hissed, taking a threatening step forward. "You dare come to me with her face? Saying all those words with Her voice?!" he growled, his slow steps turning into a pacey walk. "Show your face. SHOW YOUR REAL FACE!" he roared.
His 'mother' seemed to freeze and her shaky hands slowly came to grab her face. Slowly she ripped the skin off of her face as black leathery wings burst out her back. Soon her skin was shed, torn from her body, and before Nathan stood the dream demon, the Oneiroi. It gave a flap of its wings but Nathan raised a hand and a chain burst out of the ground beneath it, wrapping around its neck and pulling it down to its knees.
"This is my mind and you do as I say!" he hissed and grabbed its head. With both hands.
Nathan's eyes slowly opened and the sound of hissing and gasps filled his ears. He sat up slowly and turned around, his eyes burning green. The Oneiroi was trapped in the middle of them all, unable to move and on its knees. It 'looked' at Nathan and Nathan felt a wave of coldness sweep past him.
"No" he declared and shot his hand out, making the demon let out a choking noise. He raised his hand and the demon floated into the air, clawing at its neck like something had a chokehold on it. Around him, the other boys looked at the thing with wide eyes. Hope was at the door, looking just as surprised.
"You wanted it right?" Nathan asked, looking at Hope. The girl gave a nod and Nathan let the thing go. Hope tackled it mid-air and the two flew over Nathan and rolled on the hardwood floor. Nathan rolled to his feet and moved aside, joining the rest in watching Hope bash the demon around. Right when the fight seemed to flow in Hope's direction, the demon turned the tides, its hands shooting out and grabbing her by the throat. Hope let out a choke and grunt and Nathan was halfway there in helping her.
The headmaster stormed in an arrow and a crossbow in his hands. "Aim for the eyes" he called and threw the arrow to her. Hope grabbed it with a hand and snapped it in half before shoving both pieces into its eyes. The demon let out a hiss before turning to dust. Nathan and Landon went forward to help Hope up, all three of them staring at the demon dust.
"Told you I could play assist" Nathan whispered and Hope snorted.
