When Nightmares are Present

By: Wolflover77

Enjoy!

Well, here it is! I hope you enjoy. I honestly have no idea where this story is going, so I am completely open to suggestions! Written at 2:00 a.m….. pardon the horridness. Enjoy, my little monsters 3

Jamie sat on the hotel bed with his chin resting on his hands. Rome was totally not what he had expected.

Maybe if Jack were here…

Jamie's parents stood outside the hotel window arguing with each other. He could see their silhouettes through the curtains as the yelled nasty insults at each other.

Sophie sat next to him, quietly looking up to her older brother for protection. Several sheets of scribbled-on paper lie on the floor, each with various different colors and shaped that Jamie could not make out. Although most of the shaped were abstract and hard to make out, one of them caught his eye.

"Soph, what's this one of?" Jamie asked, picking up a sheet of paper with four figures scribbled in Crayola marker. Jamie couldn't help but smile when he realized who the four were.

"It's Santa!" She pointed to the stereotypical jolly, plump Santa she had drawn.

"And look! It's the Easter Bunny!" Jamie said with mock excitement. He had to keep Sophie happy… she was so little and fragile. Their parents would stop fighting eventually. Until then, Jamie had to take the role as big brother and keep her occupied.

"Yeah, Yeah! And look! Its Tooth Fairy and the sand guy!" she said, practically bouncing up and down on the bed. Jamie complimented her artistic abilities and gave her a high five.

Moments of silence went by, the only thing occupying Jamie's mind being his parent's screaming and the picture that lie in front of him.

"Hey sis," he asked.

"Yeah?" she replied, her eyed sparkling.

"Where's Jack in the picture?"

xxxxxxxx

Tooth could not move. She did not want to move. Her whole body was frozen in disgust and fear.

North walked in a few seconds after Tooth's screech, and put his hand to his forehead in disbelief.

Bunny was the last to enter, walking through the doorway with lowered ears and tense muscles. He was the first to utter a response.

"Bloody hell… dear god, what did Pitch…"

"How did we let get this far?" Santa just about whispered. Both of the men in the room were so shocked and disgusted that they didn't notice Tooth get up and walk over to the stone table where Jack lay restrained.

She hovered a few inches off the ground; she was too short to see Jack clearly over the tall stone table. The damage was certainly worse close up. From what she could see from his exterior, he needed medical attention.

He was bare chested, and his stomach was so badly bruised he almost looked purpleish gray. She could see where one of his ribs had been completely cracked. The bone made the skin over his ribcage look odd and lumpy. Vomit almost escaped her throat as she noticed the deep gash running from his hip to his shoulder. Blood was crusted around the wound, and fresh blood pooled under him. Several slash wounds around his waist looked red and green with infection; whatever had been used to inflict the wounds was certainly not sanitized. As she looked farther down his torso, she noticed his jeans pulled down slightly, revealing his boxers.

Pitch… you dirty, sick bastard.. Tooth gagged and turned away, lightly sobbing. This was too much for her.

Bunny hopped over and put a paw on Tooth's shoulder.

"We should unstrap him and get him out of here, mates. Then we can take care of his injuries." He said, glancing at North, who was picking up Jack's shredded embroidered snowflake hoodie that had carelessly been tossed in a corner. The anger in his face was more than prominent.

As Tooth stepped back, her foot knocked something cold backwards. The subtle clink clink of the metal was all she needed to hear to know that it was a knife. Bunnymund's nose twitched, and he turned around to pick the object up. It was a rusty knife, dripping with deep red blood. As soon as the rabbit's paws touched the handle of the blade, Tooth squealed with a mix of excitement and dread.

"He's awake! He just opened his eyes!'

Bunny dropped the knife, letting it clank to the ground once again. But instead of turning around to face a happy Jack, the one he had known before, he turned to face a petrified Jack. And his eyes were staring straight into Bunny's.

"whaaa…" Jack moaned, not taking his eyes off of Bunny.

"Aye! Look who's up," Bunny said, walking towards the shivering child. Jack's muscles tensed almost instantly.

Bunny reached his right paw to unbuckle the leather strap restraining Jack's wrist, but Jack yanked in his bonds, screeching for his life.

"Stay away from me!" Jack cried out, thrashing around even more. Bunny immediately jerked his hand away, frightened. He and the winter spirit were close to each other…

Why is he scared of me?

"Jack… buddy it's me, Bunny. And Tooth and Santa are here too. We're here to get you out of here. Let me just unbuckle these-"

"I said don't touch me you sick bastard!" Jack cried out, tears now streaming down his face. "You stabbed me…"

"What the hell?" the rabbit muttered under his breath. " Jack! We've been fighting Pitch's demons… I was no where near you. We didn't even know if you were alive…" he continued, moving closer. He was determined to show the teenager that he meant no harm.

"It was you. I saw you. You stabbed me." Jack's voice was almost a whisper. His thrashing and screaming had taken his last bit of energy. He refused to look at Bunny.

"Jack, you can ask Tooth. I wasn't in here. I swear." Bunny said, nervousness coating his words. Tooth walked up to Jack, and placed a hand on his cheek.

"Sweetie…you're hallucinating. It was Pitch that did these things to you." Tooth said softly. Jack wrenched his head away in terror.

All Jack saw was a furry body with hollow eyes.

This isn't Bunny! It's his corpse… he's dead.

"Jack, you have to trust us-"

Tooth was cut off by another bloodcurdling howl from the teen. Bunnymund quickly undid the leather straps despite the boy's cries, and tried to calm him down.

"Jack where does it hurt?" Bunny asked, reluctantly placing a paw on the boy's forehead. The only response he got from Jack was a squeal of pain and a terrified glare.

Jack curled up into a ball, his least injured arm covering his abdomen. More specifically, the wound which "Bunny" had inflicted upon him.

"Jack let me see it mate," Bunny said, prying the boy's arms off his stomach.

"Be careful! You can't just-" Tooth was cut off by a flustered Sandy waving his hands frantically for both of them to stop. The little man had been so quiet (not that he could have been very loud). The rest of the Guardians had almost forgotten about him. Sandman gestured for Bunny to lift him up next to Jack on the stone table.

Golden dust danced around Jack's head, not quite putting him to sleep, but calming his nerves. Jack lay completely still. Sandy went right to work, as if he knew exactly why the teen was acting so peculiar. When he pried the boy's arm away from his abdomen, he nodded as if what he saw was what he expected.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Tooth quietly asked, nervous.

A golden image of Pitch appeared above his head. Tooth snorted.

"We already know this is pitch's fault." Bunny said. North still stood in the corner, not saying a word.

Sandy shook his head and pointed to some of the black dreamsand surrounding Jack on the table. Then he pointed to the wound.

Bunny's eyebrows raised in confusion.

Sandy looked at the wound once more, noticing the black grains of sand intertwined with Jack's red blood. The man of dreams had come to his conclusion- he'd seen this sort of thing happen before. Pitch had made Jack hallucinate with his dreamsand, causing Jack to see "Bunny" stab him, when Pitch had clearly been the culprit. When Pitch had been torturing the boy, he had put his nightmare sand on the blade, and now it was inside Jack, making the nightmare sand's effects amplify.

Sandy stuck his hands out and let golden tendrils of sand entangle themselves in Jack's mangled skin, destroying the black sand. Once the sand was out of the wound and the extra nightmare sand was wiped off the table, Jack gasped for air.

Bunny, Tooth and North had no time to ask what Sandman had done, because immediately after opening his eyes, Jack mumbled with confused joy.

"G-g-guys? What…Pitch… and… thought you were dead…." Jack's chest moved rapidly up and down, his breath coming out in quick, ragged gasps. His voice was barely a whisper.

"C'mon mate. We're gonna get you all fixed up." Bunny said, smiling tremendously. Thank god he was only hallucinating…

Jack graciously accepted Tooth's warm hands on his freezing body. Her hands gently touched the skin over his shattered collarbone, as not to disturb it.

"Collarbone's broken…"

"That's three broken ribs, cracked hip, and snapped wrist. Not counting the numerous stab wounds and bruises…" Bunny said quietly to Tooth as she looked down at the half-concious Jack still lying on the goddamn stone table. The Guardians had wanted to assess his injuries before moving him, so they wouldn't hurt him further.

"I Know… But we take care of It when we get back to North Pole." Santa said, ready to get out of the dark walls of Pitch's lair.

After several minutes, they decided they were ready to grab Jack and leave. Bunny slowly slipped his paws under the boy's back, eliciting a small cry to escape his lips.

"Sorry mate… We'll be home in no time bud… it's gonna be alright." Bunny said reassuringly.

They were halfway down the winding stairs when Jack, of all people broke the silence.

"Bunny,"

"Yeah?"

"I'm really glad your eyes are back."

Bunny half smiled, half wondered what the hell the boy was talking about. He figured he'd ask when this whole thing was a thing of the past. When Jack was safe and healthy, and they could sit sipping hot chocolate and laugh about Pitch, like they always did.

Meh. I'm not feeling well, but I needed to update. Anxiety and school are my enemies at the moment… I've also completely cleaned out my Deviant art of the horrid things from when I was a child… *shudders*. Hopefully I can start over there, too. I think my writing is getting better… but I will never know if you guys don't tell me!

Is it creative enough?

Do I stay in the same tense the whole time? (past, present, future…)

Is my vocabulary second-grader-ish?

Do I portray the characters in a similar manner as they were portrayed in the film? (except Jack… he's kind of been tortured. He's a little out of character (: )