Disclaimer: I don't own the Forbidden Game series. Also note that due to inability to find the second and third books in a bookstore anywhere near me, I apologise for any inaccuracies, because it's been a long time since I've read them both. Dammit, I need to find those books: Julian's death of sorts always makes me feel so depressed.

Notes: The words in bold (not italics, thanks incarnated-soul, I originally meant for them to be italics, but F F. net wouldn't let it work ¬¬) are quoted lines from 'The Hunter', the first book. I've been reading it over and over for a while now, and I just feel that it's the time to write a little fic of it. Huzzah for Jenny/Zach cousincest of sorts … unless I've not searched thoroughly enough, I don't think this has been written before. I have no idea why; it's hinted several times in the first book alone, though I'm not sure about 'The Chase' and 'The Kill.' Enjoy.

---Chapter One---

Jenny blinked again. There was darkness and shadows all around her, and from that void, an icily cold wind blew. She could barely see a few inches in front of her, let alone what was around her. The ground felt solid enough beneath her feet, but she didn't want to move, in case it gave way. Then she'd fall … fall into darkness … and she wouldn't be able to get back.

"Guys?" Jenny called, wrapping her arms around herself. Her voice echoed strangely around her. This had an awful feeling of familiarity, a feeling of creeping fear … something she hadn't felt since last year … when …

She couldn't remember. It was something important, something that could help her, but she couldn't remember what had happened.

"Tom? Are you there?"

Jenny gasped, feeling a tendril of ice or shadow touch her ankle, horribly aware of the wind that was picking up around her, "Dee? Audrey?" Her legs didn't seem to want to listen to her anymore, and she could feel the ice creeping up her calves now. She took a deep shuddering breath, and even though she was blinded in the darkness, she knew that there would be ice crystals forming in the air in front of her face.

"Michael? Summer? Zach? Please, is there anyone there?" She called, her voice growing louder as she rubbed her hands together in a futile attempt to keep the cold away. Her hands felt like they were slowly freezing, and it felt as though the ring on her right hand had melded to her skin.

"You want to watch out for that cousin of yours too. He really does think about you, you know. I took that impression from life."

"W-What?" There was someone there. Someone had spoken to her. A voice full of elemental music. Water running over rock.

"He won't be able to get at you here. No one will, ever."

"Who's there?" Jenny asked desperately, quite forgetting the ice that was weaving around her legs and steadily up her hips.

Voice like silk-wrapped steel. Velvet. Like a sheet of ice shattering when he was angry …

As the cold began to bite into her flesh, Jenny realised she didn't care who it was out there, even if they were dangerous, because she didn't want to freeze! She didn't want to die!

"Help me!!" She cried out as the frost clung to her arms, weighing them down. "Please, someone, help me!!"

"Have you ever wondered why you can go into dangerous places without getting hurt?"

"Please, someone!!"

"Why the stray animals you pick up never bite you –"

"Help!!"

" – why you don't get mugged – or worse – when you wander around bad parts of town at night?"

"Please help me! Please!"

"I've been looking after you, Jenny. Watching over you. No one can touch you … no one but me."

So many voices and images filled her mind, shutting the water voice out. Dee was screaming in fright, trying to ward the Aliens away as blood ran down her leg, Audrey was half – lying on the floor, her face contorted in horror as the draugar came towards her, Michael, delirious with panic as the plants grew all over him, Summer's screams fading away as she ran from the door into her own personal hell, Tom was shackled and chained to the grandfather clock, and –

Zach was holding her tight against him, his winter grey eyes black with passion.

The ice that encased Jenny's body shattered, and she shrieked in fright and pain as the shards cut into her body. The floor gave way beneath her feet, and she was falling, screaming and crying as she fell … then she hit the floor again, painfully so, her honey-coloured hair spilling around her face as she sobbed on the ground, covering her head with her arms.

"No one can touch you Jenny."

Footsteps hit the floor under Jenny's cheek, someone walking towards her slowly as the tears kept coming, trickling down her cheeks and into her hair. They knelt beside her, and touched her honey locks tentatively before stroking her hair softly, soothingly.

"No one but me."

Jenny raised her head slightly, trying to shake away all the thoughts of everyone's pain as thick tears oozed from her green eyes, and she rested her forehead against the lap of the stranger as they kept stroking her hair, soft as a cat's paw. She didn't have a single clue to what was going on, her friends weren't there, she didn't know where she was, or what she was going to do, She had been trapped in ice and shadows, she had fallen into darkness, and the voices and images that had attacked her mind had terrified her, and all that seemed to be real was the steady stroking and comforting warmth of the person who had walked to her out of the void.

Jenny sat up, her eyes squeezed tight against the tears and she slid her arms around the person who had been stroking her hair, pressing her face against their shoulder as she trembled all over in fright. It seemed to be a man, because there were muscles hard underneath her arms and face, and his arms wrapped around her tightly, one hand still stroking her hair as he murmured soothingly to her. Jenny was grateful for any warmth that she was given, and this man, his fingers moving carefully through her hair, touching the roots gently, made her feel safe, enough here, in this place of shadows.

But …the feeling of cool fingertips against her hair roots felt so familiar to her … just like he had touched her … in that paper house …

Jenny choked back a sound of panic as she jerked backwards with some difficulty out of his tight embrace, landing flat on her back, but back peddling quickly away from the white haired young man knelt on the floor, a soft smirk on his sculpted face as he stood, dressed in a black t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up and black denim jeans. Jenny didn't know how she could see him in the darkness, but it was like there was a white light all around him.

It made no sense of course: Julian was a Shadow Man, something for which the light never shone. Why would he be glowing, let alone a white aura, when white was considered the purest and holiest of lights.

"He's really does think about you, you know." The Shadow Man told her softly, like he was merely a shadow of his former self, before he had been carved off the rune stave, "I thought I should let you know."

This was all insane. Jenny shook her head furiously; Julian had vanished after he had helped Jenny and her friends escape, after she had won the third and final game. He had simply faded away in her arms, like smoke up a chimney, because the older Shadow Men cut his name out of the rune stave that had brought him into existence. How could he be here?

Come to think of it, where was here?

"… who are you talking about?" It was the only question she could think of asking. 'What the hell are you doing here' seemed to be a bad question to ask for some reason.

Julian's heavy eyelashes drooped, just like they always did when he was amused by something. It was Julian, definitely.

"You don't remember?"

The darkness around them seemed to twist, replacing the black void with four very solid walls. One wall was covered with a huge garage door, metal and familiar, and there was a table against another wall, the concrete covered with photographs and prints. Jenny knew where they were.

"Zach's garage." She said quietly, getting to her feet to look around, though unnecessarily; this place was like a second home to her, because she spent a lot of time in the converted studio with her cousin. There were prints on the walls that she remembered very well, including the one of the stacked cafeteria tables that had taken an entire night to prepare, even when everyone had helped, working relentlessly as Zach's perfectionist nature kept them readjusting and making everything just right for the photos. It had been fun … Why had Julian brought her here?

"Not quite." Julian replied, shaking his head. The door that would normally lead into the house swung open, and Jenny let out a soft gasp of surprise as … well, herself walked in. It was like a ghost of herself, but unmistakably, undeniably, it was herself. She was wearing a tissue-linen blouse – one of her favourite things to wear on an important occasion – a long cream skirt and a vest over the blouse that shone bright gold.

Jenny knew this memory. She knew what was going to happen. She turned to Julian sharply as her shadowy self looked around the room, clearly wondering whose nightmare it was.

"Stop it."

"You don't want to remember?" Julian asked politely, tilting his head to one side as he looked questioningly at her.

"I remember what happened," Jenny shook her head, "I don't need reminding."

"You really don't?" Julian's incredible unnaturally blue eyes followed the shadow Jenny's progress to the dark room, "You never questioned it?"

What did he mean by that? Curious in spite of herself, Jenny frowned slightly, her dark brush-stroke eyebrows knitting together slightly as she shot him a questioning glance. Julian's smile broadened, as though challenging her, then he walked after the memory into the dark room, Jenny following after a moment of deliberation, pushing the curtain aside as he let it swing closed behind him.

There was the shadowy form of her blond haired cousin in the room. Jenny could remember the clothes: the flannel shirt, stone washed jeans. The old running shoes that she remembered her aunt had been telling him to throw out a week or so before Tom's birthday, but she hadn't nagged at him, because he had come down with the flu. Zach collapsed on the concrete floor even as she and Julian watched, the ghost Jenny catching him in her arms as he fell, comforting him as he clung to her like a frightened child.

"What do you mean?" Jenny asked, tearing her eyes away.

"Hmm?" Julian looked side-ways towards her, as though he hadn't been listening, though the smile gave it away that he was laughing at her.

"What do you mean 'you never questioned it'?" Jenny quoted him, her frown deepening as she folded her arms and turned towards him.

"You never did question it then?"

"What didn't I question?" Jenny asked, her teeth gritting together from frustration. Julian smirked slightly before gesturing to the ghosts of Jenny Thornton and her cousin on the floor, holding on to each other as if their lives depended on it.

"Why I masqueraded as your dear cousin, rather than someone else. Instead of Tom, which would have made it easier. Instead of Michael, even. Why did I choose Zach, who would be the most unlikely one to ever show feelings for you, and the most likely boy that you would shove away?" Julian's eyes flashed, and the smirk widened as Jenny's frown abruptly vanished.

Jenny tried to say something, to open her mouth and say something clever to stop him cold, but she couldn't. Because she knew that what he was saying made sense, his tone soft and reasonable. Logical, even. And what could she do against that?

"Why did you choose Zach?" It came out as a whisper.

Julian's answer was a simple one.

"Because he thinks about you. And apparently … " His eyes were fixed on the impostor Zach, sat on the floor, kissing Jenny, and she wasn't pushing him away, " … you think about him."

"I don't." Jenny replied straight away, without any hesitation. "I don't think about Zach romantically. And Zach doesn't think about me. You're lying."

"You seem pretty sure of that," Julian said, still watching as the blond head of Zach slowly changed to his own frost-white head, the shadow of Jenny not realising because her eyes were still closed as she slid her hands through the silky tendrils. Jenny was carefully avoiding looking at them.

"I am sure."

"Why didn't you push him away then?"

Jenny hesitated for a moment, "He … he was trying to make me feel better … I thought … I thought … " Anger flashed through her mind, and she stopped before snapping at him, "I don't know why I'm telling you this! It was you, not Zach."

"You didn't know that though," Julian pointed out quietly, pointing at the shadow Jenny as she pulled away, realisation dawning on her face as she looked into the sapphire eyes of the Shadow Man, whimpering in fright, "That was slightly obvious from your reaction."

"But …" Jenny was floundering, and she knew it. She couldn't think of what she could say. "But …"

"He never told you?" Julian sounded politely incredulous, "He's watched you too, you know. Why do you think that he distanced himself from you as you both got older?"

"He … he doesn't …" Her sentences were falling apart, because everything he said was true.

Julian's smile was grim now, a smile that cried of inevitability. She could see the look of longing in his eyes, of wanting to touch her, hold her in his arms again, but for some reason, even after all he had said to disturb and unnerve her, he couldn't. Rather than scaring her, it reminded her of the vulnerable Julian she had seen in the mine of that theme park, calling her back to life and begging her to wake up.

"Why are you here?" Jenny whispered. "You … vanished … you're …"

"Dead?" Julian finished her sentence for her, and there was a flicker of sorrow in his sapphire eyes for a moment, but disappeared as Jenny blinked, "I still am."

"But you're not … you're here …"

"You don't have to take my word on this, you know."

"What?" Jenny asked suddenly, thankful that she could finally say something even though she didn't know what he was talking about.

"Maybe you should go ask Zachary about it yourself."

Then, with a rushing noise and the feeling of falling as the dark room, the shadows and Julian all faded away, Jenny Thornton woke up with a jerk in her bedroom in California, screaming because of all the voices in her head that wouldn't stop reminding her of what had happened.

Authoress notes: Upon writing this chapter, I decided to write a second chapter to describe what happened, instead of merely writing it onto this one. That will be the last chapter though; I've got other things to do, unfortunately.

I apologise if I made Julian or Jenny out of character, or got anything wrong. Review, please.

-SC- / -MyHeartBleeds-