Mac managed to keep his cool,as Mac,Wilt.Ed and CoCo aruged back and forth about where they should go in Mac's car.It was so loud,that Mac couldn't cover his ears to cancel out the sound.Finally,they came to a screeching hault.They all got out and as one,slowly made thier way up to a rickety old boarding house that had seen better days.Mac didn't see very well until they were up close,it was big and grey in down and in desperate need of repair.Some windows were shattered,dead vines ran from the top to the bottom of the walls.And to top it all off,it was the darkest spot in the Neibourhood.Mac noticed uncomfortabley,as they approached it close together and very well alert.

"Are you sure this is it?"Wilt questioned Bloo suspciously,his one acute eye narrowing down at him,"You have been known to exaggerate the truth before,you know?"

"I'm serious!"Bloo retorted tightly,his face reddening slightly,"This is where they've set thier makeshift home for the last 20 years.Don't believe me,then go see for yourselfs!"

"Bloo,shhh,now what about Duchess..."Mac inquired his friendsoild note in his voice telling him to get down to business,even though Mac mostly admired Bloo's pertinaciousness to do what was right,he sometimes felt that he was unecessarily over-doing it a bit.

"Oh,right."Bloo seemed to fade back into the main goal,because his eyes glowed a strange,excited glow in the late evening sky,"Well,she despeared almost 15 years ago.I've been coming here and helping out as much as I can the last ten years,uh,you get my picture.Anyways,it's 6:38 now,only so many more hours until midnight.You guys ready to help catch some Night Bandits by Twevle O'clock tonight?"

"Yeah!"They all cheered simultaneously,but then grins suddenly dissappeared,when they noticed Mac frowning at Bloo doubtly.Bloo,in question,was still whooping it up.

"Oh...YEAH!Who's the man with the plan!The butter on the Biscit?The needles on the Cactus,The Partridge-uhhh-what's everyone looking at?"He asked them with an arched brow,then shrugged and began ambling carelessly up to the door.He flashed them a confident grin and rang the bell.

"I'm coming...I'm coming!"Came a husky,guttural voice from only feet from behind the door.Mac that he recognized it some,but it was so low and dry,that he couldn't be for sure.

Suddenly,the door flung open and a miserable image ofa middle-aged woman with reddish-gray hair,wrinkles starting to form in the corners of her eyes and ashy skin from supposed lack of sunlight,appeared in the doorway.

"Bloo?"The woman said again with some retained calmness,trying her best to put on a smile,even if she knew it'd look terribley feeble,"I'm sorry.I didn't mean to yell-well,you know.I can never be too sure who will do what around here anymore.Mr. Harrimen's been even more prequipped then usual,more are dissappearing by the minute and I-whose that?"

Bloo followed the way she was pointing,to where Mac had scrambled out of the bushes and was now walking over to them.At first,he couldn't tell who the woman was.He just thought he had a clue,then it came to him,it was Frankie.

"It couldn't be..."Frankie gaped in disbelief,when Mac offered her a friendly smile and she immdetely realized it was him,but then she did something Mac didn't think she would,she hurried toward him and grabbed him in a tight lock,"Mac!I can't believe it!After 25 years,25...long...agonizing years...you're back!And...uh...why are you back just like that out of the blue?Don't take it the wrong way,but that's quite a bit of time to just be gone and then back again.

"Well,"Mac began slowly,frantically racketing his brain for something to say,"I guess I just wanted to keep my promise."

Frankie smiled back benigantly and motioned for them all to come on in then.Nothing fancy,but come in."

They all followed her inside and scanned around at thier surroundings.The inside looked fairly decent opposed to the outside appearance.Everything seemed to be in a neat order,as usual.But Mac could hear somebody coughing hoarsely in another room.Before he could ask,something bumbed into him and knocked him down,when he looked up he couldn't help but stare.It was an Imaginary Friend with a goofy-looking dog-head,a long extendable rubberlike body,red with yellow and orange strips running down it's back and head and hears.It also had a long blue dragon's tail and tiny,leathery purple wings on it's back.And to top it all off,his front feet were Lion's paws and the back were hooves.

"I'm Griff-Dog or Griffie!"He told them in a perky,high-pitched voice,leaning down to lick Mac on the cheek,"And who are yoooouuuuuuu..."

They all watched with amazement,as Griffie extended himself so long,that he was nearly all the way around all the walls.But when he reached a nearby set of stairs,he couldn't go any further and clinged back together.And he was fast too.

"He's one of the ones who have been here a while,he's very,very hyperactive,"Frankie whispered in Mac's air,eyeing the Friend,as he came over to examine the rest of the Friends.

"And...who are you guys exactly?"Griffie questioned to clutter of Friends standing in one grop together.

"I'm Wilt,nice to meet you Griff-Dog."

"The names Bloo-hey!You already know me!"

"CoCo."

"Senior Eduardo,you're not a Nightmare Bandit,are you?"

"BooBoo."The little sheeted Friend spoke up shyly for the first time,blushing slightly as he did.Frankie took Mac by the arm and pulled him into another room so they could talk alone,why everyone else socialized and got to know each other.Which,of course,happened very rapidly.

"OK,give me the low down on what you've been up to all these years,kid,"Frankie requested playfully,then started to say scurpulously,"Um,this is a bit much to deal with,isn't it?I-"

"You don't have to say anything."Mac told her with an understanding nod,"I'm 33.I think I can get what you're saying.I've been gone a long time and you're right,things change.And speaking of which,where'd the Duchess take off to.Heh,I'd love to see the look of her face if she knew I was back!Wouldn't you...uhhh...Frankie,what's wrong?"

Frankie had grown silent.She had seen so much over the years,growing wiser and more realistic over time.She wasn't young anymore,she realized.Any oppurtunity after Samuel P Morgen or Sam,who she'd gone out with for nearly 7 years,before he had tried to propose to her and she had turned him down because she had to help take care of Fosters.And if thier was one thing Sam hated,it was Imaginary Friends."They always get in the way and are useless!"He tell would her shrewedly,but he was gone now.No one was left.

"Mr Harrimen is in a real bad condition and if we lose this house,all the remaining Friends will have no where to go.But if those things keep coming back...oh,I can't stand it!I'm asleep after a long day on the job,then I hear a tradgic cry in the night,but when I get there thier gone.In the last year since it's happened,kids have been terrfied by unbelievblely horrible nightmares that Bloo says are the reverse effects of what Friends become when thier turned evil.But I have no idea if it's true or not!And that's why we hardly ever get adoptions,because the kids are afaird of the Imaginary friends!"

Mac patted Frankie sympathically on the back and helped her up and into a chair.He glanced up at the clock and saw it was almost seven.With a determind grit,Mac asked her firmly.

"The Nightmare Bandits come at Midnight to kidnap the friends,right?I mean,they snick in without anyone knowing."

"Uh-huh,"Frankie sniffled softly and then caught on,"Mac,you don't know if it's safe or not to do what I think you're going to do.What if Wilt,Ed,CoCo,Bloo or BooBoo get turned into Nightmares.Well,Bloo is already a nightmare,but that's besides the point!Mac?Mac are you even listening to me?"

"I'm listening,"Mac responded in a tone of voice that was new but still somehow familiar,"But I'm still doing what I feel is right.And what I feel is right,is tonight these Nightmare Bandits are in for a reeeeaaallll special surprise."

Well,as much as I'd love to sit here and chat on and on about this and that,I'm going out with some friends in in hour and crap,I gotta get ready!Well,here's saying ttyl!Until next chapter!Which'll be here...eventually...maybe never.KIDDING!But seriously,I have to go now,lolz!

Lavenderpaw