Nightmares

"Theresa!"

Ratigan knelt beside her wife's body.She had benn stabbed near the heart:her left lung was pierced,and her breath was harsh and difficult.Ratigan immediately understood that she was going to die.

"Theresa"he called softly taking her in his arms,unaware of the blood "can you hear me?"

She weakly opened her blue eyes and looked at him. "James?Is it you?"

"Yer, darling, it's me. What appened? Who hurt you?"

"He...he had a knife...I think he was the same person who killed Miss Owen the last week...the same who killed...all those people..."

Ratigan felt his bolod freeze into his veins "You mean the Killer of Alleys?"

She nodded painfully. "Yes,he...he attaked us and..."suddenly her eyes widened "oh,God...Ginny...where is Ginny?Please, tell me she's fine!"

"She's fine,Theresa. She's only fainted.Don't worry."

"Thank...thank to God" despite the pain, Theresa sighed in relief ,then "James?"

He stoked her blonde hair now stained with blood. "Yes,darling?"

"Take care of...our daughter.."

"I will."he promised.

She smiled for the last time, then she leaned her head on his chest and stopped breath.Ratigan gently closed her eyes and leaned her on the ground.

"I'll never forget you"he whispered.

"Well,well"said a mocking voice behind him "and thus your beloved wife is dead."

Ratigan turned around, and almost screamed when he saw who had talked. The rat-sized figure grinned, staring at him with his red eyes. His neckbone was broken, and he had a large wound on his head.

Ratigan took a step forward. "Father..."

"You didn't expect to see me again,don't you?"

"You...you can't be here!You're dead!"

The creature snarled. "Of course I'm dead!You killed me!But I finally had my reverenge!"

"W...what do you mean?"

His father smirked,then he pointed at Theresa's dead body.Ratigan shuddered. "No..."

Then, the frightening creature glanced at Ginny,who was still lying unconscious on the ground. "And your daughter is the next."

"NO!"

Thump.

"Ouch!"

Ratigan needed a few time to understand that it had been just a nightmare and that he was fallen from his bed. He grunted. "Great.Just great.I didn't fall from the bed since I was four.Damn nightmare..."

He turned the light on and sat at the end of the bed. He didn't want sleep anymore:there wouldn't be any rest for him. Not that night.

Why had he seen his father in his nightmare? He hadn't think about him for years. "Damn to you, Basil"he said at the empty room "why did you remind me about my parents?"

Basil's words echoed in his mind: 'I still remember when you killed your parents...I knew it was your fault... you killed them because evil has not age...'

Ratigan had killed that damn drunkard of his father when he was just twelve:I wouldn't let him beat him or his mother anymore,so,one night,he had placed a pile of clothes on the stairs.When his father came back from the pub he was blind drunk,and he stumbled and fell down the stairs breaking his neckbone,just as he hoped.A tragic accident.

Some months after,when he was almost thirteen,he killed his mother too.After his husband's death she had began to drink and beat her son just as he did.Finally one day,his back and shoulders covered of scars,he poured some of her sleeping-pills in a bottle of wiskey.Later,his mother went to sleep to never wake up.

Another accident, or maybe a suicide.

Poor little orphan, Ratigan tought sarcastically.

It had been so easy...no one of those idiots tought he was smart enough to kill his parents.No one except Basil,who at the time was...ten?Yes,he was a couple of years younger than him,so he was just ten years old. Even as a boy,he had always been an insufferable...

"Daddy?"

Ratigan turned around to see Ginny in front of the door. She was entered without make any noise.

"What's wrong,honey?"

"Nothing, I just couldn't sleep.I'm not tired"she said.She was good to lie,but the black shadows under her eyes denyed her words.

Ratigan smiled to himself.She was too proud to show her pain and her fears in front of anyone.He had never seen her cry, not even after her mother's death. She hadn't talk for two weeks,but she had never cried in front of anyone.

"And why you're awake?"she asked, sitting next to him.

"I'm not tired"he joked.

Ginny smiled a little and hugged him.Ratigan gently rubbed her back.

"Daddy?"

"Yes,honey?"

"Are you sure that Basil will be able to catch him?"

"I think so,Ginevra. I think so."

They stayed silent for a while,and when Ratigan looked down to Ginny he saw that she had fell asleep.

He chukled. "And thus you weren't tired,don't you?"Then he leaned her on the bed and covered her up.She made a slight noise in her sleep as he kissed her forhead.

"Good night,honey."

Sorry for so long update but I had been a little busy.I'll try to update every week from now.R&R!