Hello all. I'm on a writing spreeeeeeeeeeee! GO SPREES! Anyway, I wrote a story for this a long time ago, it was my ideas on Li'l Slugger. However, there was no category for it at the time, they wouldn't return my emails, and by the time it did come up, the series was already over, and the story made no sense anymore. BUT! I had really wanted to post it, so I decided to revise it! Now I give to you, my friends and fans, a new and improved story. My puppy muse Scribble will now do the disclaimer

Scribble: We do not own Paranoia Agent. We love it so very much though, even though it's very weird.

Me: YAY WEIRDNESS!

Scribble: A quick side note- several ideas in this story came from Neil Gaimon's The Sandman, which we also do not own. While it helps to have read a bit of the series, this story can be understood without knowledge of it. That's all.

Nightmare

Li'l Slugger's POV:

I enjoyed the sound of my bat crashing down on people's heads.

Not that I liked killing or hurting people. In fact, I wasn't supposed to be doing this at all. At least, not to so many, not like I ended up doing. It's sad; the things people do when they want to escape reality. I know from experience.

Perhaps I should explain.

Technically, I'm not real.

Oh, you can hear my voice, the sound of my skates on the pavement. If you touched my hand, it would feel warm. And you can see me, bat raised, eyes gleaming with the light that was as gold as the bat I would wield. But I'm not real.

I'm a nightmare.

I come from the kingdom of dreams, nightmares, fantasy's, and all the things you see when you sleep. And I came there for a reason. I was created.

She created me.

Tsukiko Sagi made me up. I came from her imagination. I was the nightmare that she started. And so I came to live in the realm of dreams.

Then,for some strange reason, she called to me. She pulled me back. I saw what had been happening. The one who made me…my mother, if you will…needed me more than anything then.

I guess it was because I was created by a human and not the Dream Lord himself. Maybe that's why I felt sadness, pity. Dreams and Nightmares aren't supposed to have feeling at all. But I did have feelings.

And I wanted to help her.

That was all I really came to do.

The only problem was last time no one knew about me but her. This time, everyone knew.

And the people started calling me. I suppose it was because they were stressed, they were pressured, they wanted an escape. What weak things these people were, always looking for an easy way out. I had come to teach my mother something, not them.

Yet I couldn't get away from those who called to me. I wished to. I wanted to finish with mother and go back home.

But they wouldn't allow me.

And I began to mutate.

The wilder the rumors got, the more I changed. I got taller. My eyes turned red. I grew fangs and claws. NO! I wasn't supposed to be this way! They changed me!

I had stopped being a child, and I became a monster.

The monster is gone now, buried inside. All I can do is hope it doesn't get out.

By the time everything was figured out, I was already this monster. But even still, as the monster tried to devour my mother, I gave her one last chance, one final try to get her to see her mistake.

I brought her back to the very instant she was enticed to create me.

The day Maromi died.

Maromi was her pet puppy. She had always wanted one, and her father finally got her one, rather reluctantly. She promised to take good care of him, however, while she was walking him one day, she got distracted, dropped the leash, and Maromi ran out into the street, where he was hit by a car. Tsukiko was terrified of what her father would say, and told him a boy on roller skates had attacked her, and he got a bat and told her he'd protect her; even though he always knew what she told him wasn't true. Touching, in a way.

But this was the very thing she needed to see to get her life right again. All this time she had been avoiding one thing.

She was avoiding accepting the fact that it had been her fault.

She refused to take responsibility.

It was almost too late by the time I showed her this, despite her minds best efforts to deny that. Her mind spoke to her through Maromi, the very thing that had started the trouble; she had made into an icon. And it told her as always IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT!

But as she saw me beginning to form because of her denial, she couldn't run from the truth anymore. And she accepted the fact that she had to take responsibility. She stopped denying.

She knew that it was her fault, and she couldn't do anything but live with it.

And as soon as she knew, I went back to the way I was. The monster was gone, and I had finished what I started out to do. I was already fading away. I wished I could talk to her, wished I could maybe explain just a little, but I didn't have anytime. So I just said one last thing to my mother.

Goodbye.

Things were different after that. I felt sorry for the wife of the detective, although her death had nothing to do with me, I still feel a little responsible. I also feel sorry for the other one; I believe I may have broken his mind.

But mother is doing much better. She's created another character, she's cut her hair, and she's even become a little more outgoing. She went to tell her father last week, which I did see. He forgave her, and it was a tearful reunion.

But no one else remembers me. That's fine though. I didn't come for them.

Almost everyone who was there when it happens has forgotten. And that's how it should be, because as I said before, I'm not even real.

People, after all, rarely remember their dreams.

And eventually, I will be gone completely.

I will have been nothing more than a nightmare….

Scribble: WOW THAT SUCKED.

Me: Yeah, kind of did. Oh well, here is the revised mess. I wish I could've posted the original, but the original was more of a mess, and it's long gone by now. I'm thinking of this being a prequel to another story, but I may just leave it as it is. If I do continue, it will not be here, it will be a separate story though. So please, don't flame too much. Good reviews and constructive criticism are welcomed. Thanks to all who took the time to read this, and more thanks to those heading towards that blue button with their mouse. Long Live Li'l Slugger!

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