Author's note:

Bad grammar and mispelled words incoming!

And I also blame homework and online studying for the delay :v

Btw, I've noticed that my time calculation is stupidly messed up. So I changed the year to 1990, an official to match up what happened in The Accident (aka The Bite) and lined up to what happening now.

Sorry for this mess, I'll note when I change something. Again, very sorry.

Also, I'm gonna bring in some of the characters in the book series, and since this is 1990 so their age will match the kid's. Neat huh?

Anyways, shall we?

Chapter 11

Close-up Conversation

7:00 PM

sigh* Lily layed herself comfortably on the bed. Today was a hopeful day for Lily, as Mike will help her with the investigation as well as she'll help him with his too.

Just you wait. You can't hide forever... Lily mumbled insider her head, somewhat felt determined to find out The Culprit, somewhat sympathize for the victim of The Accident.

It's lucky that the boy can even survived an injury like that, which left him a giant scars on his forehead, but still, he is really lucky. Lily never get to know who the boy was, but relieved that he's still alive. Maybe it's because they didn't study at the same school, maybe it's because she doesn't hangout with boys slot, or maybe it's just because she haven't seen him before. Or maybe, she just forgot, forgot what really happened at The Accident.

Which reminds me. That boy I bumped into this morning...he looked familiar. Lily thought, tried to make up what the boy looked like, but since Lily was in a hurry, she couldn't remember what the boy was like. Oh well, maybe I was wrong. Lily sits up, stretching her arms for a bit, before heading to her computer. The computer, looked very old fashioned (to us), all of the device are covered with a bright cream color, the "block", the hardware, the keyboard and the mouse.

Moments later, after Lily turned it on, the first thing she sees isn't the background, but the notifications. Oh.... Lily gave a blank stare, looks like she missed some of her friends's messages. She clicked one of the notification, it brought her to a messaging app. It's from her friend, Charlotte, or as known as Charlie.

~13:24 AM~

•Omg!!! They've just released a new album!!!

•Omgggg!!

•You should take a listen to it!!!

Her friend, Charlie is really into bands and musics. Even Lily doesn't fond of it, she always told her to listen to it, well Lily did, but she didn't like it much. As Lily took a glance at Charlie's messages, she started typing on the keyboard.

~7:11 PM~

•Sure why not

Just seconds later, she immediately received a message from Charlie, looks like she's online right now.

•Cool thanks

•Oh and how's ur day at that pizzeria again?

•Ur mum said that u always go there

Wow, mom is really can't kept personal things huh... Lily thought, as she typing her message. None of her friends really care about Lily's detective fanatic, as most of them got used to it.

•Nun of ur business :v

-Watever...

•I havent seen Jess, last time she was at ur house rite?

Jessica, she too, is a friend of Lily. She is a member of her school's cheerleaders, and her dream is to become the leader of the cheerleaders!

-Yup, we had a sleep party last night. I cant find u so I couldnt invite u to the party

•Well, at least sleepin at home is more safer

-Ur regretting :))

•No im not!!

Being Lily's best friend, Charlie really understands her. As both of them is a girl, she even knows Lily more than everyone else could.

-Yeah u do :)))

•Stop with that smily face!

-( ͡ ͜ʖ ͡)

•Ewwww, whats with that face?

-Found it on a random website

•Sure...

•Anyways, imma off now.

-What?? We have just started talkin!!!

•Im gonna go searching on the net for stuff

-For ur information, if ur into mysteries and stuff. I recommended u to take a look at Mysteriumnet

-Its perfect for ppl like u ;))

There it is again, the winking. Mike's winks, now her friend's doing this? *sigh* Please don't. But since her friend suggesting her a new website, Lily let it slide.

•Fine

•I gonna look for it.

As Lily closed the app and put it on the tab, she opened AOL and started typing, searching, after that it showed up in the result section. "Mysteriumnet" being the first one on board, she clicked her mouse onto it.

"WELCOME TO MYSTERIUMNET , WHERE YOU CAN FREELY MAKE YOUR OWN THEORY AS WELL AS INVESTIGATING CONTROVERSIES!"

The website can get more simple as it already have. Just plain red tab on top, with a symbol of somewhat 4 heart-shaped leaves which circling each other, forming a clover. At first, Lily finds it difficult to get a look at anything that showed up on the homepage. As she managed to notice the search bar, Lily immediately clicked it.

Hm...What should I look for? Lily thought, as she tried hard to think of a term to search. Well, since this is for unsolved mysteries and controversial... "The Accident", Lily typed. But before she type enter or click the magnifying glass, she stopped, and begin thinking again. Maybe, maybe if this is really is about mysteries and controversies, then it will be mentioned by the term that reflects it the most. "The Accident", the term that was used by the media themselves, not the civilian. The people on the internet however, didn't seem the pleased with that term, since nobody was there to witnessed the event, well some kids told that they've seen everything that happened, of course nobody believed, of course, not the internet itself.

Theories started blowing up, controversies started getting mentioned, people became more suspected about what really happened in The Accident. Therefore a lot of theories, one of them will get the most support out of all, the one, the most convincing theory, the most persuasive theory, the most sci-fi but kinda true theory.

"The Bite of '83".

Lily typed the search term, and clicked the magnifying class. The page started circling.

The results for it? Well, there are TONs of it! Of course, the most popular one get to have its own page for being the most liked theory. This theory was made by a person with a green trophy inside a black circle with yellow triangular spikes emerged around it. Doesn't it look intimating? Well, Lily doesn't. But maybe you did.

Wow, that's a lot of likes. Indeed, over 69 thousands likes, and over 1 thousands comments, the theory itself is a step closer to solve one of the biggest mystery. Lily clicked onto the file, later then, it showed up somewhat a reasoning essays, long and well-prepared essay.

However, Lily doesn't like reading much...

You see, she doesn't like reading books much, because they have too much letters and it blurred her eyes, but she liked reading comics, which is obvious. So instead, Lily just glanced at the essay, before looking for another. Well, she tried to click "like" for the theory, but have to log in. *sigh* Lily frowned, but had to do it then, so that she can make a theory of her own, either.

Signing up, done. Updating profile, done. Uploading theories? "Under construction". As Lily started making one, she glanced at the brown board hanging on the wall, the one with lost of red threads. She thinks for a moment, before back to scrolling through the results again, saving the other theory for later.

Meanwhile...

"Hey...", a voice said, boy one.

No answer.

"Hey...!", he said asked again.

The boy jumped, his mind back to focusing. "O-Oh, sorry, I was thinking about something...".

"Yeah, don't tell me that you're thinking about dirty stuff again.", the other boy slightly mocked.

"W-What? No I'm not!", he agured back.

"Heh, whatever you say. But I'm still suspecting."

"Anyways, where was I again? Oh yeah.", the boy said, as he picked up a card from the pile, and then put out the deck.

"Oh come on!", he angered, then lied all the carpet floor, letting out his deepest sigh.

"I won.", the boy said, arm crossed, expressed a blank expression with a smirk, pridefully.

"And the winner gets to shuffle the card, am I right? Jeremy?", he gets up, put his cards on to a pile of cards.

"Wait, what? Since when?", Jeremy, the boy who had just won, suddenly changed his expression. "Nope. I'm out.", he raised his elbows up, liked when got caught by polices, and then stands up, started heading to the door.

"W-Wha...Hey! Where are you going?", the boy asked confusedly, maybe his joke just went wrong.

"Uh, home?".

"But it's still early!", he reasoned.

"Well, you shuffle then.", Jeremy said with a smirk.

The boys started at each other for a moment. Damn it. Looks like he failed, even then, he got fooled by his own friend, Jeremy. Knowing he couldn't reason anymore, the boy accepted anyways.

"Ugh, fine.", he said, as he started to gather all the cards into his hands and started shuffling.

"Cool.", Jeremy remarked, he went back sitting on the position before he was playing cards with his friend.

When it comes to card, Jeremy is the beast! He and his friend Houser had been playing this for a long time and most of the victories were claimed by Jeremy.

"A hah!", the boy exclaimed, this got Jeremy's attention. He looked at the boy's eyes, both widened, flickering a thought that he would win this time. "This deck is unbeatable! Hope you can come up with all you got". Yes, yes, yes!!! Finally! A good one! The boy thought in excitement, both eyes glared at Jeremy as well as his cards, he seemed confident, assured, but will this even enough to beat Jeremy? As for Jeremy, he still kept his peaceful and blank expression.

"Ok."

"You go first."

"Ok, John."

[Let the cards battle... begins!]

Immediately, Jeremy used a Wild Card!

What? Why did he used this so early?

"Yellow."

John looks at his deck, there are three yellow cards, two of them identical to each other. So that's mean he can play these two cards at the same time.

John plays two 5 yellow cards, 5 cards remaining.

"Hah! Take that!", he shouted.

Jeremy doesn't say anything, but plays a 5 red card, 5 cards remaining.

John has a lot of red cards in his deck, none of them identical to another, which is a benefit and a disadvantage either. He plays a 9 red card.

Jeremy just smirk, looks like everything goes perfectly for him. He plays a 9 green card.

Damn it! John thought in frustration, he looked at his deck, no green cards to be founded. Luckily, there's a 9 red card.

"Not bad.", Jeremy commented. Both of them played slowly, but very intimidating. A very serious match of cards battle is happening. He reached out to Draw Pile to took a card since he didn't have any red cards as well as a 9 card number. Luckily, he drew a red card, labelled the number 0.

"Why are you so lucky?", John asked, as if he couldn't know why.

Jeremy just shrugged.

If this battle took too long, he will win it again...John knows he has to ended this battle fast, or else his friend will claim the victory once again. The faster the round is, the higher chance John can win. He didn't know why Jeremy got this unlimited luck, since the card he draws always a good one of a live saving one. Out of ten matches, Jeremy won 7 of them. Although being lost almost every match, John still enjoy playing with his friend.

John used a draw 4 card!

"Green."

Challenge or Draw 4? If Jeremy choosed to challenge, then John has to show him his deck, of there are no green cards then he'll lost and have to draw six cards, but if he has at least a green card, then John himself have to draw for cards. Accepting defeat or risking the chance? Choices are important, they'll change your life forever, even small ones.

With no options left, Jeremy took four cards from the Draw Pile, as he noticed the smirk on John's face.

Lots of turns later...

Cards were being played.

Cards were being drew.

It's John's turn now, his deck now has two cards left while Jeremy has four, so close to winning. But little did he know that what cards Jeremy is holding is one of the most powerful, most rarest and most inevitable deck ever in "No-U" card history.

"Take, this! No-U!", John shouted, as he played the four colour card.

John used the Wild Card!

"Blue". Blue, of course it's blue, it's the last card he's holding, now Jeremy has to play a blue card, and no matter what card he played, Reverse or Skip, he still has to play the same blue color after that, well if only Jeremy has more than two Skip cards with different color.

"Oh...", Jeremy said casually, before slowly giving out a devilish chuckle.

"What with the laughing?", John asked, while grinning at his victorious. "I won."

"Hahahaha!", Jeremy bursted out his laugh. "You fool!", as he takes out a blue Skip card, and throws it on the pile of cards.

"Hah!", John exclaimed. "It's a blue one, you still have to play another blue card, all of the wild cards had been played and now in the pile. What will you do now huh? The only way to do now is accept your defeat and my victorious.", then he stopped. "Unless..."

Jeremy used another Skip card!

"W-Wha... Impossible! You still have the Skip cards? I thought they were all used!", John said in frustration, what a twisted moment. "You should be the one that lose!"

Jeremy used another Skip card! One card remaining!

"No-U...", Jeremy whispered, just big enough for John to hear it.

Jeremy used the last Skip card, no cards remained!

"No... fucking...way...".

[Jeremy won! Game end.]

The room went silent.

Is it just Jeremy's unbelievable luck, or it's just a one in a million chance? Jeremy didn't know, but he didn't mind anyways. As for John... well, he tried to held down his rage, and for that, he just lied on the floor and sighed again.

"Ughhh... I could've just keep the Wild Card for the last turn...", John failed to win again, now tried to come up with a reason for his stupidity.

"Nah, I would win anyways. Besides, my deck is... inevitable.", Jeremy remarked.

"How long did this game last?", John asked in tiredness.

"Uh... Five minutes?", Jeremy said as he looked at the clock hanging on the wall. "Wanna play ag-".

"Nah, I'll read some books. You can watch the TV.", John interrupted, he stands up and goes to his desk. "Oh, and you clean up that mess."

Jeremy looked down to the pile of cards they've just played, it's a mess, but won't take much time to clean up. "Heh, sure man."

11:58 PM

Jack, now lying on the bed with his lamp turn on. His hand is holding something.

It's a transparent, diamond-shaped crystal, emitting a dim cyan light source. On top of it is a ring attached to it, it has a small hole so that a rope or thread can be used to make a necklace or something else. Where did he get it? From Quinn of course.

Jack's flashback

That was an unbelievable experience, how he directly met one of the Nightmares, one of which that has been haunting him. Jack once had confronted them before, it didn't lasted long, before he went paranoid because of their appearance. Now, instead of him, Quinn confronted them, and somehow she didn't show any kind of fear at all. Jack wanted to be like her, Jack wanted to overcome fear, Jack wanted to get rid of them.

"So...Do you know how to get rid of them?", Jack asked. Both of him and Quinn are now sitting on the couch.

"Yes.", Quinn nodded. "But... Judging by its sentence, I've concluded that there more of them."

"I know...", Jack said, face frowned. "There are four of them."

"Out of the kind of ghosts and spirts, the Nightmares are the most stubborn one. They're greedy, they're fearful, and they're hard to get rid of. So it might take a while, I've got to study about them.", Quinn said, as she walks to the drawers, looking for something.

"And that's why I need you to keep... this.", Quinn goes back to Jack, and give him a marble-sized, somewhat transparent crystal that emits a dim cyan light with a golden ring attached to it, which has a small hole just enough for a small thread to go through, some kind of a necklace maybe?

"Um... What's this supposed to be?", Jack asked confusedly, while examinating to crystal.

"This will make the Nightmares and other kind of ghosts keep their distance from you. You can say it's an amulet, as if the non-magic called it.", she explained.

"Oh... Thanks I guess.", Jack responded. It's impressive that even such a Sci-Fi thing can exist in this world, even ghost, and witch. It's just, unbelievable.

"But don't depend too much on it.", Quinn said in a serious tone.

"What? Why?".

"The Nightmares, they fed up people's and their host's fear, as well as the negative feelings and emotions. Do you know what's their weakness?".

Jack thinks for a moment. If the Nightmares are capable of sucking the fear and negative feelings, they must have liked those feels. It's like food!

They, liked to eat fear.

They, loved fear.

They, needed fear.

So that's mean...

"The opposite of...fear?", he answered.

"That's right, dear.", Quinn nodded, pridefully. "If a Nightmare confronts a person that literally has no fear, but just a calm and blank expression, then it will be the one who felt fear. It will be weakened by its own fear, and will disappear later."

"Oh, I get it now. I'll try my best.", Jack said, grinned at the lady. "Say, if you're really is a witch. Do you mind telling me about your history? As well as magic?"

Quinn thinks for a moment. The witches and wizards were supposed to stay hidden from the non-magic human for the sake of world's balance. Yes, Quinn did do some exorcism for the non-human before and got their memories about her and the ghosts wiped later, as well as the people that got involved. What she only wanted people to know about her is as a Seer, so that she can got a small popularity for herself.

But this is Jack she's talking about. The boy, the victim of the endless nightmares of torturing and abusing the boy's fear, now come to a hopeless boy, and sad boy, a crying boy, a crying child. But if this make him satisfied and happy, then why not?

"Sure, why not darling?", Quinn kindly responded, as she went to a big bookshelves nearby.

"Really?", Jack said delightedly.

"Yes.", Quinn handed him a book, a really big and thick book.

The book itself has a cover made of some kind of dark brown leather, around it is a yellow patterned frame, looks fancy. And finally, the big and clear "History of Magic" labelled at the top of the cover, which was written in calligraphy, looks very fancy. The back of the book is the same as the cover, but just without the label.

"Wow thanks!", Jack said, eyes widened a bit, he sure is excited. It's been a while since people gave him gifts and presents. But this, this is the most awesome and out of science defying gift he had ever got. "Thank you..."

"Your welcome, dear.", Quinn gentle smiled. "You should read it at your home, or at the library. Guests will came here often, so might as well give me have some space to work with. You can return it at anytime. Don't worry dear, I won't go anywhere."

"Thanks...", this is the third time Jack thanking Quinn now. Doesn't matter, at least he has something to kill time. Now it's time for him to leave, as the bell ringed, alerted them to know that there's guest.

"Okay, I think I'll go home now. See you later.", Jack said as he stands up, went to the front door and waved Quinn one last time, before takes his bike and goes home.

"Later it is, darling."

Flashback ends

It's almost midnight, the grandfather clock should be chiming now, and Jack is waiting for it. If what Quinn said is true, then the amulet he's holding will protect him from them. I wonder...How far it can give me a protection from them? Good question, if the amulet acted as a ranged spherical shaped on the ground barrier, then what is its limit? Jack wondered, unnoticing the chimes of the grandfather clock, signaling for the incoming midnight.

Under the darkness that smother around his bed room, a dim light of cyan emitting a small space around it. Such a light of hope, guiding its bearer a way to light. But the moment got cut short later, by an appearance of both cold and emptiness presences nearby.

"Well hello the-"

"Gah!", immediately Jack jumped, goosebumps started emerging on top of his skin. It is one of the scariest moment in his life. Imagine sitting alone in your dark room, unknown any movement without a light source, then there's a voice, calling out to you. Well, if this happens in real life and in my room right now. I would have a heart attack for real.

For some reason, he threw the amulet directly to where sound came from.

"Hey! Keep that thing away from me!", it's that voice again. That deep, robotic, humanoid voice.

Jack hands are trembling, he reaches the lamp, and turns it on, revealing a big and steady, gold and nightmarish-looking animatronics. Not surprised, Jack kept his expression frightened.

"O-Oh... It's you again.", his expression later changed to frustration. "Now you open your mouth to talk to me? After all these six years?"

"Hey, keep it down kid.", the golden bear reasoned him. "It's not like we're mute."

The two looked at each other for a moment.

One tried to be calm.

One tried to be scary.

"Oh and would you mind take this thing away from me?", the bear asked.

"What why? Why would I do that?", Jack asked. Quinn was right, they don't like to be near it.

"Cause I don't like it."

Yep, totally right.

"H-How about...no.", Jack said, tried to clam down, for God's sake.

The golden bear sighed, disappointment can be seen in its tone. "You know, we could go a way around it and get to you. Its protection is not that big..."

"W-Wait...what?", he responded in enlightenment. Well that worked, so the amulet's protection barrier range is not that big. Well, I mean what else do you expect some such a small amulet as the size of a marble?

"O-Okay...then.", Jack slowly approaches the amulet fallen in the carpet floor, which is barely just in front of the bear. This is not the first or the second time he stands this close to it, since every night it would jumpscares him in front of his bedroom door.

"Don't worry, we won't bite.", the bear said, it didn't back away, like it wanted to test if Jack is scared to approach him or not.

"N-Not like you're trustful...or anything...".

"You'll be useless to us if you die though."

Jack picked up the amulet, not far away from it. " What? I live just to be your feeder?", he asked.

"No."

When Jack just about to looked up, the bear grabbed his left arm, tightly, pulled him up to face its eyes.

"It doesn't mean we can't kill you and move on to another victim. You are special from the others, that's it. Don't worry, it's a matter of time."

It's voice suddenly changed to even deeper, more robotic and less human. Such a voice that sounded like alien robots that can transform into cars. Jack on the other side, started breathing heavily, it's hand clenched so hard that his bone is almost at the point of breaking, there's no way he can escape from its giant claws.

"Your lives doesn't matter."

Jack stunned at the sentence the bear had just said. It sounded like a threat, but also a true reality. But will this even effect Jack? I mean his life is already doomed and all.

"Your right...", Jack muttered. The bear titled its head a little.

"But if I die, I'll bring you...with me.", Jack looked directl into its eyes, those bloody, nightmarish eyes.

What the... The bear thought. It looked into Jack's eyes. In a brief moment, there is no fear inside his eyes, there is no fear inside his mind. In a brief moment, fear was being overcomed. In a brief moment, the bear itself started to have a feeling of goosebumps.

Then it smiled.

"Impressive. I must say.", then the bear let Jack down, let him falls onto the floor. "Keep practicing."

Jack immediately backed up to his bed, he looked up, only to see the golden bear was gone. Still letting out his heavy breath.

"We will speak again. Till then, get yourself prepared.", it voiced echoed the room, after that was the laugh, the same laugh that Jack hears it every night.

"I am the creation of pure fear and emptiness."

• Disclaimer: I do NOT own AOL (American Online), but I DO own Mysteriumnet, although I don't know if the website itself already exist, but hey, I made it up.

As always, stay tuned!