A/N: The story of Rachel and her father, Mr. Tophat continues! As this is part of a series, prior reading of the previous two stories, What Do You Remember? and The Story Comes to an End, is needed to fully understand this story.

Rachel felt a strong sense of Deja vu as she found herself running once more down the familiar halls of an abandoned building. Despite her gasping for breath and her body screaming at her for rest, she urged herself to continue to run as a man laughed from somewhere behind her.

She followed the same familiar path down the stairwell and into the large room with towering pillars until she found herself standing in the same spot as she once before. Unlike her dream from before, there was no girl asking Rachel for help or a tiny swing ride toy on a desk. Instead, it skipped right to the organ playing the haunting carnival music and her standing in front of a brightly lit stage. She walked a familiar figure began to walk across the catwalk towards her. His face hidden by the shadow of the top hat seated upon his head. Her heart jumped with every step he took and every time his golden tipped cane hit the ground.

Where once she felt nothing but fear and need to run at the sight of him, she now felt the glimmer of hope and her mind screaming safety as he drew need. But as he took one final step towards her, he suddenly burst into a mass of scorpions. She could only watch in horror as the scorpions fell and ran away into the darkness, leaving behind only his top hat in his place. She wanted to scream and cry for him to come back but knew it was too late. Knowing she was no longer safe, she turned to run somewhere else. As she moved, she turned to stand face to face with a horrifying man with a melted face who was reaching out to grab her.

Rachel jerked up in her bed gasping for her breath as she was drawn out of her nightmare. It took her moment to remember her surroundings. She was in her bed and it was the middle of the night. Looking around, she searched her room for any possible dangers that may have followed her out of her nightmare. Her searching drew to a stop as her eyes fell upon the top hat that has been hanging up on her wall since she came home from that unforgettable night. A sense of warmth and longing fell over her as she looked at the hat, thinking of its former owner. Despite wishing things were different, she knew there was no changing the past. With this knowledge, Rachel returned to her sleep. For the rest of the night, she slept soundly, her monsters choosing to leave her be for now.

When morning came, it was as though nothing had happened. Rachel felt as rested as she could be and was content with beginning her day. She went through her usual routine of eating breakfast and getting dressed before calling out a goodbye to her mother as she stepped out of the door to met with Gavin to make their daily walk to school.

It has been a few weeks since she defeated Mr. Tophat. Everything has gone back to normal. Rachel and her friends have all been enjoying life. The night after the carnival, she was officially inducted into the Midnight Society and soon after Adam joined their ranks as well. He gave a surprisingly good story about an invisible werewolf haunting a suburban neighborhood, even Akiko impressed. Outside of the group, the friends have begun hanging out as well. Akiko lifted her policy and has employed the others with helping out with her movies. Graham has been making music for the soundtracks and running them by Louise to receive her approval and Gavin joined in as one of her actors. Rachel filled in the role of costume artist and poster maker, a role she's been thoroughly enjoying. Even Adam has helped out by letting Akiko use his dog, Jefferson, as the dog form of her monster in her werewolf movie. All in all, life has been great.

As Rachel and Gavin walked, they began their new routine of questions and answers.

"So, sleep well last night?" Gavin asked as he enjoyed the cool fall air. Rachel began to open her mouth to give the automatic "good, you?" but paused as the memory of last night's nightmare returned to the front of her mind. She looked out over the graveyard they were pasting before finally deciding on her answer.

"For the most part," she answered. Seeing a concerned look appear on his face, she asked: "Do you remember the nightmare I told you about, the one I had when Mr. Tophat was trying to scare me and make me remember?"

"The one with you running through some old building and him popping up right in front of you when you turned?" he said with furrowed brows as he tried to remember it. At her nodding, he gave a slight smile in delight over his correct answer. "What about it?"

"I had the same dream last night. Well, almost the same dream. I was running again, but it was from someone different. And Annie didn't show up begging for my help. The weirdest part was that when the organ began to play and Mr. Tophat appeared on the stage, I was actually happy to see him," she explained. Gavin frowned and thought to himself for a moment before replying.

"Well, maybe you were happy because you know who he is now and that he doesn't want to hurt you," he said. Rachel nodded in agreement before continuing her story.

"Maybe, but that's not the only thing that happened. He began to walk towards like the other dream, but before he could reach me, he turned into a bunch of scorpions, just like he did when I destroyed his cane. Then, the most horrifying part was when I turned to run away, there was this man reach out, trying to grab me," she shivered as she remembered the way the man had looked. "His face was all weird like someone had taken a face made out of clay and smashed it all up."

"And then you woke up?"

"Yeah, then I woke up. What do you think it means?" Rachel looked over at Gavin with a worried look on her face.

"I don't know. If last time, it was because Mr. Tophat was after you, who's after you now? Do you think they have any relation to him?" Gavin wondered. Seeing that he wasn't helping at all, he quickly added "Let's not worry about it. Who knows, maybe your mind was just reusing material and added some new stuff for the fun of it."

"Maybe," Rachel agreed. Done with the conversation, she finally looked up and saw they had arrived at the school. Letting out a sign, she looked over at Gavin "Let's forget about it for now. If anything else happens, we can talk it over with the others, agreed." After receiving a nod from her friend, she made her way towards the front doors of the building. As they reached the doors, Rachel felt the sudden sense of something run up her spine. Whipping her head around, she looked over her shoulder and froze as she saw an odd sight. All the way across the school grounds, another girl had frozen as she was walking along the sidewalk and was looking in her direction. Despite her eyes being hidden behind a pair of sunglasses, she could tell that the girl was staring right at her and that she was just as unnerved by this fact as she was. Hesitantly, Rachel raised her hand and waved to her. Slowly, the girl waved back and then promptly turned back towards the direction she was headed and continued her walk. Rachel continued to watch her until she disappeared out of sight. Once she was gone, she turned back to the doors and saw Gavin still standing there beside her.

"What was that about?" he asked. Rachel simply shook her head.

"I have no idea. Let's just get inside before the bell rings," she replied. Together, they headed inside and hurried towards their respective lockers, both hoping the rest of the day will be more normal than its been so far.

A/N:I hope you enjoyed! I plan to post the next chapter next week, so stay tuned until then.

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