It was the dark void, where many nightmares take place. A part of my mind remembered this, but that part wasn't in control, as always.

"Why?"

The whispers of multiple voices crossed my ears, from everywhere. I spun in a circle, trying to pinpoint just one.

Faces appeared, hanging in the sort of full length mirrors you'd see in a fun house. Each one I recognised, but only a few I knew the names of.

"Why?" they whispered again, mouths moving in rough unison to form the word, making them seem distorted and dragging the word out. Similar to a musical round, but infinitely worse.

I could hear my breathing loud in my ears as I tried to back away, but the mirrors surrounded me. I couldn't get away.

"Why did you let us die?" they whispered in the same manner as before.

"I'm sorry." I tried to say, to rationalise, to apologise. "I never meant to..."

"Why?" their faces distorted oddly, elongating, squashing together or breaking apart and coming back together again.

"I never..." I felt myself fall to my knees, looking hopelessly at the faces. "I didn't..."

"Will it stop?"

A solitary voice, not the one I'd really feared hearing, but it was still bad.

I turned to face the mirror with Penelope's face, her eyes rolled back into her head and chin splattered with blood. Her originally sallow skin was grey and worst of all, there was a gaping hole in her forehead, slightly frosted around the edges.

"It has. I've got it under control." I insisted, voice cracking.

"Have you?"

The mirrors were sucked away violently, smashing into shards of blood stained ice before being sucked into a tornado of snow. All the while accompanied by frenzied screams and constant 'why?'.

"Why? Whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhy?"

"STOP! STOP IT!"

My hands were clapped over my ears, trying to block out the cries, but instead the sound of a baby crying pierced through the noise.

Everything suddenly went silent, except for the baby.

"What about him?"

I was jolted awake, breathing heavily from the nightmare. It took a few seconds to root myself back into reality, not helped by the crying baby that had followed me from the nightmare.

Crying baby...

Uh oh.

Trying to shove the nightmare out of my head, I grabbed my glasses and went down the hall into the baby's room, the walls painted a tasteful shade of yellow.

In a white and baby blue cot and under a mobile of the solar system lay a baby. A little baby boy in a powder blue onesie and dark peach fuzz on his head.

Oh, and he was wailing like the world was going to end.

"Hey hey. It's okay." I murmured as I reached down to pick him up.

I held him against my chest and sat down against the wall, rocking him gently.

"Shhh, shhh." I went, still rocking him.

"It's okay, it's okay." I continued softly. "Bad dream? I get them too. Bogeyman doesn't like me very much."

He slowly stopped crying, but was still whimpering a bit. I formed a snowflake on the end of my finger and dangled it in front of his face.

His little blue eyes lit up and his chubby little hands tried to grab it. I smiled and moved my finger around slowly, letting him try and catch it. His whimpers changed to gurgling noises and a few giggles, which managed to calm me down as well. I could even feel a soft smile forming on my face.

Jamie was out tonight, travelling to a convention that I didn't feel like going to. I was fine with it, he had always wanted to go, so I practically shoved him out the door so he wouldn't feel so bad.

Taboo would normally be here, but she'd been going crazy being inside all day, so she was out in the woods.

Leaving me, and little Jack.

"Feeling better?" I asked as he stopped trying to grab the snowflake.

In response he yawned and snuggled into me. He didn't mind my lower temperature, nor did he mind Jamie's normal one, we just couldn't hand him to each other. The change in temperature usually got him to start bawling.

"Alright, time to go back to bed." I stood up as carefully as I could, trying not to jostle the precious bundle in my arms.

I carefully put him back and pulled the blanket over him, but I didn't leave, not yet. The nightmare was still in my head and now that he was quiet, the worst parts were coming back.

"I know you're too young to understand this, but a lot of people think I'm dangerous, and I can't really deny that. That's what my nightmares are about, and you..." I sighed. "You're so small, fragile even, and even now I'm scared that I'll..." I couldn't finish, I couldn't even look at the baby, my little boy. It was weird to think about sometimes.

"I'd say that I'll protect you, and that I'll never hurt you, but I told Danny that, and, well... It's my fault you don't have an uncle."

I felt my legs give out and I fell to my knees, trying my hardest not to cry. I didn't really need to, there was no one else here, I didn't have to hide how much the nightmare had freaked me out. How every time I held my son I was terrified that I was going to hurt him like I'd hurt so many other people. It was my own pride and not wanting to disturb him.

"I don't want to hurt you. I love you." I whispered. I couldn't stay in here. If I kept this up, I'd only wake him up again.

I pushed myself up and walked like a zombie downstairs to the kitchen. My parents had given Jamie and I the house, since as they'd gotten older they couldn't cope with such a big house.

I poured a glass of milk, set it on the table and I plopped into a chair, the nightmare starting to run like a silent movie behind my eyes. My eyes were burning, my throat sore and lumps of ice were sticking to my face.

I let it out as quietly as I could, and after a while I was done, flicking off the chunks of ice. I did feel a bit better, especially since I couldn't exactly go for a run tonight, and surprisingly, I felt some resolve.

"It won't happen." I decided. "I will not hurt you. Ever. It will never happen to anyone else I love."

I didn't promise. I don't promise something unless I know that without a shadow of a doubt I was able to keep it. I was going to try though.

That was the best promise I could make.

This story was spawned after watching a comic dub of the Undertale fan made comic 'Night Terrors' and before you check it out, there are spoilers (I guess) for Undertale in it, and it does do it's title justice, so, don't say I didn't warn you.
It was also originally going to be in the MLSW/HOG combined universe, but I decided that I'd dabbled too much in that universe for now, so I changed it.

This also marks the first one shot story where Jackie's new family makes an appearance. I've had very few ideas involving these guys, but if you guys are interested in seeing more, I will oblige, don't expect an immediate response.

And to pinpoint the time, Jackie's about early thirties here, and I should say that I know very little about babies, I don't even particularly like babies. Chances are this will be the only time a baby will make an appearance.