Author's Note: I wrote a good portion of this last Sunday, but it took me some time to figure out what I wanted to happen with this chapter. Naturally, the story seems to have taken on a life of its own and things are happening that I wasn't originally planning for. Oh well, it just makes things more interesting, right? :P
Reviews:
Fenghuang0296: If you think that now, just wait until the next chapter!
Crossover Junkie: I would think so since it looks like they'll be spending some time together.
War Cry's: I PMed you but I'll answer you here too: Yes, it is Death from the Discworld series. In my fic, Death is Death for the entire multiverse. As seen in one of the books, the real world seems to co-exist alongside the Discworld universe, so I don't see why Death can't pop in from time to time.
Chapter Sixty-Seven: Jamie's Adventure: Nightmare
Previously:
"I know you!" she said suddenly as all sadness was instantly forgotten in her excitement. "You're Jamie! You're that kid that told me all about the Guardians and Jack Frost!"
Now it was Jamie's turn to stare in astonishment at her.
"What?!"
Current time: 1974
"Ya know this kid?" Bunny asked Lillian as he turned back toward her.
Lillian nodded.
"He's Jamie Something. I met him.. um.. four..? Something like that.. Four-ish years ago. He told me all about you guys and Jack Frost, the Spirit of Winter."
Bunny frowned as he glanced at Jamie with suspicion. Something wasn't adding up here.
"Why'd he tell ya about Frost?"
Lillian paused as she thought back, crinkling her forehead as she did so.
"He said something about how Jack was all by himself and he needed friends. He's really fun," Lillian said as she smiled at Bunny. "He always plays with me in the winter."
Bunny's eyes widened at that.
"You play with Jack Frost?! He's that friend ya made that you told me about?!"
Lillian's smile vanished at Bunny's outburst.
"Yes?" she said, her voice faltering a bit. "Is that.. bad?"
Jamie crossed his arms and glared a bit at the Easter Bunny. What was his problem?!
Bunny sighed as he noticed Jamie's glare and Lillian's hesitance.
"Nah.. it just.. took me by surprise, is all."
He didn't want to alienate any of his believers, especially the oldest believer he had.
Lillian's face cleared and her smile returned, though not as bright as it once was. She glanced back at Jamie and her brow furrowed again.
"Why haven't you gotten any older? You still look the same as when I last saw you."
Bunny's eyes narrowed as he heard that and he shot Jamie another suspicious look.
"Uh.." Jamie said as he wondered what he should say.
"Oh, wait!" Lillian said as a memory came to her suddenly. "You told me something else. You said that I would see you again and that I had to give you a message."
"Whoa, hold on there!" Bunny said as he raised a paw to stop Lillian. "Yer tellin' me that this kid," he said as he gestured at Jamie, "Met ya around four years ago and gave ya a message ta give ta himself later on?!"
"He said it was really important, even if it did sound a little crazy," Lillian said as she shrugged at Bunny.
Jamie didn't like the sound of this one bit. If his future time traveler self was giving his past time traveler self messages, something bad must have happened. Really bad.
"What was it?" Jamie asked as he filled with dread.
"You said to watch out for.." Lillian trailed off as she thought about it. "For.."
"For who?" Jamie asked, his eyes getting wide.
Lillian's face fell.
"..I forget," she said with a sigh. "Some guy.. I think it started with a G?"
Jamie's eyes got bigger as he stared at Lillian in horror.
"G-Gethen?!" he squeaked.
"Yeah!" Lillian said as she perked up. "That was it!"
"Gethen?" Bunny muttered to himself. He had heard that name from somewhere, but where was it?
"What else did I say?" Jamie asked, trying to keep his voice steady. "Did I say what happened or why I should watch out for him?"
"..Um.." Lillian frowned as she thought about it. "Yeah.. You said to tell you 'Don't let it break.'"
"Let what break?" Jamie asked, his voice hushed as his thoughts began to race.
"You said that you'd know what you meant," Lillian said in a somewhat confused tone as even that sentence was confusing.
There was only one thing that Jamie could think of that would break that would cause him to give his past self a warning.
Oh, man..
This.. was bad.
"Wh-what else did I say?" Jamie asked, prompting Lillian to continue.
"You said.. 'Whatever you do, do NOT go into the forest. That's what started the whole mess in the first place.'"
"What mess? What forest? When am I not supposed to go there?!" Jamie asked desperately.
Lillian shrugged.
"You didn't say.. You couldn't stay too long. You told me all about the Guardians and Jack Frost and then you said if I didn't believe you, that I should look around when it was Fall and I should see a guy painting leaves. If I believed that there was a Jack Frost, then I should believe that there's also a Spring, Summer, and Fall Spirit and I should be able to see the Fall Spirit."
"Okaaay.." Jamie said, stretching out the word to indicate his confusion. "Did I say anything else before I left?"
"Let's see.. you said.. 'Wish me luck, I'm off to kick Gethen's butt and help make a Child of Spring!'"
Jamie nearly facepalmed at that. That was probably one of the most unhelpful things he could have heard. And why was he being so cryptic about everything! He should have just had Lillian tell himself precisely what he should do. Unless he thought that the message might wind up garbled? It was a lot to ask of someone to remember a message for four years.
"Alright kid, just what are ya up ta?" Bunny asked Jamie as he crossed his arms.
Jamie gulped, but walked over by them and sat down on the bench on the other side of Lillian, being careful to avoid her backpack that was on the ground nearby.
"I'm not sure you'd believe me," he said cautiously as Bunny glared at him.
Lillian looked over at Jamie curiously. He was just as weird as she remembered, even if she was much younger the first time she met him.
"Try me," Bunny said with a challenging tone. He'd pretty much seen it all, so it would take a lot to surprise him.
"Um.." Jamie said hesitantly and then decided to go for it. So all in one breath, he said very quickly, "FatherTimesentmeonamissiontogobackintimeandstopGethen - "
"Hold it!" Bunny ordered. "Take a deep breath, mate."
Jamie did as Bunny told him.
"Now, start over only talk like a normal person." Bunny commanded as Lillian giggled.
"It's sort of a long story, but I'm from the future," Jamie explained as he took out the hourglasses from under his shirt.
Lillian's grin grew wider but faded when she saw the outraged look on Bunny's face.
"WHAT?!" he thundered. "What do ya think yer doin'?!"
Jamie flinched at Bunny's tone and scooted further away from him with wide eyes.
Wow.. who knew that the Easter Bunny had such a temper?
Lillian flinched too, as though Bunny were yelling at her.
"E-Easter Bunny.." she said softly, her gaze on her hands which she had placed in her lap.
Bunny heard Lillian and his gaze instantly softened.
"Sorry," he said as he ran a paw over his head in frustration, as he tried to calm down. "I forgot that ya don't like loud voices."
He had learned not long after he first met Lillian that loud sounds or voices easily startled her. He had his suspicions that her home life wasn't that great, but there wasn't much he could do about it. He had tried questioning her once, but she refused to admit to anything and had gone quiet again. It had taken a lot of convincing the first time they met to get her to talk to him. In fact, meeting Jamie was the most he had ever heard her talk.
Bunny's gaze hardened when he looked over at Jamie however. Jamie gulped and hastily tucked the hourglasses back under his shirt.
"Father Time gave them to me," Jamie explained. "I have to go back in time to stop Gethen from changing the past. He totally messed up my time in the future and nothing is what it should be. A bunch of stuff happened and I kinda accidentally wound up in this year. I gotta get to Easter Sunday of 1968, but I need to know what happened to you then, Lillian."
Bunny glanced curiously at Lillian at that. That had been before he had met her the first time. Actually, if what she said about meeting Jamie four years ago was true, he had met her not long after that. Had Jamie helped her to believe more in the Guardians? As far as he knew, Lillian's light had always shone brightly on the globe, but he hadn't started paying attention to it until she grew older. Now he constantly watched it and while sometimes it grew dimmer, around Easter at least, it had shone very brightly.
Lillian kept her gaze on her lap as she fiddled with her fingers. She wasn't sure if she believed Jamie about the whole time traveling thing, but it would explain why he hadn't aged at all. She took a deep breath and decided that he had been right about the Guardians and Jack Frost. Even if he was weird, she could at least tell him what happened.
"I went outside to collect eggs," she told Jamie, her voice very soft now, as it always became after she was yelled at. It didn't matter that the Easter Bunny wasn't yelling at her. He had the same tone that her father often got when he was yelling at her that she was too loud, so she kept her voice soft automatically. "It got pretty cold out and started snowing, but I didn't care. I found an egg in this park and then wandered over to the woods."
"That wasn't safe ta do," Bunny said with a frown. "And at that time ya'd be what, six? Where were yer parents?"
To his and Jamie's discomfort, Lillian's eyes filled with tears and she began to cry. She covered her face with her hands as her shoulders shook.
Jamie looked shocked and then shot Bunny a look.
"I always thought you were nice," he said a little accusingly to Bunny. "Why are you being so mean?"
"I'm not being mean!" Bunny shouted, then sighed when Lillian flinched as she continued to cry. "I ain't mean, I just.."
Bunny shook his head and sighed again.
"Look, I'm sorry.. I didn't mean ta make ya cry." he said as he reached out and gave Lillian's shoulder an awkward pat.
Lillian flinched again, hard, and then froze as she stopped crying suddenly. Bunny hastily removed his paw and it was a few moments before Lillian lowered her hands. Her eyes were red from crying and her face a little blotchy. She pulled a clean handkerchief from her pocket and wiped the wetness away from her cheeks before she blew her nose and put the handkerchief away again.
There was silence for a very long moment as the two males looked at her anxiously, obviously lost on what to do with a crying girl.
Lillian opened her mouth and then closed it again. She took a deep breath and tried to continue on, but her wobbly voice was hardly audible now. Why was everything so hard for her?
"I found an egg a little ways in," she said as she kept her gaze averted from Bunny. She didn't want to see how angry he was with her for doing something so stupid. If she had bothered looking, she would have only seen concern, however. "I wanted to go in more, but then I heard a noise that scared me. It sounded like howling, so I turned around and went back home."
Jamie was quiet as he considered this. Was that meant to happen? Or was that something Gethen did to get her to go away?
"Would you have gone in if you hadn't heard anything?" Jamie asked her curiously.
She silently nodded and then checked the time on an old watch she was wearing. It had been several hours since she had first come to this park and her father would be looking for lunch soon. She stood up from the bench and grabbed her backpack, slinging it over a shoulder.
"I have to go," she said, her voice still very soft as she didn't look at either of them.
"Wait!" Bunny and Jamie both said simultaneously.
But Lillian didn't wait as she hurried away from them, not looking back.
Jamie felt frustrated as he watched her go. He felt like he hadn't learned much of anything, and he didn't know how to get back in contact with her.
"Do you know where she lives?" Jamie suddenly turned to Bunny, a look of determination on his face.
Bunny looked surprised at the look Jamie was giving him, but then he remembered that Jamie was wearing the amulet. Maybe the kid had something that other kids didn't.
Bunny nodded at Jamie.
"Can you show me?" Jamie asked Bunny. "Please?"
Bunny looked off in the direction Lillian had disappeared to, only to not see her anymore. She must have turned a corner and vanished from their sight.
"I don't think we should follow her," he said after a moment.
Jamie made a frustrated noise.
"I don't want to follow her, I just want to know where she lives!" he said, almost stamping a foot in agitation.
Bunny raised an eyebrow at Jamie's almost temper tantrum, and Jamie instantly relented. Temper tantrums weren't his thing, and he was far too old for them.
"I'm sorry," Jamie said with an apologetic look, "But it's really important. I have to know."
Bunny heaved a big sigh. Today just wasn't going to be his day.
"Fine," he finally said. "But ya keep quiet and don't let the anklebiter know that we followed her."
Jamie eagerly nodded and followed after Bunny as they walked the short ways from the park to Lillian's house.
They reached Lillian's house in no time at all, and Jamie blinked in surprise as he stared at it. Lillian lived in the creepiest house in Burgess?! The one that all the kids avoided on Halloween?
"She lives here? " Jamie asked Bunny as he looked at the rotting porch steps and the roof that looked a little leaky in places.
"Yep," Bunny said and then winced as shouting started up from the house.
Jamie couldn't hear exactly what was being said, but he could hear a man's voice that sounded quite angry. He waited to hear a reply from Lillian, but after the shouting ceased he didn't hear anything. Jamie was tempted to stick around and spy on her for a bit, but Bunny was already herding him away.
"We should get goin'," Bunny hastily said.
He had wanted to stick around and make sure Lillian was alright, but Jamie was still a young boy and he didn't like the tone that man in the house had. He didn't want to subject Jamie to any of that. He thought perhaps if he could get Jamie to go somewhere safe, then he could open up one of his tunnels to the inside of the house, just to see.
"But - " Jamie protested as he obviously was having the same thoughts as Bunny. He wanted to make sure Lillian was alright.
"I'll go check on her later," Bunny reassured Jamie. "Besides, don't ya have stuff that you should do?"
"I wanted to see her again," Jamie admitted. "She's a lot different than the Lillian I knew."
Bunny was tempted to ask what she was like, but he knew it was a bad idea to mess with the past. Jamie meanwhile, was lost in his thoughts. This Lillian that had grown up a little was nothing like the Lillian he had known. The Lillian he knew was outgoing and outspoken. She was playful, yet serious. She had a definite love for spring too.
The Lillian Jamie had just met, however..
She seemed so sad. She was so withdrawn and quiet, and when Bunny had yelled she had hardly been able to talk afterward. The Lillian Jamie had known would have yelled right back at Bunny, but this Lillian just went quiet.
It wasn't right.
This wasn't right at all!
Jamie glanced back at the dilapidated house as Bunny led him away. Before he continued on his mission, he wanted to do something for this Lillian. After all, who knew how long it would take him to succeed? The least he could do was help to take some of this Lillian's sadness away.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Bunny said as he glanced back at Jamie cautiously. "Yer already changin' things. Ya shouldn't change any more."
Jamie frowned at Bunny.
"It won't matter what I say when I get things back on track. This won't have happened anyway."
Bunny frowned back at Jamie. While this was technically true, he supposed, he still didn't like the sound of it.
"It ain't a good idea," he cautioned Jamie. "Yer messin' with things ya don't know anything about and ya don't know what the consequences could be."
"I don't care," Jamie said stubbornly. "I just want to make her happy. What's so wrong with that?"
Bunny narrowed his eyes at Jamie.
"What exactly are ya goin' ta tell her?"
Jamie still had that stubborn look on his face as he looked at Bunny.
"I want to tell her about the life she should have had."
A few hours later, Lillian left the house. She had a red mark on her cheek that she was sure would bruise as it felt quite sore. She glanced wistfully in the direction of the park after she had navigated her way down the front porch steps, but she knew better than to head that way - not now. She instead turned in the opposite direction and trudged off towards the small grocery store. They were pretty much out of food and her father hadn't appreciated the vegetable soup she had made, which was one of the few things she knew how to cook.
In reality, she just dumped a bunch of vegetables into a pot of boiling water and let them soften up and sort of make their own broth. It was easy to make, and with all the vegetables it was healthy to eat. But her father didn't appreciate it and so after throwing his first bowl in agitation and smacking her for it, he grudging had eaten his second bowl and then had her clean everything top to bottom.
Lillian had scoured the whole kitchen to within an inch of its life and then cleaned the floors as best she could. She had tidied upstairs a bit, but she was orderly, unlike her father, and didn't have much to do. When she returned home from shopping, she would clean all the floors upstairs and then dust everything. If she had time after that, maybe she could go see if that weird Jamie and the Easter Bunny were still at the park.
She sighed as she wearily walked and placed her hands into the pockets of her long skirt. She was surprised her father had any money at all for groceries, as usually, he frittered all their money away. Lillian had a very small stash of money she had managed to hide from her father, that she saved from the bits and pieces of money he gave her for various errands sometimes. It was their only emergency stash, in case they had no money for food and Lillian had yet to dip into it this month, so she was grateful for that.
She glanced up at the cloudless sky as she silently considered that it might be time for her to get a job. She was planning on leaving as soon as she turned eighteen and she'd need the money to leave. She wondered what sort of job she could get - her father always told her how useless she was, and how she wasn't good at anything.
Her shoulders slumped a little as her gaze returned back to the ground. Maybe he was right. She certainly wasn't any good at cooking, and she couldn't even sew properly. All she could do was mend her clothes the best she should, and that wasn't very good in her opinion. Or her classmates'. Her cheeks turned rosy in embarrassment as she glanced down at the end of her skirt which was fraying and already had a few patches on it. Unable to afford anything new, Lillian was forced to get all her things second hand. The kids at Lillian's school had always teased her for it, and Lillian secretly hoped that they were all on the Naughty List.
A shadow fell over her while she walked and she glanced upwards in surprise as she saw that clouds had seemingly appeared out of nowhere to block out the sun. Gloom seemed to settle on the day, and Lillian frowned a little at it. The day had been perfect, but now it was turning a little colder with the sun covered up like that. She was so busy frowning at the clouds that she failed to see the pair of malevolent yellow eyes watching her from the shade of a few trees.
The eyes narrowed at Lillian, but by the time Lillian was looking ahead again, they had vanished. The owner of the eyes knew that the time was not yet right.
But it didn't mind.
It could wait.
Lillian had trudged to the store and back home again, and put away the groceries. In that time her father had managed to fall asleep, and Lillian knew she couldn't continue cleaning until after he was done with his nap. It was never a good thing to accidentally wake him up.
After Lillian had put the groceries away she quietly tiptoed out of the house and leaped down the last few steps on the porch. They were the noisest, so it was best just to jump right over them. She landed easily and then took off running to the park. She hoped that Jamie and the Easter Bunny were still there!
Unbeknownst to her, Bunny had already checked up on her and left again. He had peered in through a window to see her washing dishes by hand in the sink, finding her very absorbed in her task. He had watched her for several minutes, but nothing eventful had happened and he soon left. Some of Lillian's curls had slipped from their usual ribbon and hung down over her face. Otherwise, he might have seen the darkening mark on her face from where her father had hit her.
But Bunny hadn't seen or heard anything unusual, and while he had his suspicions, he had no proof. He had gone back to Jamie afterward and told him that everything was fine. He suggested yet again that Jamie not speak to Lillian anymore and that he continue on with his mission. The sooner time stopped being changed, the better in Bunny's opinion. Jamie had nodded and Bunny told Jamie he had to get going - there was a Guardians' meeting soon and Bunny had much to report.
So by the time Lillian had made her way back to the park, Jamie was sitting alone on the bench. He had pulled his knees up to his chest as Lillian had done earlier and was looking very disheartened. Lillian stopped walking at the sight of him, and couldn't help but wonder if she had looked like that when she was there earlier.
She walked towards him and sat down next to him on the bench.
"Hi," she said quietly to Jamie.
"Hey," Jamie replied, then blinked and looked over at her as he lowered his feet down to the ground and sat up straighter. "You came back."
Lillian noted Jamie's surprised tone and shrugged.
"Why wouldn't I?"
Jamie ran a hand through his hair as he thought how to answer, but Lillian continued to talk.
"You helped me believe in the Guardians," she said simply to him.
Jamie thought of telling her what Bunny had said, that he shouldn't talk to her anymore, but he didn't want Lillian to get mad at Bunny or to hurt her belief any. He wasn't sure how this Lillian would react to it.
"I wanted to tell you something," Jamie said as he gathered his thoughts. "Remember how I said I was from the future?"
Lillian nodded as she watched Jamie. He had tucked those strange necklaces back under his shirt, except for the weird snake one. She wasn't sure she liked it since the snakes looked strange to her.
"Ok, so.. In the time I'm from, things are very different. This bad guy, Gethen, he found out how to go back into the past and change things. He changed your past, Lillian. All these things that have been going on since the Easter of 1968 weren't supposed to happen."
Lillian's jaw dropped at that.
"Wh-what?" she breathed, as she stared at Jamie with wide eyes.
"I thought.. Maybe you'd want to know what was supposed to happen. What your life was really supposed to be like."
Jamie gave Lillian a friendly smile as Lillian continued to stare at him. The surprised look was replaced by a look of longing. She really wanted to know. But that look was soon replaced by a sad one. She shook her head. With her luck, she would never see it happen. There was no point in getting her hopes up.
"I don't think you should," she said with a sigh to Jamie. "I can't stay long anyway.. My dad might not be taking a long nap, and he'll want me home now. I have chores to finish."
"But - " Jamie said with a look of frustration. If only Lillian could know how awesome her life was supposed to be, she'd be so happy!
"Sorry," Lillian said as she stood back up. "Maybe some other time."
"Lillian," Jamie said, his voice rising in his frustration.
Lillian flinched a little and hurried back off. She wasn't sure she wanted to know the future anymore. For a brief moment she really wanted to know, but now the thought was sort of frightening. What if it wasn't good? Or what if it was so good, but then Jamie was never able to fix things? She might spend her whole life waiting for that life that was never going to happen.
Jamie crossed his arms and pouted as Lillian left. And that's where Pitch found him when he returned as the sun was mostly gone and darkness was setting in.
"I thought you might have continued on with your mission," Pitch said lightly as he stepped out of the shadows behind Jamie's bench.
"Hmph," Jamie grumped. "I wanted to make Lillian happier, but she didn't want to listen to me!"
Pitch paused and shot Jamie a look of confusion.
"I thought you were trying to gather information," he said cautiously to Jamie.
"Yeah, I did," Jamie said, still sounding grumpy. "But then I wanted to tell Lillian all about what was supposed to happen in her future, but the Easter Bunny didn't want me to. I was going to anyway, but then she didn't want to hear it!"
It took Pitch a moment to process this and when he did, he took in a sharp breath. That did not sound like a good idea. At all.
"Why would you want that?" he asked, trying to not have his tone be accusatory. He had to remember that Jamie was only a child, and perhaps he wouldn't see the impulsiveness of this.
"I wanted to make her happy," Jamie said with a sigh. "She seemed so sad. She's not at all like the Lillian I remembered."
Pitch recalled hearing a fear a few hours ago and wondered if it had been Lillian's. It had been so cryptic at the time.
What if it never happens?
Now it suddenly made sense to him. He wondered again who this Lillian could be, that she would be so important to Jamie. He shook his head and looked around again at the gathering darkness.
"Well, it is much too late for you to do anything now," Pitch said. "Why don't you come with me, and we'll get you to bed."
Jamie glanced back at Pitch in shock.
"What?" he asked. "You're.. letting me stay with you?"
Pitch was almost insulted at the surprised tone, but he remembered that most children feared the Boogeyman. However, he noted that Jamie wasn't exactly frightened of him at the moment. Jamie seemed surprised that the Boogeyman was capable of being nice.
Of course, Pitch could be nice when he wanted to be!
He just didn't want to, most times.
Instead of answering, Pitch helped Jamie up from the bench and before another word could be said, Jamie was pulled into a shadow.
They reappeared back in Pitch's globe room with Jamie shivering. Dinner with tea made the shivers go away and the awfulness of that shadow fade. Jamie hated shadow travel.
Soon it was time for bed and the fight over Jamie's nightdress ensued. Pitch didn't see what the big deal was, as most of his fashion sense came from the 1800's, considering he still thought cloaks were in style, and Jamie was adamant that he wasn't wearing a nightgown.
"No way!" Jamie said stubbornly as he crossed his arms. "Those are for girls. "
"You wore one earlier today," Pitch said as he tried to remain calm.
"Only because I woke up in one!" Jamie retorted.
"I don't have anything else for you," Pitch said as he frowned at the boy. Honestly!
"I can sleep in my clothes," Jamie said stubbornly.
"Oh no you can't," Pitch said as he wrinkled his nose at the thought.
"Sure I can," Jamie said.
Pitch never thought he'd sit there and argue with a child, but the fight had continued on for far longer than he wanted it to. Finally just to shut the boy up, it was agreed that Jamie could sleep in his clothes, just this once. Pitch would make proper pajamas for the boy when he had the time.
Jamie shifted under the covers as he was rather uncomfortable, but he'd never tell Pitch that. He watched as Pitch fetched a book from the shelf and sat down on the edge of the bed. He sleepily closed his eyes as Pitch's smooth voice washed over him, sending him into dreams of fairy tales.
Pitch continued reading aloud to Jamie until he was sure the boy was deeply asleep. Then he put the book away and proceeded to change Jamie into the nightdress before tucking him in. He folded Jamie's clothes and put them on the shelves across from the bed.
Pitch gave a satisfied smirk as he looked at the boy.
The boy actually thought he'd won the argument.
As night continued on, in another part of town Lillian was upstairs in bed herself. She had gotten ready for bed and was wearing her own nightgown. She had fallen asleep rather quickly, so she hadn't noticed the pair of yellow eyes staring at her through her window. The owner of the eyes quickly snuck in through a crack in the window and soon there was a Nightmare standing in Lillian's room.
The nightmare snorted as it saw the golden dream over the girl's head. The dream showed her playing with Jack Frost and the Easter Bunny happily. It walked over to her and suddenly swirled into a cloud of black sand as it invaded the golden dream.
Lillian flinched in her sleep as her golden dream turned black as night and the images began to change.
Pitch had gone out on his rounds soon after Jamie fell asleep and soon he was unknowingly in Lillian's room. He had kept an eye on this girl over the years. It was in 1967 when he had become more aware of her. She had been sobbing into her pillow as though her world had ended, and Pitch didn't have the heart to give her a nightmare that night. Over the years, Pitch kept an eye on her from time to time.
The nightmares he gave her were much more gentle than the ones he gave other children - if he even gave her any at all. Most nights he wound up tucking her in and petting her hair if she were having a natural nightmare on her own. The girl had a disturbing amount of nightmares that weren't his doing after that year, and Pitch found himself checking in on her more regularly.
Now he stood frowning in her room as he saw the black sand swirling over her head. She was whimpering in her sleep as she twisted under the covers. Pitch walked over as he stared at the dark images forming over Lillian's head. He recognized the blasted Easter Bunny, but who was this other? Then a dark snowball was thrown, and he knew. Frost.
It looked like they were yelling at Lillian in her dream and Jack threw a snowball in her face. He waved his staff threateningly at her while Bunny meanly shoved her to the ground.
Pitch's frown grew as he realized what was going on. Someone or something was trying to hurt this child's belief by giving her nightmares of a Guardian being cruel to her. Pitch's first thought was why hadn't he thought of that?
But he shook his head and banished that dark thought away. He studied the black sand more. He had seen this once, a very long time ago. As he reached out for the black sand, it suddenly reared up as the dream ended over Lillian's head and it formed back into a monstrous looking Nightmare. The Nightmare regarded a shocked Pitch and stepped closer to him.
As it did so, Pitch's eyes began to darken.
Author's Note: Dun dun duuun. Ok, ok! I can hear you all going: Wait! Pitch didn't start experimenting with the black sand this early! How are Nightmares here?! I can't tell you right now, but it will be explained. Hopefully in the next chapter! But if not, then soon.
So yeah. This chapter ran away on me. Jamie was only supposed to be here briefly, but then I had the thought: What if this happened? And so 1974 went from the two chapters, to many more. I'm having so much fun with this though that I don't see Jamie's Adventure ending anytime soon. I'll continue to label each chapter with "Jamie's Adventure" for those that want to read it. After that, I'll probably go back to normal chapter titles. I think once things settle down again, I'll explore more with Pitch painting. Lillian also needs to continue her book and I already have an idea for the next plot after this one.
I love reading all your guys' feedback. So please continue to review! I want to give a special thanks to all the follows and faves too. It's you and the reviewers that encourage me to continue on with this story.
