The Phantom Nightmaren

Chapter 8

This was scary to the audience. Helen was taken to the Night Dimension. Claris, a jester dude, and some soccer playing kid went in for her. It was scary, for the crowd.

Elliot had to take responsibility. Elliot stepped onto the stage and picked up a microphone, "don't panic, Claris has everything under control."

"What does Claris know?" One boy cried out, "she's just a playwright!"

Elliot took a deep breath. He knew telling the truth would tarnish his reputation, but he had to let it out: "Okay, there is something you should know."

The room went silent.

"When you dream, you go into this world called the Night Dimension. Most people are unaware of being there. For Helen, Claris, Will, and I, we were four of the few that were aware of this dimension."

Natalie rushed to the stage, "wait, wait, wait, Helen told me about this world before. She wasn't drunk and made it up?"

"No, Helen was correct."

"Then, would that make you a world theif?" Natalie asked, "Into Dreams has a fantasy genre."

"Well, is it world stealing when I write about teenagers on Earth?" Elliot asked. "I think not."

"So who was Jackle? Does he live in this dream world?" A boy in the crowd asked.

"Jackle is a Nightmaren, a resident of a very dark part of the world called Nightmare. According to Claris, Jackle is sort of special. Jackle can create anything from any space. It is something that the Nightmare God, Wizeman, isn't able to do."

"But why did he take Helen?"

"Helen's aesthetics in her songs and videos were all ideas of Jackle. He wanted payback for his help, which happened to be marriage. Which is why he said that they were fiances."

That was when everyone screamed, "What sort of 'Nice Guy Syndrome,' dude is he?" "He doesn't deserve any of that!" "Is Helen gone forever?" "Damn, and I thought he was hot!"

That was when the crowd crawled onto the stage. The crowd was flooding the stage to get intot the portal, it was like a flood. Elliott and Natalie tried to stop them, but two people could not stop a crowd. They all went into the portal.

"Claris, why didn't you close the portal?" Ellliot mumbled.

Suddenly, the fire alarm went off. But there was too much of a ruckus for anyone to cooperate with going outside. At least until Ian started screaming and panicking, "there's a bomb in the dressing room!"

Of course, no one heard the news except for Elliot and Natalie. They both rushed to the dressing room, to see no other than a bomb. The dressing room had a basic set of mirrors and tables where there were beauty products and outfits scattered. It wasn't fancy to say the least, but the corner had a pulled fire alarm.

Eliot immediately took out his phone and began to dial 911. "Elliot Edwards. The Anaheim Convention Center. There is a bomb in the dressing room at Stage B, we have the fire alarm pulled, but I will assure you, this isn't a prank like last year!"

Claris, Reala, and Will began trudging through shallow water. "Can't you turn into a boat?" Will asked Reala.

Reala looked around, "I do not do such silly things like NiGHTS does to amuse Visitor children."

"Can you at least dualize?" Claris asked, "NiGHTS was able to do it with both Elliot and I," Claris mentioned, "yet of course, Will can fly on his own."

Will began to float above the water, "yeah, gets me scores in football."

"Isn't that cheating?" Claris asked, but disregarded that, "I don't have powers in the realm, so can we dualize?"

Reala rolled his eyes, "I do not have that sort of power. I can make balls appear from the sky, but I cannot dualize."

Claris chuckled, "balls." Then she tried to look at Will to see if he noticed the innuendo, but he was gone.

"Great! Is he going to fight Jackle alone? He doesn't even know to pull the cape off!"

To much of Reala's embarrassment, he turned into a boat. Claris hopped on and they sped towards Will.

Will flew to the end of the lake dungeon thing where he found Helen alone as she was tied up to a post. She was in a short white floral dress, that draped down the end of Helen's legs. Will drill dashed to Helen in order to untie her. Will was successful. Helen began to run, but then looked around the space for a particular item.

"Helen, what are you doing?" Will asked.

"Jackle cannot be defeated by normal methods at this point." Helen said, "He has the approval of WIzeman for this plan! The only way to defeat Jackle is if I have my violin. He hid it!"

Will looked around. He looked under a bed's mattress to see a violin case, "here it is!"

"Oh good!" Helen grabbed the case, "Why would a resident of a dream world need a bed? Is there a sub dream world?"

"You probably know what it's for," Will grieved.

Helen scowled at the very thought, then began to open up the case to set up her ability to play that instrument.

That was when Claris and Reala appeared, only to be caught by a net. Reala turned back into his usual red and black jester self and frowned, "Jackle is too clever for his own good."

"This wouldn't be a problem if you could dualize," Claris mentioned.

"Well I'm not NiGHTS now, am I?"

There was cackling around the walls, "all in a pickle, aren't you? Helen can very well defeat me, but the effects of that would be tragic. Only I can disarm the bomb."

"BOMB?" Everyone screamed.

"Yes there is a bomb in the Anaheim Convention Center that will blow the building up to smithereens. It will take the building along with all of the attendants. Oh, there are plenty of important people in there. Must be most of the important content creators of the internet that are in that building…."

"Why the Hell would you do that?" Claris screamed out, "Are you insane?"

Jackle cackled, "you have forgotten, have you?" Jackle appeared in black garb, and a white mask, then grabbed Claris, "so Helen, if you don't pull your end of our deal, all of VidCon could go kaboom!" Then a card appeared from his hand, "and so would your girl friend."

Helen played a note from her violin, only to realize: That's really dangerous. Helen couldn't use her violin to ward off this powerful of a Nightmaren. He won't be able to disarm the bomb.

Then there was a crowd of screaming. Helen could see a bunch of torches and foam weapons from a distance. Are those the attendee's of Helen's concert?

"Jackle must go down!" A guy screamed, as he took out a bow and a foam arrow and began to shoot at Jackle, but with no effect.

"Claris, did you leave the portal open?" Reala asked disapprovingly.

"I didn't exactly open it!" Claris screamed out.

Helen closed her eyes. Looking at all of that disapproval against Jackle made her realize: Did anyone in Nightmare like Jackle? He seemed alone. A singular Nightmaren just doing his job, alone. Helen had also realized that the attendants at VidCon loved Jackle with all of his hijinks and personality. "Guys, don't be so disapproving! You liked Jackle before you knew the truth!"

Holly heard her, "yeah, he is really good at making tea at the Con's Cafe!" She yelled out!

"And he's hilarious at Cards Against Humanity," Erik yelled out, "And he looks really hot."

Everyone began to say nice things about Jackle, until a woman did note, "but he kidnapped you!"

Helen took a deep breath. She positioned her violin to her neck and began to play as seh sang,

"Jackle is a lonely maren.

Too good to be with anyone.

He had to trick dreamers to stay.

Just didn't know how to play.

Jackle is to be feared, but pitied.

But no one should feel so emptied."

Helen began to play, and everyone cheered and clapped. Helen stopped playing, then gave Jackle a kiss on the cheek, "Claris has the power to go to other worlds. You'll be better liked in the Waking World."

Jackle pressed a button, "No, the con won't blow up. Helen won't have to marry me! There is too much to like in the Waking World."

Everyone cheered, then Claris made a portal back to outside of The Anaheim Convention center.

Everyone was panicking back at Vidcon. The bomb dispatcher couldn't figure out how to dispatch the bomb, since it wasn't one she's seen before. Everyone was safe, as they were outside of the con. Ian had his guitar and began to sing songs from his Sparklerock Band,

"Jacob is a werewolf, how could I have told?

Jacob is a werewolf! Edward would be so cold."

Helen appeared in front of the crowd, "I'm alright!"

Everyone cheered.

Will appeared in front of the crowd, "I'm alright too."

There were mutters. Will wasn't really considered "famous," so no one really showed much joy to Will being alright. At least until Will said, "and the bomb is dispatched!"

Everyone cheered!

Elliot and Claris went out of the convention to yell out, "The bomb has been dispatched." Everyone cheered despite the fact that is was already old news.

Will and Helen went to the sushi place on Sunday. When they were both paying for their meals, Will commented, "do you know what's really good? Fish and chips."

Helen hadn't had fish and chips often. Only when she went to the seaside with her mum. Helen hadn't went to the seaside since her mom died. "Yeah, I like soaking that with malt vinegar."

"Me too!" Will exclaimed, "I know a great place in Bellbridge. It isn't as nice as here, but if it's good food and good company, it'll be fun."

Helen smiled, "that'll be great." It looked like that Helen and Will were now dating. This was what Helen had wanted for eight years. It just took some time, and a lot of effort.

Jackle the Mantle was quickly becoming viral YouTube on YouTube. It got to ten thousand subscribers quite quickly, and was almost to twenty thousand subscribers.

"And then, Peach's Castle went black and bloody, and the camera quickly got closer, and closer to Mario. Soon enough I know, Lakitu was going after Mario. I ran as fast as I could, but if I ran too fast, I couldn't see myself!"

The footage showed a grittier game of Super Mario 64 with Mario being stalked by the game's own camera.

At the end of the video, Jackle was shown as he sipped on a cup of tea, "make sure you get here next week when The Divine Musical playwright and actor: Claris Sinclair and I talk about the original reel of Rocky Horror Picture Show that she found at the Waverly Theatre one windy autumn night. It is quite different from the Rocky we all know and love."

Lucy was typing on Twitter about Helen showing up at The Variety for the first Midnight Showing of 'The Divine Opera: The Inferno' in Europe. Helen could sell her new album, as well as get more subscribers to her channel. "Will be showing up at The Variety in Bellbridge for their midnight showing of The Divine Opera: Inferno, hope to see you there. #DivineOpera"

Helen looked on her phone, to see that Jackle replied, "I'll be there to see the real Georgia Jeannie! HelenCartwright ClaristheDevil #DivineOpera"

Helen put her phone back in her purse and got back to work sorting vinyls. Helen was satisfied now that she was more well known due to that whole debacle. Helen still had to work at the Vinyl shop to make a living, but she was happy. Life may have taken a landslide, but it got it's way back upwards. The VidCon Ghost really existed, but everyone very well knew that.

I went across to California,

To meet a creepy guy

He needed marriage, I don't wanna

It made me want to cry.

But I met a two guys,

I met a gal,

And we bursted through his lies.

And now he's a really good pal!