Jackson Overland peeked an irritated eye open at the offending light. Of course that small ray of light landed on him making him wake up early, he sat up ready to close the hatch to block out the light but when he stood up and went back down to bed he was wide awake. he glared at the ceiling his eye twitching then his bedroom door opened he heard his mother leaning in,
"Jackson? are you awake?" she asked Jackson raised a hand sighing "yes...unfortunatly," he whispered the last part, sitting up he turned over seeing his baby sister Pippa curled on her bed sucking her thumb and hugging a small rag doll she got from her first Christmas, he smilied in envy he wished he could sleep through anything.
Jackson got out of bed pulling on his trouser's and t-shirt and vest and he crept outside the room, he was soon greated with the scent of breakfast, he drooled and tried to keep his pace the same,
"Morning, ma." he greated while picking up a plate and helping himself to the food
"Morning Jack, what's the fun for today?" she asked smirking, that same mischivious smirk Jack inherited from her.
"well I will do the chores," he said, total lie. "play hop scotch with pip," he saw his mother smile "of course," then she turned and frowned disaprovingly at the food on Jack's plate she walked over placing more on his plate.
"I don't know if it's rebellion or just being Picky," she said then put the pot down "there is enough Jack, I'm going to wake up Pippa," Jack heard her mother's footstep's fade, Jack sighed standing up and putting half his share on Pippa's plate. He didn't mind there wasn't a diffrence wheather he ate enough or not. He then heard pippa bounce into the room,
"Morning Jack!" he only groaned sipping his water "mor'n Pip," he sighed Pippa giggled
"What's wrong with Jack?" she asked then sat down and began digging into her plate "he's just not a morning person, get's it from his dad." She chuckled and started washing the dishes, Jack started eating and with each bite he became more awake, He picked up his fork and plate putting them in the wash,
"I'm going!" he yelled Pippa looked up in horror "wait Jack!" she crammed her food faster and placed them in the wash,
"wait I'm coming!" she yelled running after him, There mother sighed "I can never get any peace and quiet..?"
Jackson was the oldest teen there. well the only teen. it was either aldult's and children who couldn't even crawl properly yet, but Jackson didn't mind being the oldest of all the kid's it made him feel smart when they asked him stuff. But one time a girl was talking about...um girl problem's Jack became flustered and told her it was only girl stuff and she had to ask her mum about it.
but what he liked to tell the most. Was his stories.
there were all sitting around the campfire at night and Jack told them stories about loads of silly little things but what he was telling them was of his dream's Pippa pulled at his sleeve
"Jack? can you tell them about the boogie man?" she asked everyone's smile's dropped "t-the boogie-man?" they started to huddle together "my mum said he's scary and he snatches children in the night-"
Jackson and pippa laughed "yeah that does sound creepy," they calmed down smilimg warmly "Jack's story is the best- you see the boogie man is actually-"
Jack coughed raising an eyebrow, she winced "sorry," she gestured her hand's in a 'go on, go on' gesture, he chuckled and leaned forward
"Once upon a time, there was a man. He was known as kozimotis Pitchner, he along with other's watched over the world. other's sent light or hope and wonder, Kozimotis gave fear." A boy who alway's played with pippa sat up
"he gave fear?" he asked Jack nodded "there has to be fear to have courage." and the children nodded
"he was never afraid of anything, that's why he was choosen to control the nightmare's. and it gave the balance to the world and was seen as a hero keeping the nightmare's in check, but even nightmare's are unstable." Jack saw the kid's leaning toward's eachover
"Pitchner had a family, his wife died but his daughter was the spitting image of her, Pitchner spread fear becuase it meant he was protecting her." A girl with blonde hair frowned "protecting her?" she asked Jack nodded "he kept a balance, if any fear's broke free the world would be dark and dangerous," he said and they all nodded in understanding
"but the nightmare's played a trick on him," he said tension rising, Pippa saw he was getting into this.
"They pretended to be his daughter and demanded to be let out," he said loving the look's the children were getting "at first, he withstood the nightmare's,
but they were persistent and year's without seeing his daughter he let them out." A girl flinched eye's wide
"although...the nightmare's couldn't remain alive in the light they needed somthing to stay alive-I can't really explain it- and soon only to survive they took over Kozimotis Pitchner, and he became a shadow of a man he once was. And he is known as Pitch Black the boggie man!" he growled and all the children screamed him and Pippa burst out laughing pointing
"y-your faces!" pippa cried the children growled "okay, we'll give you somthing to laugh about," and they tackled them to the ground tickling Jack and pippa
"ah-no, okay I give I surrender!" they both cried Sitting up once the children let them go "What happened to the daughter?" a girl asked Jackson nodded
"Her name was Katherine and it seemed that Pitch Black forgot all about her, She was alone. but then one day another force transformed her into Mother nature."
"what is this force you keep talking about?" that same girl asked Jackson shrugged "I don't know, but Mother nature is all round us and she could see her father evertime she wanted but of course he didn't know." the children looked down
"that just sound's sad though," Jackson nodded "but I saw Pitch play chess with the sandman-"
"you saw pitch!?" they all cried and Jack flinched, oh yeah opp's..?
"yeah, and if he can play chess with a sandman and help santa with coal I don't think he's that bad," the children smilied at eachover
"so the boogie man's not that scary?" and he nodded "nope he's as soft as cotten," then soon a boy stood up
"I am the boogie man! you shall all fear me!" all the girl's jumped up screaming hiysterically while running
"oh no, he's coming to get you!" Jackson yelled after them shaking his head, when all the children left running after eachover he heard a twig snap behind him,
he turned and at first didn't see anything then his eye's widened when he saw a black figure with yellow eye's. it was the boogie man watching curiously, The boy faltered then smilied giving a half wave and ran after the children picking Pippa up,
Pitch watched "Of course those are just dream's Jack." and the boogie man turned away leaving them. then stopped frowning "I never played chess with sandy..."
Pitch waited until the boy named Jackson fell asleep, he didn't want to be seen the way Jack saw him, unafraid.
he was the boogieman for god's sake! and this child...only pitied him! to say it insulted him was an exagiration, he was going to give the boy his worst nightmare ever.
Pitch thought then smirked, what if say his dear Pippa was in trouble?
"this should be interesting," he tainted the dreamsand turning it from gold to black,
it was pippa but the dreamsand made her look dark with yellow eye's and she was afraid, from her own brother Jackson, but Jackson was dark as well and a little bit taller hand's outstrecthed like a zombie going towards pippa,
though outside the dream Jack only rolled over a small moan escaped and just hugged his pillow, Pitch frowned and intensified his dreams, he made Jackson attack pippa, made her cry but suddenly it changed. it was still a nightmare but not under his control, soon pippa hesitently brought her arm up and touched Jackson's face and suddenly all the darkness stripped of him and he turned golden but pippa was still a nightmare and Jackson picked her up and spun her around, Pitch glared enraged his nightmare backfired and slunk into the darkness under his bed.
Soon morning arrived and Jack, usually not a morning person actually sat up happily, he was itching to tell Pippa his new dream she rolled over her eye's blinking awake
"Jack?" she asked yawning it was unusal for Jack to be up this early and not eating breakfast already, she sat up
"another dream?" she asked and he grinned "well let's say there's a sequel to Pitch's story," Pitch from underneith the bed frowned with confusion,
they were all seated round the fire again telling stories, even some adult's were there. Jack told many of his dream's all about the tooth fairy and sandman seemed today's episode was the boogie-man,
"Katherine had long black hair and green eye's," Pitch frowned 'was Jack watching the same nightmare?'
"and Pitch was there," and Jack held his hand's up same as the dream "and he advanced on her forgetting that she was his daughter," the adult's were intrigued as well, all attention on Jack and he was loving it,
"then suddenly when she was beaten and cornered by this monster, the shadow of the man she called father and then suddenly-" Pitch eye's widened getting absorbed too
"she touches his cheek and all the shadow's are ripped away from his body," Pitch only blink's and now understood, Jack didn't properly see his dream properly and pippa in nightmare probably looked like somone else.
"and they finally lived happily ever after," he said and all the children cheered happily there mother's ruffling there hairs, and father's laughing at the ridicule story but still entertained
Pitch could only glare then sneered walking away he didn't have time for this.
Pippa sat next to jack "maybe you should be a writer?" she asked Jack laughed shaking his head
"nah, I would if I could write." he said, he could sorta, his own name and a few thing's but little stuff such as grammer and other thing's like that...nope.
"but still, stories are becoming a popular thing right now," Pippa said and Jackson frowned "like what?" she smilied brightly
"Well...ever heard of somthing called Grim Tales?"