Chapter 8

A nightmare. As much as it pained Pitch ,which honestly wasn't very much considering he was the Boogeyman after all, a nightmare was one of the only ways he could ever see Katherine and interact with her. He knew her deepest and darkest fears, and like anyone else he couldn't resist but to prey on those fears. The longing for her real parents, her fear of loosing the Guardians, even her rare fear of the darkness. Pitch couldn't help but drop in on Katherine from time to time and give her a special nightmare.

This time it was a blurry vision of how a figure, a women maybe, left a tiny baby at the foot of large snow covered stairs. It was Katherine, she knew it was her. She expected North or one of the Guardians to come and find her, but instead dark coils of shadows began to wrap around the baby. A strange, pale, and monstrous hand reached out from the shadows and slowly pulled the baby into the shadows.

The dream took a turn showing the current teenage Katherine looking lost among the shadows, sprawled out on a cold stone floor. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears as she stumbled to her feet, trying to figure out where she was. But all she could see was darkness. There would be an occasional scurrying sound that would make her jump and spin on her heals, trying to catch a glimpse of the mysterious thing that lurked in the shadows. But to no prevail, she would only stumble into a rocky wall or trip over her own feet.

"Who's there?" Katherine asked, half terrified and half enraged. No response, only a cold breeze that tore at her dress.

Suddenly, there was a faint light. Katherine couldn't tell if her mind was beginning to play tricks or not, but it somehow drew her towards it. There was a familiar voice calling out from it. Yes! It was the voice of her Guardians! She was saved! Katherine began to sprint towards the light. But the scurrying sound that echoed from out behind her froze her to her spot. Katherine spun around only to see the familiar pair of yellow and silver eyes gleaming in the darkness. She felt a sudden longing, a longing for the eyes. But why? If anything she should be scared of a random pair of eyes gleaming in the darkness.

But Katherine wasn't afraid of them. They were all to familiar to her. They made her feel happy, loved, this explainable feeling that she belonged with them. Suddenly a hand was held out to Katherine from the shadows. She couldn't see who it belonged to for the owner was masked in a thick layer of shadows. But something about it was familiar, how could this be?

Katherine shook her head. She wanted to take the mysterious dark hand, but at the same time she longed to be back with her Guardians. Back safe in Jack's arms with the smell of warm cinnamon in the air. But she couldn't make herself budge. The piercing gaze of the eyes kept her glued to the spot.

Finally once she made a decision to move, it was too late. More coils of black shadows slowly curled around Katherine, enveloping her in complete darkness. She tried to break free, struggling and kicking. But the shadows were stronger than anything she had ever experienced before. All she could do was let the shadows consume her, and silently scream for help that would never come...

Katherine woke with a start, throwing her covers off of her despite the the chill air. They made her feel like the shadows were still consuming her, like she would never be able to escape them. Katherine sighed in relief, it was clearly only a nightmare. Or that's what she told herself anyway. She knew it was more than just a nightmare. She had had nightmares like it before, over and over. But no matter how hard she tried to figure out what they meant, she could never quite put her finger on it.

Katherine got up and went to brew herself some tea. There was no point in going back to sleep now, her mind was far too awake trying to comprehend the nightmare. As she was waiting for her tea to brew she kept thinking she saw a figure move in and out of the shadows. As terrified as she was, she only shook her head and told herself it was nothing. Now was not the time to become petrified.

Katherine hurriedly grabbed up her tea and went into her secret room in the library. Katherine had made sure to bring her journal with her so that she could write down the nightmare and try to make since of it. Normally people would say, 'oh, it's only a nightmare, go back to bed.' But Katherine had been taught by the Sandman himself, and one of his lessons stated that almost every dream has a meaning behind it.

So Katherine wrote down the nightmare and compared it to the other ones that she has had. They all included the mysterious hand reaching out to her, the woman leaving Katherine at the foot of the North's workshop, and the dark coils of shadows drawing her to whatever was hidden in the darkness. They were mostly the same except for certain details here and there, but they were mainly the same. Katherine could make no sense of it. She would have to try and ask Sandy about them later, but she didn't know if he knew much about nightmares. The only person she could think of that knew was... well, the Boogeyman himself. But that was defiantly out of the question for Katherine.

"Ugh, curse my lack of knowledge of nightmares." Katherine muttered to herself as she picked up the book that North had lent her. If she was going to be awake for the rest of the night, she might as well read.

But right as Katherine opened the book the power went out, and a sudden wave of cold air wrapped around her. Katherine froze, not daring to budge. The power never goes out here, never. She tried to will herself to just get up and go check if the lights were burnt out, but she could barley keep herself from shaking. "It's only the dark. Just the dark." Katherine told herself. She was finally about to just get up and go to another room to read, but her eyes caught something. A pair of yellow and silver eyes.

Katherine let out a slight whimper, those were the exact same eyes from her nightmare. She could see the outline a sharp toothed smile as a hand was held out, just like in her nightmare. Katherine couldn't take it anymore, she sprang out of her chair and bolted for the door running as fast as her felt could take her. She didn't stop running until she was safely inside North's office where he stood looking shocked at Katherine's sudden appearance.

"Katherine, are you alright?" North asked in surprise as Katherine clutched her chest and sank down against a wall. All she could do was just nod her head, she was still breathless from running. "What happened?"

"Just got scared, had a nightmare." Katherine replied breathlessly after a moment.

"What? You had nightmare?" North looked bewildered. Katherine nodded her head as she finally regained control of her breath. "What was it about?"

Katherine just shook her head. "Nothing to worry about, only a silly dream."

North gave Katherine a doubtful look, but just nodded his head and went back to work on his ice sculptor. He could tell Katherine didn't want to talk about it right now, but he wouldn't press her on the matter. He just let Katherine sit and watch him work, it seemed to ease her enough.

Pitch was thoroughly pleased with himself, Katherine would never forget that night. But he was a little disappointed that she didn't take his hand. It would have made getting her back soo much easier. But alas, she dashed out of the room faster than any rabbit ever could. Pitch couldn't blame her, it's what most people would do when faced with the same situation. Besides, he had sent a clear message. She might not know what it means now, but eventually she will. He would make sure of that.