NiGHTS: Back to Earth

Actuality 9

It was early morning when a knock came to the door. Helen was just out of the shower, so she called to Nicholas, "can you get that?"

Nicholas opened the door to see a fourteen year old boy with short spiked red hair and blue eyes. He wore a black trench coat with baggy black jeans and a white shirt. "Where is Reala?" He asked.

"J-Jackle?" Nicholas asked, "how did-how did you get here?"

"Oh, that doesn't matter," Jackle shook his head, then asked the same question again "where's Reala?"

Helen came downstairs with her hair still wet, "what's going…on?" She fell silent; she looked at Jackle strait into his bright blue eyes. Her next action was the shut the door right on Jackle's face.

"Helen, what was that for?" Nicholas asked, and then he realized Helen's enraged feelings towards Jackle. Since Jackle forced Helen to date him three years ago, Helen had developed a great hatred for the nightmaren.

Jackle opened the door, "Helen, sweetie, why are you so harsh to your former lover?"

"I'm not your girlfriend anymore Jackle," Helen rubbed her temples, "now, why are you here?"

"I was only looking for Reala my dear Helen," Jackle explained. He had a quest to fulfill, and he wanted to get back to the Dream World as soon as possible. So he was hasty about his answers.

"Well, he's not here," said the annoyed Helen, "he lives with Pammy."

"Who?" Jackle asked, without the memory of who Pammy was.

Helen rolled her eyes, "Reala's ex-girlfriend," she said, with full hope that Jackle would recognize her that way.

"Oh, okay," Jackle said. He soon trailed off to Pammy's.

Yet the only problem was: Jackle had no clue where Pammy lived. He walked a few steps on the sidewalk as he looked through his card deck. They didn't seem much different from before only with the power to go through different worlds. That was when he bumped into a young girl. She had brown hair braided into pigtails, and blue eyes. She looked almost too familiar to Jackle, but can't put his nose to it. After he looked at the girl, he looked down, "m-my cards!" All of his cards were all over the side walk.

The girl laughed playfully, and then offered, "Want to play 52 Pickup?"

A huge smile went on Jackle's face; this was the first time someone actually agreed to play that "game" with him. Most of the other Nightmarens just leave whenever he would throw his cards to the ground. "Sure thing," Jackle said.

After the gathering of the cards, the girl asked Jackle, "What's your name? Mine is Bridget."

"Bridget?" Jackle came to notice, "That's a very strange name."

"Well then, we'll see whose stranger, what's yours?" Bridget asked again.

"I am Jackle, the most feared Nightmaren of them all," Jackle had fully announced. Jackle was never good at hiding his identity, neither did he notice that he just gave away that he was as Nightmaren.

"You're a Nightmaren huh?" Bridget wasn't surprised since she had seen many strange things in this world. "Are you looking for NiGHTS and Reala?"

"Just Reala," said Jackle, he didn't even wonder how she even knew their names, "I know that he lives with someone named Pammy but I don't know where she lives."

"I know Pammy," said Bridget, "she's my brother's girlfriend. Let me show you!"

Jackle followed the girl who skipped down the street. He looked at her backpack, which had a strange design with many red and purple swirls on it. The backpack was almost hypnotizing. Suddenly, Bridget had stopped. Jackle bumped into her back.

"We're here," she sang to Jackle, she knocked on the door to wait for an answer.

Tina, Pammy's mother, opened the door, "yes?" She looked very frightened of something.

"We're looking for Ren," Bridget explained, "his friend Jackle here needs to see him."

That was when Tina began to burst out crying, "I just don't know." The tears came down fast and huge, like a rainstorm.

Bridget made a gulp in her thought, she had never seen Pammy's mother become hysterical before. She was mostly calm, even in the worst of situations. "What happened?"

"Pammy and Ren left without a trace," Tina explained, "with no note, no anything! I didn't know that I was being a horrible guardian for them both. I never yelled at them or anything. I just don't know what went wrong. They just ran away."

"What?" Jackle cried, "So Reala isn't here?"

"Who's Reala?" Tina asked.

"He means Ren," Bridget explained.

"Yes, he is not here," Tina confirmed "we have contacted the police and John is helping looking for both of them."

"Good to know," said Bridget. She left along with Jackle.

Helen looked into her purse where she didn't find the four Artificial Ideya. She poured everything in her purse onto her bed, but still not an Artificial Ideya to be found.

Nicholas came into Helen's room, he saw Helen drastically looking around her stuff, "what's wrong?"

"I can't find the Ideya anywhere," Helen yelled out to Nicholas, "they've disappeared."

That was when the phone rang. Helen looked at the caller ID, it was May. She had to take it since it was a long distance call. Helen picked up the phone, "Hello?"

"Helen!" May cried, "I'm so glad you answered, I've heard from Mum that Nicholas is back. What happened? I thought he was back in the Dream World?"

"He was, for three years. Reala had a pair of boots that can go through dimensions," Helen explained, "but they were fighting and the Ideya that powered the boots broke. So we have to look for Artificial Ideya to…."

"Oh, I have an Artificial Ideya!" May yelled out in full amazement, "It's in my room, in the box with the ballerina in it."

"Hey Nicholas," Helen told him, "can you look in May's room for a white box, there's a White Artificial Ideya in there."

Nicholas ran out of Helen's room, "Sure thing."

When Nicholas had left, May had other news, "I got an acting job."

"Really?" Helen was very surprised, she knew that May was a good actress, but getting an acting job was very difficult for her, all of her jobs so far were in the food industry, "where?"

"At an Independent stage production," May said, "The name of the play is…."

Nicholas came back with a disappointed look on his face. He couldn't believe it, "it's not there."

"Shoot," May whispered, "I knew it was there, I must have displaced it."

"Or perhaps," Helen suggested, "Ren took it."

"So Ren took the other four Artificial Ideya," Nicholas growled under his breath, "I should have known."

That was when Jackle came into Helen's room screaming, "He's gone, Reala is gone!"

"Why would you trust Reala for one second?" May asked as she recognized the drama going on, so she asked, "Well, can you bring the phone to Mum?"

"Mum," Helen called out to Madeline, "May is on the phone, can you pick it up?"

"Sure Helen," Madeline called back from the kitchen, she picked up the phone, and then Helen hung up.

Nicholas was already trying to clam Jackle down, "Okay Jackle, take deep breaths, what happened?"

Deep breaths were took from Jackle, with tears still down his eyes, he explained, "T-this girl, Bridget, she showed me to that Pammy girl's house…and her parents said that both Reala and Pammy were gone."

"What?" Helen scream, "Both Ren and Pammy?"

"Yeah, they just disappeared," Jackle said.

"Ugg," Helen massaged her brows, "maybe letting Ren live with Pammy wasn't a good idea."

That was when Bridget ran into Helen's room, "Jackle, what's wrong?"

"Well, it was Pammy's idea," Nicholas came to observe, then he saw Bridget, "Oh, hey Bridget."

"It doesn't matter," said Helen, "Both Pammy and Reala are in the Dream World, and we need to find out how to get there ourselves."

That was when Jackle disappeared.

"Bridget?" Helen asked, "can you retrieve Jackle?"

How scared Pammy was, was very indescribable. Both Reala and Pammy were in complete darkness, she walked with him, not saying a word, bitter about everything that happened. She wondered how her parents and friends would feel when they find out that she was missing. She never ran away from home before, and neither had she ever missed curfew. She had no idea how her parents would react. All hoped was that she would someday come back to the Waking World.

"You know," Reala had finally spoken up, "we could get there much faster if we Dualized."

"D-Dualize?" Pammy asked, she very well knew what it was, from the little that she remembered about the Dream World. "You can do that?"

"My powers match up to NiGHTS'," Reala explained, "so I have every power that NiGHTS has, so yes, I can Dualize." Reala took out his hand, "how about it?" Reala took out his hand to show that he was ready.

Pammy looked at her own hand, she wasn't sure if she should do this. She trusted NiGHTS when she Dualized with him. She had trusted Reala many times, but at that moment: she didn't trust him at all since he had tricked her the night before.

"Stop being so hesitant," Reala scolded to the girl, he put his hand to hers then they fused together.

"You're so impatient Reala," Pammy scolded back to Reala, "don't you ever take any consideration about how I feel?"

Reala ignored Pammy's comment, he changed the subject "So you only have two Ideya?"

Pammy rolled her eyes, Reala was avoiding as much as he could of what he had just did to her, "Yeah, Courage and Purity."

Reala laughed, "That's where most Visitors give up on their Ideya quest."

"Well, there was a reason why I gave up," Pammy came back to the subject she needed to address, "you didn't return my love for you."

"You don't even remember telling me that you loved me the first time," Reala told Pammy, "so how would you know that was the reason why you gave up on your Ideya Quest?"

"I don't know," Pammy had spoken back, "it's just a gut feeling." Pammy paused for a second; she actually wasn't sure why she gave up on her Ideya. "Where are we going anyway?"

"Well, we are already in Nightmare, but there's a castle at the middle of it." Reala began to explain, "Nightmare wasn't always a castle; it's just that so any Visitors thought of Nightmare as one, that it became one."

Pammy nodded her head; she had let Reala navigate since she knew his way around. She closed her eyes to feel the breeze, but immediately opened them because she felt no breeze. She had a feeling that she would remember Nightmare that time.

Reala had found the dark and creepy castle that was in Nightmare, where he flew inside of. Immediately Reala went over to Wizeman's room. He bowed to his master. "Wizeman, I am back from the World of the Visitors."

"And I suppose that Jackle is with you," Wizeman responded.

"Jackle?" Reala was confused "I may ask, why I would have Jackle with me?"

"He sent you back to Nightmare," Wizeman explained, "I gave him the power to go to the Waking World to retrieve you."

"Well, I came back myself," Reala told Wizeman, "using the power of what Visitors call, 'Artificial Ideya.'"

That was when Wizeman felt a presence, "Reala are you dualized with someone."

That was when Reala pushed Pammy out of himself.

She yelped from falling to the ground. She looked up at Wizeman, "um…hi?"

"So you've brought Pamela to the Dream World?" Wizeman asked, "Why?"

"Well, the portal doesn't appear when I paraloop nothing, so I had to do it to someone," Reala explained, "Pammy was the most tolerable person in the Waking World so, I chose her."

"As long as it wasn't NiGHTS that you brought along," Wizeman said, "you may leave."

Reala bowed down to Wizeman, then left. Pammy looked at the dark room, that Wizeman stood in; it seemed, kind of boring. Pammy wondered what he did all of the time, perhaps he schemed?

Reala grabbed onto Pammy's arm, "let's go!" He dragged her out of the room.

Pammy pulled herself away from Reala's grasp as she glared at him, "Bring me back to the Waking World, now!"

Reala's face met Pammy's then sinfully grinned, "Who says that I'm going to do that?"

Jackle took a look at the refrigerator of the Cartwright residence. He eyed a bottle of ketchup, tall and red and still full of that red glop, so he took it out. Just then he began to squeeze it all over himself. The feeling of the ketchup all over his body was an odd feeling, yet then again having a body was also an odd feeling.

That was when Bridget came into the kitchen, "Hey, Jackle, Helen and NiGHTS need to…." She looked up at Jackle to see the ketchup, "are you a hotdog or something?"

"Nah," Jackle shook his head, "I just like the feeling of red stuff all over me."

"Me too actually," Bridget agreed, "I once accidentally cut my finger, and so much of this red stuff came out of it, I couldn't believe that so much of it can come out of one small finger."

Helen and Nicholas sat on Helen's bed, bored, as they waited for Bridget to come back with Jackle.

When Bridget came to the room, she was without Jackle. She began with a, "remember that favor you owe me from giving you that Artificial Ideya?"

"Is now the best time?" Helen asked, "Pammy could be scared senseless."

"No, let's hear Bridget's request," said Nicholas, "then we will get Jackle ourselves."

"Actually," Bridge shyly told the two, "it's about Jackle."

"What? Now he can't leave you alone?" Helen asked, "Now that's something we can't…."

"No," Bridget shook her head, "I actually take a strong liking to Jackle."

That was when Helen began to laugh, this was just too funny for her, "You mean like a crush?"

Bridget pouted, "What? Is something funny about that?"

"Well, let's just say that Jackle isn't good with relationships," Nicholas explained to the girl, "He annoys the heck out of you, and won't let you break up with him."

"That's only the situation with Helen," Bridget came to consideration, "also, I actually like him."

Helen sighed, she guessed Bridget was right, "so what do you want us to do about it?"

"Well, I don't know," Bridget shrugged, "say something about my interest in him."

"Well, if that's the favor we owe you, we should try the best as we can," Nicholas expressed, "now where is Jackle?"

"He's spraying ketchup all over himself in the kitchen," Bridget explained to the two, "yet I don't seem to understand why you need him so much."

Nicholas got up to answer that, "well, he probably has a way back to the Dream World, so he could send us there to save Pammy."

"You know," Birdget began to observe "if Pammy's physical body is in the Dream World, then what happens when she sleeps?"

"Does it really matter Bridget?" Helen asked in rage, "Pammy is in danger, and we are the only ones to help her."

"Fine, fine," said Bridget, "I'll get Jackle, and this time, I'll take the ketchup away from him."

As Bridget left the room, Helen just told herself, "Jackle is such a waste of ketchup."