"Alice~" Nightmare called out in the dream world.

"Hm? Oh. It's you. And I was having such a pleasant dream until you came along." Alice replied, snidely.

"Oh Alice. Why do you hurt me like this? I am but a sickly incubus."

"Pft. And you're the boss of this huge tower and a ton of servants and that butt hole Gray. A sickly incubus you may be, but an incubus with power deserves no pity from me." She laughed.

"Who are you? Peter White? Trying to make a rhyme?" Nightmare said as he began to laugh.

"Please tell me Peter was left in Hearts!" she cried.

"I'm afraid not. He lives at the castle, remember?"

"Dang it… he is like a stalker."

"If you think about it, I'm an even bigger stalker. Invading your dreams to watch you." He chuckled.

"Well maybe I like dream stalkers better than bunny eared ones."

"Are you saying that you like me?" He asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Of course I like you." She said, giving him a hug.

"Then why such the crude remark when I entered?"

"Because…. I was waiting for you for what seemed like forever…." She whispered. Nightmare felt the heat rising into his cheeks. "W-why are you blushing? S-stop reading my mind! Maybe I should ask Gray about how I can block you with my mind!"

"You know, you can't really block me from your mind. I can easily read surface thoughts and you can block me from reading too deeply into them by covering them with different thoughts but if I really wanted to know what anybody was thinking I can get what I want."

"Sometimes you scare me…" Alice whispered.

"I-I'm sorry. I don't mean to. I never want to scare you on purpose. I don't even want to go too deep in your mind. All I want is to read the surface thoughts."

"Then I must learn to block you." She sighed.

"It took Gray years to figure out how to do it." Nightmare chuckled. He suddenly stopped. "I feel Gowland is asleep now. Want me to go talk to him for you?" Alice nodded. Nightmare disappeared and Alice felt alone. After a while of waiting for Nightmare she decided to try to get some real shut eye. She closed her eyes and found herself in a dream.

She was sitting in her normal place with Julius while he was working on his clocks. She looked at him and smiled. He frowned when there was a knocking on the door.

"Enter." He called out to whoever was knocking. It was Blood and he… he had his gun out and pointed at Julius. There wasn't enough reaction time for Julius to get out of the way before Blood shot him. Blood began to laugh hysterically. He just stood at the door entrance, not leaving or coming closer to kill Alice.

"Julius!" she cried out. He was bleeding and was in pain. "Julius! Please don't die on me!" she cried.

"Meh. Don't worry about an old man like me. You're so weird for even worrying about the mortician."

"Don't say that!" she yelled at him. But by that time it was too late. His eyes were closed and his body began to change into a clock right inside her arms. She took the clock and held it close to herself as she cried.

"Hand the clock over." Blood said.

"No! NEVER!" she cried out.

"Fine. Have it your way." He said as he brought up his gun and fired right at her.

"Julius!" she cried as she woke up in the night. A tear had found its way down her cheek. She began to cry and hugged a pillow for support. It didn't work. She started sobbing and found no comfort in anything. She jumped out of bed and ran out the door.

"Nightmare…" She whimpered as she reached for his door. He was the only comfort she could think of. The closest thing to Julius she had. "Nightmare…?" she entered the door. She found him still asleep in his bed. Her tears blurred her vision. "N-Nightmare…." She whispered, gently shaking him. Tears flowed freely from her eyes. Some landed on his face and woke him up.

"Alice…?" he groaned, wiping away the tears that had fallen on his face.

"C-can I s-sleep here w-with you?" she asked. He was surprised.

"Urh…." She frowned and turned around.

"Ok, I'm sorry I woke you up…."

"No, no. Wait. I'm still waking up. Did you ask if you could sleep with me?" She nodded in the dark room. She knew he wouldn't see it but he would hear it from her mind.

"Please….." She whimpered as she sat on the edge of his bed.

"Come here." He said as he opened his arms. She fell right into them and pulled herself close to him nuzzling the crook of his neck so she could cry into his shoulder. His eye opened wide at how fast she had pulled herself to him. "E-excuse me for one second." He muttered. He pulled away and rolled to the other side of the bed where he found his handkerchief to cough into. He began to cough up blood.

"N-Nightmare…? Did I do something wrong…?" she asked, reaching out to him.

"No. Don't be silly." He smiled rolling back over to her. "It's just….."

"Just what?" she asked, pulling herself close.

"Nothing. Never mind. Get to sleep, please." He said as he wrapped an arm around her to rub her back. His other hand rested on her hand that was placed on his chest. 'It's just that… you startled me. Everything moved so fast…. And I felt so happy.' He tilted his head to rest on hers. After a while her breathing settled down to a reasonable pace and he figured she was asleep. He then closed his eyes to see her in the dream world once more.

She was sitting on the ground hugging her legs. She looked up at Nightmare as he appeared in the dream. Her eyes were pink and puffy from crying.

"Tell me everything…" He whispered. He sat down and pulled her onto his lap where she wrapped her arms around his neck. He wrapped one arm around her hip and the other one became entangled in her hair as he held her head to his shoulder. He frowned. She only wanted to talk to him with her mind. She told him about how she had started dreaming after he left and she told him about the dream. "I promise you Julius is alive and well." He said. A brief pause. "I'm sorry I left. I should have just put you in a good dream instead of leaving you here. It's all my fault." Silence. "No, no. It is my fault. Here, want me to put you in a good dream?" he asked. "Ok then. You can stay here with me. Want me to tell you what Gowland said?" She nodded. 'A reaction!' he thought. "Well he said he missed you too. Said he is building a new ride for the next time you are able to go see him." Silence.

"You're so kind to be there for me…" She whispered.

Julius: Why did you kill me?!

Me: your not dead. It was a bad dream. But it was the only way to get Alice to climb into bed with Nightmare.

Blood: Why was I the killer?

Me: well you tried to kill him before and... I dont really like you. You're a creepy rapist.