A Nightmare Remembered

Chapter VI: Welcome to the New Age…

The sky among the trees was cloudy and dark. No sign of moon, nor sun shone through, so Jack had no sense of time about him as he walked, to where he wasn't entirely sure. He stopped for a moment to gather his wits and take in where his location might be. Looking left and right a number of times in rapid succession, Jack quickly became dizzy and stopped. He placed a hand to his head, pushing past his new, jet black hair. He stopped and felt through it. The texture was new to him, or at least it felt new, foreign even, for he had not felt anything like it in many years, at least, not on him anyhow. Jack decided taking a moment to inspect his new body couldn't hurt. He scanned the area for a nearby puddle and rushed to it when he finally found one. It was almost always rainy in the Hinterlands, however it had taken Jack a while to find a decent sized puddle, which he took for proof that he was inching closer to the human world.

Jack knelt over the puddle and inspected himself. His eyes were so black; he could almost see, again, his reflection in them. His hair fell, unruly over his face, giving a charismatic air to his features. He was quite handsome, but had an 'old- fashionedness' about his look. As he finished looking over his new, fleshy face, he stood up and suddenly his attention turned to the rest of his body. He rubbed his fingers together, feeling the skin that covered them. He touched his arms and shoulders, broad and moderately muscular. Curiously, he lifted his shirt and glanced at his stomach, a faint outline of a toned muscle could be seen on it. Suddenly, once again he became aware of a sensation below his waist. Hesitant at first, he gently grasped the waistband of his pants and peered into them. His eyes grew wide. What is THAT? he wondered to himself. Quickly he released his waistband and could feel his cheeks grow red. Suddenly he noticed a faint noise on the wind. He turned around to see a tiny, floating orb on the horizon. After squinting a bit to see what it was, Jack smiled and began to wave his arms in the air.

"Zero! Over here boy!" he yelled towards his companion. Zero moved swiftly over the sketchscaped land and into the arms of his master. Jack couldn't have been happier to have someone with him on this journey. Zero twirled and panted, he was every bit as happy as Jack. He patted his canine's head.

"Are you sure you want to come, boy? You know how you get around humans. I can almost never get you to go out with the other ghosts on The Hunt and scare them." Jack said . Zero's nose glowed a bright orangey glow. He growled and gave Jack a tiny bark. Jack grinned. "Of course I want you with me. Okay, let's go, but I'd think it'd be best if you took your invisible form around the humans, alright?" Zero yelped in agreement, and with his friend by his side, Jack continued his journey into the human world.

Jack had walked for about an hour before he turned to Zero and sighed.

"I can't tell where we are now Zero. I don't recall this part of the forest at all. What about you? Do you smell anything?" he asked. Zero stuck his nose in the air and began to sniff around. Jack noticed a rock and decided to sit on it while Zero did his thing. After about a minute, Zero began to growl fiercely and bark behind where Jack was sitting. Wondering at what Zero had found, Jack rose quickly to see if he could locate what Zero had found. Unfortunately for Jack, he stood too quickly and lost his footing, not being used to the weight of his new body.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Jack yelled as he fell. He had not noticed that he had been on a hill, so Jack continued to fall, with Zero gliding as fast as he could to catch up with him. After several long minutes, Jack finally reached the bottom of the slope. Upon reaching it he knocked his head upon a small rock and landed on the road below, unconscious.

oO0

Zero had been trying for several minutes to help his friend regain consciousness, but to no avail. He circled around Jack and whimpered, unsure of what to do. Zero began to sniff him, and as he did, he noticed two bright lights approaching from the left of them. The lights seemed to be growing bigger and bigger, and with them a rumbling noise followed. As the noise got louder, and the lights bigger, Zero yelped, went invisible, and hid behind an unconscious Jack. The lights happened to be a car passing on the road, but stopped when the driver noticed Jack looking lifeless on the side of the highway. A young man, in his early twenties emerged from the vehicle and ran to Jack's side.

"Hey? Uh, hey?! Are you okay?" the man asked, gently shaking Jack. Jack groaned. The young man breathed in relief. "Oh God, for moment there I thought you might be…well anyway, are you all right? What happened? Do you need anything?" he asked shaky. Jack squinted awake, the headlights of the car were directly in his line of vision.

"Ugh….I-I can't see anything." Jack muttered, putting a hand to his face. The man looked back at the car and laughed nervously.

"Oh, the headlights. Yeah, I'll just-"he broke up as he ran to turn them off. He ran back with a water bottle in his hand. "Here's some water, its cold, if that's alright." He said as he helped Jack to his feet. He walked Jack over to the hood of the car and handed him the bottle. Jack leaned against the warm metal of the humming vehicle and inspected the bottle. He twisted the top off and held the bottle to his lips. Suddenly he could feel the cool rush of liquid run into his mouth and down his throat. At first he coughed some of it back up, being this was the first time Jack ever drank anything in over a hundred years. After a few slow sips, Jack got the hang of it and gingerly handed the bottle back to the man after he had had his fill.

"Do you need me to call someone for you? Take you to the hospital? You've got blood all over your jacket and shirt." The man pointed out. Jack looked down at his clothing. He tugged at his Jacket, straightening it.

"I'm fine." Jack replied. "I just fell off that hill there…I must have scraped myself on the way down." The man nodded, looking slightly unconvinced.

"Okay, well, are you sure you don't need anything? Could I at least drop you off somewhere? I wouldn't think you'd want to stay at here, whatever you were doing out here." He said. Jack looked around slightly, seeing if maybe Zero was nearby, but couldn't spot him. He nodded at the man, accepting his offer for a ride and slide into the passenger seat of the car.

They had driven but a distance before the young man stuck his hand out at Jack.

"I'm Benjamin, sorry I didn't introduce myself before." He said quietly, but kindly. Jack shook his hand almost cautiously.

"I am Jack Sk-um, Jack." Jack replied shaking Benjamin's hand. Benjamin smiled, most likely relieved that Jack accepted his gesture of friendship. Jack grinned back. He leaned back in his seat, but couldn't help but sneak a few glances at the first human he had seen since he met Eve. Benjamin had a pleasant disposition about him. He had short, thick brown hair, a slightly long face and sharp nose. His grin was crooked and he seemed to be moderately tall, though not as tall as Jack, who was maybe even only slightly taller than him. He was very handsome, kind, and bit shy. Jack was relieved, he didn't feel threatened by this human. He didn't feel as he was being inspected or suspected by him. Jack settled back into his seat and took fascination in the ride and how fast it was going by.

"So, um I forgot to ask. Where are we going?" Benjamin asked. Jack froze. He had no idea where to go from here. A thought suddenly struck him and he began to dig feverishly through his pockets. After turning a few inside out, he found a crumpled, dirty piece of parchment. As he pulled it out, something shiny and metallic fell from his pocket and landed near Benjamin's feet.

"What's that?" he asked. Jack shrugged, curiosity evident on his face as well as Benjamin's. "Here, let me pull over and I'll grab it." As Benjamin pulled over to the shoulder of the road, Jack glanced over the parchment. There was an address on it; 15910 Nightshade Avenue, Saranac Lake, NY. Jack blinked.

"You wouldn't happen to know where this is, would you?" Jack asked, motioning to the paper. Benjamin peered over it while reaching for the object Jack dropped.

"Hmmm…oh yea, I think I do. It's right near where-oh wow." Benjamin stopped and looked at what Jack had dropped. It was an engagement ring. A dazzling, black silver ring, with a purple diamond in the middle. The design around the band was intricate and elegant. Benjamin gave Jack a wide grin. "You're going to propose to your girlfriend?" Jack took the ring from Benjamin's hand. Suddenly he began to see something other than his real surroundings. A mix of colors of red, orange, and brown. A crisp wind blowing against his skin. An orange sunset falling on the Earth. As quickly as the vision came it was gone.

"Jack? Are you alright?" Benjamin asked. Jack snapped out of it.

"Oh…yes I'm fine. Uh…" Jack looked at the ring. "I guess I am going to ask her…to marry me…" Benjamin smiled.

"What a coincidence, I'm planning to propose to my girl. Who, I was about to say, lives down the road from this address. I'll get us there in no time." Benjamin said as he pulled back onto the highway.

"Thank you so much Benjamin." Jack said gratefully.

"Hey no problem." Benjamin said happily. Jack fell against the car seat and inspected his ring, smiling. He was happy in his discovery of the ring and of the possibility of a new friend…