I'm on a roll. To some people it might not seem like I've updated too often, but for me these last two chapters and a chapter to my other story have been put up practically back to back.

Disclaimer: Everything from the original Treasure Planet movie belongs to Disney.

However long the night, the dawn will break.
- African Proverb

Chapter 6: The Journal

It had been three weeks since the episode on the Fire Rider and Dylan was still unresponsive. He was like a puppet that would do whatever you told him but there was no sign of him in there anywhere. His eyes were vacant and lifeless and showed no signs of knowing you were there unless you told him to do something. Delbert didn't know how much longer he could take seeing his son like this. It was also affecting Amelia just as bad, plus she had the responsibility of this entire voyage on her shoulders. He knew she cried every night in the shower. He wanted to as well but Delbert had to hold it together for Amelia and his kids. With all of the pressure she was feeling if he didn't help hold her in one piece, she would fall apart.

That scared him quite a bit. Ever since the moment he had met Amelia he had never known anything to break her. Losing Arrow on the Treasure Planet voyage and hurt her quite a bit but she remained strong. Now, he was afraid if anything became any worse with Dylan, she would break.

He seemed a bit lost too. He needed to find something that could help them figure out what was wrong with Dylan. He couldn't help but to feel responsible for not finding better help when the headaches started. The doctors told them the headaches were nothing. They were clearly wrong, he should have listened to his gut and found a specialist. Now, he was doing the only thing he could.

He was going threw his sons stuff for a clue about what Dylan might have known. He was about to give up looking when a journal caught his eye. He knew it was wrong to read something private, but he would worry about it later. He opened it up and flipped through the entries. It all seemed like typical teenager stuff.

February 22

I wish I was an only child. I always thought things would be better when the quads left, but Darren's been annoying enough for all of them…

Delbert flipped through several more pages.

April 14

I don't much feel like writing, I have a splitting headache, but I have to write about something I seen in town. It was the coolest and weirdest thing I have ever seen…

April, Delbert thought. That's when the migraines started. He flipped several more pages.

June 10

I can't wait for this voyage. I've been preparing for practically since mum accepted it. I haven't felt very good lately and not like the flu. Depressed maybe, but I don't have a reason to be…

Damn it, Amelia and I both noticed it then. We were both so busy with this that we didn't do anything. I could kill myself.

June 22

We just launched and the Captains and every other important person on this trip are in a meeting. I don't have much time to write but I need to get this down. My parents are starting to notice something. They were talking about it earlier, but it isn't serious, and there's nothing to worry about so I tried a last ditch attempt to get them to stop talking about by showing them something I had drawn. Now that we've launched I hope they'll be busy and forget about it. I don't need them fussing over me. I don't have time to write more but I'll try to write later.

-Dylan Doppler

He heard us talking. He was trying to hide it. God I wish he wouldn't have, now look what's happened. When Delbert continued looking through the pages he found there was only one more journal entry in it. It was dated the day before his breakdown.

August 4

Darkness.

Trapped in an endless sea of black with no air to breath, like floating alone in space but without the light of the stars. No matter how hard I try I can't seem to get air.

I've given up trying. Sometimes it's easier to let my lungs burn.

I can't feel like I use to, as if someone has bled all of the emotion out of me. For months now I've slowly begun to care less and less. I have the same dream every night, a violent and torturing nightmare. I feel like my most valuable possession has been mutilated for someone else's pleasure at the expense of my sanity. When I'm awake I see things I know aren't there be I see them none the less, and they see me. I can feel me being watched everywhere I turn.

No, that's completely ridicules. I'm imagining it all. As long as I'm aware that none of it is real I can deal with it.

For quite some time now I've felt nothing. I would do anything to be happy again, or angry, of even sad. This lack of caring is driving me even more mad than I already am. I would give anything, and it concerns me but I've even considered suicide. I know I need to tell someone before I hurt myself but I just can't seem to care.

Suicide is insane and irrational, but I'm not either of those things anymore.

In my dream the lack of air burns my lungs so bad that I pass out. I'm terrified of suffocating. It's the only time I feel, when I have this dream. I have the same dream every night.

The next thing I know, I'm sitting in our kitchen. Everyone is there at the table eating dinner. We eat the same thing every time: nothing. I look around confused, not understanding how nobody notices the lack of food. Then, the house starts to shake causing all of the loose items to come crashing to the floor along with everything on the table. When it finally stops I look around to see everyone wearing the same terrified expression. The lights flicker off then back on and the rest of my family is gone.

Now instead there is blood everywhere. Some of its splattered and some of its smeared but the one thing that is consistent is that there is a lot. Bloody hand prints on the table, the floor, the walls, the ceiling. I never worry about any of those prints, just the seven on my cloths, and each one from a different person. I never felt their touch, but I know who they belong to.

The lights flicker off again and when they turn back on I'm sitting in the living room it front of the television. I make no attempt to move, afraid of what would happen if I did. It came on by itself and was playing home videos of my family, so almost twenty years old. I watch in horror as the images shift and we start to bleed and skin peels away, muscles rot and decay all the way down to the bone. Some of them are missing limbs entirely.

The screen goes blank.

Everything begins shaking again. It's only me this time shaking from fright. A horrible smell hits my nose. A sick combination of salt and iron

Blood.

Its pouring out of the line where the wall meets the ceiling. It runs out of the television, the books, the fire place, and the pictures on the wall. It bubbles out of the floor and begins to fill up the living room like a swimming pool. I feel like I'm going to vomit but before my stomach gives out, the lights flicker out again.

This time it stays dark for some time. Then a single light turns on over head. I know where I'm at because of the mirror in front of me. I'm at the end of the second floor hallway farthest away from the main stair case. When I look into the only thing I see is me.

Another light turns on. It's at the other end of the hallway. Standing in the light, staring at me with unforgettable red eyes, is a murderous creature unlike any other. At his feet is dad, or what's left of him. The creature had ripped him to shreds. The light went off then another one came on and this time he was one light closer. He continued to do this and every time there was a different person I cared about dead at his feet. At last he was one light behind me. My twin was the last but he was still alive.

"Help me," he choked out.

Before I could do anything the light flickered and his head was gone. Both lights go out and my light comes back on and this terrifying creature is standing next to me. I can actually hear my heart pounding away. It looks at me and then at my reflection. When I turn back to the mirror I see that I am now the mangled body. The demon flashes a horrible smile exposing its sharp teeth. Hundreds, all at least two inches in length, are dripping red saliva. In the blink of an eye, it's biting into my shoulder. I feel the searing pain for what feels like an eternity. Then everything goes black and the dream starts over again, repeating several times always back to the same point.

Once again I'm struggling for air. I feel death creep into my body as my lungs burn in my chest. It happens so many times that eventually I would like nothing more than to die. Then, just as I'm sure the time has come, I wake up.

I wake up to another day of emotionless living, waiting for the dream to start again, because I honestly don't know what's worse. Felling this terrible nightmare…

Or feeling nothing at all.

-Dylan Doppler.

Delbert dropped the journal from shock. He couldn't believe what he had just read. It was so disturbing. He had no idea the severity of what was happening to his son, but to hear something like this made Delbert sick to his stomach. The most disturbing part was that there truly was a lack of emotion in it, like his son didn't care about what he was writing.

He picked it back up and reread everything. He now understood what caused his sons hysteria. He had lived something from his dream in real life. He had to show Amelia, tonight.

*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*

It was a quiet night aboard the ship and the starts were beautiful. It was hard to enjoy them when your brothers sick and there's a murderer somewhere. Abby leaned against the railing for a little while longer before she decided it was time to return to her room. As she slowly made her way down the corridor, she father came out of the boys' cabin. He looked shaken.

"Dad what's wrong?" He looked up at her but didn't say anything. She didn't need to know about what he had found; the situation was already upsetting enough.

"It's nothing you need to worry about."

It agitated her when people said that, like she was to fragile. He hardly ever did it though, Delbert had always treated her like an adult. It made her worry.

"Dad," she said quietly, "you can tell me, I'm not five."

He sighed while contemplating whether he should tell her, but decided not to. He decided to give a good answer why he wasn't going to tell her.

"I know you're not." He put a hand on her shoulder. "But this is something that should stay between me and your mother, okay."

She really wanted to press, but she trusted him so she didn't.

"Yeah, okay."

"Good, now why don't you get some sleep."

Abby shook her head but was now to upset. After her father had left she when down to the long boat bay. She had been sitting in the boat for quite some time when she heard a voice from behind her.

"Do you mind if I join you?"

She turned around to see a face that she had become accustomed and quite attached to over the course of the voyage. Right now, this was just the person she wanted for company, the only person she wanted for company.

"I would love your companionship, Jake."

She smiled, but she didn't feel any better than before. He climbed silently into the boat with her.

"What, good sir, brings you out at this hour?"

"I, uh, seen you walk down here. You looked upset, I just wanted you to know, you can always talk to me."

"Thank you," she said softly. They became silent again, but it was a comfortable one. He swept the hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear causing her face to turn red. He coughed and drew his hand away. She grabbed his hand in hers and held it where it was.

Without realizing it, they came closer to one another. Abby could feel Jake's lips brush past hers and with a sudden boldness, closed the gap and kissed him. She felt lightning shoot through her entire body, it was so intense she couldn't breathe. She had become dizzy and had to put her arms around his neck to steady herself. His arms automatically went around her waist. When they had finally run out of air, they pulled away, but only by millimeters.

"That was amazing," she said in a breathless voice. The euphoria only lasted a couple of seconds before she was back to worrying again.

"Why don't you tell me what's bothering you."

She turned back to face forward on the bench. Her elbows went to her knees and she put her head in her hands. She let out a single sob and Jake put his arms around her and held her close.

"He's getting worse, every day it seems like there is less of him in there. We all seen it early on but nobody thought it was this bad. He use to have such a bright personality, so happy and energetic. If it's having this kind of effect on the outside, just imagine what's going on in his head. I don't even want to think about it."

"Then don't think about it. The only thing you can do it to think about the positive and try to help him. I'll help too, if you want me to."

She smiled at him.

"I would love that, we all would."

"Then, I think I'll start now." He slid off into the floor. Once he was comfortable he held his hand out to her. She sat in the floor next to him and put her head on his shoulders. They sat there in silence before they drifted off to sleep.