TW: Mention of body horror (inside of a dream)

"Guys..."

The kids were now back at their favourite skate park, panting and trying to catch their breath after such a long run. They all looked exhausted and still in shock at what had happened. The only one with the courage to break the silence between them was Fresh, guided by his natural sense of leadership. They had to make a decision, and they had to make it fast.

"What do we do now?" Fresh crossed his hands over his chest.

King collapsed onto a bench with a loud sigh, Yutani frowned and slowly hugged herself as if to shield herself from the conversation, Tricky swung her left foot and lazily kicked the ground beneath her feet and Jake began to pace around, walking in small circles to ease the feeling of anxiety that was slowly growing inside of his chest.

"I think we should go to the police." Yutani said in a low, serious tone. "That man is dangerous."

"No." Jake shook his head. "No no no. I think that there is something weird in this whole story, Yutani."

"Indeed." She agreed. "It's not normal that we almost got poisoned to death."

"That's not what I meant." Replied Jake. "I mean that I still think that the inspector is innocent."

"Innocent?" Yutani widened her eyes and shook her head, almost as if she was intimidated by Jake. "Jake, what are you saying? how can you defend him after what he did?"

"You don't understand."

"You are right, I don't. Please give me one good reason why I should think that the inspector is innocent."

"First of all, he was about to drink that tea too. Second, he looked genuinely confused and scared when he realized that the tea had cyanide in it."

"This doesn't prove much, Jake." intervened Tricky. "Maybe his tea was fine. Maybe he wanted to drag all of us to hell with him. Maybe he has some kind of mental health issue and didn't remember that he put poison into the tea."

"Plus, any criminal could put on an act. Maybe he was pretending to be shocked to look innocent." agreed Yutani.

"I saw him preparing the tea." whispered King. Everyone paused the conversation to look at him. "I didn't see him do anything weird. But I don't know. Maybe the tea bags themselves were bad. I don't know. I wasn't paying much attention." He looked unusually sad. Tricky gently caressed his head to comfort him.

"Don't even think of that. Of course you weren't paying attention, you trusted him. It's absolutely not your fault, King." The child nodded slowly, but kept his gaze low.

"Whatever the reason behind his actions, the result would have been the same if Fresh had not smelled the tea. We wouldn't even be here discussing it." A shiver ran down her spine. The thought of almost losing her life disturbed her deeply. "We have to do something. We are in danger."

"I still think that we will be even more in danger if we contact the police." Jake had no intentions of giving up. "You know what I think? The mysterious man poisoned our tea to kill us all and pin the blame on the inspector. If we go to the police we are just following his plans. I know it. My instinct tells me so."

"Again with this mysterious man, Jake?!" burst out Fresh, who had until then kept quiet. "I hate to be that person, but I need to remind you that your "Instinct" almost got all of us killed."

A cold silence suddenly fell between them, but Fresh did not stop.

"Jake, you are my best friend and you always will be. You are like a brother to me. But this time... it's getting out of hand. You know what I really think, Jake? I think the Inspector is manipulating you. You have an affection for the guard, you have known him for years and he has always been a role model for you. So now you're desperately clinging to the idea of this 'mysterious killer' who's after you for some unknown reason, rather than accept the fact that your role model is in fact a deeply disturbed individual who just tried to kill us all". Fresh looked Jake straight in the eyes. "I don't doubt that you saw someone else too that night or outside the restaurant, but I think that in both situations they were normal passers-by."

Jake couldn't believe his ears. How could Fresh, out of all people, not believe him? "Fresh, you are wrong!" He exclaimed. "If the inspector is just making things up, then why did he mention seeing something similar to Yutani's turbine?"

"He could have seen us when you played with it." Yutani commented in a calm tone. "There must be some kind of security camera if he can catch us graffitiing on old subways all the time," she sighed. "Let's say this mysterious person really exists. He would certainly be interested in the turbine. Since I am currently its temporary owner, he should be after me, right? Not after you."

"Yeah. The famous "Bad guys on steroids that would come after us for the turbine." Tricky nodded in agreement. "I think you took my joke a little too seriously, Jake."

Jake didn't say anything. What his friends were saying all made perfect sense, but it still wouldn't convince him. He stared at his own shoes with a scornful expression on his face. His whole body was tense, as if he was physically ready to defend himself.

"Listen, Jake." Tricky gave him a gentle smile. "I don't want to go to the police either. If my mum finds out I'm in this mess, she'll probably be furious with me. The daughter of a rich woman cannot be involved in scandals or strange affairs. It will certainly damage her reputation. But we cannot stand by and do nothing, I think you understand. For the moment, we have almost been the victims of a criminal, but considering that now the inspector knows about the existence of the turbine, there could be more serious problems. We could be in more trouble than any problem we could ever manage".

"My uncle will help us, I am sure of that." Fresh's tone sounded more soft now. "It's his job, he will know what to do to keep all of us safe. We cannot risk our safety once again, we might not be so lucky next time."

King nodded in agreement. "I am scared too. I feel like we are in danger."

Jake's shoulders slowly relaxed and his gaze finally met his friends again. "Alright. But please, just give me one night to think about it, okay? Tomorrow we can go all together to the police station and talk to someone about this."

Yutani smiled and shyly patted Jake's shoulder. "Of course. Take your time. Tomorrow we will solve this together." She immediately blushed as soon as the boy grabbed her hand to gently squeeze it.

"Thank you."

"O-Of course." She repeated, looking away from him as she tried to hide her flustered face from his eyes.

They said their goodbyes, promising to meet in the same place the next day. Jake walked at a brisk pace, trying to keep his mind on other things as he came back home.

~

"Oh, hi Jake!" Connie greeted him cheerfully as she opened the door and followed Jake with her eyes. She looked quite calm and in a good mood, but her smile immediately faded as soon as she saw the expression on her son's face. "What's wrong? What happened?" she said in a concerned tone.

"..." Jake didn't have the energies to pretend to be fine and din't want to lie to her either, especially after their last discussion. "Today was not a good day, mom. But I really don't feel like talking about it. I just want to go to bed and sleep. I will tell you everything when I feel ready. I promise." He also didn't want to worry his mother too much.

Connie smiled gently and nodded. "Of course, darling. Don't worry. Remember that if you change your mind, I am always here."

Jake smiled and hugged her. "Thank you, mom. I love you."

~

That night, Jake tossed and turned in bed for a long time. Although he was exhausted, he could not fall asleep. He couldn't get everything that had happened during the day out of his head. He felt caught in a loop of anxious thoughts, doubts and fears. It was almost as if his brain was in so much distress that it had to keep working to keep him safe.

What if we are all actually wrong and we send an innocent man to jail?

What if my trust in the inspector is wrong and will get all of us killed?

Does that stranger with the bunny mask even exist? Or am I seeing things?

Am I actually in danger or is it all in my head?

Will my friends abandon me after this?

What if we would have died yesterday? How would have mom reacted to my death?

What if going to the police only makes everything worse?

His soul needed a reset, a reboot, some time away from the stress. Some peace. Unfortunately, after a while, fatigue overcame him and he slipped into an uneasy sleep, trapped in a distorted world where his fears came to life.

His dreams became fragmented and confused, without any real sense or plot. He mostly felt a strong fear, a strong sense of guilt and a sense of urgency to do something unspecified. He stirred in his sleep, tucking the covers around his body.

At some point, his body seemed to temporarily relax.

Laughter. Sun. He was sitting on a bench in the skate park. He was enjoying his favourite tacos in the company of his friends. Tricky and Yutani had switched their clothes for some reason. Fresh was not wearing glasses. King was taller than them.

Jake didn't wonder why, it was just the way it is.

Suddenly the tacos started to melt. Jake was horrified to see them sticking to his hands and fusing themselves with his body. He tried to scream, but Fresh covered his mouth with his hand, which began to melt in his mouth.

The others laughed loudly as Jake felt himself suffocating. No matter how much he struggled, no matter how hard he tried to push Fresh away from him, he felt he had no strength. When he finally broke free of Fresh's grip, he noticed that all of his friends had their jaws completely dislocated and were moving their mouths unnaturally, producing distorted laughter.

They all stared at him with vacant, empty eyes.They did not respond to his cries.He could feel the taco slowly sliding towards his stomach, he felt a strong acidic sensation inside his body, as if it was corroding from the inside.He tried to escape, but his feet were slowly liquefying with concrete. He looked up at the sky, the sun now obscured, a rabbit mask with red eyes appeared in front of his face, suddenly he felt as small and helpless as an insect, the man towered over him, raising a bloody baseball bat to strike him.

Jake opened his eyes with a gasp. His body was covered in sweat, his body stiff as a board.

Before he could realise what had just happened, his gaze was drawn to a suspicious source of light coming from the far corner of his room.

Two red eyes were fixed on him with an icy, unforgiving stare. The silhouette of a man framed the glowing dots.

Jake's voice broke the silence of the night. The boy immediately let out a scream of sheer terror. His body moved instinctively, his legs moving as if to kick the silhouette away and run.

But he could not run. His back was pressed hard against the headboard and the wall. The kid screamed repeatedly, feeling frightened and helplessly trapped.

He immediately crouched down against the wall, his hands over his head and his knees against his chest. He began to tremble in the grip of the most primal and blind terror. He closed his eyes, not daring to open them even when he heard footsteps approaching.

A hand touched him gently and he tried to open his eyes, but had to squint his eyes because a very bright light blinded him for a moment.

A sweet and familiar face greeted him as he opened his eyes wider. His mother was crouched down, staring at him with a shocked and worried expression. Two loving hands cupped his tense shoulders.

"Jake? Jake, are you okay?"

"...Mom?"

"Why did you scream? Why are you crying?"

"Crying?"

The boy ran a trembling finger down his left cheek. He was really crying, but he didn't even realise it.

"I had a nightmare." he replied in a whisper.

"I am so sorry, sweetheart." Connie smiled sweetly and gently hugged Jake. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No... it's fine." He looked around his now fully illuminated room. Not a single trace of the stranger. Just same old, familiar furniture.

"Are you sure? Do you want me to sleep here with you for tonight?"

Jake smiled weakly and shook his head. "No, mom! I am fine. I am not a baby. It's okay. Sorry for scaring you. Goodnight."

Connie smiled back and slowly stood up. "Alright. Don't worry. I am just glad you are okay." She turned off the light. "Shall I leave the door open or closed?"

"Closed- No, open, please." Jake replied as he let his body fall back on the bed. For some reason, having an open door made him feel safer.

"Alright. Goodnight, Jake. Just come to my room if you need anything." He could hear his mom slowly stepping away from his room.

Jake let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes. He could still feel his own body tense and alert, but this time it was a little easier to fall back asleep.

But one unanswered question remained in his mind.

Was this man really just a dream?