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Show Me That Glasgow Smile	By : LuciferDragon Category: +M through R > Rise of the Guardians Views: 1540 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the Rise of the Guardians stuff, and I make no money from writing this story. Purely for fun.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
6.
I'd like to say that sweet dreams followed what we did in front of the fire. Getting rid of so much pent up frustration usually put us at ease for awhile.
Instead I tossed in my sleep. Strobe flashes of worn walls and tattered fabrics filled my sight. Anxiety crept up from my gut, constricting my chest. I felt eyes on me, but no one was there. I had no control, meaning it wasn't one of Pitch's concoctions. Whatever was watching came closer, but I couldn't summon my weapons. I could only wander. My heart raced against my ribs and my breathing became sharp as my pace quickened.
A haunting giggle echoed off the grimy walls. Something grabbed my arm and spun me around, leaving me nose-to-nose with a knife tip.
My heart stopped as a Cheshire grin emerged from the darkness beyond the knife blade. "Don't run. I'll make you beautiful."
I shot awake, sitting upright in bed. My heart felt like it could have broke from my chest, and my nerves kept me stock still as my breathing attempted to regulate. My shaky fingers found my bare arms to comfort myself, letting me feel how clammy my flesh felt.
I barely noticed Pitch had woken when I had. "Hana?"
My heart slowed down and the shot nerves were beginning to ease up. "Don't worry about it. Just a nightmare."
He leaned up. "You shouldn't have any of those. Not while I'm here."
I got to my feet, finding the nightgown I had tossed aside the previous evening. "I just need to clear my head."
"Hana, you're exhausted. I'll give you the Dreamsand if you need it."
I shook my head. "I'll be fine." I stretched my spine and rubbed a tension spot on my neck, under my collar. "I'm a mom. I'm used to long stretches without sleep."
I purred as his fingers took over for me. I hadn't seen him dissipate from the bed to behind me. "There's a difference, love. One is unavoidable."
"Suffering from nightmares is usually unavoidable."
"I don't make anyone suffer. And they don't sleep with me." He took my shoulders and made me face him. "What did you see?"
The laughter echoed in my head, making me shake it in reaction. "I was in an old building. Very old. I couldn't talk or draw my weapons. Something was following me." I swallowed and looked at his concerned eyes. "It was nothing. This whole thing is making me jumpy."
His lips pressed together, but he let me go all the same. "Do what you will." He nodded to my nightgown. "You're obviously not going far."
I nodded to all his bare skin. "Nor are you."
"I don't need clothes if I'm going back to bed," he answered flippantly while he retreated to the mattress. "So you know, Evilyn will be awake in two hours."
Like clockwork. I bit my lip as I looked at him. "Can you-?"
"Keep her distracted all night? I was going to regardless. I had hoped Hessian and Onyx would breed again, but it seems Bellini was a fluke." He laid out on his back. "I'm taking her to create Nightmares, and I'm hoping one of her creations will take to her, since mine haven't."
That would be something only he could do. I couldn't create the physical horses he could. My nightmares were only mental, and it took no shape. I could only create bats, but I did have the capability to work with the reapers, ghosts, skeletons, and other creatures that have been associated with my night. "Is she even ready?"
"Drago was working with me when he was barely six."
"Drago is very different from Evilyn."
There was a subtle change in his expression and his voice went softer. "She'll find her center. It takes time for some. When she does, her power will rise with it."
I wasn't so sure, though I brushed it off as maternal fears. I could at least trust him to keep our daughter safe. "Keep her away from Japan."
"As if I'm callous enough to do such a thing." He rolled on to his side, giving me his back. "Clear your mind and calm down. There's enough already coming up. You and I both do not need the stress."
I nodded and left our room, choosing to take the long way around the castle. I stopped and leaned on the low wall outside our door, which overlooked the center of the lair. I took the route that would take me to the stables. I needed some insight from my second oldest friend. Once I reached the entrance I slowed my pace, approaching his stall. "Hessian?"
I heard a heavy weight shift over the hay-strewn floor and a soft grunt accompanied it. "You should be out cold another few hours yet."
"The recent situation is troubling me." I reached for his muzzle as I got closer and stroked the bridge of his nose. "It's poor timing."
He snorted like a chuckle. "You can't catch a break."
"Not ever. I was wondering if you could tell me what to do."
"I'm not a licensed therapist. You can't come back and sue me for being wrong."
I laughed and lightly tapped his cheek. "Yes, because I'll want all your oats and hay, wiseass."
"Honestly, do as Schulz said. Use the time to relax."
"That's the thing, I can't. Not if I don't know what made this woman reappear for this long."
"A villain with a heart."
"One in a million, right?" I sighed and paused in the strokes. "I just think killing our source of life is a tad bit stupid. There are many I would love to see wiped from the planet to help with their gene pools, but still. It isn't right."
"But scaring them to death is fine."
"Heart attacks are not my fault. They would have had one eventually. I sped up the process." I made a dismissive gesture. "I can't just lay back, knowing she has the capability of killing." I hesitated in starting the strokes again. "I had a nightmare of her."
He snorted and pulled back. "That isn't something of the herd's doing."
I shook my head. "I don't think it was one influenced by a Nightmare. This one was my subconscious. But what it wants to say, I don't know." The one thought that had been burning in the back of my mind burst out, "This couldn't have happened after Drago left? After I had time to sort things out again? It had to happen as I was starting to falter?"
He nuzzled me. "There are many things we cannot control. Stand strong for your boy as I do for my girl. Though all children leave the nest at some point, they are not gone forever."
Bellini was older than Drago, but took to him immediately following their introduction, creating the mental bond I had with Hessian, and the one Pitch had with Onyx. When she grew old enough, she left the stall Hessian and Onyx shared, preferring to have her own in a different area, closer to the other Nightmares. Though she always stuck out due to her green patterned fur, the Nightmares accepted her as one of them, completely unfazed by her mixed heritage. Hessian had already let his daughter go many years in the past, but what he said was true. Drago was going to live in my old home in Germany. The deed would always… end up missing somehow whenever someone tried to claim the land. And I left a nasty spirit there to keep squatters away. There were the occasional freaky teens who wanted to have sex in the haunted house, but besides that, it had remained uninhabited for almost twenty years.
"You should sleep before your daughter wakes."
"Any sleep I gain now would be in vain if interrupted." She hadn't been knocking on our door as often lately, but it was still often enough that I could expect a sharp rapping bringing me out of sweet dreams. Especially when it would be days we'd only find release on the dream plane. More than once he and I had gone unfinished, making us very irritable those nights. The nightmares might have, and I hesitate to say, been a bit too angry for what some children could stand.
"Onyx said her master is waking Evilyn early to leave. She says he worries, especially when you become distant. He has fears as well, Serah."
I had been running my hand through his wild black mane while he spoke, but I froze upon hearing the words. "What?" I hadn't noticed… I had just been so tired when he would come home.
He tipped his head. "You didn't know?" When I shook my head he snorted. "Onyx will have my throat for this."
"I… I wasn't even aware I was acting strange." My heart picked up. "I wasn't like this with Drago. I wasn't a mess, staying home all the time."
"You're worried since she hasn't found her center. She hasn't found a base for her abilities, nor has she truly found an ability that suits her. Drago developed the magic at four, and you're worried Evilyn won't have magic." He nosed my cheek. "You've all but told me your fears. So you stay home, hoping one day she'll show something. A slip in her shape. A control over a Nightmare. Stalking through shadows on her own." He pulled back. "Even if she doesn't gain anything, would she be any less your daughter?"
"Of course not. She still has great abilities in her artwork, and her carving. She can live on her own. She's already shown great interest in living amongst the pumpkins." I let out a light laugh at the thought. "Silly, but fitting I suppose. I've already shown her how to mix a chemical to keep the pumpkins forever. She can carve all year round to her heart's content and keep it for Halloween." I shrugged and smiled. "It's her dream to be a master carver."
Hessian let out his snorting chuckle again. "A perfect dream for a budding artist." He shifted. "Leave her in our care more often. Go out and gather fear from the source again."
I did miss the fresh fear. It was more potent than what was provided in the stone. "What about the kuchisake?"
"There's nothing that can be done about that for now. Even if she reappears, there isn't anything we can do safely. They only were lucky once. Keep her out of your mind. Focus on other things. Go out. You've been cooped up in here too long."
I grinned and patted the bridge of his nose. "See? Was it so hard to tell me what to do, old friend?"
He bobbed his head. "You tricked me."
I stuck my tongue between my teeth and grinned. "I'm quite good at it, aren't I?" I waggled my brows as he let out a brash neighing laugher.
"Once again, I bow to your deceits." He bowed his head and licked my nose. As sophisticated as he was, he was still an animal. "Now got to bed."
"I've heard that more and more these days." I rubbed his nose. "Return to your wife. I've kept you away long enough."
He grunted and retreated back into his stall where I heard his weight shifting again, and the ethereal nicker of his Nightmare wife. It always made me grin at how it worked out so well when Hessian had formed as a stallion.
Even though he had helped me with my mind just the slightest, I still took the same long route to my bedroom. I still had things to sort through my head. Though knowing I could sleep for as long as I wanted to, I did hasten my pace. Nothing stopped me the entire way up, and I managed to slip behind the door without any word of something being off in some way. I slid beneath the sheets again, being careful not to disturb him again. It took a little coaxing, but sleep did eventually come.
I wasn't prepared to be unable to escape my nightmares.
- 5
- 6
- 7
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