Sunday, October 2nd, 2016

Sid had nightmares all week long, and after two nights of him waking up, screaming—and crawling in bed with his mother eventually—his parents had decided to keep him at home. He needed rest, and the concussion was lamely being used as an excuse to keep him out of school, even though Sid had repeatedly told his parents his head was fine; he just had nightmares.

Which was when the game to avoid his parents as much as possible had started. They wanted to know more, and Sid couldn't possibly give them any answers. He eventually had lied and told them nothing happened, it was probably the stories he heard in the past, about the forest, that caused him to have nightmares.

Eventually, when he told his parents that their weird behaviour was probably making it worse because it was stressing him out, they stopped pressing for answers.

It didn't solve the nightmares, though, and the girl continuously visited him in his sleep, asking him to play hide and seek with her. She at one point stated that they needed to talk, told him he needed her, and acted friendly to him. He ignored it all, not wanting to fall for a little girl's lies. She continued to ask him to join her in the woods, and since that seemed to be her main goal, he didn't trust any of the other things she had said before he tried to run from her.

Sid had even asked Davy and Edward if they had been visited by the girl as well, but they hadn't. Which felt unfair, especially when Cory contacted him, and he found out that even Cory hadn't been receiving any ghostly visits ever since Sid's started.

Couldn't she just fuck off and leave them be?

Eventually, Sid discovered—in a painful way—she was able to touch him in his dreams. She had gotten desperate by Friday, and while he tried to run away, she had grabbed hold of his arm, leaving scratches with her fingernails that actually showed up on his body in the real world.

They also healed the next day, but Sid guessed that it had to be because she wasn't real, and neither were the scratches.

The point was, in his panic to get away from her, he grabbed a knife from the kitchen, hoping to stab her—since it became very clear she was able to harm him, and he hoped it would work both ways—and get her to leave him alone. His panicked plan had backfired big time, since she had started screaming with a look of terror on her face. A scream that still rang in his ears when he himself was woken up by his father since he had started yelling at her to shut the fuck up; in real life.

Which left a pressing new question for his parents to ask him; who needed to shut up? Who was he dreaming about repeatedly?

He kept silent, and eventually they decided to allow him to sleep over at Annika's place again, since he last slept well with her by his side. With that, they were lifting part of the restrictions they had given him as a part of their punishment for entering the woods.

Which was why, one week after the whole incident in the woods, Sid was in Annika's bed, with her in his arms, and Davy spinning slow rounds on Annika's desk chair with a deep frown on his freckled face. Davy usually already looked confused by default, but he somehow had managed to look even more lost when Sid had told them about the nightmares in detail.

"Cory specifically said you were both marked," Annika stated, playing wither long curly ginger hair, "why isn't Davy affected?"

"No idea," Sid mumbled sleepily, "I didn't think to stop and ask her about her ways, honestly."

"No, you just figured you'd stab her to death to end it all. Why didn't you?" Davy wondered, continuing to spin around slowly, as if he was observing the entire room.

"You didn't hear her scream, bro," Sid replied with a sigh, "I felt it in my bones, I just dropped the knife in shock and tried getting her to stop by yelling at her."

"Wonder why that didn't work," Davy replied dryly. "Doesn't Cory have any solution to this issue? You can't tell me he hasn't slept calmly in over two years. There has to be a way to get her to leave you alone."

Davy and Annika were shocked when a book suddenly dropped off a shelf, but Sid was used by the ghost moving things around whenever he said something she didn't like. She was very much present in his everyday life now, but somehow, she didn't bother him much during the day. She only ever really seemed scary when she entered his dreams and tried to make him sleepwalk into the forest.

She obviously wasn't able to affect his mind while he was awake.

"She really doesn't like it when I say anything bad about her," Sid grumbled as he pulled Annika back into his arms, "but she can't hurt us when we're awake. She can't even show herself outside of my dreams."

"Again, Cory warned about this. You need to talk to him and ask him what he's doing—" Annika yelped when another book flew off the shelf, landing near the bed.

"Let's call him," Davy agreed, frowning at the books on the floor, "I think it's safe to say she doesn't want him involved."

"I'm gonna pee first," Sid said, pushing himself up, kicking the lost books aside while he walked to the door to go to the bathroom. It was fascinating how easily he got used to things moving around in his surroundings. "See if he's up for a videocall."

Sid headed downstairs to use the first-floor bathroom but stopped in his tracks when he heard his name coming from downstairs.

"I know, Olivia," Janet said with a tired voice. "I'm keeping a close eye on Davy for the same reason, but he seems fine. Which is why we need to focus on Sid."

"He's not showing any weird behaviour, other than the fact he isn't able to sleep because of the nightmares," his father replied. "There's nothing preventing us from being close to him, other than him pulling away from us. Things happened in the woods, and they are affecting his mental state. Sid's always been carefree, hard to scare."

"We could ask Raphael to take a look at him. You know, make sure he's physically and mentally fine," Carlo—Davy and Annika's father—suggested, causing Sid to frown.

Did they want to send him to a psych of some sort? To make sure he was mentally stable? For all they knew, he was just having nightmares. No need to worry over his physical or mental state, right?

He needed to talk to Cory, ask him how he was able to sleep until last week, and make sure the nightmares would stop. Once he succeeded, there was no reason for his parents to worry over his mental stability any longer, and they could all leave this behind. If Cory had managed to get out of a ward, Sid sure as hell knew he could stay out of one; with Cory's help.

He shook off the conversation their parents were having, deciding he needed to focus on finding a solution in time to convince his parents he was fine.

Cory, however, wasn't answering their texts, calls or requests on Discord for a videocall, so they agreed to talk about it with him the very next day, in school, where Cory couldn't just walk away from them. Besides, Cory, compared to them, should feel glad he wasn't the only one who knew exactly what happened in the woods. If any, the boy should be happy that he could tell them about his worst experiences, and they wouldn't only believe him, they would try to help him too.

It all became slightly less urgent when Sid fell asleep that evening, with Annika curled up in his arms, and he dreamed... well, nothing. Which gave him a great feeling when he woke up.

"Sid," Annika hissed, shaking him roughly, "Sid, it's Davy."

Sid felt confused, blinking a few times to get rid of the sleep in his eyes, when he heard Davy cry out, in fear, in the room next to theirs. The same second, footsteps ran up the stairs, and the door to Annika's room flew open, revealing Carlo in a startled state, soon followed by Janet.

"It's Davy..." Annika replied with a scared look on her face, "Sid slept silently."

Their parents rush towards Davy when he called out for someone to 'please, leave him alone', causing Sid to jump in action and follow after them to help his best friend.

"Davy!" Carlo called out, grabbing hold of Davy's shoulders as the boy sat in the corner of his room, covering his head with his arms as if trying to shield himself from something. "It's just a dream!"

If only it had been just a dream.

Sid sucked in a breath, feeling helpless in his position. He knew exactly what, or more so, who, had caused Davy to scream like that. Sadly, he had no solution, and he knew, from now on, Davy too would sleep poorly. Because knowing the girl could visit either of them whenever pleased her, was scary as hell. How long would it take before she forced them back into the woods? Would she even be able to do so?

It really didn't matter, because Sid knew not just him, but Davy too, needed the help of Cory. Because it was clear as day that Davy had met the girl as well.

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