This set of oneshots (yes, there are going to be more than one) take place about maybe four years after the finish of Alone, so about a year before the beginning of Escape. I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but the rest of the Darks didn't vanish for good - they were either trying to help Moon look for the gem or they were out doing their own sorts of Dark fun (the ones who weren't serving under Moon/Brethren out of fear). 

There are even some Darks who have gone completely insane! Not all of the Darks were at the fortress during Found, so there are likely lots of previous Darks out there somewhere - and some of them are insane. 

*shudders* 

Anyways, here we go! 

~

The nightmare started as it usually did - with Kai standing alone in pitch blackness that almost seemed to be laughing at him, taunting him. For a few minutes, or at least that's what it felt like, Kai was by himself in the darkness, the sickening realization that he was alone in the vast void like a crushing weight on his shoulders. Kai was just starting to crouch down with his hands over his head when a figure that seemed to be illuminated light appeared in the distance. 

Relief crashed over him like a wave, and Kai shot to his feet, using the light surrounding the form to guide him. He quickly darted forward, the dim light in the distance the only thing keeping him from running blindly. Deep inside him, he knew that this was a nightmare, but he could never shake the horrible feeling of loneliness no matter how many dreams he had. 

Suddenly, a firm hand wrapped around Kai's ankle and held fast, throwing Kai to a stop. His momentum swung him forward and down, and a moment later he collided with the pitch black ground. The pain was hazy and distant, like any other dream, but Kai could only panic. Swiftly, he rolled onto his side and peered below him to see whatever had snatched his foot.

And could barely bite back is scream of horror when he saw the little girl he'd murdered in Thorn's arena four years ago. She was holding his ankle with both hands, her arms stretched above her head to hold him. She was lying on her right side, but the wound in her chest - the wound that Kai himself had given her those years ago - was exposed and bleeding heavily. 

Kai went straight into panic mode, shifting quickly onto his stomach and trying desperately to scramble away from the girl - he hadn't even learned her name before he'd taken her life. Forcing back the screams that were bubbling up in his throat, he kicked and thrashed, but the girl wouldn't let go. 

"You're coming with me," she whispered, but Kai could hear it like a ringing bell in his ears. 

Opening his mouth to cry out, Kai lifted his eyes to search for the figure enveloped in light - but he found no one. That was when he began shrieking, slamming his eyes closed and thrashing against the girl's hold. 

Slowly, her hands clawed their way up his leg until she was holding his knee, dragging her closer to him, ready to strike - 

And then they were gone, ripped away from him and leaving tears in his jeans. Kai clamped his mouth shut over his screams, not wasting a single second to scramble to his feet. As soon as he was recovered, he turned a random direction and started running. 

"Kai, wait!" a voice called, a few paces behind him but getting closer. "Slow down! It's all right! She's gone, you're okay!" 

At this Kai skidded to a halt, sliding slightly across the black floor below him. Trying to breathe around his burning lungs and see past the panicked dots in his vision, he slowly turned around to face whoever had called him back. 

Standing with his hands raised in surrender, a concerned but reasonable expression on his face, and a long, bloody gash in his stomach, was Luke. 

The image of Shintaro's old friend wasn't what woke Kai up, though under normal circumstances it would have. It was the scream that raced through the house that rattled him from his sleep, startling him so badly that he threw himself off of his air mattress and onto the floor beside him. If he hadn't been having a nightmare, he probably wouldn't have reacted so strongly - but because his terror had already been elevated, he'd managed to throw himself to the floor. 

Gasping and trying to reorient himself past the nightmare, Kai sat up and frantically looked around him, wondering if the scream had come only from his dream. 

But Shintaro tossing his covers aside and rising swiftly out of his bottom bed, his yellow eyes wide with confusion and lingering sleepiness. "Kai?" he said immediately, his eyes catching on the teenager who was still sitting gasping on the floor. 

Quickly, Shintaro hurried over to Kai's side and knelt down. "Are you all right? Are you hurt?" he asked frantically, his thick white hair falling over his shoulders. 

Unable to gather his words, Kai shook his head, hoping Shintaro would understand that he was answering his latest question. Opening and closing his mouth a few times, Kai struggled to make it known. "No, I'm not hurt," he managed finally. 

Shintaro nodded and quickly stood again, turning toward the top bunk. "Chase?" 

No response. 

At the silence, Shintaro visibly grew more panicked. "Chase?" he said again, quickly stepping up the first few steps of the ladder. He reached over, grabbed the blankets, and flung them aside. Based on his intake of breath, Chase wasn't in the bed. 

Kai quickly got to his feet just as Shintaro spun around and marched toward the bedroom door, which was slightly ajar. Shoving back his nightmare, Kai hurried to follow with panic blooming in his heart as he realized that the scream could have come from anyone outside of their room - Falte, Linda, Chase, or Abby. 

At the thought of Abby screaming like that, Kai burst forward and shot around Shintaro, his heart thudding almost painfully in his chest. He skidded into the living room, which was dimly lit by the light of the moon outside. For a moment, however, everything was pitch black and Kai had another moment of sheer panic. 

But then his eyes adjusted, and the panic began to subside - until it rose again when he comprehended the scene in front of him. The coffee table that was beside the couch was overturned with a still shape on the floor beside it. A few dining room chairs were on their sides, although it was hard to tell how many there were because of the dim light.

And then Shintaro flipped the light switch, and Kai's heart plummeted. The shape on the floor next to the coffee table was Linda, her blankets thrown aside and her head tilted up toward the ceiling. Her eyes were closed and her body position awkward, which meant she must have fallen. 

But that wasn't what made Kai's stomach twist painfully.

It was the splatter of blood on the floor a few paces ahead of him that made his gut wrench. 

"Linda?!" Shintaro exclaimed, hurrying forward. If he saw the blood, he didn't pay attention to it as he knelt beside Linda. He took her shoulders and shook her, gently at first; but when she didn't respond, he began shaking her harder. 

Who was hurt? Where were they? What had happened? 

Kai tried to force himself to take deep breaths to calm down, but even before he could do that, his mind reeled at the realization that Abby, Chase, and Falte weren't in the living room. Biting back a cry, Kai spun around and darted back down the hallway. 

He knew Falte could sleep through a hurricane, but he still had to be sure. 

His heart hammering harshly against his ribs, Kai slammed open the door without even thinking to turn the handle. Thankfully, it hadn't been closed all the way and opened easily, smacking against the wall behind it with a loud slam. 

As soon as the door opened, a shape in the bed flew into a frenzy, the blankets shifting wildly. After a few moments of scrambling, Falte sat up abruptly, his eyes wide and mouth open as he gasped to try to calm himself.

"Good grief, Kai!" he said when he'd recovered. "You scared me half to death! What in the world are you doing?" He paused for a moment, then leaned back a little and squinted at Kai, who was still standing in the doorway. 

"Hey, are you okay?" Falte asked after a second of staring at him. "You look pale. What's wrong?" He slowly stood up and searched for his glasses, setting them on the bridge of his nose when he found them. He quickly walked toward Kai and took his shoulders. 

"What's wrong?" he asked worriedly. "You look like you've seen a ghost." 

If he was talking about Kai's nightmare, that would have been true. But right now, Kai was more worried about whoever had been hurt in the living room. 

"Hello?" 

Kai looked back down at his father, who was looking at him expectantly. Shaking his head in a gesture of "I don't know", Kai jerked his shoulders out of Falte's grasp and turned around again, darting back into the living room. He was relieved when he heard Falte's footsteps follow.

Shintaro had managed to revive Linda, who was sitting up and rubbing her forehead shakily. Shintaro was sitting next to her, looking distraught and confused and angry. Every once and a while, he would glance over at the splotches of blood on the hardwood floor, the ones that hadn't yet dried. 

Falte gasped sharply behind Kai, undoubtedly spotting the blood on the floor. 

Shintaro looked up when he heard Falte, his features smoothing a little in relief. But a moment later, he turned back to Linda impatiently, like he'd been asking her a question that she was refusing to answer. 

"Linda, please tell me what happened now," he pleaded, his voice gruff but worried. "Where is everyone?" 

"Closet," Linda said through her teeth, keeping her hand pressed against her forehead. "Abby is in the closet in the kitchen." 

Kai shot into action, winding around Falte and turning sharply to the left. He hurried through the kitchen doorway and skidded into the room, immediately spotting the closed closet door. Hoping with all his heart that she wasn't the one to be hurt, he grabbed the handle and turned it.

Or, he tried to. 

It wouldn't budge.

Accidentally cursing under his breath and knowing full-well that Falte would have punished him if he heard, Kai twisted the door handle again. Panic began to hitch his breathing, and he yanked harder. 

"NO!" Abby's strained voice suddenly cried from inside. "I won't let you in!" Her voice sounded frantic and tearful, panicked and confused. She obviously wasn't expecting Kai to the at the door, because she sounded like she was ready to attack if they did get in - but she sounded terrified too. 

"Abby!" Kai yelled, turning the door handle with all his force and hearing her yelp slightly. "Open the door, right now!"

Abruptly, the door handle turned the other direction, making his hands jump away from it. Immediately after, the wooden door swung into the closet, and Abby quickly stepped around it and barreled into Kai's arms without a moment's hesitation. 

Kai wrapped both arms around her, burying his face into her hair and breathing several gasps of relief. She didn't sound hurt, she wasn't hurt, she was fine. 

"Are you okay?" he asked anyway, grabbing her shoulders and pushing her away from him to examine her. 

Her eyes were shining with tears as she looked up at him, but other than her distressed and frightened expression, she looked fine. She swiftly nodded up at him, then seemed to remember something important, because she wrenched herself away from Kai and rushed out of the kitchen. 

Abby quickly crouched beside her father, but her eyes were on Linda. "Are you okay?" she asked her friend quickly, touching Linda's arm briefly. 

Linda waved her hand dismissively. "I'm fine," she said quietly. "I'll just have a killer headache for a while." She grimaced at her own voice, gritting her teeth after her wince. 

"What. Happened," Shintaro demanded roughly. 

"Darks," Linda said shortly. "Three of them. They came in and attacked." 

"Oh, I should have helped!" Abby cried suddenly. "I shouldn't have hid in that stupid closet-" 

"I told you to," Linda said gruffly. "So yes, you should have. You probably would be hurt if you didn't." 

Abby looked around her then, her hands flying to her mouth at the sight of the blood on the floor. "Linda..." she said suddenly, her eyes locked on the scarlet drops. "Linda, where's Chase?" 

Linda's hands dropped away from her face, slamming against her lap as she abruptly lifted her head. If the movement hurt her, she hardly showed it as she looked around her frantically. 

And cursed, making Kai feel not as bad about his choice words. "He was here. He was, I swear. Abby, how long has it been?"

"The sounds stopped maybe fifteen minutes ago," Abby said. "But I didn't come out. I was... I didn't want to find out if they were still here." 

Linda ground her teeth in frantic frustration, rising to her feet and causing Shintaro and Abby to stand up as well. When Linda's eyes caught on the blood, she cursed a second time, this time much louder. 

"Please tell me-" she started, then cut herself off and breathed shallowly through her nose, her hands clenching at her sides. 

"The scream..." Abby murmured. "I couldn't tell... But what if it was him?" 

Kai was finally starting to realize what they were saying.

And it terrified him to no bounds.

Chase had vanished with the Darks.

And worst of all, he probably was hurt. 

~