In this two-part Halloween special, Maggie realises that she has to stay awake to avoid a clawed killer, who is trying to butcher her in her dreams. However things get even stranger when she realizes Captain Jack has a past with this enemy.

AN: This one-shot is actually parodying the 1984 film 'A Nightmare On Elm Street'. A.K.A Johnny Depp's first acting role! He was one of Freddy Krueger's first victims! Also I thought it would be fun to crossover Pirates with Elm Street for Halloween!

☠🎃☠

It started out as any normal day aboard the Black Pearl, Maggie Sparrow was in her cabin reading a book when her father called for her.

"Coming!" Maggie called as she scurried up to the helm.

Captain Jack scooped her up as she came rushing up over to him. He threw her in the air and caught her again.

"Whoa! Hey! What's going on?" Maggie asked, giggling.

"Nothing" Captain Jack told her "I just wanted to remind you that I love you and that I have the best, the prettiest and smartest little girl in the world!" He kissed her cheek.

"I could've told you that!" Maggie's smile was replaced with a skeptical look. "Now what do you want?"

"Nothing!" Jack shook his head. "I'm just so thankful that you're my daughter! You're so smart and gorgeous and sweet and cute and amazing! I don't know what I did to deserve a daughter as remarkable as you!"

"Well, it can't all be hereditary!" Maggie smiled and shrugged.

"Of course not!" Jack put his arm around her shoulder. "You're clearly a much better pirate than me! So cunning and--"

"Wait a minute!" Maggie interrupted him. "My Daddy might compliment me from time to time, but there's no way he would admit I'm a better pirate than him!"

Suddenly Maggie heard the sound of knifes being scraped together she turned to her right and saw her Father's hand on her shoulder. But his fingers... his fingers had become knives! He had knives for fingers!

Maggie turned and looked up at her father. Only he wasn't Captain Jack anymore, someone else was standing beside Maggie. A woman with blood red hair and a dirty brown fedora on her head with her face permanently scarred with burns.

Maggie gasped and slipped out of the sinister-looking stranger's grip. She tried to run down the stairs from the helm, but she was only halfway down when her feet got stuck. She looked down and saw the stair were melting! Her feet were sinking into the gooey stairs like quicksand! The lady with finger-knives grinned as she approached her slowly and creepily.

"One, two, Franny's coming for you..." she sang eerily.

"No!" Maggie whimpered as she struggled to get her feet free.

"Three, four, better lock your door..." the woman stepped closer.

"Get away from me!" Maggie shrieked.

The lady laughed before continuing her song. "Five, six, grab your crucifix..."

Maggie tried harder to get her feet free from the sticky mess, but she just kept sinking more and more.

"Seven, eight, gonna stay up late..." the woman raised her finger-knives.

"No! No! No!" Maggie whimpered, scared.

"Nine, ten..." the woman trailed off. She paused and held a finger-knife to her chin, thinking.

Suddenly it was quiet, all that Maggie could hear was her own heart pounding in her ears.

The woman grinned menacingly. "NEVER SLEEP AGAIN!" She suddenly shouted in a demonic voice.

She swiped her knives down at Maggie.

Maggie screamed "NOOOOOOOOOO--"

☠🎃☠

"--OOOOOOO!" Maggie cried as her eyes snapped open.

She looked around at her surroundings, she was safe in her bed aboard the Black Pearl. It was still dark out. Maggie turned up the kerosene lamp on her nightstand and looked at the clock on the wall, it was only half past midnight.

Maggie slipped out of bed, grabbed her plush starfish, Twinky and walked over to her Daddy's cabin.

She tip-toed through the door between her cabin and the Captain's Cabin. She carefully shut the door and scurried over to her Father's bed and poked his cheek.

"Daddy?" Maggie whispered. "Psst! Daddy?"

"Maggie? What are you doing up at this hour, Pet?" Jack groaned, half asleep.

"I had a bad dream" Maggie pouted.

"Yes, bad dream" Captain Jack sighed "Duly noted, now go back to bed."

"I'm too scared" Maggie pouted hugging Twinky to her chest. "Can I sleep with you?"

"Just sleep with Twinky the Starfish!" Jack said burying his face in a pillow.

Maggie whimpered "Please Daddy...?"

Captain Jack didn't even have to look up from the pillow to know she was giving him the Sad Guppy face. Maggie would make her eyes go all big and teary like a sad little guppy would. That was the one face that melted Captain Jack's insides, warmed his heart and clouded his better judgement. And unfortunately, Maggie knew that she could bring her Father to his knee's with it.

Don't look at it! Jack thought to himself. Don't look at her face! Just ignore her and she'll go away. Don't look at the Sad Guppy Face! Don't look! Don't--

Maggie interrupted his thoughts by whimpering sadly. Jack turned to look at her and saw she had taken it to the next level by adding a quivering lip to her giant teary eyes.

"Oh... Fine!" Jack moaned "You can sleep here for tonight!"

And just like that, the sad guppy face was no more, replaced with a beaming grin.

"I know I'm going to regret this..." he muttered as Maggie curled up on his chest and fell asleep.

"Uh... Maggie?" Jack said "Maggie Luv, there's a lot more bed here, you don't have to sleep on top of me... Maggie?"

Maggie only lightly snored in response.

Captain Jack sighed. "A Father's work is never done" he said before kissing her forehead.

He gently moved Maggie off his chest and beside him on the left side of the bed. It was then he saw it, four mysterious slashes on her nightgown. As if an animal with claws had swiped across her chest. There was no wound or blood, just those four slashes.

Captain Jack's eyes widened as he made the connection between Maggie's bad dream and slash marks.

"No..." Jack breathed softly. "Not again..."

He got out of bed and silently crept over to his desk. He shuffled through his desk drawers, until he found what he was looking for... his mother's old rosary crucifix. He gently lifted Maggie's head and placed the rosary around her neck.

"There..." he told his sleeping daughter. "I know we're not the most religious people, Luv. But that'll protect you for now."

Captain Jack crawled back into bed, wrapping his arms around his young daughter. As he drifted back to sleep, he tried to ignore the feeling of dread in him.

She's gone he thought to himself. You were there, you saw it, you did the deed yourself. Franny Kreeper is no more.

☠🎃☠

The next morning as Maggie sat in the galley eating her breakfast, she couldn't help but think back to her nightmare from the previous night. Although her common sense kept telling her it was just a bad dream, Maggie couldn't stop thinking about how real it felt. She could still see that burned woman's face, hear her voice, hear her finger-knives clicking together. When she was getting dressed this morning, Maggie noticed the four claw-like tears in her nightgown. Her father assured her that it was nothing more than a reminder that she needed to cut her fingernails. Although their was something in Jack's voice that made Maggie question wither he was trying to reassure her or himself...?

Either way, Maggie tried to block the nightmare out of her memory. Today's a new day, she had chores to do around the Black Pearl and once she got started, she'd forget all about that stupid nightmare. Hopefully...

Maggie helped the crew with rigging and the sails and proceeded to help Mr. Gibbs take inventory of the ship's ammunition.

It was after lunch when Jack handed Maggie her school books and advised her to work on her Geography and Pirate History lessons. Maggie sat against some barrels near the helm and began to read on about the history of the first brethren court.

"Contrary to the belief that the First Meeting of the Brethren Court convened in the days before the great Hellenic society of Greece was founded, the First Court actually met at a later date, possibly during the early 17th century before the Golden Age of Piracy began. The First Court consisted of the Nine Pirate Lor..." Maggie's eyelids grew heavier as she read.

She was just starting to doze off, when she heard a voice calling to her. It almost sounded like the voice was traveling on the wind itself.

"Maggie..." the voice crooned. "Maggie..."

"Daddy?" Maggie asked, assuming it was Jack's voice.

"Maggie..." the voice came again. It sounded closer that time.

Maggie got up and wandered down the stairs of the helm. Her eyes scanned the deck of the Pearl, but there was no one there. It was as if the whole crew had just evaporated into thin air, she seemed to be the only one on the ship.

"Daddy?" She called for Jack.

"Maggie!" Captain Jack's voice echoed up from the gun deck below.

"Daddy! Where are you?" Maggie called to him as she jogged to the hatch in the middle of the deck.

"Maggie!" Jack called to her.

Maggie opened the hatch and darted down the stairs, her eyes roaming around the dimly lit gun deck for her father. But when she got down to the last step, she felt a cold moistness on her feet.

As Maggie's eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, she found that the whole gun deck wasn't what it was supposed to look like. Instead of cannons, casks of gun powder and armory cabinets full of weapons, the whole gun deck was shrouded in a thick and hazy fog. The sound of crickets chirping and frogs croaking could be heard in the distance and Maggie was standing up to her ankles in water. The Pearl's gun deck had been transformed into some kind of a swampy marshland.

"What in the flippin' frigates?" Maggie asked aloud. "Is the Pearl taking on water? Sure hope Dad has insurance for this. "

As Maggie stared around in confusion, she couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling that someone was watching her.

"Daddy?" Maggie called. Where was he? If the Pearl was taking on water, there was no way he would've jumped ship without her.

Suddenly a sloshing sound from behind startled Maggie. She could see a shadowy feminine figure making it's way towards her. As the figure stepped into the dim light, Maggie could make out it's flaming red hair and horrible burnt face. It was the woman from her dream last night.

"Who are you?" Maggie asked her, trying to mask the fear in her voice.

The woman didn't answer she just grinned maliciously and raised her finger knives towards Maggie.

"Watch this!" She told Maggie, before holding up her left hand and using the finger knives on her right hand to chop her left pinky finger off. But instead of blood, an ugly, dark green slime oozed from the wound.

Maggie turned and started to run away, but she ran right into an extra sail and got covered by the large canvas. She could here the creepy lady coming closer to her. Maggie finally found her way out from under the sail and ran back towards the stairs she'd come down from.

But the stairs had disappeared somehow and Maggie had no choice but to run farther through the flooded gun deck. But it was hard to escape when every step she took was heard through the sloshing of water.

Maggie finally reached the end of the gun deck. There were no hatches or stairs that led to the upper deck, it was as if the whole ship had been rearranged. She couldn't escape, she was cornered as she heard her creepy captor stalk towards her, closer and closer she crept forward. Her wild blood-shot eyes never left contact with Maggie's widened brown ones. She chuckled menacingly as she crept closer and closer towards the scared little girl. She clearly enjoyed seeing Maggie brought to her knees in fear and terror.

The burnt-faced woman scraped her finger knives along the wooded walls. "I'm gonna get you" she sang teasingly.

Maggie breath hitched as she backed up against the wall behind her.

"IT'S ONLY A DREAM!" Maggie shouted at the top of her lungs. Wither she was trying to scare the woman or convince herself, she didn't know.

"Come to Franny..." the woman laughed evilly, raising her finger knives in attack.

"GODDAMN YOU!" Maggie shouted pressing her palms against the wooden wall behind her. But when she did, a sliver of wood went into her hand...

☠🎃☠

"AAAAAAHHH!" Maggie screamed from her spot near the helm. She bolted up from her seat with her arms flailing and her history book falling to the deck.

The crew jumped and seized their work on deck, turning to look at her.

"Maggie!" Mr. Gibbs ran up the steps of the helm and grabbed her shoulders. "Maggie, it's alright! Calm down!"

"Ahhh! No!" Maggie continued to squeeze her eyes shut.

"It's alright! Calm down, dearie!" Mr. Gibbs held her. "It's alright, luv. You're fine."

Maggie opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. She was back near the helm, she had fallen asleep while reading and dreamed the whole thing.

"What's going on?" Captain Jack ran up to the helm.

"Miss Maggie dozed off reading her history book" Mr. Gibbs explained, rubbing her back comfortingly. "She must've just had a bad dream, is all."

"You alright, Darling?" Jack asked her.

"Yeah..." Maggie said, still a little disoriented from the dream.

"You don't have to finish your history today if you don't want to" Jack told her. "Maybe you should just head to your cabin and lay down for a while."

"No!" Maggie yelled startled by the suggestion. "I mean..." she took a deep breath. "No, I think I just need to get out of the sun for a bit. I'll... I'll just go finish my history in my cabin."

"Alright, Luv" Jack nodded, concerned. "Whatever you want."

Maggie walked down the stairs and towards her cabin, but as she shifted her schoolbooks from one hand to another, she felt a stabbing pain in her right hand. She looked down at her hand and her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Before waking from her nightmare, Maggie got a sliver in her hand from the wooden wall. Now the same wood sliver was there in her hand. How could an injury from a dream still be real after she woke up?

Maggie decided to just deal with the injury now and focus on the finer details of this mystery later.

☠🎃☠

That evening, Captain Jack had the crew prepare a basin of boiled water for Maggie's evening bath. Jack continued to mask his fear for Maggie, the nightmare she had that afternoon prior, made him worry. Everytime Maggie fell asleep she was at risk of becoming one of Fanny's victims...

Captain Jack didn't even want to think about that and he didn't want Maggie worrying about it either. It was impossible anyway. Franny was dead, she was gone. The fact that Maggie was having these dreams was just a coincidence.

"Head back" Jack instructed her. "I have to wash your hair."

Maggie closed her eyes and leaned her head back as her father poured the warm water through her dark locks.

"A nice warm bath will help you relax" he told her, rubbing the shampoo into her scalp. "You'll be able to sleep better tonight."

"I don't want to sleep" Maggie admitted. "I'll have nightmares if I sleep."

"Everyone has nightmares every once and a while" Captain Jack told her. "You're still young and you have a wild imagination, it's only natural that you have strange dreams."

"But it wasn't just strange, Daddy" Maggie shook her head. "It was scary. I've already had two dreams about a creepy lady who's trying to kill me. And everytime I wake up it feels like she's still there. Like I can still feel her eyes watching me. And why did I dream about the same person twice in a row? I never even seen this lady before? Why is she haunting my dreams?"

"You know what the trick is to overcoming nightmares?" Jack told her. "Just tell yourself that it's just a bad dream. Tell yourself that just as your having it. Once you do that you wake right up."

"I did do that, this afternoon" Maggie nodded. "But I'm afraid it'll just happen again tonight."

Captain Jack sighed. "Head back, time to rinse" He instructed.

Maggie leaned her head back as Jack rinsed the shampoo lather from her hair.

"Daddy, did you ever have nightmares when you were younger?" Maggie asked him.

Jack froze for a split second before nodding his head.

"Yes, like I said everyone has them every once and a while" He finished with her hair."And I used to be just as scared as you. But then I read about something called the Balinese Way of Dreaming."

"What's that?" Maggie asked.

"Well, apparently the Balinese people have something called dream skills" he said, washing her face. "So for instance, if you have a dream where you're falling. Instead of screaming and panicking, you tell yourself alright, I'm gonna make up my mind and imagine I'm falling into a giant soft pillow or I have a set of wings to fly with. The Balinese actually get most of the inspiration for their art and literature from dreaming. They wake up and write it all down. And it's called Dream skills."

"But what if they meet a monster in their dream? Then what?" Maggie asked, standing up in the basin.

"They just turn their back on it" Jack explained, wrapping her in a towel. "It's your dream. If you don't focus on it, you takes away it's energy and it disappears."

"But what happens if the monster doesn't disappear?" Maggie asked.

Jack wrapped the towel around her and hugged her. "There's no monster after you, Darling" he told her. "The only monster you should be worried about... is the tickle monster!" He blew a raspberry into her neck.

Maggie shrieked with laughter.

"Now get into your nightgown and get your bum into bed!" He ordered playfully.

"Alright, Daddy" Maggie giggled.

Jack kissed her forehead before, leaving the room.

Maggie felt better after that. Her father may be a huge goofball, but he always knew how to reassure her when she needed it. Parents were usually pretty good at that.

Later, Maggie was dressed and ready for bed, but she was still reluctant to go to sleep. In fact, she tried everything to actually avoid sleeping.

"...And so the pirate princess killed the evil sea serpent and kissed the sleeping prince to break the spell" Captain Jack finished the second bedtime story of the night.

"Can I please have another?" Maggie asked.

"Your bedtime was an hour ago" Jack told her. "You should be sleeping by now."

"Please...?" Maggie pouted.

"No" Jack shook his head "Two stories are more than enough for tonight."

"Can I have a glass of water?" Maggie asked.

"No liquids before bed" Jack reminded her. "We don't want you getting back into the habit of bedwetting."

"I don't do that!" Maggie frowned.

"Yes, you do" Jack argued.

"Less than you!" Maggie retorted.

"Goodnight, Maggie" Jack said, walking towards the door.

"Daddy, wait!" Maggie stopped him. "What's say, you let me stay up all night and I'll swab the deck for you tomorrow?"

"Go to sleep, Maggie" Jack told her.

"I'm also willing to throw in the exception of extra chores?" Maggie offered.

"Bed... now" Jack instructed, leaving the room.

"Act now and I'll also steal you some rum from the liquor store in Tortuga!" Maggie made a last ditch effort. "The really good, expense kind!"

The only response Jack gave her was shutting the door.

"So you need time to think about it?" Maggie called after him. "Alright! I'll wait up for your answer!"

"Head! Pillow! Eyes! Closed!" Jack yelled through the door.

Maggie moaned. Truth be told, at the the moment she wanted to do just that. But her fear of that creepy lady in her nightmares overtook her sleepiness.

Maggie turned up the kerosene lamp on her nightstand, just slightly so her father wouldn't notice the glow from under the door. She grabbed a book from her shelf and began to read. She had just finished one chapter, when she began to get sleepy all over again. She lightly smacked her own cheek, attempting to keep herself awake.

When reading began to tire her eyes, she decided to get up and pace around her cabin, singing.

"273 bottles of rum on the wall, 273 bottles of rum. Take one down pass it around, 272 bottle of rum on the wall" She sang in a low voice. "Don't fall asleep Maggie or you're probably gonna die! Take one down pass it around, two hundred and..." She groaned, losing count.

Maggie decided to sneak down to the galley to get a midnight snack. She crept down the stairs to the galley and tiptoed into the food storage cupboard. Inside were wooden cases of salted meat, casks of fresh drinking water and covered bowls of hardtack biscuits. However one thing that caught Maggie's attention: a bag of sugar.

Maggie took a bowl of the white granulated sweetness and a glass of water back to her cabin with her. She took two spoonfuls of the stuff and washed it down with the water. That would keep her awake.

☠🎃☠

The next morning Captain Jack fixed himself a cup of hangover cure and went to wake up Maggie. Only when he opened the door to her cabin, he was shocked by what he saw.

It literally looked as if a hurricane had blown through Maggie's cabin! Books had been tossed from their shelves, her toys were everywhere but inside the toy chest and her bed sheets were tied up to make a play fort. And as Jack glanced upward, he noticed what appeared to footprints on the ceiling.

"What in the bloody he--AHHH!" He screamed as Maggie popped up out of the fort. Her hair standing on end and dark circles around her wide eyes.

"Morning, Daddy" Maggie said in a sped-up voice. "I couldn't sleep last night, so after you put me to bed I scram-doodled on down to the galley for a snack and saw a bag of sugar in the cupboard and thought 'Oooh! Sugar! Sugar's always good!' And I ate a bunch, cause that stuff's really addictive! And then I started to doing the sugar dance, the magical purple squirrels taught me how, I am their queen!"

"Magic purple squirrels?" Jack asked confused. "Good lord, girl! How much sugar did you eat?"

"My cheeks sound like tribal drums!" Maggie said, opening her mouth wide and patting her cheeks to make a drum-like beat.

Captain Jack nodded "Oh, that much, huh?"

He grabbed a discarded pillow case from the floor and sneaked up on his daughter, before scooping her up into it.

"Gah! Hey! What's going on?" Maggie cried as Jack slung the squirming pillow case over his shoulder. "Release Queen Maggie! Least my magical squirrel army come down upon you in a wave of chittering, fluffy death!"

"Stifle it, your highness!" Jack told her.

☠🎃☠

As the rest of the crew went about their work the next morning, Mr. Gibbs reported to the helm to contemplate the navigational charts with Jack. Upon arriving at the helm, his eyes landed on Maggie, who was tied to the mizzen mast by a rope around her waist. She ran around the mast continuously, like a hamster on a wheel. And like the hamster, she seemed completely unaware that she wasn't going anywhere.

"What is she...?" Mr. Gibbs trailed off.

"Don't ask" Jack told him. "Let's just say she's got a lot of energy to burn off."

"So she did get a good night's sleep?" Mr. Gibbs asked.

"No, just an abnormal amount of sugar" Jack answered.

"Ah" Mr. Gibbs nodded in understanding.

Suddenly there was a thud, the two men turned to see Maggie had finally gotten all the extra energy out of her system. She had collapsed onto the deck, snoring away.

"Aww" Jack smiled down at her. "I don't know why, but I never get tired of watching her sleep. My baby girl..."

"Children are always at their sweetest when sleeping" Mr. Gibbs agreed.

"Yeah" Captain Jack nodded. "Then again, they're always cute when they're quiet."

The two men chuckled.

Captain Jack sighed deeply. "I'm worried about her, Gibbs" he admitted. "She's been having nightmares for the past few days. Normally I wouldn't worry, but she's been having them so frequently."

"Dreams can be strange" Mr. Gibbs said. "Strange, isn't it? We don't know where they come from or why they occur and yet we always write them off as normal."

"Something to ponder, for certain" Captain Jack agreed, staring down at Maggie's sleeping face. "I should probably put her to bed. If she sleeps on the deck, she'll get a sore back."

"Wait a minute" Mr. Gibbs stopped him before he could pick Maggie up. "Look at her eyes, see how her eyelids are moving?"

"What about it?" Jack asked him.

"Rapid eye movement, that means she's dreaming right now" Mr. Gibbs told him. "My sister worked as a military nurse in various wars, a lot of soldiers had suffered with trauma while being hospitalized. She noticed that they all had rapid eye movement before they woke up from a nightmare."

Suddenly Maggie began to jolt in her sleep. Then she shuddered as she tossed her head back and forth.

"Gibbs what does that mean?" Jack asked his first mate.

"I'm not sure" Mr. Gibbs shook his head.

"Is she asleep or awake?" Jack urged him.

"I don't know, I never saw someone behave like this in their sleep!" Mr. Gibbs shrugged.

Tears started to leak out of Maggie's closed eyes as she moaned and convulsed wildly on the deck.

"Maggie! Maggie, wake up! You're alright! It's alright, Luv. Daddy's here!" Captain Jack grabbed her shoulders and gave her a gentle shake.

But the still unconscious Maggie only jumped and convulsed more. She grabbed at own her hair and screamed, her legs and arms thrashing wildly.

"Maggie!" Jack shook her a little harder.

Maggie panted as her eyes opened up, she stared around, blinking. Coming to the realization that she was awake and safe again.

"What's wrong, Angel?" Jack asked her, holding her to his chest. She was still shaking in fear. "Come on, let's get you to your cabin, so you can lie down for a bit."

"No!" Maggie shouted. "No! I don't want to!"

It was then Jack noticed it. "Your arm!" He cried, seeing three short cuts in her forearm, just below her elbow.

"I'll get some gaze bandages!" Mr. Gibbs ran down to the ship's infirmary.

"What happened, Maggie?" Captain Jack asked her, panic in his voice. "What happened to you?"

Maggie looked down and seemed to be trying to remember. Until she pulled something out from under the spot she was sitting.

Captain Jack gasped under his breath when he saw it. It was an all to familiar object... a brown fedora.

"I brought something out from my dream..." Maggie said, studying the hat.

"Where did you get that?" Jack asked her in a hushed tone.

"I-I grabbed it off her head" Maggie answered, looking her father in the eyes.

This time Captain Jack's couldn't hold back the wave of shock that washed across his face as he stared at his daughter.

☠🎃☠

The next morning, Captain Jack sat at the table in the galley eating his breakfast. But he didn't have any appetite while worrying about Maggie. He had heard her walking around her room again last night. The Black Pearl was docking in Barbados today, hopefully Jack could find some tonic or something to help his daughter sleep. Something he could sneak into her food perhaps. Jack didn't like the thought of having to drug his own daughter, but he knew Maggie couldn't go on like this. But even though he wouldn't let on about it, Jack knew why she refused to sleep...

Maggie came down the stairway to the galley at that moment. She went over to the pantry and found the bag of sugar.

"You didn't sleep again last night, did you?" Jack decided to address the elephant in the room.

She didn't respond, she just looked down.

"Maggie, you have to sleep sometime" he told her.

"Or what?" Maggie shoveled a spoonful of sugar into her mouth. "I'll go crazy? Or crazier?"

"Nobody's saying you're crazy" Jack said. "And stop eating that sugar! You're only going to rot your teeth doing that!"

Jack grabbed the sugar and put it back in the pantry.

"So, are you going to have the hat looked at while we're in Barbados?" Maggie asked.

"I threw that thing away" Jack's voice took a more aggravated tone.

"Why would you do that?" Maggie demanded.

"Because I won't have that filthy thing on my ship!" Jack snapped. He took a deep breath before continuing.  There was no need to talk to his daughter that way. Maggie was just cranky, cause she hadn't slept.

"Luv, I don't know where you found that hat or what you're trying to prove, but--"

"What I'm trying to prove is what I learned in my nightmares!" Maggie raised her voice. "Everytime I fall asleep, I'm at risk of dying. There's this lady who's out to get me, but she only comes after me in my dreams."

"Maggie, you have to use your better judgement on this" Jack told her. "Now you know that's just not possible. Dreams are just your imagination, you can't die in them."

Maggie glared up at her father. She was sick of being told that, she was sick of nobody believing her when she needed their help. She was sick of not being taken seriously.

She stormed over to the corner of the galley, where the rubbish bin was, and pulled out the brown fedora.

"It's real, Dad!" She told Jack.

"You give me that thing right now!" Jack tried to grab it from her.

Maggie yanked it out of his reach. "It even has her name stitched into it!" She told him. "Francine Kreeper, Dad. Fran-cine Kreep-er! Do you know who that is, Daddy? Because if you know you better tell me, because she's after me!"

"Maggie, for once, just take my word for it. Please!" Captain Jack pleaded with her. "You'll feel better when you get some sleep."

"Feel better?" Maggie scoffed. She held up her bandaged arm. "Yeah, look how much better I got the last time I slept!"

"JUST STOP IT, WILL YOU?!" Jack roared.

Maggie jumped back, she could tell her father was at his wits end too. She didn't want to make him stressed or worried, she just wanted him to believe her.

"Maggie" Captain Jack sighed. "Fran Kreeper isn't coming after you. She can't, she's dead. Believe me, I know."

Maggie looked at him. "You mean... you knew she was real?" She asked him. "You knew that about her all this time and you acted like I was some jabbering lunatic ranting on about some fantasy I made up?"

Jack looked down, shaking his head. "Maggie, you're not a lunatic" he told her. "You're just a little girl who's imagining things because you're scared and overtired. Now you just need to get a good night's sleep and you'll be fine. It's as simple as that."

"SCREW SLEEP!" Maggie shouted, tossing the hat down and storming off to her cabin.

"Maggie" Jack called after her. "It's just a nightmare!"

"That's enough!" Maggie yelled back, before Jack heard her cabin door slam shut.

Captain Jack sat back down at the table, rubbing his forehead. "Why?" He muttered to someone who wasn't there. "Why her? Why now? Why couldn't you've just stayed dead?"

☠🎃☠

A few hours later the Black Pearl made port in Barbados. As the crew rolled up the sails and dropped anchor, Maggie came out of her cabin, preparing for a night on the town.

"So what's going to be our first stop? The pub, I assume?" Maggie asked.

Captain Jack put on his hat as the crew ran out the gangplank. "You're not going anywhere until you get some sleep" he told her.

"Seriously?" Maggie asked, furious. After spending weeks at a time at sea, she always enjoyed getting to explore the mainland.

"Yes, I'm dead serious about this" Jack told her. "You can't go on like this, Maggie. It's not healthy."

Maggie rolled her eyes. "And how long are you going to carry on not believing me?" She snapped. "If you knew Fran Kreeper was a real person then you must also know other things about her that you're not telling me! I'm not stupid, Dad!"

Captain Jack sighed in defeat. "I know you're not stupid, Maggie. I know I should've told you before, but I thought if I did, I'd be putting you in danger" he told Maggie. "But if you really want to know... follow me."

Maggie followed her father into the Captain's Cabin. She watched as he kneeled down on the floor beside his bed. Then he took one of his daggers and used it to pry one of the floor boards loose under his bed. Buried under the floor board was a long rectangler box.

"You wanna know who Franny Kreeper was?" Captain Jack asked her. Maggie had never heard his voice sound so serious.

"Fran Kreeper was a filthy murderer who liked to kill children and teens for fun" Jack explained. "At least she thought it was fun. She used to lurk around Shipwreck Cove, she killed at least twenty different children. They were even some children from my old neighborhood. Children I knew..."

"Daddy..." Maggie whispered sympathetically.

"The worst part was everytime she took a victim, she left no evidence. That's why they never really caught her" Jack sighed.

"So they never put her away?" Maggie asked.

"Well, the authorities couldn't put her away if they tried" Jack shook his head, mournfully. "That's the thing, Franny only takes children down in their sleep. Because if the children sleep, they dream and if they dream Franny kills them and if Franny kills them in their dreams... they die in reality as well." Tears began to Well in Jack's eyes. "And it's all my fault! It's my fault she's here now!"

"Your fault? How could it be your fault?" Maggie asked, hugging him.

Captain Jack took a few deep breaths and cleared his throat before continuing.

"When I was a boy living on Craven Street in Shipwreck Cove, I was sick of being stuck having to babysit my younger cousins all the time. So I told them a bedtime story" Jack explained, he stared off into space picturing it.

"I made up a ghost story about a killer named Franny Kreeper and scared my younger cousins. But because I created Franny out of spite and bad intentions, she became real and she became my punishment. That's why the authorities couldn't catch her. She's an imaginary killer and I brought her here! When I discovered she was behind the twenty different murders in my neighborhood, I knew I had to take her down. It was the only way. I brought her into this world and I had to be the one to take her out."

"Daddy, what did you do?" Maggie asked him, both anticipating and fearing his answer.

"Like I said since I created her, she trusted me the most. But I confronted her, I told her this killing spree couldn't go on. She was made to be fictional and nothing else! That was how it was supposed to be!" Captain Jack recited the words just as he had to Franny over thirty years ago. "She didn't like it. She said if that was how it was going to be, than she was going to go off on her own and that she was none of my concern anymore. But even so, I couldn't go on knowing that she would still be killing and I was the reason she was even here in the first place."

"Go on" Maggie urged him.

Jack shut his eyes and layed his head back against the bed post.

"I tracked her down to the old shack in the cave outside of town, that's where she took all her victims. I took a barrel of kerosene oil and poured it all around and made a trail of it out the door. Then I lit a match and lit the whole thing up and watched it burn."

Maggie let out a shuttering breath as she imagined it all. She now knew why Franny was after her.

"So you see, Maggie? Franny can't get you anymore. She's dead" Captain Jack reassures her. "She's dead because Daddy killed her."

He opened the rectangler box from under his bed and what he pulled out made Maggie gasp.

"I even kept her finger knives" he held up the exact same knifed-glove Maggie had seen in her dreams.

"You see?" Jack put them away. "You can sleep soundly now, My Luv." He kissed her forehead.

☠🎃☠

That night as the crew left to go into town, Captain Jack was tucking Maggie into bed.

"I want you to try and get some sleep tonight, please?" Jack asked. "For me?"

Maggie nodded "I'll try."

"Good girl" Jack kissed her cheek. "Mr. Gibbs is going to stay aboard the Pearl till I get back. So if you need anything just yell for him."

"Alright" Maggie agreed. "Listen Daddy, I know you don't want me to talk about it. But... I still think Franny is out to get me. And if she does get me, you're probably going to be next on her list."

"Maggie, no..." Jack shook his head. He was beginning to regret telling her that story.

"Just listen, please!" Maggie urged him. "If Franny is back, I want you to give me some help capturing her when I bring her out."

"Bring her out of what?" Jack asked.

"My dream" Maggie answered.

"And how do you plan to do that?" Jack tried to mask his curiosity.

"Just like I did with the hat" Maggie explained. "Grab a hold of her when you wake me up."

"No, wait a minute here" Jack told her. "You can't just bring someone out of a dream."

"Well if I can't, then you can relax cause it's just me being nuts" Maggie sighed.

"Well, I can save you all the trouble" Captain Jack smirked. "You're nutty as a fruitcake. But I still love you, since it's probably hereditary."

"I knew it!" Maggie giggled. "But seriously though, you usually get in at what time? Midnight?"

"Yeah, about that" Jack nodded.

"So when you get home, come straight to my cabin to check on me" Maggie instructed. "I grab Franny in my dream and when you see me struggling, you wake me up. Both Franny and I come out of the dream, you whack the crazy wench and we got her!"

"Are you are off your rocker, girl?" Jack asked her. "Hit her with what?"

"Well, your hobby is drinking!" Maggie shrugged. "You must have some empty rum bottles laying around? I'm going to try and stay awake for a few more hours. Just make sure you're home by midnight. And in the meantime..."

"What?" Jack asked.

"Whatever you do, don't... fall... asleep" Maggie warned him.

"Alright" Jack sighed. "And in the meantime, try... to... get... some... sleep!" He mocked her.

"I'll think about it" Maggie shrugged.

Captain Jack moaned before kissing her forehead and walking out of her cabin. He looked at Mr. Gibbs.

"Keep an eye on her" he told his first mate.

"You know I will" Mr. Gibbs assured him.

"I'll be back around midnight" Jack told him. "For rum bottles and boogeymen."

☠🎃☠

It was going on midnight and Jack began to leave the pub. He would've left sooner, if not for the rum and that one bar wench who he thought was checking him out, but turns out she was giggling at the peanut someone had stuck up his nose when he dozed off at the bar. Yeah... he was that wasted already.

"I shouldn't have drank so much, I'll never make it back to the Pearl in time now" Jack told himself.

Captain Jack turned a corner and noticed a fancy posh carriage that had been so carelessly left unattended.

Jack smirked to himself. "Well, they don't call it Carriage-Jack-ing for nothing" he said.

Quiet as a bildge rat, Jack slipped up onto the seat of the carriage and grabbed the reins. But then he stopped short...

"I shouldn't be driving this carriage while intoxicated" Captain Jack shook his head.

"But you shouldn't listen to yourself, you're drunk!" He told himself.

"As usual Jack, you're right!" He replied to himself. "I'm so lucky to have someone smart like you around to help me figure this stuff out!"

"Oh, stop!" He said with a wave of his hand.

Captain Jack snapped the reins and the horses took off. But almost as soon as he pulled the carriage away from the curb. He heard a voice from the inside of the carriage.

"Hernandez, why are you going the wrong way?" A woman stuck her head out of the window of the carriage. She looked at Jack "You're not my driver!"

Captain Jack turned to look at the high-society woman in the carriage.

"Who are you?" The woman screamed. "Get off my carriage!"

The woman took her parasol and began to swat at Jack in the drivers seat.

"Stop screaming!" Jack told her. "Ow! And stop hitting me!"

After the woman swatted him in the ribs, Jack grabbed the parasol and tried to wrestle it from her. Although it's hard to do so, when you're also trying to keep a carriage straight on the road.

"Help! I'm being kidnapped!" The lady shouted.

"I'm not trying to kidnap you! I just want your carriage!" Jack told the lady. "Wait! How much are you worth?"

The woman opened her mouth to respond, but instead screamed. Captain Jack looked ahead and noticed why, he had been so focused on fighting off his unintentional hostage, he didn't notice that the carriage was about to roll straight into the fountain in the town square!

Captain Jack yanked on the reins causing the horses to come to a skidded stop. But as they did the carriage tipped over and the lady inside it went flying from the backseat window and into the fountain. All the while, Jack went toppling from the drivers seat to the pavement beside the fountain.

Jack didn't even have time to recover from the crash, before a pair of redcoats were locking him in iron manacles.

"C'mon, pirate!" One of them shouted. "Off to the cell block with you!"

"Can't we stop for a pint first?" Jack asked.

"Considering the drunken damage you've caused... no!" The other guard replied.

"In the defense of rum, I've done some pretty insane things while sober too!" Captain Jack told them as they shoved him in the back of a prison wagon. "Course... I haven't been fully sober since I was thirteen."

☠🎃☠

Captain Jack sat in his jail cell, trying to calculate an escape, but soon he too began to drift off to sleep. As Jack slipped into sleep, he rolled over and off the bench he was on and as he looked down he realized he was rolling into a dark, seemingly bottomless pit!

Jack didn't even have time to gasp as he fell at high speed into the darkness. He fell for almost a full minute before he landed on a soft bed. He froze as he sat up, he pulled up the covers on the bed and saw it wasn't a bed at all, but a snake pit with bed covers over it!

Captain Jack yelped as he scrambled backwards off the bed, landing on his butt on the floor.

"And here I thought you'd be braver as an adult" Came a hoarse female voice. "Just proves my theory that you're always going to be pathetic, Jack."

Captain Jack got up and scanned the room for the source of the voice. But the room was so dark he could barely make out his hand in front of his face.

"Who are you?" Jack asked the invisible voice.

"Oh! Now that just hurts, Jack!" The voice said with mock hurt. "What? After thirty-six years you just forgot about me? Your old friend... Franny?"

Jack's eyes widened in realization. Maggie really was telling the truth!

"You're not real!" Jack told her. "I killed you! I watched you die! I did it myself!"

"And what makes you think I need to be flesh and blood to be a real person?" Franny asked him. "It never stopped me before! I came from your imagination, Jack! And now I've returned to stab you in the back!"

"But you're dead!" Jack told her.

"Did it never occur to you that you can't kill something that was imaginary to begin with?" Franny asked him, smirking.

Captain Jack took a second to think about it. "Well, is my face red!" He exclaimed. "But if you think you're going to get your revenge by killing me, you got another thing coming, Franny! I'm not that scared, scrawny teenager you tormented all those years ago." Jack pulled out his sword.

"You may have matured, but you're still scrawny" Franny told him, inspecting her finger knives. "And anyway, this time I'm not after you. It'll amuse me much more to get rid of your greatest treasure."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Jack asked her.

Franny looked at him and chuckled  menevolently, while scraping her finger knives together. She walked slowly towards him and Jack backed away until his back hit a wall, he was unsure of what she'd do next.

Franny stopped in front of him and stared him directly in the eye. To Jack, it felt like forever before she spoke.

"After tonight, Jack..." Franny said. "I'll be the only treasure you have left..." then she lurched forward and hissed.

Jack backed away and fell as if off a cliff into darkness again. The last thing he saw was Franny Kreeper grinning evilly down at him.

Captain Jack gasped as he woke up and found he was still in the jail cell. He sat up on the bench and held his head in his hands, wondering what Franny meant. But once he started thinking about Franny, his thoughts went straight to Maggie.

He hadn't believed her when she was telling the truth all along. Jack knew he should've believed her, but he didn't want Maggie knowing about his dark past with Franny. He felt like an ostrich that stuck it's head in the sand when the idea of danger was brought up. And to think if Maggie hadn't have stayed awake this whole time, she'd probably already be...

Suddenly Franny final words echoed in Jack's head:

"After tonight, Jack... I'll be your treasure you have left..."

"My treasure..." Jack finally deciphered her words. "Maggie! My God! She's going to kill Maggie!"

To Be Continued...

AN: Part 2 of this Halloween special will premiere on October 31st. Consider it a Halloween treat from yours ghouly! Until then, don't... fall... asleep! Just kidding you really should sleep!