Penny held onto Kim close as the walls shifted around them, "This shouldn't be happening until the night." Penny stated in confusion and fright. Kim wrapped her arms protectively around the girl, "Something must be disturbing this dream." She explained, unsure how she knew that. Sarah came running out of the kitchen towards the girls, "What the hell is going on here?" She cried out, "The sink suddenly turned green with some kind of weird goo and the walls started to change. What's with this place?" "My nightmare." Penny stated fearfully, "It's coming alive." Sarah shook her head in doubt, "That's impossible." She remarked in disbelief, "Nightmares don't come true." Kim reached out towards Sarah and grabbed her by the shirt, "Well this one is..." She stated as she pulled the girl closer to them, "And if you want to protest you can try explaining to them that they do not exist." She nodded down the hall as a ragged teddy bear walked around the corner. The bears spotted the girls and slowly started to approach them. Sarah blinked at the bear in confusion, "It's just a teddy." She remarked dumbfoundedly, "What is so scary about that?" She stepped closer to the toy when it's muzzle ripped open to reveal a set of sharp fangs and long claws tore their way out of the fabric of it's paws. Sarah quickly recoiled from the creature, "Geez, What is that thing?" Sarah cried out as the bears glared at her. The bear let out a deep guttural howl that shook the walls, dislodging fragments of ceiling plaster. Kim protectively put her arms over Penny and Sarah as several chunk of plaster fell upon their heads. When she looked up again she could see several more bears gathering around the first. She quickly scanned around them, "Where're April and Caitlin?" She inquired worriedly. "They were cleaning the dinning room." Sarah reminded her. "We need to find them before they do." Kim explained nodding towards the growing number of bears. "Holy hell!!" Sarah stared at the bears as they glared back at her, "Just how many of those things are there?" "Too many." Kim remarked unhappily, "Come on. Slowly move towards the kitchen and don't make any sudden moves. It only provokes them." She remarked as she ushered the girl's out of the room. Penny clung tight to Kim's arms as they slipped into the kitchen, her eyes never moving from the teddy bears. They did not advance on the girls; instead they just watched them with their beady red glowing eyes. "I want out of here!!!" Penny exclaimed hysterically. "I think I liked this place better in the dark." Kim stated with a slight chuckle. In the kitchen she spotted the knife she had dropped the other day and a trail of green goo leading to the sink. Inside she found the mutilated bear that she had only recently killed, it was as if this world was persevered only for them. She stooped down to pick up the knife when she caught a glimpse of more bears climbing up the stairs from the basement, "I thought they didn't go down there?" She inquired uneasily. "Can we get out of here and leave the questions for later?" Sarah begged terrified of what those creatures would do if they got their claws on her. "Alright." Kim snatched up the knife and started across the kitchen to the door leading the dining room. She quickly pushed the door open and held it for the girls, "Get in there." She commanded, noticing several bears entering the kitchen through the basement door. She stared down at the knife worried that she could not fend off these creatures with such a small weapon. Hastily she followed the girls out of the kitchen and closed the door behind her. "Penny!!!" Caitlin cried out as she rushed over to the girl with April closely in tow, "I'm scared." Kim hugged the child, "So are we all." She admitted. Sarah looked up at the destroyed double doors to the room and sighed in despair, "Now what do we do?" She asked anxiously, then noticed the table and ran around it, "Kim help me with this table." She requested as she pushed a chair out of the way. "What are you planning to do with the table?" Kim asked curiously. "They are small right?" Sarah noted, "If we push the table over and slid it against the door so they can't get in." She explained simply, "Penny bolt the kitchen door would you?" Penny rapidly moved to the kitchen door and flipped the bolt shut while Caitlin and April helped Kim move the chairs out of the way, "Do you think that will stop them?" Penny inquired worriedly as she scanned the table. "It only needs to hold until Amber and Jessie arrive." Sarah stated confidently. "Jessie?" Penny inquired, dumbfounded by the prospect of her sister's return, "Did she really come back?" Sarah simply nodded, "We saw her last night." She explained as she moved the last chair, "Could we talk about this after we stop the evil teddy bears from ripping us to pieces because I don't know if you noticed but those critters are armed with a nasty set of crawls and teeth like I've never seen before." She paused for a moment and thought, and then glanced at Penny, "You dreamt these little beasts up?" She inquired in astonishment. "No, I did." Jessica stated as she entered the room the bat still in hand, dripping with green goo and pieces of bear fur, and Amber at her side. "J... Jessie...?!?" Penny stared at her sister in disbelief, "Y... you came back." "Sorry I took so long." Jessica said regretfully, "I really didn't want to leave you here, but I couldn't stay. I'm glad to I hear you found your belt." Penny smiled and patted her waist, which had the belt tightly tied around it, holding up her jeans. "Kim found it for me." She explained with a grin and wrapped her arms around the girl's neck. Jessica gave Kim a suspicious look, "Is that all she did for you?" She inquired, protective of her little sister. Kim flushed as she realized what it was that Jessica was suggestion, "I didn't mean too... I mean..." "Leave them alone Jessie." Amber lightly demanded, "They are in love. Just like us." Jessica glared at Kim, "You better not hurt her." She warned the redhead as she circled around the girls to the windows. "Jessie!!" Penny gave her sister a disapproving look, "Stop harassing Kim. What has she done to you?" "She's the reason we are stuck in this nightmare." Jessica remarked as she hit the boards covering the windows, "Shit, the hole has been sealed over." "Of courssssse it isssss." Someone hissed from behind them. The girls all spun around to find themselves face to face with a large scaly lizard like creature. Its arms dragged along the ground and the arch of its back scraping against the top of the door frame, "Do you think we would let you esssscapped us twiccce?" It inquired with a sinister smile that revealed it's crooked shape teeth, a long tongue flickering between a gap in its front teeth. April and Caitlin screamed and hid behind Kimberly, "Stay away from us." Kim glared at the creature as it lumbered into the room, a second creature behind it. This one bulkier and with a slight limp, "Don't touch us." She shakily held the knife out towards them. "Oh, we are not going to hurt you." The second creature stated in a low growl, it's muscles shifting below its brown scales, "We are here to thank you." "Thank us for what?" Amber inquired as she huddled into Jessica, who held the bat out defensively. "For freeing usssss from the darknesssss." The first creature smiled at Jessica, "Thank you for removing that witch from our livesssss." "Yes." The second creature agreed as it moved around the table, backing the girl's into the corner, "Now we have you all to ourselves, day or night. So if you would be so kind as to return to your rooms we can begin the feast." He wrung his long clawed hangs together greedily as he glanced from one girl to another. "Yessss." The first one nodded his head vigorously, "And issssn't it niccccce that our little Jesssssicaaaa return to us too. We can all be one big happy family now." "I will never let you touch my sisters again!" Jessica hollered as she rushed at the first creature, swinging the bat over her head and bringing it down, hard and fast. The creature easily blocked the girl's blow with one of his beefy arms and shoved Jessica against the wall, pinning her, "We will have none of that anymore." He hissed as he dropped Jessica to the ground and tromped towards the other girls, "We rule thisssss dream world now and there issssss nothing you can do to ssssstop us." Kim blinked in realization, "A dream..." She gripped the knife in her hand, "This is only part of a dream." She muttered as her eyes darted from one creature to another. Abruptly she spun around and plunged the knife into the wall. Startled Penny jumped away from the girl, "Kim! What are you doing?" "Getting out of this place." Kim explained, pulling down hard on the knife as it cut through the wall, "Help me!!" She cried out. Penny rushed over to the girl and grabbed hold of the knife. The moment their hands touched she could feel a tingling run through her fingertips. It felt as if Kim's presence was washing over her body and she flushed at the experience. A rip started to form in the wall and a bright light surged through the hole onto one of the creatures causing it to recoil in pain. "It's working." Kim exclaimed, grinning gleefully at the light. "What are you doing?" The second creature called out, anxiously glancing at his brother as he staggered away from the beam of light, "Girls stop it!" Jessica picked up the bat and got back to her feet, seeing the panic in the creature's eyes she redoubled her attack, this time bringing the bat down upon the side of its head and it howled out in pain. "Why you little brat!" The first creature turned on Jessica and swung at her with its large claws. "JESSIE!!!" Amber cried out, frightened that her lover was about to be slashed in two. Jessica dropped to the ground and quickly crawled under the table. She struck the first creature in the knee causing it to topple over, clenching its wound. Kim let go of the knife with one hand and pushed her fingers through the crack. With haste she tore at the wall, ripping chucks of wood and wallpaper free, revealing a glowing passageway. "Help us!" She called out to the others. The girls crowded around the growing hole and help chip away at the plaster and wood, "I can see the other side!" Sarah exclaimed ecstatically as she freed another piece of wall from the opening. "You will not get away from us." The second creature angrily stated as it got to its feet. "Stay down!" Jessica screamed as she beat the beast repeatedly over the head. "Jessie!" Amber called out to the girl, "Come on!" Kim punched another chuck free, "Caitlin! April!!" She patted the girl's on the back, "You go first." Without hesitation the girl's crawled through the crack, "Sarah and Amber you next!" She commanded. Sarah did not hesitate to be told twice and leapt through the opening. "Jessie!!!" Amber reached out for her friend who was still pounding on the creatures, "Leave them!!" Jessica finally stopped her assault to find herself standing over a thin, weak looking man bleeding on the ground before her, a man whose shadow used to haunt her every night. However now he looked pathetic as he lay in a pool of his own blood, begging for the girl to stop hitting him, his broken arms protectively wrapped around his head. Slumped against another wall was the man's brother, his skull smashed open and blood scattered across the curtains. Jessica staggered back at the scene before her, her eyes darted from the men to the blood soaked bat in her hands. Shakily she dropped the bat and collapsed to the ground, "What have I done?" Jessica muttered to herself. She could not believe these men had reduced her to a vicious murderer. Amber ran around the table and dropped to Jessica's side, "Jessie, we have to go." She stated restlessly, "You have to pull yourself together." "What have I done?" Jessica shakily stared down at her blood soaked hands, "How could I have let this happen." "Penny?" Kim tried to get the girl's attention. She was gazing at the sight before her in stunned bewilderment and Kim had to take Penny's face in her hands to force the girl to look away. "Listen to me." She stated in a soft voice, "You have to hold this door open." She explained calmly, "Do not let go of the edges or it might close on us and we will lose our only way out of here, understand?" Penny simply nodded and watched Kim let go of the hole and race over to Jessica, "It's time to go ladies." She commanded, taking Jessica by the elbow only to have Jessica shove Kim against the wall. "Don't touch me." Jessica cried out, "This is all your fault you know that!" She states miserably, pointing a blood covered hand violently at Kim, "If you had not come here none of this would have happened." Kim snarled at the girl, "Don't blame me for this." She returned trying hard to keep her own anger under control, "You think this is horrible. This is only a dream. I killed my father in real life so don't try to act like this is some tragic event. They are just dream images and not flesh and blood. Your mind is what made them real. Don't place your guilty feelings on me. If you want to feel sorry for yourself then do it after we get out of this place." She demanded sternly, thrusting a hand towards the glowing doorway. "KIM!!!" Penny called out, "The door!!" Fragments of wall began to rise off the ground and fill in the hole, repairing it. Kim glanced out of the dining room entrance to see a horde of teddy bears heading their way, "I think its time we left this place." She grabbed Jessica by the arm, without protest this time, "Amber head for the door!!" She commanded. Amber quickly ducked into the hole in the wall followed next by Jessica. Penny struggled to keep the door open, "Kim!!!" She cried out. Kim grabbed the edges of the hole and forced it opened a bit more, "Get going." She nodded towards the hole, "I'll follow." Penny hesitated at first then jumped through the opening. Kim took one more glance around the room as the teddy bears entered the room. The thin man crawled away from the critters on his elbows as they approached him. "P... Pleassse..." He begged, reaching out towards Kim. Kim smiled back at the man, "Good bye." She waved then slipped through the hole. The last thing she saw as the crack healed itself was the man kicking off the bears as they began their feast. ***** To be Continued . . .
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