Chains on his jeans rattle like the bones of a skeleton as he grabs Shadow by her throat to silence her screaming. She claws at his hand around her neck, trying desperately to make him let go of her as he raises his scythe is his other hand and slices her face. She can feel the impact of the blade slicing her skin open, and the blood trickling down her face.

"Alice! Alice! Help!" She coughs out, struggling to breathe against the man's tight grip on her throat. He brings her in close to him, as the flames around them close in, and she can smell the stench of the flame burning the back of his coat, as he slices her chest with his scythe again.

"I'm going to make her regret what she did to my family." The shadowy figure whispers harshly to her, as his red eyes focus on the blood trickling down the side of Shadow's face. She feels the tears swelling in her eyes.

"Alice!" She screams loudly as the pain from the cuts on her face and chest begin singing almost as if a poison has entered her bloodstream. If the cuts didn't hurt enough she could have sworn that the poison itself from the blade could cause her organs to shut down and she could die right here in the very spot he holds her in. Then suddenly, she curls up her fist and strikes the shadowy figure's stomach with such force that it causes him to let go her throat. She falls to her knees in front of him, and he brings his scythe high above his shoulders to strike her again, but Shadow rolls in the opposite direction as the scythe's blade comes down and gets stuck on the floor. She gets to her feet, she feels the wobbliness of her legs as she tries to run from him, but he grabs her arm and spins back around to face him. He restrains her tiny wrists with one hand locking his eyes with hers, as his scythe slices a deep gash down her shoulder to her forearm. She can feel the fabric of the dress ripping as scythe pierces through the fabric and deep into her skin. She screams so loud, that she see's the glass of the window above the sink shatter and the pieces of the glass follow to the floor. The flames circle them now, and she can feel the heat on her face as she scratches the side of his shadowy face with her nails. He pulls away from her, lifting the scythe out of her arm as the blood pours from the deep gash that has begun to pulsate.

"You stupid Bitch!" He screams at her, as she breaks out his grip on her arm. She runs over to the kitchen door to open it, only see the blackness outside pulsating toward her at a rapid rate.

"Shadow." Multiple demented voices call out to her from the darkness, that seems to be drawing her into it.

"Come to us, Shadow." The demented voices beckon to her, as she looks back at the man who is swinging his scythe in her direction. She steps outside onto the deck and breaks into a sprint. The blood pours rapidly from her cuts as she runs away from the darkness that has changed its direction as it begins following her and the man that is chasing her. The shadowy man grabs her by the hair of her head and slings her ground. She winces as she feels her back slam against the ground, and her eyes stare up at him as he brings his scythe down quickly toward her face. She closes her eyes and screams.

Alice begins shaking Shadow when she returns from the hallway and finds her collapsed on the floor in the kitchen. Shadow is screaming in her sleep like state, and clawing at Alice's hands as she shakes her.

"Shadow! What's wrong?" Alice asks her as she panics, as Shadow continues to scream and claw at her face. Alice pulls her hands away from her face, Shadow growls and Alice is forced to use her own hands to restrains her wrists on the floor. Tears escape from Shadow's eyes, as she breaks from Alice's grip and begins to flail her arms widely. Alice moves away from her and rushes over to the sink. She twists the knobs and murky water sputters from the faucet, she glances between Shadow who is rolling around on the floor screaming hysterically and the water that has finally lost the murky tint running clearly. She withdraws a small plastic cup from the cabinet and fills it full of cold ice water, then she rushes back over to where Shadow is now laying on the floor still screaming. Alice kneels beside her and pours the water onto Shadow's face, chest and down her arms. Shadow opens her eyes and hugs Alice tightly as she raises up. She is sobbing as Alice's hugs her back tightly filling the tears pour down her own cheeks as well.

"Shadow what happened? I was only gone for a minute, and when I came back you were on the floor asleep screaming." Alice whispers to her, as she holds her tightly.

"There was a shadowy man, he stepped out of the hallway and grabbed me. He had skeleton bone chains on his pants. He had to be a reaper! Because he was carrying a large scythe that he used to cut me over and over again! I screamed for you but weren't there!"Shadow says between sobs, as the tears flow from her eyes quickly. She glances down at her arms that are untouched, she sighs a breath of relief thankful that no cuts exist on them.

"I am so sorry, Shadow. It was a nightmare. You know that I will always be here protect you whatever way I can from anyone that wishes to harm you. It's going to be okay." Alice says she starts crying. She can't imagine what a horrible nightmare that must have been for Shadow to experience. Her mind is still scrambled with fragments of haunting images, words that have no meaning, and fragments of sentences she puts together that would seem to make sense if they were spoken out loud. She cries because she doesn't understand what her words mean. She cries for not being able to be there for Shadow during her nightmare and she cries because she doesn't know whether the scrambled information floating inside her head will ever be sorted out. She wonders if she will ever be able to understand what she and Shadow's words truly mean or if she will always feel forced to say things that she doesn't understand. She begins to rock back and forth as she holds Shadow, as she rocks she can hear Shadow's sobs quietening down.

Then Alice lets go of Shadow, lifts the candle and leads Shadow down the hallway to room with a large queen size bed. She helps Shadow up onto the bed and sits there with her until she falls asleep soundly. Alice stares at her as she sleeps softly, and wonders what her connection is to this girl. She almost feels as if the same blood coursing through her veins, also runs through Shadow's because she could feel Shadow's pain when she was in the other room earlier.

Moments before Shadow begin screaming from her nightmare, Alice could feel invisible jagged cuts underneath the skin of her arms. The pain from the unseen cuts rushed over her, bringing her to her knees and she was so terrified of what happening to her.

Then, the moment she heard Shadow scream the pain from the unseen cuts pulsated through her body, and she coughed feeling as if someone was choking her. Yet there was no one else in the room with her, and Shadow was in the kitchen screaming out from her nightmare as she laid on the floor asleep. The pain didn't cease until Alice managed to get her feet and stumble back into the kitchen near where Shadow was laying. The moment she was near Shadow again, whatever invisible ailment was she was experiencing no longer affected her and she was strong again. She studies Shadow's perfect facial features, and delicate pale skin that seemed similar to hers yet slightly different at the same time. She watches as Shadow's breathes softly, in her pleasant state of sleep. Her chest swelling with air, and the breaths escaping her lips. It was odd for Alice to see her so peaceful and calm when just an hour earlier she had been a screaming fit. Alice gets up off of the bed and leaves the lit candle on the small nightstand next to Shadow's bed.

Shadow rolls over and entangles her body in the warm blankets on the bed, as she sleeps peacefully. Alice walks out of Shadow's room and closes the door quietly behind her. She steps across the dark hallway and enters into the bedroom that is direct across from Shadow's room. She steps through the darkness unafraid, and perches herself on the large window seat, staring out into the darkness that has fallen over the forest they had come through hours earlier before reaching this house.

The dark gray thunderclouds move slowly across the sky, hiding the moon behind causing the forest to not have any light shining down upon it. Completely consuming it in an unfading eerie darkness that seems to radiate down onto the forest from the night sky.

Alice suddenly shivers, and she can sense someone staring back at her from out in the woods. She squints her eyes as she stares out the window, her eyes scanning for an outline of anyone that could be out there.

The feeling of being watched soon begins to overpower her desire to see whatever or whoever was out there staring back her cloaked in the shadows of the forest. Alice gets up off of the window seal she turns the locks on the window. Locking whatever it is out there in the forest, her mind drifts as she is starting to leave out her room. She quickly pulls the string of the blinds that causes them to lower down over the window and closes the curtains. She quickly makes her way out of her room and to the kitchen where she presses a chair against the lockless front door. Hoping that if someone tries to come in that the chair scooting across the floor will be loud enough to wake her. Alice hurries into Shadow's room and locks her windows, and closes her curtains too.

Then she exits Shadow's room and walks quickly back into her room closing the door behind her. She slowly undresses and slips beneath the covers on the bed, so thankful to have a soft pillow to lay her head against. She is also thankful to have a nice warm bed to sleep in instead of sleeping on the ground of a cave, or underneath a thorn bush in the forest. Alice feels her eyelids become heavy, and right before she drifts off into a deep sleep she smiles happily.

As the girls sleep peacefully inside the abandoned home in their nice warm beds, the darkness in the forest ceases as the early morning light comes up. As the sunlight shines through the gaps in the forest's canopy it reveals a ghostly image of a girl that is hiding behind a tree. The girl is transparent, almost invincible to those who are not looking closely at her. She smiles as she stares at the abandoned house with a look of joy in her sky blue eyes. She turns and looks at the house, as she steps into the sunlight. The moment she is standing in the sunlight, she disappears almost as if she was never there, to begin with. Maybe she was just an apparition of a girl that had lost her way in the forest. Or maybe she was a girl that really existed far from this abandoned house that possessed the ability to cast a reflection of herself into the forest.

The sunlight breaks through the trees and shines brightly through the windows of the abandoned house the girls sleep within. But, their slumber is not disturbed as the sun makes it's way high up into the sky. The sunlight begins awakening the small creatures that inhabit the forest. The squirrels whose home are within the crevasses of the tree begin their morning run across the branches of the trees looking for nuts, as the birds in other trees sit on their nests patiently waiting for their eggs to hatch. The birds begin to sing, and soon other birds across the forest chime in. Each one with their own song, and their own sound. Making the forest seem to have its own musical melody, that is beautiful and natural. A forest that had been so cold and dead the night before during the thunderstorm, that is now bursting with life and radiance from within.