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Foreboding 1.1

Emma Barnes snuggled into her bed. The night air had a bit of a chill to it and the warmth from the freshly dried blanket felt nice.

She used to dread going to bed after the attack, the monsters would come after her in her sleep and threatened to finish what they had started. It was only after Sophia had helped her to start proving how strong she was that she was able to get a good night's sleep.

She had felt a little guilty for Taylor in the beginning and she had spent more than one night staring at the ceiling, remorse gnawing at her insides, but as time passed she didn't feel it as much. Sophia had assured her that was what it was supposed to feel like, that it was the last of the weakness burning out, that she was growing stronger.

The guilt stopped after that.

Though even after all that time she still had held out hope that Taylor could be strong like her, that she would be able to rejoin her friendship once she had proved her strength. Sophia had been skeptical, but Emma remained adamant that her friend could be strong. The locker was supposed to be the final test, the ultimate proof that Taylor Hebert could be strong.

It had broken Emma's heart when she failed. She could still remember her former friend being pushed into her garbage-filled locker, as she screamed and wailed for mercy. Still, even with Taylor's failure it still proved that she herself was strong, stronger than Taylor. Sophia had been proud of her then, patting her on the back and telling her how much of a predator she was.

Madison had looked a little sick, but she had never been strong, never been a believer in what they had been doing. Maybe she would be their next project since Taylor hadn't been seen or heard from since the locker. It would be nice to be friends with another predator besides Sophia.

Such thoughts clouded her mind as she drifted off into the sweet embrace of sleep, secure that she was safe, that she was strong.

Hours passed. The sun had long ago set over the horizon as the dark crept forward. Shadows clung to every surface, casting the redhead's room with the darkness of the moonless night.

A serene smile was etched onto Emma's face as she dreamed of being strong, of being a hero. Her in the heart of her house she was safe, here no monsters would get to her, here was where she was the strongest. A lie she had told so many times that she believed it herself.

The shadows coalesced around each other into a swirling ball of darkness. The room seemed to drop a few degrees in temperature as a shadowy figure emerged from the black pit that had formed in the darkest corner of the room.

She was tall and would have towered over the redhead had they been standing side by side. Her willowy frame was covered by a long coat of what appeared to be shadows. Her skin was a sickly grey that only served to highlight her off-putting yellow eyes and sharp teeth. Hair as dark as pitch flowed from her crown down her shoulders where it became near indistinguishable from her clothes.

She seemed to almost glide across the room, her footsteps utterly silent as she approached the sleeping teenager. She loomed over the bed frame and examined every inch of the redhead girl. A surge of anger and hate flowed through her at the sight of the pleasant smile on Emma's face. A dagger of shadow and sand formed in her hands. For the briefest of moments, she was tempted to rip Emma's throat out and be done with it but she restrained herself.

No. Not yet, she thought, dispersing the sand dagger with a wave. She wasn't here to kill Emma.

"You must think you're strong Emma," Taylor whispered. "That you proved your strength with the locker, that you escaped your nightmare." An unpleasant smirk crossed Taylor's face as she tapped Emma on the forehead.

"The truth? You never really left."

Dark sand seeped out from under Emma's eyelids and gathered in Taylor's palm. Emma's pleasant smile morphed into one of discomfort and fear. Taylor let out a breathy sigh at the fear the wafted off of her former friend's body. It was so tempting to stay and feed off of Emma's fears, to pull her insecurities out from the darkness and into the light, to tear her down brick by brick. To make her suffer-

No. Not yet, she repeated, the mantra burning into her mind. She couldn't let her desire for instant gratification ruin what she had planned for Emma.

The shadow dust from Emma's nightmare shifted, its formlessness taking on a shape. Taylor grinned as her Nightmare took form. It was small, barely bigger than a house cat, but it was a start. Glowing yellow eyes glared out at the world as its dark form galloped across the air as if it was solid ground.

"Well aren't you beautiful," Taylor murmured as she stroked the Nightmare's wispy mane. The twisted facsimile of a horse let out a quiet neigh. She could feel its hunger, its desire to spread fear and nightmares all along the sleeping city. It was almost adorable how it glared up at her, trying to fill her with terror. Taylor retaliated with an attack of her own, casting aside the Nightmare's meager mental defenses with a negligent push. The Nightmare fell back in fear and tried to escape from Taylor's grip, but it might as well have been trying to move a mountain for all the good it did.

"Shhhh, don't worry, you'll get to feed soon," Taylor said. The Nightmare calmed down at the mention of feeding. Satisfied that it wasn't going to try to attack her again or run away Taylor let the Nightmare go.

Taylor smirked as the Nightmare circled her cautiously, "You'll feed to your dark little heart's content, but you're going to have to be patient. Go to the others." She pushed the location of the warehouse that she was having the other Nightmares hide in for the time being. It was hardly an ideal place for a hideout, but it was out of the way and would be adequate for the time being.

The Nightmare neighed in agreement. It slipped under the window, temporary losing its form to become a wisp of dust and shadow. It reformed on the other side and galloped through the darkness of the city towards its destination.

Satisfied Taylor turned towards her former friend's dormant form. Instead of a peaceful slumber, she was now thrashing in her sleep punctuated by moans of discomfort. Taylor could feel the waves of fear roll off of her as images of red and green monsters filled her subconscious with fingers like knives and teeth like needles. It was the fear of a scared girl, a broken girl. The kind of fear that sent you blubbering into the corner to hide from the monsters.

It was delicious.

To Taylor, it was like a fine wine, something that had aged and grown with time into something sublime. A small part of her pointed out that she should probably be feeling guilty for doing this to her tormenter and ex-best friend, but she tended to ignore that voice most of the time.

"Part of me thinks that I should thank you," Taylor said as she gently brushed Emma's hair. Emma whimpered in response as her hair was cut away in her nightmare, knives snipping and tearing away as they held her down.

"Not for the powers, those were a nice bonus, but for the lesson," Taylor continued as she idly played with her shadow dust, letting it dance across her fingers like water. "You and Sophia showed me the real power of the world, it's not super powers, or ideals, or bureaucracy- its fear. Fear is what allowed you to run the school, fear is what allows gangs to run the city, fear is what allows parahumans to run the world, and fear…fear is what makes monsters out of us all."

Taylor glanced at the bedside clock. It was time to leave, she had dallied here long enough. She glided across the floor with an off-putting silence, coming to stop by the shadow that she had materialized by. She turned back to give Emma once last glance, a satisfied smile filled with too many teeth danced across her lips as the broken red head thrashed and twisted in bed as she tried to escape a nightmare of her own making.

"Goodbye Emma."

- Shadow travel was a unique experience. It wasn't quite like teleporting, but at short ranges, it might have as well been. The inky blackness that surrounded her formlessness was darker than the deepest pit and colder than the Arctic sea. It was utterly inhospitable to any human life, but to her, it was like greeting an old friend.

Still, even to her, the shadow world was strange and somewhat frightening. It was a far cry from the near heart attack she had when she first entered the realm, but even after the past two weeks she still felt as if she was being watched, being judged. She would occasionally catch glimpses of yellow specks in the distance which only seemed to draw the darkness in even more rather than provide any illumination.

It was unnerving.

Still, even despite the off-putting feelings, it gave her she couldn't deny the huge advantage it gave her. The only limitations that it seemed to have was that there needed to be a shadow wherever she was going and that she had to have a general idea of where her target destination was. A little unease was a small price to pay for such a powerful Mover ability.

She rematerialized in the abandoned warehouse she was using as her temporary base of operations. It had been abandoned for years, ever since the creation of the Boat Graveyard, perhaps even before. Its walls were rotted and filled with mold, even to the gangs it was unusable, its structural instability made it far too dangerous for even the most drugged up Merchants to consider using. But to her and her Nightmares that was no issue, not when they could lose their form to slip through the tiniest cracks. Nobody would bother them here, here she could gather the strength she needed.

She stood on the scaffolding and gazed down at the floor to her minions, her Nightmares. Nightmares by the dozens roamed around the building, some smaller than a rat while others towered over her. Every one of their yellows eyes turned to her with an eager anticipation as their hunger gnawed at their every thought and action.

"Tomorrow," She said. Her voice was as quiet as a whisper but still could be heard clearly throughout the condemned building. The herd of Nightmares stood motionless and utterly silent as she spoke. "Tomorrow we begin. Tomorrow you will feed."

At the promise of feeding the Nightmares erupted into a frenzy, hoofs stamping on the floor and cracking concrete while their eerie and off-putting howls scared off more than one of the homeless in the surrounding area.

While it was exhilarating to see her Nightmares celebrate in such a fashion she sent out a mental attack that sent them all reeling. More than one staggered to their knees. When she was certain she had their complete and undivided attention she spoke once more. "You will listen to my orders."

The threat was clear. She was strong, they were weak. They would obey her so long as she remained strong, but if given the chance they would turn on her like a pack of ravenous wolves.

Just like Emma had.

Taylor let out a guttural growl at the thought of the redhead before casting it aside. Emma and Sophia and all of them would suffer when the time came, but she couldn't allow such thoughts to cloud her judgment, now when she had so much work to do.

She could feel the first rays of the sun start to inch over the horizon in a futile effort to drive the shadows back. It promised of hope and rebirth to the dying city, a new day and a new start and…

…It was the biggest lie of all.

The city didn't need hope. What had hope ever done for them? When Lung rampaged across the city at his arrival they hoped for the Protectorate to defeat him. When Skidmark and his gang of degenerates choked the city with their filth they had hoped the Protectorate would break them. When Kaiser and his would-be empire crushed the minorities under their heels they had hoped the Protectorate would drive them out. And in the end what had all of this hope brought? Nothing, absolutely nothing. The city continued on as the gangs took more and more power for themselves, a cancer eating at the city.

The PRT was content to let the gangs roam free in the name of "stability" so long as they looked good while they did nothing, and when the gangs would start to act up they would hide in their fortresses safe and sound while the normal people suffered.

The fact that Sophia Hess was Shadow Stalker was only the icing on the cake.

She was done with putting her hope with the heroes. She was done with her dreams of being a hero. She was going to do with fear what none of that childish nonsense had ever done. If the city couldn't be saved with the light of the heroes, then it would be saved with the darkness of their nightmares.

If she couldn't be the city's hero, then she would be its boogeyman.

Taylor paused as she considered that word, boogeyman. It was somewhat childish, but there was something about it that just seemed right. Even if it wasn't a strictly terrifying name like Genoscythe the Eyeraper or Deathstalker the Deranged there was a subtle connotation that none of those names possessed, a history that existed for as long as humanity had nightmares of monsters.

After all, who wasn't afraid of a boogeyman?

"That's what I'll be," she said, more to herself than her Nightmares. A Cheshire grin crossed her face as the name rolled off her tongue.

"The Boogeyman of Brockton Bay."

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