She had finally made up her mind. She was going to watch all of her daughter's memories right then and there. She had postponed it long enough.

Her fingertips brushed against the diamond shapes on the tooth box. Applying the tiniest of pressures was the only thing separating her from Emily's memories.

Her fingers suddenly froze. Something pulled inside her core.

You have to be kidding me...

Angel closed her eyes in exasperation, heaving an irritated sigh. Of all the times this could have happened, someone just had to be calling for her when she only wanted to remember her child.

Wait...someone is calling for...me?

Nobody had ever called for her, specifically. Her creatures were always the ones being called in people's minds through herself, but not her. This was the first time in the ten years of her spiritual existence that she was being called by a mortal since no one believed in her. Which could only mean that the person calling her was...

Amelia...

Angel glanced down at the tooth box. Her fingers were touching the drawn diamonds on the lid lightly but, other than that, they stayed motionless. Struggling between her need to remember and her desire to respond to her sole believer's call, Angel bit her lip and scrunched up her eyebrows in uncertainty.

Damn it...

The tooth box vanished from her hand in a cloud of black crystals, to return to the safety of her hideout where it would remain until she returned from a quick visit to a certain raven-haired girl. She summoned a second cloud of crystals to form a griffin and climbed on his back. The animal spread its wings and prepared to take off when something, or rather someone, appeared out of nowhere in front of it, making it screech in surprise.

Angel yelped and gripped its mane to keep herself from falling off. After a few moments of the creature's surprise wearing off and her making sure that she was secured on its back, she leaned forward to see the source of the animal's distress. Her eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed.

You...

Pennywise gave her the most innocent, childish smile he could muster. "You're visiting my friend?"

"You're not coming." she snapped, voice dripping with venom.

Pennywise's smile fell into a sad frown, lips pouting. "Whyyyy?"

Despite how surprisingly genuine his expression was, Angel wasn't even remotely touched by it. "You've done enough damage for one day. After today's fiasco, you'll stay away from the girl until I decide otherwise." The clown opened his mouth to protest, but she didn't give him the chance. "You're very lucky to get away with such light punishment after what you did, so unless you enjoy pain as much as you enjoy fear, keep your big mouth shut!"

Even though she wasn't yelling yet, the barely contained fury was clear as day in her voice. Pennywise, against his nature, closed his mouth after hearing her threat and lowered his enormous head with a whine. Angel sighed angrily and turned away from him as the griffin finally took off to the sky, heading for Amelia's house.

As they flew high in the sky, Angel was seething inside. She couldn't believe the nerve of that creature, showing up in front of her and smiling as if nothing had happened. As if he hadn't chewed on Pitch's arm just minutes ago. Then again, it made sense that he couldn't see where he was at fault. After all, she had used him to protect herself and he had jumped at the opportunity to taste a spirit full of fear, the clown's natural source of feeding. He probably wouldn't have been able to hold back even if he wanted to. The only one able to hold him back was her and she had done nothing. As a result, Pitch had been wounded and most likely wanted her dead.

I screwed up big time... She thought bitterly, her fingers digging into the soft brown mane of the griffin.

Wait...brown?

She looked down and sure enough, the mane she was gripping was colored brown. In fact, the whole creature was colored instead of black and felt natural and alive to the touch instead of the hard crystal she was used to feeling when coming in contact with her creatures. Thinking about it made her realize that somehow she had failed to notice that lately, her creatures were always colored and alive-looking from the moment they were created.

How did I not notice this earlier? It must have been happening for a few days now. Actually, forget that. More importantly, how come this is happening now when all the other times they would be crystal and black until they came close to someone? What has changed?

The griffin glided through the air and closer to the ground as the two of them neared Amelia's house. Angel looked at the house in the distance, lost in her thoughts. The sight made her think something so strange that had her frowning in disbelief.

That can't be...

The griffin landed on the soft Belgium soil in Amelia's front yard, ruffling its wings as a cool breeze flew through them. Angel noted that the atmosphere was a bit chilly for the middle of spring, not that she was really bothered by it. She got off of her creature's back and stood by its side, eyeing the window overlooking the front yard. Suddenly feeling self-conscious, she smoothed the skirt of her dress as best she could and adjusted her corset. She glanced at the window once more and, after making sure she had turned the griffin invisible to the eyes of Amelia's father, she slipped through the open window in a cloud of crystals.

The first thing she noticed was the girl's father, sitting on the dining table, typing away on his laptop, surrounded by boxes overflowing with paperwork and documents. At first, she was confused at the sight of the clearly tired man working at home so early in the afternoon when he should still be in his office. Then again, two scumbags had broken into his house and threatened his daughter just three days ago, so she assumed he had managed to work at home so he could be near his daughter. And judging by the black circles under his eyes and the disheveled hair, he hadn't been sleeping or resting well.

The struggles this man is facing...

Angel spared the young man one last glance before she walked over to Amelia's closed bedroom door. She stopped in front of it and briefly considered how to approach the little girl when a muffled gasp halted her thoughts. Frowning, she leaned closer to the door, and sure enough, a choked sob was heard from the other side of the door. Angel slipped through the keyhole without a second thought.

Materializing in a corner of the room, she spotted the six-year-old curled up in a ball on her bed. The disappointment was clear in her voice making her wince at how misplaced it was. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to see you like this again."

Amy's head snapped up in surprise, her crying stopping abruptly. When her warm brown eyes took in Angel's form, a broad, delighted smile appeared on her face and she jumped off the mattress. "Miss Angel! You came!"

"Of course I-" Angel lost her voice when the girl's arms wrapped tightly around her legs in a hug.

She looked down at her in shock, arms hovering above the small body in front of her. She cursed herself internally. Despite how good the hug felt, she was still not used to the idea of her being able to be touched by another person, a mortal one at that. Not only that but apparently her ten-year-long mourning of her daughter's loss and her isolation from the world had affected her to the point that she didn't know how to act around a small girl such as Amelia. She didn't believe it was possible for a mother to forget how to be...well...motherly around a child but, it seemed that she was wrong.

She awkwardly placed her hands on the girl's back, causing the small arms to stop their slow retreat and squeeze her harder. "Of course I came, little one. You called for me."

Amy finally pulled away from the spirit and smiled up at her, the few remaining tears at the corners of her eyes, though still present, completely forgotten. "I didn't know you could hear me! I missed you!"

"Uh...you just saw me yesterday."

"Well, yeah...but I still missed you!"

The right corner of the woman's lips curled up into a half-smile. "You flatter me."

Amy giggled. "You left so suddenly yesterday, I thought you wouldn't come today. Oh, is Pennywise with you?" she asked, looking around her room in search of the clown.

"No, he...won't be joining us today." she bit out, a sour grimace replacing her previous smile. Amy opened her mouth to ask the reason when a loud knocking on the glass of her closed balcony door stopped her. Both turned to the sound, seeing the griffin tapping on the glass with its beak, demanding entrance. Angel cocked her head to the side with a shrug. "But he is, apparently."

Amy excitedly ran to the glass door and slid it open, letting the enormous creature inside her room, giggling as she felt the golden fur of its body with her fingers. "What kind of animal are you?"

"He's a griffin. A half-lion, half-eagle hybrid. More or less." Angel explained, watching as the beast brought its face closer to the girl so she could pet it.

Amy ran her hands over its head, being mindful of her movements so as to not hurt it, putting so much care into her touch as if the creature was some kind of treasure in her eyes. She glanced at its owner to ask another question but didn't pause on her movements. "What's his name?"

Angel was caught off guard by the question, her mouth opening, and closing without actually saying anything. "I-I...well, I haven't...haven't really come up with anything for him yet."

"Oh..." Amy looked sadly in the beast's eyes, stroking the top of its head.

Angel suddenly got the feeling that she had done something wrong and rushed to fix it. "Why don't you name him?"

"Huh?" The girl looked at Angel, then at the creature and back at the spirit, the beginnings of a smile appearing on her face. "Really?"

Apparently, the smile was contagious because Angel felt her own lips stretch upwards. "Sure, I don't see why not."

Amy's eyes returned to the griffin, their gleam reflecting off of its orbs. "I will call you... Griffes du Ciel."

"Skyclaws?" Angel hummed, liking the sound of it. The griffin gave a short screech of approval. "Very fitting name."

Amy giggled as the creature's, Skyclaws', beak started poking playfully at her neck and she tried in vain to use her arms as a shield. "Skyclaws! Stop it!"

Angel leaned against the nearest wall, arms folding in front of her chest and watched. Watched her sole believer, a lovely six-year-old girl, play and laugh with one of the most dangerous mythological creatures she had created thus far. It was a true wonder, how a simple girl could make a beast bounce around and play the same way a puppy would. In such an energetic, lively way...

As though it was actually real.

She hadn't realized her smile had faded away until Amy paused on her playing with Skyclaws and looked concerningly at her. "Are you okay, miss Angel?"

Angel had to blink a few times to get her focus back on the present. "Yeah yeah, don't worry. I was just thinking."

"What were you thinking?"

The question was very innocent coming from her, so much that Angel's natural urge to keep her answers short and hide the rest of her thoughts deep inside was halted. She stared at the little girl for a while, weighing her options when truthfully, she couldn't find any good reason not to open up a bit. There was no harm in that when only Amy was involved. At least she couldn't find any.

"I was thinking that you might have...affected my creatures." She said carefully, observing the girl for any reactions.

Amy looked confused more than anything. "Affected, how?"

Angel raised her arms in a shrug. "I have no idea how it happened. But, if I'm not mistaken, ever since our first... meeting-" she couldn't help a small grimace at the word. "...my creatures are always full of color and, well, life."

Amy frowned, glancing at the griffin, which had settled by her side, fast asleep on the floor. "Aren't they always like that?"

"No, no they're not." she shook her head, bringing one palm up and holding it open for Amy to see. She willed a small wave of crystals to appear over her palm, pulsing and floating over her skin. Amy gasped in awe, taking a few steps closer to the beautiful sight. "You see this? That's the material my creatures are made off when they are created and they remain that way until they get close to someone who believes in them. Only then do they turn from crystal to alive beings. But, somehow, for the past three days, there wasn't a single time I saw them covered in crystal. And I believe it all started the night I met you."

The crystals dissolved in Angel's palm at the end of her explanation. Amy's gaze turned to Angel's, a gleam of nervousness flashing in them. "Is that a bad thing?"

The spirit did a double-take. "What? No! No no, it's a very good thing! The problem is I can't figure out how it happened."

The raven-haired girl fiddled with her sleeve in thought. "Maybe they like being my friends?"

At Angel's confused frown, the child rushed to explain herself. "Because I really like being friends with them. And every time we've played we've had a lot of fun. And yesterday, you said you were crying because you were happy that I believed in you. So, maybe you and them are happy to be my friends?"

...That, surprisingly, does make sense. I was overjoyed to finally have a believer, I still am...kinda. And since my magic is affected by my emotions...

"Yes..." she said, making the girl's smile return on her lips. "Maybe we are..."

Meanwhile, somewhere far away...

"Come on fellas, we will never be ready for next Christmas if we keep up like this!" North rubbed his eyes tiredly, looking helplessly around his workshop. The once full of toys place was now filled with hammers, shovels and any other tool imaginable. Yetis and elves alike, once busy with the preparation of toys, were now occupied with trying to break the crystals covering the colorful workshop since they were unable to resume to work using crystal toys. Ever since the attack of the crystal creatures, they had been working nonstop, but so far there was no progress. The crystal was harder than uncut diamonds.

He headed towards the globe room, inspecting the Yeti's work as he passed by. Every few meters he would have to pass over a pile of broken shovels or an unfortunate elf that tried to lift a hammer but ended up having itself crushed under the weight.

North tapped his knuckles against the crystal angrily. He wasn't running out of time since Easter was just three days ago, but he knew that at this rate toys wouldn't be prepared for Christmas in time. Not to mention that he had been hearing from Tooth she was having problems removing the crystal layer from her home as well. He frustratedly grabbed the first tool he could get his hands on, which happened to be a chainsaw very familiar to him, and turned to the nearest wall intending to release some of his anger on it. "This thing can't be impenetrable!"

The elves around him scurried away at the roar of the chainsaw coming to life. Its blades crashed against the crystal, metallic sounds and sparks emanating from the collision. No one could see if North's method was working at first. When small sharp things started flying in different directions, their hopes got up only to be whipped out by the realization that the small flying things were not pieces of crystal, but the blades of the chainsaw. Still, North kept attacking the crystal.

Until the earth opened up and swallowed him. It was more of a big rabbit hole, to be precise. Either way, he fell in it and slid down the tunnel, screaming all the way down, stopping only when he landed face-first on the hard cold ground, the chainsaw clattering beside him.

"North! You okay?" The feminine worried voice pushed him out of his dizziness and he raised his head with a groan. Tooth and Sandy were by his side, helping him up, choosing to ignore the ruined tool beside his feet. He waved them off when they kept looking him over.

"Ah, no worries! I'm no broken toy." His face fell into a serious expression. "How come Bunny brought us to the Warren?"

Sandy raised his shoulders, the images of him and Tooth with a question mark forming above his head. Tooth took it upon herself to translate the images, even though North was well aware of Sandy's sing language and the meaning behind it. "We've been wondering the same thing."

A muffled scream echoed suddenly around the Warren before another hole opened up on the ceiling to let a surprised and distressed Jack Frost fall through it and land on his back with a loud thud, his staff following right after. Tooth, as always, was the first to fly to his aid, posing the same question she had asked North.

The spirit of winter pushed himself on his feet, pausing to pick up his staff and give them a look. "I swear guys if this is an alternate way of North's sack kidnapping..."

"We came here the same way you just did." Answered North, willing to stop the younger spirit before he heard something insulting about his most adored ideas. "Don't know why."

"Oh. Well, the-...Is that a chainsaw?" The others turned to look at what Jack was pointing at on the ground. North tried to act cool, unconsciously raising a hand to rub the back of his neck. "Dysfunctions in the workshop."

Jack didn't seem to fall for it, but then again he looked pretty much lost. "O-kay... So, where's that kangaroo then? See if he can shed some light on our situation."

"If you weren't having a little chit-chat, you would have already figured it out." grumbled a voice from a nearby patch of flowers. The four Guardians turned to Bunnymund in confusion as he jumped out of the flowers and joined them.

"Don't look at me like that, it's not like the crystal is that difficult to make out." Their frowns deepened.

"Wait, cryst-...Oh no." Jack looked around the Warren with a starstruck expression on his face, finally able to make out the thin layer of crystal covering the colorful piece of nature.

"Oh yes." Bunny glared furiously at a flower that was covered with the offending material. He could swear he heard North mattering something along the lines of 'I will need a bigger chainsaw' but he didn't feel like dealing with the man's unappreciative ideas at the moment.

Tooth was the first to speak. "When did she attack?"

"She didn't. Not in person, that is." Bunny shot a look at North. "Much like you, mate, she sent her minions to take care of my Warren."

"But how did she know where to find this place? None of us knows how to get here unless you open one of your holes." Jack pointed out, getting exasperated over the situation. After all, he was the one first to meet her. All this could very well be his own fault.

"I guess she must have spied on me during Easter." He shrugged, turning to move towards one of his now sealed tunnels. "I thought I smelled something off during an egg hunt in Australia, but I never gave it much thought. They came through here a couple of days ago."

He motioned towards the sealed tunnel leading to the grounds of Australia, where a big hole was dug on the door. Sandy moved closer to inspect the damage while Bunny went on. "A big human-wolf dug it and invaded the place with many other creatures." He seemed quite disturbed by the thought, ears twitching and nose itching. "The bloody thing kept me busy enough to give his companions time to make my Warren like this. For the past two days, I've tried everything to break this bloody thing. Not even my egg-rocks can crack this thing!"

"This has gone too far." growled Jack. "Angel clearly is targeting us, and she already has gotten to three of us."

"You're right." Tooth nodded, crossing her arms over her chest. The others only then realized that for once in her life she wasn't surrounded by her mini fairies. "I don't know what she is trying to do, but her crystal is giving enough trouble as it is. The teeth library doesn't function and the quarter-maker doesn't provide my fairies with quarters anymore. Everything is malfunctioning and my girls have no other option but to put the teeth in piles, messing the teeth from various children together. And we are now relying on the machines in washer stores to get quarters, which takes much more time. I've already lost a few believers because we were late on schedule."

"This is what she's trying to do? Take away the children's belief?" North asked though it seemed like an unnecessary question.

"Most likely." Bunny crossed his arms over his chest like Tooth. "And she is doing a pretty damn good job at it!"

Sandy formed a series of images over his head, to which North nodded. "Sandy's right! We must find out where she is and stop her. Else we won't be able to do our job."

Jack scratched his back with his staff. "So, we go Angel hunting?"

...

...

This is the third day in a row...

Angel sighed, shoulders slumping in disappointment as she let herself fall to a sitting position on the forest ground, knees close to her chest, arms crossing over them. It had been three days since Angel's first and only fight session with Pitch, the last time she had seen him since the incident. She hadn't seen or heard of him ever since.

At first, she had fought her wish to seek him out and apologize, giving him space and time seeming like the most appropriate thing to do at the time. But, as the days passed and no signs of him were found by her scouts, she had started to reconsider her original decision. She couldn't blame him for not wanting to show up for their arranged fight sessions, she would have avoided it as well if she were him, but from the little she had known him, she thought he would have wanted to get back at her for that nasty injury. He seemed like the vengeful type, someone that could hold a grudge if he so wished.

But for the past three days, everything was quiet from his side.

Of course, he could be simply laying low for now, planning out the different ways in which he could make her pay. Besides, time wasn't a pressing matter for him, or her. They both had eternity ahead of them. Though, somehow she doubted that he would need even three days to plan out how to make her suffer. No need for any complicated plans when he would be facing against her inexperienced self. Though she would never admit it in front of him, she was well aware of how much she lacked in both skills and experience compared to him. So, what was taking him so long?

She had a feeling that there was something deeper going on. And the part of her that still felt guilty for inflicting such injury on him kept considering the possibility that he was keeping his distance from her despite his anger, simply because he didn't want to risk being close to her again.

She hated that thought. She had never wished for people to keep away from her, even in the Boogeyman's case. To think that she had managed to drive him away, possibly even mildly scaring him, while she knew it could very well be considered a great accomplishment, to her it was anything but that. It made the empty feeling in her stomach so much more intense.

Something cold and wet touched her calf and she absentmindedly reached a hand to her right and petted the head of the hellhound that had come to lay down by her feet. The hellish dog whined worriedly after the brief contact, its head dropping on her lap, fiery orange eyes looking wistfully up at her. She stared at it for a while, offering a small, half-hearted smile as she scratched behind its ears. "Giving me the 'puppy dog' eyes would work better if your irises weren't orange, but I appreciate the effort."

"Why so blue, mistress? You cause your servants to worry." a deep male voice spoke up behind her. Angel glanced down at the hellhound, moving her thumb to rub at the spot between its eyes. "If that's an implication that I got you to worry about me, then color me flattered, Baron."

The black man came to stand in front of her, towering at 6'5 feet above her, his dark purple top hat decorated with broken ribs and a feather on the side along with the equally purple undertaker tailcoat with the bone-white buttons making his figure appear even taller. He brought his long cane with the glowing purple human skull on top in front of him and crossed his long arms over it as he leaned slightly down towards her, the skull drawing on his face showing a small amount of emotion that his glowing yellow, iris-less eyes would never be able to show. "I don't know about worry, dearest miss, but consider me mildly concerned."

She let out a half-hearted breath of laughter and straightened her back to put some distance between her face and the crow feathers decorating the ends of his tailcoat sleeves and lapel. She glanced up at him, shrugging nonchalantly. "Good enough for me."

The voodoo Loa god of life and death stood to his full height, wide shoulders squaring with newfound concern at the depressing aura that had started emanating from the woman, one of his black-gloved hands coming to grasp the skull-shaped buckle of the leather belt around his waist. "Mistress, why are you troubling yourself over such an insignificant matter?"

"You really want to call fatally injuring a powerful spirit to the point of scaring him away 'insignificant matter'? I never thought the great Baron Samedi to be the man to look down beings who were once alive." purred a female voice a few feet to the right of the two, catching their attention.

Samedi shook his head, a toothy smile of amusement stretching across his face. "Any spirit would be capable of healing perfectly from an injury in a matter of hours, despite how fatal that injury could be, Bastet. The Nightmare King is most likely holding a grudge and our mistress is worrying over nonsense."

The woman with the cat features rolled her turquoise, slitted eyes, and ran her claws through her black, Egyptian-styled locks. The light of the late morning sun gave the golden fur of her flicking tail an extra glow. "I think you're forgetting that she wanted the King to teach her combat skills, otherwise the whole plan will fail. I believe that is hardly 'nonsense'."

"It's not just that, you guys." Both gods turned to their mistress, seeing her play nervously with the black string coiling up from the ribbon bracelet of her left wrist up to her shoulder. "The thing is, I never meant for him to get hurt. Not like that. He was injured and I had no control over it. I wasn't in control of my own powers."

The immortal beings shifted uneasily. The way Angel voiced her concerns betrayed a fear she had been struggling with since the beginning of her spiritual life and that was control. There had been multiple occasions in the past ten years when her powers, or rather servants, would proceed to do things their mistress hadn't asked for or hadn't even thought of doing. She had tried to be more aware of her power's incidents of acting up, but since those past occasions hadn't had any severe consequences, she hadn't worried herself too much over it. Until the incident with the Boogeyman, that is.

"Since most of us have a mind of our own, I guess it makes sense that the clown acted without you noticing. That doesn't make the Boogeyman's injury your fault." a deep, raspy voice included itself into the conversation, drawing everyone's attention to the left. Baron Samedi's lips stretched into a surprised smile. "Well, look who decided to join in."

"Haven't seen you around in a while, Ryuk." added Bastet with an undertone of a purr.

The Shinigami shrugged from his cross-legged sitting position on top of a tree branch, chin resting on his right palm. "I'm not a very social guy." he chuckled.

"And despite that, you speak sense on the rare occasions that you take part in a conversation." the voodoo spirit commented, turning to Angel. "You must admit, mistress, he has a point. Even if you were responsible for the Eater of Worlds-"

"That doesn't mean you are the only one to blame for what happened to Mr. Black." said Bastet, finishing Samedi's sentence.

Angel looked around at the three of them, her eyes passing over each of them. A small fond smile formed on her lips and she stood up, causing the hellhound by her side to perk its head up as it watched her walk away from her spot, ears held high. She glanced at each of them separately, acknowledging them. "I'm grateful to have your support... I can't imagine what I'd do without you."

The three creatures seemed to stand a bit straighter at her words, even Ryuk straightened his back from its previous hunched position, filled with pride from being praised by their creator. The spirit of myths brought her hand up and examined it in thought as wisps of tiny crystals started swirling in a playful manner around her fingers. "But, despite your reasonable thinking, the bottom line is that I should have prevented that incident from happening. And I... failed."

The immortals' protests died in their throats at the way her voice dropped low at the last word. The wisps evaporated in her hand, fingers reaching to her neck and wrapping around the amethyst of her pendant. "I created you, I gave you life and free will. Like it or not, that makes me responsible for everything you do. Each of you has an amount of freedom but at the end of the day, you all answer to me. I don't simply rule over you, that would give me the small benefit of blaming you for your own mistakes. Instead, I am to blame for everything you all do..."

Her hand clenched into a fist around the pendant, the building anger within her core making her amethyst eyes shine, the undertone of a growl coloring her next words. "...because I have complete control over you."

"...Scary..." Ryuk mumbled quietly, the feathers on his shoulders shifting in a form of a shiver.

Scary indeed...

The purple glow of her eyes dimed abruptly from the surprise of hearing that haunting whisper inside her head after three days of silence.

Oh please, don't let me stop you. Go on. You were currently busy feeling disappointed and angry at yourself for being unable to prevent poor old Boogeyman from getting hurt.

She snarled over the mocking laughter that echoed around the depths of her mind.

Why are you back, all of a sudden?!

Oh, you don't know? Don't tell me you've forgotten how I love to see you punish yourself all the time. I think I made it perfectly clear the first time.

This time is different, I had no excuse for losing control-

Of course, you didn't! The voice roared, making Angel's ears ring. It's always the same thing with you. Always your fault, your failures. You just can't help it. But, deep down, you know that I can do things better. Unlike you, I would never fail. And every time you self-loath, that fact becomes clearer to you...Doesn't it?

"Mistress..."

Her eyes blinked rapidly, fingers unwrapping from the pendant as if she had been burnt. The glow in her irises, dim as it had been, disappeared completely and her gaze fell on Baron Samedi. The scenery around her seemed to brighten to her eyes as if she had been completely cut off from it, isolated inside her own mind while conversing with the last person she wanted to be interacting with. She could still hear the chilling laughter in the back of her mind, only now it sounded far away like a distant memory in comparison to how it had been earlier, literally engulfing her the way the echo of your own voice bounces off the walls of a cave. It was all familiar to her, yet so different every time she would experience it.

She had made a promise to herself the first time this had happened, to not allow that vermin to trap her in her own mind again. So far, she hadn't fulfilled that promise, her constant trying seeming meaningless.

"What is it?" She hadn't meant to sound so on edge and she had to hold back a wince when the voodoo god brought his skull cane closer to his side at her words, his grip on it visibly tightening.

He nervously cleared his throat and brought his free hand to the rim of his top hat, tipping it respectfully. "We didn't mean any disrespect, mistress."

She blinked slowly, confused for a moment as to what he was talking about. Her eyes passed over the other three creatures behind him, taking in their stiff postures. Realizing they thought she had been mad at them when they had only been trying to reassure her, she shook her head.

"There's no need to apologize, Samedi, I know you meant well." She wanted to say more, explain herself to put them at ease, but kept her tongue. She had shown enough weakness and self-control already. No matter how much they cared about her, they were still her own creations and any shift in her powers was bound to affect them in both good and bad ways.

"So..." Bastet took a few careful steps closer to the spirit. Her ears twitched to the side when Angel's eyes fell on her. "What should happen now? With the Boogeyman not showing up these days?"

Angel lowered her eyes to the ground in thought.

There's only one thing I can do. Probably should have done it from the start instead of talking myself out of it...

"Since he isn't coming to you, I guess you should go to him." Ryuk offered with a shrug, floating down from the branch to stand tall beside his immortal companions, the hellhound coming to lie down by his shoes. The two gods frowned at him, unsure at the idea of going right into the lion's den.

Angel looked up at the Shinigami and gave a small smile. "I was thinking the same thing, Ryuk."

She cast her gaze upon all of them, her mind made up. "I will go and make things right with him."

The gods looked at each other, not liking the idea but not objecting either. Their eyes settled on the hellhound by Ryuk's feet. "So...where does he live?"

I can't even begin to apologize for how long it took me to update! I just couldn't find the inspiration, I guess. But, at least I finally got a boost up! And, I made this chapter extra long so you all have something more to read after my long absence! I know it hasn't the character you want to see, but I promise that he will be in the next chapter! Don't forget to share your thoughts with me about the story and remember! Reviews are a writer's best friend!

Hope you like it!