Prologue

At this very moment Charlotte "Chuck" Charles had a peculiar little dream. She dreamed about the night when she and the Pie Maker had woken up her father from the eternal sleep. Although, at first, everything was going just as she remembered it – them opening the coffin, him touching her father, her father rising his eyelids, them introducing themselves to him, Pie Maker asking him about Dwight Dixon, her father answering and her being left alone with her father. Then there was she – expressing her love to lost parent and knowing that there was not enough time to tell him all the things she wanted to tell him. The Pie Maker was standing few steps away observing frantically his watch – the same watch he was always observing after awakening the dead. So Chuck – led by her desperate desire to retrieve her long lost father – decided to give him a glove and trick her beloved Pie Maker. For when Ned came back to take the life of Charles Charles, Chuck leaned him a gloved hand of her father so in the bad lighting of stormy night the Pie Maker could touch the leather instead of cold skin.

The right turn of events should be that the life of Charles Charles will be exchanged for a life of Dwight Dixon, who so happened to be on the graveyard with a rifle, prepared to kill either Ned or Chuck. But that was not how it happened this time. For this time, when the fateful sixth-first second beat in; when she closed the coffin and Pie Maker asked her if she's alright, that was the moment, when the expression on the Pie Maker's face became blank, the light in his grey eyes faded away, and Ned fell numbly on the ground. It was just like he had been stroke by lighting, but the one who actually felt that way, was Chuck. She had seen this once. She witnessed the same horrible event and now it played once again in her memory. The memory of her father falling the same way on their yard.

At this very moment Charlotte "Chuck" Charles realized with horror that the exchange didn't turn out as it should be, and instead of Dwight Dixon's life, the universe decided to take the life of the Pie Maker.

The thought of her beloved being dead and the sight of his lifeless body on the cemetery's grass filled her with sadness. At first she had hard time to believe that Ned is dead, but the more she was looking at him, the more she knew that this was an undoubted and absolute truth.

"No." She whispered frantically, while tears ran down her cheeks." No, no, no. It wasn't supposed to be like that." She quickly leaned over him. "Ned, please, say something. Ned…"

How it was possible? Why? It happened before and it went utterly different. Why this time it stroke kind-hearted and shy Pike Maker instead of that awful man? Chuck did not know. All she knew was that she once again lost someone important to her. And there was no way she could bring his life back. Everything around her – the storm, the graveyard, even her resurrected father – disappeared. She did not notice it anymore. There was only her and Pie Maker's dead body.

"Ned…" Still crying, she neared her gloved hand and touched his cheek. "I… I'm so sorry."

And then Chuck woke up, breathing erratically. She looked around, recognizing the familiar scenery of Ned's apartment. Ned jolted from his bed and looked at her with concern.

"Chuck, are you alright?"

Seeing him – save, sound and, most importantly, not dead – made Chuck realize that the nightmare was gone. She sighed with relief. Chuck never in her entire life was so happy to wake up from sleep.

"Chuck?" He repeated. "Are you alright?"

Suddenly she felt wetness on her cheeks, so she touched it. Was she crying not only in her dream but also in reality? It looked like it, so she probably was.

She smiled to him lightly and said:

"It was just a nightmare. That's all."

"Well then." He sat on his bed and looked at her with his hands curled on his knees. "Tell me about this nightmare."

He was ready to listen and comfort her. But she was not ready to talk about it. Maybe it was because she did not want to bring up to him the memory of her father, who treated him rather coldly after the resurrection; or maybe she did not want to bring up to herself the image of Pie Maker's lifeless form. Nevertheless, she smiled to him softly and replied:

"Let's talk about it tomorrow. Now it's time for sleep."

Ned was not sure about it, nevertheless, he lied on the bed and closed his eyes. They both had hard time to fall asleep, but after few hours of cheerful talking, they managed to go back to the dream world. This time Chuck had nice dreams, but the one she remembered next morning was only the nightmare of the graveyard.