For Whom The Bell Tolls (Trollhunters continuation/Evil Jim AU)

4: There's Something Wrong With Jim

Bellowing winds rattled the gate outside Toby's house. The storm had properly picked up in the last half an hour. Flashes of lightning streaked across the darkened skies. Thunder rolled through, loud enough to keep Toby awake. He rolled over to check his phone. It was almost midnight. Still no word from Jim, but over 57 messages from Claire.
She clearly cared about the situation, despite having never shown much prior interest in Jim, well except maybe the occasional glance from across the classroom.

Toby went to lower his phone back down when the screen suddenly lit up again.

Hey, you up?

Claire's name popped up in the notification bar once more. Toby groaned. He was too tired to be awake right now, at least he should be. But he was too busy worrying about Jim. He begrudgingly clicked on her contact and let the dial tone bleep.

"Toby? Why are you calling me?" Claire answered, her voice sounded hoarse as if she'd been crying.

"Can't sleep, figured you couldn't either?" He replied, hesitating for a split second, "I tried to call Jim but his phone was switched off...but he is home now I think, his mom's car is parked outside."

Claire hissed quietly into the phone, "Oh, that's good right? Yeah, that's good!"

"Hmph, I'm just gonna cut to the chase Nuñez, why do you suddenly care about Jim so much? You never really gave him any form of attention before but now you're spam texting me to know if he's okay, spam texting him, spam texting Mary..."

"Oh jeez...Mary told you about that? Also I'm allowed to care Toby! He's another human being and he's hurt...but if you must know...I like Jim." She spoke sternly.

Toby didn't know how to respond. He knew Jim liked Claire, he had no idea that it was mutual though. The two of them were in completely different social   circles so it made sense that they'd rarely cross paths. His heart sank a little. He also liked Jim. There was no way Jim would want any form of relationship with Toby now though, the girl of his dreams loved him back. It was probably just some dumb crush anyway, he doubted he meant that much to Jim. He felt tears bead in the corners of his eyes.

"Toby? You still there?"

Oh yeah, Claire was still on the phone. Her voice snapped him out of his near descent into crying his eyes out.

"Uhh, yeah." Toby sniffled a bit.

"Sorry, I know that was probably a sudden thing to just drop on you like that. I do have something else to ask you first?" She sounded nervous, her voice trembled, "Have you noticed anything...different about Jim?"

Finally, someone else had noticed Jim seemed wildly out of character. He wasn't crazy.

"Yeah...I have actually."

Claire clearly wasn't anticipating that response. Toby heard her gasp a little.

"You have? Holy frijole, I'm glad it isn't just me! I thought I was going crazy!"

"You're not the only one...look Claire, sorry, it's really late and I'm exhausted..."

"Pfft, you rang me TP!" Nuñez objected.

Toby was too tired to argue back. He quietly wished her a goodnight and hung up (something Claire wasn't best pleased about, but Toby wouldn't find that out for another six hours), slipping his phone down onto the pillow.
The storm raged on outside his window. The teenager was exhausted and whilst he toyed with the idea of messaging Jim again, he figured his best friend needed some well deserved rest, deciding to leave him to it for the night. Hopefully, he'd get be able to get to the bottom of what was wrong with Jim tomorrow. With that thought in mind, Toby Domzalski allowed himself to drift off to sleep.

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Darkness was all that surrounded Jim currently. It was strangely comforting. He knew no matter what happened, the darkness would always come back again and the night would envelope him, granting him the much needed escape of sleep. However, tonight was different. He didn't even want to chance a look at his alarm clock. He knew that seeing the time would just keep him awake longer.
His head was pounding, spinning wildly. Even if he wanted to get up and walk around until he felt tired again, he couldn't. If he moved, he'd probably throw up.
Instead, he rolled onto his side and gazed at the wall. The Vespa poster. That's what his eyes fell upon. It nearly made him weep. He missed Blinky. He missed AAARRRGGHH!!!. Heck, he missed all of Trollmarket. But especially Blinky. He wanted so badly to bustle down there and beg for Blinkous' help, to cry into his arms whilst the elderly troll hugged him for comfort. But it wouldn't be wise to see them currently, as much as he needed them, needed Blinky.
This was a sacrifice he'd have to make for now. Toby was still alive and that was what was important. He could focus on that for now. He'd have texted Toby by now, but Dr. Lake had insisted Jim leave his phone downstairs so he wouldn't lay awake texting people all night. Jim realised this meant he'd have been inundated with messages by the time he managed to check it in the morning.

I hope you're okay Tobes...I really wish I could tell you, show you everything. Jim thought to himself.

Could he even bring himself to tell Toby? The desire was there. A strong desire. But again, just as with the denizens Trollmarket, he couldn't allow Toby to become overly involved in whatever was going on. This was Jim's battle to face alone, even if he had decided he was going to need Douxie's help. Toby was too important to drag into this dangerous world over again. Maybe this time he'd take the amulet and destroy it? He'd never thought of that before. Then none of the issues mankind and trollkind faced would be a big problem. The Akiridions would still probably have some...difficulties...but as far as Jim was concerned, that was currently something worry over. He'd cross that bridge when and if he reached it. Then again, it was still very important to the timeline so he wasn't sure how badly that choice would effect things.
He ran over his plan for the next day in his head. Wake up early, ride via the canals and retrieve the amulet, hide it with him until he decided what to do with it, go to school, go to Benoit's with Toby, slip a note to Douxie, talk to Douxie.
It wasn't overly complicated but the overabundance of stuff he had to do worried him a tad. Whatever, he'd be able to work it out, he'd dealt with worse. Finally happy with himself, Jim tried to settle to sleep, but he just couldn't. The voice from his amulet was weighing on his psyche something chronic. The episodes he'd been experiencing, whatever Dhiren was. He chose to ignore it for now. Yet again, that was something he'd deal with later, it was probably nothing more than a hallucination anyway. He closed his eyes but he wasn't able to allow himself the sweet release of slumber. It called to him, he craved one night of dreamless, uninterrupted sleep so badly, but it never came. At least he still had the darkness.