Twinkle, Little Star

Chapter One

Dark never wanted much out of his miserable life just to feed his tainted soul on the fear and screams of the innocent. When you're the legendary Boogeyman, what else could you do?

Every night was the same. He'd travel from home to home, room to room, child to child or person to person and scare them. It was normal. It was his routine.

So why did he feel so damn empty?

He needed something. A change.

But what…

This was all he'd ever done with his life. What else was there to do when you were an eight foot tall, shadow summoning, fear inciting demon?

Dark sat in his home, nestled far away from humans and demons. They both annoyed him. His kind sometimes more than the humans. It depended on his mood.

Maybe he needed a hobby, he thought to himself as he watched the sunrise between the snow covered branches of the trees on his lawn. He needed new socks. Maybe he'd learn to knit.

What the fuck… the Boogeyman does knit fucking socks…

Maybe he needed sleep. Even though demons actually needed very little sleep. Still… if he was considering absurd things such as knitting… it might be necessary. He couldn't have a brain tumor. Demons didn't get sick.

Sighing, Dark shoved himself to his feet and quietly stalked to his bedroom. He stripped down to absolutely nothing and laid beneath his singular cool satin sheet.

When he closed his eyes he felt a familiar tug inside of himself. For the last few months he'd been getting these strange sensations of being pulled by an invisible force. He had considered magic other than his own, but knew that no witch was dumb enough to cast anything upon him.

He tried to ignore it for a while and when it only strengthened, he jerked upright with a growl that sent all his shadows scattering.

Enough! He had had enough. He was going to figure this out or he would storm the closest coven and demand someone fix him. If they refused, he'd hang them all by their ankles and torture them with their nightmares.

Grumbling to himself, he pulled on an old worn pair of black jeans, a black cotton T-shirt, a heavy black leather jacket, and his favorite shit kickers. Then he stood very still and breathed very slowly, feeling for that pulling sensation again.

The tug was deep within his chest, circling around his cold, black heart. Summoning his shadows to his side, he snapped open a portal and stepped through, letting his body follow the pull.

A few seconds later he was in his shadow form, curled beneath a bed. Soft sobs and sleepy words mumbled from a musical voice.

Had this mysterious pull led him to a child? And if it had, then why?

Peering out from the bedskirt, he had to hold back from gagging at what he could see of the bedroom. It was like a rainbow fairy and a unicorn had some seriously freaky sex and their freak offspring vomited all over this room.

He noted the time from the clock on the bedside table and that the room was still very dark. He didn't like doing his scarring in the mornings. Too risky.

A sweet smell tickled his senses and he let himself seep out from the bed and materialize into his man form. Only then did he realize with a shock that he wasn't in a child's room. The figure in the bed was a woman.

A nearby calendar was marked with times. A work schedule, he thought. Mostly late shifts, which explained why she was sleeping now. His eyes traveled back to the sleeping woman and he let himself look at her. Well… as much as he could.

Only half of her face was visible. Pale skin dusted with freckles and wet from tears stood out to him first. Then he took note of the strawberry blonde curls tangled haphazardly around her pillow.

Something… filled him… as he watched her sleep restlessly. Feelings he hadn't felt before itched beneath his skin. He couldn't put his finger on it but he knew the answer to his problems was laying before him, covered in a comforter with little rainbows all over it.

Yes. This is what he needed.

"Don't! Don't touch me!" the woman cried.

Dark stumbled back a step and stopped. He hadn't touched her. She wasn't crying out over fear of him.

"No… please," she cried.

Dark had heard many cries and screams before. None had ever really affected him. It was how he survived. So why did her cries make his stomach twist and his fists ball at his sides?

His confusion got the better of him and he realized a second too late that she was awake and looking right at him. She gasped and with a snap of his fingers he melted back into the shadows and out of her sight.

Hidden away in the corner of her room, he watched as she rubbed her eyes and looked around for him. When she didn't see him again she shook her head in disbelief and wiped the tears off of her cheeks.

She sighed with a sadness he didn't understand before scooting back under her covers and tucking a brightly colored bear between her arms.

He watched her drift back to sleep and only once he was sure she was out did he step from the shadows and portal his way back home.

~A/N~

It's short. I know. I'll post another chapter this weekend!