NiGHTS: Journey on Earth

The Magic Pickle Fairy

Reality One

Helen Cartwright remembered it all, the dream that she had; the death of her friend. She destroyed her friend's creator, which destroyed her friend also. She wondered why she had to help kill him. She would have done with living in her nightmares, as long as she had NiGHTS, still as her companion.

She picked up a chicken salad sandwich at the cafeteria, and then went for a place to sit down. The tables seemed to be full, even with the one with her two friends: Joy and Pammy. So she looked at an almost empty table, the almost meant that it only consisted of the new kid at her homeroom class. He was a short kid, with blond hair and purplish blue eyes.

"It must be hard to be the new kid," Helen told herself. She stepped in front of the table and said, "Hi!"

The kid looked up from his Cesar Salad with a big smile on his face, "oh, hi Helen…." Immediately he covered his mouth, as if he had said something wrong.

"What's wrong?" Helen asked in confusion.

"Well," the boy perked up, "sit down, I'll explain."

She sat down with full confusion, he seemed very nervous about what he was about to explain.

"Helen, I'm NiGHTS."

Her heart rose, NiGHTS, was alive? Even if she was happy, she was very doubtful about her happiness, the words were of full hesitation "N-no, it can't be, you're not NiGHTS."

The boy who claimed to be NiGHTS shook his head, "but I am, Helen, please. I thought I would die, but instead my body got projected into this world. I changed myself into this form to…."

Tears of joy came from Helen's eyes, for each word out of his mouth was another tear came from her eyes, "NiGHTS," she gave him a hug so tightly, he might have forgotten to breathe, "I'm so happy you're here!"

"Oh…my…goodness," NiGHTS said with full intent in his eyes, "this is so good." He began to eat more globs of the ice-cream that Helen gave him at the ice cream parlor.

A laugh came from Helen, NiGHTS was always an enthusiastic nightmaren, but he seemed to have a little bit more joy as a human. Since Wizeman and the other nightmarans were gone, NiGHTS had very little to worry about. "So," Helen began to talk, "you named yourself Nicholas?"

With his mouth full "Nicholas" began to speak, "yep, I thought it was a good name for me!"

"I think so too." Helen looked down at her strawberry flavored ice cream. She hasn't taken a bite yet because Nicholas was ranting about his chocolate ice cream, and how good it was.

Just then, two girls, one with brown hair and a white cap, the other with red hair and a bun walked up to Helen and Nicholas. "Hey Helen," said the brunette, "Who's your friend?"

"I'm Nicholas!" Nicholas stood up and took out his hand, "what's yours."

"My name is Joy," she took Nicholas' hand and shook it, "nice to meet you!"

The red head waved to Nicholas, "and I'm Pamela, but everyone calls me Pammy."

"Nice to meet you, you guys must be friends of Helen!"

Joy sat down with the two.

"Hey Joy, I'll treat you to some ice-cream," said Pammy, "what kind do want?"

"Mint, thank you," Joy told her friend. She took a chair then sat on it, "so, Helen, I saw you hugging Nicholas here earlier today, what was that about?"

That very question made Helen very hesitant. She couldn't say that she met him in the Dream World, they wouldn't believe her. She didn't know what to say, she was tongue twisted.

"We were friends a long time ago, until I moved to the rural side of England," Nicholas said, "we never kept very good contact."

Joy nodded her head, "I see that makes perfect sense."

"Well," Helen got up from her finished ice cream, "I need to practice my violin, see you tomorrow!"

"Okay," Joy waved.

"May I come with?" Nicholas asked, "I would love to hear you play."

"Sure," Helen got up to grab her bag, "let's go."

Helen made the final note of her song, then Nicholas immediately clapped his hands, "you are good, Helen."

Helen put her violin back into her case then gave him a bow, "thank you, but that is only practice. You would know, don't you play the flute?"

"Yeah," Nicolas stood up with excitement; he walked over to the music stand. He put his hands in position then he blew. No music came from that blow…Nicholas just laughed, "I guess my powers aren't effective in my human form."

The door knocked, "Helen, it's time for dinner."

"Okay," Helen called, "I have a friend over; can he eat with us?"

"Sure," Madeline, Helen's mother, opened the door, "but your friend should call his parents."

Nicholas bit his lip, he had completely forgotten, children had parents. He had an idea of what to say, without entirely lying. "My father died recently, and I never knew my mother…so…I don't have any parents to call."

Madeline had just gasped; "oh my goodness, I'm sorry…but…um…well" she was very hesitant, "I need to call foster care."

"Shoot," Nicholas whispered, he didn't technically exist in this world, since his origin was Nightmare, which was in the Dream World. He had to do something, "Wait no!"

Helen's mom stopped, "what?"

"Please don't call, I beg of you!" Nicholas had sadness in his eyes that Madeline couldn't resist.

Madeline looked at Nicholas with full pity, she just couldn't resist the eyes, "you can live with us then…"

The eyes of sadness soon changed to happiness, "thank you."

"Now let's go eat some ravioli," Madeline told her daughter and the new member of the family.