Once upon a time, long ago, in the depths of darkness, there lived a demon, if you can call her living. She felt like she was dead. Her name was Grim, and she 'lived' to serve the demonic gov't, she's a sucubus for hire, very high class. But she has a very interesting side job, she is a Dreamstalker, who has set her eyes on a young teenage girl who has everything she lost before she killed herself.

(Dreamstalkers, those who walk through dreams to kill those in them, because in the world of Hemlock those who die in their dreams die in real life, and we they die they NEVER come back. They are never reborn.)

Once upon a time, not so long ago, lived a girl used to living in the spotlight. Everything she wanted, she got, whether it was boys, clothes, or money. But with the wealth she inherited, she also inherited her parents greed and darkened hearts. From a young age she only knew how to bully and push people into doing what she wanted. He parents were sure they were teaching her how to survive in real life, "Kill or be killed, Lizabeth." Her father would say, a sour look on his face as always. But her happy life was about to crash down around her, as a demon had set its sights on her.

Grim remebers her first stakeout of Lizabeth's dreams, just to see what she was dealing with, and what she found was mildly disturbing, to say the least...
~Dream flashback~

Grim walked in through her dream portal and hid behind a tree as she watched Lizabeth laying in her front yard. This was young Lizabeth, she looked about 7, and she was in a pretty blue dress, reading a book. Suddenly a vortex opened up below her and she was sucked into the ground, Grim followed.

Lizabeth found herself in small room, the only way Grim could hide was by turning herself invisible. This room was dark, one candle lighting it, cobblestone flooring, and red walls that were oozing. Young Lizabeth walked up to a wall and put her hand on it, then screamed. The walls were made of blood and they were pulling her through.

Grim watched in disgust as Lizabeth was sucked into the wall, a single gunshot rang through the room and the candle flickered out; ending the dream and shoving Grim out of her subconcious and back into her office.

~End dream flachback~
The girl was messed up, and Grim realized that this girl had some serious problems to be having a dream like that. Even with these problems Grim still wanted to reap her vengence, and take Lizabeth from her nice luxurious life forever.

She'd been young last time it happened, well, younger at least. As always, this particular dream took her by surprise, the horror and memories washing over her, suffocating her.

The dream had never changed, staying the same in all the years she's had it. Staying muddled and clouded, just out of reach in her consciousness, fuzzy edges crept into her dream as the black haze of fear and dread fell over her. In the dream she remembers being young, she remembers the soft, blue, fabric of her dress, and the smell of the new book she was reading.

She remembers the grass was long, and smelled so sweet. Like the embodiment of summer, and daydreams, and magic all in one. But the happiness she should have felt was, as always, absent, nonexistent in her young life. Suddenly she felt herself falling, down, down, down, until she landed, spilling out heavily onto a cobblestone floor. Dizziness and a sharp smell filled her drowsy mind, the smell is somewhat familiar to her, in her subconscious it unlocks something. She walks forward almost against her own will, and places her hand against the dripping red wall, the flickering of the single torch casting shadows against her face.

But suddenly she screams, realizing simultaneously what the smell is and what the wall is made of, the blood seeps in between her fingers, it was hot, almost burning and it began to pull her into the wall. She heard a piercing scream, but it wasn't her own, and suddenly the candle flickered out, leaving her in the darkness with the stench of death almost suffocating her.

Then she awoke.

~Present Time 2002~

Grim just left her job, she felt dirty and used, but alive. The power she consums gives her a sence of feeling that she never would get without it. She is dead, but when she takes someones essence she feels alive again. It doesn't last for long, that's why she craves it so much. Even though it's against her original morals when she was her interpritation of human, no one in her opinion is human in Hemlock; they're all demons in their own way, dead or alive.

Grim's life was an average one. Hemlock is a special place, it is not of the place called Earth; Hemlock is an interdimentional world not known to earth where demons and human co-exist. Co-exist meaning demons rule most of it. When she was human Grim lived in a lower middle-class home, the fate of most humans that did not have demonic connections. She led a simple life with her, now dead mother and father and baby brother. When she was about 15 her father was offered a high-class working position at his bland office job, he gladly excepted it to make sure his family had what they needed. If her mother knew the extent of his new-found job she would have made him quit right away, but things went on for two more years.

By the time she was 17 she had everything a girl could ever want, a loving mother and a nice house, nice clothes and all the newest things. Her brother was a mute so he never bothered her, to this day no one talks about why he went mute when he was 7, about the time their father got his new job. Only Grim knows, after her tragic accident they told her what had happened. He had witnessed what their fathers job had entailed.

Grim was happy with this life, happy with everything she had, and she never resented any of it; not like Lizabeth. The unfairness of reality had to sink its nasty teeth into her life and suck everything away. On the fatful night of her family's murder Grim was at a friends house and she came home early, but to this day she wishes she would have stayed there. She came home to a front door, half open, with a broken lock. Grim stupidly vetured into her own death...

To this day she won't get into detail, but she hates every over-proviaged, under-appreaceative child; when she discovered Lizabeth she found this pure loathing inside of her souless body, something stronger than hatered, and she knew she wanted to take away Lizabeths happiness. Soon that hatered grew to her wanting to take Lizabeths life. So she started to develope her latent Dreamstalker powers and began her hunt for vengence; digging two graves before she began.

~Present Time 2002~

With heavy lids Lizabeth slowly awakes from her dream, her pink lacy canopy sharpens in the haze of sleep. She sits up, stretching her arms and wondering why she had dreamed about, then in a flash it all comes back to her. The strike of horror in the memories of her dream made her gasp, almost falling off her bed, catching her self in time to save her self from landing on the floor.

She stood shakily, walking on unstable legs to her dresser and sitting heavily on the velvet-crush love seat positioned daintily next to it. She reached for the ivory hair brush and delicately tugging the snarls out, eventually she managed to get dressed in her usual jeans and blouse and walked down stairs.

As usual her parents weren't around, which she liked better, when her parents were around she had no idea how to act, being alone (save for the maid) made her feel somewhat safer. After barking some orders at the maid to make her eggs at which the maid retaliated with "I am not your cook!" She made her own eggs and sat at the table, stewing over her dream and pondering whether or not to call one of her 'best friends' and see if they wanted to go anywhere.

She decided to go back into her room and lay down, still tired she ends up slipping back and forth between consciousness and hazy dreams, she absentmindedly wonders if she'll dream the same dream again before she slips off into nothingness

Grim felt the essence of Lizabeth as the girl started dreaming. She dropped what she was doing and opened the portal to Lizabeth's dream. When she stumbled in she quckly made herself invisible. for she was stanging right behind Lizabeth. Grim decided that this dream was the dream she would start messing with Lizabeths mind, it had been a few months now and she felt like she understood Lizabeths weak points enough to push her mind off the deep end. Every Dreamstalker knew that once their dreamer started to lose their mind outside of dreams their dreams started to become more erratic, destroying their real lives, as they slowly succombed to the madness. Once that happened they were much easier to pick off.

Still invisible, Grim said to the girl, "Unpleasent dreams you have here young one," as she looked around and the mess of the room they were in, papers everywhere, ink spilled on the floor, a broken computer screen, and the sent of blood was fresh in the air.

Lizabeth turned around in fright at the voice of the invisible Grim.

This dream was different from most of her other ones, not entirely, for the stench of death and blood was strong in the air, and she felt uneasy as if someone was watching her. Paper and ink and blood was mixing together on the pale carpet, broken glass was sprinkled around like a gruesome glitter.

This dream was in a different place, she doesn't know the exact horror that happened in this room but she's sure it was horrible. She was pondering what happened, when she hears a voice as dry and brittle as a mid December night, speak behind her.

"Unpleasant dreams you have here young one," the voice hissed behind her. Gasping she turned and saw no one, swinging around she looked in all corners of the room, still seeing no one she gave low moan of fright.

"W-whose there!" Lizabeth cried, trying to sound brave. "I'll have you k-know my father is a very powerful man and doesn't think kindly of people threatening me!"

She crossed her arms over her chest, trying to look menacing. "Well?" She said, staring at the empty air in the direction of Grim.

"Answer me."

Grim laughed on the inside, this girl was so weak, she had no idea of power. Her father was nothing compared to some of the demons she knew. A cheshire grin crossed her face as she answered the girl's plea, "Why do you have such haunting dreams young one?" She spoke in a wise, powerful voice, with stern dryness to the tone. " These dreams are nightmares of a powerful kind, you my young one must be losing your mind."

The voice once again seemed to leak out from the very air, and cracks in the silence of the room, the air crackled with energy from this dream demon. It was speaking to her as if she was a young child, whispering about her dreams and trying to inform her of her opinion on the well being of her mind.

"I-..Everyone has nightmares sometimes, I am no one special, at least when it comes to dreams I'm not. And who are you? Creeping around my dreams like some sort of...boogieman!"

The stench of death and decay was rising up from the ruined carpet, swirling around her and slowing down her thought process, like a heavy perfume. The anger she was feeling seemed to affect the whole room, the edges of it seemed to warp and stretch, dissolving into a blacker mist.

She was obviously starting to awake, the room twisting and discoloring as black sludge oozed from the walls, and the blood turned watery and ran across the floor, splashing against Lizabeth's feet.

"Answer me!" She shrieked, the already broken computer beginning to smoke and spark. "Are you a ghost? a demon? I-I do not care! Leave me now!"

Something seemed to be rising out of the shadows, twisting and hissing clawing out toward Lizabeth, who was so angry she was unable to notice it.

"Leave!" She shrieked one last time, stomping her foot down in anger.

When she did cracks exploded across the floor, as fire leapt up and licked at the edges of the room, and filling the room with a acidic green smoke. The room itself was being pulled apart by the very fibers it was made up of, but still Lizabeth stayed, un phased by the turn of events.

Grim was amazed by the unfoldings of this dream, Lizabeth had never had a dream like this before. According to the books, this was something more powerful than a nightmare. The dream was molding into the girls emotions; it was facinating, but also terrible. Grim was not so much afraid of the dream as she was of the consequences of her being there.

These dreams leave an imprint on the Dreamstalker; no one knew that Grim was doing this, and she wanted to keep it that way; because while Lizabeths father was weak person, he was indeed an important man. If anyone in her department were to find out that she was doing this to the daughter of an important human figure, respected amung the poor humans; trusted. The demons needed the humans trust, even if it was through lies.

Grim had to get the bloody hell out of there before she got a imprint for the pure powerful essence of the dream beyond a dream; but she could not resist messing with Lizabeth for one last time before she opened her portal and left.

"Your dreams, they are beyond dreams, beyond nightmares, beyond anything." She spoke in a quick, raspy, voice,"These will take their toll on your mind until knowlege leaks from the cracks in your skull. Tick-Tock my dear, the mind is a weak thing to play games with." Then she left in invisible vapors, through her portal, and back to her home to report in her journal what she had found.

The room continued swirling and stewing for only a few moments after Grim left, the shadow monster folded back into itself and disappeared into the edges of the fast-fading room. Lizabeth suddenly felt dizzy, placing a hand on her head she started to sway, falling backward into the nothingness that had ripped through the room and exploded into a void of color and sounds.

It went black and white and black again before she awoke, heat was engulfing her and she could barely breath. It felt as if a thin mist had settled on her skin and was attempting to suffocate her, the darkness choking and the heat unbearable.

"This must be Hades," she thought, twisting around on the soft dirt underneath her. "Not as bad as I thought it would be, much better than my nightmares with that awful voice."

She pressed a hand against the veil of whatever it was, in front of her face, to her surprise it gave away, pushing upward and letting a small amount of light in. She pressed harder and the whole thing gave away, and she was greeted with the sight of her own bedroom, her wrinkled blanket clutched in her fist.

"Oh hell," she sighed. "Getting paranoid, huh? Just like the voice said."

The Book of Dreams sat, spawled in front of Grim on her bed; the page about dream beyond dream imprints opened. It said an imprint would manifest the second the Dreamstalker left the dream, they would feel burning sensation in their chest cavity, where their heart would be, if they had one; most Dreamstalkers did not, Grim did not. The burning sensation would leak throughout the body and soon it would feel like lava was engulfing them. Well that answered that question, Grim was luccky she was not marked by the dream.

It was time to do some writing on Lizabeths dream.

~Journal date 13/1/02~

Lizabeths dreams are going beyond the power of dreams. I am glad to say this because of this Lizabeths death may be closer than I originally had anticipated. I have planted the power of bad thinking and persuation in her mind, and it will pluage her thoughts until it consums her being and then I can take her life.

These dreams are too dangerous to enter at the moment, I cannot take the chance of being marked by the imprint of the dream beyond a dream. Right now it's too risky to make a move. I think I'll just let the madess and insanity sink in for a while before I go back.

She closed her journal, and put down her favourite red ink. Grim hoped out of bed ad hid her Dreamstalker stuff, she then got dressed for work, she was hungry and this would sooth her mind and feed her need to be alive. She left her house in her trench coat and hopped on her moterbike, off to the sleeze-bag she would keep company tonight.

~Three days later~

"Sweet heart, have you been sleeping well lately? Your eyes look absolutely atrocious!"

Her mothers words pierced through the haze of confusion in her mind, in her shrill, high pitched voice, making her headache worse. She glanced upward and it took her a few moments to focus her eyes on her mother, the small, nervous, woman giving her a concerned look.

Lizabeth sighed, rubbing her temples and glaring at her mother, giving a huff of annoyance. She turned away, shakily standing and walking toward the stairs, grabbing her coffee on the way out.

"I'm fine mother, really," she sighed. "I'm just a little tired." She walked of the room making a beeline too the bathroom and grabbing the 'Stay-wake' pills from the medicine cabinet. "Just enough for the day," she whispered to herself.

She took three pills with the coffee and collapsed on her love seat, drinking the rest of her coffee and drumming her fingers on the arm.

"You want me now dream demon?" She growled. "Come and get me."

Grim had gotten back from work, the last client had been very nice; he bought her a rollex watch. When she got home she made herself an extra strong pot of black coffee and turned on her TV to a marathon of That's 70's Show, her favourite show. She needed a break from the crazy that was Lizabeths dreams. The girls dreams reminded her of herself before she died.

Grim;s name wasn't always Grim, when you die and become a demon you have the choice to change your name, and Grim took that choice; she wanted to leave everything of her old life behind, it was easier that way. She would never see her family again because they went to different places to attone for the actions in life, but that's a different story. Grim once went by the name of Melody, that name would get her ridiculed in the demon world anyways, so she changed it to Grim in favour of the Grim Reaper. She wanted to come off as powerful and not someone to be messed with, and she wanted to hide her past in the dark reseces of her mind; so Grim it was.

Melody was a popular poor, turned rich girl; everyone loved her. She had many friends and a good life. Grim was a powerful independent person, who didn't take shit from anyone and stands her own ground. Grim liked the change.

As she sipped her coffee Grim reminised on the day she ddiscovered Lizabeth when she first started Dreamstalking. Lizabeths dreams were always nightmares and tthat's what had attracted Grim to them. She started watching Lizabeths everyday life and became jealous, for Lizabeth had everything the Grim ever wanted and lost, a nice, carring mother, and a hard-working father. She had no siblings so she got whatever she wanted, its not that Grim didn't like her little brother, she missed him a lot, but it would have been cool to be an only child.

This was when the Dreamstalking, and plans of killing had started to manifest in her mind.

She'd almost fallen asleep, while sitting on her love-seat, all the colors of her room blurred into one big smudge and she felt the almost-orgasmic pleasure of sleep wash over her before she could snap herself awake. "Shit," she swore as she jumped slightly as she woke herself up, standing too quickly and getting dizzy.

She rushed to her bathroom and managed to lean over the toilet before she emptied the contents of her stomach, she retched a few times and flushed the toilet, gasping for air. Disgusted with herself she washed her face, scrubbing at her mouth and retching again.

"Shit," she whispered again, staggering out of the bathroom. "I need to sleep, or die or something."

She walked downstairs slowly, and she was shading her eyes from the bright lights, and looking for more coffee when she ran straight into her father, who was talking to Libby.

"Lizabeth, slow down!" He rumbled, holding her up by the shoulders. "Are you alright?" He asked when he saw her tired eyes, and staggering gate.

"You look like death, and insomnia had a kid!" He bellowed laughing at his own joke.

"I'm fine daddy, really, I'm just a little tired, that's all"

"Well alright babe, just get some sleep soon, your mother and I are going to be out of town for a few days, and I don't want you sick when the only adult around is Libby"He rolled his eyes leaning in so close to her she could smell the scotch on his breath, almost making her throw up again.

"And anyway," he continued. "I don't count the help as adults that much anyway, they're barely even human!" He then screamed with laughter, as if the weak insult he just made was the funniest joke in the world.

"Alright daddy," Lizabeth said quietly, patting the top of his head. "I'll take a nap today, to make you feel better."
Her father nodded, turning and leaving for the living room.

"Bastard." she muttered quietly, and then turned to Libby and snapped at her to get her some water and a pain killer, to which Libby begrudgingly left to go get.

"He's right about the help though, barely human at all."

Grim was lying on her bed on the phone with her 'friend' (she really cannot trust anyone in the demonic world) Cherry, just trying to get into a normal ruteen to get her mind off that freaky dream and maybe plot up some new ideas on killing Lizabeth.

"Heyyyy Girlll" Cherry said in a bubble slured voice, well she was drunk again; no surprise there. Cherry drank a lot to get over the fact that she was dead and a sucubus. In her human life, according to her, she was a sweet innocent girl that was mugged and hurt, then left for dead. Cherry was barely 15 and Grim felt for heer, so she took onto her friendship, even though Cherry was a bit of a train wreach.

"Hi Cherry, what's up?"

"Just havin my own *hic* personal party hehehe" Her laughing was high pitched and bubbly. Grim sighed inwardly this conversation was going to be fun,

"That's nice Cherry, I'm just lying on my bed trolling the internet"

"Cooool, you should *hic* come *hic* over and have a drink!' she said in slurs with a chipper voice. Grim decided thst it didn't sound like a bad idea at the moment, a drink would be a relaxing thing right now; and she could keep Cherry out of trouble. so she left for Cherry's penthouse.

When Libby came back Lizabeth was sitting the the chair her head in wresting in one of her hands, mumbling to herself about staying awake .

"Here," Libby said, as she placed the glass of water and bottle of pain killers next to the crook of her elbow on the table. "Take a few, you look like hell." She nodded at her and left, heels clicking against the linoleum floor as she went.

"Bitch." Lizabeth said weakly, rubbing her temple and waving a hand in the direction that Libby went. She finally sat up and swallowed a few pills with water and then dropped her head back onto her hand, raising her head up a few times to take a gulp of water.

She eventually lay still, head lolling on the table she drifted off into sleep, the bottle of pills rolling off the table and exploding underneath the table.

Grim had just gotten home from cherrys house, she wasn't drunk; Grim was a heavyweight after all, hard liuqor was the only thing that could do her in and cherry only had the girly drinks. She felt the dream of Lizabeth coming, and instead of chancing entering the dream she oppted for watching from a looking portal.

A looking portal alows the watcher to view what's happening in the dream and talk to the dreamer, but the portal is invisible to the dreamer. Grim didn't want to chance a mark just in case this was a beyond dream.

what she saw in this 'dream' was horrible to say the least...

The blackness faded from her vision, at the same time the smell of rotting flesh and decaying flowers invaded her senses. The putrid, sickly sweet, smell clouded her mind and coating her lungs with what felt like tar. She raised her self up, trying to feel in front of her, desperately opening and closing her eyes, trying to see where she was. But her fist hit something hard as she reached forward, wood, and then she realized she was in a coffin.

She gave a low moan, pounding against the lid, trying to get a breath of fresh air and leave the smell of death behind. Finally she gave into her instinct that told her she wasn't getting out, and that she needed to be calm and not waste her air having a panic attack. But as she lay backwards she hit something soft and lumpy, reaching back slowly she grabbed at whatever it was she's laying on.

To her absolute horror, she grabbed a hand. A womanly hand, with rings and long nails that started to twitch in her tight grip. She screamed so loud and for so long her throat began to bleed, making her choke and cough, depleting the most of what was left of her air supply.

But the coffin lid started to give as she kept clawing at it, and burst open after she attempted to punch the lid. She sat up quickly and gasped for air, the tears streaming down her face bright red like blood. She climbed over the edge and simply fell off the side, convulsing slightly as she did so, but as she looked around at her surroundings she realized she was in a church filed with mourners.

The old fashioned clothes and hairstyles struck her as odd, and the fact that everyone was staring at her, as if unsurprised to see her. The minister suddenly walked up to her, grabbing her by the hair.

"Get back into your coffin, daughter of satan! We will be rid of you one way or another," he growled, pulling her still by the hair toward coffin the filled with the rotten remains of a once beautiful woman.

She screamed in vain as was pulled back to her own personal hell, the congregation simply stared forward blankly. As the minister thrust her back into the coffin, his face was blank, closing the lid and once again engulfing her in the smell of rotting flesh and decaying flowers.

Suddenly she was back in her kitchen, Libby shaking her shoulders, screaming at her to wake up. She bolted upright, grabbing Libby's arm, clinging to it like a life line.

Grim closed the looking portal, she was speachless; what was wrong with this girl? Also why was Grim starting to feel bad for her? This wasn't suppost to happen, she was suppost to kill Lizabeth, not pitty her existance.

Grim took some time to clear her mind, downing two cherry wine coolers as she read a novel. Then she pondered the situation. She decided that before she could persue this death any farther she would first have to find out more about this girl, because her innicial assupmtions may be wrong. She goes to work, finding out every dirty little secret that the Morgan family had.

Libby had eventually calmed her down, asking if she needed to talk to her parents, needed water, or anything else. She waved Libby away, telling her that she was fine and just needed to go lay down, but in reality she was doing the absolute opposite of that. She shakily climbed the the stairs to her room, almost collapsing completly a few times on the way there, giving a low groan she managed to crawl the rest of the way up.

When she reached her bathroom she pulled herself up with the sink and fumbling through the cabinet for pain pills and 'Stay-awake.' She found some an swallowed a few pills from each bottle, dunking her head under the facet for water, soaking the rest of her.

She stood to fast and slipped, catching herself on the side of the bathtub, eventually just deciding to crawl into the bathtub to rest. The cold porcelain chilling her to the bone, her wet shirt sticking to her back, she started to drop off the deep end. But the pills she took kept her awake enough that she was in a state of delirium, floating in the blackness of her own mind.

What Grim had dug up was gruwsome to say the least. Lizabeths father, Horris Morgan had been charged with 15 counts of murder in the first degree, but the charges never made it to court because of some high ups that got him out and put some low lifes in his place. Powerful demons were masters at framing people.

These acts were similar to what her father was forced to do, but she could tell by the look on Horris's face the he enjoyed his job. Grim started to feel worse for what she was doing to Lizabeth, maybe Lizabeth didn't want this life and thats why she didn't appreceate it.

Grim was a concious person for the most part, she decided she had to comfront Lizabeth before she went any farther with this plan. so she waited for another dream.

Eventually laying in the bath tub began to hurt her back, so she managed to climb over the the side without giving herself a concussion. She lurched across the bathroom, slipping on some water and crawling on her hands and knees, she made it to the hallways before she collapsed, she lay there wallowing in self pity.

How long she lied there she didn't know, but eventually she became disgusted with herself, pushing up on her weak arms and pulling herself forward. Making to her room she climbed up on the bed, silently thanking any god out there for her low to the ground bed.

Laying her head on the pillow she felt almost high on the relief, her blankets curling around her she sighed and let herself fall asleep, thinking to her self that any dream demons she comes across can suck it.

Grim hopped into her dream immediatly, she needed to have a real chat with this girl about her father. GRim had a susspision about Lizabeth's father that she couldn't shake off. Her friend Cherry had died the same day that horris had supposedly murdered a prostitute.

Grim didn't even bother with invisibility or pleasentries when she got into the dream, she just flat out said, "I think your father killed my friend" to Lizabeth.