Just a Nightmare

Chapter 1: ANNIE
Annie Farrell was seen dressed in a red nightdress, her hands were clutching the pillow and her Bucky plush figurine tightly to her chest.

"Patrick, Patrick, PATRICK!" She screamed in her sleep.

She dropped the plush onto the floor.

Her screams woke up her soulmate, Patrick, who still kept his long hair, but was messy from his sleeping position.

Annie still suffered horrible nightmares about Peter killing her husband in cold blood and that she couldn't do anything to stop it.

He walked over to her.

"Annie, wake up, it's just a dream....." He said softly.

The couple lived in a apartment, it had a kitchen, one bedroom, a bathroom, a balcony and a living room.

Annie woke up from her sleep, she started crying into Patrick's arms.

"Patrick!" She sobbed into his arms.

He noticed the plush on the floor, he handed it to her.

"Here, I have Bucky!" He said.

She clutched the doll tightly.

It was 4:00 in the morning.

Annie only got four-six hours of sleep every night, seven days a week because of her nightmares, Patrick was a different story, he also had this aswell, but it wasn't the nightmares.

After being comforted, Patrick went back to sleep.

He felt pain flood his entire abdomen, causing his arms to move towards the source of the pain.

"D***...." He whimpered.

Patrick often went hungry because they didn't have enough money for groceries and both were unemployed.

The pain died down, but a few minutes later, it acted up again, causng Patrick to wake from sleep.

"F***!" He hissed in pain.

Annie woke from sleep.

She saw Patrick clutch his stomach in pain.

"Patrick! What's wrong?, Are you sick?" She asked.

Patrick often ate food out of the trash until today, where he was vomiting, he was dry heaving and vomiting the whole day, which meant he had gone hungry that night, it was three nights since he'd last eaten.

"Hurts...." He said softly.

Patrick whimpered in pain and Annie replaced his hands with hers and pressed on and rubbed his abdomen, The deceased Loki cosplayer's stomach made it's needs known, the loud growling sound startled her a little.

"Hungry......" He said to her.

"I know you're hungry, Patrick....." She said.

It hit Patrick like a brick reminding the teen he fell asleep on an empty stomach last night, he even fainted from starvation while watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens, missing almost the entire film.

The sludge that she and he called "purple sludgy s***" wasn't enough and his body wanted more.

It wasn't a very good apartment, there was hardly any heating and they lived in a world of neglect.

Patrick lost five pounds in weight and he often resorted to trying to find food in restaurant dumpsters, which made him ill most of the time.

His stomach cramped and growled with hunger every time he tried to sleep and he spent minutes and even hours in sleep trying to stiffle the growling sounds and crush the aches, sometimes, he couldn't sleep at all because if it.

Patrick spent the whole night awake soon after alongside Annie, Patrick due to hunger and Annie due to nightmares.

'D***, I can't sleep...' He thought.

He felt his stomach groan in hunger, reminding him of his situation.

'I'm so hungry.......F***ing Redmond....' He thought.

When the two woke up, Patrick spent most of his time playing the XBOX ONE.

Annie watched him, she saw his fingers on the controller, and having to put it down to calm his hunger pains.

Patrick then put it down and went to the balcony, he could not afford to go another day without something in his stomach.

He felt his stomach cramp, causing him to grimance and move his hand to the source of the pain.

He then heard knocking.

"Annie, can you go get that?" He asked her.

She opened the door, it was the two BLM activists that saved Ri Dae-Jung and Marie.

"Can we come in?" The female asked.

"Sure." She said, leading them inside.

Patrick noticed than sat down.

"I came to say sorry, it was stupid of Peter to murder you, he never really had a good reputation, he was kicked out of the Virginia wing after assaulting a white woman infront of her son." She explained.

"Um, can I ask you something?" Patrick asked.

She nodded.

"Do you have any food on you?, I'm really hungry, I've barely eaten in days, my stomach hurts like h***." He asked.

"Nope, sorry." She said.

"F***." He said.

Patrick never really swore, but, he was just so d*** hungry that he just had to let it out.

Patrick sat down, but then he felt a cramp from his stomach, causing him to flinch.

Chapter 2: Sean
Sean, who was the Iron Man cosplayer of Annie and Patrick's group, his wife Alice and daughter Polly entered the flat.

Annie was still in her pajamas and had a large blanket wrapped around her.

"Patrick, what's it like being dead?" He asked Patrick.

"Even though me and Annie are together forever, she can't get those horrible images out of her head, the worst part is, I should have been 19 on the eighteenth." He said.

She held her Winter Soldier plush figurine close to her, she never let go of it.

"What date is it now?" Sean asked him.

"14th October." Patrick replied.

Patrick was shirtless, he looked at the gunshot wounds on his left side and back.

"They look painful, Patrick." Sean said.

Sean also noticed Patrick lost five pounds in weight, when he was alive, Patrick had a fairly average build, but by the time he saw him now, Patrick looked leaner and his arms looked thin.

His skin was a lot paler than it was.

"Food is expensive and I don't have a job, I even resorted to looking through dumpsters." Patrick said before Sean could respond.

Sean looked in shocked, he wanted to help Patrick at the thought of him being so hungry he resorted to eating out of dumpsters to get food.

"But that got me sick, couldn't even eat." He said.

Polly then pointed at Patrick's wounds.

"Yeah, I have to apply bacterial cream every now and then because there's risk of infections." Patrick said.

"Um, do you have any toys for Polly to play with?" Alice asked Annie.

"N-n-no, our house isn't very kid friendly and we don't own a lot of toys, we just took some of our belongings like cosplays, movies, game consoles, the closet thing we have to a toy is my Winter Soldier plush figurine, but, it's mine and I need it to feel safe." Annie said.

Alice couldn't help but feel sorry for Annie, she saw her would have been husband die right in front of her.

Polly looked at the woman, she went up to her.

"You need angry raccoon dolly more than me." Polly said.

Polly met Annie when Annie was living, Polly always called Annie's Winter Soldier plush figurine "Angry Raccoon Dolly".

Polly had good morals from both her parents and knew the doll meang very much to Annie.

"She sleeps only 4-6 hours a night, she wakes up screaming." Patrick said.

"What about you?" He asked.

"I sometimes have only 4-6 hours a night aswell, not from Annie's nightmares, but the hunger pains." Patrick said

Patrick would be dreaming about his family when his thoughts drifted to the pains in his stomach that were demanding to be filled.

After Sean and his family went home, Mary and Johanna Redmond entered the flat.

"Um, hey, you're Annie aren't you?" Johanna asked her.

Annie nodded,

"Um, I'm Peter's sister, and I've came to say that I'm sorry." She said.

Patrick went out of the kitchen, Mary was shocked at how the young man looked.

Johanna got put two Subway sandwiches.

"Um, you two don't look like you're eating well the past few days." She said.

The smell caused Patrick to come closer, it made his stomach pang in hunger as he approached.

'He is really hungry' Johanna thought, hearing the teenager's stomach gave a low rumble in hunger.

"For me?" He asked.

She nodded,

He took it then handed one of them to Annie

Patrick wolfed it down, he had hardly eaten over the past few days and he was very unwilling to order junk food with the laptop.

After they left, two people came.

"Mum? Dad?" He asked.

Annie came outside of the bathroom.

Janice saw her son, Patrick's hair was still long, but was a mess.

She took a look inside, Annie's doll was on the bed, Patrick picked it up.

"Patrick, do you have my doll?" She called out from the room.

"Sometimes, Annie feels me touching it, she feels my every movement on the doll." He said.

Patrick turned on the XBOX ONE and put on Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

"Um, what have you and Annie have been eating the past few days?" She asked.

"People sometimes visit me, sometimes they have food." He replied.

"Can I see your gunshot wounds?" She asked.

Patrick nodded and turned to the side.

"I have to rub antiseptic cream to stop infections." He said.

"Patrick used to be so ticklish there, now it's almost painful to touch." She said.

Where the gunshot wounds were used to be the most ticklish part of Patrick's body, his friends would describe him laughing hysterically within seconds if tickled on the sides.

Annie took the doll off Patrick and laid with him.

Chapter 3: Sophie and Reicheru
Sophie and Reicheru visited the couple.

Patrick was only dressed in boxers while Annie was still in her pajamas.

"No offense Patrick, but your apartment's a total s***hole." Reicheru said.

"Yes, I know, that's what Al told me." Patrick said.

Patrick's long hair was a mess and Annie was watching TV.

"What are you two watching?" Reicheru asked.

"We are watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens." Patrick said.

"Um Pat, why not let us give you a job?" Sophie offered.

Patrick thought about it, he did need one, the apartment was filthy, the food was expensive and hardly sustained him and he really needed new clothes, and a better apartment.

Reicheru sat down next to Annie.

"Here's a number of a psychotherapist I want you to see, she'll help you." Reicheru said.

Sophie then looked at Patrick's gunshot wounds.

"Um, I can get the doctors of the TT10 to deal with the gunshot wounds." She said.

"I don't have enough money for the operation." Patrick said.

"We'll let you get it for free." She said.

Patrick looked at her.

"How?" Patrick asked.

"Come tomorrow." Sophie said.

Chapter 4: TT10 Base
Patrick walked with Annie to the TT10 base.

"Oh, Patrick, come on, let's get your operation done." Sophie said.

Annie and Patrick were given new clothing as gifts.

Reicheru noticed Patrick looked thinner than usual.

"Patrick, what have you been eating the past few days?" She asked him.

"Sometimes the food we often got with the little money we have, most times, nothing." He replied.

The food that he brought wasn't really of nutritional quality, it tasted like metal and he hated it.

He had barely eaten all day and his hunger pains worsened.

It would be annoying as he was trying to think about the incident that ended his human life when his thoughts kept drifting to the gnawing ache in his stomach.

"That'll be nice....." He said

Reicheru made Patrick something to eat 10 minutes later.

Chapter 5: Mairead
Mairead O'Creesh visited the couple after Patrick joined the Irish corps

The schoolgirl was dressed in her school uniform and was holding a bag of gifts for the family.

"Mister McCormick?" She said, coming into the apartment.

Mairead held two bags, one filled with food and the other filled with Tsum Tsum plush dolls.

"I got you some food and some Tsum Tsum plushies in case Polly comes over." Mairead said.

"Thank you." The Irish-American teen said to her.

He took the bags from her hand.

"I also got movies." She said.

"Thank you." Annie said.

Members came with new wallpaper, installed a better stove, had groceries and many others.

Patrick was paid 50 Supernannyan dollars a week.

Annie was stay-at-home, Satoko had to come over to teach her how to cook.

Patrick worked in the Irish Corps and was sorted into the nationalist/republican group after they found out where he was born.

They let him keep his hair.

Annie enrolled a day later, both of her parents were of Irish descent, her maternal grandparents came from Waterford and her paternal grandparents came from Cork.

She was later sorted aswell and was also paid 50 Supernannyan dollars a week.

She was allowed to have her Winter Soldier plush figurine with her.

Moses saw her, and he poured a glass of apple cider.

"Here." He said.

Annie looked up at him.

"I said if I saw you again, I would probably buy you a drink." Moses said.

Chapter 6: Cuong.
Annie saw a Vietnamese man who was at least 20, she had to admit, he was attractive.

Cuong recongised her from the Winter Soldier plush figurine that he saw her holding.

"You're that girl.....that had that doll...." He said, pointing at the plush.

He spoke with a strong Hanoi accent.

Cuong remembered her as "Winter Soldier Plush Girl" and Patrick as "Deceased Loki Cosplayer"

At the afternoon, her corps members got together to watch a movie, Patrick sat next to her.

"Hey, hey, b****!" An Irish Corps F member yelled to Annie.

The girl's name was Rose McCalmant, she was on the F corps for the murder of a postal worker.

Rose snatched the doll from her.

"I want to see it." She said.

"Give it back!" She said.

"Come on, I just wanna take a peek, why is this doll special to you anyway! You didn't even try to save Patrick, you let him die!" She said.

Annie was known as "The Lonely Doll Girl" by other corps members, she and Patrick were in Irish corps B.

Hearing Rose say that made Annie scream, then Rose felt the doll get hotter and hotter until she felt something burn her hands and she dropped the doll onto the floor, which Annie picked up.

"MY HANDS! AHHHHHHHH!" She yelled.

Joseph MacNamara went into the room.

Rose was sent to the hospital wing while the Winter Soldier plush figurine was tested.

" (It's tested positive for a curse)" Toshio said,

He held the plush using protective gear.

"Toshio, please don't put it away." Patrick pleaded.

" (I'm not, Annie's been through serious s***)" Toshio said.

It turned out that Annie's Winter Soldier plush figurine held a curse that was triggered by Annie's strong emotions.

Annie held it tight in her arms.

Later on at home, their living situation was alot better, Annie could sleep properly after the trapist Reicheru recommended to her, Patrick falling asleep on a full stomach and sleeping normally after a week.