outside to find things like balls and birds and water droplets from sprinklers stand completely still. A kid was walking down the street (but frozen), and a car was close to hitting him. I run over and push him out of the way. Out of the way as in on the opposite side of the road. The good deed took more energy from me than I thought.
In annoyance, I walk over to the idiot who would have hit him.
Inside were two men in black suits, both with dark ski masks on. They were holding bags full of money, glancing down to see how much they’d robbed. I pulled one of the masks off, the man’s in the passenger seat.
I gasped.
FOUR
DAD
I knew who he was.
I’ve seen him before.
Every day of my life, actually.
“Dad?”
I was in shock. Not that I wasn’t from the shadow and the time freezing earlier, but this just helped my anxiety increase. This must be a dream. The father I knew would never do that.
I stumbled backward and tripped over a curb.
“Ugh,” I groaned as my soft hands hit the jagged ground. So many things were happening, and I couldn’t keep them straight. What’s happening? This all seems so random, so weird… like a dream. So it must be.
Right?
My thoughts were cut short.
“Run!” Someone yelled.
I stood up and a blur pulled me into the shadows, trees blocking out the early sun. I glanced back to where I had been and saw Cerberus sniffing wildly. Was he looking for me?
“Don’t breathe,” the voice whispered in the darkness. My brain screamed stranger danger, but something in the back of my mind told me I could trust whoever it was that was helping. Or that seemed to be helping.
I held my breath. The monster stepped up toward us; it was four feet away. My heart pounded in my chest. Can he not smell my scent? Can he not see the heat my body gives off (I know snakes can, he has a lot of them)? What would happen when he found me? And why is he chasing me? Is this one big dream, one where every monster I’ve seen in my dreams are coming to torture me? I’d never seen the shadow before, though. Could he be a new one?
I was close to screaming, when a hand covered my mouth. Cerberus sniffed once more, then took off running in the other direction. The hand released me.
I let out a long sigh and stepped out of the darkness. I ran over to the car my dad was in, saying a quick thank you to whoever it was that had saved me, and just stared at his face in disbelief.
My dad would never steal something. He’d be the one to reprimand me when I did something wrong, how could he possibly find the will to rob somewhere? Doesn’t he know good from bad?
We don’t need the money. Mom never talks about us struggling, ever. So what’s he doing with all that money?
“Sad, isn’t it?”
I whip around to see where the voice was coming from.
No one was there.
FIVE
THE TWINS
“Stand still,” two voices said at the same time. It sounded like there was a boy and a girl.
I turned around, and there, I saw Hexinoide. I gasped and covered my mouth, more or less hoping the no breathing rule applied to him as well. But I couldn’t see my hand move to my mouth. I came close to screaming once again, but I could feel my hand there. Was I turning invisible? What kind of dream was this?
I felt cold fingers grip both of my arms and drag me back off into the dark. I would have shouted for help if it weren’t for that voice in the back of my head telling me to trust them.
Hexinoide disappeared.
My hand was almost yanked from my mouth by another, the shadows thicker than ever wherever I sat. It’s like all light had been closed off from this area completely, aside from what I see of the street. I think I was inside a building of some sort.
My fingertips began to tingle. A breeze blew through the room and ruffled my blonde hair. Has time started back up again?
“She doesn’t know,” a voice exclaimed.
“Know what?” I croaked to the shadows around me.
I walked back into the light, a chill working its way through my body as I stared back into the small building. Its double-wide entrance was large but the doors were broken from their hinges, the structure long abandoned near the end of the road.
A flame flickered in the darkness. Two figures stood by it, their frames illuminated slightly by the warm glow. Then something happened.
The light was blown out and a low growl rumbled from the shadows. It coursed through my body, shaking my bones, and rushed through my veins, making my head light.
A tiger and panther came out of the blanket of darkness. A memory flashed through my head. I was sitting at the desk in my room, dreading a tiger and a panther. Between them prowled a cheetah. If this was a dream, and if they’re two of the beings I’d dreamed up, then where was the third wild cat?
“She still hasn’t figured it out yet, brother,” the panther said.
“You think, sister?” the tiger growled.
I staggered back on my inferior feet. I wanted to run, but something made me stay, that voice, wherever it’s coming from.
“I’ll go first,” the panther shouted with glee as it came closer.
The black cat slowly changed. The ears slid down its head, and the fur on its cranium grew longer while the rest shrunk and shifted to a tan color, a color like skin. Its long tail slurped up into the spine as a pretty face formed from the whiskers, fur, and nose, and the body shifted to that of a girl. A black dress covered her figure and stopped just above her knees, a panther draping itself along her side.
I stared in awe and fear.
The tiger shifted as well, but his transformation was opposite of hers, and his orange shirt was covered with black stripes, much like the tiger he’d been moments ago.
I am unable to form words.
“We’ve been watching you,” the boy said to me. “I’m Tigre and this is my twin sister, Lilaysh.”
“They call me Lola, though,” she smiles, her long black hair shifting in the mysterious wind. Everything was moving again; everything was back to normal.
“Who’s they?” I asked, the only words I can manage from my mangled mind.
“People! Sort of,” she said, digging a boot into the grass she stood in.
“What?” I exhaled, confused. “What’s happening? Is this a dream?”
Tigre shook his head. “You wouldn’t be aware of the dream if you were. Listen, we’ve come here for you and we seriously need your help.”
“And I seriously need glasses,” I counter, fear slipping into my voice. “I can’t believe what I just saw!”
“You should,” Lola shrugged.
“Huh?”
“No! Don’t tell her! Not yet,” Tigre demanded.
“Fine!” Lola stamped her foot and stuck her tongue out at her brother. “But I’m not doing what you say because you’re older. And by the way—it’s by five minutes, so…”
They were twins. They obviously argued a lot.
Tigre turned toward me, his brown eyes focusing on mine. “Did you draw this?”
He held up a piece of paper.
“Yes,” I confessed at the red and green markings. “But I don’t see why it matters. I mean, it’s just a flower tilted sideways.”
“Look closer,” Lola hissed. Her eyes sparkled with excitement.
I was looking as close as I could without—
And then I saw the tiny figure poking out from the leaves. I gasped.
“I don’t even remember drawing that!”
“Well, we have to find her. Or Lilaysh and you will disappear.
“Why not you?” I ask, suddenly, and strangely for the first time, fearful for my life.
“You’ll… figure it out later.” Tigre folded the paper and tossed it to me. “But we need to get there before the week is up…”
Lola sighed. “Or else.”
&nbs
p; SIX
THE JOURNEY
“Morning mom,” I most likely yelled as I jumped down the stairs. Once again I wonder if what had happened was only a dream. I glance around for proof of it being real as I walked to the kitchen where she was cooking.
“Good morning, Krystal,” she said in a monotone voice.
Something was up. Something about her voice… It sent a chill down my spine and a rock landed with a thud in my stomach. Something was wrong.
“Where’s dad?” I ask as I stop by the back door, knowing the answer.
“Your father is… away, on—on a-a, um, trip.”
“Uh huh,” I nodded. “Mom, I’m going… outside.”
She looks at me for a moment, sadness tinting her eyes. She knew something was up with me too, and I could tell she wanted to ask. But whatever suspicions she had, perhaps she decided she didn’t want to talk about it. She knew I’d be safe. And, if the dream was no dream, I knew I had to be too.
“Okay, honey, just be careful. Oh, and put some bug spray on—and don’t forget—”
“Sunscreen?” I finished as I opened the door.
“Could you—”
“Feed the cat?” I cut her off again. “Bye, mom.”
I fed the cat in the back and cut around to the front through the gate. This was the moment of truth. They’d told me they would meet me in front of my house at exactly ten. I pinch myself. Yup. I’m awake.
And there they were.
“What took you so long?” Lola asked, picking at her cuticles.
“I have a cat,” I said, my voice shaky. This is real. Those things that have happened really happened and I’m not dreaming. My blood ran cold.
“Speaking of cats—”
Tigre hushed his sister and she stuck her tongue at him.
“What did you mean yesterday about the week thing?” I ask him. He waves the