This is my thirteenth story…oh well! 10-year-old Rex has a few nightmares after watching a monster movie and goes to Six for comfort. I hope you enjoy it!

"Hey, can we go watch a movie?" Rex asked, looking up at me innocently. I answered almost automatically.

"No. You have training to do."

At this Holiday spun around in her chair away from the microscope she was looking in. "Six! You should let him be a kid every once and a while."

I folded my arms over my chest and repeated what I said before. Holiday came up with more and more reasons to let Rex go out to see a movie and my logic was starting to fall apart. After going back and forth at each other, I finally relented and Rex jumped with joy.

"So what movie do you want to see, Rex?" Holiday asked in a motherly tone. Rex thought about the question for a moment then answered.

"How about Cloverfield?"

"That's not a good idea." I said. Holiday put her hands on her hips and glared at me. I'm sure Rex has seen the trailers for that movie and being a modern monster movie, it was more than likely of being a bloody, gory, scare-the-living-daylights-out-a-ten-year-old kind of film.

"You're going with him, Six." Holiday commanded me. Might as well. No point in arguing with her more.

…

At the movie theater, Rex was doing fine until the Statue of Liberty's head got knocked off her shoulders. I kept glancing back at him as he kept looking on, even though the more blood he saw, the more his fear grew. When the man holding the camera in the movie switched to night vision in the subway, he saw one of the creatures that had fallen off Cloverfield. The wolf-sized monsters managed to grab one of the girls-I think her name was Marlena- and bite her. One of the young men grabbed something and stabbed the creature. Marlena was bleeding badly. I looked at Rex, who eyes were glued to the screen even though I knew he was scared out of his mind. The movie reflected off his eyes as fear and an emotion I could not name swam in them. He was very scared.

But that was only the near beginning of it.

The group managed to reach a sort of military hospital in the lobby of a hotel. By this time Marlena was bleeding from the eyes, nose and ears. Someone yelled, "We got a bite!" or something to the effect of that. Immediately after that, a man in an army uniform grabbed Marlena and took her behind a curtain. I could see the ten-year-old tense up as he watched Marlena's shadow expand and explode. You could see her blood and guts running down the other side of the curtain. Even for me, this was a bit grotesque.

"Rex, let's go." I could see that this was getting to be a bit too much for the child to handle.

"N-n-no. I want to see the whole movie. I'm not scared." That statement was contradictory to what his face told me.

So I sat through the movie, watching one member of the group die after another. At the very end there was no question that the two left did not survive. Especially with the military bombing the amphibious monster repeatedly. In the end the only thing that survived was the camera.

I hope Rex will be fine.

…

Days later, Rex would wake up to training tired. I told Holiday it wasn't a very good idea to let him see a movie like that. Soon she came to agree with me once she saw the effects of it herself. Rex was talking less, and the beginnings of dark circles were forming around his eyes. Soon he was afraid to sleep even though he never said it.

As I was lying in my bed, I wrote in my journal late at night. One day, when I'm gone, my descendants can read this. I may not look like one for children, but I do like them. And one child in particular. I closed my journal and put my sunglasses on the small nightstand next to my bed. In green jogging pants and a white short-sleeved shirt, I stared at the ceiling until I drifted away into sleep.

…

My eyes snapped open. Something waked me up. I glanced at the clock. The small green numbers told me it was 2:16am. I looked around my dark room without getting up, fearing the noise would stop if I moved. I heard a light tapping sound. It sounds like it is coming from outside my room. I slowly got up and grabbed my katanas. I crept over to the door and pressed the button to open it. It slid open to reveal a small dark figure.

It was Rex, carrying a tiny flashlight.

At that moment I mentally sighed. What could he possibly want at two in the morning?

"What is it, Rex."

He spoke in a broken up voice. "Well…something scared me."

"…Come in." I turned around and walked into my room, with the child close behind me. I sat on my bed and he sat next to me.

"What scared you?" I asked him with more concern than I thought I had.

"Um…it was…well…you see…" He was having trouble with admitting something to me.

"It was the movie, wasn't it?" He didn't say anything but his reaction said I came close to it.

"Was it a nightmare?"

He smirked a bit. The old Rex was coming back. But as soon as that came, it left. "No. It was a bad dream."

I had turned a lamp on, well aware that he could see my eyes. "Bad dream or nightmare?"

He tilted his head to the side. "What's the difference?"

I turned one of my folded-up katanas over in my hand. "Nightmares are dreams that make you unafraid to admit that it scared you. Bad dreams just hide the real fear."

"…Well, I guess it was a nightmare, then."

"Do you want the talk about it?" His eyes had begun to shine from the tears that threatened to fall. He told me that he, Holiday and I were trying to get away from Cloverfield. Instead of Marlena being bitten, Holiday was in her place and was carted away to soon die. But there was no curtain. I was the one holding the camera at the section where Cloverfield bit the young man in half. But instead of him it was me in his place. As he said this he had begun to shake and tears flowed down. In this clear nightmare he watched the monster kill me and couldn't do a thing to help me.

I sat a moment and looked at Rex. He wasn't even looking at me, his eyes so blurred with tears. I moved closer to him and did something I hadn't done in a very long time.

I hugged the sobbing boy close to me. I could feel his tears beginning to dampen my shirt. I didn't fell awkward at all. I felt, in fact, glad to be here to comfort the boy. The child laid his head on my chest, trying the purge the tears. After he had begun the regain his composure, I let go of him and reached over into my drawers. I pulled out a stuffed Beluga whale.

"Rex, look at me. I have something to give you." I gave him the whale.

"You're a grown up and you still have stuffed animals?" He laughed at me. She's not just any stuffed animal.

"Rex, when I was a little boy, my mother gave me this. I had a similar dream to yours and I sought out comfort from her. Belugas are peaceful animals and the stuffed animal always gave me a sense of comfort when I thought of the it. She did help me with nightmares. Now I'm giving Beluga to you." I have never told anyone that until now.

"Wow, Six…thank you…can I stay here with you?" He hugged his new companion. I contemplated the answer within myself.

"Alright. Don't expect me to do it again, though." He got up on the left side of my bed, closest to the door. He snuggled deep under the covers. The only thing I could see was his small face. I sat down on my own side, and burrowed under the covers. The kid was hugging Beluga, who was a big stuffed whale for someone his size.

"Goodnight, Six." He said while looking into my eyes. I turned the lamp off and said goodnight the child that was facing me. I have never felt so peaceful…I watched him drift away into sleep. I continued to watch him as fatherly instincts screamed in my ears. I have some catching up to do with my past.

I placed a hand on the boy's relaxed shoulder and dosed off myself.

So how was that? I'm thinking about doing another chapter…but what do you think? Please review!