Chapter 1

Anna Cathryn Smith, a young girl with brown hair, sat staring out her window one afternoon. It was raining outside, worse than ever. It had never rained like this where she used to live.

If only she could remember where that was.

Her memory before living here was spotty- she remembered her grandfather and how wise and kind he was, and she remembered him giving her a watch for her birthday, and she remembered she had been attacked by something and hurt, but otherwise she had no memory of her past.

There was a knock at the door, and she ran to get it. "Hey, Harold! Come in! How are you?"

"I'm freezing." he grinned and came in, water dripping out of his short, blonde hair. "I thought I'd let you know that the house next door is going to belong to me soon."

"That's great!" She gave him a hug. "That means you finally can have a good life! I'm happy for you."

"I am still welcome here, of course?" He asked nervously.

"Don't be silly, of course you are!" She took his coat and let him sit on her couch. "You saved my life, after all."

"I guess that's true." Three years ago, not long after Anna had moved into this house, she was waling home from shopping. A speeding car had almost crashed into her, but Harold risked his life and pushed her out of the way. Like her, he also had no recollection really of his past- only nightmares of a man, and of darkness, and of flames. He often would wake up from these dreams yelling in fear, but would forget much of them soon after. Anna took him in because he had no where to go, and he was starving and freezing to death simultaneously. He usually only stayed there at night or on holidays, and he refused to sleep anywhere but the couch. They became friends very quickly, and Anna had even gotten him a small job so he could earn money again.

"Hungry?" She asked, walking into the kitchen.

"Are you really asking me this?"

"I'll take that as a yes." She opened the fridge. "I have leftover pizza, if you want."

"That's fine."

Anna brought out a slice of pizza for him, and one for her. And then they began talking about their days, going on and on until it was dark outside and Anna was getting tired.

"I'm going to bed, Harold." She told him. "I'll bring you a blanket, okay?"

"I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah." He smiled. "Thanks, though. Sweet dreams."

She nodded and went into her room and shut the door.

Anna dreamed that night that her Grandfather was talking to her.

"You have to be brave, dear one."

She turned around to look at him, studying the laugh lines across his face, and his gentle and wise old eyes. He smiled at her and placed a wrinkled, yet warm hand on her shoulder.

"But, I am scared, Grandfather." She told him.

He smiled gently at her, his blue eyes filled with sadness. "We all are scared. And that's why we run sometimes. But sometimes we need to stand and fight our fears, because that is the only way they will leave us.

Anna started to cry. She threw her arms around the old man. "I miss you, Grandfather. I wish I could see you again."

"Someday, perhaps, we will meet again." He held her tightly, then faded away as a sound started. The sound was rattling and whooshing, and somehow sounded so very familiar…

She woke up, but the sound continued. She heard a shout of surprise from Harold, and rushed out to the front room to see what was wrong.

There, in the middle of the room, there was a flashing light that soon faded into a small, blue box. And when the door on the front opened, a man with funny brown hair stuck his head out.

"Hello there." He said, looking around the room. "I'm sorry about this."

Anna and Harold only stared.