Honey, why don't you get the plates out of the box over there? I think I have the silverware somewhere over here... Ah here they are. Now we can actually eat like a normal family." Dillan's mom said as she grabbed the silverware from a box sitting on the counter. Dillan put the plates on the table and slumped down into a chair, waiting for his mother to bring the spaghetti she made to the table.

"Mom don't forget the butter."

"Don't worry I know you don't like the sauce." She put the butter down on the table and set a plate of cut up spaghetti in front of Isaac.

"So how are you feeling about starting school tomorrow?"

Dillan shrugged his shoulders as an answer. He really didn't want to think about starting a new school.

"Well, I already have Isaac enrolled in the local day care. And after I drop you off I am going to head in to work. Those computers won't program their selves." Dillan just nodded, hearing his mother without actually having anything she said sink in. His mind was too occupied with imagining what could be behind the door.

"Anyway, I won't be off until evening time so you will have to take the bus home. I put a house key in your backpack for you already. There is a little bit of food in the fridge if you get hungry too. I should be home by six o'clock. I have to pick up your brother first."

"Can I just stay home? I don't want to go to school. I don't want to start all over." Dillan pleaded. His mom gave an audible sigh. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

"Dillan, please. Can't you cut me some slack? I am trying here. I wish you would try too." She pleaded with him, but this only seemed to anger him. How could she think he wasn't trying. If he wasn't trying he would have broken every window in the house, or broken walls, in anger.

"I have been trying mom! I have been trying really hard but I didn't want to move. I didn't want to leave my life behind! You never even asked me what I wanted!" Dillan yelled at his mother, slamming his fist down on the table in anger. Isaac, scared by the racket, started crying and his mother picked him up, trying to sooth him with shushing sounds and rocking him gently back and forth.

"I think it's time you went to bed Dillan." She said in an even tone. Dillan was only too happy to get away from her.

"Why is she doing this to me? I am fourteen, I should be able to do what I want. I am old enough to make my own decisions. " He said angrily as he bounced on his bed in his newly cleaned out room. He screamed at the top of his lungs into his pillow, hoping that would help calm him down; it didn't.

After tossing and turning in his bed for the next hour he realized, he was too riled up to get any sleep so grabbed his Kindle from his night stand and powered it on. Maybe, reading something would help him calm down enough. It wasn't until halfway into his newly downloaded Harry Potter book that he started hearing noises. Just like in the basement he could hear movement.

This time though, coming from the hallway. Looking at the digital clock by his bedside told him his mother had gone to sleep hours ago. He should have gone to sleep hours ago. It was a little after midnight.

The sounds of padded footsteps came outside his closed door again. Dillan sat as still as a statue, waiting. A strange inhuman sound drifted from the other side making his breath catch in his chest. This could not be happening, again. He watched the bottom of the door where the light from the hallway streamed through uninterrupted. When nothing blocked the light after a moment he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"I have got to stop reading before bed. My mind is playing tricks on me."

He turned off his tablet and set it back on his side table. Now that he was certain it was just his imagination he realized how badly he needed to go to the bathroom. Creeping, out of his door, as quietly as he could, he hurried to the bathroom down the hall.

Before he could return to his room, however, he heard a pan clattering in the kitchen down stairs. He thought his mother had been asleep but must have been wrong. His mind told him to back to bed, but his gut said he should check on her.

"Mom?" he called as he slowly descended the stairs. "Is that you?" There was no answer.

"Mom, are you in here?" He asked again, heart pounding, has he turned right and headed into the kitchen. He picked up the sauce pan that was lying on the floor and set it on the counter.

"It just fell, that is all. It was just put on the counter wrong and gravity pulled it down."

He looked around the kitchen one more time, checking to make sure nothing else was out of place. The door to the basement stood wide open. He knew they had shut it when they finished moving the boxes down there.

Walking over to the entrance he looked to find the light on down below. Maybe it was her that he heard and she didn't hear him calling because she was in the basement.

"Mom, are you down there?" he asked. Hoping she had just gone down to get something out of a box. There was no answer. This is getting really creepy he thought as he went to shut the door. No way was he going down there right now. The door was halfway shut when he heard the growl behind him.

He squeezed his eyes tight and felt his heart start beating harder in his chest. Slowly, knowing he was going to regret his decision, but having no other choice, he opened his eyes and turned around. There in his kitchen was a grotesque monster. It stood on two legs like a human, had two arms like a human but it was definitely NOT human. Its skin was a greenish color and it had tusks growing out of its deformed face. The monsters oversized arms were the size of tree trunks and long enough to touch the kitchen floor with its giant sausage sized fingertips. Dillan gasped and then almost choked on the air he sucked in as it entered his lungs. The smell coming from the monster smelled like sewage and he could taste the smell on his tongue. Bile rose in his throat and he fought to keep it down.

The monster opened its mouth and let out a smelly, earth quaking roar. Dillan screamed in terror and looked for an escape but the thing in front of him was blocking the only exit. He only had one option. He had to run down into the basement.

Dillan threw the door back open and hurriedly descended the stairs as the monster lurched towards him. His foot caught on one of the steps a quarter of the way down. He screamed again as he tumbled down the remaining stairs and landed at the bottom. He felt his head it the floor hard and had to rapidly blink away the black spots in front of his eyes as his head seared with pain.

Looking up at the doorway he could see the monster already coming down after him. He scrambled up onto his feet and looked around frantically for a place to hide. As he searched for something to hide behind his necklace started to glow just like before.

"The door!"

Dillan ran to the book shelf the door was hidden behind and tried to push the bookshelf. It was a lot heavier that he thought. He glanced back to check on the monsters progress. It had made it down the stairs and was slowly advancing on him. It growled as if in triumph, seeing it had its prey trapped. Dillan gave up trying to push the bookshelf and started pulling instead, hoping it would topple forward. With one last tug, using all the strength he could muster, the bookshelf came down with a loud crash. Dillan kicked some of the fallen boxes out of the way and grabbed the decorated handle with both hands. Tugging it open he jumped through and slammed the door shut behind him.

"Oh my god, OH MY GOD!" said Dillan over and over. He slumped down and tried to catch his breath and slow his racing heart. It felt like it might beat out of his chest. As soon as he got his breathing under control he realized he couldn't hear whatever that thing was anymore. It was like as he shut the door the sound was cut off, similar to a sound proof room.

Holding his head in pain, he stood up to look at the room behind the door. Only, it wasn't a room. Dillan couldn't believe his eyes. He looked back at the door he came through but it was no longer there. In its place was a tree about as wide as a car. The tree had those stupid vines wrapped all around it, but live ones. Dillan felt the tree hoping the door was just hidden under the vines somehow but there was no sign of it.

"I don't understand. What is going on? Let me go back. Mom! Mom, help me!" he yelled, pounding on the trunk of the tree with no results, but now sore fists. There was no door and there was no way his mom could help him, never mind hear him. Even if she could there was still that monster in the basement. What if it hurt his mom, or his little brother? He had to go back. Had to try and get help. This time Dillan looked around more closely. He was in a forest or woods somewhere.

Looking above him he couldn't see the sky, either because it was night time where ever he was or because the canopy didn't let any light through, he was not sure which. Turning in a circle and looking through the trees he picked a direction at random and started walking. He had to find someone, anyone. He had to get help.