The ride took so long that the sun had begun to set as Heather parked the car in front of a small, slightly old-fashioned whitewashed house with red shutters. There was a semi-tall picket fence that surrounded the house and a single tree that grew on the front lawn.
"Come on in," Heather said, getting out of the car and leading the way toward the house.
Ronny held his arms up above his head and Rebecca picked him up, following along Brad as he followed Heather.
Heather opened the front door and stepped inside, tossing her keys on the table by the door. "Timothy? David? I'm back!"
Brad and Rebecca looked at each other in shock; they didn't think there was anyone else living here.
"It's about time you got back!" A male voice from the other room said.
A second later, a tall young man came out bearing striking resemblance to Heather, followed by a young boy with blonde hair and light blue eyes. Rebecca knew the dark haired boy was the sibling of Heather, because of their resemblance, but she had to look hard at the blonde haired boy before she saw some similar features.
"Are you twins?" Rebecca asked, addressing Heather.
"Yes, this is my twin, Timothy, and our younger brother, David."
Timothy's eyes were dark and he glared at the group. "We sent you out to do a simple task, and you bring back guests?"
"They needed our help," Heather said, "They were attacked by that flying creature that took mom."
Timothy's eyes flickered over to Heather and a strange look crossed his eyes. Rebecca was shocked by the look as it quickly jumped back to a glare.
"Well, they can't stay here," David said, his voice was timid and soft, "We have a lot to deal with right now."
"Well, I thought it would be good for them to get a place to stay and work things out before heading on their way," Heather said, "they could stay in the spare bedroom."
Timothy sighed and crossed his arms across his chest. "Fine, they can stay."
"Come with me," Heather said and she lead the way down a narrow hallway. She opened a door at the end of the hallway and walked inside the room. There was a large, queen sized bed in the corner with dark red sheets, a wooden desk with mirror, a bookshelf, a couch, and a window overlooking the backyard.
"The couch is a foldout bed," Heather said, walking over to it, "Someone can sleep there and the others can share the bed."
"Thank you," Rebecca said.
"No problem, just let me know if you need anything else," Heather said and she walked out of the room.
"I'll take the couch," Brad said, "You and Ronny can have the bed."
"Are you going to bed now?" Rebecca asked.
"Yeah, probably," Brad said as he let out a yawn, "I'm beat."
"Me too," Rebecca said.
She moved to the bed, pulling the sheets back and setting Ronny down. He looked up at her with sleepy eyes as she tucked him under the sheets.
"Are we safe here?" he asked.
Rebecca paused and looked at Ronny. He was so terrified; this ordeal was just too much for a child his age. She smiled then, and stroked the top of Ronny's head.
"I don't know the answer to that, Ronny."
"You won't leave me, will you?"
"No, I'll be right here when you wake up," Rebecca said.
"Promise?"
"I promise."
"And hope to die?"
Rebecca smiled. "And hope to die."
Ronny nodded after that and snuggled down into the sheets. His eyes were closed for only a second before his breathing became even and he started to snore lightly. Rebecca smiled and crawled in behind Ronny, wrapping an arm around him. She leaned her head against the headboard and closed her eyes.
"Every 23rd spring for 23 days it gets to eat."
Rebecca looked around. She was standing in a large cornfield. There wasn't a soul in sight, so she wondered how had spoken. Suddenly, a boy appeared in front of her. He was wearing a yellow shirt and blue jeans.
"Who are you?" Rebecca asked.
"Darry," the boy replied.
Darry shook his head.
"Do you know about the Bat monster?"
Darry's appearance changed suddenly, he was shirtless, revealing a giant hole where his belly button used to be and his eyes were gone, all that was left were wide holes. Rebecca gasped and backed away.
"He goes by the name of the Creeper. He's a demon that took on semi-human form. He sleeps for 23 years and awakens for 23 days with a ravenous hunger, wanting to eat only one thing."
"What does it eat?" Rebecca asked, already knowing the answer.
Darry ignored her. "It uses its sense of smell to smell the fear in us, the more fear, the better we smell."
"But what does it eat?" Rebecca asked.
"Us."
"How do you stop him?"
"You can't, there is no way to kill him."
"What do you mean there's no way to kill him?!"
"He uses the body parts he's devoured from his victims to replace his own. He can even replace his entire head."
"But there must be something we can do to defeat him."
"Avoid him for 20 more days."
There was a loud screech and a black shadow swooped over Rebecca, Darry vanished, as did the rest of the scenery.
Rebecca's eyes snapped open and she looked around quickly, checking to make sure nothing was out of place. She sighed, she shouldn't get herself worked up over a little dream. She closed her eyes and tried to fall back to sleep, but, she heard the sound of the front door opening, followed by hushed voices. Her eyes snapped open and she snapped up when she realized that there was the sound of hissing along with the voices. Rebecca rose slowly, careful not to wake Ronny, and moved toward the door. She opened it a crack and peered out. Heather and her brothers were grouped closely together, their quiet voices barely reaching Rebecca's ears.
"We've got it under control, TJ," Timothy was saying.
The reply was an eerie hiss. Rebecca strained to see past the edge of the door that she had allowed herself to see through, she didn't want to open the door too wide because she didn't want them to see her, but she couldn't see who the mysterious TJ was.
"He says Mom begs to differ about our control of the situation," David said.
"No? Really?" Timothy said sarcastically, "You know, just because Heather and I don't understand them like you do doesn't mean you have to be a smart ass about it!"
"Oh shut up," Heather said, "You're acting like a little kid. And keep your voice down, we don't want our guests waking up."
There was another hiss.
"Heather brought them here, thought they would make a nice contribution to the Hive," David said.
There was a hiss in reply and David turned to the siblings. "TJ says that we have to go now, so we need to make sure our guests stay unconscious for their trip back to the Hive."
There was another hiss and the creature making the noise stepped forward, finally coming into view. Rebecca had to hold back a gasp when she saw that the creature was another alien, different from the one before because of the four legs and brown color that it possessed, but an alien none the less. She shut the door quickly and quietly at this point and moved back into the room. She went to Brad and shook him awake. He opened his eyes groggily, but became alert when he saw the fear in Rebecca's eyes.
"We have to leave now! These siblings are somehow in league with the aliens."
Brad sat bolt upright at this point and moved to the window, opening it. Rebecca moved to Ronny and gently shook him awake. He looked up at her with tired eyes and Rebecca had to hide the fear in her eyes to keep from frightening him.
"We're leaving."
"Right now?" Ronny asked.
"Right now." Rebecca replied.
Ronny rubbed his eyes and held up his arms. Rebecca lifted him up from the bed and moved to the window.
"Brad?" Rebecca called out.
"Down here, it's not that far of a drop," he said, "There's a small storage unit that you can step down on."
Rebecca helped Ronny through the window first; Brad was waiting just underneath it to take a hold of him as Rebecca scrambled through. Once they were all out they made their way quickly toward the picket fence. Suddenly, however, a bright flood light lit up the area.
"Just where do you think you're going?"
Brad and Rebecca spun around to see the siblings with the alien behind them standing on the front porch.
"They think they can run away," Timothy said.
"Well, then let's let them, I want to see if they can try to outrun a Runner," Heather said, "TJ?"
TJ hissed eagerly and walked out from around the siblings. He made his way slowly to the group. Ronny cried out and buried his face in Rebecca's shirt who was currently frozen to the spot in terror. Suddenly, the alien stopped and screeched in confusion, backing up.
"TJ? What's going on?" Heather asked.
David shoved past his siblings so that he was closer to TJ as the alien continued to screech and back up.
"He's definitely confused about something," David said.
"No shit? What?!" Timothy demanded.
"If he knew, he would have said it already," David retorted back.
"Oh, I'm sorry; I can't understand what he's saying in the first place, so forgive me for thinking that--!"
"Knock it off! Both of you! Why do you always have to fight like children?!" Heather interjected.
"Oh shut up, Heather, you don't get to tell me what to do! I'm the oldest, remember?!" Timothy snapped.
Before Heather could say something back there was a strange hissing sigh coming from within the darkness. Rebecca and Brad whirled back around, turning their backs on the alien in deeper fear for what was in the darkness. There was a pause before they heard the sound of footsteps getting louder. A clawed foot came into the circle of light before the rest of the creature followed.
"Well, well, well," Heather said from behind them, "And what have we here?"
