GH5 5: Awkward Morning.

August 18th, (2024)

The rest of last night was rough. As i suspected, we all spent the rest of that night in the master bedroom together, with the door closed and locked. And...somehow we all had managed to fall back asleep. Emma and Connor were asleep in the bed with Chelsea and Adam, Isaac and i were asleep inside my blue zipped-up tent in a our sleeping-bags, Copper was sleeping in his puppy-basket, and Dad, aunt Candace and Layla were asleep on two air-mattress Chelsea and Adam had blown up for them, with Layla sleeping on the second one. The metal baseball-bat was leaned up against the night-stand on the left side of the bed where Adam was sleeping, just in case he needed to use it to defend himself and all of us.

Inside my tent, i was awakened by the sound of creaking footsteps from outside. I sat up in my sleeping-bag, crawled out of it, un-zipped the tent a little, looked out, and saw Copper awake in his puppy-basket, as well as saw Adam out of bed, holding the metal baseball-bat, and going over to the door where the creaking footsteps were coming from on the other side. No one else had been awakened by this sound and i didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Adam unlocked the door, opened it, and went out to investigate the source of the noise.

I didn't bother staying behind to wait for Adam to return. I un-zipped the tent the rest of the way, got out, and secretly followed after him out of the room, with Copper getting out of his puppy-basket and following after me. We followed him downstairs to the foyer, to the back door of the house, and hid around the corner and watched as he opened the door and exited it, not even bothering to close it back. Copper and i went over to the door and poked our heads out and saw Adam looking at the tin double cellar-doors to the basement, which were open. Clearly, someone had been-or was-inside the basement. Whoever it was inside the house last night had probably come back after the police left and most likely spent the rest of the night in the basement. That is, if they were gone by now? What if they weren't? What if they were still down there in the basement? I hoped to high Heaven that Adam didn't go down there to find out. And sure enough, my hopes had been heeded, as Adam closed the double cellar-doors and locked them back.

Knowing he was about to come back inside, Copper and i withdrew our heads back into the house and rushed off to head back upstairs to the master bedroom so i could get back inside my tent and Copper could get back inside his puppy-basket. As we did, i thought about Adam closing the cellar-doors and locking them. If someone was down there in the basement, they were now trapped down there. Trapped inside the house...with us. I Only hoped that Adam would do the smart thing and call the police.
...

Later that same morning, Dad, Layla, Isaac and i were all in the dining-room, sitting at the long dinner-table, having breakfast, which consisted of powdered funnel cakes, scrambled eggs, bacon and orange juice, while Copper stood on the floor, eating dog-food out of his green dog-bowl. Well, at least they were eating breakfast. I, meanwhile, had fallen asleep at the table. Although i had managed to fall back asleep last night, like everybody else, i had stayed up half the night due to the fear that whoever was inside the house would likely come back for all of us. And i probably was right, based on what Copper and i saw this morning with Adam and the open cellar-doors in the backyard that led to the basement. Much to my dread, horror and dismay, Adam hadn't called the police. Nor had he told anyone about the cellar-doors being open. I don't know why, but...he didn't.

Dad placed his right hand on my left shoulder. "Keegan? Keegan." He said as he shook me.

"What?" I said as i awoke. "Bacon, thank you."

"I guess someone didn't sleep to well last night." Said Isaac.

"To be honest, i'm surprised any of us did after what happened." Candace said.

"Did you have another nightmare?" Layla asked.

"You've been having nightmares, Keeg?" Dad asked.

"I thought you made that up because you were too embarrassed to admit you'd wet the bed." Isaac said.

"Whizz off, dip-head. I didn't wet the bed, it was wet with water." Keegan said.

"Yeah, whatever, Whizzy." Isaac said.

"Anyway, back to the subject. You've been having nightmares?" Dad said.

"It-it was no big deal. Just, uh, your typical creepy dream." I said.

"What was it about?" Dad asked.

"I don't know. Actually...at first i didn't know where i was. But...then i realized i was in a swamp-like area." I said.

"Yeah, it was a bog area, right?" Said Isaac.

"How'd you know that?" I asked.

"I had that same dream, dude. And there was, like, this scary-looking creature with a creature made out of plant-matter with glowing red eyes and a hand-made cape that went down to the ground." Isaac explained.

"Is that how you knew about the Bog-Man?" I asked.

"Yeah." Isaac answered.

"Wow. You guys must've hade a conversion dream." Said Layla.

"A conversion what?" Isaac and i asked.

"Conversion dream. It's when two or more people have the same dream at the same time. Actually, it's pretty rare, but if there's a strong connection between dreamers-"

"Layla, how do you know all this?" Dad asked, cutting Layla off.

"Well, i read it in a paranormal article online. "When you and he share that special dream". Not that i read paranormal articles that often." Layla said.

"There's nothing paranormal going on here, okay? We just had a similar dream. It was a coincidence." I said.

"Oh, hey, Connor." Said Isaac.

The rest of us looked and saw Connor standing in the doorless doorway.

"Good morning." Said Chelsea as she, Adam, Emma and aunt Candace came up behind Connor. "Did everybody sleep well, huh?" She asked as she, Adam, Emma, aunt Candace and Connor walked into the kitchen.

"Chelsea, Adam and Emma were just showing me around the countryside property. We should move out of the city and buy a house of our own in the countryside, Jerry, and then Keegan and Copper would have a whole land to explore and play on." Aunt Candace suggested.

"Well...it is a beautiful day, so how 'bout letting Adam and me spoil the kids with a little shopping-spree?" Said Chelsea.

"Oh, i have to work." Said Adam.

"But Adam, it's Friday, it'll only be for a couple of hours." Said Chelsea.

"I already told you i had to work." Said Adam.

"Fine." Said Chelsea.

"Wow. A trip to the mall sounds great to me. What about you guys?" Candace said.

"Count me in." Layla said.

"Sure." I said.

"I'm there." Isaac added.

"Me too." Said Dad.

"Good." Said Chelsea. Just then, the doorbell rang. "I'll get it." She said before leaving and going in the foyer and up to the front door, followed by the sound of her opening it.

"Hi, Mrs. Dale. Can Connor come out and play?" Said a young male voice.

"Seth. How did you get here?" Chelsea asked.

"I rode my bike." Said the young male voice belonging to Seth.

"That's a really long ride." Chelsea said.

"Ah, it wasn't too bad." Seth said.

"Does your Mom know you're here?" Chelsea asked.

"She's still sleeping. She had a late work-night last night. But she knows i'm here." Seth answered.

"Oh. Well, i'll call her in a little bit and let her know you made it here. Come on in." Chelsea said, followed by the sound of the door closing. "Connor, guess who's here." She said as she entered back into the dinning-room with a 9-year old boy wearing an orange short sleeve t-shirt, a black watch on his right wrist, tan pants-like shorts that went down to the calf of his legs, white socks that were pushed down, and he wore black sneakers with white laces and black trims. I almost fell out of my chair with shock as the kid looked all too familiar to me. This was one of the other kids from my 4th grade nightmare. He had long neck-length brown hair and brown eyes, just like in the dream.

"Seth!" Connor excitedly before running up to the 9-year old boy known as Seth. "Seth, you'll never believe what happened last night."

"Hold up, you two." Chelsea began. "We are suppose to be going to the mall." She minded Connor.

"Come on, Mom. Can't Seth come with us? Please?" Connor begged.

"Have you eaten anything yet?" Chelsea asked Seth.

"Uh, a little. My Mom was too tire from work last night to fix breakfast, so i had some monster cereal. 'Frute-Brute'." Seth answered.

"That cereal from the 80s? Dinner-table." Chelsea said to Seth before he went over to the table and sat down at it. "You? Same." She said to Connor.

Connor went over to the table and sat next to Seth. "Everyone, this is Seth Truman, my best friend. Seth, these are my cousins, Jerry, Candace, Keegan, his little dog, Copper, and their friends, Isaac and Layla.

"Hi, nice to meet all of you." Seth said.

"Nice to meet you too." Said Everyone at the table, except for me.

"Great." I said. I was too weirded out by Seth to say anything. Not that i didn't like him, i'd just met him. In person, that is. I didn't know anything about this kid, other than the fact that he was in my 4th grade dream. What was there to like and not like? This kid was a complete stranger to me. I was even more weirded out by everything that had happened yesterday. First i had a dream about Connor...then i met him in person here at the Dales' homes and found out i'm related to him...then i had a nightmare about a monster Connor had presented to the whole 4th grade class in a drawing in my first dream...then i saw the monster in my bedroom...and now i'm seeing Seth-one of the other kids in my 4th grade dream-who turns out to be real and friends with Connor. So much of my nightmares had come true in just one day-and now this big reveal with Seth-that it makes me wonder...what's gonna be next?

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