My eyes shoot open, as my heart quickly thumps in my chest as my lungs gasp for air.

"Are you okay?" I look up to see Lyra staring worriedly at me. "Did you have a nightmare?"

A nightmare? Oh, so that's what it was. Was it? It felt so real, but everything looks completely normal.

"Y-yeah, sorry I fell asleep on you."

Wait a second, when did I fall asleep? It's seven pm. I must've fallen asleep while thinking about Lyra's uncle.

"It's fine," she says. "I think it's for the better you were asleep, my performance today is just sad!"

My heart beat begins to retard. I'm just anxious, that's all. It had to have been a dream.

I sit next to Lyra and try to strike up a conversation about the game she's playing to get my mind off of things.

"Is this X8?"

"Yeah," she replies. "It's pretty hard, but it's fun." Something about her voice tells me she's thinking about something.

"You okay?"

"Do you think it's weird to play games?" she asks suddenly, and before I can say anything else, "I mean like, is it weird for a girl to play games?"

"Wh-" I stop myself from saying 'what're you talking about,' when I remember how often Lyra was shunned out for playing video games, and made fun of for being so much of a tomboy. Insults used to be tossed at her everyday.

"Girls don't play video games."

"Why don't you go back to your teddy bears?"

"Ew, no, I don't wanna play games with a girl."

"Quit trying to be a boy, girly. You could learn to wear skirt every once and a while as well."

"Why don't you hang out with the girls and play dress up?"

"Would you stop that!?"

That's when I stepped in front of her.

"Silver?"

"Si... Silver?"

"So what if she's a girl?" I asked. "She can like video games just like us if she wants! Why don't you let her play with us!?"

"Silver," my old friend said, "what're you talking about? We don't want girls in our group."

"Well," I snapped, keeping my arm in front of her, "maybe I do!"

"Gross! Then don't come near us again! You can play dress up with her instead!"

"Fine! I'd rather do that than be with any of you jerks!" As they walked away from us, I turned around to face Lyra. "Are you o-"

She tightly hugged me.

"Silver!" she cried. "Thank you! I was so scared!"

Later that day, I didn't end up having to play dress up with her, thank God. Instead, we hung out during recess playing Pokemon. Seeing that smile of hers always brought me a warm feeling, a wonderful feeling I never got around the group of friends I'd lost protecting her. Seeing that smile everyday, it made it completely worth being seen as a 'girly boy' around the whole school.

"Thanks," Lyra says. Her voice snaps me out of my reflections, and I realize I'm blushing. "Thanks for always standing up for me. You have a pretty embarrassing reputation because of that."

"Yeah, well, they're jerks. Who cares what they think?"

She turns her head to me.

"Why do you always stand up for me, though?"

"Um-" I don't know why, but it's difficult to look her in the eye. "-I just don't like morons who make fun of peoples' genders. Girls can like what boys like, and boys can like what girls like. And there's nothing wrong with either!"

A gentle touch grips my hand, moving my attention back to the tomboy.

"Thank you, Silver."

We stare back at each other for a few seconds. Too much heat rushes to my face. I pull away from her and stand up.

"I-I'm gonna go get a soda," I say as I walk out of the room.

On my way to the kitchen, I have to head through the dining room. Lyra's parents are still there.

The table hasn't yet been cleared, and they're still sitting in the exact same places we left them. In fact, I realize, they aren't moving at all.

They sit there, completely still like mannequins. Mr Gardner is holding up his glass of lemonade, as if getting ready to take a drink. Mrs Gardner has her head turned and her mouth slightly open, as if she froze immediately after we left the dining room.

"A-are you okay?" They don't respond. Thunder rumbles outside. They don't seem to notice. "Please, are you okay? This isn't funny!"

They aren't even blinking. Terrified, I run back towards the den.

I tell Lyra what I saw.

"What?" she asks, looking over her shoulder at me and pausing her game.

"Your parents are sitting in the dining room still. They're not moving. They're not even blinking."

"Are you sure? They're probably just being weird. I'll be right back." She stands up and leaves.

I wait for a couple minutes, then she returns.

"They look fine to me. Mom says she's gonna be bringing us popcorn soon."

"What? But I saw them-"

"Nice try for a prank, though," says Lyra, seemingly ignoring me. "Oh, and one more thing," she says while she resumes her spot in front of the Nintendo, "thanks for sending me out then. Mom made me help her clean up after all. Special company."

"Special company?"

"My uncle's coming to visit."

I feel a numb in my gut as a chill runs up my spine. This is somewhat similar to my dream.

Calm down, I tell myself. It was all just a dream, and this is merely a coincidence. Nothing more. I sit down next to her.

"So, uh, your uncle stays with you when he visits?"

"Yeah," says Lyra nonchalantly. "He lives pretty far away and so he just drops by."

"Isn't that a little weird?"

She gives me a look I don't like too much.

"How would you know? You don't even have an uncle."

I don't know what it is, but I feel paranoid. Memories of my dream keep returning to me. I'm scared. I say the first thing that comes to mind.

"I'm not sure I believe you about your uncle."

Lyra takes a moment to respond, like she's not sure she heard me correctly.

"What?"

"I-I don't believe your uncle works for Nintendo." What am I saying!?

Lyra stands up, fists clenched at her sides, mouth twisting horribly as she struggles to say something. I watch as she takes a step toward me, and clench my teeth and wait. The brunette darts forward and pushes me back onto the hardwood floor, cracking my skull against the carpet. I take a moment to be dazed.

I lie there, expecting another punch or a kick, but to my surprise, nothing happens.

Slowly I sit up to see Lyra standing there, arms still stiff at her sides, breathing heavily. I realize she's close to crying.

"A-are you okay?"

Lyra shakes her head, as if remembering something.

"Never mind," she says. "Just never mind."

I want to say something more, but she's already completely into the video game. I take a breather.

After about two hours of us sitting in silence, the grandfather clock chimes twelve as Lyra stands up, not even pausing her game. "It's time," she says.

The numbing feeling returns.

"Stop being weird!"

Someone knocks at the door.

"That's him," says Lyra, turning around and heading to the door. "I should go let him in."

The numbing feeling grows.

"No," I slowly say. "No, no! No!"

Screaming, I run down the hall to the bathroom and lock the door behind me. Or at least, this could have been a bathroom. The walls are bare and white and there's no sink or toilet, but there are some odd featureless white boxes that could stand in for a shower or a linen closet.

I crawl into the plain white box that is about the size of a linen closet, and close it behind me. From the front of the house, I can hear the front door slam open.

After that, I don't hear anything except

"Child."

the rain. No, not just the rain, but that voice in the back fo my head, like

"I am coming for you, child."

something I can't even begin to describe. Though I locked the door, I hear it open easily. Something walks in. I close my eyes and hold my breath.

I'm not sure how I know something is out there, because I don't exactly

"Oh, child."

hear it moving, but I know it's there, and I know it's stopped

"Poor, poor child."

right outside my hiding spot. It opens the door, even though I realize it doesn't have any hands.

"Oh, child. I am oh so hungry, child. You cannot run, child. Hello, child. No more worries, child. Please feed me, child."