Human names used:

Hong Kong – Leon
Canada – Matthew
USA – Alfred
Seychelles – Shelly
Australia – Kyle
England – Arthur /Artie
France – Fran / Francis
Liechtenstein - Lilly Zwingli

Its night and the only the little door light in front of the house lightens up the surroundings. It is calm in the house now and the clock shows 3:07. And the hands on the Grandfather clock stops moving. Everything is calm and only the soft breaths and occasional murmurs can be heard.

Alfred and Matthew are sleeping too. The younger one hugs his pillow and got his blanket only over his tummy since he kicks it away in his sleep. One of the reasons no one ever wants to lie beside him when they are camping. But nobody tops Kyle who sleeps in the most uncomfortable positions and boxes in his sleep. Nobody.

Alfred scratches his face some and sighs in his sleep as he gets pulled some on his feet. He grabs on his pillow to not lose it and does not even open his eyes. He just grumbles, "It's not funny Matthew," turns on his side and curls up.
"What?" asks Matthew half asleep.
"Stop grabbing my foot," whispers Alfred back.
"Shut up. I didn't do anything." And with this Matthew turns his back to Alfred and tries to go back to his sweet dream.
"Yeah right." Alfred takes a deep breath and wrinkles his nose:
"Ew… And stop really stinks."
"Don't blame that on me, it's you." And with that both fall asleep again.

Down in the living room there is only the static of the TV to be heard that drowns out the soft sleepy breaths from Arthur. He passed out at his desk, his arms crossed on it and his head buried in them. Suddenly he jerks and lifts his head as he hears some sort of knocking noise. He looks around, still drowsy and rubs his face with his hand. The he hears it again. Some sort of knocking noise in the house. He looks up but he neither sees nor hears somebody in the living room and hall way. Only the static stemming from the TV can be heard.

Arthur stands up and walks to the source of the noise and turns the device off. He proceeds and walks out the room into the hallway frowning some while looking around.

Clack

There it was again. Arthur turns his head towards the kitchen door. It opens slowly with an eerie creaking noise. Arthur walks towards it, his head slightly tilted and a question mark written on his face. He opens the door completely and is greeted by a dark and empty kitchen. He opens the door completely and clicks it onto place, so it will not close again. He turns around again and spots the curtains on the kitchen window flowing softly in the wind due to the open window. Satisfied with the answer to the opening door and the knocking noise, apparently coming from the door gently tapping the frame due to the draught, he nods.

Then again a knocking noise. This time it is louder and coming from upstairs. Arthur turns around again and walks with firm steps down the hallway to the stairs. As he takes the first few steps and lifts his head some he jerks again. On the top of the stairs stands Leon in his boxers, only a big t-shirt hanging loosely over his shoulders.

"Dad?"
"Leon, what are you doing out of bed?" Arthur asks and looks past him, looking after the source of the banging noise. "What's that sound?"

"It's Kyle. He's in my room. He's sleepwalking again," he says with an annoyed and tired face but you can hear some worry in his voice. Arthur hearing that walks up the stairs, taking two steps at the time. Slowly he opens the door to Leon's room and enters. Leon follows him closely and explains:

"I've never seen him do this before." He too watches his little brother how he thumbs his head again and again against the big wardrobe. Each time his forehead hits the wooden doors the knocking sound appears.
Knock
Arthur walks to him.
Knock
He places his hand on Kyle's forehead and lets his knuckles be knocked against the wood instead.
Knoff
"I remembered you saying not to wake him if he's like this or so," continues Leon.
Knoff
"No we just put him back to bed."
Knoff
He whispers gently to reach Kyle in his sleep without waking him up. "Hey, hey, little."
Knoff
"Ssh. Let's go back to bed."

Kyle slowly turns around, eyes closed and his messy hair sticking out in every direction. His plaster is still sitting on his nose on top of his many freckles. Arthur leads him gently away from the big and dark wardrobe, holding his son at his shoulders. As they pass Leon who was standing the entire time beside the door with crossed arms, Arthur whispers quickly:
"He's okay. Good night" before leading Kyle down the hallway to his own room.
"Night" murmurs Leon back as he closes the door behind them.

The water stops running but there is still some steam fuming out of the bathtub.
"Was he leepwalking again? He hasn't done that for a while." Francis exclaims whilst pulling back the shower curtains and stepping carefully out of the tub. Arthur puts his toothbrush back into the glass and turns off the tab.
"He ended up in Leon's room. The whole thing worried him." Arthur turns to his husband who is just getting a towel to wrap around his waist and has his back turned to him.
"That's not good. What are we gonna do?"
"I don't know." Arthur watches Francis and frowns as he finds yet another red mark on his lover.
"Honey, you got another bruise here." He steps closer and touches it gently. Francis only straightens himself and looks over his shoulder.
"Hm?"
"Does that hurt?"
Francis steps backwards towards the mirror to look at the bruise. It is big as an apple and dark rose. He tries to touch it and feels no pain.
"That's weird." Francis tilts his head some and looks more but it just looks as if he was hit by something on this spot. Arthur lies a hand on his back.
"Will you do me a favour and go see a doctor for that?"
"Yeah, I will." Francis faces Arthur and slings his arms around his shoulders.
"Drive save," he ads and kisses him softly on his lips.
"Yeah" he bluntly replies and wraps his arms around Francis.
"I love you"
"I love you, too."

Arthur steps down the porch, a big bag and a handbag in his hand. As he takes out the keys for his car he hears flapping of wings and then a rather loud bang. He immediately stops and turns around the corner of the house. There in the grass is a pigeon lying. Its head turned into an unnatural position and the whole body is writhing as the bird dies.

Only little time after that Francis is waving at the kids down the driveway towards the waiting school bus.
"Do you have your lunch Kyle?"
He turns around and waves. "Yeah!"
And off are all the boys. Francis walks back into the house to check on his youngest kid, Shelly. As he walks down the hallway towards her room he hears her talking to somebody:
"Yes, I do. I miss Pierre a lot. He was my best friend."
Francis walks to the door and glances through the gap between the frame and the open door. There she is sitting on a little chair, hugging her teddy. But it is not the stuffed animal she is talking to. She faces somebody else, hidden behind the door.
"You're my friend, right?" She asks with her joyful voice and smiles at whoever sits across her. She nods and agrees to a question, Francis could not hear:
"Yeah, let's play."

In this instant Francis pushes open the door slowly and as does every door in this house it creaks softly. Shelly turns to her and across from her is nobody. Francis steps in and tilts his head softly to the right.
"Who are you talking to?"
"Lillyy!" the little girl answers as if it should be obvious. Francis steps closer.
"Lillyy?"
"She's my new friend."
"Oh really?" Francis smiles at her softly and sits on the little chair in front of her. A little table is separating them and on it there is the red and white music box, shaped like a circus tent.
"Yeah. Do you wanna meet her?"
"Yeah. Uh-huh." He looks a bit around and then back at her. "How?"
Shelly rearranges her teddy on her lap so it does not fall down whilst reaching for the music box. She hands it to his father who takes it carefully as if it was something precious. He understands that even the shabbiest toys can be the most valuable objects a kid can name his own.
"When the music stops, you see her in the mirror, standing behind you."
"Okay." He opens the music box. On the inside of the lid there is a circular mirror. On it is a white spiral painted but it leaves enough place in-between the paint that the reflection is good visible. In the box itself is a hole which is filled by a figure. Only the white top of its head and red hair over its ears is to be seen. Whilst she opened it, Shelly stood up and walked at her father's side:
"But you have to twist the key."

Francis nods and does as his daughter says all the while looking into the mirror. As the key cannot be turned anymore farther he lets go from it and a soft and sweet melody starts to play. The little figure inside, a clown head peeks out of the hole and hides down again. The mirror begins slowly to turn and makes a nice effect with the spiral drawn on it. Francis smiles and even though he tries to see something behind him through the mirror, he knows that it couldn't possibly work.

The smile drops some as he sees movements right behind her.
"Boo, Fran!"
Francis jumps from Shelly away and inhales sharply. He laughs and buries his face into his hand.
"Whoa, Shelly! You just gave me a heart attack."
"Got ya!" Shelly laughs.
"Well, okay. I guess Lilly doesn't wanna see me, huh?" He looks at her playing a frown.
"Hmm… Oh, well." Shelly seems not to mind it too much and gets rather a new idea for distraction:
"Can we play hide and clap?"
Francis doesn't look so pleased with this idea. Shelly was just a bit too young to really being able to play that game and her brothers always made sure to remind her of that.
"Hide and clap… Oh, honey-" He gets interrupted by the pleading eyes.
"Please! Nobody ever lets me play…" Hands clasped together and almost bowing Shelly soon had him wrapped around her little finger.
"Okay, okay" sighs Francis and watches Shelly giggling getting a red silk scarf. He lets her blindfold him and listens amused as Shelly reminds him of the rules:
"Remember, you get to ask me for three claps."
"Okay." Francis stands slowly up and Shelly begins to turn him around. Together they count:
"One, two, three…" Shelly lets go of him and runs out of the room.
"I'm gonna go hide now!" And she disappeared.

In the meantime Francis continues to count to ten all whilst turning around his own axe. Arrived at ten, he stops, collects himself and feels his way out of the room into the hallway.
"First clap!"
Two loud claps can be heard down the hallway. Francis proceeds slowly, one step after another along the wall until he accidently knocks something over on a little table. He steps a bit aside and continues. The Grandfather clock rings lowly in the background. Francis proceeds with outstretched arms.
Knock
"Ouw!" Francis walked against the handrail beside the stairs. With a broken voice he demands:
"Second clap!" and as he hears again two strong claps further down the hallway he gently rubs his knee before walking to the last room on the right side. He enters Leon's room and walks around.
"Sheeeellly, Sheeelly" he singsongs and turns in a circle, certain that the little girl has to be somewhere in this room. A creaking noise and the doors of the big wardrobe slowly open. Francis smiles and turns to the source of the noise.
"I know where you are hiding. Give me the third clap," he exclaims and already steps towards the big, dark wardrobe. Two pale and long arms feel their way through the clothing and clap slowly twice. Francis chuckles and steps slowly towards the wardrobe.
"I'm gonna get you now." He teases and staggers a bit since the loss of sight affects his sense of balance. Slow breaths can be hears out of the wardrobe and Francis is absolute certain that her hiding spot is discovered.
"I can hear you breathing." He feels something soft on his hands and begins to fumble his way through Leon's clothes.
"Shelly?" he asks just as he hears small footsteps running down the hallway. His smile gets wiped from his face and quickly takes the blindfold off. He looks quickly behind him with a worried face before looking again at the wardrobe. Determined he wrenches the clothes aside.
"Haha! You took your blindfold off. I win!" Shelly stands right outside the room with her head peeking in and a large grin on her face. She steps in and enjoys her victory over her dad. "You weren't even warm, Fran. I was in Alfred's and Matthew's room."
Francis, quite shocked and a frown in his face turns again to the closet. He peers again behind the clothes but nothing strange is to be seen.