In Freleng Square, seven-year-old Austin Marley was having the first of the series of dreams he wouldn't remember when he woke up but whose underlying common theme would survive in the form of a little song his brothers said he hummed in his sleep, about the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a. In the house on the left, Miss Kaydence was also dreaming, or rather having a nightmare about these critters jumping into her arms and shouting: "Hellooo, nurse!". In the house on the right, however, no one was sleeping.

Joey opened the curtains several times every minute to see if those shadows were still around. Even though there were no signs of them, Kath didn't let go of Pip and he didn't want to leave her side either.

"Are you okay?" The girl sweetly asked him again and again, and he always replied with an hesitant yes.

He was much more concerned about her than himself. She had gotten some of the blows and the cuts while trying to protect him. She was lucky to get a few bruises and grazes and that the chainsaw just ruined her hairdo. Sheldon had a bleeding cut in his left arm which José was tending as well as he could with the basic first aid kit Joey kept at home.

"Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital?" The Mexican asked.

"And what am I supposed to say when they ask me how it happened?" Sheldon replied. "Nah, it's okay. I'll be fine as long as I don't see the blood."

"Suit yourself. I did everything I could. At least it shouldn't get infected now." José said.

"Thanks, man."

"José Antonio Rivera Hernández, at your service—but just call me José." José introduced himself with a courteous little nod.

"Hernández...I would have said Gonzales." Sheldon frowned.

"Why?" José smiled.

"I don't know. You look like 'Gonzales'."

"You saw those things too, right? I'm not crazy..." Pip said.

"Oh, yeah, they were real, you bet they were..." Sheldon stood up and walked to sit on the arm of the sofa by the child's side, looking at his wound.

"I'm sorry you got hurt because of me. But thank you. If it wasn't for you..."

"But what were those things?" Kath asked. "They looked like..."

"Cartoons. I know it is crazy but I am 100% sure those were Beans and Buddy. They looked as flat as they seem on the TV." Pip cringed. "...I've watched them every day since I was very little...I never thought I'd see them in real life and they'd try to kill me...They said...I heard something I wasn't supposed to hear...They said they had gotten rid of a Martian..."

"What?" Kath and Sheldon asked almost in unison.

"Yes, that's what they said...Marvin the Martian, they said they used dynamite on him because he told someone something..."

"Sheldon..." Kath turned her eyes to her friend and took his hands, pale like a sheet of paper. "They attacked us with all kinds of weird weapons, including...Burning arrows! Arrows! They were the ones who almost burnt the hut with us inside!"

"That man was really a Martian...He was not crazy...It's true they are hiding something from us, the whole town...And they killed him to keep the secret!" Sheldon continued.

"And they knew about our conversation, so that means...!"

"What?" Joey had been just listening till that moment and now looked at the three of them. "You-You-You mean that man, Andrews, the man in the amb-ambulance that exploded?"

"Marvin." Sheldon pointed out. "His real name is Marvin. Don't ask me why I know it...I just know..."

"Marvin..." Joey repeated. A strangely familiar name. "He's not dead yet, but...Do-Do you know him?"

"No. I mean, he said I do but I can't remember...It's complicated, Mr. Mayor..."

"N-No, please, don't call me that. This is no mo-mo-moment for formalities. Just call me Joe..."

"Alright. Joe." Kath nodded. "Uh...We really don't know much about what is going on...We are still trying to make sense out of it."

"You already k-know more than I do-do-do...The only t-thing I have it clear is that tho-those creatures were n-n-not human, and it's not just a pra-pra-pra-pra-joke because have tried to ki-kill you. I've been dreaming about one of them...José, I'm po-po-positively sure that's one of the t-things I've seen in my d-dreams these days! You can't tell me it's j-just a coincidence now! Please, tell me everything you know, ev-every little detail, as insignificant as it may seem..."

They really wanted to get it off their chests, so they took turns to share what they had found. First, Pip told the adults what he had heard and seen among the bushes; then, Sheldon told what the Man from the Stars had told him and Kath talked about what they found at his cabin. When they finished, José placed a hand on his mouth in thought.

"So..." He had been listening wandering around the room and then stopped to collect his thoughts. "Let's put this together...This man, he finds out something he shouldn't—a spell, a curse upon this town...Something about a past life, us...trapped in bodies which are not our own? Okay, then...He comes across you...Those cartoons—it can be safe to say they have a lot to do with it. They think he's going to blow the cover and so blow him up to keep the secret, then destroy all investigations he keeps in his place...Cartoons, living cartoons...Fine. And then you three overhear their plans and they start chasing you to silence you too...Is that it? Am I missing something?"

"No, I think that's it." Sheldon replied.

"It's so crazy...So crazy there needs to be another explanation." Pip muttered.

"But what? I know what I've seen and nothing can surprise me at this point."

"W-What do you mean, that it might be true that thi-thi-this is all a lie?" Joey asked.

"Haven't you felt like something is off, like there is something wrong?"

"Well, yes, but it is natural to feel that way. We all got problems." José shrugged.

"But consider this, what if what we think is our life actually...isn't?" Sheldon stood up to talk practically in his face.

"And we assumed identities which are not our own..." Kath said.

"Surrounded by people who are not who they seem..." Sheldon added, narrowing his eyes.

Pip nodded. "Like Izzy..."

"Izzy?" Joey turned to the child.

"My neighbor. Isadore. Isadore Jeffcoat, from Alaskey Street. He lives there with his grandma. He was acting so aggressive to me lately, he forbid me to see his grandma, he lured me into his house to hurt me...He said a lot of nonsense—that's why I hid in the forest...That's what I was escaping from at first..."

The four adults exchanged a look among each other.

"Those of us who have an approximate idea of what's going on have been attacked. What if he is also in on it?" Sheldon muttered.

"Izzy? But he's...I mean, he's done weird things but he's not bad...He wouldn't..." Pip said.

"Yeah, but after what happened tonight, I wouldn't trust anyone, not even myself..." Kath sighed. "If it's true that all that we know, even our relationships, are all a fake, probably he's not a simple neighbor...Maybe he..."

"Do you t-think he's pa-part of the plot?" Joey asked, standing up.

"Well, it seems evident he knows something we don't. No one hates a kid just because...I vote for making him talk." Sheldon said.

"Y-Yes, we must f-find him and see what is happening." Joey took deep breath. "A-All of this goes against all reasoning but f-for some reason it makes s-sense...It could explain w-w-w-why I feel this way, why things seem to be going to he-he-he—badly..."

"The Man from...I mean, Marvin said reason is a trap." Kath said. "The less we see things from a rational perspective, the more we'll be on the right path..."

So there had to be a reason why he saw himself singing that song along with that cat...

In front of a camera...

...With all of those people looking at them closely...

José interrupted this new information coming to his mind. "That doesn't seem like a good plan, but..."

"J-José..." Joey approached him to place a hand on his shoulder. "Y-You've done more enough to-tonight. It's ve-very late. Go home. Y-You don't have to join t-this if you don't want to."

"And you, boss? Are you going with them?" José replied.

"Y-You s-saw that. It's u-unbelievable, incre-incredible. I think in ca-cases like this we should s-suspend disbelief...I am in charge of this t-town, and I want to k-know what is going on, because something in-inside tells me there is s-something going on here...What I am, and what s-surrounds me...But I don't w-want you to waste your time or..."

José shook his head. "Shut up, boss. You're right, what the heck. I saw two moving cartoon characters tonight. Something really incredible must be going on, and I'd be an idiot if I just turned my back on it. If they return, you could use some help."

"Oh, Jo-José!" Joey smiled.

"Don't think about it, amigo." José stood up and looked around. "Well, lady and gentlemen, prepare to get no sleep tonight and be very, very quiet: we are hunting Izzies."

"I think I know how..." Pip timidly said.

It was a strange feeling, like something very wrong was about to happen. Even the weather inspired that feeling: a few claps of thunder echoed, so quietly just the silence of the night could have allowed them to be heard. Perhaps that was what pigs felt when they were put inside the slaughterhouse truck. Pip stopped. He thought he had heard something.

"A CAR! I'LL STEAL IT! NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!" Someone shouted in a close distance, and then the boy heard tires screeching.

Once he saw there was no danger, he kept walking. Aside from that not so silent thief, the night was very calm, so quiet. Practically dead. At least Blanc Park was.

It was very late in the morning but he didn't feel asleep at all. After all he had witnessed that night, he felt wide awake. His only concern was what his parents would say when they found he was not in his bed.

But if what those strangers said was true, perhaps those were not even his parents. It was ridiculous, but wasn't it silly too, the idea of talking and moving toons, and yet he had seen it with his own eyes? This was not the moment to worry about those things. he took the right turn, prepared to run after a small decrease of the speed to rest his legs, and then…

Then he bumped into Isadore.

Pip gasped and tried to escape but Isadore was faster and grabbed him by the hair.

"Gotcha! Now you're not escaping!"

"Ouch! Let me go!"

"No way! It's time that I return the blow!"

Isadore was big and he was small. Isadore was an adult and he, only a kid. Sure he had hit him with a statue but only because Isadore wanted to hurt him. It was not fair. Not a little bit. So the group made it fair.

José appeared behind him. With the quickest movement possible, he punched Isadore right in the stomach with enough force to make him release the child and pushed him to the ground. After that, he grabbed him by the mustache.

The kid wasn't pleased to see him beaten up, Isadore saw that, but for a second he saw a change in the child's expression. Content, maybe?

He then turned his head to find not only José, but three more adults surrounding him.

"Ah, heck..." Isadore complained in low voice and a tired smile.

"You know what is happening in his damned town and you are going to tell us!" José threatened him.

"Spit it!" Sheldon said.

"Talk about what? What did this kid tell you? He broke my nose, see?!" Isadore defended himself.

"Sorry, Izzy, but you deserved that." Pip said. "Please, I need to understand why you hate me so, what did I do to you? Is it because I did something to you? I know something I shouldn't?"

"I-I'll make sure you do hard time if you d-don't talk." Joey threatened him.

"I know nothing!" José pulled his whiskers and Isadore protested. "Ouch! I promise!"

The group didn't seem to believe him. All around him, he felt their menacing glares.

"I swear! I-I don't come what came into me! I just hate this little brat! I don't want him near my house or my family or me!"

"I did nothing to you to deserve it!" Pip replied. "In any case, I should be the one hating you because...!"

Pip hushed and considered what he had just said.

Why? What reasons did he have to hate Izzy before all of these events?

They had just seen each other in the streets, when he befriended his grandmother...It was not like he had done anything to him...

"...You started..." Pip muttered, frowning.

"I started what? You're the one who came into my life and ruined it!" Isadore defended himself.

"I..." Pip started to say. He went quiet again.

Wasn't it true?

Isadore gazed at Pip for long. He was also considering his own words.

That little fellow came into his life and ruined it...How?

"Hey, Sylvester. Uh, Tedd, Michael and I have been thinking about working the old cat and mouse trope with a different animal. Bob created this little fella some years ago who's got potential and he agreed to play the role of the victim and we were thinking of you as the predator...Are you comfortable with slapstick?"

Sylvester...Who was Sylvester? What did that have to do with him?

José was running out of patience, and pulled his mustache again.

"I don't believe you! Spit it out!"

Pip took a step back, his eyebrows furrowed.

He had seen this before.

Isadore was still mute, his eyes wide open. José had loosened his grip on him, thinking that this felt...felt...how did it feel?

"...Do that again." Pip requested him.

He didn't need to say it twice. José pulled Isadore's mustache once more, with a bit more strength than before. Isadore let out a yelp but it was a faint one, because he was getting this strange feeling that was distracting him from the pain—or rather the pain was the open door to a new feeling.

Explosives going off in his face. His food finding the most painful way out. Tabasco sauce burning up his throat...

Things both Pip and José had witnessed...And laughed at...

His behind getting caught up in a mouse trap—in many mouse traps. Swallowing a bowling ball and rolling down the street...

"F-For the love of God, José, what are you do-do-doing? Stop!" Joey exclaimed, holding his friend's shoulders to try to pull him away from Isadore.

It was a surprise that Isadore himself intervened to say: "Keep going!"

It was like having something in the tip of one's tongue...And pain was showing him...

José was quick to pull his hair. And that made him think...That made the three of them think...

Isadore used to have hair all over his body...And he used to rip it off because...because he...

When did Isadore experience something like this? An instant of pain, yet he was fine the next second and everyone was happy. People laughed...Who laughed? They laughed because he wasn't really hurt, at least not in the way he was now. It was only his pride what was hurt, but that didn't stop him. He was ready to keep trying the next second...

Trying to what?

To get...

To get what?

"More!" He shouted.

This was ridiculous, humiliating and it hurt a lot, but at the same time it was giving him an unusual clarity.

He was trying to get something to eat. A snack. And that snack wasn't willing and defended itself...Defended itself or had others who defended him...

Snack...José's head was aching.

So was Pip's. The child was going pale, could only watch, even if this powerful feeling was trying to make him look away and end the torture they were inflicting Isadore.

He used to watch as Isadore tried to get him, as others shooed him away...

Something clicked inside the child's head. Everyone around him could see it. They saw how his blue eyes opened wide, looking at Isadore—just that they couldn't see the little flashes of memories hitting him like trucks...Of a man named Bob, on whose index finger he used to perch and talk for hours...Of a cat called Sylvester and his creator, a man called...yes, Friz...Of acting in front of a camera, and all the antics going on after they stopped recording, because they were a cat and a bird after all...Of swinging, not in his garden, but inside a gilded cage, with the feeling that he was being watched...That animal always lurking in every corner, waiting for a chance to make him his meal...He had to have eyes in the back of his head because he never knew when he would see a...

"...Puddy tat!" Pip suddenly let out a dismayed cry.

"¡El gringo pussygato!" José exclaimed with his mouth open wide.

"You!" Isadore looked at them two.

Joey, Kath and Sheldon didn't understand what was happening, but it had to be quite an epiphany, because José finally let go of Isadore and took a few stumbling steps back, Pip covered his mouth then looked at his own hands with eyes wide open and Isadore remained sat on the floor looking like he was going to faint any second.

"What? What's the matter with you guys?" Sheldon asked.

"A-Are you alright?" Joey was starting to get concerned at their reactions.

Only Kath was distracted from this, noticing her phone had been vibrating for a while.

"Yes...?"

"Are you Miss Katherine Reese?"

"Yes, I am..."

"I am calling from Harman-Ising Hospital. Your mother..."

Kath's heart sank.

"...What? What happened to her?" She asked.

"Nothing to worry about. She just..."

Sheldon was the one who turned towards her when he noticed she was talking over the phone, with such a face one could have said something bad did happen.

"Okay. I...uh, I'll be there in a minute. Thank you, thank you." She hastily said, and hanged up. "I need to go."

"What happened?" Sheldon asked her.

"My mom's at the hospital. The chemo made her feel shortness of breath and chest pain and got anxious to find herself alone and had a panic attack. Apparently, she screamed until a neighbor heard her and called an ambulance. I'm leaving."

"I'm...I'm taking you, señorita." José offered himself, shaking his head to see if the feeling he had was shaken off as well.

"T-Take this man with you as well, please." Joey requested him, pointing at a still shocked Isadore.

"...I knew it, I knew I shouldn't have left her alone..." Kath ran a hand over her face, then walked towards the door without saying goodbye to anybody or waiting for José and Isadore.

Sheldon frowned, then ran to stop her, grabbing her from the wrist.

"Wait. Wait just a gosh darn second. Remember what Marvin wrote in his log? When you start making questions, distractions start sprouting all around to keep you deep buried in the lie. I got a bad feeling about this."

"To hell with your feelings, and Marvin and all of this stupid story! My mom is not a distraction!" Kath sneered.

"Don't you find it quite a coincidence that this happened right when we are getting closer to the truth?"

"I don't know what the truth is, I've got no idea of what I have seen. All I know for sure is that my mother needs me and I've played detectives long enough!"

Releasing herself from his grip, Kath quickly left the house.

The guilt didn't stop torturing her when she finally was reunited with her mother at the E.R. room. In fact, she felt even worse when she looked at her with her eyes open wide, grabbed her hand like she intended to crush it and pleaded:

"Where were you? Where were you, baby? I didn't know what to do, I thought I was going to die alone!"

"No, no, Mom, you're not dying alone. You're not dying. I'm with you. I promise. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Kath kissed her hands, caressed her pale cheeks.

"Don't leave me. Not you too..."

"I won't. I won't, Mommy..."

She felt so monstrous she wanted to cry...

Her mother caressed her blond hair and, when she found a lock which was too short, she gave Kath a mildly inquisitive look. She didn't tell her how she had gotten that.

In fact...she wasn't sure about it...