ATIN: Chapter 5

It was now midnight here in the little cartoon town of Peach Creek we soon came upon a little neighborhood known as the Peach Creek Cul-De-Sac. It is here in the Cul-De-Sac that we come upon the first house to the left of the entrance to the neighborhood; this was Double D's house.

It was in this house that we could soon see Lily, who was sleeping on Double D's couch. Lily was tossing and turning in her sleep, currently in a nightmare.

Double D was currently walking down the stairs to go to his kitchen as he came up to his living room; he could hear something going on.

'Strange…' Double D thought to himself as he started to walk into his living room to check on Lily, 'What is she…?!'

He suddenly lost his train of thought when he saw her; Lily was still tossing and turning, as if she were being possessed by something, "Lily?" Double D questioned with a bit of worry in his voice as he came up next to her.

He then could see Lily shake her head as if she were saying no to something, "No… No… No…"

"Umm…?" Double D tried to reach out to her.

"NOOO!" Lily screamed as she rose from her sleep, gasping for air with tears now streaming down her face. This surprised Double D as he recoiled his hand back to his side.

Lily soon calmed herself down from all her crying, wiping away the tears from her eyes. She realized that what she had just experienced was only a dream.

"L-Lily…?"

Lily widened her eyes as she turned to see Double D by her side; he was shocked and worried about what just happened, "Are you—"

But before he could finish his sentence, Double D could feel Lily hugging him. She then started to sob into his pajama shirt.

Double D could feel himself growing a bit of a blush in his face from Lily's hug, "U-Umm…"

"… Oh!" Lily gasped a little after realizing what she was doing; she soon let him out of her hug, "I'm so sorry, Double D. I-I didn't mean to—"

"I-It's quite alright," Double D replied before Lily could finish her sentence, "Umm… Is everything okay now? I assume you were having a bad dream."

Lily nodded her head, "Yes… It was an awful nightmare."

Double D looked at her, a worried look formed across his face, "Well, if you want to, perhaps telling me about it can help you feel better?"

Lily widened her eyes slightly when she saw Double D sit next to her on his couch, "I've always found it helpful to consult with others on things like this," he continued to say.

"You're right, but…" Lily replied to him before stopping herself from saying anything else, "I don't know if you would want to hear this," she lowered her head in sadness, 'I think it involves you.'

"Nonsense," Double D replied, "Surely it can't be that bad."

Lily was silent to him before making a small, defeated sigh; her head was still lowered, "Okay, I'll tell you."

She closed her eyes, trying to recollect the dream she just had, "I've been having a lot of really vivid dreams, even before I came here," Lily started to say, "I was standing around in a foggy area, I couldn't see anything for a long time until the fog starting to go away," she could feel herself starting to grip onto the blanket that was over her, "I then see someone standing further ahead of me…" she turned her head a little to him in sadness, "I think it was you, Double D. You looked like how Amelia, Naomi, and I were before we arrived here; same kinds of proportions and all."

Double D seemed very confused by that statement but took note of what Lily said as she continued, "It looked like you were trying to say something to me in desperation, and there was a lot of fire behind you," he could see Lily start to tremble, "Before I could do anything or come up to you, I saw a huge shadow of something, or someone come up from behind you. The shadow grabbed you before pulling you away, you were gone… And then I woke up."

There was a bit of silence between the two teens before Lily started to talk again, "I'm sorry, Double D. There's something else you need to know; something my friends and I should have told you three when we all met," she then turned to him to say, "I have no idea how or why this happened, but…" she swallowed her nerves before saying, "You and your friends are a show where I'm from. All three of us were watching it at Amelia's house before her TV froze. I unplugged it from the outlet, but it did not go off, and then we saw a bright light… We then all woke up here in the show."

The silence that filled the room after she said that felt very tense, with Double D looking even more worried than before, "Is this also part of those strange dreams you were having?" He asked her, trying to make sense of what she was saying.

"No, I'm very certain about this," Lily stated before looking away, "I never thought something like this could happen. You're real now, and it's not just you! Everyone here is real!"

Double D now seemed more confused instead of worried, "I'm not sure I follow…"

Lily widened her eyes at something she thought of, "Here, maybe this can help explain!" She reached into her back pocket to take out her wallet, opening it to take out a picture she had inside; it was of her, Amelia, and Naomi, smiling at the camera for the selfie she was taking. They all looked like they did back home, "Look, do you see how different we are in this?"

Double D took the photo she had to look at it more, "Oh my, this drawing has a neat art style to it," he stated before making a confused face, "But, this drawing paper feels like it's a photo you would take from a camera…"

"… Double D, this IS a real photo," Lily explained, "This is what my friends and I look like where we come from!" She made a sigh, "I wish I had more things on me to show you, but this is all I have to show."

That was when it started to sink in; Double D remembered when Lily asked what the nearest galaxy was yesterday, only for her to grow pale when he replied, "My word… Are you saying you and your friends are from the Milky Way galaxy?"

Lily nodded her head, "I'm pretty sure, because the nearest galaxy to us is Andromeda, and you said that's where we are now."

Double D widened his eyes at what she said, "Oh my goodness… This is an amazing scientific discovery!" He said with a big smile before remembering what else she mentioned, "But, wait… You said my friends and I are some sort of show there?"

Lily could feel herself becoming nervous suddenly, "Yes… It's been on the air for a while, for about two and a half years."

Another bit of heavy silence filled the room, "Umm, what does the TV show on your side?" Double D asked, still trying to make sense of all this.

"… Just some of your daily life, like the scams you three do to buy jawbreakers and things like that," Lily replied before noticing that he seemed concerned, "Oh, but it's being shown like an actual show! There are no hidden cameras showing anything else private if that's what you're worried about," she then gestured to his beanie, "On the show, you always wear your beanie because you're hiding something under it that you don't want others to see. You've never said what it was, nor has the show shown it."

Double D gasped as he grew pale in the face, gripping his beanie afterward, as if someone was trying to grab it to take it off his head, "T-That's, umm…"

Lily could see how panicked he was, "I'm sorry if that was something I shouldn't have said. I was trying to give an example of what was on the show… I'm not going to ask you to say what it is or to show what's under it; that would be rude, and it's probably never shown for a reason."

"I-I see…" Double D muttered with a small bit of relief, taking his hands off the brim of his beanie.

The two teens continued to sit on the couch, "I want to apologize to you and your friends for not saying anything about this," Lily said, "We didn't know how you three would even react if we told you the truth right away, so we made up something for the moment until we could find our way back home."

"I honestly don't blame you for that," Double D stated, "If you had not shown the picture in your wallet, I probably wouldn't have believed you," he then turned to her, "But, umm, how do you three plan to get back home?"

"I'm not sure yet," Lily replied, "Maybe we can find some sort of clue if we go back to the place where we woke up."

"Well, it's better than doing nothing," Double D said, "I'm sure your family is worried about you and your friends, assuming that the time where you live works like it does here."

"… Oh no, I didn't even think of that!" Lily gasped in realization, "We also have a science test we need to study for on Monday!"

Double D chuckled a little, "Don't worry, I can try to help you get back home, okay? I'll also try to have Ed and Eddy help as well."

Lily looked at him in surprise; she knew Double D had built and made a lot of inventions and machines for the scams Eddy forced him to do, so it would make sense for him to try and make something to get her and her friends back home.

"Thank you," Lily replied with a small smile before realizing something, "Oh, it's 12:10 right now… I didn't realize how late it was."

"We should both go back to sleep. We'll need to get up early if we want to retrace your footsteps," Double D stated as he got back up from his couch to walk towards his room upstairs, "Goodnight."

"Umm, goodnight," Lily said as he walked to his room. She made a sigh of relief from what just happened, 'It's a good thing he's the more reasonable one of the three about this kind of thing,' she thought to herself as she laid back down on the couch, 'Makes me wonder how the other two would react? I guess we'll find out tomorrow.'

Author's Note (December 1st, 2023): Secrets revealed! How are the other two gonna respond to this? Wait and see!