Chapter 4:
Shaun's nightmare begins with him standing in a dark empty void that seemed to go on endlessly, he yells out to no one in particular and the only thing he hears back is his echo. He begins to walk forward looking for a way out when something creaks behind him. He turns around quickly and sees a bed with something hiding underneath the blanket. Whatever is underneath sits up and the blanket falls off it. It's a shadowy figure with a female physique and it stands up and begins to walk slowly to Shaun. It moves it's mouth to speak but no words come out. The figure reaches out a hand and Shaun slowly starts to back away until he bumps into someone. He turns around and faces another shadow figure, this one having a male physique. The figure does the same as the female one and approaches Shaun with a hand out to grab him while speaking, but no words are heard from it. Shaun starts to run fast away from them, tears falling from his eyes, he knows these shadows are familiar but he still can't remember why. He looks back at them but trips on his own feet and falls down. Shaun looks below and sees the female shadowy figure, which is 100x bigger than before. It lifts its arms and squishes Shaun between it's hands like he was a bug.
Shaun quickly jolts up and lets out a terrifying scream and sobs uncontrollably. Chilli and Bandit who were downstairs watching their daughters play in the backyard hear him and Chilli runs to check on him. "Shaun!" she yells as she opens the door and sees him crying. She walks over to him and sits next to him. "Hey mate, did you have a bad dream?" Shaun wipes the tears from his eyes and just nods at her. Chilli grabs him and gives him a hug; Shaun returns the hug before Chilli speaks again. "Why don't you head into the kitchen and get some brekkie and join Bluey and Bingo outside?" "Okay" Shaun says quietly as he walks out the room with his head down. Chilli looks at him with sad eyes and follows him out of the room. Bandit sees Shaun enter the kitchen and asks if he's okay. "Good morning kiddo, we heard you scream. Did you have a nightmare?" "Yeah, I did but I'm doing okay now Bandit" Shaun replied as he sat at the table and poured himself a small bowl of cereal. After finishing his breakfast, he got up and put his bowl in the sink and began to walk towards the backyard before getting stopped by Chilli, She put a hand on his shoulder. Shaun flinched and looked back at her with death in his eyes. "Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to frighten you. I just wanted to say there is something me and Bandit want to talk to you about when it's time to come in for lunch." She said. She felt guilty for accidentally scaring him. Shaun nodded and walked outside with Bandit and Chilli, both looking at him with worried eyes.
He stepped off the porch and headed over to Bingo and Bluey who were playing tea party with their plushies, Bingo had a pink bunny she named Floppy and Bluey had a pink and white dog with a heart on its chest that she named Polly Puppy. They heard Shaun approaching and smiled at him with tails wagging. "Morning sleepy head!" Bluey said excitedly to see her new friend. Shaun gave her a slight smile before sitting down next to them. "I think we heard you scream earlier like someone was hurting you." as Bingo said that Shaun's smile went away as he looked down at the ground. "Bingo!" Bluey said to her little sister a little annoyed at her for making Shaun upset. "It's okay you two, I'm doing better now, but yes I did scream, I had a nightmare." he said and gave bingo a smile, letting her know he forgives her. "Do you mind if I play tea party with y'all? Bingo and Bluey looked at him and tilted their heads in confusion. "Yawl? Who's Yawl?" Bingo asked him. "No, it's 'Y'all', it means you all. It's something we say in America." "Ohhhhhh" Bluey and Bingo said before they started saying it back and forth at each other while giggling at the silly word.
Meanwhile next door a young Chow Chow wearing a blue headband with yellow spots heard laughing coming from her friend's yard and looked over the fence to see Bluey, Bingo and a gray and white dog she had never seen before all playing together and having fun. Feeling left out the Chow Chow walked inside her house to ask her mother, who is also a Chow Chow, if she could go over and play with them. "sure thing Judo, I'll call you back over when it's time for lunch." Judo's mom, who is named Wendy, replied to her daughter. Judo walked over and hopped over the fence to join everyone. Bluey, who was sitting in view of the fence saw her come over and spoke to her. "Hi Judo! You want to play tea party with us?" Shaun looked over at Judo and got a strange feeling in his stomach but to him it felt good. "Sure, I was bored at home anyways." she said as she walked over and sat next to Shaun who was still staring at her. "Hi there, I don't think I've met you before. What's your name?" Shaun snapped out of it and put out his hand to shake. "My name's Shaun, it's nice to meet you Judo" he said while slightly blushing. Judo noticed this and looked away while shaking his hand. "Shaun? That's a cute name." she replied, Blushing. Bluey cleared her throat. "Are you two done talking?" Judo and Shaun looked at her and laughed while scratching the back of their heads. After they all played tea party, and some other games, it was time for Judo to go back home and for the rest of the kids to eat lunch. Shaun and Judo looked at each other one last time before heading back inside their homes.
Everyone sat at the dinner table eating sausages with tomato sauce until Shaun asked Bandit and Chilli what they wanted to talk to him about. "Well mate remember yesterday I said your uncle has the same name as my big brother? Well, he's here for a while until he goes back to work on that oil rig so I figured maybe if you two talked together later this evening, it might help you remember some things, like how you ended up in the park or who your parents are." Bandit said while taking a big bite from his sausage. "But only if you want to talk to him, we aren't forcing you." Chilli chimed in. Shaun thought about it for a bit until he spoke. "Yeah, I want to talk to Radley. I hate this feeling of not knowing." "Then its settled." Bandit said as he got up to put his plate in the sink and walked outside to talk to his brother. After explaining what happened yesterday to his older brother he came back inside. "Okay kiddo he'll be here in a few hours. I hope he can help you out so we can get you back to your family." Shaun nodded in agreement as he and Bluey and Bingo finished eating. "Mum can we go upstairs and play until uncle Rad comes here?" Bluey asked her mother. Okay kiddos but be down here when he gets here okay?" "Yes mum!" Bingo and Bluey yelled as they ran upstairs with Shaun behind them. "Be careful!" Bandit tried telling them, but they were too far to hear him. Bandit then sat next to his wife and put his hand on her hand and gently rubbed it. "I hope we find his parents soon; they must be worried sick about him." he said looking into Chilli's eyes. "Me too, but we'll do our best to care for him until then." She said looking back into his eyes before giving him smoochy kiss.