Charlie's Pov
Barbara. I felt a sudden pain in my head as that name seemed to emerge from the depths of my mind. As if a switch had been flipped, I suddenly remembered her. The teen who ran. Who left. 10 years ago. I tried remembering why, but I didn't recall much. My memory was still pretty shaky at the moment so I sighed and glanced up at her. "It's fine. We all have our moments."

She nodded and brushed a strand of her blond hair from her face. "Charlie, you seen Zeke around? Kinda want to see what that kid has been up to."

I shrugged. "Zeke is....uh....I don't know. I haven't seen him since yesterday morning."

Barbara tilted her head to the side. "Oh right. That makes sense. There was a fire yesterday. And yeah. I saw from my car. Do you know...if he was in there?"

I shook my head. "The only people I saw was our mother, who had been shot. Our father, who was standing with a gun above her. And....a weird looking clown who hit me repeatedly with a bat."

Barbara blinked. "Well, I had a pretty eventful Tuesday. But that's a story for another time. Right now, I have a certain group of people I'm chasing. They came from the place I live now. A city named Marywood. You seen any people in animal masks, Charlie?"

I shook my head. Animal masks? Strange.

Barbara nodded. "I see. Well, guess I should take you to a police station or something. I'm not much of a babysitter and I have pretty urgent business that a kid like you wouldn't know about. And shouldn't."

"Really? After a clown tried to bash my head in? And I'm covered in saliva. And I have this bleeding hand sized hole in my stomach. You're not worried at all?"

Barbara sighed. "I'm no doctor. So a hospital is a better place to go now that you mention it. Although, you didn't seem all that worried and seemed to not notice it until you mentioned it."

"Well, I uh....-".

A black haired woman stepped out from the car. "Barbara. You never told me you had a brother."

Barbara smiled a little. "I have two actually."

"Even worse. Your bestie deserves to know everything about you." She walked over and held her hand out. "Lee. Nice to meet you."

I blinked. This woman. She smelled familiar. So familiar. I just couldn't place it. But I had smelled that smell before. I shook her hand slowly. "Charlie. Have we met before?"

She shook her head. "No. This is my first time here."

Something felt off about that statement. That wasn't the whole truth. I glanced at Barbara and saw that she had a strange look on her face. Had she detected something strange as well? I let go of her hand. "Hmm. Guess I was mistaken."

Lee nodded. "Guess s-".

A quick flash of lightning occurred a few blocks from here, along with the sound of cracking wood. Two strange things though. The sky was clear. No clouds in that area. And....the lightning was black. Smoke began trailing up into the sky from the spot.

I blinked. "So....what was that?"

"No idea." Barbara had turned her attention to the direct of the smoke. Multiple loud thuds were heard. Suddenly, the smoke began to part. And then something huge darted out from the smoke. It was way bigger than the houses it ran past. At least 5 times bigger at least. It seemed like a very very large human with pale grey skin. Completely naked. No genitals in the places where a male or female would normally have them. And wavy black hair was the only thing I took in before Barbara grabbed me by the shoulder. "In the car. Now."

Didn't need to tell me twice. I held my bleeding side and ran off towards the car. The giant human like creature leaped over houses and slammed into the ground, seemingly coming for us. The creature seemed to miscalculate a jump and slammed into a single house along the way, although it almost immediately got up and continued running. Barbara grabbed Lee by the arm and pulled her out of what looked like a shocked daze. The creature reached down for Lee and Barbara right as they bolted for the car. I noticed that the creature had sharp nails that were on the edges of it's fingertips. It really was like a giant human. I entered the car through the back and buckled myself in as Lee opened the passenger door and Barbara ran to the other side of the car to open the driver side door. She turned the key in the ignition and then stepped on the gas as soon as Lee closed her door and she closed hers. Unsurprisingly, the creature turned towards the car and quickly began following. A slightly lean build along with intelligence and speed. What in the world was that thing?

Barbara veered off the sidewalk and back into the street. "Second day back and bullshit is already happening." She glanced around at the cracks of bright light which still remained all around. "And what the hell are those things?"

I shivered in fear and anticipation. "No idea. Let's just focus on driving though, okay?"

The thuds from behind us were becoming less frequent as Barbara picked up speed.

"Police won't be able to handle that. We need the army or....something." Lee placed one hand over her face and let out a heavy sigh.

Barbara sighed. She seemed nervous that this giant thing was chasing us. That was to be expected but...something about her friend still felt off.

A dark figure emerged from one of the cracks of light that was closer to the ground. Thing was though, he emerged right in front of the car. The car slammed into him and splattered his blood across the windshield and slammed his face against it as well. Barbara yelled out and the surprise of what just happened caused her driving to go out of control and send the car off the road and through the air. The car flipped once and then slammed into the ground and the sound of glass breaking was what I heard. A few seconds later, the sound of metal tearing was also heard by me and a dark shadow loomed over the car. I peered up to see the black haired creature staring down at us. With a closer look, I saw that it had a pair of dark black eyes in it's eye sockets. It looked so human. What the hell? My head began pounding and I breathed out heavily before feeling my eyes droop closed on that thought.

1 hour later
I opened my eyes to find that I was no longer in the wrecked car. I was staring up at a grayish ceiling. I sat up and groaned a bit as my body ached in pain. I heard a slight cough to my left and turned. Barbara stared at me with a sad look on her face. She looked unhurt. For the most part. I tried to see if I recognized the house we were in but it didn't ring any bells. The walls were a bright red and the room was decorated in red. Red curtains. Red tables. Red toy cars. So much red. I glanced down at what I was laying on and saw that it was one of the few objects of the room that wasn't red. A brown comfy couch. I felt my face contort into one of confusion. "Where are we? What happened? Where's Lee?"

Barbara sighed. "A random person invited us in. Not much I could do. You looked bad. And they had bandages and food. Medical experience that I didn't have. My phone is nowhere to be found and they didn't call 911. Nor did anyone else who must have saw the wreck. It's strange. As for Lee, that giant man thing took her."

"Annnddd......you didn't just use their phone to call 911?"

"I tried. Nobody picked up. Called about 30 times."

I sighed. "Just great." I looked down. And then footsteps were coming from down the hall. Thank Alex for normal footsteps. I turned and saw three girls and and older woman standing there in the entrance from another room. All seemed to be my age, minus the older woman. I glanced at one of the three younger girls. She had short bright red hair and the bright green eyes. Or eye, I should say. She had a black eye-patch over her left eye. The older woman seemed to be the splitting image of the red haired girl, except she had both eyes. Them looking so similar caused me to assume they were siblings or the older one was her mother. Then, the girl standing next to her was a girl with long brown hair that went down towards her legs. She had dark green eyes and wasn't looking at me. Finally, the girl taller than the rest who stood at the back behind them stared at me with a cold look in her narrowed blue eyes. Her hair was a light red.

The girl with the eye-patch turned to me. "Hello. My name is Sophia." She smiled sweetly. "This is my house. And you can spend as much time as you like here."

The girl with long brown hair blinked in surprise. "Sophia. I'm sure that with injures like he had, he can only be trouble."

"You worry too much, Monica. Seems like hanging out with Elizabeth has got your pessimist attitude to come back."

Elizabeth, the tall girl turned her head to Sophia at the mention of her name but said nothing.

The girl named Monica sighed. "It's not illegal to be worried about my friend, is it?"

Sophia looked down for a moment.

Barbara sighed. "Okay, can we maybe skip the sob stories or whatever else is coming and just focus on calling the police or something?"

Monica nodded. "Washington is right. We ne-".

"How do you know my last name?"

Monica froze up.

Barbara grabbed my hand. "I think it's time we left."

Sophia shook her head. "You can't."

Barbara scoffed. "I'm about three hundred percent sure we can."

Sophia laughed at that and glanced at the television. She pulled a remote out from her pocket and turned it on.

It was a News Reporter. The man on the screen had on a nice looking black suit. ".....At this time, we are unsure as to what caused these portals of mysterious light to open up around an hour ago, but since then, countless.....things have come out from said objects. Things you'd hope to only see in your deepest nightmares....or horror movies. Reports of...cannibalism have been coming in from all over. Other things like abnormally tall men or women have also been seen. These sightings have been coming from all over Town and even from nearby Towns. As of right now, we encourage people to either stay in doors or to find a safe place to reside in until more answers can be found on this strange situation. We'll keep reports frequent as more news comes in."

A commercial came on.

"You are in some shit", a familiar child's voice rang out. A young boy from what it sounded like.

I looked around but saw no one. And the others hadn't reacted to the voice. Strange. The voice sounded like.....impossible. I dismissed it.

Sophia smiled. "See? You can't leave. Not if you wanna stay alive."

"You say it so cheerfully", I blinked at her.

Sophia shrugged. "Keeping an optimistic attitude is the key to being happy and not depressed. Let loose. Clown around. Unleash the you that you showed when you used to play baseball."

"How in the hell do you know about that?" Fear, anger and confusion swirled through me all at the same time, as if someone had turned on a blender for my emotions.

Sophia didn't answer. I glanced at Barbara. She seemed to be thinking heavily. Whether it was on suspicion of these weirdos or their current situation, I didn't know.

Elizabeth sighed. "Mrs. Monem, I hope you don't mind that all these people are staying here. Sorry for the inconvenience."

The older red haired woman smiled. "It's fine. I love visitors. And I don't mind them at all. My little Sophia doesn't hang out much at all. She's not like me. Hmm, I remember my first friend and crush. Handsome young boy. Always seemed lonely and withdrawn. His name was Jason." She looked sad for a moment.

I glanced at the woman. Monem. I'm sure I'd heard that last name somewhere before, but I couldn't put my finger on who it belonged to. "Was? Did he....pass away?"

The woman nodded. "He did. About midnight. His head was cut off. And a few of his body parts had been ripped off and his flesh seemed mangled and bloody. I saw him one last time actually....although, I doubt he enjoyed seeing me. I've changed a lot."

I felt a tiny line of sweat drip down from my forehead area. This place was definitely creep central. I wished Zeke or Alex were here, I always felt safer when I was with them. I tried to hope for the best with Zeke, that he was alive and hadn't been in the fire, but....if he hadn't been in the fire, wouldn't he have reported it to the police? But then again, the odds were stacked against him being alive anyway, his girlfriend Hannah hadn't mentioned him looking for me, and he definitely would have told her to keep an eye out if he knew about the fire. Unless....that clown had got to him. Why? Why did that clown go after my mother? Why did my father have to be such a scumbag as to work with the thing killing his wife? If he did love her, why did he work to help her be killed? If he didn't love her, how did I exist? Surely you wouldn't be in a relationship with a person you despised, right? I felt anger emerge from somewhere in the depths of my mind. It was for a lot of things. But mostly for the fact that I had so many questions and so little answers.

Sophia sighed. "You're gonna bore our guests to death if you keep talking, Mom."

The older woman shrugged and walked out of the room.

Barbara shot up. "Charlie. If what you said is true, then there's no one to look after you. Amy isn't answering. Neither is the actual police station. You know who can't be trusted anymore. Mom may not be around anymore. And Zeke is either dead or....not here. I can call a few friends of mine who came and they can give us a ride back to Marywood, where I can protect you fully."

"The news said to find a safe place to hold out in. You think you have something better than this? A place where I won't be able to get injured for the millionth time today?"

"Yup. I do. I can certainty protect you better than these creeps."

Monica frowned. "Hey! We aren't creeps."

Barbara ignored her. "But seriously, I doubt even the police could deal with this. And that clown is here. Not in Marywood. You'd be safer."

"I'm not leaving until I know for sure that Zeke and Mom are dead. Otherwise, I'd feel like I was abandoning them. But you know, I'm sure it's easy for you either way, since you had no trouble leaving the first time."

"You think I left?" She laughed loudly. "Oh. That's more priceless than Mark in a dress. Charlie. Our crappy father lied to you. I didn't leave. He kicked me out."

"H-he did?" I was slightly taken back.

"Yup. He did. And he hit me a lot. For liking girls." She was shaking a little. It was almost like the others weren't there. Like they didn't exist. It was just her and I.

I then felt a light pounding begin. It caused a sharp pain to flare in my head. I clutched my head and saw that the room began to spin, before falling forward to the wooden floor.

1 year earlier
Choking. I gasped as the hands wrapped around my neck. I stared up at the person who was doing it. Groaning. Clawing. I tried to convey to my father that I couldn't breathe as he continued.

"IT SEEMS LIKE SIN JUST WON'T LEAVE MY CHILDREN ALONE!" He let go and threw me to the floor. "Faggotry will not be tolerated in this household. Not nine years ago, and definitely not now. Do you think it's okay to do what you just did?" He pulled my head up and slapped me. Hard. Pain rang out from my cheek and I felt the start of tears begin to flow out from my eyes. "Do you think kissing your FUCKING brother is okay?!" He pulled off his belt. I was 12 years old. And he still beat me. He had waited for me to get out from the shower, and must have saw me kiss Zeke this morning. My body was still wet and pain was at an all time high as he sent the belt down against my thigh. I screamed out and tried to exit the bedroom. He grabbed my foot. "I asked you a question." I froze. Running only made it worse. I could safely say so.

"N-n-n-no. I-It's n-not okay. I w-w-won't do it a-again", I stuttered through tears.

"Liar. Sin has corrupted you." He pulled the belt back and a moment later, my ass was in agony. "This is how your sins will make you feel later in life. You should just get used to it now if you won't allow yourself to be cleansed." I fell to the floor in pain.

"I-I'm s-s-sorry."

"You're gonna be sorry for hours then. And when I'm done, you're gonna sit and think about what you did." He pulled the belt higher into the air and then smacked it against my still wet ass. I screamed out even louder.

5 Months later
Zeke wrapped his arms around me gently. I winced but sighed happily in relief. Sitting on Zeke's bed calmed my nerves. Zeke always helped calm me down. His smile. His sandy blond hair. His wonderful smell. His entire existence just...helped me relax. I don't wanna imagine how it'd be like without him. Could I even keep living? Zeke gently pulled away from me and frowned gently. "He beat you again, didn't he?"

I nodded. "Yeah. He beat me again."

"He always waits until I'm not around."

"Probably because he doesn't wanna beat you."

"And why would I get special treatment?"

"Because, you're cool. Popular with the ladies. Have decent grades. He also doesn't catch you doing gay things. He probably believes I influenced you that one time. You're like the perfect child. And then you've got me. A loser. I have very few friends. I'm not good with girls. Or guys. Or people in general. I'm nervous around people. I get bullied. I cry a lot. Dad probably sees you as the best thing he ever created. With me, he probably wishes he would have pulled out faster."

Zeke shook his head. "That's not true. He may be an asshole. But somewhere, he knows that he's glad you exist. Deep, deep in that small heart of his. You're intelligent. You're Charlie. You're my little brother that I love. If he ever touches you again, I want you to come find me. I want you to call me right away. I won't stand for this any longer. I will protect you. Even if nobody else will. I'm what you have. What you need. And I'll do everything to protect our precious but forbidden love." In that moment, I looked Zeke in the eye and saw intense determination. He meant it. I then leaned forward and connected our lips with a kiss. That's what this was. A forbidden love.

Present time
I slowly opened my eyes as the memories faded along with my headache. My eyes widened at the girl who was a bit too close to my face. "Is there a problem, Sophia?"

She was staring worriedly at me, but she shook her head. "No. No problem. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

I was back on the couch again. "Where's Barbara?"

"She saw something weird in the backyard and went to go check it out. Should be back any second now." She backed away from my face and smiled slightly.

I got an uneasy feeling at the way she stared at me, and being that it was just us two, that didn't make it any easier. "I'll go check on her."

She nodded silently and turned away from me to keep watching the Tv.

I exited the room and found myself in a barely lit hallway. The light from the sun outside was good enough, but it still felt creepy. I saw paintings on the walls. Some were of animals. Some of clowns. And they all didn't help the mood. I quickly looked away from the paintings and saw a sliding door that led to the backyard. I rushed forward and pulled the door open. "Barbara? You still out here?"

I was answered with silence. Great. Time to investigate. I stumbled with my slightly blurry eyesight and glanced around for any hiding places. Although, I doubted Barbara would be playing hide and seek. She seemed too mature for that. The grass and trees in the large backyard didn't indicate that anything strange had gone on. There was a bad stink that was somewhere in the yard. It smelled like a dead animal. I covered my nose and looked at the ground for any clues of where Barbara had gone to. There was a wooden fence that stretched around the yard. A section of the fence towards the left edge of the yard had been torn out. I saw tiny droplets of blood on the ground in a trail leading outside from where I stood all the way to even outside the broken fence. Please be okay, Barbara.

I heard the sound of short, cut off gagging and I sprinted out through the broken gate. Monica was on top of Barbara and she had wrapped her hands around her throat. "HEY", I yelled out and tackled Monica into the dirt. "The heck are you doing?"

Monica stared up at me. "Sorry. I must have lost myself. Won't happen again."

"Damn right it won't." Barbara stood up and pulled a shiny golden pistol from her solid black purse. She pressed it up against Monica's forehead. "Three hundred percent guarantee."

Monica glared up at us both. "I said sorry. Jeez."

"Since when does sorry make up for choking someone?"

"It was just a prank."

I sighed. "Weird prank."

The same childish voice from earlier giggled in my ear, but like earlier, there was nobody there when I looked. "Am I the only one hearing that?"

Barbara glanced at me. "Hearing what?"

"There's was this little boy wh-".

"Blow me. What's going on?" I turned to the sound of the voice and saw Elizabeth glaring at us.

"Pranks." Barbara said with a slight smile.

Monica frowned. "Putting a gun to someone's head is a prank?"

"Shut it, hypocrite."

Elizabeth let out a sigh. "So, any of you wanna tell me why you all decided to lose the plot?"

"What now?"

Elizabeth sighed and rolled her eyes. "Slip of the tongue. But seriously, what's going on here?" I stared blankly at her and shrugged. She cracked a knuckle and her glare intensified. "Maybe I wasn't clear enough. Tell me why you have a gun aimed at Monica's head or I swear to the White Witch that things are gonna get ugly!"

I frowned. "White.......nevermind. Your friend here was choking my sister. So I made the decision to get her off. And the rest is history."

Monica bit her lip. "I said it was a joke."

"People don't joke like that!"

"Clearly you've never seen prank videos on Youtube."

"AND?"

"You don't get how pranks work."

"Exc-".

"CHARLIE!" A pair of short arms wrapped around my chest and the small boy attached to the arms hugged me. I smiled. That white hair the color of snow. That pale skin. The bright blue eyes that stared at me through the hug. All familiar.

"Jacob. You're okay." I hugged him tighter. I saw a tiny little girl standing to the side from the corner of my eye. Emma too. Thank goodness. "I know your house isn't far from here but.....why did you come here?"

Jacob bounced on his feet a little and smiled. "The nice police lady saw us. She told us to follow her to a police car but I saw you and was so excited! Mom said we'd never see you unless you visited so I wanted to say hi."

Barbara stood up and away from Monica. "Nice police lady?"

"Charlie. And......oh my GOD! Barbara?!" The sound of Aunt Amy's voice filled my ears.

I gently pulled away from Jacob and smiled at her. I got off of Monica and walked over to her. "Hi, Aunty. Have you seen Zeke? Was he in the fire? Is he still alive?"

"Zeke? What fire? And why is Barbara holding a gun?"

"Yes. A fire that happened at our house last night. And.........pranks."

"I see. " A police car drove up and parked in a open space a few houses down. "Well, I wasn't aware there was a fire. We didn't receive any calls about a house fire yesterday. I recall hearing that your school collapsed and exploded somehow. Along with sightings of clowns, but no fire. I haven't seen Zeke since Wednesday. Two days ago."

"I haven't seen him since yesterday morning."

Barbara sighed. "Both of you go cry me a river. I haven't seen him in ten years."

I chuckled at that. "So, find Zeke and then what?"

Amy tapped her foot. "We listen to the news and stay inside. All we can do really."

I was about respond but heard the sound of groaning. I tilted my head to listen. It sounded like a lot of people. All just......groaning. "Please tell me I'm not going crazy and am the only one hearing these things?"

Everyone else paused and listened for a few seconds.

Barbara nodded. "No. I hear groans, I think."

Monica nodded as well and finally sat up. "Sounds like more than one person too."

I nodded at that. "Whatever it is, they're almost here."

A figure stepped out from behind the house across the street. The shadows of the house obscured the person. But one of the groans seemed to be coming from them. They stumbled forward and moved slowly out from the darkness created by the roof of the house. I froze at what I saw. Pale grey flesh. Milkly pure white eyes. Mouth red with what I hoped was juice. Decorated of what looked like teeth marks along it's body. This thing was something seen only in horror movies. A zombie.

Jacob's eyes widened in amazement. "So cool!"

I glanced at him. "What?"

"Did you forget what day it was? It's Halloween. That's just a costume."

"...........OH. Oops."

"You're coming to my party later, right?"

"Jacob. Your house is...um...well...nevermind."

A cat sat in the middle of the sidewalk across the street. It seemed to be sleeping. The man in the zombie costume stumbled over the cat and fell to the ground. The cat hissed and sat up. The man in the zombie costume grabbed the cat at it's middle and lifted it to it's mouth.

"Umm....". I stared. This guy was certainly into his acting.

And then the man chomped down on the cat's middle. It shook and let out a cry and a weak hiss as blood flew out from the bitten area.

Amy gasped. "Oh my.....". She reached for her radio and pressed a button and waited a few seconds. "Dispatch. I have a possible signal 20. I'm requesting a 10-24 immediately at Nikers Road."

A voice on her radio replied. "10-4. 10-94 should be there shortly."

Amy let go of the button. "EVERYONE! Get inside now!"

Elizabeth nodded. "Come on." She grabbed Jacob and Emma by the hands and led them back to Sophia's house. Monica rushed after her.

Barbara followed behind them.

I frowned. "But w-".

"I said GO!"

I sighed as Dale emerged from the police car. "Just be careful." I saw five more creatures that resembled zombies stumble out from the same darkness as their first friend. Amy gave me a slight nod. I turned around and ran towards the house after everyone else. I saw Elizabeth open the backdoor and let Jacob and everyone else go through. She stared at me coldly as I entered but said nothing. I turned back to see Amy and Dale seemingly trying to reason with the grey skinned groaners. One of them reached out and almost grabbed Dale's arm, which caused him to stumble backwards towards the house with Amy. I stared in anticipation as Dale and Amy eventually decided to run into the house with us. Elizabeth waited until they got inside before slamming the door shut.

15 minutes later
 Waiting. For all of the 15 minutes, the living room was filled with questions, long silences and awkward questions that just made us end up back where we started. Worst Halloween ever. I glanced at Amy. "Expect your police friends to get here soon?"

"Hope so. A lot of them were....killed. So it may be a while. I just hope my daughters are okay." She had pushed one of the couches in front of back door. Luckily, nothing had wandered to the front of the house yet. But it was only a matter of time before our luck ran out. The lights being on only illuminated the faces of the grey skinned groaners. Freaking creepy.

"So, wait it out. The news isn't giving us any helpful information so we're kinda stuck for the moment."

"Actually, we're not." Mrs. Monem had on a white suit. There was a strange symbol on it. It looked like a sword or something like it going through a monster's head. She held a briefcase in her hands. She pressed a button on the handle and it popped open. She pulled out a glowing blue sword and smiled. "Sophie Monem. First rank officer of the Monster Suppression Organization. Glad to be at your service." She turned to Sophia. "When I open this door, everyone is to leave through the front. And I mean everyone." She then turned to Amy. "Go find your daughters. Use my car. It won't fit all of you so just split up. One cop takes one car and group, and the other waits for the zombies to come in here with me so they can go around the house to the police car." She pulled out a red set of keys and tossed them to Amy.

Sophie picked up a large red bag off the floor and smiled at her mom as we approached the front door. "Be careful, Super Mom."

Sophie pushed the couch away from the door and nodded. "This isn't the time for jokes, you clown!" Despite saying that, she smiled and unlocked the door and opened it.

5 minutes later Our group had gotten the Monem car. Three rows of seats just for us. It was Amy and Barbara up front. Monica and Elizabeth in the second row. And Sophia and myself in the very back.

Amy didn't take her eyes off the road but she did tell us we were almost there.

I stared at the window I was facing. My eyes were different. So very different than how they had looked at the beginning of the week. I heard the same little boy laughing from earlier in my ear as my reflection in the mirror morphed. It had changed into a much younger me who stared with cold eyes. His hands were bloody and he was smiling. Give me my body back, it wrote in blood. I shook my head. What did it mean? Could it be referring t-.

Sophia grabbed my shoulder. "Why are you staring at the window so hard? And shaking too."

"You don't see that?"

"See what?"

I turned back to the mirror to show her but saw that it was normal again. I felt my breathing quicken a little. What in the world? The sound of multiple helicopters flying above us shook me out of my thoughts. Monica's eyes widened as she watched them fly out of sight. She turned to Elizabeth and gave her a slight nod. What did those two know? Jeez. I opened my mouth to say something.

"We're here." Amy parked in front of her large blue and white house. Damn. Amy unlocked the doors and removed the car key. We all exited as Dale pulled up in the police car. Amy pulled out her house keys and sighed. "Doesn't look like there was forced entry. A start." She slid the key into the lock and gently pushed the door open. "Kayla? Layla? You guys alright?"

Silence answered her.

"Strange." She walked in and gasped. "NO! OH MY GOD! KAYLA!" She ran to the left into what I remembered was the living room. I ran after her and saw the living room destroyed. The TV had been knocked over and had a large crack in it. Photos of Amy and here daughters had been torned from their frames and ripped apart. The kitchen table had been destroyed and three of it's legs were scattered around the room. Then, there was little cousin Kayla. The younger sibling. She was only eight. But glass had torn the pink dress she was wearing to bloody shreds. Her head was bleeding and looked like multiple blows had struck it. The bloody fourth kitchen table leg lying next to her only confirmed my suspicions. Amy reached out for the crying, shaking girl but retracted her hand at the last moment. Hugging or comforting her would only hurt her more. I glanced at a note lying next to Kayla with a picture attached and bent down to pick it up. Strangely, I wasn't crying. Nor did I feel sad. I simply picked up the note.

Hello. Washington. Like the present I left? Sorry about the living room. Although, soon it won't be able to even be called a LIVING room. LOL. I crack myself up sometimes. Here's the deal though. We have your other daughter with us. If you ever wanna see her alive again, you are to come to the nearby city. Marywood. Tell little Charlie I enjoyed fisting him and roasting his family. -Love, Number 1.

There was a small arrow pointing to the picture on the side. A picture of the clown who had beat me with a bat and burned my house down. In the picture he was holding a gun to my fourteen year old cousin's head. He thought this was all a game? I heard the sound of glass breaking. An object rolled slowly into the room. Green. Small. And.....oh my God. "Grenade!" I grabbed Amy and pulled her to her feet and rushed to the entrance. As we ran out, an explosion was heard from the living room we'd just been in. Amy fell to her knees as she saw a bloodied and burning leg fly out from a now broken window. She screamed and cried. I handed her the note and glanced at the others who had frozen and done nothing. Cowards. I held my head and looked past them. A bloody figure was walking towards us. Sophie Monem. How convenient. "If that offer still stands, I'd like to come with. Zeke is either dead or that Number one clown dude has him." I glanced at Barbara. "To Marywood we go."

1 hour later
Barbara had driven us to Marywood. I had expected there would be objections but nobody complained. Sophie had said her house wasn't going to protect her now and got in with Dale and the others. Most of us didn't have a house anymore. Amy was now sitting in the back with me and Sophia had gone to the middle row with her two friends. Amy wiped her eyes again and glanced at me. "Your friend.....Gunther. What was he like?"

I frowned. "Was?"

"Sorry. Is."

"Hmm. Gunther is pretty complex. He doesn't say much when he's in a big crowd or group, he talks more when there are less people though. He was good at fighting. And he's pretty smart. He liked to play detective a lot when we were a little younger. And even when I was clueless about things, he always knew. He's also great at chess and.....": I felt a very familiar pounding headache come on. I clutched my head and fell back in my seat.

1 Month ago I stared out into the afternoon sky. It was a boring day today. A Sunday. The day where you had to prepare for Monday. Saturday was always fun because you could spend all day watching Netflix with some food and not be bothered. Sunday was always Church day. And things went by too fast on Sundays. The only reason I wasn't in Church today was because father was sick. So I wondered around. Alex was hanging out with Tom today. Apparently Tom was trying to get Alex into anime. Pfft. He'd need a good series and loads of luck then. I glanced at the trees that stood to my left. Lightning struck somewhere within the trees. Black lightning? Was that even possible? Only one way to find out. I re-adjusted my glasses and ran towards the woods.

After a few seconds, I noticed a trail of grey smoke going up into the sky. I hoped it wasn't a fire as I arrived at the location. There was a destroyed carriage lying in a pile of leaves. A horse neighed and galloped away in the corner of my eye. I stared at the carriage. A man lay in it. He was in a giant enclosed pale, grey skinned fist. The grey smoke was coming from where it looked like the wrist stopped. But what kind of person had such a giant hand? I had been staring only for a few seconds when a figure darted out from the shadows the trees created. David laughed as I fell backwards in fear. "Oh look at who I found. A little nerd fag. How ya doing?" He cracked his knuckles and walked over to me. "I asked you a question." He stared down at me. A green shirt and some shorts was a hell of a thing to die in. But I figured I would die. For some reason, this guy hated me.

I stared up at him. When he wasn't glaring, he almost looked cute. I know it's strange to see a person who bullied and tormented you as cute, but hey, I'm a strange guy who's in love with his brother. I bathe in strange. He huffed. And I stared at his red and black sweater and his grey sweatpants. I wonder if he was big.

"Hey. Keep your eyes up here!" He stepped closer to me and stood in between my legs. Yes. Even closer. I could only imagine the things he would do to me.

"G-give me something more interesting to look at t-then." I stared at his pants defiantly. I felt myself get a little hard. Zeke may have been straight, but David could satisfy my desires. I completely forgot the giant hand and focused on David.

He placed his foot against my erection and sighed. "Maybe if you were a girl, freaky queer!" He pressed down hard with his foot. I felt myself twitch and I bit my lip in pain. I reached up and pushed David away.

"W-w-what are y-you doing?"

"I could ask you the same thing. I'M STRAIGHT, FAGGOT! F-A-G! QUEER! RAINBOW! JUST DIE AND STOP TRYING TO INFECT ME WITH YOUR DISEASE!"

Disease? What? "What do you mean?"

"BURN IN HELL!" He lifted his foot back and sent it forward to kick me in the face. I closed my eyes and shielded my face. But the impact of the kick never came. I opened an eye slightly and saw that the kick had been stopped. A hand firmly grasped David's foot. "Wh-". The person pulled their hand up, and this caused David to do a little flip before falling to the ground.

I removed my hands from in front of my face to see who it was. Hair as dark as a black hole. Eyes cold as ice. The person who saved me was a friend of mine. "Gunther?"

Gunther nodded at me. He wore a large grey sweater and pulled the hood off his head.

David groaned in pain and stood up. "You could be so much more, Gunther. Hanging around a freak like Charlie is just gonna get you hurt. OR WORSE!" He balled his left hand into a fist and swung at Gunther.

Gunther moved like a blur. He stopped David's fist and twisted it behind his back. "I would never hang out with a stuck up asshole like you in a million years. You may think Charlie is a freak but he isn't. You're the freak!" There was a popping sound. "You won't let people be who they are and constantly judge people. Who made you God?"

"I-It hurts. S-stop!" David cried out.

"I bet you never stop whenever you hurt Charlie."

"I will. P-please. L-let GO", he begged.

Gunther huffed and let go. "Someone like you never learns their lesson."

David cried on the ground for a few seconds. He held his arm and glared at Gunther before stumbling to his feet and running off.

I stared at Gunther in shock for a moment. "Thanks. You showed him."

Gunther shrugged. "It was only right."

I smiled. "You saved me. David was probably going to beat me to death or something."

Gunther opened his mouth to say something but stared behind me. I turned. Zeke stood there. "Fucker. Charlie isn't yours."

Gunther tilted his head. "All I did was help him."

"That's my job. And I'll be around to do it far longer than you will."

"Uh huh. Who are you anyway?"

"Zeke. Charlie's big brother."

"Well, you aren't so good at your job at protecting him. If I hadn't been here, he might've ended up in the hospital. But I won't always be around. Teach him how to fight and protect himself. You'll regret it if you don't." He walked past Zeke.

Zeke glared after him before turning his eyes to the giant, now almost completely skeletal hand. "The fuck is that?"

I shook my head at Zeke. "No idea."

Present Time
I bolted up. I stared at the little version of me again. He frowned. "I am the you from your childhood. You are a mere false persona created by that Alex brat. The seal he placed on you to keep me locked away is at it's weakest. It's time for me to come and play. While you'll be locked away." A bright light blinded my vision.

When I opened my eyes, I saw that we had stopped in front of a building. I was back in the car. Barbara parked the car and sighed as Dale pulled up behind us. Amy peered at me worriedly but I said nothing. Barbara glanced back at us. "This is where you'll be staying. This building was owned by my Grandfather. Now it belongs to me. There's an underground area of the building that can be sealed with a code. Down there are rooms and beds, food, water, Television to keep yourselves updated on the news, and a few guns. I'm going to give you the code on a piece of paper as well as the location in the building where the entrance is located."

Amy glanced at Barbara. "Where are you going?"

"I have plently of these buildings to spare. I'm a big girl. I can handle myself." She came back and handed Amy a piece of paper and two maps. One for the building. One for the city. I assumed at least. This building was where we'd be staying? Well, I didn't have any problems with that. I was just happy to finally have my body back after eight years.

I smiled widely. "Thanks, sis." I turned to Amy. "Let's go."