Chapter 1

The World's Weirdest Vacation

Ethan

I'll admit I was a little surprised when Dad said we were going on vacation to Ireland. We hadn't traveled much since we moved to New York. I guess it was because of Marlene.

When I was a little kid, I saw dragons. And it wasn't just any dragon. I had named my dragon Marlene and we went on imaginary adventures, fighting my dad's girlfriend Veronica and reading books together. I was a little bookish as a kid. Who am I kidding? I was a full-out geek.

I guess Dad decided I was crazy, so we moved to New York. The new setting distracted me from Marlene, and I quickly made some real friends. Within a few months of moving to New York, I had completely discarded my old fantasy world. I had found a new one, and that was the world of video games.

A few hours before our flight to Ireland, Dad barged into my room and asked me something.

"Hey Ethan, do you want to go to the library?"

I was in the middle of a very intense game of Zombie Slayer 3, so I was a little annoyed to have Dad interrupting my game. I lost my concentration and accidentally walked right towards a zombie.

"Dang it!" I exclaimed over the heavy metal blaring in the background. GAME OVER showed up on the screen. "What is it Dad?" I asked.

"I asked you if you wanted to go to the library! Can you turn the music down?"

"No to both questions."

Dad walked to my iPod and turned down the music to a barely audible volume. "Are you sure you don't want to go to the library? It's going to be a really long flight."

"I'll be fine. I'll just play games the entire time."

"Don't blame me if you're bored on the plane!" Dad said as he left the room.

Before I knew it, Dad and I were on a plane to Ireland. Dad was right. It was a long flight, made even longer by the fact that my iPod's battery ran out on the way there. I never thought that I would be reading Dad's psychology books for fun, but that's what I was doing. Most of his books were dull and boring, but it was better than staring out the window only to see circumambient clouds.

Our hotel was in the very outskirts of a distant suburb of Dublin. I'm not sure why Dad didn't just get a hotel in the city. The hotel was a little run-down, but Dad said that Trip Advisor said the hospitality was amazing here.

A man around Dad's age with ginger hair and a scraggly beard was at the desk. "Hello?" he said.

"Hi. We'd like to check in here," Dad said.

"Sure, sure. What's yer name?"

"Jacob Long."

The man flipped through some papers. "Here ye are... Room 126. Do ye want me to show ye where it is?"

"Yeah, that would be great."

The man took out a lantern and led us down a dark hallway. "There are 14 flights of stairs up to yer room. Ye might want to watch yer step."

My eyes followed the lantern as we ascended into deeper darkness. "Anyways," the man continued, "One of my favorite things about this here place is the wee little leprechauns. Around March, they come around and crawl through the little creevices here. Sometimes they leave little gifts. Once they even left me a nice big pot o' gold!"

This guy was a little weird, but I listened anyways. "And then there's them dragons. Sometimes, if you stay up till the wee hours of the night, you can see them from yer room. Have ye ever seen a dragon?" he said.

Both Dad and I shook our heads. "Then ye might want to stay up real late tonight!" He chuckled. "Them dragons are quite a sight!" The man opened a door. "Here ye are. Tell me if ye need anything. Don't forget to come to our restaurant with real Irish food!"

The man began to trudge down the stairs. I walked into our room and dropped my stuff. "Don't you think that guy was a little weird?" I asked Dad.

"I don't know. He seemed nice to me. Just remember Ethan, Trip Advisor said this was the best hotel in this area. Maybe we should get some sleep. It's late," Dad said.

I couldn't sleep that night. I was haunted by what the man had said about dragons. Go to bed, Ethan I told myself. Dragons don't exist.

I looked out the window. Outside, there was a large lake. At first, I saw little besides the stars and moonlight reflecting on the water. But then I saw it.

Those electric blue eyes from my youth looking directly at me.