I sit on the hard rock and watch as my friends play around in the lake below me. The wind blows my hair back and I smile as I fiddle with a small stone.

"What are you doing up here on a cliff, all by yourself?" I hear Tony's voice coming from behind me. He's slightly panting; of course the small hike is a huge task for the unfit boy.

"It's more quiet and tranquil up here," I mutter as an answer and slightly move to the side as Tony sits beside me. He silently watches the rest of our friends laughing happily and he doesn't take his eyes off them.

He sets his hand on the ground and accidentally knocks mine over. The stone I was playing with slips from my hold and I inwardly cuss as it falls into the lake.

Now what will I do with my fingers?

I lean back and feel the hard rock with my hand. As I'm running my fingers slowly through the ground, I feel a kind of pattern. I don't turn to look at it and instead lightly brush my cold fingers along the pattern. The more I touch it, the more I realise that it isn't a pattern. They seem to be words.

My head snaps to an oblivious Tony, who is watching the others have fun with a contented smile. As if he felt my gaze penetrating through his skin, he turns to me and raises his eyebrows to question my weird behaviour.

I look from him to my fingers and back at him. He still gives me a confused look and shrugs. I sigh and look down at whatever words I was tracing. He widens his eyes as if realising what I meant and he turns to get a better look at whatever I was looking at.

"Pumpkin spice..." I mutter and narrow my eyes at how obscure the two words sounded.

"Pumpkin spice? Marla, did you really think I'd know what pumpkin spice means?" Tony questions as he rubs his fingers across the words.

"I hadn't even seen the words when I looked at you. I just didn't want to be the only one seeing them," I snap and stare at the words, wondering why they look familiar.

"Hey Marla! Tony! It's late, time to go back home!" we hear Eric shout from somewhere below the cliff.

"Comin' in a sec!" Tony shouts back as I whip out my phone and snap a picture of the words.

"We're gonna need this," I mouth to Tony, place the phone back in my pocket and start hiking back down. Tony follows silently and doesn't utter a word until we get to the joint where all of us split in different directions so we can head to our individual homes.

"Marla," I hear him whisper loud enough so no one else but me can hear. I turn around and cross my arms over my chest, "What?"

He waits for everyone else to disappear into their homesteads and asks, "Should we tell the rest?"

"You act as if it's something important. They're just two words," I retort.

"But they were on a cliff, embedded into the rock. And was it just coincidence that we found them? This sorta thing happens in movies," he reasons and waits for me to respond.

"Exactly. None of that stuff happens in real life. Anyway, I don't want the others to know. They won't shut up about it and it'll be hard to agree on anything," I say and start heading to my house, "Night, Tony!"

"Night," he says weakly and I can practically feel his disappointed gaze. I get into the house oblivious of what's awaiting me in my room.

After taking my dinner and chatting with my family members, I bid them good night and head to my room as usual. I turn the lights on and gasp at the wounded creature lying on my bed. I'm about to scream and call for my parents but a bony hand covers my mouth and my shouts come out muffled.

I hear my bedroom door get shut and my eyes widen in both fear and shock. Wh-what's going on? My heart's racing in my chest and a humongous lump has formed in my throat. The bony hand lets go of my mouth and I feel a shaky breath next to my ear, "Pumpkin spice."

My world starts spinning in circles after I hear those two words and I hold onto the wall to stop myself from falling. What's going on? What are these creatures? What does 'pumpkin spice' mean?

I hear my window creak open and I instantly start panicking.

Is that another creature? Do they want to kill me? What can I possibly do to-

My thoughts are cut short when Tony comes through the window. I sigh in relief and run over to him. His eyes are wide and he's panting more than he has ever done in his whole life.

"Creature... run... window..." he mutters and holds his knees to steady his breath.

"Tony, what happened?" I whisper to him and bend to look in his eyes. Fear. That's what I see and I'm sure that's the same look I have in my eyes.

He looks up and screams at the sight of the two gigantic creatures in my room.

"They're- They're here!!!" he shouts, panic evident in his voice. I cover his mouth and whisper in his ear, "We don't want my parents-"

I never get to finish my sentence because we hear a knock on my door, followed by my mother's voice.

"Is that Tony I hear? Why is he screaming?" she questions and tries to open the door, "and why is your door locked?"

"Umm..." I search for the right words to say and shout out whatever comes to mind, "I was talking to Tony on the phone. I put on 'loud speaker' and he was just demonstrating how Mr. Leafer tells them to act in the school play. My door is locked because I don't want any of you barging in and disturbing me!"

"Oh... alright," I hear her say before she walks back to her room.

"If I let go of your mouth, will you scream?" I whisper to Tony and give him a stern look. He shakes his head to say 'no' and I let go of him. We stay in silence for a few seconds and take in what's in front of us.

"What's happening?" Tony whispers.

"I have no idea," I answer and stare at the wounded creature that's spreading dark liquid all over my sheets.

"Arial," the white and bony creature standing next to my door says. I frown and gesture for it to keep quiet but it goes on, "She's hurt. She needs your help. We need to find pumpkin spice."

"Can't you do this elsewhere? It's night and my parents are across the hall!" I whisper-shout at it.

"They can't see and hear me like you two can. I choose the audience I can appear to and I also choose whoever I don't want to know of my presence," it answers calmly. The way it's calm and scary at the same time ticks me off. It's driving me crazy.

"What, exactly, is this pumpkin spice you speak of?" Tony asks in his most 'Down-to-business' tone which makes me roll my eyes.

"It's a well prepared spice with the most rare constituents in it. You," the creature points its bony finger at me, "Are the only one known to ever encounter it."

My heart races faster because the way the creature's looking at me scares me to the point of death. I've never even heard of pumpkin spice much less encountered it. I calm all the roaring emotions in me and clear my throat before asking, "What's your name? What are you? Where are you from?"

"We need to hurry-" the creature starts but I cut it off, "How do you expect me to trust what you say without knowing the basic things about you?"

Tony tugs at my shirt and I whip my head towards him, a frown decorating my features.

"What?!" I snap. He points at my bed and my mouth remains agape as I stare at the ashes that have formed around the black liquid.

"We need to hurry," the creature repeats in the same tone.

"What do I call you? I mean, I can't talk to you without mentioning your name. How do you know when I'm referring to you?" I push on. I'm not giving up that easily just because 'she' is dying or the fact that 'we need to hurry'.

"Pixel. I'm Pixel," the creature says and walks to the other creature, who I guess is Arial. He sprinkles a type of liquid on Arial, which makes her look more lively but not fully healed.

"Look, Pixel... I have no idea what pumpkin spice is," I try reasoning with him but he's still stubborn. Well... there is a kind of stubbornness in him but he looks totally unfazed.

"Library. Restricted section," Pixel mutters, his eyes not leaving mine. I turn red at those words. The memory of how I was kicked out of the library after the restricted-section adventure comes to my head. It wasn't a pretty scene...

Tony just stares at both of us with a confused expression and decides that keeping quiet was best.

"How did you-" I started asking but Pixel interrupted. "The book you stole. The place you threw it. The pumpkin you tripped over..." he recites. This Pixel guy is getting creepy now.

"You went to throw it. No one but you knows where it is," Pixel finishes up.

"You were spying on me the whole time. Why didn't you stick around for the most important part?" I sneer and take a few steps away from him.

"I didn't come here without doing research. All your actions were recorded... apart from that small part. I couldn't find any record stating where you threw the pumpkin," he states and waits for me to react.

"What are you even-" I stop when Tony tugs at my shirt again.

"Oh for Merlin's sake!!!" I turn to him with anger burning in my eyes.

He furrows his brows and mutters into my ear, "You don't have to act like I just broke your favourite glass. Just go find the stupid pumpkin before someone else takes it. It's almost halloween and people are stocking on pumpkins. If you keep on asking pointless questions, Arial will die."

I'm about to shout at him but then I realise it would be inhuman to let the creature die. I bite back my questions and put on my hoodie before gesturing at Tony to follow me. We both jump out the window and I lead him to a large dump site.

"We should've brought a torch," I say as I hold my knees to control my breathing after the long run.

"Unlike you, I remembered that," Tony muses and brings out a torch. I can feel someone watching me but I don't see anyone. This isn't a normal 'Someone's watching me' feeling. It's way creepier.

I brush it off and show Tony exactly where I threw the pumpkin.

"It isn't here anymore. It probably got-" before I could finish my sentence, a small pumpkin glows and gets our attention. Tony points it with the flashlight and I slowly step towards it, being careful in case it hurts human beings when it glows.

I pick it up and it glows brighter but doesn't do anything to me. Smiling at Tony, I start running back to my house. There's still this creepy feeling in the air but I ignore it and focus on getting those creatures out of my room.

Tony and I quickly climb through my window and I toss the pumpkin to Pixel. He smiles in a malicious way and a red light flashes in his eyes. Before I react, another creature bursts in through the window and restrains us.

We try shouting but it also covers our mouths and nostrils, it seems to have several hands. Breathing gets harder and harder and my vision gets blurry as I look at Pixel pleadingly. His calm expression turns to one of joy as he cracks the pumpkin open and gulps down whatever liquid that's in it.

His white body glows orange and Arial turns completely into ash. WHAT'S GOING ON?!

"The queen is dead," a hoarse voice whispers from the window.

"The queen is dead," another creepy voice whispers from the roof.

Many other voices say that same line from different places as Tony and I are carried out. I struggle to get myself free but the only tiny success I got was freeing my nose. The cold night breeze hits my forehead and somewhat makes my mood worse.

That's when it happens. All memories of these creatures come back. All the years I'd ruled them. They betrayed me and killed me. I was reborn to the world as a normal human being but they've come looking for me... to re-do what they'd done.

I had given these idiots my all!

A peculiar feeling settles on my chest as my hair rises. I turn to Tony as he removes choking noises and the feeling in my chest grows. He's dying... he needs air... they're killing him... I won't let them!

I squirm and kick the creature but it just chuckles and suddenly stops. I take the time to look around and realise we're on the cliff where Tony and I saw the words. The creature extends the arm where Tony is held and lets go of him.

I jerk up and get my mouth free, "TONY!!!"

I hear the monsters cackle evilly and more crawl onto the cliff. I let the tears run down my face and whimper, "Why?"

"Because we don't like witnesses. Let her drop!" I hear Pixel order and my eyes widen in fear. It all moves so fast and the next second I'm hanging over the lake, holding onto the creature's hand... holding onto my life.

"Buh-bye," it says and yanks me off before throwing me down...