Thomos and Hayley Volco, twins and best friends, were playing together in the lounge of their house. Their dad had disappeared a few years ago, scratches on the bed and down the curtains, claw marks and giant paw prints in the old carpets and on the dusty counter tops.

      Everyone had assumed he'd been attacked by a bear, dragged out the open window and killed. Of course, Claire, mum of the twins, found out otherwise.

      There were no bears near them. But there was a sorcerer. And her husband never had room in his heart for their family.

      She knew about the curse, about the mansion. About the rose that was his lifeline.

      But she kept it all to herself - how could she explain to her children that magic existed, that their dad had never loved them, that their dad had become a large hairy beast and was now human again with his very own princess in their old castle-like holiday home.

      Her children needn't know.

      It was easier to have them believe it was the fault of a bear, and now they'd lived with it long enough to accept and move on from it.

      The twelve year old twins were playing with Duplo blocks, naturally knowing what to put where, where each other wanted everything. "Yellow, blue, yellow, green, green, red, door," Hayley said happily, picking up blocks of the respective colours or shape. "Oo! An eye block!"

      Thomos grinned, "Our castle can see!"

      "Of course, what else would a castle use an eye for?" Hayley laughed.

      "True," Thomos said. "I like Cyclops Castle."

      "Hope you like Two Eyed Castle too because I've just found another."

      For a moment, there was silence. They both preferred the idea of Cyclops Castle but neither could ignore the temptation to use the block with the image of an eye on two sides.

      "Dragon!" They both shouted at the same time.

      "Come on Hayley," their mother called from the kitchen, "You do still want to go to Laura's party, right?"

      "Of course!" Hayley grinned, jumping to her feet. "Dragon when I get back."

      Thomos nodded happily and stood up too. He grinned at them both, hugged them both and then stepped back, "Have fun." Hayley replied with an eager nod and then Thomos watched them leave.

As the door shut, Thomos watched as the headlights of the car flashed across the curtains and he listened as the engine roared, getting ever quieter as the car drove away from their house.

When they'd gone, he ran to his room to play with his toys. Then, when he got bored, he'd read for a little before getting bored again and switching to playing on his Nintendo DS. He got bored often and he'd get bored again, doing just about anything from drawing people's faces to alphabetically organising the cupboards to riding trays down the stairs.

When night fell, he slept. When morning came, he rose. When his alarm went off, he went to school.

And that's where he heard the news. "Hayley is so mean! She didn't turn up to my party when she promised she would!" Laura whined to three friends on the playground.

"Maybe she forgot?" Natasha suggested. "I've heard that people forget things sometimes, it's true, it does happen." She always claimed to have the best memory.

"No... she definitely left to go to the party. She was excited about it too," Thomos said quietly, approaching the girls.

"Then why didn't she come?" Laura asked, confused and annoyed, hands on hips.

"I thought she did."

Laura huffed and rolled her eyes, "Well she didn't. So just ask her, okay?"

"I... I can't."

"And why not? You don't seem mute to me." Laura wasn't having any of it. She was turning rather red rather fast, her eyebrows trying to join together in the middle.

"She's not back yet."

Laura fell silent. Natasha finally asked, "And your mum? Is... is she back?"

"No."

Laura went redder, her eyes watering but her eyebrows furrowing further, her hands coming away from her hips just to form fists. Natasha ran away with the others while Laura advanced, "What did you do?!"

"Nothing.." Thomos whispered, crying now.

That day, Thomos returned home with a black eye and a purpling jaw. He used the spare key from under a rock to enter the house and stared down at Cyclops Castle.

Hayley had to come back. She had to. She had to come back so they could build the dragon. She couldn't leave Cyclops Castle defenceless.

But she did. And Thomos was left defenceless too.

Days passed and still, Claire and Hayley were nowhere to be seen.

Thomos has no defence against the rage that slowly built up inside him. His mother had left, had taken Hayley. No, Hayley had gone willingly. They'd both left him. They'd left him and they hadn't returned. And the girls from school. They'd all run away and allowed Laura to beat him up.

Every girl he'd ever known, every female he'd let into his life had hurt him, torn him apart.

He stared at the spot the dragon would have sat and shouted, not a word, but a sound, a noise of pain and worry and anger. He kicked over Cyclops Castle, shattering it into individual blocks. When he saw that some had stayed stuck together, he knelt and tore them apart, watching his hands through blurry eyes as tears streamed down his face.

His life was ruined now. He had no one to care for him and plenty to blame.

All those stupid girls.