In my dream, I saw the city. I saw our hotel, the grand gate in the entrance.. Everything.

Except for the fact that the city was in a massive war. My dream zoomed in, the boy and girl from my previous dreams fighting side by side, against monsters of every sort.

The girl looked up at me.

“Can’t you see the turmoil in this city?” queried the girl, blocking a thrust from a monster.

The boy stomped his foot, slicing a monsters arm off shortly afterwords.

“So that’s what happened! A monster must be toying with your mind, making all this chaos invisible, completely undetectable. Listen, you must… silence the man who brought you in this hotel. He is doing this to deceive you. Get rid of him however you like, just do it, and fast!”

The girl shot what seemed to be a laser at my dream. It fizzled away and I woke up shortly afterward.

Blake was passed out on the other bed. I shook him awake, explained the situation to him and headed down the elevator. The man and the woman were at the front door, talking. Conveniently, time happened to slow down again. I uppercut the man in the chin. The world around me seemed to flicker for a second, switching from utopian paradise to war-torn battlefield. The man seemed to switch from ugly beast to man as well. I continued to attack him in this way and that. After he seemed unconscious, time sped up again.

The woman was now a hideous beast, at least seven feet tall. She had razor sharp claws, hands a foot large and battle armor and a three foot long sword. Great..

She took a massive swipe at me. I leaped into the air, at least four feet. It seemed that something was guiding me, helping me to do these incredible things. Except the thing is I had no idea what.

Blake leaned under the blade. It missed him by no more than a millimeter; I saw one of his hairs get sliced off. The monster threw its sword away and laughed.

With a lightning quick motion, the creature grabbed both of us by the neck. I tried to focus on slowing time down, but that was quite hard, seeing as I was about to get my neck snapped.

Again, it felt like something was guiding me. Time grinded to a halt within less that a second. I could see the smug look on this monsters face. I’ll wipe that off in a nanosecond.

I ripped the monsters grip apart from my neck, did a back flip and landed behind the monster. Time sped up just a little as I jumped up and kicked this thing in the neck. It dropped Blake. It was bending forward, stunned for about a second.

I dashed over to the monsters sword, picked it up and threw it at the monster forehead with deadly accuracy.

I heard a loud scream as the beast died. That must have taken what, fifteen seconds?

Blake was looking at me, speechless. I wouldn’t exactly blame him; I didn’t even know how I did that.

I ran outside. The monsters on the field had diminished so much, I could only see three or four remaining. I glanced over at the city, over the damaged and smoking building. I could vaguely see a few more Atemporal hunters in the distance.

With one, quick, well-timed team attack, the boy and girl slayed the rest of the monsters in a second.

“I apologize greatly for the monster attack, but you seemed to have handled yourself rather well. They attack us frequently. Their numbers are growing by the day,” said the boy.

“Quickly, come with us. There is shelter underground.”

He cracked his massive knuckles and punched at me. Time slowed down almost to a halt. I saw his fist coming towards me about as slowly as a snail in oil. I took martial arts for a while when I was younger. Heh, this should be a breeze.

I grabbed his fist and threw it forward. I ran around to his back and round kicked him. I kicked him in the neck while he was falling for good measure. I heard a loud thud as he was hitting the ground.

Good riddance.

Time sped up again. It looked like he was unconscious.

Nobody was around, so I dragged him into the bathroom, threw him into one of the stalls and ran back to my table.

“That didn’t take long,” my dad noted.

We sat, talking for about ten minutes, until someone served our food. We ate for a while. The only thing I could think was that I hoped nobody noticed that guy I beat up was gone for a while..

We ate for a bit more, finished up, payed and left. We walked back to our hotel.

We did some stuff at the hotel, until I devised a plan to get both myself and Blake to La puissance du temps. It was really kind of stupid, but I had to think quickly.

I got my cell phone out of the bag, and waited for a little bit.

About twenty minutes had passed, when I got my cell phone out of the bag and made my ring tone play.

I pretended to be on the phone with the police.

“You want Blake and I to get down there immediately? You want us to go to the local police station, go up the elevator and meet you there?” Alright, we’ll be there shortly.” I pretended to end the call.

“Blake, the police just called. They want us to go to the police station for some reason.”

“Oh, really? If they wanted us, why didn’t they just come to the hotel?” questioned Blake.

“I’m not sure, but that’s what they said,” I responded.

“Well, alright..”

We went downstairs and I took Blake to where La puissance du temps was, now there was a police station there.

I was shocked, yet glad this worked out.

We headed inside. I went into the elevator, shortly followed by Blake. The place looked like a police station, but nobody was inside.

I walked into the elevator, picked up the pen and followed the instructions I had gotten.

Soon we had hit the top, where we saw a gate leading to the city.

The gate was MASSIVE. It was carved out of pure emerald, with diamonds lining the sides. To top it all off, there were two giant rods of gold emerging from the top. The city past it was absolutely massive as well.

Two people, a man and a woman greeted us.

“Hello, and welcome to La puissance du temps,” said the man.

“This city has been a safe house for our kind for since time immemorial,” the woman added.

“We have been told that you were one of those.. Those people,” said the man, seeming awed at my presence.

“I suppose that I am,” I replied.

“I see that you have a brother that has your abilities as well,” noted the woman.

The woman nudged the man in the rib.

“Oh, yes. I will show you and your brother to your rooms.”

The gates opened, shining with excellence.

The man led us inside the city, which seemed ten times more modern than new york. It had flying cars, hundreds of skyscrapers and several other buildings. This was just what we could see. We reached the building we were apparently staying in. Skyscraper barely described it. This building had to be at least fifteen hundred feet tall, with diamonds lining the windows and several other gemstones lining the building.

I wondered why on earth I had been sent here to help, this place seemed like the grandest utopia I had ever imagined.

We walked into the building, headed up an elevator and arrived at our room in an instant.

This room was MASSIVE. It was almost as big as our house in America. Along with seemingly everything else in this city, the room was covered in diamonds and other jewels, along with paintings.. This room was incredible.

“Please enjoy your stay,” the man said, heading back down the elevator.

“What on earth IS this, Zachary? What is this city, that building… Why did you take me here?” questioned my brother Blake.

I explained the best I could to Blake, and he seemed puzzled. No city to save, no boy or girl from my dreams, our greeters were quite strange.. The list went on.

There were two king sized beds, and I seemed to be getting tired. Maybe I should just go into the bed…

Before I knew it, I was asleep.

We all got ready and rushed out the door and into the car. We drove to the airport for a while, Blake and I reading our books.

Once we arrived at the airport we waited for a while, killing time this way or that.

Before I knew it, it was time for our flight. We walked down the hallway, went outside and boarded our plane.

It was pretty nice, we had gotten second-class seats. We had a few snacks along the way and played the airplane’s puzzle games for about an hour. I also brought along my strange book that I had been told about in the dream along on the trip.

It was night before I knew it. The moon looked huge. We were flying over the Atlantic Ocean now; I was marveling at it. It was amazing, especially at night. The ocean was glistening in the moonlight.. Everyone else was asleep, too. The whole plane was quiet.

I was interrupted from my ocean gazing by the sound of my book opening by itself. It opened to the very back of the book, where the strange text was.

It rearranged itself perfectly into English in my mind, allowing me to read it flawlessly.

“I am aware that this is a late notice, but I had no time to tell you earlier. Your brother, Blake, has the blood of an Atemporal Hunter as well, and as such has a very strong affinity with time much like yourself. Your other brothers have ability to control time as well, but their powers over it are very limited.

When you arrive in France, your parents will take you to a restaurant. There will be an assassin disguised as a waiter there. If you see him, run as fast as possible away from the restaurant. Make sure that your brother Blake is safe. He must get to La Puissance du temps as well. Once you arrive, you should see an elevator, take it. There should be a pen resting on the elevator floor. There should be a blank space on the elevator selection screen. Draw a button on the right and write 250^th floor to the left. I will give you one last message in your hotel. After that, I look forward to speaking with you face to face.”

The book shut itself. I was sleepless the rest of that night.

After a long night, morning finally came in France. My watch read three AM, but France was about six hours ahead of the US. That meant it must be about nine in France. Everyone started to wake up on the plane, right as we were getting ready to land. Shortly after the plane landed, we got off and went through customs.

After that, we walked around the city for a little bit. It was amazing. It had tons of old buildings and nice hotels, fancy restaurants everywhere. Amazing.

My dad called a taxi in french, (apparently he knew some too) and he told him to drive us to a hotel about five miles from here, from what I heard. It was called Le Cheval de feu.

We drove there and reserved two rooms. One for my brothers and I and one for my parents. My parents gave my brother Blake the key card to the room. We walked upstairs with our stuff, unlocked the room and walked in.

It was a pretty big room, with three beds, some french paintings, a big flat screen TV and an X-Box under the TV.

I unpacked my stuff into the room. We played the X-Box some; I read a little. I tried to act casual, even though I someone who was about to have a near-death experience. I remembered that the message sent to me on the plane said that it would send me another message in France.. I opened up the book. The words rearranged themselves into English in my mind again.

“Your parents are about to take you to the restaurant I have warned you about called La Meilleure nourriture sur la terre. You will recognize the assassin when you see him. He is bald and extremely well-built.You must confront him there. You must defeat him temporarily and manage to escape. Once you do, get to La Puissance du temps as soon as possible with your brother Blake.

After a while, our parents came into the room and told us we were going to a a restaurant. We were walking there; it was about one eighth of a mile away.

We walked for a few minutes and arrived at the restaurant. It was a nice place, with a big central room and a few chandeliers. We walked up to the counter and told them we needed seats for six people. She guided us to some booths and seated us. She told us that someone with menus would be by shortly.

We sat down and waited for a few minutes. Soon afterward, a guy came by with the menus. I probably looked like a little girl, because this guy fit the description that the book gave. He look like he worked out every day and had been taking steroids since he turned thirteen. This guy was SCARY.

I tried to take my mind off my fear and started to look at my menu. There was a large variety of french food, such as Bassil Salmon Terrine and Foie Grass. All of it sounded good.. except for the fact I was about to fight a guy four times my size.

A few minutes later, everybody knew what they wanted to order. We gave the menus back and waited.

“Uh, excuse me, I have to use the restroom” I said, trying to sound as calm as possible.

I walked for a little bit and found the bathrooms. I walked for a few more seconds until the mysterious assassin walked in front of me and announced that the restrooms were off limits and that I should return to my seat… Unless I wanted to die.

One hundred and fifty pages, two hundred and twenty five. Before I knew it, it was ten o’ clock, time for bed. I got ready, and hopped in bed. I thought the book was incredible, so I kept reading under the covers with my cool wind-up flashlight I got for Christmas. I got to page three hundred, page three hundred and twenty five. I was extremely tired, I decided to check the time. Only ten fifteen? Eh, oh well. I guess I’ll go on to bed.

I lay in bed for a while, relaxed and tired, until finally I was falling into a dream, yet I was still conscious. I was dreaming, except I was aware of it too. I think that this was called a lucid dream. I’d had a few others before; they were all strange. My dream environment was a large meadow, with a few trees in brilliant daylight. I was riding a horse, skipping along the meadow at a trot. There were two other horses riding beside me. One was a guy about my age, and the other was a girl who was slightly older than me. They both wore medieval clothing.

“Greetings, Zachary. We have come to give you a forewarning to the journey you are about to take. The road ahead is dangerous, and you may be our last hope,” said the boy.

“Yes, in France you will encounter many dangerous things that might kill you, or take you prisoner, or worse. When you arrive in France I will show you what you need to do,” the girl added.

The girl glanced up, and the boy shortly after.

“Agh! I am sorry this was such a short conversation, but we must leave. We will talk more later!”

My dream shifted into something else for a short moment. It seemed to be a huge city of some sort. A second or two later, I lost control of my dream and awoke.

“Breakfast is ready!” announced my mom, accompanied by the smell of bacon and eggs.

I got dressed and dashed downstairs.

My brothers were there too. We all thanked my mom and ate. Afterwords, Blake and I decided to finish our books.

I read for about two more hours and then finished the book. At the end of the book, there was a page of strange writing. I stared at it for about a minute, seeing if I could decipher any of it.

“Go… Build.. on.. Str.. Fre…and… G… L..”

I seemed to be able to read some more bits and pieces, but nothing that made any sense. It was in a completely different language; I had no clue how I was able to read it.

I kept reading, seeing if I could figure anything else out. I seemed to be be able to read a word that said GUIDEBOOK in relatively large text.

“Strange…”

My brother Blake was on the computer, reading articles about France. My dad was as well. I decided to go check what they were reading.

“What are you reading about?” I asked.

“Everything! France has amazing food, tourist attractions, incredible hotels.. The list just goes on!”

“I see. I actually learned some french in school once; I really liked it.” I replied.

“Really?! Could you teach me some?”

“Sure, I guess.”

I tutored Blake in french for about two hours. I mean, he seemed about as enthusiastic as a toddler who had just received a whole bag of candy!

Afterwords, we played video games and did the daily norm. We ate dinner and I asked Blake if I could read the first book in his series. He agreed.

It was just as amazing as my book series. It seemed very similar in ways, in plot and in character personality.

I read for a while, until the clock said 10:00. Time for bed. I was extremely happy, although stressed a bit at the same time.

I was NEVER going to get to sleep tonight. France was exciting me, the strange text in the book I somehow read bits and pieces of and the several strange experiences with time, all in just two days!

I got ready for bed. I walked into my room and pulled the covers over myself. I lay there for a few minutes. Or was it hours? It seemed like I could never tell anymore.
After some more time of lying in bed, I felt as if an additional blanket was coming over me, this one made of sleep. I slowly fell into another lucid dream.

This time I was running in a city, away from invaders.

The boy and the girl were back, running by my side.

“As soon as you arrive in your hotel in France, open your book that said GUIDEBOOK in it. It will give you instructions,” said the girl.

“Why do you need my help? Who are you?”

“We are a group of people called the Atemporal Hunters. All of us have a limited ability to control time, and those who can control it completely… They are extremely rare, happening in about one in five billion births on this planet.”

I stared at them, wide-eyed.

“You, my friend, are one of those one-in five billion births.”

“Are you.. Can you be serious?”

“Quite. You would help us win this war in the blink of an eye, if you can learn to master your abilities. Your book will give you additional instructions once you arrive in France. We must depart.”

“Wait! I have so much to ask you about..”

My dream faded. I woke up, scared half to death.

One night, I was sleeping in my bedroom with my two brothers, rather uncomfortably, when I slowly woke up to the sound of whispering in my house’s living room. My parents and brothers were the only people in the house besides me, and they were asleep, which really freaked me out. I thought that I might be hearing things, but as I listened more carefully I was sure I could almost make out words. After a while of lying in bed, I finally built up the nerve to get up and see what was going on. I walked towards my door, opened it and slowly walked down the hallway, took a left and glanced into our living room.

I heard about fifteen seconds worth of stuff, like my name a few times, something about a few other people, and that was it. I also thought I saw silhouettes for a second, but then they seemed to fade into mist.

I glanced at my watch. It seemed to have dramatically slowed for the time that I was listening in on the mysterious people, or whatever they were. It was probably just my imagination, but still, creepy.

At this point I was extremely unnerved and dashed back into my room, jumped on my bed and pulled the covers over myself. I didn’t sleep a nanosecond that night. All I could think about was my visitation by what seemed to be ghosts. A flurry of questions stormed my mind, such as:

“Why did they come here?”

“What were they talking about?” and several other questions of the sort.

I lay awake in my bed until morning, which was a Saturday in the middle of June.

My brothers and I got ready for the day. After they were done eating breakfast, I was considering telling my brothers about last night, but they would probably just laugh at me. I decided to use my laptop to check the news, as I wasn’t sure what else to do. I scrolled through a page of stories, another, and another, until finally I saw an advertisement.

“Half price discount on trips to France. Two week trips!”

I checked it out. It seemed legit. My parents had been wanting to go on vacation for a while now, so I figured I should tell them about it.

“Oh, this is great! We were planning on going to France, and this is great honey! We’ll save so much money,” said my mom.

My dad was excited too, he was smiling and laughing.

“Hey kids, we’re going to France,” said my dad, who hurried to my brothers.

They were in the living room playing some fantasy game on the Wii.

“Really? When?” asked my oldest brother, Blake.

“Two days from now. You better get packing!”

Everyone went upstairs to their rooms and started to pack, all of us excited.

“Clothes, check. Cell phone, check..” Everybody in my family said something like that. Everyone in my family loved to think out loud (myself included, admittedly).

After we finished packing, my brothers and I came back to the living room, booted up the Wii up and started to played video games with my brothers for an hour or two.

I got bored of the game and went to read this new book I had recently checked out from the library. It was about a man who discovered he could control time completely. He could stop time for some and speed it up for others at the exact same time. He had such control over time that he could speed it up to the end of the earth, or go back to the very beginning of the universe in the blink of an eye. I thought it was very interesting, since I always had been fascinated with time, occasionally having some strange experiences with it. Like one day, it was a Saturday, and I was sleeping in. I woke up, glanced at my clock and decided to sleep in for a few more minutes. I ended up falling asleep again. The next time I woke up, it was still the exact same time.

Another time I was playing soccer at our school, and everyone took a break. We got some water, and I noticed that the water dispenser was running incredibly slowly. It wasn’t just the water dispenser, it seemed like the water was moving extremely slowly, as if it was moving through peanut butter. It seemed to splash into my cup a drop at a time. Moments later, time went back to normal again. I also had one especially strange one just a few months ago.

I was inside our school hallway, walking down to math class with some of my friends. As we were walking, everybody completely stopped in mid-walk. Everything went completely quiet. I waved my hand in front of them, but no response. I waited for a few more seconds, and they finally started walking normally again.

“What was that?” I asked them.

“What was what?” they replied.

“You just froze.”

They looked at me like I was a weirdo, and kept on walking.

I’ve had several experiences like that over my life time, all of them scaring me. I have no idea why they happen, or how, but I’ve always wanted to know.

I kept reading for a little more, until finally I heard that my parents said we were going to the mall in about ten minutes to pick up some stuff we might need in France.

My brothers and I got ready and we went into the car and drove off. I brought along my book to read, finding it more and more interesting as we drove. My brother Blake was reading something sorta similar, called the “The discovery of the Amorphous”. He seemed to be on the third book in the series.

Blake had recommended the series to me several times; I planned to read it as soon as I was done with my series.

We drove for some more time and finally arrived at the mall. We got out of the car and walked in.

This mall is huge. Seriously, it’s about the size of two Wal-Marts combined. It has several hundred stores. If you could think of a store, chances are, this mall would have it.

“Alright kids, we’re going to go to a few stores to buy some stuff for France, as you know. You can go exploring the mall, just meet us back here when you’re done at about five-thirty. That should give you about two hours.” said my mom, smiling.

We thanked her, and walked around. We found this giant book store with a Gamestop right next to it. Two of my brothers went into Gamestop and browsed the aisles for a new video game. Blake and I walked into the bookstore. It was about the size of a small library, and nobody except us and a cashier were inside. How on earth had I not noticed this before? Why weren’t there more people in this amazing bookstore?

The cashier greeted us and asked if we wanted anything in particular. I asked about the next book in my series.

“Wonderful! We have a special discount price on that. It’s only going to be three dollars!”

“Perfect!” I replied.

I couldn’t believe it was so cheap, I mean, these books were about five hundred pages. She led us to the back of the store and pulled out the book. It was in perfect condition. It looked as if it had just come out of the factory a few hours ago.

“Excuse me, but do you have the next book in “The discovery of the Amorphous” series?”

“Yes we do! It’s got a special discount price also. Two dollars and fifty cents.” replied the cashier.

“Great! I’ll take it,” said Blake.

We walked back to the cashier’s counter and I bought the book. Blake bought his too. We browsed around the bookstore for a little while, until I glanced at my watch.

It said five-forty on the nose. How did time fly so fast? It seemed like we had just arrived here about twenty minutes ago! Sometimes my perception of time can be messed up, but two whole hours? Now that is really weird. I mean, all of my previous experiences with time had slowed it down. Why would this one speed it up?

My questions aside, we got to the place where we were supposed to meet my parents. They were there, waiting with my two other brothers.

“Sorry we’re late,” I said.

“Where were you?” asked my mom.

“We were in the bookstore. We got wrapped up in it so much we weren’t paying attention to the time. Sorry.”

“It’s okay, just pay better attention next time.”

We walked out of the mall, hopped in our car and drove back home.

Ants are very small compared to most land animals, but are also very complex and different. Ants have roughly 22,000 subspecies, and have a number of different roles. There are worker ants, which are very common and assist with building ant mounds. Fire ants are also very common, as when they bite it feels like you are being burned. Fire ants often defend the ant mounds, as a bite to a small animal from a fire ant can be deadly.

Ants are born from a queen ant, which can bear hundreds, and even over a thousand eggs a day. Ants grow through metamorphosis, or life stages. They start off as an egg, and then hatch into a larva, which is mostly immobile, as is therefore carried by worker ants. The ant then grows into a pupa and afterward a fully grown ant.

Ant colonies are started by queen ants, which are very large ants who dig the colonies and give birth to the ants. Queen ants start off as well fed young female ants, and will later grow wings and find a good spot for a colony. The queen will then dig the hole, and give birth to the colony.

Ants are generally aggressive towards other colonies, such as the Pavement Ant which will attack other colonies viciously, and will steal other colonies’ food or larvae and will raise them as workers or eat them. Other ants such as the Amazon ants will kidnap workers, as they cannot gather their own food.

Ants can be very helpful to humans but they can also be a large nuisance. Ants can assist in the aeration of soil, but can also invade and damage homes. In some countries such as Africa, they use ants to aid in closing wounds. They get the ant to bite the wound closed, then they cut their bodies off, creating an effective seal.

Ants have a large impact on other animals, such as the aphid. Aphids feed on plant sap and when they do so, it creates a liquid called honeydew, which the ants will extract from the aphid and drink. Ants will then fend off intruders for the aphids in return.

“John, cartoons are on! “Sebastian–”

“Odd, he’s not here.”

“Maybe he’s already watching cartoons.”

“Come on, lets go downstairs, John.”

The TV was already on, tuned to a local news station. “The recent disappearance of several thousand people has shocked, and worried us. “From what we know, there’s a book called “The dragon summoners” that came out yesterday. “Everyone bought the book, went home, and began reading.” “From what we’ve heard, after a while of reading it, they–”

“They vanished.”

Erik changed the channel to the local cartoons.

“What kind of messed up news story is that?” said Erik.

Odd that Sebastian’s missing, and he happened to be reading it..

Erik pushed the thought away, dismissing it as nonsense.

“John, I’m gonna go look for Sebastian.” “Be right back.”

Erik ran up the stairs, and looked for Sebastian. No sign of him. Erik searched his whole house twice, and yet no sign of him. He asked his mom if she had seen him, and she said no. “SEBASTIAN!” “THIS IS SERIOUS, WHERE ARE YOU?!” Erik felt a strange presence, as if something was trying to get him upstairs. “Eh, John, I’m going upstairs, I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Erik scurried up the stairs. He scanned the upstairs portion of his house, only to see nothing. He still felt the pulling sensation, and it was coming from the book. He walked into the room, picked it up, and began reading.

Erik thought the story amazing, telling of great beasts, dragons, magic, and epic duels. He read and read, and after a while he decided he should check the time. Huh? It’s still only 8:00!

Whatever..

Erik, semi hypnotically, began drifting into his imagination.

Erik, after a while, stopped daydreaming. After a while, everything seemed to become more clear. Soon Erik began noticing his daydreaming didn’t look like daydreaming, it looked like reality. He tried to stop, yet, he could not. It was if he had been transported into his imagination.

He found it disturbing, and amazing.. So many things at the same time. He appeared to be in a giant forest, as depicted in the book.

What happened..?

Questions flocked Erik’s mind at lightning speed. It was a disturbing, awe inspiring, and just plain creepy experience. Erik noticed that he was hungry, and he saw that many of the trees bore fruit. He went ahead, picked an apple off a tree, and felt strangely light, continually so after a while.

Soon, he began to hover.

More and more, faster and faster, until finally he was flying at blinding speeds. He slowly landed, and there, right in front of him, was Sebastian, dressed in wizardly cloaks.

Around Erik was a massive metal castle, with enormous laser cannons and such weaponry on it. It was larger than any building he had ever seen.

Somehow, he had managed to fly into the castles walls and fly right next to Sebastian. “Se.. Sebastian, how on earth did I get here?”

Sebastian responded telepathically. Erik, Erik, where have you been?

It’s already been a month!

Erik attempted to respond telepathically as well, and to his surprise, it worked. “It has? Last I knew I was just reading The dragon summoners, and I just.. drifted here. It only seemed like a few short minutes.” “My dear friend, I believe you have found the land that is known as Alamersia.”

“Go get that gun over there.” said one of Erik’s friends.

Erik got the gun, and blasted an alien to bits. “Dinners ready boys!”

They dashed to the kitchen, and got their food, and began eating.

A few minutes in, someone rang the doorbell. “I’ll get it!” said Erik, and ran to the door.

Out of curiosity, he looked in the peephole. It was a man with formal, black clothing, who had an enormous wedding ring. “Excuse me, but who are you?” queried Erik.

“I am…”

Erik then woke up, puzzled by the dream.

He was supposed to have his friends over today, and planned to play with that exact video game, level, and gun. He also believed that he had seen that man, talking to a woman at a supermarket a few weeks back. Erik check to see what time it was. “6:00…”

“Man, I’m still tired from yesterdays soccer game…” he thought.

Erik plopped his head back on the pillow, and fell back asleep.
He woke up again at 8:00, ready for the party with his friends.

He got breakfast, played some games, and after a while it was 10:00.

They were supposed to come at 9:30… thought Erik.

I hope everyone is alright.

Erik decided to call his friend Sebastian. “Hello, please leave a message after the beep.

Beeeep. “Hey, Sebastian, you there?”

About fifteen seconds passed. “Alright, call me back.”

He hung up, and proceeded to try his other two friends. The same thing happened. No response, no answer of any kind. “Mom, do you know why everyone is late?”

“No, honey, I don’t. Erik glanced at the clock. 10:40… Man, I wonder what happened!

He decided to go outside on the porch and wait for his friends. It was 12:00, and nobody was there.

After about five more minutes, he went back inside. A couple minutes passed, and he heard a knock on the door. “I’ll get it!” said Erik. It was Sebastian, with a large brown bag.

“Oh, hey Sebastian, how are you?”

“Good, but I got stuck in a bit of traffic.”

Sebastian walked inside and sat down on a red couch. Erik joined him.

“Say, do you know what happened to everyone else?”

“No, but I think I may have seen John’s car on the way here..”

“Probably just traffic, like me.”

Sebastian was relatively tall and thin, had green eyes, brown hair, and was 14. Erik was very similar in physical terms, although he was slightly more muscular, and had blue eyes.

“Wanna play some video games?”

“Alright, for a bit. But I want to finish..” He pulled a book out of his bag.

“The dragon summoners!”

The cover depicted a man riding a dragon riding a dragon with futuristic battle armor, and guns on its back and head. The man riding it had a battlesuit as well, and a sword that appeared to glow blue. “Looks like an interesting book!”

“Mind if I read it when your finished?”

“Sure, it should only take me about an hour more to finish it.”

They both went upstairs, turned on the game console, and started playing. After about half an hour, they heard a knock at the door. Sebastian pauses the game, and Erik ran to the door. It was John. “Hey John!”

“Where were you?”

“Traffic.”

Odd.. why would there be such a massive amount of traffic? thought Erik.

“I heard something about a new book coming out today, but why it would cause so much traffic, I don’t know.”

“Anyways, wanna play some video games?”

“Sure.”

They played video games, read The dragon summoners, watched a movie, and told jokes and scary ghost stories late into the night. When Erik was asleep, he had the same dream as he did last night. Only this time, the man that showed up at the door was his friend that never showed up, Sam. He had the dream many times that night, wondering why.