"Come to us Jason, we can protect you." She said. The room was dark, the air cold, and the girl seemed... off.

"Who's We?" Jason yelled. She seemed so far away. "And protect me from what?" The girl looked intensely at Jason and stuck out her hand. Jason became frustrated and turned to leave. He winced in pain, she had grabbed his arm. How could she move so fast? Jason wondered. He turned to tell her to get lost but the word caught in his throat.


In the moment he broke eye contact, the girl turned a ghostly shade of white, her eyes became endless pools of black.


"We won't be ignored!" She tightened her grip and bered her teeth in a wicked grin.


"Ow! Stop you're hurting me!" Jason tried as hard as he could to break her grip but she only held his arm tighter. He could hear his bones crack, he felt everything, this pain was real.


"You can't run from us Jason." She yelled with a scream so piercing it chilled his soul. "Time's up Jason! Time's up."

The girl faded away with her words and Jason realized he was in his bedroom. The light of the full moon filtered in throughout the window, everything seemed so peaceful. He reached over to his left and groped the air until he found his lamp. He turned it on and sat up to examine his right arm, no marks. He sighed in relief, it was all just a demented dream. He looked around his bedroom. The Maryland state flag hung with pride from his bedroom ceiling, the sliding mirror of his bedroom closet, his model AC-130 abandoned in the hallway in plain view of his room.


"Darn it Joseph. I told you to never mess with that!" He growled to himself. Jason leaped out of bed, forgetting, his earlier nightmare, and picked up his model plane.


"You belong with us." Whispered an unfamiliar voice. Jason's body stiffened. He turned his head to the left, in the direction of his parents' and brother's rooms, nothing. To the right, downstairs, nothing moved or even made a sound. Satisfied, Jason walked triumphantly back into his room. After he returned his model plane to it's rightful place on his dresser, Jason stood in front of his mirror to manipulate his short brown hair before he returned to sleep.




--------

"Jason wake up, it's time to go to school." Joseph whined. "Jason!...Jason!...JJ?" Joseph reached over to his brother's face and delicately opened one of his brother's eyes. His pupil... was gone, his eye was an endless abyss of darkness just like the girl.


Without warning, Jason's other eyelid opened with split second timing. Terrified, Joseph fell backward and had begun an awkward crawl toward Jason's bedroom door. Jason hadn't even attempted to move, he only followed Joseph with is demonic eyes. Joseph eventually bumped into the open door and rolled through.


He took one last look at his brother before he slammed the door and slid down to the floor with the hope that his brother would have somehow forgotten his own bedroom door opened inward. From the other side of the door, Joseph could hear his brother scratch at something. "Jason if you're trying to scare me it's not funny!" he squealed.


"Hey buddy why don't you open the door so we can play." Jason yelled through the door.


"N-" Jason threw his fists through the wooden door sending white paint chips and splinters all over the wooden floor and into Joseph blond hair. Jason grabbed Joseph and pinned him to the door. Little Joseph screamed for his mother. Tears streamed down his face as he had begun to realize that his parents had already left for work. Joseph bowed his head in sorrow and waited for the monster Jason had become to burst throughout the door and eat him.


Over Jason's twisted yelling, Joseph heard a whisper. "We can help you." Joseph lifted his head with renewed hope. Through strands of his blond hair, he saw the girl from Jason's nightmare. She was younger, her blond hair was shorter, and her deep black eyes were and innocent shade of blue. "Ask and we will protect you from him." Too scared to wonder who she was, Joseph screamed as loud as humanly possible for a ten year-old.


"Help me!!!!"


"I hear voices Joseph, did you invite someone over? And without permission? Looks like I'm going to have to teach you a lesson." Jason sneered.

Just like that, he released his grip on Joseph and pulled his arms back through the door. Joseph didn't dare move for what felt like an hour. Until finally, he mustered up the courage to turn around and peak through one of the gaping holes in Jason's door. Nothing.


"What did you d-." Joseph asked while turning to face the girl, but she had already disappeared. Feeling he had nothing to lose, Joseph opened Jason's door at an agonizingly slows pace. Each creak of the door hinges caused him to squeeze his eyes shut and wait to see if Jason would come flying out of the door. After the eighth creak, Joseph got tired of waiting and threw himself into the door with his eyes firmly shut. He landed on the wooden floor with a loud thud. But Jason did not make a reappearance, Joseph opened his eyes to nothing. The room was pitch black. "What's going on?! Where am I?" Joseph didn't know what to do, so he just stood there paralyzed with fear.


"It's time Joseph." The girl giggled. Joseph spun around on his heels but no one was behind him.


"Hello?"


"Why do you sound so scared? It doesn't hurt... after a while."


"What... Where are you?, Who are you?"


"Right here silly."Her voice sounded closer all of a sudden and it sent a chill down Joseph's spine. When he turned around, he covered his mouth to keep from screaming out loud. The cute, almost angelic little girl was gone. She seemed more like a science experiment than a little girl. Her eyes were that same demonic shade of deep black, her skin was comprised of all different tones and complexions held together with a negligent stitch job. And she had hair missing in patches like a roughly used barbie doll. She smiled revealing teeth rotted dozens of times over.


"One of us now." She grabbed Joseph and bit him on the arm. He could feel something enter his bloodstream it felt so cold yet burned at the same time. Joseph's eyelids got heavier and heavier but he could faintly hear his brother's voice. He looked to the horrid girl still holding his arm.

"I'm going to have to teach you a lesson." She in a voice suspiciously close to Jason's, it was her all along.

"Jason... Help... M... Me." Joseph's words were labored and shaky, he fell to the ground. The girl simply turned her head sideways and watched as he slept.

"I'd have preferred your brother but you just might work might work."