When I came to again, I was back in my apartment, splayed out on the floor of my living room. Manically, I looked around breathing as if all air had been lost. I pulled myself up to a sitting position, which amplified the splitting headache that boomed through my head. Flashes of a little girl in flamed skateboard gear unveiled themselves in my mind. I grabbed ahold of my right temple and winced. A knot sat on the right top near my widow’s peak. The aching hadn’t gone away, no it just sat there in a constant state of disruption.

I remembered that I had gone out to put my mind at ease but didn’t remember coming back.

‘They’re in hell’

words flashed through my mind as if trying to remember something very important.

“Hell”

I whispered, still groping my head from the minor injury.

What kind of dream did I have? Did I bump my head after falling off my recliner, I thought?

I looked over to my right and there was my one-seat recliner in the empty living room as I remembered. I sighed, then noticed something sitting on the inside of the chair.

It was a skateboard, that had the words ‘eat shit, get hit’ printed in red and black letters on the bottom of the deck. Its wheels were red and white, and they lit up when I rolled them.

My aching headache gnawed from inside.

‘You saw, didn’t you?’

The words hit me like a freight truck, as I fell backward. My mind was slowly coming to the realization, that I was not dreaming. The walk, the park, the fowl mouth little demon.

I had been on a walk to the park to clear my mind when a little girl attacked me. Now that I was remembering, details emerged from the recesses of my mind. Two small but nightmarish horns emerged on the little girl as if she was an actual demon, something old, something not of this world, something fiendish.

My body started to ache all around, the adrenaline that must have been present was starting to wear off. My whole body hurt like I had been dragged up and down a staircase. My lower body felt bumpy and sore. Under my arms felt heavily bruised and roughed up.

I was now sure of it. That had been no dream, but how did I get back here? How did I pass out? I then felt around for the bump on my head again, remembering the forgotten detail. I was fucking axed kicked by a child, I remembered now.

“What the fuck” I shouted to myself, wincing in pain at the effect it has on my splitting head and body ache.

I tried unclenching some of the tension in my body, I mean I was home and that was a small relief. Maybe I just blacked out on the walk home from that fiasco, and just came crashing in. I quickly looked to the front door, then sighed in relief. Relief washed over just as fast as it came with concern when I noticed it wasn’t locked.

KNOCK KNOCK followed by two seconds of silence then another KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK came furiously in repetition.

I sat staring at the door, I wondered who it was. Who would even knock that obnoxiously?

“Coming,” I said, stumbling to my feet. I managed to stand up, my balance shifting really fast, causing me to almost fall over, as I reached out and grabbed onto my recliner for safeguard.

I straightened out and shook off the body aches to present myself, in case it was somebody important. I myself didn’t know what happened, but if it was my editor, I couldn’t let her know that I was in terrible shape after the mini-lecture she gave me.

There was no more knocking, but I heard bags shuffle at the front door. Small footsteps could be heard receding, and I walked over slowly, intrigued at the spectacle going on behind my closed apartment door.

Propping myself against the door, I squinted one eye and looked out the other through the peephole.

Stolen story; please report.

There was no one or anything there at eye level, but as I lowered my gaze, I saw a sea of white bags flooding the front porch step. Within the small area of eyesight. I looked around the bag-littered, hallway and began breathing heavier than earlier.

I opened the door with a small crack.

“Uh,?”

No answer, so I opened it some more and looked down at the bags of what seemed to be groceries and household items.

Nobody was around either, did I order this? I don’t remember doing it. Was this a scam of sorts to get me to buy into some timeshare? Bags of groceries don’t just appear at your front door like this. I mean there was a couple of knocks, but who?

I listened for any noise around, maybe a neighbor ordered these and it was the wrong place.

The hydraulics of the elevator startled me when I heard it coming up, followed by a DING, the doors to the elevator opening up like a fog clearing.

I waited to see what came out.

A giant pile of blankets walked out…or I should say a giant pile of blankets came walking my way, small legs from beneath them, tiny arms carrying it all.

I stood in my doorway flabbergasted as the blankets made their way in front of me.

They then barked an order at me.

“Move it and help me already jack ass. These groceries aren’t gonna put themselves up”

I instinctively moved to the side to let the pile of blankets through. I was in shock, but that order rang through me like I was a workhorse in the pits of hell running laps. So, I grabbed some of the bags, bringing them to the kitchen counter.

After two more trips back and forth I looked inside my living room at the pile of blankets, and on top sat a small girl. Blonde with hauntingly ever-clear blue eyes, but what jumped out was her flame-designed skateboard gear.

She hopped off of the pile of blankets, catching her breath, and held out a hand.

Instinctively I went to take it when she cringed back forcing it back out with umph.

“You don’t expect a lady like me to pay for the taxi outside?”

My eyes just widened; my mind was racing too fast to comprehend what was going on. Lady? Taxi? And what was with all the groceries?

“Fine!” She said emphatically, adding. “I’ll do it myself”

She took out a black wallet that looked eerily familiar and handed it to me after taking a black credit card out.

“Humans,” she said with disgust as she headed back out with the black credit card in tow.

I must have stood there, wallet in hand for a good couple of minutes, because she slammed the door shut, causing me to move again. She threw the card towards the counter and began scouting the bags of Groceries like a child, wait that’s why she was a CHILD.

I panicked internally watching this all play out. The apartment now held just me and this strange little girl.

“Uh hey?”

Nothing came, no answer, just the sound of bags shuffling.

“Are you lost?” I said, again trying to get her attention.

Another failed attempt. The girl was snickering, looking snooping around the bags.

I then walked over to the counter to see if this little girl’s credit card would tell me her name. Maybe if I called her by name, she would listen to me.

I picked up the black credit card reading the name aloud In my head.

It was my name…I looked back to the wallet on the ground that I dropped in my stupefied state, and realized it was my wallet. It was all mine.

“Did you get everything from our porch?”

Her devilish little voice said in a demanding tone.

“Wait, just wait” I managed to get out.

I started to put my head on straight, and get my thoughts together as I looked at the little girl devilishly scouring the bags.

“No, you wait! Did you get all the bags?” She said haughtily. “I can’t find my Mountain Dew”

Then it hit me. Something, she had said hit me. Something strange came out of her mouth, that wasn’t as it should have been. I live as a single bachelor in my single 1 bedroom apartment.

“What did you mean our front porch?”

She ignored me, finally coming to a stop on her detach through the bags.

She held up a bag of bottled green liquids and brought it to her modest chest, saying.

“Found you found you” she also snickered to herself.

She grabbed a single bottle of MT dew and brought it to her lips taking a long sip, then letting out a satisfying sigh. She then opened my fridge and looked around for a while, before saying.

“How are you still living with nothing in your fridge.”

“I…um…”

I stumbled on my words, as she berated me. I hadn’t even made a dent in the conversation with this wild child. She was escalating it by delaying my living choices.

She followed up with.

“I don’t really care, now we are stocked up on MT dew and snacks”

Now that I got a good look at these so-called groceries. They were all snacks and unhealthy items that only children would yearn for.

I was at a loss for words and defeated. This had to be one bad dream that I was too tired to wake up from. So I went and took a seat on my recliner, pinching myself to wake up from this nightmare.

Small footsteps came from behind me and walked right in front of me and my recliner.

I coughed straightening out, managing to hold on to some semblance of sanity.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked the little girl standing in front of me.

She turned her head in confusion, then snatched her skateboard, which I had forgotten was there behind me and brought it close to her.

I didn’t know if I was being targeted by some weird child gang, and I definitely didn’t borrow any money, to gamble, from loan sharks.

She stepped towards me, superiority oozing from her tiny body. With her hands on her hips, she let out an aggressive sigh, that shook her gear and made her long blonde hair bounce delicately off her shoulders. She placed her skateboard under her arms and said proudly.

“You’re my new caretaker”