Jacob woke up screaming, an intense pain going through his face. He grasped his face with his hands, trying to rub the agony and suffering from his eyes. When that didn’t work, he grasped for his pillow and plunged his face into it.

He waited for the pain to subside before lifting his head up and opening his eyes carefully.

The blinding light burned him, forcing him to shut his eyes. He waited a few more seconds before trying again, moving his head until he couldn’t see an intense glare through his eyelids.

The world around him came into focus, including the sight of his mother standing with her hands on her hips and giving him an unamused stare. Right next to her was a window with its curtains thrown wide open.

Strange considering he’d been sure to close them the night before. His room faced southeast, and with no other structures to block it, the rising sun had nothing stopping it from barging in and burning his eyes every morning. The thick curtains worked as a decent shield, but not when they were sabotaged.

“Are you sure you don’t want to be an actor?” his mother asked with a sigh. “A reaction like that could probably land you a job somewhere in Hollywood. The famous one in California, not the one an hour’s drive north of here.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. His mother knew that unlike her or his father, he was not a morning person. From what he knew of his grandparents, they weren’t morning people either. That particular trait had apparently skipped a generation.

“Is Hollywood even an hour’s drive anymore?” he questioned while cringing at his raspy morning voice. He hated early morning dry throat.

His mother just shrugged. “Probably not anymore now that I think about it. Since we’re out west, I’m not actually sure how you’d get there from here.”

They both fell into a weird silence after that. Jacob’s mother was probably expecting him to respond, and he wasn’t talking until he had a glass of water.

“I’m making breakfast today,” she finally said as she started walking to the door. “Come down and we’ll talk more.”

Despite the rough awakening, he smiled. No offense to his father, but his mother was the better cook out of the two of them. He wasn’t bad, just… average, while his mother was…

Well, there was a reason he was learning to cook like her and not like him.

He forced himself out of bed, wondering why everything hurt so much. He almost felt as though he really went through that crazy dream last night.

He still couldn’t believe he had managed to come up with a dream that crazy. The monster looked so weird and making friends with it and feeding it chicken was even weirder.

Maybe it was his brain’s way of telling him something… But what?

He wondered about the possible meanings as he glanced down and noticed he wasn’t wearing the pajamas he had gone to sleep in.

The first thing he checked were his arms. He pulled back the sleeve of his shirt. His arm was covered with little scratches he’d gotten from the braches from the night before. He then rolled up his pants’ leg and found a nasty looking wound right on his knee.

The dream from the night before was real. He had really run through the woods after a huge dog monster, and then invited it in and fed it chicken.

Which meant the monster was probably still asleep upstairs in the attic.

“Jacob, could you come down here?” he heard his mother call from downstairs. He blinked and opened the door, making his way down. His legs felt heavy as he lumbered down the stairs. He winced as his feet made a booming stomp with every step.

He joined his parents in the kitchen, looking dead on his feet. His father watched him in concern as he shuffled over to grab a glass and started filling it with water. He waited for him to down the whole thing before speaking.

“You okay there? You look worse than usual this morning,” he only half joked from his seat at the kitchen table.

“And does it have anything to do why I can’t find the leftover chicken I was going to use for the stir-fry today?” his mother asked as she held up the clean container from the night before. In her other hand was a skillet fresh off the flame and giving off a heavenly smell that almost knocked him off his feet.

He took a seat at the table and waited as his mother set the skillet down in the center and took her own seat.

“Alright, so here’s what happened,” he started, his voice sounding normal again after the glass of water. “Finding out about the ghost thing yesterday really messed with my head, more than I thought it did. Because of that, I couldn’t really sleep.”

“Wait, what ghost thing?” his father asked, clearly out of the loop.

“You were asleep when it happened. I’ll tell you about it later,” Jacob’s mother quickly explained before motioning for him to continue.

“So like I said, I couldn’t sleep. Eventually I just decided to take a walk around the house in the middle of the night, in the dark. I apparently make bad choices when I’m tired.”

“I think I have a feeling I know how the chicken links into all this,” his mother muttered as she glanced down at the clean floor.

“Yeah, so around… I don’t know, maybe two or three in the morning, I decide I’m super hungry and need food. So I come down here and, for some reason, heat up the whole container. Now I should point out, the whole room is dark and the only light is coming from outside. So on my way to the kitchen table, I trip and the chicken goes everywhere. That’s how I got this,” he started rolling up his pants’ leg to show them the wound on his knee.

The effect was immediate.

“Are you okay?” His mother shrieked in Spanish, the shock having been enough to make her switch to her native tongue. She shot out of her seat and wrapped her son in a serpentine hug. His father just gave the wound a close look before giving his son a concerned look.

Stolen story; please report.

“I’m fine,” he reassured them both before explaining he’d spent a good chunk of the night cleaning everything up and he’d barely slept the night before. “That’s probably why I look worse than usual today.”

“Jacob, why don’t you go back upstairs and get in a bit more sleep,” his father told him. “We aren’t really going to do anything until after lunch.”

“Sounds good,” he said before noticing his mother wasn’t letting go. “Mom?”

That was apparently enough for her to snap out of it. She looked down at him, and then to his knee before letting go and marching to a closet. She came marching back to the table a few seconds later with a first aid kit in hand.

“Let me see that leg,” she demanded. Jacob did as he was told and rolled his pants up as quickly as he could.

A few minutes later, he walked into his room, his knee now disinfected and bandaged. As much as he wanted to be annoyed at his mother, he had to admit his knee was starting to feel better. He settled into bed and relaxed, allowing sleep to take him. His bandaged leg would make it easier to sleep in a bit before his parents woke him up to clean the attic.

The attic which was currently housing a big dog monster who was fast asleep. A monster his parents would find with no trouble.

His eyes snapped open as he imagined the scene. His mother would find it first and start screaming. His father would come rushing in and try to fight it off, probably with a broom. The monster would run away, never to be seen again.

An unacceptable outcome, but the only one he could imagine if his parents found the monster. The solution was simple: they just wouldn’t find it.

He rushed out of bed and went up the stairs, heading into the attic with as much stealth as he could manage.

He walked into the empty room, his eyes immediately going to the sleeping monster. It was still where he last saw it, curled into a ball next to the AC vent.

“Hey, get up,” he knelt next to it and gently nudged its shoulder. It just groaned a bit and shuffled around, forcing Jacob to back off. Once it had settled down, he knelt again and shook the monster’s shoulder, a much more forceful method. This time, the monster’s eyes opened slightly to give him a spiteful glare.

“My parents are going to be up here in a few minutes. If you don’t want them to find you and chase you with brooms, you have to get out of here now!”

The monster’s eyes widened as it started getting to its feet. It looked fine at first, before wincing in pain as it put weight on one leg in particular. Jacob dashed forward to help steady it as it glanced down at the offending leg. It was the damaged spider leg from the night before.

“You won’t be able to jump out of the window with your leg like that,” he looked at the window the creature used to get in and out. “There has to be another way… Alright, I’ll just hide you in my room.”

The monster stopped in place and gave him a worried look, like it was witnessing someone lose their mind right in front of them. It didn’t take him long to notice the look being directed his way.

“What are you staring at? It’s not the best plan, but it’s the best we’ve got,” he started heading for the door and motioned at the monster to follow him.

The monster looked at the closed window, then at its leg, and then back to the window. It looked downwards and shook its head. Its eyes narrowed before it lifted its head and hesitantly followed him.

“Oh, and my room probably has the best AC in the entire house,” he said as an ‘afterthought’.

He bit back a laugh as the monster almost teleported to his side and started walking in lockstep with him.

He led the monster into his room and towards a spot on the floor under the AC and hidden from the door. Even if his parents came in, it would have time to hide.

He watched as the monster curled into a ball again, falling to sleep.

He closed the curtains and headed off to sleep himself.

When he woke up, he glanced at the curtains. Based off the light coming through, it was probably around noon. He yawned, stretching his arms out, before throwing his covers off himself.

Still half-asleep, he stepped off the bed only to step on something slippery. His eyes widened as he slipped and fell on the floor.

“Ow,” he grunted as he got to his feet. He looked back to see what exactly he had left on the floor to make him slip like that.

Four unamused, glowing, red eyes looked back at him, making him gulp.

“My bad. I forgot I let you sleep here before. Sorry,” he apologized before the monster just huffed and tried to get back to sleep. Or at least, that’s what it looked like at first glance. After a second or two, he noticed the creature pretending to sleep while watching him carefully.

He figured it was probably just waiting for him to leave to get some more sleep. Seeing no reason to call it out, he walked to his closet. He grabbed a quick change of clothes before starting to take off his shirt.

A sudden skittering sound interrupted him halfway. He glanced back and saw the monster now putting in effort to look in any direction but his.

He shrugged and got changed quickly. He had to head down and see what his parents were doing. There had to be a way to get the monster out of his house, he just had to figure it out.

“Anyone home?” he asked as he headed to the first floor. To his surprise, he didn’t get any response. He walked around the first floor, the house feeling strangely empty.

He walked into the kitchen and spotted a sticky note posted on the kitchen table. He picked it up, his eyebrow raised.

“Jacob,” he said as she started reading aloud. “Your father and I went out around ten or so to pick up a few things from the store we need for the attic. We should be back by one at the very latest. There are snacks in the fridge if you wake up hungry and a little bit of leftover breakfast as well. If anything comes up, call me or your father. I made sure he brought his cellphone with us this time.”

He set the paper down and swung the fridge door open, finding the snacks without too much trouble. He reached in and grabbed what appeared to be a soft pretzel. His eyes widened as he bit into it. It was sweet, with a cinnamon taste on the outside and a soft inside.

He took another bite out of it before glancing up at the clock. It was almost five minutes past noon. He had roughly half an hour to get the monster out of his house. In other words, plenty of time considering how easy it would be.

He walked up the stairs with soft pretzel in hand, finishing it off before opening the door to his room.

The monster looked like it was still asleep, but a careful glance revealed the truth.

“Hey, you have to wake up before my parents get back home,” he stood above the fully awake monster. It opened its eyes and scowled at him before getting up and stretching its limbs out.

It followed him downstairs where he slid the door to the backyard open for it.

However, instead of taking off for the great outdoors, the monster just stood there. The two looked at each other in silence before the monster turned towards the kitchen and gave a pleading whine.

“Food first, then freedom?” he asked the monster, who gave him a joyful nod while wagging its tail back and forth.

A few minutes later, Jacob was watching the monster gulp down what should have been his breakfast.

As he sat down, he realized that in a few minutes the monster would be out the door and the most amazing thing to ever happen to him would end. The mere thought was unacceptable, he wanted… or maybe needed to see the monster again.

The monster finished its meal and soon enough, the pair was walking into the backyard. He needed to say something now if he wanted it to come back, and he thought he knew just what to say.

“Hey…” he said as the two stood at the edge of the yard. “Come back tonight after everyone’s gone to sleep. I’ll save you some of my dinner for you to eat if you come.”

The monster just stood there for a few seconds, leaving him worried he’d said the wrong thing. He tried to think of something else to say when the monster gave him a careful nod. He nodded back before it took off, rushing through the fence and into the forest beyond.

As he watched it run, Jacob grinned so hard his cheeks hurt. That nod from the monster was all he’d really needed to make living in Oakwood bearable. However, as he walked back to the house, something felt just a bit… off to him.

The monster, it was an animal, right? He only called it the ‘monster’ because he had no better name for it. He hadn’t really had time to think about it… but some of its actions and reactions didn’t feel like it had come from an animal. For how cool and otherworldly it looked, at times it had acted oddly… human.