I finally made it home. I slammed the door behind me, leaning my back against it. Everything was quiet. That's what I needed right now. A place to think. A Place to sort through all of this.

“What the hell was that about?” I asked myself. “Did that really just happen? What's wrong with me?”

I threw my back pack to the ground and fell face first into the couch, allowing my body to go limp to get some idea of what it felt like to be dead.

“I’m not going back to that school. EVER!” I said into the cushion.

I heard the front door close. I poked my head up over the couch and saw Sam standing there, his bag slung across his shoulder.

“Are you okay?” he asked. That was far from a scolding. I was expecting a sort of lecture.

“I don’t know,” I replied, sinking back face first into the couch. “Just leave me alone…”

Sam came and sat on the couch. He patted my back.

“I…I don’t know what I did, Sammy. One second I’m in a puddle of my own blood, the next I’m burning TJ’s hand off.

“Dye, you changed,” he replied.

“I know…”

“No, I mean you physically changed.”

“Yeah, I know. I felt my face healing just like you did this morning.”

“DYE!” he shouted. “Look at me!”

I removed my face from the couch and rolled over to my back.

“Your face literally changed.”

Now I understood what he was saying.

“Changed how?”

“It was like you were hot. Very hot. Your body got all veiny but your eyes and mouth…”

“What about them?”

“Dye, your eyes changed colors. They were orange and your teeth were like, sharp.”

“What?”

“I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it myself.” Sam looked at me as though he was afraid of me somehow.

“Sam, I was on my way home but then TJ and his goons ambushed me and started beating the crap out of me. I…I had no choice.”

“I know, Dye. Your buddy Joss ran and got me from my science club meeting when he saw TJ following you out into the courtyard. He told me you didn’t want to fight.”

I sighed. Maybe I still had a friend in Joss after all.

I saw Sam starting to rummage through his head. His calculating trance was returning.

“What is it?” I ask.

“What if…” he started. He arose from the couch. “What if what happened to us on our trip wasn’t actually a dream. What if something actually did happen to us?”

“Like what?”

Sam pondered longer. His hand grasping his mouth as he desperately tried to make sense of everything that happened the last couple of days. “I don’t know, but the quick healing, you being able to dodge punches with lightning quick reflexes, your entire physique changing. It all has to be connected somehow.”

“You think the lights have something to do with what is happening to us now.”

“That’s the only logical thing that explains all this. My next question is how?”

I didn’t want to play into Sam’s realm, but, for the most part, I think he was on to something. The longer I thought about it, the more I began to believe that whatever happened to us wasn’t a dream at all. What about the weird breeze that grazed my neck or the weird dream about the fox that I had last night. Should I mention this to Sam? I don’t even know what it meant.

“Hey Sam?” he broke his pondering and looked at me. “Back when we were leaving the campsite, I felt something brush the back of my neck and last night I had a weird dream about a fox. Then it turned into this gold, armored…something.”

“And then what? Was it the same fox from the lights?” he asked with way more intrigue than what I would have liked.

“Come to think of it, yes, it was almost the same. Unfortunately, I never finished the dream because I woke up.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“So there is a connection happening here.” Sam turned away.

“Any thoughts?” I asked him.

“I have a few, but I can’t be too sure. I need to do more observations.”

I fell back on the couch. “Do what you gotta do to fix this Sam.”

“What’s happening, Bros?” said Jason, emerging from the kitchen in nothing but a wetsuit, his hair still wet.

I picked myself up to look at him. “Dude, were you here this whole time?”

“Yeah man, cut school early today to catch some mad swells up in Calico Point. It was rad.” He had a handful of something and immediately tossed whatever it was into his mouth. “Heard about your brawl today little brother.” he chewed. “From what I heard you had some sick moves, my guy.”

I sunk back into the couch.

“Please, just leave me here to die. There’s no way I’m showing my face ever again.”

“Oh, that’s right,” before he went back into the kitchen, Jason mentioned one last thing. “Mom and Dad are gonna be late tonight. Mom left some money for take out. Pizza anyone?”

The pizza arrived later that evening and we stuffed our faces. It would all have been eaten if Sam hadn’t stopped Jason.

“Save some for Mack,” he said.

“But he’s not here,” he replied.

“So? Don’t be greedy!”

As though we summoned him, Mack came strolling through the back door into the kitchen. He was surprised to see us sitting there. It was as if he was trying to sneak in without us knowing. His football practice clothes were dirty and his face showed signs of weariness.

“Bro! Saved you some pizza!” said Jason.

“Not hungry,” Mack replied as he headed upstairs.

When he was gone, Jason turned to the pizza.

“Welp, I tried!” He reached for the remaining slices and devoured them.

I was in my room finishing up some homework while Sam was in the shower. I closed my book and got up from my desk, stretched and fell onto my bed. Next to me was my crinkled copy of Warrior Knight. I hadn't finished reading it so I flipped it open to the page where I left off. Just then, Sam came out of the bathroom, the steam from his hot shower billowing out.

“Geez, did you leave any hot water?”

“Hey, did Mack seem off to you tonight?”

I guess he didn’t leave any hot water. Way to deflect Sammy.

“I guess, no more moody than usual though.” I flipped a page.

“I wonder if anything weird happened to him today.”

“You could ask…”

“I just don’t get why he would lie to us.” said Sam, putting his clothes away.

“I don’t know why you’re so up in arms about it.” I flipped another page. “He’s moody, has a lot to deal with. I think worrying about weird lights in the sky is the least of his problems.”

“Sure, but why lie?” Sam sat on his bed, drying his hair.

Sam was reaching my annoying-questions-limit pretty quickly.

“I don’t know, dude. Go ask him. I just want to finally finish this issue before I have to go back to that hell hole called school tomorrow. Can I do that, please?”

Sam dropped it, he knew I was getting irritated.

“Well, I’m beat,” he said. “Make sure you don’t oversleep tomorrow.”

I wave him off. “Yeah sure. Night!”

“Goodnight.”

Sam turned over and went to sleep. I couldn’t concentrate. Something as simple as reading a comic just proved impossible when I had this pit in my stomach. How was I going to face all the kids tomorrow? They saw my face. I couldn’t just hide it.

I sighed.

It was late.

Maybe some rest would help me clear my head. Maybe it wasn’t such a big deal. Maybe no one didn’t even noticed.

Yeah, that's it.

I”ll just keep telling myself that. It sure did help me feel better.

There I was again, standing at the center of a dark and cold, endless void. The flames came almost instantly. Like before, there was no heat and when I turned around I saw the same golden figure from the other night standing there. It walked over to me, closing the distance until we were face to face. This time, oddly enough, I wasn’t as afraid. I told Sam about my dream but I couldn’t tell him more than I knew because I didn’t finish it. Whatever this was, whether it had any connection with the lights or the spectral animals we saw, I needed to know.

“Power,” said the figure, “only comes to those who need it.”

“Huh?” I said with bewilderment. “What does that even mean?”

“Behold, the fate that awaits your people.”

There was a rumbling from beneath my feet; the gold figure had disappeared along with the flames, and the place became dark and cold again. A light started to grow from below as a hole began to tear open. I threw my arms up to shield my eyes and suddenly I was falling.

I don’t know how long I was out for, but when I awoke I was in an odd, but familiar place. I was laid out on the asphalt in the middle of a street. As I got up from the road, I laid my eyes on the most disturbing thing. Everything around me was either in ruin, on fire or completely destroyed. I looked around for any signs of life, but I couldn’t find a single person. It was as though I was the last person on the planet. The sky was seared red because the moon was giving off this strange red light.

“What the hell?” I was in disbelief. I ran through the streets, trying to find any survivors. I shouted anything that would get the attention of anyone, but no one came.

And that’s when I stopped. A white house with blue trim had been ravaged, laid to ruin. I saw all the debris everywhere.

“Is this….this is Beach Shores?”

There was a rumbling. I turned and it was there that I faced the most horrible thing I had yet to see.

They were marching.

Deformed, bizarre, and horrid looking monsters. They had teeth that stretched long past their mouth, glowing red eyes, black, slimy skin, and incredibly large bodies. I could hear the growling and grunting of each one. Evil snarls and sadistic glares fixated on me.

There had to be thousands of them, maybe more, quickly closing the distance to me. Looking up, I noticed that some were flying. Grotesque, bat-like wings flapping as many of them soared above.

He must’ve been their leader.

At the head of the oncoming crowd of creatures was someone dressed in a bizarre fashion of purple armor. The purple knight looked clean but majestically evil. Just like the golden figure, there was a symbol that concealed the face.

They grew closer, and my fear was evident.

The flying creatures started taking dives at me.

I ducked and dodged, taking steps back as the army approached me.

The purple knight raised its hand,and gathering some weird energy light, he aimed it at me and shot it.

I fell off my bed. My breathing was rapid and I was drenched in a sweat. I got up from the floor and without warning my alarm clock went off.

It scared me and I realized I was on edge because of this dream.

What was all that?

None of my questions were answered.

I sat on my bed and wiped my face. I needed a shower.