Burrow

Goodnight

"Ollie, you have to promise not to tell Mom and dad what happened. They're not only going to worry and think I'm a bad babysitter, but they'll think there's magic creatures in the woods it something. Got it?" I told Ollie that night as I tucked I him in.

"Of course. Perhaps it would be best if you closed my door tonight. I feel, that after what I went through, I would feel, ...safer with the assurance of being alone, Nelly." He said. I blinked.

Ollie had never called me Nelly, had always insisted on the door being open, not to mention that he didn't have the word 'assurance' in his vocabulary. This reeked of weird.

"Ollie, what did they do to you?!" I exclaimed. He shrugged.

"Nothing. I've always been this way. It comes from Jim." He said. I looked at him skeptically. Jim had been influencing him more then I fought. I thought I knew everything that went on in this house, (or wherever we were). I guess I was wrong.

"Ollie, do me a favor. Please stop listening to Jim."

"I'll respect your decision, Nelly. Thank you for your guidance. I appreciate that you always look after me." He said.

"Eh, I didn't do a great job today," I admitted, "I wished that you weren't my brother. I'm so glad that wish didn't come true. Although you seem too profound to be Ollie."

"I am Ollie!" He protested.

"I know, I know. But you might skip a grade of people knew you were so smart. Unless you're getting it from TV."

I cursed Jim. He was four, not fourteen. He better not turn out to be just like my geekiest brother, or I would have to move to Antarctica.

"I'm sleepy,"Yawned Ollie, "can you turn out my light now?"

I did so, and left. But I stood right outside his room for a while. Because Ollie, despite his argument that he was fine, was acting weird. And I didn't like it at all.

I knew it wasn't Jim's fault. I knew Jim and Ollie their whole life times. And Ollie had seemed to undergo a complete personality transplant.
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Waiting outside the door wasn't fun. It was a long time of trying not to move, or breathe heavily. After ten minutes passed, I was pretty sure nothing was going on. After fifteen, my leg cramped. After twenty, I decided to leave.

But I peeked through the crack in the door, and almost blew my cover by screaming.

Ollie sat in the center of a Pentagram made of a glowing blue line. Candles surrounded him, and his pale face was illuminated in the most ghostly way.

He held a fire, glowing white in his hands, and I wondered how he wasn't getting burnt. But I had more pressing matters at hand. Like why he was systematically tossing photos of Jim, me and my parents into the flames. Even pictures of himself.

I stared in horror as the edges disappeared, then Mom's smile crumbled into his hand. He wiped the ashes off his palm, and the dust settled on the floor.

Then, in the fire, a large inky face began to take shape. Just the nose first, and it spread to the lips, the eyes, and the...indentations in the face's cheek?

It became sort of a demon, with a bumpy forehead and horns. It looked like it was pure evil. I felt the powerful urge to douse the face in a bucket of water.

I wanted to turn away, but I was mesmerized.

"You have infiltrated the humans?" The face said. I felt a cold sweat run down my back. I felt rather powerful listening to him. His voice was strong and loud, and I felt like I absorbed some of his confidence just hearing his words. I sucked them up.

"You still have the sacrifice, Diyut?" Ollie rasped. His voice was very different now. It no longer sounded like a little kids. It sounded very mature, very deep, and very, very inhuman.

"Of course. You are there to take his place, are you not? So do not ask of the boy. For all the humans know, you are one and the same." Diyut chuckled darkly.

It didn't exactly come as a surprise that Ollie wasn't really Ollie. He wasn't a great actor.

"Yes, Diyut. I understand. By tomorrow, I shall have absorbed Olivet Karters data. I will play the part perfectly until the Ceremony." Ollie kissed up.

"See that you do. Or I will give your punishment personally. You know how much this means to our kind." Diyut glowered.

I would have liked to say I did something, would have loved to say I stopped it right there. But I felt drunk on Diyuts power, and I felt like there was no feeling better then just hearing him speak. My mind and my senses were dulled, like I had chugged a bottle of Vodka. And I enjoyed it, a lot.

I sat there for hours, just becoming intoxicated on speech, and I had to say, I was pretty addicted to it, come morning.
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Flashback

I had gotten drunk once, when Tommy, Janes boyfriend snuck into his parents liqueur closet and poured me one bit of whiskey. I thought it was juice, so I drank the lot and asked for more. And more I had.

By my third drink, my words were slurred and my balance was off. But by my fifth drink, I was totally wasted and decided I was hungry. So I ended up raiding the fridge, and eating:

-A taco
-four cookies
-Two slices of pizza
-And an entire family sized bag of chips.

Needless to say, I woke up with a huge headache and a very bloated stomach.

And I had to say this feeling was a lot like that.
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The next morning, I snapped out of my trance. I knew that Ollie wasn't at all who he seemed. And I knew that there were some perks to having your family believe in ghosts and stuff. They would listen.

But I couldn't tell them at breakfast! Ollie would hear. So I had to talk in private.

"Mom, dad, can we talk in the kitchen for a sec? I wanted to tell you about my grades in California, and I don't want Jim to hear me." I gave Jim a sour look for effect. Sure, I wasn't the greatest actress, but I could pull it off.

"Honey, we've just started on our toast! We'll talk to you later. Your grades better be good, though, missy, or you are in a world of trouble"Dad warned me. For some reason, Dad said more of those typical parent things then Mom. Mom was definitely unique.

"Ah, yes! Grades have been invented by angry tailors from Pluto to cover their tracks. They're such an interesting part of history, don't you think?"

Mom swooped into the room, and slid herself into a chair. It was so weak, it gave out and she toppled to the floor.

"Guys, this is really, really important." I stressed.

"It can wait until after breakfast." Dad said. I groaned and continued to spread my blackberry preserves on the toast.

Ring! Ring!

I heard Dads phone go off. He held it to his ear, and immediately I saw his eyes widen.

"Yes, yes, I'll be right over." I heard him say before hanging up.

"Guys, I have to leave. Mr. H thinks he saw a Sprite!" He jumped up out of his chair.

"Dad, this is impo-" I started as Mom scurried to join him,

They didn't even hear me as they raced out the sunken door, and I was left with evil Ollie and Jim, just like that.

"Well, my math grades have always been straight As."Jim boasted. I put my head in my hands.

"Jim?" I asked.

"Yeah?" He responded.

"Shut up."
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After breakfast, I decided that there was one person who would understand what I had to say, and he lived right across the street.

As I knocked on his door, though, I felt a tingling sense of there being something wrong.

I turned around, to see no one. I shrugged. After seeing my brother summon a demon, I was way too paranoid.

I went back to the door, but heard footsteps behind me now.

A cold hand clamped over my mouth, making sure my screams wouldn't be heard by any soul.